Aspyr are open for business:

http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/civ4/

Already ordered. :D

And just to make sure people don't get too excited...

That "June 30" date means nothing. Until we hear something from Brad, Glenda, or somebody else at Aspyr, the release date is completely unknown.

Remember that Amazon release dates are generally pulled from a crevice of their being so seldom seen that the demons of the Nine Hells themselves wouldn't touch it with a twenty-foot rusty halberd! (Have I made myself perfectly CLEAR?)

ATI Radeon 7500; 32Mb VRAM

:(

Geforce 4MX 32 MB VRAM :( :(

1 GHz G4 sawtooth :( :( :( :(

At least you can play it on your school laptop PC

Well, if it won't run on my system, it won't run on much of anything. So I'm not worried. ;)

Will it work on a mini then?

Will it work on a mini then?

It should on the most recent generation.

Will it run in my powerbook G4 laptop?

(I feel stupid asking this question, mostly because Turner just closed a thread I opened ranting about the Civ IV war system on PC, but, oh well, I guess I am a Civ junky)

What speed? graphics? memory?

Note that we're all speculating, based on tea leaves left at the bottom of Brad's cup last time he stopped by, plus guesses based on the sort of PC hardware that seems to be required.

Would it be safe to say I won't have any problems running it with a G5 iMac (not Intel) 2 GHz, 512 MB memory, 128 MB Video Memory, Radeon 9600 Video Card?

If that computer can't run it well a lot of people are going to be disgruntled...
:mad: :mad: :mad:

A lot of people are going to have their gruntles dissed, but I doubt if anyone with a G5 of any kind will have a problem. It's all guesswork, but I would suggest that the main issues are going to be for people with 32 MByte graphics and/or CPUs slower than about 1.5 GHz. Of course, you'll need lots of RAM as well, but that's usually fixable without buying a new system. Graphics and CPU are the more difficult upgrades.

What speed? graphics? memory?

Note that we're all speculating, based on tea leaves left at the bottom of Brad's cup last time he stopped by, plus guesses based on the sort of PC hardware that seems to be required.

Sorry I am a PC guy and I was posting from one of the PCs at my workplace, :) I supposed that, since there are not many mac laptops in the market, it is going to be easier to test the game in all of them.

Lets see:
ipowerbook G4
CPU speed 1.5 GHz
L2 cache 512 Kb
Ram memory 512 Mb
Bus speed 167 MHz
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (weren't the radeons the ones that gave problems in PCs?)
Graphics memory VRAM 64 Mb

At a glance, looks like it is going to be possible to run Civ IV in my Mac, maybe not huge maps, but I am not a computer expert.

I am a bit disappointed with the PC version, though. so I am not going to pre-order it. I'll think about buying later on.

Given the relatively small range of graphics hardware shipped for and with Macs, I think it's reasonable to assume that Aspyr will ensure that all valid configs are catered for. Anything less will further erode their available market.

Your system looks like my guess at the low end of the spectrum that will run Civ4, unless Brad pulls a rabbit out of his hat.

I was sort of surprised that they linked directly to Amazon's webpage, is that common practice for Aspyr?

If you navigate their site to the project-status page, you will find that C-IV is listed at the bottom as "First Playable". It should be obvious what that means, but those of us who are not in the industry may find our understanding to be wanting.

"What does this mean?" (From Aspyr)

Early Development
This project has been signed and code work has begun.
Development
Code work has begun, levels, characters, missions, etc... are being implemented.
First Playable
At this stage, enough code work has been done to see some magic happen on your monitor, though the game is not fully playable and many features may not be functioning.
Alpha
At this stage, the game is still buggy but solid. There may be a few features that still need to be implemented, but programmers can usually pinpoint the major areas to fix.
Beta
At this stage, all game code has been converted and all features have been implemented. Beta testers are brought in to "break" the game, basically playing it on different machines, in different ways, to find any bugs and get a solid final candidate.
Final Development
Almost all levels and sections are complete. The game is playable and backgrounds and textures have been added.
Final Candidate
Once all beta issues have been fixed, the game is then sent off for approval.
Gold Master
Once the game has been approved, the cd is sent out for duplication.
Released
This is for updates, demos and patches. The item has been tested and is available as a download, via the internet. Visit the product's mini-site, download section, for links for the item.
Duplication
The end is near, the gold master and all packaging assests (including the box and manual) are sent for duplication. Once a project reaches this stage, the game should be on store shelves in two weeks.
Shipping
The title has been produced and copies have begun shipping. PLEASE NOTE: Once a title has shipped it may take 7-10 days to get into retail stores.
In Stores
This title is in retail stores and is available to purchase.


In a previous post, Brad Oliver hinted that frequently development is a step ahead of what they officially state. ie, if they say that it is "First Playable" then that stage is completely finished and it is actually in the Alpha stage. However, in the thread "Boot Camp and IV", on April 6th in answer to the question how C-IV-Mac was coming along & he posted:
Most (all?) known graphics issues are resolved, the game is now stable for very long periods of time, networking between Intel Macs and the PC is working (still need to do PPC Mac networking), and most major functionality is there (we still need to click on all the menus and buttons to see if they work). The World Builder works, FWIW. During the beta, we'll probably test with a few mods to get those working if they're not already.

We're going to be entering QA and testing with it very shortly. I expect the QA/beta period to be somewhat long simply because it's a complex game, but I don't foresee any large roadblocks in our way. Depending on when the next PC patch is released, we may or may not roll it in before Mac Civ4 ships - too early to say yet.

Later on April 19th in that same thread, Brad posted:


Quote:
Originally Posted by airic
Any word on whether Civ4 Mac will run on a Core Duo Mac Mini? I think I read somewhere that you hinted it might not. Have you been able to look into any further?

No, I don't think we have one yet, although I could be wrong. Ask again in a few weeks.


So, it was most certainly in Alpha at that time and a couple of weeks would be about now if Brad is monitoring this thread (hint hint). Or if someone would ask him personally...

It almost seems silly to speculate on system requirements since we should receive a more official (yet not official) answer soon. However, since they've opened up this can of worms by officially sanctioning pre-sales without announcing system requirements, we may as well speculate in the interim.

Way back in January, we received this cautionary note:

That means no 600 MHz G3s (and probably no 1 GHz G4s either), no Radeon 7500s or GeForce 2MXs or Rage 128s. If you are expecting to buy Civ4 knowing that the minimum requirements are much greater than what you have and you'll tough it out, I would strongly advise you to give that plan up.


Note that they still had the same release date way back then, and Brad then indicated that the date was out of thin air and that he hadn't been consulted. Since the date is still listed as the same, I would say that it is fair to say that the programmers still have not been involved in the decision of predicting how long until the release date.

A post by JoAT in March contained this:

Originally Posted by Brad Oliver on his blog (Mar 7)
I honestly don't know. My hunch is that it will push any 3D card pretty hard, and the 3D chip in the new Mini is weak in all the areas that Civ4 needs (hardware TCL, vertex shaders and lots of VRAM). We'll have to wait until one arrives at Aspyr World Headquarters and Civ4 gets closer to release. With that said, I would not buy a Mac mini with the sole expectation of playing Civ4 (or really any modern 3D games) - that way lies sorrow.

So, the release date is still "out of thin air". And a Mini would not be a smart buy if you plan on playing C-IV with it. We still don't know the exact system requirements, but we can take the pc system requirements as a starting point and expect the graphics card to prevent many systems from running it.


M@

What is with only Americans being able to order it? That is just lame. I even blogged about this stupidity. (http://blog.muschamp.ca/2006/05/09/civilization-iv-for-the-mac/)

Civ IV pre-ordering is also possible for germans, check this out:
http://www.arktis.de/shopware.dll/cVIEW,22339/cSHOW,detail/cID,20415/cALIAS,/

Do Aspyr ever ship internationally? They certainly don't like dealing with non-US beta testers :(

I suspect it will be up to local distributors to set up pre-ordering in each territory outside the US of A. That's clearly the case in Germany

gimme gimme gimme!! just a month and a half (hopefully!).

brad, you going to pipe in anytime soon? pleaseeeeee :king:

What is with only Americans being able to order it?[/URL]

We only have distribution rights in the US, as I understand it. Dealing with distributors in other countries involves a tangled mess of contracts, as I understand it. It's definitely more difficult than it should be.

So the Aspyr website says Civ IV is in Alpha...
How do you think things are going?
Also, How well do you think the 2ghz iMactel with 256mb VRAM and 2 gigs RAM will handle CIV IV?

According to the most recent Aspyr newsletter, if all goes well a June ship date is likely. But there's always the possibility of delays due to newly-discovered bugs right up until it goes to the duplicators, so nothing is guaranteed. (read: don't blame Aspyr - or Brad personally - if it doesn't happen)

And such a system ought to handle CIV beautifully. A very recent PowerMac will outperform it, but it should probably blow anything short of that out of the water. After all, if it can't do the job, virtually nothing would be able to and there would be no point to the port anyway.

How well do you think the 2ghz iMactel with 256mb VRAM and 2 gigs RAM will handle CIV IV?

If that sort of machine can't handle Civ IV, then there's something wrong with the machine, the game, or both. Heck, that's *the* top-of-the-line iMac.

Gatekeeper

I am using a 12-inch iBook G4, the one with 1.33 GHz and I have 512 MB of RAM. Does the chance of my playing Civ4 on my Mac beat the odds that I will win the lottery and be able to afford to buy a dreaded windows pc to specifically play Civilization? Thanks for your help. I could truly die happy if all Civ versions were released simultaneously and seamlessly on the mac and pc, and were compatible with each other and all mods could be shared, expansions installed and patches patched equally between CivFanatics of both OSs.

They certainly don't like dealing with non-US beta testers :(

I beg to differ! ;)

I beg to differ! ;)
Who's got big blue eyes?!

It's just me, then!

Does the chance of my playing Civ4 on my Mac beat the odds that I will win the lottery and be able to afford to buy a dreaded windows pc to specifically play Civilization?
If you upgrade the RAM, maybe, barely. You're skating along the absolute lower edge of the Windows minimum requirements (which are generally considered to be EXTREMELY minimum) in all respects, as well as the minimum to run OSX at all, much less any demanding software.

If you upgrade to 1 GB of RAM, you'll see greatly improved performance in all demanding applications - this is highly recommended on general principles. This might give you a fighting chance of running CIV, on small maps, with all the options turned to the minimum, slowly. The graphics card in that system is pretty much the absolute minimum to do CIV at all - and from the Windows reports, you apparently need to substantially exceed the minimum requirements in other respects to make up for that weakness.

Without the RAM upgrade, I'd give you about as much chance as a whelk in a supernova. I may be being overly pessimistic, but that's the most honest appraisal I can give you based on what I see over on the Windows side.

I was very interested in a MacWorld article about running Windows in a virtual environment undr OS X (~ 20 % performance hit) on the Intel Macs as only having two partitions (Mac / Windows) under Boot Camp would be limiting and I could not use Mac apps to record turns in GOTMs etc.

However, I will see what the desktop and maybe 2nd generation iMac designs look like later in the year. I like my 'anglepoise' 17" iMac (hack gives dual screen mode) much better than the latest iMacs (too visually imposing and lacking height adjustablility). Ideal would be Macbook Pro spec chips / graphics packaged in miniMac format with dual screen

Have PC (not for Civ but mapping software) but graphics wont look at Civ4 so I will wait and enjoy C3C.

i want to order this but i have a question. i bought a dualcore 2.0 GHz powermac G5, but it still only has the stock vid card which is only a GeForce 6600 LE with 128 MB of memory. will this card cut it?

I may be being overly pessimistic, but that's the most honest appraisal I can give you based on what I see over on the Windows side.

Thanks for you help and your frankness Beamup. Sid Meir should design a stand alone machine for playing civ. It could include a bed, bathroom, alarm clock, mini fridge and microwave. All a civfanatic needs. I only wish I could have predicted my current dilly of a pickle before I bought my iBook... maybe I could have waited for one of the new MacBooks... those things are beautiful.

Back to playing vanilla civ 3 :(

i want to order this but i have a question. i bought a dualcore 2.0 GHz powermac G5, but it still only has the stock vid card which is only a GeForce 6600 LE with 128 MB of memory. will this card cut it?
I should certainly hope so!

I got my Mini last August and so it is 1.42ghz, 512mb ram, and I guess it has the 32mb video card. So at a minimum I would need to do a video card upgrade. Any idea what that would cost? I know RAM to 1MB would be about 100 dollars US. Probably I'd be better off selling it on eBay, and getting a new intel mac, probably get about $400 for the computer don't you think? WWJD?

Don't bet on that being able to do it, even upgraded to the hilt.

You should certainly wait on buying upgrades until other people have tried it on G4s and reported the results. If that suggests it might be possible, then you might upgrade.

Odds are, I think, that the only way you'll be playing is on a new system.

Who's got big blue eyes?!

It's just me, then!

FWIW, I've raised this issue again after talking to you not so long ago. Hopefully we can make some headway here.

I got my Mini last August and so it is 1.42ghz, 512mb ram, and I guess it has the 32mb video card. So at a minimum I would need to do a video card upgrade. Any idea what that would cost? I know RAM to 1MB would be about 100 dollars US. Probably I'd be better off selling it on eBay, and getting a new intel mac, probably get about $400 for the computer don't you think? WWJD?

You cannot upgrade the video card, so that option is out. I would drop in as much RAM as you can. With that, you could probably get by in Civ4 (I'm able to here) if you're not fussy about some minor graphical problems. The endgame will be pretty dreadful, however.

If your sole goal is to play Civ4 on the Mac, avoid the Intel Mac Mini and MacBook (MacBook Pro is fine) at all costs. I would stick with your current Mini over the new Minis for Civ4.