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gumby5647 · Jun 19, 2002, 10:40 PM

How happy are you with the current state of gaming on the macintosh platform in general? (hardware wise, number of game titles, quality ports, etc.)

1 is worst
10 is best.

mac freak · Jun 19, 2002, 11:25 PM

7.

These days, simultaneous Mac/Win releases are more common than ever. Compared to four or five years ago, it's bliss!
Ports are also improving, quality-wise, with companies giving more effort to Mac ports.

Why not higher, then? The hardware is starting to severely lag.
Here's hoping for G5's at MWSF 2003!

juanvaldes · Jun 20, 2002, 02:17 AM

Well I gave them a 7, but it's a bit hard to just put a number too.

I would say:
1) quality of ports is pretty good, could always be better
2) Bi (and Tri!) CD's are starting to happen to more and more games, but it's still uncommon.
3) For probably the first time since the early 90's I have more games to play then time/money to buy. This is a VERY good thing, I just hope the market dosetn' become saturated and some games fail badly (preventing future ports)
4) Net play is decent but if only we could get some networking bridge for DirectX games....
5) Apple's hardware, lacking. Only recently we got REAL GAMING Gfx cards and even then only in the high end towers. The imac's need a better card, not MX. They have finally moved the Mhz up some, but I bet the median mac now in use could NOT run a modern game even at the lowest settings. This is a big issue as games get more and more complex if only the newest of towers with a GF4 that arrive's 6 months later can run them.

xyber233 · Jun 20, 2002, 12:20 PM

7. Apple is finally putting decent graphics cards in all the computers. Also, we are getting A list games ported rather quickly. Lets hope that the Mac gaming market will continue to build up speed.

7Macfreak · Jun 20, 2002, 12:38 PM

we need a better selection.
i gave it a 5.
i havent heard of a single "good" auto racing game for the mac. there's a ton of them out there. for example, NONE of the NFS games were ported. there's NFS hot pursuit 2 coming up... and no signs of it heading to the mac platform. thats pretty pathetic.

no offense, but i think 7 is a bit too much for gaming on the mac, even 5 might be too much.. but i am a mac freak ;-)

gumby5647 · Jun 20, 2002, 01:05 PM

i love how someone gave it a 1. nice

anyways....i have to admit, it would be nice to get a nice train simulator. Railroad Tycoon is nice, but can get boring after awhile.

voice- · Jun 20, 2002, 01:59 PM

5

We still don't have all games(or as many as Windows users) and the games we get are usually late. They rule when they do come, but not unless we go out and buy some expensive hardware

Bwa · Jun 20, 2002, 10:14 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by gumby5647:
i love how someone gave it a 1. nice

anyways....i have to admit, it would be nice to get a nice train simulator. Railroad Tycoon is nice, but can get boring after awhile.<hr /></blockquote>I'm curious...I've never played Tycoon, but I am very interested in model railroading, and have about 14 years worth of MR.

However, I still don't have the space or time for a layout.

What would you like to see in such a simulator? What does Tycoon do right? Where does it fail? Does it support real operation and whatnot, or is it too "toyish"?

I am a software developer and have pondered doing such a thing in the past...

Sap · Jun 22, 2002, 02:04 AM

I gave it a 1 also, for several reasons:

1) Lousy hardware. My $1795 G4 Cube can barely run Giants. Some levels are simply unplayable or cause crashes. Ditto for Red Faction (although it's a bit better). My friend's equivalent PC, however, runs both utterly flawlessly. Unwavering 90 FPS, absolutely everything turned on (on my Cube, I have to turn down the graphics severely) and it's a joy to play.

2) Lousy selection. Maybe it's just me, but I would love to be able to play GTA (1,2,&3), Soldier of Fortune (1&2), the Final Fantasies (uh, a lot), Metal Gear Solid (1&2), Rocket Arena, Fallout 2, etc. These aren't just random games that happen to be Windows only (for that, I'd need a couple pages of space), these are games that I actually really want to play.

3) Lagged releases. Most Mac games get ported to the Mac way, way later than the initial Windows releases. Some games are just insultingly old... Aliens Vs. Predator, for example. A 3+ year old game gets released for the Mac and we rejoice.

4) Buggy ports. Most Mac games were originally coded and optimized for Windows. These games are then handed to Mac porting houses where the source seems to be yelled at until it compiles. The result is that a blazing fast, optimized game (Giants for Windows) is reduced to an ultra buggy, snail slow, unpredictable game (Giants for Mac).

5) Problems at Apple. Apple's implementation of OpenGL is quite poor. For example, in OS 9 and non-Jaguar versions of OS X, bump mapping hasn't been implemented! Ever noticed that in many Mac ports, certain options in the configuration screens are disabled or nonexistent? Often the reason they're disabled is because Apple hasn't added the appropriate stuff to the system yet. I've also heard that Apple's HID manager or InputSprockets or something are really messed up. I'm not sure of the exact technical details (maybe someone can post them later) but I know that my mousewheel doesn't work 50% of the time.

So, I gave Mac gaming a 1. Sure, Mac gaming is at its peak and "Compared to four or five years ago, it's bliss!" but frankly, relative to the big picture, Mac gaming is utter ****.

jckalen · Jun 22, 2002, 12:46 PM

I gave it a 4 because there is so much room for improvement. Here's something that really drives me nuts:

By the time Diablo II was released for the mac, it was already discounted to around $30.00 for PC's. Mac users were therefore to pay $20 more for a 6 month old piece of software. Puhleeeeze! If a simultaneous release is not possible, we suffering few should not have to pay more!

Also, I don't really feel that we are gaining percentage-wise. Sure, more games have been coming out for mac but that is true of PC gaming too. Doesn't seem like we're gaining ground. And now Ambrosia is porting stuff to PC. ::sigh::

Chimpmaster · Jun 22, 2002, 01:27 PM

I gave it a 7/10.

I would have given it a 5, however there is now a fix to allow rtcw mac users to play on 1.33 servers, which is mad.

Warcraft 3 is coming out in 2 weeks as a hybrid pc/mac release, which is awesome.

Also looking forward to jedi knight 2.

Between macplay & aspyr, we are getting most of the good games now, albeit that some are quite late.

Post game release support is mediochre though - aspyr need to get their act together with patches for games like rtcw and allied assault and soon to be jedi knight 3. If we cant play these online on pc servers, its really not worth it.