Mac Source Ports

Developer: Capstone Software
Release Date: September 1995
Source Code Release Date: August 2006

Witchaven, based on a pen-and-paper RPG supplement, was the first game to use the Build engine. Although not nearly as successful or technically advanced as its successors, it nevertheless attempted to pull off a combination of first person action and role playing elements.

The source was released by a former Capstone programmer in 2006 and the JFWitchaven project arose from that.

This game is definitely not nearly as polished or advanced as later Build games but it's still an intersting artifact of the mid-90's FPS gold rush.

  Buy Witchaven on GOG.com

  Buy Witchaven on the Humble Store

Developer: 3D Realms
Release Date: January 29, 1996
Source Code Release Date: April 1, 2003

Duke Nukem 3D was the third entry in the Duke Nukem franchise, with a lead character acting as a parody of action movie tropes. Whereas the first two entries were side scrollers, Duke Nukem 3D was a first person shooter in a modern urban setting featuring environment interaction not commonly seen at the time. Although it was released right before the realization of full 3D environments, it gained a devout following that continues to this day. Hail to the King, baby!

Developer: 3D Realms
Release Date: September 12, 1997
Source Code Release Date: April 2, 2005

Shadow Warrior Classic is another first person shooter from 3D Realms using the same Build engine as Duke Nukem 3D, but a Kung-Fu movie theme with weapons like a katana and shurikens, along with 3D Realms' infamous humor.

  Buy Shadow Warrior Classic on GOG.com

  Buy Shadow Warrior Classic on the Humble Store

Developer: id Software
Release Date: December 14, 1990

Not only is this literally id Software's first game, but they didn't even go by id Software yet, they went by the name Ideas from the Deep. Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons is a shareware side scroller with EGA graphics that predated sound cards. The first game in the series consisted of three episodes, and the Commander Genius source port went so far as to reverse engineer the PC speaker sound effects the game relied upon.

Note that most digital retailers market someting called the Commander Keen Complete Pack which contains the first two games' content but not the Keen Dreams spinoff or the final episode Aliens Ate My Babysitter due to the surprisingly complicated publication history of the series. Commander Genius has incomplete support for Keen Dreams, but fully supports Aliens Ate My Babysitter, should you be able to find it somewhere.

  Buy Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons on GOG.com

Developer: id Software
Release Date: December 15, 1991

Now going by id Software formally, Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy! is a shareware sequel to the original game, consisting of two episodes. The third episode was spun off into a new game to fulfill a contractual obligation. The game features enhancements and new features such as parallax scrolling.

Note that most digital retailers market someting called the Commander Keen Complete Pack which contains the first two games' content but not the Keen Dreams spinoff or the final episode Aliens Ate My Babysitter due to the surprisingly complicated publication history of the series. Commander Genius has incomplete support for Keen Dreams, but fully supports Aliens Ate My Babysitter, should you be able to find it somewhere.

  Buy Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy! on GOG.com

Developer: id Software
Release Date: December 1991

Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter is the final game in the Commander Keen series developed by id Software (though a Game Boy Color sequel/reboot would be developed externally in 2001). Released as a retail sequel, it contains the sixth episode of the original series (seventh if you count Keen Dreams).

Note that most digital retailers market someting called the Commander Keen Complete Pack which contains the first two games but not this final game due to the surprisingly complicated publication history of the series. Commander Genius has incomplete support for Keen Dreams, but fully supports Aliens Ate My Babysitter, should you be able to find it somewhere.

Developer: JAM Productions
Release Date: December 3, 1993
Source Code Release Date: July 8, 2013

After the success of publishing Wolfenstein 3-D, Apogee licensed the engine from id Software and hired JAM Software to make a new game with it. Giving it a sci-fi setting instead of WWII, they added multiple features to the engine like one-way doors, health stations, teleporters, in-game informant characters, and more.

The game then had the incredibly unfortunate timing of being released literally one week before DOOM. It's not the only game with this distinction but it's the game industry equivalent of being a movie that released on the same day as Star Wars.

Still, the game did enough business to merit a sequel and developed a following, especially amongst those whose computers weren't strong enough to run DOOM.

The bstone source port is derived from the original source code, which Apogee released in 2013 to promote the Apogee Throwback Pack, a trend we should absolutley support seeing more of in the future.

  Buy Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold on GOG.com

Developer: JAM Productions
Release Date: October 28, 1994
Source Code Release Date: July 8, 2013

Despite being overshadowed by DOOM, the original Blake Stone game must have sold well enough to merit a sequel, or at least not poorly enough to break from Apogee's "shareware game, retail sequel" pattern, we have Blake Stone: Planet Strike.

Hailing from the golden age of PC gaming when a sequel could come out a year later the game doesn't deviate too much from its predecessor, essentially being more content with a few code tweaks and added features.

The bstone source port is derived from the original source code, which Apogee released in 2013 to promote the Apogee Throwback Pack, a trend we should absolutley support seeing more of in the future.

  Buy Blake Stone: Planet Strike on GOG.com

Developer: Piranha Bytes
Release Date: November 29, 2002

Gothic II is an action role-playing game set in a medieval fantasy world and follows the nameless hero from the original game as they explore a variety of environments, complete quests, and choose their faction to play as either a warrior, rogue, or mage, each with their own unique skills and abilities. Gothic II features an open-world design whose story and characters are highly regarded for their depth and complexity, and the game has amassed a devout following over the years.

The game spawned an expansion pack, Gothic II: Night of the Raven and a re-release of the two under the name Gothic II: Gold Edition.

The OpenGothic project has recreated the engine for Gothic II, and we have assembled an app bundle build for your convenience.

  Buy Gothic II 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.