Mac Gaming 101.2 - Boot Camp

games: Mac Gaming 101.2 - Boot Camp

July 1 2008 | WilHarris

Hello there!

Today we have the second part in our Mac Gaming 101 series, in which I’m looking at the pros and cons of Apple’s Boot Camp utility.

If you are deliberating whether or not to take the plunge and install a second OS on your Apple computer then check out this video, and also come back on Thursday for the final episode in this mini-series which looks at CrossOver Games, which actually runs Windows games within OSX - a very tempting alternative.

And for the 360 fans amongst you, don’t forget to check out our competition to win a copy of Unreal Tournament III.

Best!
Katharine

comments

Jim

July 1st, 2008 - 11:31am

If you’re running Tiger you can still install the beta version of boot camp (if you can find a download somewhere!). You just have to set the date back in system preferences to a time before it expired. I did this and it works fine.

evanhindra

July 1st, 2008 - 11:35am

Oh, and you’re vulnerable to Windows virus/spyware if you’re using Bootcamp. And if you happen to catch a very nasty virus, that could jeopardize the Mac OS X installation. :(.

Sure, that could be avoided by installing Antivirus/Firewall, but that’s not fun, issit?

Correct me if I am wrong, I haven’t used bootcamp much, I don’t like potential harm lingering around in my work machines.

Jim

July 1st, 2008 - 12:00pm

TBH, I tried XP and Vista through bootcamp for a while, and it ran great on my iMac and the games i tried all ran at reasonable framerates. I just got tired of waiting for updates to windows and virus databases everytime I booted it up! I also didn’t like how it took up valuable hard drive space when I rarely used it. I now have parallels with XP (vista is a bit sluggish) which is fine for the few times I need to use windows.

KatharineFletcher

July 2nd, 2008 - 11:12am

Yeah, it’s not the best all round solution… but as with all of these things it depends on what you need your Windows OS for.

Jim - do you play games on Parallels? I haven’t tried that myself, but I’ve heard that it’s pretty much impossible.

**random tangent**
I just noticed that the Captcha thing below this comment has asked me to type in my own name as one of the words. Ick! I feel like I’m being watched!

Jim

July 4th, 2008 - 9:40am

I haven’t tried any games using Parallels. I figured it would be a waste of time trying! I use parallels mainly so I can download iPlayer content and stream it to my 360, which works a treat!

evanhindra

July 4th, 2008 - 12:44pm

@Katherine have you tried VMWare Fusion? The latest version is supposed to be better at running games. I’d try it out for you, but I haven’t got any games for Windows. Oh, and I don’t have my Windows Installation Disc.

KatharineFletcher

July 7th, 2008 - 8:17am

I haven’t tried VMWare Fusion and now that I’m not in the office any more I don’t have the right hard/software to try it out either. Anyone else used it? Thanks for the tip!

evanhindra

July 7th, 2008 - 4:12pm

Well, guess what? I managed to install a copy of Windows XP via VMWare Fusion (latest beta and all).

Borrowed me’s mate’s copy of Deus EX (yes, the very first Deus EX). Installed it.

It ran -okay-. Since it utilizes older DirectX Tech (8 or 7?).

I ran it on a 2.6GHz Quad Core Mac Pro, with X1900XT GPU. All fans went bonkers. It was soooo loud.

I will try it with Parallels, and compare CPU usage via OS X.

ATLChris

July 8th, 2008 - 4:26pm

I am using VM Ware Fusion with my mid 2008 Macbook Pro and Windows XP. IT works well for general windows use, but it has some 3d graphics issues they prevent you from using it with hardcore games.