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The folks at Bungie became an overnight success with Marathon, one of the first 3D shooters for the Mac, and by far the best. The gorgeous texture maps, tough mission objectives, and multiplayer mayhem installed the original Marathon as a classic Mac game. In 1996, Bungie launched the third in the Marathon series, Marathon Infinity.
With Infinity, Bungie's level design stayed in the realm of the superlative. The complexity and puzzle-solving aspects created logical challenges that other 3D shooters on any platform didn't approach. The most important tweak, however, was in the multiplayer aspect of Infinity, some long-standing network bugs were addressed, making the experience much smoother. Product manager Tuncer Deniz and associates plunged yet another fantastic game into the Mac gamer's lap, one that rivals the even the best 3D shooters for the PC.
Download now for the Mac!
Warcraft II
Building on an already great game engine, Warcraft II, the sequel to the record-breaking Warcraft, turned strategic combat into excellent gameplay. Incorporating the fog-of-war effects, our enemy's movements were hidden until they were within view of our own units. New battle units like elven archers, dragons, zeppelins, and battleships brought the war effort to the skies and the sea, while 28 battle scenarios let us play either as Orc or Human.
Download now for the Mac!
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom
So what if Mark Hamill couldn't hack it in the Star Wars universe? Let LucasArts worry about that. Origin has the goods now, and it delivered Wing Commander IV to prove it. Finally, an A-list title for the PC that didn't have Mac gamers waiting a year. Wing Commander IV defined space flight like no other game for the Mac.
Wing Commander IV belongs not only on this list, but on every Mac gamer's hard drive.
Marathon Infinity
Publisher: Bungie
Designer: Greg Kirkpatrick
Based on the same engine that made Marathon and Marathon II such big hits, Bungie added new texture maps, 3D-rendered nonplayer character "bobs," and a new more-accurate rapid-fire weapon, the KKV-7 10mm Flechette SM. In a new twist, some of the "bob" characters in Marathon Infinity were co-opted by the aliens, making them a bit less friendly than we would have liked.
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Designers: Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas
The high-resolution SVGA graphics made gameplay more engaging, while the unit and map editors had us customizing well into the night. Extensive multiplayer support also made Warcraft II a worthy successor. Modem-to-modem, IPX, and serial linking all let players hook up. This version even had direct TCP/IP support for Internet play. Managing resources, researching magic, training troops, and doing battle flowed into an incredibly smooth-playing game.
Publisher: Origin Systems
Designer: Chris Roberts
While the alien cats, the Kilrathi, were finally defeated, civil war broke out and threatened the fragile human alliance. As Colonel William Blair, we needed to decide if the Confederation should be saved at all. The cinematics and the acting in Wing IV were superior to its predecessor, and even the story line was more engaging. Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, Tom Wilson, and Malcolm McDowell all gave worthy performances in the cinematic sequences. As for the space combat, enemy pilots were tough even on the lower-difficulty levels, and the AI was vastly superior to earlier Wing Commander games. High-resolution, 3D, texture-mapped graphics came to life.
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