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lfrog2 · May 22, 2002, 10:50 PM

What companies actually do the technical porting for Mac games. Omnigroup? Ambrosia? Others?

[ 05-22-2002: Message edited by: lfrog2 ]

P · May 22, 2002, 11:36 PM

Omni has done a few ports. Ambrosia has not, and I doubt they ever will. Most are dedicated porters, like MacSoft.

Aragorn · May 22, 2002, 11:53 PM

Westlake Interactive is the big dog. Contraband also does some. Westlake does porting for Aspyr, Sometimes MacSoft, and once or twice for Destineer. Contraband does a lot for MacPlay.

SteveJobs · May 23, 2002, 01:14 AM

Contraband will also port Nova for Ambrosia and will work for some PC publishers to port games for them, a beginning in this is Uplink. Then again, MacSoft has its own internal porting houses.

Feral also has that porting house called... Zarid? ... anything similar I think

Dair Grant · May 23, 2002, 03:55 AM

That would be Zonic...

-dair
Zonic

Chimpmaster · May 23, 2002, 05:26 AM

www.aspyr.com
www.macplay.com

do almost all of the big games.

Im not sure if they are development houses or publishers though (ie do they release the games or do they write the code - a bit of both i guess).

Both produce excellent quality titles - just go check their sites.

Aragorn · May 23, 2002, 07:46 AM

www.aspyr.com www.macplay.com

do almost all of the big game

Those are publishers ;-)

Joost · May 23, 2002, 01:05 PM

A couple of smaller porting houses:

* Elegant Chaos (Championship Manager, Theme Park World, Black & White)
* Green Dragon Creations (MS Links)
www.elegantchaos.com
www.greendragon.com

These two former Amiga houses seem to do both ports and publishing:

* Virtual Programming (WipeOut 2097, Kick-Off 2002, Tzar)
* Epic Interactive (Earth 2140, Earth 2150, Gorky 17)
www.vpltd.com
www.epic-interactive.com

a2daj · May 23, 2002, 06:31 PM

Hyperion Entertainment did Shogo and is doing NoLF and AvP2:

www.hyperion-entertainment.com/

moki · May 23, 2002, 08:36 PM

Originally posted by Chimpmaster:
<STRONG>www.aspyr.com
www.macplay.com

do almost all of the big games.</STRONG>

Unless I'm mistaken, Aspyr and MacPlay are simply publishing companies -- they secure the rights to get a game ported, contract the port out to a porting company such as Contraband, and then publish the product when it is done.

I don't think either one of them do any in-house development or porting.

Angus_D · Dec 30, 2002, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by moki:
Unless I'm mistaken, Aspyr and MacPlay are simply publishing companies

Aspyr doesn't do any development AFAIK, but apparently MacPlay does.

Sarc · Dec 30, 2002, 02:17 PM

I would say Westlake is the one that has ported the largest number of games.
Omni has also contributed with some titles, but nos as many.

Hyperion Entertainment did Shogo and is doing NoLF and AvP2:
www.hyperion-entertainment.com/

btw.
hyperion's site has been under construction since the SoF I fiasco ...

Also, IMHO Virtual Programming need to get serious with it's games.
First KickOff and then Payback ... I think they are both worthy of 1995 technology.

voodoo · Dec 30, 2002, 03:47 PM

I have to mention Rosetta. A one man operation that ported Baldur's Gate to the Mac.

I can't get over that.

OwlBoy · Dec 31, 2002, 12:21 PM

Originally posted by voodoo:
I have to mention Rosetta. A one man operation that ported Baldur's Gate to the Mac.

I can't get over that.

wow.

-Owl

poulh · Jan 3, 2003, 03:53 PM

And that port of Baldur's Gate sucked!

Slow, buggy (crashed often), and took him forever. Maybe that is why he didn't do IceWind Dale or BG2.

Westlake I believe did the following two.

edddeduck · Jan 7, 2003, 07:29 AM

Originally posted by Joost:
A couple of smaller porting houses:

* Elegant Chaos (Championship Manager, Theme Park World, Black & White)

www.elegantchaos.com

Actually Black and White was done by Zonic....

Oh and there is also PopTop (Tropico and Railway Tycoon)

And Similis who do PS1 PS2 games etc as well.

Cheers Edwin

Guy Incognito · Jan 7, 2003, 08:27 AM

Westlake is by far the biggest port house.

Omni has done quite a few in a very short time (considering they also have other projects to work on such as OmniWeb and other apps)

Feral has done a few.

GraphSim has done a few too.

Then we fall in the category of port houses that have done only a couple ports.

Rickster · Jan 8, 2003, 04:20 PM

Hyperion Entertainment did Shogo and is doing NoLF and AvP2

Er, "did NOLF", not "is doing NOLF". It's out now. Also, Omni is doing AvP2.

a2daj · Jan 8, 2003, 04:32 PM

Originally posted by Rickster:
Er, "did NOLF", not "is doing NOLF". It's out now. Also, Omni is doing AvP2.

Rick, the post you quoted was dated May 2002. At the time, my statement was true, AFAIK.

OwlBoy · Jan 8, 2003, 05:28 PM

Wow, I never realised there were so many small porting companies.

-Owl

MrBS · Jan 8, 2003, 11:26 PM

Originally posted by a2daj:
Rick, the post you quoted was dated May 2002. At the time, my statement was true, AFAIK.

Here's another example where threads should automatically be locked after a certain period of inactivity...

~BS

any admins listening?