3 replies to this topic

[doctorpuppet]

Hey friends,

Has anyone heard any recent news about the promised Mac version of the Resubmerged update for Diluvion? It’s been in a holding pattern for a while, à la Frostpunk.

On an unrelated note, this whole “64-bit or death” thing is getting me depressed about the future of Mac gaming. Sure, I think the smaller indies will keep going, and some of the bigger publishers, but it’s the ones somewhere in the middle, like TopWare, who are just giving up on Apple because their updates are so annoying. And it is hard to blame them for doing so.

In solidarity!

[Matt Diamond]

The 64-bit transition particularly hurts developers and publishers who have old games they were still selling. (Also the gamers who own them, of course.) So it's a particular blow to publishers with a deep catalog like Aspyr or Feral. Most of those old games don't sell a lot any more, but over time the long tail can really add up. Apple is cutting off that tail.

There's been some warning this time, at least-- Apple has been known to inadvertently break compatibility with an OS update (or in one memorable case a Quicktime update) that breaks a game or two. Escape from Monkey Island stopped working only a year or two after it came out IIRC.

[doctorpuppet]

Also good points. Well, I am finally going to have to learn how to create a bootable USB key for some games for which I only own Mac versions (e.g. I’d like to get through The Movies someday!). That said, I myself am still only on High Sierra on my main computer (late 2015 iMac) for this very reason. Interesting side note: I bought ​Assassin’s Creed II via MacGameStore ages ago, and it never worked properly (e.g. no gamepad support). It stopped working altogether an update or two ago. However, I didn’t realize that I could also download the PC version in Boot Camp via Uplay (I had registered it there at some point)! So, that was a little good news.

[macdude22]

Matt Diamond, on 03 August 2019 - 09:56 PM, said:

The 64-bit transition particularly hurts developers and publishers who have old games they were still selling. (Also the gamers who own them, of course.) So it's a particular blow to publishers with a deep catalog like Aspyr or Feral. Most of those old games don't sell a lot any more, but over time the long tail can really add up. Apple is cutting off that tail.

The 64-bit address space for ASLR is mind boggling larger. Requiring 64-bit binaries is for security as much as Apple wanting to cast off legacy support. Google is pushing 64-bit apps hard in the android space as well. If microsoft thought they could get away with pushing 64-bit apps they would but windows developers are lazy af and lean on their 30 year old code bases too much.