when last we saw our hero (Wednesday, May 29, 2002), cbidler at innominatus.com was madly tapping out: > Steve Ulrich wrote: > > it does bear noting that with the advent of OS X you have a platform > > with enough commercial momentum (read: a populace of users willing to > > pay for good software/games) to draw good game development as well as > > an excellent unix platform. just as a point of clarification - i was comparing OS X w/linux from a commercial appeal perspective. i'm not claiming that it's a game developers paradise. but since i rarely play games on anything other than a console system attached to my tv i dont' really care. > > <invective type="foolhardy" source="hardware snob"> > While I am encouraged by, say, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Return to > Castle Wolfenstein coming out on the Mac within 24 months of their release > to the hordes of PC users, the Mac gaming "market" is still a tiny fraction > of the PC market, and is therefore still a shambles (cf. the recent > cancellation of the SFC II port). **If** TransGaming's new porting > initiative (which was recently mentioned on Slashdot, but which I am not > going to cite because I am hammering this mail out between tasks at work) > does what it promises and drops the amount of re-engineering needed to bring > a *nix/OS X port to market for a given title by a large factor, that would > help. I won't become optimistic until I see publishers backing up their > engineers' enthusiasm for Mac/Linux gaming with actual content on the > shelves for us to purchase. > > As it is, being a Mac gamer is a little like being a pre-Dreamcast Sega fan: > the Genesis, SegaCD, and Saturn were all arguably the most technically > excellent consoles of their generation. The problem? Playing Space Harrier > and Golden Axe on a $200 SegaCD because the 'Classic 8-bit Hits' collection > is the best title out for the platform is *not* a wise use of precious > monetary resources. > > As much as I love Macs, I have been burned too many times by the changeable > minds of game publishers to really believe in the Mac as a gamer's platform. > When I bought my G3, Half-Life was "definitely" going to be ported, the > Tribes port was "on the way" (with a "simultaneous release" of Tribes2 for > Mac and PC planned!), Starcraft was "coming right along" (that one did > finally come out, two years ago IIRC), etc., etc. > > Being a Mac fan *and* a gamer is a long, hard road that ends, methinks, in > owning an x86 box for gaming. > </invective> > > Chris Johnson Bidler > > > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -- steve ulrich sulrich at botwerks.org PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7 AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC