Too Mac or not too Mac???

[zzsprade]

This feels very weird for me to be saying this... I feel a little stupid to be honest. Usual story... die hard PC user, never used a Mac in my life except on the most odd of occasions.  Now I am considering buying one...

This brings me on to some questions that I have to run past some of you guys, who I am sure a more knowledgeable then me on this subject.

1. I found MacMame... but what is it like compared to vanilla Mame? What is cross compatability of like Win games and apps in general. I don't exactly feel like having to gather together a whole new series of apps, just because i would own a Mac.

2. Enconders etc and their support, just general BYOAC stuff? How does it all hold up in the Mac environment???

To be honest I feel completely bewildered and terrified about even the thought of swapping. Any input, contributions, ideas? I feel like someone needs to slap some sense into me!

-Alex

[SirPoonga]

MacMame is fine if you don't want to run a frontend.  It has a built in GUI. other than that it is just mame.

Macs use USB so a USB ipac would be fine.

You aren't going to run windows apps on a mac unless you have VirtualPC, and then it is slow.

Also, you have to know which Mac OS you are using.  OS 9 and earlier is traditional Mac.  However Apple is getting rid of that and going exclusively OS X.  OS X is actually a unix operating system.

[Lilwolf]

btw... more mame developers used macs (until recently... windows mame was the big change... before that you had to use win98 to develop in...)  But still many mame develpers are still mac heads.

2nd... Macs are great... WAY overpriced... but if you don't care go for them.

OS-X is really OpenStep (which is NextStep).  That is the great OS the Steven Jobs wrote when Apple kicked him out because of his wild ideas of the next OS he wanted to write... but Apple thought he was crazy...  After 10 years... They bought Next out for 6billion or some ungodly amount.

BUT.... the did remove a TON of the great features of OpenStep... like the Open parts.  Security mainly... but I could go in and recreate the OSs windowing system and run it.  You like scrollers on the left side... 2 second fix.  You want to add a method to EVERY STRING object in the entire OS...  No problem.

Amazingly useful... but Amazingly scarey... if it ever got widespread enought to get evil hackers looking.  Not that it wasn't secure... but my application could effect yours.   (hence... not secure)...

[SirPoonga]

Correction, macs are not over priced.
In my mac class this quarter we did a price comparison to the top PC manufacturers.  Apples are comparable to anything Dell and them produce.  especially once you start adding software.

[GoldenBear]

Have any numbers on that Poonga?  As a closet Mac Fan (guess im outta the closet now   ), it's always interesting to know these things

[Jakobud]

Mac's are good for simple things like emails and web surfing and some graphic design apps (not as good as it used to be for that).  But Mac's are not for the power user.  Yeah yeah, OSX is basically UNIX everyone says, but OSX has so many problems that have been uncovered, Apple has lost of loyal followers.  One of my friends works for some company that develops database software for OSX, and their company pretty much hates it nowadays because of all the problems.  The transition (or lack of) from OS9 to OSX was a bad one.  Half of Mac software won't even run on OSX but does run on OS9.  Every single mac user i know has to have both OS's on their machine because of so many incompatibilities.  OSX looks pretty...but it has more problems than most mac loyalists are willing to admit.

[SirPoonga]

On the contrary, OS X is the best thing to hit Apple.  Apple has gained followers because of OS X.
Many people only have both classic and os x on their machine because of quark, but quark finally moved to os x.

For the home user it the new macs are very useful.  They come with butt loads of software.  Most of the iSoftware just does the basics, but it does enough to get people started.  I've been playing with iMovies, it isn't that bad of a program.  It's a simple movie editting software, but it works well enough for someone who hasn't done it before or just wants something simple for home movies it will work well.

Apple likes taking risks.  Their transitions are never pretty.  Same when they switched to the powerpc, it was a risk and the transition wasn't the best but it was the best thing the company did at the time.

Everyone that I know that uses a Mac thinks OS X is the best thing Apple has done.


GoldenBear, do your own research.  Take a single processor G5 with no more than 4 gigs of memory (configure sometihng that you'd actual buy and PCs right now can't go above 4 gigs of memory)  to a Dell with simular specs. You really can't compare the processrs that well, Macs will be faster at the same speed, either way just get top of the line single processer.  Try and get the same quality video cards too.  Try and get the same type of hard drives.  I believe the minimum for Macs these days is a 160 gig ATA, not sure if it is serial.
Don't include a monitor, Apple's Cinema displays are expensive because they are VERY good, they hardly compare to anything else.  But Dell, like most such companies, rape you the cost of a monitor.  You can get a good monitor cheaper from other outlets.

[SirPoonga]

oh yeah, don't let mac people tell you they only need a single button mouse, that is a load of crock.

[jakejake28]

i have a mac, and i love it. of course, i don't run Mac OS, i run Mandrake Linux, but that doesnt matter.

[Zapper]

The IPAC works in OS 9, don't know about OS X though. I tried using my W&G U3100 on my Mac, in OS 9 it had refresh problems, in OS X it didn't work at all. I think Macs are great but for 3d gaming and MAME machines they're disappointing.

[SirPoonga]

3D gaming is awesome on a mac.  You know those Doom III screensots from iD are from a Mac.

The IPAC should work fine in USB on a Mac.  Mac's can handle alot of hardware.  Hech, OS X recognized my digital camera and set it as a drive.  There isn't a windows driver for my camera that does that!

Yeah, I'd agree, Macs are not good mame machines.

[vitaflo]

Mac's are good for simple things like emails and web surfing and some graphic design apps (not as good as it used to be for that).  But Mac's are not for the power user.  Yeah yeah, OSX is basically UNIX everyone says, but OSX has so many problems that have been uncovered, Apple has lost of loyal followers.  One of my friends works for some company that develops database software for OSX, and their company pretty much hates it nowadays because of all the problems.  The transition (or lack of) from OS9 to OSX was a bad one.  Half of Mac software won't even run on OSX but does run on OS9.  Every single mac user i know has to have both OS's on their machine because of so many incompatibilities.  OSX looks pretty...but it has more problems than most mac loyalists are willing to admit.

What problems?  OS X is awesome, it's 1000x better than OS 9.  The only real people that complain are those who hate change.  Every major app is on OS X now, and many are OS X only.  OS X also has a great following in the Linux community because of the Unix foundation.  As for Windows apps, all the major ones are on the mac, or there are mac only equvilents.  Gaming is hit and miss depending on what you like.  The major cames are ported over, but obviously not all.  MacMAME is usually 1 or 2 releases behind the Windows version, but plays pretty well.  All the other emu's supported in Windows are on the Mac for the most part, and IMHO are much better from a UI standpoint.

Unless you're a hardcore PC gamer who wants a super cheap machine, there's a lot to like in going Mac.

[SirPoonga]

The thing with many emus on a mac is you are stuck with their UI.  That;s why I don't like macmame.  And there are not too many FEs for mame outside of the windows world anyway.

[Zapper]

I've been reading on Mac emu message boards about the separating of MacMAME from the gui (if I understood it correctly). Several people are pushing for an optional ArcadeOS/GameLauncher style frontend that could be used, now that would very nice to see.