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A while back I stumbled upon a CD in a collection of old software that a coworker was getting rid of. It was a burned CD-R with “Random Mac Games” written in Sharpie across the top of the disc. I tried running them on my old MacBook at the time but they weren’t supported on Intel systems and Rosetta wasn’t working with them either. Since then, the CD has been sitting in my closet and I figured this was as good a time as any to see if they would run on the old PowerMac. Well they sure did and it turned out that they were a collection of games from a company known as Pangea Software.
Pangea Software
I had never heard of Pangea Software until I installed these games, so I decided to do a little digging. The company was founded in 1987 as a developer of games for the Apple II. In the early 90s they moved from Apple II development to creating software for the Macintosh line of machines, and shortly thereafter they started creating 3D games. Some of their games were even preinstalled by Apple on the early iMac’s of the time.
To my surprise, the company is actually still around. They haven’t seemed to be very active over the last decade, but they do still exist. It appears that in the mid-2000s they shifted their focus from Mac games to iOS games and even a few tvOS games, which you can still purchase today for a couple of dollars. That’s right, there doesn’t appear to be a focus from Pangea on subscriptions or in-app purchases and I like that a lot.
The games we are looking at here are from the late-90s Macintosh era of Pangea: Bugdom, Nanosaur, and Cro-Mag Rally. Admittedly, I didn’t spend a ton of time with any of these games. I mostly just wanted to see what was on that CD, but I did spend an evening trying to give each of them a fair shake.
Bugdom
Bugdom was released in 1999 and appears to have been a fairly successful game; it scored high praise from the gaming media of the time and garnered some impressive sales, selling over 30,000 copies by March 2002.
It’s a 3D platformer where you play as a blue and green roly poly named — I kid you not — Rollie McFly. You are on a mission to save the Bugdom by freeing the ladybugs that have been capture. You see, the Bugdom had been ruled by the ladybugs and roly polys, but then the fire ants rolled in and ruined everything. As a guy who grew up around fire ants, I can confirm this is a realistic thing I could see those little terrorists doing in real life...
The game has you running, rolling, and kicking your way through ant-infested levels to free your ladybug allies from their tiny prisons. Along the way you face off with a surprisingly large number of enemies ranging from ants and termites to bees, spiders, and more. Of course, you do have some help on your quest. Buddy bugs, dragonflies, and water spiders can help you out of some difficult situations as they show up at various points in the game.
Overall, I enjoyed this game. It was pretty simple, but it was fun and I can see why it was well received when it came out. If you wanted to play Bugdom today, you can obviously try emulating the game using something like Sheepshaver or Infinite Mac after getting the game files. However, you can also get an officially sanctioned modern port of the game for macOS, Windows, and Linux over on GitHub.
Nanosaur
The next game on the disc was the 1998 third person shooter, Nanosaur. There’s no other way to say it… this game is weird, but in a mostly-good way. The story is pretty far out there with you playing a genetically engineered velociraptor with a cannon strapped to it’s arm that travels from the year 4122 (a time when these smart dinosaurs have usurped humanity as the dominant species) to the Cretaceous period in order to avert the calamity of astronomical armageddon.
I told you… it’s weird. In fact, if you want the full story, go read the game’s entry on Wikipedia. I left a lot out.
Gameplay wise, it looks and feels a lot like a PS1 game from 1995 with low-polygon dinos, dated-at-the-time textures, and 3D menus that reminded me of the early Crash Bandicoot games. Still, it was fun enough once I figured out what I was supposed to do. While it seemed like a cool idea for a game, this was probably my least favorite of the three I played here.
On a more positive note, the asteroid cutscene and the high score animation at the end of the video below were also pretty impressive for the time if you ask me. A source port of the game is available for modern macOS, Windows, and Linux from the same developer that ported Bugdom.
Cro-Mag Rally
Finally there is Cro-Mag Rally. It’s kind of hard for me to decide if I like this game better than Bugdom or not. Cro-Mag Rally was published in 2000 and is pretty straight forward. It’s a kart racing game along the lines of Mario Kart and Super Tux Kart. You play a caveman (or cave lady) who races through courses in multiple stages such as deserts, jungles, glaciers, and more. It allowed up to two players locally, however you could play with up to six players via LAN if you were hosting a classic Mac LAN party which does sound like a good time.
Race and win to advance. Finishing in third place or higher while collecting eight arrowheads scattered throughout the tracks will unlock new tracks and karts. As you progress, you can also leave the bronze age and make your way all the way up to the iron age.
If I’m being 100% honest, I’ve never really been a fan of kart racers. If I’m going to play a racing game I would much rather go with something like a Need for Speed or Gran Turismo game, so this game doesn’t really do it for me. With that said, I didn’t really mind it that much. The karts definitely felt WAY too floaty and were difficult to control, but after a few races I got the hang of it. When it comes to non-Mario kart racing games, I’d still say this is leagues behind Super Tux Kart but it was a fun and unique take on the genre. I would probably play it again, and I think my kids would have some fun with it.
Like the other two, Cro-Mag Rally has also been ported to modern systems and is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Overall, this was a fun little adventure. Growing up, my family were Windows users, so I never had a chance to mess around too much with the Macs of the 1990s aside from limited use of my school’s classroom Macintosh. My classmates and I would play some of the old games on that thing, but it was never anything like these. While they aren’t necessarily the games I would have thought of when it came to late-90s computer games, it was cool to see what kinds of things the cult of Mac were enjoying back then.
These games were the first thing lots of Windows converts did with their new Mac in the early iMac and iBook era. I've heard and read a lot of stories of Nanosaur and Bugdom selling people on new Macs at the time as well, as kids would fall in love with them on demo-unit Macs at computer stores.
If you're ever curious about the stories behind these games (or anything else Mac gaming-related from the Classic era), I wrote a book called The Secret History of Mac Gaming.
I'm not a Mac user but I know Pangea Software because they also published their own game programming book (now it's free on their website!).