O.k. First off, I'm not really looking for a mac vs. PC debate, especially in terms of gaming. I am more than aware of ALL of the PC's advantages on mac, and I hadn't even bought the thing(the mac) for gaming in the first place.
But just because this thing isn't intended to play games, doesn't mean it can't. I've already grabbed marathon(...) for it, and I'm kind of looking to branch outward. Only problem is, I don't really know where to start. Where do I get good games for the mac? Are there any free one's I should be looking to D/L?(I got Marathon for free).
I heard Spore is going to be released on Mac, so thats nice. I'm looking to play either a good RTS, Adventure game, FPS or even MMORPG, although the latter would have to REALLY impress me, and definitely not fall under any category that WoW might.

Any takers?

I know Linux users have some sort of windows emulator, im not sure but it might exist for mac.

But i think my local Applehouse store had a selection of games that work on the mac.

You can definately run windows off a mac and if you don't want to do that, I'm pretty sure blizzard games work. Eg. Warcraft 3, starcraft, they are always fun.

when my dad went to the local machouse some 4-5 years ago, they had a selection of mac games, including The Sims and THPS 4, which came preinstalled on my dad's laptop.

Microsoft Works
Military Intelligence
Mac Gaming

The three biggest modern oxymorons.
To get good mac games, look at that small single shelf in big electronics stores. Bask in the glory of 3-5 year old games. (Yeah, I'm a bit of a mac disliker. Can you blame me with their self-centered commercials that basically amount to "Your kids won't be able to have fun with it! And if you're a complete and utter moron who can't install your freaking printer, boy do we have a computer for you!"?)
Seriously though, yeah. I have this bike, and I want it to fire bullets. I'm aware of the advantages guns have over bikes for firing bullets, and I didn't even buy my bike to fire bullets. I'm not trying to start a bike versus gun debate here...

So why are you trying to get your bike (mac) to fire bullets (play games), which a gun (PC) is INFINITELY better suited, indeed, CREATED for?

propertyofcobra:
Obviously didn't read my post

Haha, wow. try not to get so worked up over all the littlest things.

Thunderhorse:

propertyofcobra:
Obviously didn't read my post

Haha, wow. try not to get so worked up over all the littlest things.

Hey, I did say to look at the one shelf for mac games in electronics stores (You sure as heck won't find more than that). What more do you want? Mac Gaming specific shops or something?

The best way would be to run a Windows emulator on your mac. Leopard comes with a program called Boot Camp which runs Windows. I think you can get Boot Camp for older Mac operating systems as well.

This is going to end badly.

I'd tell you to search the forums for the previous mac and gaming posts (they also ended badly), but I failed trying to use the search function.

So instead, I say, google is your friend. A quick search revealed:

http://www.apple.com/games/

http://www.gamedb.com/ssps

http://www.macgamestore.com/?gclid=CIStpPGz-5ICFSYuagoduEneGA

and a related op-ed piece on your question: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070818-gaming-on-the-mac-getting-better-but-not-there-yet.html

Full disclosure - I'm not (and likely will never be) a Mac user - I just used Google.

propertyofcobra:
Yawn

O.k, whatever. Miss the point.
I saw your recommendation for, "3 to 5 year old games", but it struck me as more spiteful than anything else. I really don't think that's a stretch either.

Now, next time you walk into a thread that immediately recognizes your negative opinion, and ask's that that you leave it out of the equation for the time being, try and adhere. I know I sure as hell do.

Piemaster:
The best way would be to run a Windows emulator on your mac. Leopard comes with a program called Boot Camp which runs Windows. I think you can get Boot Camp for older Mac operating systems as well.

This crossed my mind, but I've heard horror stories of how DREADFUL windows is on a mac, and that gaming was practically impossible because it was so damn slow.

xMacx:
Link's and such. Good work.

Yes, I google searched, but I believe in leaving no stone unturned, and thought perhaps I'd probe the forum for at least a juicy downloadable game. I used the search for an older thread as well, also wielding no results.

That being said, thanks. I at least appreciate the effort.

Thunderhorse why are you editing peoples posts. I consider that a form of censoring. Very naughty.

Anyway, you can't expect many games for macs (with the whole no left click and all) but I suppose you could invest in a Windows Emulator and a new mouse. Or settle for MarbleBlast gold.

Consoles are fun. Maybe you could give one of them a swing if you want games.

It all depends on which mac you have... If it is one of the Intel Mac's (i.e. macbook pro, new iMac....) then you can dual boot in both mac and windows by running BootCamp (look on Apple's site for full details). I have a MacBook Pro that I use for school and I can play Crysis on the damn thing. Before all of you Mac haters jump on my back, I got this computer because of it's portability, long battery life and versatility, plus I got a sweet deal on it.

I'm impartial, I can use both Mac and Windows without getting a headache or a hard-on. Guess I just go both ways.... *hangs head*

Fire Daemon:
Thunderhorse why are you editing peoples posts. I consider that a form of censoring. Very naughty.

Anyway, you can't expect many games for macs (with the whole no left click and all) but I suppose you could invest in a Windows Emulator and a new mouse. Or settle for MarbleBlast gold.

Consoles are fun. Maybe you could give one of them a swing if you want games.

I am shortening people's post's for the sake of space. Also, to some I added a little bit of literary effect which I found mildly humorous at the time. Feel free to do so with mine if you want, and there was really no ill will involved.

That being said, I play consoles. I have had a Wii(Since been sold), own a 360, a sega genesis, and in a few months, when I have the funds, a PS3. I just like to explore as many avenues of gaming as I can.

So, in a desperate attempt to calm the echelon's of PC gaming down, I plead with everyone to just accept the fact that a normal human being can own a mac, and and still retain a bit of his humanity. I'm not in love with it, I won't spit on window's based software, and I just took a shot into the only forum that I THOUGHT would let any subject stand, so long as the person presenting it did so in a valid way. I didn't come to offend, scrutinize, or anything of the sort. Just inquiring. SHEESH!

Arkeotype:
shortened, to save space.

I've got one of the black macbook's, 4 gig RAM, 220 gig HD. And plus the spec's it ships with, so like, 2.4GHz Intel core 2 duo, 800 MHz bus speed....I really don't know what I should tell you in terms of stuff like this. hahaha.

http://www.macgamefiles.com/

That site is prettymuch your one stop shop for finding mac games. It's updated regularly and has a wide variety of things. If it's on the mac, you should be able to find a demo at least on there.

As for the windows emulation, like Arkeotype said, all the new intel macs can actually run windows, full graphics support and all. I heard somewhere at some point that the best laptop that ran windows vista was a macbook pro. Before intel though the it was bad times. The emulation was slow at best, and there was no graphics support, so running a game more advanced than minesweeper was impossible. If you have an intel mac and want to run games, getting a copy of windows xp might not be a bad investment.

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/news/

Also a good site that makes games strait for mac. Escape Velocity was pretty good, think Freelancer but top view. They also have some utilities that might be useful.

http://www.pure-mac.com/

While Pure Mac isn't really a game site, it was a bevy of all mac related programs, it's worth time to see just what you can get out of your mac.

what i'd give to see a mac user booting into vista :)

if you really want to see it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j29T6uPp_I4

but i warn you, nothing terribly exciting

xMacx:

So instead, I say, google is your friend. A quick search revealed:

http://www.apple.com/games/

If you go on the site you can see Fable:TLC, Neverwinter Nights 2, and alot of cheap puzzle games. So go sell your Mac and buy a PC unless you like old games and/or are a casuel gamer.

I know C&C 3 works on a mac as my friend at uni had it running, although using a trackpad to play an rts is horrible so get a mouse that has atleast 2 buttons ^^

so despite what other people say, there are some modern games that run on macs... im a PC purist myself but i see no point in kicking u when ur down. heh.

i think WoW works on mac....so if you dont mind losing your soul go for it.

and now to go find a way to make myself feel clean. (hate macs for anything but....nevermind, hate everything about them)

I'm a Mac user and use Windows XP via Boot Camp and it works as if my Mac was a PC. I just simply switch to it to play Team Fortress 2 via Steam. Macs are the ultimate computer.

I really like my Mac.
People are always making assumptions about the technical prowess of Mac users, but I can guarantee that the average PC user doesn't know anything about computers.
It's a downright stupid generalization.

Besides, there are only two reasons why I would want to game on my computer. They are: Blizzard, and Spore. And both Starcraft 2 and Spore are coming out for Mac.

What I like about Macs is that, if they were to seriously join the gaming business, they would be more like consoles than PCs. I say that because games would inevitably be made to fit the system itself, not to have the system fit the game, which requires constant upgrading with video cards and the like. I don't see myself shelling out that kind of money.

Johnnyweird:
I not to have the system fit the game, which requires constant upgrading with video cards and the like. I don't see myself shelling out that kind of money.

ok, who the fuck started this 'constant upgrade' bullshit? If you are upgrading constantly, then you are doing something wrong, you should be fine with one setup for each generation, this generation, 2 gigs of RAM, a Dual Core processor, and a PCI-Express Card. There. Is that too fucking hard for people?

EDIT: Forgot to mention - the "Boot Camp" program is good for 'non-mac' things, I just didn't mention it the first time because I thought it was a given.

GeeseH:
what i'd give to see a mac user booting into vista :)

well my mac does.

id like to clear up a couple misconceptions here.

fire daemon:
with the whole no left click and all

this is wrong. all macs today ship with a left click, the desktops ship with a mouse with right click and the laptops have a track pad where left click is tap a finger and right click is tap two fingers. also plug in any mouse into a mac and right click works perfectly. and if your gaming youll probably want to buy a nice mouse anyway[/quote]

mac gaming sucks. that being said there are a couple good games, and the games for mac are basically a selection of the big titles from half back like madden and the sims and star wars battlefront etc. there are a couple cool games out there, like guitar hero and stuff but your better off jsut using boot camp.

on that topic boot camp is just a tool for using both windows and a mac on one computer. i dont know if you know what dual booting is, but it is the act of partitioning your hard drive into two different sections and running a seperate operating system on each section. this is NOT emulation, it is completely different. emulation is where one operating system imitates the other, resulting in a loss of capability, sorta like an impersonation that doesnt sound as good as the real person. when you dual boot there is NO loss in performance and i can tell you both my sections run like a dream (well as much as vista can run like a dream).

so i wish mac gaming was a better prospect but for right now you are much better off dual booting windows and mac. theres no loss in performance and you get all the new games.

Being another Mac user I may as well throw myself into this impending debate, one hesitating to start like many college students do with a term paper.

Like a majority of long time Mac users, I'm an artist, a graphic designer more specifically and a horrid one to be more painfully honest. Given Apple's history of being graphically more powerful for the type of mediocre perversions of art that I find so satisfying, I chose to purchase this flashy expensive silver brick of a Macbook Pro so I could at least pretend I'm part of the community. Yes, I know I could of spent the same amount of money on a top of the line Vista box, but it's that fundamental difference of being run with Vista that turns me away from that and turns me towards Apple, aside from the shine as if I were some ten year old who confused my ridilin with pixie sticks.

The gap between the two OS is closing, and Microsoft is no longer that bad graphically, but still the same tried and true facts on both remain and for this I stick with Apple and sacrifice any gaming experience. Three to five year games, as some one pointed out, is what we are typically limited to, however this is only because Devs like to make money, and there isn't a lot in the Mac field. I do know that COD4 will be released on the Mac, as well as some other titles, but until then your main friend will be Boot Camp and a copy of an over priced Vista, be it version A or version MK.VII Orange or what ever

I personally love the mac. At first I didn't, but my parents bought one, and I adore it.

True, it's not a gaming computer (thanks to lack of DirectX, and no, BootCamp won't fix it), yet it has very much the capacity to do so.

But it's brilliant at everything else (No VIRUSES!). And it hasn't betrayed me, unlike Microsoft. (Stupid %^$%$%$%$#%$^%R^%$E%%^&&%^*&^%$$$%^&^*%$^&% Vista)

Besides that, you can get some relatively good games on the Mac, such as Battlefield 2142.
I would buy one as a home computer or Laptop, but not as a gaming computer.

Get a computer with XP for that. But hurry. They're taking it off the shelves in June/July.

Thunderhorse:

Arkeotype:
shortened, to save space.

I've got one of the black macbook's, 4 gig RAM, 220 gig HD. And plus the spec's it ships with, so like, 2.4GHz Intel core 2 duo, 800 MHz bus speed....I really don't know what I should tell you in terms of stuff like this. hahaha.

I also have a black macbook I got 'bout a year ago. With the Intel Duel Core etc. But even though more current games like Battlefield 2142 are being ported they won't work on the Intel 950 Graphics Card that comes in the machine. It just isn't supported (cos it ain't powerful enough).
So my advice would be older games, or not at all. More powerful Macs like the MacBook Pro's and iMacs can run games but not mine.

Well done to those trying to keep this thread out of the PC vs Mac territory. We all know the arguments, lets leave it alone.

Thunderhorse:
I am short.

That being said, I just like to explore in a desperate attempt to just accept i still retain a bit of his humanity. I'm not in love with it, I didn't come to offend, scrutinize, or anything of the sort.

Direct quote, i didn't change a single word, nor the order of any words! :)

To the person who calls it censorship - the original is posted above so whats the point in complaining. I guess TECHNICALLY the name on the quote should be removed...

---

Mac gaming - i'd echo the call to geta windows emulator. Probably the best bet really. :)

War 3 works on macs... i think most blizzard games do now.

Apone:

Thunderhorse:

Arkeotype:
shortened, to save space.

I've got one of the black macbook's, 4 gig RAM, 220 gig HD. And plus the spec's it ships with, so like, 2.4GHz Intel core 2 duo, 800 MHz bus speed....I really don't know what I should tell you in terms of stuff like this. hahaha.

I also have a black macbook I got 'bout a year ago. With the Intel Duel Core etc. But even though more current games like Battlefield 2142 are being ported they won't work on the Intel 950 Graphics Card that comes in the machine. It just isn't supported (cos it ain't powerful enough).
So my advice would be older games, or not at all. More powerful Macs like the MacBook Pro's and iMacs can run games but not mine.

Well done to those trying to keep this thread out of the PC vs Mac territory. We all know the arguments, lets leave it alone.

True, and sorry. I just like to defend my Mac.

Lord Krunk:

True, it's not a gaming computer (thanks to lack of DirectX, and no, BootCamp won't fix it), yet it has very much the capacity to do so.

Well, Bootcamp will give you a full working install of Windows, unless your Mac is so ancient it's still a PowerPC CPU. So yes, it gives you DirectX.

I have a MacBook Pro, with Vista installed for games and Leopard for everything else. BootCamp FTW!

GloatingSwine:

Lord Krunk:

True, it's not a gaming computer (thanks to lack of DirectX, and no, BootCamp won't fix it), yet it has very much the capacity to do so.

Well, Bootcamp will give you a full working install of Windows, unless your Mac is so ancient it's still a PowerPC CPU. So yes, it gives you DirectX.

I have a MacBook Pro, with Vista installed for games and Leopard for everything else. BootCamp FTW!

Really? The shop that we bought it from said that it didn't. And I got mine June last year. $3000 iMac! Yay! I can play my games now!