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Conquer Online coming to the Mac on May 3rd

Jef Reahard — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Mac

Mac MMORPGs have come a long way. Titles as wide-ranging as World of Warcraft, Fallen Earth, and Free Realms now boast their own native clients, and Conquer Online is set to join the ranks of OS X-flavored MMOs on May 3rd.

TQ Digital has just announced the creation of a new Conquer Online server (dubbed Garden of Eden) exclusively for Mac users. The free-to-play title originally launched way back in 2003 and sports a 2.5D game world set in ancient China. The Mac version of the game is undergoing beta testing through April 26th, and you can download the beta client via a number of sources including FTP and bit torrent. Mac beta testers will be kitted out with equipment, skills, and necessary in-game items according to a TQ press release, and you can learn more at the official Conquer Online website.

Conquer Online coming to the Mac on May 3rd originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Free Realms now available for your Mac

Jef Reahard — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Mac, Free Realms, Kids, Family

Mac users rejoice, you've got another option when it comes to MMORPGs thanks to SOE and Free Realms. While OS X fans have seen their list of available titles grow in recent years, AAA games are still fairly scarce, with World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Fallen Earth being a few of the more notable exceptions.

Free Realms isn't dumping you on a Mac-segregated server either, but rather the same shards inhabited by the free-to-play title's PC users. With fourteen million registered players, you're bound to find someone to hang out with, so head over to the official website to download the client and get started.

Free Realms features a large virtual world, customizable avatars, and a huge variety of minigames designed to provided hours of safe online entertainment for kids and whole families. Check out Massively's in-depth look at the game for more information.

Free Realms now available for your Mac originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fallen Earth Mac beta updates

Jef Reahard — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Patches, News items, Post-Apocalyptic

Heads up, all you Apple-obsessed wastelanders! Icarus has updated their OS X Fallen Earth beta client, and they want you to take it for a spin. Notable fixes for this version include a Wine core update to 1.2RC2 (which includes a lengthy list of technical optimizations), and a tweak for the updater executable file which corrects the "initiating download sequence" error that has hamstrung some testers.

If you're already using the Fallen Earth Mac Beta client, you can update by downloading new versions of the FallenEarth.app file as well as the FEUpdaterMac.exe file.

You can also peruse the Mac Beta FAQ on the official site, as well as pick up the new 500 MB download that includes the latest Wine binary and Mac updater. Additionally, you can check out the original press release and accompanying forum post.

Fallen Earth Mac beta updates originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fallen Earth gets a Mac client

Krystalle Voecks — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:12:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, MMO industry, News items

Perhaps you've watched Shawn's recent Fallen Earth exploits in Choose My Adventure, or heard all about the post-apocalyptic fun on Massively Speaking. Well, the team at Icarus Studios have heard the call from the Apple-loving contingent for a client of their own -- and have just announced that they have a beta Mac-compatible client ready for you to download and try out!

The new client is made possible thanks to the open-source project, Wine, which helps to create cross-compatibility for different platforms. The Fallen Earth Mac beta client works on Intel Macs, and is optimized for systems running under OS X 10.5 Leopard or later that have dedicated graphics hardware. No word on a Linux client at this time, but a connection with Wine is certainly a very positive first step if they do choose to open up further cross-compatibility to Linux users in the future.

"The Mac OS X compatibility project is something we've been excited to see implemented for quite a while," said Brad Lineberger, Chief Technical Officer of Icarus Studios. "Our goal for the project is to allow Mac users to run all of our existing and future games in their native OS." All you have to do if you'd like to get in on the Mac beta is to head over to the Fallen Earth site and check out their beta FAQ page. Of course, you have to have an active Fallen Earth account, or sign up for a 10-day trial first, but for post-apocalyptic loving Mac fans, this is certainly some great news.

Fallen Earth gets a Mac client originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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City of Heroes to get Mac Special Edition

James Egan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Expansions, MMO industry, News items, Mac

NCsoft just announced that City of Heroes will soon have a Mac client, joining the likes of World of Warcraft and EVE Online as MMOs that can played on OS X. It'll be made possible through partnership with Transgaming, the creators of the Cider portability engine, which acts as a 'wrapper' for the standard PC client, allowing it to run within OS X on an Intel Mac.

While Blizzard's Mac client for World of Warcraft was written from the ground up, NCsoft's newest City of Heroes 'Good vs. Evil edition' client will be playable through Transgaming's Cider, and thus will be the same client gamers are accustomed to on the PC. This method of bringing the PC client to Mac without porting or rewriting is the same avenue CCP Games took with their EVE Online client for OS X. The City of Heroes Mac Special Edition includes two exclusive items:

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City of Heroes to get Mac Special Edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CrossOver allows MMO gameplay on Mac, free Tuesday only

James Egan — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Mac, Linux

Most people don't pick up a Mac to use as their primary gaming machine, but for players of titles like World of Warcraft and EVE Online, the OS X client makes MMO gaming possible for them. But the majority of MMO clients are PC only, requiring Mac users to turn to Boot Camp and dual boot Windows XP or Vista. Another option open to MMO players who use Macs is CrossOver from Codeweavers, which allows virtualization of PC programs and games within OS X (and Linux), with no Windows license required.

Our friends over at TUAW came across a one-day price reduction on CrossOver... that price being 'free'. That's right, all of Codeweavers' products -- CrossOver Mac, CrossOver Games, and CrossOver Linux -- will be free on Tuesday, October 28, but only for that day. There's a bit of a story behind this, which you can read all about over at TUAW, who have all of the details and restrictions related to this offer. But for MMO gamers who are into their Macs, all you really need to know is that CrossOver will allow you to play quite a number of games, MMO and otherwise. Check out the full list of games supported, and get ready to download your free copy. Your 24-hour window to get CrossOver begins at midnight on Tuesday, October 28th. The CrossOver deal is a $40 license giveaway, limited to one license per person, and requires an Intel Mac running either Tiger or Leopard.

CrossOver allows MMO gameplay on Mac, free Tuesday only originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOS X: WoWPlot

Mark Crump — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Raiding, Endgame, Opinion, MMOS X

I was trolling through the forums at Arstechnica not too long ago, and saw someone chatting up his latest project: WowPlot. Immediately, that thread went into the well for future column ideas.

WoWPlot is a graphical combat log analyzer for World of Warcraft, in a similar vein to WoW Web Stats. According to the developer, "Its main focus lies in evaluating time-dependant combat performance in a very free-form fashion, which is in contrast to the mainly statistical approach of other tools such as Wow Web Stats." From a technical standpoint, you'll need OS X 10.5.x and, obviously, a Macintosh. As I stupidly found out the hard way, you'll also need combat logs from 2.4 or later. I know it sounds obvious, but early testing and subsequent error messages led to a face-palming, "no duh!" moment on my behalf -- it's been a while since I've raided, so I ended up having to beg some logs from a guildie.

Now, before I get too heavy into my discussion on this, this is early beta software. Rather than just e-mail the developer with my thoughts, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone: I can make my deadline and maybe get him some more exposure and feedback if some of you try it out.

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MMOS X: WoWPlot originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOS X: How the MMOs and the iPhone can meet.

Mark Crump — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Opinion, Virtual worlds, MMOS X

MMOS X is a bi-weekly column dedicated solely to gaming on the Macintosh natively. "Running Boot Camp or Parallels" is not an option here. This column is for people who want to get the most out of their Mac gaming, as meager as it is.

Originally, this week's column was going to be a technical how-to, but a series of snafus -- not the least of which included me slapping my head and going, "You moron, combat logs changed after patch 2.4. That's why this new analyzer you are looking at is barfing on your Karazhan logs from February." However, my focus changed when, like many of the Faithful, I turned my attention to the West Monday to see what our Leader had to say.

Frankly, all I wanted Jobs to say was, "with iPhone 2.0, now you can sync iCal tasks to the iPhone." I didn't get that. Instead, I got a bunch of technical jargon that went over my head. Really, who did he think he was talking to, a bunch of developers or something? When a couple of game developers got up to show off their new iPhone apps, a light bulb went off for this week's late column.

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MMOS X: How the MMOs and the iPhone can meet. originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOS X: How does Psystar affect Mac gaming?

Mark Crump — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMOS X

Fair warning: this week's column is light on the MMO and heavy on the hardware.

A month or so ago, Psystar shocked the Mac world by announcing they were selling low-cost computers pre-installed with Apple's Leopard Operating System. This begat discussion of whether this marked a new chapter in the clone wars. Macworld's recent benchmarking placed the Psystar between the Mac Mini and the low-end iMac, which makes sense given that's where it falls price wise. However, Macworld is reporting the Psystar computer placed better than the iMac in Quake 4 tests.

Now, I'm not advocating you go out and buy one of these things. Even if the thin ice they are on legally with Apple is solid enough to avoid litigation, there's the not-so-minor detail that Apple could simply render the OS unusable via a software update. If you don't think Apple will do this, ask how people who unlocked their iPhones made out after that first software upgrade. Psystar is working on making updates available, but really, do you want to trust a 3rd party for your OS upgrades?

Continue reading MMOS X: How does Psystar affect Mac gaming?

MMOS X: How does Psystar affect Mac gaming? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 26 May 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOS X: Second Life performance on a Macbook

Mark Crump — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Guides, Second Life, Virtual worlds, MMOS X

MMOS X is a bi-weekly column dedicated solely to gaming on the Macintosh natively. "Running Boot Camp or Parallels" is not an option here. This column is for people who want to get the most out of their Mac gaming, as meager as it is.

There aren't a lot of MMOs that fall into the "I've got a few minutes and want to goof around in" category. Second Life to me is one. Sure, we can argue the "Is SL an MMO argument" while we're taking a break from the "Which is better: Mac or PC?" argument. For me, SL is good for that hour I've got to kill because I got to my night class early, or I'm sitting in bed with my laptop and my RSS feeds are up to date. Really, some days I'll play anything to avoid a daily quest.

The gotcha is, when I got my laptop I had a hard time convincing my wife err myself that I needed to blow almost two grand on a laptop. I still don't have too much buyer's regret over my regular Macbook. Games aside, the three apps that do most of my heavy lifting are Twitteriffic, Mail, and Scrivener (these days, it seems like I write more than game). World of Warcraft runs OK on it, but, lordy, does Second Life crawl on it. I'm not sure which gets better FPS: Second Life running on a Macbook, or frozen molasses rolling uphill. Yeah, I know, the integrated video on the 'book isn't supported and that's what I get for running unsupported hardware and I shoud be using a Macbook Pro. Duly noted.

That said, an unscientific study conducted at my school's cafeteria and library, taken randomly on Mondays between 4 and 5 pm shows a heck of a lot more college kids sprung for the cheapo 'books. Second Life could be considered a good game for non-gamers in the way The Sims was considered a good game for people that hated Quake. So, lets take a good, hard look at what's involved with Second Life on Macbooks, what you can do, and what realities your going to face running SL on a non-Pro 'book.

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MMOS X: Second Life performance on a Macbook originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 15 May 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOS X: Is CrossOver a solution?

Mark Crump — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: City of Heroes, City of Villains, EVE Online, EverQuest, Guild Wars, MMOS X

In the header blurb to this column, I state that "Running Boot Camp or Parallels is not an option here." I stand by that still. I don't think that dual-booting or loading XP within a virtual desktop is the solution any of us want. Dual booting takes up valuable hard drive space that I could use to store large media files of consenting adults. Running Parallels throws another layer of processor overhead when I run XP within Parallels within OS X. Not to mention Parallels' DirectX support is poor. Note: I haven't tried VMWare's Fusion, which is the competitor to Parallels.

A week or so ago, our own Mike Schramm wrote up a little piece on TUAW about CrossOver Games. CrossOver Games lets you run some Windows games within an emulator. It's not a pure virtual environment like Parallels, so you don't have the overhead of running two OSs. When I read Mike's piece, my first thought was, "huh." My second thought was, "Huh, I wonder if there's a middle ground here somewhere." At the risk out sounding like I'm eating my own words, CrossOver might be enough of a compromise that doesn't involve buying a copy of Windows to game on a Mac.

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MMOS X: Is CrossOver a solution? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOS X: A roundup of MMOs for the Mac

Mark Crump — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, EVE Online, EverQuest, Lineage, Minions of Mirth, Vendetta Online, Second Life, Free-to-play, Mac, Casual, MMOS X

MMOS X is a bi-weekly column dedicated solely to gaming on the Macintosh natively. "Running Boot Camp or Parallels" is not an option here. This column is for people who want to get the most out of their Mac gaming, as meager as it is.

This week's column is a round up of sorts. I'll be talking about what MMOs with Mac clients are out there and links to the developer's site. If I've played them, I'll share any observations. I'm trying for bullet-points this time; some of these may warrant a closer look in a future column. So, most of these are just very brief overviews. For semantic reasons that likely make sense only to me, this time around I'm not mentioning multi-platform browser titles, and am instead focusing on games the developers have created a Macintosh client for.

Continue reading MMOS X: A roundup of MMOs for the Mac

MMOS X: A roundup of MMOs for the Mac originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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