I would like to build a game machine

#1 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 08:59 68kMLA

First thing is to choose a computer. All my games presently need OS 9 or lower. Would the G4 machines be too fast fir the games? The ram will be 1gb

Right now the only reason to use the G3 B&W is the adb port, to use the

joysticks.

Any suggestions?

#2 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 09:17 68kMLA

What kind of games are we talking here?

Use the lowest Mac which provides an acceptable result, but keep in mind expansion if you decide to get more advanced games that might work better on a faster machine.

#3 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 14:29 68kMLA

To name a few:

The Last Train

Total AnnihilatioN- Gold Edition

Warcraft II -Tides of Darkness

Civilization II.

F/A-18 Hornet 3.0

F/A-18 Korea

Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition w/ manual

Nascar Racing For Mac '96 -Box

IndyCar Racing '96 -Box

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater cdd with manual

X-Wing Collectors CD-ROM

TIE FIGHTER Collector's CD-ROM

#4 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 15:55 68kMLA

TA is an absolute power hog. It will bring any G3 machine to its knees in a hurry (especially if you remove the 250 units limit). for that i would highly recommend the G4.

in fact...i would recommend the G4 for just about all of those games.

and USB joysticks are a dime a dozen. you should easily be able to find one which will work for your games. there are also quite a few utilities available which allow you to assign USB joystick buttons/axis movement to various keystrokes for games which do not support InputSprockets.

#5 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 16:22 68kMLA

You can get a Dual 450 G4 for cheap since Leopard came out

#6 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 16:24 68kMLA

Thanks for your input. You also answered another concern about USB joysticks.

Looks like the G4 Quicksilver will be put into service.

I do not have any large ide drives so two 33.6 GB 10,000 rpm SCSI drives.

Do Mac SCSI cards boot like the PC ones?

#7 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 16:29 68kMLA

I think booting from SCSI on newer macs that use the PCI card are a little more tricky to do. You could try it.

#8 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 18:45 68kMLA

Unless I am mistaken bootability of a certain card depends on the ROM/firmware and chipset it has. So, either get one that is advertised as being bootable or do some testing with some others from your local PC shop or something.

#9 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 - 21:02 68kMLA

i second the motion to use a G4 for gaming

as for a USB gamepad/joystick i use a gamemon USB hub that has 1 PS2 port, 1 Gamecube port, 1 Xbox port, and 2 USB ports it works well but in OS X, i cant remember if i tried using it in OS 9 but some reason i remembered using a PSX controller with that PS1 emulator in OS 9, this really dont require drivers to use, but if you want to use a Xbox controller in OS X you have to download the Xbox HID driver

that USB hub can be bought at most Walmart stores for $9.99, and online Here i think its something to have if you plan to do any gaming on your Mac, good for playing with emulators

#10 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 - 06:37 68kMLA

Just got back from Wal-Mart. They did not have it. Will look around for it.