Mac Daniel's Advice

Mods Bring New Life to Old Games

Korin Hasegawa-John - 2002.07.12

If you're a gamer but don't love spending money (like me), mods are a great way to get new life out of an old game. Mods, short for modifications, are usually free software that customizes the game in some way or another. Most modern games support mods. Mods are also known as plug-ins or skins, but skins are a little different.

The largest collection of mods are available for Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena - not surprising, since these are two of the most popular games ever for the Mac. Many plug-ins are also available for the perennial favorite Escape Velocity and its sequels.

Mods can be divided into several categories:

Cheaters. These are the least fun, in my opinion. They can be fun for about two seconds, until you realize how pointless they are. Cheaters basically allow a player superhuman capabilities. Many games have cheat codes built in, which I'm not going to reveal, since they're more fun if you discover them yourself.
Complete Makeovers. These involve totally redesigning the game, changing physics, modifying weapons, adding weapons, designing new skins, and adding maps, among other things. This sort of mod is the most fun, because it essentially introduces a whole new game.
Added Features. Keeps game play roughly the same, but adds minor details. Useful if you're angry about not being able to carry two miniguns in Unreal, for instance.
Skins. This modifies the way characters and players look, giving you more choices for your player model.

On most new games, installing mods is relatively easy. Before installing a mod, make sure your copy of whatever game is updated to the most recent version. Check the game's website for updates.

Unreal Tournament

You need the nifty little UMOD Installer, available at <http://www.westlakeinteractive.com/download0013.html> and free. Once you have UMOD installer, drag any mod that ends in *.umod onto the installer and it'll be installed. For mods not ending in *.umod, follow instructions that come with the mod.

Quake III

First of all, set your preferences in Stuffit Expander to never convert text files to Macintosh format. Conversion to Macintosh format can corrupt text files. Then follow the instructions of whatever mod you have downloaded.

Marathon Trilogy

Follow instructions meticulously. Things can range from easy as double-clicking to firing up ResEdit and changing filetypes from shp2 to shpÉ. Be warned.

EV and sequels

Make sure your plug-in is compatible with the version you're using. Plug-ins will usually only work with one version of EV, but sometimes they are rewritten to work on subsequent versions.

After you download, just drag the plug-in to the Plug-Ins folder in the main EV folder. Make sure you have the EV Tuner plug-in already in the Plug-Ins folder. Multiple plug-ins can create conflicts, so be warned. Only use one plug-in at a time, unless the other plug-ins are specifically designed to work with the first.

Don't know what mods to pick? Next time we'll look at sources for mods and some of my favorites.

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