Call of Duty: Black Ops II recompiled natively for Mac

bo2-mac converts your Steam copy of Black Ops II into a Mac app, without Wine: campaign, Zombies and multiplayer against bots, at 60 fps on an M1.


Black Ops II on Mac, without Wine

On November 5, 2026, adrbn released the first beta of bo2-mac, followed by several 0.2.0 test builds, the latest on November 6. The project turns the three Windows executables of Call of Duty: Black Ops II (campaign, Zombies and multiplayer) into ARM64 code for Apple silicon Macs. It is a static recompilation: about 150,000 x86 functions are translated ahead of time (with Remill and LLVM), then linked to a hand-written Windows layer whose Direct3D 11 is drawn by Metal. No Wine and no Rosetta while you play.
The repository contains no game file and no translated code: the conversion happens on your Mac, from your Steam copy, and the resulting app must not be shared.


What works

Measured on a single Mac, an M1:

• campaign: 51 to 60 fps, every mission loads and chains into the next up to the end credits (not all have been played end to end);
• Zombies solo on six maps: 57 to 60 fps (43 to 58 on Die Rise);
• multiplayer against bots, eleven modes: 53 to 60 fps. The online service is simulated on the Mac, nothing leaves the machine.

Keyboard and mouse or a DualSense controller, and the keys follow your keyboard layout (ZQSD on AZERTY). DLC maps work if your Steam account owns them.


What you need

• an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later, with 20 GB free;
• the game on Steam for Mac, with the account that owns it: the launcher checks ownership, and the converter only accepts the exact executables of the Steam version (SHA-256 check);
• about 1 h 45 min of conversion on an M1, including 45 minutes for the campaign, which is playable right away.

A tricky point: the Steam executables are protected by Valve's SteamStub wrapper, which the project does not remove. It is up to you to provide the three files without this wrapper. The 0.2.0 test builds add an app that does without the Terminal (macOS 26) and updates itself.


Limitations

• no online play, no LAN and no co-op for now;
• the game runs in a 1280×720 window;
• the Mac gets very hot (111 to 116 °C recorded on the M1): play plugged in;
• shaders are translated the first time each map loads, hence some stutter the first time.

The author explains that AI agents wrote a large part of the code, under their direction and with their on-screen checks. It is the same idea as Portal 2 on Mac and iPhone, without an emulator.


Sources: bo2-mac (GitHub) · Version 0.1.0-beta (GitHub) · 0.2.0 test build (GitHub)