It has been a long time since the last batch of titles was fixed up for Mac users to play on OS X. I don't understand why more effort isn't devoted to this where it is doable for a lot of the classic games here. I'd still like to see everything possible which is probably everything, of the Might and Magic plus Heroes of Might and Magic games for example. The Sierra games would be nice. Really, any of the stuff that works with Boxer and Wine would be nice.

So, how about it GOG? I remember reading that Mac sales did very well for you. Why not rake in some more from the existing catalog of classic games?

Before somebody explains to me how i can use Boxer, Wineskin, etc., please don't. I am looking for added value and ease of use, not work.

Even if they hired one qualified person and had them devote themselves to this task and doing the same releases for Linux while they were at it would surely be profitable and the testing involved would not be difficult. There is no way the other games done were all played start to finish on multiple configurations so, it isn't like that level of testing is necessary for this kind of "porting" and I use the term very loosely.

I've been away for a while and a distinct lack of attention to the Mac audience is why among other reasons. I'd pay a lot more attention and I imagine other Mac users would too if there was more to pay attention to. So, it never hurts to ask and that's why I am.

How about it GOG? Our money is good too you know.

Your money isn't in windows mint condition.

It isn't in linux mint condition either. What's your point? I doubt that comes to much if any concern really. I mean, we are talking about setting it up with either boxer or Wineskin/Wine and a new install routine for the result. What's to negotiate other than, do you want more money? Okay, we'll see what we can do then. Seriously, what publisher is going to care if GOG wants to invest in doing the work to sell more units beyond being glad they get more money for doing zero? I really cannot see that being any issue at all.

I can understand needing permission to modify what gets sold but I couldn't imagine any of them saying no to more money.

Nearly half the catalog is available on Mac now, but exactly zero games are from Ubisoft, Square Enix, or Activision. They all have titles that aren't a technical challenge to get to work on OS X, but if none of them have made it here so far it must be legal/licensing reasons.

I was thinking something similar too. With GOG rising in popularity, I can imagine some IP holders perhaps using the opportunity to try to either raise prices, or get them regionally priced on their terms, which may lead to us losing titles like what happened with Nordic. It may seem like a no-brainer to us end users, but I'm fairly sure that there's quite a bit of legal mumbo jumbo to wade through to negotiate the rights to sell, support and distribute Mac OS X/Linux versions of games...in the case of the Mac, the rights issue can get murkier when it comes to games that have had prior ports. KOTOR is one example I can think of. It works pretty much perfectly in WINE (at least in my experience) so it should be fairly easy for GOG to set it up in Wineskin. But Aspyr Media did its own port several years ago, which it still sells on the Mac App Store and on Steam. If they had exclusive rights for a Mac version, there may never be a Mac version on GOG (unless Aspyr brokers a deal with GOG, which would complicate things further).

If you notice when GOG does a specific sale for certain publishers and look down the list of games, you will find some publishers have no games converted to Mac. So, I think it is very real that certain publishers have no interest in mac versions of their games or want too much from GOG to make it worth it for them to bother, or these publishers themselves do not have the rights to a mac version.

I doubt there are many if any games GOG can put a Mac (or Linux version for that matter) without some sort of contractual permission from the rights holders.

Even without GOG doing pseudo ports, which often end up using WINE in case of Windows games anyway, there are ways to play quite a few GOG games that have never been on Mac before. I hear that Paul who's supposedly quite tall seems to be doing a very commendable job making Mac-compatible versions for you Mac heads. While he used to do it on a number of titles from different sources it seems like his main focus has been on GOG alone lately, what with him doing wine-wrapper jobs on the likes of Republic Commando, Galactic Battlegrounds, Starfighter, Dark Froces 2, KotoR 2, Rebellion, Supreme Ruler 2020, The Escapists, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron... to name a few, and that's only from the first handful pages of updates alone.

They might not be official ports but it's great to know that there are people who do great things for their fellow gamers. Good thing Apple switched to Intel some years back, eh? ;)

I can appreciate how some people may draw the conclusion that contractual issues are the problem here but I'd like to get some feedback about that from GOG since we can imagine stuff all day long that seems right to us but isn't actually based on any facts. You guys may be right but then again maybe not and I would like to know. So I hope somebody from GOG happens along here to clarify things for us.

Meantime, I am aware of Paul the Tall one's work which is very nice of him to share. Thank you mister mumbles for pointing out he's done KOTOR 2 AND Republic Commando. I am just about to finish the Aspyr port of KOTOR (really have been enjoying it too) and I own KOTOR 2 which I will be wanting to play sometime soon. I also own Republic Commando and had tried it with WinXP in Parallels but it blew up there. I wondered if it didn't like multiple cores or something but hadn't gotten back to that. It sounds like that wasn't the problem if Paul got it working with Wine. So it will be nice to play it that way.

I appreciate the feedback but I do hope GOG can do more and I hope it isn't related to Ubisoft, etc. having issues with selling more units, etc. I've just wondered if GOG's focus on newer titles has led to neglect of older ones that many people like myself most prize this store for.

I wouldn't hold my breath. GOG doesn't talk about their decisions or testing process, so no random blue will give such an answer. And I somehow doubt the top heads will answer in the near future. Data until end of 2014. Older games are not neglected.

Oh, no! Here he goes again! =P

It's interesting to note that not even three months into 2015 we're close to match half of last year's combined "old" releases already.

I was talking about Mac titles specifically. I think when it comes to Mac the numbers would look differently and not as good from a classics perspective.

Can we get some Mac classics, like the first Pax Imperia maybe? I'm not sure the state of Classic Mac OS emulation lately, but I played it in one before.

This is actually for Linux, but Judas said this.

"Not to mention that with some games that were signed waaay before we even thought about adding Linux support we are required to get the Linux version signed because just having the right to distribute the Windows and Mac versions of a game does not automatically grant us the right to distribute the Linux version of a game."

On the question regarding the lack of a Mac version of Dark Forces here on GOG, he said this (Read the posts below it too).

Thank you. It was interesting to read both links you provided.

The first one hints at legal issues with Disney is it who now owns Lucasarts? However, he dodges the question and doesn't come out and say what the problem is. So, there is one potential publisher issue which still strikes me odd when it is simply a matter of sticking it in Boxer but who knows? I will say that does raise doubts about if publishers are the problem at times.

The second link refers to work they do to package up something to release here but in that case he was referring to a native Linux app, not sticking something in dosbox or wine. I can more readily see that being problematic. For example, in the Mac world ports are often done and sold by a completely different company than the Windows versions are. A good case in point was the release here on GOG of Imperial Glory which initially offered the Mac version too. However, it was almost immediately pulled after release because the Mac version was done and sold by Feral Interactive and my guess is GOG never had any legal right to put the game up for sale here to begin with. I'll assume some misunderstanding somehow led to that error. For me it meant I bought the game for Mac and a few days later it was gone from my shelf in Mac form permanently.

GOG did offer me a refund on that by the way.

In any case, I hope nobody gets me wrong here. I am very, very happy about how many Mac offerings have been made available on GOG, especially classics in my own case. So really this is just about wanting more goodness. It isn't meant to be seen as a complaint.