But here’s something a lot of people have been wondering: will the games be ported using Cider (a decrepit software used to cheaply port games), or will it have some love put into it and be natively ported? Well, wonder no more! According to Valve, ”We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation.” This had me jumping up and down!

Also, all further Valve games will be released on Mac simultaneously. This includes their next game, Portal 2, due for release the same day as the Windows version. Patches will also be released on the same day.

But what does this matter to you non-gamers?

A lot. Valve is one of, if not, THE largest game developer today. Consequently, they have the power to influence a lot of key players in the gaming world. For example, to keep up with the advancing specifications necessary for computers to run games, Apple may begin producing more powerful computers and, hopefully, at cheaper prices. Likewise, it may soon be possible to replace parts, making upgrades and tune ups a practical alternative.

Indeed, Apple admits that today’s computer game industry is a large market and one which, up until now, they have mostly unaccommodated. In fact, this is the #1 reason why people do not switch to Apple products — no computer game works on them! But, that day when Macintosh finally taps into the gaming market seems just around the corner.

In fact, if more companies jump on the bandwagon, their customers will readily follow. Simple as that.

What do you think about Steam coming to the Mac? Leave a comment!

Project OSx86 has been around a few years already but is finally starting to get viewed as a reason to make the switch to OSX. What it does is it allows for a PC with PC hardware to run OSX which was impossible since the switch to Intel chipsets. I myself am fairly low on knowledge about the subject but I have known about the Project since it was started in 2005. Our own team member Kyle actually has created his own. And, after this Summer I hope to build a Hackintosh as nice summer project. To build a hackintosh does not require hacked hardware but hacked software. This software is pretty much OSX with a few simple low level drivers called “kexts” or kernal extensions. Since Mac OSX is based off of Unix which is similar to Linux users can install and drivers into OSX. What this means is that now instead of having an $1100 Macbook with a 150GB hard drive, a Nvidia 9800, a 2ghz processor, and 2gbs of RAM that can barely play Call of Duty 4 at medium settings. You can have a computer that could run Crysis and GTAIV at High to Very High settings. Some disadvantages to making a Hackintosh is that it is not, necessarily, friendly. You will have to have basic knowledge about Computers and a good amount of knowledge about OSX works and Linux for a non-stressful installation.

-Connor

You’re probably wondering. “Window’s games on MY Mac, in OSX? Impossible.” Well I hate to say it but you are wrong. Linux’s WINE is a piece of software that allows for Windows games to run on Linux. Why does this have anything to do with your Mac? Well a few years back the guy’s over at Transgaming created a piece of software called Cider. This allowed for commercial games to run on Mac’s natively (for example: The Sims 3, Spore, Battlefield 2142, Prince of Persia etc…), thus unofficial porting was born. Cider is what people call a “wrapper”. Simply put the Windows game files go into the Cider.app you direct the wrapper to the game files and Voila the game should start up in all it’s Winblow’s glory.  Now it gets a little more complicated then that.  These Cider ports were difficult to find and the quality was lacking in some, so a few buddies of mine decided to start a place where these “porters” could get together and create a huge library of wrappers for different games. Thus the Porting Team was born. After a few months of many ports we found the Cider wrapper starting to lack. It didn’t have the compatibility of Linux’s Wine, but we had someone who could solve that problem. A member by the name of doh123 developed the CXSkin wrapper and the Wineskin wrapper. CXSkin was based off of Codeweavers Crossover and Wineskin was based off Wine.  This allowed for much better compatibility and newer games could be ported.  With these new wrappers The Porting Team grew and with 3000 members, over 1,000,000 hits, and hundreds of ports. the website has a lot of potential for itself .

So enough talk here is what you got to do

1. Go to www.portingteam.com and sign up

2. Make 3 Posts so you can see our wrapper section

3. Find a wrapper for a game you own (or acquire)

4. Install the game in either Windows or by using the installer inside the either CXZ or Wineskin wrapper

5. Right click on the wrapper and go to Show Packaged Contents and go into the “usually” Contents/Resources/c_drive folder (if not there will probably be instructions) and drop your game folder in the appropriate folder.

6. click the app and play

If you have any questions leave a comment here or hit me up on the porting team my name is dafootballer.

You’ll be hearing from me more on other news from Apple, and the scene soon on this site.