Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OS Neutral Railroads Fanatic needs help

F

Florida Shades

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 12, 2013
5
0
Railroads fanatic needs help
First off I am new here. Retired a couple of years ago an lived in Florida 25 yrs.
I have played thousands and thousands of games of Railroads on PC.
Spent over a thousand on upgrades to my PC's to better play the game.
Ok I'm a fanatic therefore................

I have always been impressed with Mac's but stalled on buying one. My question to you folks is simple..............

With Railroads now available I will take the leap, and buy a Mac. So..........

Which Mac should I buy to have the best luck wading in the Mac pool and playing my favorite game Railroads??? Do they have Civilization IV for Mac?

This will be big $$$$ so I hope you folks can point me to Mac happiness!
Sincerely I thank You for your opinions!
Florida Shades is offline Report Post
 
Solomani

Solomani

macrumors 601
Sep 25, 2012
4,785
10,477
Slapfish, North Carolina
mactrainz-7_1.jpg



There are a few railroad games for MacOSX I've seen....


Sid Meier's Railroads (very recent release)

Trainz Simulator for Mac (Mac game screenshot is the image above)
http://www.simulatorcentral.com/index.php/apple-mac/trainz-simulator-mac-286.html

Railroad Tycoon 3 is an older Mac title (released around 2005), so you might want to double check if it's been updated to work for the latest MacOSX (Lion and Mountain Lion).

Yes, Civ IV as well as Civ V exists for the Mac. Both are made to run on MacOSX.
 
F

Florida Shades

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 12, 2013
5
0
While a top of the line desktop will most naturally get me the best performance

Give me some solutions from a gaming perspective that involve reasonable sums of money. I poked around on Best Buy but know you need some veteran Mac experience of the best choice to play my favorite game Railroads.

Civilization4 (Beyond the Sword) is great as well for games lasting up to 100 hours. I am to old and slow now to play shoot-em games so play the strategy games.

I thought this question would be jumped on by you folks, but there seems to be lots of ice cubes in the Mac gamer pool :confused:
 
Solomani

Solomani

macrumors 601
Sep 25, 2012
4,785
10,477
Slapfish, North Carolina
Top of the line Mac desktop (e.g. a Mac Pro or one of the latest iMacs) will get you the best performance, they are not always what you need for the games you want to play.

Your best bet is to look at the games you plan to spend the most time with. Maybe Sid Meier's Railroads is an example. Then a quick research (not sure why I'm doing this for you....) from the developer's website Feral Interactive will state recommended system requirements of:

Mac OSX 10.7.5 (Lion or above)
2.4GHz Intel based Mac
System Memory 4 GB RAM
Graphics Card 512MB


Does that mean you should go out and look for the most affordable Mac that barely meets those requirements? No. Those requirements are modest by today's Mac standards. But in another year or two, those specs will be considered very dated.

For gaming, I would personally recommend at least 8GB of computer memory. And I would not suggest anything less than a dedicated video graphics card of 512MB (Nvidia or Radeon). (that means Mac Mini is not a good candidate)

My personal suggestion, if you can afford it, go with an iMac that just released in December 2012, but (again if you can afford it), try to avoid the very low-end 21.5" iMac model. Go at least with the "middle-tier" iMac model, which Apple gives a baseline price of $1499. Tho it could cost considerably more if you choose extra build-to-order options. As a first-timer to Macs, remember that with iMac you are paying for both a computer as well as the built-in (gorgeous) monitor display!

http://www.apple.com/imac/specs/

From what you described of your interests, I would not categorize you as someone needing a top of the line Mac, and therefore a Mac Pro would likely be overkill for you. Likewise, the most expensive (top-tier) 27" iMac model would probably be overkill for your needs.
 
F

Florida Shades

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 12, 2013
5
0
Solomani you answered my question spot on ...............Thanks

The iMac seems to be the one. I really appreciate your time and value your insight!

I did not want to buy a unit that was wrong for my needs and price-point! One thing for sure Macs have killer graphics that lure my $$$$$$$
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom