After eight years, Murder Dog IV faces justice on Mac
Guilty as charged
Court is back in session. The case? The vanishing of dozens of 32-bit Mac games from Apple's operating system. Now, we've been told these are due to so-called "compatibility issues". And yet, a killer canine just made its way to MacOS after eight years off the grid, seemingly unaffected by these disappearances. Your honour, I believe this must be more than mere coincidence. I call my first and only witness, Murder Dog IV: Trial Of The Murder Dog, to the stand.
Who's Murder Dog, anyway? I'm shocked you'd ask, considering it's one of the best free PC games, but I'll kindly provide evidence. Heads up, though - turn that volume dial way down before hitting play. It's... a thing.
After being prosecuted for war crimes on Windows back in 2011, thecatamites's murderous pooch now faces re-trial on MacOS in a port made by Jonathan Cole.
After checking in with some Mac-owning mates, I've managed to confirm that Cole's port is a 64-bit app. That wouldn't be particularly notable, but this week's a special week for boring tech stuff like that.
This Monday's MacOS Catalina update removed support for 32-bit applications. Studios running older titles have thus been scrambling to bring their older Mac releases up to speed, else abandoning the platform entirely.
Older blockbusters have it easier - their handlers can usually spare the resources to bring important titles up-to-date. But this update no doubt killed support for countless tiny games. Murder Dog IV is itself a 32-bit game on Windows. If its Mac port came seven years sooner, it may very well have been a victim.
Now you've no excuse for sleeping on this bizarre court adventure. Go on then. Fetch it here.