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Games for Lion
- Thread starter rhcpryan
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a lot of those games don't specify if they'll work with lion. I guess Im going to just downgrade to snow leopard. although Ill probably have to re load all my filesso tired of os x kitten holding me back from using software
Good luck with that. There are a crapload of games that work in Lion. Games are being supported more than ever on the Mac platform. I fail to see how downgrading your OS is going to solve your problem unless you want to play PPC games, which still may or may not work or work well under Snow Leopard. There are a plethora of games on Windows as well that you can simply access by using Boot Camp. There are options.
Lots of games run fine in Lion. Check the Mac App Store for plenty of options. (If you're looking for indie games, I've made a list of some of the best indie games on the Mac App Store.)
Also, there's Steam. Lots of Mac-compatible games there, and more being added all the time. Just check system requirements.
If you like retro games, there's the option of using Boxer & buying DOS games from GOG (good old games).
And, like the previous poster commented, there's always Bootcamp for the rest!
Were there any specific games you wanted to run in Lion?
Also, there's Steam. Lots of Mac-compatible games there, and more being added all the time. Just check system requirements.
If you like retro games, there's the option of using Boxer & buying DOS games from GOG (good old games).
And, like the previous poster commented, there's always Bootcamp for the rest!
Were there any specific games you wanted to run in Lion?
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Ive tried the following: Starcraft 1 and 2, Command and Conquer Generals, Age of Empires 3, Warcraft 3, Civilaztion 5 and none of them have worked. I guess putting windows on my mac is the next step. I haven't used windows in so long I don't even know what the current version is. So I just a buy a copy of windows and run bootcamp right?
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Starcraft may be too old, Starcraft 2 says it works under Lion. I've played the demos of AoE3 and CivIV. They worked great, although I didn't care for CivIV.
What Mac do you have? What issues were you having?
Starcraft 2, AoE 3, and Civ V all work in Lion. Don't know about C&C. Warcraft 3 works but you need to install it in snow leopard first. What are your Mac's specs? The only game I know won't work is SC1.
Also, if your Mac came with Lion, you can't downgrade to Snow Leopard.
All current Blizzard games should run fine (starcraft 2, diablo 3, wow), all current valve games should run fine (portal 2, left 4 dead 2, Team fortress 2 (free by the way),etc). Stuff from Aspyr and Ferral available in the app store should work fine though some ports are crappy (civ 5 for example, though recent patches were suppose to improve things). Starcraft 1 won't work.
It's troubling that starcraft 2 isn't working for you. What seems to be happening, what are your system specs? Try downloading the 1.5 beta as a test, as performance is greatly improved.
Lion drivers are better/newer than snow leopard so modern games will run better/require lion. Snow leopards drivers will never be updated. Lions drivers will never be updated once mountain lion comes out, its the way apple releases drivers for better or worse. THat's why it's not recommended you downgrade. Are you running 10.7.4? Try reinstalling the combo update: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1524
close apps if you have a bunch open before playing games. restart you computer before playing games if you leave it on all the time.
Starcraft 2 should work better on lion then snow leopard so there's likely something wrong in your software.
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And this is much better than the IGN link
http://www.insidemacgames.com/
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Blizzard games all rely on Battle.net. That being said, if you have a valid Battle.net account, and you have valid product keys, you can download Mac specific clients for ANYTHING BLIZZARD MAKES. Compatibility problems solved, to the highest order. I bought StarCraft when it first hit the shelves back in 1998. When I got my nice shiny new iMac in 2010, I logged onto Battle.net, put in my StarCraft product key, Bam! Starcraft and Broodwars, OS X client, downloaded, installed, runs better than ever. Same went for WarCraft III and it's expansion.
Blizzard games all rely on Battle.net. That being said, if you have a valid Battle.net account, and you have valid product keys, you can download Mac specific clients for ANYTHING BLIZZARD MAKES. Compatibility problems solved, to the highest order. I bought StarCraft when it first hit the shelves back in 1998. When I got my nice shiny new iMac in 2010, I logged onto Battle.net, put in my StarCraft product key, Bam! Starcraft and Broodwars, OS X client, downloaded, installed, runs better than ever. Same went for WarCraft III and it's expansion.
Unfortunately, starcraft 1 and brood wars are PPC apps, and since lion doesn't support Rosetta, they won't work. While Warcraft 3 has been patched to support intel, the installer is PPC so it won't install on lion.
(He smugly launches Starcraft I to prove poster wrong, when . . . )
"You can't open the application Starcraft (Carbon) because PowerPC applications are no longer supported."
UN-be-bleeping-lievable!!! I just upgraded to Lion LAST NIGHT!!! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Mango-Foxtrot?!!?
Now I'm sad. I guess I'll have to port WINE to run it for me. Sheeeesh.
Well, at least WarCraft III still works . . .
it's a no-go with diablo 2.
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what about D2?Blizzard games all rely on Battle.net. That being said, if you have a valid Battle.net account, and you have valid product keys, you can download Mac specific clients for ANYTHING BLIZZARD MAKES. Compatibility problems solved, to the highest order. I bought StarCraft when it first hit the shelves back in 1998. When I got my nice shiny new iMac in 2010, I logged onto Battle.net, put in my StarCraft product key, Bam! Starcraft and Broodwars, OS X client, downloaded, installed, runs better than ever. Same went for WarCraft III and it's expansion.
No, it's a PPC app. It works perfectly in Crossover/Wine though.
Just don't ever uninstall it.
Irony
Well, after my recent upgrade to Lion, I have taken stock of all the software I have collected on my Mac for the last two years, and have come to the conclusion that I can run just about everything made for any system, OS, or game console that I could on Snow Leopard. Except for software made for the PowerPC macs.
So, to be clear, on my Mac, I can run old DOS, Windows, Nintendo, Sega, Atari, and Commodore programs fine. I just can't run old Mac programs. On my Mac.
It would be pointless to ask why, but I can't resist.
Why? Everything ran fine under Snow Leopard. What was the give that resulted in this take?
Well, after my recent upgrade to Lion, I have taken stock of all the software I have collected on my Mac for the last two years, and have come to the conclusion that I can run just about everything made for any system, OS, or game console that I could on Snow Leopard. Except for software made for the PowerPC macs.
So, to be clear, on my Mac, I can run old DOS, Windows, Nintendo, Sega, Atari, and Commodore programs fine. I just can't run old Mac programs. On my Mac.
It would be pointless to ask why, but I can't resist.
Why? Everything ran fine under Snow Leopard. What was the give that resulted in this take?
I think it was a conspiracy to make everyone upgrade from Microsoft Office 2004
Windows is designed to be virtualised and old console games are simplistic enough to emulate (remember than emulators are coded by hobbyists, not corporations). Comparing both of those to Rosetta doesn't really fit.
Rosetta requires a lot of resources just to keep it running on the latest version of OS X, clearly Apple didn't think it's worth it any more. It was a stop-gap product anyway. They also probably wanted to ween less-informed customers off programs running under emulation when native binaries may already exist.
Just glancing at my Games folder in Launcher, I am running OS X Lion 10.7.4
App Store
GTA3 and Vice City
COD4 (after copying PB fix file)
Angry Birds Space
LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga (PS3 controller compatible)
Modern Combat Domination
Red Crucible 2
Bubble Shootix
Asphalt 6
Elsewhere
Minecraft
Portal 2 (Steam)
Team Fortress 2 (Steam)
Mari0
I'm about to download Civ V from Steam as well, just haven't gotten around to it yet, its a pretty hefty file. Portal 1 says it'll also work, but I haven't downloaded that one either. I like Portal 2 better.
I'm kinda bummed that BF3 and every COD game after 4 completely ignored the Mac. I'm a huge BF3 fan, however I'm away on deployment. I would have loved to play some BF3 on my MBP while away but no dice (pun intended, lol). COD4 does give me my FPS-fix a little bit.
App Store
GTA3 and Vice City
COD4 (after copying PB fix file)
Angry Birds Space
LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga (PS3 controller compatible)
Modern Combat Domination
Red Crucible 2
Bubble Shootix
Asphalt 6
Elsewhere
Minecraft
Portal 2 (Steam)
Team Fortress 2 (Steam)
Mari0
I'm about to download Civ V from Steam as well, just haven't gotten around to it yet, its a pretty hefty file. Portal 1 says it'll also work, but I haven't downloaded that one either. I like Portal 2 better.
I'm kinda bummed that BF3 and every COD game after 4 completely ignored the Mac. I'm a huge BF3 fan, however I'm away on deployment. I would have loved to play some BF3 on my MBP while away but no dice (pun intended, lol). COD4 does give me my FPS-fix a little bit.
Yeah, I'm over it. Just kinda shocked when stuff that used to work on this computer no longer work on this computer because I did an incremental OS upgrade. Like taking my truck into a Ford dealer for a recall installation then being told I'm no longer permitted to drive on I-95. What?
And as far as the 'resources' for Rosetta . . . these programs, when they were written, didn't have the error message "Can't run because PowerPC apps no longer supported' coded into them. That means that the current OS is making the determination when attempting to launch the binary, then displaying the error. Meaning, that instead of displaying an error, the OS could launch a virtual machine under the hood capable of supporting the environment, that would cease when the program closed. No burden, no extra 'resources' being used.
Because I like I-95.
Did you ever use Rosetta? Granted, my experience was on a 2006 CD MB, but when I would use an app that required it my fans and CPU would always max out. Compared to playing a universal binary game CPU would be at 50-60%. It's a lot more taxing on the OS and takes a lot of usability away from other things.
Well, on my 2009 iMac, I never saw the issues you mentioned. But like I said, I'm over it. I completed cleaning out all the stuff that won't run under Lion, and a lot of other programs I wasn't using either. Cleaned house. Feels good. I got into a 'collection mode' with this old stuff. Never really used it, but liked the idea that I could. I primarily bought this computer to write programs for the iPhone, and have just recently gotten serious about doing this. The fewer distractions the better.
StarCraft II still rocks, and I love those Humble Bundles. And I am amazed at how well Portal 2 runs, just picked it up, and it's incredible.
Apple lost its license to use the underlying software that encompasses Rosetta for Lion and future releases of OS X and since IBM acquired it from its original authors, it is doubtful that Apple could relicense it even if they wanted to.
In my case, I just install Snow Leopard (and Rosetta) into Parallels 7 in Lion for my Rosetta in Lion needs (admitted not a great solution for gamers):
Full Snow Leopard installation instructions here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1365439/
