Pygame not compatible with MacOS Mojave

[adam-hotait]

Edit: pygame 2 works nicely with Mac now.

Use python3 -m pip install pygame

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SDL discussion and bug report:

• https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/macos-10-14-mojave-issues/25060/8
• https://bugzilla.libsdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4274

Homebrew issue is here: Homebrew/homebrew-core#33016

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As discussed on this stackoverflow post, it seems that pygame is not compatible with MacOS Mojave, the latest version of MacOS.

Information on tests done can be found on the post. It might be a conflict with the graphical overlay managing its new Dark Mode.

[hevp]

Same issue here, running

python -m pygame.examples.aliens

opens a window, sounds and music can be heard, but black screen surface all the time.

[illume]

The SDL discussion and bug report:

• https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/macos-10-14-mojave-issues/25060/8
• https://bugzilla.libsdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4274

Homebrew issue is here: Homebrew/homebrew-core#33016

[ijean]

Works without a problem, on a fresh Mojave install, with Python 3.7.0 from Miniconda, the version of PyGame reported is 1.9.4 .

[adam-hotait]

Confirmed, it seems to work with miniconda

[dshrops1]

Sorry if this is not the right place to post this, but is there a fix for this other than using miniconda? if not where can I follow to be aware when a fix is in place? I was really interested in picking up pygame but I might just go back to libGDX until this is working on Mojave!

[jctim]

The bug is reproduced with python 3.7.1 + pygame 1.9.4
But isn't reproduced with python 3.6.5 + pygame 1.9.4

As a work-around I created a virtualenv for 3.6.5 version

[MrTrustworthy]

Can reproduce this using python 3.7.0, 3.6.6 and 3.6.5 with both virtualenv and venv, so downgrading python didn't seem to help.

All Python versions mentioned above were installed via pyenv, the pygame version was always 1.9.4. Interestingly, trying it with Python 3.5.6 failed during installation of pygame with src/scrap.c:27:10: fatal error: 'SDL.h' file not found, though I don't know if that's relevant.

[Levilutz]

I encounter this issue with python 3.6.5 + pygame 1.9.4 and python 3.7.1 + pygame 1.9.4
I do not encounter the issue with python 3.7.0 + pygame 1.9.4.
Framerate increases substantially whether it works or not but running app in low resolution.
I wonder why it would start working by switching up the 3.7.0, but then stop working again switching up to 3.7.1.

[reza-iranmanesh]

the miniconda suggestion didn't work for me; what i had to do was to download the pkg file from:

https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-370/
for python 3.7.0
and install

verify:
python3 --version
should be 3.7.0

then:
pip3 install pygame (installed 1.9.4)

then all worked.

[ct-chook]

Rolling back to python 3.7.0 and reinstalling pygame worked for me, but now the second problem is that display.update() became incredibly slow. The saucers in the aliens game in the examples move several times slower than before. I've timed display.update() and it seems that it takes a constant amount of time to redraw the screen regardless of how many rectangles you pass to it. Even passing a tiny 10x10 rectangle takes more than 200 ms to update.

Edit: The solution given below fixed this problem for me.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31685936/pygame-application-runs-slower-on-mac-than-on-pc