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Inside Mac Games has posted the first articles in a new series by contributing writer Justin Ancheta. The new guides will offer detailed instructions for running Windows versions of game titles which either never made it to Macs, or have Mac versions incompatible with recent OS releases. Starting with Ubisoft's XIII, the articles focus on games available from GOG.com, and include instructions for using CrossOver and Wineskin to enjoy the titles on a modern Mac.

From XIII:

A year after the release of XIII on Windows, Feral Entertainment released the Mac-native port of XIII, to generally good reviews by those in the Mac press. The Mac release of XIII was arguably the definitive version of the game; Feral included some beautiful high-res desktops made by Brad Custer (of Inside Mac Games’ Custer’s Corner fame) as well as the soundtrack in the form of Redbook CD audio tracks. Feral even went to the trouble of releasing the Mac version with additional multiplayer modes seen only in the XBox/PS2 version, and also included higher-resolution graphics for the distinctive in-game comic panels. Sadly, this was all left behind with the great Intel switch, as Feral never released a Universal Binary patch for XIII. The game does supposedly work surprisingly well in Rosetta, and it is available on eBay for decent prices, but with current Macs moving forward into Lion and beyond, running a PPC binary in Rosetta will soon no longer be a viable option. Thankfully, in March of 2011, GOG re-released XIII as part of its Ubisoft catalog, and while it doesn’t quite match the original Mac release, GOG's release of the original PC version of XIII runs well enough within CrossOver, even on the anemic GMA 950 powering the original generation MacBook and Mac mini.

Bringing Good Old Games To Modern Macs

Crossing Over: XIII

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