Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

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Hawkenstein
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Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Hawkenstein »

Hi, I'm trying to install Age of Empires II onto my OS9 emulator but i'm running into a problem where when i try run the installer it gives me the error message:
"The item "Read Me" cannot be found. Installation cannot continue."

I find this a bit confusing since I can clearly see the "Read Me" file right next to the installer. I have been able to successfully install and play games on it before so i'm not sure what's amiss.

I'm using COI v4.0.1 "Chubby Bunny" and running it on a MacBook Pro that's using Mojave 10.14.5

I got the game file from:
http://macintoshgarden.org/games/age-of ... ld-edition

P.s. I'm terribly sorry if this is confusing or posted in the wrong place
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

No problem in my regular SheepShaver setup.

The ReadMe you see is an alias of the actual ReadMe file elsewhere on the install CD. It can only be found if all files are still on the CD (or on an image created from the CD).

How did you mount the downloaded CD image file in SheepShaver? In COI you can only mount image files that are in the /Users/Shared/ folder and that are (re)named 400Meg.dmg, 800Meg.dmg, or 1200Meg.dmg. (or MyOldHD.dmg or COIHD.dmg).

Edit: If the issue appears to be COI-specific, I will move this topic to the "Other SheepShaver configurations" subforum later.
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Hawkenstein
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Hawkenstein »

Hey, Thanks so much for answering so fast. If I left click on the file in question I don't get the option to "show original" so i'm fairly confident that it isn't an alias. But I'm not at all an expert so I wouldn't be surprised if i was wrong.

Either way here's a rundown of what i did:
- I downloaded the .sit file
- I Expanded it using the Stuffit Expander app
- I copied and pasted the Expanded file in the /Users/Shared/ folder
- I booted up COI and tried to run the installer

If it gives any more insight, twice when I tried to run the installer it didn't show any error and looked like it had actually started installing just to immediately freeze up and stop responding.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Hawkenstein wrote:Hey, Thanks so much for answering so fast. If I left click on the file in question I don't get the option to "show original" so i'm fairly confident that it isn't an alias. But I'm not at all an expert so I wouldn't be surprised if i was wrong.
I used the top download from Macintosh Garden, "AOEII_Gold.toast_.sit".
On the disk, mounted in MacOS9, the icon has a little arrow and the file name is in italics, identifying it as an alias. When I right-click (or control-click) the icon, I see "Show original" in the contextual menu.
Either way here's a rundown of what i did:
- I downloaded the .sit file
- I Expanded it using the Stuffit Expander app
That should give you the "AOEII_Gold.toast" disk image file.
- I copied and pasted the Expanded file in the /Users/Shared/ folder
Just like that? Without changing the file name?
- I booted up COI and tried to run the installer
How did you acces the installer? With the file name "AOEII_Gold.toast" COI cannot mount the disk on the desktop.
Hawkenstein
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Hawkenstein »

Ok, I think I have realized the problem (It was me all along). When I expanded the .sit file i did it outside of COI which mounted the Disk image to the host OS. So when I copied it into the COI the emulator just saw it as a regular file folder.

When I was trying to install I was just clicking on the installer app inside the file folder and hoping that it would work (because i'm not very bright).

So now I tied to expanded the .sit file inside of COI but it didn't work properly. I got a different error message that said:

"An error has occurred while expanding the file "AOEII_Gold.toast_.sit" (The archive may contain damaged content).

It did create an AOEII_Gold.toast file but if I click on it I get another error message:

"The document "AOEII_Gold.toast" could not be opened, because the application program that created it could not be found. Could not find aa translation extension with appropriate translators."

I haven't changed the names of any files. I think i vaguely remember doing that the first time i set up COI but i haven't done it since. everything i move to the /Users/Shared/ folder just showes up in something called "Unix" in the emulator.

At what point should i change the name of the files and which file name should i use?
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

The name to use depends on the the disk image files you already may use inside the /Users/Shared/ folder.

The names available in COI, if not already used, are:
400Meg.dmg
800Meg.dmg
1200Meg.dmg
You can pick any one of these three.

- Take the "AOEII_Gold.toast" file.
- Make sure it is not mounted in the macOS 10.14 host
- Rename the file to one of the three names mentioned above
Best do the renaming in the Finder Info panel for the file to be sure the .toast extension is removed and the file has now the .dmg extension
- Move the renamed file into the /Users/Shared/ folder
- Again use the Finder Info panel for the file, this time to lock the file in order to make it read-only.

Now start COI. The CD volume should appear on the desktop in SheepShaver.
(Do not access the file in "Unix".)

BTW: This is a rather convoluted way to get things done. It is a problem specific for COI with its fixed settings. A regular SheepShaver setup is more work to set up, but easier to use.
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Wed Jul 10, 2019 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Hawkenstein
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Hawkenstein »

Hey, I took the "AOEII_Gold.toast" file which wasn't mounted on the host OS renamed it to "1200Meg.dmg" through the finder Get Info panel. Moved the renamed file into the /Users/Shared/ folder. locked the file. Started COI clicked on the file on the desktop an i got the same error message:
"The document "1200Meg.dmg" could not be opened, because the application program that created it could not be found. Could not find a translation extension with appropriate translators."

I'm going to try Switching from COI 4.0.1 to SheepShaver like you explained here:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8508&hilit=COI+disk+space

Might make things easier in the long run
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

That user used a 400Meg.dmg file in /Users/Shared/. If you do not use such .dmg files there, that part does not apply to your setup. Also do not use the 1200Meg.dmg file you renamed from the CD image.

Back then, the SheepShaver download was the SheepShaver folder with SheepShaver application and other files inside. Now you will find the SheepShaver application and the SheepShaver folder as separate downloads. You can put the SheepShaver application inside the SheepShaver folder.

(I consider rewriting that manual for the wiki.)
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Thu Jul 11, 2019 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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adespoton
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by adespoton »

Do you think one of us should make a pkg installer for SheepShaver to make things easier for new users to set up?
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

I am considering creating a base VM with preconfigured prefs file and empty disk image that only needs adding an install CD image and rom file. The user can launch it, install the MacOS and remove the install CD image from the volumes list (or remove the image file from the VM). For someone who wants to switch from COI it would be even simpler, no installation needed.

For inexperienced users, emendelson also offers a completely installed standalone SheepShaver/OS 9 for both Windows and OS X/macOS: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=9358
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by emendelson »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:For inexperienced users, emendelson also offers a completely installed standalone SheepShaver/OS 9 for both Windows and OS X/macOS: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=9358
For what it's worth, my system also lets users transfer files to and from SheepShaver without knowing anything about the "Unix" disk (and they don't need to know about moving files from the Unix folder to the emulated disk; it lets them mount CD images without using the preferences pane; and it lets them print or create PDF files in the host system directly from SheepShaver.

It does this magic through the use of a macOS launch daemon (or, in Windows, an AutoIt script running in the background) and various AppleScript tricks in SheepShaver.
Hawkenstein
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Hawkenstein »

Wonderful! I have now successfully switched to sheepshaver and have been able to download the game :lol:

I have run into one last snag though. The game says it requires quicktime player v.5 to run properly and needs to install it. It says that I need to instal it on a disk with a systems folder. but the only disk that has a systems folder only has 10.8mb of free space, quick time needs 20mb. Is there any way to give the disk more space?

Also now that I'v switched from COI can I just trash it or are those files still doing something? (I'm talking about the files that I didn't move to the sheepshaver folder)
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by adespoton »

Easiest thing to do is to create a new larger disk image, mount it at boot time, and copy everything over from the old image to the new one. Shut down, remove the old image from your settings, and reboot from the new one.
Hawkenstein
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Hawkenstein »

Is the disk with the systems folder the one called "Mac OS ROM" or is it "Mac OS9.dsk"? Or is it something/somewhere else.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

The image with the system folder is "MacOS9.dsk", "Mac OS ROM" is the rom file.

But copying of all content of that disk to a larger one needs to be done inside SheepShaver, there the disk s called "Classic HD".

- Tidy up the SheepShaver desktop, put all loose files and folders on the disk where they belong (where they came from).
- In the volumes list in SheepShaver preferences, create a larger volume, for instance 2 GB (2000 MB) in size.
- Save and Quit
- Start SheepShaver again.
- Allow the new volume to be initialized. In the dialog, choose an appropriate name for the volume and choose Mac OS Extended for the format.
- Copy all files and folders from the Classic HD volume to the new larger volume
- When the copy is complete, check whether the System Folder on the new volume shows its System Folder icon. If it only shows a generic folder icon, open the folder so the Finder can "see" the "System" and "Finder" files inside. That way the folder will obtain its icon. (This is called "blessing" the System Folder.)
- In the volumes list in preferences, remove the original "MacOS9.dsk" volume, so SheepShaver can start up from the copied system.
- Save and Quit.
- Start SheepShaver again. It should now startup from the copied system on the new larger disk.
Hawkenstein
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Re: Struggling to install AOE2 on OS9

Post by Hawkenstein »

Hey again! Got everything working like a dream!

For anyone who might be trying this too you can find the registration info for quicktime here:
https://www.findserialnumber.net/quickt ... f29c3.html#

also the game kept crashing when i first got it running kept saying that it was a type 3 error. But i just booted the system now it works great

Thank you so much Ronald, you're the best !! :cool:
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