Hi guys

I have just discovered this awesome site. On the Mac games it says that a mouse is required. Will the games work on the trackpad? Theme Hospital and Syndicate in particular.

Thanks for your time.

I don't see why they wouldn't (as these games were designed with a mouse in mind after all) but you'd be out of your mind to be gaming on a trackpad anyway. :)

That reminds me of the time I was without a mouse and I was playing UT '04 with some online pals of mine. Man did I get slaughtered! Good times. ;)

A trackpad and mouse fill the exact same function, and though OS X can set different settings for the two devices if you have both, the games make no difference between them.

Thanks guys. Great community too!

Please, note the wording:
"Recommended two-button mouse, or Apple mouse with Secondary Button / Secondary Click enabled."

Basically the problem is not the mouse itself, but the right-click functionality.

So, if your trackpad has a "right click" function (or you have a way to achieve it with the keyboard) you're good to go.

Awesome. Theme Hospital here I come!

And the mac has had the option since Mac OS 8.0 in 1997 (or 8.1, I never did use .0, so I can't say for sure, I don't think 7.6.1 had it except through third-party extensions - I had a two-button mouse before I got Mac OS 8.1). Ctrl-click has been interpreted as right-click on the system level since then, as well as native multibutton mouse support (both options sending a right-click signal to the application, rather than ctrl-click). Using two fingers to right-click (or clicking in the bottom right corner of the trackpad) has been possible since the introduction of multitouch trackpads.

I've never understood why Apple insisted upon having only one button when there were originally 3 buttons on mouses.

As for the main topic, getting a proper mouse is well worth it even though you can technically play with a track pad, I've just found it to be a lot easier to play with the device that the developer intended me to use.

Firstly, welcome to gog. I hope you enjoy your time here. Come back often as I suspect you will find many new games that are currently available for windows (and can be played on macs) will have "mac versions" released soon.

As others have said, games will work on the track pad. I find turn based games are not a problem to play on the ole trackpad, games that require a bit of dexterity (and right mouse button clicks) are a little more troublesome and you are definitely better off getting yourself a nice mouse.

yes that is true as well, I have played through many a wonderful adventure game on my little trackpad :)

Slightly OT, but most of the Mac users I know use Microsoft mouses for whatever reason.

Pretty much. I never even bothered with Apple mice when I was a Mac user. I used Logitech and later Razer ones. Even Apple's new mice aren't all that great

yup, thats what I use. Microsoft brand, just what I had from my old windows laptop before it died.