Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Retail, Software, Apple
CrossOver Games released, designed to play Windows games on Mac and Linux
The compatibility list isn't bad (most of the Steam stuff is on there, which is great, although it is a little weird that they brag about World of Warcraft and EVE Online, considering that those two run natively on Mac just fine; guess you Linux folks need your MMO fix, too) but nothing really jumps out here that might encourage you to use CrossOver rather than just, say, Boot Camp-ing the game up yourself. DirectX 10 is apparently causing problems, too, since neither Crysis, Gears of War, or Unreal Tournament III are on there.
Still, a valiant effort, and if you're desperate to get one of these games working and playable on your Mac (and don't have a spare copy of Windows sitting around to install with Boot Camp), CrossOver Games might be just what you need. TUAW is working on getting a copy of it, and as soon as we do, we'll run it through the grinder and see what we can get to come out the other side.
[Via DF]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Simparri said 10:05PM on 3-26-2008
"although it is a little weird that they brag about World of Warcraft and EVE Online...guess you Linux folks need your MMO fix, too"
Except that Eve Online has a native client for Linux, too...
So...just WoW, then ;)
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Mike Schramm said 12:40AM on 3-27-2008
Ha originally I didn't mention Linux at all, but then I figured people would call me out for not saying that maybe Linux people would want to run MMOs, so I added that note.
Damned if you do...
Steve said 11:26AM on 3-27-2008
EVE Online for Windows currently supports their new graphics engine; the Mac version only supports their old one. If you can use CrossOver to get the new graphics engine for EVE, it's totally worth it over using the "native" Mac client (which was just Cider'd).
David Fischer said 10:07PM on 3-26-2008
The idea is appealing -- removing the need to spend 10 minutes rebooting everytime I want to play a game and the need to manage a BootCamp partition.
But when, by their own description, Half-Life 2 "installs, and runs well enough to be usable ... [but] has enough bugs to prevent it from running flawlessly," I don't see the practical appeal.
Perhaps they're underselling themselves, because what I read is a package that will let me play games, if I don't mind them crashing.
Has anyone used CrossOver? Is it worthwhile? What's the speed like?
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Niroshan said 10:28PM on 3-26-2008
Yea I've used CrossOver before, In fact i tested it out just to play Half Life 2, it definitley is easier than booting in BootCamp, but i thought it was really hard to manage since its hard to see all the files like you would if you had a virtual os. CrossOver is like xp, but with just installed programs you just need to run those, so its hard to add things, upgrade and do stuff externally. Anyways when i tested HL2 out it wasn't too bad at all, however it kept crashing on me a couple times. I tested it in the summer, however the new versions of CrossOver could possibly fix this. But i say if you already have BootCamp its not worth buying this just for games.
Russell said 10:32PM on 3-26-2008
Crossover Office for Linux is excellent, far better than Office running natively on a Mac. No really noticeable speed hit, but then we're talking about Office 2003 on a pretty nice machine.
Blair said 11:02PM on 3-26-2008
It says Portal is at the 'Silver' level of compatibility... I installed steam, downloaded Portal, and then ran it... After 25 minutes at the first loading screen, I gave up. Definitely not going to spend the money on it for a few more versions.
Dave M. said 2:06PM on 3-28-2008
My experience is similar to Blair's. I installed Steam, then installed Portal. However, I wasn't able to get Portal to start at all. I tried several times looking at different aspects of CrossOver Games to see if there was a setting I could change to make it work. I didn't find one.
Looks to me like it's just not ready for prime time to me.
EclipseEmpire said 10:24PM on 3-26-2008
Just downloaded it and registered fine (current CrossOver Mac users get it for free). Installs great, looks just like CrossOver Mac. Unfortunately, I don't have any PC games to try. Got a little over-anxious I guess. I will have to borrow some games that are on the list to test out.
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Ed said 11:26PM on 3-26-2008
Crysis, Gears of War and UT3 all run under DX9. As far as I'm aware there are no DX10 exclusive games.
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Sam Colak said 5:55AM on 3-27-2008
EVE online is not native - its running via the transgaming engine. Its no different to crossover !
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James Madley said 7:06AM on 3-27-2008
Except of course that Cider is based on Cedega which is an older, forked version of the MIT licensed Wine whereas CrossOver is based on the latest LGPL version of Wine.
JiN said 9:37AM on 3-27-2008
This is a great app for casual users who want to play a classic game (Age of Empires I/II) but doesn't want to restart to do it.
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Oneiroi said 11:11AM on 3-27-2008
I tried the demo, bought Team Fortress 2, and it didn't work well at all. It just always stared at the ceiling no matter what I did.
Maybe this thing works better?
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Blaktornado said 12:38PM on 3-27-2008
Any word on pricing?
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nvidia2008 said 11:51AM on 3-28-2008
Price is USD 39.95
Robert Jones said 2:07PM on 3-27-2008
Just to be precise, Crossover is not an emulator. It is based on WINE, which, um, stands for "Wine is Not an Emulator". It's a native (if not-necessarily-complete) port of the WIN32 API without any emulation layer at all.
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Timothy VanBenschoten said 10:00PM on 3-27-2008
I just installed it and played some CS 1.6 it worked well actually. Definitely playable. I have a MBP 2.2 SR, 4GB RAM and 128MB video. Frame rates were anywhere from 50-75FPS while in gameplay.
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Bob S. said 11:21AM on 3-28-2008
I see nothing on their site about compatibility with a Boot Camp partition. (I checked the support pages, manual, and wiki.) Anyone know if I can install and point it to the Steam stuff that's already installed over there? I'd love to be able to play TF2 and Portal on the Mac side, but have no interest in having to duplicate the files.
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nvidia20082008 said 11:49AM on 3-28-2008
Ironically TF2 installed quicker on my MacBook then my UberPC. As for running it... LOLZ We'll see... Hmmm Peggle is slow...
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