Help enabling ladder-only runewords Mac Os X

[Russell.s]

Hello! I have decided I'd like to try and get Diablo 2 running on my mac laptop, so I can scratch that looting itch away from home. I'm aware it won't work on Catalina, but installing an older version of OS X (Mojave, perhaps) in a partition seems possible. Muling should be fine with GoMule, being cross-platform... but I'm lost when it comes to enabling ladder-only runewords. I've found a lot of old suggestions, but they all seem to relate to older versions, or are confusing me...
Does anyone have any tips for how to get this to work? Thanks so much for your help!

Edited to add: does anyone know which version of Mac Os X is best for Diablo 2?

 

[Trim]

I'm not a mac user, so I can't speak with much authority on the subject. I do know that a supported runeword mod isn't easy to come by for your platform.

If you're willing to do partitions, what you might do instead is to download and install Wine so you can run Windows versions of stuff. It's not an elegant solution and it's probably a little more complicated than I'm making it out to be (mostly because I don't fully know what I'm talking about), but it IS an option. If you don't get much assistance from folks here (and if so, sorry!), I'd bet a little googling on the subject might get you pointed in a solid direction.

Best of luck!!

 

[Russell.s]

Thanks Trim!

I've been reading as much as I can find on the topic, and don't really think there are any working/uptodate methods. I'm going to partition my disk and boot into Windows 10 instead, which will definitely be easier by the looks of it.

On a side note, it frustrates me that Blizzard hasn't enabled ladder-only runewords for singleplayer, especially since they've already enabled ladder-only uniques for singleplayer. Plus it'd be nice to have a legit way to access D-clone and ubers. Ah well.

 

[maxicek]

I'm still in Mojave, but I don't use the Mac client. There is a known bug where it doesn't always start up. Rebooting normally fixes it, but I don't want to reboot every time I want to play D2.

I use Wine. I think someone posted Wine is now working for 32 bit apps in Catalina, but I haven't verified it. If you want to make a Windows 10 partition, that is probably the most robust method. If it is only for D2 and you won't be doing lots of web access with it, you could even go for Win7.

 

[skiffcz]

Im on Linux and I successfully run D2 in stripped down version of WinXP virtual machine in VirtualBox. The unfortunate consequence is that Im stucked in 1.13, because 1.14 breaks something on the graphics end that doesnt like the virtual video adapter. You may consider this route too.

If everything else fails, you can always join someone elses LAN game, who has ladder RWs enabled and create them this way. But thats obviously not very user friendly approach ...

 

[Russell.s]

Thanks everyone. I spent a frustrating day yesterday trying to dual boot with only limited success, so today I'm exploring virtualisation options. Being such an old game has some advantages! Total use of computer resources should be low enough that virtualising doesn't ruin the experience. I will report back if I meet with any success

 

[Russell.s]

I now have Diablo 2 running on a virtual machine through VMware Fusion (just used the free trial). Performance is okay, but the game does stutter a little. That could be because it's run virtually, or it could be due to the fact that my Macbook Air is a 2012 model!
So for anyone looking to play on your mac in future, I feel VMware Fusion is a reasonable way to run windows and therefore Diablo 2. I might explore virtualising a lighter-weight system than windows 10 (linux? Windows 7?) if I get the urge later.

 

[maxicek]

I also have VMWare running 1.14 in Win7. It was ok generally but it was unplayable for PvP.

if you want to time travel, it is easy to setup Win2k VMs for old versions. I have four separate VMs - Classic, 1.07, 1.10a & 1.14