EA Games Use TransGaming's Cider; To Require Intel Macs

[MacRumors]

As first noted by AppleInsider, it appears that TransGaming's Cider development technology is fueling EA's return to the Mac.

Cider is a development technology that allows Windows game manufacturers to "wrap" their unmodified code in Cider, which translates the Windows API calls. From TransGaming's Cider FAQ:

Cider works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an Intel Mac system and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 APIs. TransGaming's Cider implements common multimedia Windows APIs such as Direct3D, DirectInput, DirectSound and many others by mapping them to Mac equivalents. This allows games to run with equivalent game play and performance but without the typical brute force porting effort typically required to bring games to Mac.

However, Cider is only compatible with Intel-based Macs, meaning that EA's releases will be likewise Intel-only as long as they rely on the technology.

 

[Mac-Addict]

Small price to pay for good games to be back on the mac.

 

[mattscott306]

Can't say I expected less. Why would they spend so much time trying to support a generation of computers that is becoming dated. Unfortunate for those who got the latest and greatest g5's before the switch... but expected.

 

[japanime]

Cider?

I'll drink to that!

 

[jericho53]

was hoping it would be universal...oh well.

 

[jwa276]

It was bound to happen sooner or later.. Poor late model PowerPC buyers...

Luckily, that is not me

P.S. loving the speel check in Safari 3!

 

[clevin]

transgaming is a shameless company, thats all I can say.

But based on my experience with HoMM V, the wrapping process would not necessarily result in the quality loss.

 

[longofest]

I have a Quad G5... lets just leave it at that

::tear::

 

[Zadillo]

Wow. When they said back when Cider was announced that they had all these big games coming, I thought it was basically just hot air. Interesting to see then that EA and some of their major titles are included in that.

 

[macinfojunkie]

All things considered I thought that the gaming announcements were the best news from today's keynote. Great to see the Mac become a timely contender for new releases again. Not that I'm a big games player myself, but for the consumer market I think it is important that there is a viable and thriving games market which these announcements can do nothing but improve for OSX.

 

[ImAlwaysRight]

PowerPC is dead

All the more reason to upgrade to an Intel Mac! (Just as long as it doesn't have integrated graphics )

Gotta snag me one of those iMac Intel Core 2 Duos on clearance when the new models come out!

 

[macinfojunkie]

It was bound to happen sooner or later.. Poor late model PowerPC buyers...

Luckily, that is not me

P.S. loving the speel check in Safari 3!

(your joke aside) Is there new spell check in Safari 3? I thought that OSX had system wide spell check for a number of years? Is what you're referring to different to that?

 

[inkswamp]

So if the game is running unmodified code, does that mean these games in the future are going to have exe, ini and dll files scattered to the four corners of my hard drive, or does Cider "Macify" the use of external files? I'm sort of partial to the Mac's bundled approach and not so fond of the way Windows apps need to install 10 million little support files everywhere and anywhere.

 

[mwp98223]

Is this something like "crossover" then in that it runs "windows" games without having to run windows in bootcamp or virtualization? I know the software is different, but is the concept similar? This being true, might we see a time when windows software will just run on intel Macs? Is that too much of a simplification?

 

[Eidorian]

So it looks like this did amount to something in the end.

 

[Zadillo]

Is this something like "crossover" then in that it runs "windows" games without having to run windows in bootcamp or virtualization? I know the software is different, but is the concept similar? This being true, might we see a time when windows software will just run on intel Macs? Is that too much of a simplification?

Yeah, similar concept. The technology is basically replicating the DirectX gaming API's, etc. without needing Windows itself, making it much easier to create a game port for OS X.

 

[ChrisA]

Is this something like "crossover" then in that it runs "windows" games without having to run windows in bootcamp or virtualization?

Very much so. "crossover" is the comercialized version of "wine" which is free. Wine works two ways. You can use it to try and run an unmodified .exe file or as a developer you can make calls into Wine and link with it. It appears they are using the second method.

 

[natejohnstone@g]

"Macs" not for games--HA! Eat it!

I"m always posting things about GPUs, etc., on here and the usual response to me is "Macs aren't for gaming, so just chill," to which I usually reply, "why SHOULDN'T Macs be for gaming?"
So to all of you game-haters out there who have always said that Macs are not for games and will cease to support them...eat it.
That's all I have to say to you.
So yea, needless to say I'm pretty happy about the gaming announcement.
I just wish that Macs had an optional Graphics Card upgrade for the MacBook...GRR!!

 

[samh004]

(your joke aside) Is there new spell check in Safari 3? I thought that OSX had system wide spell check for a number of years? Is what you're referring to different to that?

Not in the windows side as far as I can tell. But this should be addressed in the Safari thread.

Cider sounds awesome, unfortunately I'm not a big gamer myself so it means very little to me, but I'll tell my sister about it.

 

[iSee]

transgaming is a shameless company, thats all I can say.

Wait! You can't just throw "shameless" out there and say nothing more.
Come on, dish the dirt...

 

[jericho53]

(your joke aside) Is there new spell check in Safari 3? I thought that OSX had system wide spell check for a number of years? Is what you're referring to different to that?

Yes, new spell check in safari. It underlines in red anything it deems to be misspelled. It beats holding down ctrl- -d.

 

[gogojuice]

The old one did that too lol

 

[AidenShaw]

PowerPC is dead

This is just one more nail in the coffin....

 

[macinfojunkie]

Yes, new spell check in safari. It underlines in red anything it deems to be misspelled. It beats holding down ctrl- -d.

Cool. I look forward to testing it. I've had it downloaded for a while but have held off installing since the package informed me it wanted to reboot (so I backed out). I'll have to wait until I can reboot the system. Hope it is stable and worth the install.

(apologies for going off topic)

 

[72930]

PPC users can play games in Classic, and I wish I could do that without SheepShaver...