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TransGaming Launches Mac Game Portal 78

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the cynics-of-the-world-unite dept.
Gamasutra is reporting that TransGaming, maker of Cedega, has announced the launch of the new Mac video game distribution portal, "GameTree." "GameTree Online hopes to replicate digital distribution offerings for Windows-based PC, enabling consumers to purchase and download Mac games, read gaming news, participate in promotional opportunities, and write game reviews. TransGaming plans to continually add new titles from a mix of genres to its online portal."
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TransGaming Launches Mac Game Portal More

TransGaming Launches Mac Game Portal

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  • Cake? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cy Sperling ( 960158 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:06PM (#23736913)
    Will there be cake? (oops, wrong Portal)
    • Is it sad that that was my first thought as well?

      Too bad it was a lie...

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by horeton ( 82590 ) *
        Not really,

        Their product sucks ass in linux. Like I need to pay them monthly to configure my wine. If I were lucky, they might update their product this century.

        I have better luck with wine on my own.

        They can get their cake from the mac folks....
      • mine too. i got all excited when i read the words "Mac game Portal" and then it clicked.

  • Yet another "Fuck You" to PPC (Score:3, Funny)

    by Night Goat ( 18437 ) * on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:07PM (#23736943) Homepage Journal
    And of course, it's actually just Intel-based Macs. So my two-year-old G5 is completely overlooked yet again. If I had an Intel Mac, I'd just put Windows on a partition. Kind of pointless, if you ask me. Not every Mac user buys a new computer every time Apple comes out with a new product line.

    • Re:Yet another "Fuck You" to PPC (Score:4, Insightful)

      by moderatorrater ( 1095745 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:11PM (#23737027)
      Very few two-year-old computers get any gaming love at all.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chrish ( 4714 )
        On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness runs pretty well on my (ancient) G4 iBook...

    • Re:Yet another "Fuck You" to PPC (Score:4, Funny)

      by machxor ( 1226486 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:12PM (#23737051)
      I'm sure it doesn't say anything about the capability/compatibility of your PPC chip. In reality it's a trivial task to modify code written for one architecture to another. The reason they don't do it is because they hate you and your PPC.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by anti-human 1 ( 911677 )
      Don't get me wrong, I can out-old-Mac you (450 mhz G3![overclocked]), but you can't expect anyone to support a dead desktop processor architecture. With a PPC Mac, you're just as stuck not being able to play windows games as you ever were. Luckily, there have been great games for the Mac, (Escape Velocity and Marathon, to name a few). I'm going to guess you already know this.
      • I'll see your G3/450Mhz and raise(lower) you another 50Mhz.

        I still have a iMac DV G3/400Mhz that is officially supported under 10.4(Tiger). It's still useful for testing stuff and for light use. I have upgraded it with a 120GB 7200RPM HD and 512MB of RAM.
    • Steve killed the PPC, not the software vendors. It _must_ be good ;-).
      Seriously, what sense makes it to create a software which demands high end hardware (gaming)
      and port it on a computer base consisting of mostly 3 or 4 year old systems? Most of them
      lack of RAM, lack of GPU-power, lack of CPU-speed.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        Seriously, what sense makes it to create a software which demands high end hardware (gaming) and port it on a computer base consisting of mostly 3 or 4 year old systems?
        Why aren't even DS/PSP/PS2 games ported? Those don't need as much CPU/GPU power.
        • Obviously are games for DS/PSP/PS2 no games for Windows. But Cadega ports Windows-games. That would be a totally different product. Feel free to make one.
        • The DS/PSP/PS2 all have fixed hardware which means you can take a different approach to developing on those limited platforms. Trying to target an old PC/Mac platform is more difficult. The mix of hardware and it's performance implications is a big burden.

          Plus the market for low-end PC gaming doesn't really seem to be there.

    • Re:Yet another "Fuck You" to PPC (Score:5, Insightful)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:21PM (#23737205)
      And of course, it's actually just Intel-based Macs

      What? are you serious?

      Transgaming/Cedega is basically an enhancement/fork/product based on the WINE project that lets you run Windows apps on the *nix OSes. As I'm sure you know, WINE is one one of those recursive acronyms... Wine is not an emulator. Meaning that it lets you run Windows software by implementing the Windows API, and then running the code against.

      Given that Wine is not an emulator, and the software running on it was compiled for x86 by its respective makers, why exactly would you expect it to run on a G5?

      If I had an Intel Mac, I'd just put Windows on a partition.

      The point of transgaming/cedega WINE is to run software -without- buying a copy of windows. It doesn't let you run windows software without x86 machines, it lets you run windows software without windows.

      Kind of pointless, if you ask me.

      If saving you having to buy and install windows to run a game on your Mac is pointless. Then yes, it is pointless. Most people however think there is a clear and obvious point.

      Not every Mac user buys a new computer every time Apple comes out with a new product line.

      If you wanted/expected to ever run Windows games on that computer, you would never have selected a G5 in the first place.

      • Re:Yet another "Fuck You" to PPC (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:51PM (#23737705) Homepage

        If I had an Intel Mac, I'd just put Windows on a partition.

        I know you think that. We all think that. It's not reality.

        Gaming was one of the things I wanted to do when I got my MacBook Pro. I tried doing some gaming through Parallels. Even with it's 3D support, it can't do much. I'm not sure how well it would run Half-Life (not 2... the first). If you want to play Bejeweled, Chuzzle, NetHack, or other relativly simple games you're fine. If you want to run some special Windows only program you're golden. If you want to play Mass Effect you're dead.

        So I have a Windows partition. I have used it for three things at this point. Half-Life 2, Sam & Max, and Team Fortress 2.

        I play TF2 quite a bit. That said, I'd play it at least twice as often if I didn't have to reboot to Windows. I ran into the same problem (but stronger) with HL2 and Sam & Max.

        So I have to quit any open applications, save my progress in all of them, no matter how small, close all windows, whatever. Then I have to reboot. Then I have to hold down Option, then select Windows. Then I wait for Windows to boot. Then I wait for Windows to finish loading. Then I wait for the game to load. Then I wait to get into a server.

        The whole process (complicated a tiny bit by the fact I use an external drive because my Windows partition is small) means it takes a good 10-15 minutes of my time to get into and out of Windows.

        That's bad enough. What if I want to stop what I'm doing, play a game for a while, then go back to what I'm doing? I have to go through all that. I have to re-open everything. It takes a ton of time.

        If I want to quit the game, check my email, and go back I have to use webmail because it would take so long to get over to OS X and back to Windows. I have to basically plan when I want to play a game that needs Windows. I have to really want to play. It just takes enough time that I can't drop what I'm doing for a half-hour session, because I'll lose a large chunk of that to rebooting and such.

        It's a testament to how much I wanted to play HL2, Sam & Max, and how much I continue to want to play TF2 that I continue to bother. Those people who say "Boot Camp will kill Mac gaming" obviously aren't trying to use Boot Camp for gaming much. I like it much much better than nothing (I wouldn't try HL2/TF2 on a console), but it's no substitute for native gaming.

        While not as good as native, being able to use something like Cinega is a huge plus for me. I would gladly use it if I thought I could get good performance out of the game I want to play (and I didn't think I might get kicked for cheating due to Valve Anti-Cheat).

        I would gladly purchase all of Orange Box again just to get TF2 native for Mac if they offered it.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by nawcom ( 941663 )
          Team Fortress 2 [winehq.org] is Gold rated and Half-Life 2 [winehq.org] is Platinum rated (higher than gold) So running them on OS X shouldn't be a challenge. I might test them out on cider one of these days. The only issue is that (at least for cedega) transgaming uses an older wine build for cedega; i have no clue what build they use for cider.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by MBCook ( 132727 )

            Cedega and the other products weren't available (or very reliable) when I first got my Intel based Mac. By the time they came around I'm pretty sure I was already using Windows to play.

            It's nice to know the games are ready, but I would still be very weary due to Steam. I'd be worried about performance too. It's all nice when you have a late generation GeForce 12 or whatever, but I'm on a laptop with a 1.5-2 year old graphics chip. To run at high resolutions with playable framerates (~30 most of the time) I

        • ... NetHack, or other relativly simple games ...
          I think you might be playing a different version of Nethack than I am.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tsa ( 15680 )
          If it takes you 15 minutes to switch to Windows because you have to save all your stuff there is something wrong with the way you work. You're doing far too many things at the same time, which is bad for productivity. Try to finish one task before starting another.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by s4m7 ( 519684 )
          Is the mac such a weighty beast? Seriously, I have my PC dual booting XP and ubuntu, and it takes a grand total of about 2 minutes to switch between. Granted, Ubuntu is nice because when I log out it saves my open apps/window states, but still. If XP is taking that long, you may want to check your startup services and disable whatever you don't need to run your game, because on newer hardware it really shouldn't take more than about 60 seconds from POST to XP desktop.

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Actually, if a game is recompiled against winelib, it can run on any CPU architecture winelib will run on. That includes PPC. It'd become a Mac-native game that has an internal implementation of Win32 and DirectX.

        However, unlike Wine itself, TransGaming's fork doesn't support PPC.

        • Re:Yet another "Fuck You" to PPC (Score:4, Informative)

          by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @09:25PM (#23740103)
          Actually, if a game is recompiled against winelib, it can run on any CPU architecture winelib will run on. That includes PPC. It'd become a Mac-native game that has an internal implementation of Win32 and DirectX.

          That's a pretty BIG if.

          However, unlike Wine itself, TransGaming's fork doesn't support PPC.

          PPC hasn't been used in a mainstream desktop, not even an Apple one, for a couple years now. What would be the point of supporting a platform that is too slow to run the games coming down the pipe, even if they were running natively? Transgaming is a business, not a labour of love.

      • And of course, it's actually just Intel-based Macs

        Transgaming/Cedega is basically an enhancement/fork/product based on the WINE project that lets you run Windows apps on the *nix OSes. {...} it lets you run Windows software by implementing the Windows API, and then running the code against. {...} the software running on it was compiled for x86 by its respective makers, why exactly would you expect it to run on a G5?

        On the other hand there's a special linux-on-linux mode in qemu that let you run linux binaries from one architecture on a linux box installed for a different architecture. Without installing a complete linux host inside a qemu virtual machine, but simply emulating the guest ISA in qemu for executing the software it self, but calling API on the host whenever the software run in qemu tried to access something outside.

        Even since Apple switched from Classic Mac OS to Mac OS X, there was a project called Darwi [sourceforge.net]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by vux984 ( 928602 )
          On the other hand there's a special linux-on-linux mode in qemu that let you run linux binaries from one architecture on a linux box installed for a different architecture.

          Performance in actual emulation software is a fraction of what can be done natively. Transgaming/Cedgega is primarily working on modern games that push modern hardware running natively for crying out loud. Nobody in their right mind would really expect them to run remotely well in EMULATION on a PC/Mac that was a few years old.

          And yeah, q

    • Re:Yet another "Fuck You" to PPC (Score:4, Funny)

      by maniac/dev/null ( 170211 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:49PM (#23737665) Homepage

      Not every Mac user buys a new computer every time Apple comes out with a new product line.
      Actually, that behavior was depreciated in iUser 10.3

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by mrbluze ( 1034940 )

      And of course, it's actually just Intel-based Macs. So my two-year-old G5 is completely overlooked yet again.
      I hear ya. I got a macbook last year and only started to follow the mac forums then. The sting in Apple's tail is noticeable and, though they offer a better product overall than Microsoft, they make an even worse mother-in-law than M$.
    • Not to troll, but what exactly did you expect? Apple hasn't ever been into open specs and competition, one of the reasons why they were losing the market for so many years was that they chose not to be competitive. Locking down specs is good for stability, but really lousy for competitive pricing. Even when they did have a majority, it wasn't a significant number of computers there were probably fewer macs sold at Apple's peak back in day than there are now.

      I'm not saying that IBM was any better, but due to

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      Yes, but then there is no reason why they need to support an old computer.
      I notice my Apple IIc was completly overlooked as well.

      I would suspect you knew the G5 was being phased out and that's why you bought it.
      I could be wrong.
    • Um, that's because Cedega specializes in translation, much like WINE. For that to work, you need the same architecture. It's 100 times easier to port a game to Intel OS X because you can just use a specialized wrapper instead of porting the entire program to the PPC architecture. Sorry, but developers are taking the easier and cheaper route. It's not that your G5 is overlooked, it's that it's just too much work compared to an Intel Mac to port the damn software.

    • If I had an Intel Mac, I'd just put Windows on a partition.
      Why would I want to pay the Microsoft Tax on a Mac?
    • I feel your pain.

      Other comments here are pointing out that TransGaming's technology would never run on a Mac. But that doesn't change the fact that PPC computers are having their shelf-life abruptly terminated by the relative popularity of Intel Macs. If TransGaming didn't exist, more software would be genuinely ported to the Mac, as opposed to simply recompiled against the Cider libraries.

      I have a Dual 2Ghz G5, 4GB RAM, NVidia 7600GT. Not the world's fastest machine, sure, but I don't have a single speed c
    • >>If I had an Intel Mac, I'd just put Windows on a partition.

      I have two games that run on the Mac under this platform. Eve online and Secondlife. I have the games both on the Mac side and on the Windows XP side. On the Mac side, they are playable but not great. Secondlife is somewhat slow. On the Windows side they scream.

      Guess what side I play?

      We don't need more games runing under Wine, we need more native binaries.

  • Transgaming's Business Model (Score:3, Funny)

    by _Sprocket_ ( 42527 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:28PM (#23737337)
    Great! An entirely new market for them to begin ignoring!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by QuantumG ( 50515 ) *
      Hey, that's the democratic process. While you're voting for your favorite abandonware, there's 2000 noobs voting for the latest FPS game.

      • I had been a Transgaming subscriber for the minimum 3 month and what Procket meant is that Cedega is quite good in ignoring some fractions of there customers.

        For example World of Warcraft runs better with bug standard WINE then then with Cedega pimped up version.

        Just in case you wonder: Cedega, Transgaming, GameTree - all the same.

        Martin

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by QuantumG ( 50515 ) *
          I was a member for a number of years. I voted for quite a number of things that got done. I also voted for a lot of things that were ignored because other things got more votes.

          In the end I stopped paying these people because they refused my patches. The WINE project was happy to have them, so I saw no benefit to sticking with Cedega.

          The lesson people should learn is that democracy is no good if it is the *only* way to get stuff done. If an individual can't take their own destiny by the horns and is alw

  • transgaming? (Score:5, Funny)

    by maniac/dev/null ( 170211 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @06:29PM (#23737353) Homepage
    I didn't realize cross-dressing mac gamers were such a large demographic.
  • http://www.gametreeonline.com/home.php [gametreeonline.com]
    They have three games. Wow. Color me impressed.

  • Here's the link to the actual portal [gametreeonline.com]. (Annoyingly not included in the summary OR the Gamasutra hosted press release.)

    Looks like yet another portal attempting to bank in with the same games already hosted on existing portals like Big Fish Games [bigfishgames.com] and Game Socks [gamesocks.com]...

    The more the merrier, I guess.

  • Any ideas as it seems that this competes with Crossover Games in the same market?

  • Finally! (Score:3, Funny)

    by sgant ( 178166 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @07:23PM (#23738147) Homepage Journal
    COOL! Maybe I can FINALLY play World of Warcraft on my Mac!

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by nawcom ( 941663 )
      heh, I found out that WoW seems to run a lot better in Mac OS X than in Windows XP. (7600gt) I don't know if it's the amount of resources being used or what, but I definitely boot up OS X to play that game. (FYI this is on a homemade AMD system + purchased copy of Leopard)
      • Interesting, that seems contrary to most people's experiences. Blizzard has optimized WoW for the mac substantially since the early days, but the difference at least used to be fairly large.
        • Which direction for difference. As I noted in the post 2 up:

          World of Warcraft runs great on my MacPro and my Wifes iMac. Both outperform my Fathers custom made water cooled gaming machine.

          Now it should be noted that my Fathers custom made water cooled gaming machine has the newest graphic card in town and the fastest Athlon you can get. Both at the time of course - we all know how fast gaming hardware ages.

          I take it that my MacPro was only marginally more expensive but with 200+ fps it runs circles around my fathers computer - and that without actually breaking into a sweat.

          Which is the best part of it: All that water cooling stuff

    • World of Warcraft runs great on my MacPro and my Wifes iMac. Both outperform my Fathers custom made water cooled gaming machine.

      All World of Warcraft DVD come with both with a Windows and an OSX version - no need to search for Mac version in the shops either.

      BTW: World of Warcraft also runs on Linux using bog standard WINE. Note that after a nasty glitch in there anti cheat program Blizzard sanctioned the use of Linux a platform (as in: "Using Linux to play is not considered cheating").

      World of Warcraft is
  • So EA comes out with Cnc:3 but then has no plans to release the expansion packs for it. This is a great example of native games, however, it's probably just an example of releasing titles for dominant platforms, aka making money.

    With Apple's big push towards iPhone, I can just see Jobs trying to get companies to write serious games for i[Pod|phone|touch]

  • I am over-f*cking-welmed.

  • It's got a great list of games (Score:3, Funny)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Wednesday June 11, 2008 @09:26AM (#23746465)
    There's Breakout and...um.....um...Super Breakout.

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