Mac-native play the 30th Anniversary Quake «Dawn of the Machine» expansion from Steam – Swiss Mac User 

To celebrate its 30th Anniversary, a new modification for original Quake has been added for free to the Steam version: «Dawn of the Machine» from MachineGames.

Let’s look at how to play it natively on Mac.

So far I spent more time figuring out how to get the Dawn of the Machine extension running natively with Mac Quake, than actually playing it. Let me spare you from this journey!

Here’s how to play Quake Dawn of the Machine (DOTM) on macOS

The requirements are: download the Quake Steam version to macOS, add a Mac Quake game app to it, and add a localisation file into the right place.

Ultimately, we want the following Quake folder structure:

/quake #

Download the newest Quake game version from Steam

Why from Steam?

DOTM was already added to the Steam Quake 1 version through a recent update; so when the Steam Quake game files are downloaded or updated, the DOTM expansion is automatically available through an expansion folder named «mg3».

Because Quake on Steam is only published as a Windows game, we’ll use this neat workaround to download any Steam games to macOS: via the steamcmd Command-Line app .

Pre-requisite: install steamcmd on macOS using homebrew – if you haven’t yet

Make sure that homebrew is installed.

Open the «Terminal.app» and run this command :<br>brew install --cask steamcmd

Now type this in the Terminal window , to run it for the very first time:<br>steamcmd

macOS Gatekeeper will complain & the steamcmd CLI will crash . Don’t worry!

Go to the macOS «System Settings» & navigate to Privacy & Security » Security section (in the very bottom).

Click on the «Allow anyway» next to the App entry «Breakpad.framework»

Download Steam Quake version to your Mac using steamcmd

You need to own Quake 1 on Steam!<br>This should be clear… You have to have purchased / obtained «Quake» on Steam, so it’s part of your Steam Library already.

Before running below command, note that the following values must be adjusted :

steamUSER → the Steam username to log-in with

steamPASSWORD → the password to log-in alongside the {steam-user}

/path/to/install/quake → the desired place where the Steam Game should be installed to.

Using now the steamcmd CLI app, the download on macOS can be achieved using the following command in «Terminal.app»:

steamcmd +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows \<br>+app_update 2310 validate \<br>+login steamUSER steamPASSWORD \<br>+force_install_dir "/path/to/install/quake"

If you have 2-factor / SteamGuard enabled, you will be asked to enter the 2FA-Code into the Terminal window at some point.

Once the command ran successfully, you should have the whole Quake game extracted at the folder path you specified!

Add the Mac-version of QuakeSpasm to the Steam Quake folder

Next, a macOS-native Quake game app is needed – I went with QuakeSpasm:

Open the Quake game webpage on Mac Source Ports .

From that page, download the «QuakeSpasm» Mac App.

Extract the downloaded image & move the «QuakeSpasm.app» into the previously installed Steam Quake folder<br>(at "/path/to/install/quake"). It must be right alongside the /id1 folder.

See my notes about other Mac Quake apps and CrossOver at the end of this article.

Obtain and configure additional files for Dawn of the Machine

Rereleased Steam Quake version added a new localization feature, used by DOTM for localizable text strings.

To make this work: a correctly named text-file in a localization folder is needed, so it’s properly picked up by QuakeSpasm (and other Mac Quake apps) – and its location on macOS is different to Windows, as I happened to find out.

Download the file loc_english.txt file from my Gist here:<br>https://gist.github.com/Swiss-Mac-User/949ef7186a30c4d09c22af0dbe3cdbc2

Open the Steam Quake folder, and then inside the /rerelease folder .

Here, create a new folder named «localization»

Place the loc_english.txt file inside the new /rerelease/localization folder.

🕹️ Finally: Play time!

The steps to launch «Dawn of the machine» (mg3) are now rather simple:

Launch QuakeSpasm.app and copy-paste the following «Command Line Parameters» :

-basedir ./rerelease -game mg3

NOTE: if you want to have a more proper setup, sparing you from using these CLPs going forward, see the additional remarks further below in this article.

In Quake, start a «New Game» and you’ll teleport into «Dawn of the machine»!

P.s. don’t be confused from the default Quake Demo playing – the game context will be correct on the DOTM expansion.

Note on other Mac Quake Apps and ways to play the Quake Steam-version

Enable QuakeSpasm «Mods» selection, making Command Line Parameters obsolete

If you are annoyed at (re-)using the «Command Line Parameters» with QuakeSpasm to play Dawn of the Machine, you need the following changes within the downloaded Quake Steam folder:

Copy the 2 folders /rerelease/mg3/ and /rerelease/localization/ directly up into the root...