Have you guys seen this port yet? I'm halfway through the game and haven't noticed any bugs or crashes. This port is more stable that most commercial games I've used. And it runs very well at full resolution on older machines, and looks beautiful. I must say, this is the best space sim I've ever seen, and I can't believe the port isn't seeing more attention.

http://freespace2.sytes.net/

Make sure you grab the beta 4 app, not the beta 3 still mentioned on the site.

Freespace series=t3h sh|t

Broken link.

The site was working earlier but it looks like it's down now. I did find an alternate site though:

http://macfreespace.shutupgeorge.com/

I got a couple of questions regarding Freespace 2 for OS X:

1. Is the multiplayer portion compatible with the PC version so you can play against your PC friends?

2. Is there a skirmish or custom mission mode with bots?

3. What's the catch? I mean does the everything work in the OS X port? I read something about sound not working yet.

I'm downloading the FS2 demo data files now as I type this. If it's a solid port I might go out and buy the full game and install this. If anyone is interested in trying FS2 for OS X, with the demo data files, go to the below link.

http://homepage.mac.com/tigital/

*sigh*

Okay, I got everything installed and started playing. But I have to say I'm disappointed.

First off, there are literally hundreds of controls you have to bind--target subsystem, target turret, target nearest hostile, equalize energy, equalize shields, increase weapon energy, engage enemy, protect enemy, disarm enemy, blah blah blah blah... Yeesh! They could've made the controls a tad easier. There's just way too much to memorize in terms of targeting and energy management. They could've automated half the stuff to make the game more fun, but they didn't.

And then came the actual controls. There was no way to invert y-axis mouse control. I was stuck using aircraft style controls. The ships overall felt very sluggish when turning, even for fighters. And I know the devs are gonna bust my chops for saying that, since I wanted the mouse lock feature, but let me just defend myself by saying that Parsec's controls are still superior to Vendetta's with its mouse look. It contains mouse lock and has different agility ships.

The graphics seemed okay for a dated game. I mean it ran and looked good with maxed out settings on my setup. I just wish the controls weren't so horrid. The game has a lot of potential to be fun, but they overcomplicated several aspects of it and provided few options along the way. Ahh well, maybe I'll give Vegastrike a try next. They seem to be making some progress, albeit slowly.

Welcome to a "real" space-based flight sim. I have no problems with the controls....

Hate to break it to you but there's nothing about this game that suggests it's realism based. Speed is still limited to a maximum speed, so there goes real physics out the door. Complicating controls doesn't make anything realistic, since technology will most likely continue to automate a lot of our vehicles' basic functions.

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to as being real. In any case all I know is that it's a game. A game that doesn't offer the same level of customizability as Vendetta. A game that overcomplicates the simplest of tasks, to the point where it detracts your attention away from the actual gameplay.

Sorry, it's just not my style. I guess after playing around with Parsec and Vendetta, this had me expecting more. But hey, don't let my criticism stop the rest of you from trying it out. I still think the graphics and sounds are amazing, and the gameplay looks fun. I just don't have the patience to learn the flakey controls.

Oh and if you want a real space combat simulator, check this out:

http://www.x-plane.com/SpaceCombat.html

I meant a real game, not a real simulation.

If you want a real simulator, borrow a PC and try "Orbiter". It is realistic spaceflight using current and near-future orbital spacecraft. I find it quite fun to take the Apollo 11 spacecraft, calculate a nice orbit to mars, burn all my fuel and set it on 1000x time acceleration. Thankfully, they implimented fuel but not oxygen, so I can get there (even if it take years). :D

I tried downloading the demo files/app and it doesn't run for some reason... it won't save a pilot file, and then quits.

I had the same problem. So I pointed my browser over to here:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/downloadfile.php?file=games/f/freespace2/files/freespace2.zip&id=4150

...where it allowed me to download the full PC version. The website is for any abandonware PC games. Not sure if it's legal or not, but that's where you can get the data files (zip compressed) to get the OS X port to run.

When it unzips you'll see multiple .rar files in the remaining folder. Stuffit will only you uncompress one of those .rar files (I think the first one). Just keep double-clicking each one until it finally unzips all the data files.

Note: I don't know how legal The Underdogs website is, so use it at your own risk. I did it just to see how the OS X port was as a demo, since the demo data files didn't work.

You can get a commandline winrar for Mac. I'd use that if I were you.

Why? Stuffit Expander supports rar format. Double click and it unexpands. Can't get any easier.

Thanks Arolte, I had already downloaded the full version as I had played the demo when it first came out for pc.

Where can I get the winrar thingie, Alien?

www.rarlab.com

Just so you all know, the underdogs version is hacked for space, and is known to have some bugs with the ported app. The full version (which I would gladly buy if I found it in stores) is available on bittorrent.