Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: 68k Mac Gaming  (Read 2150 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline fishy_fizTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jan 2005
  • Posts: 1813
    • Show only replies by fishy_fiz
68k Mac Gaming
« on: August 18, 2017, 08:06:42 AM »
There seems to be a select group of 68k Mac games that are mentioned when it comes to running software under emulation with Shapeshifter/Fusion/Basillisk that doesnt exist for the Amiga. Warcraft1/2, Marathon, Settlers2, Dark Forces, Alone In The Dark 1/2/3 and a few others being the main suspects.
While browsing through the MacGarden website however I was surprised to find there's actually a significant commercial game base for 68k Macs. It received quite a few fmv style game ports from the 3do. It also has a ports of Super Wing Commander (essentially enhanced version of WC1, but using a new engine and some WC3 assets), Rebel Assault 1&2, Actua Soccer (3d texture mapped soccer game) and a whole lot more.

Now firstly Im interested to hear what games people have tried under Mac emulation? Other than the handful of games I mentioned you dont hear a lot about mac gaming on the Amiga.

Secondly it's kind of interesting to see more "advanced" games than what the amiga typically received on a 68k system. While the Amiga did get a lot of good games they were typically, with a handful of exceptions, quite "retro" style, resembling 16bit console games.

Running some of this Mac stuff on my a1200 is quite cool, but also sort of makes me feel shortchanged. Clearly a fast '030 and upwards (especially '040 and '060) with some fast RAM is capable of a lot more than we typically got.
Near as I can tell this is where I write something under the guise of being innocuous, but really its a pot shot at another persons/peoples choice of Amiga based systems. Unfortunately only I cant see how transparent and petty it makes me look.
 

Offline rvo_nl

  • Lifetime Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2006
  • Posts: 860
    • Show only replies by rvo_nl
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2017, 09:06:19 AM »
I love this topic! A few years ago I spent quite some time trying out Mac 68K games on my 060/fusion/cgx setup. Indeed there are a few gems out there. I made screenshots of the games that were shared on Facebook, but just to give you an idea of what is possible I am reproducing them here.

Regarding Actua soccer, Ive spent days looking for it but it turned out it was really only made for Powermac's, so not 68k.





you might be able to find my original facebook album (with high resolution pictures and titles) here.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2017, 09:10:22 AM by rvo_nl »
Amiga 1200 (1d4) Kickstart 3.1 (40.68), Elbox Power/Winner tower (450w psu), BlizzardPPC 603e+ @240mhz & 060 @50mhz, 256MB, Bvision, IDE-fix Express, IndivisionAGA, 120GB IDE, cd, dvd, Cocolino, Micronik Keycase, PCMCIA Ethernet, Ratte monitor switcher, Prelude1200, triple boot WB3.1 / OS3.9 / OS4.1, Win95 / MacOS8.1
 

Offline stefcep2

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Sep 2007
  • Posts: 1467
    • Show only replies by stefcep2
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2017, 11:16:16 AM »
Quote from: fishy_fiz;829738
There seems to be a select group of 68k Mac games that are mentioned when it comes to running software under emulation with Shapeshifter/Fusion/Basillisk that doesnt exist for the Amiga. Warcraft1/2, Marathon, Settlers2, Dark Forces, Alone In The Dark 1/2/3 and a few others being the main suspects.
While browsing through the MacGarden website however I was surprised to find there's actually a significant commercial game base for 68k Macs. It received quite a few fmv style game ports from the 3do. It also has a ports of Super Wing Commander (essentially enhanced version of WC1, but using a new engine and some WC3 assets), Rebel Assault 1&2, Actua Soccer (3d texture mapped soccer game) and a whole lot more.

Now firstly Im interested to hear what games people have tried under Mac emulation? Other than the handful of games I mentioned you dont hear a lot about mac gaming on the Amiga.

Secondly it's kind of interesting to see more "advanced" games than what the amiga typically received on a 68k system. While the Amiga did get a lot of good games they were typically, with a handful of exceptions, quite "retro" style, resembling 16bit console games.

Running some of this Mac stuff on my a1200 is quite cool, but also sort of makes me feel shortchanged. Clearly a fast '030 and upwards (especially '040 and '060) with some fast RAM is capable of a lot more than we typically got.


even an 020  with fast ram would have helped.
 

Offline beakster2

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2007
  • Posts: 63
    • Show only replies by beakster2
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2017, 02:56:00 PM »
Quote from: fishy_fiz;829738

Running some of this Mac stuff on my a1200 is quite cool, but also sort of makes me feel shortchanged. Clearly a fast '030 and upwards (especially '040 and '060) with some fast RAM is capable of a lot more than we typically got.


Look at how many different models of 68k Mac Apple produced compared with Commodore.  We essentially only had the 3000 & 4000 that came with an 030, so a smaller userbase with capable hardware.  The c64 sold more units than the Apple 2, and Amiga technology at its beginning was way ahead of Mac tech.  All comes down to terrible Commodore management, so understandable software vendors ignored the Amiga in the 90s.

Back in the day I remember using Shapeshifter for Doom, Wolfenstein, Dukenukem, Warcraft and Netscape because they weren't on the Amiga at the time.
 

Offline fishy_fizTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jan 2005
  • Posts: 1813
    • Show only replies by fishy_fiz
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2017, 06:32:26 PM »
The Amiga's death was somewhat exaggerated in terms of sales in the 90's. Was a weird situation. Even in '95, Amiga Worms was one of the highest selling titles of the year, even with the advent and buzz around psx,saturn and pentium pcs of the day.

It's like people decided the Amiga was an old platform, ergo it must be near EOL, despite the fact quality amiga stuff sold better than most.

As for hardware, sure base hardware was quite low-spec, but really, other than trend followers (ie. those who got an amiga when it was latest/greatest gizmo and for that reason alone and repeat process for every new gizmo), who stuck to base specs?

Anyway, the reasons are moot, and not really the point  :-)
Near as I can tell this is where I write something under the guise of being innocuous, but really its a pot shot at another persons/peoples choice of Amiga based systems. Unfortunately only I cant see how transparent and petty it makes me look.
 

Offline Matt_H

Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2017, 06:44:13 PM »
Even though lots of users were getting accelerators, RAM expansions, and CD/hard drives in the mid 90s, I think most publishers still thought of the Amiga as a floppy-only, 1MB, OS1.3 A500. There was a chicken and egg problem: publisher assumes Amiga users don't have capable hardware, Amiga users don't upgrade because there's no software.

Even the UK magazines continued to offer cover disks on floppies until very late, whereas they should have said "We're doing only cover CDs from now on. Get a CD drive."

And then of course there's the piracy issue...
 

Offline dovegrace

  • Committed Git
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Join Date: Mar 2006
  • Posts: 202
  • Country: ca
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by dovegrace
    • http://dovegrace.blogspot.com
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2017, 07:20:38 PM »
Quote from: fishy_fiz;829738

Now firstly Im interested to hear what games people have tried under Mac emulation? Other than the handful of games I mentioned you dont hear a lot about mac gaming on the Amiga.


I remember getting Doom to run on my 1200 under emulation many years ago, but never explored beyond that...  I have an LC475 that I've bastardized, and several 68K Powerbooks that met all my 68K needs.

Now that I'm emulating more and more on my 1200, I may give it another shot.
A1200: 50mhz GVP Jaws II+, OS 3.1, 32mb Fast, 1gb HD, Indivision MKIICR, PCMCIA network
A4000D: stock 030/25, OS 3.9, 16mb Fast, 1gb HD, Picasso II, Ariadne II, IOExtender
 

Offline amiadudeorwat

Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2017, 02:11:29 AM »
@Fishy_fiz, speaking of running games from other platforms on Amiga, where's that WarpOS version of Dosbox?  ;)
 

Offline fishy_fizTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jan 2005
  • Posts: 1813
    • Show only replies by fishy_fiz
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2017, 02:17:41 AM »
Ah, sorry, forgot to get back to you.
Long story short, couldnt track a copy down and couldnt be bothered redoing it. WOS/PUP development is a pita, especially when I no longer have a dev environment setup to compile to those targets.
Near as I can tell this is where I write something under the guise of being innocuous, but really its a pot shot at another persons/peoples choice of Amiga based systems. Unfortunately only I cant see how transparent and petty it makes me look.
 

Offline Vlabguy1

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Aug 2006
  • Posts: 1262
    • Show only replies by Vlabguy1
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2017, 04:11:00 AM »
Quote from: beakster2;829755
Look at how many different models of 68k Mac Apple produced compared with Commodore.  We essentially only had the 3000 & 4000 that came with an 030, so a smaller userbase with capable hardware.  The c64 sold more units than the Apple 2, and Amiga technology at its beginning was way ahead of Mac tech.  All comes down to terrible Commodore management, so understandable software vendors ignored the Amiga in the 90s.

Back in the day I remember using Shapeshifter for Doom, Wolfenstein, Dukenukem, Warcraft and Netscape because they weren't on the Amiga at the time.


All the convo's about Commodore always end the same way..lol..

 I have an emplant Deluxe board and an AMaxII board..good stuff
 

Offline dr.zeissler

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Mar 2010
  • Posts: 17
    • Show only replies by dr.zeissler
Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #10 on: December 05, 2021, 12:17:28 PM »
68K Mac Gaming on LC 6.0.8 68020/16 10MB Ram 512KB Vram
https://youtu.be/YicfqCx5m-k
 

Offline NinjaCyborg

Re: 68k Mac Gaming
« Reply #11 on: December 06, 2021, 08:41:55 PM »
Apparently SimCity 2000 for mac plays great on Shapeshifter, because it can use RTG unlike the Amiga AGA version.