Game Developers on the New iMac
January 15, 2002 | Andy Largent | |
While wandering the show floor at the 2002 Macworld Expo, IMG asked a number of prominent names in the Mac game business about their reactions to the new iMacs. Most everyone was pleasantly surprised with the updated specifications in this consumer machine. With a G4 processor, 32 MB GeForce 2 MX, and good amount of RAM in all models, it seems this may be the first of Apple's iMac line truly able to play all Mac games available today. It seems many in the industry agree... IMG: What do you think of the new iMac? Brandon Owens, Aspyr Media: Well, I think it's gonna be a great machine for people to try out anything they want to do. As far as the digital hub idea, I think it's a great strategy. It's going to be put in a lot of homes, and the more homes it's in, the better it is for us. People are going to want entertainment, and it's a good machine that can handle every one of our games and make them look really great. We're really excited about it.
Glenda Adams, Westlake Interactive: So far I've been pretty impressed with it. It's got really nice specs. I haven't actually got my hands on one to see, but so far the flat-panel looks nice, it's got a good amount of RAM, a G4, and the GeForce 2 MX, especially with 32 megs. They finally moved from having 16 MB of VRAM, which is a big plus for us. So far it looks pretty good.
IMG: Any other thoughts on the GeForce 2 MX? Glenda: That's still going to be a decent card for a while. I'm sure they'll speed it up over the next year or so, who knows. Just having a GeForce 2 MX with 32MB of RAM is a ton better. Even if they put Rage 128 in there with 32MB it would have been better. So I think it's going to be good enough for now.
Peter Tamte, Destineer Studios: Coolest computer Apple has even created.
IMG: And why? Peter: Why? You know what's really cool about Apple in general? When it comes to completely new industrial design, you can never predict what they're going to do. Even people that work inside the company can never predict what's going to come out of the design lab. It's so creative, and in the case of the iMac it's the perfect blend of form and function. There's no way anyone that uses a PC can't look at that and go, 'this is the coolest computer I've ever seen.' But more important than that is the way you can move the monitor is so functional. I use the computer all day long, and I'm always having problems with my neck getting stiff because I can never get monitors in the position I want them. Think of how practical that is that you can just twirl it. So you've got that. You've got the fact that it doesn't take up hardly any space on your desktop. It certainly doesn't look like a disaster, like most computers do on a desktop. Functionally, as well as terms of size, this is a jacked-up machine. People still don't recognize that you can't compare Megahertz to Megahertz across different platforms. It's going to be interesting to see AMD, who is going to need a better argument, because they have the same issues with Intel.
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