Slashdot Mirror

How about Medal of Honor: Allied Assault? There isn't a Mac Client for that either...

Get your smack tight. Next time you're going to use an example like that make sure you're correct. Because if you're not it just makes you look bad...

How 'bout you check your facts before you start yapp'n?

MOHAA has been out for a while on the mac - buy it here. Spearhead's there too.

Sure there aren't quite as many Mac games, but there are more than I have money or time for... There probaby aren't as many games for the Mac because way back in the day it used to be an epithet to say that a computer was for games.

How 'bout you check your facts before you start yapp'n?

MOHAA has been out for a while on the mac - buy it here. Spearhead's there too.

Sure there aren't quite as many Mac games, but there are more than I have money or time for... There probaby aren't as many games for the Mac because way back in the day it used to be an epithet to say that a computer was for games.

The only thing that I would miss are games. You get games for the Mac, but sure not the boatload you have for a PC. Although a Gamecube and an Xbox are in place to fill that gap now

Seriously, the game situation for Macs isn't nearly as bad as it seems. In fact, I was a little surprised the other night going through my CD envelopes and seeing that nearly more than half of my Mac software was games.

The nice thing about gaming on Macs is that if you do find a game, it's usually a tried and true title. Well, usually, anyway.

Mac Games = Aspyr

4X4 Evolution 2
Alice
Alien Crossfire
BloodRayne
Bugdom
Colins Classic Cards
Cro-Mag Rally
Deus Ex
Escape Monkey Island
GR: Desert Siege
HP Chamber / Secrets
HP Sorcerer's Stone
Jedi Knight II
Kelly Slater Surfer
Law & Order
MH: Allied Assault
MH: Spearhead
Madden 2000
NASCAR 2002
NASCAR 2003
Otto Matic
Return 2 Wolfenstein
STV EliteForce Combo
SWGB
SWGB Clone Campaigns
SimCity 4
Spider-Man
Spy Hunter
TR Chronicles
TR Last Revalation
The Sims
The Sims Hot Date
The Sims House Party
The Sims Livin Large
The Sims Unleashed
The Sims Vacation
Tiger Woods 2003
Tony Hawk 2
Tony Hawk 3
Tony Hawk 4
Undying
Zoo Tycoon

Yeah, real insightful.

EA has NEVER been able to approach Papyrus' NASCAR Racing series, even in their wildest dreams. And if you're not interested in running Bills's OS but want to play a NASCAR simulation, get NASCAR Racing 2003 Season for Macintosh (read Unix). In addition to the stock CD material, you'll have access to 1000s of usermade drop in paint schemes from the Windows version, and hundreds of additional tracks made from scratch and converted from previous games.

Learn about the OSX versions of these games here.

However, not everyone enjoys sim racing. For quality arcade racers, the consoles are a better platform for that.

Maybe we can expect to see Halo finally! Go Bungie!

Disclaimer: This post suffers from Rose Colored Glasses Syndrome (RCGS), a sometimes deadly disorder associated with blind devotion to particular software companies beyond all evidence to the contrary. Please give as much as you can afford to the RCGS support outlet near you. With your help, we can eradicate this dread disease.

See:

Aspyr
MacPlay

There's also MacSoft but I don't see too many ports coming from them.

Many of the A+ titles make it to the Mac at least.

How many Quake3 engine games have there been? Wolf3d, MOH, SOFII, STV:EF, JKII, etc. Afaik all of these titles have been ported and are OGL since they're based on the Q3 engine.

Just wait until the Doom 3 engine is done, I'm sure it will find its way into just as many if not more games, and I wouldn't be terribly surprised if those find their way to the Mac or Linux (if anyone other than LGP can step forward and put some cash down on some decent ports).

I'm not a big gamer, but I do own a mac (read my user bio for specs) and I mainly play one 3D game: 4x4 Evolution 2. It runs just fine. When I go read about PC users' experiences, they often have glitches in the graphics. Maybe it's just because macs have good OpenGL? I dunno.

I should also note that there are good mac-only 3D (and 2D) games out there, some of them shareware.

Here, check Aspyr for game ports, and Pangea for original games.

The problem is the same apps would not run in both the x86 OS X and the PowerPC OS X. At least I don't think so; I'm don't even begin to claim to be an authority on the matter.

So it that's the case, every application ported to the Mac OS (including games) would have to have two separate apps. As an avid Mac gamer (there's a couple of us), I can tell you getting one version of a port is hard enough, but two is murder. Just ask those guys at Aspyr.com who continue to support both OS X and OS 9 with their game publishing.

Don't be a troll--we're all out of Troll Treats here.

A Macintosh is not overpriced, although I'm sure that this fact continues to pass in and out of your mind no matter how many people post it. Buying a typical Mac means simply paying for good, integrated, hardy equipment upfront and avoiding most common installation and config woes, rather than trying to build your PC Jaguar from Ford parts.

Sure, building your own box is part of the appeal, but not everyone wants to be a hax0r, OK? Many people just want something that works, and Macintosh systems have this over PC workstations in spades because they aren't an integrated unit.

When you stock up your PC with the best parts, you chuck out enough cash to buy a good Mac, with some cash left for hardware. I use Macs, but have my own (sweet) PC game box that I built, so it's not that I don't understand this concept. If I wanted a better game box, I'd spend another $1000 on the PC. I could just add a better video card for maybe $200 to the Mac to bring it to better power.

A used Macintosh of, say, 3 years, can run Mac OS X. Consider a Power Macintosh G3 Blue-and-White. Works great, can be overclocked, uses the same parts as a typical PC, and can be found cheaply. Can't do this well on the Windows side, although Linux will run on 3-yr old PC hardware well. However...this was the point of the topic: Linux doesn't work as well as the commercial OS offerings.

Having both options leaves me with the pleasant problem of buying Jedi Outcast for my PC now, waiting a couple more months for the Mac OS X version, or just getting both for my home network.

When it comes to popular software (especially games), a Linux user's options are nearly zero, sad to say. And I've tried Linux as well with marginal success. It's just hard to justify it for the home (unless you need a server).

10.1.5 has nothing to do with RtCW failing. Recently the 1.33 version of return to castle wolfenstein was released for linux and PC. When this happened many multi-player server started to require 1.33 (pure servers) in order to play.

There's some disucssion on whether Aspyr will patch this however there is a workaround. Download the "lite" version of the 1.33 upgrade for PC, unstuffit and then replace mp_bin.pk3 in your MAIN folder.

These instructions are highligted at the bottom of this URL on Aspyr's site

OS/2 had this very same problem. With the ability to run Windows apps, why would anyone produce native OS/2 software? To be sure, there were several companies that did but all went the way of the dodo (Describe, Inc.) or retargetted for Windows NT when they saw that they could/might make much more money on a Microsoft platform (Stardock).

We only have to look at the recent past to see the results of something like Wine - WordPerfect Office 2000, MusicMatch, etc. which claimed to be "native" Linux apps but were in fact simply Windows apps running under Wine. They were Windows programs that acted like Windows programs. In fact, in the file save/open dialog in WP you had to deal with drive letters !!!

The other problem with Linux as a game system is that the requirement to run the games can sometimes be very specific. For example, many of Loki's games stated that a 3DFx card was required. Even if other cards would work, most purchasers who didn't own a 3DFx would pass on it. Why couldn't the requirements have been a working OpenGL installation. Wouldn't that have made more sense? I personally own GeForce cards and never bought these games because I didn't want to be stuck with something that wouldn't run on my machine.

In any case, should another company come along and try to do Linux games, don't give us something that we've been playing on Windows for two years.

Look to Aspyr who does games for the Mac. In addition to porting some Windows games, the also make several very fun Mac only games. Ottomatic is a prime example of a great Mac only game. We don't have to have first person shooters or grand strategy games. Just give us a robot that protects earthlings from being abducted!

OS/2 had this very same problem. With the ability to run Windows apps, why would anyone produce native OS/2 software? To be sure, there were several companies that did but all went the way of the dodo (Describe, Inc.) or retargetted for Windows NT when they saw that they could/might make much more money on a Microsoft platform (Stardock).

We only have to look at the recent past to see the results of something like Wine - WordPerfect Office 2000, MusicMatch, etc. which claimed to be "native" Linux apps but were in fact simply Windows apps running under Wine. They were Windows programs that acted like Windows programs. In fact, in the file save/open dialog in WP you had to deal with drive letters !!!

The other problem with Linux as a game system is that the requirement to run the games can sometimes be very specific. For example, many of Loki's games stated that a 3DFx card was required. Even if other cards would work, most purchasers who didn't own a 3DFx would pass on it. Why couldn't the requirements have been a working OpenGL installation. Wouldn't that have made more sense? I personally own GeForce cards and never bought these games because I didn't want to be stuck with something that wouldn't run on my machine.

In any case, should another company come along and try to do Linux games, don't give us something that we've been playing on Windows for two years.

Look to Aspyr who does games for the Mac. In addition to porting some Windows games, the also make several very fun Mac only games. Ottomatic is a prime example of a great Mac only game. We don't have to have first person shooters or grand strategy games. Just give us a robot that protects earthlings from being abducted!

Eh?
Max Payne is being done by MacSoft (news reference here).
Civ III is available here.
And Return to Castle Wolfenstein is being done by Asypr.
Games aren't exactly targetted towards Macs, but that doesn't mean the popular ones aren't available.
Also, mice with more than one button are supported, assuming you bother to use one.

I just pre-ordered Aspyr Otto Matic for my sister and her MacOS X iMac for Christmas. Any thoughts on the game? I know nothing about it. I wanted a MacOS X game that wasn't a 1st-person shooter or a war/strategy game. This looked fun (and cheap :-)!

This is patently wrong. If it weren't, how would you explain the existance of Alice for the Mac which obviously isnt using direct x, since it doesnt exist on the platform.

To use your own words, nice with the almost-come-backs. :/

-swc

That being said, you probably could make more money off the mac users. Mac users probably aren't as heavy into gaming, true, but mac users are a captive audience. Unlike (((the majority of!))) linux users, mac users do'nt have the option of booting into windows. Now that bungie is dead, they have only what can be ported or emulated, and because there have been almost no new mac ports to speak of in nearly forever they are mostly starved for decent games and will probably run anything even mediocre that runs on their computers.

For example, looks at any genre, and many of the 'leaders' in that genre have made their way to the Mac. I wont list all games, as I dont even know all games, but for example:
Unreal Tourney, Quake3, Deus Ex, Baldurs Gate (1, 2, and expansion), all of Blizzards' games, the entire Tomb Raider series, the Sims, all the Sim City games, Sim Theme Park, Rune, Oni, the Myth series, Majesty, the Might and Magic series, and Alice.

In addition to these, you have several upcoming ports, as well as a bunch that I didnt list that already exist. Most big game houses like Blizzard are realizing that the Mac market is big enough that with the relatively small overhead of porting that comes due to good OO design, their Mac products are very profitable, because they've already done the most expensive work with the PC version. The Mac ports are getting closer and closer to the release date of their PC counter parts so that they are able to ride the hype wave a little better.

The additional problem here is that while I'm sure Loki is a good company, the Mac porting world isnt just there for the taking. You have experienced Mac publishers and porting houses such as Westlake Interactive, Aspyr, Mac Play, etc, who all have advantages in this area: they have experience, are established, and have earned some measure of Mac user loyalty because they have stayed with the Mac gamers throughout the ups and downs, and, as important or more so to a potential partner, they arent under chapter 11.

That said, there is definitely still a demand for some Mac games, and certainly not every company supports the platform yet. But I just dont think people understand how far the platform's gaming status has come in the past 3-4 years. And I dont know how much luck Loki would have breaking into the scene. The Mac gaming scene is much healthier than you might expect.

-swc

... Aspyr seems to be the Loki of Mac games, and at this point there may be more Linux users than Mac users :p

If Sierra wanted, they could contract the mac port to Aspyr (who did Deus Ex, Sims, IIRC Unreal, etc)...


Your Working Boy,
- Otis (GAIM: OtisWild)

Well, at least this means a 3d app that won't crash. I've tried most of them (apps, I mean) on whatever OS, and inevitably -- hang, crash, here we go again... I was kinda hoping Strata would release a 2.x or 3.0 of StudioPro for OS 9 (hell, I'd be anxious as ***insert proverbial thing here*** if only they said "hey all you users, we're going to release an upgrade once OS X is out"), but ever since C3d bought them, there's been no news. btw DuesEx ala G4 rocks.

Deus Ex has also gone Gold, and you can preorder it directly from Aspyr

Pope

Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!

I'm really glad about this turn of events. Having +1 Talent at each base will really cut down on Drone Riots. They don't happen very often in Baltimore, but I've seen a few in D.C.