Thanks for the suggestion. Just tried it out:
No change in behavior at all.
I suspect that the game is not reading the map files correctly, since the viewscreen is black and I can run in any direction forever.
I also have no spear as I should for the Temple, which means items are not loading.
Nor can I save the game (not that it would be of any value, but it is informative to try).
I will have to see what is missing or misconfigured with a more detailed test. I will run a normal game through the temple and one village quest (I'll rescue Nagor's dog) and then see what the resulting file and folder changes are.
If anyone has other ideas in the meantime, I welcome them.
Of course, once this is figured out I will post the correct method for everyone to see and for inclusion in the patch notes.
UPDATE:
Here's what happens on a Mac when the game is installed:
The executable goes in the Applications folder.
Upon first launch of the game, a folder called Fallout 2 is created that is placed in the ~/Library/Applications Support folder. This folder contains the fallout2.cfg file, which is game settings/preferences.
In addition, another folder called DATA is created. Inside this folder are two folders, maps and proto. These are empty on launch.
I played through the Temple, killing a few ants and defeating Cameron. Along the way I picked up two wooden poles from traps I sprung. I then collected the quests for Hakunin's garden and Nagor's dog. I picked up a Broc flower and then completed Nagor's dog quest but not Hakunin's quest. I saved several times during this process.
When now examining the DATA folder, I find a maps folder, which after this short start is still empty. There is also a proto folder, with critters and items subfolders. The critters folder has a lengthy list of files, totalling 24. The items folder has only one item: 455.
Also in the DATA folder is a SAVEGAME folder, which has 5 folders for the 5 saves I did. The first save, SLOT01, performed before going into the temple, has an ARTEMPLE.SAV file, an AUTOMAP.SAV file, a SAVE.DAT file, and a folder called proto.
In this proto folder are the same two subfolders, critters and items. Critters again has a list of 24 critters, while items has only item 455.
Looking at the last save, SLOT05, there are now maps called ARCAVES.SAV, ARVILLAGE.SAV, AND ARGARDEN.SAV in addition to those above. The SAVE.DAT file is there, and the proto folder.
In this second proto folder, after collecting spears and flowers, there is still only one item in the items subfolder: 455. No indication that other items have been added in subsequent saves. The critters folder has the same 24 files listed that were present in the /DATA/proto/critters and that were present in the /DATA/SAVEGAME/SLOT01/proto/critters.
I will now test the "A" patch and see what changes are made comparing the download folder structure and the game folder structure after trying to play the early game.
COMPARATIVE TEST OF PATCH A AND GAME FOLDERS
Here are the changes in the active files, as compared to the downloaded "A" files, after the first launch and a failed load, with the reported black viewscreen and no spear in inventory.
The main DATA folder has one new file, worldmap.dat added.
There is also one new folder: SAVEGAME, and inside SAVEGAME is SLOT01 folder, which contains a proto folder, and proto contains two empty folders, critters and items.
All the other subfolders inside DATA have had their modification time stamp updated to when the program was launched. Except for the one noted below, all folders are byte for byte identical, and thus unchanged. I measure this by getting the total byte count for the comparable folders. This includes Art, Data, Maps, Scripts, sound and Text.
The downloaded Proto folder was 96KB. The one in the game is now 8KB.
Comparing folders, I see that the game Critters folder is now completely empty. The game Items folder has only the file items.lst.
Clearly, when the game launches, the program deletes data from the proto folder, apparently to reset the contents to what it expects.
I then set the proto folder and all its contents to read-only and launched again. This time the files are not deleted, but the game still starts on a black viewscreen and with no spear in inventory.
I am open to more suggestions.
I have taken some time to look at the current short list of Mac mods currently available here. In particular, I have noted the JonaMod makes many similar changes to the game that the killap mod does, but it is not current and unlikely to be updated.
More importantly, I have noted that the JonaMod actually changes the application package itself. On the Mac, applications are actually folders (called a package) containing various other folders with executables and data.
Inside the generic Fallout 2 app on the Mac is a file called patch000.dat, which is apparently the patch file that is referenced in the killap installation instructions.
JonaMod replaces the original 2.2 MB patch000.dat file with a much smaller 32 KB file. Seeing this, I suspect that the killap instructions for the Mac will need to include modification of the Fallout app package directly, perhaps deleting the patch000.dat file among other changes.
So far I have not been able to get the JonaMod to run, but I'll be testing more and will report back here once I have some conclusions.
