Steam for mac released

blackmac11 · May 12, 2010

Steam for mac was released today! Steam runs just like it does on windows, and it is a really sleek feel to it. Get it here:
Steam, The Ultimate Online Game Platform

Happy gaming

martyp · May 13, 2010

Shame CoD and BF aren't ported, games for the Mac are pretty dire IMO...

blackmac11 · May 13, 2010

No worries! Now that steam is available, many game developers will take the opportunity to offer their game for the mac. It makes business sense to spread your game, but it isn't really profitable because not many mac owners go out and buy games. Now that companies have a solid digital distribution method, its really easy to bring your game over to the mac side.

BillyExtraction · May 14, 2010

Gaming on the Mac

As far as games on Mac, I feel they do run better than on Windows. Figuratively speaking everything runs better on mac. It's nice to see more and more games finally being supported with Mac... even the games that were only directed upon for Windows are slowly coming to the Mac side also. It's a good day for mac users! I know that not many mac users go out and buy games but it's still nice to have the option.

blackmac11 · May 14, 2010

BillyExtraction said:
As far as games on Mac, I feel they do run better than on Windows. Figuratively speaking everything runs better on mac. It's nice to see more and more games finally being supported with Mac... even the games that were only directed upon for Windows are slowly coming to the Mac side also. It's a good day for mac users! I know that not many mac users go out and buy games but it's still nice to have the option.

True, but I think steam will actually be pretty successful, especially with steam play.

clonehappy · May 14, 2010

I know that Monkey Island 1 and 2 are in the works to be ported to Mac (definitely getting those for mine), and I'm pretty darn sure they'll be coming out with more and more it'll just take time. Still ... it's amazing this even came out for Mac eh?

Once I get some more moola to spend I'll be getting a few on there myself.

blackmac11 · May 15, 2010

And the great part is that some great games are pretty cheep. Like the orange box, for example, is only 30$. For 5 great games, including half-life, which is viewed as one of the best games ever to be made. Now thats value

Siphoners · May 15, 2010

I love Steam, fully addicted!

BillyExtraction · May 19, 2010

Steam Is Getting There!

Well yeah I think steam has a great concept to it, and that's what mac users have been wanting. As far as everyone saying we don't need it on mac because we can use bootcamp and just launch up steam on windows isn't right because mac (in my opinion) has a much better platform than windows by far, and the quality of everything on mac is fantastic. I know a lot of my friends hate mac but I don't know if they truly have looked into it, because with the ability to use mac and windows... that's a steal right there! But yeah I'm really waiting for Counter Strike to come out on mac, and a few other really well designed games. Someday guys, mac is the future!

BillyExtraction · May 19, 2010

Steam on Mac

blackmac11 said:
True, but I think steam will actually be pretty successful, especially with steam play.

I 100% agree with you, I think as steam starts adding more games compatible with mac it will be a wonderful thing to have on mac. This has been a hope for all mac users that play games for steam to come to mac!

Village Idiot · May 19, 2010

BillyExtraction said:
As far as games on Mac, I feel they do run better than on Windows. Figuratively speaking everything runs better on mac. It's nice to see more and more games finally being supported with Mac... even the games that were only directed upon for Windows are slowly coming to the Mac side also. It's a good day for mac users! I know that not many mac users go out and buy games but it's still nice to have the option.

Except trying to find an Apple computer with an OC'ed quad core processor with a 1.75-2GB GPU...or 3 of them, with 6GB+ or RAM and at least one SSD drive that can run games at 2560x1600 resolution with all max settings is something that doesn't really exists...

So I guess you can say that games run better on a wintel machine...since Apple is just starting to make computers that can support the performance of newer games....

The Source engine that Valve uses in all the Half Life games and L4D is getting dated; it doesn't take much in the way of specs to run those games. It'll probably be a while before you see games with crysis'esque graphics on OS X...or at least an Apple computer that has the hardware specs to run the game at anything below medium performance levels.

There's a big reason why 98% of pc gaming is done on Windows.

BillyExtraction · May 19, 2010

Agreed

Village Idiot said:
Except trying to find an Apple computer with an OC'ed quad core processor with a 1.75-2GB GPU...or 3 of them, with 6GB+ or RAM and at least one SSD drive that can run games at 2560x1600 resolution with all max settings is something that doesn't really exists...

So I guess you can say that games run better on a wintel machine...since Apple is just starting to make computers that can support the performance of newer games....

The Source engine that Valve uses in all the Half Life games and L4D is getting dated; it doesn't take much in the way of specs to run those games. It'll probably be a while before you see games with crysis'esque graphics on OS X...or at least an Apple computer that has the hardware specs to run the game at anything below medium performance levels.

There's a big reason why 98% of pc gaming is done on Windows.

Yeah, I agree with this also, but when I do run windows 7 on my mac and play some games, it is just as fast or faster than running on a windows computer. I think they are getting there, slowly, but they are getting there, mac is a smart company, we will see some big improvements soon I believe. But I agree Villiage that windows is more reliable for games!

Village Idiot · May 19, 2010

BillyExtraction said:
Yeah, I agree with this also, but when I do run windows 7 on my mac and play some games, it is just as fast or faster than running on a windows computer. I think they are getting there, slowly, but they are getting there, mac is a smart company, we will see some big improvements soon I believe. But I agree Villiage that windows is more reliable for games!

But that's just hardware. It's the exact same hardware you can find in Dell, HP, EMachines, etc...

there's no magic Apple processor that will make a game run better on their hardware. Their real limiting factor is the GPUs the use being several generations behind what an experienced Wintel gamer would use for their computers. They're getting better, but they're not there yet.

And generally games tend to run worse on OS X, because they're either ports or they're running in an emulator, which naturally slows things down.

BillyExtraction · May 19, 2010

Village Idiot said:
Except trying to find an Apple computer with an OC'ed quad core processor with a 1.75-2GB GPU...or 3 of them, with 6GB+ or RAM and at least one SSD drive that can run games at 2560x1600 resolution with all max settings is something that doesn't really exists...

So I guess you can say that games run better on a wintel machine...since Apple is just starting to make computers that can support the performance of newer games....

The Source engine that Valve uses in all the Half Life games and L4D is getting dated; it doesn't take much in the way of specs to run those games. It'll probably be a while before you see games with crysis'esque graphics on OS X...or at least an Apple computer that has the hardware specs to run the game at anything below medium performance levels.

There's a big reason why 98% of pc gaming is done on Windows.

Village Idiot said:
But that's just hardware. It's the exact same hardware you can find in Dell, HP, EMachines, etc...

there's no magic Apple processor that will make a game run better on their hardware. Their real limiting factor is the GPUs the use being several generations behind what an experienced Wintel gamer would use for their computers. They're getting better, but they're not there yet.

And generally games tend to run worse on OS X, because they're either ports or they're running in an emulator, which naturally slows things down.

Very good point man, you nailed it, I don't know if anyone could of put that better.

blackmac11 · May 19, 2010

Village Idiot said:
But that's just hardware. It's the exact same hardware you can find in Dell, HP, EMachines, etc...

there's no magic Apple processor that will make a game run better on their hardware. Their real limiting factor is the GPUs the use being several generations behind what an experienced Wintel gamer would use for their computers. They're getting better, but they're not there yet.

And generally games tend to run worse on OS X, because they're either ports or they're running in an emulator, which naturally slows things down.

Except that these are not ports, they are running natively on OS X, which is why there is so much hype about this. And OS X actually is better at unitizing the hardware it has.

Still agree that gaming = windows though. At least for a couple more years

Village Idiot · May 19, 2010

blackmac11 said:
Still agree that gaming = windows though. At least for a couple more years

I don't see this ever happening unless graphics technology ceases to continue to move foreward or Apple releases such a tight grip on it's connection of OS X to it's own assembled hardware.

blackmac11 · May 19, 2010

Well, only the future knows...

dan_f14 · May 19, 2010

Village Idiot said:
I don't see this ever happening unless graphics technology ceases to continue to move foreward or Apple releases such a tight grip on it's connection of OS X to it's own assembled hardware.

I think to get the most out of gaming for the Mac then developers need to treat it more like a console than a PC and optimise the code for the specific hardware used by Macs.

Village Idiot · May 20, 2010

blackmac11 said:
Well, only the future knows...

If the next 26 years follow the trend of the last, then definitely not in that time frame. Especially with hot strict they're getting on what's allowed in the App store and what programs/techonologies they're allowing to run on their devices.

dan_f14 said:
I think to get the most out of gaming for the Mac then developers need to treat it more like a console than a PC and optimise the code for the specific hardware used by Macs.

That's another problem. That means if they want to optimise it for the base model Mac, then they're going to be working with a slower processor, not a lot of RAM, and an integrated GPU that's not going to be able to push graphics that a quad core CPU, 4GB+ of RAM, and a 512MB (Is that the best that Apple is currently using?) stand alone GPU will be able to.

So either people with entry level Macs can't play, or people with high end Macs end up being disappointed. Then, unlike consoles, Apple upgrades the product lines frequently in comparison.

blackmac11 · May 20, 2010

No offence, but you sure are anti-apple. Have a little faith...