How to install Horn of the Abyss on macOS

Author: Liso1 June 9, 2025 0 Comments

This solutions have been tested by HotA team members and are considered to be workable at the time of this announcement. Please note: HotA Crew still does not declare official support for these systems, cannot guarantee the universal performance and long-term viability of the suggested solutions, and does not accept any claims related to them. The instructions below should thus be considered nothing more than friendly advice.

Download:

Horn of the Abyss

Installation

Download the Winery archive (tar.xz) from
https://github.com/Kegworks-App/Winery/releases
Double-click the downloaded archive to extract it automatically.
Drag Winery.app to the Applications folder.
Launch Winery via Finder or Launchpad (a security warning will appear on first launch).
In System Settings > Privacy & Security, find the message “Winery” was blocked to protect your Mac and click Open Anyway.
In Winery, press + and install the latest engine (e.g., WS12WineCX24.0.7).
Click Update Wrapper to update the wrapper.
Click Create New Blank Wrapper to create a wrapper.
Enter a name (e.g., Heroes), click OK, and wait for installation to complete.
Click View wrapper in Finder.
Launch KegworksConfig by clicking the created wrapper (Heroes.app).
In KegworksConfig, go to Configuration → Install Software → Choose Setup Executable, select the original game’s installer, and complete the installation.
In the window that appears after installation, select any exe file (e.g., Heroes3.exe) as the default launch program.
In KegworksConfig, under Configuration, select Install Software → Choose Setup Executable again, specify the path to the HotA installer, and install it into the original game’s folder.
After installing HotA, in KegworksConfig under Configuration, click Browse and change the default application (Windows app) to h3hota HD.exe or HD_Launcher.exe.
Launch the game or HD launcher via Launchpad (select Heroes) or run the application at
/Users/your_username/Applications/Kegworks/Heroes.app (replace your_username with your actual username).

Additional Notes

Creating Shortcuts for Other Programs (e.g., editors): In KegworksConfig, under Tools, select Custom EXE Creator and create an Executable Launcher for the required exe files. The created app files are located at:
/Users/your_username/Applications/Kegworks/Heroes.app/Contents
Drag them to the Dock for quick access.
Launching KegworksConfig: Can be done at
/Users/your_username/Applications/Kegworks/Heroes.app/Contents/KegworksConfig.app
Viewing Contents of Heroes.app: Right-click on it and select Show Package Contents.
Installing DirectPlay: In KegworksConfig, under Tools, select Winetricks → dlls → directplay → Run.
Disabling Font Smoothing: In KegworksConfig, under Tools, select Winetricks → settings → fontsmooth=disable → Run.