Like Charlie chowing down on a chocolate bar, earlier this week Freeverse tossed us the golden ticket to unlock the doors of their magical beta-test factory. What does one relatively robust download and one double-click make? One scrum-diddly-umptious OSX native copy of HOMMV. No word on when real chocolate will flow freely from my tap, but I’d reckon Freeverse could do that too (if they wanted).

I’d like to tell you more about the glee-filled hours I’ve already spent peeling back the wrapper on this pixel-perfect Cider port, but unfortunately Freeverse put my man-bits in a jar labeled “Non-Disclosure Act”. If I open my mouth, they keep the jar. Woe. So let it suffice to say that you wouldn’t confuse this genuine Wonka article for just a cheap knock-off. In fact, I have yet to see how you could tell the difference between the OSX and XP versions. Welcome to flavor country.

We can also have the meta-conversation about how lovely it is not to BootCamp. Though I thought I had grown quite accustomed to BootCamping over the last few months of doing so, having HOMM run natively in OSX has compelled quite a few more instances of 30-minute gaming that I never had the compulsion for otherwise. I have to admit this takes the feeling of “serious play” down a notch and gives me a more genuinely playful attitude towards HOMMV in a way that does buttress the bottom line of fun.

Now pardon me, little Oompa Loompas — I have to get back to running the factory.