The Parallels What Games Work Thread (**NOT DIRECT3D**)

Runaway 2

I just tested the (German) Runaway 2 Demo in Parallels Beta 3036, WinXP on my MacBook.

Everything works fine except for the mouse. Whereever I move it, the cursor only moves to the bottom right corner. Has anyone else experienced this problem somewhere and knows how to fix it?

 

I have the same problem with all the games i have tested so far, Starcraft and Baldurs Gate. (Running parallels beta 3036 with xp sp2, macbook). Connecting a usb mouse did not help, but uninstalling the parallels tools did. Bit, without the tools, the mouse is very "choppy", so the games are quite unplayable.

 

Warcraft II BNE edition works okay for me. I use the arrows for scrolling. Now that there's no Classic for installing on the Mac side, I've got to keep it in my mind that this is a PC game, now (FWIW, the "Mac" version of Warcraft II BNE is really a dual session disk with both versions on it).

 

Microsoft Flight Simulator 95 - Works flawlessly, and is, in fact, faster in Parallels than Flight Simulator X (the newest one,) is in Boot Camp on a MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.0/256VRAM.
STATUS: PLAYABLE

 

For games that require a CD for copy protection checkout Daemon Tools here http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php, I believe this will let you use the images from game CDs.

I'd be interested to know if Sim City 4 works, I can't remember if it needs any DirectX or not. I don't really want to pay another $50 for a Mac version, but I'm afraid to install the beta as I use Parallels for work daily.

 

Alan - for anything from the DOS era, the best bet is to install DosBox ( http://dosbox.sourceforge.net ) in your Parallels VM. There is a version of DosBox for OS X, but it's PPC and doesn't perform as well as running under a Parallels VM does (at least for me). I got SpeedBall 2 (which is a DOS game from ~1991 - I originally played it on an Amiga 2000) working quite well this way.

So, to be clear: I'm running a 15-year-old DOS game under a DOS emulator inside a Windows XP SP2 Virtual Machine, running on top of Mac OS X.

That is COOL

Rick

 

Hm. I had installed Grim Fandango under Boot Camp, and after reading this post tried to play it in Parallels with 3036... No joy.

So I uninstalled and reinstalled directly in Parallels. I can begin to play in windowed mode from the GF Launcher (haven't got far yet... and I noticed I can't use the 'options' menu) but I can't play in fullscreen.

Confirmed as not working (again, at least on a Boot Camp VM): Syberia and Longest Journey. I guess they need hardware 3D.

If Quake 2 works, does that mean Quake 1 should work?

And, the question of the year: if Quake 1 works, does that mean Half-life should work??? That would be huge.

 

1602 AD/Anno 1602 works, but drives the system up to 100% CPU usage.

 

even the same with "Tony Tough and the Night of roasted moths"

greets
Simon

 

Oh, that is interesting - obviously DirectX didn't exist in those days. How about FS 98 - any experiences with this version too??

 

I got UT2004 to work by changing the config files to use software rendering. Stupid Mighty Mouse makes it not very good playing though. Still...I was able to get my UT fix.

 

I got Worms 2 to work on Parallels 2.2. I removed Parallels Tools and re-installed them without the mouse driver. I also patched up Worms 2 to the latest version. Works like a charm now!

 

How did you get it to work with the mouse?
Did you run the VM in Windowed mode?

I can't get the screen to scroll when the mouse reaches the edge of the screen,
it switchs back to the Finder.

 

Civilization III works in Beta 3.

The new CD virtualization seems to fix the copy protection problems of the released version.

 

RailRoads

K, newb here...but I can't get Sid Meyer's RailRoads to work in XP

Have tried various permutation's...including a no-cd crack...but I just get a message that my machine doesn't meet specifications.

 

In what way -- video specifications? I found some problems with programs requiring what they called "video overlays".

 

Rather than trying to run in it Parallels, maybe you should try this:

http://lowetechlabs.com/UT2004-WIN2OSX/

 

JEDI KNIGHT: Dark Forces II

Status: PLAYABLE but significant mouse input problems

Issues:
-Needs a noCD workaround.
-Mouse problems similar to those described above - without Parallels Tools it is choppy (esp. when moving mouse forward) and with Parallels Tools you cannot move the view beyond the point where the mouse cursor (which is sometimes visible during gameplay) reaches the edge of the screen.
-generally crashes if you change something such as mouse input or screen resolution

more info at this thread:

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?p=46657#post46657

 

Planescape Torment.
Playable with some minor mouse cursor corruption (does a "mouse trails" effect).

BUT the game runs at 640x480 and parallels won't let me go to full screen (even with the "resize osx desktop" option selected), so its like playing it on a beer coaster sized rectangle in the middle of a mostly empty screen.

If anyone knows how to fix this, apart from making my osx desktop 640x480 before running it, please let us know in this thread.
http://forum.parallels.com/thread9191.html

 

Mouse input in old games

Hi

If I disable the Parallels mouse synchronization driver in WinXP, then plug in two mice, and assign one of them to Parallels (clicking on USB icon, then the mouse I wish to use for Parallels), then everything seems to run smoothly with the old games (mouse movement is not jerky).

Results in having one mouse for OSX and one for Windows, but it works...

Brent