Advice for Mac gamers

SidP · 18 June 2013 at 11:52PM

A great way to play games on the cheap on Mac is to use "wrappers" to play the Windows versions instead of the usually much more expensive, considerably rarer or non-existent Mac versions.

Basically, you get the PC game (eg. Fallout 3) and put it in a software "wrapper". Then you launch this "wrapper" the same way you launch a normal game, and you're done! Technically speaking: the "wrapper" translates the game's requests (eg. draw this on the screen; make this sound) into requests that Macs understand.

NB: This is perfectly legal, so long as you actually own the game you're playing!

Advantages:
Cheaper
Larger selection of games

Disadvantages:
You'll need an Intel Mac - this will not work on old PowerPC Macs
Need more computing power to run than a native Mac game (this might mean shorter battery life on a notebook, or fans spinning up more frequently)
Not all games work perfectly, or at all

So, how do you do it? I know of three good ways, in my order of preference:

1) CrossOver (software): Not free. Probably the best for beginners. Recognises when you insert a Windows CD or DVD and offers to install the software for you automatically. Some games even have official support, others have instructions from users who have made it work.

2)PortingTeam (website): Free. Slightly more difficult because you have to do most of the preparation manually. However, instructions are provided and you can post a request for help that usually gets a response. Sometimes, a game has been made to work only with certain versions of OS X, but this is always explained on the game's page.

3) WINE (software): Free. This is the main project for running Windows applications on Macs and Linux. You have to do a lot more work to get things going, but there's a lot of tweaking you can do and forums for posting help requests. They keep a comprehensive database of the stuff that works, with a simple grading system ranging from Platinum (perfect) to Garbage (pretty self-explanatory).

No URLs because I'm a new poster, but these are pretty easy to find with Bing, Google or DuckDuckGo.

Good luck!

almillar · 19 June 2013 at 1:08PM

Never tried these, will take a look. People might also be surprised at how many games are available for Mac on Steam.

Olza23 · 20 June 2013 at 7:34PM

My Mac doesn't have a Disc drive! How convenient

Percy1983 · 21 June 2013 at 12:25PM

Would it not be easier to dual boot windows?

bumpydog · 21 June 2013 at 12:41PM

Dual Boot into windows.

Generally macs don't have the best Graphics Cards and will run less efficiently under OSX than Windows. So if your want to get the best frame rates you'll want to run in windows.

Percy1983 · 21 June 2013 at 10:19PM

Saying that if you want to game for the price of the mac you could buy much better specs with a windows pc, more horse more and less overheads and more games.

SidP · 23 June 2013 at 1:31AM

Percy1983 wrote: »

Would it not be easier to dual boot windows?

Let's remember that I've posted this in the MSE forums; the aim of my post was to highlight ways for Mac gamers to save money. The whole beauty of using any of my suggestions is that you don't need to own a copy of Windows. That saves you a fair whack straight away, especially considering Macs only support Windows 7 onwards. Windows 7 Home Basic alone costs £46 on Amazon.

bumpydog wrote:

So if your want to get the best frame rates you'll want to run in windows.

Yes, frame rates will definitely be improved when running under Boot Camp—assuming that you already own a copy of Windows. However, the methods I suggest are sufficient for the plethora of older Windows games that are definitely still worth playing. For example, "Fallout" is a classic of its genre that was never available for the Mac, but can be picked up along with its (non-3D) sequels for just a few quid and plays excellently in CrossOver, WINE and PortingTeam wrappers.

Olza23 wrote:

My Mac doesn't have a Disc drive! How convenient

There are ways round that. Find someone you know who can prepare a copy of the CD of the game you want to play and save it as an ISO. You can then transfer it to your Mac using a USB flash drive or similar. Or, you can see whether the game you want to play is available on one of the digital content services, such as Steam. These downloaded versions of the game are also frequently compatible with the methods I've outlined.

Percy1983 wrote:

Saying that if you want to game for the price of the mac you could buy much better specs with a windows pc, more horse more and less overheads and more games.

I think you're overlooking the fact that this thread is aimed at those who already own a Mac. If an individual truly wants to focus on gaming quality and has the money to spend, then I doubt they're perusing the MSE forums…

Percy1983 · 24 June 2013 at 9:41AM

I suppose we are stuck int he crossroads of price and value.

To and existing mac owner as you say there is work arounds which can work.

As you say there is then dual booting if hardware is ok which at £46 doesn't offer bad value and would be rather easy (no wrapping, patching, messing per game).

The last point is more for anybody considering buying a mac and would like the play games, if you deduct apple premium tax you can get a much better spec windows pc for the the same or less than a mac.

It does appear linux is getting much more support these days, that maybe the way to go soon enough and would be free to dual boot.

SidP · 24 June 2013 at 6:09PM

Percy1983 wrote: »

I suppose we are stuck int he crossroads of price and value.

No, I'm afraid not. Not in this thread. I think you're confusing this thread with a discussion on the relative merits of Macs for gaming. It's not. It's simply a thread bringing to light some ways of having access to Windows games on the Mac without having to outlay for Windows itself.

There is actually one mistake I made: Windows 7 Home Basic is not legally available to purchase for use in the UK. In fact, the cheapest version of Windows 7 that Mac users can legally purchase for use on their Macs is Windows 7 Home Premium, which currently retails at £133.72 on AmazonUK. For further information on this situation, see Wikipedia. With this in mind, obviously the benefits of my suggestions are much clearer, from a financial standpoint.

The last point is more for anybody considering buying a mac and would like the play games, if you deduct apple premium tax you can get a much better spec windows pc for the the same or less than a mac.

Like I say, you've misunderstood the purpose of this thread. I think it's probably worthwhile starting a new thread on this topic, but I worry such a thing quickly descends into people defending their choice of OS, and that gets ugly quickly.

It does appear linux is getting much more support these days, that maybe the way to go soon enough and would be free to dual boot.

I'm not sure why you've mentioned Linux. Playing Windows games on Linux involves using WINE, which is already available on Mac, and is one of the suggestions I've already mentioned. I suppose one of the benefits of running WINE in a dual-boot Linux scenario could be that you could tweak the Linux installation to offer maximum computing power to WINE gaming (something less possible in OS X, though with OS X Mavericks on the horizon I suspect that may not be true for long). Still, you'd have to offer evidence in that regard. I suggest this would be another good topic for a new thread.

SidP.

Percy1983 · 24 June 2013 at 9:30PM

I still think its all part of the same discussion, gaming on macs with different levels of cost for different results.

I mention Linux as games are getting native Linux support and it appears to be getting bigger with a big push from valve, I guess it will have more support than mac soon and there is many free distros, so it may well soon be the best option for gaming on Macs.

Advice for Mac gamers

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