Games On Demand Service For Mac 78
Torrey Clark writes "MyMacGames is preparing to launch a new 'games on demand' service for Mac users ($8-20 per month) in the third quarter of 2007 that will feature roughly 100 games at launch. They are currently offering a free beta."
I heard about this before... (Score:4, Funny)
I've heard about this. Photoshop's a game, right? [blackgate.net]
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1998 called. They want their joke back...
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Well I sure hope so, because a monthly 8 to 20$ to legally use Photoshop sounds like a damn good deal.
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Re:100 Mac Games (Score:5, Informative)
Hey, there are thousands of good games you can play on your Mac. You just have to install Boot Camp first.
Seriously, there is actually a pretty healthy Mac games market. I'm just not sure it's one that appeals to the average Slashdot reader. If you want the latest and whizziest FPS--or if you spend enough time gaming that you need a new epic game every few days--then yeah, you need to run Windows.
But for a more casual gamer, the Mac is a perfectly good option, even without Boot Camp. Many of the most popular Windows games eventually get ported to the Mac--the Sims, Doom III, Jedi Outcast, etc, etc, etc, are all available on a Mac. Then there are companies like Ambrosia Software [ambrosiasw.com], Pangea [pangeasoft.net], and Freeverse [freeverse.com] that make games primarily or exclusively for the Macintosh. The smaller Mac market means that these games will sell fewer copies, and they therefore tend to have smaller development staffs. On the one hand, this means Mac-exclusive games often don't have the vast scope of original PC games. On the other hand, it means there's more room for quirky, off-beat stuff [ambrosiasw.com].
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Yes, there are. Here's a list I made in about 10 minutes off the top of my head. There are hundreds more.
Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, Age of Mythology, Alice, Alien Vs. Predator, Alien Vs. Predator 2, Alpha Centauri, Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Carmageddon, Carmageddon 2, Civilization, Civilization 2, Civilization 3, Civilization 4, Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer Generals, Descent, Deus Ex, Diablo, Diablo II, Doom, D
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and Mr. Relaxer. don't forget Mr. Relaxer
Don't forget the best game of all time... (Score:1)
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You do realize he asked about games since Lisa, do you not?
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"Developers please email contact@mymacgames.com " (Score:3, Funny)
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One of the things I like about OS X is that it works so well with disk images -- try creating one from your Railroad Tycoon CD, mounting it, and seeing if the game lets you play then. It works for me with Ghost Recon and Age of Empires 2 anyway...
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I'd be sceptical but... (Score:2)
Apple don't have a great record of games on their platform, but is that so terrible? They weren't really aiming at the gamer until relatively recently. After all, they'd never had a portable music player till the iPod, and that seems to have gone well.
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Apple has a way of leveraging Windows dominance on the desktop to its own advantage. Which is why half its current revenues can be traced back to the iPod and iTunes.
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Like with the infinitely superior wheel-mouse?
Or windows that maximize?
Or a hierarcichal file explorer?
Or a taskbar?
Have you ever used OSX for more than 5 minutes? Then you, sir, are a stupid idiot.
* The Mighty Mouse is at least 3 times as useful as those "wheel-mouse" abominations. It doesn't have a wheel, it has a small trackball. That means a) higher resolution and b) ability to scroll in 2D instead of 1D. If you've ever used a mouse in serious work and not just websurfing, you'll know how infinitly valuable that is.
* OSX windows don't maximize. They optimize. There's a difference there, one you have to see to apprec
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The Mighty Mouse is at least 3 times as useful as those "wheel-mouse" abominations
That thing is a piece of junk - the little scroll 'nipple' was difficult to use, and I had to make a concentrated effort to get it to recognize any right-clicks. Also, anytime I had to pick up the mouse near the edge of my mouse pad, it would activate the side buttons - though, when I did actually want to activate them, it seemed like I had to apply a death grip to do so. I've been using a Logitech G5 on my Mac since, and I love it - and it's scrollwheel (that also tilts to allow horizontal scrolling). I
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Like with the infinitely superior wheel-mouse?
Or windows that maximize?
Or a hierarcichal file explorer?
Or a taskbar?
Have you ever used OSX for more than 5 minutes? Then you, sir, are a stupid idiot.
* The Mighty Mouse is at least 3 times as useful as those "wheel-mouse" abominations. It doesn't have a wheel, it has a small trackball. That means a) higher resolution and b) ability to scroll in 2D instead of 1D. If you've ever used a mouse in serious work and not just websurfing, you'll know how infinitly valuable that is.
The Mighty Mouse was a long time coming after the PC wheelmouse (that I doubt was invented by MS but I can't be bothered to look up). There also have been other 2D scrolling mice. However, OS X has always worked well with multi-button and wheel mice. I'd say that a multi-button mouse set up to activate expose is much more useful to use than Windows with its taskbar. The mighty mouse is not my favourite mouse but as all USB mice have worked fine for me then that is not an issue
* OSX windows don't maximize. They optimize. There's a difference there, one you have to see to appreciate. Maximize is simple, wasteful and ugly. Optimize is simple (to use), efficient and beautiful.
Maximise seems to be the Wind
A mixed bag of features. (Score:2)
The Mighty Mouse is at least 3 times as useful as those "wheel-mouse" abominations.
It would be, if it had two real buttons. I'd rather use a plain old 3 button mouse (like Xerox had in the '70s) than Apple's passive-aggressive "you don't really need two buttons, honest" Mighty Mouse. I use Microsoft's plain optical wheel mouse by preference... and I wish it came in Bluetooth.
I wish they had a maximize button as well as an "optimize" one, fo
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It's been a while since I've used a Mac, but IIRC, option-clicking the 'zoom' button will do just that.
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But, thanks for the clue anyway, I'll try and remember that one...
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Command + something is always some, well command. "Do X".
Alt + something is always an alternative, like "shutdown, but without asking me".
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Except when it's extend-select (This is what Sun used the middle button on their 3-button mouse for, by the way) like in Finder. Or when it's a secondary context menu for applications that need to use control for something else. Or when it's a second alternative like "open, but in a new window" like in Finder. In fact Finder manages to use command-click in multiple ways, just in one application.
Alt + something is always an alternative, like "shutdown,
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First off, the Mighty Mouse is 3 times as useful? Let's forget about the math. If its so wonderful, why do more Mac users use third party wheel mice instead of it? The Mighty Mouse smacks of: "we invented the mouse and we *must* re-invent it rather than follow Windows' lead here."
Maximize is wasteful? Hmm... Let's see, there's no 1cm border on the outside of my work window. It seems to m
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Typical Mac fanboy fanatacism. Try not to break a sweat next time you post. My post was rational. Yours, fanatical.
Fanboy? Yes, by experience. I use a Mac and nothing but brute force will get me to windos. As for rational, it was also full of false information. Your reply, on the other hand, is ad hominem, which on my scale rates far below fanboyish.
If its so wonderful, why do more Mac users use third party wheel mice instead of it?
Everyone has different preferences. I don't find the Mighty Mouse perfect, either. However, we were comparing one specific feature here - trackball vs. scroll wheel. You claim one is a "cheap copy" of the other, when it in fact is at the very least an improvement.
Let's see, there's no 1cm border on the outside of my work window. It seems to me that its OSX that's wasteful here.
You have
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* Scrolling in 2d can be annoying on some websites.
* I haven't found a need to scroll horizontal yet.
You don't have to scroll in 2D, you know? You can, but you don't have to. I've yet to scroll horizontal by accident. And if you've never had to do that, you aren't doing much work on a GUI. Image manipulation, CAD, 3D animation and so on for a long list of applications where your view needs to move in 2D all the time.
I disagree, I find this really primitive in OS X. On KDE, I can maximize windows, making full use of space desktop space. I'm able to set important small windows to always remain ontop (or like in 'Spaces', another virtual desktop).
True that, there's a few nice features I miss on OSX. Though all of them are lacking on windos as well and that was the topic. Which also covers most of your other answers. Then again, KDE di
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it's better than that! the taskbar is a copy of the NeXT Dock... the progenitor of the OS X Dock
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The 'MP3 market' took off on it's own, in the form of the P2P populist movement. Apple helped 'reign it in' so that it could be commercialized and introduced the most successful 'creeping in of DRM functionality.'
Dunno if that's what the "MP3 market" was looking for.
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Don't mean to sound like a troll, but I think the PC games market, as a whole, is looking pretty grim, as consoles are (once again, the way they were in the 80s), taking the gaming community back by storm. Obviously, Computer games will never completely dissappear, but with development costs and support for consoles falling, the rise of the handheld market, and the skyrocketting adoption rates of consoles, not to mention console hardware matching (if not surrpassing) PC hardware, for the first time in it's
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LOL (eom) (Score:1, Offtopic)
What about the Gamerhood? (Score:2, Interesting)
Great (Score:1, Redundant)
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So this means that finally (Score:1)
Nice, Thanks!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been searching for some fun PWOT games for the last 3-4 weeks, and this'll fill the void perfectly!
For those of you that keep saying there's no mac games, I think I know why:
I read the lists of "top 10 games of 2006" and "top 10 indy games" and all those things hoping for some good games: they all sucked.
They're full of fantastical role-playing games, not the kind of game where you can't just open it and play, but instead all these long, drawn out stories: absolutely not what I'm looking for. I want a fun game, not a soap opera or 2 month-long drama. You guys just want a different type of game.
I DID just install BootCamp for a game, in fact. 1/2 year ago, I tried SimCity (in Parallels/Windows), then deleted it. I Tried Halo then deleted it. This time I installed Windows solely for WORMS ARMAGEDDON, the best game ever invented (short of the Mario games)! (Pissed that I have to use BootCamp, it used to work great in VirtualPC, meaning I didn't have to shut down my servers just to play a game! Parallels doesn't do "DirectDraw" or some crap, so I gotta fully restart into Windoze)
So the games I've found are great. Ambrosia Software has Great Mac games (tho I wish they'd update some old one's out of Classic). I even found a new version of CrystalQuest for Mac OS X (in 3D!) [apple.com]. That game [apple2.org.za] absolutely kicks ass, the first game ever to really use the mouse as a totally new type of input device.
Also, NES and SNES emulators absolutely rule. Back before insane 3D graphics, people were forced to sell games on gameplay Only. Hey, I'm only 24 and I'm this into retro games, so it's not just nostalgia!
Weird Worlds (Score:1)
Diablo II in 45 minutes
Email from MyMacGames (Score:4, Interesting)
Subject: MyMacGames and [my company name deleted]
Hey,
I'm Mark Howson, and I'm a marketing manager for MyMacGames.com. MyMacGames is a forthcoming service set to change the world of mac gaming for ever, and we're so impressed by your product, we'd love you to come on board.
Your paid games show a great level of dedication and hard work, that needs rewarding.
MyMacGames wants to bring the excitement of your games, and hundreds of others to mac games throughout the world. Before you stop reading, we're not asking to buy your game, we're not asking to remove the amazing creativity that controls it. We're just offering you another way to distribute it.
Games don't last forever, and every game is not right for every person, so the MyMacGames system follows 3 central strategies to provide a new way of buying games for the mac platform, and a new 'rental' strategy to mac gaming around the world.
These 3 pillars are:
Choice
Anti Theft
Fair Pay
Firstly, choice. We feel the consumer deserves a choice as how they play games, how long they keep them for, and which games they play. We charge between $8.00 and $30.00 to the consumer per month, for them to experience a number of exciting mac games (between 8 and 35 simultaneously).
The consumer can change the game in each slot every 14 days. This is on a slot by slot basis, so if a consumer adds a game to one slot on the 1st, they could change it on the 15th. Another slot, with a game added on the 3rd, could be changed on the 17th. The user has 24 hours to change the game. If they play the game during this 24 hour window, we assume they wish to keep the game.
Our system will email users to tell them when a slot is available to switch, and will warn them if playing the game will mean they forfeit the opportunity to 'swap' the game out for another game. These methods make the user feel in control, while giving you greater earning potential.
Of course, you're not going to earn money if we just give users unlocked dmgs, so we're going to be sure to protect your intellectual property. Which brings us on to our second 'pillar', anti theft.
We know that your work is your most valuable asset, and we really do care for your property, and the time you've spent. The idea of providing us with an unlocked dmg sounds stupid, but it's not.
Games are spliced with code that means they live in our application, can only be played via our application, and are encrypted with the AES method. The AES (or Advanced Encryption Standard) is an encryption standard involving unique keys. It is the standard encryption method of the US government, and is one of the most secure methods around. But for your game, that's just not enough.
All downloads will also be watermarked, so if encryption is broken, we'll know exactly who broke our encryption, disable the version where possible, send out a whole load of intellectual property notices, and disable the account. Of course, this won't happen, but we'll be equipped with this, and other, secondary safeguards just so we sleep well at night.
Which leaves us with the final pillar, fair pay. We feel this is the most important pillar, and one that will be crucial to our business with you. For every game slot you fill, we'll pay you 10 cents/week. This money will be provided monthly by your choice of method, we will support:
Wire Transfer
PayPal
You will have a control panel, where you can hold payments, check payment data (updated daily) and find out how your game is doing. If your game is in our top 10, or less than 1 month old, then 2 slots are required to play the game, and we will, of course, pay you twice as much money.
Here's some examples of quite how much that is
Normal game 1000 players weekly (average)
More games for OS X? (Score:1)
Classic Mac Games? (Score:1)
100 games at launch.... (Score:1)
That's cute, real cute. (Score:1)