From: ozma@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Mac games vs PC Games- comparison (again!)
Date: 10 Oct 92 19:18:59 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <1b7bd0INN9i4@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, an780@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Travis Grundke) writes:
> 
> Hi folks, just wanted to make a quick comment: I'm all for new Mac games
> (hence why I work with MacGames Digest!), however, after looking at some
> stuff, I think there's a problem with the thinking of the Mac game
> publishers. I've been playing Crystal Quest recently. Neat game, yes...BUT,
> *I* don't think its worth $49.95. As my DOS friends would say, "That's a
> game you just pirate- its not worth buying." Now, I don't believe in piracy
> any longer, but Crystal Quest is a game you'd see as SHAREWARE in the
> Messy-DOS world. I've been seeing lots of these types of game son the Mac
> that seem to be shareware quality. If I'm buying a game, I will buy
> something like Hellcats OTP, or any of the Sierra or LucasFilms or Prince
> of Persia or Lemmings, but games like Crystal Quest or Oids completely turn
> me off and make me think "Shareware". Please-! No offense to their authors,

I guess I disagree to a certain extent.  A lot of what I see in PC games is
useless flash.  For some reason, PC games love to have all these splash screens
and long, seeming endless start-up animation.  Filler - in my opinion.  If you
strip off the splash screens and all that junk, what's left?  A shareware game
perhaps?
I don't think I see your distinction between OIDS and Hellcats any more than I
really follow your distinction between PC and Mac games.  Perhaps you can
clarify - maybe give us something more quantifiable (sp?).  You list Crystal
Quest and OIDS = SHAREWARE while Hellcats, LucasFilms games, POP, and Lemmings
= COMMERCIAL.  Crystal Quest and OIDS are not entirely original games and are
arcade games.  The other games you mentioned as good are more complex and many
were created by some corporation.  Is it quality?  Complexity?  Graphics? 
Sound?  All these things?
OIDS was written by, what, two guys?  Crystal Quest was written by one guy. 
Wasn't Crystal Quest more or less the first color Mac game?  It's awfully old
in any event.  The Mac doesn't have 30 people working an entire year on a
million dollar budget on a single game (as in Sierra - for example).  The
reasons for this have been well hashed out in this newsgroup.  The Mac has a
few people working on a shoestring without the resources that Sierra/etc. has.

Again, I guess I disagree.  I'm an interface kind of guy - a sucker for a good
interface.  For that reason I love the Mac and Mac games - I hate ports (like
Vette, Falcon, Sierra's games, etc.) that have lousy PC-like interfaces (mind
you, a Mac menu bar does not make for a Mac interface - my lord all those darn
screens you have to click through just to start a game!).

I would like to see the Mac game market 'mature', but if it means big
corporations fighting each other to buy the rights to do the game version of
Tewrminator III, no thanks (wow, off the topic a bit - look at the sickening
Nintendo market - lord what redundant games).

john calhoun-

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games