One shelf, zero cost

Download Marquee

Free. Open source. Built for the Mac you already have.

v0.36.0 · Apple Silicon (M1 or later)

Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, Apple Silicon
Size ~55 MB
Price Free
Account None — ever

First launch note: Marquee is signed ad-hoc, not notarized through the App Store — so macOS Gatekeeper will flag it the first time. Right-click the app → Open → Open again, and it'll launch normally every time after that. Same as most indie/open-source Mac apps that don't pay Apple's yearly toll. After that first launch, Marquee checks for and installs its own updates — you won't need to come back here again.

Prefer to build it yourself?

Marquee is 100% Swift, built with the Swift Package Manager — no Xcode project required. Clone the repo and run:

git clone https://github.com/jackharvest/Marquee.git
cd Marquee
make app   # builds Marquee.app
make run   # builds and opens it

Or grab the source zip straight from the latest release. See the repository's README for the full build breakdown.

Built to sit in the background

It's supposed to disappear when you press Play.

Marquee minimizes itself the moment a game launches — so it has to be light enough to actually leave alone. When the window isn't visible, the animated backdrop, the 3D carousel, and the music visualizer all stop doing real work automatically, instead of quietly running full-tilt behind whatever you're actually playing.

~200MB

Typical memory use

Background network polling

Auto

Throttles rendering when hidden

100%

Native Swift, no runtime/VM