Apple, Tech, and Gaming

Gaming on an Aluminum PowerBook

- 2009.08.04 - Tip Jar

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Short link: http://bit.ly/gidZ4

As a follow up to The Last PowerBooks Have Plenty of Life Left, I would like to elaborate on the least productive (but greatest diversionary) use of your late model Aluminum PowerBook G4. That, of course, would be the simple act of gaming.

Many of us game, and to put it into perspective, anywhere between 50% and 70% of Americans play video games. The video game industry is now a $10+ billion/year giant. That's a serious business with a serious audience!

Macs currently account for about 10% to 12% of all personal computers, and although this sounds small by comparison to the Windows market, someone wants that piece of the pie! Any publisher looking to make extra profits can simply make a Mac OS X port of their game. If it's a title with a lot of hype behind it, you'll probably even be able to look forward to a simultaneous OS X release alongside its Windows counterpart!

In the later years of the PowerPC, there were quite a few impressive ports and releases of games that will simply blow you away (even by today's standards) when running on the heavy hitting G4 processors of any 2005 Aluminum PowerBook G4.

These hard-core games tended to run best on G5s and/or Intel hardware, but at the time when they were released, in order to play them on a G5 or Intel machine, your choices were to either be chained to your desktop or to ante up for a brand new MacBook Pro with the needed dedicated GPU (the 2006 versions of the consumer MacBook had the lame integrated GMA graphics, rendering those machines fairly useless for gaming).

Okay, so what about these games? What killer titles are out there for those who want to really get their money's worth for the cooling pads they bought for their 2005 Aluminum PowerBook G4s?

Which Games?

Yes, these machines can run a bit hot, but won't really turn into fire on your lap until you burn it up with the finest games from Aspyr that were released around the time of the 2005 PowerBook G4s: Call of Duty 2, Doom 3, Quake 4, and Prey, to name just a few (note - system requirements on Call of Duty 2 and Prey actually call for a 1.8 GHz G5, but they will run in low resolution with some of the effects turned down/off on a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4). Doom 3 calls for a 1.5 GHz G4 with a Radeon 9600 or better, while Quake 4 calls for a 1.67 GHz G4 processor and a Radeon 9600 or better.

These titles all hit slightly above or right at the peak of the G4 in terms of minimum specifications and truly are the ultimate test for the PowerBook G4, but they stand the test of time so far for that reason. That's gaming at the high end of the G4, but at a low-end price today if you purchase a late model PowerBook G4, now several product lines old.

Give it a shot if you don't have the cash for a newer MacBook with the GeForce 9400M or a MacBook Pro . . . you won't be let down.

How Low Can You Go?

In summary, gaming on a late model PowerBook G4 still gives you an abundance of high-end gaming options, but at a fraction of the price of current hardware. I would not hesitate to recommend any of the titles I mentioned. In fact, besides these titles, there is a great wealth of games that will run on systems spec'd around a 700 MHz G4 and above, showing that even a 2002 iMac Flat Panel or a 667 MHz TiBook has some gaming potential.

Coming Soon: Gaming on a Pismo. There have been plenty of nice reviews of the Pismo PowerBook on Low End Mac. It's an obvious fact that the Pismo has a special place in the heart of us - and many Macintosh enthusiasts. The Pismo is still considered a workhorse by many. What about when you just want to take a quick break though?

I'll go over your gaming options with the limited 8 MB graphics card, and a G3 400/500 or G4 550 spec'd machine. Stay tuned.

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Dan Bashur lives in central Ohio with his wife and children. He uses various PowerPC G3 and G4 Macs running Tiger and Leopard. Besides finding new uses for Macs and other tech, Dan enjoys writing (fantasy novel series in the works), is an avid gamer, and a member of Sony's Gamer Advisor Panel. You can read more of Dan Bashur's work on ProjectGamers.com, where he contributes regular articles about the PSP, classic gaming, and ways you can use Sony gaming hardware with your Mac.

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