Birth of the Federation

Illustrated guide to installing BotF on Mac OS X using wine

Warning: this only works on Intel Macs, not PowerPC!

The program wine runs Windows software on non-Windows systems
There are numerous ways of installing wine on Mac OS X. I'll be using PlayOnMac, since it's user-friendly.


Install PlayOnMac

Download PlayOnMac:

Once downloaded, open the PlayOnMac DMG file, and drag the PlayOnMac icon into the Applications folder:

PlayOnMac is installed. Now it needs to be configured.

Open your Applications folder in Finder, and run PlayOnMac.

Download & install XQuartz when prompted:

Just keep pressing "Continue" until it installs:

Now reboot normally to finish the installation of XQuartz:

If a program called xterm starts when you're system reboots, just close it.

After rebooting, start PlayOnMac again. This time it will prompt you to install Microsoft fonts.

All done. PlayOnMac is now installed & configured!



Install BotF

If you haven't done so already, you'll need to download the main BotF multi-installer from the downloads section of this site!

Once that's done, click "Install" in PlayOnMac. You'll see a lot of apps listed, but BotF is not one of them. Don't worry, just click "Install a non-listed program".

Each app in PlayOnMac is installed in it's own sandbox (so install it in a new virtual drive):

Give it a name with no spaces (I called it BOTF):

Make sure you configure wine, and install some libraries:

When the wine configuration loads, go the the Graphics tab, and check "Emulate a virtual desktop". This is very important, as the game doesn't work in fullscreen!


To get the intro videos to work, you'll need to add a library override for iccvid:



When prompted to install libraries, choose to install DirectPlay, as this is needed to join multiplayer games.

Now locate the BotF installer:

And install it normally:

Ensure you make a shortcut to Trek.exe or it won't be listed!

Give it a name:

And now it should be installed and listed:



Try it out!

Just hit "Run". If the screen is black, just click the mouse. This happens because the intro video doesn't play.

Don't worry if you get this error after quitting, it's nothing important



Tip: Installing Mods

If you're installing mods, make sure you install them to the existing BotF installation:


Let me know if it works for you!

nice,

I moved topic into "Game Installation, Technical Support, & Tutorials"

thunderchero

PlayOnMac works well enough, and the price is great. However, I have found that CrossOver works best of all. I tried BOTF on my MacBook Pro in several ways, including on Windows installed in Boot Camp, and CrossOver was the best overall experience. The intro videos haven't worked, but the end-of-game ones do. Crashes happen but are rare. CrossOver costs $59.95, I think, but you can try it for 14 days for free to see if it will work for you. It is very user friendly. It also worked well with Civilization IV.

So I followed the directions here and it is not working for me on my Mac. Here is the log just before this part of the log it said, everything is ok. What am I missing I can't figure out what is up.

C:\users\*******************\Temp\is-3AKHK.tmp>if ERRORLEVEL 1 pause

C:\users\**************\Temp\is-3AKHK.tmp>exit
[06/29/14 16:20:01] - Running wine- trek.exe (Working directory : /Users/********************/Library/PlayOnMac/wineprefix/BOTF/drive_c/botf)
[06/29/14 16:20:22] - Running wine- trek.exe (Working directory : /Users/************************/Library/PlayOnMac/wineprefix/BOTF/drive_c/botf)
err:module:import_dll Library DPLAYX.DLL (which is needed by L"C:\\botf\\trek.exe") not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"C:\\botf\\trek.exe" failed, status c0000135

Ohh never mind I just removed the Dplay library and it launched fine.

Thank you!

Thanks for the tutorial, works great.

Any idea why I can't get it to run windowed when running a 1024 mod though? I have the virtual desktop enabled and have it set to 1024x768 but it always launches full screen. I'm using a 1920x1080 display.

Cheers

Kevin

Hello
My friend is trying to use the game and the ultimate mod 5 on mac.
he has the game working and he has even used mods, and has had them work.
However he can not seem to get the mod 5 to work on the play on mac.
does anyone know what he might be doing wrong?

did you install multi installer first?

https://www.armadafleetcommand.com/get- ... le_id=1958

thunderchero

yes he has the multi installer working. and he was able to use the dominion mod. but he can not get the mod 5 to work.
he seems to have trouble loading the mod. there is no way to pick which file to start on the play on mac.

this sounds like he is changing install location? installing to same folder mods and multi installer will most often crash
each mod should have a separate install folder inside of BOTF folder. UDM, UDML, UM5.........

but I suggest uninstall every thing delete botf folder
install multi installer first
then install any mod

thunderchero

Thanks for the help.
I am going to go over to his place and go through the steps you have laid out above. he was able to get the game going on his own through play on mac and we played many games in the vanilla game. But the mod 5 is amazing and I want to move him there.
Thanks for all the hard work.

Thanks for the thorough walk through. I was able to get it completely installed and even running. However it goes to full screen and only shows the game correctly if the mouse is moving in that area. I emulated a virtual desktop and tried a couple different sets of numbers. I'm betting it's an easy fix, any suggestions?

Good morning,

I am having the same challenge as above. The screen is blank except when the mouse is moving. I can interact with the screens. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Still looking for a solution and I am not sure if this forum is monitored. Hoping for the best.

Hey Links80 and nomar2122 - did you ever find a solution to the blank screen issue? the one where it only shows when the mouse is moved?