I have an old (June 2004) PowerMac G5 dual 2Ghz desktop that I used to use for audio editing. It was replaced a long time ago with a pair of intel iMac units. However, my son was playing Lego Star Wars on my iMac the other day and I thought "Right, time to get him his own computer in his room". He's only 6 and the G5 is probably more than he really needs.... anyway! I bought a PPC version of Lego Star Wars, installed it on the G5 and it failed to boot. Initially I thought it must be a compatibility issue. So, I checked specs and I was WAY above the requirements. Okay, so downloaded Tech Tool and the G5 passed no problem. Checked error log (empty). Checked Console and there was nothing. So, down to Apple Store Genius Bar I go. Although they initially said "Can't do anything for you as it's so old" I persisted (explaining the £££££ I have spent in their damned store and this one was for my kid so he could play Lego Star Wars). The guy's heart melted a little (slight thaw) and he checked it over and could not find any fault. In the end I was told "It's probably a minor graphics card fault, but it's so old you shouldn't throw any money at it". My last chance was to reformat the newly installed 360Gb HDD to ZERO and reinstall OSX, update and see whether that helps. AND BINGO!! It worked... ish! It only works on the Admin account. I get the same issue with the Parentally Controlled account. Cannot launch. So, what I've had to do is change the admin account I set up under my name to my sons account and apply parental controls on that account instead, which still works, but why is this happening? Anyone got any ideas? OH:
If at all possible install the game to root, or somewhere near it then add a shortcut to your sons restricted account. Or install it in your Admin account and then shortcut from his enabling permissions. Sounds to me like the game accesses libraries that are only open to an admin user. EDIT: He's probably a little too young for them but Halo, Quake III and Voyager: Elite Force all run on a G5.
Hey long time no speak, hope all is well with you dude! It seems to be the case, but nowhere in the manual does it state this and now that I have changed the account to Parental Controlled I am happy with this work around. Just wondered whether this was a common thing (i.e. having to be in admin directory) as it seems a pretty annoying thing to me. Anyway, thank you!
I'm good man thanks for asking. Hope life is treating you well. I sorta came across this a couple of weeks ago with some Amp modelling software I got free with a Guitar USB interface. I don't use parental restricted accounts but it seemed to have an issue running from the applications folder, as if there was some kind of security layer between my home folder and the root. I fear most Mac software from the post Intel era. There's nearly always a complication in OSX 10.5 +
fix'd. Still, I'm really impressed at how well that turned out, a hardware architecture switch for a major OS isn't something you do lightly. There's a Mac version of Star Wars: Dark Forces, which even received a major graphics update, running in 640x480 - the only system allowing you to go above 320x240. (Including PSX emulators, since it's using some weird graphics mode so you're lucky to get it emulated at all, much less in hi-res.) Halo was mentioned... Take a look at the Marathon series, also by Bungie. I think it's even been freeware'd.
I tried it on Classic on my Powerbook G4, it looks quite good in 640*480, but to play Dark Forces nowadays, the best is to use DarkXL, it is not perfect, but it is getting there: http://darkxl.wordpress.com/ There is no Mac version yet though.
There's also Jedi Knight 2. I'm downloading a demo now to see if it works on intel. Haven't played it for years.
Actually there are not that many games titles - lots of little games though on the Apple store website. Did any of the Tomb Raider series ever come out for the G5? I remember it being spoken about, but never heard if it was released.
The first six: http://www.gamedb.com/ss/search/results?k=tomb+raider Look the categories on the right, there are more games than you think...
Btw, why limit yourself to commercial ports? Let's not forget about ScummVM! And maybe DOSBox (maybe not ideal for a 6yo but if you don't mind fiddling a bit yourself to get each game to work...)
