Benjamin Rotendahl
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Games on Mac - 2008/03/13 22:31
Hello im new to this forum, I liked the show and the Forum looks good so i thougt i would join.
Well no post without some Qustions, So i have a couple of qustions for games on a Mac. Okay lets get to it,
First: Which games are out for mac?
Secondly: I am a xbox owner so you might guss that im a Halo fan boy, Halo 2 is out for Windows, so im wondering can i install Windows using Boot camp and then play halo 2, and other Windows games?
Thirdly: I am almost ready to buy my mac, im buying a macbook pro the one with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB, i don't know a lot about tech, so is that good enough to run games? I'm not saying that it should run Crysis, but halo 2 and World of warcraft kinda stuff.
Well thats all, hope you can help me.
By The Way I am Danish so if theres a typo or something, then its because of that.
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Joshua McGregor
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/14 15:49
Hey there.
To be perfectly honest, if it's gaming you're into, you might want to reconsider buying a mac.
However with the new intel bases machines, gaming is really getting big on mac.
As for Halo 2 through bootcamp, it will run perfect on the MacBook Pro, i'm not sure about the MacBook, but you will have no problems on a pro.
World of Warcraft will run fine aswell, you will most likely be able to set the graphic settings to max, however for ease of use and stability, WoW is available for Os X so you might want to check that out.
There seem to be more and more games coming out on a multi-os basis, such as the Call of Duty games, and almost all EA sports new releases.
I'd also check out Myst, a fantastic RPG.
Hope this helps!
j.
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Benjamin Rotendahl
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/14 16:44
Thanks for the help, can you run all windows games via bootcamp?
Because if seen some videos of Gears and Crysis running on the Macbook Pro.
And do you know if Burning crusade out for OS X?
But thanks for the fast answer
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Joshua McGregor
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/14 23:08
I can't really speak for all games, as I have only tried a few.
Basically when your MBP is running windows, it is basically a high end pc, and you can go by the speck of what the game requires. Secondly, find out what version of DirectX your mac will be able to run whilst under bootcamp.
I have a macbook and play some games on it via bootcamp. I have oblivion working smoothly, which to be honest seems a bit of a miracle. If you're interested, there is a patch called Oblivion which allows it to run on slower machines (with graphics on low)
I also have Cross-Over, if you're not familier with it, google it. Basically it's another virtual XP package, but is designed for specific windows software. Steam runs great on it, and allows me to play Half Life 2 and Counter Strike which is pretty cool.
There are a lot of videos on youtube of certain things working, although it doesn't mean that it will work on your machine, as like mention above, there is software you will need to install like Oldblivion.
Hope this helps!
j.
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Benjamin Rotendahl
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/15 17:06
I did play oblivion on the 360 that is one fine game.
And it would be nice to play Half life 2 and Cs.
But you mentioned some videos on youtube, I've seen some of them, and do you know a site where i can get the software so i can play stuff like cod4?
Agin thanks very much, it's really help full.
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Joshua McGregor
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/17 00:13
Sorry mate, there's no chance a high-end game like CoD4 will on most mac machines, with the exception from a very high end piece of kit, possible the MBP, however i'm only speculating, i havn't tested it. However, I have tried and tested CoD2 for the mac, and it's runs smooth on the MB.
That's about all the knowledge of games i know mate, hope it was helpful,
Cheers,
j.
Post edited by: joshua.mcgregor, at: 2008/03/17 00:14
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Marc Jennings
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/17 15:16
Apart from Command and Conquer on the Mac I stick to my PS3 and Wii for games.
I wouldn't be caught dead with a defective machine like the 360 and paying for XBL each year.
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Ginger
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/18 22:06
joshua.mcgregor wrote:
Sorry mate, there's no chance a high-end game like CoD4 will on most mac machines, with the exception from a very high end piece of kit,
Sorry Josh, but I have to differ with you on that. I played the CoD4 demo on my iMac Core 2 Duo, 2.4GHz machine, and have to say it ran really nicely - as well if not better than CoD2.
The machine will also run things like Team Fortress 2 on max everything. Having said that, TF2 is based on the Source engine which is getting on a bit now.
The new MacBook Pro has a better GFX card than my iMac so one would imagine the results would be even better.
The deal with Macs and games is basically this: new Macs are okay with new games and great with older games. However within 12 months you'll start getting left behind as the gfx hardware will not have been cutting edge to start with.
If you plan to get really into PC games, buy a PC. If you just want to play a couple of games which are a bit older then a Mac will be fine, so long as you choose one with a dedicated GFX card. (i.e. NOT MacBook or Mac Mini.)
HTH
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Joshua McGregor
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/19 14:29
If you just want to play a couple of games which are a bit older then a Mac will be fine, so long as you choose one with a dedicated GFX card. (i.e. NOT MacBook or Mac Mini.)
That's what I meant when saying a good piece of kit. Not much in the way of high-end gaming on MB or Mini. Your iMac will be play high-end games due to dedicated graphic cpu.
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Benjamin Rotendahl
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/19 15:36
I'm going to buy the Macbook Pro, and on youtube there is a guy playing Crysis on his machine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jvz7qa-e8
So i think I'm covered as far as gaming goes, well just for a while.
And i don't need it to be play games for more then a year. The reason is I'm buying it because I'm going on a school break for a year so i will not be near my Xbox 
Agin Thanks very much, this is a really good community
By the way, should i buy the 7200 Hard drive or is the 5200 good enough?
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Ginger
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/20 22:05
Rotendahl wrote:
By the way, should i buy the 7200 Hard drive or is the 5200 good enough?
If you don't have anything better to spend the extra on (such as rent) then yes, get the faster one. The hard drive is by a long way the slowest part of any machine. It will make a big difference to the general speed of the machine when loading OS X, apps and any big files. Having said that, the machine will be awesome with the the slower drive too 
Post edited by: Ginger, at: 2008/03/20 22:06
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Joshua McGregor
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/21 02:04
As a rule I usually go for upgrades that I can't really do my self. For instance i would never buy a ram upgrade from apple, as it's a bit of a rip off, and i can buy elsewhere and upgrade the machine manually.
However, I would always get the biggest HDD for a laptop. There are other alternatives like a network or Firewire drive, but it's tying the machine down which in my mind defeats the purpose!
Hope this helps you make your decision,
j.
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reindeerface
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/21 07:39
Yeah, I think you'll get the most bang for you buck running the game directly on the hardware using Bootcamp as well. Some of the games I was going to buy on the Mac (Aspyr - EA Games) use a porting technology called Cider, which is based on Wine, which is what Cross-Over uses (somebody brought that up earlier in the thread). It's another layer of abstraction away from the hardware (in this case, dynamically rewriting DirectX to OpenGL) and you will always have less performance. It doesn't matter as much with some less graphics-intensive games, but with others, every extra frame you can get is nice. Plus the games are generally buggy (app crashes, even kernel panics somehow). For instance, the framerate on BF 2142 running in Bootcamp (natively on Windows, no OS X) is going to kill the same game running on OS X, which uses Cider. I really wish it were different.
I try to support Mac software makers when it makes sense, but I don't want to just donate money to them when there is a better alternative for the same game on the same hardware.
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Benjamin Rotendahl
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/22 17:58
Well then I'm gonna spend som e extra cash on a 7200 hard disk thanks you have been really helpful.
And i can't wait til i get to play around with OS X.
By the way is there any must have apps i should get?
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reindeerface
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/23 06:05
I find the following websites helpful. I try to get involved with the open source stuff first before I go straight for commercial software. With that said, I won't necessarily make heavy use of an open source app if it's a hunk of poo just because it's open source.
http://www.opensourcemac.org/
http://bestmacsoftware.org/
http://www.download.com/Mac/
I sorta like emulators for delving into nostalgia.
NES Emulator
http://www.bannister.org/software/nestopia.htm
Old Mac 68k (1980s and early 90s Macs) Emulators
http://emulation.victoly.com/macintosh/
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pear_computers/BasiliskII.html
Otherwise, just hit up Apple's official site
http://guide.apple.com/
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Benjamin Rotendahl
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/24 12:58
Nice i love emulators, do you have some others. thanks 
Can you recommend the mighty mouse for gameing?
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reindeerface
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/24 18:07
I guess it depends on what you're into. You can pretty much Google whatever you are looking for and follow it up with the words 'emulator os x' to find what you want (e.g. 'Sega Genesis emulator os x').
MAME is a must-have in the retro-gaming category.
Getting the games/software/ROMs for emulators is a different matter. Digging around in their respective forums for that stuff is where you want to look, so don't ask here!
I don't have a Mighty Mouse, so I can't tell you if it's good for gaming. Considering it's a little more "design-oriented" rather than ergonomic/function-based, I'm guessing it's not the most ideal tool for the job. Maybe somebody with a Mighty Mouse could tell me my guess is wrong.
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Joshua McGregor
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/03/24 19:21
I have a mighty mouse and play it for all games, I used to be strict to a Logitech mouse that I've had for years, I thought it was perfect, then got the mighty mouse, it's great, it's just getting used to it is the trouble, especially the left click (yes, there is one, although you have to enable it via system preferences)
I think in one of the podcasts they talk about it, have a look at the most recent ones.
I play CoD with it and it works great.
Hope that helps,
j.
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Michael Oglesby
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Re:Games on Mac - 2008/07/03 18:23
Answers to your question:
1. Yes! Of course there are games for the Apple Mac, it's just a question on where to look. For commercial releases you could try:
The Mac Section on Play.Com
http://www.play.com/Games/PC/3-/4047/2-/Promo.html?dpr=4047
MacGold.co.uk - A dedicated online Mac Game Store
http://www.macgold.co.uk/
Amazon.co.uk - Mac Game Section
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Macintosh-Games-Mac-Linux/s/qid=1215126501/ref=sr_nr_n_1?ie=UTF8&rs=300935&bbn=300939&rnid=300935&rh=n%3A300703%2Cn%3A725726%2Cn%3A300935%2Cn%3A300939
For the latest news on commercial and shareware games for the Apple Mac, visit www.insidemacgames.com
2. Using Boot Camp on your Intel Mac will turn it in to a PC. Once you have done this, you can run *any* PC game on your Mac. For clarification, you can not play games via Virtualisation, ie VMWare or Parallels (some games may run). You *must* reboot in to your Boot Camp Partition to play your PC games effectively. I can say with a high degree of confidence that you will be able to play Halo 2 on your new iMac. If I can play Assassins Creed (very new game on the PC) on my iMac with no problems whatsoever, I think that Halo 2 will run pretty well.
3. Buying a MacBook Pro will give you the Mobility version of the graphics card. Not as good as an iMac graphics card but the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB should be adequate to run most modern PC games. Playing games on the MacBook Pro will push the GPU and the unit will get hot, so no playing with the laptop on your lap.
Michael Oglesby - Apple Mac Expert
www.michaeloglesby.com |
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