Sam & Max: Saves the World Forum

I tried the free episode 4 both through Steam and downloaded separately, on my MacBook Pro (in OS X).
There is some sort of problem with the sound. The game works great through Steam if I turn the sound off, but sometimes randomly enters a infinite loop if the sound is on. The infinite loop also happens 90% of the time when you click the load button or start a new game, if the sound is on.

The separate version first shows a semibroken html page with no close button. But if you manage to kill the right wineloader process (typically the second to highest pid), it shows the html source in a box and then starts the game. It crashes when you click the load button however, or if you set the effects volume to zero, regardless of the other volume settings.

edit: You can get both versions more stable by unchecing CoreAudio in winecfg, launching the game, changing the effect volume to zero, reenabling CoreAudio and relaunching. Unfortunately, this seems to turn off all sound in the game, including voice and music, but at least it doesn't crash.

The trace below is for the Steam version while it's in the infinite loop from clicking the load button.

1387 Thread_2903  
  1387 thread_start  
    1387 _pthread_start  
      1387 CAPThread::Entry(CAPThread*)  
        1387 HP_IOThread::ThreadEntry(HP_IOThread*)  
          1387 HP_IOThread::WorkLoop()  
            1387 HP_IOThread::PerformIO(AudioTimeStamp const&)  
              1387 IOA_Device::CallIOProcs(AudioTimeStamp const&, AudioTimeStamp const&, AudioTimeStamp const&)  
                1387 HP_IOProc::Call(AudioTimeStamp const&, AudioTimeStamp const&, AudioBufferList const*, AudioTimeStamp const&, AudioBufferList*)  
                  1387 AUGenericOutputEntry  
                    1387 0x70006222  
                      1387 0x7000d218  
                        1387 AudioConverterFillComplexBuffer  
                          1387 BufferedAudioConverter::FillBuffer(unsigned long&, AudioBufferList&, AudioStreamPacketDescription*)  
                            1387 AudioConverterChain::RenderOutput(CABufferList*, unsigned long, unsigned long&, AudioStreamPacketDescription*)  
                              1387 BufferedAudioConverter::FillBuffer(unsigned long&, AudioBufferList&, AudioStreamPacketDescription*)  
                                1387 Resampler2Wrapper::RenderOutput(CABufferList*, unsigned long, unsigned long&)  
                                  1387 BufferedAudioConverter::GetInputBytes(unsigned long, unsigned long&, CABufferList const*&)  
                                    1387 BufferedAudioConverter::FillBuffer(unsigned long&, AudioBufferList&, AudioStreamPacketDescription*)  
                                      1387 CBRConverter::RenderOutput(CABufferList*, unsigned long, unsigned long&, AudioStreamPacketDescription*)  
                                        1387 BufferedAudioConverter::GetInputBytes(unsigned long, unsigned long&, CABufferList const*&)  
                                          1387 AudioConverterChain::FillBufferFromInputProc(unsigned long*, CABufferList*)  
                                            1387 AudioConverterChain::CallInputProc(unsigned long)  
                                              1387 0x7000d70b  
                                                1387 0x7000e3b4  
                                                  1387 0x7000ebb0  
                                                    1387 CoreAudio_woAudioUnitIOProc  
                                                      1387 0xffffffff  
                                                        1387 _sigtramp  
                                                          1387 call_exception_handler  
                                                            1387 0xffffffff  
                                                              1387 _sigtramp  
                                                                1387 call_exception_handler  
                                                                  1387 call_exception_handler  
                                                                    1387 call_exception_handler

I think the loop is actually a symptom of a more fundamental problem. The last several frames of the call stack shows that it's trying to handle an exception. During its attempt to handle that exception, it encounters an exception, and it gets into an infinite loop. However, there must have been something which caused the original exception, which I think is the game crashing.

I tested briefly with Ep4, myself, and saw much the same problem.

I've seen the same thing in other games now. I guess it's either something to do with Leopard or my hardware.