RetroMac

Turn your Mac into a retro computer.
A real-time CRT shader over your screen, and the desktops we grew up with on top of it: Windows 95 to 7, System 6 to Snow Leopard, BeOS, OS/2, IRIX, NeXTSTEP. Boot screens, screensavers, the games, and the crashes.

Download the DMG  ·  myretromac.app  ·  What's new  ·  Make a theme

What it does

RetroMac is a menu-bar app with two ideas that work on their own or together:

1. A CRT on your screen. ScreenCaptureKit and Metal draw a click-through overlay and run

1. A desktop from another decade. A .retromactheme bundle brings its dock or taskbar,

A few impressions

| | | | |:---:|:---:|:---:| |
Windows 95 |
Windows 98 |
Windows XP | |
System 6 |
Mac OS 9 |
Mac OS X | |
Snow Leopard |
BeOS |
NeXTSTEP | |
CRT Royale |
VHS |
Game Boy |

More, and the videos, at myretromac.app.

Features

• Shaders — thirty-odd presets (CRT Royale, GDV Mini Ultra, Lottes, zfast, Trinitron, PVM,

• Live Wallpaper Plus — the shader over wallpaper, desktop icons, dock and Start menu in one

• Themes — Windows 3.1, 95, 98 (with the Plus! schemes), Me, XP, 7; System 6 (true 1-bit), System 7.1 (authentic: 256 colours, the 1994 Control Strip, the Application menu and the Apple menu),

• Retro Dock and taskbar — floats over or replaces the system Dock; Start menus in the 9x and

• Cursors — the theme's own pointer set, captured and restored exactly when the theme goes off.
• Retro Crashes — the failures of the period, none of them real: the 9x blue screen, Illegal

• Boot screens and screensavers — each theme boots the way its machine did; Pipes, FlowerBox,

• Retro TV — YouTube, IPTV streams and bookmarks inside a television with the CRT on.
• Games — Doom, Heretic, Quake, Quake II and Duke Nukem 3D through their free engines with

• Virtual camera — the shader on your webcam for Zoom, Meet, Teams and OBS.
• Retro Mode — one click sets theme and shader and hides the modern Mac; one click brings

The full history is in the Changelog.

Install

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, Apple Silicon or Intel (the release is a universal binary).
• Download the signed, notarized DMG from the Releases page

• On first launch, grant Screen Recording (for the shader). Accessibility gives the

RetroMac is free to use. An optional Pro unlock supports development and lifts the limits on premium themes and effects. No account, no tracking, no subscription. Updates arrive through Sparkle from the GitHub Releases feed.

Build from source

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/klotzbrocken/RetroMac.git
cd RetroMac
./build.sh debug      # local dev build, signed with a standard Apple Development identity
open "/Applications/RetroMac Dev.app"

• Requires the Xcode command-line toolchain (Swift 6, macOS 14 SDK).
• ./build.sh debug uses reduced entitlements (no system-extension install) so it launches

• ./build.sh release and ./package.sh produce the signed, notarized DMG and need the

• The Warcraft engine lives in the vendor/peonpad submodule and is built on demand.

Make your own theme

A theme is a folder with a theme.json and some pictures. docs/THEMES.md describes every key, the desktop icon types, and how to test one. Settings ▸ Themes ▸ Advanced imports it.

Sandboxing, security, and whose artwork this is

RetroMac runs unsandboxed, which controlling the Dock, menu bar and system UI requires; it ships with the Hardened Runtime, Developer-ID signed and notarized. SECURITY.md has the security policy. LEGAL.md lists what in the app was written for it, what is other people's free software, and what is the original artwork of the companies whose desktops it recreates, and how to reach the maintainer about any of it.

License

RetroMac is released under the GNU GPL v3.0. The paid Pro unlock is an optional way to support the project; the source remains free software.

Support and links

• Website: myretromac.app
• Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/N4N11K1NC
• Sister app (skinnable email client): Reframe
• Maintainer: klotzbrocken.de