Need help with BG1 tutu on Mac OS X. No working links.

[John]

Hi.

I can't get BG1 to work on OS X. The only approach I've found with working links, seems to be something called "easy tutu".

Here's the link:

http://www.usoutpost31.com/easytutu/mac/


My problem is that I don't have the BG1 expansion pack, which they say is required.

"BG1tutu", however, does not seem to require the BG1 expansion, but here i can't find the program "bg1tutu mac" anywhere (which, btw, is still a dead link on your site, probably for more than a year now, judging from other posts).

So here are my questions:

1) Is this project completely dead now? Was there some sort of copyright issue, since files seem to have been removed from all over the internet?

2) Is it possible to do the "easy tutu" approach, without the BG1 expansion? If so, how?

3) Is it possible to download the program "bg1tutu mac" from anywhere? If I could just find that download, it seems like I wouldn't need the expansions from BG1.

4) Is there any other way to get BG1 to work on OS X? Ive tried running it through classic, which should work. But there is an error when I save, or the game tries to autosave. I can't boot from OS 9, so that one is out of the question. Anyways, I saw someone else tried that without success.


Any help greatly appreciated. I have BG II, but it's such a waste of time playing it without trying BG1 first.

[Gorilym]

I'd recommend getting a copy of TotSC - IMO it's a worthwhile expansion, and it would enable you to use the EasyTutu approach, (which has many, many advantages over the old type of conversion) buf if that isn't an option; I've uploaded the old-fashioned BG1Tutu for Mac here.


Compartmentalized answers:

1) (Conventional) BG1Tutu is not dead, exactly; but it's been largely obsoletized by EasyTutu.

2) No, currently the BG1 expansion is required to use the Mac version of EasyTutu.

3) See top link.

4) Outside of BG1-BG2 conversions like Tutu & BG Trilogy, no. IIRC BG1 was highly unstable under Classic (and the resolution - ugh).

[John]

Thanks a lot for the link and for the quick reply.

[John]

I followed the instructions, and it seemed to work like a treat. Unfortunately, the game crashes when I go to The Friendly Arm In (but not when I go other places).

I'll be happy to hear any suggestions on how to fix it. Meanwhile, I'm gonne see if I can get a bootable OS 9 or 8 up and running. Or maybe give emulation a try.

Thanks for the reply, though. Seemed like a really nice concept, if I only had gotten it to work. The part that didn't crash worked beatifully.

[Gorilym]

Could you post the last few sections of lines from the bg1tutu.log generated by the conversion? I'm particularly interested in the final statistics. Or better yet, upload the entire log file somewhere like RapidShare and post a link to it here.

[John]

I deleted everything to try again. But I'll let you know how that went, and post the log the same thing happens again.

Thanks.

[John]

Hi again.

So now I've reinstalled the whole thing again, but the same thing happened: Once I go to The Friendly Arm Inn, the game crashes.

Here is bg1tutu.log:

http://rapidshare.com/files/107281379/bg1tutu.log.html

Thanks. I very much appreciate the assistance.

[Gorilym]

The conversion rate in your log is 23% - truly successful conversions are around the 52-54% range. The failed conversion is likely connected to the many "BIFF cannot be loaded" errors in your log; those suggest that you're trying to convert an incomplete installation of BG1. Did you use the Assistant's "Make Full Install" feature prior to running the conversion?

[John]

Yes, I was used the "make full installation", and it seemed to work fine. Copied files from CD after CD and there were no error messages. Im pretty sure I did everything according to the guidelines.

I think Im gonna give up on trying to play BG1. I even installed OS 8.6 through Sheepshaver (emulator), but then it turns out I can only use 1 CD per session (need to restart the whole emulator to boot another CD), which is not a very viable option on a 5 CD's game :-(

I guess my best option would be to find an emulator which can treat mounted disc images as if their were CD1's. Baliisk can do that, but unfortunately it only works up to OS 8.1, or something like that. And i only have OS 8.5 and 8.6.

But hey, thanks for the effort. I'll check back and see if there is any solution, but with 25%+ data missing, it probably doesn't look good.

Take care.

[John]

Hello again.

I was just thinking that maybe you could help me with my original problem, which I haven't mentioned yet. From what I understand you're on of the tutu programmers, and therefore you know the files inside out. Right?

Anyways, this is what happens:

1) I install the game under OS 9 classic environment, and it seems to work fine.

2) I start the game under OS 9 classic. Works fine.

3) I try to save, or the game tries to autosave (when leaving an area), and the game crashes with the following message:

Baldur's gate cannot read the file AR2600.ARE on your hard disk

the game must now quit without saving

File:MacMFC.cpp Line:556

4) I find the file AR2600.ARE in the folders "save" (insive the save game folder) and "temp", which both are in the "game data" folder.

5) I can load the from the saved game without problems. But when I try to save, it crashes again. So it seems like my comp. can both save and read the files, but not do both things in the same session.


Things I've tried, that didn't help:

1) Just starting the game again, in case it's just a problem with the game creating the folders "save" and "temp" (which, to my understanding, only happens the first time you save).

2) Using the full install option in the tutu assistant.

3) Applying baldurdash patches and the 1.0.2 update.


Any suggestions?

[Gorilym]

If you're using 10.4; (from your mention of Classic I assume you're not using 10.5) try exempting the game folder from Spotlight indexing (in the Spotlight preference pane) - Spotlight is known to interfere with BG2 game saving, and might conceivably be doing the same thing to a BG1 install. If you're using a dual-processor system, try disabling one of the processors while playing.

Unfortunately I don't think it's very likely that the above suggestions will remedy your situation - the error message suggests corrupt data files AFAICT, which could be the result of (for instance) scratched game discs. If you post the name and size of all the BIF files in your game data folder, I'll compare them to known "healthy" files.

Of course, there's also the possibility that the error is simply due to BG1 refusing to run properly under Classic anymore - I tried it with 10.2-Classic around 2003, and while I didn't run into any game-stoppers, it was buggy and slow. It might have gotten worse with more recent systems / OS versions.

[John]

Forgot to mention that I also tried exempting it from spotlight, but like you said it didn't do much (fixed problems with BG2, though).

Im also trying to make it work in OS 9 emulated through Sheepshaver, and win98 through Virtual PC (with PC version, of course).

Here are the files:

AREA2800.BIF - 24MB
AREA160X.bif - 1 MB
AREA2600.BIF - 24.1 MB
AREA380X.bif - 412 kB
NPCSound.BIF - 44,5 MB
ARMISC.bif - 1,9 MB
CREATURE.bif - 1,7 MB
AREA220X.bif - 456 kB
AREA230A.bif - 6,8 MB
AREA180b.bif - 6,3 MB
AREA470X.bif - 412 kB
AREA260A.BIF - 7,3 MB
AREA540c.bif - 14,5 MB
AREA2700.BIF - 24 MB
SFXSound.bif - 46,3 MB
Dialog.bif - 768 kB
DEFAULT.bif - 424 kB
CHAANIM.bif - 62,9 MB
CREAnim.BIF - 26,8 MB
Spells.bif - 108 kB
Areas.bif - 2,2 MB
AREA540d.bif - 10,5 MB
RndEncnt.BIF - 9 MB
CHASound.BIF - 35,4 MB
AREA070A.bif - 1,3 MB
scripts.bif - 604 kB
GUI.bif - 52,7 MB
AREA180a.bif - 1,6 MB
AREA320X.bif - 1,3 MB
AREA210X.bif - 1 MB
CRESound.BIF - 7,9 MB
EFFECTS.bif - 1,6 MB
ITEMS.bif - 1,4 MB
OBJANIM.bif - 11 MB
AREA340X.bif - 1,8 MB
AREA400X.bif - 2,3 MB


Sorry about the amount of work I'm causing you now, since this isn't really tutu-related anymore. Thanks a lot for helping out.

[Gorilym]

I'm a bit short on time, so I only did a few file size comparison - those checked out OK. However, if that is indeed the entire contents of your BG1 data folder then it's no wonder the Tutu conversion failed; total file size appears to be in the area of 500-600 MB, much closer to a standard installation than a full one (and the .ini file is probably expecting all the game data to be on your HD as a result of using "make full install"). I'd try manually copying all bif files from each disc into the data folder; if all the files copy successfully, check to see if the crashing still occurs. If some files refuse to copy, try cleaning the disc(s).

[John]

That seems to be it. Some files won't copy from the disc, and cleaning didn't help at all. Damn it! Better get a new copy then.

Thanks again for all your help. Now I can stop wasting my time on a corrupted disk. Weird though, how the game seemed to install perfectly and even start up, when my disk 2, which is even the first playing disc, was full of corrupted files.

Cheers, mate. And take care.