insidemacgames.com · Domains

Too stubborn for two buttons by hode · 2004-04-19 04:22 · Score: 1 · on PowerBooks & iBooks Get Speed Bumped

In the words of Epic's Ryan Gordon:

Basic bottom line, and this goes for every thing that Apple produces, from hardware to UI to programmatic APIs to Pepsi promotions to online services: they either get it really really right, and it's a dream to use, or they get it really wrong and are too stubborn to ever change. There isn't a happy medium, ever, with the notable exception of the leap from OS9 to OSX.

As much as you and I want a two button mouse standard, we won't ever get it from Apple.

Re:Games? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-08 01:18 · Score: 0 · on Seattle Times Reviews Desktop Linux Distros

Games aren't solely for kids; but they are mostly for kids.

Oh really. Do you do any research before you decide on your position? A quick google on "average age of gamers" gives this article, among plenty of others that clearly state the average age of gamers is 29. How do you synch that with your claim that "most of them are under 25?"

From the article:

The largest groups of gamers, according to the study, are men aged 18 and up, accounting for 38% of all gamers. Next in line are women aged 18 and over, with 26%, followed by boys aged 6-17 at 21%, and girls aged between 6 and 17 represent 12% of the gaming population.

Only a third of gamers are kids. What kind of statistics do you emply to 33% into "most"?

BitTorrent links for the Mac version? by jamie · 2004-02-11 17:25 · Score: 2, Informative · on Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo Released

Anyone know any BitTorrent links for the Mac version, also released today?

If you want quake, buy quake. by isaac · 2004-02-03 12:14 · Score: 4, Insightful · on What Games Should I Get for My New G5?

Quake 3 has been out for Mac OS for years. Lots of big-name franchises are available for Mac - Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, UT2003, Rainbow 6, Medal of Honor, etc. etc.

The biggest glaring omission from the Mac gaming world is Half Life (and, by extension, Counter-Strike). It does really suck not to be able to play Counter-Strike.

I'd check out www.insidemacgames.com to see what's available and what's coming soon. Note: I'm not affiliated with this site. It was just the first site that came up when I did a Google search for "mac games."

-Isaac

-Isaac

If you want quake, buy quake. by isaac · 2004-02-03 12:14 · Score: 4, Insightful · on What Games Should I Get for My New G5?

Quake 3 has been out for Mac OS for years. Lots of big-name franchises are available for Mac - Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, UT2003, Rainbow 6, Medal of Honor, etc. etc.

The biggest glaring omission from the Mac gaming world is Half Life (and, by extension, Counter-Strike). It does really suck not to be able to play Counter-Strike.

I'd check out www.insidemacgames.com to see what's available and what's coming soon. Note: I'm not affiliated with this site. It was just the first site that came up when I did a Google search for "mac games."

-Isaac

-Isaac

If you want quake, buy quake. by isaac · 2004-02-03 12:14 · Score: 4, Insightful · on What Games Should I Get for My New G5?

Quake 3 has been out for Mac OS for years. Lots of big-name franchises are available for Mac - Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, UT2003, Rainbow 6, Medal of Honor, etc. etc.

The biggest glaring omission from the Mac gaming world is Half Life (and, by extension, Counter-Strike). It does really suck not to be able to play Counter-Strike.

I'd check out www.insidemacgames.com to see what's available and what's coming soon. Note: I'm not affiliated with this site. It was just the first site that came up when I did a Google search for "mac games."

-Isaac

-Isaac

Re:Next Xbox Thoughts... by Zak3056 · 2004-02-03 04:26 · Score: 1 · on Leaked X-Box 2 Specs Include PPC CPU

Also, there doesn't seem to be any way for Microsoft to do backward compatibility. I don't think there is any code in the entire world that would let a 2.0Ghz G5 chip emulate a P3 733.

Because, after all, it's not like Microsoft bought virtualPC or anything, right? :)

... and an OS X port... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-30 15:41 · Score: 0 · on FreeSpace 2 Gets Reissue As Limited Edition

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?Artic leID=8124

Re:If there's no MS tax, why so pricey? by thedbp · 2004-01-27 04:53 · Score: 1 · on Dell Offers FreeDOS With New PCs

Actually, no. I haven't stolen a single piece of software on my computer, and it's still cheaper than those macs.

This may be so, but since there's absolutely no comparison for iLife in the PC world, you still lose out here.

Plus, there's something about being able to upgrade that PC as needed, instead of being locked into Apple's (or Dell's) lame "throw away the whole computer and buy a new one" scheme.

Actually, you CAN upgrade iMacs. Its a long-standing myth that Macs are not upgradable, they have been for quite some time. They use industry standard HDs, RAM, etc. And since Macs traditionally have a much longer usable life, this isn't a valid point either. I bought a blue and white G3 in 1999. It now has a G4, DVD-R, 200GB storage, 1GB RAM, upgraded video card, etc. Not a single piece is stock, and it still fits all my needs. Upgradable and long lasting.

And unlike the Mac, I can actually run games on this machine.

Sigh. Old argument.

Do I need to buy a new OS _minor_ version every year, like you Mac fans seem happy to? Hell, no.

There's nothing minor about the changes between 10, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3. Its just that they release MAJOR system updates more frequently. And most software that runs on 10.3 will run on 10.2 and 10.1 as well. And 10.1 was a free upgrade from 10.0. Do your homework, you're obviously misinformed.

So putting that all together, it's cost me about 1000$ to swap a new mobo, an A64 3200+ and a Radeon 9800 XT into the existing computer. Even if I'm to add the price of the already bought 16ms LCD monitor (which is light-years ahead of the lame cheap-ass panel in the iMac), I still end up under 1500$

And iMacs start at 1299, cheaper than your 1500 quote, and a consumer doesn't have to waste days putting it all together, installing OSes, downloading drivers, etc. You get the picture. I'm guessing your time isn't worth anything.

So, please... just because you're the non-technical kind who's terminally affraid to install a CPU, doesn't mean everyone else is in the same bracket. You stick to your Macs, I'll stick to my PC.

I build PCs too buddy. Its a pretty much "slot-A into tab-A" affair, and if I were you I wouldn't take so much pride in it - somewhere out there is an 8 year old who could built a PC that's better faster and cheaper. And to clear things up, I've upgraded processors on many Macs as well. If I want a router/firewall, cheap secondary box, project box, I'd use commodity parts and a free OS. But if I'm going to sit in front of a computer that has my whole life on it, and handles all my day to day tasks that make life FUN, not just FUNCTIONAL, its all about the Mac.

This all pretty much adds up to your arguments being hollow and your pride being hurt by the fact that you couldn't possibly have made the wrong computing choice, even though you never bothered to do all the research. Obviously.

This is my favorite quote:
In the other corner a lame iMac which is useless for anything except web browsing

Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Doesn't even merit a response. You've obviously never used one and haven't spent enough time doing anything other than gaming on your PC to realize that for media, internet, networking, printing, PDF workflow, ease-of-use, stability, extensibility, and much much more, the iMac wins hands down.

I mean, how can you sit there and say that a full UNIX based system that allows joe schmoe to use apache, SMB, NFS, AFP, WebDAV, N

So the question is.... by dr00g911 · 2003-11-18 04:16 · Score: 1 · on Hordes of the Underdark Goes Gold

Can the PC/Linux expansion be installed on the Mac like Shadows of Undrentide?

Granted, it's unsupported and a bit hush-hush that it can be done, but it worked perfectly.

All it took was manually moving the files over to the appropriate directories on the first expansion -- a good thing, as I really had no urge to wait another 18 months for MacPlay to get around to porting the exp. pack.

Here's to hoping that the new mods aren't coded into the client....

Give me Deekin (now!) or give me death!

Re:Just one question... by MonaXier · 2003-11-15 14:30 · Score: 4, Informative · on Bungie Celebrates 2-Year Anniversary Of Halo Release

According to Inside Mac Games, December 3rd is the currently planned date.

Re:Sellout? by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · 2003-11-03 17:18 · Score: 1 · on The Making Of Halo Illuminated

Halo is now out for the PC, and there may well be a Mac conversion at some point - so what is your problem?

I mentioned this above, but I have a citation for it now: Macsoft press release, on InsideMacGames - Halo for Mac to ship December 3rd.

I agree, parent should cease their complaining.

YLFI

Re:Quick questions directed at Mac users. by dolo666 · 2003-10-26 05:30 · Score: 1 · on Panther Released into the Wild

I consistently see this in Mac games - they just tend to work a bit better. And the more people that move to the Mac and buy games for it, the more games will be ported.

Man you make a lot of sense. If I could, I would have modded your comment up. See, I've been chatting it up on some boards and stuff, and the same thing comes out every time. If more people used Mac, it would be better, and it is getting better; so switch, and bring everyone you know with you.

I'm doing it. I've got a system I'm looking at right now that is smoking, even though it's a lot of $$.

According to John Carmack, it will by danigiri · 2003-10-16 07:16 · Score: 1 · on Big Mac achieves around 14 TFlops with 128 Nodes

According to John Carmack, who has, like, some say in the matter, it will.

In fact, he kinda demoed it first on a Mac.

OS X Version on the way by lordDallan · 2003-10-08 16:40 · Score: 1 · on Savage Demo Lets You FPS/RTS On Linux & Windows

Inside Mac Games has a small write up on Savage coming to Mac OS X.

According to S2 Games' member Sam McGrath "Companies that say porting to Mac is hard don't know how to write good code."

Pretty cool.

Re:the bottom line by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-18 01:56 · Score: 0 · on Half-Life 2 - A Linux User's Lament

The bottom line is, Valve is a company with many ex-Microsoft employees

Dude, do you know what those guys did at Microsoft? They made Microsoft Bob , the infamous talking dog interface for Windows 3.11, then they quit.
They hired some university students, and managed to stun & make laugh histerically the game companies who the Microsoft Bob people would try to licence their game engine from.

I don't blame them for going the DirectX route. OpenGL is a pain to program with, the drivers the vary between bad and broken, it doesn't work properly with a wide range of video cards, the pace of development is too slow, & so forth.

You may have noticed this. Basically, HL2 seems to have been designed with portability in mind, which is not something they'd care for if they're only going to release it for Windows/X-Box.

HL2 for Mac port - not due to technical reasons by llin · 2003-09-16 12:41 · Score: 1 · on New PowerBooks, Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse

Although a port would be improbable, based on a post by Andrew Meggs (originally hired by Valve to do the Mac port of the first Half-Life; currently working as the lead programmer for the upcoming PC version of Vampire, which he notes is based on the Source Engine):

From a purely technical point of view, there's no reason Half-Life 2 couldn't make it to the Mac. The new code is far more modular than the original, to the point where maintaining a Mac version alongside the updates and changes to the PC version could be fairly trivial. Mods and even commercial titles like Vampire could be ported over very rapidly based off the initial work to port Half-Life 2.

Now, while there's been some talk about the possibility of porting, it probably doesn't really make strong financial sense (although who knows, maybe the good will / low effort of porting works out). I'm not holding my breath and will be picking up a copy of HL2 for my PC when it hits shelves. (In any case, I've found even ports of several year old games to run quite sluggishly on my 12" Powerbook so there really wouldn't be much hope of it running on my current Apple hardware).

"Valve is certainly going to wait and see if the Mac market share looks better in early 2004 before making any announcement of the port of Half Life 2 on the Mac platform. They don't want to disappoint Mac gamers as they did with Half Life" says one anonymous source but he also adds that it is just his opinion and that an announcement might happen at any time.

Better start shutting down by ZackSchil · 2003-08-27 04:20 · Score: 1 · on Apple Issues New G5 Benchmarks

I read it on Slashdot that no one makes games for Macs, so it must be true. I better let Aspyr, MacPlay, MacSoft, Westlake Interactive, Ambrosia, Freeverse, The Omni Group, Blizzard, GraphSim, and Feral Interactive among many other commercial operations and hundreds of shareware developers that no one at all makes games for the Macintosh and that they should all shut down immediately. Additionally, Inside Mac Games should shut down their operation immediately as they are a waste of server space because they will never have any news to report ever.

I heard it on Slashdot so it must be true.

Re:disagree by Anonymous Coward · 2003-08-22 20:24 · Score: 1, Insightful · on Carmack on New id Game, Game Theory

First of all Quake 3 was pretty good on the Dreamcast AND you could add a keyboard and mouse if you really wanted to. It also had both a modem and an ethernet adapter for multiplayer mayhem...

What do you mean by "internet games"? If you simply mean multiplayer using the internet, the the PS2 has a couple of games and Xbox has Xbox Live, where you can actually voice chat with the people you're playing with using a headset.

Oh, and I just downloaded a couple of new game modes and levels for Unreal Championship the other day on the Xbox. In MechAssault I've downloaded new levels, new units and new game modes.

What was your point again?

If I absolutely had to play using a desktop machine, I'd play using a Mac. Much less hassle getting things up and going and the "booohooo no games are coming out for the mac" is just plain wrong.

Legion (Beware!) by tm2b · 2003-08-12 11:27 · Score: 1 · on Accepting Games Into Education

One cheap ($20 new) game that tries to do something like this with the Roman Empire called Legion .

Mileage Warning: (Yours may differ) In my brief playing of it, it really sucked, despite the positive review I linked to above. To me, it looked like it overstressed the Civilization model to try to fit Roman history in ways that did were not conducive to good game design (ie, were not fun).

Here's a .torrent by jamie · 2003-07-17 14:57 · Score: 4, Interesting · on America's Army Comes to the Mac

Found this in a comment to the story on insidemacgames.com:

http://www.bigfatonline.com/armyops-mac-170.tar.bz 2.torrent

I had grabbed the first half of it from an official mirror before I gave up and went to the torrent, so I can guarantee that if it's trojaned, it's trojaned in the second half :)

Re:i heard that.. by Johnny+Mnemonic · 2003-07-16 02:23 · Score: 1 · on Halo's PC Upgrades Explored

MacSoft is porting Halo to the Mac, with an expected FA03 release. More info from InsideMacGames.

9 fans by LordOfYourPants · 2003-07-04 10:04 · Score: 1 · on NASA Benchmarks the New G5 Powermac

This article says 9 fans. Say what you like about the source. :)

"The new PowerMacs feature an all aluminum enclosure featuring 9 fans but with be up to twice as quiet as current Power Mac G4's. The new Power Macs will be shipping in August."

That's nice that they're twice as quiet. But 9 speicalised fans can be expensive to replace over time. They are not immortal.

Re:But... by berniecase · 2003-06-23 15:14 · Score: 1 · on New G5 Power Macs "Fastest Desktop In The World"

Could be.... http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?Artic leID=7782

Re:Read Slashdot!! by Uart · 2003-06-21 07:24 · Score: 1 · on FreeCraft Cease and Desisted by Blizzard

Seems there were Windows and Mac versions of Freecraft.

From here:

FreeCraft is a free cross-platform real-time strategy gaming engine. It is possible to play against human opponents over LAN, Internet, or against the computer. The engine can be used to build C&C, WC2, SC and AOE-like real-time strategy (RTS) games. It successfully runs under Linux, BSD, BeOS, MacOS/X, MacOS/Darwin and MS Windows.

Re:New Mac by dbrutus · 2003-06-20 06:36 · Score: 1 · on Apple Marketing Hypes New PowerMacs

Try Inside Mac Games for a read on what's available. You might also find that there are a few game houses that have titles *only* for the Mac. If gaming's your thing, visit them every once in awhile to see whether the state of mac gaming has hit your comfort zone or whether there is a mac only must have game that'll turn you to bi-platform gaming.

Re:Halo, anyone? by Surlyboi · 2003-06-06 07:24 · Score: 1 · on Celebrating 26 Years of the Apple ][

They didn't kill it, just delayed it. according to IMG
It's still on the way. It's being ported from the
PC version, so there still may be a lag time between
PC release and Mac release. (further screwing Mac
users somewhat, damn you Microsoft!) but it's still
coming as of yesterday.

Re:Mac port? by Gogo+Dodo · 2003-05-13 07:18 · Score: 2, Informative · on Preview Of Halo For PC Finally Sighted

Westlake Interactive is doing the Mac port. It's in good hands. Check Westlake's status page

You can also read about the game's status from the programmer in this Inside Mac Games article

Re:Bink by andrew_dupont · 2003-05-08 03:39 · Score: 1 · on Neverwinter Nights Tidbits

This item shows that they had conceived of a Linux client during development, granted. But it also says they planned to port NWN to OS X and BeOS (!), which clearly didn't even get done.

If it had been "planned" then it wouldn't have arrived a year late with less functionality than the PC version.

Re:Jessica Mulligan at Themis Group by TheEnigma · 2003-04-15 11:40 · Score: 1 · on Developing Online Games

It is certainly interesting. Have you also met Glenda Adams?

--

Feeling Bored?

Re:Some Common-Sense Solutions by Post-O-Matic · 2003-03-28 03:30 · Score: 1 · on Cheating Online Gamers

The UT engine utilizes (and this) your first two points. And the UT community utilizes the other two.

Still, the problem persists. Apperently cheaters are immune to common sense.

Old news by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-24 05:11 · Score: 0 · on Why Port To PC? Shareware Still alive!

Is it just me, or is this announcement from Ambrosia over two years old?

'Fcourse, the Ragnarok project mentioned on that page was pretty much abandoned after Ben Spees walked away from Ambrosia, so I guess that could have delayed the plans...

iBooks and gaming by MsGeek · 2003-03-05 04:01 · Score: 1 · on Maine Laptop Program a Success

Current iBooks have a choice between GeForce4GO and Radeon Mobility 7500. Maybe you can't play Counter-Strike (no Mac version if memory serves) but yes! you can play Unreal Tournament! You'll have to haunt eBay or Amazon Auctions or Yahoo Auctions to find it (stupid MacSoft let it lapse from print, the fsckers!) but once you get it it runs like gangbusters on a modern iBook. And UT2003 is on the way for MacOS X...certainly a new iBook would be able to run that.

Let's see, what else is available for Mac? Quake III Arena? Check. Castle Wolfenstein? Check. Master of Orion 3? Check. Tony Hawk? Check. Jedi Outcast? Check. Max Paine? Check. Deus Ex? Check. Warcraft III? Check. And the list goes on and on and on.

There are glaring omissions. You mentioned one. But right now is the best it's ever been for Mac gaming. Here's a good place to start looking.

Insert OSX Whinge Here... by otis+wildflower · 2003-01-24 12:23 · Score: 1 · on The Long-Awaited MOO!

... though in theory it's on the way, MacSoft are the folks who won't be bringing OSXers the Neverwinter Nights Campaign editor..

Still, I'm not too psyched for MOO3.. I'd much rather have something that crosses MOO and Homeworld, and can be skinned with models from Babylon 5..

Re:Cube by belloc · 2002-12-21 06:34 · Score: 2 · on Multiplayer Games For Christmas Lull at the Office?

I had the same problem (FPS less than 10) trying to get Cube running on Win2K this morning. 1.2 GHz Athlon, 256 MB RAM, Voodoo3. Nothing special.

Incidentally, there has been talk in recent months about a Mac OS X port, but I can't find anything very recent about the progress. Anyone know anything?

Belloc

Re:No Mac version yet by Anonymous Coward · 2002-09-14 06:31 · Score: 0 · on UT2003 Demo Ready

"ex-Loki Games employee Ryan Gordon will be handling both the Linux and Mac OS X ports"

Mac Version INCOMPATIBLE With Server? WHAT? by Sembiance · 2002-07-22 01:35 · Score: 1 · on EverQuest Coming to Mac OS X

Ok, Inside Mac Games has an article on this as well:
insidemacgames.com

An interesting blurb in that article:

We have also learned several details that online game fans might be interested in -- Mac OS X EverQuest players will not be able to play against (or with) the PC players of the game, due to server incompatibilities.

Uh, am I the only programmer here that thinks that's about the most absurd thing I've ever heard?

The only incompatibilties that could possiblity exist is if they changed the protocol.
Server's just don't say "Icky, I Think this network connection is coming from a non-windows box, I better not work right with it".

It will be interesting to see what happens once some clever people hackersquest.org end up reverse engineering the protocol on the MacOS version and see how much it differs from the Windows version.

Re:Where the F*CK is the Mac version??? by Creepy · 2002-06-12 01:47 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Neverwinter Nights is Gold

Apparently an announcment on the mac version is forthcoming today. There are rumors both on Bioware's message boards and at Inside Mac Games.

Patience, Grasshopper.

Mac OS Info Tomorrow by DoenerMord · 2002-06-11 12:59 · Score: 1 · on Neverwinter Nights is Gold

InsideMacGames.com is reporting there should be more news about the Mac OS version tomorrow.

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/

About the Mac (or Linux) version by frankie · 2002-05-19 05:31 · Score: 2 · on Bioware Release Neverwinter Nights Beta Toolset

what is the Mac versions status?

The status now is the same as it was two years ago.

The good news is that NWN will ship with Windows, OSX, and Linux86 installers for Players and DMs on the same CD. The bad news is that the world creation tools are Windows only.

See also: Bioware's NWN FAQ:

4.01 I've heard that the Aurora Neverwinter Toolset will be Windows only. What's the deal?

Our initial goal was to create a cross platform toolset for the gaming community. However, we have encountered difficulty in obtaining a viable cross platform solution to assist us in porting the Aurora Neverwinter Toolset. While we would not like to rule out the possibility of a port to the various operating systems at some point, this won't be happening for the initial release.

The real answer is that they created the Toolset in the first place using a Windows-only system, rather than the cross-platform environment they used to write the actual game. They've never explained why.

About the Mac (or Linux) version by frankie · 2002-05-19 05:31 · Score: 2 · on Bioware Release Neverwinter Nights Beta Toolset

what is the Mac versions status?

The status now is the same as it was two years ago.

The good news is that NWN will ship with Windows, OSX, and Linux86 installers for Players and DMs on the same CD. The bad news is that the world creation tools are Windows only.

See also: Bioware's NWN FAQ:

4.01 I've heard that the Aurora Neverwinter Toolset will be Windows only. What's the deal?

Our initial goal was to create a cross platform toolset for the gaming community. However, we have encountered difficulty in obtaining a viable cross platform solution to assist us in porting the Aurora Neverwinter Toolset. While we would not like to rule out the possibility of a port to the various operating systems at some point, this won't be happening for the initial release.

The real answer is that they created the Toolset in the first place using a Windows-only system, rather than the cross-platform environment they used to write the actual game. They've never explained why.

Re:MacOS X games for Christmas by jamie · 2001-12-03 08:38 · Score: 2 · on Good Games For Christmas?

Baldur's Gate II has the "Built for Mac OS X" sticker on the box but is slow, dog-slow, basically-unplayably-slow on OS X. I haven't gotten out of the prison yet, I keep getting killed by goblins with their Slow Frustration of Death spells apparently. I booted into OS 9 once to check and it was much more fun (but I still got killed, I suck).

Oh wait, someone found an OS X speedup recommendation for BG II earlier today. Hrm. Well, maybe I'll give it another try in 16-bit color. Bah.

Tropico is fun enough; SimCityesque weighted toward economics -- as dictator you control wages and prices. I may give it to my early-teen nephew this year, it's pseudo-educational. Consider it for your sister.

The Return to Castle Wolfenstein demo kicks ass on OS X... very fast if you have enough RAM, though the interface still needs some work. I'm looking forward to the real release. And I'm thinking about getting Giants: Citizen Kabuto too just to see if it's any good; it sounds good.

Booting over into OS 9, Summoner got a fair bit of my time but I eventually got bored. Oni I liked but got progressively harder to where I just couldn't handle it; I ended up just using the cheat codes to finish. Majesty is a well-balanced "Yet Another Warcraft" game, single-player fairly easy, multi-player eh OK. Again that's a consideration for your sister (yes you kill stuff but it's all like dragons and floating eyeballs, not gory, just fantasy).

Oh, and Unreal Tournament I still break out when I feel the need to shoot stuff.

(I don't work at Inside Mac Games, I just appreciate one of the few decent remaining game sites that focuses on the Mac.)