Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, OS, Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Apple
id pushing hard for Quake Live on the Mac
Our good friends at Joystiq recently spoke to id games' John Carmack (the man behind games like Quake and Doom, and fervent supporter of Mac gaming), and heard that id's new product, Quake Live, is headed to our OS just as soon as they can get it there. Quake Live is a free, browser-based, multiplayer-only version of the popular first-person shooter, and it's Windows-only at the moment and packed -- I've tried to play, but have been locked out by thousands of people ahead of me in server queues. Even some of the developers at id are having issues. One of them (a Mac user, apparently) complains that even he has to jump into Boot Camp just to play his own game.
A little more significantly, Carmack says he recognizes that while there are lots of other choices for PC gamers, a game like Quake Live could make a much bigger splash on Mac and Linux, where there aren't as many other developers and titles grabbing for attention. We've heard that before -- while developers claim there's not a big enough base for them on OS X and Linux, the truth is that some of your best and most loyal customers will use Macs.
Good to see that Carmack recognizes there's an audience here who want to shoot each other online, too. Hopefully we'll see Quake Live running on our machines sooner rather than later.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
balls said 4:37PM on 2-25-2009
I was in the closed beta, and when I tried to go with my mac, i got a message that said Mac OSX support was coming soon. From this article, it sounds like that message was really just a lie and that they haven't made a decision to formally support OSX.
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brian said 12:34PM on 3-02-2009
This is something I have always wanted. Quake has been uber-popular everywhere ...even in cellphones (Symbian etc.)...this should have been done long back!!
http://www.livbit.com
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Nathan Monk said 4:40PM on 2-25-2009
I'm really into Paintball Paradise (http://cmune.com/) at the moment which uses unity. It sounds like a similar type of thing.
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Techdeuce.com said 5:13PM on 2-25-2009
That would be COOL if they could port it! all the more reason to buy a mac. Games are the only reason I still have an XP box at all.
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Kiteless said 5:33PM on 2-25-2009
I am on the beta on PC and love it. Would love to play it on my MacBookPro as well! I think QL is shaping up very nicely.
- K
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That Fender Strat Guy said 6:05PM on 2-25-2009
Macbook... bootcamped :P
Now, just tens of thousands of I'm A PC's to sit behind...
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That Fender Strat Guy said 9:18PM on 2-25-2009
....and it's really not worth it. An hour's wait to play a poorly rendered port of Q3? The benefits to experiencing this from any PC anywhere really doesn't outweigh the sheer tedium of it all. I'm not stuck in a late 90's timewarp, thanks, so I think I'll pass.
Roll on quakelive on iPhone... That's where the game should be at. If Carmack isn't on to this already... well, he ought to be.
Desterado said 11:56AM on 2-26-2009
Is this a joke?
Quakelive on the iPhone?
That would be a horrible experience. It's run in a web browser, of course it's "poorly" rendered. It just came out too so the wait is a long time, people like you are just never happy.
That Fender Strat Guy said 12:05PM on 2-26-2009
@Desterado...
You miss my point by a mile, and then some. I'm not bothered about q3 specifically, more about the application of mobile massivley multiplayer gaming... That's the 'game' I'm talking about... *sigh*... must remember to iterate myself more simply for those who interperate too literally...
And yes, it's a poor service, currently. Probably why it's called a BETA and is free...
KiL said 10:14PM on 2-25-2009
John Carmack having developed DOOM on a NeXT machine, is very much still in favor of OS X, so the chances of this game, too, coming to the Mac are pretty high I guess.
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jollyllama said 10:18PM on 2-25-2009
Why not, mac gamers are used to 10 year old titles... I kid. Kinda.
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benjamin said 4:13AM on 2-26-2009
Thanks Nathan for trying 3D Paradise Paintball :-)
For Mac users who cannot get in line for Quake Live, we have built a browser-based multiplayer FPS that runs in IE, FF and Safari. If you like it, you can even get it as a Widget!
URL: www.cmune.com
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Shaun said 3:58AM on 2-26-2009
Nathan, thanks for mentioning Paradise Paintball.
We just released a new version with some big speed improvements, a level where you can fly and there is a pretty cool teamplay level added.
For those who don't know our game, it's more FarCry blue-sky style than a dark catacomb bloodfest FPS. Technically it's 4Mb, no download other than the plugin, automatically keeps itself up-to-date and is P2P so you never have to wait in queues. We also don't have adverts in our game, but you'll be able to buy special weapons using your mobile phone soon :)
Anyone interested can play the game at: http://www.cmune.com
Our dev team updates the game every two week - so please give us feedback if you think anything sucks - devteam AT cmune.com
Best regards
Shaun
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Shaun said 4:07AM on 2-26-2009
btw. You can play on FaceBook too - you'll get ranked against your friends automatically - you'll need to be hardcore to get into the global top 10 though.
http://apps.facebook.com/paradisepaintball/
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Victor said 8:46AM on 2-26-2009
Cool idea with the paintball game. Needs some hardcore speed improvements. My MacBook with 2.1ghz core 2 duo and 4gb ram was netting a whopping 6 frames per second on lowest quality.
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Shaun said 9:02AM on 2-26-2009
@Victor - that sucks, we have some MacBooks here in the office with a similar spec and the game is quite playable (considering they have horrible Intel integrated graphics chipsets)
Anyway, we'll put it on the bug list tomorrow and get it sorted ASAP.
Best regards
Shaun
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Victor said 11:03PM on 2-26-2009
Found that playing the paintball game as a widget greatly improved performance. getting around 20 frames per second on good settings. But in browser performance is unplayable. Anyway just thought I'd let you know.
Ridgecity said 6:16PM on 2-26-2009
Well, wasn't Halo going to be a OSX exclusive game before Bill Gates "convinced" Bungie to change sides? wasn't it almost ready for release?
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