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Mac OS X Classic Games Roundup

Posted by pudge on from the i-pity-the-fool dept.

Alcimedes writes "Maybe I'm jaded as to the quality of games coming out these days, but I haven't found that much lately that really catches my eye. So it was with great joy that I returned to the SC2 project page to find out that my favorite game of all time, Star Control 2, has been ported to Mac OS X." Jay Brewer writes "Small Fry Studios will be releasing a Mac OS X version of our new shareware game, Hillbilly Whack! Save Winnie May! this fall. We've launched a small preview site with teaser trailers and screenshots of the classic-style-on-steroid game." Ambrosia has ported Escape Velocity and EV:Override (using the EV Nova engine) to Mac OS X, free to existing EV Nova customers. And Cliff Johnson's amazing The Fool's Errand has a sequel coming on Halloween Day, The Fool and his Money. You can go over now and catch the preview material, and download free copies of The Fool's Errand and 3 in Three (which work mostly fine in Classic mode on Mac OS X).

16 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Nifty... by Badge+17 · · Score: 4, Informative

    After all, Escape Velocity was a classic, and the reason I've kept an old Macintosh around for many, many years. But what about even older Macintosh games? For instance, Dark Castle? There's a new version of that, too: http://www.deltatao.com

    1. Re:Nifty... by lordDallan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Plus the cool stuff happening over at Marathon Open source with Aleph One etc..

    2. Re:Nifty... by WatertonMan · · Score: 3, Interesting
      How many years has Return to Dark Castle been in development? A lot.

      Personally I wish the first two Dark Castles were available. Even though they were B&W with primitive graphics, they were great games. For those who never played them they were, for lack of a better description, something like Donkey Kong meets Joust meets a Prince of Persia. Very old school. But I have fond memories of playing it on one of the old all-in-one Mac+ systems with a meg of memory. (Ah that seemed like a lot at the time)

  2. Myth baby! by cruppel · · Score: 5, Informative

    www.mythdev.org is the home of the volunteer project to update all three Myth games. While III was on OS X, Myth TFL was the thing that kept me dual booting for months after switching to OS X. I'm addicted all over again...

    The multiplayer works for all three games, but Myth II is by far the most popular of the three. Geez it's good to play TFL again!

  3. speaking of classic... by xluserpetex · · Score: 5, Informative

    a cocoa frontend for the classic text adventure, "adventure" was released the other day. more info here

  4. a Risk clone by BortQ · · Score: 4, Informative
    Lux is a modern-day version of the classic Risk game that's built specifically for Mac OS X.

    Yes, it was built by me, but it's still damn cool. So check it out.

    --

    A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
    1. Re:a Risk clone by idontsmoke · · Score: 5, Informative

      Another Risk clone is iConquer, also built for Mac OS X. It's highly addictive in multiplayer mode.

  5. Klondike for OS X! by mattkime · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do Mac games get any more classic than Klondike?

    Version 7.7.1 runs on the 68k MacPlus with System 6 all the way up to the new G5s running Mac OS 10.2.

    By my count, that spans 8 generations of processors.

    Okay, that might not impress you command line folk, but thats quite a life for a GUI app.

    --
    Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
    1. Re:Klondike for OS X! by .smoke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Dunno about Klondike, but I remember playing the Fool's Errand and 3 in Three puzzle games mentioned in the original post on System 6! Another post mentioned Bolo - I played that on my Apple //e, so if that can still be played on newer hardware, there's a few more generations :)

      I've been contemplation hooking up my System 7 68k mac recently in order to play some of the earlier Ambrosia games. Hearing that Fool's Errand is freely available, I'm definitely going to do it, because I never got around to finishing that. (I never had a NIC for it, but in the past I've gotten it online using PPP over a direct serial connection to one of my linux boxes...)

      B*B,
      -Smoke.

  6. What about Bolo? by Frac · · Score: 4, Informative

    That game was lots of fun..

    http://www.lgm.com/bolo/intro/

    1. Re:What about Bolo? by megli · · Score: 4, Interesting
      now THAT is a game that needs to be ported to osx.

      ...although maybe it would be easier to port the linux clone than the original. too bad the linux version is only available as an executable. if only it were open source. it's gameplay is also a litte rough compaired to the original's. you can still open all your old map files though.

      i wish stuart cheshire had not stopped development on the game. it has always been a blast to play. -megli

      --
      ===== will post for karma
  7. Getting warmer... by madcoder47 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ambrosia has taken a terrific step by porting override and EV classic to the Nova engine.

    After downloading them, i realized that the ported version has a few fatal flaws which detract much from the original:

    a) no forklift through conventional cheat -- the forklift was a terriffic weapon, accessed by option clicking the logo on the title screen, witing for a certail line of text to appear, and holding control-option-command-shift. This doesnt work under the nova engine.

    b) no EV-Edit/.rsrc types for the Nova pilots! After playing the game a few times, it became repetitive; I got most of my play time out of the game by modifying it... making my own ships, planets, weapons, and outfits. the customizability of EV was endless and made the game fun for a long time... The ported versions save Nova-type pilot files which have to editing tools yet.

    Although I'm enthused about the new releases, there's still a large part of the original EVs missing for me

  8. virtual valerie by mattkime · · Score: 3, Funny

    any efforts to bring her back?

    --
    Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
  9. ScummVM, Sarien, FreeSCI by twain · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check out also ScummVM. Plays lots of good oldies, LucasArts' adventure games, Simon the Sorcerers, Beneath a Steel Sky etc. And enhanced with anti-aliasing too!

    Sarien plays some Sierra oldies.

    And perhaps FreeSCI (other Sierra oldies) might work some day on OS X too (native or via X11).

  10. Puzzles and Smut by cryptochrome · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's an interesting but true observation that modern gaming has almost totally neglected two genres that were previously kings: puzzle games and smutty games. Sure, there's a puzzle every now and then (ICO) and there's plenty of smut IN games (GTA, DOA, every female character design, etc), though few are actually about sex in the manner of virtual valerie or Leisure Suit Larry were. Too bad (especially with regard to the puzzles).

    I'm reminded about how Tetris was invented by a Russian programmer, who was strictly limited by the capabilities of his substandard hardware. Despite that it's arguably the best computer game of all time. I guess simplicity is out of style, and dirty thoughts (or at least acting on them in anything more serious than Maxim magazine) is out of favor.

    --

    ---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?

  11. Infocom Games! by Slur · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you like Infocom adventures you should Download Frotz! 2.4.1. This interpreter installs into /usr/local/bin and runs in the Terminal. It would be nice to have a Cocoa front-end for this. Perhaps some cool Mac Geek will find the time....

    Frotz! 2.4.3 is also available in source code form if you're into building from source. You just have to make sure you have the ncurses library installed (Fink helps). I had to rename the "init_process" function (in src/common/process.c and src/main.c) to "my_init_process" before it would build. Some kind of symbol conflict with libSystem....

    You can play Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the web but I don't think it allows you to save the game.

    Fortunately you can download the HHGG data file (option-click) right off the web and play it in Frotz!

    As for other Infocom and Z-engine games, here are some links to resources straight out of the Mac Frotz readme file:

    --
    -- thinkyhead software and media