Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Tips

How to install playable Arcanum using Crossover 6 and up

Hello, 

After experimenting with my install a bit after making my previous post, I have a method of directly installing Arcanum with Crossover I'd like to share. It isn't too much more complicated than installing it in Windows, actually takes a bit less time than the normal Windows install, and it doesn't require any messing around with DLLs.  Here goes: 

Before you begin: you will need the English install discs for Arcanum, English patch 1.0.7.4, and the unofficial Arcanum patch found here (and the accompanying extra patch, optionally): 

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=23720 

It is possible that this method will work with localized versions, but I don't think the unofficial patch currently supports them, and I don't know how well things will work without the unofficial patch. 

Steps: 

1. Make a new win2000 bottle. Go to Configure > Install Software, choose Unsupported Install, insert Arcanum disc 1 and use it for the install disc. The install will crash before completing (for me this occurred at about the 3 minute mark), but don't worry about it.  Click "finished" on the unsupported software installer window after the crash. 

2. Find the Arcanum install folder in ~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/[your new bottle name]/Sierra, make an alias of it for your desktop for convenience, insert Arcanum disc 2, and drag the files: 

arcanum1.dat 
arcanum2.dat 
arcanum3.dat 

from the CD into the Arcanum folder. 

3. Go to Configure > Install Software, choose Unsupported Install, choose to install into your existing windows 2000 bottle that contains Arcanum (ignore the warning about this being likely to produce errors), click on "Choose Installer" and browse to your patch 1.0.7.4 executable.  It should install without issue. 

4. Do the exact same process, but choose the unofficial patch installer this time. 

5. If you want the extra pack which goes with the unofficial patch (it's optional to this process), install it in the same way. 

6. In Crossover, select Configure > Refresh Programs Menu and then Programs > Run Command.  Choose your Arcanum bottle. Click "Browse". 

7. Browse to the Arcanum folder, and select Arcanum.exe.  In the Run Command window, right after the command which is now enclosed in quotes, add these two flags with no quotes around them: -no3d -doublebuffer 

On my system this command looks like this: 

Code:
"/Users/myaccount/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/Arcanum/drive_c/Sierra/Arcanum/Arcanum.exe" -no3d -doublebuffer


The path will be a little different on your machine so don't copy and paste my command. 

8. Click the "Save command to programs menu" button.  With luck you will see a new alias populate your Programs folder in the Finder.  You can now play Arcanum by clicking the "Run" button in the command window, or you can cancel and just select the new alias from your Crossover Programs menu.  Before playing, you will probably want to increase your mouse tracking speed in the System Preferences so that the Arcanum mouse isn't too slow. 

Remaining issues: the first Sierra logo movie is choppy (others are smooth), mouse movement can occasionally get a little jerky, loading is very slow (and saving is, conversely, faster than on a Windows system, which is strange).  Performance is OK on my C2D machine but since all rendering is CPU-based, it isn't as great as you might expect.  On the other hand, I've heard complaints that the game goes too fast when installed in Windows on new systems, so maybe it's a good thing that the performance is similar to a high-end machine at the time of release. 

I haven't had the chance to extensively test the install, but everything appears to be working normally so far.  I hope some other fans of this great RPG will try this out and report any issues. 

Good luck and enjoy!

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