Half-Life 2 for Mac

[DeusOmnis]

Okay, we need to start all emailing Valve about half-life 2. They havnt said if it's coming out or not for mac. They tried making hl for mac, but the mac version wouldnt be able to do certain things because they didnt keep mac in mind when making it. So hopefully they learned from that and kept mac in mind the entire time they made hl2. I sincerely hope they did, so they can do an in-house job and make the game come out for mac the same time it does for pc.

They havnt said one single thing...

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by DeusOmnis
Okay, we need to start all emailing Valve about half-life 2. They havnt said if it's coming out or not for mac. They tried making hl for mac, but the mac version wouldnt be able to do certain things because they didnt keep mac in mind when making it. So hopefully they learned from that and kept mac in mind the entire time they made hl2. I sincerely hope they did, so they can do an in-house job and make the game come out for mac the same time it does for pc.

They havnt said one single thing...

Sounds good, point me to their e-mail address, phone number, fax machine and you will get some people to call.

more here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?threadid=25115)

BTW, they purposely screwed us by breaking the HL code so we couldn't play with PC users.

[job]

Sometimes, surprise is the best thing a Mac gamer could want...

You guys get my drift...? ;)

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by job
Sometimes, surprise is the best thing a Mac gamer could want...

You guys get my drift...? ;)

No, is there something secret happening?

[Nermal]

Maybe someone should make an online petition for all use Mac gamers to sign :) I would do it, but I really need to get to bed! If there isn't one up in the morning I'll make one.

[job]

Originally posted by MrMacman
No, is there something secret happening?

I dunno, but how nice of a surprise would it be to wake up one morning and get online to find that HL2 is coming to the Mac platform. :)

I'd rather not know and be surprised as opposed to knowing for years, but never playing (i.e. Neverwinter Nights; it's been years and we still haven't seen a demo.)

[iAmAzN]

That would be nice, a surprise for us mac users to find out that HL2 is coming to mac!

[MrMacMan]

HL2 would be nice, So would C&C: Generals, BattleField 1942... etc.

[Nermal]

Originally posted by me
Maybe someone should make an online petition for all use Mac gamers to sign :) I would do it, but I really need to get to bed! If there isn't one up in the morning I'll make one.

Since everyone seems to want a surprise, I'm now not going to do this unless someone specifically asks me to.

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by Nermal
Since everyone seems to want a surprise, I'm now not going to do this unless someone specifically asks me to.
*raises hand shyly* :)

Make it good and wordy, give some reasons if you have the time.

[Nermal]

Originally posted by MrMacman
*raises hand shyly* :)

Make it good and wordy, give some reasons if you have the time.

Yeah I'll put one up later, too busy at the moment (I've got a BIG assignment due 9am tomorrow! - it's 2:30pm here now), but I've already made a little draft one with key points in it :)

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by Nermal
Yeah I'll put one up later, too busy at the moment (I've got a BIG assignment due 9am tomorrow! - it's 2:30pm here now), but I've already made a little draft one with key points in it :)

Ah thanks, oooh New Zealand? (spelling wrong?) Cool.

I got some assigments, but 50% of the time I get it (somehow) in on time. :rolleyes:

Exp: Assigment due 3ed period, didn't start yet.
I get 1/8 of all my assigments due in the 30 homeroom time before first period. then I scatter the minutes for the rest of the stuff during the day.
And I study for test inbewteen periods. :)

[Nermal]

Here, take a look at this draft petition and see what you think:

We would like a Mac version of Half-Life 2.

Modern Mac systems are great for gaming, with games such as Unreal Tournament 2003, and World of Warcraft announced for the Mac. The latest version of the Mac OS has excellent OpenGL support, making it easy to port the existing OpenGL code across to the Mac.

A lot of Mac users keep a Windows PC around only for games, and many of us would like to be able to get rid of our PC, but in order to do so we need to get some more games onto the Mac platform. Valve's support in bringing Half-Life 2 across would be a great step in this direction.

I'm not entirely happy with what I've written so far, and I don't think it's long enough, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

[maradong]

well my english is not good enough to write something like a letter to them, but if anybody got a finished one, and posts it right here, ill send a copy of it to them.

[Nermal]

Originally posted by MrMacman
Ah thanks, oooh New Zealand? (spelling wrong?) Cool.

I got some assigments, but 50% of the time I get it (somehow) in on time. :rolleyes:

Exp: Assigment due 3ed period, didn't start yet.
I get 1/8 of all my assigments due in the 30 homeroom time before first period. then I scatter the minutes for the rest of the stuff during the day.
And I study for test inbewteen periods. :)

You spelled it correctly :)

I should get this one in on time, but it does mean getting up at 6:45 to meet the deadline :eek:

[MrMacMan]

Anything happen yet?

[Nermal]

Originally posted by MrMacman
Anything happen yet?

Well, nobody's suggested any improvements, so I'll just put it up "as is" tonight if nobody suggests anything.

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by Nermal
Well, nobody's suggested any improvements, so I'll just put it up "as is" tonight if nobody suggests anything.

Who are you petitioning? Honestly, just about every Mac publisher is going to pursue this title with all they've got - it's not really a matter of convincing anyone that there's demand on the Mac side.

[Nermal]

Originally posted by Brad Oliver
Who are you petitioning? Honestly, just about every Mac publisher is going to pursue this title with all they've got - it's not really a matter of convincing anyone that there's demand on the Mac side.

Valve. They're ultimately the ones who are going to say yes or no, so we need to let them know that we're all interested.

[maradong]

So, could please somebody post me the email he send to them?
I will send a copy of it. Haven t got the skills to write it by myself.

[MrMacMan]

I believe he is going to do this.

Say that if ported this game would sell tons of copyies because these games have sold well any will always sell well.
HL: 2 will be a hit and will be a great game, but mac users want it.

[Nermal]

Originally posted by maradong
So, could please somebody post me the email he send to them?
I will send a copy of it. Haven t got the skills to write it by myself.

Are we doing an email or a petition? I think a petition would be better because it shows how many people are interested, as opposed to an email which could just be the viewpoint of one or two people.

As for what I've written so far, it hasn't changed much since the draft i posted above.

[Nermal]

I've made a couple of changes, so here's the latest draft. I'm still not completely happy with what I've got here, so suggestions please! I know I said I'd put the petition up tonight, but it now looks like it'll have to wait for the morning.

We would like a Mac version of Half-Life 2, preferably released at the same time as the Windows version. Valve currently hasn't announced anything regarding the availability of a Mac version.

Modern Mac systems are great for gaming, with games such as Unreal Tournament 2003, and World of Warcraft announced for the Mac. The Mac OS has OpenGL support, making it easy to port the existing code across to the Mac.

A lot of Mac users keep a Windows PC around only for games, and many of us would like to be able to get rid of our PC, but in order to do so we need to get some more games onto the Mac platform. Valve's support in bringing Half-Life 2 across would be a great step in this direction, as the game is promising to sell very well, and selling to Mac users would be no exception.

[blogo]

Let's hope they doesn't use direct x for the graphics then

[Nermal]

Originally posted by Eple
Let's hope they doesn't use direct x for the graphics then

HL1 used OpenGL, would it be safe to assume that HL2 does too?

[job]

Originally posted by Nermal
HL1 used OpenGL, would it be safe to assume that HL2 does too?

From what I've read, it was the network compatability which got in the way, i.e. there was none.

[Nermal]

OK, I've put the petition online! It's available here (http://www.petitiononline.com/hl2mac/petition.html).

[MrMacMan]

Good, thanks.

[davrouk]

8 signitures so far. lets keep it going

[Nermal]

Originally posted by davrouk
8 signitures so far. lets keep it going

Hopefully it'll "get going" faster once more people hear about it, if everyone does their bit to promote the petition then we should get more signatures :)

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by Nermal
Hopefully it'll "get going" faster once more people hear about it, if everyone does their bit to promote the petition then we should get more signatures :)
True, should there be another thread, cause this is offtopic.

A new thread anyone?

[Arkman_1411]

That would be a good idea valve should really consider it. Give me an email and I will get others and myself to write to them as well.

[couch potato]

Ask them this

What makes their money. What gives them a living? Its not their programming skills, or creativity. Its the customers. NO matter how good they are, without customers and fans, it all goes down. So they care about their customers, right?
I'm sure they would say that, if you asked them. They have a group of customers on the PC ( a large one), and they have to please them, or else. They want to show their customers that they care and are willing to make a great game. If they don't show that, then they will go down.

So make them realize that, in a sense, by making it for mac, they are creating more customers like that. More fans, people to buy their game. There is a group of hardcore gamers on the Mac, just like on the PC. What if the PC users say that, valve ported it to mac..Wow, if they are willing to go that far, to port it to mac, just for gamers...for FANS!!!! Then they must really want to make a crowd-pleaser, so half-life 2 must be a good one.



of course, thats just one idea. they are gonna sell big time anyway, but i just thought i would post that idea :)

[absurdio]

this might be good news in that department:

"DirectX for Mac
MacWorld reports that Microsoft's graphics API has been implemented on Macintoshes. New ports on the way?
April 17, 2002 - MacWorld reports that Corderus wants more games on the Mac. To this end, that company has developed MacDX, Direct X for Macintoshes.

What does this mean? According to the article and Corderus, developers will now be able to port games built off of the DirectX suite of APIs to the Macintosh with far greater ease, hinting that future simultaneous releases are not entirely out of the question.

Are we standing on the edge of a full blown Mac takeover? Probably not. Just because developers are capable of porting games with less strain, that doesn't mean publishers are willing to test Steve Jobs' waters.

How does this effect our coverage of Apple's platform? It doesn't. At least not yet, anyway. In the future, if more and more titles become available, limited Macintosh coverage is not something IGN would entirely rule out. "

if you want the article, the site is: http://pc.ign.com/articles/357/357555p1.html?fromint=1

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by absurdio
this might be good news in that department:

"DirectX for Mac
MacWorld reports that Microsoft's graphics API has been implemented on Macintoshes. New ports on the way?
April 17, 2002 - MacWorld reports that Corderus wants more games on the Mac. To this end, that company has developed MacDX, Direct X for Macintoshes.

What does this mean? According to the article and Corderus, developers will now be able to port games built off of the DirectX suite of APIs to the Macintosh with far greater ease, hinting that future simultaneous releases are not entirely out of the question.

Are we standing on the edge of a full blown Mac takeover? Probably not. Just because developers are capable of porting games with less strain, that doesn't mean publishers are willing to test Steve Jobs' waters.

How does this effect our coverage of Apple's platform? It doesn't. At least not yet, anyway. In the future, if more and more titles become available, limited Macintosh coverage is not something IGN would entirely rule out. "

if you want the article, the site is: http://pc.ign.com/articles/357/357555p1.html?fromint=1

That is old

look at their website (http://www.coderus.com/)

Kinda no great games being ported. :(

[absurdio]

yeah...you're right, i know...but...wishful thinking, i suppose.

[Nermal]

I see my petition's up to 1900 signatures. I was hoping for more than that by now, but every signature counts, and if 1900 people buy the game, that would easily counter the cost of porting the game wouldn't it?

BTW just in case some of you haven't signed and want to, the petition's here (http://www.petitiononline.com/hl2mac/).

[Rezet]

Originally posted by DeusOmnis
Okay, we need to start all emailing Valve about half-life 2. They havnt said if it's coming out or not for mac. They tried making hl for mac, but the mac version wouldnt be able to do certain things because they didnt keep mac in mind when making it. So hopefully they learned from that and kept mac in mind the entire time they made hl2. I sincerely hope they did, so they can do an in-house job and make the game come out for mac the same time it does for pc.

They havnt said one single thing...


Given the fact that mac doesn't have many games, HL2 creators could capitilize on that by bringing a game like HL2 to a mac!
It could also be a catastrophy for them as most people who own macs, dont get them for games....

[absurdio]

well it's true that most mac users don't buy macs FOR the games...but that's no reason mac users can't also be gamers. Honestly, what have we got now for games? Unreal 2003. That's it. Oh, maybe we have some crappy version of solitaire, too. Great. But that really is it. Not that Unreal is terrible, or anything...but if I were given a choice of ONE first-person shooter...that wouldn't be it. And, really, i think for a good number of people (myself included) it WOULD be Half Life 2. What better? Half Life absolutely revolutionized the entire world of gaming, and I'm not the only one that regards it as one of the best games ever made...why SHOULDN'T the one first person shooter we get be the best? Yeah, if we get one game, i say Half Life 2. And if anyone agrees with me, how could Valve NOT capitalize off of it?

[9hundred]

well even if Half Life is the best game of all time it seems as though it is devoloped for the PC. Mac perhaps two years when Half Life 3 is released. This is the problem with the mac platform and it looks this way and if you want more information on this issue you can look at 'mac is not for games' thread.

[couch potato]

so basically half-life 2 is a no-good:(

[lewdvig]

iD reduces cross platform dev costs by keeping things clean and developing mutli platforms in parallel. This is a good practice that results in clean portable code.

Epic and Vavle should do this. No one buys the Linux versions, but they keep making them. So what is the real reason?

And why doesn't Apple pay to have these good games ported. I wanted a B&W G3 in the worst way when Mac got Q3 first.

I met the Apple Dev Relations chap at GDC a couple of years ago and he did not know what is cool. He loved Nascar though.

Yuck.

[lewdvig]

Lots of Valve in the news today.

Based on how Gabe Newell catagorized HL2 as being a wholy DX9 reliant title and the degree to which it was optimized for Wintel - leads me to believe that this game will never happen on the Mac.

The original would have been easier to convert - Valve's 'Source' game engine is comprehensive and proprietary - I don't even think they licensed physics from Havok (a popular trend in PC game dev circles).

A port would be more like a re-write and I don't think any Mac publisher is prepared to take on the financial risks associated with such a project.

Besides, it will play very well indeed on XBox soon enough. I doubt anything short of a G5 with 9600Pro would play this game very well.

[iJon]

Originally posted by lewdvig
Lots of Valve in the news today.

Based on how Gabe Newell catagorized HL2 as being a wholy DX9 reliant title and the degree to which it was optimized for Wintel - leads me to believe that this game will never happen on the Mac.

The original would have been easier to convert - Valve's 'Source' game engine is comprehensive and proprietary - I don't even think they licensed physics from Havok (a popular trend in PC game dev circles).

A port would be more like a re-write and I don't think any Mac publisher is prepared to take on the financial risks associated with such a project.

Besides, it will play very well indeed on XBox soon enough. I doubt anything short of a G5 with 9600Pro would play this game very well.
i completly agree, i dont think we will see this on the mac with it being dx9. but put that 50 dollars for the game towards an xbox purchase with this game and it will still be great. xbox is a powerful machine and will probably play it well.

iJon

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by absurdio
well it's true that most mac users don't buy macs FOR the games...but that's no reason mac users can't also be gamers. Honestly, what have we got now for games? Unreal 2003. That's it. Oh, maybe we have some crappy version of solitaire, too. Great. But that really is it. Not that Unreal is terrible, or anything...but if I were given a choice of ONE first-person shooter...that wouldn't be it. And, really, i think for a good number of people (myself included) it WOULD be Half Life 2. What better? Half Life absolutely revolutionized the entire world of gaming, and I'm not the only one that regards it as one of the best games ever made...why SHOULDN'T the one first person shooter we get be the best? Yeah, if we get one game, i say Half Life 2. And if anyone agrees with me, how could Valve NOT capitalize off of it?

There is no Unreal 2003.

The first release of Half Life was so bad that it almost stopped the company. It was only when they re-fit the everything but the idea that it became game of the year.

If they're as successful as they were the first time, Valve may end up closed.

[iJon]

i wonder if epic is working with the mac developers on co releasing unreal tourney 2004. from reading the reviews its a hell of lot more than a remake of 2003. they have vehicles and new game modes and they also brought back some old game modes.

iJon

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by iJon
i wonder if epic is working with the mac developers on co releasing unreal tourney 2004. from reading the reviews its a hell of lot more than a remake of 2003. they have vehicles and new game modes and they also brought back some old game modes.

iJon

I would hope from all the porting input they've been given, that they would use it to create a game that's more compatible with Mac OS X and Linux from the start.

Too bad it's not possible to make such information free to all developers.

[lewdvig]

Originally posted by bousozoku
The first release of Half Life was so bad that it almost stopped the company. It was only when they re-fit the everything but the idea that it became game of the year.

I have no idea what you are talking about. This post makes no sense.

Half Life was an immediate hit when it was released. Valve were ultra secretive and did not say anything until shortly before release. A single demo level was bundled with a video card - and that helped sales. It came out at Christmas and everyone was playing it. When they later released Team Fortress Classic multiplayer it immediately became as popular as Quake 2 online. Counterstrike even more so. Game of the Year awards follwoed within a few months of the release and carried on for the next year. Most sites rated it as perfect.

I think you are full of crap. Maybe you are thinking of SiN.

[lewdvig]

Originally posted by bousozoku
I would hope from all the porting input they've been given, that they would use it to create a game that's more compatible with Mac OS X and Linux from the start.

Too bad it's not possible to make such information free to all developers.

Did you buy UT2k3?

As long as sales are slow for the game, whatever the reason, I see no incentive for Epic to start making Mac OS games.

Mac publishers know the market and are willing to take financial risks to satisfy the meagre demand for Mac games. So why should Epic bother?

At the end of the day, regardless of what Apple woudl have us believe (and some of us believe it unquestionably) the truth is that for the best gaming experience, if this is somethingg you value, you need a fast PC. And I eman the latest rig, not some old 2GHz system with a GF4 4600 from last year.

If you care about games, you already have one.

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by lewdvig
I have no idea what you are talking about. This post makes no sense.

Half Life was an immediate hit when it was released. Valve were ultra secretive and did not say anything until shortly before release. A single demo level was bundled with a video card - and that helped sales. It came out at Christmas and everyone was playing it. When they later released Team Fortress Classic multiplayer it immediately became as popular as Quake 2 online. Counterstrike even more so. Game of the Year awards follwoed within a few months of the release and carried on for the next year. Most sites rated it as perfect.

I think you are full of crap. Maybe you are thinking of SiN.

Actually, I read the Post Mortem section of Game Developer magazine, which was an interview with the Valve staff after Half Life became Game of the Year.

Yes, I did buy UT2003 for Macintosh. I care about games on the Mac so I buy games for the Mac instead of telling them I want them on another platform.

You see no incentive for Epic to start making games for the Mac? They contracted with the same programmer who was doing the Linux version to do the Mac version. It wasn't another company, so Epic has already made games for the Mac.

[lewdvig]

You are right regarding Epic:

'Of particular interest to Mac game enthusiasts is Unreal Tournament 2003's pedigree. UT 2K3 will be the first installment of the Unreal franchise developed for the Mac in-house at Epic rather than by Westlake Interactive, which had been hired by MacSoft in past years to bring forth Macintosh conversions of Unreal and Unreal Tournament, along with Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition.'

Hopefully the 800,000 demo downloads converts to a big number of sales.

The Gamasutra/Game Dev magazine article -which I can not find anymore - talked about development. It had nothing to do with the commercial success of the game. The first Half Life, as far as we are concerned, is the one that showed up on retail shelves.

I have a lot of found memories of that game, so sorry if I seem like a spaz.

[bradz_id]

HL 2 will never come for Mac. It is written entirely in DirectX 9 and will never support OpenGL

[beefcake]

Originally posted by bradz_id
HL 2 will never come for Mac. It is written entirely in DirectX 9 and will never support OpenGL
Thats a shame, I could go for a solid game of dod right about now.

[Nermal]

Originally posted by bradz_id
HL 2 will never come for Mac. It is written entirely in DirectX 9 and will never support OpenGL

Well that's not a very optimistic attitude. There are heaps of games that were written for DirectX and ported across to OpenGL. Besides, even though some DX9 features are being used, DX6 cards are supported on the Windows version.

Actually, I find it interesting that the official system requirements are "800 MHz, 128 MB RAM, TNT2/Rage128/Voodoo5 or higher". Nothing about OS, or CPU type, or anything like that. While I would be surprised if they are making a Mac version, they have definitely made an allowance for Mac in the system requirements.