Can you workaround Steam's lack of a 64bit wrapper for Mac OS games?

[the8thark]

The older 32 bit games on the Windows side, Steam has a 64 bit wrapper for them so you can play them on modern Windows hardware/OS. The same can not be said for the 32 bit Mac versions of the games. Valve has not written / put in place a 64 bit wrapper for them.

Are all these mac versions of 32 bit games RIP now unless you have the older hardware/OS up run them?
Very old Macs that can run aome of the games are too old to run the latest version of the Steam app to actually download the games. However my 2011 iMac on OS10.13 can run them all fine.

The next question is when we all move to Apple Silicon, Rosetta will exist. However we won't be able to emulate an old enough MacOS to run these 32 bit games.
Is there a solution to this mess largely created by Valve themselves?

 

[jeanlain]

I've never heard of a "64-bit wrapper". AFAIK, all Windows versions can run 32-bit software.

Valve is not responsible for any mess. It is Apple that decided to drop 32-bit support.

 

[casperes1996]

The older 32 bit games on the Windows side, Steam has a 64 bit wrapper for them so you can play them on modern Windows hardware/OS. The same can not be said for the 32 bit Mac versions of the games. Valve has not written / put in place a 64 bit wrapper for them.

Are all these mac versions of 32 bit games RIP now unless you have the older hardware/OS up run them?
Very old Macs that can run aome of the games are too old to run the latest version of the Steam app to actually download the games. However my 2011 iMac on OS10.13 can run them all fine.

The next question is when we all move to Apple Silicon, Rosetta will exist. However we won't be able to emulate an old enough MacOS to run these 32 bit games.
Is there a solution to this mess largely created by Valve themselves?

I don’t get why you say the mess is created by Valve. Apple dropped all 32-bit libraries and frameworks in the OS and disallows 32-bit code from running. Rosetta 2 thus also will not have 32-bit support. MacOS itself does not any more.
Windows supports 32-bit code, and until very recently even 16-bit code.
If you want to run the old games in macOS, you will need an older macOS. Otherwise, Bootcamp. Come Apple Silicon, you’ll need a PC. That’s pretty much the end of it, at least for now

 

[maflynn]

Steam has a 64 bit wrapper for them so you can play them on modern Windows hardware/OS

I think you are mistaken, Windows has no problem running 32bit apps, there is no need to have a "64bit wrapper"

Is there a solution to this mess largely created by Valve themselves?

LOL, Valve didn't create this Apple did.

As for a solution, get yourself a copy of windows and/or a PC. Even when you could run the games on macOS, it paled in comparison to what is available in windows.

 

[Plutonius]

As for a solution, get yourself a copy of windows and/or a PC. Even when you could run the games on macOS, it paled in comparison to what is available in windows.

or get an external drive and put Mojave (or older) along with Steam on it and boot off the external drive.

Note: your computer needs to support the OS in order to do this.

As far as games, Windows will run them better but, for most of the games I play, I don't notice a difference.