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Will the Mac become a gaming machine again?

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No, because they don't, and will never command enough of the market to be a competitive gaming platform again. If you're a game developer, do you choose to target 90% of the market with Windows, or 10% with Apple? Or whatever the actual percentages are. Also Apple hardware is simply too expensive for mass market gaming. Good luck trying to game on anything cheaper than a $2000 G5. And even those come with subpar, by PC standards, video cards that beg to be upgraded. In the budget arena, comparing the gaming capabilities of a $500 Dell to a Mac Mini is like comparing a Playstation 2 to an Atari 2600, and the Dell won't exactly be a gaming powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination.
 
Originally posted by: Pariah
No, because they don't, and will never command enough of the market to be a competitive gaming platform again. If you're a game developer, do you choose to target 90% of the market with Windows, or 10% with Apple? Or whatever the actual percentages are. Also Apple hardware is simply too expensive for mass market gaming. Good luck trying to game on anything cheaper than a $2000 G5. And even those come with subpar, by PC standards, video cards that beg to be upgraded. In the budget arena, comparing the gaming capabilities of a $500 Dell to a Mac Mini is like comparing a Playstation 2 to an Atari 2600, and the Dell won't exactly be a gaming powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination.
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Many gamers already have a hard enough time keeping up with PC hardware, half the community is a generation behind or more. With a Mac, they'd never be able to keep up. That's probably why most games on the Mac are so old.
 
You guys made good points. I guess I didn't think too much on it. I just figured PPC->PPC ports would be easier, but I failed to realize Linux/BSD are x86, and they arent acceptable gaming platforms.
 
Doesn't the XBox 360 still run a Windows-based OS?

I've read before (Enquirer) that the Windows layer is actually run in emulation. So it wouldn't do any good in helping a port to OS X.


Besides which, if you look at Anand's Mac articles, you notice that the hardware is a strange mix of cutting-edge and very old. For example, a Mac won't boot up if the RAM isn't @ CAS 3. :/
 
There wasa a site where you cuold play oregon trail with a java emulator, I can't remember where it was thought 🙁
 
Eug keeps saying that it isn't based on the G5s. There are a lot of different PPC type chips...
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🙂 Yep.

However, Macs could be built that run on the same chips, of course. I'd just be surprised if any were any time soon (if ever).


If you're a game developer, do you choose to target 90% of the market with Windows, or 10% with Apple?
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< 5% actually.


BTW, I wonder what this means for ports of games from Xbox 360 "Windows" to x86 Windows.
 
I believe that there are emulators for the XBOX360 that run on PowerMac G5's (MS is using them as their development machines). I think the emulators are for internal use only. I saw this on slashdot recently.
 
Originally posted by: hopejr
I believe that there are emulators for the XBOX360 that run on PowerMac G5's (MS is using them as their development machines). I think the emulators are for internal use only. I saw this on slashdot recently.
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So....was my original statement true then? Will the Mac become a viable gaming machine? If they're running the dev kits on G5's, they can probably run on Mac Mini's (or maybe future G5 Mac Mini's. Dont know if they can run on G4's). Things are looking mighty interesting.

Edit:
http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2420&p=5
Guess it is true that the dev kit is being run on G5's. Well well. Maybe gaming is coming back to the Macs afterall!
Halo3 on the Mac!! :shocked:
 
Originally posted by: SNM
Doesn't the XBox 360 still run a Windows-based OS?

I've read before (Enquirer) that the Windows layer is actually run in emulation. So it wouldn't do any good in helping a port to OS X.


Besides which, if you look at Anand's Mac articles, you notice that the hardware is a strange mix of cutting-edge and very old. For example, a Mac won't boot up if the RAM isn't @ CAS 3. :/
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I thought Xbox 1 and 360 use DirectX (or some derivative of DirectX) as the API. I'm pretty darn sure it isn't OpenGL, which is what Mac OS X uses. Thus, ports over to OpenGL would be a programming nightmare (assuming the consoles don't use OpenGL).

Holy Sh*t...G5's require CAS 3 memory? I'd just recommended some CAS 2.5 DDR400 to a friend who's about to get a G5. Damnnnnnnnnn. He might be pissed.
 
A pair of Apple Powermac G5 systems were actually running the Xbox 360 demos, not the 360 console. The consoles in the kiosks weren't actually running, they were just for show - now you know why all the controllers were wired.

AT
 
Wait a minute, my friend who bought his G5 also bought the CAS 2.5 memory I recommended and it worked just fine. Of course, this is a brand new PowerMac G5 w/ dual 2.3GHz processors. Maybe that's why.
 
Originally posted by: BFG10K
Wait a minute, my friend who bought his G5 also bought the CAS 2.5 memory I recommended and it worked just fine.
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What does that have to do with anything?
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If you read back a couple of posts, someone mentioned that G5's only boot with CAS 3 memory.
 
Well, I play a lot of games on my G5 Duallie with X800 XT and love it. I have a high end PC with a X850XT and it is great for gaming. But my Dual G5 honestly just feels smoother. As long as you have a high end video card, and plenty of ram, the Mac games fine. True it's real prowess is in applications, but you have to really work with one, and I think then you will see what I am saying. No questions high end PC's perform better in gaming, but my experience is I am loving both and I think Tiger is far superior over Windows XP Pro. Just and FYI from my perspective owning both machines. And I paid nothing for the Dual G5's with a new 20" Apple Cinema. I traded a A64 3800 system and a Samsung 21.3 LCD.. And my G5 has all Cas 2.5 ram also..
 
What we need is for mac to let us run there os on our pc's than game designers will make mac os compatible with there games.

I wont miss windows..who wouldnt want to run mac os?
 
Will the Mac become a gaming machine again?
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Not anytime soon.

It takes ONE THING to be a serious gaming platform. Installed User Base.

Right now Apple has a 2.4% worldwide market share.

When Apple gets their numbers up high enough to be noticed, then you might see simultaneous releases of games and gaming hardware across PCs and Macs.

It might happen sooner because of Apple moving to Intel processors, but don't count on it. Just because it might be easier to port a game or a piece of hardware doesn't mean it will happen sooner.
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Will the Mac become a gaming machine again?
Click to expand...

When Apple gets their numbers up high enough to be noticed, then you might see simultaneous releases of games and gaming hardware across PCs and Macs.

It might happen sooner because of Apple moving to Intel processors, but don't count on it. Just because it might be easier to port a game or a piece of hardware doesn't mean it will happen sooner.
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Right, and by then we will have to dodge them flying pigs! Face it Apple blows, just a small nich market because they look COOL.

The only time Apple ever had an edge on PC's was way back when they were better in graphics design ( which isn't true anymore ). Then they were better at Audio Production ( which also isn't true anymore ) as evidenced by more and more of the audio software that used to be solely for Mac's are going over to Windows based software / Hardware in droves.

pcgeek11
 
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