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What OS are you running ? I assume that you using just the default ATI display adapter and nothing else, is that correct ?

Are you running the full version with the 1.12 patch ? If so are you using the OpenGL extension that came with it (which primarily fixes a text problem in CM with the latest ATI drivers) ?

How much memory are you allocating to CM ? Do you have virtual memory disabled ? Have you also tried to minimize the number of extensions/control panels you load when you boot (you'll still need a certain minimum number of them however) ?

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Do you know exactly which version of OS 9 you're running (i.e. - OS 9.0.4, etc.) ? If you're running the full version and you've downloaded the 1.12 patch (for CM) it will come with a new extension for the OpenGL 3D API (though CM is written in the RAVE 3D API) that helps with certain text problems in CM with some of the newest Macs. The 1.12 patch will most likely not solve your problem, but it does have the latest tweaks to the game.

CM 1.12 Patch (download the cm112.sit.bin file):

ftp://ftp.battlefront.com/pub/patches/

There is a startup manager that will allow you to select which extensions and control panels actually load when you boot. Depending on what software you've installed there may or may not be anything you would not want to load up when playing CM (to eliminate potential conflicts).

You may also want to allocate more memory to CM than the default (especially if you're playing a large scenario). I believe (I don't have a Mac available to me) that by highlighting the CombatMission program and pressing Command-I you should get a dialog box where you can modify CM's memory allocation. I'd also suggest turning off your Virtual Memory via the Memory control panel.

Considering your unfamiliarity with Macs you may want to look through the Apple documentation that came with your G4 or purchase a "Dummies" book (no insult intented) on OS 9/Macs.

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Making CMBO run more reliably is usually fairly easy.

I assume you are running OS9.04 or 9.1. If you have 9.0 I would upgrade to 9.04, 9.04 is generally a stable OS and OS 9.1 has been greatly improved, to install the latest version you will likely also have to update the firmware using an installer from Apple. At the moment I would just upgrade to 9.04. In any case, OS9xx uses alot of ram, if you don't have 256mb of real ram, I would buy some. It can be very inexpensive and take less than two minutes to install. OS 9.04 alone is using up most of the ram you have, leaving very little for any apps. I bought some PC133 256MB chips recently as low as $89 at Best Buy. WWW.Ramseeker.com is a great place to buy ram at the lowest prices. Before you buy more RAM, get a guarantee that it will work with Apple's ROM upgrades. There have been alot of horror stories of some RAM not working because of timing tolerance issue once you do an upgrade.

The first thing I would do is shut off virtual ram as it can be problematic. I would also go into the preferences folder in the system folder and toss the CMBO preferences file and let the program make a new one.

To adjust the memory allocation for CMBO, hold the control key down and click once on the application icon, a window will open and drag down to memory. Leave the lower number alone and double the larger number if you have enough ram.

To trash your preferences, open the system folder, find the Preferences folder, open it and take the Combat Mission Bynd Ovr Prefs and put it into the trash. When CMBO opens again it will make a new Prefs file.

I would run the latest video drivers Open GL 1.2.1 which come with the latest CMBO download, they fix the text problems that have plagued some MacOS users. BTS put them in for a reason .

Some people have had trouble when Netscape is open at the same time. I run Outlook Express 5.1, IE5.02, and CMBO all at the same time with no problems (lets me immediately play out PBEMs and surf the board )

Van_Gogh did the following: 1) changed the desktop picture from a 3D pic. to a standard 2D pic. 2) trashed the preferences for CM and forced the game to create new ones and has been running fine since.

Gyrenes suggestion about sleep in general is an excellent thing to do, I have also found a number of problems with sleep modes. Sleep is controlled by the Energy Saver control panel (found in the Control Panels folder under the Apple Menu) click on Show Details button to configure more details. When running CMBO you will likely want to run with Hard Disk sleep set to Never.

My primary suggestion is to install more ram, this tends to be the single largest problem in running the game. If that doesn't resolve your issues there are a number of other things that can be done, they are just a bit more involved. Good luck and keep us informed

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Just trolling through old tech problme posts and found:

Originally posted by timk:

I found the issue with I had with CM; it turns out to be related to the Energy Saver control panel. Without the control panel enabled, the Mac would go into "sleep" mode; with it enabled, i was able to turn off hard drive sleeping etc. No more lockups experienced; on a related note, the cache disabling did not work.

and

REVS

Both my iBook and iMac won't return to CM after they have gone to sleep. Other programs open at the same time have no problems re-opening, and if I re-open one of these other programs after sleep, then try to open CM, it still crashes. The ibook is on OS 9.04 and the iMac on OS 9.1. Apart from that everything else is pretty much identical. Is anyone else experiencing these Mac crashes?

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Schrullenhaft

I'm not sure who posted it, but I've heard of some people having problems with the sleep functionality and CM on the Mac.

I don't know how well sleep capabilities function with the game APIs out there. For a desktop app that isn't really doing anything, sleeping is no big deal. For a game, such a pause can come at a very bad time during computations.

Do you have the same problem trying to open CM if it were at one of the scenario selection screens rather than in the game itself ? I'd guess that any other full-screen game may have similar problems trying to go to sleep and then waking up with out crashing.

[ 04-14-2001: Message edited by: kmead ]

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