Diablo II Patch for Mac OS X Released

soquelraj writes "Blizzard has released the long awaited patch they promised three months ago at MacWorld SF 2002 to allow Diablo II and Diablo II LoD to run native on Mac OS X. This was the last reason I was booting into Mac OS 9 for any reason (I could never stand not having direct access to my video hardware running the game via Classic). The performance (at least on the first quick spin I took tonight after downloading) under OpenGL looks to be much smoother than anything previous -- but regardless, this makes my Mac OS X experience complete."

Comments

Nice commitment from Blizzard

[Niherlas]

As was pointed out on another website, MacOS X hadn't even shipped in public beta form when Diablo II was released. While I'm sure that the OSX updates for WarCraft II, StarCraft, and Diablo II are mostly applications of things Blizzard developers have learned as part of the WarCraft III development cycle, it's still very good of Blizzard to release those efforts to the Mac gaming public.

Then again, I'd also wager that Diablo II (and LOD) has sold enough copies to recoup Blizzard's investment at this point - and the goodwill they're generating amongst the OSX-using community will just translate into additional sales for WarCraft III when it hits the bricks. Not much, granted (I'm realistic about MacOS market share), but every bit helps, neh?

Timing.

[saintlupus]

Now if I only had a time machine that could take me back a year and a half, to when I was actually playing that game...

--saint

Re:Timing.

[doooras]

I envy you. I have been playing D2 for almost 2 years now. LOD now, of course. And I can't stop. Well... except for a short layover for Elite Force about a year ago. Love the trek, baby!

Having Blizzard suport is helpful.

[jellomizer]

Blizzard being one of the more influncial game compaines out there porting/patching thier application to OS X may give other smaller companies reasons to port to OS X.

Diablo for Mac is SLOW

[dangil]

I dont know about you, but for me, diablo 2 is unplayable on a mac..

at least with a geforce 2mx graphics card....

I think it has something to do with Nvidia horrible macos drivers..

but a underpowered (even a celeron 300) PC can play diablo2 much better then my 733 G4 can...

quake3, on the other hand, runs like a charm... so its not a matter of hardware...

please NVIDIA. fix MacOS drivers (both X an 9)
please BLIZZZZZARD. make Nvidia fix those drivers!

Re:Diablo for Mac is SLOW

[CottonEyedJoe]

The readme file mentions this. The solution is to use software rendering. On my 500 MHz iBook using software rendering it plays fine...not quite as fast as the same machine under OS 9/RAVE but its fast enough to play the game.

Complete?

[Dolly_Llama]

this makes my Mac OS X experience complete."

Maybe its just me, but my Mac OSX experience won't be complete until I have two things 1) OSX Native Matlab and 2) Counter-Strike. Purely my opinion..

A Welcome Update

[Spencerian]

Blizzard is one of those great software companies that, literally, help keep Macintosh gaming legitimate. For them to create an update for D2 for Mac OS X is such a sign.

Other companies, from Freeverse and Ambrosia (hail Andrew Welch, god of Code), to Aspyr Media (bless them for Tomb Raider, Sims, and Deus Ex ports, et al.) all show that the good games do come to the Macintosh, and the future for games look good.

However, Apple needs to work on a better HID software solution. We went from InputSprockets (a nice and highly flexible solution) to nothing in OS X. If complex games such as Descent are to be ported, joysticks and other devices must be fully supported.

I'll repeat what others have noted about the update: OS X has good OpenGL, but those with nVidia video may suffer performance problems or even (gasp!) kernel panics. Software rendering works great, and is actually faster than OpenGL with less overhead.

Like other OS before it, try to avoid running a gazzillon apps while D2 is running. It still needs a respectable RAM amount, even though the OS allocates it now. And, keep Classic off--its a resource hog.