Playing 'Macintosh' games in Mac OS X

[Rhythm]

Right, I'm pretty new to the World of Mac, and indeed these forums, so don't shoot me completely down in flames if this is an obvious question or anything...

So I've just moved to Mac from being on Windows all my life, and one of my favourite games I always played was 'Heroes of Might and Magic 3'. This game is available (obviously) on PC, but also available for Macintosh.

So I was wondering, if I was to get my hands on a Macintosh version of the game, is there some way I can play that on Mac OS X (as I believe Macintosh games won't normally work on Mac OS X, right?)? Through some kind of program perhaps or something? Or if I'll have to use boot camp/parallels etc. to get Windows up and running and playing it through there?

Thanks.

 

[SpookyLars]

Take a look at CrossOver Games.

 

[ergdegdeg]

Actually Mac is only an abbreviation of Macintosh so you should be fine with that version.

 

[gauchogolfer]

I'm confused here. Why wouldn't a Macintosh game work fine? Mac = Mac OS X.

 

[NorCalLights]

Heroes is a Mac Classic game (from the OS 7.5–9 days). It won't run natively on OSX, and today's Macintosh computers can't run OS 9. I've heard that there are some emulators that will let you run older games on OSX, but I have never tried them.

It might be easier to install Parallels and run in Windows than try to get one of these unsupported emulators running, but I don't know. Give the archives a search here, then try Google.

Hope that helps...

 

[nick9191]

The game is from 1999, for the classic Mac OS.

This ran fine on OS X under PPC until Intel and Leopard which dropped the Classic environment (not sure if Intel- Tiger still had it).

The easiest way to do it would to simply install Windows onto your Mac as well as OS X (via Bootcamp, VMWare, Parallels). Or keep an old Windows box lying around for that purpose (any old heap will run that game since its old).

Whilst a Mac today is still a Macintosh, when you see that name it normally refers to the old style Macs of the 90's which ran a completely different operating system to now.

 

[johny5]

The game is from 1999, for the classic Mac OS.


Whilst a Mac today is still a Macintosh, when you see that name it normally refers to the old style Macs of the 90's which ran a completely different operating system to now.

Can be confusing to new "Mac converts" especially now they run with intel chips, with xp installed via bootcamp or vmware etc you can run loads of old xp games but not a chance to see those mac games from yesteryear

I converted (TOTALLY) from lots of pc's around the house to now owning 5 Mac's from the mini all the way up to the Powermac 2.8 and would have loved to have a go at the older "classic Mac OS" games but can't as I am all "intel".
I am not complaining tho, love them all!!!

 

[HLdan]

Not to down anyone here but this is getting ridiculous, you can't just tell someone (especially a newbie) to SIMPLY install Windows via Parallels, VMware or Bootcamp. Don't forget you have to pay for Parallels and VMware, they're close to $100.00, then you have to pay for a Windows license which is not cheap for everyone.
If you are going to recommend this option (which does seem to be the most viable option if the OP REALLY needs to play this game) then you should disclose all the costs involved rather than just tell him to simply install Windows and Parallels like it's all freeware.

 

[apfhex]

Heroes is a Mac Classic game (from the OS 7.5–9 days). It won't run natively on OSX, and today's Macintosh computers can't run OS 9. I've heard that there are some emulators that will let you run older games on OSX, but I have never tried them.

I think there's one called Sheepshaver? Sheepsaver? I've not tried it either.

Basically, when Mac OS X came out, Apple had a feature called "Classic" that would essentially run Mac OS 9-compatible apps in a compatibility environment within OS X. It wasn't perfect, especially for games, but it worked for the most part. When Apple switched to using Intel CPUs, this broke Classic support (since it only runs on PPC) and since Leopard came out they've dropped Classic altogether. PPC Macs running Tiger can still use Classic.

Bottom line is, if you want to run anything that requires OS 9 or earlier, and you have an Intel Mac, the only solution is to emulate it. It may very well be easier (if not cheaper) to use Bootcamp/Parallels/Fusion to run the Windows version.

 

[Charliekid21]

im sorry if this is kinda off topic but heroes of might and magic 2 is THE BEST GAME EVER MADE... almost