Gaming on the Mac

Arachon

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Oh my, isn't this a flamewar waiting to happen?

Now if you're already reaching for that shiny reply button, ready to deliver a devastating argument to why the PC is the superior platform for all things computer games, please stop. I agree, I would like to play games on the PC, but, unfortunately, this is not possible at the moment. Nor is installing Windows using Bootcamp.

So. To get to the meat of the matter. I'll be moving away from home next weekend, to a nice little flat of my own, unfortunately, this flat is sublet, and pre-furnished, with no ability to stow away said furniture (no space in the storage area). This means is that I won't be able to fit in my gaming desktop computer, and at the moment, there is no place in my budget for a more substantial "gaming" laptop.

Fortunately, I already have two laptops that I can bring, unfortunately, none of these are Windows laptops, I've got an Ubuntu netbook, which I use for general Internetting, and a white 13" Macbook (Late 2009) which I currently use only for DJing (and some basic video editing).

Since the Macbook is the more powerful of these computers, it'll have to serve as gaming computer. Unfortunately, I haven't played a lot of games on the mac since my family bought our first PC back in 2003, the only games I have any detailed memories of are Escape Velocity: Nova and Myst, (both of which I'll definitely be getting). Now obviously, a lot of things has happened since then, Steam is out for the Mac and there's Minecraft and whatnot.

Of course, the Late 2009 Macbook is no powerhouse, I won't be able to play the latest greatest offerings, not to mention that I'll still be using the computer for playing music, so I don't want to muck about with boot camp, dual booting and whatnot, risking blowing my entire music collection (that'd be pricey); bottom line, which games do you think are worth playing, that run natively on the Mac and won't kill my CPU?
 

Hazy992

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Aug 1, 2010
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Don't the 13" MacBooks use integrated graphics? Or am I mistaken? I know the 13" Pros do
 

Z of the Na'vi

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Apr 27, 2009
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Hey, 17" MacBook Pro user here. Same boat as you, late 2009.

I've been gaming on my Mac using Steam since it was released for OSX, and other than the occasional hiccup whenever there is a large platform update, I've had little issue with it. Although smaller than the PC library for Steam, the Mac titles offered run fairly well on my machine. TF2, both Left 4 Dead's, Both Portal's, basically anything made by Valve. That isn't to say that other developers haven't made functioning OSX games, Torchlight is a fine example.

I'd say check out the OSX version of Steam and see for yourself. They are all, for the most part, optimized very well.
 

Arachon

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Hazy992 said:
Don't the 13" MacBooks use integrated graphics? Or am I mistaken? I know the 13" Pros do
I'm pretty sure they do, which obviously means that a lot of current games are going to be pretty meh.

I like the idea of the Valve games though, and I'll make sure to check out what's on Steam for Mac. I already own the Orange Box, so hopefully I'll be able to play those games on the Mac (unless Valve hates me or something).

I don't suppose anyone would know of any non-steam games though? Like, obscure indie hits or something?
 

Henriot

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If you buy Humble Bundles, or know someone who has, lots of things to play on the Mac (most available on Steam).

However, if you like older games (some people can't stand slightly clunky controls), you can run DOS games via DOSbox and Boxer. I felt very proud of myself when I got X-Com running on my girlfriend's iMac.
 

Hazy992

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Arachon said:
Hazy992 said:
Don't the 13" MacBooks use integrated graphics? Or am I mistaken? I know the 13" Pros do
I'm pretty sure they do, which obviously means that a lot of current games are going to be pretty meh.

I like the idea of the Valve games though, and I'll make sure to check out what's on Steam for Mac. I already own the Orange Box, so hopefully I'll be able to play those games on the Mac (unless Valve hates me or something).

I don't suppose anyone would know of any non-steam games though? Like, obscure indie hits or something?
Yeah it probably won't be able to run much. I'd go on can you run it and see what it can run.
 

Dandark

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Im pretty sure that Killing Floor runs on the mac and the graphics can be lowered so you may be able to play that.
 

LiL'Tic

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Jan 21, 2009
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i get wut ur saying but trying to play TF2 on a macbook pro is still not a fun experience
 

Tipsy Giant

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buy an official 360 wired controller and emulate all your fav snes games with a great controller for free like i do with my mac
 

Griffolion

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Most of the games on the Steam store for Mac are usually made for the highest common denominator, which is a Radeon 5870 graphics card in the Mac Pro's. In short, nothing will run well on your MB, only the old stuff will run smoothly at reduced settings. A friend of mine has a 2009 MBP and can run HL2 at about 30 FPS on low settings.

Off topic, I've no idea why you've got three separate devices. A decent Windows laptop (about the same that you'd pay for a MBP) will do all three of your tasks, DJ'ing, general derping and gaming. I've no idea why you want to go over to two other unnecessary platforms.
 

Daniel_Rosamilia

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Before you start getting games, make sure you haven't got an Intel integrated GMA 950 graphics card. They're totally incompatible with Source games, making a decent portion of Steam games unplayable. Trust me, I have one of these laptops and half my Steam library is unplayed, which irks me to no end.
Anywho, some good games are:
Age of Empires 3 and Mythology
Battlefield 1942
Binding of Isaac
Diablo 2
Fallout 1+2
Plants vs Zombies
Unreal Tournament 2004
VVVVVV
If these games manage to run on my ailing '06 Macbook with a shitty graphics card, then your '09 model should be able to run them fairly well.
Good luck with moving and all that jazz, hope everything goes well.
 

number2301

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If you have got integrated graphics as people have suggested above, how about onlive? I've used that briefly on my phone and I have to say it's pretty sensational.

Sure local gaming is still much better, but as a temporary measure I think you'd have a lot of fun.
 

Arachon

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Griffolion said:
Off topic, I've no idea why you've got three separate devices. A decent Windows laptop (about the same that you'd pay for a MBP) will do all three of your tasks, DJ'ing, general derping and gaming. I've no idea why you want to go over to two other unnecessary platforms.
Thing is, I bought the gaming computer about 2.5 years ago, and at the time I had no laptop. A little later on I got tired of not being able to take a computer "on the go", so I picked up a netbook with the intention of running Linux on it (and for that purpose it works great, it weighs next to nothing and does all the basic things I want).

Later on, when I found myself in need for a DJ laptop (since there's no way I could get Traktor running on the netbook), I went with a Macbook, mainly because of the CoreAudio low-latency drivers (I have since tried getting ASIO4All running on a friends PC, with Maschine, and my god it's hell).

So I have never really owned a Windows laptop, nor did I expect having to use my Mac for games, but here we are.

LiL said:
i get wut ur saying but trying to play TF2 on a macbook pro is still not a fun experience
What's your point?

Cool stuff, it seems like the Late 2009 model has an integrade Nvidia card, so hopefully I might be able to pull off HL2 or similar. Also: OMG, Fallout 1+2 is available on the Mac? Happy days.
 

Wintermoot

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what about a netop? the only advice I can give is either emulation (which is illegal if you don't own the original hard/software) or the slim library Steam put out.
a third option is installing Windows on the mac.

it just boils down to it that Mac OS isn't made for gaming.
 

Headdrivehardscrew

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Aug 22, 2011
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Your problems are basically:
1) OS X is great for just about everything BUT gaming

2) Bootcamp would get you the whole shebang of Windows gaming galore, but you'd have to get Windows, start from scratch (back up everything Apple, set up everything Windows, realize GMA950 still sucks, mess with all your stuff, enter panic loop, question life, discover religion, go live on an island, etc.), and then realize that's still not quite the solution to your problem... if 'easy fix' is your thing, stay well away from ersatz Wine... the only thing that will be working is YOU

3) Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel arch. All your old games are bound to not run, as in 'at all'. I've been wasting boatloads of time trying to get my Lucasarts collection to run on my MBP... no dice. Just extracting the data from the discs and backing them up properly felt like trying to build the Death Star. Just when you think you got it all covered you'll realize that standards maybe really are a good thing, and should not be messed with. It's fun to 'work' on MacOS 8 on a MBP, but it comes with plenty of headaches and very, very little games.

So...
Valve/Steam really might be your best bet when it comes to an interesting back catalogue of fun games you might enjoy.

http://store.steampowered.com/browse/mac - bottom right serves as a nice index. Anything too modern and too 3D is probably not worth getting. Any really current titles will make you realize that your MacBook of choice probably doesn't have enough GPU power beyond the OS X eye candy and not quite enough RAM - never enough RAM.

Emulators (such as MacMAME) could be your other source of cheap entertainment, if you legally own boards/cabinets or consoles and games... but you'd have to either settle with (unsatisfactory) keyboard input or getting a quality gamepad-type controller that works (Logitech Rumblepad 2 to name one I got working in a very satisfactory manner last decade).

When I got bored with my MBP a while back, I installed an emulator for PowerPC-based Mac action and then got the yay old Dark Castle over from my old Mac... that was fun. Time played: HOURS. Time used to set up the Mac inside a Mac: WEEKS. Yeah... probably not worth it.

ONLIVE is a suggestion I hear more and more these days, but I have absolutely no experience with it so far; it's said to work - you'd need blazing fast internet and a compatible gamepad/controller, though.
 

ripdajacker

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Headdrivehardscrew said:
3) Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel arch. All your old games are bound to not run, as in 'at all'. I've been wasting boatloads of time trying to get my Lucasarts collection to run on my MBP... no dice. Just extracting the data from the discs and backing them up properly felt like trying to build the Death Star. Just when you think you got it all covered you'll realize that standards maybe really are a good thing, and should not be messed with. It's fun to 'work' on MacOS 8 on a MBP, but it comes with plenty of headaches and very, very little games.
Have you tried ScummVM? It runs on everything from my phone to my dads windows CE based GPS.
 

Headdrivehardscrew

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Arachon said:
Cool stuff, it seems like the Late 2009 model has an integrade Nvidia card, so hopefully I might be able to pull off HL2 or similar. Also: OMG, Fallout 1+2 is available on the Mac? Happy days.
Aye, if tech bits get really boring really fast, there's an app for that: Mactracker on the iOS app store! ;)

Chances are you got an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 256MB shared DDR3 SDRAM in there. It's the GPU chip of choice for MacBooks since late 2008. It's not a card and it's far from being a proper dedicated video solution, but there's a chance you can pretty much run anything on low settings and low(er) resolutions.
 

Arachon

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Headdrivehardscrew said:
Your problems are basically:
1)There's obviously a lack of "core" games on the Mac, but I'm not quite convinced that it's the absolute gaming desert everybody makes it out to be (Hey, Homeworld 2 runs on the Mac, awesome).

2)No argument there, won't be touching Boot Camp.

3)I didn't actually think of this, it looks like the one game I'm really wanting to play though (Escape Velocity) has been updated to run on Intel Macs (and was last updated last year, which is cool considering it was released in 2002). And I suppose for some of the other stuff there's Emulators (ScummVM for example).

Steam does seem to have quite the catalouge after all, especially in the "indie-style" department, which is good considering the limited hardware

Headdrivehardscrew said:
Chances are you got an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 256MB shared DDR3 SDRAM in there. It's the GPU chip of choice for MacBooks since late 2008. It's not a card and it's far from being a proper dedicated video solution, but there's a chance you can pretty much run anything on low settings and low(er) resolutions.
Oh, I see, bugger. Oh well, it looks like I'll be sticking to old-school stuff anyway, so hopefully it shouldn't be a problem.
 

crappingpegasus

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Griffolion said:
Most of the games on the Steam store for Mac are usually made for the highest common denominator, which is a Radeon 5870 graphics card in the Mac Pro's. In short, nothing will run well on your MB, only the old stuff will run smoothly at reduced settings. A friend of mine has a 2009 MBP and can run HL2 at about 30 FPS on low settings.
.
wow, this is bullshit.

my friend has a late 2009 white MacBook and runs StarCraft 2 at low-med settings just fine. Plays ALL THE TIME.

we also play Counter-Strike Source all the time, and he never complains about the quality. He definitely uses lowish settings tho.

as for the MBP accusation, that's complete bull. I have a 2009 MBP, and I run HL2 at max settings with 30+ FPS. I've also played a slew of other shit on that thing, including StarCraft 2 OSX (mid-graphics). Command and Conquer 4 (mid-settings), and WoW (near high settings). Most mid-range 2009+ MBP's actually have two on board video cards - more than likely this friend didn't know to switch to the high performance one, hence the shitty graphics.

EDIT:

To the OP: Why is Boot Camp not an option!?
 

Griffolion

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crappingpegasus said:
Griffolion said:
Most of the games on the Steam store for Mac are usually made for the highest common denominator, which is a Radeon 5870 graphics card in the Mac Pro's. In short, nothing will run well on your MB, only the old stuff will run smoothly at reduced settings. A friend of mine has a 2009 MBP and can run HL2 at about 30 FPS on low settings.
.
wow, this is bullshit.

my friend has a late 2009 white MacBook and runs StarCraft 2 at low-med settings just fine. Plays ALL THE TIME.

we also play Counter-Strike Source all the time, and he never complains about the quality. He definitely uses lowish settings tho.

as for the MBP accusation, that's complete bull. I have a 2009 MBP, and I run HL2 at max settings with 30+ FPS. I've also played a slew of other shit on that thing, including StarCraft 2 OSX (mid-graphics). Command and Conquer 4 (mid-settings), and WoW (near high settings). Most mid-range 2009+ MBP's actually have two on board video cards - more than likely this friend didn't know to switch to the high performance one, hence the shitty graphics.

EDIT:

To the OP: Why is Boot Camp not an option!?
I can't speak for what your friends do on your MBP but I can only give my account, if you want to call BS, that's your problem.

Also, the "accusation" that you so say was not an accusation, it was an observation and a conclusion from that observation. If it's different to you, then fine, that's what a discussion is all about, there's no need to be calling anything BS.

Also, my friend always talks about how amazing the dual graphics processors (that thing that computers have been doing for a hella long while now), so i think he knew about switching to the high performance GPU.

Look, I'm sorry if my observation hurt your feelings because it didn't speak of MBP's up to the standard you want to believe, but this was just my account. But you keep thinking what you want to think, it makes my observations no less valid.