EQMAC working on PC with an old PoP-era executable.

[Deflator]

I thought this was pretty interesting, and would probably be easy for someone here to reproduce. I know jack about programming myself, but considering this guy did it in a few days, someone else can probably do it. Being as EQMAC is "accurately" stuck in the PC-PoP era, this might be fun for people without a Mac who would like to play on such a server.

Recently, EQMAC was reworked to be Intel only:

http://www.eqmac.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10782

Here's the thread where a guy talks about using an old PoP executable to play the Mac version PC.

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmor...34-eqmac-those-starting-up-mac-server-25.html

It's not a virtual machine. It is straight up EQ running on windows. We took a client/install from Planes of Power era, late december 2002, and modified the client as well as injected DLL runtime changes for the opcodes of the client to work with the mac server. Other than that, everything is mostly the same.. just had to trick the server past it's CRC checks and it got in and runs fine.

I don't have a FPS monitor on it but it feels like it's running at a few hundred FPS.. very smooth.

There are still a few bugs to work out however I am currently not considering releasing this client to public, as that would likely get it patched/fixed or even worse it may introduce a lot of macroquest users into the population of that server. Not to mention it would be copyright distribution anyways.

Here's a video of it working:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPtwAWC4w5A"]EQMac on Windows - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Fry]

I spent a bit of time working on this yesterday. It is certainly very cool.

 

[Deflator]

I spent a bit of time working on this yesterday. It is certainly very cool.

Awesome. Hopefully you can work something out. I think it'd be a hit if you could release something for it.

 

[zdozbou]

PoTime, here comes Ghostkill.

 

[L2Phantom]

I'd pay for this feature for sure.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Mac server blows. Just saying. You're better off on an emolation.

 

[Deflator]

Mac server blows. Just saying. You're better off on an emolation.

I played on it a couple of years ago. It's fine. They had a lag issue which is now fixed. Explain more than "it just blows," because the community there would disagree.

 

[SiegeTank]

I'm curious too. I would have tried that server a while back if there were cheap enough used Macs on the market!

 

[Deflator]

Back in 2009 I think it was, there was a big surge of new players on it, and I happened to have a Mac Mini, so I figured what the hell and tried it. It was pretty fun at the time, as we all had the opportunity to level up together and whatnot.

The server is permanently frozen in PoP as SoE made it, so as far as that goes, you can't find a more accurate server for the era. It has a small number of bugs and exploits, many of which I forgot or only read about. Some of the AA's are actually more powerful at one point in instead of two or three, things of that nature (it's all well documented on the EQMAC forums so you know what to do.) There are some kooky bugs like the level fifty something (I think) manatap giving you full mana every time you use it. So, essentially, any high level SK there always has full mana, as I remember it, I could be off.

Anyway, I haven't played EQ regularly since 2003. I come back, buy a character, play for literally two weeks, and quit again...which is basically what I did on this server as well. I think I made it to level 30 something before I quit, but a lot of my friends went to 65. But, I'd probably give this thing another go for shits and giggles if Fry can get it working and release it.

 

[dulak]

This would probably be the only way I'd come back to EQ. I've also heard that the mac players get to play for free. Any truth in that?

 

[Deflator]

This would probably be the only way I'd come back to EQ. I've also heard that the mac players get to play for free. Any truth in that?

That's not true, it's the normal price. Isn't it test players that get free expansions or something? But I still think even they have to pay the monthly fee.

 

[dulak]

Bah! I r sayz we needs our mmobugs server back!

 

[DT]

Bah! I r sayz we needs our mmobugs server back!

Yeah, bring it back for the whole 2 people that played on it regularly.

It costs too much to run a server that has minimal participation.

 

[Deflator]

Out of curiosity, did you ever figure out anything on this? I personally have little interest in actually playing this game again in any form, but I am curious.

 

[rob]

so uh, is the mac server going to die now from dupes and ghostkilling?

 

[Fry]

As far as we got was character select with a pc client. Crashed entering game.

 

[Spunge]

If you could get it back, could you get nodelay/ghostkill on it?

I know its kinda a tabboo subject, and delete this post if you must but... surely it'd be kinda fun on that server?

 

[Kodilynn]

If you could get it back, could you get nodelay/ghostkill on it?

I know its kinda a tabboo subject, and delete this post if you must but... surely it'd be kinda fun on that server?

Nope.

 

[Deflator]

As far as we got was character select with a pc client. Crashed entering game.

Ah. Makes you wonder how that guy got it working within a couple of days of the new executables coming out. I guess he lucked into making it work somehow.