Gaming on the Mac

noolli

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Feb 5, 2008
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I got a mac and have had a PC but the only game i liked from either was halo comabt evolved on mac and doom 2 on pc.
 

Anemicman

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Sep 8, 2009
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Granted this is an old thread, but I've been trying to find answers to the very same question, that is games for mac. Everyone's right about the 3-5 year rule in general, sadly. Though the advent of cider might be pushing that a little further.

Blizzard is mac enabled for most of their past games and for at least two of their future games (joint mac/pc release for both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3)

From trying to track this stuff down I've found that Bootcamp is probably the best option that you have. Again, sadly, because partitioning your drive can be a big inconvenience. But another option that has some promise, but requires a lot of user help and input is wine. Which creates an environment where pc games can be played natively for the mac (intel) for that you can check out these sites.

http://www.winehq.org/

http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX

On a side note someone suggested Ambrosia, and while I don't know about most of their other games I do know about Escape Velocity and I strongly recommend it as on of the best and most expansive games that I've ever played. It is native to the mac, with a big fan-base creating TCs and other mods. Try it out.
 

Nutcase

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Dec 3, 2008
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Sib said:
sammyfreak said:
I know Linux users have some sort of windows emulator, im not sure but it might exist for mac.

But i think my local Applehouse store had a selection of games that work on the mac.
You can run Bootcamp off mac for a windows emulator.
Boot Camp is not an emulator but a bootloader and set of Windows drivers. With it, Windows runs natively on Macs, just like on any other PC hardware, with no speed penalty like emulation would cause.

This doesn't help OP, though. That laptop has normal laptop graphics which means it's not a gaming machine no matter what OS you slap on it. Only old games are worth trying. Even WoW is too much IMO.
 

Mosstromo

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Jul 5, 2008
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There are a few sites that list free games for the Mac. These are some of those:
Jay is Games [http://www.thriftmac.com/Games/].
I recommend a nice free game called Battle for Wesnoth to begin your journey into the freeware for Mac. Very nice Turn-based Strategy game.

And now for the paying sites where you can buy Mac Games:
Apple [http://www.macgamestore.com/?gclid=CLyDuOi_4pwCFcIvpAodkQyGJQ] site itself.
Also Direct to Drive and Game Tap have a section of Mac games (not too ample though).
Recommended cheap games for the Mac (9 and 15 USD, respectively): The Path and Braid. Both indi games but widely praised. Just read a review to check if they are your thing.

You mentioned Spore. It is already out, and since the very first day it has been for the Mac and the PC (same box). I saw the box myself some months ago, so be asured of that.

RPGs is easy since they are a constant on the Mac. From Baldur's Gate (albeit this one is only for MacOS 9), through all Star Wars games, to Neverwinter Nights 2 (for present day machines), there have usually been Mac versions.

MMOs for the Mac are few, but they include WoW and WAR. The second one, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, may be a condemned game and could close at any time in the near future (I hope it does not), but you never know. Just ask around before buying it.

To lift your spirits: Since the Mac turned to Intel chips, various developers announced, at that time, that making games for both platforms would now be very easy, and that they would certainly develop for both in the future.
And you will always have grandiose Blizzard. They have always developed for both, and most of the times they've come in the same box.

I hope that any of this information is of some value to you. CHeers. :-D
 

RancidBeast

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Sep 7, 2009
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I have to agree with others here.
Boot camp with windows would be the best way to go. I have my intel mac dual booted and it runs fine. Quick restart and im on CSS in now time :)

There is some kind of windows emulator available that my friend used and said was good. However, the only games I have for mac are WoW and Sims 3 ^^
 

Quadtrix

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I'd love to be able to play PC games on a PC running a Mac OS. Microsoft would probably go out of there way to make sure that never happens, though. They'd probably threaten any developer that wanted to make a game that compatible with both operating systems, perhaps not allowing them to make the game compatible with their OS unless it's exclusive to it.
 

Evan Waters

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Dec 12, 2007
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Quadtrix said:
I'd love to be able to play PC games on a PC running a Mac OS. Microsoft would probably go out of there way to make sure that never happens, though. They'd probably threaten any developer that wanted to make a game that compatible with both operating systems, perhaps not allowing them to make the game compatible with their OS unless it's exclusive to it.
Not quite sure what you're getting at, but there are, to this day, still games that are compatible with both OSes. SPORE was a Win/Mac hybrid thingy, one product shipped for both systems. WoW's sold that way too. It's mostly an approach taken with educational stuff, but we get a bone thrown to us once in a while.

If you want to talk running the Mac OS on a PC, actually it's Apple that discourages that. Their business model hinges on them being the one company that makes Macs- hence, if you want to buy a Mac you go to them. This is a big reason that they're more expensive, but on the upside they tend to be reliable and you won't get weird hardware driver conflicts as much. (Not to make this into PC vs. Mac- ultimately it comes down to which system you feel more comfortable using, I think.)

(EDIT: Despite this, there are definitely emulators for the Mac OS and probably some cheats to run it on a PC as well. It's just not an official thing like Boot Camp or Parallels.)

It really depends on just how much computer gaming you do. (Am I the only one who thinks the PC/Mac thing is confusing? Because PC means personal computer, but Macs are computers that are personal as well- it was so much easier when what we call "PCs" were just called IBMs. You can't even use Wintel anymore.) If you want the latest titles and play through a lot of games at a good clip, you'll want either a PC or Boot Camp, but if you just want to have a few good games on your computer and don't necessarily mind if they're old or not, a Mac can do that.
 

megapenguinx

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Get Crossover (google it) and get yourself Orange Box. Granted it's not 100% glitch free but hey you can finally play TF2 on your Mac. That alone is worth it.
 

Acaroid

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Aug 11, 2008
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Thunderhorse said:
O.k. First off, I'm not really looking for a mac vs. PC debate, especially in terms of gaming. I am more than aware of ALL of the PC's advantages on mac, and I hadn't even bought the thing(the mac) for gaming in the first place.
But just because this thing isn't intended to play games, doesn't mean it can't. I've already grabbed marathon(...) for it, and I'm kind of looking to branch outward. Only problem is, I don't really know where to start. Where do I get good games for the mac? Are there any free one's I should be looking to D/L?(I got Marathon for free).
I heard Spore is going to be released on Mac, so thats nice. I'm looking to play either a good RTS, Adventure game, FPS or even MMORPG, although the latter would have to REALLY impress me, and definitely not fall under any category that WoW might.

Any takers?
I knwo you can get battlefield 2142 on the mac and you could play quake 4 (and quake live i would guess) on it, Ive also seen Neverwinternights 2, COD4, spore and any blizzard game you can think of (diablo 2, warcraft 3, not sure about WoW though).

That is all I can think of off the top of my head.


Lord Krunk said:
I personally love the mac. At first I didn't, but my parents bought one, and I adore it.

But it's brilliant at everything else (No VIRUSES!). And it hasn't betrayed me, unlike Microsoft. (Stupid %^$%$%$%$#%$^%R^%$E%%^&&%^*&^%$$$%^&^*%$^&% Vista)
The no mac virus thing is a big myth and a dangerous one, yeah they aint targeted liked PC's are, but they are targeted. people in general dont put virus protection on a Mac, makes them easy targets. I only say this as I had a friend that got a virus on his mac and lost all of his hard drive (because he didnt back it up, why would he need to, macs never break down or get viruses rolls eyes*)