System 6 Hell: Games and Apps for Mini vMac

(updated February 28, 2010)

This page provides disk images containing shareware and freeware Macintosh games and applications from the 1980s. Everything posted here has been tested in Mini vMac running System 6.0.8. The disk images are usable in any version of Mini vMac, running on any host system.

If a game runs too fast, try running a variation of Mini vMac, or (and this is much easier) hit “CTRL-S” to adjust the speed of the emulation.

Big apologies go out to System 6 Heaven.

Written by: Robert Harris
Published: 1987
Download

A Macintosh version of the classic French card game “Mille Borne.”

Written by: Fred Moulden, Jr.
Published: 1989
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Checkers!

Written by: Colin Olson
Published: 1986
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This is cool. It's a 3D modeller released in 1986. The Star Wars walker pictured in the screenshot comes with the download.

Written by: J. Olson
Published: 1987
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A neat World Builder adventure game set in a college dorm.

Written by: Patricia B. Smith
Published by: Epiboly Software, 1988
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Create your own adventure games. What a wonderful piece of software.

Written by: Paul A. Perkins
Published: 1987
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Run through the maze avoiding the “amps.”

Written by: Kirk Crawford
Published: 1989
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Early Macintosh member of the Artillery game genre. Fun Fact: The developer of this oldie has a website. It even has a little section devoted to this game.

Written by: Stephen D. Young, Debra Willrett, David Young
Published by: Solosoft, Inc., 1987
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A straightforward backgammon game. Fun Fact: Designer Debra Willrett (who also developed MacProject) now heads up a software consulting firm.

Written by: Eric Snider
Published: 1989
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Well-designed solitaire game. Fun Fact: Twenty years later, developer Eric Snider is still making solitaire games!. He was once mentioned in Entertainment Weekly.¹⁾

Written by: Johnathan Gay
Published by: Silicon Beach Software, 1985
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Fight off a never ending onslaught of tanks and soldiers using your trusty mortar. The precursor to Silicon Beach's “Airborne.” Fun fact: Silicon Beach is now owned by Adobe.²⁾

Written by: Steve McLaughlin
Published: 1987
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Here's another Battleship implementation for the classic Mac. Play against a friend or against the computer.

Written by: Charles Best
Published: 1989
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This is a wonderful baseball sim for two players. One player makes the pitching call and his opponent calls the hitting and baserunning plays. Watch for the fun homerun graphic. There is no option to play against the computer, sadly.

Written by: R. Crandall, S. Gillespie, S. Lew
Published: 1985
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Maybe the first billiards game made for the Mac? Check out the programming notes in the “Help” menu. Remember to slow down the emulation, or better yet try running this one on a variation of Mini vMac that emulates as old a machine as possible… it runs too fast under default emulation!

Published: 1985
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Pick a bird, make a wager and watch the race. The author calls it a “simple game for simple minds.” Remember to slow down the emulation, or better yet try running this one on a variation of Mini vMac that emulates as old a machine as possible… it runs too fast under default emulation! The game will give you speech if Macintalk is installed.

Written by: Hillary D. Jones
Published: 1986
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A curious little game based on a Parker Brothers board game I haven't heard of.

Written by: Larry Hosmer and Trent Stevens
Published: 1986
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A very, very simple blackjack game.

Written by: Andrew Welch
Published by: Mark 3, 1988
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Avoid hitting the bouncing balls. Fun Fact: This delightfully simple game was designed by Andrew Welch, who four years later would found the Very Important company Ambrosia Software. Welch doesn't talk about this game anymore.³⁾

Written by: Ken Winograd
Published: 1985?
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A classic (early) Breakout clone for the Mac. This one is so old that you will need to slow down Mini vMac to play it. Fun fact: Developer Ken Winograd is still making software, including updated OS X versions of Brickles! Update: Thanks to René, the disk image now contains Brickles 5.0 in addition to 7.0.

Written by: Richard J. Kalagher
Published by: rKal Software and THINK Technologies, Inc., 1986
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Another break-out clone. Make sure to slow down your emulation.

Written by: Bob Boylan
Published: 1988
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Click the circles. Games were simple back in the old days.

Written by: Richard E. Rae
Published by: Raecreations Software, 1987
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A fun World Builder adventure game. Great sound effects!

Written by: Duane Blehm
Published by: Hometown Software, 1987
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For maximum enjoyment, you need to know what letter each symbol in the old Cairo font matches up to. Sad Fact: Duane Blehm, the teenage creator of “Stunt Copter” passed away shortly after publishing this game. His parents re-released all of his work as freeware.

Written by: John Barnett
Published by: Fantasy Computing, 1989
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Early Mac foray into the Artillery Game genre.

Written by: Al Evans
Published: 1986
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Peculiar but very well made adventure game. One of the great games of its era. Fun Fact: Developer Al Evans now plays folky music. And twenty three years later, you can still register this game.

Written by: Ricardo Batista
Published: 1987

A freeware version of Centipede. Fun Fact: Author Ricardo Batista has website containing his modern software!

Published: 1985
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Super-simple, super-old Mac version of Connect Four.

Written by: Randall H. Wilson
Published by: THINK Technologies, 1987
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Fly around the maze and blow everything up. This one also has an official webpage. Fun Fact: This is Mini vMac developer Paul Pratt's favorite game!

Written by: Robert Martin
Published: 1985
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An early (now obsolete) implementation of Core War, a game which 25 years later is still going strong!

Written by: Johan Strandberg
Published: 1984
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The original Macintosh version of “Daleks,” which is a variation on the Robots game created by Ken Arnold. Fun Fact: This game may have been the first freeware game released for the Macintosh. ⁴⁾

Written by: Bob Arning
Published: 1985
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An updated version of “Daleks,” which is a variation on the Robots game created by Ken Arnold.

Written by: Bob Boylan
Published: 1988
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A strange little darts game. I can't figure it out. I always miss

Written by: Ronald Wartow
Published: 1987
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A rather bizarre World Builder adventure game.

Written by: Gary Dauphin
Published: 1987
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A sort of Donkey Kong clone.

Written by: Mark Nutter
Published: 1988
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Chase the dragon around the grid to save the kingdom. I like this game.

Written by: Jeff Derstadt
Published: 1987
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Another World Builder adventure game. This one has Dungeons and Dragons theme.

Written by: John Raymonds
Published by: Woodrose Editions, 1986
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A fondly remembered roguelike RPG. It was later commercially released as The Dungeon Revealed. For more information, check out the game's fanpage.

Written by: Marc E. Dutil
Published: 1988
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Reminds me of a drinking game I learned when I was young.

Written by: Det Konnor
Published: 1987
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Another World Builder adventure game. The graphics are more basic than most.

Written by: Joe Sensendorf
Published: 1985
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A rubik's cube sort of game.

Published by: The SoftAd Group, 1989
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This is awesome. Test drive the hottest Ford cars from 1989 and get more information before making your purchase. Fun Fact: The company that made this advertainment still exists!

Written by: John Calhoun
Published: 1991
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One of the all-time great Mac games. It's a paper airplane flight sim. Really fun, really addictive. This is actually a 1991 release, since the version 1.x and 2.x releases from the 1980s seem impossible to find these days. Please note that all versions of Glider are totally free now, and can be downloaded from the author's personal page. The page includes a Windows version.

Written by: John Calhoun
Published: 1990
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Another all-time great. Like Glider this is a 90s version of the game - the original 1980s versions are impossible to find. Check out the Glypha page for all the latest Glypha news.

Written by: Alex Seropian
Published: 1990
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This is another 1990 release. I include it here for historic reasons - it is the first ever release from the legendary Bungie!

Written by: James Logan & Lynn Buess
Published: 1986
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An early Macintosh version of the (very) ancient Chinese game of Go.

Written by: Ken Winograd
Published: 1985, 1988
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Another Ken Winograd classic (see “Brickles,” above)! This disk image contains two versions of Winograd's classic HangMan game. Fun Fact: decades later, Ken Winograd is still making Hangman games for the Mac.

Written by: Mark Day
Published: 1988
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It's edutainment! Fly your helicopter and learn some arithmetic while you do it.

Written by: Andrew McDaniel and Michael H. Dickman
Published: 1988
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Puzzle game. Try to make a line of hexes across the gameboard before the AI does. Fun Fact: Developer Andrew McDaniel has a puzzle page.

Written by: Bruce and Aeron Muckala
Published: 1988?
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Another WorldBuilder adventure game.

Written by: David Reed
Published: 1984
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This is a really wonderful Reversi implementation.

Written by: Joseph H. Silverman
Published: 1988
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Jump the pegs.

Written by: Erik Batzloff Published: 1988, 1989 Download

A World Builder adventure about a tarzan-like hero. Part three of this game was not made, as far as anyone can tell.

Written by: Craig Hickman
Published: 1989
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This is the original shareware version of the classic art program for children. Fun Fact: Kid Pix creator Craig Hickman has a website that includes some Kid Pix remembrances (and lots more cool stuff).

Written by: Michael Casteel
Published: 1989
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Here's the super rare 4.0 version of Michael Casteel's venerable Klondike for the Mac. This is the last version released in the 1980s. I found the file at the MacGUI Vault. Note that this program is still developed… newer versions are described at the author's homepage.

Written by: Michael D. Speir
Published: 1989
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A cute word scramble game.

Written by: Bill Hensler
Published: 1987
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This one is a fun tank combat game. Go head-to-head with the computer. Use the mouse to move and click to shoot. For best results, play in full screen mode. Fun Fact: I think that designer Bill Hensler wrote this book about designing Mac games and is now a Vice President at Adobe. Cool.

Published by: CSI Design Group, 1986
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Dodge the elevators. Pretty cool. Thanks to René for sending the file!

Published by: Raymond Lau, 1988
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This includes Stuffit 1.5.1. and UnStuffit 1.5. I believe these were the final shareware versions of the software released directly by designer Raymond Lau. This is here mostly for historic reasons. You'd be better off using version 4.0.1 instead. Thanks to fanman93 for the file. Fun Fact: Stuffit creator Raymond Lau now works for a company called EveryZing!

Written by: Bob Boylan
Published: 1986
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A “Wheel of Fortune” clone. Thanks to René for the file!