After much work, I think I've finally got Dirk Dashing running on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs. I've also made some additional improvements for the Mac environment:

1) It is built as an application bundle, with all game assets internal to it
2) It writes saved games, high scores, etc, to ~/Library/Application Support
3) It no longer uses a Windows-like installer

The download link for the dmg is:
http://www.mygamecompany.com/mac/dirkdashing.dmg

Please try it out, and let me know if there are any problems. Thanks!

Seems to work well! (I'm on a Core Duo iMac).

why are saved games written to the library?

Because they belong there.

Runs perfectly on my mac mini:
1.5GHZ G4
512MB RAM
Radeon 9200 / 64MB VRAM
OS X 10.4.8

can you explain why they belong there please?

http://developer.apple.com/documentation...411-111345
is a saved game a "custom configuration or preset data file"? and if so, what are preferences? i was always under the impression that appsupport was for things that extended or enhanced the app, though now that i look in my folder, i see addressbook saves its data there. kinda confused now

also, to keep on topic, i threw a grenade which hit the enemy at the same time it hit me. this resulted in me spawning back at the saved point, but i was still holding a grenade with the 'throw' bar at full green. you'll have to reset the player character fully each time he dies, or make it so the above can never occur. nice game though.

Good find, Nich! Thanks!

Well, save files are not explicitly said to have their home in Application Support, because "regular apps" don't have save files, they have documents which the user can place freely. However, the *real* reason that they belong in the Library (for instance, I usually create new folders like ~/Library/Galder/Galder Saves.sav) is that you cannot guarantee write permissions anywhere outside the Home folder. (In particular, not inside or beside your app bundle, which could be run from a mounted disk image). So you need to put save files in the user's home folder, and in there, the Library is a pretty good place.

To clarify: the Apple docs say the following:

Quote:You should not store user data files in the Library directory or any of its subdirectories.

The way I read it, that applies to /Library, not ~/Library. That is, don't pollute the system-wide Library. Then again, you might as well put it in ~/Documents which is more in line with the Apple guidelines, but personally I hate it when my meticulously managed Documents folder gets stuff thrown into it.

Also:

Quote:However, applications can create new subdirectories as needed to store application-specific data.

There we go.

Just ran it on my MacBook - this is seriously likeable stuff! Very cute and polished, well done! Good luck with sales on it.

Thanks Fenris!

And thanks to all who have tried it and posted responses so far!

Great job! Your installation method is right-on, thank you. ~/Library/Application Support/DirkDashing is the correct place for save games as far as I understand it, and that's a good place in my book too. Like Fenris, I *hate* it when apps try to write to either my home directory root or my Documents folder.

I haven't had a chance to play anymore than about five minutes yet, but the first thing that sticks out is that the music seems to be a tad louder than I generally prefer. But outside of that, it seems like a great game with good polish, graphics, music, sound effects, etc. I would think you should be able to pull in some decent sales with it.

thanks for the explanations. one last thing, should we still be using the preferences folder? why wouldn't we keep the prefs of our apps in app support(which i believe dirkdashing does)?

Because there explicitly exists a Preferences folder. The idea is that preferences in that folder are visible to everyone and can be removed or moved by the user. If you're using the NSDefaults service in Cocoa, that's where they'll end up.

Nice! One small correction though: On the first level it says PDA: Personal Data Assistant, it actually means Personal Digital Assistant.

Edit: also, a file called ddlog.txt appeared on my home folder containing this:

Debug code?