About a week ago, we released a short list of PC games that may run on iMac 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo through Boot Camp. We have extended this list, now covering 21 PC games. The following is a list of games we have added to the list. It has turned out that one of the games in the list doesn’t run properly on our Intel Mac computer.
Running old PC games may not be such a bad idea. Old games cheap. We don’t want to spend more than 20 bucks for each game. Continue reading
Feral Interactive publishes the Mac version of The Movies. The game is originally developed by Lionhead Studios. It’s a simulation game somewhat similar to Electronic Arts‘ hit game series The Sims and The Sims 2. But The Movies is a bit different from The Sims: Superstar. In this game, as the title suggests, you are in the movie industry. You run a movie studio and do nothing but to develop black & white silent movies.
Currently, Feral Interactive is working on the Mac version of add-on game The Movies: Stunts & Effects. The PC version was released on June 6, 2006. So it’s about two years and two months old. This expansion pack adds Stunt School to the game. In addition, you will be developing color films.
Anyway, this game play video shows briefly how the PC version of The Movies: Stunts & Effects works. The run time is 13 minutes and 30 seconds. Enjoy! Continue reading
15 years ago, Macs were still sort of luxury goods. Even a low-cost model called LCII cost more than US$3,000 with a 13-inch monitor. iMacs are relatively affordable these days. You can find an iMac 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo like ours for US$1,500 to 1,600 at online stores.
How about Mac Pro? Or why would you want Mac Pro as opposed to iMac in the first place? One good reason is that you want to extend your machine with a better video card and additional internal hard disk drives. Mac Pro isn’t so cheap, though. According to Apple Store, an entry Mac Pro machine equipped with two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon chips, one 2 GB DDR2 memory card, a 320 GB 7200 rpm hard disk drive, an ATI Radeon HD 26000 XT 256 MB video card and more costs US$2,799.
So some Mac users assemble computers on their own in the name of saving money. I’m sure there are many local custom build shops where they can put parts including a Mac-compatible logic board from ASUS, Gigabye or others, a power supply box, a cooling fan and more together for you. But they are unlikely to install Mac OS on your custom machine with your request. So you will be on your own to customize BIOS (ROM) settings and go underground to obtain revised Mac OS installation discs.
Or get an Open Computer from Psystar Corporation (hereafter, Psystar)? Southernmost Florida-based Psystar is one of the first companies officially accepting orders online for Mac OS-running PCs with Intel processor. According to its website (http://www.psystar.com), Psystar says
The Open Computer is a PC that works just like a Mac with Apple’s latest operating system OS X 10.5 a.k.a. Leopard. With the Open Computer you can run OS X natively as if you had purchased an expensive Apple computer except that, while paying less, you receive more. (See Screenshot 01.)
Actually, the company doesn’t necessarily guarantee that their computers can run all software programs intended for Mac OS, by stating
… Psystar does not guarantee that each and every program and feature will operate correctly as the Open Computer and/or OpenPro is not supported by Apple Computers. … Psystar does not guarantee that any of your peripherals, Apple-related or not, will function correctly. Psystar will not be responsible for your usage of the Open Computer and/or OpenPro in any way. (See Screenshot 02.)
 Screenshot 01- Source: Psystar |
 Screenshot 02- Source: Psystar |
 Screenshot 03- Source: Psystar |
Psystar’s name first went around several months ago. So their selling Mac clones is not a new story. We are aware that Apple, Inc. sued Psystar at the beginning of the last month in the federal district court for copyright infringement and other charges. Now, according to CNET News, Psystar has filed a counter-lawsuit against Apple partly for violations of antitrust law. Interestingly, the company has created a page under Company titled Litigation possibly to document their court battles with Apple although the page itself is empty for now. (Screenshot 03.) Continue reading
A few weeks ago, we introduced a couple of game play videos for Activision‘s war game Call of Duty 4: Modern War. We still don’t know when the Mac version of this game will be available from Austin/Texas-based game publisher Aspyr Media. It’s not exactly a new game any more. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released on November 5, 2007 for PC, XBox 360 and PS3. If you are a Mac user running an Intel Mac computer and cannot wait to play Call of Duty 4, it may be a good idea to play the PC version through Boot Camp just as we do.
 Screenshot 01 – Source: Call of Duty Headquarters |
 Screenshot 02 – Source: Call of Duty Headquarters |
Good news for Mac gamers playing the PC version of Call of Duty is that Activision is already talking about a new version of the war game. According to information gathered at Call of Duty Headquarters (http://www.callofduty.com) and through a video interview for NVISION 08 in San José that is made available by GameSpot, Activision will release Call of Duty: World at War in November. The exact release date has not been set yet. Continue reading
There are about 7 to 8 screen-capture shareware titles for Macs that we are aware of. Ambrosia Software‘s Snapz Pro X is by bar more popular than any other screen-capture shareware title. But Snapz Pro X is not perfect. Ambrosia Software has not been able to fix Snapz Pro X’s incompatibility issue with Final Cut Pro for years.
How about Screenium? This Mac software title is developed by Synium Software, a developer of CleanApp, which we reviewed about 2 months ago. The latest software version of Screenium is still 1.0. And the price is only US20, more than one-third cheaper than Snapz Pro X. Usually, its price tells you what it does, right? Does that mean we cannot expect good performance on Screenium?
When you launch Screenium for the first time, you will probably see the settings under the Audio/Video tab. (See Screenshot 01.) This is where you make importance choices including ones for audio and video compressors.
 Screenshot 01 |
 Screenshot 02 |
 Screenshot 03 |
Let’s first go to Audio at the bottom. There are three input devices listed. If you want to include system audio (audio run by the system like the beep sound and iTunes music), you need to enable System Audio (Screenium). If you click on the check box, you will be prompted to enter a system administrative password. (See Screenshot 02.) Furthermore, there’s a button with up & down arrows next to Audio CD. If I click on it… I get to customize audio compression settings. (See Screenshot 03-4.) Looking at Screenshot 04, it looks like Screenium doesn’t let the user choose not to compress audio (to have uncompressed audio). Does that mean Final Cut Pro users have to re-compress the audio track? We will get to that later on. Continue reading