I'm new here, and not very computer savvy, so please bear with me. I just love playing the Sims and am hoping someone can help me. Here's the story:

I purchased the Sims 2 super collection on my husband's MacBook air a few days ago and it works like a dream. Then, I unexpectedly got an old MacBook air from a friend. It's about ten years old but it has a 64 bit processor and it has High Sierra 10.13.6, so I believe I have all the appropriate specs for this game (and loads of space too). I re-downloaded the game from the app store onto my new Mac and every time I try to open the app, I get a pop up that says the app unexpectedly quit.

Here's what I've tried: restarting the laptop, contacting apple support, trying to open the game in safe mode, trying to open the game under a different account, trying to clear the files (I found this suggestion on a forum to go to Library>containers>the sims 2 and clear the files. When I go to containers I don't even see files for the sims 2), deleting and re-installing the app. I've contacted aspyr, but no response yet. Don't know if this makes sense, but does the fact that the game I originally purchased from the app store is still on my husband's Mac have anything to do with why it won't work on my Mac?

Is there a solution? Even if the answer is no, that's fine. I just want to know if there's anything that can be done. Thank you.

If both computers are online it makes sense, you should check the license terms at Aspyr to see how many computers can have this software installed at same time under the same license code, usually it's just one.

As long as both Macs are logged in to the same Apple ID for the Mac App Store you can install the game on as many machines as you want. I’ve had it on up to three at times, including a MacBook Air.

If /Users/<yourlogin>/Library/Containers doesn’t have a com.aspyr.sims2.appstore folder in it, then the game hasn’t even started up far enough to create it before crashing. That gets created at the first successful launch.

You say that the MB Air in question is running 10.13.6, which is fine for the current version of the game. But you also need to check whether its graphics are supported, if it’s a very old machine as you say it is. Click on the Apple menu, then About This Mac to check what it has. From what I can see, anything from the mid-2011 model onwards where the Airs switched to integrated graphics (Intel HD 3000) should be okay, but if it’s from earlier than that you might be out of luck. The very earliest Airs did have discrete GPUs, but nothing that is supported by the game as far as I can see.

CPU speed might also be a factor, though that’s measured differently for Core 2 Duo and the current i-series, so the quoted speed requirement isn't very helpful. Again, I’d think the 2011 and later machines ought to cope without crashing, even if they chug a bit.

If you do get it working, bear in mind that the game is pretty greedy and will make an Air run very hot. I prefer to play on my iMac when I can, but got into the habit of running the Air on battery rather than mains power for playing sessions. That throttles it down slightly and it’ll run slightly cooler in consequence (not charging a battery at the same time will help with that too, of course).