The Touch Bar was a polarizing piece of hardware. When Apple first introduced it in 2016, some people called it a revolution in productivity, while others just missed their physical Esc key. It’s gone now, mostly. Apple replaced it with full-height function keys on the newer M-series models, effectively ending an era of OLED experimentation. But for those of us still rocking a 13-inch or 15-inch Pro from that middle era, there is a weird, niche subculture that keeps things interesting: touch bar games macbook pro enthusiasts.
It's a strange flex. You have this incredibly powerful machine, and instead of rendering 4K video or compiling complex code, you're using a tiny, thin strip of glass to play Pac-Man. It feels like a secret club.
Most people use the Touch Bar for volume or brightness. Boring. The real magic happens when developers treat that 2170 by 60-pixel strip as its own console. It’s a tiny playground. Honestly, it’s one of the few times Apple hardware felt "hackable" in a fun, useless way.
The Weird World of Touch Bar Games
You can't talk about these games without mentioning the absolute classics that started the trend. When the hardware first dropped, developers rushed to see what they could break. One of the first was TouchBarDino. It’s basically the Chrome dinosaur game, but it lives entirely in that narrow strip. You tap the bar to jump over cacti. It sounds simple, and it is, but there’s something oddly satisfying about playing a game while your main screen remains completely professional. You could be in a Zoom meeting, looking like you're taking notes, while actually trying to beat your high score in a 100-pixel-high desert.
Then there’s TouchBarPong. It’s exactly what you think. One player uses the trackpad, or you can play against a very basic AI. The ball bounces back and forth across the length of the keyboard. It highlights how responsive the OLED strip actually is. Low latency, bright colors, and surprisingly smooth.
Why Doom is Always the Benchmark
If a device has a screen, someone will put Doom on it. It’s a law of the internet. The touch bar games macbook pro version of Doom is practically unplayable, but it’s a technical masterpiece. Created by developer Adam Bell, it stretches the entire game world into a 2170-pixel wide, 60-pixel tall nightmare. Everything looks like a squashed pancake. You can barely tell a Cacodemon from a health pack, but it runs. It’s the ultimate "because I can" project. It proved that the Touch Bar wasn't just a fancy secondary display; it was a fully addressable screen with its own framebuffer.
The Best Games You Actually Might Want to Play
While most of these are novelties, a few actually feel like real games. TouchBar-2048 is a great example. The sliding mechanics of the original 2048 translate perfectly to the touch interface. You’re not clicking; you’re swiping. It feels more natural than using arrow keys.
Then you have Santa Touch Bar. It’s a simple side-scroller where you dodge chimneys. It’s seasonal, sure, but it’s well-polished. These aren't meant to be 40-hour RPGs. They are "micro-breaks." You’re waiting for a file to export or a webpage to load, and you just want thirty seconds of distraction.
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- Pac-Bar: A surprisingly faithful recreation of Pac-Man. You use the arrow keys to move, but the entire maze is stretched out across the bar. It’s chaotic.
- TouchBar Piano: Not strictly a game, but it’s the most popular use of the bar for many. It turns the strip into a polyphonic keyboard. You can actually play chords.
- Space-Bar: A game where you’re a tiny ship dodging asteroids.
The variety is actually pretty impressive when you consider how limited the real estate is. Developers like Grace Avery and others in the GitHub community have kept these alive long after Apple stopped caring about the API.
The Technical Side: How This Even Works
The Touch Bar runs on a variant of watchOS. It’s basically an Apple Watch embedded into your keyboard. This is why it has its own processor—the T1 or T2 chip—to handle the security and the rendering. When a developer makes a game for it, they are essentially creating a tiny app that talks to that specific hardware.
It’s not all sunshine, though. The Touch Bar can get hot. If you’re playing a game that refreshes at 60 frames per second, that little OLED strip starts to pull power. It’s not going to drain your battery instantly, but it’s more taxing than just showing a "Mute" button. Also, the viewing angles are okay, but because the bar is flat, you have to hunch over a bit to see the action. It's not great for your neck.
The Problem with Discovery
You won't find most of these on the Mac App Store. Apple has some pretty strict guidelines about what the Touch Bar is supposed to be used for. They want it to be an extension of the main app, not a standalone game console. To find the good stuff, you usually have to head to GitHub or sites like TouchBar.Games. You’ll be downloading .app files and bypassing Gatekeeper warnings. It’s a bit of a "wild west" vibe, which adds to the charm.
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Is the Touch Bar Dead?
Mostly, yes. But the hardware is still out there in millions of hands. For anyone buying a used MacBook Pro, the Touch Bar is a feature they might find confusing or useless. These games give it a second life. They turn a failed experiment into a conversation starter.
There's a certain irony in the fact that the most "human" and "fun" uses for the Touch Bar were things Apple never intended. They wanted it to be a professional tool for Scrubbing timelines in Final Cut Pro. We wanted to use it to play Nyan Cat.
The community around these small apps is small but dedicated. They represent a time when Apple was willing to try something weird. Even if it didn't land, it gave us a weird little window into what's possible when you put a screen in a place nobody expected.
Practical Next Steps for Your MacBook Pro
If you actually want to try these out, don't just go clicking random links. Start with the "classics" that are well-documented.
- Download Pock: This isn't a game, but it puts your Dock in the Touch Bar. It frees up screen space and makes the bar actually useful. It’s the best "gateway drug" to Touch Bar customization.
- Check GitHub: Search for "Touch Bar Games" on GitHub. Look for repositories that have been updated recently.
- Check Your OS: Some older games might break on macOS Sonoma or Sequoia because of changes in how the OS handles background processes. If a game doesn't open, it might just be too old for your current software.
- Don't Forget the Esc Key: If you're playing a game that takes over the bar, make sure you know how to quit it so you can get your functional buttons back. Most allow you to Command+Q just like any other app.
The era of the Touch Bar might be closing, but as long as these machines are still booting up, there’s no reason they can’t be a little more fun. Go find that Pac-Man clone and enjoy the absurdity of it. It’s the most personality your laptop will ever have.
Actionable Insights: To get started, download TouchBarDino or Pock from their official GitHub pages. These are lightweight, safe, and demonstrate the potential of the hardware immediately. If you're feeling more ambitious, look for TouchBar Piano to see how the multi-touch capabilities handle complex inputs. Just remember to keep your laptop on a flat surface; playing these while lounging on a couch is a recipe for a neck cramp.