{ "schema": "tesign-radar/item/1", "generated_at": "2026-09-17T01:56:13.055Z", "lang": "en", "slug": "highball", "url": "https://tesign.com/en/item/highball/", "alternates": { "ko": { "html": "https://tesign.com/item/highball/", "json": "https://tesign.com/item/highball/index.json", "markdown": "https://tesign.com/item/highball/index.md" }, "en": { "html": "https://tesign.com/en/item/highball/", "json": "https://tesign.com/en/item/highball/index.json", "markdown": "https://tesign.com/en/item/highball/index.md" } }, "name": "Highball", "use_label": "Windows games for Mac gamers", "one_liner": "Runs Windows games on Apple Silicon and tells you if yours will work.", "text": { "why": "Tools that run Windows games on a Mac make you pick a Wine build yourself, and you only learn whether a game works after installing it. Highball sets up Wine, DXMT, D3DMetal and DXVK, connects a Steam or Epic library, and pulls per-game renderer verdicts and the anti-cheat blocklist from an open CC0 database before you download anything. App and CLI are GPL-3.0, the data is CC0, and the README rules out a paid tier. Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or newer only, and still in beta.", "take": "The real product is the CC0 compatibility database behind the app.", "build": [ "A personal check of Mac compatibility before buying a game", "A runtime for a Windows-only program on an office Mac", "Your own lookup page built on the CC0 compatibility data" ], "who": [ { "role": "Mac gamer", "situation": "wants to know a Windows-only game will run before buying" }, { "role": "Former Whisky user", "situation": "looking for a replacement" }, { "role": "Mac user", "situation": "one Windows-only work program left to run" } ], "start": [ { "command": true, "text": "brew install --cask gauthierpiarrette/highball/highball" }, { "command": false, "text": "Or drag Highball.dmg from Releases into Applications and press Get started" }, { "command": false, "text": "Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · the first run downloads the engine and takes a while" } ], "caveat": [ "Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or newer only", "Beta; the first run can take 15 to 25 minutes", "D3DMetal requires accepting Apple's separate license" ] }, "cta": { "type": "install", "label": "INSTALL", "url": "https://gauthierpiarrette.github.io/highball" }, "ready": "install", "categories": [ "games" ], "categories_confirmed": true, "tags": [ "macos", "wine", "gaming", "apple-silicon" ], "platform": [ "macos", "cli" ], "license": { "spdx": "GPL-3.0", "scope": "copyleft", "scope_text": "Use freely. Release your source if you redistribute (copyleft).", "url": "https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0.html", "note": null, "open_source": true }, "language": "Swift", "source_urls": { "canonical": "https://gauthierpiarrette.github.io/highball", "github": "https://github.com/gauthierpiarrette/highball", "huggingface": null, "app_store": null, "sightings": [ { "source": "showhn", "url": "https://github.com/gauthierpiarrette/highball", "posted_at": "2026-08-26T15:16:51.000Z", "hn_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49450662" }, { "source": "github", "url": "https://github.com/gauthierpiarrette/highball", "posted_at": "2026-09-12T22:00:00.000Z", "hn_url": null } ] }, "numbers": { "as_of": "2026-09-16T21:00:00.000Z", "stars": 723, "stars_unit": "GitHub stars", "stars_checked_at": "2026-09-15T19:34:03.689Z", "stars_observed_since_check": 4, "star_delta_24h": 2, "star_delta_7d": 55, "star_delta_30d": 70, "star_delta_unit": "GitHub stars gained in the window, GH Archive events summed to as_of", "spark_14d": [ null, null, 10, 5, null, null, null, null, null, 6, 32, 2, 13, 2 ], "hf_likes": null, "hf_likes_observed_at": null, "hn_points": 5, "hn_points_observed_at": "2026-09-13T14:07:39.952Z", "store": null, "method": "Star total = the value last checked on GitHub (stars_checked_at) + increases observed via GH Archive since. The 24h · 7d · 30d gains are GH Archive hourly events summed to the reference time (as_of). No score of ours." }, "ranks": null, "activity": { "pushed_at": "2026-09-15T18:18:38.000Z", "owner_type": "User", "open_issues": 35, "contributors": 3, "releases_count": 75, "latest_release": { "tag": "v0.9.21", "published_at": "2026-09-15T17:57:07.000Z", "prerelease": true }, "checked_at": "2026-09-15T19:34:03.689Z", "core_checked_at": "2026-09-15T19:34:03.689Z" }, "signals": [ { "kind": "cross", "label": "CROSS-SIGNAL", "value": "Show HN + GitHub" } ], "images": { "og": "https://tesign.com/img/highball-e55160646d.webp", "cover": "https://tesign.com/img/highball-e55160646d.webp", "cover_width": 1600, "cover_height": 1088, "gallery": [ "https://tesign.com/img/highball-e55160646d.webp", "https://tesign.com/img/highball-06bc1ec1fa.png" ], "alt": "Highball library: All, Steam and Epic filters at the top, twelve game covers below, each marked Verified.", "tier": 2 }, "dates": { "first_seen_at": "2026-09-13T07:43:34.171Z", "source_created_at": "2026-08-23T20:35:56.000Z", "discovery_hours": 491.1272697222222, "launch_signal_at": "2026-08-26T15:16:51.000Z", "kept_at": "2026-09-14T02:41:58.979Z", "first_published_at": "2026-09-14T02:41:59.484Z", "updated_at": "2026-09-15T04:36:56.884Z", "ingestion_mode": "live" }, "notes": [ "This file was produced by the same build, from the same data, as the tesign.com item page. The text is editorial; the numbers are stored observations.", "null in the JSON means not observed — never zero. The Markdown writes [unconfirmed] for it.", "Star total = the value last checked on GitHub (stars_checked_at) + increases observed via GH Archive since. The 24h · 7d · 30d gains are GH Archive hourly events summed to the reference time (as_of). No score of ours.", "A summary, not legal advice." ] }