LaunchCat: Homecoming for Mac installer replacement

[GM Manga]

I added a new Mac tool to the arsenal of Mac tools at the Homecoming for Mac site.

 

It's a new beta tool called LaunchCat (you can download it by clicking the name).  LaunchCat replaces the Homecoming for Mac installer, and downloading all of the necessary pieces to launch the HC Launcher after it's installed.  Therefore it can be fully signed with Apple Developer ID, leading to less complaints and workarounds on modern MacOS systems.  It is also capable of keeping Wine, and itself, up to date.

 

There is also an unsigned version for older MacOS systems that don't support Developer ID:  LaunchCat (Unsigned) 

 

Edited February 19 by GM Manga

[GM Manga]

New version was released yesterday that improves the self-update mechanism.  If you have trouble with it self-updating, use the link above to re-download LaunchCat.

[GM Manga]

Beta has concluded!  There are now full signed and unsigned versions of LaunchCat available.

[GM Manga]

I have started a beta cycle for the next generation of LaunchCat (click the underline to download it).  

 

This new version is lighter weight built in .NET Maui for MacOS only without any baggage from the Unity game engine.  It also fixes a couple of bugs in previous versions - but it may have new ones, which is why it's in beta!

 

It also requires at least MacOS 10.15 (Catalina) to run, but Wine 9.0 now requires that as well, so they're perfectly aligned.

[DztBlk]

Am I still waiting to launch Island Rum or am I using LaunchCat as a launcher?  I did download it, but it unexpectedly quits.  The game worked flawlessly with Island Rum yesterday and now...

[Fruitfly]

LaunchCat works perfectly for me and gets me past the version patch issue with Island Rum.
And takes me back to the days of Live - launch cat displays server status before you log in, something Island Rum doesn't.

 

Great job @GM Manga, thank you :)

[NoRA]

Ok, so I tried the beta and that kept crashing, so I used the version from the website and it worked apparently well enough to launch the Homecoming Launcher, so now I'm downloading Homecoming onto my M1 with Sonoma 14.4.1

 

Thanks GM Manga!

Edited May 14 by NoRA

[GM Manga]

The earlier mentioned LaunchCat beta is now released!

[Avengerbot]

Launch cat seems to get stuck for me at beginning update creating holding area 100%

[Eugirdor]

I'm having the same issue.

[Musclebound]

Thank you for developing and providing this software, @GM Manga.

I'm experiencing the same symptom as @Avengerbot and @Eugirdor. I'm using the current https://islandrum.powermad.net/mac-installer.zip under macOS Sonoma version 14.4.1. I've provided a screenshot below. I've let this sit for over 15 minutes on 2 separate attempts and the operation seemingly hangs every time.

[GM Manga]

On 5/19/2024 at 11:31 AM, Musclebound said:

Thank you for developing and providing this software, @GM Manga.

I'm experiencing the same symptom as @Avengerbot and @Eugirdor. I'm using the current https://islandrum.powermad.net/mac-installer.zip under macOS Sonoma version 14.4.1. I've provided a screenshot below. I've let this sit for over 15 minutes on 2 separate attempts and the operation seemingly hangs every time.

 

Now I know why so many of these are popping up.  When I uploaded the new version I forgot to replace mac-installer.zip as well.

 

For now you can download this: https://launchcat.powermadsoftware.com/launchcat.zip

Edited May 20 by GM Manga

[Musclebound]

On 5/19/2024 at 1:11 PM, GM Manga said:

For now you can download this: https://launchcat.powermadsoftware.com/launchcat.zip

Thank you for the quick response. Following this link results in an HTTP 404 response.

Edit: Instead of "launcher.zip", I tried "launchcat.zip" (making the URL https://launchcat.powermadsoftware.com/launchcat.zip) and this file existed on the web server. This zip archive also works as expected.

Edited May 20 by GM Manga
Correcting provided LaunchCat URL

[GM Manga]

On 5/19/2024 at 1:29 PM, Musclebound said:

Thank you for the quick response. Following this link results in an HTTP 404 response.
 

 

That's because I can't spell!  It's been corrected above.

[Shadow Kitty]

When I run LaunchCat it crashes. I don't know if it helps, but here is part of the report:

 

-------------------------------------
Translated Report (Full Report Below)
-------------------------------------

Process:               LaunchCat [2711]
Path:                  /private/var/folders/*/LaunchCat 4.app/Contents/MacOS/LaunchCat
Identifier:            com.powermad.launchcat
Version:               1.0 (1)
Code Type:             X86-64 (Translated)
Parent Process:        launchd [1]
User ID:               501

Date/Time:             2024-05-20 21:18:40.3276 +0200
OS Version:            macOS 14.4.1 (23E224)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        71E214E2-6D5F-DFAB-FC5D-CC82072BF9D8

Time Awake Since Boot: 190 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Notes:
PC register does not match crashing frame (0x0 vs 0x7FF897DB6A78)

Crashed Thread:        15  .NET ThreadPool Worker

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000

Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 6 Abort trap: 6
Terminating Process:   LaunchCat [2711]

Application Specific Information:
abort() called

Error Formulating Crash Report:
PC register does not match crashing frame (0x0 vs 0x7FF897DB6A78)

Thread 0:: tid_103 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   ???                                   0x7ff897db6a78 ???
1   libsystem_kernel.dylib                0x7ff807b203ce mach_msg2_trap + 10
2   libsystem_kernel.dylib                0x7ff807b2ec88 mach_msg2_internal + 84
3   libsystem_kernel.dylib                0x7ff807b27510 mach_msg_overwrite + 653
4   libsystem_kernel.dylib                0x7ff807b206bd mach_msg + 19
5   CoreFoundation                        0x7ff807c3d359 __CFRunLoopServiceMachPort + 143
6   CoreFoundation                        0x7ff807c3bdcc __CFRunLoopRun + 1371
7   CoreFoundation                        0x7ff807c3b2a9 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 557
8   HIToolbox                             0x7ff812b26829 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292
9   HIToolbox                             0x7ff812b26636 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 665
10  HIToolbox                             0x7ff812b26381 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 66
11  AppKit                                0x7ff80b204be5 _DPSNextEvent + 880
12  AppKit                                0x7ff80bb14fe9 -[NSApplication(NSEventRouting) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1273
13  AppKit                                0x7ff80b1f6005 -[NSApplication run] + 603
14  AppKit                                0x7ff80b1c9ff1 NSApplicationMain + 816
15  AppKit                                0x7ff80b47d299 _NSApplicationMainWithInfoDictionary + 16
16  UIKitMacHelper                        0x7ff82236ad8f UINSApplicationMain + 1329
17  UIKitCore                             0x7ff918daf2f9 UIApplicationMain + 144
18  LaunchCat                                0x104f04a2a xamarin_UIApplicationMain + 58
19  LaunchCat                                0x10530dcb9 do_icall + 345
20  LaunchCat                                0x10530c793 do_icall_wrapper + 291
21  LaunchCat                                0x1052feb3f interp_exec_method + 3295
22  LaunchCat                                0x1052fc493 interp_runtime_invoke + 259
23  LaunchCat                                0x105165008 mono_runtime_invoke_checked + 136
24  LaunchCat                                0x10516bcec do_exec_main_checked + 92
25  LaunchCat                                0x105287732 mono_jit_exec + 354
26  LaunchCat                                0x104f2d173 xamarin_main + 787
27  LaunchCat                                0x1053de7a4 main + 52
28  dyld                                     0x205e0d366 start + 1942

Thread 1:: com.apple.rosetta.exceptionserver
0   runtime                               0x7ff7ffcea494 0x7ff7ffce6000 + 17556

Thread 2:: tid_1303
0   runtime                               0x7ff7ffd0894c 0x7ff7ffce6000 + 141644

Thread 3:
0   runtime                               0x7ff7ffd0894c 0x7ff7ffce6000 + 141644

[Musclebound]

After grabbing the latest LaunchCat zip archive and launching LaunchCat.app, I am now getting the same crash as @Shadow Kitty.

[leprechonymous]

Hello all!

 

I played CoH when it first came out and was so excited when I learned about Homecoming.

 

I'm currently on a macbook air M2 running sonoma 14.5 and can't get it to work.

 

I clicked on the Homecoming launcher on the Getting Started page and when I try to run LaunchCat it also crashes and gives the same report as @Shadow Kitty and @Musclebound.

 

I also tried to run IslandRum via this link https://islandrum.eekstudio.com/islandrum-mac.zip but when I opened the application it said: "“Island Rum 2” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash."

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated and thanks!

[leprechonymous]

Nevermind I got it to work using the older IslandRum...

[Shadow Kitty]

My workaround was to run the PC client in Parallels, but performance is severely lacking.

 

[GM Manga]

I'm now testing a beta of a native MacOS/Xcode build of LaunchCat:

 

https://launchcat.powermadsoftware.com/launchcat-beta.zip

 

Give it a try and see if it works better for you.

[Shadow Kitty]

The new version doesn't crash, but it got stuck while fetching the HC launcher. It doesn't quit nicely either: you have to command-click the icon in the dock and stop the process to run it again.

 

I'm running it on an M3 max Macbook pro, if that is of any help. 

[Techulon]

On 5/25/2024 at 2:01 PM, GM Manga said:

I'm now testing a beta of a native MacOS/Xcode build of LaunchCat:

 

https://launchcat.powermadsoftware.com/launchcat-beta.zip

 

Give it a try and see if it works better for you.

 

This DEFINITELY works better for me!

 

It's seamless and I'm still able to use my favorite older Mac OSs.

Thanks Manga for never leaving a player behind.

 

-Tech

[GM Manga]

19 hours ago, Shadow Kitty said:

The new version doesn't crash, but it got stuck while fetching the HC launcher. It doesn't quit nicely either: you have to command-click the icon in the dock and stop the process to run it again.

 

I'm running it on an M3 max Macbook pro, if that is of any help. 

 

That sounds like a permissions issue - try removing the Applications/coh folder and see if the app is able to create a new one.

[Shadow Kitty]

2 hours ago, GM Manga said:

 

That sounds like a permissions issue - try removing the Applications/coh folder and see if the app is able to create a new one.

That didn't work. No new folder was created, and I got the error "Download failed or cancelled". 

Edited May 27 by Shadow Kitty
Added error message

[GM Manga]

On 5/27/2024 at 4:08 AM, Shadow Kitty said:

That didn't work. No new folder was created, and I got the error "Download failed or cancelled". 

 

The new version is now out of beta.  If that doesn't fix it, then we might have to troubleshoot why your Mac is not allowing apps to download files.