QuakeNotch vs macOS Gatekeeper: A Small Indie Game Meets Apple’s Security Wall

QuakeNotch on macOS: How Gatekeeper Turned a Simple Install into a Debug Session

I didn’t expect QuakeNotch to fight back. From the URL slug, it’s clearly QuakeNotch (game) — a small indie title, not some sprawling AAA monster. Download, drag to Applications, double-click, done. That was the plan. Reality, as usual on macOS, had other ideas.

I’m running macOS Sonoma 14.3 on an M1 MacBook Air. Clean system, no weird hacks, OrchardKit tools already installed for other projects, everything behaving. QuakeNotch? Refused to launch. No crash dialog, no helpful message — just a quick bounce in the Dock and silence. Classic.

First launch: nothing happens (and why that matters)

My first instinct was permissions. I checked System Settings → Privacy & Security, scrolled down, and sure enough: nothing. No warning about a blocked app, no “Open Anyway” button. That’s the tricky part with Gatekeeper — sometimes it blocks quietly, especially when the app bundle isn’t notarized in a way macOS likes.

I tried the usual rookie move: right-click → Open. Same result. Dock bounce, then nothing. At this point, QuakeNotch looked less like a game and more like a ghost process.

Apple’s own docs explain this behavior pretty plainly: Gatekeeper can prevent execution of software that isn’t properly notarized or signed, even if it doesn’t surface a visible alert every time . Helpful in theory, mildly infuriating in practice.

The false lead: reinstalling and clearing attributes

I deleted the app, re-downloaded it, and reinstalled. Same outcome. I even checked the quarantine flag with:

xattr -l /Applications/QuakeNotch.app

There it was. The com.apple.quarantine attribute was still present. Removing it manually finally made the app launch — but only once. On the second launch, it froze on a black screen. Progress, but not victory.

This is where OrchardKit unexpectedly came in handy. I had its monitoring utilities running and noticed QuakeNotch was trying (and failing) to access a local save directory inside ~/Library/Application Support without proper sandbox permissions. macOS didn’t like that at all.

Apple’s developer documentation is very clear that unsigned or loosely signed apps can hit permission walls when accessing user directories, especially on Apple silicon Macs . QuakeNotch wasn’t broken — it was just colliding with modern macOS security expectations.

What actually fixed it

The real fix was boring, but reliable:

• Move the app out of Applications
• Launch it once from a user-owned folder (Desktop worked)
• Approve the security prompt that finally appeared
• Then move it back into Applications

After that, QuakeNotch behaved like a normal game. It created its save files, audio initialized correctly, and CPU usage stabilized. No more black screen, no silent exits.

I later noticed that the build I downloaded was packaged for Intel Macs. Rosetta handled it fine, but it definitely added friction. If you’re curious about the specific macOS build I used and how it behaves across different setups, I stumbled on a useful breakdown while digging through mac OS–related install notes here: https://smohamad.com/education/49949-quakenotch.html — it lined up almost perfectly with what I saw on my system.

A quick note on updates and performance

Once running, QuakeNotch was solid. Frame pacing was smooth, and I didn’t see any memory leaks during a 40-minute session. Still, I’d recommend keeping an eye on updates, especially if the developer publishes a universal binary later. If the game ever lands on the Mac App Store, that version would sidestep most of these Gatekeeper headaches entirely via Apple’s distribution pipeline .

For now, though, the manual route works — you just have to understand that macOS security isn’t personal. It’s just picky.

Takeaway

QuakeNotch wasn’t “broken on Mac.” It was simply built with older assumptions about how macOS treats third-party software. Once Gatekeeper, permissions, and execution context were aligned, the game ran exactly as expected. No hacks, no sketchy tweaks — just working with the system instead of against it.

And yes, the Dock bounce with no explanation is still one of macOS’s least charming traits.