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Thats just it, they are not gatekeepers, even without the Mom & Pop store. The market decides what they want to see, and if (for the sake of argument) WalMart decides that GTA offends their Christian sensibilites, then their customers will go to another retailer. If none of them pick up a game (possibly because the game has such a small distribution), then the game company can adopt a direct sales model and bypass the retailers directly like these guys.

Rather than waste a burned CD in order to convert one song, see if you can find a program that captures all sound output going to the video card, and saves it as an AIFF file. I know there's one for OS X called WireTap .. surely there are many such apps for Windows.

Works for converting any playable sound file, and you get a DRM-free sound file of decent quality you can convert into whatever you like.

Commercial companies do sometimes limit themselves to minority platforms -- for example Ambrosia, who make great games that traditionally were, and with a few exceptions still are, Mac only -- but great though "Escape Velocity: Override" was, it did not cause a tremendous influx of switchers.

And certainly any game developed for Linux by non-commercial entities would be open source -- and thus ported to Windows pretty quickly. Wouldn't it be ironic if Linux was made more popular because of non-open-source software that only ran under it...

Uplink a fantastic small game by introversion and ported to the mac by ambriosia (whom I adore) - yes, it's not a PRETTY graphics based game, and it can be a bit cheesy at times, but VERY immersive, and puts you in a fundamentally different role than a shot-em-up or make-my-army-win kind of game. Darwinia isn't half bad either.

It's obvious to most people that people buy the right to use a piece of software, not a magic number. Check out Ambrosia's Lost registration code policy as an example of a company who understands this.

Also might want to check out:

http://www.pangeasoft.net/index2.html
http://www.udevgames.com/
http://www.apple.com/games/
http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/cat/games
http://www.macupdate.com/games.php

As a side note, the Mac platform has never been known for a wide range of shrink-wrapped software; the main place to find software has always been "online", even before the internet was popular, and people got their software from BBSes.

No the game I installed is EV: Nova. Anyway, back to playing games on my consoles (GC or xbox).

P.S. If the used MechAssault I bought is any indication of the quality of used games. I think I'll stick to buying the game new, the media is to fragile.

Dude, WireTap is all you need.

Heh. Anyone would reckon we were astroturfing, but we're not!

At least I'm not, anyway... ;-)

As for different platforms, the Linux binary will apparently be a free download compatible with the Windows data files, and there's also a full, commercial port to the Mac being done by Ambrosia Software.

Sadly, no news of any port of the game to a stand-alone Protologic 68000, assuming anyone still has one of those peculiar machines in working order...

Click here and then scroll down to "win evnova classic" and "win evnova override".

Just please register. You get 3 games for the price of one and Ambrosia really deserves all of the money they can get.

Now that I am leet enough to have both MacOS and Windows machines, I should probably download this remake and check it out. It sure looks like fun.

mcb

Wiretap can record any audio on a Mac.

Skype has just announced full versions of its software for Mac OS X and for Linux. Now I'm only waiting for some conversations recording feature.

Although I have not tried it yet, I imagine this could be accomplished via the use of something like Audio Hijack Pro or Wiretap.

ConGlomSysCorp.

If you don't get it, go play Escape Velocity.

And the one were they say "MEGAWEAPON! MEGAWEAPON!"

And the one were they sing "They tried to kill him with a forklift..."

I'm sure we can keep this thread going...

There have been a long list of great Mac games that never made their way to Windows, but they are never blockbusters, so they never enter the conversation. Some examples would be:

Ferazel's Wand
Ares
Airburst
MAFFia (an incredibly addictive and disturbed game where you shoot sheep)
(thats just off the top of my head)

Not to mention the games that came out for Mac first: Myst, the Dark Castle series, the Marathon series, the Escape Velocity series, etc.

Mac gaming may not have the blockbusters, but it is not the wasteland that it is made out to be.

There have been a long list of great Mac games that never made their way to Windows, but they are never blockbusters, so they never enter the conversation. Some examples would be:

Ferazel's Wand
Ares
Airburst
MAFFia (an incredibly addictive and disturbed game where you shoot sheep)
(thats just off the top of my head)

Not to mention the games that came out for Mac first: Myst, the Dark Castle series, the Marathon series, the Escape Velocity series, etc.

Mac gaming may not have the blockbusters, but it is not the wasteland that it is made out to be.

Well, the guys must be extremely busy, since the official mac development page for darwinia was last updated on november 12th ;-)
does anyone know if the linux port is done inhouse or by an outsider too? (i.e. any interesting devel logs about this game out there?)

I'm afraid you're rather mistaken. Not only did Ambrosia Software publish the mac version of Uplink, they are also publishing the mac version of Darwinia. Look here for more information: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/news/upcoming/

I just bought EV Nova from Ambrosia. Great friggin game, but there are a number of technical flaws and UI issues that you probably wouldn't find in a EA release. Mostly polish, but for example: when I die and have to reload my pilot, they didn't write a nice custom dialogue that matches the main opening menu theme, they just used the Win32 API's OpenFile() function. That's fine, it's a good function, but if I'm in fullscreen mode it will pop back out to windowed mode to load the pilot, then pop back into full screen after I made my selection. Not a showstopper, but it is iritating. Maybe I'm just a stickler when it comes to UI, but it would be a nice touch on a good game.

You might want to check out Coldstone by Ambrosia. It seems to be basically what you describe, and its games are playable on MacOS 9/X and Windows. They made a fairly large commercial game using it, so it can't be that bad.

You might want to check out Coldstone by Ambrosia. It seems to be basically what you describe, and its games are playable on MacOS 9/X and Windows. They made a fairly large commercial game using it, so it can't be that bad.

file sharing

game, specifically the only one your girlfriend/mother/mother in law probably cares about.
more games
games

Of course, this is kind of silly, because if you're worried about saving money you're not playing games on a PC or a Mac. "Let's see, I can buy a whole Playstation 2 with a couple of nice games for $200, or I can buy a new video card for for $200 so I can play Doom 3". PC's are excellent gaming platforms, but they are nowhere near as cost effective as any of the console systems. The games, especially when new, cost about the same (if the PC version isn't a little more expensive). It's almost cheaper to have one each of the "big three" consoles than try to keep PC hardware up to spec for playing the newest video games over any given 5 year span. PC's are also nice, open systems, so for online gaming you get access to the wide world of cheaters, where console games at least have some semblance of sofware control. PC games will look nicer, and probably be a little more of a rich experience, but as far as cost-effective, a PC is really far down.

The Windows PC can't do this, at least without buying expensive software. GarageBand comes with a new Mac, and this is also bundled into a new Mac. The ability to painlessly sync my phone and my computer's contact list is pretty valuable. And I can run most other software too, because I've got X11.

Now, admittedly there are lots of things you can't get to work on a Mac. this isn't available, neither is this, or this, or this. As a side effect, neither this nor this is available on the Mac. So, ya know, you're right, there's a lot of stuff that is much harder to do on my Mac than on my Windows PC, like being a Spambot and reporting my personal information to advertisers.

What I'd be interested to see is a history "story" like that written by Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software, whose games I played ever since Maelstrom (In fact, Maelstrom was one of the first games I played on my parents' IIci back in 1994).

When Escape Velocity came along, Ambrosia SW became one of my favorite game developing companies. That game was so fun... I spent many nights staying up way too late playing it. What was also great was my Windows-using friend was very jealous he couldn't get the game on his machine (until far later, anyway). Ahh it was so nice to have the tables turned, for once. ;)

Anyway, they totally need to write up a cool history like the Panic one! Ambrosia surely has some very interesting stories to tell...

Your confusion is understandable; in the Windows/x86 world, shareware truly is dead. But the distribution format continues to exist (though barely) in the Mac market. Besides, Panic, there's Ambrosia Software, Freeverse, Littlewing, Spiderweb and others.

Mac users, partly due to reduced malware exposure and partly due to cultural conviction, tend to be more appreciative of shareware developers, and as such are more likely to download strange unknown software and pay their fees. I used to have a link to a developer's anecdote where he got about 3% or so pay-in from Mac downloads, but only got much less than 1% when he ported his product to Windows. The result is that Mac shareware tends to get more income than on Windows, despite (or because of?) the low market share of the platform.

That said, even the old shareware houses are starting to migrate to brick-and-mortar. Freeverse sells some of their games in Apple Stores, and even Ambrosia has made CD pressings of Escape Velocity: Nova (as well as a board game!). It's a shame, shareware was as close as the "little person" could get to a true free market of software sales, sacrificed during the current war between Corporate software and Open Source.

I don't believe there should be when force is necessary. However, when it's unnecessary, as is often the case in protest crowd control, such cameras will give police hesitation, as have the ubiquitousness of video cameras in general. Just look at the lack of incidents of force used in New York during the RNC. The informed populace certainly got the police to change their behaviour, though it doesn't seem the change was quite what was desired or expected.

Of the games that I have enjoyed most lately, the following top the list:

Neverwinter Nights
Morrowind
Chromatron
Tales of Symphonia
E.V. Nova
Advance Wars 2

Of these, Neverwinter Nights is probably the most graphically advanced. None of them hold a candle to Doom 3, or Far Cry, or any of the other engines you mentioned.

I dunno about you, but for me gameplay comes first. If I really want eye candy, I'll go look at 3D Renderings. Yes, the masses can indeed enjoy games with weak graphics, and it does open your game to a wider audience. If you need any convincing of that, I implore you to check out the sales figures for any of the Sims games.

If EV Nova had been 3D rendered with dynamic lighting and reflections and all the other goodies, it would not have played on my laptop very well, and I never would've purchased it.

WireTap works fine as well, and is free.

OOH maybe Uplink will actually happen.

These are all the free (as in beer) applications I use all the time:

WireTap: Save an audio file of any sound being played on the Mac by any other application.

DVDBackup: Great for backing up DVDs (while removing region coding, CSS encryption, and Macrovision encryption.) You'll still need Toast to burn the DVDs though.

PixelNhance: A must-have to tinker with the color/brightness/contrast etc. of your digital pictures.

Pixen: The best pixel-level editor on any platform.

MorphX: Morphs one image into another.

SnapNDrag: For screen captures (Grab is another basic screen capture utility that comes bundled with OSX).

Galerie: Puts your photos in a nice album-type gallery of web pages for being served by a web server.

LaTex Equation Editor and Tex Fog: The equation editors I use. Requires Tex/LaTex to be installed..

And if you are into LaTex, you'll also want CPlot: A parametric equation plotter.

CyberDuck: Open source S/FTP client. (Other FTP clients for OSX include osXigen, Transmit, Fetch, Fugu...).

Onyx: A must-have system utility.

MenuMeter: Another must-have system info utility. Excellent.

Books: A library software (book database).

Xnippets: A decent information organiser.

Carbon Copy Cloner: Backup software. (Donationware)

A few apps I have gladly paid money to use:

ChartSmith: Wonderfull for making all kinds of charts you have ever thought of (and some you haven't).

EvoCAM: Great app to record/play (or otherwise control) a Firewire/USB camera hooked to your Mac. Well worth the shareware price. (Also checkout their other offerings - ImageDV and VideoScope)

Intaglio: The 2D vector drawing/CAD program of my choice for simple CAD/ technical drawings.

Keynote: A (much better than) PowerPoint replacement from Apple. I use this all the time. (When it came out originally, I paid $$ for it; I heard Apple is bundling it with iLife now?)

Little Snitch: Keeps tabs on any stealth connections being made to/from your Mac, Shareware.

Intuem: Nice MIDI app with a clean interface. (GarageBand, one of Apple's iLife apps, is great for Audio/MIDI as well, but I find it limiting for my purpose because it does not do MIDI-out to my keyboard/synth.)

cheers- raga

Coldstone from Ambrosia is very similiar to RPGMaker. I never had the priviledge of trying either system but I think they both have wonderful potential for the creative types.

Simple graphics is not indicative of a great game. A few console RPG's that come to mind, Shining in the Darkness and the Shining FOrce series on the Sega Genesis, Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSOne and the Fallout series for the PC/Mac.
If the game is fun, immersive and have minimal bugs to detract from the fun and immersion then we have a winner!

Just for the record (I bought and loved Freelancer) -- Freelancer is basically Escape Velocity Nova (now available for windows!) with a 3d engine and with a shittier storyline/mission set.

Since Bungie was only mentioned at the end of the article, and Ambrosia wasn't mentioned at all, even though they are responsible for the best Mac-only games in existence.

Anyway, I coincidentally replayed Deja Vu for the NES last night; that brought back some fun memories. I knew the three NES ICOM games were just ports, but I didn't know they were originally on the Macintosh (I assumed PC or Amiga).

Rob

Diablo II, Starcraft, Warcraft
Unreal Tournament 2004, Neverwinter Night, Dungeon Siege, Civ III
Myst, Riven, Exile
Medal of Honor and expansions, Battlefield 1942, Ghost Recon
Ghost Master
Quake III, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein
Escape Velocity Series, among others

There are plenty of other games for the Mac platform as well, check the Apple website for a larger list.

PC users can finally see what they've been missing all these years.

PC users can finally see what they've been missing all these years.

This reminded me of another extreme hobby, BBQ lighting by George Goble, who also happens to be a systems engineer (go figure).

To do something just to show that it can be done is one thing, but I don't think anyone should seriously consider doing this for any other reason than to merely say "I did it".

And for those asking "why so cold", I can answer that one, it has to do with total thermal inertia, and thermal gradients. Basically, the larger the temprature difference, the faster heat will attempt to move from hot to cold. Just because the outside of the chip may be 0 degrees, doesn't mean the inside of the chip is.

Sure there is! Haven't you seen Uplink? :)

Be sure and check out Enigmo, at Pangea
It's a puzzle game, and highly addictive.

Also, it's pretty unoffensive, but involves some good strategy play, Spaceword Ho! at DeltaTao Software

pop-pop is a great knockoff of the classic breakout, at Ambrosia Software

And of course, as people have mentioned, there's always Sim City :) Also Zoo Tycoon, published on the Mac by Aspyr is pretty un-offensive I'd think.

All these companies, with the exception of Aspyr (who publishes a lot of the triple-A ports), have pretty much exclusively G->PG-13 titles. But the ones I mentioned pretty much are lacking anything I can think of that could possibly offend.

Ambrosia has a line of games that I think would be kid safe; Uplink is fun and challenging, and no violence or nekkid, but maybe it simulates "hacking" too closely. "Nova" is a Space Trader game, so simulates some economic theory. I don't recall anything offensive in it, but you have a pretty low bar, too.

There's also iConquer from KavaSoft, a RISK-alike that is very like.

Also try Apple's Product Finder; it reminds me that there's several good racing/skating games that aren't offensive, and lots and lots of strategy games. There's even a "kids" section from which too chose.

Good luck! And try posting to some of the Apple lists! I think many of us Mac IT folk are interested to know how this thing is shaking out in Maine.

In support of this suggestion, you can get the mplayer binaries, and a GUI player, from here.

You could also use Audio Hijack, which is (very nicce) shareware, or Wiretap, which is free(beer)ware.

I find mplayer is very nice to have around and will often chip in and help where Quicktime fails. Same can be said of VLC.

A similiar product for Mac OS X is Ambrosia Software's WireTap.

A similiar product for Mac OS X is Ambrosia Software's WireTap.

You can also use Ambrosia's Wiretap available at Ambrosia Software which is how I get around their DRM. Also useful if you just have to record something.

I found that out with the Escape Velocity series recently. I downloaded the game and, funnily enough, in about 20 mins I was hooked. It was like I was playing Trade Wars again.

How come Apple cant seem to let you hear the whole sone but instead gives you 30 secs.

Because then people could listen to a single song streamed over the net and copy it to disk using a utility like Wiretap. If you could easily obtain a complete album in the time it takes to listen to it that would completely kill their business. Now, maybe 30 seconds isn't quite long enough, but it's not too bad and seems a reasonable compromise.

Karma-whoring by pasting a clickable link:

This video also reveals the eye-contact problem.

You can never actually look each other eye-to-eye, since you must look away from the monitor to look at the camera to be perceived by the other guy as looking at him as he viewing his monitor, but he looks at his camera so you can see him as he....but you're...then he....

AAAAHHHRRRGGGG!

So, when will we get a camera invisibly embedded into the monitor?

Congrats on the purchase of the G5. For starters, check out GameRanger. GameRanger (aka GR) is the hub for most all Mac gaming outside of Bnet and MMORPGs. You can check the game list on the GR website, but you can find basically all the popular FPS and RTS games there. For the more popular games, finding a good host won't be a problem, but for older or lesser known titles it can be tough. That's just one of the downsides of the smaller Mac gaming community. However, being small can also be an advantage as you can get to know a large portion of the people you play with on a regular basis.

As for the actually games, I would recommend Raven Shield (aka Rainbow Six 3) for an FPS. It will look awesome on your G5, and the gameplay is quite addicting. Everyone I know who has tried Halo hasn't liked it. Ghost Recon isn't bad, but it feels much slower paced than Raven Shield. There are also the old standbys like MoH and Quake 3, and you can probably pick those up cheap if you shop around.

I'm not an RPG guy, so I can't really comment there. I know some guys who are enjoying NWN, but that's about it. However, one game I think you should definitely check out is Jedi Academy. It has both great single player and multiplayer action. Another highly recommend game is EV Nova. The Escape Velocity series has been a classic on the Mac for a long time now, and EV Nova does not disappoint. You should also take a look around Ambrosia's site. They are generally regarded as the makers of the finest shareware games for the Mac.

The great thing about using a mac is the cool shareware stuff. We've got some of the best developers (Ambrosia, Pangaeasoft, they're everywhere) and we get some great games. Here are a couple of great ones...

enigmo
escape velocity nova

As far as commercial games go, Halo is a great choice, you can pick up UT, EverQuest, Warcraft III...There are a ton, and more coming thanks to great porting houses like Westlake.

I'm personally hooked on EQ right now, and it's great...not nearly as many people per server, but it's become a nice community without the assholes that plague the pc version. If you don't know what I mean by that, think your typical battlenet user.

Agreed. Ambrosia Software's Escape Velocity: Nova, the third in a series, is one of the best games I've ever played. It's got about 6 great storylines; which one you follow depends on your actions in the game. The graphics aren't amazing, but more than adaquate. Gameplay is free for 30 days, at which point you need to pay $30 to register (there are a couple limitations in the unregistered version). Also, it's got a very good plugin system, so play time is almost unlimited, with a number of total conversions out, such as Polycon. Their previous two Escape Velocity games were also very good, but Nova is the best.