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ChillieMac · Jan 30, 2004, 11:05 PM

Apple should buy a game company or create a game division in the company ala Microsoft/Bungie. Apple could make games for us and make money by making the games for consoles and then finally the Windoze crowd.

Whichever game company is bought should have at least 2 runaway hits under it's belt, have experience writing for consoles as well as Windoze and not currently writing for the Mac. The companies already writing for the Mac should be encouraged to compete (50% off hardware and reduced developer costs) to help draw gamers to the platform.

Also, Apple should consider remaking the cube as a LAN party style gaming emphasis Mac...basicly a mini G5 (1.6Ghz, whatever is the lowest on the Tower line when it's sold) w/ fast motherboard, 256MB minimum RAM, and the fastest card available on the Mac, small capacity hard drive (but fast I/O). Sell for same as low-end Tower.

I think these 2 actions would signifigantly increase the gaming presence on the Mac.

What do you guys think...should we send a petition to Apple?

Rev-O · Jan 31, 2004, 01:24 AM

Ummm... Mac Games Forum, anyone?

But in the meantime... haven't put too much thought into this... but let's get the ball rolling.

Apple needs better video cards for hard core gaming. This may be changing with the latest releases of graphics cards, but still we Mac users lack behind the pc guys.

Apple should not partner with a console manufacturer. Then you end up only with that's companies exclusives with 3rd party developers still ignoring Macs. Besides, Apples only choice is Nintendo, as Sony seems unlikely to enter any kind of allience, and microsoft... well, nevermind.

Apple should maybe develop game ports in house or work closely with a select few companies to aquire licenses from other developers and bring games to the mac. Don't rely on existing pc game developers to create Mac versions. Case in point: I love Morrowind. It's as kick ass as rpg's get. Consider that Bethesda has a history of pc game development, and that Morrowind is a buggy pos at times. Do I trust Bethesda to create Morrowind in house for a platform they know squat about, when the version they make for a platform that they are <ahem> familiar with is somewhat less than well sorted out? Nope! But with Apple or a quality Mac developer (alas, poor Bungie, I knew thee well) making Morrowind, I'd be stoked.

Plus Apple should buy a developer, so as to get rights to their titles. It's the law of the jungle these days. Sony ties up Square to multi-year exclusives, Microsoft buys Rare and Bungie. Go out and buy Lionhead studios for thinking games... buy Sega for arcade games.

Hey, just thinking on the fly...

xe0 · Jan 31, 2004, 07:07 AM

It would be cool if Apple users could at least get a stable gaming platform

Im not sure if its just me or not, but every one of my games are prone to random and frequent crashing / freezeing / quiting.

I can't play any game, for more than a few minutes on my G5 :/

CIA · Jan 31, 2004, 07:24 AM

Just adding MP support in most games would provide a HUGE boost. Too bad most (or all except Q3A) only use single processors. That and fancy video cards. From a hardware point of view, the G5 is a pretty slick machine, it just needs game ports (or new games /wish) to take advantage of the horsepower it has!

Truepop · Jan 31, 2004, 11:56 AM

I say exclusives. You can going get so many people to use your platform by offering the same thing that the other guy is offering.

Maybe work out an agreement with ID software and Raven or Gray Matter and have them develop a game based on the Doom III engine for only the mac.

But Apple needs to get the APIs in line. I am not a programmer but what I gather is Direct X is easier for game developers because everything is under one set of APIs like audio and video where Apple has them apart and makes it hard to get them to work together. Please correct me.

And I second the multi processor support thing. Also Giants: Citizen Kabuto was the first MP game and was ported by OmniGroup.

DeathToWindows · Feb 1, 2004, 05:54 PM

(alas, poor Bungie, I knew thee well) [/B]

Ok... just read Hamlet and seeing this misquoted just annoys me...

"Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio"
is the real quote...

/EnglishNerdAttack

ginoledesma · Feb 1, 2004, 10:12 PM

One of the critical factors in the replayability and fun factor of the game is multiplayer-support. If Apple were to make it a Mac exclusive, that severely cuts down the number of people to play with. One of the nice things in PC MP games is that you can use a "dumb box" as a dedicated server, so it need not have all the bells and whistles of a fast gaming machine.