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Shimeji for Mac

Shimeji for Mac #

Warning: This post hasn't been updated for over a year. The information may be out of date.

Where to find #

Ver 2024-11-25 (working version for Apple Silicon) #

System: macOS 15.1.1 on Apple Silicon

Thanks to CupNo6801’s comment on Is it possible to run Shimeji desktop pets on Macbook Pro 2020 M1? (two months after my previous endeavour), I have once again landed on LavenderSnek/ShimejiEE-cross-platform.

This did not work for me last time, I realised, because I did not have OpenJDK 17 installed on my Intel Mac. Now that I have a new machine, it’s time to try again. The author seems to be looking at migrating to JDK 21, which, would just be a matter of updating the OpenJDK.

Installation #

1. Install OpenJDK 17

# install OpenJDK 17
brew install openjdk@17
sudo ln -sfn /opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@17/libexec/openjdk.jdk /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-17.jdk

2. Download the latest release with mac in the name from Releases · LavenderSnek/ShimejiEE-cross-platform.

3. Unzip to, for example, ~/Desktop/ShimejiEE.

4. Delete the folder ~/Desktop/ShimejiEE/jre-mac/ completely, if it exists.

5. Copy the img folder of the shimeji of your choice, paste as ~/Desktop/ShimejiEE/img/<character name>. You can delete the other folders under ~/Desktop/ShimejiEE/img/ (keep the icon.png).

6. Double click ~/Desktop/ShimejiEE/ShimejiEE.jar. If a shimeji selection window shows up (might be in other screen spaces), then you’re good.

7. If error "ShimejiEE.jar" is damaged and can't be opened shows up, go to System Preferences.app▸Privacy & Security▸Security▸Open Anyway, or allow apps from anywhere.

Usage #

Click the menu bar item for preferences. You can also right-click the shimeji itself to find the same set of preferences.

To keep it present at every space, right-click the Java icon in Dock, choose Options▸Assign To▸All Desktops

Ver 2024-06-21 (working version for Intel Mac) #

System: macOS 10.15.7 on Intel Mac

Thanks to bepis4sale’s comment on Is it possible to run Shimeji desktop pets on Macbook Pro 2020 M1?, today I realised that the Shimeji file that I referenced below, Mac Shimeji by lalala00000007, is actually compatible with Java 11 (and probably up until Java 14, since it seems to be using Nashorn engine). This is how you do it.

  1. NO need to install Java 6.
  2. Confirm that you have a compatible Java Runtime Environment by running in Terminal java --version. According to Wikipedia, it should be between 8 ~ 14.
  3. Go through the Installation steps 1 ~ 7 below.
  4. Right-click the Shimeji.jar file while holding option, and click Copy “Shimeji.jar” as Pathname.
  5. In Terminal, run java -jar <paste the path you just copied>.
  6. Keep the Terminal window open until you quit Shimeji.

Extra perk: The new Java version uses a lot less CPU than Java 6.

Script for easier access:

folder2/launch_shimeji.sh sh
#!/bin/zsh

java -jar "./Shimeji.app/Contents/Resources/Java/Shimeji.jar"

Usage: In Terminal, under folder2

  1. Run chmod +x launch_shimeji.sh (only the first time)
  2. Run sh launch_shimeji.sh

Ver 2021-02-22 #

Main reference: @zkdlsoo on Twitter

This article was originally posted in Chinese on my blog: Shimeji（桌宠） on macOS. Go take a look at my demo video there if you want to know how it looks in action.

Prerequisites #

  1. A relatively high-spec Mac. This thing eats a lot of CPU.
  2. Java 6 runtime
    • Can be downloaded from Apple’s kb.
    • Or use Homebrew: brew install java6 (Homebrew has removed this version)
  3. The Shimeji (for Windows) of your choice
  4. One working Shimeji for Mac
    • Download either 2P!England (single) or 2P!America (single) from -Mac- 2PUS and 2PUK -Mac- Shimeji by lalala00000007 on DeviantArt.
    • Note that those two files have different passwords.
    • Oh, my, is it Hetalia? It is indeed Hetalia.
    • I am terribly sorry for abusing your work, dear author, but it is the one and only working example on Earth now.

Installation #

  1. Unzip the Shimeji of your choice to, say, folder1.
  2. Unzip the Hetalia Shimeji to folder2.
  3. Just to make sure, try running it first.
    1. Right click folder2/Shimeji.app, and click Show Package Contents.
    2. Find Shimeji.app/Contents/Resources/Java/Shimeji.jar, double click to run.
    3. Does it work? It worked on my machine (macOS 10.15).
    4. To make it easier to access, make a symlink. Right click Shimeji.jar, and click Make Alias. Now cut & paste this directly under folder2.
  4. Rename folder2/img/ to something else, say, img_2.
  5. Copy folder1/img/ & paste under folder2/.
  6. Observe the structure of folder2/img_2/. This is the target structure.
    • It contains one icon.png and several shimeXX.png.
    • Everything is put directly under the folder, no subfolders.
  7. Observe the structure of folder2/img/. If it is different to folder2/img_2/, edit accordingly.
  8. Run Shimeji.jar again. This time the Shimeji of your choice should show up.

Translation of the menu items #

From top to bottom:

  • Add one more
  • Gather all
  • Clean all but one
  • Restore window (no idea what this does)
  • Exit