games on paralles

so i've installed C&C Red Alert on windows XP pro through parallels but whenever i try to run the program it says 'error - unable to allocate primary video buffer - aborting' and it doesn't work? do i need to give parallels access to my video card or something? its not a huge deal, just wondering

Parallels uses a virtual video card, not the physical one in your system. Therefore, the Windows "machine" you run through Parallels only has the most limited video capabilities.

If you want to play games that rely on Direct3D and other higher-end video functions, you need to install WinXP through BootCamp. Do a search for gaming on a Mac and you'll see all sorts of advice and instructions. It's pretty easy.

Ditto. Parallels only gives you 8Mb of virtual graphics capability. i play games on XP through BootCamp on my iMac. It's a brief moment of pain to reboot, go through windows to load the game, but Half-Life 2 was most certainly GORGEOUS! and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is kicking my butt, but Wow!!

I cant play STALKER on my imac, it keeps crashing.

HELP!!!!

You should have started a new thread...

Is it Mac compatible??? Are you trying to play it in XP through Bootcamp??

Need some more information.

Yeah, I'm playing though boot camp, Thats pretty much the only way you can play games on a Imac successfully I think.

All the newer games i have tried to play crash, Older games like The original Half Life and Half Life 2 run fine.

I play COD2 on my iMac without bootcamp.. it's the Mac version.


Did you follow the instructions on the "READ ME" file???

i'm playing STALKER right now. now problems. i was talking with another member who was having trouble. he turned off Daemon Tools and that helped him. Me, I just killed every non-essential process (old habit) and reloaded the BootCamp drivers. runs GREAT now!! lighting effects are absolutely amazing!!

cool, I will give that a try,

Also what is the spec to you mac, before stalker crashed i was running everything on minimum and it was really jumpy, I have a 2.3gh intel imac with a x1600 and 1gb or ram.

Just re installed the drivers and its still crashing. Could it be my MAC? maybe a fault with the graphics card.

Beginning to annoy me now.

It's not a Mac issue. I had a lot of trouble getting C&C:RA to work under XP as it's a Win98 game.

BrenMyster said:

Just re installed the drivers and its still crashing. Could it be my MAC? maybe a fault with the graphics card.

Beginning to annoy me now.

Click to expand...

Do you have the newest version of Direct X?

Yes, I think i have found the problem, Check this out

http://forums.macnn.com/104/alterna...60/solution-crashes-blue-screens-freezes-gpu/

Apparently you have to under clock the GPU, might give it a try.