Mac News: Gaming

Can the 'Funnest iPod Ever' Take on Nintendo and Sony?
October 13, 2008

This season, Apple has been marketing the iPod touch as "the funnest iPod ever." Instead of leading with music or even a media experience, the latest television ad shows game after game being played on the iPod's ample screen -- a motorcycle chasing game, that funky monkey in the ball, and others.

'Spore Origins' Headlines New Batch of EA Games for iPhone, iPod
September 08, 2008

Just as PC gamers in the U.S. and Canada are about to lay hands on the full version of "Spore," Will Wright's latest creation, Electronic Arts announced Friday that a moblie version of the game is coming to the iPhone and iPod touch. As with "Spore," "Spore Origins" puts gamers in the middle of a world where it is either eat or be eaten.

Gaming on a Mac: Technically Speaking
February 20, 2008

It's been nearly three years since Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Mac computers would sport Intel processors. In that time, however, the number of games ported for Mac computers continues at a relative trickle, with only six to eight top-tier games coming out in a given year.

The Mac Gaming Renaissance, Part 2
February 10, 2008

Game developers are slowly warming to the idea of producing more games for the Mac platform. Presently, it's possible to find a handful of famous titles from top-tier game makers. However, if you're looking for intense, graphics-heavy games -- the type of games best played on top-of-the-line machines -- you're mostly out of luck.

The Mac Gaming Renaissance, Part 1
February 09, 2008

For a lot of hardcore gamers, the phrase "gaming on a Mac" is an oxymoron. As recently as a year ago, if you took a look around a typical game shop, and you may have walked out thinking that despite the many whiz-bang features built into the Mac and its OS X operating systems, not to mention the beauty of Apple monitors, true gaming can only happen on a PC.

Live From Macworld: Slick Podcasting, Tricked-Out Tablet, Awesome Display
January 15, 2008

Apple CEO Steve Jobs made big news Tuesday, taking advantage of the Macworld keynote spotlight to announce of his company's latest hardware offerings, including a wireless hard drive backup system and an incredibly skinny laptop computer. However, Macworld is much more than Jobs' 90-minute speech.

AMD Spider Weaves High-End Gaming Web
November 19, 2007

AMD is weaving together several lines of high-end components to create a new platform aimed at enthusiast PC computing. Codenamed "Spider," AMD's PC platform combines the new AMD Phenom quad-core processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series graphics processors with Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support, AMD 7-Series chipsets with CrossFireX and AMD OverDrive software.

Id's Unrepressed Desire: Mobile Gaming
November 15, 2007

Fountainhead Entertainment and Id Software, the developer behind the "Doom" and "Quake" video game series, have announced they have come together to create a new division at Id Software: Id Mobile. The software developer's new arm will create games for cell phones, the handheld Nintendo DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable.

Game On for OLPC: EA to Put 'SimCity' on Low-Cost Laptops
November 09, 2007

Children in developing nations who receive the XO laptop from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation can exercise their imaginations and build their own cities with the original "SimCity" video game. Electronic Arts announced Thursday that it has donated the game, originally released in 1989, to the OLPC Foundation for the organization to include on its laptops, which sell for around $200 each.

New AMD Chip Takes Double-Barrel Approach to Stream Processing
November 08, 2007

Advanced Micro Devices has turned to graphic chip technology to boost the power of its latest high-end processor, the FireStream 9170 Stream Processor, unveiled Thursday. The hybrid chip taps into the "massive parallel processing power" found in graphics processing units and leverages it to meet the needs of the demanding high-performance computing market, AMD said.

Tech Gifts: What's Hot and What's Not in the CE Department
November 07, 2007

The holiday season may still be more than a month away, but you can be sure marketers and retailers already have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Consumers are expected to spend roughly $48 billion on consumer electronics in the fourth quarter, for example, and almost half of that -- $22 billion -- will come from holiday sales, according to research from the Consumer Electronics Association.

Old Jedi Mind Tricks? LucasArts, BioWare Hint at 'Star Wars' MMORPG
October 31, 2007

"Star Wars" fans got a lot to think about following the announcement Tuesday from LucasArts and BioWare that the two companies have teamed up on a project. "LucasArts has a deep commitment to developing compelling stories and characters for the unique medium of interactive entertainment, and we have been searching for a developer that shares this value," said LucasArts' Jim Ward.

Meebo Says 'Me Too' to Third-Party Apps
October 31, 2007

To mark its second birthday Monday, Meebo unveiled a surprise for its users -- applications for the Meebo platform. With the announcement, the instant messaging site joins social networks such as Facebook and MySpace that have opened up their platform to third-party developers. The first round of applications are designed to pep up Meebo's communications capabilities.

MySpace Pens Formal Agreement for Casual Games
October 23, 2007

MySpace is breaking into the casual gaming world, and it's tapped casual games company Oberon Media to get the job done. In early 2008, MySpace will launch MySpace Games, which will let users choose from hundreds of games for free online play. "Bringing entertainment in the form of fun, social, casual games will enhance our user experience," Amit Kapur, MySpace vice president of business development, noted.

Global Warming Strikes 'SimCity'
October 11, 2007

Gaming fans may find that life in "SimCity" suddenly gets a lot more realistic this fall with the release of "SimCity Societies." Through a partnership between EA and BP, the next-generation version of the game series combines city building with industry expertise on energy, electricity production and greenhouse gas emissions to highlight the impact of electricity generation on the CO2 emissions linked with climate change.

Guitar Hero III to Shred on PCs, Macs
September 12, 2007

Computer geeks who've quietly longed for the ability to play "Guitar Hero" on their PCs and Macs can stop fretting. A company plans to release a personal computer version of the addictive pseudo-guitar-playing game, currently available only on video game consoles. Austin, Texas-based Aspyr Media has partnered with Activision to create a PC/Mac version of "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock."