Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How do I play games on STEAM for Mac?

J

jon08

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 14, 2008
1,891
108
Ok so I've got a bunch of PC-based Steam games (such as Half-Life 1 & 2, Team Fortress and whatnot), but I'm still a bit confused how do I go about playing them on Steam for Mac?

From what I understand I can only install/play them by actually downloading them through Steam? Or is there a faster/easier way?

Thanks
 
Yeah, I think you need to download and install the Steam program on your Mac, and then you can download the games. At least I think so.
 
I obviously already have Steam installed. What I'm asking is if there's any other way of playing those games aside from downloading them?
 
87vert said:
no, they run through steam for authentication purposes
Click to expand...

So downloading them is then a must? There's no way I could install them like I did in Windows and then just run Steam (without having to download the entire multi-GB big file)?
 
This is not correct, many Valve games allow you to copy over the data files and just download the Mac specific files. Check the Steam forums.
 
Hansr said:
This is not correct, many Valve games allow you to copy over the data files and just download the Mac specific files. Check the Steam forums.
Click to expand...

Even if you want to play it in OS X?
 
Ah I see... yes you can copy over the .gcf files from any OS. It'd need to download the binaries for that OS though which is (I think) 180mb.

I used this method to play TF2 about 10 minutes after it was released. So it's possible.
 
Hansr said:
This is not correct, many Valve games allow you to copy over the data files and just download the Mac specific files. Check the Steam forums.
Click to expand...

I quickly searched the Steam forums and came up with this, which does not shed any info on the issue. This link talks about transferring saved characters from the pc to mac version of the game. If someone comes up with a good link describing the "hows" of using pc files on the mac side to shorten Steam download time, could you post it here or PM me? I'd like to add it to the Mac Game Links guide here at MacRumors. Thanks!
 
teidon said:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1299738

That's for TF2, but works for all Source games - just different .gcf files.

Oh, and the Mac directory in that guide is the old one. The correct directory is ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps
Click to expand...

Thanks! I added your link and a brief description to the Mac Gaming Links listed in the Guides section. See the Mac Steam section of the guide.

And if there is anyone reading this who does not want their Steam game content sitting in their Library/Application Support folder because you don't have enough space on your home partition see this Mac Rumors Guide for Symbolic Links and Moving Steam Content.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back