Running the game on Mac OSX

Installing WITP AE on Mac OSX via Wineskin / Wine

Wineskin and Wine allow a Mac user to run Windows programs. This is very different from programs such as Parallels, Virtualbox, and others. Those require a lot of effort to install and setup Windows and require owning a Windows license. Wine does not! Also, it's much more convenient than using a dual boot system since when you are booted into Windows, you of course can't use Mac programs. This method of running the game allows your game to run in a normal Mac window like any other Mac program, and, use less resources! Without the overhead, hassle, and, expense of running Windows. I have posted the relevant details on what wineskin options are needed on winehq, however, for convenience, I have created a blank Wineskin wrapper for the game you can download. This allows you to immediately start installing the game!

Let's go through the process of installing the game War in the Pacific Admirals Edition:

1. Download the Wineskin wrapper I hace created for convenience. Put this file in a suitable place on your Mac, it could be put into your application folder, or, anywhere else of your choosing. 
2. In the finder, go to where you downloaded and placed this Mac app. Right click on it, and, select "Show Package Contents". You'll see one folder we will use later, and, another applcation named "Wineskin". Double click Wineskin. 
3. You will need your official War in the Pacific AE installer for this step, as well as your serial number. Click "Install Software". Click "Choose Setup Executable", and, select the installer from your game disk or downloaded copy. Follow the normal procedure and prompts for installing the game as you would on Windows. 
4. Once it is installed, it will ask you to select the executable. This is the Windows program that will run when you run the mac app. It correctly picks autorun.exe, click OK. Now it goes back to the Wineskin program, go ahead and click quit for now.
5. Now, navigate back to the Mac App you downloaded and double click it to run it. This will bring up the main menu, where you should almost certainly update the program just as you likely did on Windows. While the update is running, you should close the main menu you ran the update from as it will be busy otherwise and not able to update. The program will update and say the update program itself could not be re-updated and will update the next time it is run, I suppose that's normal. It says to click cancel to install it on reboot, so, do so. 
6. So, now the game is installed! The last remaining step is needed if you like to set some game running options and flags. For me, I am using -w -deepColor -dd_def -skipVideo -dd_sw -px2048 -py1152 and in order to set those, you have to right click again on the Mac app and select "Show Package Contents" in the finder. Again, run Wineskin. This time, click Advanced. On the coinfiguration tab, click bworse to fine the exe for the game itself, not autorun.exe. You will find that under the Matrix Games folder and the one folder underneath that. Find the exec file named "War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" and select choose. This is the executable that will run when you run the Mac app, and, to set those game flags, you must run it just like you likely did on Windows via a property setting. Now, back in Wineskin, note the EXE Flags box, this is where you put those options, as my example above list of options. Now, click on the "Set Screen Options" box on the bvottom center of Wineskin. Make sure that "Use Mac Drive instead of X11" box is checked. Click done, and after doing so, you can quit the app or click the x to close it. 
7. You are done! I do one more thing to make save games easier to access. Right click the Mac app, and "Select Package Contents". Navigate from drive_c -> Matrix Games -> War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition and right click on the folder named SAVE. Select "Make Alias". A new alias will show up in the finder, and, you should move that to somewhere you want to use it from. Perhaps your desktop, wherever you find it convenient to access. Rename it to something useful as well (the alias file). This is where you can double click it and go directly to the save game folder. 
8. Enjoy!