How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

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MrFlibble
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How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by MrFlibble »

A while ago I became interested in Mac emulation, considering that a number of games for that platform have unique high-resolution graphics (e.g. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans). However, almost every emulator I could find requires the original Mac ROM as well as MacOS and other software to run, and I own neither. Of course these might be obtained from the Internet but I try to avoid this kind of practice.

After some rather fruitless search I found a solution to this problem in the form of a piece of software called Executor. This is not an emulator but a compatibility layer like Wine, and it does not need any ROMs or the original MacOS. There are versions for DOS, Windows and Linux.

Executor is long discontinued and the owners released it as freeware by making public a registration code for the shareware version (source code is also available). The only downside is that not all Mac programmes run smoothly or are supported at all, and Mac software that requires a version of MacOS higher than 7.0 will not work. Sometimes there are issues with sounds etc.

That said, I checked out the Mac shareware version of Wolfenstein 3-D and it turns out to work quite well in Executor, with sounds, music and everything. Here's a screenshot from the game running at 640x480:
Image
(Actually I took that shot in DOSBox using the DOS version of Executor, although it works much slower compared to the native Windows version.)

The E-Maculation Wiki has basic instructions on setting up and running Executor:
http://emaculation.com/doku.php/executor_setup

The shareware version of Mac Wolf3D can be downloaded here. The file is called wolfenstein-threed-101.hqx. You might need to right-click on it and then select Save File As... to download it.
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Rachael
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Rachael »

Oooh, thank you for this. Yes, I found some id Anthology discs (I don't know where I have them now...) that actually have the full version of Mac Wolfenstein... this will definitely be nice to try that with.

You have my +1.

This will also make things easier for Blzut3 - who I know has been loosely working on making MacWolf itself work with ECWolf.
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Enjay
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Enjay »

Very interesting. I too have the id Anthology Mac disc. Does this programme allow the disc to be accessed? Whenever I have tried on a PC before, the OS can't even read the disc (I know the disc is OK though because I used to have a Mac).
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Rachael
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Rachael »

You will probably need a file system driver, for that. However, you might be able to use 7-zip to open it. Try opening "\\.\D:\" in 7-zip, where D:\ is the path to your CD-ROM drive. Theoretically, what this does is it opens the drive in 7-zip as an image, which 7-zip can read since it is capable of reading many common file system formats if it is provided as raw input.
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Enjay
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Enjay »

7zip couldn't open it. The drive just span up, waited a few seconds and then span down again. However, I found HFSExplorer and it was able to read the disk. So, when I get a chance, I'll see if I can play the game.
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Rachael
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Rachael »

Are you sure you didn't try "\\.\" in front of the drive letter? That is very important. But good to know HFSExplorer was able to read it.
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Enjay
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Enjay »

I'm an idiot. I mistyped and had too many "\"s :lol:

7zip can open the drive sort of. I get as far as being able to see this:

Image

and 7zip even goes as far as being able to extract them from the drive. However, I still need something to be able to read the hfs file because 7zip merely seems to extract it from the drive. It doesn't seem to be able to look inside the hfs.
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Rachael
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Rachael »

How old is your 7-zip? I would think it can open .hfs files just fine.
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Enjay
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Enjay »

Version 16.04 from October.
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Rachael
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Rachael »

Well - like you said, HFS explorer works so I suppose that's good enough - but honestly, I am surprised 7-zip wasn't able to just read it. Maybe there was something special with it that hasn't been implemented in 7-zip yet.
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Re: How to run the Mac version of Wolf3D on PC without emulators

Post by Blzut3 »

Well the 7-zip trick is sure interesting. Tried it today and like Enjay I can't open the HFS volume, but you can mount it easily on Linux. Once you're there, apparently you can grab the resource fork. Sounds like the netatalk package can turn an apple double into a macbinary.

My Anthology collection is in storage due to renovations, so I can't test it myself for awhile.
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