So I am completely new to the rules of writing in forums, and I'm not even sure if anyone needs this anymore. However... after years of being fed-up with not being able to fix cc because I had/have a mac, I FINALLY gave up and decided to see if I could figure out how to get SimPE to run on my computer for free. So far, it's working (this is of course subject to change without notice), so I thought I would post the steps I used to get it up and running.

I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, so if your questions do not boil down to "you should explain in more depth how you did this" I may not be able to help you.

Since I updated my computer to OS 10.11(.3) SimPE stopped working, so I decided to figure out how to get it working again from (mostly) the ground up. Somehow between then and now everything got more simple (and consumes WAY less space ).

Step 1: Downloading XQuartz

-Go here: http://www.xquartz.org/
-Download XQuartz.

Step 2: Downloading Wine (Staging)

-Go here: https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/macosx/download.html
-Download the Installer for "Wine Staging".

Step 3: Installing Wine (Staging)

-When you click on the installer for Wine Staging to install it, your computer may not want to open the installer because it's unsigned. No problem.
-Once you get the pop up that you're not allowed to open it, open System Preferences.
-Click on "Security & Privacy."
-Under the "General" tab, it should give you the option to allow the installer down near "Allow apps downloaded from".
-Click allow and the installer should run.

Step 4: Downloading SimPE -Go here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sim.../?source=navbar
-Click "Download SimPe_0_73_44-QA.7z (4.0 MB)". (It's highlighted in blue, located underneath the bar that says "Summary" and above the list of files.)
-Once the file downloads, rename the folder SimPE and move it to wherever you want to store it (I put mine in Applications).

Step 5: Downloading NET 2.0 (I did not do this part again, but I didn't need to so hopefully this part still works. )

Install wget:
-Go to: http://nixsos.com/install-wget-on-mac-os-x/
-Download wget-number.tar.gz (whatever number wget is on, type that number instead of “number”)
-Open Terminal (it's in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder)
-Generally you start out with ~ username on the left side of the $. Navigate to your downloads folder by typing cd Downloads and then hitting return. (From now on, anything you are supposed to write in terminal will be prefaced with a $ just to note the beginning of the line (don't actually type the $). At the end of each line hit return.)
-Once it says Downloads username between the : and the $, type:
$ tar -zxvf nameoffile.tar.gz
$ cd wget-number
$ ./configure —with-ssl=openssl
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf wget-* (all folders gone! it’s a beautiful thing.)

Getting winetricks:
-Now type this into Terminal:
$ wget http://winetricks.org/winetricks (remember you need the internet for this one)
$ chmod +x winetricks

Getting .NET 2.0:
-Now type this into Terminal:
$ bash winetricks dotnet20
-a wild “Wine is being updated” window appears!
-it’s a large file, leave time for it to download
-Installation window appears (ignore the scary writing in the terminal…)
-Once it's done installing you can quit Terminal

Step 5: Actually opening SimPE -The Wine Staging application should also be in your application folder.
-Double click on it to open it. (It will open a terminal window.)
-The first line (where your cursor is) under the instructions should be this:
[Name-Of-My-Computer:~ (myusername)$
-This means that you are located inside the house icon folder you see listed under favorites when you open a new finder window (I don't know how to upload pictures yet I'm sorry ).
-To figure out where you want to go, open a finder window and navigate to where you put your SimPE folder, click on it, and then look at the path bar at the bottom of the finder window. (If you can't see it, you can turn it on under View/Show path bar at the top of the screen.)

-If the path bar says Macintosh HD > Users > (whatever your username is) > Applications > SimPE, congratulations, your computer is easier to navigate than mine!
-To open simpe.exe, navigate to it in Wine Sharing by typing this:
$cd Applications
$cd SimPE $wine simpe.exe
-Voila! SimPE should open.

-My path bar says this: Macintosh HD > Applications > SimPE. More confusing but not more difficult.
-If yours also says this, then in Wine Sharing, you have to go back two folders before accessing the real applications folder by typing:
$ cd ..
$ cd ..
$ cd Applications
$ cd SimPE $ wine simpe.exe

And voila, SimPE should open! Sorta. The only things I can use on it are the HairBinner that I downloaded from ModTheSims (you can just follow the directions there) and the Scan Folders option from the tools menu. But, that does mean that you can now re-bin hair and re-categorize clothing for types (gym, sleep, etc) and ages and look at what's actually in all those lovely packages (sometimes, depending on how people layered their pictures), so for me it's totally worth it.



Below here is the way I did it originally, left up for posterity in case it is useful.

I am running the 10.9.1 Mac OSX on an apple air. Please check to make sure you download the correct versions of whatever for your own system.

Steps to running SimPE:

Download SimPE (http://sims.ambertation.de/en/2009/...a-for-everyone/)
-Open the unpack the .7z folder (I use Unarchiver) but don't touch the files inside of it.
-I moved the folder to Applications and have had no problem getting SimPE to work from that location.

Install MacPorts
-follow the instructions either here http://guide.macports.org/ or here http://www.macports.org/install.php (both do the same thing, one has more writing)
-requires registering as a developer through apple in order to access the developer tools

!!Macports downloads all other necessary files upon installation of wine!!

To Install wine: (http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ !INVALUABLE RESOURCE!)

-Open Terminal
- If you do not know how to navigate around your computer using Terminal, read this. Do it now before you do anything else. http://www.davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/command-line/
$ port search wine
$ sudo port install wine-devel
(input password)
MAGIC! (takes a long time for it to download all the necessary files though)

At this point, I tried starting SimPE through Terminal. Wine recommended that I install Mono, so I did. Didn't work. My advice is: Don't do that. I would also assume from that that Mono will probably not work to run SimPE. Thus, the next steps are about how to download NET 2.0, since that's what is recommended in the Warning.txt file in the SimPE folder.

Install wget:
-http://nixsos.com/install-wget-on-mac-os-x/
-Download wget-number.tar.gz (whatever number wget is on, type that number instead of “number”)
-Go find whatever folder it downloaded to by navigating through the terminal
$ tar -zxvf nameoffile.tar.gz
$ cd wget-number
$ ./configure —with-ssl=openssl
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf wget-* (all folders gone! it’s a beautiful thing.)

Getting winetricks:
$ wget http://winetricks.org/winetricks (remember you need the internet for this one)
$ chmod +x winetricks

Getting .NET 2.0:
$ bash winetricks dotnet20
-a wild “Wine is being updated” window appears!
-it’s a large file, leave time for it to download
-Installation window appears (ignore the scary writing in the terminal…)

Try running SimPE:
-Go find it through the terminal (navigate into the SimPE folder)
$ wine simpe.exe
- lots of scary writing in the terminal, SimPE froze
- tried again, IT WORKS! (for now...)

I hope that helps, if that's what your looking for. Sorry I don't have any pictures, I didn't think to take any until after I was done...

Intriguing! I am on a Mac myself, and also am frustrated with the lack of SimPE. I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions.

Why do you say to not install Mono? Does Mono interfere with Wine or with SimPE? And have you been able to do anything with it, or just boot it up?

Well, when I tried loading SimPE the first time, it asked if I wanted to install Mono automatically, and so I let it. However, I couldn't load up SimPE. When I uninstalled Mono and installed NET 2.0 instead, it worked. Also, one of the files in the SimPE folder said it uses NET 2.0. I only bolded it that much because it was super annoying trying to figure out how to un-install Mono. ;^^

Again, I'm definitely not an expert at this, so there may be a way to get SimPE to work if you already have Mono installed/need it for something else, but I was not willing to bash my head against that brick wall any longer than necessry.

Also, I have recategorized clothing (age and use) and binned hair using SimPE so far. (That's all I really wanted it for, though I may start getting a bit more creative one of these days.)

One more note- So far, I have only been able to start SimPE by using that $ wine simpe.exe command in Terminal. I'm sure there's a way to solve that, but I haven't bothered to figure it out yet... maybe later.

As I understand it, Mono *is* NET 2.0 for Macs, but I have also had trouble getting SimPE to load through Mono. It said it couldn't find the .dll files, which are right there in the same folder. It apparently requires a working knowledge of C++ to tell Mono where to find the .dlls; I couldn't find a how-to written in English instead of Programmer. I think having to go through Terminal is normal.

I remember hearing about someone who was able to open SimPE in Wine, but they didn't actually try running it, which is why I asked. Good to know that it does run! I will investigate this option further.

So I started getting more creative and found a problem. Neither Detail View nor Plugin View will work for me. It may be a problem with gdiplus. I tried installing gdiplus to no avail, but I'm continuing to work on it. If anyone else has any ideas, that'd be great. (Everything else along the bottom of the screen seems to work though...)