MacWorld: Apple makes play for game market

Cutting edge computer games are the main attraction at MacWorld in San Francisco this week, as Apple attempts to build on the iMac's success to become a force in the gaming market.

Despite the conspicuous absence of Apple?s long promised consumer portable, consumers were very much the focus of the MacWorld show in San Francisco. With 800,000 units sold, the iMac?s success is attracting game developers back to the platform and Apple is doing everything to encourage them.

In his keynote on Tuesday, Steve Jobs devoted an unusual amount of attention to the game market. ?We recommitted Apple to games nine months ago,? said Jobs, ?We want to be the best gaming platform in the world.?

Jobs announced that 12 top tier computer games would come to the Mac in the next 120 days, including Quake II, Tomb Raider 3 and SimCity 3000.

The Mac instantly wins a vast array of games with the introduction of ?Virtual Game Station?. Connectix drew a crowd for demonstrations of its $49 software that turns any G3-based Macintosh (including the iMac) into a Sony Playstation.

The software allows players to insert Playstation CDs into the Mac?s CD-Rom drive and play them unaltered. However, the software will not work with European, PAL based versions of PlayStation games.

Apple?s acquisition last week of Conix? OpenGL implementation for the Macintosh is facilitating the porting of more games. Apple will integrate OpenGL into future versions of the Mac OS operating system.

While the 3-D graphics library of OpenGL is a vital feature for high end 3-D applications, Steve Jobs in his keynote on Tuesday mainly focused on the advantages to game developers.

ID Software co-founder John Carrack even came on stage to demonstrate Quake Arena, a forthcoming game that uses OpenGL, running on a new Power Macintosh G3. The game will ship for Windows and Mac simultaneously, promised Carrack.

Blurring the lines between Apple?s consumer and professional lines, Carrack praised the new Power Macintosh G3 systems, which sell for $1,599 and up, for their performance in computer games.

The renewed attention for the gaming market is also evident on the MacWorld show floor, where a huge area is reserved for multiplayer combat games. Show attendees could compete in the ?National Macintosh Gaming Championship?.