[Mac] Myst IV Installation problem | Forums

[wstrohm]

Thought I would post the solution I found to the non-operating installer for Myst IV (which I also found to be the case for Myst V).

In Tiger 10.4.11 with all Software Updates added to the hard drive, there are 9 releases of Java. On the Myst IV and Myst V DVDs, there are two invisible files named "mac.command" and "macinstall.jar" which are used by the "Myst IV Setup.app" that was dragged to the hard drive. I looked at the Console log after double-clicking on "Myst IV Setup" and saw "cannot find /wizard.xml" as the last line. So I tried to open "mac.command" and got the same thing. Using JAR Launcher to try and open "macinstall.jar" I got the error message that it was "incomplete or corrupt." Remember, this is on the Cyan Worlds DVD!

Eventually I did an Archive and Install using my original Apple Tiger Install Disc 1. This installed Mac OS X 10.4 on my hard disk (and the corresponding version of Java). Immediately after that, I installed both Myst IV and Myst V, and the installation went perfectly.

At this point I also installed the Myst IV 1.0 ->1.03 patch for Mac (also a ".jar" file) which worked perfectly and gave the "1.03" script at the lower left corner of the Myst IV splash screen. (I had previously tried updating with that patch back when I did have Myst IV 1.0 installed, but under Mac OS X 10.4.11 that update would not run either.)

After the successful installation of Myst IV and Myst V and the Myst IV patch, I used Software Update to bring the OS up to 10.4.11, and all the Java stuff up to Release 9. The games play perfectly; I just cannot install them at this level of OS X/Java. My guess is that Java's latest (or maybe somewhat earlier) release lost compatibility with the "InstallShield" program used by Cyan Worlds for Myst IV and V.

[JacaByte]

Java 6 was the current release version when that chmod a+x trick came about, maybe it has something to do with Java 6?

I'd like to know what the purpose of the macinstall.jar file is; if it only paints the installation interface for Myst IV it might not be needed at all, and could be bypassed. Maybe.

[wstrohm]

This is pure speculation, but I think Myst IV Setup runs "mac.command," which calls the Java Launcher in the Mac OS and tells it to open "macinstall.jar." If the current release of Java does not have the "/wizard.xml" file somewhere, then "macinstall.jar" is seen as corrupt by Java.

But I'm just guessing. An Apple programmer (or a Java programmer) could probably explain it.

[GeoffR]

Has anyone been able to install and run Myst IV on an intel-Mac running Snow Leopard? I've been trying for days now to get it to work but no luck.
I copied all the files from disk #1 to a work folder and used Terminal commands to run the installer and it appeared to work as it created an application file and other folders. I needed to run "chmod" on the application file but it still crashes when I try and run it.
I also copied a working installation folder from a powerPC Mac but this fails as well.

Looks like we're out of luck with Myst IV on intel-Macs

-- Geoff

[JacaByte]

Because I have no experience with Snow Leopard whatsoever, allow me to state the obvious and ask if you've installed Rosetta. Myst IV is a PPC only binary and has no native support for Intel Macs. Snow Leopard makes use of Intel binaries only, and did away with anything involving the PPC architecture. This made it faster and smaller, but you'll have to find Rosetta on Apple's web site and install it manually if you haven't already.

The only other thing you can do is install Windows with Bootcamp or Parallels/VMware Fusion and run Myst IV from there. If it's Windows 7, though, it's possible that you'll run into even more issues; I haven't heard about Myst IV being ran on 7 yet. :/

[GeoffR]

Thanks for the input JacaByte.

I have installed Rosetta - this is an optional install on Snow Leopard and I selected it when I did the initial install.
Myst V 'End of Ages' runs fine under Snow Leopard, must be something else in Myst IV causing problems.

[JacaByte]

With all due respect to Myst IV, it's a miracle that it's worked for this long; it was released, what, 5 years ago? 6 years ago? Hardware, especially on the OS X side of things, was much different than it is now. Now the mid-high end computer you needed to run Myst IV then is a low-end computer now, and the PPC processor you needed to run Myst IV on Mac is non-existent now, in Apple's eyes that is. Monitors were all 4:3 aspect ratio LCDs or CRTs, topping out at 1024x768. Now 16:10 monitors at 1400x900 or 1680x1050 are seen regularly, something Myst IV can't run (properly) in fullscreen with.

In my opinion, Myst IV was catered too specifically to the hardware available when it came out, and didn't have much implementation for growth and expansion in the computer world. Now it's dying because it's too fidgety about the hardware it needs to run on. Again, that's just my opinion, and I believe a good, well designed program still runs on PCs it wasn't designed for 10 or 15 years after it was made.

[wstrohm]

In my opinion, Myst IV was catered too specifically to the hardware available when it came out, and didn't have much implementation for growth and expansion in the computer world.

Probably a pre-rendered game is not as flexible as far as resolution selection as a real-time game. I personally find it difficult to understand how a hundred thousand or so lines of code can possibly written with the future in mind. The reason that some old games can be played on some new computers (with new operating systems) seems to lie mainly in the flexibility of the OS and its drivers. I am "stuck" with a 2.7 GHz PPC Power Mac, which uses Motolola/IBM CPUs. They have a different instruction set than the current Intel chips. There is absolutely no way a program written to run on an Intel CPU can run on a PPC CPU, unless it is written in "universal binary." There is no way a program written for the "Classic" Mac OS (Mac OS <10.x) will run under Mac OS 10.x, and there was no way for the programmers to know that Mac OS X was in the works when they wrote Myst, Riven, or Myst III (Exile). We were very lucky that Exile could be patched to run under OS X!

Until a modern Nostradamus is writing code, it is just not going to happen that you will be able to play a game written for Windows 7 under "Picture Windows 2015" unless Microsoft writes compatibility software.

[realXCV]

Originally posted by wstrohm:
There is absolutely no way a program written to run on an Intel CPU can run on a PPC CPU, unless it is written in "universal binary."

Emulator?

There is no way a program written for the "Classic" Mac OS (Mac OS <10.x) will run under Mac OS 10.x

Carbon.

[wstrohm]

Agreed, but that is using another OS (emulation) or re-writing the program (Carbon). Apparently the "RivenX" project is attempting a rewrite of Riven... but you notice it's taking quite a bit of time. What I was writing was that there was no way the programmers of Riven could have written it in 1993-1997 so that it would run under Mac OS X.