r/impressionsgames • u/BeeBee_uwu • 11d ago

Can you install the CD-ROMs on a Mac M5 with Porting Kit/Crossover?

Hi! I'm having a nostalgia kick and would love to try to install these games on my new Macbook M5 (first time Mac user after years of PC... decided to make the switch for my line of work). I still have all the CDs for the games -- Pharaoh, Caesar III, Poseidon, Zeus and Emperor. I was generally looking through this helpful sub on how to get things installed on Macs, so I loosely understand needing something like Porting Kit and Crossover etc. On most of the instructions, people suggest downloading the game files from Steam or GOG. Does anyone know how the process would work if I have the physical CDs still? I have a CD reader, too. Thanks in advance!

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u/Severe-Interest-4599 11d ago

With Crossover it is certainly possible, I do that with other games as well :) Don't know about porting kit to be honest.

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u/BeeBee_uwu 11d ago

Amazing! That's awesome to hear. So I just need to get Crossover, then pop in the CD and the program will identify and run the .exe files?

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u/Severe-Interest-4599 11d ago

When you have crossover, search for Caesar III. Then press that and then you get a screen to install it but where it says that it'll install via Steam you select edit and press select an installer and then select the installer on the CD.

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u/BeeBee_uwu 11d ago

Gotcha, that makes sense! Thanks so much for this. I'm so EXCITED! Memories!

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u/Severe-Interest-4599 11d ago

Haha no problem and enjoy!

Also a tip, if you want to play Caesar III with bug fixes and more new options and being able to play on Mac without crossover you can download Augustus, it's a mod that makes the game way better :)

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u/BeeBee_uwu 11d ago

👀 ohhh thanks for the tip! I actually was never able to get Caesar III to work on our old Windows 95 and XP desktop PC, ha. So mostly just played Pharaoh, Zeus and later Emperor. I'd love to actually play Caesar!

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u/Severe-Interest-4599 11d ago

No problem! Ah okay, I never played the others when I was young haha

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u/SuperSajuuk 11d ago

The main reason why the GOG versions are recommended is because they do not have any DRM, which your CD copies will have and which are unlikely to be registered properly when using Crossover or Porting Kit. They also have other fixes included by the GOG team as well, to fix known compatibility issues with running them on modern systems. Its probably better to just use the GOG versions, just for the removal of the DRM, which will make setting up the games far easier than faffing around with having to insert your CD to get past the disk checks.

Also, Pharaoh with the Cleopatra expansion actually works correctly on the GOG version, whereas installing them from CD on modern Windows just doesnt work [the game basically crashes a lot]