How to get Quake on Mac OS Catalina

[jeffbax]

Not sure about Quake 2, but ioQuake3 and QuakeSpasm are both in Home-brew for 10.15

 

[Hexley]

Is there a version of Quake 1 that runs on Metal?

 

[eightace]

Do this:
1. Update 10.15.x on your Mac as far as you can go via normal update mechanism.
2. Install XCode from Apple's Mac App Store.
3. Install commandline tools for XCode (xcode-select --install)
4. Follow the steps in the Quake 3 wiki to install Q3. (http://web.archive.org/web/20171105094047/http://wiki.ioquake3.org/Building_ioquake3_on_Mac) - I just did the first one. I already had git, I assume with XCode commandline install....
5. Q3 built in about 3 minutes.
6. I then went back to the Q3 web page (https://ioquake3.org/extras/patch-data) and downloaded the patch data and put them into the new BUILD directory I now had (inside of the directory that was... built...)
7. I had to supply my own pak0.pk3 (https://github.com/nrempel/q3-server/blob/master/baseq3/pak0.pk3; I had another one so I didn't use this one - but it should work) for the gamefile.

All done! Q3 on a modern Mac. On an 27" iMac (2560x1440 native res) I found 2560x1440 resolution, 16:9, was perfect. Attempting non-native res produced a bad image or very off-center image.

I tried this and it works great on my 2019 27 inch 3.7 GHz model. What do I do when it asks for my CD Key though?

 

[Janichsan]

What do I do when it asks for my CD Key though?

Enter it?

The CD key is still necessary for online play.

 

[foo2]

Enter it?

The CD key is still necessary for online play.

Do I have some bad version? I have no idea where it came from, and when it asks for the CD key I just hit accept. Is that an issue? I'm not an "online player" person, but a quick peek in the "TA3 / Multiplayer" section seemed to indicate it was working... ?

It's been a decade at least since i've looked at this in detail. Is it still cd key protected?

 

[Janichsan]

Do I have some bad version? I have no idea where it came from, and when it asks for the CD key I just hit accept. Is that an issue? I'm not an "online player" person, but a quick peek in the "TA3 / Multiplayer" section seemed to indicate it was working... ?

It's been a decade at least since i've looked at this in detail. Is it still cd key protected?

You would see issues when you join a server. That's when the CD key is checked.

And yes, the game is still CD key protected. The engine might have gone open source, but the actual game has not become freeware. It's still being sold.

 

[eightace]

I used my key from the old cd version and worked fine ?

 

[dominiquevilain]

Do this:
1. Update 10.15.x on your Mac as far as you can go via normal update mechanism.
2. Install XCode from Apple's Mac App Store.
3. Install commandline tools for XCode (xcode-select --install)
4. Follow the steps in the Quake 3 wiki to install Q3. (http://web.archive.org/web/20171105094047/http://wiki.ioquake3.org/Building_ioquake3_on_Mac) - I just did the first one. I already had git, I assume with XCode commandline install....
5. Q3 built in about 3 minutes.
6. I then went back to the Q3 web page (https://ioquake3.org/extras/patch-data) and downloaded the patch data and put them into the new BUILD directory I now had (inside of the directory that was... built...)
7. I had to supply my own pak0.pk3 (https://github.com/nrempel/q3-server/blob/master/baseq3/pak0.pk3; I had another one so I didn't use this one - but it should work) for the gamefile.

All done! Q3 on a modern Mac. On an 27" iMac (2560x1440 native res) I found 2560x1440 resolution, 16:9, was perfect. Attempting non-native res produced a bad image or very off-center image.

This is so great ! Just had a tear in the corner of my eye… Best FPS ever ! Using it on a MacBook Pro Mid 2012

 

[corradokid_]

Is there a version of Quake 1 that runs on Metal?

You can download the app GLQuake, which while isn't Apple Silicon native, runs in Roseta 2 very very quickly since the game is so old. You need to provide your own Quake PAK files I believe.

Mac App 'GLQuake' v1.2.1 Download

Mac App GLQuake

macupdater.net

 

[DouglasCarroll]

You can get them all....and much much more... for 64bit Mac OS operating systems here...

Mac Source Ports

Mac Source Ports - Run old games on new Macs

macsourceports.com

 

[Cave Man]

You can get them all....and much much more... for 64bit Mac OS operating systems here...

Mac Source Ports

Mac Source Ports - Run old games on new Macs

macsourceports.com

It’s too bad Unreal isn’t on that site.

 

[DouglasCarroll]

It’s too bad Unreal isn’t on that site.

I don’t think the original Unreal is open source, but I agree it would be awesome to be able to play again!

 

[bendenison]

Do this:
1. Update 10.15.x on your Mac as far as you can go via normal update mechanism.
2. Install XCode from Apple's Mac App Store.
3. Install commandline tools for XCode (xcode-select --install)
4. Follow the steps in the Quake 3 wiki to install Q3. (http://web.archive.org/web/20171105094047/http://wiki.ioquake3.org/Building_ioquake3_on_Mac) - I just did the first one. I already had git, I assume with XCode commandline install....
5. Q3 built in about 3 minutes.
6. I then went back to the Q3 web page (https://ioquake3.org/extras/patch-data) and downloaded the patch data and put them into the new BUILD directory I now had (inside of the directory that was... built...)
7. I had to supply my own pak0.pk3 (https://github.com/nrempel/q3-server/blob/master/baseq3/pak0.pk3; I had another one so I didn't use this one - but it should work) for the gamefile.

All done! Q3 on a modern Mac. On an 27" iMac (2560x1440 native res) I found 2560x1440 resolution, 16:9, was perfect. Attempting non-native res produced a bad image or very off-center image.

Thank you so much for the advice.