[the_saltminer]

Peter Cohen said:

As to the rest of your assessment about Mac games, there's some truth to it, but I'm not really interested in defending Mac games at this point. It's plain to see your mind is made up about how awful the market is; my words aren't going to change that.

I never said that the Mac market is awful. There are plenty of games to keep us busy and entertained, but there are a number of factors that make the Mac market a low priority for developers. It is what it is, and it seems like we're in for another 25 years of the same thing. Not good, not bad, just...status quo.

[andygriff1987]

Surely if we're going for legendary games Prince of Persia should feature? Was it not designed for the Apple II? I still play it today, it's a genius game and has spawned various copycats and, of course, its sequels.

[technolawyer]

Marathon (and Halo on Xbox) remain the best games of all times in my opinion. We used to have Marathon LAN parties at work after hours back in the day. Being able to use our speakerphones enhanced the experience -- and years later Xbox Live stole our idea! ;-)

[Siracusa]

For the record, this list was originally intended to be a mere sidebar, thus the short (for me, anyway) length and the limit of only five games. Myth:TFL (to give just one example) would have made the list for sure if it were longer.

As for why the games are all "old," there are two obvious reasons. One is that "best ever" lists always tend to skew old. Just look at the AFI's top 100 movies list, for example. The average movie year is 1959. The other reason is explained in the first two sentences of the article, where I define the terms of the list: "A 'Mac game' is a game that?s some combination of first, best, or only on the Mac. Such games are rare these days." Had I decided to define a "Mac game" as simply "a game that runs natively in Mac OS or Mac OS X" then the list would have looked very different and would have included many newer games.

[MorrisTheCat]

>The Marathon era was the height of Mac gaming and Mac gamer pride.
I couldn't agree more with this statement. Foe me, the Marathon trilogy was as good as it gets in gaming, Mac or otherwise. Windows gamers may have the lions share of games, but Marathon was ours first, and what a game it was! To this day, I've yet to run across a game that has engaged me as much as this has. Sure, gaming has made huge leaps in graphics and general gameplay, but nothing really reaches the depth that Marathon had, in my opinion. It was absolutely epic in nature. The Bungie Mythos will live on in my head forever.
Shame about Biungie. They have had a fall from grace in many eyes, and not just because of getting in bed with Microsoft either. Can anyone say that Halo was even close to as good as Marathon? It was a huge disappointment to me coming from them. I don;t blame them entirely though. It seems that young gamers these days are more interested in fast action and fancy graphics than truly engaging stories. The ADHD generation.
I was also surprised not to see Myst on this list, given how good it was and that the Cyan crew were Mac lovers through and through.

[jforjan]

How about Pathways Into Darkness
Would like to see it updated for OSX

[palane]

It was a fun walk down memory lane. I loved Dark Castle and Crystal Quest.

One of my all time favorite games was missing, though.

LODE RUNNER!!!

Also great in that you could design your own levels.

With regards to old vs. new, there's great games out there, but I think back to when the Mac was new for me. So, I go back to the classics. In terms of arcade games, it was Space Invaders, Asteroid, Star Castle (I was really really good at that) and Space Ace.

BB

[walfy]

Myth was mind blowing when it came out. I just loved that game.

[Wizardling]

I couldn't agree more about Marathon and Escape Velocity - two games I'd played more than any other... until I got a hold of Blizzard's online games - Diablo, Starcraft, D2, WoW - all so addictive. I basically played just Starcraft and D2 non-stop for five years!
Funnily enough now I'm back playing Marathon again using the Aleph One OSX port and EV + EVO using their Nova conversions - so cool :-)

[Wizardling]

jforjan said:

How about Pathways Into Darkness

Would like to see it updated for OSX

Likewise all Bungie's early pre-Marathon games! I miss them now I'm without a decent classic Mac for old school gaming (my last CRT iMac died late in 2008). Sadly classic Mac emulation stinks :-(

[aclindsay]

I believe that the best MAC game of all time is Balance of Power. God, I wasted so many hours nearly conquering the world before the screen went blank and notified me that I had destroyed the world.

[MacNymph]

No offense to John, because I totally respect his work on Ars Technica, but I'm seriously disappointed that Peter Cohen wasn't asked to write this article. Peter is THE games man and I want to hear HIS top 5 games. Actually, I'd to hear his top 10! Please... Peter, write your own article??
My TOP picks include:
Myst
Cosmic Osmo
Oregon Trail (originally developed solely on the Mac I believe; even though its more edutainment)
Probably not a top 10, but I loved playing Ultima (3 I think) on my Mac Plus
and there was some Mission game with missiles and jets back then too.
And no mention of Alice (Through the Looking Glass, I think) -- the very first Mac game?? Ha! I still have that.
Peter... I'd like to hear from you!!
MacNymph

[Siracusa]

You're in luck! Peter did write his own article on Mac games.

[bugsnw]

I remember blowing countless hours in front of our Mac II playing Crystal Quest with my friends. And my girlfriend couldn't be pried from Dark Castle.

The 2 sound effects I remember most from CQ was Fred Flintstone's "yabba dabba doo!" and the orgasm every time you completed the level and slid through the portal doors.