Aspyr\'s Gamerhood Takes Aim at Mac Gaming

[robwright]

Digital distribution for Mac games? Surely they can\'t be serious. Oh, but Aspyr is. The game company announced the unusually-named Gamerhood, a new software application that will offer downloadable games for Mac users. Aspyr hopes Gamerhood will do for games what iTunes has done for music.

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[falloutman]

well, i think this is a bad idea because the only game worthy machine in the mac lineup is the powermac series which only has the nVidia 6600 series in their systems, and those are ancient in the world of computers. I cant name anybody that would by a computer for 2000 that has a 6600LE with 128mb ram. Hell, i spent 600 on my rig, and it has the saem GC inside, but with 256mb ram and teh other 4 pipelines unlocked. Plus, there are only a handful of titles out for the mac, and if your like me, that doesnt cut it for lan parties. I think mac needs to release something a little cheaper that has good equipment under the hood. Hell, they shoudl just join with FreeBSD and get the whole multiplatform compatibility done so people can build a custom computer and put either/and OSX and Vista. I bet mac would make mroe money that way. Id love to have teh mac OSX, but I'll never touch them because of the high price. I can get a gaming machine cheaper from dell thatll run circles around the powermac rigs. for 2800 you could get a gaming capable mac, but for 3k, I can build a custom rig thatll have watercooling, a dual gpu GC, 4gb ram, and a dual core cpu all in a nice silver (Gigabyte ) case that looks muhc better than a powermac.

 

[twile]

One possible problem I see with expanding Mac gaming is that, traditionally, Mac users tend to expect a certain level of quality and performance from their computers. It seems the general message in Apple's products and related services, from the hardware to the software to iTunes and the iPod, is "Don't worry about the details, it will work if you buy it from us." So you don't worry much about specs and things. You just know that you've got a Mac, and it should run your programs smoothly and intuitively. This seems to work with most applications, such as music, video, simple photo touch-up work, word processing, chatting, net browsing, etc.

But not games. I bet some Mac users are going to be expecting the games to run smoothly like everything else, and they'll be sorely disappointed when they realize that their system can't be outfitted with the hardware to run games smoothly at max detail and 1280x720, much less at native resolution on a 30" Cinema display.

Maybe it won't be a huge problem, but I can imagine many a Mac user scratching their head in confusion when Call of Duty 2 or Sims 2 can either run in an 800x600 window or non-native resolution fullscreen with crap performance. Throwing money at the problem won't make it go away. With the exception of the few enthusiast gamers out there, Apple has no incentive to put dual-GPU setups in the MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, or iMac (and those are all tiny computers... do they even have SPACE for the additional hardware?). Apple gamers will be limited to one small graphics card, none of these elaborate dual and quad setups that are becoming increasingly necessary to run modern games.

Telling users that they've got much more power than new PCs and 30" Cinema displays to boot and then offering crippled graphics card solutions might make a would-be Mac gamer wonder why the platform is suited for games at all. Simple answer is, it's not.

 

[falloutman]

One possible problem I see with expanding Mac gaming is that, traditionally, Mac users tend to expect a certain level of quality and performance from their computers. It seems the general message in Apple's products and related services, from the hardware to the software to iTunes and the iPod, is "Don't worry about the details, it will work if you buy it from us." So you don't worry much about specs and things. You just know that you've got a Mac, and it should run your programs smoothly and intuitively. This seems to work with most applications, such as music, video, simple photo touch-up work, word processing, chatting, net browsing, etc.

But not games. I bet some Mac users are going to be expecting the games to run smoothly like everything else, and they'll be sorely disappointed when they realize that their system can't be outfitted with the hardware to run games smoothly at max detail and 1280x720, much less at native resolution on a 30" Cinema display.

Maybe it won't be a huge problem, but I can imagine many a Mac user scratching their head in confusion when Call of Duty 2 or Sims 2 can either run in an 800x600 window or non-native resolution fullscreen with crap performance. Throwing money at the problem won't make it go away. With the exception of the few enthusiast gamers out there, Apple has no incentive to put dual-GPU setups in the MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, or iMac (and those are all tiny computers... do they even have SPACE for the additional hardware?). Apple gamers will be limited to one small graphics card, none of these elaborate dual and quad setups that are becoming increasingly necessary to run modern games.

Telling users that they've got much more power than new PCs and 30" Cinema displays to boot and then offering crippled graphics card solutions might make a would-be Mac gamer wonder why the platform is suited for games at all. Simple answer is, it's not.

thats what i just said...

 

[twile]

Sorry, my eyes have a tendency to skip over things that aren't capitalized properly (not poking fun at you, I seriously mean it).

Also I was trying to draw attention to the fact that Apple seems to STRONGLY promote anti-aliasing, high-definition content, large monitors, smooth performance and visuals, etc... something that a PC with much more power still cannot pull off consistently.

That and, if the Apple site is any indication, Apple users like to see benchmarks comparing their software to PC software so they can see that hardware superiority in action. Not happening on the gaming front...

 

[cafuddled]

What happened to apple, the last I ever heard or looked in to them was back in the GeForce 3 days. Back then the GeForce 3 was actually put out Mac’s before they where available for the PC. I believe the same applied for the GeForce 4 as well…

So what’s happened since then, have Apple just given up on high end graphics or what?

 

[falloutman]

Its cheaper to put in the integrated graphics or the lowend ati stuff. Mac has filled their customers head's with intel saving their lives wit dualcore cpus and "flashy" intel integrated graphics. This is yet another reason why I really hate macintosh.

 

[ryokinshin]

they seriously do need to get their gfx solutions worked out, but other then that theres no reason why this is a bad idea, would i game on a mac? if there was better choic of hardware and more software support, i think a lot of ppl would switch over to macs, not to mention they look a lot better then pcs

 

[towerbuddha]

This could work but the games will have to be designed around Mac limitations. It shouldn't be too hard.

Apple maintains a short leash on software and hardware performance. It is limiting in some ways but on the other hand it provides a more stable user experience. If an Apple owner wants to get into some heavy gaming he/she can by a cheap Wintel system or XBox. The stability provided by Apple machines outweighs the gaming limitations.