I'm not very good in makefiles either, so just making a guess: maybe your font.cpp was compiled withouth no_ttf=1? Try deleting your font.cpp object file (something like font.o, I don't know what it is in MacOS) and recompiling.
try disabling "enlarged battleview" in options dialog if ufo2000.ini isn't found during the start of the game it is automatically created of ufo2000.default.ini
Kratos, that forum is more like "general" forum, so keeping this topic there would be ok Blehm and others, v3Bu, you really should add "below 16" option