As a follow up to The
Last PowerBooks Have Plenty of Life Left, I would like to elaborate
on the least productive (but greatest diversionary) use of your late
model Aluminum PowerBook G4. That, of course, would be the simple act
of gaming.
Many of us game, and to put it into perspective, anywhere between
50% and 70% of Americans play video games. The video game industry is
now a $10+ billion/year giant. That's a serious business with a serious
audience!
Macs currently account for about 10% to 12% of all personal
computers, and although this sounds small by comparison to the Windows
market, someone wants that piece of the pie! Any publisher looking to
make extra profits can simply make a Mac OS X port of their game.
If it's a title with a lot of hype behind it, you'll probably even be
able to look forward to a simultaneous OS X release alongside its
Windows counterpart!
In the later years of the PowerPC, there were quite a few impressive
ports and releases of games that will simply blow you away (even by
today's standards) when running on the heavy hitting G4 processors of
any 2005 Aluminum PowerBook G4.
These hard-core games tended to run best on G5s and/or Intel
hardware, but at the time when they were released, in order to play
them on a G5 or Intel machine, your choices were to either be chained
to your desktop or to ante up for a brand new MacBook Pro with the
needed dedicated GPU (the 2006 versions of the consumer MacBook had the
lame integrated GMA graphics, rendering those machines fairly useless
for gaming).
Okay, so what about these games? What killer titles are out there
for those who want to really get their money's worth for the cooling
pads they bought for their 2005 Aluminum PowerBook G4s?
Which Games?
Yes, these machines can run a bit hot, but won't really turn into
fire on your lap until you burn it up with the finest games from Aspyr
that were released around the time of the 2005 PowerBook G4s: Call of
Duty 2, Doom 3, Quake 4, and Prey, to name just a few (note - system
requirements on Call of Duty 2 and Prey actually call for a 1.8 GHz G5,
but they will run in low resolution with some of the effects turned
down/off on a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4). Doom 3 calls for a 1.5 GHz G4
with a Radeon 9600 or better, while Quake 4 calls for a 1.67 GHz G4
processor and a Radeon 9600 or better.
These titles all hit slightly above or right at the peak of the G4
in terms of minimum specifications and truly are the ultimate test for
the PowerBook G4, but they stand the test of time so far for that
reason. That's gaming at the high end of the G4, but at a low-end price
today if you purchase a late model PowerBook G4, now several product
lines old.
Give it a shot if you don't have the cash for a newer MacBook with
the GeForce 9400M or a MacBook Pro . . . you won't be let
down.
How Low Can You Go?
In summary, gaming on a late model PowerBook G4 still gives you an
abundance of high-end gaming options, but at a fraction of the price of
current hardware. I would not hesitate to recommend any of the titles I
mentioned. In fact, besides these titles, there is a great wealth of
games that will run on systems spec'd around a 700 MHz G4 and above,
showing that even a 2002
iMac Flat Panel or a 667 MHz TiBook has some gaming
potential.
Coming Soon: Gaming on a Pismo. There have been plenty of nice
reviews of the Pismo
PowerBook on Low End Mac. It's an obvious fact that the Pismo has a
special place in the heart of us - and many Macintosh enthusiasts. The
Pismo is still considered a workhorse by many. What about when you just
want to take a quick break though?
I'll go over your gaming options with the limited 8 MB graphics
card, and a G3 400/500 or G4 550 spec'd machine. Stay tuned.
Dan Bashur lives in central Ohio with his wife and children. He uses various PowerPC G3 and G4 Macs running Tiger and Leopard. Besides finding new uses for Macs and other tech, Dan enjoys writing (fantasy novel series in the works), is an avid gamer, and a member of Sony's Gamer Advisor Panel. You can read more of Dan Bashur's work on ProjectGamers.com, where he contributes regular articles about the PSP, classic gaming, and ways you can use Sony gaming hardware with your Mac.
