Myst Online Released For Macs
Yesterday GameTap announced the released of Myst Online: Uru Live for the Macintosh. They touted it as being for the MacBooks and iMacs running the Intel Core Duo processor. Not only am I a Mac junkie, I am a Myst junkie, so it was with great excitement I went over to their site to get started playing this new version of an old favorite. Alas, it was not to be. As pretty as it looks (as always with the Myst series), it is not compatible with the MacBook I just bought in December. For what it’s worth, if you have the newest graphics processor, you will be as impressed as ever with the beauty of the game. Feel free to play it and review it in the comments.
In a stunning blow against loyal Mac users, GameTap and Cyan decided not to support the graphics cards in the MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Minis released as late as December of 2006, when Apple was still running the GMA 950 graphics processor interface. So, unless you bought a MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini or MacBook Pro with the newest graphic interface, you’re sunk. I think that is terrible marketing on their part. Making a purchase of a Mac is a significant investment, and I think it stinks that people who committed their money to Mac before the end of 2006, or who couldn’t wuite afford the price tag on the MacBook Pro, are being ignored by the game makers.
Shame on you, GameTap and Cyan.
From the site: System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later, 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor or faster (Intel only), 512MB RAM, ATI or Nvidia graphics, 3GB hard disk space, broadband Internet connection. GameTap notes that Myst Online is not supported on Macs that use the GMA 950 graphics processor. That includes Mac minis, MacBooks and some low-end iMac configurations.
Hat tip to Pippa for contributing this link which discusses the issue from the angle of “Why did Apple even set it up this way?” and lists games that will work on your Mac running the 950 chip set.
Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved
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March 21st, 2007 at 10:14 am
Keep in mind that I’m a gamer. The craptastic video controller in the MacBook is the main reason I wasn’t even looking at that line; 64MB of shared SDRAM isn’t going to play most games with intense graphics, like The Sims. I don’t think most gamers would even consider a system using shared RAM. Myst has always been a very graphics-intense game, and I think to scale it back to that extent would probably impact the gaming experience.
The MacBookPros have the same graphics memory that the Xbox 360s have. I think that’s your answer right there.
March 21st, 2007 at 10:18 am
Maybe so, but for a game played ONLINE you’d think they could make a patch that would accommodate the people who can’t afford the Pro. I’m note sure who to be irritated with - the makers of Myst, GameTap or Apple. Probably a little of each.
March 21st, 2007 at 11:27 am
I’m still going with Apple on that one. Why on earth they’d put that POS graphics controller in the MacBook is anyone’s guess. Shoot, my seven-year-old’s $699 PC laptop has a better graphics controller than that.