Big Fish Games Manager Forum

Hi -- I'm new to CrossOver. Possibly the best thing since sliced bread!

I set up the BFG game manager using your CrossTie download/imstall. So if I understand, it has it's own bottle with only its own support files.

You suggest, however, that having Game Manager listing / managing more than one game can cause problems.

So, I chose a BFG game in your compatability list with a silver rating and installed it using Cross Tie. All appeared to go well. I now had 2 Bottles --a bottle with the Game Title and another game manager among other things inside that bottle, and the original Game Manager Bottle.

Here's the stupid part -- I can't figure out how to run it. When I go to Programs from the Menu Bar, or "Run Installed Software" from your splash screen, the Game with it's own bottle does not show up. It does show up in the applications list, and as a bottle when I go to Manage Bottles, but I don't see how to run it from there.

Please help. Thank you.

EDITS -- I just realized the Game Manager install instructions I was following were from the tips and tricks for CrossOver v. 9.x. I've been told all I really need to do is double click the Downloaded BFG stub and let game manager do its thing. Is that correct?????

One other question. I have read and re-read the PDF manual. I am still unclear about something which is probably very simple. Since PC games download as zipped text files -- well, is the install as simple as Other application / choose zipped file from desktop/ run install/ CrossOver creates a bottle etc.,and the Game Shows up in Applications list when you choose run windows software?

Thanks again!

Hi,

Just so you know, when I see someone post to these forums, and then edit
their posts subsequently in a way that demonstrates they are 'learning the
ropes' or otherwise finding things out for themselves by doing, I usually
let that person (you here =) go through that un-aided -- often is the case,
that's the best way to learn about software =)

The paramount issue about having all BFG titles in the one bottle, is that
they don't all behave the same...especially regarding 'emulated virtual
desktop' mode. Some BFG titles absolutely need this (or they won't run),
whereas with other titles such is optional (they run fine fullscreen). The
issue is that you can't set emulated virtual desktop ON for an app that's
installed into a bottle which has emulated virtual desktop OFF -- the bottle
setting takes precedent. Ergo, at a minimum one would need 2 BigFishGames
bottles, not one ... but me, I just stick each game into it's own bottle,
as I find it easier to manage.

PC games downloads are not 'zipped text files' - the distribution media can
take many formats, and might contain gzipped text files, but the game itself
(and the game installer) are executable win32 programs (binary files)...

...the Big Fish Games installer, is what we call a 'thin client' - it actually
downloads the game files and installs them. All BFG titles are the same here.
You (yourself) never actually get to download the game files in effect.

...if you visit the Big Fish Games website and are browsing it on the Mac, the
Big Fish Games website will cause you grief at times - it detects your OS type
and continually tried to steer you that way. Once you know to watch out for this,
it's okay. Yes, you can download the (windows) installers for BFG titles and
just double-click on them, and by default crossover will open/install them. That
said, it doesn't happen in any particularly intelligent way, and which bottle it
concludes to install the game into is polemical (I -think- it chooses the first
available bottle, numerical order followed by alphabetical order)...invariably
it will get it wrong, so you have to manually tell it which bottle to use.

On OSX, BFG titles (or rather, bfggameservices.exe) are a pain -- unless you know
about the issue (there's another posting in this forum about same), things can go
wrong immediately after installing a BFG title (or quitting a game and restarting).
Unless you manually intervene, it takes about 5minuts for things to time out. Read
the thread "[i]When I quit playing a Big Fish Game things don't seem to exit/desktop
window stays open[/i]" for more info about this.

If I've missed an answer, or you have any other questions, feel free to ask =)

Cheers!

edit: clarification -- it's OSX that gives the impression you're downloading a zip
file -- it isn't, the actual BFG installer downloads are all .exe files

Thanks for replying, Don! I am willing to create new bottles, and I have tried to do just that several times today. I cannot get the game Manager to show it's window contents. No amount of quitting and restarting CrossOver makes this happen. It appears to be installed in the bottle with the game. The choice is available from the menu bar. But Game Manager opens up as a blank frame -- bubbles but nothing else!

Here are the steps I took to install a game (one others say is working fine in CrossOver) in it's own bottle:

1. click install windows software
2. in the window that comes up click "Other Application"
3. Click the select button for "Select an installer"
4. Click choose installer file
5. From the list choose the BFG game file you wish to install
6. Click install

When the GM is installing it shows an agree window, but agreeing seems only to make Game Manager disagreeable. (humor)

Remove Bottle, remove all traces of that install, quit CrossOver.

Well, no, after quitting I did not wait five minutes to try again.
I did try to shut dowm BFG services and restart.
It's been more than five minutes. I restarted CrossOver and tried again. Same result.

Honestly, I am very familiar around my Mac -- been using one since the mid 1980's. Please make suggestions, even to tell me I am just dense. Thanks!

edits:

1. It's not the game file -- loaded into the BFG GM bottle it plays fine except (like several others) it opens behind the menu bar and dock. Hiding the dock allows view of the entire game screen, but …

2. Not all games open behind the menu bar and dock.

3. With all installs, the progress bar does not list all the processes unless I click the x next to it. It finishes but tells me some things were skipped.

All of these issues are conundrums I want to solve. Yes, I want your help. Thanks!

No more edits until your worthy reply. 😊

Dan -- read no further than the first bold type if the answer is I am dense…

[b]The install process I listed above is wrong.
I should create multiple Game Manager bottles and install games into them. (Unless I can use Crosstie from the compatible games list.[/b]

I promised no more edits, but I thought if I could provide more info it would help…

I have done everything except trash CrossOver and reinstall it because I can't be sure where all the support files are.

I have trashed all the ill created bottles and all files I could find for it from within CrossOver -- mostly from the C drive programs folder after removing things from the Applications list in Manage Bottles Menu command. Again -- I can't be sure what belongs only to a new bottle.

I also stupidly managed to trash the Game Manager Bottle (that wiped out my individual game profiles)

I had no problem installing the game manager again using Crosstie

I had no problem installing games into that bottle - Briar Rose, plays perfectly. (Profile is lost)

I had no problem using Croosstie to create a new bottle from a game on the compatibility list Lost Town, plays perfectly

When examining the erstwhile Bottle created with the steps I outlined in my last post, Under Control Panel, instead of an icon with a globe and what looks like a test page and no name or description, there is a globe with a yellow ring -- Name: Internet settings, Description: Configure Wine Internet Browser and related settings.

I think that could be or lead to the answer.

I think this post is on topic because it has to do with the Big Fish Game Manager.

Hi,

The BFG client relies on Internet Explorer 7 -- we don't actually use that in Crossover Games,
but something called 'mshtml7' instead ; it's approximates the same functionality as IE7. If this
component is not present on a BFG bottle (or it doesn't install correctly via crosstie), it will
result in the sort of behavior your describe.

To totally remove the Crossover installation, refer to the following page...;

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/mac/mactutorial/uninstall

Once you reinstall Crossover (supposing you uninstall it to start fresh), you should install the
BFG manager using the crosstie installer here - this will result in a bottle named 'Big Fish Games
Manager'...make sure it works. If it does, you can start installing BFG titles into that bottle,
by using the Bottle Manager (crosssover menu -> configure -> manage bottles), click on the created
bottle -> applications tab -> install software.

The biggest hurdle you will have on the Mac, is like I say, downloading the game stubs from the
BFG website -- OSX will download a .zip file of some 500+kb if things go wrong. All BFG titles
use the same installer stub -- it's a .exe file of 204kb ; I figure this may be what's biting you.

Keep me posted on your progress....oh...and you can edit posts all you want, no big deal, but I
tend to wait for people to have their (full) say before replying, that's all =)

Cheers!

Again, Don, thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure CrossOver is healthy. I was obviously trying to make it do something that was never going to happen!

You mentioned more than once that multiple bottles were prudent so games wouldn't conflict with each other, so I wanted the best chance at having the games work. Many of the games offer acceptable game play with some quirks -- hence the silver medals, I imagine.

I created 3 game manager bottles using Crosstie -- enough to try a rotation of games until I find several I want to actually purchase. Installing games into them is so easy, now that I understand what I was doing wrong!

As I said in the beginning -- CrossOver might be the best thing since sliced bread for the purist who would never put Windows on their beloved Mac!

Thanks again for your patience and assistance, and Happy Birthday Codeweavers -- may you have many more!

Hi again,

I did look at the BFG titles you mentioned above, and, they do not cooperate with
OSX's window-manager very well. There's not much one can do about that, except to
enable 'emulate a virtual desktop' on the bottle in question. That can be done
manually by using the bottle manager -> wine configuration ->graphics tab (you'll
see the setting in that area)...or you can do this ;

http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=7781

Cheers!

Thanks Don, I will try that. I read in another of your threads that the best screen setting is 1024 x 768. Is that still true for the widescreen iMacs? Mine is 24".