Army Drops Mac Version of America's Army
Mac Gaming News - Army Drops Mac Version of America's Army
by , 3:55 PM EDT, April 27th, 2006
This week, Mac gaming programmer Ryan Gordon confirmed in his blog that the Army has dropped the Mac and Linux versions of its first-person shooter America's Army, which was created in 2003 to help military recruitment. While the Army officially ended development of everything but the Windows version at least a year ago, Mr. Gordon acknowledged that he had been allowed to keep working on the Mac and Linux versions on his own time.
He said, however, that the Army currently only pays him to maintain the Linux server for the game, with the Mac and Linux versions cancelled "several versions ago. Let's say it happened when GameSpy jacked their prices, but the port wasn't actually cancelled because of the GameSpy fiasco; while it definitely didn't help, the two events just happened to coincide."
GameSpy's licensing costs increase forced Mr. Gordon to pull that code out of the Mac version and create a workaround. "Sometimes the project is more important than the paycheck," he said of his pro bono programming work. At this point, however, he doesn't have the time to keep his America's Army work going, given the number of paying jobs he has.
"The Army, I think, probably sees these freebie ports as a nuisance, since they're almost always late, and all they see are complaints from the Mac and Linux users about delays in a project they thought they axed several releases ago," Mr. Gordon wrote. At this point, version 2.6 of America's Army "might still make it out the door; 2.7 probably won't."
However, he made it clear that Apple's release of Boot Camp had nothing to do with his decision, as some people on an America's Army forum thread thought. The Mac Observer is currently waiting to hear back from America's Army representatives regarding the decision to axe the Mac and Linux versions of the game, but responses to questions likely won't happen until next week. At that time, we will post their responses.
Observer Comments
Maybe MacUsers are a bit too free thinking for the army? Reminds me of something though:
There's trouble in a far off nation
Gotta get in a love formation
Your love's more deadly than Saddam
That's why we gotta drop the bomb!
[Party posse!!]
[Yelling]
Yvan eht nioj..
Yvan eht nioj..
Yvan eht nioj
NIOJ!!
If your in a mess
You'll come around
And you'll sing it again
Yvan eht NIOJ!!
Yvan eht nioj..
Yvan eht nioj..
Yvan eht nioj..
NIOJ!!
I have used and owned Apple products since the advent of the IIe. I dont want to make this a political debate so, my two cents is: The Mac is not a gaming machine. Yes, the hardware can support high end games but I think of the Mac as a productivity tool. Also if you think of Market share, Windows is still the King. So, if you had limited resources and time but need to hit the biggest population, you program for Windows. (i.e. Virus writters)
The Government supports many OS. For everyday Army work, Windows is the OS of choice. Combat Systems (Go to War OS) the choice is Unix. The US Army is looking into moving to Linux but that is still in the evaluation process. The reason for Unix or Linus is the the ability to change the Kernal if necessary. With MS and Apple, they will never give the government their Codes and the ability to change the OS. FYI: I was told that the Air Force uses Mac.
Mon May 08, 2006 2:26 pm Subject: where can i download americans army the full game
Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:48 am Subject: Re: Party Posse/N*SYNC
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Maybe MacUsers are a bit too free thinking for the army?
Please. Stop. I have several friends who've served in the military and they tend to be just as independent in thought as anyone else, often more so.
And why is it that free thinkers all think the same way? Odd, that.
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