Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

[Rodster]

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/06/11/eagames/index.php

EA makes play for Mac gamers

By Peter Cohen

Electronic Arts (EA), the video and computer game publisher behind some of today’s most popular games, has announced its direct support for the Macintosh. The company will begin releasing Mac versions of some of its biggest games beginning in July.

Taking the keynote stage with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, EA co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Bing Gordon told attendees of this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that EA would return to the Macintosh beginning in July with four of its most popular franchises: Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars, Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed Carbon and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In August, EA will ship Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08.

The plan is for EA to release the Macintosh versions of all of these games simultaneously with their PC and console counterparts, said EA spokesperson Tammy Schachter.

“We want to capitalize on the marketing momentum for these games,” said Schechter. That’s a distinctly different approach than in the past, where EA has licensed out Macintosh versions of the games to Mac-specific publishers, like Aspyr Media.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/06/11/idtech5/index.php

Quake maker's new game engine runs on Mac

By Peter Cohen

Id Software co-founder and CTO John Carmack stepped onto the keynote stage of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) with Apple CEO Steve Jobs to show off a Macintosh build of a new game engine -- the engine's first public showing, anywhere. More Mac news would be forthcoming, Carmack promised.

Carmack is id Software’s Chief Technology Officer and the programming mind that brought the world the game engines that have powered first person shooters since the inception of the original Quake and Doom series. Id CEO Todd Hollenshead revealed at an event in May that Carmack was working on a new engine, and said that it was being developed for an entirely new game franchise.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

Yeah, I still don't know why this is "huge" news. Yeah, it's coming to Mac.

Yeah, you could play it on a dual booted HD with Windows on one and Mac on the other.

Or you could get a console...

*shrug*

[Rodster]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

Yeah, I still don't know why this is "huge" news. Yeah, it's coming to Mac.

Yeah, you could play it on a dual booted HD with Windows on one and Mac on the other.

Or you could get a console...

*shrug*

It's huge news cause:

a) It will run faster as a native app than running it thru Windows via boot camp. If that wasn't the case EA would not waste it's time developing OSX games.
b) Mac fans are tired of waiting for Aspyr to release games for OSX. Now EA games will be released along with the Windows version.
c) Not all Mac users care about consoles.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

Not all Mac users care about games, anyway. I don't know why people would use Macs, but games aren't it.

I don't imagine either of these news items will be as huge as they have been spun to seem like they will be.

[thmst30]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

The bigger news is how friggin awesome Leopard is gonna be. Absolutely dominates Vista is every way possible. Sorry MS lovers.

[Rodster]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

Not all Mac users care about games, anyway. I don't know why people would use Macs, but games aren't it.

I don't imagine either of these news items will be as huge as they have been spun to seem like they will be.

I totally disagree with that. For years the Mac has been neglected in the games department and that's one major reason for PC sales including CPU's, video cards, memory, hard drives etc.

Now a major developer has come on board to support the Mac. If EA is successful expect others to follow. It also gives people who want to buy a Mac for the first time fewer reasons not to own a Mac.

[luv_mist]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

This is finally what I wanted to hear. Now this makes my choice for my next computer seem better. By the way, if you dual boot XP with the Apple OS, can you still install regular windows games?

[dagger55]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

This is finally what I wanted to hear. Now this makes my choice for my next computer seem better. By the way, if you dual boot XP with the Apple OS, can you still install regular windows games?

ya


but once you get used to osx, its truely miserable using windows

[JRod]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

I think this also signals a significant shift in the landscape of personal computers.

The Vista was mildly received from the business community who won't upgrade to vista on their networks, to average PC users where Vista was a hinderance more than a help.

Couple that with Mac starting to gain more of a market share. From the Ipod, to Itunes, Apple TV, and the Iphone they are on a bit of a roll and not even anti-Mac people can deny that. As a PC user all my live and having switched more than a year ago, I'm not firmly in the mac camp. Like the ad says, they just work.

Leopard looks fantastic. I look the feature where certain files can go into the dashboard. The preview feature is another good one for me. Lastly, I hope spaces is all it's cracked up to be and isn't a drain on the system.

[Rodster]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

An explanation of how EA games will be ported and non Intel based system will be left out.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...d_systems.html

EA's new Mac games will demand Intel-based systems

Many are lauding Electronic Arts' decision to actively support Mac OS X games as a significant boost to Apple's software lineup. Some legacy Mac users, however, will be left in the dark.

For instance, each of the new Mac games announced thus far will be converted using TransGaming's Cider engine, which -- unlike direct reprogramming efforts -- wraps a layer around the game's original code. The interpreter translates all of the normally Windows-only system calls made by a game (including DirectX and Win32) to Mac calls with a minimal overhead.

Doing so not only cuts down on development time, the company says, but also guarantees equal support as multiplayer games, patches, and other features will always be shared between Mac and Windows versions. All of these have been chronic difficulties for games in the past, as developers had to convert code both to a new OS and a new processor architecture at the same time.

[dagger55]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

An explanation of how EA games will be ported and non Intel based system will be left out.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...d_systems.html

EA's new Mac games will demand Intel-based systems

Many are lauding Electronic Arts' decision to actively support Mac OS X games as a significant boost to Apple's software lineup. Some legacy Mac users, however, will be left in the dark.

For instance, each of the new Mac games announced thus far will be converted using TransGaming's Cider engine, which -- unlike direct reprogramming efforts -- wraps a layer around the game's original code. The interpreter translates all of the normally Windows-only system calls made by a game (including DirectX and Win32) to Mac calls with a minimal overhead.

Doing so not only cuts down on development time, the company says, but also guarantees equal support as multiplayer games, patches, and other features will always be shared between Mac and Windows versions. All of these have been chronic difficulties for games in the past, as developers had to convert code both to a new OS and a new processor architecture at the same time.

Thats why it is a big deal giggas

[Rodster]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

ya


but once you get used to osx, its truely miserable using windows

I use both OSX and Windows and have never found Windows XP or Vista to be a miserable experience. To the contrary I find all three OS's have their pros and cons. So i'm in the minority of those who likes all three.

[dagger55]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

I use both OSX and Windows and have never found Windows XP or Vista to be a miserable experience. To the contrary I find all three OS's have their pros and cons. So i'm in the minority of those who likes all three.

You found vista to not be a miserable experience?


Your opinion is now null and void

[The GIGGAS]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

The biggest deal is if mainstream companies start supporting Linux (any distro) on a large scale.

That will be the best era in computing. A free OS supporting the world's biggest games.

[Rodster]

Re: Huge News For Apple Mac Lovers !

You found vista to not be a miserable experience?


Your opinion is now null and void

I'm running it on my IBM T60 laptop.

The biggest deal is if mainstream companies start supporting Linux (any distro) on a large scale.

That will be the best era in computing. A free OS supporting the world's biggest games.

I'd be down with that too.