The Linux discussion here is completely legitimate (if heavy-handed). It should come as no surprise that there are those bemused by 'new' Mac ports, when Linux versions of some of the games hosted on GOG.com already exist.

I would rather see some native Linux games here than some half-arsed Mac ports that I could do myself (and often better), as a Mac gamer.

HoMM III works just dandy in Wine, especially on Mac OS 10.5.8, getting it to run on Mac OS 10.7.5+ takes a bit of finagling, but it is possible. There is one weird problem with it, there's a broken sound file somewhere, and it occasionally crashes if it encounters it. The easiest fix is to simply turn the sound off. There's another way to fix it but I cannot recall it off the top of my head, I'd have to hunt down my notes on it (it might even be fixed just using a new version of Wine, it's been a year or so since I got it up and running.) Anyways, Saves, Loads, Runs, generates random maps, movies run, etc.

The one I would like to see is Two Worlds II, that has a modern Mac version out, but not on GOG.

Of the huge bucketful of games made now Mac accessible I think I am most excited for Enclave and Divine Divinity. I've never even heard of Enclave before and it looks like tons of fun. I played Divine Divinity over at a friend's house back in the day, but never got around to giving it the ol' wrapper treatment so I am very happy that the GOG team beat me to it. I'll gladly drop a buck fifty for those awesome memories.

Actually, that *would* be possible up until 10.4 (Tiger) because of the Rosetta ability to "translate" PowerPC code into Intel X86 code. Sadly this has been dropped in versions after Tiger. Now if you'd have the source code... than you could recompile it into native Intel code with a few patches here and there because the structure of the OS and the graphics engine have slightly changed, not too mention the addition of more cores and the transitioning to 64 bits code...
Especially transition to multicore can cause quite some headaches and not only on Macs.

Just as a curious gog.com customer/user why would it be difficult to post up the linux versions of games that already were made with all 3 operating systems when they first came out case in point FTL, and I know there are at least a small handful of others as well. And I fully understand how you guys do business and you do it well and are much loved for it from myself and many others. I understand profit is important but if you think about it games that already have linux would sell even more if they were put up on the store. I just wanted to know your thoughts is all =).

One option could be the VMCI Project that aims to recreate the original engine and expand it's capabilities. It has packages for windows, mac os x and linux.

Some ports released by competitors of GOG for Linux have been rather half-arsed as you say it.
Linux gamers buying Humble Bundles might remember the sorry state of Torchlight upon release: no visible protagonist's head and a unavoidable crash as you reached level 20. Mind you that this has only been fixed quite recently after having a broken version for more than 1,5 years if my mind serves me well.
Another questionable port was the *official* Linux version of Dungeons of Dredmor, which crashed so many times I lost count of it. That game was distributed both through the Humble Indie Bundle and Desura.
Obviously GOG doesn't want to be associated with ports of that "quality".

For those who have not heard of it: PlayOnLinux/ PlayOnMac consists of a collection of user-supplied scripts used to install Windows binaries (mostly games) on their optimal Wine version, coupled with a streamlined GUI to install them. Most of them work quite well. A whopping 246 GOG games are already available to install by script.
Still less than the number of games with official GOG installers though: wc (word count) yields 367 available games on that count (Really impressive GOG!)
So, if your favorite game has had no official GOG release yet, take a look at the site I mentioned, you might find it there and it *might* work (no guarantees here, I have never used PlayOnMac, only it's Linux counterpart).

I have used PlayOnMac and honestly am never that impressed. For instance, NWN2 will install but will run with an entirely black screen. Now this was useful in its own right as it did install correctly and so I was able to snag the various bits related to the expansions and throw them in a prior Mac version of NWN2 that I had working (it was on the MacApp store for like 6 months before getting pulled due to publisher problems), which allowed me to cobble together a complete edition (totally worth it). However, I have tried to use PlayOnMac for ....nine? games I think, and none of them have ever reached a reliably playable stage. I have a much, much higher batting average with plain Wineskin Winery and Boxer. Just today I started playing around with CrossOver, and so far I am very impressed. I finally have something that will run Inquisitor! Basically CrossOver>Winery>Boxer (for DOSBox games)>PlayOnMac (last resort). I honestly am happiest with an official GOG Mac version of a game because I have yet to encounter a single one that doesn't work. Seriously, they all just boot up and go, no muss, no fuss. It's really, really sweet not to spend hours trying to wrangle something into playability only to discover that sure it runs but the cursor flickers, it won't save, the audio stutters, the movies won't play, etc, etc, and then have to go back to dicking with it. /twocents

Wing Commander games are awesome. Glad you are enjoying it. I got those too so I can relive the glory days and play them again.

I am kinda hoping we get more frequent drops of games maybe after the new year begins. I have a feeling this time of year is so busy that is it for new Mac stuff until at least then but as you mentioned, we do have a lot now to pass the time with. It's the collector in me that can't wait to get more of them for Mac I guess.

I'm really thrilled about that news of Mac games selling so well here. That's great. :D

The thing is though, for me at least, GOG.com is already associated with ports of that quality. Broken health bars on Psychonauts + glitchy sounds and crashes. Animations and speed issues with Alpha Centauri. A display issue from launch I ran into just today with Simon the Sorcerer. Then you have a support form which doesn't support the upload of system report files they ask for (else the report can't be made)... Not exactly treating Mac users as first class. But you're right, with proper playtesting, those kinds of ports shouldn't be let through (I think part of the reason they were on Humble Bumble is the charity aspect; attract as many people to donate and be as generous/'humble' to gamers and developers as possible).

So why not share some unsupported Linux native ports? It really couldn't hurt, at least not any more than the qualms that we all have to deal with on occasion with mostly unsupported games (remember that the source code and original developers are inaccessible for most classic games), which I'm sure all have their unquashed bugs.

For me, I prefer Wineskin for all my Wine solutions, as I find it has both control and ease-of-use, but PlayOnMac could come in handy as a comparable resource. I like the transparency of Wineskin, as well... I'm know (as long as I don't depend on Winetricks) I'm not using any drivers or "free" programs I may not be at liberty to use, for example... not that PlayOnMac is, but some Winetricks implementations and advice on appdb.winehq.org seem to play fast and loose with license-use.

P.S. We shouldn't forget that much of the support we have received here has been in the form of updates in what publishers put out and third party updates (Boxer, Dosbox, ScummVM, Wineskin, Wine); not necessarily a direct action by GOG's staff -- so they really shouldn't be underlining the necessity of their ability to provide support. In many cases it's out of their hands anyways.

This makes me want to take a look at Crossover some time. So far, I too have been happy with the results I've been able to obtain with Wineskin and Boxer as needed. I agree though, it is really wonderful to get a GOG release where the work has already been done, tested and the game just works. You have to love that.

Crossover is pretty neat, they have some tweaks and fixes that the main Wine build doesn't (yet?) have and they were the first ones to introduce the new native Mac driver. If it wasn't for Crossover we probably wouldn't even have Wine on OS X, and therefore no Wineskin and no Wine ports by GoG.

Processor architecture would be one problem, yes, but there is more: First of all you would have to be able to run classic Mac OS programs, which was dropped even before Rosetta kicked the bucket. And even then the questions is if you would have all the libraries and frameworks the game relies on. Apple is known for cutting off lose ends, so even when you have a game written for OS X on intel processors there is no guarantee it will run properly on the next version of OS X. (BTW, Rosetta, the PowerPC emulator, has been dropped with Lion, not Tiger)

Hmm, I must have indeed mixed it up with for the technology that let you run OS9 programs from within MacOSX. Sorry about that... Obviously, that would only work on a PowerPC processor. Such a shame that they completely dropped it.

This worries me sometimes. I don't feel comfortable accumulating a large backlog of Mac games the way I had in the past with PC games where OS X is being upgraded annually and it seems to affect a fair number of apps in various ways each time it is upgraded. I hate to do it but I've thought about abandoning ship on my Windows games backlog, which is large in favor of just playing on OS X because as it is I have a lot now for Mac anyway. It would be kind of painful to walk away from a lot of AAA's I got before the Mac for Windows but maybe I should or I'll wind up being badly burned by some future OS X release.

Realistically I have noted also that Mac games are coming out at a pace now which I'd find hard keeping up with if I had just the current Mac backlog, never mind a bunch of Windows games that require bootcamp to run. And I really hate rebooting. I know it's a first world problem if ever there was one but what a dilemma. In this day and age of bargain basement prices I went nuts in recent years and collected too many games.

Really, without Crossover we probably wouldn't even have Wine at all (considering Alexandre Julliard has been the head of Wine and Crossover for the majority of it's existence).
Yeah, with the mostly cumulative growth of Wine, playing Windows games on a Mac or Linux run machine in the the future seems a safer bet than playing current Mac games on a future OS or even Windows games on a future Windows OS.

To be fair, Mac OS and OS X are two completely different operating system, with OS X being based off NeXT Step. Backwards compatibility and the Carbon framework were just a temporary solution so that people could transition seamlessly. It was clear from the start that they would drop it eventually

Personally I never buy pure Mac games. If I get both the Mac- and Windows version together that's great, but if not I always go with the Windows version, just because I know I will have a better chance of getting it to run a few years down the road. Of course this is a chicken-and-egg problem: If people don't buy Mac games then Mac games will be second rate, and if they are second rate, people will not buy them.

Wine can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but I have most of my games running very well, so there is hardly and reason to reboot ever. With DOS games OS X is even the best solution because of Boxer.
Cool, I wasn't ware that he is with Crossover as well.