Games for my Powerbook?

September 29, 2004 4:35 PM

Games for my Powerbook? Having recently switched from PC to Mac, what games would you recommend that I may not have heard of/seen before because they were only available on Mac? Anything from small puzzle games to graphics-intensive stuff is fine.
posted by vacapinta to computers & internet (24 comments total)

I really like Chopper, a remake of the classic "Choplifter," originally inspired by the Iranian hostage situation of 1979.
posted by inksyndicate at 5:27 PM on September 29, 2004

Freeverse makes neat games that range from solitaire/puzzles to strategy games.

Apple's Games page is also a handy thing to check every now and again if only to catch release dates or see lists of things you might not otherwise have noticed.
posted by bcwinters at 5:32 PM on September 29, 2004

OOlite is a faithful Elite clone. Burning Monkey Solitaire and LeTarot should satisfy any card player.
Ballerburg is a fun variation of the old "Tanks" game, while GLTron should satisfy your arcade jones.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:33 PM on September 29, 2004

My father and I had about a year-long running hi-score tournament on ambrosia software's centipede clone apeiron Like any action game, you will most likely need a mouse.
posted by spatula at 5:36 PM on September 29, 2004

Mac-centered game companies include the aforementioned Freeverse and Ambrosia, and also Pangea (probably the slickest of the bunch), Spiderweb Software (Ultima-style RPGs), and Delta Tao (main games: Spaceward Ho!, a goofy pick-up space conquest game, and Clan Lord, the only MMORPG Macs had for years)... that'll cover a lot of your bases in terms of Mac-only games, which admittedly isn't a lot; the older abandonware-type stuff is probably going to require an emulator or something.
posted by furiousthought at 6:23 PM on September 29, 2004

Also Macupdate's games category has some good little ones mixed in.
posted by amberglow at 6:29 PM on September 29, 2004

I just got addicted to Strange Adventures in Infinite Space.
posted by substrate at 7:03 PM on September 29, 2004

I second Freeverse, Big Bang Chess has gotten me through many a long work day and I've used it to help other people learn how to play the game.
posted by bakiwop at 7:11 PM on September 29, 2004

Much of the Macintosh gaming world lies in the past, when it was still a competitive platform in terms of market share. There were a lot of games on the old "Classic" pre-Unix Macintosh platform, and many if not most can still be run on modern systems.
posted by majick at 7:35 PM on September 29, 2004

CandyCruncher
Double
posted by invisible ink at 7:57 PM on September 29, 2004

candy cruncher is a good one...you can play it online at popcap too (and candytrain--which is dumb but fun).
posted by amberglow at 8:08 PM on September 29, 2004

The best Ambrosia games did get ported to Windows, so you may have heard of them; but I'll send out mad props to Escape Velocity: Nova (the latest in the EV series) and Pop-pop (far more addictive than it has any right to be.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:49 PM on September 29, 2004

Seconding the recommendation for EV:Nova, which I've only played on my PC (and plan on doing just that mere moments from now.)
posted by Danelope at 9:01 PM on September 29, 2004

Mutant Storm is a good'un.
posted by ook at 9:23 PM on September 29, 2004

ah, whoops, thought that was mac-only when I posted it.
posted by ook at 9:24 PM on September 29, 2004

An old game: glider.
posted by advil at 9:26 PM on September 29, 2004

There's a Mac version of the excellent Head over Heels remake by Retrospec. I know it says PC version at the top, but there's an OSX port on the downloads page.

For more retro kicks you might want to consider your emulation options for Macs.
posted by nthdegx at 12:24 AM on September 30, 2004

Sheesh, this is sad. The PC folks get all kinds of wild first-person shooter games that max out their 128MB video cards, and we OSX users with all the same processing power are chuckling over ports of classic arcade games and freaking chess.

Hey, I like Risk and Othello as much as the next guy, but I wish there were some real games for these new G5s. Maybe I'm wrong and there are tons of rocking titles. Can someone set me right?
posted by squirrel at 1:44 AM on September 30, 2004

I can't think of too many Mac-only games, but I have some suggestions anyway.

--This isn't Mac-only, but the Macintosh version of Fallout 2 runs natively in OSX, and has the virtue of being the only version of the game ever released that's stable out of the box.

--I like the line of Civ-type strategy games by Paradox: Europa Universalis 2, Hearts of Iron, and Victoria.

--If you can find it, Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete is probably the best strategy game I've ever played on a computer. But I think it's out of print. Really worth looking for on eBay, though.

--Lately I've been spending a lot of time with Goban, a go-playing program that doesn't have the finesse of a human opponent, but is pretty smart anyway.
posted by Prospero at 6:20 AM on September 30, 2004

No squirrel, you're absolutely right. There are no good games for the Mac.

Seriously, though, these old games are still played because they're good. High end graphics and good gameplay rarely, unfortunately, go hand-in-hand.
posted by mkultra at 6:51 AM on September 30, 2004

" The PC folks get all kinds of wild first-person shooter games that max out their 128MB video cards, and we OSX users [get jack shit]"

vacapinta asked about games that were unique to the Mac. Most of the major Mac game titles are also available on other platforms, because there simply aren't enough Macintosh customers out there to recoup the costs of high end multimillion-dollar game development from.

Mac-only games tend to be indie developments, like the output of the iDevGames contest. My favorite from that is Shoot Things, but there were plenty of other good little games to come out of it. (Unfortunately, idevgames.com seems to be in the middle of a site upgrade and most of the content isn't yet available again)
posted by majick at 7:06 AM on September 30, 2004

What, no Marathon or Aleph One?

Marathon was bungie's first hit. Released about the same time as Doom, it was scary and atmospheric, with a strong plot. It crops up here in reference from time to time.
posted by mwhybark at 8:15 AM on September 30, 2004

Don't forget all the games available through Fink and X11. Many are quite nice.
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:14 AM on September 30, 2004

Wow, I knew I could count on you guys! Thanks!

Yeah, I'm familiar with most of the games available on PC *and* Mac. I just know that in the past I recall seeing a few Mac-only games and just glossing over them because they werent for me. So, this is a chance to sort of "rewind" and take a look at those games again.
posted by vacapinta at 1:04 PM on September 30, 2004