The Brad Hole

I've been a good boy this year, so I've got my annual wish list for Santa. In no particular order, here's a wish list of games I'd like to see brought to the Mac, with a (hopefully) brief explanation why. Most of these are pipe dreams, not games that are necessarily realistic candidates. I should also point out that I'm not the sort of gamer who salivates over the latest first-person shooter, or who plays online against a bunch of other people in the hopes of being called a cheater because I miraculously won a deathmatch. :)

1. Jedi Knight 1 (and the expansion, natch) - I'm a Star Wars whore and this game was the winner of so many awards that it's sick. It still hurts to think that it was actually planned and in development, only to be canned in mid-stride. Also, the original Dark Forces remains to this day one of the few games I've actually played through to completion. I can count the others on one hand.

2. Spyro, or a similar console platform game. I played the hell out of Spyro 4 for the PS2 over the break. The series in general has great visuals, great gameplay and a great sense of humor. Plus, it's not so hard that my unfrozen caveman mind can't win it. Most of favorite games have a sense of imagination and "unrealism" to them that draw me in and immerse me. I'd be delighted if this genre of game could take hold on the Mac and compete favorably with consoles, but that's unlikely to ever happen. But as my dreams involve nothing less than total Mac gaming world domination, I'd be remiss to leave this out.

3. Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (and the expansions). Here we have some solid, modern 3D RPG action. This is a gaming area in which the Mac has always seemed to lack, and I'm not sure why. Morrowind did well on the PC and spawned 2 expansions, so its absence on the Mac is puzzling.

4. Half-Life. I hate to even mention this one, given it's storied history on the Mac, but it's hard for me to ignore the game because the storyline is so engrossing. If only...

5. Monopoly Tycoon. I'm also a sucker for a relatively simple yet engrossing strategy game. I enjoyed the original Theme Park back in the day (thankfully it had a Mac version), and was fascinated by this particular game on the PC. The Mac gets most of the best-selling games on the PC, but not necessarily the best games. If the Mac had a larger market share, it'd probably be profitable to port some of these great, yet not-so-hot selling games over.

6. Grim Fandango. I love LucasArts adventure games. Most of the older 2D games are playable on the Mac now thanks to ScummVM, but Grim was a 3D game, and as such doesn't make the cut. It's a shame too, because it's brilliantly funny.

7. System Shock 2. I loved the atmosphere of the first one, and this one doesn't pull any punches either. I'm extremely jealous that Glenda and Ken got to do the Mac port of the first one, although I probably would have felt differently had I been working on it. ;)

8. The Ultima series of games, by Origin. Oddly, Ultima 3 is the only one that has ever made it to the Mac in a commercial capacity, and then twice! I've heard that Ultima 2 was made for B&W Macs, but I don't have any confirmation of that. If someone can confirm that (or wants to sell me a copy!) I'd be interested. Unofficially, folks are working on reverse-engineering playable versions of Ultima 4, Ultima 6 and Ultima 7, and of course most are playable via emulation anyway.

9. Need for Speed series. Gorgeous and a blast to play. The less said about this, the better.

10. Crimson Skies. What a fun game, and what an original concept. I don't really like flight sims, but this is one amazing exception.

So that's it. What you didn't see in that list is probably intentional: I have no interest in World War 2 first-person shooters or, really, any military/realistic shooter. Those aren't my bag, baby and they have plenty of supporters (and sales) as it is. I'd rather see Mac gaming diversify a bit and add some games with some imagination to them. Ultimately, that won't happen until the Mac market share grows enough to support those titles, but a man can dream, can't he? :)