Mac Quake 4 now shipping

by Alan Rose { Apr 14th 2006 at 2:55PM }

Inside Mac Games reports that Aspyr Media is now shipping the Mac universal binary version of Quake 4. You will be able to run the game natively on either PowerPC or Intel Macs, but you'll need at least OS X 10.3.9. However, if you've already installed the Boot Camp beta and would rather save $10, you could buy the Windows version of Quake 4 instead. Half-Life 2 apparently runs just fine using this method.

Mac gaming is at a crossroads right now with the OS decision weighing heavy on the minds of many Mac gamers. On the one hand, you have the higher price and smaller catalogs of OS X games, but without the hassle of Windows partitioned on your system. Then you have that gauntlet of budget-priced gold and platinum PC collections and other Windows exclusives at your local Wal-Mart just waiting for you to take them home.

The OS X release of Quake 4 might be the first true test of which route the Mac faithful will take, and other cross-platform titles like Civilization IV could present future dilemmas. What are your preferences regarding the binary vs. Boot Camp solutions?

Tags: aspyr, quake iv

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sabre @ Apr 14th 2006 3:01PM

...or you can just save yourself the trouble and play Half-Life 2 since Quake 4 is a mediocre game.

...Oh and Quake 4 came out on the PC 7 months ago :-P

Ranma13 @ Apr 14th 2006 3:05PM

Unfortunately for OS X, Apple's OpenGL's drivers are nowhere near as optimized as DirectX. As a result, even native OS X games run slower than their Windows counterparts. Still, for non-FPS essential games such as Civ4, I'd gladly sacrifice a few FPS to be able to play it natively on OS X. Unfortunately, the biggest and best selling games nowadays are usually first person shooters...

jay @ Apr 14th 2006 3:13PM

I don't know where the hell you got that from Ranma13 but heres a bit of real life experience info;

I have Doom 3 on my laptop. It's a 3ghz P4 with HT, Geforce 5600 128mb, 512mb DDR ram. By ALL accounts it's a faster machine than my 1.5ghz G4, Geforce 5200 64mb, 512mb DDR computer. Yet, somehow, the Mac version of Doom 3 runs FASTER. I can only play the PC version in 640*480 with settings on low. I can run the Mac version in 800*600 on low and get a faster frame rate.

That said I never played either version to completion. That was left up to my desktop PC with a Radeon 9800 way back when.

I don't know how. But the OSX port runs far better than the Windows version did. My bet is so will Quake 4.

logikil @ Apr 14th 2006 3:27PM

Somethings up with that windows laptop then Jay, because that should in no way be true. That being said, i just bought a MacBook Pro a couple months ago and did so really on the hope that someone would be able to get windows fully running on it for gaming.

Apple did me the favor and gave me exactly what i wanted. So while i do indeed enjoy os x, and use it for pretty much everything else, i will be hoping into windows to play games and use visual studio.

My 2 cents.

Timothy Dorr @ Apr 14th 2006 3:29PM

Let's see: Spend $200 for XP to save $10 on a game by running it in a BETA environment (that apparently can lock you out of OS X). Yeah, that seems logical. Seeing as Mac gaming is all but dead, I suppose it can't really do anything but get better. I don't see Boot Camp killing it.

NetworkShadow @ Apr 14th 2006 3:35PM

It's nice to see them continue to support the Mac OS, but I wish it wouldn't take so damn long for them to port the games... Why can't they just develop the Mac version at the same time as the PC one? Blizzard sure has the right idea.

I'd rather not spend the money on Windows XP just to play games on it... I'd sure buy a lot more games for my Mac if more PC titles were ported.

boot_boy @ Apr 14th 2006 3:43PM

Hey Tim,

You can get XP for a lot less than that. Many people can get free licenses at work or school as well.

And it isn't just Quake IV that you save $$ on. Look at Neverwinter Nights. For $30, you can get the Diamond Collection for PC (3 modules, 3 premium modules), whereas is still costs over $100 to get the Mac versions of just the first three modules. You've recouped the cost of XP right there! Not to mention all the game bundles that you can only get for PC. Civ4 and HMM5 will also be cheaper on the PC side. It all adds up.

You have to look at the big picture, guy. In the long run, you'll save a lot of money buying the PC versions for boot camp. The question is, will they run as well on the Intel Macs?

Gamey McGee @ Apr 14th 2006 3:48PM

I can say with 100% confidence that Civilisation IV and Heroes of Might and Magic V will be purchased for my MacBook Pro, and not my PC. I simply won't buy a PC game if it comes out within 6 months on my Mac because there are so many PS2 and PSP games out there anyway to keep my occupied.

Gamey McGee @ Apr 14th 2006 3:52PM

#2: It has very little to do with driver optimization. It has everything to do with the level of access afforded a single application to the hardware. OS X is a multitasking OS and no one application can take all the resources. You'll notice on a PC how your input and application switching can be sluggish or completely unresponsive in times of high load. Games are a case in point. On a Mac, this is never the case. So clearly there is an advantage and disadvantage to this approach. You get a more responsive UI and better multitasking on a Mac, but at the expense of a couple FPS in your games.

burn @ Apr 14th 2006 3:59PM

as a long time mac gamer, Boot camp allows me to finally play a SHIT-TON of games that have been released over the last 6 or 7 years that I never got to play because, they never got ported.

I will still play os x native games, but there is a HUGE backcatalouge of games that I will be using Boot Camp for.

I am sooo glad I got an intel iMac.

Miharu @ Apr 14th 2006 4:02PM

Why are games like Doom 3, Quake 4 and Halo coming but no Half Life? I bet Half Life 2 would sell okay.

Rich Wardwell @ Apr 14th 2006 4:17PM

Obviously Joystiq editors either:

1. Can't do math

OR

2. Are recommending that people pirate software...

Since running Windows XP on a Mac costs over $200 (purchase Win XP Home) -- and using any of those OEM or upgrade XP CDs is verboten.

So, save $10, but pay $200, burn up a lot of disk space, waste a lot of time dual-booting, and the headache of installing another OS.

Don't get me wrong, Bootcamp is cool, but I can't imagine how a Mac Only customer would consider Windows on their Mac as an alternative to a native game (even if it is a tad slower) reasonable -- actually quite bazaar. Anyone who already has a Windows box has already bought the game for Windows, already played it for 7 months and moved on.

Dook @ Apr 14th 2006 5:07PM

Anything that keeps me from having to reboot into XP is worth the $10. If I have the choice, I always buy OSX. As great as it is to have the option to play games on XP, i'd rather only use it as a bastardized last resort.

Art Guy @ Apr 14th 2006 5:46PM

Miharu - The owners of the Havoc engine want a TON of money for the rights to port it over, more than it is reasonably worth. They could never break even on the cost.

Karl Rove @ Apr 14th 2006 5:49PM

Um windows xp home is $90 at newegg, not sure where everyone else is shopping.

#9 The performance loss has to do with OS/X being a mutil-tasking operating system? LOL what do you think XP is? Application switching in XP is anything but slow. If you find it to be sluggish your computer probably needs a hardware upgrade.

Sabre @ Apr 14th 2006 5:51PM

It's so nice when people have no idea what they are talking about (Rich):

WinXP Home OEM ($88):
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA39890

WinXP Pro OEM ($131):
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA15070

...it is LEGAL to buy OEM software and I have bought from this place COUNTLESS times.

"long time mac gamer"

HAHA...that's funny.

Uglypimp @ Apr 14th 2006 6:02PM

My friend just purchased a MacBook Pro, and once Bootcamp was announced he loaded Windows. I gave him KOTOR to borrow since he hasn't played it before.

Once Windows and KOTOR was installed, he double clicked the KOTOR icon, stood back from his laptop and proclaimed:

"Let there be light."

I left after that point and I haven't heard from him since.

boot_boy @ Apr 14th 2006 6:03PM

Hey Rich,

Read my comment about long-term savings (#7). You're comparing your inflated XP costs to the savings of only one game. I'm assuming most people that choose the BootCamp option will play more than one PC game.

jay @ Apr 14th 2006 6:13PM

Havoc is on Director, no? Director is on OSX. I can see it in my dock now.

"long term mac gamer"

me too! well, I stopped playing PC games years ago. I play HL2 from time to time. but nintendo consoles are my vice. I'm a gamer, I have a mac too.

Back to what I said way up there. The laptop is fine. It runs everything else fine. I played D3 on a mates 5600 laptop too, it cried. The PC version is just so un-optimised it's scary.

mike @ Apr 14th 2006 6:36PM

For all you trolls who say Mac gaming is dead, this will make Mac marketshare go UP not DOWN.

Furthermore.. as for calculating the costs of using Boot Camp..

Remember way back when the first Mac mini was released, and pundits always mentioned how the 'cost of a Mac mini doesn't include the cost of a screen, keyboard, etc'

this is the SAME thing..

Apple KNOWS that 80% of you have Windows at home.. ergo.. if you buy a Mac mini (Intel).. put Boot Camp on there.. how much does it cost you do run Windows apps?

You already have your windows keyboard, your PC display.. hook those up in 2 seconds.. you also have your Windows XP box.. install that ( about an hour or two).. how much extra did that cost you? $600 for the low end Mac mini

That's it. Nothing else to spend. Two computers in one. It's more for a switcher than someone who DOESNT HAVE A COMPUTER AT ALL..

Talking about OEM prices, etc, is moot.. most people already have WIndows.. thats what the Mini is for

Sabre @ Apr 14th 2006 6:47PM

D3 in general is unoptimized in general...hell the engine itself is a piece of crap (maybe thats why only iD and 2-3 other developers use it.) :-P

EatingPie @ Apr 14th 2006 8:22PM

Wow, nobody is actually talking about Quake4 on the Mac. Just ragging on (a) the PC, (b) the Mac or (c) Doom III.

I purchased Q4 yesterday. I spent some time killing effects, and got it to a relatively steady 50-60 fps on my 2Ghz MacBook Pro. I would love to kill the smoke effects too, but haven't got that far yet. The game suffers from intermittent brief pauses, but from what I've read, the PC version has this issue also. Pre-caching textures should be the ticket there.

There is one REAL problem here, though. The mouse dynamics are very different than the PC version. You have 100% smooth scrolling, with no acceleration curb on the Mac side. This makes aiming VERY difficult. Quake3 suffered the same problem, but it seems much worse now in Q4.

For this reason alone, I will be looking into Boot Camp. But Quake is my favorite game and I would not consider this for anything else.

-Pie

Sabre @ Apr 14th 2006 8:51PM

"the PC version has this issue also. Pre-caching textures should be the ticket there."

Bingo...I went thru the tweak guide on tweakguides.net and now the game runs silky smooth (I only have it b/c I got it for $5 from an inside connection.) I'm not sure if the tweaks on that guide will work, but if the same .cfg files are there it "should" work.

elvisizer @ Apr 14th 2006 9:07PM

booting into a second OS is a major pain. if I know the game's going to come out on os x within a few months, i'll wait. otherwise i'll boot camp it. i mean, I basically made this decision years ago when, already owning a mac, i decided i had to build myself a gaming pc to play grand prix legends. i've been using both macs and pc's i've built for myself ever since, and have always followed the 'wait a few months if a mac version's coming' rule.

michael @ Apr 14th 2006 11:11PM

This news is a little old. I mean my local mac store has had the universal binary quake 4 in stock for about a month now.

Rich Wardwell @ Apr 15th 2006 1:56AM

Yeah... all you folks quoting OEM prices... yeah - that's about as useful as quoting upgrade prices... OEM prices are only good with the HD purchase, etc. Buying OEM for a Bootcamp upgrade is about as legal as buying nothing... move along...

Karl Rove @ Apr 15th 2006 3:16AM

Um you can get the OEM version at newegg without having to buy additional hardware. A lot of the other websites will often only make you buy a mousepad. If mac users are actually buying xp home for $200 then that's hilarious. So much for sticking it to MS.

Sabre @ Apr 15th 2006 4:13AM

@ Rich:

You obviously have NO idea what you are talking about. Are you a Mac use by any chance? The ONLY requirement to buy an OEM copy of Windows (which I'll say again, is LEGIT) is to by some kind of hardware (a $2 mouse will qualify.) If it was illegal then why would a highly respectanle online retailed like newegg.com be selling it?

Miharu @ Apr 15th 2006 8:32AM

What if you have a PowerPC Mac? Then there is no dual booting, and Mac version of Quake 4 is the only choice. I'm glad companies make Mac games, besides who wants to dual boot all the time? I'd never use XP for anything else but games, and I would much rather buy a native version of a game even if it's a bit more expensive if it saves trouble.