Playing PC games on a Mac

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Lounge' started by madmud101, May 23, 2010.

  1. madmud101

    madmud101 Well-Known Member

    Dec 30, 2009
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    #1 madmud101, May 23, 2010
    Last edited: May 23, 2010
    Hey everyone,
    I have been increasingly frustrated by the lack of good game titles on the Mac. Therefore I decided to get VM Ware Fusion so I could play PC games. However I have not been able to play any games sucessfully through this way (even demos). This is because of the lack of VRam (video ram) on VM Ware.
    I was wondering if there was any way that I would be able to play PC games on my Mac (eg by changing the VRAM).
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Mad
     
  2. RttaM

    RttaM Well-Known Member

    Jan 12, 2010
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    Use Steam although be warned it's a ****ing shitfest.
     
  3. madmud101

    madmud101 Well-Known Member

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    #3 madmud101, May 23, 2010
    Last edited: May 23, 2010
    Yes I do have Steam (buggy I know) but hardly any of their games are mac compatible (and none of the good ones).
     
  4. Kamazar

    Kamazar Well-Known Member

    Dec 13, 2008
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    Bootcamp's really the only viable option if you're willing to give up a chunk of your harddive.
     
  5. vbxz47

    vbxz47 Well-Known Member

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    what does bootcamp doto a mac cuz I really don't want to mess up my imac like change anything does it change snowleopard at all that is what I heard please let meknow
     
  6. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    Bootcamp is part of the MacOS and setting it up will not affect anything on the MacOS partition. The only annoying thing about is that you have to restart the computer to switch to the Windows partition.

    Neither VM nor Parallels are any good for games. The one emulation option that does work (though not with all games) is Codeweaver's CrossOver Games. I've been able to play Half-Life 2 Episode 2 at full speed without a problem. The company website keeps a list of compatible games that is more or less accurate.

    So far I've pretty disappointed with Steam on the Mac, too.
     
  7. wootbean

    wootbean Well-Known Member

    Feb 8, 2009
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    what do you mean by "change snowleopard"
    bootcamp sets aside a portion of the hard drive for windows, when you turn the computer on you can choose which partition to boot from. unlike vmware and parallels you can't run windows and leopard at the same time. shouldn't affect the mac partition at all
     
  8. madmud101

    madmud101 Well-Known Member

    Dec 30, 2009
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    OK, thanks for the replies
    I'm guessing this is not posible but can I get VMWare and Bootcamp to acess the same partition? So that I can use Bootcap just to play games and then use VMWare for my other stuff which does not require VRAM?
     
  9. sureshvs

    sureshvs Well-Known Member

    Yes you can. Just make sure you do the Bootcamp installation first. Once done, you can set up VMWare to open the Bootcamp partition
     
  10. dyscode

    dyscode Well-Known Member

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    if you are serious about PC Gaming, Bootcamp is the way to go.

    Crossover Games by Codeweavers.com usually works OK, but with some
    performance penalty because of the Grafix going through DirectX -> OpenGL conversion rather than accessing the video card directly, like in native Windows. And also sometimes I have some driver issues, playing mostly older games (pre 2005).
     
  11. madmud101

    madmud101 Well-Known Member

    Dec 30, 2009
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    Ok thanks,
    I have decided BootCamp is the way to go, and I also want to access the Windows partition with VMWare as well.

    So I did a bit of searching and have found out that you can use the partition with VM Ware as well but you need to install is on Boot Camp first. So I have uninstalled VM Ware and then tried to run boot camp assistant.

    I try to partition the disk but it says:
    and then
    So I have gone onto Disk Utility and looked at the partition and I don't have a windows partition. Furthermore my HD is already Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Pictures below.

    Am I doing something wrong?
     

    Attached Files:

  12. dyscode

    dyscode Well-Known Member

    Apr 11, 2010
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    Don“t know exactly but my first guess would be that you disk is too full.

    If you have an external/second harddrive get a HD cloning tool, like
    Carbon Copy Cloner and clone you System HD to that other disk.
    Then boot from there an setup you internal HD.

    This would be the most simple solution.
     
  13. vbxz47

    vbxz47 Well-Known Member

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    thanks for the replies as well I have one more question do you have to bootcamp to use crossover and the games? And to wootbean I meant does snow leopard get replaced but now I know it doesn't. I will probably bootcamp as well.
     
  14. Kamazar

    Kamazar Well-Known Member

    Dec 13, 2008
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    Crossover games literally crosses over games to the Mac OS, meaning you don't need Windows at all. Bootcamp let's you run stuff in the native Windows environment. All you need is to boot up the Windows partition and start installing stuff.
     

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