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Claims of Apple Games Just PR Fluff?
GameSetWatch is running an editorial written by Alex Handy, the former editor of Game Developer magazine and a well respected figure in the games journalism business. Today he's discussing the recent show of support from EA and id Software for the Apple platform, essentially saying that he doesn't think much of it because it's all been said before. "We've been here before. I've been here before. Waaaaaaaay back in 1999, id was right there at MacWorld, with Carmack talking about how rad the OS was, and demanding that a multi-button mouse arrive. And this was Mac OS 9! People applauded. Those, like myself, who covered the Macintosh gaming world for a living saw a bright future ahead. EA wasn't there, but Activision was, and Aspyr was bringing Madden to the Mac anyway. MacSoft was bringing Unreal Tournament over, and StarCraft was still on the Mac, and still kicking ass. And then, nothing happened. There was a little while there when Mac game companies were expanding, and the best PC to Mac game porting house, Westlake Interactive, was barely able to keep up with all the demand for its services ... By 2001, the brief flash that was the Mac game boom was gone."
There's a reason they're called Gaming PCs and not Gaming "Computers."
I think the main reason this is only a show of support rather than real support for the Mac platform, is that the Macs simply are not built for gaming.
Consider: The mac mini has integrated Intel graphics which don't handle any modern games. The best video card available on the iMac is the ATI X1600, which is still not powerful enough to handle newer games and the high resolutions they are played at. Not until you get to the Mac Pros which start at $2500 do you get a system where you can even think about a realistic gaming platform, and even those machines don't come preconfigured with anything more than the X1600.
Carmack is a pathetic relic of the late 90s, though he still does have a bit of a cult following. You know the guys who love to say stuff like "Carmack could, like, write a game engine with just one hand on a laptop while rescuing puppies from a burning building"
Microsoft has better and more talented developers supporting their system and really don't give a shit that Carmack hates directx. Carmack isn't bright enough to compete on modern consoles. So, that leaves...Apple.
It is really sad to see Carmack trying to hype the silly 'megatextures' stuff. But, hey, people buy expensive bottled water everyday. Suckers exist in every market.
Yeah, you're all so cool...like that dork in the Apple commercials. At least PC users don't rely on their gear to make them "cool". But I have to ask, why don't the introverted gamers AND the drunken, partying waste case extroverts do something useful for once? Set up a (favorite flavor here) Linux system and read the Linux Programmers Toolbox; then you might actually do something productive instead of getting wasted, taking drugs and getting STDs.