Mac Source Ports

Developer: DMA Designs
Release Date: February 14, 1991

You know what Lemmings is: that game where you have to get a bunch of cute little creatures from point A to point B and let just enough of them explode to be fun but not lose the level. The first game in the series was sort of a fluke that made enough money that the developer was obliged to make sequels and spinoffs. Then eventually they changed their name to Rockstar North and made all of the Grand Theft Auto games. Not kidding.

Anyway I've been wanting a Lemmings game on here for forever now but the issue is always that the fan projects are either doing something I'm not experienced with building, or they're a similar-but-not-Lemmings game like Pingus. And then here comes Erik Veland with a port of... well, all of them. The original game. The semi-sequel games. The three different holiday games. Preview support for the two full sequels. And six thousand fan levels.

Lemmings may be one of the most popular games you can't buy but here's enough of it to last you through the heat death of the universe.

Developer: Epic MegaGames
Release Date: May 7, 1998

Although never as big as Mario or Sonic, Jazz Jackrabbit did well enough with a hungry PC gaming crowd to merit a second game in the series. It's your standard shareware sequel story: more levels, more twists, better technology. If you liked the original you'll like this one.

It also has a very confusing release strategy. The original game was shareware, when you bought it you got the full Jazz Jackrabbit 2 game. Later, it was re-released with an additional episode under the title Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Secret Files. Then came a release called Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Christmas Chronicles, which adds Christmas-themed levels. So when you get the game on GOG you might spot two entries, neither of which look like they're the base game, but both should work in Jazz² Resurrection.

  Buy Jazz Jackrabbit 2 on GOG.com

Developer: Maxis
Release Date: December 1, 1993

The 90's were a wild time for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was that we were obsessed with tacking the number "2000" onto everything. So instead of SimCity 2 we get SimCity 2000. And whereas the original game was something of a loveable mess, SimCity 2000 polished and went much further with the concept and shifted to an isometric view.

The OpenSC2K project, interestingly, is not an attempt to reverse engineer the code so much as it's a playable recreation in Godot. It went dormant for several years and was recently revived.

So get ready to feel like you just came home with the floppies from Babbage's and prepare yourself for a fun city building experience only slightly marred by a frustrating water pipe interface.

Developer: Cavedog Entertainment
Release Date: September 27, 1997

Total Annihilation is an RTS game with a cult following. Whereas other games in the genre focused on resource scarcity or micromanagement of units, it focused on resource streaming and large scale battles across bigger maps.

The game's designer, Chris Taylor, would go on to make spiritual sequels in the form of Supreme Commander amd Planetary Annihilation.

  Buy Total Annihilation on GOG.com

  Buy Total Annihilation on the Humble Store

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: Thalion Software
Release Date: April 11, 1993
Source Code Release Date: May 7, 2023

The Commodore Amiga was one of those computers where it jumped ahead of the competition by several miles, but then stayed there for a long time and got surpassed by the competition. I think this is why there's such a distinctive look to the games the platform and why it was so accessible to smaller game designers, the types we'd call "indie" today.

Ambermoon is an RPG for the Amiga that really looks like an Amiga game. It was the second part of an unfinished trilogy. Although the original game's source has been released, the source port we're pointing to is Ambermoon.net which like it sounds is a recreation of the original game in C#/.NET (the original game was Amiga-specific Assembly language and isn't a great candidate for portability).

In addition to being able to download it below from the developer's GitHub page, the game is also available on itch.io as a "Name your own price" download in case you want to support or tip the developer.

Developer: Rebellion Developments
Release Date: May 13, 1999
Source Code Release Date: 2001

There are many games named Aliens versus Predator, but this one is from the greatest year in the history of gaming: 1999. It had a sequel and a remake but there's still a cult following for this entry in the series.

The source was released in 2001 and ported to Linux by icculus shortly thereafter, but recently the NakedAVP project put in the work to upgrade the code and get it running on the Mac.

Note that on online services like Steam and GOG the game is listed as Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000, which includes the expansion pack content as well.

  Buy Aliens versus Predator on GOG.com

Developer: Flying Bear Entertainment
Release Date: August 31, 2001

Insaniquarium is a game where you feed fish. And fight aliens. And feed fish to other fish. And avoid electrocution. By now you either think this game is pointless or endlessly addictive. And if you think that sounds addictive you're not alone, since this game was downloaded 20 million times in five years.

Insaniquarium was later re-released in an enhanced version dubbed Insaniquarium Deluxe, which is the version you can still get off of Steam to this day, and the version that Insaniquarium Portable uses.

Developer: id Software
Release Date: December 14, 1990

Not only is this literally id Software's first game, but they didn't even go by id Software yet, they went by the name Ideas from the Deep. Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons is a shareware side scroller with EGA graphics that predated sound cards. The first game in the series consisted of three episodes, and the Commander Genius source port went so far as to reverse engineer the PC speaker sound effects the game relied upon.

Note that most digital retailers market someting called the Commander Keen Complete Pack which contains the first two games' content but not the Keen Dreams spinoff or the final episode Aliens Ate My Babysitter due to the surprisingly complicated publication history of the series. Commander Genius has incomplete support for Keen Dreams, but fully supports Aliens Ate My Babysitter, should you be able to find it somewhere.

  Buy Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons on GOG.com

Developer: id Software
Release Date: December 15, 1991

Now going by id Software formally, Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy! is a shareware sequel to the original game, consisting of two episodes. The third episode was spun off into a new game to fulfill a contractual obligation. The game features enhancements and new features such as parallax scrolling.

Note that most digital retailers market someting called the Commander Keen Complete Pack which contains the first two games' content but not the Keen Dreams spinoff or the final episode Aliens Ate My Babysitter due to the surprisingly complicated publication history of the series. Commander Genius has incomplete support for Keen Dreams, but fully supports Aliens Ate My Babysitter, should you be able to find it somewhere.

  Buy Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy! on GOG.com