Star Trek D-A-C coming to M-A-C

by Richard Mitchell { Nov 20th 2009 at 4:00AM }

Paramount has announced that it's bringing the downloadable Star Trek D-A-C -- based on the recent film -- to the Mac. The game will be released with the help of TransGaming, meaning it will utilize Cider, software that allows PC games to be run on Macs. In other words, your hopes of experiencing the mediocrity of Star Trek D-A-C in an Apple native format have just been dashed. Sorry.

The game is scheduled to launch this December and is currently available for pre-order at GameTree Online.

Tags: bad-Robot, bad-robot-interactive, cider, mac, naked-sky-entertainment, paramount, Star-Trek, star-trek-dac, transgaming

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Toasty Toaster Man @ Nov 20th 2009 4:05AM

O-M-G

President Taco @ Nov 20th 2009 4:15AM

Windows emulation is the best thing to ever happen to Mac gamers.

Heston @ Nov 20th 2009 10:17AM

If by Windows emulation, you don't mean Windows emulation, and you actually mean Boot Camp, then yes, you're correct.

finnith @ Nov 20th 2009 4:17AM

That's pretty sad, not only do you get a mediocre game, but it's running on emulation software to boot.

Phix @ Nov 20th 2009 4:19AM

Really? Does this game even have a community to make it commercially viable? Wouldn't it be best to just sweep this under the carpet ASAP?

Evan @ Nov 20th 2009 4:37AM

Cider being based off of Wine would make it *not* an emulator, but rather a compatibility layer. Emulation is when you simulate a hardware environment, which is not what happens here.

sonicspike41 @ Nov 20th 2009 4:42AM

Just guessing, but does this program/layer merely redirect certain calls to their Mac counter parts? Like redirecting any Direct X calls to use the Mac variant instead?

I remember that's how they got Halo 2 working in XP, by redirecting the DX10 calls to ones that would work properly in XP.

Evan @ Nov 20th 2009 4:49AM

Halo 2 working on XP was easily done because it arbitrarily required DirectX 10 but didn't use any of it.

It is a compatibility layer in the sense that it re-implements DirectX to just forward to other system libraries. Direct3D calls for example are handled, then passed to the OpenGL library as OpenGL calls.

The compatibility layer introduces a small performance hit, but not really much. In this case, the conversion is done by taking the source code of the game, and implementing the compatibility at compile-time, so the calls aren't necessarily always converted at run-time. It would be essentially a program that runs on OSX.

The use of Cider/etc for porting games is a lazy way of doing it instead of re-writing the rendering and input for each platform manually(which would result in a major performance boost), though it does save on development costs.

John Z @ Nov 20th 2009 7:00AM

From a development standpoint, then, wouldn't it be far smarter for companies to write their routines in OpenGL and then when compiling for Win/OSX, have the wrappers there convert the calls to DirectX/Core Graphics? Or am I missing some critical bit of information about how DX and OpenGL work?

Maulok @ Nov 20th 2009 7:51AM

Almost anyone can make an average dual stick shooter, but it's challenging to make a ridiculously bad one. So congrats to the Star Trek DAC team for that.

President Taco @ Nov 20th 2009 10:56AM

Whatever technicality makes you feel better buddy.

President Taco @ Nov 20th 2009 10:57AM

crap, that was for Heston. bah....

trainwrecka @ Nov 20th 2009 11:10AM

That's too bad. Games running natively on the Mac - read: designed with the Mac interface in mind - always feel better.

Bryan @ Nov 20th 2009 12:07PM

Has anyone actually tried this game? It's $10 on Steam and it's pure garbage.

alxross @ Nov 20th 2009 12:36PM

That's cool. I want a Mac now. I so tired of my damn Dell. That company sucks and isn't what it used to be.

I'm saving for a Mac now...

samueltehg33k @ Nov 20th 2009 4:24PM

no native port? XBLA it is.

Delsaber @ Nov 20th 2009 6:47PM

D-A-C? Weak tea! Hokum for rubes! Give us an OS X version of Star Trek Online and then we'll talk.

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