Mac Source Ports

Developer: Voidpoint
Release Date: October 2, 2023
Source Code Release Date: October 2, 2023

Ion Fury: Aftershock is the expasion pack for Ion Fury. If you liked the first game you'll like the expansion pack because now there's more of it. Similar to the original game, the developer is not distributing Mac builds so our build is the only way to play it on the Mac short of rolling your own.

Thanks to a tip from the community, the issues building the EDuke32 source port have been resolved and so we are able to give you the latest version, capable of playing the expansion pack.

NOTE: the new version of EDuke32 may be incompatible with earlier saved games. If you need to revert to the old version it is still available here. Also you may need to select an "8-bpp" video mode on Apple Silicon Macs to achieve acceptable performance.

  Buy Ion Fury: Aftershock on GOG.com

  Buy Ion Fury: Aftershock on the Humble Store

Developer: Epic Games
Release Date: May 22, 1998
Source Code Release Date: Not released

Also known as that game that convinced you to buy a Voodoo card, Unreal was released in 1998 after a lengthy development cycle. Although the name Unreal is primarily known today as a game engine licensing powerhouse, the original entry in the series is more than a tech demo, it's a fasinating glimpse in to what it was like to try and make a polygonal FPS game before most of the rules were well known. It's also a perfect example of a game where what you remember is much different than what you play today.

The OldUnreal team, responsible for bringing us the Mac port of Unreal Tournament have received permission from Epic to also release a build of the original Unreal for the Mac. Although the original game was available for classic Mac OS, this is the first Mac port of it in... nevermind how long it's been.

Note that we are labeling this an Early Access release since the OldUnreal team is labeling this build a pre-release. The original renderer has been replaced with a new Metal-based renderer and some glitches are to be expected, but the game is definitely playable.

Developer: KillPixel Games, Slipgate Ironworks
Release Date: February 27, 2024
Source Code Release Date: February 27, 2024

It's now official: WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is the newest game on this site because as of this writing it was fully released two days ago. Developed by KillPixel Games in conjunction with Irongate Slipworks, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin takes the concept of the retro boomer shooter one step further by actually using a game engine from that era: the DarkPlaces engine, derived from the original Quake engine, with a few parts of Quake III: Arena as well.

Originally released in 2019 as Early Access, the full release was finally released in February 2024. While the developer lists the Mac as a supported platform, the game is currently Windows-only but the use of DarkPlaces engine means the source code is available from day one.

At Mac Source Ports, we previously hosted a build of wrathplaces that would run with the Early Access version of the game, but the final released version featured enough changes that the build no longer works so I incorporated the changes. If you downloaded the previous release, you will need to update to the build below to work with the full version of the game.

NOTE: The game now features achivements but for obvious reasons our build is unable to tie into GOG or Steam to claim them.

  Buy WRATH: Aeon of Ruin on GOG.com

  Buy WRATH: Aeon of Ruin on the Humble Store

Developer: Core Design
Release Date: October 24, 1996
Source Code Release Date: Not formally released

In 2024, a remaster of the first three Tomb Raider games was released, but only on Windows. So, I figured now was a good a time as any to try and get a Mac build of a Tomb Raider source port going. This is where it gets weird, so... strap in:

Tomb Raider is a series where the source has never been released, so the efforts out there are all reverse engineered affairs. Most of the time when this happens you get one, maybe two and very occasionally three ports.

The original Tomb Raider game has five reverse engineered source ports, and thats just what I could find.

That was the first interesting thing. The second thing was that most of these only ran the first game. Core Design in the 90's cranked out five Tomb Raider games in five years. They clearly used an evolution of the same engine so most projects start with the first game and go from there, but they haven't perfected the later games yet.

Of the projects I found, the one named OpenLara was the most complete, both because it actually runs the game, menus and all, and also because the author and its community have ported it to all kinds of stuff, from the Sega 32X to the Game Boy Advance. So a Mac port seemed straighforward, and it was. The problem is the game data.

There's more information below in the installation instructions but the gist is that the Steam and GOG releases of the original game feature an ISO image of the original game and the Redbook audio tracks in MP3 format. And both of these need to be converted before you can run the game.

So I'm calling this one "Early Access" for now, because while it works, it takes some effort.

OpenLara only officially supports the first game. The second game loads but has issues when new enemies and mechanics show up. The third game loads and runs but Lara gets stuck in the geometry of the first level and that's as far as you can get. The fourth game doesn't load. I didn't even try the fifth. But if and when any of these improve, I'll update the build and add more entries.

In the meantime, embark on the epic adventure of getting the game running and then party like it's 1996 and you're sitting on the floor with your original PlayStation.

  Buy Tomb Raider on GOG.com

Developer: Volition
Release Date: September 30, 1999
Source Code Release Date: April 25, 2002

FreeSpace 2 was the sequel to Descent: FreeSpace - The Great War. The first game was unrelated to the Descent series and only used the name to avoid conflict with a commercial software utility, so the sequel dropped it.

Although not a commercial success, it gained a cult following, especially in the wake of the 2002 release of the source code which gave rise to the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project, one of the oldest continously maintained source ports in existence. In 2022 they added Mac support and in 2024 they added Apple Silicon support.

NOTE: The links below are to the Mac builds of the game, but there also exists a project called Knossos.NET which consists of a utility which will handle the installation and configuration for you, including installing the data files from GOG installers. For the quickest route to getting the game check out the Knossos.NET entry on our Utilities page.

  Buy FreeSpace 2 on GOG.com

Developer: New World Computing
Release Date: June 8, 1999
Source Code Release Date: Not formally released

There's lots of game series whose entries reflect the evolution of gaming technology, but not many of them can lay claim to staring the series on the Apple II and Commodore 64.

Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor is the seventh entry in the mainlne Might and Magic series, which runs parallel to the Hereos of Might and Magic series. Released in 1999 (the Best Year for Gaming, Ever) it is the second game in the series to use a 3D engine. The OpenEnroth project aims to implement Might and Magic VI, VII and VIII, but at the moment only VII is playable.

  Buy Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor on GOG.com

Developer: Relic Entertainment
Release Date: September 28, 1999
Source Code Release Date: September 2003

I have some games on this site with lots of fans, but I feel like Homeworld has a particularly special cultlike following. Released in 1999 (aka The Best Year For Gaming, Ever) it is a RTS game set in a 3-D space, a novel concept for the time and one that's hard to match even to this day. It spawned a sequel and a pair of spinoff games, and a third game in the main series has been in the works for several years and should be delivered in 2024.

Relic released the source code for the original game in 2003 under the now defunct Relic Developer Network and it's been the basis of several source ports with a history more complicated than Dune lore.

NOTE: In 2013, Gearbox releaed the Homeworld Remastered Collection which featured enhanced versions of the first two mainline games as well as the original, and these are likely the only versions being sold today. If you use the data from these versions you will want to use the files from the "Homeworld1Classic" folder in the instructions below.

  Buy Homeworld on GOG.com

  Buy Homeworld on the Humble Store

Developer: Pangea Software
Release Date: December 30, 2002
Source Code Release Date: December 2020

Bugdom 2 is a 2002 sequel to the original game. You play as a grasshopper named Skip who needs to retrieve his stolen knapsack from a large Bully Bee.

With permission from Pangea, developer Iliyas Jorio has released updated versions of some Pangea games for modern versions of macOS. Like all of his Pangea ports this is the full, free game so you can just download and play it immediately, and full source code is available on GitHub. If you would like to support his efforts you can head to his itch.io page and name your own price for any of the ports.

Developer: Gearbox Software
Release Date: November 19, 1999
Source Code Release Date: Not released to the public

Half-Life: Opposing Force is the first expansion pack for Half-Life. It takes place during the events of the original game, but instead of playing as Gordon Freeman having a bad day at work you play from the perspective of one of the Marines sent into the complex. It was definitely an interesting maneuver, and one that avoided having to explain what happened after the end of the first game, they wouldn't go there until the sequel.

NOTE: the support for Opposing Force as a Xash3D-FWGS mod is still in development. You may notice quirks like glitches with weapon animations. For this reason I have labeled the game as "Early Access". If you're willing to ignore the issues you can go ahead and experience the expansion pack on your Mac again.

Developer: Gearbox Software
Release Date: June 12, 2001
Source Code Release Date: Not released to the public

OK, so here's the deal: around 2001, Gearbox Software was contracted to port Half-Life to the Sega Dreamcast. Seeing as how they handled making the Half-Life: Opposing Force expansion, it made sense to hand the task off to them. And just to make the port even more special, Gearbox made a second expansion pack, Half-Life: Blue Shift, that would be exclusive to the Dreamcast version of the game. Whereas the first expansion followed the original game's story through the viewpoint of one of the Marines sent into the Black Mesa facility, Half-Life: Blue Shift does the same but from the perspective of Black Mesa security guard Barney.

Gamers were annoyed at the prospect of a single player expansion they couldn't run on their PC, so Valve capitulated and decided to release the expansion retail for PC gamers as well.

And then the Dreamcast port of Half-Life was canceled at the last minute. Like, almost literally the last mintue - some number of press review copies had alredy been sent out. There's a very small number of actual copies of the game.

Then when Blue Shift finally came out for the PC, many gamers were disappointed with its short length, unaware of the Dreamcast back story.

In any event, one of the mods that the Xash3D-FWGS project supports is a port of Blue Shift, so I've updated the build to include it. You will need both the original game and the expansion. If you want more Half-Life, duty calls...