Linux stays the primary platform — it is what gets tested first and ships fastest. The macOS build lives behind its own file in the same codebase rather than a fork, and it is real, not a proof of concept: Steam and GOG sign-in, the full library, and installing and launching native GOG games all work today, through the app’s own download engine, not a browser hand-off. Since 1.9, Windows games run too, through CrossOver. It is labelled Experimental because it is younger and unsigned, not because it is a demo.
current macOS build: 1.9.0 · Linux is on 1.9.1, a Linux-only fix — the two hosts are not always on the same number.
Steam and GOG sign-in, sync and browsing, across all three faces — the Manager, CREMA, and GRINDER.
Real downloads through gogdl directly, for games that ship an Apple Silicon build — not a link out to a browser.
Titles that only ship a Windows build are no longer off-limits. Cafe Neurotico drives CrossOver directly, giving each game its own bottle under the same per-game scheme the Linux build already uses — created once on first launch, reused after that. Nothing to configure.
Two honest caveats. CrossOver is commercial software from CodeWeavers and is not bundled — you install it yourself, and without it this simply reports as unavailable. And while the plumbing is verified end to end, it has not been run against a large library of real games yet, so treat per-title compatibility as unproven.
A Mac-Native filter sits next to the store filters in the library, with a small apple badge on the cover art of anything that qualifies. GOG is checked instantly from data the app already has; Steam needs one manual scan since it is a live per-game lookup.
Artwork, genres, playlists, save-game backups, themes — all of it, because almost all of the app is the same code that runs on Linux.
Signing in to Epic does not yet hold on macOS — the browser-based approval completes,
but the credentials are not written where legendary
looks for them, so the library sync comes back empty. Steam and GOG are unaffected. This is
being worked on; until it lands, treat macOS as a Steam-and-GOG build.
BattlEye and EAC are not wired up. CrossOver advertises its own support for both, but nothing here has been tested against a game that uses them, so assume multiplayer titles that rely on anti-cheat will not run.
A KDE-only feature on Linux; no macOS equivalent exists yet.
The whole recipe catalogue — Ironwail, GZDoom, the Build-engine games and the rest — is Linux-only for now.
The build is not signed — there is no Apple Developer account behind it yet — so the first launch needs one extra step. That is the standard cost of an app that has not gone through notarization, not a sign that something is broken.
Download the .dmg (or the .zip) from the 1.9.0 release — the macOS asset is separate from the Linux AppImage, and it sits on that release rather than the newest one.
Open the .dmg and drag Cafe Neurotico into Applications (or unzip and move the .app there directly).
Right-click (or Control-click) the app → Open → Open still works on most macOS versions for the first launch. If that option does not appear, a normal double-click gets blocked once — go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to the message about Cafe Neurotico, then confirm once more.
If neither shows anything, from Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Cafe Neurotico.app" This strips the quarantine flag macOS attaches to anything downloaded from the internet. It only needs doing once per install.
Everything is under ~/Library/Application Support/. Deleting the app and installing a new build never touches the library.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Your library (games, artwork, playlists, settings) | CafeNeurotico/GameManagerConfig/ |
| GOG/Epic install state, auth, launch logs | CafeNeurotico/GRINDERConfig/ |
| Installed games (default location) | ~/Games/CafeNeurotico/ |
Something look wrong, or missing from this list? Open an issue — macOS reports are genuinely useful right now, this build needs them.