Mac Source Ports

Developer: Ken Silverman
Release Date: January 1, 1993
Source Code Release Date: July 1, 2001

I'm going to be honest - for a long time I didn't know Ken's Labyrinth was a real game. Written by Ken Silverman as a teenager, the game is most known for being effectively the progenitor of the Build engine, which he later wrote. For some reason I always thought it was the name of a tech demo he used to get the 3D Realms gig, and not an actual commercial title.

But no, it's real, and it's fascinating. Sometimes when you have an early example of a game in a genre you get to see what they tried to do before they knew what worked. Like how Wolfenstein 3-D had points you could score, something later id Software titles never had. Ken's Labyrinth, though, has everything. Score? Check. Utterly random enemies? Check. No real plot or need for one? Of course. Graphics and sounds made by a passionate one-person team with no previous experience? Done. An in-game economy with vending and slot machines? Sure why the heck not. Toss in some photos of the developer and an audio clip of him welcoming you and you have the video game equivalent of a cult classic. The game was originally shareware and later published by Epic.

Silverman released the game as freeware in 1999 and the source in 2001. LAB3D/SDL is a source port started by Ryan “icculus” Gordon and like the Build engine that came after it, it's been through a chain of maintainers, including Katie Stafford, the latest of which is from Cameron Armstrong who brought it into modern Mac platforms.

Developer: Monolith Productions
Release Date: October 1, 2002

I may have overused the term Cult Classic on this site, but this game goes one step further: it's one of gaming's Holy Grails.

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way is the second entry in the NOLF series. You play as Cate Archer, a spy for U.N.I.T.Y., a British counter-terrorism group fighting the H.A.R.M. organization. Basically it's a parody/homage to the James Bond movies of the 1960's with a stylish, groovy protagonist. The game was critically well recieved and is beloved within gaming fandom.

So why is it a White Whale? Because it has been commercially unavilable for many years now. It's a bizarre situaiton where the companies involved with making the games have been bought and sold and absorbed enough times that no one knows who owns the rights. The parties involve are willing to spend the effort to quash efforts from GOG and Night Dive to reissue the game but not enough to actually hash out the rights.

So consequently it was absolutely not on my Bingo card for this year that someone would figure out how to run the game on Apple Silicon. So if you fall in the Venn Diagram of people who want to play this game and are willing to figure out how to get the data on your Mac, prepare yourself for one of the best games money can't buy, though not for lack of trying.

Developer: Quetoo Team
Release Date: May 22, 2026

So this is interesting, I just stumbled on this randomly a few weeks back right after it was released, although it was apparently in the works for twenty years.

Quetoo is an open source project that's a combination of id Tech engines and technologies, incorporating every graphics technique the source port communities are known for, and recreating some of the classic maps of the Quake series without actually using any of its data.

The result is a purely community focused freeware arena shooter that can even be edited with modern tools like Trenchboom.
Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Developer: id Software
Release Date: December 10, 1993
Source Code Release Date: December 23, 1997

You can't *not* have DOOM on a site like this. With its classic and low system requirements, DOOM famously runs on anything with a screen and a processor, so naturally it (still) runs on the Mac. The most active source port is GZDoom, which is ahead of the curve on having a Universal 2 app with M1 Mac support so we're just linking to it here. Be sure to check out their website for more info.

We've also linked to ZDoom, an older but discontinued predecessor to GZDoom, for those of you who want to run DOOM on an older PowerPC Mac.

  Buy DOOM on GOG.com

Developer: id Software
Release Date: October 10, 1994
Source Code Release Date: December 23, 1997

The retail sequel to DOOM eschews episodes for one long campaign of levels. Adding new weapons and monsters, DOOM II delivers on its promise of more DOOM.

  Buy DOOM II on GOG.com

Developer: TeamTNT
Release Date: June 17, 1996
Source Code Release Date: December 23, 1997

Final DOOM was a retail product which contained two 32-level campaigns, TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment. It used the same weapon and feature set as DOOM II and the episodes were contracted out from the DOOM level editing community.

  Buy Final DOOM on GOG.com

Developer: Raven Software
Release Date: December 23, 1994
Source Code Release Date: January 11, 1999

Running on the DOOM engine, Heretic went an entirely different direction with dark fantasy elements, interactive environments, and inventory items. Also sometimes you can fly.

  Buy Heretic on GOG.com

Developer: Raven Software
Release Date: October 30, 1995
Source Code Release Date: January 11, 1999

The sequel to Heretic, also running on the DOOM, Hexen: Beyond Heretic builds on Heretic's foundation by adding selectable classes and a hub structure.

  Buy Hexen: Beyond Heretic on GOG.com

Developer: Rogue Software
Release Date: May 15, 1996
Source Code Release Date: December 12, 2014

Demonstrating the flexibility of the DOOM engine (or at least developers' willingness to try and use it everywhere), Strife is an RPG with FPS elements. If nothing else, it's a neat idea. One interesting side note is that the original source code for this game was lost, the support for this game was reverse engineered.

  Buy Strife on GOG.com

Developer: Digital Café
Release Date: 1996
Source Code Release Date: December 23, 1997

Legendary for being the first video game released in a cereal box (or at least the first good one), Chex Quest is a fantastic FPS game using the DOOM engine but eschewing the violence for cartoon zapping. Essentially a kid-friendly DOOM total conversion with new levels, this marketing tool has continued to entertain, especially if you have a kid who wants to play a retro first person shooter.

The first game in the series was released on a CD-ROM in boxes of Chex, the second game was available for download on Chex's website, and the third game was commissioned in 2008 (!). There's a reason why everyone from AVGN to John Oliver have commented on this game.

The WAD files are available for free here.