[Huntn]

Updates:
4/29- Added Assassin's Creed to Boot Camp Performance Section
3/22- Added Sins of a Solar Empire Demo link.
3/9- Added Penumbra Overture as a MacBook playable game as long as your model includes the X3100 chipset or newer. Added Penumbra Overture and The Witcher to the MacBook Pro list in the Game Performance via Boot Camp section.
3/1- Added link for IMG Thread regarding Gears of War via Bootcamp and WinXP
2/10- Added help for The Witcher and installing the Uncut Mod in the specific Game Help section.
1/27- Added Witcher Demo Link
1/23- Added Improving Vista Performance to the Understand Windows Section on Page 2.
1/2/08- In Part 1 under Game Specific issues added blurb on BioShock Activation Revoke Tool and in Part 2 addes a blurb in the Understanding Windows section on restoring your Recycle Bin. (Don't ask how I would know about this...)
12/28- Added game performance for Crysis, Hellgate London, Sims Societies, Sword of the Stars: Born of Blood on a MBP.
12/17- Added game performance for Team Fortress 2 on dual core iMac and for TF2 and HL2 on MBP.
12/16- Added new game performance for iMac and UT3
12/15- Added new game performance for MacBook Pro/Vista: UT3 + Elder Scrolls 4:Oblivion.
11/25- Updated Boot Camp Info in Part II under Known Issue.
11/23- Updated DirectX info in Part II.
11/6- Added a blurb to Game Performance via Boot Camp regarding Vista vs WinXP.
11/5- Added New Titles to Game Performance via Boot Camp for MBP.
11/3- Added Connecting your Intel Mac Running Windows To Airbase Nework in Part 2 under Networking.

Disclaimer: Links are perishable. All attempt was made to provide accurate info, but use this at your own RISK!
____________________________________________________________________
Page 1 Contents
* Boot Camp/New Mac Hardware/Windows/Parallels Related Links
* Demo Links
* Good Misc Links
* IMG Threads
* Game Specific Help Pages
* Game Performance via Boot Camp/WinXP/Vista
* Game Videos

Page 2 Contents (Second post)
* Known Issues
* Networking Mac & PC
* Parallels Links
* Understanding WindowsXP on Your Mac
-Background Tasks
-Don't use Internet Explorer for Windows Browsing
-Direct X- What version do you have?
-IP Address in Windows- What is it?
-The Registry
-Windows XP Home versus Pro Edition Article
* Your Windows Game No Longer Works/Uninstalling a Game in Windows
* Handy WinXP Utilities


Reader additions are welcome! This FAQ compiles links for Boot Camp and solutions for Windows gaming on a Mac. I don't presently own an intel Mac. If you have run into a problem such as Windows networking, please post here and I'll compile issues/links in the top post.

If writing a solution please layout basic steps for novice users. For example Windows networking while playing games... It's possible that Mac users don't know how to access the Airport Utility in Windows. So you would need to tell them which control panel to open. Things like does the Windows Airport Utility need to be downloaded?

-Dave Peck
Hunt'n

____________________________________________________________________
Demo & Download Links
*Gamers Hell.com- recommended Download Site, good speeds and minimal hassles.
new- Sins Of A Solar Empire Demo.
- UT3 Beta Demo.
- Two Worlds Demo.
- BioShock Demo.
- Battlefield 2142 Demo.
- Medieval Total War 2 demo
- Europa Universalis
- Silver Fall RPG Demo
-Gamer's Hell Supreme Commander Demo.
-Theatre of War demo.
new- The Witcher Demo.
____________________________________________________________________
Boot Camp/New Mac Hardware/Parallels/Windows Related Links

new- LapTopsToGo- Excellent Source to download Nvidia beta drivers for your Mac running Windows. These drivers are installed in Windows.
Related Links:
ForceWareUpDater's Quick Start Guide.
Installing Vista Drivers with pictures.
Installing XP Drivers with pictures.
Driver General FAQ.
Find Drivers Here.

- Crossover- Allows intel Macs to run older Windows programs without a copy of the Windows operating System.
-Direct X (Version 9c) for Windows XP.
-IMG Feature Boot Camp: Installation and Implication
new -12" iBook vs 13" Macbook- mostly hardware specs comparision.
new -Barefeats.com SHOOTOUT: MacBook 13" versus MacBook Pro, PowerBook and iBook.
-Windows XP Home Edition versus Pro Edition:What's the Difference?
-Switcher's Guide to Windows/OSX- from ExtremeTech.com a guide to help switchers in both directions focusing on inexperienced Mac and Windows users on an Intel Mac.
-AnandTech-MacBook Pro:Using it as a Mac and PC
-Apple's Boot Camp
-Barefeats.com Boot Camp performance on a MacBook Pro.
-MacWorld Boot Camp report.
-MacWorld- PC World Report.
-Game Spot
-PC World
____________________________________________________________________
Good MiscLinks
new -Moving the Steam Application.
-WideScreen Gaming Forum

____________________________________________________________________
IMG Threads
Note: I've tried to list notable threads, but not all are listed here. If you don't see an item of interest, use the search box to check the forum for all posts.

General
- Boot Camp/Windows On Mac Solutions.
- Which Windows Version is Best?
- Which Windows Version is Best?
- Getting a Gaming PC.
- Gaming PC Build.
- MBP w/DX10?
- Vista Home Works Great.
- DX10 vs Open GL.
- Game installation: Mac v.s. PC, Could a game be installed on both?.
-iMac Gaming X1600 WindowsXP
-Best games on a MacBook?
-I just installed Vista on my iMac...
-New MacBook Gaming Performance
-Best Windows Games to Play on your Intel Mac.
-Has Dual Booting Changed Your Gaming Habits?
-Windows Home or Pro
-Windows Gaming on a Mac, Is there a downside?
-Apple Boot Camp
-BootCamp: The Death of Mac Games?
-BootCamp gaming benchmarks?
-Boot Camp tested, does it really work?
-MacBook Pro in use, My findings so far
-Where'd you guys get your copy of Windows from?
-WOW under XP/BootCamp on Intel Mac

Game Specific
new- Gears of War on MBP.
new- The Witcher Just Hit the Streets.
new- The Witcher FAQ.
- UT3 on iMac.
- Crysis Demo, Who's Played it- includes a discussion of downloading Nvidia beta drivers.
- Bioshock Tips.
- Bioshock in one week-raise yer hand.
- Stalker.
-Oblivion Tips and Cheats FAQ.
-Oblivion Reviews.
- Morrowind vs Oblivion, Would anyone like to rank them?
- Elder Scrolls 4:Oblivion links moved to Oblivion FAQ.
- Questions about Steam and running HL2 on a Mac, What's the deal? (04/26/06)
- GuildWars via Boot Camp?

Problems
new -Moving Files and Folders between Windows and Mac HSs
new- XP Safe Mode on Boot Camp?
-Games Running Via BootCamp
-MacPro Audio Wrinkle.
-MacPro and Boot Camp.
-List of Games that don't work on Laptops
-Prepare for Disappointment!
-Headphone problems

____________________________________________________________________
Game Specific/Genre Help Pages

BattleField2142-
What can I do when I get a Can't find install folder or Newer version is already installed errors when I'm trying to patch?

This is caused by a bug that somehow prevents directory info for the game to be placed in the registry when it is originally installed. It seems to be a common problem with this game. The easiest thing to do is to uninstall the game, but don't be surprised if the uninstaller does not work, cause it can't find the game! This is what happened to me.

First I tried to follow Electronic Arts Tech Support advice and make some registry entries for the game. To see these instruction click on the link, fill in your computer specific info and search on "Patch errors". This can be really dangerous if you mess up. Open the registry and add version and install directory information for BF2142.. I tried this but it did not work for me cause I was not sure of the version and build number info.

Even following the advice of making a backup of the registry, I had difficulties restoring it using EA's instructions. BTW here is a MS link on backing up the registry. In my case I run a utility called System Suite, which has a built in registry saver that makes it very easy to revert to an older version of the registry.

So I reverted to the previous copy of the registry. Because neither the game's uninstaller or the WinXP Control Panel for uninstalling programs worked, I went to my game folder and manually removed the Battlefield2142 folder, then I ran System Suite to clean up whatever Registry errors it could find. Then I reinstalled the game and this time the patch worked.

new- Bioshock Activation Revoke Tool
Bioshock will allow a couple of installs. The game is activated over the internet with a 2K server. I'm not exactly sure how many activations are allowed with a single serial number, but there is at least two as I have it installed on my P4 and on my MBP (running Vista). 2K Games has released an Activation Revoke Tool to allow at least one of the legal activations to be revoked. It looks like they are working to make this tool so it will revoke all activations, but that is not online yet. Visit The Cult of Rapture link to read more about it. Those who know me, know that I think activation of games sucks mostly because it complicates the sale of a used game. However this seems like a good compromise.- submitted by Hunt'n 1/08.

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion FAQ

Galactic civilizations II submitted by sduf
Ran into weird bug running this on macbook pro, core 2 duo, 2.16 ghz, 1gb ram, 128 mb ati x1600, win xp home sp2, updated all the way (except int explorer, screw that thing). System randomly _reboots_ if 'software cursor' selected (which is the default). selected 'hardware cursor' and no random reboots so far...

Half Life 2
-Resetting a used HL2 key- would be necessary if purchasing a used registered copy of HL2. Purchasing a used copy of HL2 puts you at the mercy and totally depends on the honesty of the seller. If a particular CD code has been banned, Valve will not reset it. See the link.

Theatre of War- submitted by DavyJJ
For those with ATI cards you might find that something odd happens when in Boot Camp ... the game starts and runs upside down. Simple fix ... first start it up and navigate to the graphics options screen and set your resolution as required (mine 1680x1050). Save and quit. Then open the ww.ini file in the game directory and edit the state "true" to state "false" in the line - "changeScreenRes". Then restart and it'll be fine.

The Witcher
The Witcher FAQ includes a blurb on installing the Uncut Mod which removes censorship (concerning language and some mild nudity) from the game that was imposed by the U.S. publishers. See the link for more details.


MMORPG.com- An excellent resource for MMORPG info.
___________________________________________________________________
Game Performance via Boot Camp/WinXP/Vista

Window XP or Vista- Which for gaming? As it stands right now Nov07, Windows XP is the better choice for running Windows games under Boot Camp. Vista has higher overhead and the Windows community is still trying to get the driver issue corrected. In other words, Vista drivers tend to be slower. The primray appeal of Vista is Direct X 10 which has a higher graphics quality than DX9. However it could be argued that if you have to run your game on low settings what's the point? You might as well get good performance on WinXP.

If you must try Vista, try it on a MacPro or MacBookPro. MacBooks are a "no" to Vista, iMacs are a "?".

MacBook
* Half Life 2 demo worked but had autosave crashes.
* Medieval Total War 2 does not run (reported by bookman)
* Morrowind runs great (reported by bookman)
new* Penumbra: Overture- runs on MacBooks with x3100 chipset or newer. Older MacBooks won't run this game.
* Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War runs great (reported by bookman)


MacBook Pro (2.0-2.2)GHz, 2Gig RAM, 7,200rpm HD):
new-* Assassin's Creed (4/08) Assassins creed runs good on my MBP, albeit on lower res (1300*768) and low-medium detail. (I have a first generation MBP, with a X1600) Although you need to install new drivers, if you are still running Tiger, with the Bootcamp Beta 1.3. (Don't know about the newer leopard bootcamp drivers). The latest Omega Drivers should do the trick, if you are getting crashes on "Memory Block 3", in the game. It crashed every time I tried to get to Acre or Jerusalem, and sometimes at random in Kingdom. (submitted by QuantaCat)
-Additional Notes: Runs on XP, game runs almost 2x as good on the X1600 using Omega Supplied Radeon Drivers. (submitted by AussieMacGamer)
new-* The Witcher runs well. (2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT, 128MB VRAM, Boot Camp- 32bit Vista)
* Penumbra: Overture runs without any problems.
*Team Fortress 2 & Half Life 2- runs well!
*Elder Scrolls 4 runs about about 30 fps with mid range settings on 32bit Vista. More testing needed. (submitted by Huntn 12/07)
*Unreal Tournament 3 runs well on the 2.2Ghz MBP depending on settings 30-60 fps on 32bit Vista. (submitted by Huntn 12/07)
* Tabula Rasa runs great on 2.2 Ghz MBP. (submitted by Huntn 11/06)
* Crysis runs well, 20-50 fps range, with medium to low settings (2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 2GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT, 128MB VRAM, Boot Camp- 32bit Vista (submitted by Huntn 12/07)
* Crysis Demo: With 169.04 Nvidia beta drivers runs in high 20's at 800x600 on 32bit Vista/DX10 with adjustments to graphic settings. See this thread for specifics. (reported by Huntn 11/05/07)
* Enemy Territory : Quake Wars : crashes when joining or making new game (off- and online), but only randomly (might be punkbuster related) - works fine as soon as connection is successful, turned up high. (reported by QuantaCat 11/04/07 hardware: MBP w/ 17", X1600 Radeon, 2,33GHz, 2Gb RAM, latest Firmware and updates for OSX 10.4)
* Sword of The Stars 1.4.1 (+Born of Blood Expansion) : works fine under native settings (1600*1050), turned up high. (reported by QuantaCat 11/04/07)
* Sacred Gold : works fine under native settings, turned up high. (reported by QuantaCat 11/04/07)
* Fallout 2 : works fine under native settings. (reported by QuantaCat 11/04/07)
* Command & Conquer 3 : works fine under native settings, turned up high. (reported by QuantaCat 11/07)
* Lord Of The Rings - Battle For Middle Earth 2 : works fine under native settings, turned up high. (reported by QuantaCat 11/04/07)
new- *Hellgate London: runs great. Note: the walls are invisible with model quality set to high. Correct situation by setting model quality to medium. (MBP w/ x1600) (reported by QuantaCat 12/07) Update: I believe wall issue was resolved by running game at lower resolution- Hunt'n.
* Heroes of Might and Magic V: Runs fine on native settings, turned everything up high. (reported by TomatoCow)
* KOTOR II: Runs fine on native settings, turned everything up high. (reported by TomatoCow)
new- * KOTOR 1 & 2: both have rare crashes, so save often, but they work fantastically on a MBP w/ x1600. 2x FSAA + 8x Trilinear Filtering + Soft Shadows (also, it automatically stretches to widescreen, so choose 1280*960 instead of 1280*1024, to prevent extreme stretchiness.) KOTOR 2 has a slightly lower framerate, but still fantastic. (reported by QuantaCat 12/07)
* Oblivion: Runs fine on native settings, but some settings were turned down for when outdoors. (reported by TomatoCow)
* Star Wars Empire at War: Runs fine on native (1440x900) settings, and everything turned up high. (reported by TomatoCow)
* Rome Total War: Runs fine on native settings, turned everything up high. (reported by TomatoCow)
* Silent Hunter III: Runs fine on native settings, turned everything up high. (reported by TomatoCow)
new * SimCity Societies: very rare crashes. 1400*852 (MBP w/ x1600) (although framerate is rather low, so MBP w/ x1600 is minimum) (reported by QuantaCat 12/07)

iMac- 2-2.4 GHz, 2GB RAM, RadeonX1600 256 MB VRAM- different configurations will be listed for specific games.
new * Team Fortress 2 (original Intel Core Duo iMac, 1600 card at 256MB of video RAM and 2GB of main RAM reported by DaveyJJ) game runs well. 12/07.
new *Unreal Tournament 3 reported to run at about 20-40 fps running at 1440 x 900 High Settings with VSync off and Post Processing at Intense. (2.4 Ghz 2gig ram w/ HD 2600 Pro Imac running XP Pro SP2 mentioned by Natamos) 12/07
* Blazing Angels - Runs very well with most settings maxed. Only terrain texture quality had to be lowered, otherwise one would get black slabs of nothingness. 1280x796 (submitted by Pegasus)
* Bloodrayne 2 - Flawless performance with max settings. Strangely enough, there's no gamepad support. Odd. (Something high)
Far Cry - Runs extremely well with max settings at 1280x796 with only one area near the end of the game making it slow down a bit. 32-bit version only. (submitted by Pegasus)
* Brothers in Arms - Smooth at 1680x1050, everything maxed. (reported by Gloops)
* Call of Duty 2 - Runs OK at default settings (800x600, everything else at high, textures at extra supadupa). (reported by Gloops)
* FarCry - Runs like butter at 1024x768 everything maxed. Even runs OK with the 64 bit to 32 bit conversion patch - but some of the textures look a bit screwy. The extra view distance and content is nice though. (reported by Gloops)
* FIFA 2007 - Runs very well in lower resolution. Slows down significantly on higher ones. One could lower the graphical details, but that makes the players look butt-ugly, and it doesn't seem to help performance gain much.
* Galactic Civilizations II - Runs perfectly fine at max settings. Not that it is a very demanding game from the start. 1680x1050 (I think)
* Ghost Recon 1, 2 and 3 - super smooth maxed out at 1680x1050. (reported by Gloops)
* Half-Life 2 - Runs smooth everything maxed out (except no FSAA) (reported by Gloops)
* Half-Life 2: Episode one - Runs fine, although it tells me I need to update my graphics drivers. Not sure how to do that as Apple have their own Bootcamp drivers. There's a few minor visual glitches (bump-mapping shininess). No biggie. (reported by Gloops)
* Lego Star Wars II - Perfoms flawlessly with everything maxed out. (some high resolution 4:3 format, no widescreen support)
* Max Payne 2 - Perfoms flawlessly with everything maxed out. 1680x1050 (submitted by Pegasus)
* Pirates! - Runs without a hitch at max settings. (4:3 only, no widescreen support) (submitted by Pegasus)
* Prey - Runs very well on high settings with only very rare minor slowdowns in certain spots. 1024x768
* Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones - Runs perfectly with max settings. Just be sure to deactivate one of your processors for this one. 1280x796
* Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines - Runs perfectly with everything maxed out. 1900x(I forget, 4:3 something, no widescreen support) (submitted by Pegasus)
* Stronghold 2 - Smooth as butter with maximum detail. 1280x796 (submitted by Pegasus)
* Stronghold Legacy (Demo) - Same engine as Stronghold 2. Seems to run about the same. (submitted by Pegasus)
* Titan Quest - Runs pretty well for the most part with some details (i.e. shadows) lowered. 1280x796 (submitted by Pegasus)

Misc Reports
* Lord of the Rings Online:Shadows of Angmar- intel Macs with ATI 1600 card (reported by XBRoughneck).
____________________________________________________________________
Game Video on Intel Macs

-Battlefield 2 Videos.
-Doom3 and BG2 Video.
-Half Life 2 Video.
-More HL2 Video.

This post has been edited by Huntn: 29 April 2008 - 08:49 AM

[Huntn]

Updated:
1/23- Added Improving Vista Performance to the Understand Windows Section.
1/2/08- Restoring the Recycle Bin under the Understanding Windows section.
11/25- Updated Boot Camp Info in Part II under Known Issues.
11/23- Updated DirectX info.
11/3/07- Connecting Windows to your Airbase Network

Page 2 Contents

* Known Issues
* Networking Mac & PC
* Parallels Links
* Understanding WindowsXP/Vista on Your Mac
-Background Tasks
-Don't use Internet Explorer for Windows Browsing
-Direct X
-IP Address in Windows- What is it?
-The Registry
-Windows XP Home versus Pro Edition Article
* Your Windows Game No Longer Works/Uninstalling a Game in Windows
* Handy WinXP Utilities[/b]

____________________________________________________________________
KNOWN ISSUES
*Atheros AR5006X Card- reports of Japanese MacBook Pro wireless card being unable to communicate with Airbase.
*ATI/AMD- Upgrading ATI/AMD Graphic Card drivers
*Boot Camp-Unable to boot back into MacOS after booting into Windows.
*DXDIAG file causes Windows XP to Crash
*Internet Connect- After Sitting Idle can't connect to Net.
*Keyboard and/or Mouse Dies
*MacBook- Is it for gaming?
*PC Games that don't behave on Dual Processor Computers.
new *Resolution Adjustment for Windows (iMac).
updated *Speaker Sound- Turning off speaker sound when using a headset.
*Windows Airport Networking-- How to setup Windows networking.
*Windows Keeps dropping my internet connection
*World of Warcraft Slow on OSX with Windows Installed- when running WoW in OSX.


Atheros AR5006X Card (Standard Airport Card) on Dual Core 2GHz MacBook Pro with 2GB RAM, 100GB HD @7200rpm, ATI X1600 256 MB VRAM
-Reports of a driver problem (possibly associated with Japanese MacBook Pros) getting this card to work with Windows XP.
-Waiting for a detailed solution.
-Possible help in this <a href="http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=445411&tstart=255" target="_blank">Apple Discussion</a>.
-Possible help in his <a href="http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2111736��" target="_blank">Apple Discussion</a>.
-9/8/06 Update. It's been reported that Boot Camp 1.1 solved this problem, with a driver update. Also solved the eject key not working.

*ATI/AMD- Upgrading ATI/AMD Graphic Card drivers (submitted by MacPete)
-Upgrading the ATI/AMD Graphic Card Drivers. Find ATI/AMD software here.
* Uninstall the Ati Control Panel or the Catalyst Control Center from add/remove applications
* Uninstall the Ati drivers from add/remove applications
* Reboot in safe mode (keep pressing F8 at boot)
* Use Driver Cleaner to remove everything ATI (optional but useful)
* Reboot in standard mode
* Stop the "new hardware found" wizard
* Install the new drivers set (in case you are going to install the official Ati Catalyst suite remember to choose the "custom" installation if you don't like the bloated Catalyst Control Center)
* Reboot and test everything

Boot Camp- Unable to boot back into MacOS after booting into Windows. (submitted by steiner designer 04/13/06)
-Apple Discussions.
-AppleSlashdot.org.
-Possible Solution: Boot to the OS X System Disk and repair disk permissions using Disk Utility. (submitted by 1337 on 04/17/06)

After Boot Camp Install can't see Windows Partition Nov07
On a Santa Rosa MacBook after I installed BootCamp everything appeared to go well (selecting FAT as Windows file format) until I did a reboot holding down the Option button so I could choose my Windows partition. The Windows partition did not appear as a choice. Apple Care was not familiar with the problem and suggested I reinstall Windows. I did but this time selected NTFS. The second time it worked. I'm not absolutely sure if it was the reinstall or selecting NTFS that worked, but I can now select my Windows partition and boot into it. See this Apple Discussion for more info. I assume Apple is now aware of the problem and at some point in the future, the issue will be resolved. -Dave Peck


DXDIAG file causes Windows XP to Crash- (added 5/6/06) When applying for beta testing, many PC game developers ask for a DXDIAG file, along the lines of an Apple Profile report to verify that a computer has the ability to run a new game. One of our readers has discovered that trying to generate a DXDIAG file (Start menu -> Run -> DXDIAG) with Windows XP on his Intel Mac causes Windows XP to crash and does not generate the required file.

...Update posted 5/16/06 by Hambone- the good news is that i got this to work eventually. the process crashed a couple of times, but then started asking me if i wanted to skip the part of the profile that was causing it to crash! it had something to do with a specific component of DX9 that relates to profiling the hardware and which is tied to some MS database online. skipped that small part and the rest of the report came out fine.

Internet Connect- After Sitting Idle, can't connect to Net- Try opening the Control Panel called Network Connections, and click on a connection listed. On the left side of the window a list of tasks pops up. Select "Repair This Connection". You may no longer have a valid IP address and need to renew it, no reboot required.

Keyboard & Mouse Dies when using Windows (submitted by Lemon Lime 5/16/06)
There is a problem with Windows drivers that cause the Mac's keyboard and/or mouse to randomly stop responding when using WinXP. The current solution is to unplug and plug the key board and mouse back in.
5/20/06 Update: Possible solution is to install the Apple keyboard update.
5/22/06 Update: One reader reports that plugging the keyboard into a USB 2.0 hub corrected the problem. See this IMG thread.

MacBook- Is it for gaming?- Mac and PC games can be played on it (Windows games using BootCamp), but it's integrated graphics makes for substantially poorer performance than the MacBook Pro. For PC games, the Intel Link shows a list of games and their performance using the Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family. Officially the MacBook uses an Intel 950, but I believe the 945 list can be used for reference.
- ElderScrolls.com forum thread concerning hardware and software issues. There is mention of integrated graphics and making changes to .ini files to increase performance playing Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
- Intel Link describing performance of games on its 945GM Express Chipset family.
- Apple Discussions Games on Bootcamp- Integrated graphics are mentioned here along with general Boot Camp issues.
- Barefeats.com- Macbook vs MacbookPro vs 15"Powerbook vs 20"iBook game performance. The last time I checked this link, iBook data was removed while they retest it.

PC Games that don't behave on Dual Processor Computers (submitted by Clocknova 5/12/06)
Okay, here's the deal. You've got yourself a shiny new Intel-powered iMac, Mac Mini, or MacBook Pro, and you're just dying to play some of those "PC games" you've been hearing so much about for so long. And, if you're like me, you're particularly interested in stealthy, RPG shooters like Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, not as such, no. But there are some complications involved in playing these games (and probably a few others) that makes the situation a bit complicated. It seems that many PC games, in this case specifically Thief 2 & 3 and Invisible War, do not run properly on dual-processor or dual-core systems. The aforementioned games will usually install and launch just fine, but they tend to hang on the main menus or the intro movies. So, what to do?

For the record, I can only speak to the value of this solution as a MacBook Pro owner. I don't know for certain if this problem exists on iMacs or Mac Minis but, as they both use Intel CoreDuos, I image that they will share in the pain. Please feel free to weigh in if you know for sure.
9/29 update It has been reported that this solution works on iMacs as well (submitted by Pegasus).

Now, here's what to do:
1. Download this file, called imagecfg
2. Unzip it to your Windows\system32\ as well as Windows\system32\dllcache\ (if you have that directory--I don't).
3. Make a backup copy of your games' exe files, as this process will alter them (I didn't bother, but you might want to).
4. Open notepad and enter the following (in a seperate file for each game you intend to patch, of course):

For Thief 2 :
imagecfg -u thief2.exe
imagecfg -u thief2.icd
imagecfg -a 0x1 thief2.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 thief2.icd
pause

For Thief 3:
imagecfg -u T3Main.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 T3Main.exe
pause

For Deus Ex: Invisible War:
imagecfg -u dx2.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 dx2.exe
pause

5. Save the file as "processor.bat", including the quotes, in the same directory as the .exe file.
6. Double click the file processor.bat (must be in the same directory as the .exe it modifies). A bunch of text like this will appear:

D:\Games\Thief2]imagecfg -u thief2.exe
thief2.exe contains contains no configuration information
thief2.exe contains a Subsystem Version of 4.0
thief2.exe updated with the following configuration information:
Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems
Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems

7. Press a key when it tells you to then run the game. It is now permanently patched to ignore the second processor core. Don't forget how to do this in case you ever need to reinstall these games.

And that's all there is to it. As far as I understand, there are a few other games that are affected by this: Grim Fandango and Unreal 2: The Awakening are two of them. I can tell you that the above process will fix Unreal 2, but I don't know about any others. You can read the original source of these instructions here. Oh, and you can probably ignore the fact that the documentation for both T3 and IW claim that they do not support playing on laptops. This problem is likely related specifically to multi-proc systems and not some mysterious "laptop detector" code which makes the games not run properly. Wouldn't that be an interesting bit of programming?

Note: Titan Quest is dual core enabled.

Resolution Adjustment for Windows (iMac)- submitted by Pegasus
Windows may stretch resolutions in iMacs that should be a 4:3 ratio.

One needs to go to ATI Display Settings which should open up the Advanced portion where one has to go to the Displays panel and click on the Panel button on the active display. All one has to do then is to switch from Expand to full panel size to Expand while maintaining aspect ratio. This solves the stretching problems and places the black bars on the sides instead.

It is unknown if NVIDIA cards or integrated Intel chips include the same settings.

Speaker Sound- When using a headset, computer speakers don't mute.
-Updated 9/29/06 It has been reported that the latest version of Boot Camp (1.1 or 1.1.1) has corrected this problem.

Windows Airport Networking- (submitted by teflon 04/17/06)
-Possible help in this Apple Discussion
How to make Windows see your airport with WEP or WPA2 enabled:

1. In MacOS, Open Airport Utility and go to configure the required base station
2. change wireless security to not enabled
3. update your base station
4. Reboot into Windows
5. Open the windows version of Airport Utility, found either on your included airport CD, or here on the apple website.
6. re-enable the password you had previously.

Alternatively, you can completely remove the password and rely entirely on the MAC (not to be confused with the computer) address system that all wireless cards and routers have, thus locking out all computers that you have not personally enabled.

Note: MAC addresses are like a kind of serial number. Its just a way of totally securing your network from people hacking into it, mainly because they cant even see it. for more info on what they are look at the wikipedia page.

To find your MAC address, open up System Preferences in OSX, go to the Network preference pane, select Airport and click on 'Configure...'. Your computer's MAC address should appear labelled as Airport ID and appear in the form:

00:29:85:3a:c7:5d

This info is also available in Windows XP, and should correspond to that which you find in OSX, however you will have to consult the Help provided with the Windows version of the Airport Admin Utility in order to find this.

In order to add the computer you are using to the Access Control list in Airport Admin Utility, click on the + next to the list and then there should also be a button labelled 'This Computer'.
(I cannot confirm this for the Windows version, but it is there in OSX)

IMPORTANT: If a computer's MAC address is not in the Access Control list, then it will NOT be able to see the network, and will NOT be able to connect. That computer's MAC address must be added using a computer in that list, or the base Station must be reset.

Windows Keeps Dropping My Internet Connection- On my cable modem connection, this happens frequently if my PC remains idle for a period of time.
Try:
-Select Start in Taskbar- Open Control Panel
-Select Network Connection
-One at a time select each of the Connections displayed. On the left side of the window under Network Tasks, a choice will appear "Repair This Connection".
-Cross your fingers and say a prayer. A message will appear that the connection has been repaired. This method works for me most of the time. If not, I restart the computer, maybe several times to get my connection back.
-Notice: You don't have to do this with OSX.

World of Warcraft Slow on OSX with Windows Installed
-When Windows was uninstalled, frame rates in WoW (natively on OSX) improved substantially.
-Waiting for a solution.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Networking Mac/PC

Connect your Intel Mac (running Windows)/Windows Box to an Airbase Network 11/3/07
Reference: MacWindows.com. Regular passwords don't work in Windows for some reason so if you type in your regular password, Windows will tell you that it's the wrong password. For some reason, Windows needs to know the hexidecimal password that your Airbase network is using.

Note: This may only be an issue using WEP incription. I was told if using WPA it is not an issue but I've not verified it.
When you pull up Network System Prefs in 10.5 and click on "Advanced". You'll get the same list of available networks. Double click on the applicable network you want to join. Initially I had a problem in 10.5 on my wife's MB, when I clicked "Show Password", instead of seeing the hexidecimal password, the °°°°°°°s change to *******s. The hexidecimal password was not initiallyrevealed in 10.5 for some reason. On my MBP, the password showed up ok? I don't know what was going on there.

Quote

IMPORTANT! Now, here is the trick. You get the code key from your Mac. You can't just enter your standard worded password like you do on the Mac. The PC won’t understand it, so what you MUST do is set up your Macs on the network first. I only have the AirPort Express, but I suspect that the AirPort Extreme is the same.

Once you have set up your Macs with their passwords accepted and have them fully functioning on the Internet, go to one of your Macs. Click the Apple menu, then System Preferences, then click Network. On the Network page where it says, 'Show' click the up/down arrow to AirPort, then double click the AirPort tab to make certain you find the Networks window.

Where it says, "By default join-" Make sure you click the up/down arrow until it says "Preferred Networks."

Then in the window below "Preferred Networks" it should show a full list of networks that you can join and yours should be listed. Double click on the name of your network and a drop down window should appear.

Once it does then you should see your network name and the “secret” password you used to protect your network.

Under that password there is a small blank box and beside it says "SHOW PASSWORD" Click THE BOX. (This is what appears on Mac OS X 10.4.9)

It will show you the full hexadecimal key that you need to enter into your PC for a network password.

DO NOT use the money insignia at the beginning of the password. The password will not work with it included on the PC.

Share your Mac with a PC (MacOS 10.3 and WinXP)
This example is using WinXP and Jaquar (Mac10.3) so that the Windows machine can connect to and see files on your Mac.

Apple Reference Document

1. MacOS Sys Preferences/Sharing Control Panel
- Turn on Windows File Sharing by placing a check in the window next to the selection.
- Highlight Windows Sharing selection and at the bottom of the window it will show the address for Windows users to connect to your Mac, something like: "\\192.168.1.200\jsmith" (no quotes). The name is your short user name.
2. MacOS Sys Preference/Accounts Control Panel- Identify which user can connect from the Windows machine.
- Select a user and then click the Security Tab. At the bottom of the window, check "Allow user to log in from Windows".
- If the user is designated as Admin, then this choice may not be visible and will not need to be checked.
3. WinXP- Click on Start Menu and select My Network Places.
- Click on Add a Network Place. the Add Network Place Wizard starts.
- Select Next
- Select Choose Another Network Location.
- A prompt will appear to type in the Internet or Network Address. Type in the name from step one: "\\192.168.1.200\jsmith" (no quotes).
- Select next. You will be prompted to log in. Use your short name and password you normally use on your Mac to log in.
- If all goes well you will be logged into your Mac's shared folder, by default the Home folder for the user who logged in. A window will open up with the contents of your Mac's Home folder displayed.
- A icon for this network place will be added to your My Network Places page for connecting in the future. Now Files can be dragged into and out of your home folder from you PC.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Understanding Windows XP/Vista on your Mac

Topics
-Background Tasks
-Don't use Internet Explorer for Windows Browsing
-Direct X
-IP Address in Windows- How to find it.
-Save your Game Saves
-The Registry
-Vista- Improving System Performance
-Windows XP Home versus Pro Edition Article
-Where's the Recycle Bin? (Vista)
-Where's the Run Menu? (Vista)

Background Tasks- Don't let them suck limited resources (RAM)!
Your copy of WinXP may have dozens of background programs running. Obviously this can have a huge impact on your games performance. Here is how to turn them off:
1.Hold down Control and Shift, then tap ESC to bring up the Windows Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes Tab.
3. Click the User Name column heading. This sorts processes together by user name.
4. Click an item in your user name group and click END PROCESS.
5.Do NOT select items from the SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, or NETWORK SERVICE groups. Do NOT select explorer.exe or taskmgr.exe items in your user group!
6. In your user group, turn everything off except explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe

Note: Items turned off will come back on the next time WinXP is started.


Don't Use Internet Explorer for your Windows browsing- Use Firefox instead.

Direct X
What version do you have?
To start the DirectX Diagnostic Tool in WinXP:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type dxdiag, and then click OK.

Vista To start DirectX Diagnostic Tool in Vista:
1. Click Start, and in the window that says "Start Search", type in run, hit Return (enter).
2. In the Open box, type dxdiag, and then click OK.
3. Under the System Tab, check the Direct X version.

Details of what you'll see in the tabs here ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/190900

Vista Did you know DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 can coexist on on Windows Vista at the same time and both be functional?
Yes they can! Recently I installed Gothic3 on my MacBookPro. Because I knew it had DX10, I unchecked the option to install DX9. When I went to launch the game I got an error message "Error while starting executible: could'nt load DLL file d3dx9_29.dl." Gothic3 was looking for DX9 and it could not find it. The solution is to put the Gothic3 disk in and select Install DirectX9. Then the game will launch normally.

IP Address in Windows- How to find it.
*On the Windows desktop click on Start>Run.
*In the box type cmd and click OK.
*At the prompt, type ipconfig and press Enter.

This will display the IP address, subnet mask, and the default gateway of your adapter. If the address is 0.0.0.0, check your adapter installation, security settings, and the setting or your router. If your on a network/router, the number you see will start with a 192.

Save your Game Saves
While this falls under basic backup philosophy, it is a good reminder. Windows is more likely to hick up and die than your MacOSX environment. If playing any Windows game where you have worked your butt off to reach a level or develop a character and it would kill you to lose it, be sure you go find where the Windows game places it's save files, either in the game folder itself or possibly in your Documents folder (something like Documents/Your Games or some such) and save them to a secure location.

The Registry- WinXP's most inept & sinister feature. A giant text file telling Windows where everything on the computer is located. If it gets scrambled, time for a clean install!

Vista- Improving System Performance
Side Bar- Turn it Off- Right click the sidebar and select Properties. Uncheck Start Sidebar when Windows starts then click ok. Reboot for change to take effect. link.

Turn Off Vista's Visual Effects- Click on the Start Button and in the Start Search window type in sysdm.cpl, enter. Tell the User Accont Control dialog box to Continue. In the Systems Property Box, select the Advanced Tab, then click Settings button in the Performance Box. In the Visual Effects tab, uncheck whichever options you don't want or select Adjust for best performance. When I selected Adjust for best performance on my MBP running Vista, everything was turned off.

I Want to Move a Program in Windows?
There are utilities that allow you to move programs in Windows. But if you drag a folder to a new location in Windows, you'll break it.
If you don't know much about Windows, imo its weakest feature is the registry, a huge text database that tells Windows where all programs on the computer's hard drives are located. If the Registry gets screwed up, your computer gets broke. The MacOS does not rely on such a foolish idea. Mac users don't think twice about moving programs around. In Windows you need a utility for this that updates the Registry entries for that program or it will break. When I speak of a new location, it does not have to be a different hard drive. I'm referring to a different folder that results in a different file location path. I'll clarify that the registry concerns itself mostly with program files. Plain ole data files say a text file, documents, or pictures can be moved around without any problems. The only way to move a program/application/executable without a utility is to uninstall the program, then reinstall to a new location. If it is a game, be sure to find the location of your saved game and configuration files and save them prior to doing this. Some un-installers will give you the option of keeping saved games but you can't count on it. Those files may be located in the game folder itself or they may appear in the user's folder on the C: drive/My Documents/My Games folder.

Registry Health
The Registry is an editable file. Under no circumstances should a novice open this file and start editing entries. However as time goes by using WinXP, it can become larger and unwieldy, slowing the operation of your computer down. This is where a System Utility such as System Suite comes into play. It includes utilities that will clean your Registry and keep it in good health.

How to Backup the Windows XP Registry?
From Ramesh's Site:

Method 1: Using System Restore
One way to backup the registry is to create a System Restore snapshot. System Restore returns your computer to a previous snapshot without losing recent personal information, such as documents, history lists, favorites, or e-mail. It monitors the computer and many applications for changes and creates restore points. You restore these snapshots when your configuration isn't working. This method is unreliable in case you want to rollback the registry changes made a longtime ago, in which case the System Restore might have purged that particular restore point - due to space constraints or due to a recent system restore point or even a Restore point corruption. Please remember, System Restore points get deleted for many reasons, making it unreliable, especially in the long run.

For more help, see: How do I create a System Restore point? and Use System Restore to Undo Changes if Problems Occur.

Method 3: Backing up the whole registry ("System state")

For backing up the whole registry, use the NTBackup utility to back up the System State. The System State includes the registry, the COM+ Class Registration Database, and your boot files. See section "Back Up the Whole Registry" in the following article: How to back up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows XP.

NOTE: NTBACKUP is not installed by default in Windows XP Home Edition. Install it using the instructions available at Microsoft.

Other Registry Links
Windows XP Registry Backup 101.

Windows XP Home Edition versus Pro Edition Article- See it here.
-Home Edition supports dual core processors such as your intel iMac.
-Pro Edition supports multiple processor slots. Not an issue for Macs at this time.

Where is the Recycle Bin? (Vista) 1/2/08
It may have gotten deleted if you can believe that. To restore in Vista, right click on the desktop then click personalize, once there look to the left pane near the top and click Change Desktop Icons, this is where you choose which icons you want to appear on your desktop, close/OK out and you're all done.

Where is the Run Menu? (Vista) 1/23/08
The Start Menu (Start Search Window) in Vista works like the Run command did in XP. Click the Start Button (task bar lower left) and type in the name of an executable it will launch. See more in this article.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Your Windows Game No Longer Works/Uninstalling a Game/Program in Windows

There could be many reasons for a game not to start in Windows, even after you've been playiing it for a while. It is not that unusual for a registry problem to have developed. The registry is a giant text database that allows Windows to keep track of where everything is located/installed on your hard drive. See the Registry Health[ paragraphs in the Understanding Windows XP on Your Mac Section of this FAQ.

First of all do not un-install a game by simply tossing the program folder into the trash and deleting. This method does not un-install a progam properly. Windows, depending on the program will install program files into many locations. If you have a registry problem associated with your game, this will not un-install your game in the proper way and will not correct a problem with a registry error. Un-install programs that come with any game, or the program un-install control panel are the only way to correctly un-install something in XP. They also make utilities, can't remember a name, that track the install location of every part a program and profess to be the best way to get programs un-installed. But usually you can get by with just the un-installers that come with the program or in XP. Also the registry is ugly. Things can be interconnected. Do not go into the registry to try to fix this kind of a problem unless you're mentally prepared to reinstall XP anyway. I'm saying it's easy to screw up the registry.

Three Approaches to fixing a game problem

1) Try un-installing the game using the Un-install feature with the game. Look in the Start menu/Programs for the game launch choices or put in the CD and see if it offers an un-install option, and/or finally go to Start/Control Panels and choose the Uninstall Programs Control Panel to uninstall the game and then reinstall it.

Make a copy of your last game saves before doing this despite that many uninstallers ask if you want to save your save games or not...

After the game is uninstalled, run a registry cleaner utility such as System Suite or a free program such as CCleaner. The idea is to remove stray registry entries that might be causing your game to break.

2) Restore your registry to a former state. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with this. See the Registry Health paragraphs in the Understanding WindowsXP on your Mac Section of this FAQ for some basic info and links. This option is only going to be an option if you've taken some steps in advance.

3) If a XP reinstall is a pretty seamless process with Boot Camp, the 3rd option, which may be a total pain in the butt in some aspects would be to reinstall XP. On my PC if I put in the XP disk, a window will open and an option will be offered to reinstall windows, and it will boot into that disk if you choose the reinstall option (I think) or it will simply start the reinstall process. But with Boot Camp it may be more complicated than this.

Remember to save your game saves prior to an XP reinstall or all game progress will be lost. Most game saves are located in the game folder itself or in the My Documents/My Games folder/Game Name (or something like that).

_______________________________________________________________________________
Handy Windows Utilities

new -Driver Cleaner- A utility that helps remove old drivers in Windows. $9.99
new -Autoruns- a Windows utility that shows you what processes are running in the background of Windows.
new -Driver Cleaner- A utility that helps remove old drivers in Windows. $9.99
new -older free version of Driver Cleaner.
-Startup Manager- Utility that controls what background programs automatically start when WinXP launched.
new- Happy Trails Computer Club Listing of Antivirus/Anti-Spyware programs.
-Ad-aware- free version of anti-adware program.
-AVG free virus software
-Mac Disk for Windows a utility that allows WinXP to see stuff on and write to your Mac partition.
-Spybot- Search and Destroy- free adware/malware program.
-True Image- Backup Software creates image of drive.
-Zip Genius- free Windows ZIP utility.
-Zone Alarm- Firewall with free version.
-System Suite 8- Good Antivirus/System Maintenance costs $59.

This post has been edited by Huntn: 23 January 2008 - 09:44 AM

[Huntn]

Reserved for Future Page 3

The Windows Gaming FAQ was bumping up against the max post size. After talking with TBC, we decided to delete all the posts allowing the FAQ to be broken up into 2 parts after all the FAQ is the most important thing and I doubt that anyone is reading through 5 pages of replies. Anyway stay tuned for a reorganization of the FAQ and thanks TBC for your help!

[Huntn]

11/3- Added "Connecting your Intel Mac Running Windows To Airbase Nework" in Part 2 under Networking. Updated some comments as follows:

Note: When you pull up Network System Prefs in 10.5 and click on "Advanced". You'll get the same list of available networks. Double click on the applicable network you want to join. Initially I had a problem in 10.5 on my wife's MB, when I clicked "Show Password", instead of seeing the hexidecimal password, the °°°°°°°s change to *******s. The hexidecimal password was not initiallyrevealed in 10.5 for some reason. On my MBP, the password showed up ok? I don't know what was going on there.

Update: Conversations in the IMG indicate that this problem may only be an issue if your using WEP encryption, not WPA encryption.

This post has been edited by Huntn: 28 December 2007 - 08:38 AM

[Huntn]

11/6- Added this blurb to the Game Performance Via BootCamp Section, Part 1 of FAQ.

Window XP or Vista- Which for gaming? As it stands right now Nov07, Windows XP is the better choice for running Windows games under Boot Camp. Vista has higher overhead and the Windows community is still trying to get the driver issue corrected. In other words, Vista drivers tend to be slower. The primary appeal of Vista is Direct X 10 which has a higher graphics quality than DX9. However it could be argued that if you have to run your game on low settings what's the point? You might as well get good performance on WinXP.

If you must try Vista, try it on a MacPro or MacBookPro. MacBooks are a "no" to Vista, iMacs are a "?".

[Huntn]

Updated Part II info on DirectX as follows:

Direct X
What version do you have?
To start the DirectX Diagnostic Tool in WinXP:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type dxdiag, and then click OK.

Vista To start DirectX Diagnostic Tool in Vista:
1. Click Start, and in the window that says "Start Search", type in run, hit Return (enter).
2. In the Open box, type dxdiag, and then click OK.
3. Under the System Tab, check the Direct X version.

Details of what you'll see in the tabs here ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/190900

Vista Did you know DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 can coexist on on Windows Vista at the same time and both be functional?
Yes they can! Recently I installed Gothic3 on my MacBookPro. Because I knew it had DX10, I unchecked the option to install DX9. When I went to launch the game I got an error message "Error while starting executible: could'nt load DLL file d3dx9_29.dl." Gothic3 was looking for DX9 and it could not find it. The solution is to put the Gothic3 disk in and select Install DirectX9. Then the game will launch normally.

[Huntn]

Updated Boot Camp info in Part II under Known Issues:

After Boot Camp Install can't see Windows Partition Nov07
On a Santa Rosa MacBook after I installed BootCamp everything appeared to go well (selecting FAT as Windows file format) until I did a reboot holding down the Option button so I could choose my Windows partition. The Windows partition did not appear as a choice. Apple Care was not familiar with the problem and suggested I reinstall Windows. I did but this time selected NTFS. The second time it worked. I'm not absolutely sure if it was the reinstall or selecting NTFS that worked, but I can now select my Windows partition and boot into it. See this Apple Discussion for more info. I assume Apple is now aware of the problem and at some point in the future, the issue will be resolved. -Dave Peck

[Huntn]

Added Links for updating Nvidia Drivers in Windows:
new- LapTopsToGo- Excellent Source to download Nvidia beta drivers for your Mac running Windows. These drivers are installed in Windows.
Related Links:
ForceWareUpDater's Quick Start Guide.
Installing Vista Drivers with pictures.
Installing XP Drivers with pictures.
Driver General FAQ.
Find Drivers Here.

[Huntn]

Added new game performance for:
MacBook Pro (2.0-2.2)GHz, 2Gig RAM, 7,200rpm HD) running Vista:
[i]new-[/] *Elder Scrolls 4 runs about averages about 30 fps with mid range settings on 32bit Vista. More testing needed (submitted by Huntn 12/07)
[i]new-[/] *Unreal Tournament 3 runs well on the 2.2Ghz MBP depending on settings 30-60 fps on 32bit Vista. (submitted by Huntn 12/07)
[i]new-[/] *Tabula Rasa runs great on 2.2 Ghz MBP. (submitted by Huntn 11/06)

[Huntn]

Added game performance for UT3 on iMac:
new- *Unreal Tournament 3 reported to run at about 20-40 fps running at 1440 x 900 High Settings with VSync off and Post Processing at Intense. (2.4 Ghz 2gig ram w/ HD 2600 Pro Imac running XP Pro SP2 mentioned by Natamos) 12/07

[Huntn]

Updates:
12/28- Added game performance for Crysis, Hellgate London, Sims Societies, Sword of the Stars: Born of Blood on a MBP.

It might be me but the full Crysis version seems to be a little faster than the Crysis demo.

[Huntn]

1/2/08- Update:

Part 1 Game Specific Issues
new- Bioshock Activation Revoke Tool
Bioshock will allow a couple of installs. The game is activated over the internet with a 2K server. I'm not exactly sure how many activations are allowed with a single serial number, but there is at least two as I have it installed on my P4 and on my MBP (running Vista). 2K Games has released an Activation Revoke Tool to allow at least one of the legal activations to be revoked. It looks like they are working to make this tool so it will revoke all activations, but that is not online yet. Visit The Cult of Rapture link to read more about it. Those who know me, know that I think activation of games sucks mostly because it complicates the sale of a used game. However this seems like a good compromise.- submitted by Hunt'n 1/08.

Part II Understanding Windows
Where is the frick'n Recycle Bin? (Vista) 1/2/08
It may have gotten deleted if you can believe that. To restore in Vista, right click on the desktop then click personalize, once there look to the left pane near the top and click Change Desktop Icons, this is where you choose which icons you want to appear on your desktop, close/OK out and you're all done.

[Huntn]

Added info on Improving Vista Performance on Page 2 under the Understanding Windows Section:

Vista- Improving System Performance
Side Bar- Turn it Off- Right click the sidebar and select Properties. Uncheck Start Sidebar when Windows starts then click ok. Reboot for change to take effect. link.

Turn Off Vista's Visual Effects- Click on the Start Button and in the Start Search window type in sysdm.cpl, enter. Tell the User Accont Control dialog box to Continue. In the Systems Property Box, select the Advanced Tab, then click Settings button in the Performance Box. In the Visual Effects tab, uncheck whichever options you don't want or select Adjust for best performance. When I selected Adjust for best performance on my MBP running Vista, everything was turned off.

[Huntn]

Added a blurb in the Game Specific Help section:

The Witcher
The Witcher FAQ includes a blurb on installing the Uncut Mod which removes censorship (concerning language and some mild nudity) from the game that was imposed by the U.S. publishers. See the link for more details.

[Huntn]

3/1- Added link for IMG Thread regarding Gears of War on MBP via Bootcamp and WinXP
new- Gears of War on MBP.

[Huntn]

Updates:
3/9- Added Penumbra Overture as a MacBook playable game as long as your model includes the X3100 chipset or newer. Added Penumbra Overture and The Witcher to the MacBook Pro list in the Game Performance via Boot Camp section.

[Huntn]

Added- Sins Of A Solar Empire Demo link.

[Huntn]

Added blurb to Boot Camp Performance Section Page 1:

new-* Assassin's Creed (4/08) Assassins creed runs good on my MBP, albeit on lower res (1300*768) and low-medium detail. (I have a first generation MBP, with a X1600) Although you need to install new drivers, if you are still running Tiger, with the Bootcamp Beta 1.3. (Don't know about the newer leopard bootcamp drivers). The latest Omega Drivers should do the trick, if you are getting crashes on "Memory Block 3", in the game. It crashed every time I tried to get to Acre or Jerusalem, and sometimes at random in Kingdom. (submitted by QuantaCat)
-Additional Notes: Runs on XP, game runs almost 2x as good on the X1600 using Omega Supplied Radeon Drivers. (submitted by AussieMacGamer)

[jgwdoc]

Don't know if I'm adding this in the right spot, but I trust Huntn will file it where it's supposed to go. Just wanted to say that I played both Max Payne2 and Deus Ex 2 under Vista 64 without any problems, without need for any patches or fiddling.

[SAN_DIEGO_DNB]

I am playing Battlefield 2142 on my IMAC but will it play better if I was running Window on it?