Ultima Online on MacBook

Anyone have a step by step tutorial about how to run UO (classic client preferred) on a MacBook.  I read that WINE can be used, but need some set up instructions.

I tried this and gave up.  bought an alienware.  All I could ever find is having to install windows on a partition of your HD and it never ran that great.  

Yeah... trying to sell the idea to a friend to pay $10 a month for a game that is 20 years old was kind of a hurdle... but the suggestion to buy a new laptop with windows was a lead balloon.

With EJ coming and the rise in popularity of Apple product, UO could perhaps expand its marketability a little bit if it has some instructions on how to get UO running on that platform

@Kyronix @Bleak @Mesanna ; This might be something you all could add to the guide or wiki, as it would be pretty helpful.

I normally run UO from either VirtualBox or CrossOver Games on my Mac, but I've been meaning to switch over to Wine Stable for quite some time, so...

Install Process

1. Install XQuartz
2. Install Wine Stable
3. Download the UO Installer (I'll be using Classic Client for this example)
   
4. Launch the UO installer (double-click it)
5. You'll be prompted to install wine-mono. Click "Install".
6. You'll be prompted to install Gecko. Click "Install".
7. The UO Installer will now launch, follow the prompts as you would in Windows. You may want to uncheck the Create Shortcut checkbox, as it'll create a useless LNK file on the desktop.
8. Open a new Finder window and click Go > Go to Folder in the Menu Bar
9. Copy/Paste the following: ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Electronic Arts/Ultima Online Classic
10. Double-click "UO.exe" to begin the patch process.

Create a Shortcut on the Desktop

1. Select UO.exe in the previously opened Finder window.
2. In the Menu Bar select File > Make Alias
3. Drag the newly created Alias to your desktop from the Finder window.

I'm doing this now, so if I run in to any issues I'll update this thread.

Process just finished, logged in successfully, and all works as expected.

Untested:

1. Third-party programs
2. Macro hotkeys

MadMartyr said:

I normally run UO from either VirtualBox or CrossOver Games on my Mac, but I've been meaning to switch over to Wine Stable for quite some time, so...

Install Process

1. Install XQuartz
2. Install Wine Stable
3. Download the UO Installer (I'll be using Classic Client for this example)
   
4. Launch the UO installer (double-click it)
5. You'll be prompted to install wine-mono. Click "Install".
6. You'll be prompted to install Gecko. Click "Install".
7. The UO Installer will now launch, follow the prompts as you would in Windows. You may want to uncheck the Create Shortcut checkbox, as it'll create a useless LNK file on the desktop.
8. Open a new Finder window and click Go > Go to Folder in the Menu Bar
9. Copy/Paste the following: ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Electronic Arts/Ultima Online Classic
10. Double-click "UO.exe" to begin the patch process.

Create a Shortcut on the Desktop

1. Select UO.exe in the previously opened Finder window.
2. In the Menu Bar select File > Make Alias
3. Drag the newly created Alias to your desktop from the Finder window.

I'm doing this now, so if I run in to any issues I'll update this thread.

This would make a great sticky someplace.  Thanks.

For those looking for a solution to run UO on a mac, this seemingly great approach unfortunately does not work on Catalina, be advised. Bootcamp + Windows 10 was so far the only way for me to get the game to run. With CrossOver (made by the same company than Wine) I was able to install and load the classic client but it won't let me connect past Shard selection. I click on the shard I want then it goes to "connecting" indefinitely. 

Following.... as I am having to go back to Mac for school (design & advertising) and I just cannot afford to get a MacBook and new gaming rig (Alienware).

OR - I will keep my itty-bitty-Dell-netbook and continue to play UO from an external teradrive. Then I won't have to play around with getting the MacBook running windows.

I don't recommend Wine, CrossOver, or PlayOnMac at this point. They're all Wine under the hood, and none function as they should for UO. I'm now running the game in a Windows 7 Virtual Machine in VMWare Fusion, and it  performs beautifully. I had six clients logged in the other night for our guild's Cinco de Mayo event and it never skipped a beat.

I previously used VirtualBox, but I ran in to a multitude of issues if I tried to run more than one client for anything. The resources were just tapped out too quickly at modern macOS HiDPI resolutions.

I am using Parallels with Windows 10 Pro in a Sept 2012 MacBook Pro.  
The CC runs fine, but the EC never opens.  Although is using 50% of the virtual CPU.

I saw a Reddit posting, that said the following:
"Broke it in a debugger and discovered it was in a tight infinite loop. I broke it out of the loop and the game finished loading. I'm going to see if I can get a dump to the developers so that they can fix it. I don't know why it happens or why it doesn't happen to other people."

Hmm, I never heard of using a debugger to break a "tight infinite loop" in windows.  Any suggestions to run the EC when this happens?

Thanks.

and got the MacBook Pro (2019) and looking forward to playing my favored game more frequently. The netbook just isn't cutting it anymore.

After getting adjusted and reacquainted with all the happy mac stuff - will be playing UO on it (classic, of course).

@MadMartyr
so are you using Fusion?

I've been running EC or Parallels. It's almost perfect (it doesn't seem to recognize that control-shift is down until you hit another key).

Thanks to @MadMartyr for contributing the steps. @Mariah I think this thread deserves a sticker. 

Seth said:

Thanks to @ MadMartyr for contributing the steps. @ Mariah I think this thread deserves a sticker. 

@ MadMartyr I wonder if you know how we can make custom icons for EC macros....

Sorry, the only time I actually even update EC is to test things for Ultima Mapper. 

Small update: Although I tried Parallels for a while, the keyboard not being polled well combined with some inaccuracy on the mouse led me to try VMWare Fusion instead. It doesn't seem to have either bug, so I'd suggest it instead.

Virtual Box could barely start the game and video locked up pretty quickly.

Dubh said:

Small update: Although I tried Parallels for a while, the keyboard not being polled well combined with some inaccuracy on the mouse led me to try VMWare Fusion instead. It doesn't seem to have either bug, so I'd suggest it instead.

Also, there's going to be a free version of VMware come October, so given the best compatibility and the best price that's probably the best option now. I'm using the beta ("technical preview") until then.

Reviewing the original question, I did get EC working once in Crossover on the Mac. I haven't been able to repeat that feat. It also suffered extremely intermittent connections (succeeding in getting the character list less than 1 time in 20). CC was a little better, but I also had connection problems there. I wouldn't really recommend either unless someone writes a good guide and you're really technical.

Dubh said:

Small update: Although I tried Parallels for a while, the keyboard not being polled well combined with some inaccuracy on the mouse led me to try VMWare Fusion instead. It doesn't seem to have either bug, so I'd suggest it instead.

Virtual Box could barely start the game and video locked up pretty quickly.

Which Mac version do you have? Lots of people in my professional circle swears by Parallels and are jealous that I can get it with a student discount.

Kirthag said:

Which Mac version do you have? Lots of people in my professional circle swears by Parallels and are jealous that I can get it with a student discount.

It's a MacBookPro11,3. Late 2013 model. That might be the first Retina MacBook. The game is pretty unplayable on the built-in display, but works fine on an external monitor.

I've had good experiences with a Mac mini as well.

Just a minor update since I received my new ARM M1 Mac Mini the other day. Without virtualiziation (due to the CPU), I'm back to fighting with WINE and CrossOver to get it to work. Still getting stuck after selecting the shard, and I put in a ticket with CrossOver. If they can fix it in their WINE build, I'm happy to throw some cash at them. If not, I'll uninstall CrossOver and either fight with WINE myself or go down the path of getting Windows 10 ARM64 installed via QEMU.

No luck with CrossOver or WINE. Installed Windows 10 ARM Insider Build via QEMU, Classic Client installs, but doesn't get past "Connected" following shard selection. Will come back to this when things are stabilized.

Now running the Windows 10 ARM Insider Preview in the Parallels Technical Preview on my M1 Mac Mini flawlessly. Playing UO right now. Should work just as well on any other ARM Mac.

Thanks @MadMartyr
Giving me some insight on manipulating my Mac... and what future purchasing decisions I will make with regard to gaming on a Mac or not. Part of me thinks to keep my games on Windows while I dedicate my Macs to work and design...

Kirthag said:

Part of me thinks to keep my games on Windows while I dedicate my Macs to work and design...

That's what I do. It also gives me easy access to Windows when I need to test web sites for work. Everything else I do on my Macs.

Yep - decided that is going to be the modus operandi for me now. Little Dell laptop is able to manage UO's CC without a hitch (not that I like played the EC).

Revisiting this while I have time over the holiday. I'm currently running Windows 11 ARM in Parallels on my M1 Mac Mini 16GB. It's fine, and I can run four clients simultaneously, with things starting to slow down at five clients. I gave the VM a ton of RAM and 4 cores, and it does what I need.

But a guildmate asked me to check things out again. I've started with CrossOver and Classic Client, and the same issue still exists of being unable to login past the shard select. It just sits at "Connecting...".

I'll be trying other various combinations (CC only, as I don't play EC) and will post here with any progress.

Just tried PortingKit (another Wine bottle manager). Initial install completed successfully, but patching throws a filesystem error. Restarted the patcher, and it appeared to continue normally. Once it was fully patched, I was able to launch Classic Client and login successfully.

OK, actually, PortingKit seems to do everything I need now and CC appears to be pretty stable. I can try other apps/configurations if anyone needs it, but I think I'm done for now. I recommend PortingKit unless I manage to find some major issues while playing over the next few days.

For travel reasons I installed Windows on my rather ancient 2013 MacBook Pro via Bootcamp to run the game. It runs pretty good all things considered! For sure needs a mouse as you can’t do much with that trackpad.

Unfortunately you can’t use Boot Camp on 2020 and later Macs using the ARM CPU, so virtualization/emulation is the only available route.  Either running Windows ARM builds in a virtual machine or emulation for Windows apps. 

thanks @MadMartyr
this info is invaluable for us Mac users!

Happy to hear that I've been helpful!

Just got a private message expressing a user's displeasure with PortingKit. I did eventually go back to Parallels as I again started having issues with the client refusing to connect. This is common in Wine environments, and it seemed that PortingKit had addressed it, but it did pop back up.

Updated Recommendation

For Intel-based Macs: Parallels with Windows 10 or 11 x64
For ARM-based Macs: Parallels with Windows 11 ARM

Guide for Installing Windows 11 ARM on M1 Macs with Parallels: Here

I’m using Parallels for the classic client and everything works great. However, on my M1 Mac, I can’t get the enhanced client to work at all. Every time I patch it and go to launch the game, nothing happens. The enhanced client shows up in task manager but it never loads up. I’ve even tried adjusting the properties and windows version it uses.  Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I used Crossover for years to run the CC along with UOAssist & UOAM. Those were the good old days. It all came crashing to an end with the advent of the Mac Catalina OS...

I have tried Parallels, Virtual Box and Boot Camp. For me, Boot Camp was the worst but all had issues with gameplay as compared with Crossover, which was seamless.

Currently and since Catalina, Crossover will "hang" after shard selection. It is that one crucial point that it cannot get past consistently. I am not sufficiently knowledgable in softwares & server connections, but i do see that it is this server connection - some communication therein - which is where the problem lies. I have tried opening my firewall... so as to not limit any connection, but no dice. I am convinced that there is some kind of "handshake" at that point which is being missed: five pints of LB Ale to the sleuth who is able to figure this one out.

Interestingly, though the game "hangs" at choosing the server, this only happens about 95% of the time: there is an occasional but rare instance of "getting through" and the game works as well as it ever did. Sadly, once logged out, good luck. It's back to 95 out of 100 answers that say: you can't get in. Somebody should be able to solve this. If it does work on rare occasion, if the problem is isolated to only that one point of choosing the server, this narrows things for a person with knowledge of this area... and to think, but for this, an otherwise perfectly working game.

I believe the problem is with the "32 on 64" which Crossover instituted with Catalina's changes.... it works fine everywhere else but it ain't fooling nobody at server selection. This 32/64 was the only change to Crossover and server selection is the only place the problem occurs. Or maybe it is that the Mac is seeing through the sham at this point and refusing to cooperate with a 32 pretending to be a 64; I wonder.

I contacted Crossover twice over a 1.5 to 2 year period, purchasing the product and filing a ticket: I was told both times that they would not solve it as the player base is too small to justify their staff's attention. This was related to me as an answer to when they would finally get around to looking at it, if not for immediate attention, then at least for eventual attention: never to highly not likely, with a strong leaning towards never.

I still pay on my account though I haven't played in a few years. I am writing this message in the hopes that someone willing and able will run with it and see about how to solve it. 

I am on a MacBook, sounds easier to just get a Windows machine I guess, I am lazy, so lazy I cant even face renewing because its such a pain in the ass, unlike Windows which is just another pane in the glass.

Just to check back in. The latest Windows update caused some funkiness with my Parallels VM, so I gave VMWare a chance again. One client runs smooth, but I usually run at least two. One for whatever I'm doing, and another hiding somewhere to resurrect me or waiting for a player or whatever. Once I opened the second client and logged in, even giving the VM 16GB of RAM and 5 CPU cores, everything started lagging and I was seeing graphics glitches. Nothing I've done seems to have alleviated that issue, so I'm back in Parallels. A few tweaks here and there to Windows system settings and disabling some unnecessary services, and it's running like new again.

@Lord_Taliesin If you disconnect the network adapter in the VM before the setting up Windows, you can install without logging in to a Microsoft Account. You need to run a command to bypass the network check, but I always do it when building VMs. For me, they're largely meant to be discarded after I complete a project, so I do it fairly often.

deadite said:

This thread should be updated and simply point to the new web client. 

https://retail.classicuo.org/

Problem solved! 🙂

I messed with it a bit for a few hours this morning. Unfortunately it's not saving my macros when I log out and back in. 

rob0 said:

I messed with it a bit for a few hours this morning. Unfortunately it's not saving my macros when I log out and back in. 

It was a known bug that their dev, Blank, was working on. I think a fix is in. Hopefully they're able to get the major bugs ironed out before the 15th.

Blank is great, very responsive dev and fixes things fast. I would recommend reaching out to him on the ClassicUO discord.

Just to toss in my two cents, while I have a high-performance PC for gaming data work, and a ThinkPad that runs UO just fine, I normally use a MacBook Air for everything else (M2) and my kids are on an older M1 and Intel MacBook Air.  ClassicUO has been fantastic through the web client for us.

I did try both VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop running Windows 11 ARM, but ClassicUO through Chrome is much faster and smoother.  I need to tweak a few things, but the three of us are playing together just fine.

When I came back, I was surprised and pleased to see a third client and one that works great on Macs without having to virtualize or emulate Windows.