Best $60 you'll spend on Mac gaming

[alcimedes]

So, I was looking at dusting off and playing X-COM, UFO defense. Found it at an abandonware site for nothing. Went to download it, install it etc. and it was as fun as I recalled.

So when I found out they sell it via Steam for $5 I was excited to give it a shot. Only the game is Windows only, so even though it's crazy old, I can't play it.

Or can I?

Enter in "CrossOver"

CrossOver allows you to install a fairly wide variety of Windows software as native Mac software. I'd used it in the past for access to some Win Office only features, but I found out the other day it can also be used (in theory) to run the Windows version of Steam on your Mac.

If that is in fact true, that means for a one-time price of $60, you can have access to the entire Windows library of Steam games. Not bad. I'll update later after I've actually tried it to see how it works.

[Sketch]

Enter in "CrossOver"

CrossOver allows you to install a fairly wide variety of Windows software as native Mac software.

Nice marketing line :lol:

[curiousuburb]

As opposed to Boot Camp (which I thought was required to get full graphics card driver/DirectX mojo for many games)?

I ask because I've got a box trilogy of Windows space opera type games that I wanted to install and play, and was under the impression that "native" Win install in Boot Camp was my only serious option unless I wanted to buy them again via Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/sub/6330). :|

Which method are you suggesting?

[Capella]

CrossOver is an emulation system (it's Wine-based), so you are going to get a graphical/performance hit. Depending on the game you're playing, this isn't so bad. Any games from the '90s that aren't demanding should be fine. Playing the brand new hotness will suck more, depending on your hardware. I can play Guild Wars 1 excellently on a MacBook with 2GB of RAM, I wouldn't even try to touch GW2, for example.

[Brad]

CrossOver is an emulation system (it's Wine-based), so you are going to get a graphical/performance hit.
Wine Is Not an Emulator (http://www.winehq.org/about/) :p

But, yes, CrossOver is effectively a commercially branded fork of Wine with additional patches for compatibility and configuration.

As for Wine, it's a suite of binaries and libraries designed to run Windows executables as near-native as possible outside of Windows proper. Think of it as a pile of reverse-engineered Windows DLLs coded to run on top of your native operating system. The graphics drivers generally suck, and that's why 3D performance sometimes tanks or just breaks. If an app is just CPU-bound or not graphics-heavy, though, it should perform quite well under Wine. Traditional productivity/office apps work very well under Wine (MS Office and Corel Office were early drivers for Wine compatibility in the 90s), but some modern 3D games manage to work fine under Wine too.

[Brad]

All this talk of Wine made me want to try it out again. Last I played with Wine was at least a couple of years ago...

So, if you want to go the DIY route, I suggest you try Wineskin. This tool lets you build your own Mac "Foo.app" executables from Windows apps. It's pretty easy, too. I just tried it on a freeware top-down shooter (http://www.xbomber.co.uk/), and it worked like a charm. The music stutters occasionally, but otherwise the game is fast and smooth (it even properly trigger fullscreen mode). I also tried it on the No$GBA (http://www.nogba.com/) emulator. It also seems to be working great, except for some minor audio crackling, but all GBA emulators I've played (even natively) seem to have that problem.

...I swear this game was made for me...

http://oi50.tinypic.com/beyjww.jpg

Next up, I'm going to try GTA2 since that's a free download...

Also related: http://appdb.winehq.org/
This is the Wine Application Database (AppDB). Here you can get information on application compatibility with Wine.

...

There are 19266 applications currently in the database, with Final Fantasy XI Online Final Fantasy XI being the top voted application.

...

Top-10 Platinum List: Applications which install and run flawlessly on an out-of-the-box Wine installation
World of Warcraft 4.3.x
StarCraft I Retail CD/DVD
Guild Wars All Versions
StarCraft II Retail
Team Fortress 2 Steam
Left 4 Dead Full (Steam)
Watchtower Library 2011
Counter-Strike: Source Retail / Steam
The Sims 3 All
Warcraft III The Frozen Throne: 1.x

[torifile]

WoW, SC I and II, TF2, L4D and WC III are all Mac native anyway....

[Brad]

That's the the top ten of thousands, and remember: Wine was originally made for Linux distros where users don't have the luxury of game publishers making squat for them. That it's been ported to Mac OS X is a boon for the many other titles that still don't get an official Mac release.

This guy has created Mac Wineskin wrappers for hundreds of Windows games: http://www.paulthetall.com/

[Wyatt]

Brad, that guy's work looks amazing. I'd been struggling with Wineskin a little while back myself, but it looks like his work will get me playing almost every game I wanted. Thanks for the link!

[Artap99]

Aww...guys...

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/10/crossover-software/

[alcimedes]

Yeah, I use it primarily to play old games that aren't on GoG.com, or only available on the Win. side of Steam.

Funny thing is, after playing the original x-com again for a week, I actually bought the remake they had while it was on sale over at Steam.

And........

They actually made it better. Across the board better. Didn't do anything to ruin the gameplay, excitement, suspense, but they removed most (all?) of the stupid annoying shit that bugged me. Granted in 20 years I would expect better pathing and AI, but still, so many remakes go so wrong.