The Sam & Mac Theory

[anonima]

We already have some threads regarding cross-platform support, but the importance of bringing Bone and Sam & Max to Mac OS X and probably Linux needs to be pointed out as often as possible!

Here's my own little conspiracy theory called "Sam & Mac":

Steve Purcell works at Pixar, right? Steve Jobs is the CEO of both Pixar and Apple. Pixar is currently migrating most of their IT to Mac OS X. Steve Purcell as a an artist/designer is most likely a Mac user as a lot of other artists prefer OS X (like, yeah, Jeff Smith :-)

So there's a very good chance Steve Purcell is spending most of his computer time in front of an Apple computer. If Telltale creates a new Sam & Max game they need to stay in permanent contact with Steve, talk about the appropriate use of his characters, check artwork and storyboards, show him the actual gameplay, etc.

And the Telltale guys would give Steve a new beta game disc every now and then for approval and Steve would call all his nice colleagues from his department to show everyone his new baby:

Steve: "Come on in guys, I'm gonna show you some hot new stuff!"

Pixar Crew: "Wow, Steve, is it a new comic?"

Steve: "No, much better..."

Pixar Crew: "...a script for our next 100 billion dollar blockbuster?"

Steve: "...even better than that – a new Sam & Max video game!"

Pixar Crew (applauds): "Steve, that's AWESOME, the MOST MASSIVE THING EVER! We can't wait to check it out and get instantly addicted!"

Steve puts the CD into his Power Mac G5 SuperDrive, double clicks the Sam&MaxEpisode1 icon and adjusts his sleek 30 inch Cinema HD Display so everyone could see the future of story-driven gaming in all its glory!

But...

...nothing happens.

Steve is confused: "WHAT THE F###ING HELL IS GOING ON?"

Pixar Crew: "Ehh, Steve?!?"

Steve: "WHAT?!?"

Pixar Crew: "Did you read the system requirements on the sleevenote?"

Steve: "WHAT THE F##K ARE YOU TALKIN ABOUT?!?! I'VE GOT 8 GIGS OF RAM AND A RADEON XT850 VIDEO CARD! THAT'S PLENTY OF POWER, ISN'T IT?!?!

Pixar Crew: "Yeah, Steve, but it says "will run on Windows XP with DirectX 9 and above"

Steve: "DIRECT F#####G WHAT?!?!"

Pixar Crew: "DirectX, Steve"

Steve: "DIRECT SEX?!?! COME ON, MAN, BE SERIOUS, WE'RE STILL IN AMERICA!"

Pixar Crew: "No, Steve, it's called DirectX"

Steve: "I see, what's that ******** and DirectSex stuff anyway?!?!"

Pixar Crew: "It's that ugly, flawed operating system from Microsoft the boss doesn't want us to use!"

Steve: "You mean that TROJAN WORM thing?"

Pixar Crew: "Yeah, and the I LOVE YOU thing!"

Steve: "I knew it has to do with Sex"

Pixar Crew: "..."

Steve: "Whatever, I want you guys to call Telltale: Tell those little Redmond fanboys I want a proper Sam & Max Episode 1 app made with Xcode within 24 hours or I'll sell the exclusive rights for the Sam & Max franchise to bad brain entertainment, who will produce the game exclusively for Mac OS X, Be OS and Gizmondo."

Pixar Crew: "It just takes a minute, boss..."


So, you see, we urgently need Bone and Sam & Max on Mac, don't we?

[anonima]

Heh, if only :)

[anonima]

Yup! Sam and Mac, all the way!

And Bone on Mac, but they've already said they'll try to do that.

Don't leave us Mac users out in the cold, Telltale!

[anonima]

A Mac port can be done in a few hours if they have the skills, so there really should be no problem with it (QA will take some time, too, but that's what beta tests are for). The game will be a bit slower since they need to write a direct x -> open gl interpreter, but this should be no problem. The Mac Dev tools do come for free with the OS (and they are the best out there, coders dream come true), they don't need a publisher that makes cool boxes and prints thick manuals for it since they publish it online, so all costs they will have is a pizza and a coke for the coder that does the job.

The only thing I want to hear is "Here you go" and "Naturally you don't have to pay again for the Mac version of the game if you already bought the PC version, we have no intend to rip-off our customers" :D

[anonima]

Hmm... My own theory - from actually working in a film visual-effects company - is that whatever operating system you're *forced* to use at work, you inevitably start developing an intimate hatred for...

I use Red Hat Linux for 8 hours of every working day, and despite the fact that it's blatantly the best OS for the job, I've learnt to despise it. Its like a breath of fresh air going home and wandering through the bright happy summer meadow that is Windows XP (with Firefox installed of course - I'm not *stupid* :))

If commercial politics alone have forced Pixar to use a purely Mac based network for CG production - they probably hate them with a passion - Macs are fine for editing, okay for compositing... but utterly underpowered and comparitively useless for 3D work...

- anyways, I reckon Steve is absolutely over the moon about SNM being on PC :)

[Alucard]

Mac..... :( I still don't understand why people who want to play games have macs. Macs are for parents who want to have a computer their kids can do homework on and not have to worry about games :)) buy a PC already. You can get a decent one for roughly $700-1200

[anonima]

Mac..... :( I still don't understand why people who want to play games have macs. Macs are for parents who want to have a computer their kids can do homework on and not have to worry about games :)) buy a PC already. You can get a decent one for roughly $700-1200

Mac OS X Tiger is by far the best operating system out there and superior to Windows in terms of usability, GUI, app integration and interoperability and, very important, security. There aren't any known worms or viruses for OS X. It's rock solid UNIX with a great interface.

The Mac is simply the best solution for creative professionals, who work in advertising, design, film editing and compositing, DVD authoring and professional audio production. Due to advanced technologies like QuickTime, Core Audio, system-wide PDF integration in QuartzExtreme, color management and so on...

I'm a creative pro myself and our studio is 100% Mac based, as most agencies and design companies I know. You don't just buy a Mac for gaming, that's right, but a lot of Mac users are also gamers and we won't buy PCs just for a few games.

Real hardcore gamers will most likely get all three of the current and next-gen consoles as gaming is dominated by consoles these days.

It's just a stupid comment by uninformed Windows users if they claim "Macs don't have any games and suck at them".

Most of the AAA titles come to Mac thanks to publishers/porting companies like Aspyr or Feral Interactive: The Sims 2, Doom 3, Fable, KOTOR and most of the other Star Wars games, Battlefield 1942, etc.

Some companies even release their games simultaneously on one hybrid DVD, e. g. Blizzard's World of Warcraft or Ubi Soft's Myst V: End of Ages for both Mac and PC.

[anonima]

(with Firefox installed of course - I'm not *stupid* :))

I think you just called about 90% of the web users stupid. And I am among those :D.
Maybe lazy fits better than stupid :p

[anonima]

Hehe... okay, maybe stupid is a little strong :) - "uninformed" maybe...

Firefox really has plugged *the* hole in Windows XP - I haven't had a single incident of a worm, trojan, even web-popup, since installing it... and in my experience using Linux at work - maybe Linux itself is rock solid, but the software written for it crashes ten to the dozen (even the Linux version of Firefox!) - and it crashes far more than my Windows machine - the only very occasional crash I ever get in XP is due to a graphics card glitch (most likely overheating - I have got it overclocked)

I certainly don't write off Macs - they're pointing the way forward in a number of ways, and they are great for multimedia production purposes, video editing, etc... But they are *not* games machines, and they are *not* raw performance machines either...

Sure, "Most of the AAA titles come to Mac" - and yes, "AAA" titles rule the console market too... and its exactly that reason that I have zero interest in getting a PS3 or a 360... samey shite all the way.

If you actually want innovation, variation, and the widest possible selection of games from all genres, the PC is the way to go... - Its getting overshadowed by the *next* street-racing game, and the *next* Halo clone, and the *next* 3rd person action game, but all those come out on PC too... so you get a pick of the lot, and for a machine twice the power of a Mac, for half the price!

Macs are very much about visual appeal, gimmicks, something you can flash around and show your mates, or give your swanky office a sleek professional appearance to impress the clients - our company only buys macs for the editing suite, because thats where the clients spend most time - the ones we actually work on are all dual-xeon PCs... we use Quicktime across the network, on all the PCs, we have colour management integrated... it not all exclusive to the Mac - they just try and make it sound that way.

To sum up, all systems have their advantages... and the old "Windows crashes every 10 minutes" argument just doesn't hold any more, XP is up there with Linux and OSX provided you write Internet Explorer out of the equation. Whatever benefits macs may have over another system, it is undeniable that you pay an absolute premium for a very well marketed machine, with limited software and hardware versatility.