Top 10 Compact Mac Games! (Best 68k Mac Games for Macintosh Plus, SE, Classic)

[@insanelygruz]

Did I miss any great games on my list? What are your favorites?

[@fezdetritus]

Great list. I played everything as a kid except Grid Wars. Here are some games I used to play all the time on a 512k: Stunt Copter, Wave 15, Shadowgate, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Adventure of Snake, Radical Castle, and of course Dark Castle.

[@heidirichter]

Two words: "Shufflepuck Café"

[@whatevercm]

@@heidirichter I enjoyed Shufflepuck Cafe, too. I haven't played Grid Wars yet but it LOOKS similar to Shufflepuck Cafe, but with some new twists. Since both games have a tournament-at-a-bar (or cafe) setting, I wonder which one inspired the other?

[@insanelygruz]

It was a toss-up between Shufflepuck and Grid Wars, both are equally as enjoyable in my opinion. Ultimately chose Grid Wars though because I think less people have heard of it. Grid Wars came out first too if I'm not mistaken.

[@daviddas]

Xyphus, Lode Runner, Transylvania, Shufflepuck Cafe. How'd you get all these working in emulation and capture the screen?

[@matthewneesley761]

My Dad had the largest independent Mac dealership in the world at one point in the very late 80's/Early 90's when I was a kid. I LOVED Enchanted Scepters and Radical Castle...then I made my own games with the World Builder software. My last semester of high school was spring of 1992. 1300-some kids in the entire high school, and i was THE ONLY ONE with his own laptop that I took back and forth to school...a Mac Powerbook 170, the top-of-the-line model that actually had a disk drive :)

[@saulturner3567]

I would have put "Scarab of Ra" on the top 5 list, otherwise great list. Glider was an amazing game and you could create your own levels. I also played a lot with World Builder, creating my own games for family and friends.

[@thisoldmacintosh5795]

Nice Top Ten! *My list would have consisted of:* Airborne, Beyond Dark Castle, Cosmic Osmo & The World Beyond the Mackeral, CrystalQuest, Defender of the Crown, Deja VU, Star Wars, The Fool’s Errand, Through the Looking Glass and Lemmings.

[@wallyhackenslacker]

My favorite from that era will always be Scarab of Ra. The mummy that follows you after picking up the scarab still gives me chills to this day.

[@insanelygruz]

Great choice! I've heard a lot about that game but only briefly played it. I'll check it out again!

[@wallyhackenslacker]

@@insanelygruz If you like roguelikes I promise you won't regret it!

[@whatevercm]

Another vote for Scarab of Ra! Visually, it wasn't a stunner, but the game had a lot of depth. I played for many hours. The mummy wasn't so bad compared to the infuriating, thieving monkeys!

[@wallyhackenslacker]

@@whatevercm Yeah! My kid self was quite afraid of the mummy, but he really, really detested those monkeys!

[@TasnuArakun]

Yet another vote for Scarab of Ra! I played it a bunch as a kid but never managed to beat it. I then rediscovered it years later as a young adult. It ran flawlessly in the Classic Environment and I kept playing it until my PowerMac G4 died in 2007. I later discovered and fell in love with the whole rogue-like genre and eventually realised that I had been playing one long before I knew it was a thing.

[@NickMurray]

I loved the original DK so much I saved up as a kid and purchased BDK with my own money and loved every second of it.

[@NickMurray]

Still have the original disks!

[@whatevercm]

Mac Arkanoid was awesome. Sounds, pacing and levels were so spot-on with the arcade version that you didn't even really miss colour. Dark Castle was the gold standard that proved that the Mac was uniquely capable of great games. One little flaw was that the ending was so anti-climatic that I never bothered to topple the Black Knight in the original game. They more-than-rectified that in Beyond Dark Castle. This was pre-internet, so I didn't know about the shocking ending that awaited me after defeating the Black Knight on the Advanced Level. 😲

[@fredtorres8179]

Spectrum/Holobyte was a really great developer for Mac. I remember the Fighting Falcon, which was my favorite flight simulator, for that time.

[@chrisdennis1449]

I loved Fighting Falcon. I remember my dad bringing it home and the cool art on the front of the box. Those SAM sites that were two triangles. What a throw back.

[@relic374]

Omg wtf. I just finished watching your new SMB3 video on your other channel, searched up "macintosh se games", and randomly clicked on a video! Had no clue about this channel lol.

[@ZergSmasher]

Cool use of the BOOM music in the intro/outro. That's another, albeit more recent, game that should make anyone's top 10 '90s Mac games. As for the games you covered, I've played Continuum (love that game, especially with the level editor!), Dark Castle (never beat it) and the original Tetris (a true classic!).

[@Dorelaxen]

Never owned a Mac when I was younger (do now, though!), but my computer teacher in junior high had one as her personal computer (the standard computers we all used was the Apple IIe). Every Friday we'd rotate who got to play on it. She always had current stuff for it, too. Playing Shadowgate on it is what started my love of classic point and click games, and my love of computers in general.

[@insanelygruz]

That's awesome you got to play Shadowgate back when it was new. I really enjoy it today but I never had it growing up. We did have Uninvited for our family Mac, which is probably why I prefer it over Shadowgate today. Both are a lot of fun!

[@TasnuArakun]

Based on what I played the most: Crystal Quest - Would probably have made my top 10. I even started working on my own clone in the early 00's, trying to come up with new interesting enemies. Sim Earth - At the same time both deeply fascinating and too complex for young me. My father would sometimes just leave it running for a few hours just to see what'd happen. Scarab of Ra - 3D rogue-like/dungeon crawler. The interface in Pathways into Darkness is so similar that at first I thought it was a sequel. Galactic Frontiers - I thought about mentioning Risk at first, but Galactic Frontiers was a much better strategy game. I think it's best played on a larger colour monitor but it does run just fine on the old B&W space helmet Macs. Dubbelmoral! - Okay, it's not a very good game to be honest. But there was just something magical about running around in my own home town, drinking beer and having people curse at me (especially as an 8-year old).

[@matthewlyonsakadeathtodogs5730]

If you've missed one of my absolute favorite conversions from Joust i remember from the Apple II of my class room, it was Glypha.

[@cbdane]

Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle - my biggest distractions while trying to write my PhD thesis at Rice University! Beat them both before I was finally able to concentrate!

[@m3trooper]

My dad got the Mac 512K in 1984. Dark Castle was certainly one of my faves, but I also thoroughly enjoyed AIRBORNE, ART OF WAR, WINTER OLYMPICS, and LODE RUNNER. In "84, games for the MAC were few and far between.

[@anrymarchen]

B&W Mac gaming was way before I started to play games, since the first Mac I interacted with was LC-3. But I played several BW games and i gotta say Lunar Rescue must be in this list. It’s awesome, even today.

[@aprayingatheist2378]

My man... Making dreams come true

[@jsrodman]

Feels weird to put Arkanoid, Prince of Persia, Tetris into a "Hidden Gems" list, but hey, it's a solid list of games. Thanks for sharing it.

[@sadware]

You're voice reminds me of AVGN; are you his more zen-relaxed twin brother? Thanks for this video! It's helpin me do some art style research.

[@nikvolt8298]

Memories. I am looking for a submarine simulator I had. I think it was called sub battle. I cannot find a video of it anywhere

[@bemacbe]

I loved all these games. Also a big fan of Vette, the driving game. The open world of San Francisco was truly amazing for the time. Thanks for all the memories!

[@atmaweapon2803]

Oh my, did you use HyperCard to make the transitions between numbers on your list? Love it. I sadly only have a PC now, but I'm able to use Mini vMac to emulate the games and software I grew up with. HyperCard taught me how to code. I used to make all sorts of cheesy HyperCard stacks to upload to AOL's software libraries, where everyone was posting their own homemade games back in the day. I still open it up sometimes to play around with it. The scripting language, HyperTalk, was a stroke of genius. Might be fun to do a video on HyperCard, and showcase some gaming stacks. Some were incredibly impressive, like Chronicle of Ekan. Even Myst began life as a HyperCard stack, and of course, before Myst was The Manhole, which was through and through HyperCard.

[@martijnvanspaendonck7989]

That was highly nostalgic and soothing. Thank you. :)

[@martijnvanspaendonck7989]

Creepy Castle had such an atmosphere when I was.. Probably 7. Also Glider.. Great times.

[@sideburn]

I can’t get past the first two seconds in dark castle. But ya silicon beach team at San Diego were great. I remember when Future Splash came out and had a career as a flash developer to through out first half of the 2000’s.

[@nickblackburn1903]

Best version of Prince of Persia is on the Original Gameboy, nice video mate, just got hold of a classic se and need to fix it first!

[@onigvd77]

Hey Gruz thanks for the video, these are some great games and have played many of them and for many hours as well. There are only a few I did not play ever but they looked cool still :)

[@atmaweapon2803]

OK! One more thing, I promise: my recommendation for classic Mac gaming would be Mission: Starlight. Arcade style space shooter. You start by picking a planet to fly towards, and the initial travel to the planet reminds me of Tempest with better graphics. Then you hit the planet, and suddenly it's like a Mac port of AfterBurner, that classic Sega arcade game, if you can believe it. It's in pseudo-3D and has you approaching a base to destroy it while taking down fighters and turrets. It's just so unbelievably awesome, just a perfect game from start to finish. There's a color version, but I remember playing the B&W one the most.

[@animalinho1983]

Bravo! keep doing these videos please. I love them

[@benharyo]

Thank you for the nostalgia. I played these in Mac 512k and Mac SE in the 80s 🙏🙇‍♂️🙋‍♂️

[@LIVEFROMHYPERSPACE]

My top 8: Beyond Dark Castle, Starflight II, Uninvited, Lode Runner, Crystal Quest, Cosmic Osmo, Apache Strike, SimCity

[@LIVEFROMHYPERSPACE]

Oh, and Airborne!

[@Manquant]

If I wanted to jump into Classic Mac gaming, which model should I pick up that's accessible/entry level? I'm all about original hardware tbvh.

[@insanelygruz]

For black and white I'd go with either a Mac SE or a Mac Classic

[@IsaacKuo]

A few other games I remember fondly are Shufflepuck Cafe, Oids, and Columns.

[@ArchivalAdventures]

These are great. Would love a video on games written by Duane Blehm, Stunt Copter....etc. Simple good games everyone should play.

[@insanelygruz]

Great suggestion! Blehm's games were so friendly and fun - some of my earliest gaming memories!

[@kaltech04]

dark castle and beyond dark castle were my favorite games growing up. I wasn't allowed to have a nintendo, but my dad loved computers, so we had a few games on the mac. Other than the two dark castles, I also liked The Manhole, and my dad had some boxing game. I don't remember too much about it except that one of the characters was a kangaroo.

[@JimLeonard]

Excellent coverage of Tetris' music. Jam Session/Studio Session was groundbreaking for its time.

[@murdockscott]

Thanks for this video! Personally I would have included The Colony, Shuffle Puck Cafe, and Citadel. I would love to see videos on those if you haven’t already done them. 😀

[@murdockscott]

Oh, and Ancient Art Of War!

[@mythic_snake]

Does anybody remember the classical music that they used for Simcity? I still hum it sometimes, but I don't know the name of the song.

[@rickybobbyracing9106]

Great video, I subbed!

[@worldofretrogameplay6963]

Gruz, please release more Mac gaming videos!

[@insanelygruz]

Next video coming within a few days! 👍

[@electricmiragemedia]

Loved this video. Thank you!

[@meauxdal]

Do you know if the harsh crackling in the PoP music only happens in Mini vMac or if it occurs on real hardware as well?

[@RockFPV]

Shufflepuck and the Sierra Games were as well a blast!

[@anonymousidea9119]

THE MARIO GAME GENIE CODES DUDE YO I didn’t know you had other channels too lol

[@camouflage81]

Do some work too fast on some models? What can be done about that?

[@godfunk]

Were you able to beat Grid Wars? I don't think I got past the plant on Level 7. Anyway, if you ever wanted to hook a MacBrother up, I'd love to see you do a full playthrough. It kills me that I haven't seen those last few alien opponents. Also did you ever try out Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth? Great game, extremely innovative for its time, hard as nails. Couldn't get anywhere with it

[@dave4shmups]

Great video and list! I first played Arkanoid and Sim City on my Dad’s Macintosh 512K, and they were great! But Beyond Dark Castle was amazing! I never beat it, and I’ve never played the original on a Mac. I’d love to pick up a Macintosh Classic, but I don’t have the soldering skills necessary to replace all of the capacitors.

[@insanelygruz]

Very cool! Recapping isn't as hard as it seems, especially when they use the bigger caps and not those pesky surface mount ones.

[@grzybjak]

what happened to the Uninvited video ?

[@-CelShader-]

Growing up had a Mac 512k, SE/30, & IIsi. Across those I played all these games. Great list, but I would include Dungeon of Doom in my top 10.

[@JTZinnful]

I played a lot of Glider and Shufflepuck, had so much fun with those games though I never made it far...

[@yopachi]

Gruz I got 5 more 1980s Mac games. I would love to see you cover any of these: Captain Blood, The Colony, American Challenge: A Sailing Simulation, Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel, Below the Root

[@insanelygruz]

Great choices - would love to cover Cosmic Osmo sometime!

[@stevesrover]

The Colony was class. I never knew Captain Blood was on the classic Mac.

[@stillwell4822]

Good list! I haven't tried the dark castle games yet, but I will now. How about Oregon Trail as another addition to the list?

[@insanelygruz]

Good call! Oregon Trail was excellent!

[@trickylady1423]

Boom's music background lolz

[@drmarioschannel]

What platform are these games being run on?

[@GlendaGSpeciale7-fw7xg]

Do you have the highschool basketball game

[@blairlohnes8103]

Can I run these on a g3 with mac os 9.2?

[@echelon2k8]

12:44 Dude, he's not an unnamed hero, his name's Prince Duncan.

[@scottharris7222]

I'd add Spectre to the list. Nice 3d shooter supports network play.

[@insanelygruz]

Spectre is a great game!

[@LuteFrontier]

Thanks for this well done

[@faithphillips1201]

Please I need help finding a game I used to play in the attic of my family's house! I don't remember what type of game it was but it had a dinosaur in it, idk if it had color, but the only memory I have of it is you could print out a certificate at the end of what you was doing and it had a dinosaur on it.

[@and6239]

So many favorites

[@pacbilly]

Great list, especially the top 2! Did you ever get your hands on a copy of that tennis game?

[@insanelygruz]

Grand Slam I think it was, yep!

[@brainstar64]

I wish I had a classic mac again.

[@Rlotpir1972]

Are any of those games downloadable?

[@777jones]

Shuffle puck was pretty cool. And how about The Birds

[@cold_warrior]

Interesting rating

[@Kwyjor]

No The Fool's Errand or 3 in Three? (The latter is still a Mac-exclusive, unfortunately.)

[@insanelygruz]

I played a lot of Fool's Errand when I was younger, though some of the puzzles seemed very tough. Seems like good choices to revisit as an adult!

[@EvilPyro101]

Can someone help me find a game that's more of a memory as a kid. I was playing it on the school computers in elementary school in the early 90's. It was 2D, dull colors, and the most prominent thing was playing a carnival game, winning a (doll? Baby?) that was asleep until handed to me and then it woke up an started crying. And it's mouth was a spiral portal that you went through in POV. That's all I can remember. It was a very strange game. It was like I was at some twisted carnival or circus.

[@Kawa-oneechan]

I will never get used to Mac!SimCity's THICC title bar.

[@whatevercm]

It may not quality for "Top 10" but I think Star 'Roids by Jason Ferrara was pretty neat. The fact that I liked the game was especially a triumph is because it's based on the arcade classic, Asteroids, which I didn't like (because I sucked at it). Fun sounds and graphics (especially the hyperspace effect). ...And is it just me, or is that big 'Roid on the title screen smiling at me?

[@Corsa15DT]

GLider looks nice.

[@BigHairyMarty314]

I would go so far as to say that the early Mac version of Sim City is probably the only one truly worth playing, purely because the sound effects are more memorable, with the monster sounding especially funny. Later versions and other ports just don't compare in my opinion. :)

[@10p6]

I think Alec Guinness wins on the first voice acting in a game.

[@atmaweapon2803]

Did anyone else look at the blocks in Arkanoid and think they looked tasty, like little brick shaped candies, or jellybeans? I don't know--this game always made me hungry, even in black and white.

[@lurkerrekrul]

Arkanoid - All the home ports were well done. I never liked using the mouse to play these style games though. There's a reason that the arcade version had a knob, rather than a horizontal slider (to mimic a mouse). My favorite version to play was on the C64, where I could use a set of Atari paddles. I was really disappointed when they took the paddle option out of Arkanoid II and replaced it with a mouse option. Uninvited - I really wanted this for the Amiga, but once I played it, it lost its appeal. I had no idea what to do to get past any of the puzzles. Dark Castle - Played the Amiga version and HATED it. In fact, I didn't know a single Amiga owner who liked it. Watching videos of the Mac version, it looks like it has all the same "features" that I hated in the Amiga version (goofy sound effects, tripping over bumps in the level, your character getting dizzy, awkward jumping, enemies that keep coming back, awkward rock throwing). Just going by this video, I think I'd rather play Spacestation Pheta over either Dark Castle game. Don't get me wrong, the DC games look nice, but I hate literally everything else about them.

[@1BitFeverDreams]

I never tried Grid Wars at all, and just barely Continuum. Most of this list is solid, but I would add the excellent port of Archon. The high res graphics and extremely fluid animation made significantly better than on other machines in my mind. Although it's a tough sell to include in a top 10, the Sierra game ports were kinda unavoidable as a gamer back in those days, even if all you had was a b&w mac so some of them would, in my mind, enter at least a top 20. Another easy sell for top 20 but less so for top 10 would be Bard's Tale III. But the best of the best should have been....Dangerous Caves!!

[@insanelygruz]

I remember you were telling me about that Archon game. I still need to try it out! And yes I agree, Dangerous Caves will be amazing! 😁👍 (still working on the project, slowly)

[@1BitFeverDreams]

@@insanelygruz It can work in emulators now

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Where is Klondike?

[@777jones]

No Shadowgate?!

[@Stjaernljus]

For me B&W Macintosh is for edutainment.

[@paulxu1622]

I prefer the Tetris of now

[@jsrodman]

A bit of a bland list, but that's what you get with top tens i suppose. I have to say i think Wesleyan Tetris is the top version on the black and white mac. Every level screws with you in some new way, its great.

[@PavoneSoftworks]

First 😳

[@yasin_GD]

respect

[@LtZorg85]

Where is the Shufflepuck Cafe? :)

[@computernerd8157]

Super muncher but Not sure if it was on the original mac lol.

[@yasin_GD]

first like

[@Corsa15DT]

Wait, Macintosh I and all of it variants had no color? And they sold this computer for 2500-3000$ at the time? When all the 8 bit home computer had colors? Mac I was a complete disaster and it only survived because of loyal Apple fans buying this bad product.

[@jsrodman]

The Mac 256 thru se se30 and "classic" were indeed pure black and white It was a choice that alllwed for high resolution displays in 1984 without makinv the costs crazy, but as the 80s drew to a close it did start feeling dated. Not the best gaming platform for sure, but quite succesful as a desktop usability machine which was the goal after all. Certainly they were on the pricier side, but sobwas the apple 2. Just kinda how they rolled I guess .

[@bartonlynch]

No Crystal Quest!? FAIL!