This subject pops up from time to time, mostly from Windows users, so I thought I would clear up the Myth. Since the Switch to Intel, Macs have been able to play games better and at native speeds along side their PC counterparts.
Using Boot Camp, PC games will play at maximum resolution on my 24″ iMac, games like Elderscrolls: Oblivion, Bioshock, and Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines. I have no problems playing any of my PC games, so when I switched I didn’t loose this capability.
Now Boot Camp is good if you don’t mind booting into Windows, and it means you can keep all your PC games, but this incurs the extra cost of the OS. After a while you will find yourself not booting into Windows because it is a chore, and you have to wait for it to catch up with all the Windows updates. But its good if you feel like playing the odd PC game that you are in the mood to play
Virtualization
Virtualization is still in its infancy when it comes to games; that is not to say you can’t play games in a Parallels Desktop 3 or VMWare, but be prepared to pay the price in ram and system performance. DirectX 9.0c is compatible in both VMWare Fusion and (experimentally) with Parallels Desktop, but neither support DirectX 10.
There is another way of getting your PC games to run on your Mac, but this method is limited to a select few games, although with every update, new games are being supported. This program is called Crossover, and is made by Codeweavers. Crossover uses Wine, a method of wrapping the code within a Windows environment without the need for Windows, it redirects the function calls to windows API’s to its equivalent Mac API’s.
So that leave us with two things: Cider and Native Mac Games.
Cider is a code wrapper a lot like Crossover, but Cider is different, it is implemented during the compilation stage of the game, and requires only minor adjustments to original PC code by the programmers to make a game run at native speed on a Mac. This is done by taking the function calls for windows API’s and directing them to the equivalent Mac function calls.
This is the approach EA have taken, and have released titles such as “Need For Speed: Carbon”, “Harry Potter: And the Order of the Pheonix”, and “Battlefield 2142″.
Spore has also been released on both the Mac and the PC at the same time due to this technology. Other game makers are doing the same, there will be a Cider Mac version of “Gears of War”, and they have already used Cider to bring “Eve Online” to the Mac.
Apart from the official cider ports of PC games, there are the unofficial Cider ports. People have found that depending on the game, Cider can be used to wrap other games to make them work under Cider. I will not go into detail as this is not the purpose of this article, but I will list a few PC games which have been successfully Ciderised. With titles like “The Elderscrolls: Oblivion, Game of the Year Edition”, Hitman Contracts, Transformers – The Game, Terminator 3 – War of the Machines, “Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto – Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas, just to name a few.
Mac Native Games
There are a few good companies that like to keep things native, these are the ones I support, companies like Feral Interactive, and Aspyre. These have also pushed things to bring games up to speed.
Aspyre released Guitar Heroes III, Neverwinter Nights 2, All the “Sims 2″ and “Sims 2 Stories” series. Quake Wars will be released in a few months time. Feral released games like The Movies and The Movies: Stunts and Effects, Colin McRae Rally, and Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which really shows off the power of your Mac when you bump everything on Maximum settings.
The Mac Games Market at the moment is one which has no shelf space put aside for it in stores, this can lead to the misconception that the Mac has no games, and this is where most of the problems lie. But the Virtual Shelf Space is getting bigger, with Amazon leading the way. As more switchers move to the Mac, the games market will increase, hopefully more native games are produced as these can take advantage of Leopards 64 bit architecture. Only time will tell.
A word for those who think the Mac has no games…
A change is happening, and things are beginning to look like they are definitely moving in the right direction. Bring on Gears of War.
