Virtual PC for gaming

[ldkaplan]

Does/Has anyone use(d) VirtualPC for playing PC Games? I have a 1.8 Ghz G5 and was hoping that would be quick enough to overcome any performance issues.

[Dont Hurt Me]

no emulator is worth a hoot, dont even think about it unless you want to play asteroids or pong.

[Macpoops]

Well first of all the G5 can't run Virtual PC at all until the new version comes out. 2nd of all it does not have the 3D support your games need. So No your G5 cannot run PC games. period. end of story. no ifs ands or buts about it

[Dreadnought]

This post has been here a lot, but always the same answers!! On macosrumors.com they already had an alpha version of the new VPC 7. they say it works pretty good in games when you have a g5. The frames per second aren't shocking, but it's better then it was in older versions of VPC, and this is still an alpha! I still know, trying to play worms with vpc on my G3. I couldn't even use the mouse, if I did the screen went everywhere!! With VPC your processor speed will be 1/4 of an equal pentium proc. So my G3 400mhz was emulating a pentium 1 100mhz. So for playing a game... forget it, unless you want to play mines or something :D

[x86isslow]

hey, by using vpc for gaming, even just simple games only, you double the number of games available to play:rolleyes: :D

[rainman::|:|]

no. even if you do all of the tweaks to make it faster, it's still going to bar far too slow. emulators are only good for really old games, for instance i sometimes use an Amiga emulator to play Trial By Fire: Quest for Glory. works OK, and i remember playing this game when color computers were just taking hold...

paul

[manitoubalck]

I wonder if My K71GHz Athlon, with GeForce2 MX, could edge out the latest and gratest computer from apple mac in the gaming arina.

My computer is approaching it's 3rd birthday, and I would hope this is not the case. For Apple's sake.

[kettle]

Quake III might save the mac, as for other games I'm not sure if it would be down to the mac failing or the crapness of the port from PC. I'd like to see the old G3 demo of Mac/Bungie "Halo" running on a G5.:)

[Dreadnought]

Originally posted by kettle
Quake III might save the mac, as for other games I'm not sure if it would be down to the mac failing or the crapness of the port from PC. I'd like to see the old G3 demo of Mac/Bungie "Halo" running on a G5.:)

I second that! Even want to play with it on my B&W and then compare it with the new one on my G5! Probably has little differences, the graphics would be the only thing that is better. That shows how crappy developers/programmers M$ really is.

[Dreadnought]

Originally posted by paulwhannel
no. even if you do all of the tweaks to make it faster, it's still going to bar far too slow. emulators are only good for really old games, for instance i sometimes use an Amiga emulator to play Trial By Fire: Quest for Glory. works OK, and i remember playing this game when color computers were just taking hold...

paul

Hmmm, I also have Quest for Glory for the Mac! It's QfG 5; Dragon Fire

[virividox]

virtual pc is joke. unless their new version totally increases speed by like 400% don't bother attempting tog ame

[jeff.macaddict]

On a g5, with the fastest version of VPC, you could play half life original, but anything more than that, forget it. You'de be playing in 640X480 res, and you would need more than the base ram on a g5. I recomend at least 512MB.

On the other hand, you could just boot to linux, just like you boot to mac os x.

I have yellow dog linux, and it works great. It's not an emulation, it really is running just linux and no mac os on your machine. this doesn't make it a pc, you can still boot to mac os x. If you want the disks, they are free at http://yellowdoglinux.com/

Need help? email me/reply to this post

[AkiraK]

From the Mac OS Rumors front page:

"Despite the tantalizing preview we got from MacBU sources about five weeks ago that included developmental 3D Hardware Acceleration, those same sources have been at the Expo this week and confirmed that the feature has been dropped from 7.0 due to serious problems supporting most games (Quake3 works fairly well, but most popular titles crash on launch when trying to use the feature)."

Without 3D Hardware support, you'll have to run everything in software mode, pretty much a crippling option, even on a G5 (especially given that most recent games don't even support software rendering anymore).

As for doubling the number of games, this assumes that a) most PC gamese that don't get ported are worth playing (they're not...for every HALF-LIFE 2, there are a half dozen knockoffs and charlatans), and b) that the Mac and PC catalogs are entirely different (they're not...very few games show up Mac-only--even Escape Velocity Nova is now available for the PC).

VPC will never be a viable option for playing PC games...if you're that desperate to play what's available only for the PC, then build yourself a PC (you can do it for less than you would think). But my experience has been that most of the best games on the PC eventually make it to the Mac...the keywords there being "most" (why Sierra pulled the plug so late in the development of the Mac version of Half-Life is still a mystery) and "eventually."

[MrMacMan]

Unless there is 3D Hardware Acceleration VPC is going nowhere!

If they get that to work, we have a product that I would buy... but until then, with software accel... its a POS.

Boo, work out the kinks.

[Macpoops]

I wouldn't say it's a POS it was never designed to let you run games. Just proprietary software you couldn't get on the Mac. Lets be honest here you don't say FCP is a POS if it can't mix your latest track that you and your buddies laid down in the basement last night.

You know what makes horrible glue? Post-it Notes....i'm never buying Post-it notes again until i can fix my fine china with them. I mean really why can't they get that right.....lol

[iJon]

Originally posted by Dreadnought
This post has been here a lot, but always the same answers!! On macosrumors.com they already had an alpha version of the new VPC 7. they say it works pretty good in games when you have a g5. The frames per second aren't shocking, but it's better then it was in older versions of VPC, and this is still an alpha! I still know, trying to play worms with vpc on my G3. I couldn't even use the mouse, if I did the screen went everywhere!! With VPC your processor speed will be 1/4 of an equal pentium proc. So my G3 400mhz was emulating a pentium 1 100mhz. So for playing a game... forget it, unless you want to play mines or something :D
and you belive what macsorumors saying?

iJon