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Editor's Blog: Roman's Favorite Classic Mac Games
Posted 05/04/2007 at 10:04:08pm | by
Roman Loyola
While talking about the state of Mac games during the most recent Mac|Life podcast, I thought about some of my favorite classic games. These were the games that convinced me that the Mac was a viable gaming platform. These were the games that made me want to be an advocate for Mac gaming.
As it turns out, some of the games I devoted hours and hours of my life to are now available for free. Since a lot of you out there have been using the Mac for only a few years (I got my first Mac in 1986), there's a good chance you have never heard of any of these games. So I thought it would be fun to bring them back into the spotlight. And you're an old timer like me, here's a chance to reintroduce you to some oldies but goodies.
Here are four of my favorite classic games. Some of them are available for free. Others are abandonware that you can find and download from the Internet - but you risk violating the rights of the copyright owner who hasn't actually stated that the software is freely available, even though the game is no longer supported.
This twist on the traditional platform game has you guiding a paper plane through a house. The object of the game is to collect all the stars in the house, using air vents and fans to keep your glider airborn. Gilder Pro was one of those games that non-gamers could play and have fun - it didn't have finger-twisting controls, wasn't overly complicated, and you could get a good gaming session done in about 15 minutes.
SimCity 2000
The game where you create and manage a city was actually released on the Mac before the PC version. I spent hours planning my cities on graph paper before building them in the game. I would often let the simulator run on my Mac at work after hours, so I would find a huge bundle of money in the bank when I got to work in the morning (I never used the money cheats).
You felt invincible when wielding two shotguns in Marathon 2.
Marathon
Back in the day, Marathon set the standard for first-person shooters on the Mac and on the PC. I have vivid memories of after work Marathon network games that were loud, frenetic, and too much fun. Not only is Marathon available, but also Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity, and the creation tools, Anvil and Forge.
You Don't Know Jack
YDKJ wasn't a Mac exclusive, and it probably won't go down in history as a great Mac game, but at least the early editions of YDKJ were released at the same time as the PC version. For the uninitiated. YDKJ is a trivia game show, with a snarky host always ready to make a wise crack or pun. You can play several different editions on the Web.
Got some classic gaming memories? Share it with us in the comments section.
COMMENTS:
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lucasarts
Submitted by John Vieira (not verified) on Fri, 2007-05-04 10:40
you mentioned some excellent ones. i'd definitely vote for many of the lucas arts SCUMM games...monkey island 1 & 2, indiana jones and the fate of atlantis, day of the tentacle.
ah memories...
Submitted by loafer (not verified) on Sat, 2007-05-05 15:26
Best arcade game ever - aahhhhh. Still playable in classic and there is a palm version.
Really old school - Fokker Triplane
Submitted by rloyola on Sun, 2007-05-06 13:12
Thanks for reviving the Crystal Quest memories. How could I forget. Awesome.
Submitted by Duke of Nuke (not verified) on Mon, 2007-05-07 08:00
Eric's Ultimate Solitaire, Burning Monkey Solitaire, Descent, Crystal Caliburn Pinball, and Bumble Bee Deluxe were my favorite games in OSs' 7, 8, & 9.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2007-10-29 02:12
Please please where can I get it? My son who is now 19 played it as a toddler. H ecould'nt work out why his 70 year old had the 5 highest scores
Submitted by Carl (not verified) on Mon, 2007-10-29 02:13
Please please where can I get it? My son who is now 19 played it as a toddler. H ecould'nt work out why his 70 year old had the 5 highest scores
Submitted by Carl (not verified) on Mon, 2007-10-29 02:14
Please please where can I get it? My son who is now 19 played it as a toddler. H ecould'nt work out why his 70 year old had the 5 highest scores
Submitted by Sage (not verified) on Sun, 2007-05-06 12:03
Here are my favorites from back in the day:
Dark Castle
Loom
Might & Magic II -- endless fun, great RPG
Lode Runner
Zork
Submitted by Matthew C. Egan (not verified) on Tue, 2007-05-08 10:08
How can you leave out Escpe Velocity? Escape Velocity, and the more recent EV Nova are fantastic Mac exclusive games. You pilot a shuttle, and can work your way up, via missions and just hijacking your spacefairing neighbors into much larger craft. That goes back to OS 7, definetly not a recent addition to the MacGames arsenal.
MacLife needs honest to god gaming people, all these non-gamers with gaming memories miss the mark every time they post something like this. There are so many Mac exclusive games to focus on, most of the ones you mentioned were also available on the PC.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2007-05-08 12:20
anyone else remember a puzzle/mystery game where you ventured around a mansion looking for clues of a murder?...i dont remember the name, but it was great and i never finished the game....the only other clue i can give is that if you told your character to hit mirrors, the game would give you a text response saying something to the effect of "great, you broke a mirror....carl sagan would be proud"....anyone have any idea?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2007-12-28 16:17
I cant remember the name but I'm looking for that game too!
I've been searching for a few days now! Good luck to ya, if I find it I'll come back!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2008-05-14 10:10
I think you might be referring to The 7th Guest or it's sequel 11th Hour. I remember taking the disc to work and listening to the music tracks. I thought that was sooo cool!
Submitted by Matt (not verified) on Wed, 2007-05-09 07:18
I remember an old space flight simulator. I thing the name was Orion. All you did was navigate around a black & white galaxy in, what I thought, was a somewhat realistic fashion. Besides just zipping around the galaxy, the only thing I ever found was a wormhole out near Pluto. It was very cool. Now I can't find and mention of it anywhere. Celestia is the current equivalent.
Submitted by Uncle Andrew (not verified) on Wed, 2007-05-09 08:37
Wesleyan Tetris. The greatest and most annoying game ever.
Submitted by Andrew R. (not verified) on Sat, 2007-05-12 14:26
What ever happened to "U-Boat" by Deadly Games? I have a bunch of old games for System 8 and miss playing them. I wonder if anybody has come up with a way to play them on Tiger? Heck, who remembers Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple IIe?
Submitted by Jason Snell (not verified) on Thu, 2007-05-17 13:43
I loved those days of playing Marathon back in the old MacUser offices. Too much fun. Especially hearing the screams of someone you'd just shot faintly in the background from far across the office.
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Submitted by Gregory Williams (not verified) on Sat, 2007-07-14 17:09
Macintosh Garden is a great place to find really old Macintosh games. They even had my ancient game Minitorian. These games can be played on min vmac if you make a disk image and get the Macintosh ROM from an old computer or use the usenet or bittorent. Apple has System 7 OSes available for free.
Submitted by Gregory Williams (not verified) on Sun, 2007-07-22 15:07
You should really get the ROMs from an old classic macintosh which are sold on online or if you already have an old Macintosh. Or just play the games on an old Macintosh which are really cheap on someplace like ebay.
Submitted by Gregory Williams (not verified) on Thu, 2007-07-26 00:34
What I meant to say was I believe you can get it there and other places on the internet if you have a broken Macintosh Plus or broken Macintosh SE.
First Post
Submitted by penkate on Sun, 2008-09-14 02:51
Does anyone remember a game that had missiles coming down on small clusters of cities at the bottom, you could put domes over them to protect them? Think it was called Patriot games?
Also can you still get Terry Pratchet DiscWorld on cd for the mac?
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