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PC vs. Mac: Games

Category: Technology
Posted on: April 13, 2008 2:00 PM, by Greg Laden

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Amusing enough, but inaccurate :D If you can't play it in Parallels or VMWare, there's Boot Camp - on the fastest Windows Laptop, a MacBook Pro. And running Windows XP on my Macbook Pro always makes me feel dirty.

Of course, the same thing applies to linux, VMware, virtual box, and dual-boot configurations. Theoretically, you could have OSX, XP, and Ubuntu all peacefully co-habitating on your Mac.

Posted by: Steve | April 13, 2008 3:24 PM

We Mac users have better things to do than play games on a computer. Umm, there's err...

Anyway, as Steve notes you can install Vista or XP on a MacBook or MacbookPro and have it run as fast and well as any other laptop. I presume the dual CoreDuo machines on desktop work as well. I certainly wouldn't run a graphics intensive PC game under Parallels (not all interrupts are intercepted, and those that are would be slowed by emulation), but you can boot it up when you like.

It's sad that Windows users now justify the existence of their OS on economic grounds. Games made for Macs are pretty awesome in their own right, given OpenGL and Quartz. It's just the market share that gives Windows the edge, and that is declining daily. Wii is perhaps the Game OS of the future.

Posted by: John S. Wilkins | April 13, 2008 10:03 PM

I admit, we don't play many games on the Mac anymore, but that has a lot more to do with the PS2 and PS3 than the PC. And we played Halo on the Mac.

Posted by: Stephanie Z | April 14, 2008 12:16 AM

I used to play a lot of games on the Mac way back when. Beyond Dark Castle was the first video game I ever got excited for when I saw it in the stores. :) Dungeon of Doom, Dark Castle, Bard's Tale and Might and Magic 2 all took up lots of my "valuable" time. :)

Escape Velocity, a mac-only game, helped convince me to stick with the mac back when I bought my first computer in 1998. '97 was the lowest point of the Apple's "Doomed" phase, when the price/performance against the Pentium 2 was at it's worst. I waited long enough for the beige G3 models to come out, which were far cheaper, thanks to PC-standard components.

That G3 I wound up buying took a Voodoo 2 graphic card from a friend's PC, making both Diablo 2 and Unreal Tournament fly on that sucker.

Good times. :)

Posted by: Left_Wing_Fox | April 14, 2008 8:12 AM

It's sad that Windows users now justify the existence of their OS on economic grounds.

John: One could say that a machine people buy mainly for games (as opposed to buying the alternative, superior systems such as Linux running Gnome, or BSD running Quartz/Carbon/Aqua, and so on) should be inexpensive. I mean, the Wii only costs like 50 bucks or something.

The ultimate comparison will come in a few weeks when my daughter's birthday approaches. Don't tell here but I'll likely get her the Harry Potter game for the Wii. If it runs on the Wii as well as or better than n the Windows machine, THE WINDOWS MACHINE DIES....

Posted by: Greg Laden | April 14, 2008 8:19 AM