Slashdot Mirror

Concur. I bought a copy of Minecraft a year or so ago even though I had no interest in playing. It was more a matter of supporting the developer. I've tried playing it a few times, even following the video tutorials but just didn't really care about the concept (as interesting as it is). That said, I love space trader games, but yeah, there need to be other aspects. I think Escape Velocity was the closest I've come to the kind of thing I've wanted. Warpgate HD was a close second.

Yeah, no Elite. But I should thank you for making me look for trading games Warp Gate looks pretty cool. If you're into old games the iPad is actually a pretty cool device since it has a 1024x768 display and accellarated OpenGL support.

That seems to me to a a difference between the user having a standing permanent window or not having it. I.E. the difference between a GUI and a window manager. You can set up Aqua that way, or just keep your desktop clean.

You want less clutter on a Mac Think.app.

So can you please tell me where I can buy Linux versions of Final Cut Studio, Shake 4, Creative Suite CS, Flix Pro, Sound Studio, Toast, and Sony's XDCAM HD transfer apps please?

I cannot believe that you got modded troll for that. It is true, there are not enough commercial apps available for Linux at the moment. What I wouldn't do for Solidworks on my Ubuntu box!

For Creative Suite, write to these folks:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/contact.html

For Flix, write here:
http://www.on2.com/index.php?373

Write to these folks asking about Sound Studio for Linux:
http://www.freeverse.com/support/

This is the address for the people responsible for Toast:
http://www.roxio.com/enu/company/contact.html

And the infamous Sony:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/corporate/contacts.asp

Please, don't be shy and WRITE TO THEM! If we don't write and let them know that Linux is a viable OS with a strong user base, then they will never port their software to Linux.

There is also ToySight Gold http://www.freeverse.com/tsg/ which I played with years ago.

There are some 3D games that run on Linux.

I'm going to mention one that I play myself, Urban Terror (a semi-realistic shooter based on Quake 3).

Sure, it's a few years old. I don't care, it's still just as fun. Occasionally I'll even play some good old "regular" Quake 3.

To be perfectly honest, I don't run UrT or Q3 on Linux myself, I run Mac OS X. The point is, if I ever decided to switch away from Mac OS X to Ubuntu, almost all the games I have on my computer right now would run on Linux as well. Actually, let me go through my Applications folder right now:

• Bridge Construction Set -- yes, it runs on Linux
• DEFCON -- yup. That too.
• Kill Monty -- unfortunately, no. :-( (Then again, that doesn't run on Windows either.)
• Frets On Fire -- yup. It runs on Linux. And way better than on OS X too.
• OpenTTD -- yep. It runs on Linux too.
• IOQuake3 -- sure.
• SNES9x (and by extention, a collection of Super Nintendo games), sure, works on Linux
• Tetrinet Aqua does not run on Linux, but other (and better) Tetrinet clients do.
• The Ur-Quan Masters runs on Linux.
• Uplink runs on Linux.
• And finally, as discussed before, Urban Terror runs on Linux.

So, all the games I actually have on my hard drive and play would run on Linux if I decided to migrate. Except for Kill Monty. (But then again, that doesn't run on Windows either.)

The lack of games are not what's keeping me on Mac OS X on my machine.

Oh, and in response to your issue about not being able to flash because you'd need either Windows or DOS -- I give you FreeDOS.

I upgraded an iMac at work and, after ensuring that the VPN client is compatible, a MacBook at home. The iMac at home stays on 10.4 until I have a Leopard-compatible SuperDuper. Time Machine looks cool and all, but I really like having a bootable backup.

In my case, OSXPlanet, GeekTool, MenuShade, and Butler have various levels of breakage. In the case of Butler, I'm trying out Spotlight as an application launcher (much faster than in 10.4), and I'm looking into System Events with AppleScript for keyboard macros. SSHKeychain seems to work, but 10.5 has a similar built-in feature that I'm trying out. Think still works, but only within a single virtual desktop. I'm not sure if that's a bug or a feature.

And just in case you want to see some of the storyline he's talking about. . .

http://marathon.bungie.org/Story/

The story was told through a series of terminals - sometimes in seemingly random snippets of logs, sometimes in direct communications from the various AIs on the ship. It's your basic "Boy meets AIs, Aliens invade AIs' ship, AI becomes self-aware, AI uses boy to overthrow both the shackles of the alien invaders and the other AIs running various systems of the ship" story. It's actually pretty engaging,. I found myself looking forward to the next terminal even more than the action itself at some points.

All three and major mods are available (Free with a capital F) for mac, linux and PC at http://source.bungie.org/ and Marathon 2: Durandal - arguably the best of the bunch - is coming to XBLA, courtesy of Freeverse.

...Like the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and moon phases.

The Mac got a popularity boost in 1998 when the iMac was introduced and started selling like hotcakes. Games were made. Fun was had. A community formed. Then people kept using the same outdated iMac long after its gaming ability was rendered obsolete by modern games. Sure, some people upgraded to newer, better Macs and kept up with the games.

But over the last 8 or 9 years, the community has slowly faded, game ports have tapered off, porting houses have been dissolved and bought out, and the Mac once again sucks for gaming. But Macs are becoming popular again. Which means...

Games will be made. Fun will be had. New communities will form, and old ones will rise like the phoenix. Porting houses will be incorporated. Games will once again come to the Mac. And in 3-5 years, most Macs will once again be "behind the times" and "outdated" and "not capable of running modern games" and "unshaven and lounging about in their underwear all day waiting for that new version of solitaire with simians set alight". The market will once again ignore Macs as gaming machines. Analysts will call Apple "beleaguered" once again, just for old times' sake. And the cycle will begin again another 2-3 years after that.

Maybe this cycle won't dip as low as they once did, since the x86 allows for using Winelib (and it's bastard child "Cider"). We can only hope.

Try Lineform from Freeverse for illustration...

http://www.freeverse.com/lineform/

Typing "sharkysnark" over and over in Big Bang Echo.

They're ported under license from the original publisher all titles on the Mac that didn't come from the original PC/Console publisher are licensed.

There is now an emulation layer called Cider that is like an emulation layer, but some work has to be done. Heros Of Might & Magic V is the first such game. Cider is Intel only, so if a title runs on PowerPC on the Mac, it was ported. x86 emulation on PPC is way too slow for playing games.

Just browse the news articles on sites like Inside Mac Games, or try a search.

Have there been 100 Mac games worth paying for since the Lisa?

Hey, there are thousands of good games you can play on your Mac. You just have to install Boot Camp first.

Seriously, there is actually a pretty healthy Mac games market. I'm just not sure it's one that appeals to the average Slashdot reader. If you want the latest and whizziest FPS--or if you spend enough time gaming that you need a new epic game every few days--then yeah, you need to run Windows.

But for a more casual gamer, the Mac is a perfectly good option, even without Boot Camp. Many of the most popular Windows games eventually get ported to the Mac--the Sims, Doom III, Jedi Outcast, etc, etc, etc, are all available on a Mac. Then there are companies like Ambrosia Software, Pangea, and Freeverse that make games primarily or exclusively for the Macintosh. The smaller Mac market means that these games will sell fewer copies, and they therefore tend to have smaller development staffs. On the one hand, this means Mac-exclusive games often don't have the vast scope of original PC games. On the other hand, it means there's more room for quirky, off-beat stuff.

You might be interested in iPartition. It's not free, but it's more flexible than /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. There are others, but this is the only one that quickly comes to mind. Don't bother asking Powerquest/Symantic to make a Mac version of Partiton Magic, ports of existing Windows utilities generally suck on other platforms.
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php

As for other Mac Applications, there are several websites you can check out for various Mac apps. I have never found a shortage of Mac (or Linux) applications, once I avoided the pitfall of finding a "port" or "perfect replacement" for my favorite Windows applications. Things are a little different in the Mac and Linux world, so you might need to find similar, but significantly different applications to meet your needs.

Check out:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/
http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/
http://www.macorchard.com/
http://www.macupdate.com/
And if you want games:
http://aspyr.com/product/product_listing
http://www.destineerstudios.com/macsoftgames/mac_l isting.html
http://www.feral.co.uk/
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/all.html
http://www.pangeasoft.net/index2.html
http://www.freeverse.com/
http://www.apple.com/games/
http://www.macgamefiles.com/

My favorite comfort games are just games that I can pick up, play a bit until I'm bored, and then return. This means games that have no real "conclusion" or plot, or else just simple time wasters.

• Football manager
• Ms. Pac Man
• SimCity
• X-Words Deluxe
• Civilization IV

Ambrosia are definitely one of the best small software houses. Freeverse are another good one. Burning Monkey Solitaire is an amazing time sink and Comic Life is pretty innovative.

Assuming you have an Internet connection, you should get BumperCar from Freeverse. It's got a whitelist, timing functions, tracking, etc. It's robust too, a company I worked for ran several "kiddie" stress tests against it--using denary addresses, trying to proxy around, homemade javascript, etc. I can confidently say that very few 8th graders can beat it if you set things correctly. I cannot say the same for things like CyberSitter--those are comically poor at keeping your kids away from porn, gambling, and warez.

• MacSoft
  
• Aspry (Scroll Down to find list)
  
• Feral Interactive
  
• Freeverse
  
• Ambrosia
  
• Pangea
  
• Blizzard
  
• United States Army

• MacGameFiles
  
• Apple: Games

But 'da street' is no place for our game design gods. The kids are atheists nowadays.

Ahem, there are lots of indy game designers that keep making new games, but dont burn out. They grow up, make it a life long career, and know how to balance life and work. (Unless you work for EA which means you have no life...)

One example is the company that released Airburst Extreme, Strange Flavor. They are the largest indy game company at MacWorld releasing 6 new games. They are listed on Apple.com as the most popular game. (Before World of Warcraft came out...) How many years since the original Airburst, 10 years?

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.

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.

Heh. Well, Airburst Extreme is pretty good.

Those fun-loving shareware dudes and dames over at Freeverse have a customizable browser for kids, aptly named BumperCar. Don't know much about it, but I happened to see it on a browsing jag yesterday, and thought I'd mention it here.

Those fun-loving shareware dudes and dames over at Freeverse have a customizable browser for kids, aptly named BumperCar. Don't know much about it, but I happened to see it on a browsing jag yesterday, and thought I'd mention it here.

Check it out here.

Forget about WineX...since it's already been ported to Mac OS X getting it ported to Linux should not be to difficult.

I am having a pretty rough time finding artists myself. I am closed source but I have no capital. My plan is to have an artist that will take a gross percentage of sales but even that has been hard to find because I can offer nothing up front.

I was on an indie team that made a Mac RPG Atlas and we got artists to do exactly what I am talking about but getting them was by some weird process that appears to be closed right now. I would think that getting college aged people that are looking to build a portfolio is your best bet (and mine). I am currently trying to get on Raph 3d artists because it looks like they have a big list of people that you can look for folks wanting part time work. But so far I can't log in for some buggy reason.

That is all I have. I am sure that if you can find some people to work for free on your project, I can find people to work for possible future dividends...

... the king of the weird and fun shareware for Mac (and some Windows):

Freeverse Software

Freeverse is one of my all-time favorite shareware companies. Games that work well, play well, can be as addicting as all heck, and often have an odd sense of humor.
Between Ambrosia and Freeverse, most Mac users don't need any other games. Okay, maybe some others, but those are usually enough for many people.

-Jellisky

I know of what you speak. My friends and I made a game and we did it for the mac. Our thinking is that the mac was a starved market so we sould get some notice. There are a couple of things to watch out for when you are a small group like us.

1. There is a chance you have a day job, like us. It took us 5 years from start to finish and the mac was more saturated with games by that time. Not to mention our technology was sub par. Therefor go for something simple like a puzzle but still be very innovative.

2. Marketing is king. We went through a publisher and people like them who have to make numbers for the quarter quickly get discouraged and pull marketing when the game is not doing well. I certainly don't blame them for that.

If you are curious to see the game I am talking about it is Atlas.

I am in the midst of making a new game on my own though I was not a programmer for the old one. I am going to try to use what I learned old one. I am still going to outsource art and sound but I am going to keep it simple for myself. Then I am going to be as creative and hard working as I can be to market the crap out of it and even possibly attempt to distribute it myself. Right now I am stuck on the programming part as I don't have much experience and I am trying to use Crystal Space for an engine but the learning curve is getting me. I hope this project does not drag out too far because of that.

• Violently Opposing Thumb
  
• Re-evaluating the whole organ-grinding thing
  
• Visualizing Boss as a Blue Butt Ape.
  

I love that kind of stuff.

We did something from high school notebooks to fruition. It was a wonderful Mac RPG called Atlas: The Gift of Aramai (Freeverse.com). Some times I would recommend keeping it all to paper. Especially if you and your unexperieced friends want to create something as content intensive as an RPG (go for a clever puzzle or something else that is repeatable.)
But after five years and 8 people cycled through the team I am proud to say that we did it. And what can I say we got from it? I learned that making games is tough and in the end pretty unrewarding. That is why I am starting a new one :). I had to get new friends to do it though :(.

One of the silliest little programs I ever encountered was SimStapler from Freeverse software.

Staple away to your heart's content with no jams! Sorry folks, this one's for Pre-X Mac OS 9 and under.


_______

One of the silliest little programs I ever encountered was SimStapler from Freeverse software.

Staple away to your heart's content with no jams! Sorry folks, this one's for Pre-X Mac OS 9 and under.


_______

I always believed OTHELLO / REVERSI was an end game. Anyways, all those megahertz won't help you anyhow - you need a Mac. Then try this.