Hello,

Mac OS Catalina has been released since a few months now.
What is the status of 32 bits GOG games now ? Does the fact that Mac OS Catalina does not support 32 bits applications has been solved and so can we upgrade to Catalina and still playing our GOG games ?

Best regards
Alef

You have two options. You can use VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop to create a virtual machine with an older Mac OS version, and install your non-64-bit games to that VM. Or you can use Boot Camp to load Windows on your Mac and run the Windows version of your games.

If a game is fairly recent, the developer might release an updated 64-bit version. But that's entirely up to the developer -- there is nothing GOG can do about that.

No, it's not something that can be "solved". As far as Mac games go, it's 64-bit or nothing; you never will be able to play 32-bit Mac games on Catalina or later. GOG has nothing to do with it.

If the game use DOSBox or ScummVM, GOG have updated almost all related games to 64-bit version.

Yeah Your only options are to install an older version of Mac OS via Parallels or reload MacOS on your Apple PC and have a dual boot between an older version of MacOS and Mac OS Catalina. Or use boot camp if you want to install Windows and run Windows versions of your games. Those are the only options here. This has to do with Apple and their stupid mind set.

The status is

You're fucked

Very few devs are going to go back and recompile the game in 64 bit. And don't try to tell me its 'just a checkbox in the compiler'. Many games use lots of middleware component. Which you'd then have to dig up, hope they exist, find a 64 bit version then pray recompiling doesn't cause it to implode

Lets also consider the fact that devs also know that even if they decided to do all that work, or even if in some alternate dimension it was 'just a checkbox', they also know its pointless. Because Apple is KILLING OPENGL soon. Meaning the underlying graphics API likely will not exist with 1-2 years as Apple forces devs to use Metal. Gamedevs are abandoning Macs because Apple hates gamedevs. The recent signing fiasco just makes it even more not worthwhile to bother with Macs given the constant updates and changing requirements to just keep even a 3 year old game alive.

Oh and we havent even gotten to the rumors of Apple going full custom silicon on even Macs. Meaning literally ALL your games will stop working, if Apple decides to go full custom Bionic A-whatever on future Macs. And if you think "Apple will never do that" let me remind you that the only reason you're running Macs on an x86 architecture is because Apple pulled the rug out from all Mac users that were on PowerPC.

As satoru says..

Gaming on Mac stopped being a real possibility after the Apple II platform died. Sure you could do it, but the reality was most companies would treat the Mac with even less relevance than the 3DO.

Especially since Apple has been crushing Gaming on Mac into a smaller and less relevant cube over time.

Your best bet isn't to Boot Camp into Windows, but instead embrace the Unix Overlords and give yourself unto Linux, removing yourself from the bastardized bastard child of BSD. And before that, the 68K users.

We're lucky Windows gaming is too big to kill, because otherwise Microsoft would be doing the same thing in favor of the Xbox.

Not necessarily. They'd "unify" PC and console OSs (which they're trying), kill the open platform and switch it all to the gated one, through the Store and all. Not like they haven't tried, with UWP, but they didn't manage it.

On topic, instead of just listing what versions it works under, as it is for Windows, GOG removed the Mac listing from 32-bit only games, so what still shows up as Mac should work, but you may verify that a Mac version does indeed still exist for others if you find a notice that the game's 32-bit and will not work on Catalina under the Windows system requirements.

Thank you for your answers.

I noted the point about games that use DOSBox or ScummVM that have been updated by GOG. The old games I would like to be able to play are the Ultima series, so it is possible they use DOSBox and may work.
Otherwise, I will have to use Bootcamp and windows ... well, that will be an opportunity to get more games on my computer.