SpaceChem, a Zachtronics classic sees a 64bit and SDL2 upgrade

SpaceChem, the design-based puzzle game from Zachtronics that has you make valuable chemical products, recently had a big tech upgrade that's out now.

Originally released in 2011, SpaceChem was originally refused by Valve to be placed onto Steam so they had to sell direct. Shortly after release it received quite a bit of praise, moving Valve to then promptly reach out after changing their mind. This was quite a long time before Valve opened up the floodgates for anyone to self-publish on Steam.

After seeing some time since an update, Zachtronics announced on Twitter that game porter and FNA developer Ethan Lee worked to update it to bring 64bit support to Linux and macOS along with it being bumped up to SDL2 which should mean it works a lot better than before. Fullscreen issues should be a thing of the past with the upgrade.

Amusingly, I owned it from a Humble Bundle some time ago and apparently never got around to redeeming my Steam key and properly playing through. Now it should work even better, I think I shall, given that it's got such a great rating from users and other critics.

I find that games from Zachtronics are always of a certain top quality, with their 2017 title Opus Magnum being my absolute favourite by them and to this day it continues being one of my top design-based puzzle games.

You can buy SpaceChem from itch.io and Steam. It's also on GOG but it appears to be lacking updates.