Mac Source Ports

Developer: Bullfrog Productions
Release Date: March 28, 1997

Famed Amiga developer Bullfrog released this second entry in the "Theme" series (following Theme Park) which allowed players to design and run a hospital. The name Theme Hospital may not make a ton of sense but the game was ridiculously popular. The CorsixTH project is one of the more thorough and well organized source port projects active today, and Mac Source Ports is handling the Mac build.

  Buy Theme Hospital on GOG.com

Developer: Ion Storm
Release Date: May 22, 2000

Yes, it's that game. Daikatana is the game known as much for its infamous advertising and the drama of its backstory as the content of the game itself.

Released in 2000 after a protracted (for the time anyway) three-year development cycle, John Romero's Daikatana was an ambitious game from an enthusiastic new developer that was unable to live up to the hype due to numerous issues at launch. Although some problems were addressed in patches, the Dallas branch of developer Ion Storm was unable to survive despite its pedigree (though their Austin branch would soldier on for a few more years).

Theorizing that the game's issues were not unsalvageable, a group of individuals online contacted the right people and were able to obtain the source under a non-open source license. Years later the Daikatana 1.3 Project released the first version of their attempt at fixing the game's issues with the years of what we've learned about game design as a guide (also the game used id Tech 2, same as Quake II).

For those of us who followed the 1990's Dallas FPS gaming scene, Daikatana has always been a fascinating case study in ambition versus expectations. Many critics agreed that there were genuinely good parts of the game bogged down by issues in the lesser sections. It's interesting to think what the gaming landscape might have been like had the game succeeded.

I first learned about this project via this excellent GManLives video and, upon learning that the game was also ported to Linux and Mac (the original release was Windows-only), I went to go download the Mac version to discover that it was years out of date and unplayable as a 32-bit executable. The reason was simple and a familar one: the (probably one) person who maintained it left the project years ago.

So, I wrote to the project and was able to get the source to work on it. I've been picking at it for months now and I finally got it working on Intel 64-bit as well as Apple Silicon. As mentioned above the source code is not available to the public but I intend to keep this one up to date.

  Buy Daikatana on GOG.com

  Buy Daikatana on the Humble Store

Developer: Altered Orbit Studios
Release Date: May 31, 2024
Source Code Release Date: May 31, 2024

It's impressive that the DOOM runs om everything. It's more impressive that the GZDoom project has turned the DOOM engine into an extremely versatile piece of software. There's a smattering of standalone games out there running on some variant of DOOM or GZDoom and one of the most amazing recent entries is Selaco.

Back when this game came out I and a few others tried building it for the Mac and there were graphical issues due to modifications made to the OpenGL renderer. More recently, CrowEater figured out the trick to building and packaging it for the Mac with MoltenVK to use the Vulkan renderer by default and the result is being able to play this frenetic boomer shooter on the Mac.

Note that this is an Early Access game both in the sense that the game itself is Early Access on Steam and also that this port is a work in progress and may have some issues, like how the opening splash screen is pink. But look past these and you'll find an excellent game to blast your way through.

NOTE: If you had a previous build of this app installed you need to upgrade to the data files from version 0.92a of the game (the latest as of this writing) as the relationship between Selaco's code and its data content is very strict, however upgrading may break your saved games so you may want to finish whatever run you're on before upgrading.

Developer: Epic MegaGames
Release Date: May 7, 1998

Although never as big as Mario or Sonic, Jazz Jackrabbit did well enough with a hungry PC gaming crowd to merit a second game in the series. It's your standard shareware sequel story: more levels, more twists, better technology. If you liked the original you'll like this one.

It also has a very confusing release strategy. The original game was shareware, when you bought it you got the full Jazz Jackrabbit 2 game. Later, it was re-released with an additional episode under the title Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Secret Files. Then came a release called Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Christmas Chronicles, which adds Christmas-themed levels. So when you get the game on GOG you might spot two entries, neither of which look like they're the base game, but both should work in Jazz² Resurrection.

  Buy Jazz Jackrabbit 2 on GOG.com

Developer: Origin Systems
Release Date: April 16, 1992

From the glory days of the DOS-based RPG 90's era, Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the seventh entry in the Ultima series that started out on the Apple II computer. You play as The Avatar and you must get to the bottom of a series of murders and figure out what The Guardian has to do with it. It was commercially successful and led to an expansion pack, Ultima VII: Forge of Virtue.

The Exult project was started in 2003 and has been going ever since, adding official signed and notarized Universal 2 macOS builds just recently. The project is one of the more well known third party efforts, even receiving praise from Lord British himself.

Note that modern game retailers like GOG almost always feature both games and their expansions under the collective title Uiltima VII: The Complete Edition or something to that effect, so buying one package gets you everything and Exult allows you to pick which one you want to play.

  Buy Ultima VII: The Black Gate on GOG.com

Developer: Origin Systems
Release Date: March 25, 1993

Continuing the glory days of the DOS-based RPG 90's era, Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle takes the "more is more" approach and is essentially more content in the same engine. I'd say that today we'd call this a standalone expansion pack, but believe it or not this sequel to a sequel also had its own expansion pack, Ultima VII: The Silver Seed. If you want Ultima VII we've got you fam.

The Exult project was started in 2003 and has been going ever since, adding official signed and notarized Universal 2 macOS builds just recently. The project is one of the more well known third party efforts, even receiving praise from Lord British himself.

Note that modern game retailers like GOG almost always feature both games and their expansions under the collective title Uiltima VII: The Complete Edition or something to that effect, so buying one package gets you everything and Exult allows you to pick which one you want to play.

  Buy Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle on GOG.com

Developer: New World Computing
Release Date: March 3, 1999

Heroes of Might and Magic III is another 4X turn-based strategy game and is one of the best games in the series.

Although my aim is to host signed and notarized game bundles on Mac Source Ports, the VCMI project recently added Apple Silicon support and is sufficiently complex that at this time I'm going to link to their work. We may host a notarized version in the future.

Because the app bundle is not notarized, on first run you may run into issues. The shortest answer is to right-click on the app bundle (VCMI.app) and select Open. The long answer is here.

  Buy Heroes of Might and Magic III on GOG.com

Developer: New World Computing
Release Date: June 1, 2001

Did you like Heroes of Might and Magic III and want more of it? Like a lot more? Good news - between 1999 and 2001 New World Computing put out eight expansion packs under the heading of Heroes Chronicles. Some were retail, others were free, but retailers like GOG have collected them all into one package.

Note that the way VCMI works you will also need the base Heroes of Might and Magic III game installed.

Although my aim is to host signed and notarized game bundles on Mac Source Ports, the VCMI project recently added Apple Silicon support and is sufficiently complex that at this time I'm going to link to their work. We may host a notarized version in the future.

Because the app bundle is not notarized, on first run you may run into issues. The shortest answer is to right-click on the app bundle (VCMI.app) and select Open. The long answer is here.

  Buy Heroes Chronicles on GOG.com

Developer: Chris Sawyer
Release Date: 1995

OK, so this one is kinda weird. Here's the deal:

Transport Tycoon Deluxe was released in 1995, a simulation game by Chris Sawyer in his graphic/UI style about managing transportation in a city. Sort of the progenitor to things like Cities Skylines. Or maybe just the transportation parts of SimCity.

The source port OpenTTD, as its name might suggest, is a reimplementation of Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Like some other ports on this site, it is not based on existing code, it is a reimplimentation of the engine designed to consume the Transport Tycoon Deluxe data files.

Straightforward enough, but what makes it unusual is that Transport Tycoon Deluxe is not commercially available anymore, not even on the usual suspects like Steam or GOG. So unless you have the files from somewhere you can't play it.

To address that, OpenTTD allows you to download third party clean room data implementations of the game data files. These are not the exact same as the commercial game but they get the job done. When you run the game for the first time, it will prompt you to download the files for you. There's also tons others to choose from.

This is a complete enough solution that OpenTTD is even on Steam and GOG itself as a full (free) game. You can get it from there or you can get it from the links below, which are straight from the developer's site. I'm listing it here because I want to show all of the signed and notarized Universal 2 options I come across.

So download it from wherever and fire it up and strap in for one of the most ridiculously hardcore games on this site so far.

Developer: Chris Sawyer
Release Date: October 15, 2002

Another game from the mind of Chris Sawyer, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 shares the same pixel art style and hardcore interface as his other games.

  Buy RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on GOG.com

  Buy RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on the Humble Store