OS Neutral Retro Computer Games

[egexperiment626]

I've recently started getting into computer games from the 90s and I was wondering if there was a fairly easy (and legal) way to play them to on a 2008 MacBook Pro. I'm really interested finding the game Maniac Mansion & Impossible Mission - both DOS based and Win95 CD games like Myst & Riven. I do own copies of the Win95 games, but not the DOS ones.

Is this something I'd can do?

If it helps, besides my MacBook, I have a 2000 iBook and a 2006 iMac. I can get access to a Windows 7 machine if needed for doing some things... but not for actually playing the games.

TIA!

 

[Renzatic]

Yup, it's something easily done via emulators and virtual environments.

For Maniac Mansion (and just about every other point 'n click adventure game ever made), download ScummVM and follow the fairly simple steps to get it up and running there.

Impossible Mission can be played on OSX via Dosbox, which is a 486-Pentium era x86 PC emulator. It's not the most immediately user friendly program in the world (find a good frontend to use), but it'll run 99% of the games you throw at it if you set it up right.

To give you an idea of how capable it is, Good Ole Games uses it to get all the classic DOS games they sell on their site up and running on modern computers.

Myst and Riven will be the hardest of the bunch to figure out how to do because it'll require a VM to get up and running. If you have a Win95 CD handy, you could try something like VirtualBox to install the OS virtualized as a program inside OSX, and see if it works from there.

If you don't have a Windows 95 CD handy, I don't think you have any other choice for those two games but to buy them again. I know you can get RealMyst and Riven for the iPad, so if you've got one, you can throw down around 10 bucks and play them there. GOG, which I linked to above, might have the Mac revs on their site if you don't have an iPad.

Check out the links and see if they help you out at all.

 

[rampancy]

The short answer is yes, you can do it - the long answer is yes, you can do it, but you need to put in some legwork and elbow grease to do it.

A lot of GOG's Windows-based games can be played in OS X using Wineskin or CrossOver; pretty much all of their DOS-based games can be played on OS X using Boxer. The trick is to figure out which Windows games can work.

 

[egexperiment626]

Thank you Renzatic & rampancy! I do have an iPad, but it's a 1st gen with iOS 4 and I barely get it to open Facebook and Mail without crashing at least 50% of the time. I'll keep those apps in mine when I upgrade. And I'll try all the other suggestions.

 

[ianwuk]

My mid-2010 MBP plays Amiga games just fine using a controller so I am happy!

 

[Huntn]

Thread Revival

So I'm cleaning out my office and I come across an unopened box of Myth III The Wolf Age labele at OSX compatible. I figure it won't run on today's OSX and I'm right, won't run or even install, but I'm wondering if this series was patched to run in the post Rosetta Stone age (not that that has anything to do with this challenge). Solutions? Thoughts? Thanks!