Mac Source Ports

Developer: id Software
Release Date: August 3, 2004
Source Code Release Date: November 22, 2011

DOOM 3 was the third game in the DOOM series, released in 2004. Support for the expansion pack Resurrection of Evil is also included.

NOTE: Most retailers such as Steam and GOG are now selling DOOM 3 and DOOM 3: BFG Edition as a package together under the name DOOM 3 so buying that will get you both games.

  Buy DOOM 3 on GOG.com

  Buy DOOM 3 on the Humble Store

Developer: PopCap Games
Release Date: May 5, 2009

Plants vs. Zombies is an example of casual game perfection, from developer PopCap Games at their peak, pre-acquisition. Effectively a tower defense game without being a tower defense game, it has a difficulty curve so incredibly well done that at some point you're pulling off elaborate strategies without ever feeling like you're not ready for it. With an addicting amount of depth, additional mini-games once you finish the campaign, and no microtransactions or mismatched mechanics, it's a game that absolutely holds up.

It's also a game where I had no idea there was a modding community, let alone a nearly perfect reverse engineered source port nearly five years in the making. I honestly thought for a minute it was some sort of trick but no, PvZ Portable is a true reverse engineered port.

NOTE: While PvZ-Portable definitely works with Plants vs. Zombies: Game of the Year Edition, I'm not clear if it works with the regular (non-GOTY) edition. As of this writing the GOTY edition is the only version on Steam. As far as I can tell it does not work with the recent Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted edition.

Developer: id Software
Release Date: November, 1991
Source Code Release Date: June 9, 2014

When you have every other id Software source port on your site, all that's left is Catacomb 3-D. The story is detailed in books and articles but the gist is that the company we know as id Software started out as employees working for a Lousiana-based company called Softdisk.

Similar to the path the Wolfenstein series took, John Carmack wrote a 2-D top-down game called Catacomb for the Apple II, followed by a sequel which is either named Catacomb II or The Catacomb depending on who tells the story. And then they decided to take the series into 3-D with Catacomb 3-D

The plot of the game is to navigate the catacombs of the local town cemetery to defeat the evil bad guy and rescue your friend. Whenever you run into an early game in a genre, you usually expect the game to be primitive compared to what came later, and it is, but it's much closer to Wolfenstein 3-D than I expected or remembered. It's rough around the edges and definitely held back by technology but you really do feel like you're playing a 3-D game with EGA graphics which had to be mind blowing in 1991 for the handful of people who ever got this game.

  Buy Catacomb 3-D on GOG.com

Developer: Softdisk
Release Date: 1992
Source Code Release Date: June 9, 2014

As mentioned previously, Catacomb 3-D was done by what would go on to be id Software for game publisher Softdisk. What might be less obvious today is that Softdisk published games via mail via a subscription. Think of it as a literal magazine on a diskette. Consequently they needed to crank out multiple games to keep subscriptions going.

As a result, when id Software breaks out to make their own games, Softdisk decides to continue with the series and crank out a trilogy of sequels commonly referred to as the Catacomb Adventure series, the first of which is Catacomb Abyss.

In the game you play as the same protagonist from the first game, hired by the townspeople to descend into the catacombs again and defeat evil minions. Really, it's just more of the first game, though with some more varied environments.

  Buy Catacomb Abyss on GOG.com

Developer: Softdisk
Release Date: 1993
Source Code Release Date: June 9, 2014

By now you know the drill - Catacomb Armageddon is the third game in the Catacombs series and the second entry in the Catacombs Adventures series. This time around the setting is "present day". There's some tech upgrades and added variety as a result, but for the most part this game is just more of the previous two, for better or worse.

  Buy Catacomb Armageddon on GOG.com

Developer: Softdisk
Release Date: 1993
Source Code Release Date: June 9, 2014

The final game in the Catacombs series mixes things up a bit by being set in the distant future. It features fantasy and sci-fi elements mixed together and pits you against robots and so forth. It also reintroduces the hub system from the first game. So in case you needed even more EGA FPS in your life, here's your hookup.

  Buy Catacomb Apocalypse on GOG.com

Developer: Wisdom Tree
Release Date: 1994

An example of a release whose backstory is more interesting than the game itself, Super 3D Noah's Ark is the byproduct of a truly strange course of events.

The original NES was the first home console to introduce the concept of locking out unofficial or unlicensed developers, and the market responded with various attempts to bypass the mechanism, being met with various forms of litigation in the process. One of these companies was called Color Dreams and they released a small handful of truly terrible games.

Faced with the concept of going under, one of the founders joked about getting into making religious games and the idea kind of took off from there - they'd be sold in Christian bookstores, they'd more or less have the market to themselves, and Nintendo would be less likely to sue a religious organization due to the bad press involved.

After years on the NES, they released what is believed to be the only unlicensed SNES game ever to hit the market, Super 3D Noah's Ark. It circumvented the lockout mechanism by being a "pass-through" cartridge, so you had to plug a licensed game into it to get it to work (think: Sonic & Knuckles).

As if that wasn't odd enough, they licensed the SNES version of the Wolfenstein 3-D engine from id Software. It was long rumored that id Software gave them the license for free as a reslt of being angry at the changes they had to make to Wolfenstein 3-D to appease Nintendo (turning German shepherds into giant rats, no blood, etc.) but it was later revealed that no, they legitimately licensed the engine.

The game itself doesn't make a lot of sense, like how on an ark designed to have two of every animal there's only a few different animals repeated over and over. Or why you need to put them to sleep with a slingshot. Or why the ark is a maze. Or why you have to take the occasional Bible quiz. But that was never the point. The point was to be a sprite-swapped Wolfenstein 3-D port for the religious video game market and it worked.

Interestingly enough, not only is it one of only three games that the ECWolf source port plays, the game is currently available on GOG and Steam because the autor of ECWolf worked out a deal with Wisdom Tree (which still technically exists, I guess) to put it on there with ECWolf packaged to play it. It's only on Windows though, so you can use the port we have built here to play it on your Mac.

  Buy Super 3D Noah's Ark on GOG.com

Developer: id Software
Release Date: May 5, 1992
Source Code Release Date: August 1995

Wolfenstein 3-D is the granddaddy to all the modern first person shooters that came after it. Released as shareware in 1992 it launched the independent career of id Software that would result in DOOM and Quake. Though simplistic by today's standards, it still holds up as a fun maze game with the occasional Nazi to shoot.

  Buy Wolfenstein 3-D on GOG.com

Developer: id Software
Release Date: September 18, 1992
Source Code Release Date: August 1995

Spear of Destiny is the retail sequel to the shareware Wolfenstein 3-D. Timeline-wise, it is a prequel that features B.J. Blazkowicz on a mission to recapture the titular Spear of Destiny from the Nazis. If you want more Wolfenstein 3-D, this has you covered.

  Buy Wolfenstein 3-D: Spear of Destiny on GOG.com

Developer: Chris Sawyer
Release Date: October 15, 2002

Another game from the mind of Chris Sawyer, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 shares the same pixel art style and hardcore interface as his other games.

  Buy RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on GOG.com

  Buy RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on the Humble Store