Computer gaming companies almost never seem to take notice of the smaller market Macintosh gamers, leaving them out in the cold. Games made for the PC either come out much later for the Mac, or sometimes never. Publishers say that they delay releases to the Macintosh platform "mainly because it has been slow to catch up to PCs in terms of graphics." This seemed especially true earlier last month when Lion Entertainment, the company responsible for bring such titles as Doom and Duke Nukem 3D to the Mac, just packed up and left. Lion ceased operations due to Apple's recent troubles and having more expenses going out than revenue coming in.
However, that wasn't the end for gaming on the Mac. Macsoft, the main distributor for Lion Entertainment, has released Civilization II for the Macintosh. This was made possible by an agreement between Macsoft and Spectrum Holobyte. Forthcoming games from this agreement include: Master of Orion II, Top Gun: Fire at Will, Magic: the Gathering, and Falcon 4.0.
Macsoft is also releasing Quake, one of the best games for the PC. The demo is already available, either downloadable from Macsoft, or free from a local Comp USA. The demo includes four levels, but no multi-player options. The full version of Quake supposedly hit stores late last week.
Quake, just like Duke Nukem should be a surefire hit for the Mac. Even though distributed to a smaller market, Duke for the Mac, rose quickly in sales charts and was one of the top games for both PCs and Macs. If one game can do this, I'm sure others can. Why don't publishers release games to the Mac? Even with their shortcomings, Mac-users still buy the games at an astonishing clip. Everyone would be better off if they could just have their games.
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