Macgamefiles.com: Help

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Macgamefiles.com Help

Navigating Through Macgamefiles.com

Macgamefiles.com has been designed to make navigation through the web site as easy as possible. Here's how to find your way around.

Tabs - Found on the top of each page, tabs allow you to easily switch from section to section. For example, from Demos to Shareware.

Sections - Sections contains all new files that have been added for that particular section. For example, clicking on the Demos tab will bring you to the Demos section. Twenty-five of the latest demos will be displayed.

Categories - Each section is also divided up into Categories to refine your search (for example, Action).

Sub-Categories - In some section on Macgamefiles.com you'll also find Sub-Categories. These are mainly used in the Add-Ons and Tools sections and are used to list specific files for a particular game.

Search - Every page on Macgamefiles.com also contains a search area. In general you should avoid using complete names for files. For example, searching for "Myth II: Soulblighter" will generally return results with only those words in the title. Searching for "Myth II" or even "Myth" will return a greater number of results.

Licenses

Files within Macgamefiles.com are usually classified as either demos, shareware, or freeware.

Demos - A sample or demo version of a commercial product and is usually limited to a few levels or have a time limit. If you like the demo, you can buy the full version.

Shareware - Based on the honor system, shareware is also known as try before you buy software. Shareware authors make their games freely available for download and distribution. After the trial period you are expected to pay a shareware fee (also known as registering) the program or delete it from your system.

Freeware - These programs are fully functional and carry no shareware fee.

Dealing with Archives

In order to minimize download times most archives on the Internet are compressed and encoded.

Compression - The most popular form of compression on the Mac is Stuffit. Files that are compressed with Stuffit have extensions that end with .sit or .sea. To decompress these files you will need to use a free utility called Stuffit Expander. Recent Macs come with Stuffit Expander pre-installed onto your machine, so you won't have to do a thing. However, if you do not have Stuffit Expander, you can download it via the link below.

Encoding - In addition to being compressed, most files are also encoded as either MacBinary (.bin) or binhexed (.hqx). This ensures that files can be properly sent from servers that do not support MacBinary files (unix, linux, etc). Again, Stuffit Expander can automatically decode these files.

Download Stuffit Expander 5.5

Important Note about Mods & Plugins (.zip files)

Most of the mods and plugins that are available on the Internet are compressed with the PC .zip format. Stuffit Expander, by default, will expand .zip files. However, many of these mods will NOT work on your Mac unless you turn text files to Mac text conversion off. Follow the instructions below to do this.

1) In the Finder, search for Stuffit Expander and launch it by double clicking on it.

2) Under "File", select Preferences.

3) Select "Cross Platform".

4) Make sure "Convert text files to Macintosh format" is set to NEVER.

Problems Downloading Files

While Macgamefiles.com does host some files found on the site, the majority of files are hosted elsewhere. You may encounter extremely slow downloads, busy server messages, etc. If you encounter a problem downloading a file, try downloading it from a mirror if one is available.

Dead Links - Authors will often update or move files without notifying web sites such as Macgamefiles.com, causing download links to break. If you encounter a dead link, please report a dead link and we will try to repair the link as soon as possible. After you have reported a dead link, visit the publisher's and/or game web site. A new link to the download may be available.

Problems with Download Files

If you've downloaded a file and it is damaged or cannot be compressed, try deleting the archive and download the file again. If problems persist, please contact us and we will try to look at the file to see if there are any problems with it.

Please note however that Macgamefiles.com is not responsible for the integrity of the files downloaded. If the program you've download crashes your machine, hangs, quits, or behaves abnormally, please contact the publisher of the file for technical support.

Problems With Downloads From Macgamefiles.com mirrors

Ninety nine percent of the time when people have problems downloading something off one of our official mirrors it is because they are using an older browser that doesn't know how to handle the download. This happens in Internet Explorer and a few other browsers. If you are using Internet Explorer, go ahead and hit Download. When a pop up that says "Unhandled File Type" comes up, hit Save File As. Go ahead and leave the name "dc.php". When your download starts, it will download it as the correct file.

We strongly recommend everyone switch to either Safari or Firefox if you have not already done so. They handle downloads far better than Internet Explorer, which has been discontinued for the Mac.

The Macgamefiles.com mirrors are not compatible with Speed Download. You will need to disable it or remove it in order to download files from our servers.

Problems With Downloads Coming Up As Text

When you try a download you get is a bunch of random text, this means that that server does not know how to handle the download. For example, in Safari, if you try to download that is in a ".sitx" or ".bz2" format, this may happen if the server isn't configured to treat the file as a download.

The best thing to do in this case is to is to go back to the page on Macgamefiles.com where the file is located and click "Download XXXX". When the next screen comes up, immediately hit STOP on your browser. If you donÕt catch it in time, that is ok, just hit the BACK button on your browser and it will take you to the previous page. Once you have STOPPED the page from completely loading, CONTROL CLICK on the actual download link. From here select "Download Linked File As" and save it to your hard drive.

Developer Accounts & Files

If you have files posted on Macgamefiles.com, and wish to have a Developer Account to maintain them. Signup for a new Developer Account using the Developer Login Page. Once you are signed up, and logged in, you will see new links on file deatil pages of "Request Ownership". Filling out the request form will let our staff know you wish to link the file to your developer tools.

Please allow up to 24 hours for ownership request validity checks. If you have any questions, or have a large number of files you need linked, please contact us and we can make things smoother for you.

Other Issues

If you have any other problems or issues, please contact us.