Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Metamorphosis

Mac User For a Month #3

Gaming on a Mac

- 1999.11.12

Some people fish, others play golf, and I play computer games.

Being that I am single, live alone, and have an anti-responsibility rule in my lease, I spend a lot of my free time playing games. I am not just any gamer - I am a "die hard" gamer.

Most would think that as you grow older, you start to lose your desire to play games. I either didn't grow up or just don't want to. Computer games have been taken to new heights year after year, and they will continue to do so. Some, including myself, think that games are still in their adolescent stage. Think about it, instead of just playing it with a keyboard, mouse, and joystick, you could star in it!

Sadly, the Macintosh has a lot of catching up to do in gaming. Apple was dominant in the computer gaming industry with the Apple II. The Apple II was my very first computer, and it was the ultimate gaming machine to me. I had over 30 games and loved almost every one of them. Computer games simply offered more than console based games. Computer games of the 80s had story lines, plots, and depth. Can't fit the game on one 5-1/4" disk? No problem, we'll just give you ten 5-1/4" disks. Anyone remember Kings Quest I, II, and III? Try playing that on the original Nintendo.

That was then; this is now. Currently Windows PCs are mostly used to play computer games, and I am one of them. The PC platform is simply better, for now, when it comes to playing games. The Wintel platform offers a better variety, has better performance, and overall looks better than on a Mac.

Now that you're done cursing my very existence and sending that flame mail, I will go into great detail and tell you why.

Graphics

It's all about the frame rates. I use a Voodoo3 3000 AGP in my Pentium II/333 and play all my games at 1024 by 768 on my 19" monitor. I love the ability to play at this resolution and have the game running smooth as silk. Apple only recently incorporated AGP into the Power Mac G4 and iBook, and I think that's great. However, I don't have the kind of money to buy a new G4 with AGP. 3dfx is supporting the Macintosh now, and it's a step in the right direction, but Apple has to ditch ATI. If they can't get rid of ATI, they should at least offer their customers a choice of different brand video cards.

Sound

The Macintosh has had built in sound from day one and delivers great quality sound. Most PCs don't have built in sound, and the ones that do use cheap 16-bit audio. The PCs sound saviors are Aureal with A3D and Creative Labs with EAX. Any sound card with these technologies makes Macintosh audio look like nothing. Take Quake III, for example: there is nothing quite like hitting your opponent with a rocket launcher square in the chest, seeing him blow up into a million pieces, and hearing those pieces fly in every which direction. Environmental audio needs to be incorporated into the Macintosh line.

Availability

There are simply more games available for the Wintel platform. Granted, 99.9% of the games that are released are horrible. The remaining 0.1% are then ported to the Macintosh platform 6-18 months later - if you're lucky. I understand how this feels, because there are PlayStation games that I am anxiously waiting to be ported to PC. Sure the Macintosh has a PlayStation emulator, but I like to play my games native.

Being an avid RPG fan, I got into online role-playing about 2-1/2 years ago. I don't think the online role-playing games will ever be ported to the Macintosh platform. What is going to make Quake III the Star Wars of games is that it will be available in Wintel, Macintosh, Linux, and BeOS platforms at the same time. I look forward to fragging you all in an equal opportunity environment.

As of this moment, the PC remains the king of computer gaming for a hard core gamer such as myself. If Apple gains some momentum in the gaming industry, I would gladly switch platforms.

This is not a platform thing; it's an entertainment thing. LEM

Links for the Day

Recent Content

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Mac Metamorphosis articles copyright © 1999-2003, 2007 by Eric DeStefano. � Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.