SuperNova Rise of the Empire for MacOS Instructions -

Please enable JavaScript to view the full PDF

SuperNova: Rise of the Empire for macOS Instructions v1.0.1, 6 May 2019 Instructions by Raven Zachary, [email protected], in Portland, Oregon, USA. Raven plays two empires in the Draco Galaxy, led by Honored One Grey Raven of The Seekers of the All-Seeing Eye & First Citizen 00110001 of 01001001. Both empires seek peace in the cosmos. SuperNova: Rise of the Empire is a play by mail (PBeM) game operated by Rolling Thunder Games. To help SuperNova players with submitting turns, the company has released a Windows application for SuperNova called SN Turn Entry, which allows you to import your latest turn database file, enter your turn orders, and create a turn file which is then submitted to Rolling Thunder Games via email. As this is a native Windows application, getting it to work on a Mac has previously required the use of a Windows virtual machine such as Parallels, VMWare Fusion, or VirtualBox, or by booting your Mac using Apple Boot Camp, all of which run a full version of Windows. The disadvantage to this solution is that a full version of Windows running on a Mac is CPU- intensive and often can result in the application running slowly. In addition, several of the virtual machine applications are expensive, coupled with the cost of a Windows operating system license. WINE (“Wine Is Not An Emulator”) is an open source project which provides a compatibility layer to run Windows applications on a Mac without requiring an installation of the Windows operating system. Unfortunately, the open source (and free) project WINE for Mac does not currently work with SN Turn Entry, but… a commercial version of WINE for Mac called CrossOver by CodeWeavers does work and is currently being used be me (Raven Zachary) to submit turns for SuperNova. CrossOver comes with a 14-day free trial license, and you can download and see SN Turn Entry working on your Mac before you commit to paying the license fee (either $39.95 for a one-time license fee or $59.95 per year, which includes support and upgrades). NOTE: At some point, I am going to try to get these instructions working without the use of CrossOver and just using the open source version of WINE, but I’ve already spent hours and hours trying to get this to work and I kept running into problems that were clearly fixed in CrossOver. I would not wait for me to get this working. It’s worth the CrossOver fee to run this application natively on your Mac. The instructions to install the SN Turn Entry application on your Mac will work for both Andromeda and Draco galaxy players. This document also includes instructions (at the end) on how to install the SNFindPath tool. STEP 1: Download the SN Turn Entry application Step 1.1: Download a Zip archive of the SN Turn Entry application here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UoLGTRASsLBaYOilkDO1T3uOX07R-pmQ When this link loads in your browser, please click the arrow icon in the upper right corner of the page to download the entire Zip file. It is the icon that is circled in red in the screenshot below: Due to the fact that Rolling Thunder Games packages the SN Turn Entry application as an executable Zip installer on their website, I had to download this program to a Windows PC, uncompress It into a folder, and then Zip the contents of that folder for use in these installation instructions. Otherwise, all Mac users would first need to download this to a PC and then copy it over to a Mac. Ideally, Rolling Thunder Games would provide these files as a simple Zip folder archive instead of an executable Zip installer for use by Mac users. If you have access to a PC, you can skip the download step above and just download the Snrote.exe installer from Rolling Thunder Games directly, and then move that unzipped folder over to your Mac for use. Step 1.2: Download the updated SN Turn Entry application from the Rolling Thunder Games website. http://www.rollingthunder.com/Downloads/SuperNova/SN%20Turn%20Entry.zip The link above is a newer version of the SN Turn Entry application which includes support for some of the newer orders allowed in the game (e.g. EXIL – Exiling Characters). Make sure that you download the update above or there will be some orders that you will not be able to enter. You should now have two Zip files in your Downloads folder: snrote.zip SN Turn Entry.zip Unzip both of these files on your computer by double clicking on them. We will come back to these files later. STEP 2: Download CrossOver by CodeWeavers Download the trial version of CrossOver by CodeWeavers from the following link: https://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-mac/download You will need to enter your name and email address to download the trial software. This will download a Zip file to your computer, named something similar to crossover-18.5.0.zip (depending on whatever the latest version number is). Go ahead and unzip this file on your computer by double-clicking on the file name. After this unzips, it will place an application into the folder the Zip file was located in called CrossOver. Drag this file to the Applications folder on your Mac. Next, go into your Applications folder on your Mac, find the CrossOver application in the application list, and Control-Click the icon. This will pull a menu of options. Select Open. This will allow you to approve the application to be run on your Mac if macOS presents a security alert. Go ahead and click Open. At this point, CrossOver should load and present you with a Trial notice, as shown below: Click Try Now. you will have 14 days to use this software for free before needing to purchase a license. I am recommending that you wait to purchase a license for CodeWeavers until after you confirm that SN Turn Entry is working well on your Mac. At this point, CodeWeavers should be running. From the CrossOver menu on the top of your screen, select the Bottle sub-menu item and then select New Bottle, as show below: You will then be presented with the following options: Name your Bottle anything you’d like in the New Bottle Name field – it could be SuperNova or SN Turn Entry, or whatever you want to call it. For the New Bottle Type, select Windows 10. Other version of Windows may work, but I have confirmed that this works when selecting Windows 10. Now, click Create. This process may take some time, as it’s creating the environment for the application to run on your Mac. You should see a “Creating bottle…” message. Please wait for this step to complete. When this has completed, you will see the name of your new Bottle in the CodeWeavers application on the left column under the BOTTLES heading, as shown in the screenshot below: Go ahead and click the name of your new Bottle in the left column. For these instructions, I named my new Bottle SN Turn Entry, so my menu option is shown as Install software into “SN Turn Entry”. Now, control-click the name of your new Bottle and select Install Software into <YOUR BOTTLE NAME HERE>. You will then be presented with a window wanting you to select an application to install. Click Browse All Application in the bottom left corner of this window. Then, select Unlisted application. Now, click the Continue button in the bottom right corner of this window. You will then be asked to select an installer. Click Choose Installer File (the top option with the gears icon) from the window, and then navigate to the Downloads folder where you previously had downloaded and uncompressed the snrote zip archive that you had downloaded in a prior step. Then, navigate into the snrote folder and into the SetupFiles sub-folder. Select the file named setup.exe. This is the installer from Rolling Thunder Games that will install of all the required dependencies and libraries, such as DLL files, that are needed for the SN Turn Entry application to run. Then, click Use this installer, as show below: You will then click the Continue button in the lower right-hand corner, as shown below: You will then be presented with a screen asking you to confirm your options, as show below: Click the Install button in the bottom right hand corner of the window. This will then launch the SN Turn Entry Windows installation program on your Mac, as show below: Click the OK button to continue. It will then display that the application will be installed into c:\SNROTE\. Go ahead and click the square button with the computer icon on it to install the application and its dependencies files. The installer will want you to confirm the name of the Program Group as SN Turn Entry (Imperial Palace). Go ahead and click the Continue button. You will then see a progress indicator displaying dependencies being installed. When that process has completed, a message will be displayed that the SN Turn Entry (Imperial Palace) Setup was completed successfully, as shown below: Click OK to return to the CrossOver window, show below. Click Done in the bottom right hand corner to complete the installation process. You are now back at the main CrossOver window as shown below: This shows that the SN Turn Entry has been properly installed on your Mac. However, there are still several steps left to do before you can run this program. Select the name of the Bottle you created, in my case that’s SN Turn Entry (although you can see I did a test earlier creating a bottle called SuperNova). Now, control-click the name of the Bottle on the left column and select Open C: Drive. This will then open a folder on your Mac, as shown below: To make life easier for you in the future, go ahead and drag-click the SNROTE folder shown above and drag and drop it into the left column of your Finder window to create a shortcut so that you can find it quickly in the future. You could also make an alias to this SNROTE folder and put it somewhere for easy access, such as your Desktop. Whatever works best for you. You will need to access this folder every time you do order entry for SuperNova, so make it easy for yourself to access this in the future. Go ahead and double-click the SNROTE folder and you’ll see two files in there. SN Turn Entry.exe and ST6UNST.LOG. Keep this Finder window open, and now open a second Finder window and navigate to the Downloads folder and into the snrote folder you had previously unzipped. You will want to copy all of the files over to the other Finder windows named SNROTE except for the SN Turn Entry.exe file, which is already in there, and the SetupFiles folder, which is no longer needed. Only copy the files highlighted in blue in the screenshot below over to the SNROTE folder. The folder on the left is likely located at ~/Downloads/snrote on your Mac. The folder on the right is likely located at ~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/SN Turn Entry/drive_c/SNROTE/ on your Mac. NOTE: If you named the Bottle something other than SN Turn Entry, this then directory path listed here will be different. Now, go back to your Downloads folder where you downloaded the SN Turn Entry.zip file from Rolling Thunder Games earlier in this document. This is the updated SN Turn Entry application with support for the newer orders, such as Exile Characters. You will need to copy this file, named SN Turn Entry.exe into the same folder as the other files you copied above (highlighted in blue). This will overwrite the older SN Turn Entry.exe application with the newer version. The older SN Turn Entry.exe application will have a Date Modified listed as Sep, 27, 2003, while the newer file will have a Date Modified listed as Apr 22, 2004. You can always check the date on the file to determine if you are running the older or newer application. If you do not complete this step, you will not be able to enter some of the orders in the game, so please don’t forget to do this step! When copying the newer SN Turn Entry.exe file over to the proper folder, you should see this alert dialog: Go ahead and click Replace. Now, go find your latest SuperNova turn file from Rolling Thunder Games and copy your empire MDB file(s), based on whether you have multiple empires in one game and/or have empires in both Andromeda and Draco. If your empire number was 9999, the file will be named 9999.mdb. This file (or files) needs to be coped into the same folder as listed above, which should be located at ~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/SN Turn Entry/drive_c/SNROTE/ on your Mac. This is an important folder, because this is where you will copy your MDB files every turn that are sent to you with your turn results and this is where orders files will be saved that can be sent into Rolling Thunder Games for processing. You will see a folder in the path above called Orders to RTG. This is the folder where the order files will be saved when you have finished entering them using the SN Turn Entry application. Ok, all the files should be where they are needed, and you are ready to launch the SN Turn Entry application running on your Mac! Go back to the CrossOver application which should still be on-screen, or, if hidden, it should be in your dock. You should see this window: Double click the gear looking icon named SN Turn Entry (Imperial Palace). NOTE: the icon may look like a Space Shuttle and not a gear depending upon the installation process. I’ve seen it both ways on multiple run-throughs of this document. At this stage, you may be presented with an alert dialog, as show below: Click OK to continue. A few seconds later, prepare to be amazed, because this is what you will see: This Windows application is now running on your Mac! No more waiting to boot Windows in a virtual machine (or using a PC for your orders). Go ahead and click New Empire. Entire your empire number and name, select your empire from the Empire pull-down list, and then click the Update Data button to import your latest turn results (which you will need to do every turn). Now, you’re ready to Enter Orders! Remember that every turn you will need to copy the empire MBD files into the SNROTE directory on your Mac and copy the file out of the Orders to RTG folder and email them to Rolling Thunder Games. On future turns, you will also need to click Clear Orders after doing Update Data before entering your new orders. Now, it’s time to buy a license for CrossOver. It will stop working in 14 days. You can resize any of the windows for the SN Turn Entry application. Some of them may open very large on your Mac and you can just drag the corners to resize. Anytime you want to launch SN Turn Entry again on your Mac, just run the application CrossOver, and double-click the SN Turn Entry gear (or Space Shuttle) icon listed in the CrossOver window. Good luck! If you ran into any troubles along the way when following these instruction, or just want to let me know that everything is working for you, please send me an email: [email protected]. Installing SNFind Path on your Mac Now that you have the SN Turn Entry application running on your Mac, let’s walk through the steps to install the SNFindPath application. The SNFindPath application helps you calculate range, jumps, warp classes, and fuel usage in the game. First, download the SNFindPath application: http://www.cestvel.de/dl/SNFindPath.zip On your Mac, go ahead and double-click the Zip file to decompress it. Then, you will copy the file SNFindPath.exe from that folder into the folder used by CrossOver for your SN Turn Entry application. In the instructions above, you likely saved the located of this snrote folder as a shortcut in the left column of your Finder window or as an alias on your computer somewhere. You should place this SNFindPath.exe file in the same directory as SN Turn Entry.exe. Now, launch the CrossOver application and select the Bottle used for the SN Turn Entry application. At the bottom center of the Cross Over window, click the button, Install a Windows Application, as shown below: A window will be displayed with the title Select an Application to Install. Search for “jet”. Select “Microsoft Jet 4.0 Service Pack 8” and click the Continue button. Go through the steps to install this application into you CrossOver Bottle for SN Turn Entry. Make sure to select the proper Bottle name from the Select Bottle step. Once this is installed, go back to the Bottle with the SN Turn Entry installed and again select Install a Windows Application. This time, click the Browse All Applications button in the bottom left corner: On the next screen select “Unlisted Application” at the bottom of the list. The next screen will have you Choose Installer File: Click this and navigate to the snrote folder where the SNFindPath.exe file is located alongside your SN Turn Entry application. Select the SNFindPath.exe file from the list and click the Use this Installer button in the bottom right corner. This will take you back to the Select an Installer Source screen. Go ahead and click the Continue button in the bottom right corner of the window. Next, you will either be sent to the Install & Finish step or the Select Bottle step. If you are sent to the Install & Finish step, click the Select Bottle button in the top center of the window and make sure the Bottle you are using for SN turn Entry is selected. You do not want CrossOver to install SNFindPath into a separate Bottle. This will create problems for you later. Once you have confirmed that the proper Bottle has been select, click Continue on the Select a Bottle to Install Into screen, and then from the Install & Finish step, click Install in the bottle right corner of the window. This will then launch the SNFindPath application, which will want you to select your Empire’s MDB file using your Empire Number. Select it and click the Open button. This should now be showing you the SNFindPath application listing all of the star systems you have explored in the game. Go ahead and select Quit from the File menu in the SNFindPath application window. You should then see a screen in CrossOver that the installation of the Unlisted application has completed. Click the Done button. I have seen some examples where CrossOver does not add a launcher icon for SNFindPath to the CrossOver screen after installation. If this happens to you, you can always just navigate to the snrote folder where the SNFindPath.exe application is located, and just double click it to launch the application. You can also do this to launch the SN Turn Entry application in the same folder.