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OS X How to run Starcraft Broodwar on OSX 10.8 or later

L

latlive

macrumors newbie
Mar 30, 2017
2
0
Thank you very much for the guide and the Regedit tweaks. Works perfect, even the LAN games!
One minor bug: I have a double mouse pointer: from the MacOs, Sierra, (white pointer) and from the Game (green pointer).
Would be great to get rid of the standard Mac pointer.
I wasn't able to find a solution.
 
Janichsan

Janichsan

macrumors 68040
Oct 23, 2006
3,047
11,105
latlive said:
Thank you very much for the guide and the Regedit tweaks. Works perfect, even the LAN games!
One minor bug: I have a double mouse pointer: from the MacOs, Sierra, (white pointer) and from the Game (green pointer).
Would be great to get rid of the standard Mac pointer.
I wasn't able to find a solution.
Click to expand...
The solution is to wait a little until the official new (and macOS native) patch is released. ;)
 
LaceyRamos

LaceyRamos

macrumors newbie
Apr 2, 2017
10
2
United States
Thanks for creating this thread. My boyfriend looking for this as well and now he will just follow all of the guide to have starcraft on his mac computer.
 
4

400

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2015
760
319
Wales
Well, looks like the screen on my eMac original game, playing on my iMac 2013. Runs OK. Slight lag when comming out the game.

Am I looking at the right thing?

10.12.5

Edit. Opps. This is not the remastered version(??). Misread the press release. Still plays well though, that is this afternoon sorted.
 
Last edited:
Nermal

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,653
4,057
New Zealand
Yeah, it's not the remastered version, it's just an updated original version. I think the text has been cleaned up a bit but don't quote me on that :)
 
4

400

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2015
760
319
Wales
Now I have one of those a anoying tunes in my head that will not go away. It is the sound track, and effects.

:p

There are good.

I do have both original boxed games but never followed the instructions here for the discs. Been an interesting catch-up.
 
C

cjmaranto

macrumors newbie
May 16, 2017
2
1
mentaluproar said:
I had an itch about a month ago to play the original Starcraft, but I didn’t feel like setting up the G4 all over again. For those of you who have tried to play this on a modern mac, you probably understand that OSX no longer runs PPC code, and boot camp wont help us because Starcraft/Broodwar do not run properly under Windows 7. So what’s the casual gamer to do?

I couldn’t get the porting team stuff to work properly, and virtualizing an entire OS for one old game is ridiculously ineffecient. Remembering how well things went with my ePSXe howto (and how much fun that puzzle was to figure out) I decided to get Starcraft running on OSX Mountain Lion. After a great deal of trial and error, I’ve done it. It’s been one month and I’m almost done with the original campaigns with no significant problems.

A few caveats:
I will not help you pirate Starcraft. Don’t ask me to. Do not post links for torrents either, as linking to pirated software is a no-no here. I want the thread to stay open and help you guys, but if we keep getting flooded with “just download a copy here” links, it will get closed down. (TLDR: Don’t be an ass and post links to torrents here.)
Battle.net will not work in this wrapper. Network play, however, works just fine.
There is a glitch with audio where the first second will be repeated at the end when I character speaks (excluding units). (Note: This glitch does not seem to plague all configurations. I am not sure what causes this.)
The old method creates a stupid shortcut on your mac desktop called "My Mac Desktop." I have no idea why the Crossover engine does this as I cannot imagine it being terribly useful. The new method does not do this.
The OSX cursor sits on top of Starcraft's custom cursor. If you use the old method, it will stay that way. The new method gets rid of the OSX cursor after you click.
If you attempt to switch tasks (cmd+tab), the game will shrink to its native resolution on your mac's normal resolution. While the game will still work, you will not be able to fullscreen it again until you relaunch it.

Adding a new method to this guide resulted in some fragmentation, but I wanted to keep the old method in here just in case some machines dislike the new one. Please read the full instructions before starting so that you can decide which method is for you.

I recommend the new method as it will receive active development from the community and should be most likely to work with new versions of OSX.

It is possible to use the downloaded version of Starcraft Anthology from Blizzard's website, but I haven't purchased this since I already have the games on CD. I will cover the CD method. If anyone wants to give us a walkthrough on using the download instead, please post it. I can merge it and clean this guide up then.

So, lets get started! You will need the following to run starcraft/broodwar on your mac.
a mac (duh)
Starcraft/broodwar CDs and valid keys
a machine with a CD-ROM. This doesn’t have to be in your mac. We just need a way to get the files off the CD. (Note: I’m not explaining how to pull files with OSX because I can’t figure it out.)
a flash drive, hard drive, anything to put the files on for transferring the files to the machine.
Wineskin Winery (available at http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php)
an internet connection so Wineskin Winery can fetch the files it needs
at least 1.7 GB of free space for the game. (Who has less than this?)

Step 1: Get the files off those CDs.

The lovely people at Blizzard put the PPC version and the Windows version of the game on separate sessions of the same disc. When used as intended, you just throw the disc into the machine, and the files needed to run on that platform are the only ones you will see.

We aren’t using this the way Blizzard intended. If you insert the CD into a mac, you will see PPC files, which are useless to us. I want the Windows files. If you can boot into Windows or have a Linux machine laying around, just throw the CDs into that and copy the files off that way. If you only have an OSX machine, this is still possible, but you will need to use the terminal to force the mac to ignore the mac side of the disc and show us the windows side.

I cheated here and just pulled the files with an old Linux machine. If someone here can figure out how to do this within OSX, PLEASE post it in the comments. I can’t make it work. :(

Step 2: Create a wrapper.

Wrappers allow us to run a windows app inside of OSX. A wrapper is a basic, simulated windows environment tailored to whatever app we drop inside.

After you install Wineskin Winery, we need to fetch the appropriate engine. Click + next to “New Engine(s) Available!” and download “WS8WineCXG10.3.0” (old method) or the latest wine engine (new method) which is, at this time, "WS9Wine1.7.10"

Once installed, select that engine you wish to use from the list (likely the only entry at this point) and click “Create New Blank Wrapper.” While you can name the wrapper whatever you want, let’s just name it “Starcraft.” When finished, click “view wrapper in finder.”

Step 3: Install the game.

Launch the wrapper we just created. A Wineskin dialog will appear. Click “Install Software” followed by “Choose Setup Executable.” Choose “setup.exe” from wherever you put the game files copied off the CD. Install Starcraft as you normally would.

When the Choose Executable dialog appears, tell it to use “/Program Files/Starcraft/StarCraft.exe”

If you want to install Broodwar, hit the install software button again and run through before we move on. Wineskin will complain that no new executables were found. Hit ok. It’s fine. Back out of the installer dialog by clicking cancel, then Quit.

Step 4: Updates and tweaks

We now have a wrapper, but it's running an out-of-date version of the game and needs a few tweaks before we are ready to play. Before we continue, we need to fetch an update from Blizzard.

click here: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/starcraft-patch-information

Pay attention to what the site is telling you! If you have Broodwar installed, fetch the Broodwar patch. If you only have the original game installed, get the patch for that. You do not need both. Remember, we want the PC patches, not the mac patches, because we are actually running the PC version of the game.

We need to tinker with the wrapper, so let’s open it up. Right-click on your wrapper and hit “Show Package Contents.” Launch the Wineskin app contained within.

When the Wineskin dialog appears, hit "Install Software" again. Choose setup executable, and hit the patch we just downloaded. The updater will complain about not finding the CD when it finishes, but we aren’t ready to launch the app yet anyway, so we don’t care. Click exit. Again, Wineskin will complain that it doesn’t notice any significant changes. Hit ok. Cancel out of the installer dialog.

When you return to the first Wineskin dialog, click on advanced. (Change the program version if you want. It doesn’t really matter what is in there. It just tells the Finder what version to report.) Click the tools button, then in the Wine Tools column, click “Registry Editor (regedit).” Windows geeks will recognize this instantly.

These changes tell the wrapper exactly how we want it to draw to the screen. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D.

If you are using the WS8WineCXG10.3.0 engine (old Crossover method), make this registry change:
In the right pane, right click in a blank area and hit New->String Value. Name it “DirectDrawRenderer” and set the value to “mac”

If you are using the WS9Wine1.7.10 or newer engine (new method), make these registry changes:
In the right pane, right click in the blank area and hit New->String Value. Name it “DirectDrawRenderer” and set the value to “gdi”.
Right click in the blank area again and hit New->String Value. Name this one “OffScreenRendering” and set the value to “fbo”.
Right click in the blank area again and hit New->String Value. Name this one “RenderTargetLockMode” and set the value to “readtex”.
Right click in the blank area again and hit New->String Value. Name this one “VideoMemorySize” and set the value to “256”.

Both engines follow the rest of these instructions
Click the “Registry” menu and exit. Get out of all those dialogs, right-clicking in the dock and exiting from there if that pesky Busy dialog is telling us to wait.

Finally, we need to copy over game files so that we can play without CDs. Toward the end of Starcraft’s life, Blizzard included diskless gameplay in one of its patches for the game. We do not need to hack anything!

Each game has an Install.exe file on the disc. For Starcraft, copy install.exe into the wrapper (remember show package contents?) in /drive_c/Program Files/Starcraft/ and rename it to “StarCraft.mpq”. Do the same thing with Broodwar, if you have it, but rename it’s install file to “BroodWar.mpq”

Close out of the wrapper.

Step 5: ....FOR THE SWARM!

Launch the wrapper as you would any application and start gaming like it’s 1999! If you want to play multiplayer and your firewall is on, OSX will ask to create an exception for this game, but it will be hidden behind Starcraft's fullscreen app. Exit the game normally and tell OSX to allow this. The game will then netplay properly the next time you launch it.

Special thanks to grmela for the registry entries that allows the new method to work. MUCH BETTER!
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1494969503][/doublepost]Example commands to mount/umount DMG Images or a CDROM on a Mac to view the Windows files

Commands to mount:

hdiutil attach -nomount "StarCraft Disc 1.dmg"
mkdir /Volumes/scd
mount -t cd9660 /dev/disk2 /Volumes/scd


Commands to unmount:

umount /Volumes/scd
rm -rf /Volumes/scd
 
E

Eric5h5

macrumors 68020
Dec 9, 2004
2,489
591
All of that has been made irrelevant. Didn't you read the last several posts here? It was updated and runs natively on the latest OS now. Also, it's free.

--Eric
 
C

cjmaranto

macrumors newbie
May 16, 2017
2
1
Yes, I read the posts. The free version that Blizzard is currently giving away for free is incomplete and there are many issues with v1.18. If you want to edit maps with StarEdit you have to use the original version. So my post was not at all irrelevant. Running Starcraft v1.16.1 in Wineskin is still the best solution for this game for those of us that like to customize our maps.
 
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MacBH928

MacBH928

macrumors G3
May 17, 2008
8,346
3,731
Hello,
I have a macbook pro 2015 and I just got logitech m705 mouse. The mouse works just as usual. When I installed the Starcraft Broodwar game from Blizzard, the moues is very slow. I have to move my hand halfway across the table to get to the middle of the screen.

Anyone know how to fix this?
I tried to find settings in the game, but I couldn't find any last I got was a screen making me choose between episode i, ii , and iii.
 
hawkeye_a

hawkeye_a

macrumors 68000
Jun 27, 2016
1,637
4,381
I'd like to get the free updated version from Blizzard's website, but I cant seem to find the download page. Could someone please post the link here? The forum link above does not exist (404 error).

Cheers
 
Fnord

Fnord

macrumors member
Aug 12, 2005
44
2
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C

coldsun

macrumors newbie
Oct 7, 2018
2
0
Dear all,
I read through the thread and it seems in 2018 things have changed since Battlenet stopped supporting OSX.
I am trying to install Starcraft (old) or Remastered (which I have purchased on Blizzard).
I am trying Wineskin for the first time. Everything was going fine until a window popped up saying a DLL file is missing, please update or reinstall Battlenet.
But Battlenet does not want to install because I have an old mac which can not update to Sierra (2008 laptop). I tried installing Battlenet with wineskin but it gives me the same message.

Are my doomed?
 
mentaluproar

mentaluproar

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 25, 2010
1,763
209
Ohio, USA
This was from before there was a native OSX version of Starcraft, and battle.net did not function properly under wine then.
 
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