M ac gamers have historically had a rough time of it; game makers looking to make a buck normally wonit develop a new game title for the Mac because of low market share. Games appear on PCs first, then they might make it to the Mac.
Lately, however, the gaming prospects on the Mac have improved greatly. Thatis thanks in part to Westlake Interactive, which has helped bring top notch games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Unreal Tournament 2004 to the Mac.
Halo was a game originally conceived by Bungie to appear on the Mac and Windows at the same time. Bungie had its roots as a Mac-only game maker that eventually started making games for the Mac and Windows alike. As most Mac gamers well know, however, Bungieis quality and reputation led to the company being bought by Microsoft, which then made Halo the crown jewel of its new game system, the X-Box, where it was a huge hit.
Halo next appeared on the Windows platform, where it was also a big hit. Finally, in December of 2003, four years after it was first announced at Macworld Expo, Halo was made available for the Mac.
The company that ultimately brought Halo to the Mac was not Bungie, but none other than the above-mentioned Westlake Interactive. Appleis Developeris Connection has the story of how Westlake Interactive was able to bring "Combat evolved" to the Mac, and we thought you would be interested in it. Hereis an excerpt from the article, Westlake Puts Halo on the Mac: The Right Tools at the Right Time:
Using a combination of OpenGL, clever programming, and great developer tools, Westlake Interactive has helped make the popular game Halo a big hit on the Mac. Halo is a spectacular sci-fi action epic that takes advantage of the pixel shaders found in many recent NVIDIA and ATI video cards, so that grass looks like grass, vehicles shine in the sunlight, and alien buildings reflect like mirrors -- all adding to the excitement and sense of realism that make a great game.
Thereis a lot more technical information in the article, but thereis something for everyone and it is a good read. So check out the full article at Appleis Developeris Web site.