Mac Source Ports

Developer: Impressions Games
Release Date: November 2, 1999

Pharaoh uses the engine from Caesar III but moves the setting to Ancient Egypt where you oversee the building of a city to ensure citizens are fed, employed, healthy and protected from diseases, disasters and wars. An expansion pack titled Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile followed in 2000, and modern digital retailers sell the pair as a bundle entitled Pharaoh + Cleopatra

Since the game was derived from the engine to Caesar III a source port called Akhenaten was forked from the Augustus source port to run the game.

  Buy Pharaoh on GOG.com

Developer: Jagex Limited
Release Date: January 4, 2001

Though probably not the oldest MMO still in existence, RuneScape is definitely one of the most popular. Employing a unique approach to game structuring, developer Jagex itrated on the original design resulting in the modern version of RuneScape (dubbed by some as RuneScape 3), while also maintaining - since 2013 - a separate, parallel version of the game from its circa 2007 incarnation under the title Old School RuneScape. And while Jagex maintains clients for the versions, it also allows other developers to develop clients as well such as this one: RuneLite, which is open source and offers a signed and notarized build for the Mac.

At this time RuneLite does not offer a Universal 2 app, so you will need to download the version that corresponds to your Mac. Apple Silicon users can run either build but performance is better with the Apple Silicon version.

Also note that Old School RuneScape is a free to play MMO, meaning that it must be online in order to play. In addition, some features may only be available to users with an optional paid subscription. Mac Source Ports does not benefit financially from any transactions in the game, we are only linking to this game in order to highlight examples of source ports with modern Mac support.

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

Developer: Thalion Software
Release Date: April 11, 1993
Source Code Release Date: May 7, 2023

The Commodore Amiga was one of those computers where it jumped ahead of the competition by several miles, but then stayed there for a long time and got surpassed by the competition. I think this is why there's such a distinctive look to the games the platform and why it was so accessible to smaller game designers, the types we'd call "indie" today.

Ambermoon is an RPG for the Amiga that really looks like an Amiga game. It was the second part of an unfinished trilogy. Although the original game's source has been released, the source port we're pointing to is Ambermoon.net which like it sounds is a recreation of the original game in C#/.NET (the original game was Amiga-specific Assembly language and isn't a great candidate for portability).

In addition to being able to download it below from the developer's GitHub page, the game is also available on itch.io as a "Name your own price" download in case you want to support or tip the developer.

Developer: Delphine Software
Release Date: November 1991

Another game whose primary platform was the Amiga, Another World (released in North America as Out of This World) is one of those games notable for trying new things. Playing as a scientist transported into an alien world when an experiment goes wrong, it used vector graphics and rotoscoping animation to produce effects not often seen in 1991.

The rawgl project is a cross-platform engine that can use the assets from a number of different versions, including the Anniversary Edition on GOG.

  Buy Another World on GOG.com

  Buy Another World on the Humble Store

Developer: Rebecca Heineman
Release Date: October 1, 1994
Source Code Release Date: January 21, 2000

The original Macintosh port of Wolfenstein 3-D is the rare 1990's example of the Mac getting a better version of the game. Working for Interplay's MacPlay division and using the SNES port as a base, legendary old school game developer Rebecca Heineman created a version that improved upon the original. The game ran at a higher screen resolution, the pixel density on all the in-game graphics was doubled, the enemies have more frames of animation, the sounds were all remade with the fidelity that screams "hey check out my 16-bit sound card!", doors now actually tell you what color key they need, and there's even two new weapons: a flame thrower and a rocket launcher.

Consequently this version can't use the assets from the original PC version of the game. To play that version check out our entry for the original game. To play this version, get the assets from the Internet Archive.

In many ways this is the opposite of her port of DOOM to the 3DO in that she had plenty of time and the result is actually a good way to play the game (she also did the 3DO port of Wolfenstein 3-D, the result is similar to the Mac version). Hopefully having this as a separate entry isn't too confusing.

Developer: Rebecca Heineman
Release Date: October 1996
Source Code Release Date: November 30, 2014

Although DOOM is famous today for running on everything, this wasn't always the case, both because it wasn't until the source came out that it became a meme and also because, hard as it is to believe today, not everything in the early 90's was powerful enough to run DOOM, and often the results were very lackluster.

Rebecca Heineman was a legendary old school video game programmer, and one of the most famous and interesting ports she ever did was the 3DO version of DOOM. Except if you know anything about the ports of DOOM that came out in proximity to the original game, you know that the 3DO port is notorious for being of poor quality. So then why is it so well known? Because of the wild story behind it.

After having done the 3DO port of Wolfenstein 3-D (for which she also did th Macintosh port) she was contracted to polish up the DOOM port from a previous developer, but she soon learned that the publisher misled her, that no work had been done on the 3DO port, and she spent ten solid weeks getting the game to work, including having to address several shortcomings in th 3DO's SDK itself. When viewed through that lens, it's impressive the game runs at all.

In 2014 she released the source code to the 3DO version and the BurgerDoom source port (a nod to her nickname "Burger Becky") is the closest you can get to running the original 3DO version of the game. And I thought initially this was a deal where someone had just taken an existing DOOM source port and just emulated the experience but no, you actually need the 3DO disc image of the original game to run it. The result is a fascinating glimpse into the compromises necessary for console ports in the 90's. The levels are cut down (they're apparently mostly the same as the Atari Jaguar version) with a number of modifications to fit in RAM and decrease polygon count. The game has no multiplayer and no save progress other than remembering what level you were on. A series of video cutscenes did not make the final product. The one thing that's improved upon is the soundtrack since it was re-recorded by a live band in order to take advantage of CD audio tracks.

This is absolutely not the best way to play DOOM, we have source ports for the PC version elsewhere on this site. But as a retro gaming artifact it's an interesting experience. It's the E.T. of DOOM ports in that it's impressive not for its quality but for the fact that it worked at all.

Developer: Rebellion Developments
Release Date: May 13, 1999
Source Code Release Date: 2001

There are many games named Aliens versus Predator, but this one is from the greatest year in the history of gaming: 1999. It had a sequel and a remake but there's still a cult following for this entry in the series.

The source was released in 2001 and ported to Linux by icculus shortly thereafter, but recently the NakedAVP project put in the work to upgrade the code and get it running on the Mac.

Note that on online services like Steam and GOG the game is listed as Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000, which includes the expansion pack content as well.

  Buy Aliens versus Predator on GOG.com

Developer: New World Computing
Release Date: October 1, 1996

Heroes of Might and Magic II is a 4X turn-based strategy game. Ranked once by PC Gamer as the sixth-best game of all time it features resource building, new factions, skills, and a single-player campaign.

  Buy Heroes of Might and Magic II on GOG.com

Developer: Epic Games
Release Date: November 22, 1999

Continuing our tour of why 1999 was the best year ever for gaming, we now have Unreal Tournament on Apple Silicon. This is the original 1999 version, not the sequels and not the attempted-but-abandoned 2014 effort, this is the game that went head-to-head with Quake III: Arena from an era when the multiplayer-only FPS was still a novel concept.

Similar to the Daikatana situation, Epic has not released the source code for this game (which uses what we'd now probably retronym Unreal Engine 1) but a group of individuals online entered into an agreement with them to take over maintenance and future development. They've been releasing new builds for a few years now and now the game runs natively on Apple Silicon.

So break out the Mountain Dew and party like it's 1999 again. For extra fun fire up Quake III: Arena as well and experience a rivalry that continues between old fart gamers to this very day.

NOTE: The build of 469e added a preview version of the team's new Apple Metal renderer. For more information, see the installation instructions below.