EA Wants you to buy a PC

[ten1902 4]

look at this way...if 8% of america watched a television show, how many people would be watching that show...well actually thats not a great analogy based on 400+ channels, but take the way-back machine to about 20 years ago when the main channels where ABC, NBC, CBS, and to a lesser extent FOX...8% of the market would not warrant a show even passing the pilot stage...8% of america is just under 2.4 million people, truly a large number, but compared to the other 272 million, well i think the numbers speak for themselves...sorry OS/X people but if youre truly a gamer then buy a bill gates machine

[MacSimizeDenver 0]

If i read all that posts here i think it's that, what i posted before. the classic is the mac a game machine? thread.

No, finally he isn't.

But again: if EA gain money through selling also on the mac market, i think they should provide a minimum of support.

What i want is just an answer on my questions i have. If EA don't react for weeks one five emails i think it isn't OK.

Aspyr had made the transition for mac, sc4 creator is Maxis/EA.

That's all.



Just one benchmark i made for my own:

SC4 with rush hour on my P4 1,8GHz with 512MB of RAM and a Geforce4 with 64MB of RAM works fluent until a population of 120.000-150.000.

On my Mac with a Sonnet G4 1,8Ghz, 640 MB of RAM and a Radeon 8500 64MB it works fluent with a pop of now 750.000

Now tell me which system works better with SC4?


@frndofyahweh

The German you posted before is crazy to read. Translation software isn't compatible with German i think.
I'm wondering all the time why so many Americans like that language...must be sound fascinating for your ears, right?


@patriot

In Germany the market share for Mac is around 1.7 percent. In Senegal its around 1.000-2.000 Macs for all the Country (not to mention that the only possibility to get a Mac here is to order one from South Africa or through a retailer from France plus extraordinary bucks for the shipping fees and the pocket money for the policemen at the airport.)

1k-2k Macs in a country with a pop of 10 million? - Yes, it's a third world country.

[Voar Tok 4]

Date: 11/12/2005 1:38:03 AM Author: USA Patriot Did anyone know that many games that PCs have are made on Macs?

quote>

I don't think one OS is better than the other.  However, I am curious to see what titles you are thinking of, because I can't think of that many.

 

MacSimizeDenver: I have absolutely no clue how you got those kinds of benchmarks.  Personally, my computer has absolutely no useable graphics card, 2 GHz AMD processor, and 512MB of RAM; and my cities perfectly stable and run fine up to 350,000 sims.  I can understand why the Mac is higher though - it has more RAM.  This game is a RAM hog, and anything that you can do to get it more RAM will help.  I also believe that another difference is the software that your computer is running.  More likely than not, there is hidden software running in the background on your computer.  This can have a great impact on how well other software (read: SC4) runs.

[USA Patriot 49]

Yes, my Mac runs great and smoothly with my one tile city of 780,000.

Mac people make games like...
For PS2 formatted games.
They use its structure to lead into further building into a game. I can't give any examples, but I have read this.
Also, movies are made with Macs. The best well known Mac made movies are all the Pixar movies.

[MacSimizeDenver 0]

p.e. Gran Turismo 4 was completly made on Mac.

[Bank 0]

Eh, so we don't get every single game marketed. No big loss, our computers are still manifestly of superior design

[dwayner 1]

Big deal all console games are either made on PC or Mac so it does matter. Consoles are a hole different story anyways. Anyway back to topic. You said that EA won't answer you when you ask them why you can't download certian things for your mac. Don't worry I have had problems with SC4 and asked tech support. Guess what all crapy information was given to me that didn't help at all so I come here. EA sucks, but I will have to live with it because I am a big fan of SC4.

 

P.S I run windows and my simcity game has run with populations of 900.000 for one city.  I have never seen my computer slow down.

[USA Patriot 49]

Gran Turismo 4 was made by Mac?! Thats is a great awesome game! Thanks.

Yeah, my Mac has no signs of slowing when playing either. Just rarely. I've never had a city in one tile over 800,000! GRRR!!! I want to hit ne million so bad. A lot of my cities are around 700,000 to 200,000. I have a list of them in the game experiment thread under megatroplis I think.

[GoaSkin 2]

I used Linux exclusively for over eight years and switched to Mac because I am producting music and usable applications were missing on Linux. I am disappointed if the company politics Apple does.

The consumer is not the king but a slave the company (Apple) wants to treat. Apple tries everything to avoid the user to use Mac OS on a clone system (like the Pegasos, Teron or AmigaOne), change the update policies on their products to force the user to buy a new full version (for example Logic Audio), release new dongled systems to make it impossible to run older Mac OS versions (because they want the user to update everything they have). Not with me - not anymore.

I will switch back to X86 and back to Linux again. Open Source software has a good quality, is usable for the most things which I have to do and it can be used with much more flexibility like any commercial rubbish. A linux system including it's software can be personalized in a way which has never been possible on closed source.
I am not switching to Linux again because I want to save money, but I have enough from the dictation of software companies. I can run Windows games using Cedega, Ardour as music sequencer software and Windows VST plugins using a wrapper plugin. Open Office has everything you need for word processing, creating presentations and spreadsheets, gimp for image manipulation and there are enough browsers and small internet applications. The only commercial application I need is a DTP program (I think pagestream)

[USA Patriot 49]

My G5 plays old MACstuff, along with my G4..

[TOLAXOR 0]

My intent was not to open up the old, Mac vs. PC argument.

Fortunately, a 25% market share in the laptop arena has made this argument mostly useless.

My issue is with EA as a company. I have Virtual PC and a stand alone PC! BAT and the LE are FREE!

They couldn't just let me download it?

So anyone got a link?

[USA Patriot 49]

Sorry, I don't know where the link would be, I would love to help though.

[GoaSkin 2]

EA-games owns the class-C net 169.229.163.0/24. There are various FTP servers with possible anonymous login. On one of them, all the stuff on simcity.com is downloadable for free.


Have fun on searching!

[franktop 0]

Goaskin,

This sounds very interesting, although I don't understand a word of it.

How does one connect to this class c net ?

thanks in advance for your quick response.

F

[Kakaze 0]

Date: 11/12/2005 2:45:56 PM
Author: GoaSkin
I used Linux exclusively for over eight years and switched to Mac because I am producting music and usable applications were missing on Linux. I am disappointed if the company politics Apple does.


The consumer is not the king but a slave the company (Apple) wants to treat. Apple tries everything to avoid the user to use Mac OS on a clone system (like the Pegasos, Teron or AmigaOne), change the update policies on their products to force the user to buy a new full version (for example Logic Audio), release new dongled systems to make it impossible to run older Mac OS versions (because they want the user to update everything they have). Not with me - not anymore.

quote>


I don't care for Apple as a company, but I have to say that you're completely off the mark here.

First, consumers are never treated like kings by any company, be it Apple or Dell or MS, etc. Companies realise that people will buy their (Language) ~zel~ regardless of how they're treated so they really don't care. For every one person who says they'll never use Apple again, three people decide to buy Macs.

The reason Apple doesn't release Mac OS for clones is because clones eat into their business. Now that they're switching to Intel they have the option of moving to be a mostly software company like MS, but they never would've been able to pull that off before due to the fact that Mac hardware was more specialised and not many companies wanted to deal with Mac cloning.

Also, I'm glad they haven't released OS X to be available on any machine

[vidioman 21]

I dont know if anyone else has noticed this, but.. notice how he always gets a reply from Scott S, and how they're all the same format?

There is no human on the other end. you are talking to a computer. The computer program picks out key words and sends what it thinks is an appropriate response, which is why you didn't get your answer.

Big companies use that all the time. You really just wasted your time trying to contact them. They save money by not having to pay customer service staff to take your questions. Scott S probably doesnt exist.

So much for customer service.

Good luck with your fight.

[GoaSkin 2]

My manual has a credit list:

Project leader: Kelly Bates
Chief developer: Glenda Adams

another hint says that Aspyr does only distribute the game and the real developer of the Mac version is a company called i5works.

Maybe, it is possible to find out mail addresses of these people.

[CRMakintosh 0]

Date: 11/12/2005 2:45:56 PM

Author: GoaSkin

I don't care for Apple as a company...

...Apple is no different from any other company.

quote>

We used to say about Apple, Love the products, hate the company.

But you know, Apple is not 'no different from any other company'. It's unique; it's much more than a mere company; it's a cult; it's almost a religion for some. Just read the opening of Time's recent article on Steve Jobs, whom it describes as a Perpetual Innovation Machine, to get a flavor...

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1047510,00.html

When Steve Jobs evaluates something, it's either insanely great or an expletive that's unpublishable here. This relentless perfectionism typifies how Steve views everything he has created in 28 years at Apple Computer and nearly 20 at Pixar Animation Studios. It also explains why he has been successful again and again in creating breakthrough products. Steve, 50, helped bring digital technology to the masses and revolutionized several industries. He didn't invent the personal computer. But he was the first to look at a utilitarian tool for techies and reincarnate it as something that became ubiquitous...

quote>

Read on and learn why Apple is a company that succeeds by breaking all the rules, and why it produces the BMW of personal computers.

PC users may like their PCs, but Mac users love their Macs. That's a big difference. Windows may have a 90% share of the market, but as Theodore Sturgeon said when asked why 90% of science fiction is crap, 90% of everything is crap.'

Tom Clancey once put it this way, Never ask a man what kind of computer he has. If it's a Mac he'll proudly tell you without being asked, and if it's not, why embarrass him? Tom Clancey, you'll gather, is a devotee of the Cult of Macintosh.

And BTW, in case you forgot, Sim City was originally developed on, and available only for, the Mac.

[GoaSkin 2]

I thought at last to buy a Pegasos Computer . It uses an usual ATX board with a different bridge, firmware and G4 processor. It is sold to be used with their own operating system MorphOS (based on Amiga OS) or Linux. Mac OS X can be used there too using tricks (there is an alternative installer what hacks OSX into the system using special drivers).

But if Apple is really going to switch to Intel, this system has no future.

[pookakitten 0]

An interesting bit of forgotten computer evolution:

The three hallmarks of modern computing weren't invented by MS or Apple, but Xerox. In 1973 the mouse, GUI and networking were created by R&D in Palo Alto by Xerox. So it turns out that MS and Apple took the ideas created by Xerox and made them commercial successes. I bet Xerox wishes they protected their intellectual property. Source

In all honesty, I'm a PC person. My first computer was actually a TI-99 and my first floppy disk based computer was a DOS PC clone. In elementary and jr high school, I was forced to use Apple IIe boxes. The thought of Fredwriter and Appleworks can still make me cry.

I'm an engineer so our software is Windows or *nix based. In college, I had one class that used Macs (PowerMacs) and I loathed the things. Found them counterintuitive (ejecting by disk by putting the icon in the trash!?! I thought that would format my disk) and the software we used frustrated me to no end. In all my other classes, we used Windows, *nix or VAX.

I have to admit, I found one time I preferred using a Mac. I was using it for a Japanese class. First, let me explain something -- inputting Japanese on a Western keyboard means writing it phonetically and then selecting the right character(s) using the computer's built in dictionary. To muddy the waters, I also use the Dvorak keyboard layout, not QWERTY. My letters are in different locations. Any keyboard layout is mapped by the OS. That's why when you install Windows, it asks you about your input method. Well, to get back to the Japanese. In Windows, to input Japanese, I have to use the QWERTY layout, a major hassle for me. On the Mac, however, it let me use my Dvorak layout. That's the single instance where I think the Mac is clearly superior to Windows.

The Mac also doesn't have as much of a hold on the graphics industry as it used to. I had a boyfriend in Purdue University's computer animation department. The labs the department had were primarily Windows based, running software like Adobe Photoshop and AliasWavefront's Maya. A family friend (whose prior title at Business Week was copy editor) always had a Windows computer at home that he often worked from. That's where I first saw Simcity 2000 and was floored at how much of a leap was made from the original SC. Apple's losing its traditional business niche.


As to the suggestion of picking up the phone and calling tech support, that's likely to yield the best results. Doing that, you know you're talking to a live person.

Samantha, who can't believe she actually participated in the whole PC vs Mac debate

[Zelgadis 638]

This thread will go back on topic now or be shut down. The debate is Mac vs EA, not Mac vs PC, which is against the Mac Forum Prime Directive.

~zel~

[Voar Tok 4]

Date: 11/22/2005 11:11:38 AM Author: zelgadis This thread will go back on topic now or be shut down.  The debate is Mac vs EA, not Mac vs PC, which is against the Mac Forum Prime Directive. ~zel~

quote>

Good for you.

 

We all (or at least most of us) believe that EA tends to care only about the bottom line.  I personally would like to see the Mac platform get more gaming support (from EA and others).  If they get more gaming support, the mass public would buy more of them.  More Macs on the market means more competition for Microsoft.  Basically, the equation looks like this.

 

Microsoft + stiff competition = real product development for consumers

 

So, to the people at EA and other gaming companies, Let's get with the program and port some more games to the Mac, with tech support too.

[christhebull 1]

Date: 11/17/2005 5:36:38 AM Author: GoaSkin EA-games owns the class-C net 169.229.163.0/24. There are various FTP servers with possible anonymous login. On one of them, all the stuff on simcity.com is downloadable for free. Have fun on searching!

quote>

Wuh? Tell us what to do with this class-C net thing, I don't understand. I tried going to http://169.229.163.0/24. but it didn't work.

[GoaSkin 2]

Meanwhile you could have researched what Class-C net means.

it is a range of 255 IP addresses X.Y.Z.0-X.Y.Z.255

[The Dork Cheese 0]

Doesn't Blizzard release their games (Warcraft III and WoW, at least) for Mac at the same time they do for PC? Maybe that helps Blizzard be so popular...

[Kakaze 0]

Not only that, but Blizzard generally releases their games for Mac and PC on the same disk. They're the only major game company right now, IIRC, that doesn't farm their software out to a porting house like Aspyr.

And GoaSkin...the move to Intel has the potential to make Apple a major competitor. Once Intel's transition to Pentium M based processors is complete, Apple will have a processor that rivals the PPC for power over clock speed. Not only that, but you can bet Intel gave Apple an amazing deal, so there's a very good chance Intel based Macs will become more affordable for everyone.

And, this leaves the door open for Apple to release OS X for all PCs, should the need ever arise, and to become primarily a software company.

[GoaSkin 2]

As said: Aspyr does not port games. Aspyr does the same what EMI or BMG does with music but for Mac games. They manage ports, print discs and boxes and finally distribute. They look for other companies which do the coding. The mac port of SC4 vanilla was done by i5works and the RH port by anyone unknown. Aspyr is just a marketing company. The don't have one programmer.

[Voar Tok 4]

Date: 11/26/2005 9:52:18 PM Author: Kakaze

And GoaSkin...the move to Intel has the potential to make Apple a major competitor.  Once Intel's transition to Pentium M based processors is complete, Apple will have a processor that rivals the PPC for power over clock speed.  Not only that, but you can bet Intel gave Apple an amazing deal, so there's a very good chance Intel based Macs will become more affordable for everyone.

 

And, this leaves the door open for Apple to release OS X for all PCs, should the need ever arise, and to become primarily a software company.

 

 

 

 

Well, I have my doubts that the Mac is suddenly going to make a miraculous comeback.  I can take the Mac software and make it run on any PC regardless of whether or not the guts were made by IBM or Intel or AMD or Transmeta.  The Mac OS, which is what all Mac computers run on, is what people usually think of when they talk about how they couldn't use a Mac.  I could take a G5 computer and wipe the Mac OS off of it, install Windows, and the computer would work just fine.  I could also wipe Windows off of a Dell, install OS X on it, and it would work fine.  The real thing that people have to overcome is their misunderstanding of the real source of their problems with Macs.

 

I have told people about my future plan to run a tri-boot computer with the latest version of Windows, whatever variety of Linux I happen to like the most at the time, and the latest Apple OS.  I can't tell you how many people have thought that I was going to have to buy three computers to make that work.  That isn't the case though.  All I would need to do is go to some place like CompUSA or Fry's Electronics and buy the guts.  Once I have assembled the guts, I install whatever OS software that I feel like running.  When I turn the computer on each time, the computer will ask me which OS I would like to boot into.  If I tell it to use the latest Apple OS, my computer will work just like a Mac.  The same applies for Windows and Linux.

 

Now, I want to say that I like the idea of Apple making a comeback because that means more competition for MS.  So to the execs at Apple, Let's hop on the train and get going.

 

 

[GoaSkin 2]

You know that you have to run Mac OS on X86 systems or Windows on PPC (Mac) systems in virtual machines? There are restrictions:

- no 3D accelerated graphics
- no native hardware access (simulated VM- sound, network and periphical adapters), some periphicals possibly unsupported
- more memory overhead in the RAM
- less performace due JIT-compiling (speed is comparable to java applications)

[Zelgadis 638]

Date: 11/27/2005 11:51:21 AM
Author: GoaSkin
As said: Aspyr does not port games. Aspyr does the same what EMI or BMG does with music but for Mac games. They manage ports, print discs and boxes and finally distribute. They look for other companies which do the coding. The mac port of SC4 vanilla was done by i5works and the RH port by anyone unknown. Aspyr is just a marketing company. The don't have one programmer.

quote>

If that is true, and I'm sure it probably is, it must be the most ridiculously inefficient system ever for getting a game out. EA makes it, i5works ports it, Aspyr manages and distrubutes it. No wonder nobody has enough money left to provide decent tech support.

I would think EA would make more money if they did all of it themselves.

ISF