Original Diablo...on Mac OS X?

phanboyjohn said:

Hi everybody!

I'm getting the Diablo Battle Chest in this week (color me excited), but according to Blizz technical support, Diablo 1 will not play under Mac OS X. Do any of you know any solutions/workarounds? Is there an emulation solution of some kind? Thanks!

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You don't say what you're trying to run it on. If it's an Intel Mac, try a VM. It's that old, and undemanding, I can't imagine you'd have much bother running it. If it's PPC, classic?

Even if those workarounds don't pan out, you could always just spend $30 or so and get an older OS 9-equipped Mac if you need to.

why not just play diablo 2?

A Pittarelli said:

why not just play diablo 2?

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Personally, I prefer playing through a game series in order, and many prefer Diablo 1 to Diablo 2 simply because it is so much more challenging.

I think Sheepsaver will let you play it, but I've never tried it myself. Some installation instructions are here.

phanboyjohn said:

Thanks for the replies everyone--I apologize for not specifying my setup: I am using an Intel Mac, a 2.0 GHz MacBook, so running Classic isn't an option for me. Is there a VM out there for classic OSs? What company is it through? VMWare?

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You have a choice of two pieces of software, VMware Fusion, or Parallels Desktop. Fusion is currently a free beta, and $39.99 if you pre-order before it goes GA. I've run it for the past few betas, and it runs quite nicely. Can't really comment on Parallels, I removed it after issues with their support.

I currently run XP in a VM on a 2Ghz CD MacBook, and it runs nicely. I use it to play some of my old titles ( TA, TA: Kingdoms ). It will be more than capable of handling Diablo.

To recap:

-Classic won't work since you're running an Intel. Diablo under Classic (on PPC) works poorly or not at all anyway, in my experience.

-You can try SheepShaver. However: it can be confusing to set up (the linked directions @Xeem are pretty good); you need an OS 8 or 9 system folder/disc to run it (NOT downloadable from Apple); and it's pretty unstable for gaming in any case - this on my PPC, which runs it natively.

-The Windows solution. Since the Battle Chest CDs are hybrids, you'll have a PC version to run. However, you'll have to buy a copy of Parallels/VMWare. Why not just do Boot Camp for free? Even then, you'd still need (have to buy?) a copy of Windows XP. A little pricey to run one old game.

Short answer: there's no one solution that's both easy and free, sadly.

I can understand why you'd want to play Diablo, though. #II has more choices, but seems to devolve into a constant flood of A. weak items for your class or B. great items for another class, requiring you to town-portal every 5 minutes to free up space. Diablo really had the formula down of streamlined dungeon crawling, nearly every item an improvement, and click-click-click gaming.

Diablo 1 ran terribly on my iMac G5 under OSX, so I resorted to jumping on my iMac 333 to relive the past a little.

If you really want to play Diablo 1, I'd take the advice of the poster up there and buy a cheap OS8-9 mac.

phanboyjohn said:

Haha, I'm glad you still have an old iMac to use. I got lucky and managed to find a package that someone configured of Sheepshaver--at least for now, works like a charm. It won't win any awards or anything, but it lets me play Diablo. 'Nuff said.

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Wow...I've had crap luck with trying to run games on that (MW2, Total Annihilation), and on a PPC (no emulation required) no less. Glad you found a solid solution!

Ah, so basically, Diablo I can't be run on mac?