Telltale games working on a Mac (Without Boot Camp!)
 

I think I might have finally discovered the holy grail for Mac users on this forum :) I've managed to get Sam and Max running on a Mac without rebooting into Windows. The game runs smoothly with no apparent graphical problems or slowdown. The launcher screen is perfect apart from the Launch Game button not appearing. Just click where the button should be and the game will launch.

You'll need CrossOver Games (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/) to run the game. The software costs $40 but a 30-day trial is also available. On the plus side you don't need a copy of Windows to run the software so that saves a bit of money.

Here's how I got everything working:

1) Install CrossOver Games and run it.
2) Download Internet Explorer 6 from Microsoft's website (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/...1/default.mspx) and download a Sam and Max episode.
3) In CrossOver Games, click the Configure menu and choose 'Install Software'.
4) Click the 'Install Unsupported Software' button, follow the wizard and choose to install into a new bottle. Give the bottle a name (like 'Sam and Max') and set the bottle type to 'win98'. Click Create.
5) Click the Install button in the next screen and then locate the ie6setup.exe file you downloaded from Microsoft's website. Follow the installer, choosing to install a typical installation.
6) Click Finish when the installer is done. CrossOver will simulate a Windows reboot. Click Finished in the CrossOver window when it is done.
7) Click on the Configure Menu and choose 'Manage Bottles'. Choose the bottle you created in the left-hand list. Click the Control Panel tab on the right and double-click 'winecfg'. Set the Windows version at the bottom of the window to Windows Vista. Click OK to close the window. You can also close the Manage Bottles window.
8) To install Sam and Max, choose Install Software in the Configure menu. Click Install Unsupported Software, but this time choose to install into an existing bottle. Pick the bottle you created before. Follow the wizard and point it to the Sam and Max installer from Telltale.
9) Install the game as normal and uncheck 'Play Now' at the end of the install.
10) When CrossOver is finished installing, simply click on the Programs menu in CrossOver to launch the game. To install more episodes, just repeat step 8.

This process works perfectly on my MacBook Pro. I've only tested Abe Lincoln Must Die (Season 1) and Chariot of the Dogs (Season 2) so I'm not sure if this works for all the episodes. It'd be good to hear if it works for other people with different configurations.

Hope this helps!

Neat! I'll give this a try on my MacBook and see how it goes.

Thank you for this very complete and helpfull tutorial.

It works very great, but of course, we lost bump mapping and optimisation (some v-sync problems for me and a flat ice-cream texture on the sludgies stand), but it's the first time I see running Sam&Max so well under my OS X :)

Yeah, i've got this too. works like a dream!

I can't get it to work with Strong Bad though.

this is still only intel though, isn't it?

Hey hey! Telltale Texas Hold'em works (although the Launch Game button didn't show up in the wrapper, I had to click where it was supposed to be). I'll try some of the Sam & Max games.

The free trial is only 7 days. :(

EDIT: No luck with Strong Bad. The icon appears in my dock but the game never launches, and after a while the icon just goes away.

EDIT2: Sam & Max 205 works, but it's kind of laggy, even with the graphics quality set to low. Then again, I'm using a low-spec MacBook with integrated graphics, so that's probably to be expected.

All in all, it's a neat trick! I hope some Mac users out there are able to play the games this way.

@delimew:
Yeah, it's only for Intel Macs. They don't seem to support PowerPC.

@Emily:
Whoops, I thought it was a 30-day trial. I can't get Strong Bad working either. It seems like some other trick is needed to get it started, probably DirectX related.

*sad deli*

Yeah thats what happened when I tried it, but Sam and Max work.

I haven't been able to take a closer look at this (current Mac Laptop is a G4 and broken), but I suspect the reason Strong Bad isn't working is that we're using the Oct 2006 and Dec 2006 updates to DirectX9, which may not be supported by Crossover.

Tried looking around the CrossOver site for what components of DirectX they use, but couldn't find anything. It's not just "9.0c" but the 9.0c rev 27 as a minimum; Having up to at least 29 would be ideal.

If buying Windows isn't your thing, you could dual boot your Intel Mac with Linux and run Wine, which has had some good results with Sam & Max.

Alternatively, you could wait (probably a long wait) for Wine's Intel Mac build to be improved enough to support the Telltale Tool.

CrossOver Games for the Mac actually uses a version of Wine. The latest version of CrossOver Games is based on the Wine 1.0 codebase.

I tried putting Bootcamp on my mac. Ruined it completely.....BEFORE THIS THOUGH. Please I make ENOUGH people feel completely & justifyably guilty.

What did you do/how was it ruined? I've installed Windows XP via Bootcamp on several Macs, without any hitches.

Well that's a bummer. I thought this could've been a decent stop gap until I can upgrade to Leopard. I'm still kinda mad that they killed the Boot Camp beta for Tiger users :( Now I have to pay to upgrade Leopard, and ALSO pay to upgrade Pro Tools if I still want to do any music recording :mad:

It just ruined my computer. It was version 9 & I guess it was too much of an upgrade & made it all messed up. Of course my imac has always been messed up.

Kewl. I'll probably get this on my computer in a couple of days. Just a question, will you guys go back to the old Telltale format so we mac owners can play Wallace and Gromit?

Would be nice for the peoples with the macs.

What do you mean by 'the old Telltale format'? Our games have always been Windows-only for the downloadable versions.


Was that really a productive contribution to the discussion?