Any chance we'll see the X-Wing and Tie Fighter titles released for the Mac OS?

I heartily second this. I spent so many hours on these games, and would love to play them again... and I know they were released for Mac! Please get those versions, too!

You can already play the DOS versions of both X-Wing and TiE Fighter on your Mac via Boxer. Here is my post to another thread on this same topic: PS: The first post in that thread is for using CrossOver; for Wineskin, see this post: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_games_on_mac_os_x_a_how_to/post6

PPS: If you're still having trouble, try looking here: http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php?page=How+can+I+make+a+general+use+Wine+wrapper+to+run+exe+files+from+Finder

I still have the old Mac CDs for both games in Collector edition ...

Unfortunately these would never works on current Macs. There were for PPC (maybe even 68k) Macs running System 7 ...

So you'll have better luck running the dos versions ...

I have the same CDs too, they don't work on any Mac emulator, not even Apple's Rosetta. Only on authentic 68k or PPC Macintosh computers running either System 7 or Mac OS 8.

It's such a shame because they could well have been the "definitive" versions, both converted and published by Lucasarts back in the day so there isn't any licencing issue. But since they don't run on anything useful, the point is moot.

Maybe Wineskin (wineskin.urgesoftware.com) will be a Solution to make that happen. Even Gog.com uses it to port several classic games to OS X. I'am not shure, why this didn't happen for X-Wing, Tie-Fighter - but give it a try!

Well, that bites. What changed in OS 9 that caused them to break?

It's just too bad that, well, there aren't any notable PowerPC Mac emulators that I know of, and while I could visit a few neighbors and ask them about their old Power Mac 6500 doing nothing, finding a good set of Thrustmaster or CH Products ADB flight controls is going to be a pain.

I'm only thinking of going through all this trouble because this post suggests the Mac versions are actually the definitive versions of both games, and perhaps they can figure out where their TIE Fighter Mac disc actually ended up.

http://www.gog.com/forum/star_wars_xwing_special_edition/1993_or_1998/post10

When Apple made the big transition from the classic System 7/Mac OS 8-9 OS architecture to OS X, they let you run a sandboxed instance of OS 9 within OS X (as a VM akin to Parallels). The "Classic Environment" worked for critical productivity apps, but broke a lot of games. (Rosetta was a different beast -- it let you run OS X apps written for PPC Macs on Intel Macs.

Both games ran fine in OS 8 and OS 9, but what broke the games for me was that they didn't work with my USB Cyborg 3D joystick (being optimized for ADB joysticks). I admit I was surprised, as in my DOS GOG version of TiE Fighter it seems to lack the voice acting for missing briefings that I was so used to hearing in my original Mac version of TiE Fighter.

I tried to run the Macintosh X-Wing Collectors' edition CD version in both Basilisk II (Mac 68k) and SheepShaver (Mac PPC) emulators a few months ago, and the terrible thing is that it runs, it launces, the concourse works, mission selection works, entering missions works and then. .. when missions start, the game runs in slow motion.

It was heart-breaking.. emulation got it a hair's breadth from working. It was unplayable, but so close to working. (cry)

Not surprising it ran slowly, as Classic Mac emulators can't emulate 3D accelerated cards.

I really hope that it will be possible one day, because lots of Mac versions back then where made by the original developers, and as they were released after their original PC versions, they often came with extra features and slightly modernized engines.

To this day, I still dream of being able to play the Classic Mac version of Dark Forces which had a higher resolution (both in rendering and textures) and few additional cheat codes.

I would buy X-Wing, Tie Fighter, XvT, and Collector's edition, if GoG would port it over. You hear that GoG? I'm ready to give you my money! :-)

It is true what you say about 3D acceleration and the Mac emulators, they can't handle that - but the Mac versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter are (fortunately) not 3D accelerated, it is all done by CPU. The Macintosh versions are conversions and improvements of the DOS versions of XW and TF.

That being said, there is of course the 2D graphics API on classic Macintosh, QuickDraw, which these games use and perhaps the emulation can't deal with.

Either way, the result is the same - but it is as you say, Dark Forces for the Macintosh was a big improvement over the DOS version.

During the 90s there was a strange attitude towards the Macintosh by LucasArts, DOS was the leading development platform, but the Macintosh was the "deluxe" platform.

If only LucasArts had given DOS users a reasonable free upgrade to the Collectors' edition X-Wing. I just can't deal with the 240x200 resolution in game and no match-speed-with-target.

In this case it might have something to do with emulating PPC on an Intel structure.


Yeah, it's really a shame that those superior "deluxe" versions aren't playable anymore on modern configurations... The only solution would be to play those versions directly on an old Mac which can run OS 9.

Check this out:

http://portingteam.com/files/file/8220-star-wars-x-wing-alliance/

http://portingteam.com/files/file/8234-star-wars-x-wing-1998/

I have the disks for the mac versions of both of the games. They are like a combination of the collectors cds and the 1998 versions. They have the old music and old ship models, but updated cockpits and concourse. They were pretty close to being the definitive versions in my opinion. If my disks could help I would copy the files to this topic. I know I made back up disks before so I should be able to attach the data or somthing