 
Will the next Lara Croft Please step forward?!!
(a.k.a. What does Connectix's Virtual Game Station mean for us?)
(Comments on Connectix's new Playstation Emulator by Ruffin Bailey)
It's an exciting time to be a video gamer, whether you prefer to play on a PC,
console, or even (dare I say it?) Macintosh! Lines between the personal computer
and personal appliance are becoming grayer and grayer with each passing day. You
can surf the web with WebTV or an old Sega Saturn, record custom CD's with your
stereo, and even regulate your house's lighting and temperature from that same
spot on your desk that used to house a Commodore 64.
I often find myself kidding an old college roommate that his Windows OS PC is
the most expensive gaming console around. I will never do it justice by trying to
list all the odds and ends he has attached to it, but suffice it to say that I
could go on one heck of a spending spree through the Toys R Us video gaming aisle
with the amount he has sunk into that box to play Half-Life and Quake 2. Sure,
there are practical reasons to have such a powerful computer, but if he was
pressed, I imagine he would have to admit what he loves most are the games.
Today, Connectix seems to have taken both a great step forward and backwards
for the Macintosh gaming community at the same time. Through their new product, the
Connectix Virtual Game Station (www.virtualgamestation.com), Mac users now have
at least one hundred PlayStation games tested and ready to be played on their
favorite home computer. These 100 officially tested games include Tekken, Crash
Bandicoot, Madden 97, and Grand Theft Auto. Connectix even admits that there
are many (possibly hundreds!) untested games that could very well work with the
VGS now or in the future; they just have not cleared Connectix¹s rigourous
testing just yet. There are scads more games to be played on a Mac today than
yesterday, though none near as impressive as Unreal or Mac-specific versions of
FutureCop or Quake. In the graphics department the VGS is taking a big step
back, but such is the nature of emulation and a small price to pay for such a
large library.
Now I have heard all this before. I jumped on the Connectix VirtualPC bandwagon
about a year ago, spurred on by rave reviews from MacWorld magazine and several
online sources. VirtualPC was even so bold as to come bundled with three MS-DOS
based games: Need for Speed, Madden, and PGA Tour 96. I had a hard time
containing myself as I tore open the package. Finally, I could play a decent
game of football on my Mac!
Unfortunately my StarMax 3000/180 was not up to the task. The players moved
with all the speed and grace of men on the moon, even after I had turned off such
processor hogging extras like people in the stands, end zone paint, and shaded
playing fields. My VirtualPC disk has hardly seen the light of day since.
But do not get me wrong. Connectix did a wonderful job of emulating MS-DOS.
More than once I played a blazingly fast game of Bard's Tale 2 using Connectix's
fine product. Furthermore, there are many utilities that I could run through
VirtualPC that were written for DOS. Not only that, when I installed Win95, my
virtual Intel processor performed its duty without a hitch, if slower than
molasses. But VirtualPC came a long way from catching me up with my college
roommate's PC when it came to the latest and greatest (or even recent and decent)
games.
Today, however, let us assume for a second that speed is not an issue with the
VGS. Heck, if it doesn't run on the iMac, Connectix has pretty much missed the
boat. The hardware demands for the VGS are pretty steep as is: a G3 equipped
box (not including upgrade cards) with an ATI graphics card. So let us assume
that the VGS runs these 100 PlayStation games at a playable speed. Even if this
is so, there are still issues to address.
On that list of 100 officially tested games, I found one that has recently become
very familiar: the poster child of the "newly revived" Mac gaming community,
Tomb Raider 2. Westlake Interactive (www.westlakeinteractive.com) is to be
commended for a wonderful port of a PC and PlayStation classic. I personally
would also like to thank them for starting with number 2 and not number 1.
Better to run with the big boys from the start than the play catch-up! (Though I
must confess that I own Tomb Raider 1 on my Sega Saturn... ;)
Now, however, Westlake has some competition on the Macintosh platform -- and
this competition paradoxically comes from the same game! Now Mac users have a
choice: do they buy the Mac-specific port of Tomb Raider 2 or do they wait for
Electronics Boutique to luck into a used copy of the PlayStation version?
I doubt there are many Mac gamers that would prefer to play the PlayStation
version of Tomb Raider 2 over the beautiful Mac port of the same game. The
question is whether the VGS could hurt potential sales of games that have not yet
even been released?! If the PlayStation version of Tomb Raider 3 works with
Connectix's VGS, do I wait and see if Westlake ports TR3 to the Mac or do I go
ahead and shell out for the PlayStation version? And then would I be willing to
shell out the dough for a Mac-specific version if/when a Mac port does come out,
assuming I already have the PlayStation version in my collection? What if I am
EASports? If I was thinking about doing a Mac version of Madden 2000, but I know
that my PlayStation version is going to soak up some of my own sales on the Mac,
do I even bother with MacMadden?
If I am EASports the answer is, thank heavens, yes. If I was thinking about
releasing the game before, I most certainly still do, especially if the VGS sells
well. If I am Westlake, do I release Tomb Raider 3 for the Mac even if the
PlayStation version works with the VGS? I do, and for Tomb Raider 4 I make
danged sure that the Mac version is slated for a concurrent release! The point
is, no matter how good the PlayStation version, I can always make a Mac-specific
version that just plain puts the PlayStation to shame.
Connectix's VGS finally puts the neglected Mac gamer in the driver's seat. I
mean even the "fringe" Mac gamer -- the ones that have tried the shareware
version of cricket or curling because they are dying for any sports games (saints
forgive me; I have!). We, the Mac gamer, can finally stand up and be counted.
Connectix has given us a key to unlocking the gaming venues that, up until now,
were forbidden to the Mac enthusiast. Each purchase of the VGS is another vote
that the Mac gaming community is a viable market; a market that is not saturated
with what is presently offered; a market that is ready and willing to put their
dollars into products that fulfill these previously unaddressed demands. In
addition, the developer community can listen to this "referendum" of the Mac
gaming community and not feel threatened by what the VGS has to offer. Any Mac
port running on the high-end boxes needed to run the VGS, as I have said before,
will literally knock the proverbial socks off of any PlayStation game!
Realistically, any gamer would have to admit that, as successful as the
PlayStation is, with the Sega Dreamcast and Sony "Super-PlayStation" just around
the corner the time is not far away when today's PlayStation emulator will be
little more impressive than a Sega Genesis CD emulator would be today.
So do not feel bad about supporting this product! Cast your capitalistic vote
for more diverse Mac games. If you buy it, more will come. Now we just have to
wait and make sure the players in GameDay 98 run a bit faster than men on the
moon... Keep it tuned to xlr8yourmac for a review of the VGS in the coming
weeks!
Ruffin Bailey is a database geek who is under contract to NOAA (the government).
He is forced to work 8 hours a day on a WindowsNT box using such dastardly
languages as VBscript to keep NOAA from grinding to a hollering halt. But when
he gets home and he's not playing Ultimate, he can be found taking solace in his
iMac, cursing at fictional players in his fifth season of the N64 version of
Madden 99, or working on the ever-so-practical Atari 2600 development suite for
the Mac PowerPC at the Mactari Tools Page.
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