This has probably been asked countless times but... Parallels on Mac?

I'm slightly more than a week away from coming back to Royals and playing (WOOHOO) and one thing I really really want to do is to go on some bossing runs. Unfortunately I'm on a pathetic MacBook Air with pathetic specifications (1.8GHz processor 4GB memory ) so I really need to get Parallels to work. I'm also a horrible tech noob who knows nothing about computers and all so I would appreciate all the help I can get.

I've been looking at these 2 links specifically:
- @Tim's guide http://royals.ms/forum/threads/how-to-horntail-without-graphical-glitches-closing-your-client.16643/
- this thread http://royals.ms/forum/threads/mac-parallels-set-up-guide.20193/

And I'm still somewhat confused >< basically I know Tim's guide is meant for PCs so I'm not exactly sure when I should start following the instructions in that guide after installation of Parallels. I also have plenty of problems similar to what the guy asked in his help thread regarding sourcing and installation of Parallels.

It seems like Parallels only has free temporary trials, so does that mean that after the free trial, we don't have Parallels anymore? Not that I mind paying for it, I think.

I know this is a lot to ask, but could anyone come up with a specific chain of instructions to follow, to find and install Parallels, then to find and install an XP .iso, and then where in Tim's guide to start following the instructions in there. Mainly I'm scared to death of screwing up my Mac entirely, like mentioned before I'm a complete tech noob and I've had bad experiences screwing up my old computers badly beyond repair, plus I can't afford to replace or fix this Mac Air, so yeah I wouldn't want to end up in a situation where I screw my computer over. I feel like @jmmainvi will have quite abit of experience in this since he's a fellow Mac user, although help from anybody at all would be awesome

Thank you all! and can't wait to be back soon

 

You could simply install an windows on bootcamp, thats what i did.
Its not too hard too you just need to download a windows image which you can boot from an usb device.

Edit:
Using Bootcamp would also help you with your spare resources as you wouldn't need to run osx and windows at the same time.

 

So it seems the big man himself also endorses the use of Bootcamp (dug this out from some other thread haha), any other Mac users can give their opinions too? Like I said I'm a tech noob, how do Bootcamp and Parallels work differently?

I've stumbled upon this page https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204048 and this worries me.
- "Dash "-": This version of Windows is not supported." A dash is listed in the table under "MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid-2012)" (that's mine) and "Windows XP 32-bit". Does that mean I can't have Windows XP running off Bootcamp on my Mac?

Thank you for responses and sorry if some of these questions are overly simplistic!

 

The downside to this is that OS X doesn't support Windows XP through bootcamp anymore (only 7 and 8) and win XP is by far the most reliable way to run royals.

I got my windows XP the same place listed in Tim's guide.

The parallels installation is very user friendly. I used the default "productivity" configuration, increased its memory usage to the higher end of recommended, and its video memory slightly beyond recommended to 1024 MB. I'm also on a macbook air with exactly the same specifications as you, and I have no problems running the VM, an additional mac client of royals and pandora in my web browser at the same time. At most my fan kicks on to high speed. The other options I've changed are just convenience things and you can actually change them after the VM is already installed.

You can extend the free trials each time by using progressively earlier versions of parallels. For an application like royals, it wont make any difference to go back to version 7 or so. As that's no longer a supported version, I didn't feel too bad about not paying for it (similar to the reasoning on XP) when my trial was up. If you aren't connected to the internet when parallels tries to load, you pass the "is my trial expired" check by default.

The parallels installation is incredibly user friendly, and it will take care of most things for you. You really don't need a step by step guide, and at any rate I ran into no errors during my installation so I would have no clue how to fix them. Make sure you get parallels tools as well as parallels though, as that's going to take care of your drivers and carry over your mac settings to windows.

 

For Parallels, you start up your computer as normal, open a program that simulates a windows PC on your regular OS X macbook, and then open royals in that program. For Bootcamp, you actually split your hard drive into two files, and basically have two computers running off the same equipment - only one can run at a time, so you'll have to reboot to go between windows and OS X. Bootcamp is a bit less resource intensive, but parallels is much more convenient. If you're only running royals in parallels the extra stress should be minimal.

That's correct, you'll have to run windows 7 or later if you go the bootcamp route, which comes with its own problems. That's why I usually recommend parallels.

 

Thank you so much for your detailed reply, and it's really encouraging to find out someone with the exact same Mac as me having it work on their computer

One thing I want to clarify for though is "You can extend the free trials each time by using progressively earlier versions of parallels." - what does this mean? Does it mean that I have to redownload and reinstall older versions of Parallels everytime each one expires?

Thanks again!

 

You won't have to reinstall, you just download the older version and you're good to go for another two weeks, or you can just turn off your internet while starting up parallels as I mentioned.

 

So if I were to start up Parallels without my Internet being turned on, it'll skip past the expiry check and I can turn on the Internet afterwards (to play Royals) without depleting my trial period?

 

step 1 boot up parallels
step 2 turn off your internet
step 3 spam random letters into the serial key box

It gives me a pass on the check and I'm able to temporarily "activate" parallels and play royals once I turn my internet back on. This is after the trial period has expired though.

 

noted for future reference and thanks for your patience!

 

Everyone's experience with parallels is going to be different, but I have encountered a few issues which I detailed in this thread: http://royals.ms/forum/threads/mac-parallels-set-up-guide.20193/

From my experience, running XP in parallels did not work. As I mentioned in that thread, I encountered some horrible latency issues which made Royals unplayable. I did create another virtual machine through parallels running Windows 7. That one works, though there is a slight input delay (on the order of milliseconds) so it's still playable, just not the best for doing jqs. I still use the Mac client 95% of the time though, I only switch to parallels when I'm doing a boss or if the graphics start acting up (which it seems to be doing lately).

Best of luck with this, keep us updated.

 

Yikky boi, as a mac user myself, idk why you did not approach me (scrub, jokes ily).

Anyway, if you stil need help, come to me and I'll help you :3
FYI, I use VM-Ware and*ahem*torrented*ahem* Windows XP. I'd recommend you to install Windows XP as I believe works best for everyone of us . (assuming)
Do not ever download windows 8 it sucks is trash.

 

@Cyndy best reply bae :3 and thank you hehe

@dingus sure thing, will reply when I get this up and running

 

@Cyndy, do you encounter any problems running XP on VM-Ware? What are the specs (RAM, graphics card, etc) of your mac and how much do you allocate to running VM-Ware?

I'm looking to making the switch to that from parallels. I need to find something that works

 

Omg so sorry! I just realised I'm using parallel desktop x.x But I am definitely using windows xp on it :x

 

Lol @Cyndy you scrub, got our hopes up. Haha I kid, ILY and I'll need your help

How in the world did you get XP to work on Parallels though? The Apple page says it doesn't, and @jmmainvi & @dingus said they couldn't get it working too o_o

 

I'm mAGicAL babe.

 

@yiks I was able to get XP running on parallels, proof below. The problem is only regarding the Royals client. It runs as if it was in slow motion. Everything else works fine though (internet browser, the other game I have on there).

And I'm pretty sure @jmmainvi is able to run XP on his parallels too.

 

Oh sorry for misunderstanding. Now just wondering if the others face that slow motion problem as well. Hope someone can give you insight on that! Which would be useful to me as well haha

 

No, XP works 100% fine without any problems on parallels. It's bootcamp (which I no longer use specifically for that reason) that doesn't support anything before windows 7.

As far as his slowdown issue, I have no idea what caused it - I would think it has to be computer specs or perhaps drivers related, but you're running on the same macbook air that I am, and I already told you what I set my ram/gpu numbers at, and you're using the same win xp .iso that I am so you should be good to go.