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How to play Escape from Monkey Island on Mac

Lagomorph01

By Lagomorph01
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Lagomorph01 Experienced

Lagomorph01

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Hi everyone! In the wait for Return to Monkey Island, I'm replaying all the previous games in the series.

Since my last brush with the series, I have switched from PC to Mac for work related purposes, and I'm glad to say that ScummVM has been great for allowing me to run the classics on that platform.

However, I have now landed on Escape from Monkey Island, but I think it might be the most difficult one yet, as it's not really supported on the system and ScummVM lists it as 'bugged'.

I've heard ResidualVM does the job, but that it's not particularly flawless and might even be buggy.

 

My question: What's the best way to enjoy Escape from Monkey Island on mac? Is it ResidualVM? Or are there other ways?

Will playing the PS2 version with an emulator provide a better experience? And is the PS2 version superior or inferior in any way to the PC version?

 

Please tell me your experiences, if you have any.

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Thrik Experienced

Thrik

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Generally speaking, the nuclear solution is to use Windows. If you have an Intel Mac you can install Windows as a secondary boot drive.

 

With the newer M1-based Macs you can only run Windows using Parallels, which is also an option for Intel Macs. This runs an entire version of Windows within macOS and is very effective, especially for older games where performance is less of an issue.

 

There is also Crossover, which uses WINE to translate Windows code to Mac. However this is less reliable and tends to be very game-specific in terms of how well it works.

 

So far using Parallels I’ve played Broken Sword, the Monkey Island SEs, Planet Coaster, Surviving Mars, and even ran DREAMM to play MI1 EGA.

 

This is all quite general. For your use case specifically (EMI) you might find a more specific solution. 

 

Now the bad news. As with all things Mac, these apps are a bit pricey.

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Lagomorph01 Experienced

Lagomorph01

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48 minutes ago, Thrik said:

Generally speaking, the nuclear solution is to use Windows. If you have an Intel Mac you can install Windows as a secondary boot drive.

 

With the newer M1-based Macs you can only run Windows using Parallels, which is also an option for Intel Macs. This runs an entire version of Windows within macOS and is very effective, especially for older games where performance is less of an issue.

 

There is also Crossover, which uses WINE to translate Windows code to Mac. However this is less reliable and tends to be very game-specific in terms of how well it works.

 

So far using Parallels I’ve played Broken Sword, the Monkey Island SEs, Planet Coaster, Surviving Mars, and even ran DREAMM to play MI1 EGA.

 

This is all quite general. For your use case specifically (EMI) you might find a more specific solution. 

 

Now the bad news. As with all things Mac, these apps are a bit pricey.

Thanks for the info! Parallels sounds great, it's just a bit pricey for just one game though. (especially for what is in my opinion the worst of the Monkey Island series.)

I also use my laptop for work, and I'm not much of a programmer, so the easier it is to use, the better.

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Lagomorph01 Experienced

Lagomorph01

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9 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

I don't know if there's a PS2 version available that could also work?

I'm looking into that. Do you know if there are specific drawbacks or differences between the two versions (besides the laughably bad PS2 cover). 😂

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Thrik Experienced

Thrik

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I might be mistaken but I think it’s potentially the better version. It came a little later and includes refinements such as in-game Monkey Kombat assistance I believe. Not sure how quality of audio, etc compares. With an emulator you can probably run it in HD regardless.

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BillyCheers Experienced

BillyCheers

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I recently began playing it on my M1 MacBook Air using a GOG version and Porting Kit. This was totally easy (and free) and I only had just a few hiccups where the game became pretty slow for some seconds but then went on working totally fine. :)
 

EDIT: And here’s the link:

https://www.portingkit.com/game/966

 

There’s a very clear instruction, too. 

Edited by BillyCheers
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OzzieMonkey Proficient

OzzieMonkey

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I've attempted the PS2 version, and the biggest issue I can see is that depending on the graphics mode you use, certain transitions hang and there are some minor sound glitches (especially during the opening credits during all those fades between shots). As far as I'm aware, those issues disappear in Software rendering mode, but you're stuck with the original resolution of the game, wheras OpenGL and Direct3D options allow you to upscale the game so the 3d models are a lot more crisp, so it's a bit of a balancing act on what concessions you're willing to make for which features.

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Huz Mentor

Huz

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ResidualVM has been incorporated into ScummVM, so out of the two, it's ScummVM that is more likely to work properly. ResidualVM is the one that's been left behind so it won't benefit from whatever recent bug fixing has gone on, if any!

 

I've been playing EMI through ScummVM and it's kinda okay, but buggy for sure. Minor stuff like shadows looking bad and some dialogue lines being cut off, but also weird stuff like characters wandering around the wrong screen and one place where you can make the game crash consistently if you do a particular thing. And I'm only on Lucre Island, so there could be worse to come! Sounds like I should investigate some of the options in this thread.

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Udvarnoky Rising Star

Udvarnoky

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EMI received a native Mac port in April 2001, courtesy of Aspyr. Now, I'm not a Mac user, but I'm assuming if that version was capable of running on modern macOS, people would hardly be resorting to ResidualVM/ScummVM or WINE.

 

I've always been curious, though, how severe the incompatibility issues with that port are that emulating the Windows version became the shortest path to a workaround.

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madmardi Community Regular

madmardi

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1 hour ago, Lagomorph01 said:

Thanks everyone! I'm gonna try out your suggestions when I get some free time! We've been a bit preoccupied with our newborn son lately, so everything else is put on hold.

 

Congrats! It seems that's the life stage a lot of us are at now 😁 You'll definitely be finding your free time is a bit more limited!

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Torbjörn Andersson Enthusiast

Torbjörn Andersson

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These days there's also DREAMM, Aaron Giles's "bespoke emulator for LucasArts games". Unlike ScummVM, it emulates enough of DOS, Windows and FM Towns to run the original EXE files which in theory means it should run EMI without bugs. Though I've had problems with some lines of dialog being skipped. Your mileage may vary.

Edited by Torbjörn Andersson
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