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We monitor and test at the same time. If somebody solved a puzzle without so much as a blip we assume that we have not engaged the faculties we're trying to and move to the next puzzle. Simple arithmetic and trivia is not part of the test. The puzzles we use are visual logic problems similar to chromatron that you're unlikely to simply recall a solution for.

The Xbox can download games via Xbox Live Arcade. The Nintendo Revolution will also have a game download service. I would like to see some independent games on consoles, though. I can think of quite a few online Flash games, and small downloadale games that would be good on the DS. I'd love to have http://silverspaceship.com/chromatron/ on the DS. Of course, the DS doesn't have a lot of built in flash memory like the Revolution will.... hopefully the next Gameboy will have some built in memory.

Of course they do. Most major games at least have a seperate box for the Mac version available. Blizzard is notable because every piece of software they've ever created (including World of Warcraft) has a Mac version -- in fact, WoW in particular even comes on hybrid discs, so even if you bought the "Windows" version, you can install it on Mac just fine too. Shadowbane and probably other MMORPGs do this as well. Bioware is typically fairly Mac friendly, although there was a lot of grumbling that they never released the NWN toolset for Mac. Many of the smaller-run games don't have ports, but anything major will very likely run on Mac. And don't discount the Mac-developed games either. X-Plane is a fantastic flight sim that puts Microsoft's to shame. EV Nova is a remarkably deep and enjoyable game. Chromatron is a great little quickie puzzle game to play (beware, addictive!) although it gets not-so-quick and in fact quite boggling at the higher levels. And hell, if you're really stuck for games, there are emulators for just about every console you can imagine. In a most of them, they even run as fast or faster than an equivalently priced PC since the re aren't any byte-order headaches to deal with.

No, the Mac isn't as great for games as a PC, but it's not as bad as people make it out to be. There's less selection, but just as much quality in my opinion. If you want to bring all your current PC games across, you're gonna be in trouble, but if you just want to buy a Mac and have lots of great games available to play, you'll do okay.

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.

Chromatron is a puzzle game of lasers (no, not the killing kind), optics, and geometry. It runs on Mac or Windows. The first 50 puzzle version is free, additional puzzles can be had for very cheap.

It's also *challenging*. If you only have an hour or so per schoolday with the kids, this'll probably last until the end of the schoolyear. :) Give it a try.

Try Chromatron if you're interested in a hard game. The best part? When you get bored of trying to beat level 50 (or 39, for that matter), there are two sequels of (I'm told) even more sleeplessness-inducing, head-banging, "this is god damn impossible, there's no way..."-mumbling fun.

That game has stolen countless hours of my life away, and I refuse to move on to the sequels until I complete levels 39 and 50. So there.

Surprisingly even to myself some days, I haven't pirated a game since I started earning income. I'm always happy to support the people who make things that I enjoy. Even when they're bitter disappointments, which so many have been recently. *cough, MOO3, SimCity4*

Similarly to how I approach music these days, when I start getting too cynical to "waste" money on a game, I'll start looking for free alternatives like Chromatron or return to my old favourites, often using things like Exult.