Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Daniel's Advice

First Person Shooters

Korin Hasegawa-John - 2001.11.14

Q: A lot of my friends play lots of computer games, especially first person shooters. I'm interested in playing against them, but have never played many games (except for Tetris and the like). Could you please give me an intro to first person shooters on the Mac?

A. Now is a good time to be a Mac gamer. There are lots of games around, from old favorites (such as Civilization, Marathon II, Quake, and Unreal) to middle aged games (such as Quake II, Unreal Tournament, Quake III, Alpha Centauri, and Deus Ex) to new games (such as Age Of Empires II, Oni, and the upcoming Halo). A lot of these games are first person shooters.

This means that you play from the perspective of a player in the game, so you can't see yourself. Mostly you can see your weapon. At the bottom of the screen is a bar which keeps track of health and ammo, and also what sort of weapons you have. Most newer games include a sight at the middle of the screen. You can customize what this looks like.

Most of the newer games, such as Quake III, Unreal Tournament, and possibly Halo, have an environment where you can play against computer controlled enemies. This is a good way to learn. You aren't humiliated by other computer players, and you can adjust the skill level of the computer players to match you. Once you can beat the computer players soundly at a reasonably high level, you're ready to play other people.

Hardware

Hardware is a big concern, and it all depends on what kind of game you want to play. For Marathon II, you should have a PPC running at 100 MHz or faster, a video card with 1 MB VRAM (no acceleration needed), and 32 MB RAM free. For Quake and Unreal, a fast 604 or G3 (200 MHz plus), a hardware accelerator supporting either RAVE or GLIDE with 4 MB VRAM, and 96 MB RAM free.

Quake II, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, and Quake III all want a G3 or G4 at 350 MHz or more. GLIDE acceleration works best, although an OpenGL card is all right as well. You definitely need 16 MB VRAM or 8 MB VRAM and AGP. The more system RAM the better - 128 MB or more free is good.

All of these games can be played online or on a network. You should either use broadband to play on line or use an ethernet network. LocalTalk will work with Marathon, but it's not very nice.

You also need an input device. This is a matter of personal preference. Some people like game pads or joysticks. Personally, I prefer a multi-button mouse such as Kensington's Mouse-In-A-Box Optical Pro. Some mice don't work well with some games. The same goes for joysticks and game pads. If you are in the market for an input device for gaming, go to a retail location and try one out.

Coming soon: Netiquette and Tactics. Tips on how to get a good score and not die every 5 seconds.

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

Recent Mac Daniel columns

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.