The author of the original game:

http://www.sticksoftware.com/

The sealiesoftware implementation is I believe a 68k emulator - and since many AfterDark modules back then did direct frame buffer access, the number of toolbox traps that would need to be implemented could well be quite small.

Ben also wrote Solarian II [1], one of the first color shareware games for the Macintosh. Also, early game with digitized sounds (and then suddenly everyone would be also doing them).

[1] http://www.sticksoftware.com/archive/Solarian.html