When will "Beyond the Sword" come out for mac?

[vyeh]

As long as you are using a Mac machine, you're a Mac user. I use to have a PC and use Windows, but there were those crashes. My sister had always been a fanatical Mac user with a PPC.

When OS X came out with the promise of greater system stability, I bought an PPC. I still miss the fact that the PC game section is a lot larger than the Mac game section.

But I love the fact that I don't have to worry about crashes, viri, worms, and so on.

It will be interesting to see what kind of problems arise when you are operating Windows on a Mac Intel machine.

 

[ZenMonkey]

It will be interesting to see what kind of problems arise when you are operating Windows on a Mac Intel machine.

So far I have had none. However, I am supremely careful about what I do Windows-side. I only go to trusted websites if I have to browse, which I actually try not to do at all. (I haven't installed virus software because I don't want it slowing everything down so I just practice safe browsing or wait to browse Mac-side.) I play City of Heroes and some older games and everything works like a charm.

Not getting Civ IV for Windows just for BTS, though, unless it turns out they won't be releasing it for Mac at all. Which seems unlikely.

 

[ancestral]

BtS will use the same video code as the other Civ4 titles, and so will perform similarly. The problem with the GMA950 is the poor way OS X and OpenGL works with it. That seems to make it perform worse on a Mac than it does under Windows and DirectX.

Obviously still a few months away, but then again so will BtS if it makes it to the Mac: Leopard looks to include a Low Level Virtual Machine which might play a big hand in aiding graphics performance, especially those with integrated video cards.

 

[wgh_2001]

Obviously still a few months away, but then again so will BtS if it makes it to the Mac: Leopard looks to include a Low Level Virtual Machine which might play a big hand in aiding graphics performance, especially those with integrated video cards.

A few months away? Do you think it's a safe assumption that it will be out by Christmas?

 

[vyeh]

It is probably safe to assume Leopard will be out by Christmas. Leopard will be previewed at an Apple show and Apple must realize that sales will be better if the release is before Christmas.

 

[AlanH]

I doubt if Leopard will be delayed beyond its scheduled October release, but I suspect wgh_2001 wants to know about the BtS schedule. Personally, I'm not holding my breathe for a Mac BtS release ... at any date. I'll just be thankful for a patch release to match the latest Windows versions of Civ4 and Warlords.

Re. LLVM capability, even if Leopard includes it, and even if it does wonders for DirectX/OpenGL performance, I wonder if Aspyr will rely on it for sales of a Civ4 expansion kit?

 

[waltham845]

Personally, I'm not holding my breathe for a Mac BtS release ... at any date. I'll just be thankful for a patch release to match the latest Windows versions of Civ4 and Warlords.

So all hope is lost for continued Macintosh game addons for Civ4, which is too bad. Reminds me of the days before OS X when AutoCAD for the Mac came out. They said the user base for PC's was larger. AutoCAD could only be used under an earlier Macintosh operating system and was discontinued for lack of users. There was no support or updates after that point..... I am still hoping for BTS though.

 

[AlanH]

Well, I'm no authority on the future of Civ4 for Mac, and I should make it clear that I was expressing a personal opinion re. BtS. It's purely based on:

(a) the lack of any announcements from Aspyr - I would have expected them to ride the publicity wave for the Windows release and to pre-announce that they planned one to generate interest. The fact that they haven't done so implies to me that they haven't decided whether to do it at all.

(b) I've seen figures for Warlords indicating that a rather low percentage of Mac users are buying expansions to the original product.

But maybe I'm just being an unduly pessimistic, grumpy old man.

 

[Bazzalisk]

(a) the lack of any announcements from Aspyr - I would have expected them to ride the publicity wave for the Windows release and to pre-announce that they planned one to generate interest. The fact that they haven't done so implies to me that they haven't decided whether to do it at all.

Or, rather more likely, they want to do it but haven't come to an agreement with Firaxis yet, and making any kind of announcement before such an agreement exists would be virtually guaranteed to lose them the license.

 

[AlanH]

Agreed. My shorthand reference to "haven't decided whether to" was intended to cover that eventuality. Achieving a mutually acceptable agreement with Firaxis is, of course, part of the decision process.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

Should I go out and buy a Mac copy of Warlords, just to help the process along?

 

[AlanH]

Every little helps

 

[Gatekeeper]

Hmm. Well, you'd think with Apple's continually increasing sales of their laptop and desktop computers, more and more folks would be getting involved with Mac gaming. iPod and iPhone aside, Apple does still sell (great) computers!

Gatekeeper

 

[waltham845]

Every little bit helps

Hmm. Well, you'd think with Apple's continually increasing sales of their laptop and desktop computers, more and more folks would be getting involved with Mac gaming. iPod and iPhone aside, Apple does still sell (great) computers!

Hopefully as the amount of users grows, so to will the amount of gaming programs for the Mac. I have Warlords, so maybe "BtS" just received a bit of a nudge in the right direction (nudge nudge)...

 

[vyeh]

Well, you'd think with Apple's continually increasing sales of their laptop and desktop computers, more and more folks would be getting involved with Mac gaming. iPod and iPhone aside, Apple does still sell (great) computers!

If you read some of the threads in this forum, many Mac users are having problems with vanilla. That might be discouraging them from buying Warlords. So even if more and more folks are getting involved with Mac gaming, it doesn't mean sales of Warlords will go up.

 

[peter grimes]

I was all set to buy Warlords, but then I saw some of the problems that people were having, and I realized it wouldn't run on my system (macbook). We're hoping to get an iMac in a few months, so I'll certainly get both Warlords and Beyond the Sword at that point

 

[dutchking]

^It'll run, it, and pretty fast on a macbook, it just won't have great graphics...

 

[Gatekeeper]

If you read some of the threads in this forum, many Mac users are having problems with vanilla. That might be discouraging them from buying Warlords. So even if more and more folks are getting involved with Mac gaming, it doesn't mean sales of Warlords will go up.

I am aware of problems in the past, having experienced a few of them myself (mainly the sound issues), but haven't had anything noticeably wrong since applying the patches.

I wonder if it's PPC legacy machines mostly affected, Intel or both, and how many are "borderline" in terms of being able to run Civ IV.

Gatekeeper

 

[Bazzalisk]

I wonder if it's PPC legacy machines mostly affected, Intel or both, and how many are "borderline" in terms of being able to run Civ IV.

Both systems seem to experience problems. Some problems are PPC specific, some are x86 specific, and some effect both. Sometimes one person gets lots of problems and another person on the self-same hardware gets almost none -- it seems totally random based upon the purely anecdotal evidence on this site.

 

[waltham845]

Both systems seem to experience problems. Some problems are PPC specific, some are x86 specific, and some effect both. Sometimes one person gets lots of problems and another person on the self-same hardware gets almost none -- it seems totally random based upon the purely anecdotal evidence on this site.

I seemed to have had very few problems, except for the slowness which showed up when Vanilla Civ4 was first released. Since the patches, very few hiccups after them. I also increased the amount of RAM (3GB) recently and the sound glitches seemed to have gone away. Like you say I think its random, but I bet the factors are traceable to a source. However finding that source might be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.