MAC USERS: if you can play, you are in the minority
 

Since the new weapons quests update, POTC might work, depending on your system.

Let me know if you are having this problem as described:

Yes, I can actually launch the application. Any updates also load. The "loading Pirates" cycles. BUT THEN instead of switching to the login screen where my pirate is standing at the dock, the screen instead goes black and the cursor looks huge and low-res. POTC then crashes and an error message comes up. Toast.

Furthermore, the bug report DOES NOT WORK. You cannot submit the report generated. I have cut/pasted/emailed this report to POTC. I get a rubber stamp reply saying problems will be resolved in the "next" update.

I have also talked to a "real person" via live chat. I get a generic cut/pasted paragraph explaining the problem is more widespead than they thought and to look forward to a fix in an upcoming patch.

I've noticed one or two "updates" since and the problem persists. And so we wait...

I play on a mac mini with intel processor. I'm still running 10.4 and I think that is the saving grace. There has been no reason for me to upgrade to 10.5 yet so until I have to I won't.

Is it possible to roll back your OS?

Yeah, I play on a Macbook Pro running 10.4 and I haven't had any problems. Kinda glad I haven't updated to 10.5 yet.

Sounds to me like the new updates messed with your configuration. This is when I wish Monk was here :(. Let me see if I can find it.

OK just checked. This is what I have. Go to your pirates file, look for a text doc (I know us PC users have notepad) and its called Game Options. This is my settings for them:

Not sure how much different MAC is but you might have to turn off full screen to get it to work. Definitely copy and save the original incase you have to revert back. Change your Fullscreen to 0 from 1. Also another thing I had to do on my PC was update my video card. It was giving me the black screen of death. Updated it and everythings fine.

The problem is that since the update, the game will not load so you can never get the "pirate standing on the dock" screen where you could make such a change.

And it's not just Leopard (10.5.2). I know of at least one person running Leopard on a MacMini who can play and two other people running Tiger (10.4.?) who can not.

Live Support states the problem will be fixed in an upcoming patch but who knows when that will be.

I didnt access it in the options part of the game, I manually entered it in the POTC file itself.

I'm running on a 24" iMac 2.4GHz with the Raedon 2600 HD Mobility. Now, on OS X, I get the texture tearing and such, but the bigger issue was running it on Windows through Boot Camp.

The reason I'm posting is to provide a solution for other iMac users in which the ATI Mobility hardware is being used on Windows.

As you have already found out, getting mobility drivers is next to impossible, especially ones that work with POTCO. The driver that was provided, and used (even updated by Apple), was a driver from 2007. 75% of the time I couldn't even board my ship, and the other 25%, it wouldn't take long before the application would stop responding.

The solution:

I downloaded the latest 2600 HD PCI-E drivers, and used Mobility Modder .NET to alter the PCI-E drivers to create Mobility drivers. Before you rush out and do this, please read the instructions provided on their site. Worse case scenario is that the drivers just won't work, so it's not too dangerous. This solution also works for XP as well.

After installing the May 2008 drivers, I had one crash where the video drivers were still getting comfortable, but after that no issues what so ever. Here is the configuration I can vouch for working:

24" iMac 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
ATI Mobility Raedon 2600 HD
Vista Business SP1

I wish that all was good natively, but there doesn't seem to be such luck when running 10.5.x, at least with the mobility chipset. Even on my MacBook Pro, with a Nvidia 8600GT, it acts like it runs great and all, until I want to board a ship. Other than that, all is good. Since this particular problem is in the "Known Issues", hopefully we'll see a fix soon.

two powerpc g4 macs. none work. both crash. so much for the "it dosnt crash" ads

i have a powerpc G5 and it now works

Intel duo core and 10.4 and it plays for me - laggy at time but nothing as bad as described. I think there might be conflicts with Flash or Safari - when those are running the game in nearly unplayable for me

i have a macbook core 2 duo and everything is perfect and im running 10.5 even on abassa server no lag i have run all my applications and played the game on abassa server and it still works

I play on a Mac OS X 10.4.11 and I've only ever had that problem once - when I first downloaded PotC Online.

I play on a MacBook Pro (2.16GHz core 2 duo with 1GB memory) running OS X 10.5.2. The game works for me.

My 3 GHz iMac Intel Core 2 Duo works great! Sadly, my PPC G5 doesn't work since I upgraded to Leopard and POTCOL updated their software. My family is extremely disappointed as we were looking forward to playing together with the two computers.

I've got a 10.4 Macbook Pro and all I can get is the fullscreen and then a "server not connecting message". My internet works fine, so I don't know what the problem is.

I was just on vacation and the game worked fine at the hotel. However, I had a graphics problem (the screen would get covered by random text and graphics) and I've emailed the POTCO support team. I got a message back saying that I might need a graphics firmware update, but I've looked and there doesn't seem to be such an update for the GeForce 8600M GT video card. :(