It took me a hot minute to get this running and I ended up using several guides I found scattered across the internet, so I figured I’d try and converge them a bit so people don’t struggle in the future. Sorry if this seems too long, it’s by design, as I wanted it to be super clear so any idiot like me could get it running without needing to piece together varying advice and steps.
Please take note of the versions because they matter.
There are essentially 5 pieces you’ll need to make this work:
- macOS Mojave 10.14.x (I have no idea if it works on Catalina and I have no intention of finding out, ymmv)
- Diablo II version 1.12, downloaded from Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwtmRlAuN2x8X2FoWmhoR2pWQ2s/view (this link says 1.13c but it’s a lie — we’ll get to that later)
- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction version 1.0, included in the install above
- Lord of Destruction patch to v 1.13c or d, downloaded here: https://www.moddb.com/games/diablo-2-lod/downloads/lod-patch-113c-for-windows
- PortingKit, downloaded here: http://portingkit.com/download
- PlugY version 11.02, downloaded here: http://plugy.free.fr/en/index.html
- Wine, which you probably already have but can download here: https://www.winehq.org/
- a license key for both Diablo II and Lord of Destruction that you acquired from Blizzard Entertainment
Before you start anything, you need to remove any previously-installed version of Diablo II on your machine. Before you do this, please back up your saves! Navigate to the Diablo II folder on your mac. You should find a directory called Save here You should see files with your character’s names, and extensions like .d2s, .key and .ma0. Copy this to the desktop for later use, and move the whole folder to the trash. If you have a Diablo II icon anywhere on your machine, trash that too.
Step 1
Once you have everything downloaded, open PortingKit. Select the Library tab on the top and search for Diablo 2. Click Install Now. Hit Next, agree with the terms, yadda yadda, then hit Install. Some stuff will happen with Wine, and when it’s done, you’ll need to select the installer that PortingKit will use. Navigate to wherever you downloaded all that stuff (presumably Downloads/) and unzip the Diablo 2 Installer file. Once unzipped, navigate to Original and double-click Installer.exe.
At this point, PortingKit may freeze. Don’t panic! If this happens, open Activity Monitor and force-quit PortingKit.
After successfully selecting your installer file, click Yes on the next dialog, and a Diablo II window will appear. Hit install, agree to the terms, and you’ll then enter your name and Diablo II license key. Now, you’ll see an ugly vintage Windows style popup. This is important: in the top bar, where it shows the path of the game install, change “Program Files” to “Games”. Not doing this broke the install for me.
Hit install. Wait for the install to finish, and when it does, exit the window. After a few seconds, you should see a message in the PortingKit install window that says the installation was successful.
Step 2
We will now repeat this exact process with the Lord of Destruction Expansion Pack. The only key difference here is when you reach the screen where you’d normally hit Install, you’ll notice that the button is disabled. You need to hit Change Install Location… and select Diablo 2 as the desired port by double clicking it in the window that pops up. Then, you can finally hit install.
From here, select the installer, which can be found where you unzipped the Diablo 2 install file. This time, you’ll navigate from to the Expansion folder, and select the Installer.exe file inside by double-clicking it. Hit Yes again and repeat the remaining process from Step 1.
Step 3
We’re not ready to play Diablo 2 just yet. We need to apply a patch to the game, and luckily we already have it. Go to wherever you download your files and unzip LODPatch_113c. Inside, you’ll find the LODPatch executable file we’ll need.
To apply the patch, open PortingKit and navigate to Library again. This time, you should see your freshly-installed copy of Diablo 2 in the left panel. Right click the game, and select Install Mod/Patch. Then, hit Install Now, and navigate to the aforementioned patch file and double click it. You’ll install the patch, and the game will launch! We ain’t playing it yet though, so reach the main menu of the game and exit out.
Step 4
You now have the correct version of Diablo 2 and the DLC, now it’s time for PlugY. Go to the Finder and search for Diablo 2. You should see an icon called Diablo 2, and it should have the Lord of Destruction Expansion Set graphic as an icon. Right click the icon and select Show Package Contents. Inside, double-click Wineskin.
In the popup, click Install Software, then Choose Setup Executable. Now, we will navigate to where we downloaded a file called PlugY_The_Survival_Kit_v11.02.exe. Double click the .exe and you’ll be prompted by another Windows window. Hit Next until you reach the Choose Install Location screen, and confirm that the path reads: “C:\Games\Diablo II\Mod PlugY\”. If it doesn’t, you need to backtrack and make sure you didn’t miss a step or mess up.
Hit Install, then Next, then uncheck the boxes and hit Finish. We’re on the home stretch now.
Step 5
You should again be in the Diablo 2 directory. From here, you’re going to open Wineskin once again. At the menu, click Advanced. Under the Configuration tab, you’ll see a field called Window EXE. Hit the browse button to the right, and navigate to /drive_c/Games/Diablo II/Mod PlugY/ and then double-click PlugY.exe. You’ve just told Wine to use the PlugY-specific executable file when opening Diablo 2. Exit out of Wineskin.
Now we’re back in the Diablo 2 file.
Step 6
We are now going to make a small change that will improve our Diablo 2 experience. Navigate to /drive_c/Games/Diablo II/Mod PlugY/ once again. From here, we will open the file called PlugY.ini with our favorite text editor.
Inside the file, you’ll find a section called [WINDOWED]. You’ll want to set ActiveWindowed=1. This will launch the game in a windowed format instead of full-screen, so you can enjoy Diablo 2 at its’ native resolution (highly preferable on your $1200 gaming monitor).
Save the file and exit.
We’re now ready to play Diablo 2! Navigate back to the Diablo 2 icon and double click. If all went well, you’ll see the standard LoD home screen, except you should now see “1.13” in the bottom left and “PlugY 11.02” in the bottom right.
Now that we know the game runs, let’s get our saves and characters in the game.
Step 7
Navigate to your Save folder you (hopefully) backed up to the Desktop. You’re going to want to move this folder to the Diablo II folder. To do this, open another Finder tab by using cmd + t shortcut. Search for Diablo 2, right click the icon we used earlier, and hit Show Package Contents. From here, navigate once again to /drive_c/Games/Diablo II/. Simply drag the Save folder located on the Desktop to the Diablo II folder. Since there is already a Save folder here, you’ll have to hit Replace on the popup that appears, or simply drag the contents of your Save folder to the Save folder in Diablo II. Your saved characters and their stuff should now appear when you launch the game.
Final Step
Select Single Player, then select your character and hit Convert to Expansion. It will carry over all your progress and items. Now, you should be able to launch the game, move to your Private Stash and see a bunch of empty spaces for loot. Yay!
Thanks for reading. Again, sorry it was so long, I wanted to make it as detailed as I could. A lot of guides I read left out small details that ended up breaking the install.