Black screen on Mac OS X 10.6.1

[gounaiel]

Still doesn't work, even after re-installing Flash player 10 for Mac and repearing permissions.

I gave up and have been refunded by the dev' 

Maybe when a update of Flash will be released, it's gonna work ?

I'm really upset, because the Demo Version used to work well, and I wanted to support Amanita (and play this great game).
 


Anyway, if anyone has an answer, I'm still interested, of course

[Lamkin]

All right, I have been thinking a bit about this. Sorry that this is a little wordy...
Bsoplinger is having no problems running Machinarium under 10.6.1. My guess, because he also has 10.5.8 installed (on either another partition of the same drive or another hard drive altogether), is that he had performed a clean install of 10.6 as opposed to upgrading from an earlier version of OS X. So I'll ask both dagaz and gounaiel: had either of you upgraded to 10.6 from an earlier version of OS X? My point is that upgrading the system software in this way can occasionally leave behind a minor glitch here and there. Plus, I've been reading online that many individuals are having problems with 10.6 specifically regarding Adobe's Flash Player (apparently an earlier, "dangerous" version of Flash gets installed), and that some are experiencing problems even after having upgraded to 10.6.1. My belief is that these sorts of problems would be far less likely to occur after a new, pristine copy of Snow Leopard has been installed. So, my advice would be to attempt an "Archive and Install" (i.e, not wiping your hard drive clean) of 10.6 on your hard drive; then upgrade to 10.6.1 and see if that resolves the problem.
Yeah, it will take a little effort, but it's possible that the game will work afterwards.

[bsoplinger]

Your guess is correct, my 10.6 (thence updated to 10.6.1) was done as a clean install since I wanted to keep my 10.5.8 setup around because I use that daily and some things I need aren't ready for SL yet. One of the first things I did was to do the Flash player update exactly because of the issue you mentioned where the OS X 10.6 install puts in an older version of Flash. Otherwise I've not done very much with it. There aren't any things like haxies or 3rd party extensions of pretty much any type. I believe about the only thing I have is iCalMenuClock and menuMeters. I did install the versions of iLife and iWork that come with the 10.5.8 OS X Box set then downloaded the multiple Apple supplied (via Software Update) updates to those programs. That and Firefox and that's about all I have on my 10.6.1 setup.

Although I did explicitly install Rosetta when I did the base install along with Quicktime X and X11. I'm doing my best to figure out why my very basic system can run and you're having troubles and I can't think on anything. Hopefully in the list of stuff I have and don't have maybe something will strike a chord and you'll get it running.

[Lamkin]

One of the first things I did was to do the Flash player update exactly because of the issue you mentioned where the OS X 10.6 install puts in an older version of Flash.

As I'm sure you're aware, the 10.6.1 update addresses that issue by installing the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player, but you're saying that you'd updated Flash Player separately prior to upgrading to 10.6.1, correct? (Perhaps the 10.6.1 update wasn't yet available, etc. Whatever. =op Basically, as far as Flash is concerned, I'm thinking that it wouldn't hurt to replicate each and every step of your upgrade to 10.6.1.) =o)

[bsoplinger]

Correct, I installed SL the day it came out. There wasn't a 10.6.1 update yet, but I already knew that the Flash player was old so I went directly to Adobe and got the latest player and installed it. The 10.6.1 update came along and I installed it once it showed in Software Update. There were at least 3 updates to the iWork/iLife apps and an iTunes update since SL release also.

So it'd be easy enough to replicate:
1) Do a clean install (or Achive and install) of the base 10.6 SL from the DVD.
2) Go to Adobe and get the latest Flash player and install it.
3) Run Software Update and install the 10.6.1 and any other updates.

[dagaz]

So it'd be easy enough to replicate:
1) Do a clean install (or Achive and install) of the base 10.6 SL from the DVD.
2) Go to Adobe and get the latest Flash player and install it.
3) Run Software Update and install the 10.6.1 and any other updates.

I did a clean install from Leopard to SL. I'll try re-installing Flash from Adobe's website, but the 3 step process seems way too much of a drama for me just to get a game going (although I did like Samorost).

If that doesn't work I might just wait until 10.6.2 and try again (I wonder if the fact that bsolpinger is running SL on a hackintosh has anything to do with his success?)

[Lamkin]

I did a clean install from Leopard to SL. I'll try re-installing Flash from Adobe's website, but the 3 step process seems way too much of a drama for me just to get a game going (although I did like Samorost).

Well, an "Archive and Install" would, of course, leave all of your accounts (Home folders, documents, pictures, movies, Favorites, e-mail, and so on) untouched; it also will leave your network and Internet settings alone. I'd just done one myself with Tiger and it hadn't taken very long. Yeah, there were a few things that I'd needed to tweak just a little to get back to where I was, but the whole process was pretty much painless. But yes, the whole process does seem like a lot of work just to get one game to work on your computer.

(I wonder if the fact that bsolpinger is running SL on a hackintosh has anything to do with his success?)

I highly doubt it. Bsoplinger isn't emulating OS X, he's booting up into OS X and thus running it natively, which apparently is possible, although Apple's probably not too happy about that sort of thing...but so what? =o)

[Botlover]

I wonder if my own ignorance has led to the answer here.  I also have 10.6.1, and downloaded this gem of a game after reading about it and playing the demo.  When I double clicked on the Machinarium icon, I got the black screen even with hardware acceleration disabled.  Then, I thought, I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that I'm trying to launch the game from the DMG.  I pulled the Machinarium folder off the DMG onto my desktop, and once it had copied it over, I opened the folder on the desktop and double clicked the Machinarium icon.  Bingo, game playing just fine.  Perhaps I'm just lucky (and I like to think I am), but I'm pretty sure it had to do with trying to run the thing off the DMG.  Anyway, I hope my fumbling around helps.

[ciara]

just bought this game today --- running mac os 10.6.2...  the game opens to completely black screen with a white arrow which will move.. no menus etc... i just dragged the app to my games folder -- there weren't any instructions regarding the other folders so i left them in the dmg (which is not on my system)

macbook pro 17 2.66 gHz duo core... 4gb ram, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

never tried the demo - i figured i owned it so i didnt want to use the demo.

very frustrating to own a game that you cant even use..

went to the main home page for the developer and there doesnt seem to be a support link...

ciara

[Lamkin]

Open up the .dmg file again and drag the entire Machinarium folder (i.e., not just the .app) to your games folder.
;o)

[ciara]

thanks that worked

[lilac]

I had this problem, but now my game is running. What I did was drag the entire machinarium folder on the dmg to my applications folder, not just the .app itself. Hoepfully this works for you, too.

[CP93]

Similar problem with fresh installs of game, Flash Player, etc. Entire Machinarium folder with app and subdirectories was moved together to Applications. Still didn't work.

I discovered a workaround online (sorry, I forgot to note where I found it):

• Rt-Click on the app and select Show Package Contents.
• Drag or copy the movie.swf file to sit next to the app file.
• Rt-Click on the movie.swf file and select Open With, then choose Flash Player. (NOT Flash CS.5, which my system defaults to.)
• Game now runs normally.

I'll be updating to High Sierra soon, hoping Flash will work better then (but not holding my breath).

CP93

[Lamkin]

I discovered a workaround online (sorry, I forgot to note where I found it)

Maybe here? I've posted this workaround many times on the forum. It's actually linked to in one of my posts on the first page of this topic.   (Well, I see the link is broken, but still.)

I'll be updating to High Sierra soon, hoping Flash will work better then (but not holding my breath).

Ack. I don't think so: Black Screen on iMac 10.12 High Sierra  
However, there is good news!! Eventually, the "Definitive" Version of Machinarium will come out for Mac...and that means no more Flash. More details can be found here: http://forum.amanita-design.net/index.php?topic=5498.msg16505#msg16505
The bad news, though, is that it may be some time yet. I ask Lukas from Amanita Design about this every so often, so I'll keep everyone posted if I hear anything.

Edit: May 23, 2018 - The Definitive version is now out for Mac.
But note that it requires OS X 10.11 El Capitan and above...it seems the update is causing the game to crash for users running OS X 10.9 and below. (Not sure about 10.10 Yosemite, but I would imagine the update will run fine for Yosemite users.) I notified Lukas abut the crashing, and he wrote back saying:
“...this [Definitive] version was developed for the latest OSX and would need to be built with and older XCode version (which is what we're going to try).”
I’ll edit the post if I hear any more about this.

[Alex]

>> I discovered a workaround online (sorry, I forgot to note where I found it)

> Maybe here? I've posted this workaround many times on the forum. It's actually linked to in one of my posts on the first page of this topic.   (Well, I see the link is broken, but still.)

Link has been fixed.