I'd like to !
I've bought many games last year, that was when my box was still able to run something. But the last games I bought (Homeworld, Call of Duty Expansion) were in some levels unplayable.
That is on an upgraded G4 Sawtooth (100Mhz bus) with 1.4Ghz G4 upgrade and radeon 9800. Oh and of course 832 CAS2 PC-100 Ram and a faster hard drive.
Ok fine the bus speed is only 100Mhz. Still I was expecting my setup to be much more that what it is. Anyway the point is, buying a gaming machine on Mac means looking at a PowerMac (expandability) . But then look at the PowerMac line. The only affordable (single 1.8Ghz) computer is soo crippled it is insulting.
We should push apple to release a single-cpu simple upgradable box:
- 2Ghz up to (max available)
- one (or 2) PCI-Express
- one PCI slot (nothing fancy here)
- one HD, one drive (make it a Dvd burner, as they are now very cheap).
I have absolutly no use for 3 PCI or PCI-X slots, and I am certainly not the only one, so let's drop the price by removing most of them. Second, dual cpu is cool, but still too expensive.
Heck they could even call it the Mac Junior ;-)
Well my point was, apple is really being an &*#@*
for gamers. Being a Java developer and musician, I enjoy my mac and won't pay for a PC gaming machine. A Console ? Nah, I like the quality of games we get on the Mac, and with Collin McRae coming, I am perfectly satisfied. The only issue is Apple. Their machine do not compete well with PC and they are too expensive for gamers.
I will come back to gaming as soon as apple upgrade their entry level PowerMac with AT LEAST a next gen mother board with PCI-Express.
I don't think Apple will ever make a machine that specifically appeals to gamers -- the market is too limited for that. The best we'll see is continued efforts like the iMac, eMac and Mac mini, which gamers are likely to scoff at.
That's why I think it's important to build a new audience of gamers out of people who are using their Macs for other purposes but might be interested in the occasional game, if it's fun and challenging.
Well the issue is, that with an iMac, you likely won't be gaming for long. Take DOOM3 as an exemple, it barely runs on a current iMac. And since you can't upgrade the GPU on an iMac, a year from now you won't buy anymore hardcore (as per system requirements) games. Fine simpler games will still run fine, but as the difference between console-PC and mac increase the life-time of a mac as gaming machine really shrinks.
Second issue, gaming market is huuuuuuuuuuge. Apple not realizing that is puzzling. The Xbox will be a much more successful digital hub as many people will buy it for the games and end up using its digital hub feature.
The new iMac with the Radeon 9600 card runs Doom 3 substantially better than the old one does, so there's progress. And I expect it'll run even better as Apple continues to make improvements to OpenGL. Almost the same thing happened when Quake 3 Arena was first released.
As far as the game market is concerned, it depends on what segment of the market you're talking about. Console games is a huge market, and growing. PC games -- and by extension Mac games -- is shrinking, and has been ever since the last round of consoles hit the market.
Honestly, I don't think Apple is oblivious to this. I think Apple is keenly aware of what people are using Macs for, and are anxious to see that continue, but the sad fact is that few of us Mac users play games seriously on our machines. That certainly doesn't mean that those of us who do shouldn't do our part to help improve game sales, however.
Comments
I second that, Peter. So far, our latest release has sold a quarter of what we expected. I am even hesitant to start working on another title.
Posted by: FC | May 28, 2005 02:45 PM
I'd like to !
I've bought many games last year, that was when my box was still able to run something. But the last games I bought (Homeworld, Call of Duty Expansion) were in some levels unplayable.
That is on an upgraded G4 Sawtooth (100Mhz bus) with 1.4Ghz G4 upgrade and radeon 9800. Oh and of course 832 CAS2 PC-100 Ram and a faster hard drive.
Ok fine the bus speed is only 100Mhz. Still I was expecting my setup to be much more that what it is. Anyway the point is, buying a gaming machine on Mac means looking at a PowerMac (expandability) . But then look at the PowerMac line. The only affordable (single 1.8Ghz) computer is soo crippled it is insulting.
We should push apple to release a single-cpu simple upgradable box:
- 2Ghz up to (max available)
- one (or 2) PCI-Express
- one PCI slot (nothing fancy here)
- one HD, one drive (make it a Dvd burner, as they are now very cheap).
I have absolutly no use for 3 PCI or PCI-X slots, and I am certainly not the only one, so let's drop the price by removing most of them. Second, dual cpu is cool, but still too expensive.
Heck they could even call it the Mac Junior ;-)
Well my point was, apple is really being an &*#@*
for gamers. Being a Java developer and musician, I enjoy my mac and won't pay for a PC gaming machine. A Console ? Nah, I like the quality of games we get on the Mac, and with Collin McRae coming, I am perfectly satisfied. The only issue is Apple. Their machine do not compete well with PC and they are too expensive for gamers.
I will come back to gaming as soon as apple upgrade their entry level PowerMac with AT LEAST a next gen mother board with PCI-Express.
Posted by: Roland | May 30, 2005 11:05 AM
I don't think Apple will ever make a machine that specifically appeals to gamers -- the market is too limited for that. The best we'll see is continued efforts like the iMac, eMac and Mac mini, which gamers are likely to scoff at.
That's why I think it's important to build a new audience of gamers out of people who are using their Macs for other purposes but might be interested in the occasional game, if it's fun and challenging.
Posted by: flargh | May 30, 2005 02:51 PM
Well the issue is, that with an iMac, you likely won't be gaming for long. Take DOOM3 as an exemple, it barely runs on a current iMac. And since you can't upgrade the GPU on an iMac, a year from now you won't buy anymore hardcore (as per system requirements) games. Fine simpler games will still run fine, but as the difference between console-PC and mac increase the life-time of a mac as gaming machine really shrinks.
Second issue, gaming market is huuuuuuuuuuge. Apple not realizing that is puzzling. The Xbox will be a much more successful digital hub as many people will buy it for the games and end up using its digital hub feature.
Posted by: Roland | May 31, 2005 11:21 AM
The new iMac with the Radeon 9600 card runs Doom 3 substantially better than the old one does, so there's progress. And I expect it'll run even better as Apple continues to make improvements to OpenGL. Almost the same thing happened when Quake 3 Arena was first released.
As far as the game market is concerned, it depends on what segment of the market you're talking about. Console games is a huge market, and growing. PC games -- and by extension Mac games -- is shrinking, and has been ever since the last round of consoles hit the market.
Honestly, I don't think Apple is oblivious to this. I think Apple is keenly aware of what people are using Macs for, and are anxious to see that continue, but the sad fact is that few of us Mac users play games seriously on our machines. That certainly doesn't mean that those of us who do shouldn't do our part to help improve game sales, however.
Posted by: flargh | May 31, 2005 11:50 AM