Three years ago I wrote a post about getting Dark Forces (DOS, 1995, LucasArts) running under Windows Vista. Well, I got it working under Mac OS X (I use Snow Leopard) easily.
Here are my updated directions for Mac OS X:
(1) Copy entire contents of the Dark Forces CD to a directory (ex. ~/Games/Dark). Keep the directory name to 8 letters or less.
(2) Download the latest Mac OS X version of DOSBox and install it.
(3) mount c ~/Games/Dark (or wherever you put the game on your hard drive)
(4) c:
(5) subst p: c:
(6) p:
(7) cd dark
(8) type either imuse or dark to run the sound config utility or the game
To go in/out of full-screen mode, press Option-Return. That’s it – it works great!
UPDATE: I forgot to mention, for Mac users there is an awesome program named Boxer that will wrap your DOS games up in a simple app file and you just double-click to launch. It’s really amazing. Check it out here.
Download this page in PDF format
Thanks for share. I will see if i can use the Dark Forces files in the Steam folder from my PC to run the game on the mac.
So did the Steam version work?
I loved Dark Forces!!! Most Doom clones were bland but this one was terrific! The atmosphere was awesome!!! It was better than “Star Wars Doom” but we had to wait for Jedi Knight to see the lightsaber (an unofficial Dark Forces mod added it to the game but it didn’t look very good). Dark Forces was one of the few games that allowed you to look up and down, that’s why it was often used for virtual reality headset demonstrations… My all time favorite is Doom but I loved this one too!!!
Hi John,
Dark Forces works great also on BOXER for Mac!
http://boxer.washboardabs.net/
Wow. I loved that game. Still have a copy of it, but it’s 3000 miles away.
I have Dark Forces running on my mac (10.5.8) through dosbox, and it works great, but with one exception: my shields are impenetrable! I can sustain damage from a fall, or from monster/droid attacks, or anything else that bypasses the shields, but imperial guards and lasers etc. can’t harm me.
Does anyone know how to fix this? Its not much fun being invincible.
But what if you have the Mac version of DF? Does this work for that too?
These instructions are a bit vague. I bought the game from Steam, I’ve tried Boxer, I’ve tried this and nothing. Boxer is asking for the cd rom which I don’t have cause I bought the game from Steam. I am willing to pay money at this point to play Dark Forces on my Mac! I own the Mac version but pre-OS X emulation is a bit dodgy and only got it to work once.