If possible what is the best option to run WITP AE on a M Series Mac?

[riflebrigade]

I am currently using bootcamp to run WITP Admirals Edition on my MacBook Pro.

Is it possible to run WITP Admirals Edition on a M series Mac Mini using Parallels or another emulator?

I am considering purchasing a M4 Pro, would the 24 GB of memory be sufficient or would the 48GB be a better option?

Or would a PC with an AMD or Intel processor be the better performance option, even a premium laptop processor, although my preference would be to use a Mac Mini even if it is the more expensive option?

[Zovs]

I use VMWare and setup a virtual machine and run all my windows games this way, with less then 6% interference from any h/w issues.

I did allocate the following to the VM

24 Megs of RAM (I have 40)
1 TB HDD (I have 2)
3 CPUs (I have 5).

YMMV

Oh, I have an intel based mac.

[riflebrigade]

And thanks again Zovs.

[Orffen]

For me, running a VM on a Macbook Air is overkill - there's just not enough storage. I use Crossover, but there is an issue (for both EDTBTR and WITP AE) with the copy protection software used. I had to re-code it myself, otherwise it crashes and then the game won't start.

Sound is also a problem but I converted all the SFX to mp3 format and they play fine after that.

Newer GG titles like WITW/WITE2 don't have this issue and work fine with Crossover - you just need a bottle with DirectMusic, DirectX for Modern Games, .NET 4.7.2 and Windows fonts installed.

[sfatula]

I'm using UTM on Mac Sonoma, M1 Mac Studio. UTM is free. I loaded Windows 11 ARM edition, uses 4GB ram only. WITPAE so far has run great on the M1 via UTM. Windows 11 Arm has it's own x86 translation built in.

[7th Somersets]

As for the original post - has anyone got this running on Parallels? I have it, and can run WITE2 and WITW. I am struggling to get WITP AE to run on an M3 with parallels other than part of the screen in a small window top left of the screen. This may be nothing to do with the emulator etc - but I would welcome any thoughts.

EDIT - I have managed to get this running with the whole screen displayed. I fired it up using the WITP-AE icon rather than autorun.exe - I did this around 3-4 times. Each time more of the game seemed to load - until finally I seem to have a functioning game...?! I have no idea what is going on, but thought that this might help someone else.

[BBfanboy]

I fired it up using the WITE icon rather than autorun.exe

Fired what up? WITE or WITP-AE? I can't speak for the WITE game but WITP-AE almost from the start in 2009 did not run well using the autorun.exe because that is just a menu program and the desktop icon does not work with the switches required to get the game working. I don't know why Matrix never fixed the install to remove that desktop shortcut that points to autorun.exe and replace it with one that points to the game engine. It was fixed for the Beta series that ended with .1126B game version but not for .1126a.
Now the new .1128B version is almost complete and I think the testers have reported that the shortcut points to the game engine.

For more on switches, see the stickied thread on Slow Performance in the Tech Section.

[7th Somersets]

Thanks BBfanboy - I have corrected my post so that it now refers to WITP AE - rather than WITE!