First Person Shooter 'Shadow Warrior Classic' is a Free Download for Mac

[MacRumors]

Classic first person shooter Shadow Warrior is available as a free download for Mac over on GOG and Steam this morning. The 1997 PC game garnered fans for its wacky humor, multi-function weaponry, and destructible environment, being based on the Build platform that powered Duke Nukem 3D.

Shadow Warrior was an ambitious game for its time, containing many features not seen until later first-person shooter games, such as drivable vehicles, climbable ladders, and multiple firing modes for various weapons. The game was rebuilt in 2014 with OS X support and published by 3D Realms.

The full game (including two expansion packs) is being offered on Steam as a free download, but picking it up from GOG also gets gamers the original soundtrack in MP3 and FLAC format as an additional freebie. The remastered "Redux" version of the game is also available on Steam for $0.99 as part of a 2017 Summer Sale.

Shadow Warrior Classic has the following minimum requirements: OS X 10.6.8 or later, an Intel Core Duo 2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 64MB of video memory, and 1GB of hard disk space.

(Via MacObserver.)

Article Link: First Person Shooter 'Shadow Warrior Classic' is a Free Download for Mac

 

[JosephAW]

Looks like it might be a 32 bit app. Sierra will be the last macOS to support it.
Unless your like the a majority of users like me that are still running snow leopard on our everyday desktops.

 

[Pakaku]

Can't wait for my iMac Pro to ship so I can play this old gem

 

[chucker23n1]

Looks like it might be a 32 bit app. Sierra will be the last macOS to support it.
Unless your like the a majority of users like me that are still running snow leopard on our everyday desktops.

Hmmm. Looks like 64-bit support is sort of underway but not quite there yet:

Boxer currently does not compile for 64-bit because DOSBox is not fully 64-bit compatible. Boxer's bundled frameworks have been stripped down to 32-bit-only to save space.

There's a rewrite underway… but apparently a new release isn't currently feasible.

 

[CheesePuff]

Looks like it might be a 32 bit app. Sierra will be the last macOS to support it.
Unless your like the a majority of users like me that are still running snow leopard on our everyday desktops.

You mean High Sierra, so another ~1 1/2 years to run on the latest macOS release.

And I think these metrics contradict heavily your claim that the majority of users are still running Snow Leopard: https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

I remember this game well. Fun times.

 

[JosephAW]

You mean High Sierra, so another ~1 1/2 years to run on the latest macOS release.

And I think these metrics contradict heavily your claim that the majority of users are still running Snow Leopard: https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

Your probably right. But scary that #3 was windows xp. Last week I helped my friend upgrade from SnowLeopard to ElCapitan only because NFL Rewind no longer worked with version 49 of Chrome. I work with some non profits and they are still using 10.6. No upgrade in the foreseeable future.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Minecraft for "grown up"

Ah, get good ol' memories with Doom

 

[Avieshek]

Only ancient games come to Mac.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

You mean High Sierra, so another ~1 1/2 years to run on the latest macOS release.

And I think these metrics contradict heavily your claim that the majority of users are still running Snow Leopard: https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

The most surprising thing from that chart is that Windows 8, likely the worst version of Windows ever (even worse than Vista), is still more common than Windows 10, easily the best version of Windows ever.

For those that haven't had the displeasure of using Windows 8, it's basically like if Apple put out a new version of macOS where they got rid of Finder, the Dock, and Spotlight, and it required you to hold a spork (included) whenever you used it.

 

[Porco]

Free games and lossless soundtracks are a good thing. Nice. Also, I see GOG offers a money back guarantee for 30 days, so if you miss your 0.00 of money you can ask for it back, which is also nice.

You mean High Sierra, so another ~1 1/2 years to run on the latest macOS release.

And I think these metrics contradict heavily your claim that the majority of users are still running Snow Leopard: https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

Yeah, I keep seeing some (to some degree understandable given Apple's history of abandoning legacy support at the drop of a hat) confusion over when 32-bit apps are going to stop working. It's worth repeating the point that High Sierra is supposedly the last version of Mac OS that WILL run 32-bit apps, not the first that won't. Maybe Mac OS 10.14 (or MacOS v11? Whichever... ) should be called 'Bye Sierra'

On those metrics, maybe it's my bias (I stuck with Snow Leopard for as long as I could and ended up skipping Lion altogether) but I find it interesting that that 10.6 is still above 10.8, 10.7 and 10.5 yet I think I'd be right (?) that sales of macs have gone up over that time period, meaning a lot of those users on 10.6 could update to later versions but chose no to. Still not huge percentage wise of course, either way, but still a fair number of actual users. Thanks for posting that, interesting.

The most surprising thing from that chart is that Windows 8, likely the worst version of Windows ever (even worse than Vista), is still more common than Windows 10, easily the best version of Windows ever.

For those that haven't had the displeasure of using Windows 8, it's basically like if Apple put out a new version of macOS where they got rid of Finder, the Dock, and Spotlight, and it required you to hold a spork (included) whenever you used it.

I hated Windows 8 when I tried it, although you could get back to a semi-normal desktop experience once you figure it out a bit. That said, isn't Windows 10 utterly privacy invading compared to all earlier versions (security vulnerabilities notwithstanding)? Or did they roll that back a bit since the launch? (I lost interest so didn't follow what happened... *confesses ignorance on subject*).

 

[tomcos]

The most surprising thing from that chart is that Windows 8, likely the worst version of Windows ever (even worse than Vista), is still more common than Windows 10, easily the best version of Windows ever.

Wow, I must be reading that chart wrong.

 

[hotgril]

The most surprising thing from that chart is that Windows 8, likely the worst version of Windows ever (even worse than Vista), is still more common than Windows 10, easily the best version of Windows ever.

For those that haven't had the displeasure of using Windows 8, it's basically like if Apple put out a new version of macOS where they got rid of Finder, the Dock, and Spotlight, and it required you to hold a spork (included) whenever you used it.

I'm still not upgrading past 7. I've used 10 and can only give it credit for being better than 8, which is the worst version since ME. The interface in 10 is kinda screwy, and I'm not happy with how much spyware and intrusiveness there is built in. And I see no reason to say it's better than 7.

 

[CarlJ]

Looks like it might be a 32 bit app. Sierra will be the last macOS to support it.

As already pointed out, the upcoming High Sierra will be the last macOS to support it directly, not Sierra. In addition, given the vintage of the game and the hardware it was written for, I suspect it may run reasonably well under Snow Leopard (or other version of OS X) running in a VM on a newer Mac.

 

[MacBH928]

Your probably right. But scary that #3 was windows xp. Last week I helped my friend upgrade from SnowLeopard to ElCapitan only because NFL Rewind no longer worked with version 49 of Chrome. I work with some non profits and they are still using 10.6. No upgrade in the foreseeable future.

What about security? shouldn't you always be on the latest update or you will get a ton of viruses and malware?
Also, OSes today keeping nagging to update on daily basis and sometimes they will have "automatic update" by default once installed.
[doublepost=1499274725][/doublepost]

Hmmm. Looks like 64-bit support is sort of underway but not quite there yet:



There's a rewrite underway… but apparently a new release isn't currently feasible.

I am no programmer, but how difficult is it to turn an app from 32-bit to 64-bit?

 

[hotgril]

I am no programmer, but how difficult is it to turn an app from 32-bit to 64-bit?

32-bit to 64-bit by itself is easy for anyone using high-level languages. The problems are in dependencies. If the app were just Python or C source code with no dependencies on libraries only available as 32-bit binaries, it would be trivial, assuming no special optimizations for the older architecture.

Realistically, the transition for a dev in the OS X environment amounts to what's described here, ignoring third-party dependencies. Anything using Carbon will likely take some difficult reworking, and I'm not sure whether that even has to do with 64-bit or just Apple deciding to deprecate it. I'm guessing most devs won't have these kinds of problems, but I could be wrong. Computer games are a whole 'nother world, with weird dependencies for graphics, and I've never dealt with them.

 

[RedTomato]

FYI the Steam Summer Sale ended some time ago so Shadow Warrior Redux is back up to around $6.99 on Steam, not $0.99 as the article says. People had only a few hours to buy it at the lower price after the article was published, which could have been a bit clearer.

 

[antonis]

The most surprising thing from that chart is that Windows 8, likely the worst version of Windows ever (even worse than Vista), is still more common than Windows 10, easily the best version of Windows ever.

For those that haven't had the displeasure of using Windows 8, it's basically like if Apple put out a new version of macOS where they got rid of Finder, the Dock, and Spotlight, and it required you to hold a spork (included) whenever you used it.

Must be missing something. According to the graph I see, Windows 8 are at 1.37% while Windows 10 at 26.8%. How's Windows 8 more common ?

 

[chucker23n1]

In addition, given the vintage of the game and the hardware it was written for, I suspect it may run reasonably well under Snow Leopard (or other version of OS X) running in a VM on a newer Mac.

This is already running in an emulator (DOSBox). Many games at GoG run that way — a branded version of Boxer, which in turn uses DOSBox.

You'd be virtualizing 32-bit x86 in order to, in turn, emulate 16-bit x86.

I am no programmer, but how difficult is it to turn an app from 32-bit to 64-bit?

Depends a lot on how low-level you go. A high-level GUI app like, say, a calculator is trivial to port.

This, however, emulates old DOS/PC hardware and has lots of low-level optimizations to get that to work. Thus, it is difficult. (But already underway.)

 

[MH01]

Can't wait for my iMac Pro to ship so I can play this old gem

Hope that was sarcasm....

Though this 1997 gem will still overheat the iMac pro and cause throttling ...

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Looks like it might be a 32 bit app. Sierra will be the last macOS to support it.
Unless your like the a majority of users like me that are still running snow leopard on our everyday desktops.

Normally if you download it for Mac then you have access to Windows version too. So if you have a PC or Bootcamp the game will keep working there.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Must be missing something. According to the graph I see, Windows 8 are at 1.37% while Windows 10 at 26.8%. How's Windows 8 more common ?

Hmmm... I may have misread the chart, or maybe the chart has changed in the past few hours. I could have sworn 7's slice was a bit larger, 8 was at around 10%, and 10 was at around 8%.

One issue with your number is you didn't include Windows 8.1 with Windows 8, which the chart currently shows as having 6% and change... so combined they're around 8%.

Seems like XP was also a lot higher when I looked at the chart yesterday, too... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Must be missing something. According to the graph I see, Windows 8 are at 1.37% while Windows 10 at 26.8%. How's Windows 8 more common ?

Same reason we still see Adobe CS6 not being upgraded by certain people. Piracy and cloud avoidance.

 

[InuNacho]

Unless your like the a majority of users like me that are still running snow leopard on our everyday desktops.

Oh how I wish my main Mac Pro could, but I needed to put in a new graphics card so I lost Snow Leopard compatibility. I need to grab an old Mini sometime and use that as my Snow Leopard machine.

 

[CarlJ]

Must be missing something. According to the graph I see, Windows 8 are at 1.37% while Windows 10 at 26.8%. How's Windows 8 more common ?

Same reason we still see Adobe CS6 not being upgraded by certain people. Piracy and cloud avoidance.

antonis was asking a simple math question, "how is 1.37 larger than 26.8" - your answer is in the same ballpark as "2 + 3 = bacon".

I'll note that the quoted graph shows Win 8 as 1.37% and Win 8.1 as 6.4%, so one could say Win 8 (in general) has 7.77%, but the math is still working against ArtOfWarfare's claim that the chart shows Win 8 being more common that Win 10. I suspect he meant Win 7, not Win 8, which would jibe with the chart, but then everyone's condemnations of Win 8 would be less relevant.

In other news, last night I helped my artist/retired-art-teacher father-in-law get his legitimately purchased copy of Adobe CS6 running on Sierra (it needed Java). He's not adverse to cloud things and has not pirated anything, he just doesn't feel a great need to upgrade.