I tried using CrossOver for running Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 and Locomotion (both old classic Chris Sawyer games) on my 16" Macbook Pro M3 MAX but these games fail with the exact same 'Could not initialize graphics layer' error. I tried all versions of windows bottles from XP, 7, 8, Vista, 10 and 11 with 32-bit & 64-bit and none work. All have the same failure launching. I use the games offline downloads from GOG. Both games use the same game/graphics engine just FYI.
I'm also on Sonoma 14.5.
For what its worth, my older macbook pro with Intel X86 with older version of CrossOver runs RCT2 and Locomotion like a champ with no issues natively.
For those trying the same games I had to end up downloading VMware Fusion (personal copy option for free license) and then use that to 'get windows' feature which walks you thru downloading & installing the ARM version of Windows 11 which does then successfully run the GOG RCT2 and Locomotion installers/games from GOG that fail on CrossOver. But its slower at higher resolutions beyond 800x600 noticeably even on M3 max as its doing emulation for the X86 EXE on ARM64 compared to how Locomotion ran on CrossOver which was really nice.
Will be great if this can be fixed and I don't have to run Windows ARM in VMware Fusion just to play.
It's not a direct solution, but you can use the free game OpenRCT2 to play Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 natively on your mac. It's a rewrite of Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, with additions such as widescreen support, improved pathfinding for guests on paths larger than 2 tiles wide, support for Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 maps and rollercoasters such as Dynamite Dunes and the Steel Mini Roller Coaster, and more.
It uses the graphics files and sound files of your RCT2 game, so you still need to have these installed.
But if you managed to run the installer, you can just download OpenRCT2 and point it to your RCT2 game folder. (The folder with RCT2.EXE inside)
Hopefully this solves your immediate problems with Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 at least?, so you can play it while the Codeweavers team looks for a solution.
The problem with those games is that they default to running in a small fullscreen resolution that is no longer supported by newer Apple displays :/ We are working on display mode virtualization to get around it, but it's a huge risky project that's not done yet.
In the meantime, your best bet is using a different external display.
Best,
Meredith
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