More Q&A from the comments
I don't mind answering questions from the comments, so here's a new batch.
Are you trying to rewrite those pesky libraries you mentioned? Or are you going to do it game-specific (not portable code)?
The biggest stickler is the sound library, so we're substituting it with OpenAL. I think this is a win-win situation. We recently hired a few guys from the now-defunct Mac division at Metrowerks, and one of them (Isaac Wankerl) is digging into this as a sort of trial-by-fire into Mac game porting.
Have you considered writing your own game? What genre would it be? Would you do it cross-platform?
I haven't had time to even think about this. If I did it, it'd be Mac-only unless there was absolutely crazy money to be had by moving it to another platform.
Will you put in any new features into civ4? ones that won't be in the PC version.
At the moment, it doesn't look like it. OpenAL is going in, so depending on how you look at it, that could be construed as a new feature.
Sorry to keep posting, but do you ever work on MAME anymore?
Yes. I started (and mostly finished) a rewrite of the NES GPU in January for MESS, but I need to plug it into MAME (since it's shared code) and get it working there. As for MacMAME, I update it in my spare time. I've been waiting to do a new release when I get time to make it universal, but I may just punt on that and do a PPC-only release since that's easy.
Will Civ4 for mac play on the new intel mac mini?
I honestly don't know. My hunch is that it will push any 3D card pretty hard, and the 3D chip in the new Mini is weak in all the areas that Civ4 needs (hardware TCL, vertex shaders and lots of VRAM). We'll have to wait until one arrives at Aspyr World Headquarters and Civ4 gets closer to release. With that said, I would not buy a Mac mini with the sole expectation of playing Civ4 (or really any modern 3D games) - that way lies sorrow.
Comments
Here's another question for you. What ever happened to "Unimaginable Revisited"?
Posted by: Andy | March 7, 2006 02:31 PM
"Here's another question for you. What ever happened to "Unimaginable Revisited"?"
That's a question that makes me cry. It's tied up in some kind of legal hell, last I heard.
Posted by: Brad Oliver | March 7, 2006 09:04 PM
I am very sorry to hear that. I was really looking forward to it (assuming that I was interpreting your hints correctly). I get a sad longing feeling every time I walk through Best Buy and see the PC version on the $2 rack. *sigh* Oh well, that's what I keep the G4/450 around for, right?
Posted by: Andy | March 7, 2006 09:30 PM
Thanks for answering my questions. I love hearing about your development.
Posted by: Rob | March 8, 2006 08:25 AM
Legal hell sucks.
Posted by: a2daj | March 9, 2006 07:56 AM
Interesting comment about playing on a Mac Mini. Civilization 4 is a monster - I know people who have upgraded their gaming Windows boxes just to play huge maps. Sure, I'd love to see it play on a Mac Mini, so it will scream on my MBP, but you'd have to pull some serious juju. ;)
Posted by: Mindflayer | March 12, 2006 09:18 PM
Your expectations on civ 4 mac's usability with the new 13" macbook graphics card? I have a 23" cinema display to hook it up to.
(new MacBook 13" graphics: Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory)
Posted by: floppymoose | May 18, 2006 03:07 AM
"Your expectations on civ 4 mac's usability with the new 13" macbook graphics card? I have a 23" cinema display to hook it up to."
The integrated Intel chips will be "unsupported" for Mac Civ4, and attempting to play Civ4 on them will probably only bring you frustration and heartache. I would encourage you not to buy Civ4 if you have an Intel Mac Mini or the new MacBook.
Posted by: Brad Oliver | May 18, 2006 04:26 PM