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Filed under: Gaming, Software

Mac Game 'Postal' in (very few) Theaters

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on May 23rd, 2008

Postal - The MovieMove over, Lara Croft -- it's time to go Postal!

The (in)famous Mac video game from Running With Scissors is coming to the big screen today, albeit a small number of big screens. Postal first gained notoriety in 1997 as a Mac-only 2D shooter, and is famed for being banned in Australia for a few minor reasons -- things like using a cat as a gun silencer, gratuitous violence, and, in later versions, sexual themes and use of drugs and alcohol. Sounds like fun, eh?

The Postal flick follows the story line and general bad taste of the old Mac game. Controversial director and Razzie Award Nominee (twice) Uwe Boll somehow bribed and wheedled his way into showings at a whopping 12 theaters nationwide. Be sure to go see this film tonight if you're a fan of Postal, since it will probably close at all 12 theaters today as well. Of course, that means it may be on DVD and in the iTunes Store next Tuesday.

Me? I think I'll go see Indiana Jones instead.

Tags: gaming, mac gaming, MacGaming, movies, postal

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Apple

EA selling games in the Apple Store

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 20th, 2007

As many of you pointed out over the weekend (thanks, everybody!), EA must be big fans of TUAW-- we called them out on Thursday for not catering to the Mac as they'd promised, and on Friday they dropped a press release that the exact four games we'd called MIA were now available in the Apple Store (and sure enough, they are). As our good friends over at Joystiq noted, EA also promises that those games will also be available in brick-and-mortar Apple stores by the end of August, with Tiger and Madden coming later this year.

So: redemption, or too little too late? Either way, I doubt EA cares. While it's nice that they're reading, and clearly the announcement of the release shows they're interested in keeping their word (at least a few weeks after they promised to keep it, anyway), I really think that releasing these games will only tell EA what they already knew: Mac owners don't buy their games. Be serious: how many of you readers are really going to hit the link above and buy Battlefield 2142 right now? I didn't think so.

But that doesn't mean that EA's right to ditch us completely, either. If you were a Madden fan, and showed up to Gamestop to buy '08 with a choice of two options: PC or Mac, which one would you take? The Mac version, obviously. Unfortunately, the Madden Mac version isn't coming out until the season is half over, so no one actually had that choice last Tuesday.

Bottom line: it's nice that EA put these games in the Apple store (eventually), but we're still getting leftovers. You can't offer us games months or years after they come out, and then claim the fact they don't sell well is the reason why no one wants them.

Tags: applestore, electronicarts, games, mac, macgaming, releases

Filed under: Gaming

Mac gaming on the cheap: Our favorite low-cost Mac games

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Mar 21st, 2007

With the release of Myst Online for the Mac* (and our own nagging, monthly World of Warcraft bills), we TUAW bloggers got together to discuss our favorite low-cost Mac games. Sure, those MMORPGs are fun, but $14.99/month (Warcraft) and $6.95/month (Myst) isn't. So, in the name of gaming cheapskates everywhere, here's our list of great, inexpensive Mac games (in no particular order).

SketchFighter 4000 Alpha by Ambrosia Software. Cost: $19US. Requirements: Mac OS 10.2 or later.

By Ambrosia Software, this shoot-em-up game features upgradeable spaceships, mean bosses, challenging levels and even a level editor. But most of all, we love the dead-on, retro, "hand-sketched" graphics. SketchFighter was designed to look like the very images that young geeks like me spent all of Jr. high school scribbling on notebook paper, and the developers at Ambrosia really nailed it. As an 11 year old, I could only imagine my creations coming to life. Ambrosia made it actually happen, and as a result SketchFighter is wicked fun to play.

More after the jump.

Continue reading “Mac gaming on the cheap: Our favorite low-cost Mac games”

Tags: glider pro, GliderPro, mac gaming, MacGaming, myth, quinn, sketchfighter, world of warcraft, WorldOfWarcraft

Filed under: Gaming

Macworld lists best games of 2006

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Dec 5th, 2006

Peter Cohen, the Macworld gaming guy, has compiled a list of the top Mac gaming gear of 2006. Now, I am not much of a gamer, but there are some interesting games on the list. I am sure you will be able to find the prefect holiday gift for any Mac gamer that is in your life on this list.

Any Mac gaming list that has Freeverse on it is OK in my book.

Tags: mac gaming, MacGaming, macworld, peter cohen, PeterCohen

Filed under: Gaming, Humor, Software, Stocking Stuffers

The Goalkeeper: Every position will be famous for 15 minutes

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Dec 1st, 2006

Dateline, Macworld SF 2007: Mac game publishers have jumped on the SPSG bandwagon with a slew of Single Position Sports Games sure to thrill fans. We now have Placekicker, full of the excitement of the point-after conversion; Power Forward II Gold for hoops enthusiasts who need that extra bit of muscle; and the long-awaited but controversial split-screen title, Pitchers & Catchers: Spring Training. Who could ask for anything more?

OK, those titles are all fictional (or possibly just wishful thinking). But this one isn't: The Goalkeeper, new from Winterwolves. This strangely specific soccer-sim is the perfect game for anyone who doesn't have enough fast-moving objects flying towards their head.

You can build up your own 'keeper' character, with a mix of skills including Handling, Reflexes, Jumping and Charisma (the same set, oddly enough, used in the upcoming Tom & Katie: The Sims expansion pack :-). Once you get comfortable with the whole goaltending thing, you can jump up a simulation level and tweak your attitude towards your team -- useful in ANY workplace. You can even argue with your own coach if he decides to bench you, probably as a result of your lousy attitude toward your team. Slacker!

I'm guessing that the market for this title may lie largely outside the ol' U.S. of A. Then again, I have colleagues who were so World Cup-mad that we ended up rigging QuickTime Streaming Server to pointcast the games on our LAN and avoid productivity losses lest people disappear to nearby taverns. Perhaps I'll pick up a couple of copies of The Goalkeeper as athletic-stocking-stuffers. Goooooooooaaaalllll!!!

[via MacNN]

Tags: games, goaltending, mac games, mac gaming, MacGames, MacGaming, simulation, soccer

Filed under: Gaming, Software

Joystiq recommends Mac games for the holidays

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Nov 28th, 2006

Yes, I did just say that Mac gaming doesn't really matter anymore, but I am willing to believe that some people might not agree with me. If you're looking for some great games to play on your Mac, then Joystiq has you covered. They have a short round up of the best of the best Mac games on the market, just in time for the holidays.

Tags: joystiq, mac gaming, MacGaming

Filed under: Gaming, Software

Whither Mac gaming?

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Nov 28th, 2006

Peter Cohen, Macworld's 'Game guy,' has penned an article wondering if in a world full of next gen consoles (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and the Wii) the Mac has any relevance as a gaming platform. Not too surprisingly, since he is probably the most recognized of all Mac gaming columnists, Peter thinks that the Mac still has a lot to offer in the gaming arena.

Peter points to games that have a social networking aspect as the place where the Mac shines. These games, at least the ones he mentions, are online games which can be played on either Mac or PCs so lumping these in as 'Mac games' seems a little disingenuous to me (though they can be played on a Mac).

Peter expounds on the benefits of computer gaming as compared to console gaming, but I think he falls short of crafting an argument for the Mac as a gaming platform.

Are there many Mac gamers out there? None of my Macs have any games installed on them, but perhaps I am in the minority.

Tags: games on the mac, GamesOnTheMac, mac gaming, MacGaming, macworld, peter cohen, PeterCohen

Filed under: Gaming, Interviews

Molyneux - "Apple needs to get behind games"

by Conrad Quilty-Harper (RSS feed) on Jul 18th, 2006

Last week I carried out an interview with Peter Molyneux (the founder of Lionhead Studios which has games like Black & White, Fable and The Movies to its name) over at TUAW sister site Joystiq. I made sure to ask him a question or two about the state of Mac gaming because one, I *used* to be a relatively hardcore Mac gamer and two, Lionhead has a track record of bringing all of its games to the Mac. That isn't changing with Microsoft's recent acquisition of the company (haven't we heard all this before?!).

The relevant part of the interview:

"There's this Catch 22 situation where not many people play games on the Mac and therefore developers don't want to make games for the Mac.

Exactly. I think it would need Apple to get behind games. There's nothing in their operating system that panders to games at all and I take my hats off to Microsoft. I think they've realized that games are important."

Macworld's Peter Cohen suggested that Molyneux was referring to Apple's lack of a unified application programming interface that would make the jobs of game programmers much easier. I think this suggestion is spot on, but not the only thing that Molyneux was referring to. One passive improvement could include getting Apple to kick its recent integrated graphics habit (Molyneux called my MacBook "a perfect thing" in the interview - pity it can't play games). Sure, we'd all like an iTunes Games Store, a mid-range upgradeable Mac with a decent graphics card and an Apple that publishes games, but it ain't gonna happen while you-know-who is still around.

Unless Apple gets off its arse and gives game developers more than the bare minimum of support, Mac gaming is going to disappear thanks to the rapid emergence of easy access to Windows games via Boot Camp or GPU virtualization (when it finally appears). Only then will we see articles on Apple.com about how awesome Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter looks on the Mac, instead of long features about how the GRAW music was composed using a PowerMac G5.

Tags: Games, Gaming, Ghost Recon, GhostRecon, GRAW, iTMS, Lionhead, Mac, Mac gaming, MacGaming, MacWorld, Microsoft, Peter Cohen, Peter Molyneux, PeterCohen, PeterMolyneux, Publisher, Upgradeability

Filed under: Gaming

Wingnuts 2, an original Mac game, takes off

by Conrad Quilty-Harper (RSS feed) on Jun 15th, 2006

Freeverse has announced that Wingnuts 2, a top-down aerial arcade shooter game, is now available for online purchase and download. The title benefits from being an original and exclusive Mac game, developed and playable exclusively on the Mac. Freeverse co-founder Colin Lynch Smith mentions the advantages of developing games solely for the Mac over on Inside Mac Games:

"This is the biggest game to be written specifically for the Mac in years. Targeting just the Mac means no performance compromises (and lower system requirements)-- and we can design in cool OS X specific technologies like CoreImage and iSight integration."

It's about time that game developers woke up to the benefits of creating games specifically for the Mac platform. Hopefully this will be the first title of many in a resurgence of big name Mac-exclusive titles.

You can grab a demo of the game at this link and a video of the game (complete with an example of the fancy CoreImage effects) is available here. A DVD boxset of the game will ship in early July, but if you can't wait that long the game is available as a whopping 550MB download for $29.95 over on the Wingnuts 2 site.

[Via Joystiq]

Tags: Arcade, Freeverse, Mac, Mac Game, Mac Games, Mac Gaming, MacGame, MacGames, MacGaming, OMG, Original Mac Games, OriginalMacGames, Top-down, Wingnuts 2, Wingnuts2

Filed under: Software, Apple

GameRanger to drop OS 9 support, eventually

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jun 6th, 2006

Inside Mac Games reports that GameRanger, the online Mac gaming service,  will stop supporting booting GameRanger client in OS 9 at some point this year. This should surprise no one since OS 9 hasn't been commercially available for years. Now, for you game crazy OS 9 holdouts, fear not. The client will still run in Classic (which itself isn't supported on newer Macs, but lucky there are solutions for that).

I'm curious, how many TUAW readers are still using OS 9? Do you have plans to upgrade any time soon?

Tags: 125, classic, gameranger, mac gaming, MacGaming, os 9, Os9

Filed under: Gaming, Software

TUAW Interview: Jesse Simko of Sawblade Software

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Sep 19th, 2005

pfgSawblade Software is the parent company of Power Game Factory, a game development environment for Mac OS X that even non-programmers can use (C.K. took a look at Power Game Factory earlier this summer). With it, you can make great, stand alone,  side-scrolling games with complex levels, Quicktime cut scenes, custom sprites...on and on. The best part of all: You don't need to write a lick of code and you can distribute your creation royalty free. Sound good? It is.

I've been using it for a couple of months now, and I've found that making games is actually more fun than playing them. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Jesse Simko, the company's founder. We chatted about his inspiration for creating a development environment for non-developers, his experiences so far and his future plans. You can read the interview after the jump.

Continue reading “TUAW Interview: Jesse Simko of Sawblade Software”

Tags: development, mac+gaming, MacGaming, power+game+factory, PowerGameFactory, sawblade+software, SawbladeSoftware

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