Final Fantasy VIII Forum

Installing & Running Final Fantasy VIII on Crossover Games 8 (MacOSX 10.6.2)

As it turns out, the medal rating at the moment isn't quite accurate - Final Fantasy 8 does indeed install and run very well in Crossover, it simply requires some tweaking and a bit of additional work. Here's how I got the game to work, with just a little bit of help from our friends at WineHQ. :)

Before I begin, here's the specs of the machine I'm using:

MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz
MacOSX 10.6.2
2.5GB RAM
Intel X3100
Crossover Games 8.0.0

On to the fun stuff!

1. Create a new bottle using win98, and then choose to do an Unsupported install into the bottle, using your FF8_Install disk. When given the option, make sure you select 'Optional Game Data' - the game won't launch without it!

2. Download the Final Fantasy VIII 1.2 patch from Eidos (http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/support/search.html?gmid=52), making sure you grab the correct version - nVidia/non nVidia. Copy the resulting files to your FF8 directory, overwriting those already there.

3. Using Run Command, open regedit within your FF8 bottle (just type 'regedit' without the quotes) and navigate down the registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Square Soft, Inc>FINAL FANTASY VIII>1.00

4. Change the Data value for the 'DataDrive' registry key to D:

5. Restart the bottle.

At this point, Final Fantasy 8 will be able to run, assuming you either insert a disk into the drive and it's registered as D: (which it should!) or you mount an .iso of the disk - as the first iso you mount! - and then restart the bottle. However, music isn't yet working in the game, which naturally detracts a little from the experience, so we'll want to fix that.

6. You need to download a few .dll files from across the internet - just google the names of them, they're not hard to find - and copy them into your bottle's windows/system32 folder. The .dll's you need are:

dmband.dll
dmime.dll
dmloader.dll
dmstyle.dll
dmsynth.dll
dmusic.dll
eax.dll

7. Once you've downloaded and copied those .dll's into your system32 folder, you need to add them in winecfg. Open winecfg under Manage Bottles>Control Panel, and then under the Libraries Tab in winecfg, add all the dll's above. You don't need to tweak them, just copy/paste them in and then hit add individually. Check that they're coming up as, for instance:

dmband (native, builtin)

8. Launch FFConfig, and under the Graphics tab set the game to Software Rendering - I know, not quite as pretty, but the D3D renderer just plain doesn't work.

9. Now, either insert or mount FF8_Disk1 and run FF8.exe - or use the generated Play Final Fantasy VIII application. Voila!

A few extra notes:

• There's no nice and easy way to exit the game, you have to simply quit out of CrossOver Games - just apple-q for us mac types - so that's a pain, but dealable
• Software mode doesn't look all that pretty, but hey, it's a fantastic game and is still 100% playable. :)
• I haven't yet played around with a gamepad to get that working, but I'd suggest trying something like USB Overdrive and simply mapping the gamepad to the keys used by FF8 - I'll be testing that soon.

Happy playing!

-Andiyar

I can confirm that the above instructions by Andiyar are still valid under CX Games 9.0.0. I managed to get the game running with sound exactly as described in the previous post.

There's a small glitch, however, namely that the config utility starts with a black screen... so it's impossible to set the software rendering mode that way.

The trick is, the utility has to be started in virtual desktop mode and then you have to HIDE it with another OS X application window! Yes, that's right, you have to drag ANOTHER window on top of the Wine desktop window so that the other window covers it completely! Then you have to Command-Tab back to the Wine desktop window, and voila, the contents of the config utility window will be drawn. So you can click the Graphics tab, then Command-Tab twice to force a refresh manually again, select Software Rendering, Command-Tab x2 again and so on... you get the picture.

Thanks Andiyar for this guide! you rock dude!

Following your guide I made this game run with everything you need, this includes sound and music. I tried some music patches too and they work great. So now I have the game, which runs super smooth and fast, and enhanced music that sounds great :D
Like Andiyar said the game can't run in 3D hardware rendering mode, making the game look a tad rougher than if it did - but like he said, it's a great game still :D so who gives about the graphics, that's not why we're playing it :)

Like Janos pointed out about the config, that's true. You can also just hit your dashboard key quickly to get config to display.

Dual Action Pad from Logitech needed no setup whatsoever to enable for the game. Just plug it in and you're ready to use the same controls as if you're on the PlayStation - the controls CAN be configured though from the registry should you need it, and the most basic controls like select, cancel, talk etc. can be configured to your liking right from the ingame menu!

And lastly but not least you will need to know that in order to quit your current game and return to the start screen you need to hit Ctrl+R and hold them down simultaneously together for a second or two - this will return you to the start screen allowing you to load again for example, which it quite important hehe.

I have submitted screenshots of the game :)

Hey Janos did you submit the other screenshots? How did you get such a large display of the game window? All I could get was 640x480 in the ffconfig :(

Hi Brian,

I think you're referring to the first four shots, yes I submitted those. Unfortunately, it's not possible to set the game resolution higher than 640x480. The game window is still 640x480 on those shots but the desktop size is 1024x640, so that's why they appear relatively larger than on the other screenshots, where the desktop res is 1440x900, I believe.

But hey, it's an awesome game, even at 640x480 :)

Cheers,
Janos

John Novak wrote:

Hi Brian,

I think you're referring to the first four shots, yes I submitted
those. Unfortunately, it's not possible to set the game resolution
higher than 640x480. The game window is still 640x480 on those shots
but the desktop size is 1024x640, so that's why they appear
relatively larger than on the other screenshots, where the desktop
res is 1440x900, I believe.

But hey, it's an awesome game, even at 640x480 :)

Cheers,
Janos

Thanks for clarifying that for me. Too bad the 3D rendering mode doesn't work. I have been searching the Wine forums for a fix but it seems that no one has gotten it to work so I guess we have to write that feature off :( Anyway great game it is yes! I have been playing through to disc2 switching ISO and everything has run perfectly so far :) A Gold Medal for this game is certainly not overrated.

Hi i followed all the steps but when i click on the FF8 app crossover starts up and a dock icon appears but nothing loads up. This is also the same with the config app.... any help?

MBP 2010... C2D 2.4
320M Nvidia graphics
4GB ram
Snow Leopard

Hi smats,

This happens when the first disc is not physically inserted or the ISO (.DMG file) is not mounted.

I personally created .DMG disk image files of the game disks with Disk Utility under Mac OS X, mounted the first DMG before starting the game and everything worked just fine. Without mounting the DMG a black window would
appear and the game would just hang there.

Hope that helps!

Janos

Hi, the app runs fine until i upgraded my OS from Leopard to Snow Leopard 3 days ago. Is it because the crossover version is higher than 2.2 ? please help. thanks :)