On Mac Gaming

I will never forget the late 90’s / early 00’s as a period where I still had some free time, a bit of disposable income, and a Mac. To the extent that games could be played on those Macs, turn-based and retro/arcade-style games were the ones I gravitated toward.

I remember Deimos Rising very well. I finished the demo levels and wondered about spending money on the full version for a long time when I did play that thing all the time.

There wasn’t a concept of ‘social’ in games back then. I think developers make the mistake of ‘social’ implying a social network (posting scores on Facebook or Game Center). I don’t see it like that.

Having a game on your phone is inherently social.

Think about it: you can take it to any social situation. Your kids can play it or watch you play it. Your friends can play it or watch you play it. Sure, you could say online gaming or integration with online social networks is more immersive. Still, it lacks imagination regarding what people do and how they play.

It’s a shame that Mac games from the early days of OSX were either perfected versions of MacOS9 games never ported or games ported but too costly to maintain. It’s worth it to keep an old Mac around to play these games or try to run them under Sheepshaver, but it won’t ever feel the same.