This will be an off topic and kinda spammy comment, but thank you for that game. I played it a lot circa 1994. The level editor also kept it very fresh.
It's quite funny, because this page accidentally serves as a list of open source ports for gaming on Linux too. I used to look for ports of games I had played as a child (even for windows, because they sometimes no longer work there), and never got any global headquarters on games' ports (like the winehq db for example, which is another chapter of pain and sorrow to run them on linux)
I would like Linux to be "the" home for gaming. With those other 2 OS'es as "also supported on"'s.
I think it's almost necessary that gaming's home needs to be on an open-source OS, where people make things work because they love to, not (necessarily) because they're paid to.
I have already encountered games that no longer run on Windows but run fine (great even) on Proton.
I wish Apple wasn't locking down their PC platform so much. I mean, Asahi exists, but they are given ZERO assistance except for what is essentially "Apple holding the door open for that and similar projects". Which can close at any time. Which is a serious problem (reminiscent of the ZFS situation with Oracle).
Yeah I'm not sure how many ports have a Mac build but no Windows build but generally I find that most of these have a Windows port because everyone has Windows, a Linux port because anyone with a spare PC can run Linux, but no Mac build because either no one on the team has a Mac or "the person who did the Mac build left/disappeared" so I'm trying to be that person for everyone, to some extent.
But yeah if it can run on the Mac it can run on Linux and probably does. There's a few cases where it doesn't go the other way (Skin Deep uses OpenGL 4.3 and the Mac stopped at OpenGL 4.1, that sort of thing)
I wish there was a simple single page with all the game titles on it, so I could quickly scan thru the list without paginating. The `/games` page also doesn't have the filters that the root `/` page has.
This site is difficult to navigate with just a paging list of entries with no order. Is there a search feature? Anyway to find old games without having to scroll through each page or write a python scraper? I love the effort. We should absolutely preserve old software and try to keep it working through various means. I just have a really hard time finding what I’m looking for on this site.
Better! However, just including the filter could have solved this and other problems. Only having it on the main page was lost on me when initially viewing. Page on but let me filter. Also when clicking on a page, trigger a scroll to top. There were a couple times where I clicked on a pagination page number and it looked like nothing happened but the above content changed. Snappy but send me up. Little polish, little elbow grease, and bam. You got yourself an archive of the best of the best in old Mac software. Keep it up, for real, I kept telling kids about Bungie and Marathon but they still swear Halo is original.
"[...] a source port is just the executable code for the game, you still have to provide your own copy of the game's data.
So for example, using Quake III: Arena again, the game consists of both an executable and a set of data files (pk3 files, in this case). The download for ioquake3 is an executable that is up to date and has been maintained to work on modern Macs, but you still need to acquire the pk3 files from a legal source, such as an existing installation of the game from disc or Steam or GOG."
I have original copies of a lot of these on CD, but even if it was easy to read CDs in 2025, that doesn't mean they're still in readable condition.
A lot of abandonware games have ISOs posted on the Internet Archive. There's a glimmer of worry in the back of my head about the safety of downloading random executables, but it seems like they're usually the real deal.
IIRC that game was pretty impressive when you consider that similar games on consoles were using custom sprite hardware, and doing it on a CPU would have been trickier, even despite having much better CPUs than the consoles.
Also one of the first DOS games that had Amiga-module-style music (mixed samples) instead of Adlib or MIDI. This later evolved into the UMX system used in Unreal and Deus Ex.
Having Carmageddon at the top is a good eye-catcher. My brother and I used to love driving around their open world and smashing into other drivers. I chose not to click through to see any of the media. I'm sure it's better looking in my memory.
Definitely. I want to determine what the best implementation of Carmageddon was and try to get that set-up — which a steering wheel, pedals… Kind of my fantasy.
There's a lot of money to be made here; just like how the current hotness in classic cars is always what the now late-middle aged dreamed of when they were teenagers - you could sell custom "best of" rigs for games when they were released.
I'm hoping the rumored revision of the Apple TV can slot in as a game console. Apple has been pushing AAA games on iOS/iPadOS over the past few years, but there's no good user story if I want to have that traditional experience beyond playing Apple Arcade games on the existing (and outdated) Apple TV pucks.
There's some irony in that the one thing they haven't figured out (the living room) is the one thing their competitors in the space (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) _have_ figured out.
Apple's in the tough spot (re [1]) that mobile games have already surpassed conventional PC and console games in terms of revenue. I don't know what fraction of that is the block crusher games that I see on everybody's phones and what fraction is the otaku who is serious about Umamusume, FGO, Arknights or Genshin Impact. Either way why would they want to jump onto what seems to be a sinking ship?
My take on the living room is that streaming boxes and most Blu-Ray players really suck these days (crappy little Sonys take 45 seconds to boot!) and if you want something to sit next to your TV to be a Plex client it should be a PS or XBOX.
But arguably that’s part of the problem. Not so much performance but for a long time you had improvement in the price/performance ratio and now you don’t… except for Apple Silicon! The PS5 costs more, not less, than it cost at launch years ago. Studios are in deep trouble because several years ago they assumed the average gamer was going to have a better machine (be it PC or console) than they do so now everyone is complaining new games suck.
X86 is going the way of the VAX and 68k but ARM ex. Apple is always underpowered at any price. If the rest of the industry was keeping up with Apple Silicon we would not be locked into what Apple thinks is fashionable we’d be seeing a lot of innovation.
Beelink's AMD mini-PCs are great console replacements. AMD $/perf and perf/watt is keeping up with Apple in the midrange (laptops, mini-pc's), and is winning at high-end (workstations + up).
I've been having a terrible time with Kerbal Space Program on my M4 based MBP. At the very least you could call it immersive when you're re-entering Kerbin and your knees are on fire.
Still manages to stay cool with games like CP2077 though.
I used to play that on an Intel i5 MacBook Pro (~2014 model?) with only embedded Intel graphics. It gave it a workout and the frame rate wasn’t amazing, but it was playable. I’m surprised it strains an M4 at all.
I played a ton of EV and EVO back in the day and still have them on a Basilisk II VM, but Endless Sky has really captured the spirit of EV (because everyone who made it also loved EV) and offered it up in a modern incarnation.
Endless Sky seemed like a nice refresh when I tried it a few years ago, did a few initial quest lines.
It was interesting how the different faction technologies had different power/mass/volume/hardpoint production and consumption ratios, so there was a real nudge towards having tech all from one faction, and gently discouraging min-maxing the build using a Frankenstein of gear sourced from the far-flung-corners of the galaxy. At least that was my recollection.
I came there because I wanted to play Quake on Apple Silicon and looked for the best option - which turned out to be a cross-platform Vulkan engine https://github.com/Novum/vkQuake.
Carmageddon, in part, paved the way for my Software Development career. Manipulating the text files to change a vehicles weight, speed, etc, just opened up a whole world for me. Awesome to see it here.
Glider Pro [1] (called Airfoil?) is on the list. I guess posting the sources on Github made that an easy matter.
I suppose I can point people to this when they ask me if there is a "Glider" on a modern platform. A lot easier than setting up emulators.
[1] https://galeforcegames.itch.io/aerofoil
This will be an off topic and kinda spammy comment, but thank you for that game. I played it a lot circa 1994. The level editor also kept it very fresh.
(Hey, no problem. You're welcome.)
Thanks for releasing the source. Had you seen this source port before?
It's quite funny, because this page accidentally serves as a list of open source ports for gaming on Linux too. I used to look for ports of games I had played as a child (even for windows, because they sometimes no longer work there), and never got any global headquarters on games' ports (like the winehq db for example, which is another chapter of pain and sorrow to run them on linux)
I would like Linux to be "the" home for gaming. With those other 2 OS'es as "also supported on"'s.
I think it's almost necessary that gaming's home needs to be on an open-source OS, where people make things work because they love to, not (necessarily) because they're paid to.
I have already encountered games that no longer run on Windows but run fine (great even) on Proton.
I wish Apple wasn't locking down their PC platform so much. I mean, Asahi exists, but they are given ZERO assistance except for what is essentially "Apple holding the door open for that and similar projects". Which can close at any time. Which is a serious problem (reminiscent of the ZFS situation with Oracle).
Yeah I'm not sure how many ports have a Mac build but no Windows build but generally I find that most of these have a Windows port because everyone has Windows, a Linux port because anyone with a spare PC can run Linux, but no Mac build because either no one on the team has a Mac or "the person who did the Mac build left/disappeared" so I'm trying to be that person for everyone, to some extent.
But yeah if it can run on the Mac it can run on Linux and probably does. There's a few cases where it doesn't go the other way (Skin Deep uses OpenGL 4.3 and the Mac stopped at OpenGL 4.1, that sort of thing)
I wish there was a simple single page with all the game titles on it, so I could quickly scan thru the list without paginating. The `/games` page also doesn't have the filters that the root `/` page has.
Not the first time I've had this request, so try this thing I just hacked together and that's not listed anywhere yet
https://www.macsourceports.com/games/list
This site is difficult to navigate with just a paging list of entries with no order. Is there a search feature? Anyway to find old games without having to scroll through each page or write a python scraper? I love the effort. We should absolutely preserve old software and try to keep it working through various means. I just have a really hard time finding what I’m looking for on this site.
Try this, I just now added it.
https://www.macsourceports.com/games/list
Better! However, just including the filter could have solved this and other problems. Only having it on the main page was lost on me when initially viewing. Page on but let me filter. Also when clicking on a page, trigger a scroll to top. There were a couple times where I clicked on a pagination page number and it looked like nothing happened but the above content changed. Snappy but send me up. Little polish, little elbow grease, and bam. You got yourself an archive of the best of the best in old Mac software. Keep it up, for real, I kept telling kids about Bungie and Marathon but they still swear Halo is original.
Yeah there's a glitch on scrolling up, I've never completely nailed it for some reason. I need to get on a real CMS just haven't had time.
I originally omitted filtering on mobile for space reasons but then re-added it on the Home Screen.
Yup, just right in the upper half of the page there is a big search box and an "sort by" popup button.
The main page has the search box & sort by: https://www.macsourceports.com/
The Games page does not: https://www.macsourceports.com/games
I don’t see that on mobile. Just a list of games and a pager at the bottom that goes on for miles…
Yeah, I don't know why I've never added that, but you can filter games on the main page not the /games page.
FAQ says:
I have original copies of a lot of these on CD, but even if it was easy to read CDs in 2025, that doesn't mean they're still in readable condition.
A lot of abandonware games have ISOs posted on the Internet Archive. There's a glimmer of worry in the back of my head about the safety of downloading random executables, but it seems like they're usually the real deal.
In a lot of cases the easiest way is going to be to get the game from GOG and use my Extractor utility to get the data from the Windows installer
https://www.macsourceports.com/utility/extractor
Extractor is just a GUI-based version of innoextract, so if you prefer the command line you can use that.
The executables are built from source if you use the OpenSource ports
That's a good point. I was thinking more generally about downloading binaries from unofficial sources.
Hadn't thought of Jazz Jackrabbit in a while.
IIRC that game was pretty impressive when you consider that similar games on consoles were using custom sprite hardware, and doing it on a CPU would have been trickier, even despite having much better CPUs than the consoles.
Also one of the first DOS games that had Amiga-module-style music (mixed samples) instead of Adlib or MIDI. This later evolved into the UMX system used in Unreal and Deus Ex.
Having Carmageddon at the top is a good eye-catcher. My brother and I used to love driving around their open world and smashing into other drivers. I chose not to click through to see any of the media. I'm sure it's better looking in my memory.
Definitely. I want to determine what the best implementation of Carmageddon was and try to get that set-up — which a steering wheel, pedals… Kind of my fantasy.
There's a lot of money to be made here; just like how the current hotness in classic cars is always what the now late-middle aged dreamed of when they were teenagers - you could sell custom "best of" rigs for games when they were released.
Is Terranova a thing?
I was quite impressed with it back in the nineties, I don’t think I got very far into it.
I'm absolutely impressed at how the M4 Mac Mini plays games -- if Apple were making a game console they could wipe the floor with XBOX and Sony.
I'm hoping the rumored revision of the Apple TV can slot in as a game console. Apple has been pushing AAA games on iOS/iPadOS over the past few years, but there's no good user story if I want to have that traditional experience beyond playing Apple Arcade games on the existing (and outdated) Apple TV pucks.
There's some irony in that the one thing they haven't figured out (the living room) is the one thing their competitors in the space (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) _have_ figured out.
Apple's in the tough spot (re [1]) that mobile games have already surpassed conventional PC and console games in terms of revenue. I don't know what fraction of that is the block crusher games that I see on everybody's phones and what fraction is the otaku who is serious about Umamusume, FGO, Arknights or Genshin Impact. Either way why would they want to jump onto what seems to be a sinking ship?
My take on the living room is that streaming boxes and most Blu-Ray players really suck these days (crappy little Sonys take 45 seconds to boot!) and if you want something to sit next to your TV to be a Plex client it should be a PS or XBOX.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma
Console success hasn't really been about performance for some time now.
But arguably that’s part of the problem. Not so much performance but for a long time you had improvement in the price/performance ratio and now you don’t… except for Apple Silicon! The PS5 costs more, not less, than it cost at launch years ago. Studios are in deep trouble because several years ago they assumed the average gamer was going to have a better machine (be it PC or console) than they do so now everyone is complaining new games suck.
X86 is going the way of the VAX and 68k but ARM ex. Apple is always underpowered at any price. If the rest of the industry was keeping up with Apple Silicon we would not be locked into what Apple thinks is fashionable we’d be seeing a lot of innovation.
Beelink's AMD mini-PCs are great console replacements. AMD $/perf and perf/watt is keeping up with Apple in the midrange (laptops, mini-pc's), and is winning at high-end (workstations + up).
Every general purpose computer eventually becomes a game console.
Games are the crabs of software
DOOM is the crabs of games.
I've been having a terrible time with Kerbal Space Program on my M4 based MBP. At the very least you could call it immersive when you're re-entering Kerbin and your knees are on fire.
Still manages to stay cool with games like CP2077 though.
I used to play that on an Intel i5 MacBook Pro (~2014 model?) with only embedded Intel graphics. It gave it a workout and the frame rate wasn’t amazing, but it was playable. I’m surprised it strains an M4 at all.
THIS IS AN INSANE LIST! Well, there goes my productive day.
Week*
Heroes of Might and Magic III has some serious activity out there, still.
Unfortunately, the best source port (VCMI) doesn't support Horn of the Abyss directly, but you can do things with Rosetta and friends: https://github.com/ponich/heroes3hota-mac-installer
Would love to see Spaceward Ho! (Delta Tao Software, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceward_Ho!) in this list.
Ahh bummer, couldn't find Blobbo on the list. It was the best old mac game!
Nice, but what I REALLY want is the old Ambrosia Software games like Apeiron and Avara. Oh, and I would prefer they be on Linux.
You can find Maelstrom here: https://www.libsdl.org/projects/Maelstrom/
https://github.com/avaraline/Avara
Interesting, I hadn't heard of this one. I'll see if I can add it to the collection.
Woah, sweet ... THANK YOU!
I loved O.G. Escape Velocity and would love to replay that.
I played a ton of EV and EVO back in the day and still have them on a Basilisk II VM, but Endless Sky has really captured the spirit of EV (because everyone who made it also loved EV) and offered it up in a modern incarnation.
https://endless-sky.github.io/
Endless Sky seemed like a nice refresh when I tried it a few years ago, did a few initial quest lines.
It was interesting how the different faction technologies had different power/mass/volume/hardpoint production and consumption ratios, so there was a real nudge towards having tech all from one faction, and gently discouraging min-maxing the build using a Frankenstein of gear sourced from the far-flung-corners of the galaxy. At least that was my recollection.
I came there because I wanted to play Quake on Apple Silicon and looked for the best option - which turned out to be a cross-platform Vulkan engine https://github.com/Novum/vkQuake.
I've also added a build of DarkPlaces. I need to get a few more going like FTEQW and QuakeSpasm.
Carmageddon, in part, paved the way for my Software Development career. Manipulating the text files to change a vehicles weight, speed, etc, just opened up a whole world for me. Awesome to see it here.
Wish I could get Deimos Rising and Gridz working again, neither are on this list.
Homm2. finally I can delete my Windows XP vm