Game companies movin' to Intel

By Dan Pourhadi

I
love games, much the same way Ron Burgundy loves scotch. The difference, though, is that I avoid games like the Avian flu, because (a) I have no time to play and (b) if I do play, I'll get hooked and my productivity will plummet. But despite my lack of gamer-prowess, it warms my heart to see the Mac game-developer community eager — and even excited
– to move forward with the Intel transition.

The Mac Observer has a lengthy write-up on the current state of Mac game developers, focusing on game performance under Rosetta (which seems inconsistent at best), Universal binary plans
(sounds like most companies are on track and chuggin' away), and the possibility (and threat) of dual-booting Windows for the sole purpose of playing games.

Some interesting points:

  • MacSoft said a Universal binary version of Unreal Tournament 2004 could show up "in the next few days."
  • Doom 3 and The Sims 2 do not run well under Rosetta, but they will soon receive Universal binary patches, which will be free.
  • Older, "casual games," like those produced by MacPlay, Freeverse, Feral, and Pangea typically run well under Rosetta — to the point where one couldn't tell the difference in performance between Rosetta and native-PowerPC.
  • Game companies are obviously eventually planning to move to Intel-only releases, in hopes of hitting release dates that more closely match the games' PC counterparts.

There's a lot more information in the article, so if you're into that whole gamin' thing be sure to check it out.

Recommended