The Secret History of Mac Gaming

Description

The Macintosh challenged games to be more than child’s play and quick reflexes. It made human–computer interaction friendly, inviting and intuitive. Mac gaming led to much that is now taken for granted by PC gamers and spawned some of the biggest franchises in video game history. It allowed anyone to create games and playful software with ease, and gave indie developers a home for their products. It welcomed strange ideas and encouraged experimentation. It fostered passionate and creative communities who inspired and challenged developers to do better and to follow the Mac mantra ‘think different’. Drawing on archive material and interviews with key figures from the era – and featuring new material from Craig Fryar, Apple’s first Mac games evangelist and the co-creator of hit game Spectre – The Secret History of Mac Gaming is the story of those communities and the game developers who survived and thrived in an ecosystem that was serially ignored by the outside world. It’s a book about people who followed their hearts first and market trends second, showing how clever, quirky, and downright wonderful video games could be. INTRODUCTION by Richard Moss 01 A SERIOUS MACHINE 02 NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR 03 GAME DEVELOPMENT FOR THE REST OF US 04 MACVENTURERS 05 SIMULATED 06 MACINTOSH ARCADE 07 INTO A CASTLE DARKLY 08 A STORY TOLD BY TREASURE HUNT 09 APPLETALK 10 GAME WORLD, PARTY ON! by Craig Fryar 11 PENINSULA GAMEWORKS by Craig Fryar 12 MYSTERIOUS WORLDS 13 INTERACTIVE MOVIES 14 THREE DIMENSIONS 15 QUINTESSENTIALLY MAC 16 TAKING FLIGHT 17 THE MAC GAME CONSOLE 18 SHAREWARE HEROES 19 DELTA TAO 20 AMBROSIA 21 FREEVERSE 22 PANGEA 23 PORTING HOUSES 24 SPORTS SHY 25 DURANDAL 26 INSIDE MAC GAMES 27 THE FALL AND RISE OF MAC GAMING AFTERWORD by Craig Fryar ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INDEX SUPPORTERS