[stimpEE]

I've sold my home PC and now I wanna play at work on the mac (which I used to play on before i bought the pc :-). Having bought q3 for the pc i dont wanna buy it again and was wondering how i can get it to work on the mac.

I've tried getting the mac demo, renaming the demoq3 folder to baseq3, copying the pc pk3 files and then installing the mac point release but i get a message about the default.cfg in a macos dialog box and it wont load.

anyone got any ideas? No flames please!

[Evangellydonut]

Aren't the file format and headers different between Mac and PC? It MAY work if you know the exact file attribute of each of the Q3A Mac files, and change the PC file accordingly, but I don't think that'll work. Otherwise, why would companies spend so much time porting games to the Mac if it were a simple Application program re-write?

[denim]

You have three choices: get a PC emulator, get a PC card which can act as a PC in your Mac, or buy the Mac version.

[seanyepez]

Buy the game. It's really the only way.

Another option - one of us can send you the Q3A image over the Internet. I have it imaged to my hard disk, and I own the legit version for both platforms. (I am the legal owner of five copies of the PC version and one copy of the Macintosh version.)

I could send it to you for nothing at all. My T1 needs some grunt work. It's getting lazy.

Email me.

[blizzard]

You're right - it should technically work. The data files for the Mac and the PC versions of Q3 are exactly the same, and iD software said before the release that it would be possible for one platform's executable to read another platform's data files and play the game that way. However, in my experience, theory doesn't play as well as reality. I had a computer over at a friends house before I got Q3 Mac, and tried to do exactly the same thing that you are trying, but I got the same error. Unfortunately, this isn't really a question you can email iD about, because it could too easily be piracy to them even if you are telling the truth about owning the PC version. Unless you can find some other resource that will be able to tell you how to do it, it seems that buying the Mac version is the best way to go. Sorry.

Blizzard

Actually, everyone above is wrong. it does work, and I know it for a fact, because my "borrowed" copy of Q3 wouldnt install anymore. SO what did I do? I grabbed my friends PC version, copied ALL the files onto my HD, and then copied the MAC Q3 application into that folder.

As ace would say...

"LLIIIIIIIIIiiiike a glove!"

Works good.

Ca$h

Forgot.. you cant use the demo app. Download JUST the mac app from somewhere, then use the PC's folders and files and stuff. No renaming necessary.

Ca$h

[Cipher13]

I have the Q3A demo for Mac, and full vers of Q3A for Windoze.
Will it work with the PC data files if I enter the CD Key into the demo app?
I'll try that later, and post results... if anyone can tell me before hand though, I'd appreciate, as I'm sure a lot of people would.

Cipher13

[blizzard]

Oh geez....well, OK, it's gotta be said....MacNN does not in any support, condone, or ACCEPT piracy in any way, shape, or form. Ca$h, I'm not going to delete your post because it contains info that may help stimpEE. However, you do not need to tell us that you pirated Q3. Nothing good will come of it. The best that can happen is that the members here will attack you. The worst is that the admins will get a reason to ban you. Please feel free to post to help people, but from now on please keep any admissions or support of illegal practices out.

Blizzard.

P.S If you, or any other people want clarification on this policy, please email me at blizzard_50@hotmail.com. I would appreciate it if this is last of this issue I see in this forum. Thanks for the help.

[bizzare]

Then there's the fact of CD keys (serial #), which ARE different on Macs and PCs. By trying this, if it works, you will NOT be able to join pure servers at all. Dude, I say buy the Mac version.

------------------
-Bizzare

No, no. Its just "borrowed"... I borrowed it to see if I liked it, and considering I barely ever play it, I dont like it, and am not going to buy it.

Anyway, that will NOT work, I tried it at a LAN party (All my friends had full versions, I had the mac demo).

It doesnt work. The mac demo needs demo files.

I will restate what I said originally. If you want to "borrow" q3 for a bit (not condoning illegal acts), go on to hotline, download JUST THE APPLICATION FILE (shoudltn be more than 10 megs... i think its under 5), copy it into your HD, and then copy all the PC files into that folder. It works fine.

Ca$h

[billybob]

It worked fine for me, except I was going the other way.. I had bought mac q3a and just recently got a PC as well (so I could finally have an awesome graphics card, god I hate the rage 128).. Anyways, I just copied the entire mac install over to my PC, and downloaded the latest point release from one of the 2 trillion servers that have them (such as planetquake.com)... and it worked fine.

And the prize goes to billybob that's all you basically have to do to get both the Mac/PC versions running, as long as you OWN the game of course just get the Mac/PC point release (whichever platform you want to run it on) and use it with the main pak file...