The Obligatory CIV IV FAIL THREAD

[cuthulu666]

ok, this may be premature but I figured I'd start a thread for us Mac Users who have been unable to launch Civ IV after downloading the game. It may be helpful to have a more focused thread on the subject.

I'll start off with my case:

I purchased the COMPLETE pack, much to my dismay. I cannot, for the life of me, get any of the games to play on my MacBook Pro. The problem starts immediately after the game has finished downloading. I have downloaded both Civ IV and Beyond the Sword without success. The launch window appears and then disappears immediately. Strangely, nothing seems to happen. I have seen a lot of posts on this particular problem and apparently some people have resolved it but I have yet to find any recourse.

Let's hear from the rest of you...

[munsterlad]

I purchased Civ IV and the download went fine. But then the launch logo would keep bouncing on attempting to run the game. Now, after the upgrade that went around yesterday, all that happens on clicking play is that the logo bounces and the steam 'launch' announce keeps flicking on and off.

[cuthulu666]

I think I may have fixed the problem--or at least temporarily. I simply shut everything down and restarted my computer. Haven't tried the other expansions yet but Civ IV was working fine!

[stoz]

Macs can also be funny about permissions. The other day Braid wouldn't launch because two files had the wrong permissions on them (not set to executable).

As a basic step, open disk utility (in Applications -> Utilities), select your drive and click "Repair Permissions".

Otherwise you can try to change the permissions using the terminal. Reply if you want a hand with that. Note it may not even be permissions, but it was the other day for Braid.

[tibbon]

I can't get it to run either. I run it, and the icon appears (without a dot below it like most apps) then does nothing. In Top i can see that its taking no processor time. Just hanging.

[Major Havok]

Well I tried repairing permissions... this found all sorts of errors in other places, but not in any of the Steam related stuff. No success on launch, it's still bouncing.

Any other ideas?

[cuthulu666]

did you try simply restarting your computer yet? Don't know if that will help but that's what ultimately got mine to work

[matsa]

I'm not a Mac user, but I noticed the following notice in the Mac requirements:

"NOTICE: This game is not supported on volumes formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive)."

Could this be related?

[Aesir Rising]

Easy fix:
get a real computer
You must be blissful.

edited to add:
Portal (with the same code base across platforms) is one fifth as likely to crash on a Mac than on Windows.

[giesse]

I'm getting a crash on startup (before even the splash window opens) with Colonization. Normal Civ IV, Warlords and Beyond the Sword work fine (I've been playing Beyond the Sword in the meantime :). Anyone else? This is on an iMac 24" with Dual core Intel Core2 Duo E8135 and nVidia GeForce 9400, OSX Leopard with latest updates.