Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Desktops (Apple) Businesses Apple Entertainment Games Hardware

G5 iMac To Come With Marble Blaster Gold 70

Posted by timothy from the addictive-little-games-rule-the-world dept.
Ophelea writes "Anyone who knows Jay Moore of Tribes fame may know about his great company Garage Games. Today it was announced that Marble Blaster Gold, one of their best games was bundled on the iMac G5. Woot! Go Go Garage Games!"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

G5 iMac To Come With Marble Blaster Gold More

G5 iMac To Come With Marble Blaster Gold

Comments Filter:

  • Err... wrong person? (Score:5, Informative)

    by dalabrat ( 575903 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @08:22PM (#10124211)
    Umm.... that would be Jeff Tunnell of Dynamix / Tribes fame. Jay Moore never worked for Dynamix, nor had anything to do with Tribes. But he along with the other guys at GarageGames are all great people.

    • Re:Err... wrong person? (Score:5, Informative)

      by venicebeach ( 702856 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @09:07PM (#10124492) Homepage Journal
      Actually, I think he did.

      This is from an interview [linspire.com] with Jay Moore.

      Jay Moore - Marketing Director for GarageGames Jay's wildly diverse background includes serving as Marketing Director for a computer magazine publishing company, Sales and Marketing Director for a K-12 educational software distributor, and President of a small advertising design firm. Jay started his gaming career with "The Even More Incredible Machine!" when he took the game into the classroom. Jay worked to bring all the Sierra educational games into the educational channel. Then worked with Dynamix in 1997 to successfully launch category-creator "Driver's Education." Jay joined GarageGames in July of this year. He has a BS is Biblical Studies and lives in Eugene, Oregon.

      • Re:Err... wrong person? (Score:5, Informative)

        by GarageGamer ( 669452 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @09:42PM (#10124674) Homepage
        Well ok... I lived in Eugene, would work out of the Dynamix office (although I never had a desk), I actually was employed by Sierra Online in Bellevue (recently closed), but always as a 'hired gun' my work for other clients at my design firm kept me from signing any 'you own my every thought and idea' employment contract.

  • Cool! (Score:4, Funny)

    by commodoresloat ( 172735 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @08:30PM (#10124259)
    Now nobody can complain about the Mac having no games. Between this and the puzzle-thing they are re-introducing in Tiger, the Mac now has both shoot-em-up and strategy games covered!

    • Re:Cool! (Score:4, Funny)

      by bpbond ( 246836 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @08:54PM (#10124402) Homepage
      Hey, mods, either mod the parent Funny or Flamebait...but not insightful. Jeez.

    • Re:Cool! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @03:02AM (#10126067)
      I threw together a quick list of Mac games. Not that you care, I know you just went for the quick and cheap "funny" karma points by repeating one of the oldest jokes on Slashdot. But there are games, enough to keep a causal gamer like me happy.

      Coming soon:

      Doom 3
      Homeworld 2
      Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

      Notable titles released over the past year or so:

      Republic
      James Bond 007: NightFire
      Battlefield 1942: Deluxe Edition
      America's Army: Special Forces 2.1
      Black Hawk Down
      The Sims: Makin' Magic
      TRON 2.0
      XIII
      Medal of Honor: Breakthrough
      Call of Duty
      LOTR: The Return of the King
      Dark Horizons: Lore
      No Limits Roller Coaster Simulation
      Command & Conquer: Generals
      Unreal Tournament
      Nanosaur 2: Hatchling
      Northland Strategy & War
      Law & Order: Dead on the Money
      Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
      Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
      Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
      Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos Adventure
      Halo: Combat Evolved
      Ghost Master
      Age of Mythology
      No One Lives Forever 2
      WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne
      Shadowbane
      Warrior Kings
      Neverwinter Nights

      • Games on Mac (Score:4, Insightful)

        by CaptainPinko ( 753849 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @12:05PM (#10129345)
        I think what kills Macs for gamers is not the amount of games for Mac, but probably individual specific games themselves. For example Doom 3 for Mac may be great and all but all I really want is Mechwarrior 4, Civilisation 3, Morrowind, and Empire Earth. I mean there are tons of other games out there but I'm tied to those. I'm betting that for most people like list would include Counter-Strike/Day of Defeat/Half-Life, and Half Life 2. I mean how many people just play CS? Actually, come to think of it it might be in Apple's best interest to get Valve to port their engine to Mac since CS is a scary *HUGE* deal for a lot of people (yes I realise that it is unfeasible since Source is Direct X base IIRC). So the argument is not really about whether Mac has games, but whether Mac has the games people want.I'd be interested to be a list of the games people want by percentage and compare that to your availibility list.

        Also another thing is that Mac ports come out later. People can't wait for games to come out and they don't want to wait longer. For example Doom 3 was huge and all the rage, but now most people I know have beat it (myself included) and are kinda bored of it. By the time it comes out for Mac it will be passe.

        None the less, unless new versions of the games I mentioned come out soon and force me to upgrade my next computer will be a Mac.

        • Civ 3 has been out for Mac for a while now. Also, if you're a hardcore gamer, use Windows. I say this, being a Mac user myself. Most game devs code for Windows, and most use DirectX. Much as I dislike seeing MS gain more power, I'm not going to deny that a well-built Windows box is far better for gaming than a Macintosh. Macintoshes are just better for providing a stable platform for 'normal stuff' and professional 2D design, audio, and video, and other things. Having the gaming capability we do is just an
        • This took forever to come out and the 2 expansion packs, SoU &HotU, AFAIK never came out officially for the Mac. Fortunately there are ways of making them work.
        • Agreed. What's worse is, if a game is still remotely popular and has an online component (Q3A for instance), when the Mac users get online, they're smacked down by all the cockmongers [penny-arcade.com] who have been playing for months without sleep, food or light, on the PC side. I ran my own server for a choice few Mac (fanboys|friends|owners|gamerz) for a while until we could join the larger community and hold our own.
    • BAH macs have always had good games... Nettrek... damn that was fun! was my first network game experience. such fun blasting my buddies while crusing in a romulan bird of prey...
    • I really like the fact that the article talks about Marble Blast for the Mac.

      But if you look at the screenshots, the very first picture is obviously from an Xbox.

      Did that version look better or something?

      But seriously, this game will be sooooo much better with a game controller, than with a keyboard/mouse. Marbles want to be analog!

  • i belive the title of the game is actully ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by rhino_badlands ( 449954 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @08:42PM (#10124330) Homepage
    i belive the title of the game is actully ... "Marble Blast GOLD", not marble blaster gold.

    but who cares still cool, and those iMacs look nice

    • Quite a few errata in this post... (Score:5, Informative)

      by alexandyr ( 773067 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @09:52PM (#10124741) Homepage
      The title of the game is Marble Blast Gold, not Marble Blaster. Jay Moore is a GarageGame employee and head of marketing, but the company is run by Jeff Tunnell, former head of Dynamix, as noted by alabrat above. The game WAS at one point released under the title Marble Blaster in its windows-only retail boxed version by eGames, whose marketing department thought the "er" made it more appealing or somesuch. More info on this story and Marble Blast for Xbox available here [garagegames.com].

    • Re:i belive the title of the game is actully ... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The fact that this was reported in the Apple section of Slashdot, but not in the Games section, tells you pretty much everything you need to know about how significant this game really is, and also tells you everything you need to know about the sad state of Apple gaming. At the very least, it tells you what the Slashdot editors think about this story.

      A game which Slashdot game enthusiasts are not likely to care about is bundled on the new iMac, but Apple enthusiasts are likely to want to read about this
      • Your flamebait is delicious. It showed up on my games section (under an Apple subheading of course) so your point is somewhat moot. Still, mac gaming is a lot better off than it was a few years ago, but still has a long way to go before it is on par with Windows. It is a testament to how lazy big development houses are that independent developers with small teams and tiny budgets have no problem doing 3-platform releases with TGE... plus Xbox now, as noted in the article I linked above.

  • also! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by focitrixilous P ( 690813 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @08:53PM (#10124395) Journal
    It comes with Nanosaur 2 [insidemacgames.com]!

    God knows how many hours we wasted in computer tech on nanosaur when my Jr. High got a shipment of orange iMacs. Until the teacher wised up and deleted the game on every computer.

    Yeah, it's kind of old, but I loved that game in Jr. High, and I'm glad to see it's still around. It even has split screen multiplayer! Rocking good mac game, Nanosaur.

    • We must be lucky. Our iMacs had so many games installed that's all we did in that class. Nanosaur, Bugdom, Escape Velocity, that's all we ever did. Of course I obligatorily installed Escape Velocity on half the computers in the school, allowed or not... ;)

  • Geee... (Score:5, Funny)

    by shfted! ( 600189 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @09:08PM (#10124500) Journal
    First it's GarageBand. And now it comes with Garage Games. What next? Is Apple going to return to building computers in the garage?

    • Re:Geee... (Score:4, Funny)

      by mrseigen ( 518390 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @01:02AM (#10125672) Homepage Journal
      The sad thing is, it'd probably be faster to fab the G4 yourself from cobbled-together equipment than Apple's current wait times for new shipments from Motorola.

    • Re:Geee... (Score:2, Funny)

      by mh101 ( 620659 )
      Nope... They're taking over the Monster Garage show. Watch Steve and the gang take an old station wagon and turn it into a giant mobile Beowolf Cluster of XServes... complete with an air-powered cannon for shooting apples at various Redmond, WA landmarks!
    • What next? Is Apple going to return to building computers in the garage?

      That is so 1980s. They've been there, and done that. The Apple Is and Apple IIs were built in Wozniak's garage.

  • Funky color? (Score:5, Funny)

    by watanuki ( 771056 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @09:16PM (#10124540)
    I first read the title as "G5 iMac to come in marble blaster gold" and thought Apple was going back to making funky-colored computers.
    • Marble and gold is a good start, but Apple would really start grabbing marketshare with some rubys set in a platinum case.

      Titanium and the like are so....Pour le type inférieur de personnes, if you know what I mean.

    • Re:Funky color? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sg3000 ( 87992 ) * <sg_public AT mac DOT com> on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @08:59AM (#10127161)
      > I first read the title as "G5 iMac to come in marble blaster
      > gold" and thought Apple was going back to making funky-
      > colored computers.

      No kidding. Dammit, Apple! Do you know how many types of iPods you'll have to develop and sell to live down the 'Flower Power' iMac [apple-history.com]? Don't do this to yourself again.

      • No kidding. Dammit, Apple! Do you know how many types of iPods you'll have to develop and sell to live down the 'Flower Power' iMac? Don't do this to yourself again.

        I still have a Dalmation Dots iMac at home and use it daily - hoping to replace it with PowerBook later this year.

        It was discounted because of the shell - but you never see it anyway.

  • Plenty of games (Score:3, Funny)

    by kajoob ( 62237 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @09:53PM (#10124744)
    "On the mac, I can play plenty of great games that you just can't find on the PC anymore. You know, like Zork, Breakout.............Super Breakout..........photoshop..."

    with much respect to the drunk gamers ;-)

    again, i keed!

    • Re:Plenty of games (Score:5, Funny)

      by merdark ( 550117 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @11:14PM (#10125153)
      Wow, that's four games more than I can play on Linux! Awesome!

      • Re:Plenty of games (Score:4, Funny)

        by Naffer ( 720686 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @12:58AM (#10125652) Journal
        There is this one game that I've been playing a lot on my new gentoo box. The game is called emerge. First you type emerge and guess the name of the program you really want to install. Then you watch your computer do all kinds of crazy shit for somewhere between 10 minutes and 6 years before you get dumped back to a shell with no idea as to what just transpired!
        • There is this one game that I've been playing a lot on my new gentoo box. The game is called emerge. First you type emerge and guess the name of the program you really want to install. Then you watch your computer do all kinds of crazy shit for somewhere between 10 minutes and 6 years before you get dumped back to a shell with no idea as to what just transpired!

          I wish I had mod point points to give you a +10. My coworkers have no idea why this post is so funny but then they have not spent the last year

    • That's exactly the quote I was looking to post!

      Laugh every time I see that clip.....

  • All I can say is....'WOW!' (Score:4, Funny)

    by jericho4.0 ( 565125 ) on Tuesday August 31, 2004 @11:27PM (#10125218)
    Wow....a $19.95 value. This is makeing that iMac look unbeatable!

    O.k. I didn't post in the first article about the iMac 'cause I was only going to be a fanboy anyway, but the new iMac looks like a great value, so why this story?

    $2500 Canadian for a 20 inch lcd widescreen + 64bit + linux + comboDrive? Screw the bundling, sign me up!

    • You may want to wait until Apple ships one with an ATI chipset [sourceforge.net]. You have no chance of getting accelerated 3D with an Nvidia chipset under Linux PPC while with a bit of work you can get most ATI chipsets working with DRI.

      besides, it's rarely a good idea to buy the 1st revision of any product.

  • They have a kick-ass commercial game which looks a lot like Mech Warrior, and it runs nicely and natively under Linux. They also have redone the classic Doom game which runs under Linspire's Click-And-Run installation.
    • Yes. Dark Horizons: Lore is a kick-ass mech game and Bridge Construction set is addicting. Engineering 101 - triangles!
      • Thanks for the comments Ophelea, we here at Max Gaming have tried very hard to make Dark Horizons Lore. As you can expect its not easy when you are self-funded and don't have as many resources to throw at a problem like the AAA guys do. But we feel that we can compete by the simple fact that we are heavily involved with our player community (taking feedback and suggestions to make the game more of what they want to see) as well as adding new features, content and options as we move away from our Early Adop
    • Actually Cujo, the public Linux release for Dark Horizons Lore is coming out with our next update (version 1.12), which should be out soon. We have been offering up a beta version of the Linux release to purchasers of our game when they request it though. Thanks for taking interst in Dark Horizons Lore and the independant game movement.

  • Well, for what it's worth (Score:4, Informative)

    by TomorrowPlusX ( 571956 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @09:25AM (#10127401)
    ...sidestepping the snarky threads about the number of Mac games and so on...

    Anyway, I want to say Marble Blast GOLD is a really, *really* fun game. It's original, it's nicely done, and it's based on the Torque engine which is something I've considered buying the developer license for. When you buy it, for 99 dollars, you get FULL source code.

    I'm developing behavioral AI for robotics and my self-taught, home-brewed opengl is pretty crufty. While I could use an open source system like Ogre, there's appeal to using a proven API, even if it's not "free".

    Well, really, what I want to say is give the Marble Blast GOLD demo a try. It's a kick in the pants.

  • looks fun! (Score:3, Informative)

    by theMerovingian ( 722983 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @11:02AM (#10128468) Journal

    I'll be downloading this [garagegames.com] when I escape from work this evening!

    Those games look nice, I'm looking forward to checking out your stuff.

    • I hope that you enjoy the game theMerovingian's, we here at Max Gaming have worked hard to self-fund our product and ensure that its constantly evolving to be what our player community wants and expects. With that said, we are currently working on a new update to Lore (version 1.12) that should finally see the official Linux build released to the public (we are currently only offering it as a beta download for our current customers who are intersted). I hope that you enjoy the game and are able to stick a

    • Re:looks fun! (Score:3, Funny)

      by OSeXy ( 719129 )
      Download it heck!

      Buy Marble Blaster Gold for $1299 and get a free iMac 17".

  • For the wanabee civil engineers ... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) * on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @12:24PM (#10129576) Homepage Journal
    Another game that makes use of Torque and has recently been ported to the Mac is Bridge Construction Set [chroniclogic.com] from Chronic Logic [chroniclogic.com]. They have only just recently started porting their, Torque based, games to the Mac and Linux.

    Torque, from Garage Games [garagegames.com] is great for anyone wanting to start getting into game development, since it is relatively affordable. There is a demo of what the engine can do on the web site.
    • Sweet. I had Pontifex for my old PC and I missed that game quite a bit. Time to download and perhaps buy.

      Marble Blast Gold... or whatever it is actually called... is it anything like Marble Madness ((c) 1987 Nintendo, I do believe) or more recently... Super Monkey Ball? I own both and this game sounds like both.

Slashdot Top Deals

One way to make your old car run better is to look up the price of a new model.

Close