Spore Hates your Macbook

I was just talking with a friend of mine, who was really, really excited about spore.  He even got a new computer to play it, just a year ago.

The thing is, my friend got a macbook, and if you have a macbook made earlier than late 2007, no Spore for you.

The problem is that until late 2007, Apple was making Macbooks with the GMA 950 graphics card embedded, after which it was upgraded to the GMA X3100.  Spore explicitly does not support the GMA 950.  I told you that you should have bought a PC.  None of the Macbook Pro line have this issue.

That said, I think this is more a Maxis fail than an Apple fail.  They’ve got like, 4 video cards guys, you couldn’t support one that was brand new in the system less than a year ago?  Fail, and fail hard.

[Update] If you run Windows XP in Boot Camp, however, it runs fine.  This seems to just be an issue with the GMA 950 on OS X.  Isn’t that interesting.

[Update]: xkcd brings up a solution for Mac Owners:

The Force Unleashed

Summer 2008. Want.

If LucasArts is telling me that this is what a talented team can create when several highly specialized engines are integrated, then I will tell you that you’re looking at the future of development. Despite my earlier criticism of Assassin’s Creed, they had a similar philosophy in that the gameplay should be inherently fun. Assassin’s Creed did that in spades, the problem was that they beat the same mechanics until they lay raw and bloodied on the floor, and I lost interest in doing the same tasks over and over again. Hopefully The Force Unleashed will do a better job of wrapping more into the game than throwing people around like dolls. If they do, this game will set a new bar for action developers.

A natural consequence of this is that engine developers will begin to create standard interfaces to which they will conform. This will enhance the interoperability of these engines, and make it far less expensive and difficult to get the effects you’re seeing in the video below.

Top 10 Game Optimization Myths

Gamasutra has a good article on the top ten game development myths.  Very programmer-centric, but a good read nonetheless.

 Update:  I found this while cruising around, an older article by Daniel Cook on Game Design Myths.