I just downloaded cataclysm 0.8 for mac and when I try to open it, the terminal doesn’t open cataclysm.
Also, I can’t seem to find 0.7 anywhere online.
We never did have a 0.7 official build, we have very few native mac developers, so reliable builds are hard to come by and debug.
Try downloading the SDL version from the announcements thread. If you don’t want tilesets and would prefer to run curses (which I think will be faster on Mac) then you can copy the run-cataclysm.command file from the SDL version and paste it into the curses version, then open it up in textedit and change “./cataclysm-tiles” to “./cataclysm”. If that doesn’t fix the problem then post back, since it means something went wrong in my build somewhere. 
When I try to open cataclysm the terminal does all this stuff.
Last login: Thu Sep 19 14:46:21 on ttys000
dhcp-224-252:~ student$ /Users/student/Downloads/Cataclysm-OSX-0.8-tiles/run-cataclysm.command ; exit;
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/lib/libintl.8.dylib
Referenced from: /Users/student/Downloads/Cataclysm-OSX-0.8-tiles/./cataclysm-tiles
Reason: image not found
/Users/student/Downloads/Cataclysm-OSX-0.8-tiles/run-cataclysm.command: line 3: 1053 Trace/BPT trap: 5 ./cataclysm-tiles
logout
[Process completed]
Yeah, we’re working on that (since apparently XCode doesn’t like to actually link to static libraries). We think we’ve managed to get it down (fingers-crossed) and hopefully a build will go up later tonight/tomorrow.
Awesome. I’ve been wanting to play 0.8 for a while now.
Got the same problem, waiting impatiently for the fix :). Thanks for looking at it!
Any news on an updated version yet :)?
Still being worked on. The problem is that in order to get the game working properly we need to statically link some libraries while dynamically linking others, something that apple long ago decided that they don’t really want to support and firmly oppose. There are ways to do it, but Apple seems to have decided that they are going to show their disapproval by purposely making it hard to do so. 
Elsewise the only way you could play Cataclysm is to download the same library updates that the devs have to be able to compile it, something that is a little beyond the grasp of the average computer user. I’m not going to give any estimates here, but know that we are still working on it and as soon as we have a working version it will be posted online. (Also this should hopefully never happen again, since once we’ve got this working we should be able to compile future versions without too much additional work.)
For now if you decide that you really can’t wait to play cataclysm, you could compile your own version (currently these instructions will only cover non-tiles builds). All you need to do is:
- Go to here and download “Command line tools your operating system”. Don’t worry if it asks you to sign up, signing up as a developer is free.
- Download macports. (It’s under “Package (.pkg) installer”).
- Follow the instructions on this page.
Should you want the .8 version instead of the latest experimental all you need to do is instead of typing the “git clone …” line, download version .8 here, drop the unzipped folder into your “User name” file, and then use “cd Cataclysm-DDA-0.8” for the next step.
Thanks for all the details and for the work you guys put in this.
I really enjoy using OSX and Apple hardware on a daily basis, but when it comes to gaming I have to admit it is far from being the best platform available… I have a hard time understanding why Apple makes all these dictatorial choices around their software frameworks, leaving no choice to developers but to cope with them…
Anyway, it is greatly appreciated that some skilled people take the time to have things working out for Mac users. Really.
And thanks also for providing the instructions on how to compile manually. I think I’ll give it a shot :).
Has there been any progress towards fixing this yet?
While I’m not personally working on this anymore, it’s been handed off to a couple of different people who seem to be having much more luck then I have here. With any luck they should have the problems fixed before too long, and we’ll have a working mac version again.
For now you can always compile your own as I listed above, or I think the git issue that I linked to in this post has some potential builds up in it. Don’t worry, we haven’t abandoned you yet! 