Hi, I am wondering with Apple making such a big song and dance about games on the iphone, why are games like Snowrunner, De Rail Valley train Simulator, and old PC classics such as Command n Conquer Red Alert 2, Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge are not available on the mac app store? I would, and am itching to play, spend money.... Invest in upgrades, wheels, etc... The Silicon has been out for almost 4 yrs..2024 is approaching fast.. or is this all sizzle and not steak??
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Apple making big about games...
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Yeah, it's laughable:
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In 3 years, 50% of all computers capable of playing AAA games will be Macs
Edit: December 13th, 2021: Apple will sell about 27 million Macs in 2021. Assume that 80% are M1/M1Pro/M1Max Macs, then Apple will have sold 21 million Macs capable of playing AAA games. According to IDC, the number of gaming computers (desktops and laptops) sold in 2021 is projected to be 47...
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What does that mean? Apple can't port a game if they don't have the source code. Ask the developer to port their game and see their reply.
Most have not to ported their games to 64 bit because it's not worth it financially.
I was thinking there is nothing stopping Tim from dropping a Dollar or 2 on an old catalogue of 32bit games, creating a new category called iGames or something, retro gaming, rail sims, driving sims, flying sims are popular, and imagine with that visor thing, how great red alert 2, would be... insane... But in all honesty were are the games?
Hell yeah, because old games are such a great way to showcase new hardware and it makes so much sense to spend millions and years rewriting old code to modern standards, just to end up with a game that can not hold a candle to a current PC/console offering.
So by that same logic, all of the music on Apple's systems prior to say 2013 should be deleted? Why? Retro gaming is fun, the old games are just as great as the new games, Apple could buy a company, create a catalogue of old games, anyway just a suggestion, not meant to offend you, I apologise!
It is not, how is it not? Old is out, just how old is old, older than 32bit PC games? 30 yrs? 40 yrs? When should Apple delete songs from it's servers, 30 yr old songs? Anyway what is wrong with hosting/supporting/selling retro games and tech related? Create a platform, pretty much how FCP is more an OS for video editing, and you add features supplied by 3rd party apps?? Same sort of thing?? Apple arcade is still a thing, and arcades sometimes have classic retro games..
Again, music vs games is a completely wrong comparison. Also, you probably ignore the sheer scale of such an endeavor and simplify things to "Apple buying a company" (what company? What would Apple need a company for?) "create a catalogue of games" (how exactly would Apple secure ultra complicated rights to these games?) or "create a platform" (what platform? What does this platform do? Games distribution? They already have that).
And then what? Millions of dollars into reengineering these games which will hardly make any use of the hardware Apple wants to sell because it can run the most demanding titles?
It's fun to play old games. It is also a business idea doomed to fail. Apple Arcade does not make Apple risk any money, it's developers' money and their risk.
And then what? Millions of dollars into reengineering these games which will hardly make any use of the hardware Apple wants to sell because it can run the most demanding titles?
It's fun to play old games. It is also a business idea doomed to fail. Apple Arcade does not make Apple risk any money, it's developers' money and their risk.
Are you saying Apple should pay porting houses (so that they can pay the IP holder) to port 32bit games to 64bit so they can play on the new OS?
Honestly that would be pretty cool of them.
Just give me a port of Deus Ex and I’ll be happy.
Also OP, if you’re talking about classic games that previously had Mac ports, a lot of them are in copyright limbo because to my knowledge the old companies that ported the games went bust.
What I am saying is those old games, 32bit for example Red Alert 2, Westwood Studio, and others, old arcade classics, Bubble Bobble, really low rent games, sell them on the arcade for $9.99 per. I would love to have them on the mac, for when I am between jobs, a bit of downtime, I did not mean to offend the users here, sorry... But the question still remains, where are the games? Paying subs for arcade is not really acceptable, once off I prefer, renting, not a great idea...
Yes, I have a steam account, the only game I bought was Wizard of Firetop Mountain, I saw that Snow Runner was coming to Mac, Apple has been touting games for at least 2 years... Surely something would have appeared by now... I love certain games, Red Alert 2, played it so much on the pc, Snow Runner looks great, I would love a train sim game, for me it is about the game play, not the graphics, for that yes, buy all means spend $100 000 grand for a 96GB what what PC..not for me.. I love the missions, the quality of the graphics are of so low importance.
Imagine the reactions from gamers and PC world. They mock Apple even for games that are not a year old like Stray (when it was announced) or older AAA games like RE Village and Death Starnding. Imagine the bashing if Apple announced 32-bit old games coming to Mac. New HW is always showcased with new SW. Besides as already said there's no money in porting 20-year-old 32-bit games. That's up to the developers. I rather see Apple invest in recent and newer titles like they've been doing. Rather one AAA than 10 classics.
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Not to Apple.
And, well, I fly my XPlane12 on an RX7900 XTX because I want a simulation, if I was into retro I would keep using Flight Simulator on a Mac SE but come on.
Have you missed all the new titles announced and released since last year's WWDC? RE Village? RE 4 remake? Death Stranding? Stray? Lies of P? Star Trek Infinite? Isonzo? Baldur's Gate 3? Grid Legends? No Man's Sky? Total War: Pharaoh? Total War: Warhammer III? Railgrade? Fort Solis? Remedium? The Medium? Layers of Fear? Zero Grounds? Escape Sim: Portal Escape Chamber? ELEX II? ARMA 3? Cyber Knights: Flaspoint? Demonic Supramecy? Airborne Empire? Throne and Liberty? Cliff Empire? Firmament? Easy Red 2? Dragonheir: Silent Gods? Black Desert? Juno: New Origins? Gas Station Sim? X-Plane 12?
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All of those games, apart from X-plane are massive "monster" games, what about retro games, games that are less intense, that are simple graphically, like Red Alert 2, or Bubble Bobble, old arcade classics, the "mame" specials, a lot of folks still play Red Alert 2, create new maps, missions, and I would love to play, cannot find a dvd anywhere here...
No, some of them are smaller games. Railgrade is actually a train resource management game which might interest you as you were asking for train simulators. There are lots of both new and older smaller indie games for Mac if you search the Steam library. You seem to be most interested in retro games though and we know that many of those 32-bit games don't work after macOS Mojave.
The reason I listed those games is that you were complaining about lack of games on Apple Silicon when in fact there are lots of working games. It's the old ones you're asking for that don't work. Your only chance is testing Crossover or Parallels demo or other emulators PC/Steam deck. You can try Mac Source Ports and Playonmac too.
Apple and games....
The iPhone is so popular that gaming devs have taken to it. And Apple has noticed that, seeing some easy money coming in, and now Apple are investing and advertising the gaming capabilities of the iPhone.
The Mac?
M1 / M2 Max / Ultra have very decent hardware capabilities for gaming.
Apple is not doing nothing to make games on Mac work well, but they're not exactly helping enthusiastically either:
Years and years of lagging implementations of OpenGL and below-par 3D grfx hardware in Macs (only the later Intel Macs and Apple Silicon have decent hardware), the removal of 32 bit support, introducing Metal (although good API, still, it is "the alternative" to the much wider used Vulkan, which makes game devs think twice about supporting it), and of course the pretty low marketshare of the Mac in general. Add to that, only the higher-end Macs are (were..) capable of running games decently really.
Another thing: Apple's supposedly native support for the G29 racing which was announced druing WWDC 2022 for macOS Ventura. It never came... Now with RC of Sonoma available, the whole native wheel item is "just disappeared", I am sure game devs love that sort of dedication...
It has always been love - hate with Apple and games on Mac... (mentioned this below somewhere before here..)
• Intro iMac in 1998: Unreal is available (!), but completely unplayable on an iMac. Even the G3 Power Mac had no decent 3D card to play it on mediocre settings...
• Quake 3 Arena demo during Mac OS X demos: crashed during the live demo on stage (Apple must have hared that..)
• Doom 3: showing off GeForce 3 on Power Mac G4....but, it took years and years after launching Doom 3 for PC that the Mac port became available
• More of this.. demos on stage, announcements made.... but stuff actual released: too little too late.
BUT....For me, I love to play games on my Mac Studio M1 Max. I do not want to buy an additional PC, just for gaming.
So, for me it will do with the games I enjoy: X-Plane 12, GRID and DiRT games.
The iPhone is so popular that gaming devs have taken to it. And Apple has noticed that, seeing some easy money coming in, and now Apple are investing and advertising the gaming capabilities of the iPhone.
The Mac?
M1 / M2 Max / Ultra have very decent hardware capabilities for gaming.
Apple is not doing nothing to make games on Mac work well, but they're not exactly helping enthusiastically either:
Years and years of lagging implementations of OpenGL and below-par 3D grfx hardware in Macs (only the later Intel Macs and Apple Silicon have decent hardware), the removal of 32 bit support, introducing Metal (although good API, still, it is "the alternative" to the much wider used Vulkan, which makes game devs think twice about supporting it), and of course the pretty low marketshare of the Mac in general. Add to that, only the higher-end Macs are (were..) capable of running games decently really.
Another thing: Apple's supposedly native support for the G29 racing which was announced druing WWDC 2022 for macOS Ventura. It never came... Now with RC of Sonoma available, the whole native wheel item is "just disappeared", I am sure game devs love that sort of dedication...
It has always been love - hate with Apple and games on Mac... (mentioned this below somewhere before here..)
• Intro iMac in 1998: Unreal is available (!), but completely unplayable on an iMac. Even the G3 Power Mac had no decent 3D card to play it on mediocre settings...
• Quake 3 Arena demo during Mac OS X demos: crashed during the live demo on stage (Apple must have hared that..)
• Doom 3: showing off GeForce 3 on Power Mac G4....but, it took years and years after launching Doom 3 for PC that the Mac port became available
• More of this.. demos on stage, announcements made.... but stuff actual released: too little too late.
BUT....For me, I love to play games on my Mac Studio M1 Max. I do not want to buy an additional PC, just for gaming.
So, for me it will do with the games I enjoy: X-Plane 12, GRID and DiRT games.
You misunderstood my post, my post was, where are the games for mac?? There is arcade, which is rental, and expensive, I was just suggesting a viable once off purchase of ported games from 32bit to 64bit mac os x, for offline play, titles such as red alert 2, red alert 2 yuri's revenge. Games that would prove popular yes they are old, and not the best graphically, but they have an enduring game play...
I have no idea how to play these from steam, run parallels, which is an added expense, it all seems all a bit stupid really, sorry for posting, please accept my apology
This is actually something I submitted feedback on shortly after the "big gaming announcement" at WWDC. I pointed out that there are a lot of games in Steam etc. that won't run on modern systems due to being 32-bit, and I suggested that Rosetta be extended to add 32-bit compatibility.
I suspect that that feedback went straight into the bin, but if more people said similar things, maybe...?
I suspect that that feedback went straight into the bin, but if more people said similar things, maybe...?
I think 99% of feedback goes straight into file 13, to be read on the 30th Feb, Apple maybe read feedack from about a dozen chosen ones...It is so sad that great games that could be enjoyed, cannot, for a bunch of silly reasons...
My post was about using the Mac OS "API"'s so that developers and Apple could sell games that yes are old, and 32 bit, or ports from Arcades, that run under mame.. Apple could in about an hour establish something legit and legal, that is exactly what mame is, co licence the "roms" I would love to pay $9.99 to $29.99 for a game, once off.. Arcade Retro, why not... What is the harm in asking, harm for Apple to try?? Stupid questions, I will get slammed..