wanting to return, but i have mac.

[Giraffosaur]

So the problem is in the name. I used to play forevers ago, and i have have never found any other game that really matches up to this one. But I now have a macbook pro.
What i'm wondering is, is there a free way to download the game?
either someone found out how to make a patcher/download for mac
or a free way to run windows?

[Steelclaw]

You will need the ability to run Windows executables on your Mac. Since you want something free, you'll have to do a bit of work and experimenting. If you're willing to pay for something like Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion, you'd be closer to a click-and-play solution. I think you can also use a boot loader and separate partition to install and run Windows natively. (Don't ask me how unless you want to give me a Mac for experience. )

Here are a few of the free options:

Wine: http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX
Wine actually runs the executable in OSX without the need for a Windows installation. I've had mild success with this approach on Linux, however, the patcher/launcher is a different beast and requires .NET 2.0 or .NET 3.5 in order to run. I've cheated and use an Istaria directory that is patched from Windows. There may be a community-developed Java patcher/launcher that will get you started. (Anyone remember where this is?)


Virtualbox: http://virtualbox.org
Virtualbox will allow a guest operating system to run on the host. This will require a full installation of Windows, that runs within OSX and may be more familiar to you.

Note that none of the above approaches are supported. You're welcome to try, and great, if you succeed, but don't expect any sort of official support doing so or with any weirdness you may experience once you get the client up and running.

[Freelancer]

Hmmm..... I didn't know about those options. Might have to try them out.

For me, I just use boot camp. If you are running 10.5 or 10.6 boot camp comes free with the mac operating system (Applications/Utilities... I think). Chops your HDD up for you and then you can install windows from there. Just make sure you back up first.

Then only draw back, as stated above, is that you have to reboot into windows. This however is a good thing for me. Means I can't just log on for 30 mins (oh, oops that was 4 hrs) at work.

[Oceth]

... There may be a community-developed Java patcher/launcher that will get you started. (Anyone remember where this is?) ...

If you want to try the wine route, it's available from http://horizons.oceth.net/

I haven't tried it on OS X though... It'll probably hide the wine settings. If so, mail me at the address listed on the page, there is a workaround

[Dhalin]

Hmmm..... I didn't know about those options. Might have to try them out.

For me, I just use boot camp. If you are running 10.5 or 10.6 boot camp comes free with the mac operating system (Applications/Utilities... I think). Chops your HDD up for you and then you can install windows from there. Just make sure you back up first.

Then only draw back, as stated above, is that you have to reboot into windows. This however is a good thing for me. Means I can't just log on for 30 mins (oh, oops that was 4 hrs) at work.

That only applies to Macs equipped with Intel processors, right?

The macs without Intel processors cannot run windows at all, last I heard.

[Steelclaw]

You need a processor that understands the x86 instruction set to run Windows natively (there were some builds of NT for Alpha and PPC but those are kind of useless here...). That means PPC Macs are out.

I'm not sure what Wine and virtualization have to offer, but I suspect that even if it were possible, the results wouldn't be pretty.