Highball
Which renderer to use
Highball can run each game through three different Direct3D translation layers. This is what the database knows for this title — empty rows are open questions, not failures.
| Renderer | Verdict | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| DXVKDirect3D 9-11 over Vulkan | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| DXMTDirect3D 11 over Metal | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Untested | no report yet — send one |
No dated Highball run yet. When one lands it records the renderer, the engine build and the macOS version it was seen on — which is what stops a verdict quietly rotting. Send one.
Notes
Reported playable on DXVK over a 54-minute session. Quitting the game leaves a black screen that stays, and Stop on the game's page in Highball ends it. Not reproduced here.
Provenance
Reported by valdroff (highball-db#381, 2026-10-07), Apple M3, macOS 27.0.1, Highball 0.10.13, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r22, the environment set to DXVK, Windows 7, rated 4 of 5 after 54 minutes. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Space Pirates and Zombies work on Mac?
Space Pirates and Zombies has no native Mac build, but it is reported to run on Apple Silicon through Highball, a free open-source compatibility layer. This comes from community reports rather than a Highball test run, so treat it as a reasonable expectation rather than a guarantee.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run Space Pirates and Zombies on Apple Silicon, working or not, a report takes a minute and fills in the empty rows above. Send a report, or read how the data is put together.