Steam made me feel glum for years. I’d be told about an indie gem and dart over to Steam, only to discover the game was Windows-only and not available for Mac.
Even so, I bought quite a few titles, on the basis that, at some point in the future, I might actually be able to play them. But I wasn’t terribly keen on investing in a Windows PC after my last adventure with one. And although I did wheel out the deeply impressive Parallels Desktop for the odd session, manually tweaking a virtual machine for games has always felt like too much of a faff.
My combined Steam/guilt queue continued to grow until recently, when I started burning through my library. This was thanks to the Retroid Pocket 6 – a handheld console. It doesn’t run Windows (since it doesn’t cost at least eleventy billion pounds, which, from what I can tell, most Windows handhelds now do). It’s an Android device. But it can run Windows games by way of clever apps that act as a compatibility layer.
Going native
The two apps of this ilk I’ve spent most time with are GameNative and GameHub. There are others. They all work on the same principle. You sign into Steam (or GOG or Epic) or point the app at folders of local Windows games. It then does fancy stuff in the background before presenting a massive Play button. Prod that and you’re good to go. Mostly. Some games are uncooperative and require you to tinker with settings, but I’ve managed to get everything I wanted up and running in a matter of minutes.
There is, however, one caveat. I am VERY OLD and grew up in the age of 8-bit micros and arcade games. My preferences gravitate towards lighter weight arcade-oriented titles packed with action and, often, pixel art. Which for a short while makes me think I’m still living in a decade of day-glo socks, Tears for Fears, Zzap!64 and Back to the Future. Also, AAA games would probably make my Retroid Pocket 6 burst into flames or resemble stop motion if I tried to play them on it. So it’s just as well I don’t want to anyway.
Mac it up
Having made waves on handhelds, GameHub is now making a play for the desktop. Not on PCs, obviously. That would just be weird. But on Mac.
It’s not fully baked yet, but the GameHub public beta for Mac is now available, if you fancy giving it a try. I’ve been messing around with it for a while, using it with Steam and GOG games, along with a few indie titles I’d stashed on a backup drive and that have never been released for Mac.
The app currently lacks the polish and reliability of its Android counterpart. It crashes often. One game inexplicably plays in slow motion, even though it’s perfect on the much less powerful Android handheld. Some games refuse point blank to work. But it’s a start.
Moreover, it’s a moment of hope for Mac gaming. Perhaps soon, that pang of disappointment on discovering another Steam gem doesn’t have an Apple logo on its page won’t matter. Setting up and playing will take two clicks.
You might argue that’s too much to hope for, but it’s more likely than Apple ever really getting enough of a handle on games to draw more than a sliver of indie creators to its platform. So I’ll take what I can get.
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