Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

(mac-classic.com)

84 points | by freediver 2 hours ago

8 comments

  • wk_end 42 minutes ago
    The most interesting thing about this link, for me, is seeing that there's an open-source recreation of GoldSrc [0]? That's apparently been around since 2011 [1]? I'm stunned I haven't heard about this before. Very cool.

    [0] https://github.com/fwgs/xash3d-fwgs

    [1] https://www.moddb.com/engines/xash3d-engine

  • amatecha 26 minutes ago
    Nice, I'm surprised it took this long! My first experience of playing Quake 1 in my home was an unauthorized source port which ran in System 7, I believe was called "HackQuake", ported from stolen source code from CrackDotCom apparently[0][1] .. For me as a kid getting insanely impatient to play Quake, this was a godsend! Even if the performance was brutal and firing a rocket caused the framerate to halve. Played it at 320x200 pixel-doubled just to eke out that extra little bit of performance. Anyway, the point is that HL probably could have been running on Mac since day one, if someone had spent the time to port it!

    [0] https://www.wired.com/1997/01/hackers-hack-crack-steal-quake...

    [1] https://github.com/Jason2Brownlee/QuakeOfficialArchive/blob/...

  • hedgehog 1 hour ago
    For reference this is roughly period correct for the early iMac models (G3 and DV) that came out in 1998 and 1999, though MacOS 9 didn't ship until later. Impressive porting work.
  • sharkjacobs 27 minutes ago
    I would have been really excited about this circa 1999. I mean don't get me wrong, I was grateful for Unreal Tournament and Q3A, and I knew I'd be getting Halo soon, but this is the one game I was really jealous of my friends for.
    • jonhohle 6 minutes ago
      > I knew I'd be getting Halo soon

      That’s a deep cut. (And salt on the wound.)

    • snapetom 12 minutes ago
      Hah. When I saw the headline, I said, "Finally! I've been asking for this for almost 30 years!"
  • frollogaston 1 hour ago
    Porting AssaultCube should be doable too
  • ChrisMarshallNY 1 hour ago
    That's nice.

    Now do MacOS 26, on M chips.

    [UPDATE] To make it clear, it was a joke (always a faceplant, on HN, where senses of humor go to die). It's actually very cool. I just get cranky that 3/4 of my Steam games don't work on new Macs, and I did like HL.

    • ChrisMarshallNY 1 hour ago
      But, to make it clear, it was a joke. It's actually very cool. I just get cranky that 3/4 of my Steam games don't work on new Macs, and I did like HL.
      • bombcar 1 hour ago
        I love that simcity4 has an applesilicon and big name recent releases don't.

        Yay.

      • lenerdenator 1 hour ago
        Nah, that's based.

        If Apple Silicon ran my games collection I simply wouldn't have another computer other than my M2 MBP. I've run Fallout 3 on it, and while the emulation isn't perfect, it is playable and runs. The fan doesn't turn into a jet aircraft at takeoff, the temps stay cool.

        The fact that most games won't play on Apple Silicon natively is a crime.

    • nomel 1 hour ago
    • altern8 1 hour ago
      I think those guys are about classic Macs
      • ChrisMarshallNY 1 hour ago
        I know. It was kind of a joke, which, due to this being HN, fell flat.
        • acheron 1 hour ago
          We at Hacker News do not have a sense of humor that we’re aware of.
        • altern8 1 hour ago
          I see. Maybe it was a little random
    • ofalkaed 1 hour ago
      Jokes are downvoted not because of a lack humor but because if we reward making jokes we will have to scroll through dozens of jokes and all of their responses to get the actual discussion. Voting is about keeping the on topic and worthwhile discussion at the top with everything else buried beneath it.
      • drnick1 22 minutes ago
        You must be fun at parties.
    • Barbing 1 hour ago
      Missing a bounty to go with that directness!
    • rvz 1 hour ago
      This is the only site where it is illegal to make a joke.
    • parl_match 1 hour ago
      you do it.
  • pimlottc 1 hour ago
    Cleverly done.
  • mcfdoesdev 42 minutes ago
    This makes me so happy lol.