Time passes by quickly, and with that passage of time, technology
changes. The old saying "out with the old, in with the new" takes over
our minds with the release of glamorous new Apple hardware - or does
it?
Macintosh computers have a knack for longevity - and for outliving
their Windows counterparts. You don't necessarily have to feel obsolete
using an older system. Does it mean that you won't be able to use the
latest apps and play the latest games? Most likely. Does it mean that
you won't stay productive, and won't be able to play any games at all?
Not at all!
What happens when you would like to discover the usefulness of a Mac
and don't have a big budget to blow? Your best choice is to go bargain
hunting on
eBay, Craigslist, or to
numerous other online resellers to obtain used equipment at a
reasonable price.
The Pismo PowerBook
If you have read Charles Moore's columns, you can see that he
is truly a Pismo
fanatic.
Why is the Pismo so great? It's G4 upgradeable, it's rugged, it has
room for two batteries (giving you up to 16 hours of runtime - great
for long trips), and it has an AirPort 802.11b slot for wireless
connectivity. It also is the most user serviceable notebook Apple ever
manufactured, and it arguably has the most expansion options on an
Apple portable that are still viable today - more than nine years after
its release!
You can even do some nice iMovie or Photoshop work if you go for a
G4 upgrade, making the Pismo an investment that will continue to pay
for itself into the future.
On the downside, you will also find that a Pismo is quite limited in
terms of graphics processing with a weak Rage 128 mobility graphics
card with just 8 MB of VRAM. It's hard to imagine, but this
machine could possibly have had Quartz Extreme Support if it had been
built with a capable enough graphics processor with the thought in mind
of later G4 upgrades, potentially unlocking that feature.
Games for Pismo
What options does that leave you with for gaming on a Pismo? Not a
lot of notable titles in Mac OS X, but there are plenty of options
in OS 9 that will amaze you! I found that the majority of games
that made a great impact on the Mac during the time of the Pismo went
one way or the other - either too high for the VRAM in the Pismo or too
low for OS X. This really shows that the Pismo was one of those
"bridge systems" that, in this case, connected the gap from OS 9
to OS X, running both harmoniously!
In the case of OS X titles that could have met the processor specs
for the Pismo, the requirements were set too high for the Pismo's video
card. Most early OS X titles that could have met the processor
specs of the Pismo also called for a Radeon 7000 or better with 32 MB
of VRAM. Surprisingly these early OS X games ran on hardware as
low as a Beige G3 at
266 MHz or better with a Radeon 7000 PCI video card upgrade, but they
could not run on the Pismo, given the non-upgradeable video
hardware.
Because of this, the games you had to choose from had to date back a
generation to the older video technology of the Power Macs and iMacs
that preceded the Pismo. Not until mobile systems started having 32 MB
of internal VRAM did we start to see gaming on the go (at least with
brand new titles) become a viable option.
Below is a table I've compiled of games that will easily run on a
Pismo. As I stated earlier, you have to consider the video technology
and its necessity to gaming. With that said, and with the 8 MB ATI
Rage 128 Mobility processor in mind, here is a list of games that are
best suited for the Pismo that will also run well. Quake 3 will run
smoothly in both 16- and 32-bit modes (much faster in 16-bit mode
though).
Gaming on a PowerBook G3 'Pismo'
|
Minimum System Requirements1
|
| Game Title |
RAM |
HDD |
OS
|
G3 400? |
G3 500? |
G4 550? |
| Doom 2/The Ultimate Doom |
8 MB |
17.2 MB |
7.1-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Quake 3 Arena2 |
70 MB |
500 MB |
8.1-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| The Sims Complete Collection |
256 MB |
3.2 GB |
10.4.4+
|
NO |
YES |
YES |
| Diablo Battle Chest/Diablo 23 |
256 MB |
650 MB |
8.1-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Sid Meier's Civilization 24 |
10 MB |
435 MB |
7.5.3-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Myst 10th Anniversary |
64 MB |
400 MB |
8.1-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Myst III: Exile |
64 MB |
200 MB |
10.0+
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Unreal Tournament ('99) |
64 MB |
120 MB |
7.6-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Out Of This World5 |
2 MB |
<2 MB |
6.0.7-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Prince of Persia Collection |
2.5 MB |
18 MB |
7.1-9.2.2
|
YES |
YES |
YES |
- All games that run on a PowerBook "Pismo" G3 must meet the video
card/VRAM requirements to run properly. A PowerBook G3 Pismo has an ATI
Rage 128 M graphics processor with 8 MB of VRAM. The VRAM is not
upgradeable, so games are still limited to the graphics requirements
even with a G4 upgrade.
- A patch exists to run Quake 3 Arena in Mac OS X. The Mac OS X patch
requires Mac OS 10.2.8 (Jaguar).
- A patch exists to run Diablo on Mac OS X. The patch requires Mac OS
10.2 (Jaguar).
- Civilization 2 will run on any 68030 and better. That dates waaay
back. The installer is custom and will allow you to choose a minimal
(9.5 MB) install, a standard (55 MB) install, or a large (435 MB)
install. More or less files are pulled from the CD depending on the
install, but it seems that you need the CD no matter what for the
music.
- This game is rare and old, but definitely a classic! It's worth a
try if you haven't played it. There were many other ports of the game
released, most notably on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and
the Sega Genesis.
As you can see, the requirements are quite low for most titles. This
list is by no means exhaustive; it is what I would consider a list of
some of the better Macintosh games that could run on a Pismo, given the
limitations of the Pismo's video card. Just dust off that old copy of
OS 9 and install it on the Pismo as a bootable partition. You will
most certainly want to make sure that you have QuickTime 4 or later
installed (I recommend QuickTime 6 - it was the last version for
OS 9) as a rule of thumb.
If you are rusty on configuring OS 9, there are plenty of resources
out there. Be mindful that most of these games were designed for Mac OS
7.x through OS 9.x. You will want to boot natively into OS 9 when
running these particular titles. Some will run okay on the Pismo using
the "Classic Environment" in Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" or lower, but
you will be highly disappointed compared to running them natively on
OS 9.
Track down a copy of OS 9 if you don't have one (see Low End Mac's Best Classic Mac
OS Prices) and give these games a shot. It may be worth it just to
discover some of these older games!
Emulation
It this doesn't satisfy your taste, there are other options for
gaming on a Pismo, but these options cross into some shaky legal
territory and are a completely different subject to be addressed. The
act of emulation has always sparked legal debate, but what if you
already own the titles? Come back for my next article, Emulation on a
Macintosh. 
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.
