How do I play games on STEAM for Mac?

Yeah, I think you need to download and install the Steam program on your Mac, and then you can download the games. At least I think so.

no, they run through steam for authentication purposes

jon08 said:

So downloading them is then a must? There's no way I could install them like I did in Windows and then just run Steam (without having to download the entire multi-GB big file)?

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No you must download and install through steam.

This is not correct, many Valve games allow you to copy over the data files and just download the Mac specific files. Check the Steam forums.

Ah I see... yes you can copy over the .gcf files from any OS. It'd need to download the binaries for that OS though which is (I think) 180mb.

I used this method to play TF2 about 10 minutes after it was released. So it's possible.

Hansr said:

This is not correct, many Valve games allow you to copy over the data files and just download the Mac specific files. Check the Steam forums.

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I quickly searched the Steam forums and came up with this, which does not shed any info on the issue. This link talks about transferring saved characters from the pc to mac version of the game. If someone comes up with a good link describing the "hows" of using pc files on the mac side to shorten Steam download time, could you post it here or PM me? I'd like to add it to the Mac Game Links guide here at MacRumors. Thanks!

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1299738

That's for TF2, but works for all Source games - just different .gcf files.

Oh, and the Mac directory in that guide is the old one. The correct directory is ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps

Just download it. Much easier.

teidon said:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1299738

That's for TF2, but works for all Source games - just different .gcf files.

Oh, and the Mac directory in that guide is the old one. The correct directory is ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps

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Thanks! I added your link and a brief description to the Mac Gaming Links listed in the Guides section. See the Mac Steam section of the guide.

And if there is anyone reading this who does not want their Steam game content sitting in their Library/Application Support folder because you don't have enough space on your home partition see this Mac Rumors Guide for Symbolic Links and Moving Steam Content.