Games for slower OS X Macs

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Games for slower OS X Macs

I would like to play more games on my B/W G3. However, when looking at game demos, normally they require at least a 5-700mhz G4 processor. I have already finished Quake 2 along with all of the add-on episodes, and am working on Quake 1. Some puzzle/RPG (possibly) games would be nice.

It currently has 10.3.9 along with 9.22 installed, and with the exception of 640MB RAM and a larger hard drive would be considered a stock Revision 2.

Any good suggestions for games on a Mac of this vintage?

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it really depends on how fast

it really depends on how fast the CPU is ( i know its a G3) but in mhz. it also depends on what type of video card it has. cause if its a stock video card you wont be doing much of any newer gaming. i have tiger 10.4.8 installed on my Beige G3 AIO in my sig below. and i can run planeshift at a nice speed (its a free 3D MMORPG. 15-30 depending where i am some times a bit slower
Postal 2 will play but real slow 3-6FPS
Quake 3 Arena play's great like 30-60 FPS depending what's on screen
Return To Castle Wolfenstein play's good about 16-25FPS
Unreal tournament with the OS X app play's like it does in OS 9
Redline play's good 15-30 FPS
Oni with the OS X app play's great 60+ FPS
Max Payne plays good 20-30 FPS
Armagetron Advanced plays great 80-110FPS
4x4 evo 2 play's a bit on the slow side 9-14FPS

i also have a few other games i havent tryed

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I was able to play Red Factio

I was able to play Red Faction on my B&W with basically stock specs. Had more RAM than you, but the same video card. 450mhz processor. They sell Radeon 7000's on ebay for the B&W with 32-64mb of VRAM which im sure would make gameplay a lot better. I was planning on getting one for the longest time, but ended up with a Mac Mini then a MacBook Pro, so the B&W isn't used for any sort of gaming.

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Re: it really depends on how fast

it really depends on how fast the CPU is ( i know its a G3) but in mhz. it also depends on what type of video card it has. cause if its a stock video card you wont be doing much of any newer gaming. i have tiger 10.4.8 installed on my Beige G3 AIO in my sig below. and i can run planeshift at a nice speed (its a free 3D MMORPG. 15-30 depending where i am some times a bit slower
Postal 2 will play but real slow 3-6FPS
Quake 3 Arena play's great like 30-60 FPS depending what's on screen
Return To Castle Wolfenstein play's good about 16-25FPS
Unreal tournament with the OS X app play's like it does in OS 9
Redline play's good 15-30 FPS
Oni with the OS X app play's great 60+ FPS
Max Payne plays good 20-30 FPS
Armagetron Advanced plays great 80-110FPS
4x4 evo 2 play's a bit on the slow side 9-14FPS

i also have a few other games i havent tryed

It's a G3/400 with 640MB RAM and the stock ATI Rage 128 card with DVD/MPEG option. I'm stuck with what I have for now after upgrading my wife's computer for a Christmas present. Smile

I'm fine with older gaming - I would like to get more use out of it. The most recent one I purchased was Half-Life 2. Usually I get older games anyway.

Some of those games I have for the PC, but I'm not sure how hard it would be to use the data files with OS X.

I have Quake 3 Arena, Oni, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Redline for Windows along with a slew of other ones like No One Lives Forever (1 & 2) and Subculture.

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Im not sure how many of you r

Im not sure how many of you remember the old marathon games put out by bungie but here "http://source.bungie.org/" is where a newer openGL version lies and is fully free and free by bungie! its worth a download and try it out, plays great on my B&W.

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Video Card Upgrades

They sell Radeon 7000's on ebay for the B&W with 32-64mb of VRAM which im sure would make gameplay a lot better.

I have a Radeon 7000 in my B&W and I have to say that they're *almost* not worth bothering with. The 3D engine in those things is pretty weak (it's basically a laptop chipset), and isn't much faster then a Rage 128. (Granted, my only real benchmark was a GL build of Quake I, which ran maybe 25-30% faster.) If you get one for free shove it in there, but don't go spending any serious money on it. There are faster cards that'll work in a B&W, but then other aspects of the system (CPU, Bus Speed, etc.) start turning into limiting factors.

As for where to get games, if you're interested in simple puzzle/card/board games you can install X11 and a UNIX package manager like Fink and load up on freeware. The KDE Games package has some good timewasters in it.

And if you're not too worried by the *potential* moral/legal/whatever issues involved there's always emulators. A G3 is fast enough to handle 8 bit console/arcade/computer emulation just fine, and there's nothing better then a quick game of Super Breakout on Stella to remind you how slow your reflexes have gotten since puberty.

--Peace

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Thanks

At the moment I haven't bought a Radeon 7000, and the price of a 9200 is way too high. I could buy a G4 at that price! Smile I've looked at them and the cheapest FleaBay price was about $35 including shipping.

Currently my favorite games from the Linux world are Clanbomber, Fillets-NG, Metal Blob Solid and one other game whose name eludes me at the moment.

I do have Stella installed with some 2600 games (of which I do possess quite a few). It's not too bad, but the initialization of the game takes a little while. Don't bother with the OpenGL rendering on a Rage 128 - way too slow.

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the original Radeon Mac editi

the original Radeon Mac edition PCI video card is a bit older but will outperform the Radeon 7000 in all areas its about the same price as the Radeon 7000 but are more rare to find. the original radeon is the best card that is low in price and will play some games you throw at is better than the Radeon 7000 cause the 7000 lacks the TCL engine and has to rely on the CPU to do it for the card. yea the 7000 core and memory speeds are faster 183/183 but wont out perform the original Radeon Mac Edition which has the TLC engine but runs at a slower core and memory speed of 166/166. in 2d the original Radeon will outperform the 7000 as much as 50% and will almost be the same as in 3D depending on the game but it will be faster than the 7000.

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