So, Steam (a well-known game-to-computer content delivery system) recently released for Mac OS X, and as of today, only one hundred of the games available on Steam are cross-platform. It’s a start, but it’s not yet the revolution every Mac gamer would like it to be. To this end, I’ve made a short how-to so that you can play some of Steam’s PC-only games on Mac OS X.



However, this will not work with every game. In fact, you’re rather lucky if it works at all. It won’t work, for example, with games that use the Unreal 3 engine (so Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge, UT3 are all out). Online multiplayer will not work, and Valve’s own games (running the Source engine) won’t work either, though they’re releasing their games with surprising regularity these days. The rule of thumb is that is your game was released before 2007, there’s a strong chance it’ll work.

Now, onward to the tutorial. I’ve done a screencast for you, but for those of you who dislike Irish accents, I’ve laid out the steps for you here (though they’re certainly not as useful as the screencast).

Screencast

Step-by-step

Download the FlaxSteam zip here, and install CXZAquamarineEngine. Download your game from Steam, using the included Steam (PC) app. This is essentially the Windows version of Steam, allowing you to download Windows games. Right-click (or control-click) Steam (PC).app and select “Show Package Contents”, and do the same for Target.app. Move your game folder (usually the name of the publisher) from “Steam (PC).app/Contents/root/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/“ to “Target.app/Contents/root/drive_c/Program Files/“. Now open “Target.app/Contents/Info.plist” with Property List Editor and change CXOEMWorkDir to the path of the folder that contains the game’s executable, then change CXOEMCmdLine to the path of the game’s executable. Move the contents of the included SteamDLLs folder to the folder that contains the game’s executable.

With luck, your game is now playable. No promises.

This couldn’t be done without the amazing Porting Team, and Wine, so credit goes to them. I encourage you to donate to them both.