“It’s hard for Mac users to be into computer games,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek. “Whenever there’s been a popular title that runs on Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Mac users have always had to wait—and wait and wait— until someone decided there might be enough demand, given the smaller market, to make a profit on an adapted version for Apple’s Macintosh platform.”
At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, “EA and Id Software, the company behind the Quake gaming franchise, both made new, but vastly different commitments to the Mac market this week,” Hesseldahl reports.
“Id said it is developing a new gaming engine called Id Tech 5 that works on the Mac. Think of a game engine as the engine of a car. The better it is under the hood, the more fun the car can be to drive. Id’s engine looked pretty impressive based on the video presented at the developer’s conference. In the Windows world, Id can be used to build extremely detailed virtual worlds with stunning graphical features, and now those developers writing for that platform can do so for the Mac, too. From there, it follows that more games developed on that engine—which Id plans to license—could support the Mac natively. This is very good news for Mac games,” Hesseldahl reports.
Hesseldahl reports, “EA announced it would release a handful of its more popular games on the Mac… not building Mac-native versions of these games. Instead, it’s working with a Canadian software company called Transgaming, which makes a product called Cider. What Cider does is interesting. Basically it takes advantage of the fact that a Mac and a PC are essentially the same inside. They have the same type of processor, use the same graphics chips, and so on. Cider allows games developed first for Windows to run on a Mac by in essence acting as an interpreter between them. Instead of forcing developers to spend months rebuilding a PC game, Cider simplifies the process of Mac-ifying a Windows game.”
Hesseldahl covers other aspects of Mac gaming, including Apple’s Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, Aspyr Media, and more in the full article here.
Something tastes gamey.
Get a Mac. If you’re into games, get a Wii.
Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someone’s neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what is that thing.
“If you’re into games, get a Wii.”
Yes, but take a Wii sounds more fun.
MW: took, uh huh.
It hasn’t been hard for me. And I haven’t “always had to wait.”
And Blizzard should be continuously and loudly applauded for releasing Mac versions on the same disc as the WinPC version.
I thought Mac users didn’t play games and used their machines for “real work”. Or has that all changed now that the machines might have some games available?
I’m not too fond of the Cider approach. This will give companies an easy way to get PC games onto the Mac, but any software using Cider will have the look and feel of a PC app. Yuck.
Reality Check, your attempts at taunting are funny. I remember when PC users used to say “Macs are only for games. PCs are for real work.” PC users are always looking for some excuse as to why the PC is somehow better than the Mac (hint: it isn’t). The “reality” of it is that the Mac is a much better platform, and your excuses are the equivalent of a red Corvette – you’re using it to cover up for an obvious shortcoming somewhere.
It only takes a couple of solid and lengthy games to be satisfying for a long time. My old high school friends and I live in three different states. We started playing Diablo II in about 2001 and played it through a few times with different characters. We used Roger Wilco (now defunct) for VOIP while we played. We’ve played Neverwinter Nights and it’s companions for the last couple of years, about once per month. Now we use iChat in the background, or our unlimited weekend cell minutes.
That reminds me, has anyone successfully used iChat to speak with, or video conference with, people using Windows? What service works for that? We can’t get it to run at all. Are there other programs that do the same thing that are simple (we’re not techies) and cross platform?
The new iPlay is coming!!!!!
with aPPLe shaped controllers
AOL will work with iChat for the audio. There are some screwet setting you need to use on the PC however and the video sucks based on the poor availability of good quality cameras for the PC.
If you go parachuting, and your parachute doesn’t open, and your friends are all watching you fall, I think a funny gag would be to pretend you were swimming.
Gtalk is compatable with iChat as it uses Jabber but I found it was very buggy even for mac to mac, eventually gave up on it and moved to Skype.
Really hope the new iChat will be Skype compatable as I only know 1 other person with a .mac account
@unfettered
Amen! Blizzard has been incredible in supporting the Mac OS.
That would be great! I have been thinking about putting (shudder) Vista on my iMac so that I could play Halo 2.
Think I will wait a while now.
@ aka Christian
I have been successful at setting up chat sessions with parents in law in TX who wanted to see their grandson in L.A. using the latest version of Skype for the mac, and PC on their end. Video is not as clear as iChat, but it is definitely useable. Hope that helps.
Stop trolling because you suck at it. Go get a life.
Thanks for the tips, folks.
don’t chase away reality check!
i like him. it is like having your very own baghdad bob…
MW: lighten up, RC is just doing his “job” the way the check writers at MS intended him to do!
I remember when the C-64 was one of the affordable computers a person could own but it was criticized as being a bit of a toy because so many games were written for it. ‘Real computer users’ used an IBM clone with MSDOS.
I still think it is sad that anyone other than teens and pre-teens play computer games. I guess it just goes to show where many peoples’ minds really reside.
“Instead of forcing developers to spend months rebuilding a PC game, Cider simplifies the process of Mac-ifying a Windows game”
Basically we get crappy Windows interface that functions (sorta) on a Mac.
Windows being the primary game platform sux.
Bad.
What it means is game interfaces suck.
Bad.
Or worse.
Apple really needs to get in gear on gaming, because it’s both a large customer base, many of those customers repeatedly buy expensive hardware. It also means younger customers who will grow up to be older customers in businesses and drive future purchases.
Beyond that, the development community behind games drives 3d imaging markets, and other cutting edge graphic markets.
Apple being satisfied with some half ass port engine is really REALLY sad.
Makes me sick.
C-64: “I still think it is sad that anyone other than teens and pre-teens play computer games. I guess it just goes to show where many peoples’ minds really reside.”
Sorry but this ignorant attitude makes me sick. It’s from a small minded boob, who wants to criticize what other people want to do for their leisure activity. You can go pound sand, you pile of donkey droppings.
People can have fun doing what they want, so long as it’s not harming anyone else, there’s nothing to criticize.
Jimbo von Winskinheimer: “I’m not too fond of the Cider approach. This will give companies an easy way to get PC games onto the Mac, but any software using Cider will have the look and feel of a PC app. Yuck”
Exactly.
Yuck.
MDN “poor” as in Cider is a poor, half-assed solution to the Mac gaming problem.
What I would be interested in is:
1. Would the Cider approach make the PC and Mac versions more compatible for say… multiplayer gaming. ( I think in the past this sometimes hasn’t been the case)
2. Would there be any additional overhead for this “acting as an interpreter” business. With the same hardware architecture, I’d hope the frames per second on these games are similar to PC.
cheerio
Are there any games now that have been through the Cider?
One thing is a fact:
Lack of games was one BIG reason for people to go for Windows instead of Macs. It’s amazing how many home users (one of the biggest Apple target market) base their choice for Windows in video game capability.
To pull game developers into the Mac world again is a very clever way Steve Jobs is telling the market: “Do you have any more excuses?” Obviously, they guy is listening!
It’s very simple. How do you get marketshare? Give people what they want! They want games? There they go! One more reason to buy a Mac.
MW: “finally”, as “finally we get games!!!”