Play Policenauts on a Mac (OS X)

Talk about Kojima's hard sci-fi masterpiece.
Post Reply
roundabout
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:03 am

Play Policenauts on a Mac (OS X)

Post by roundabout »

From searching around the web, it seems as though there is not much information on how to play Policenauts on a Mac. It is actually quite simple, so I thought I would write out a guide here in case anyone is interested:

Things you will need:

An intel-based Mac

X11 - This is most likely pre-installed on your machine, but in the event that it isn't you can either install it via your OS install CD or download it from here.

CXZ Jade Engine - You can download this here.

zeroPSX Hybrid- This uses X11 and the CXZ Jade Engine to run pSX or ePSXe on your Mac. Download here.

Policenauts .ISOs

What you need to do:

1. Patching the ISOs: put the two ISOs in the same folder as the patch and double click on patch.bat. Now your game is all nice and englishy!

2. Right click or control+click on zeroPSX Hybrid and select "Show Package Contents." A folder should pop up which has a shortcut to "Games." Double click on that and toss the ISOs in the folder.

ZeroPSX comes with a number of plugins, including P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver and P.E.Op.S. DSound Audio Driver. However, if you want to add more plugins to your emulator do the following: From the Games folder go back one directory to "Program Files" (you can navigate folder paths by going into Finder clicking on the View menu and selecting "Show Path Bar"). From here you have access to the emulator folders and you may add whatever plugins you like.

To run the emulator, simply double click on the zeroPSX Hybrid file.

I used ePSXe 1.7.0 and the game ran quite well, I would recommend using P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver and P.E.Op.S. DSound Audio Driver (you can choose the drivers through the "Config" dropdown menu of the emulator). I also suggest following Snatcher42's recommendation on the settings for those drivers:
Now we're in the video plugin options. Start by clicking "Nice" under default settings in the lower left hand corner, but we're gonna change a few other things as well.

For both windowed and full screen settings (you can switch back and forth in game with alt+enter) I recommend either 640x480 (2x the game's resolution) or 1280x960 (4x), with default refresh rate and 32bit color depth.

Under "Stretching" I recommend selecting "2xSaI stretching (needs a fast cpu)". This sharpens the picture a bit, without being too blocky like the other filters.

Finally, enable "Wait for VSYNC" under options. We're done here now, so click "OK" ...

Under sound settings, select "P.E.Op.S. DSound Audio Driver 1.9", and click "Config". There are less settings here so I'll just run through them all:

Mode: 0 Fast. Volume: 2 Loud. Reverb: 2 PSX. Interpolation: 3 Cubic. XA Music: both checked. Misc: just the first (wait for cpu) checked.

Hit "OK" ...

Controller config. Click "Controller 1". In the drop-down menu in the upper right, choose "Digital/Mouse (F5)". Pressing F5 during gameplay will now toggle between mouse and keyboard control.

Tip: Mouse control is ideal for most of the game, however some sequences are easier if you use the keyboard. You may want to assign the auto-aiming left and right "1" shoulder buttons of the PlayStation controller, along with triangle for reload and circle or square for shoot, to keys that are easy to press!


One thing to note using the P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver is that the emulator will crash if you hit escape and then try to continue the emulation, but that isn't as big of a problem as it sounds.

save/load state: In order to get the game to properly save states for Policenauts, you will need to go into the ePSXe folder then create a new folder called "S" (without the quotes) inside the sstates folder. This is all somewhat moot, however, as it appears that the game will always crash from a load state. It isn't too big of a deal since you can save almost anywhere in the game (although there are a few exceptions).

In the event that the emulator crashes, just press command+q and restart the emulator.


Now just load up the game (file>run iso) and you should now be ready to play!
User avatar
best name ever
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 357
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:49 pm
Favorite Game: Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love
Kojima games owned: Snatcher, Policenauts, Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel and Boktai

Re: Play Policenauts on a Mac (OS X)

Post by best name ever »

Great guide! I was actually trying to find a way to play Policenauts on a Mac so I can put it in the "Ultimate Policenauts guide" that I made recently. I will make note of this guide in there :)
What Button Do You Press To Jump!?!
User avatar
DelSol
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:33 pm

Re: Play Policenauts on a Mac (OS X)

Post by DelSol »

you should try out pcsx-reloaded first. a few guys made a new intel based port for mac os x.

grab it here: http://pcsxr.codeplex.com/
Hairlesswookiee
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 8:13 pm
Favorite Game: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Kojima games owned: Metal Gear
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (Xbox version)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Subsistence)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Snatcher (Sega CD)
Snatcher (Saturn Import)
Policenauts (Saturn Import)
Zone of the Enders
PSN: Ezcompane
Xbox Live: Ezcompane

Re: Play Policenauts on a Mac (OS X)

Post by Hairlesswookiee »

Thanks for the write up instructions. Finally got this game running on my MBP. Is there a native PSX emulator for the Mac that isn't as involved as the one listed above??
Toys: PS4 Pro, PS3 Slim 250GB, PS2, PS1, ,PSVita, Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Saturn, JVC X'Eye, NES, SNES, Neo Geo, Turbo Duo R
Movie Setup: Vizio M65, Fluance ES 5.1, Definitive Technology SC 4000, Sony STR-DN840, Apple TV 4k, Synology DS413j with 12TB of media.
Post Reply