11.01.2006 | 23:23
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
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MWSF: Developers React To New Macs, Dual Booting
10:38 AM | Tuncer Deniz | 2 comments
IMG was able to get some reaction from a few game developers while at Macworld Expo San Francisco. Most are still cautious about the new MacIntel machines. The most obvious questions still remains: how easy will it be to install and boot into Windows. Will it be easy or a hard hack. Game developers on the Mac, as you can imagine, are anxious to find out. So while we wait for these new machines to arrive, we got some developer reactions on the new machines and the distinct possibility of dual booting.
Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software:
The machines are shipping with graphics cards that will inevitably make game developers smile... even the MacBook Pro, which is a refreshing change. The performance is also quite stellar compared to the machines they are replacing, especially in the case of the MacBook Pro, which is something developers of course always appreciate
More than anything else, developers really hope Apple makes great machines, and sells a ton of them -- because that means a larger market for their product. I think Apple has taken an excellent first step in that direction here.
I don't think dual-booting will be too much of an issue; the poor misguided souls who run Linux still prefer to run native Linux games. Sure, you can reboot into Windows to play a game, but that's a hassle.
If anything, it's one less reason to not buy a Mac, and that's something I consider a good thing all around. If there's a Windows only game or Windows only piece of software, you can in theory still use it on your shiny new Intel Mac.
Phil Sulak of MacSoft:
Apple's news today is an astounding one-two punch. The fact that they're able to refresh both the Consumer and Pro product lines with new Intel CPU's so close to the start of 2006 simply amazes me. I'm extremely excited about the new hardware that's coming out, and I can't wait to get my hands on a new MacBook Pro.
We'll have to wait a bit and see on the dual booting issue. A lot will depend on whether or not end users will be able to install and dual-boot Windows XP on these new machines. Personally, I've been a huge fan of the Mac OS since 1989. Although there are some nice things about Windows XP, I find Mac OS X to be a bit more elegant and refined. So even if I could (proverbially) have my cake and eat it too, I think I'd personally try to stick with running OS X and OS X apps exclusively on the new hardware.
Colin Smith of Freeverse
Very excited! The MacBook looks awesome and I'll have a hard time restraining myself from buying one. I really want a 12\" model.
Still interested/concerned about how the Windows booting or emulation will or will not work.
Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software
There isn't really anything monumental about the new iMac's other than the Intel switch, but just like the PowerPC version it's a sweet machine and I don't have any beefs with it at all. Everyone should own one.
As for the Macbooks, those look like fantastic machines as well. I was a little disappointed to see Firewire 800 gone, but that's not critical on a portable anyway. The screen is fantastic, and overall it looks like a real winner. I may have to pick up one of those too later in the year.
I'm torn on dual booting. On one hand I want it because I'm tired of running my GPS and Suunto Dive Computer software with VirtualPC. On the other hand, I think it could be a disaster for the Mac game porting biz and everything that goes along with that. I also think that if that happens then companies that have always been \"on the fence\" about doing Mac versions of their warez, may bail and just tell people to install Windows on their Macs.