Mac Mini + Quake Review

[Baker]

/Warning: Potential Bore-You Advisory ...

I have a Mac Mini that I got recently and booted it tonight for the first time. I've used OS/X before (few years ago) for a while (a week or 2) and with some luck I'll be able to improve on the Mac ProQuake port that Woods did. Maybe JoeQuake, Enhanced GLQuake and Qrack as well eventually. I'll probably return back to working on the Linux version of ProQuake I made when I do this.

Now I'm not actually a Mac fan, I think Windows XP is the best of any operating system by far.



It's about 6x6 inches and maybe 3 inches tall.

What is a Mac Mini?

The Mac Mini is $599 small box that comes:

1) Without a keyboard (you can use a PC USB keyboard)
2) Without a mouse (you can use a PC USB mouse)
3) Without a display (there is a DVI->VGA adapter to use a PC display)
4) With an internal sound
5) DVD/CD player and writer; not sure if this one can burn DVDs
6) Built-in wirelress, although there is an Ethernet jack too
7) Looks like it comes with some sort of Intel onboard display; they used to come with a Radeon of some sort but I guess that changed when they went to Intel.

You can argue that it is overpriced. At the same time, looking around EBay it looks like the resale value of them is pretty good due to the demand so even if it is overpriced, you can recover most of that if you ever choose to sell it.



First 5 minutes

/Load up Safari, the OS/X web browser.
/Oh yeah, I remember how much that sucked.
/Downloads FireFox
/Uses Google a few times "osx how to change desktop resolution" etc. etc.

Messing With Getting Quake Ready to Run

Downloads Fruitz of Dojo GLQuake. This is the basic unaltered port of GLQuake. It works well, it's stable.

Tries to mess around with a shareware Quake .sit file (kind of like a zip file). Right clicking it extract it isn't working, wants to open it up in "Text Editor". So I do "Open With" and none of the choices is right and eventually end up using an illegal Quake download zip and extracting the pak files.

Then I have to mess around with creating a folder and moving files. I end up the GLQuake and the id1 folder with pak0.pak and pak1.pak and nothing else. Double-click and start.

Fruitz of Dojo GLQuake

I start it, you get the dialog where you can pick the screen resolution and enter parameters.

GLQuake starts up. Looks washed out like regular GLQuake.

The brightness slider bar does work unlike Windows GLQuake. I set up the keys (being reminded of how terribly organized the key setup screen is in Quake) and type in a couple of settings in the console.

I play for a minute and realize that the mouse feels all wrong just like a lot of other Mac Quake users complain about. I know the solution but don't feel like messing with it right now.

Intel Video ... Again?

I don't feel like I am getting a lot of frames per second. It feels really weak on the fps just like onboard Intel video does on Windows.

I used OS/X a couple of times PRIOR to when Intel switched from PowerPC chips to Intel chips.

Back when they were PowerPC chips, they used ATI Radeon video cards of some sort for the display. I don't recall encountering a low FPS feel, but that's been a couple of years now.

After checking with Google, it looks like this is just them being cheap with the Mac Minis. They have much better video cards in the expensive Macs.

When I say a low FPS feel, I mean I'm getting 60-80 frames per second. Not like 30 fps or 10 fps. And this is standard GLQuake so I can't unlock the FPS. Nor can I easily display it.

SleepWalker's FitzQuake for OS/X

This can be downloaded here and of course it looks a hell of lot better.

The startup dialog asks the resolution, unlike the Windows version of FitzQuake where you can change it in the menu. There isn't a lot of need to change the resolution so I'm sure that would have been too much work for an unnecessary convenience.

I want to check my fps because I wondered about it above and you can do that with FitzQuake by typing scr_showfps 1 in the console. The fps is showing about 72, which is right since I selected 72 Hz in the startup dialog for screen resolution.

Other Stuff

I wanted to check out the ezQuake version for the Mac. I load that up and it feels fine. I notice mouse button #5 works and that makes me happy It also tells me that a porting Qrack or JoeQuake over to the Mac should be doable with a lot of effort.

Did not try the OS/X DarkPlaces or the OS/X ProQuake yet ...

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Wow, $599??? Thats insane. What about memory and disk space?

I knew Mac's was an expensive brand but I never really understood the marketing plans of a company (Apple) which has insanely priced product lineup,with very little 3rd party software/gaming company's support.

Remeber the geeky PC vs cool Mac commercials?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjpn3L3bSJQ <-spoof

I never really understood who the target audience was with the afore mentioned commercial's, but ever since that huuuge laptop Mac commercial with Yao Ming and the "Mini me" on the plane , I've wanted one of those,or a pc/windows based laptop of the same screen size.

Baker im glad your thinking about porting some netquake clients to Mac, there could be a playerbase waiting to be put on tap like beer

[Baker]

Wow, $599??? Thats insane.

I tend to agree, but the resale value is high. I think I could buy at least 2 Windows desktop boxes for that.

At the same time, I think the XBox 360 and Sony PS/3 are rather expensive.

What about memory and disk space?

1 GB memory + 80 GB hard drive.

I knew Mac's was an expensive brand but I never really understood the marketing plans of a company (Apple) which has insanely priced product lineup,with very little 3rd party software/gaming company's support.

Steve Jobs has always known that some people will pay a premium for "designer" products. iPods, iPhones and the Mac notebooks are insanely profitable product lines for Apple.

A lot of design and engineering go into Apple products.

I think Apple succeeds where a lot of companies fail, take their MP3 player and the iPhone for instance, because Steve Jobs looks at products from a total experience point of view. There customer support is also top-notch.

A lot companies don't invest a lot of time and effort thinking about the A-Z experience using a product, the interface, convenience, ease of use, reliability.

Apple *does* manage to do this and make a profit.

For instance, iTunes is popular because the DRM is easily bypassed, always works and it is easy to make a CD and the store is integrated with the player. Meanwhile Microsoft and other companies have probably changed direction 10 times in the last 10 years and fallen flat on their face every time.

Baker im glad your thinking about porting some netquake clients to Mac, there could be a playerbase waiting to be put on tap like beer

Yeah, I think it would be something fun to do and it would make things uniform.

[metchsteekle]

well from what i have had experianced with a mac notebook th reasons i wouldent get one is:

1: the touch pad has only one mouse buttion, wich makes the simplist tasks a hasle [like copying and pasting] but if you have a mouse you can use than your in luck and you dont have to even look at the one mouse buttion failed abortion of a touch pad
2: the desktop setup confuses you for the forst few times, but i guess eventually you can work past that
3: yes sifari [or wutever] sucks more than any program has sucked before
4: i has ... no money
5: the ads for macs have more attacks to pc's than most political ads [and political ads suck, maybe more than sifari]
oh ya and you can't play many games on them [but thats been said]

[Lardarse]

the touch pad has only one mouse buttion, wich makes the simplist tasks a hasle [like copying and pasting] but if you have a mouse you can use than your in luck and you dont have to even look at the one mouse buttion failed abortion of a touch pad

As a recent laptop user (I've had this one for 6 weeks), I have to say that that touchpads are awkward even with 2 mouse buttons. They would probably be awkward even with 3 and a mousewheel. The number of times that typing has failed because the bottom of my thumb has brushed near (not even against, as the touchpad on my laptop seems to act on proximity rather than touch) has registered a click outside of the typing area (or inside another area, which is often worse) has driven me to the point of nearly always using Fn+F3, even on the rare occasions where I'm not using an external mouse.

I also do miss not having a middle button; not just for browsing (new tab, close tab, autoscroll), but also for pasting when in Linux and in GTK apps (X-Chat, Pidgin, and there will probably be others) on Windows.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

indeed I would agree about the A-Z factor, we recently bought a GPX mobile mp3 /video player and its interface is atrocios (spchk?) compared to my kids iPod nano's (4gb version) , which has a uber-slick gui and games availible,which would be awkward due to its touch ring interface and middle button, which is awkward on itself. Pacman should be do-able easily,a classic game.

I've only had one of these lock up, and it was fairly easy finding the solution as well,thanks to the apple support faq.

I had to preform a ton of research to find a video conversion app to utilize the GPX's video capability , and in the end I was so frustrated with the lack of support for the device that after I thought I had found what I needed,I simply put it away and havent picked it up since.

[Baker]

The number of times that typing has failed because the bottom of my thumb has brushed near (not even against, as the touchpad on my laptop seems to act on proximity rather than touch) has registered a click outside of the typing area

I like touchpads but only Hewlett-Packard ones (I love the scrollbar, it's like a fake mousewheel).

Go into the control and disable the touchpad gestures and clicking and your problem will be solved.

I use the touchpad for moving the mouse. I don't even get the people who want to tap the touchpad to act like a click.

[metchsteekle]

uught i forgot about tapping the touchpad part, if i didnt turn that off i woulda broke it by now, everytime i tried to move the mouse from on side of screen to next i would click on somthing i didnt want

ggrrraah just thinking of it makes me mad

and yes the scroll bar is kick ass [even gives you a waring markes on where it is ]

and i beleve on amcs thAT in order to scroll you had to put 2 fingers on the pad, wich is against the rules for most touchpads [aka bad things will happen >.O]

[Mindf!3ldzX]

though I would goodle Mac Mini, and one of the first sites to come up was a wikipedia link, and I thought this to be a bit funny..

The original Mac mini was announced at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 11, 2005, at the same time as the iPod shuffle. Both are scaled-down products which have been introduced at lower price points. They can be seen as a conscious effort on the part of Apple management to target a wider and lower-end market.

They sure fooled me

http://www.crn.com/hardware/198800560 <- MacPro dual quadcore intel xeon 5300 "Clovertown" cpu's is just the starts on the badass out of the box, but once I hit the price of the minimum setup, I got a uneasy stomach and couldnt continue reading haha.

Also as well, these machines are apparently built by order only,and for obvious reasons, you shouldnt spend that much money on a computer regaurdless if its Mac or PC, for the price of a MacPro I could buy a cheap car rofl.

[Baker]

After using the Mac Mini off and on, a few things I really like about it:

1. It isn't a mess of cords like a PC is. The built-in speakers, the built-in wireless and the design keeps this from happening. This is probably my favorite thing about it.

2. At first, I didn't think the built-in wireless would be of any use.

But then realizing that I could just use the wireless instead of plugging in an ethernet cable and get the same internet speed, it makes the placement/location I use it much more convenient.

3. Because it is so small (about the site of a GameCube, really), you can actually take it with you.

The design itself is something I find amazing. It has speakers, an 80 GB hard drive, an "ok" video card, wireless, DVD with CD writing capabilities and all ports you expect and is very small.

By volume, my Windows desktop if it were hollow could fit about 20 of these Mac-Minis inside it.

There are certain things I don't like about the OS X operating system. In particular I do not like the way the cutting, pasting and selection is done and the apparently lack of an ALT-PrintScreen (capture current Window to clipboard) feature but I imagine I'll eventually get used to the keys and there is probably a utility for the current Window to clipboard capture.

What I do like about the operating system:

1. The increased security is very nice. One example is that it requires typing password to install anything. There are some other things. It certainly doesn't overkill like Vista.

2. Apps seem to only live in their own folder and you can just have the app "disk image" around without installing the app. (I've known about that for years).

3. The operating system itself is a lot easier to "keep clean" because of the way it is designed.

And with web browsers being just web browsers today and OpenOffice.org being available for OS X now, a lot of the basics are easily covered.

I can't say I like it as much as Windows XP, but I've quickly grown a lot more fond of it.

[JohnXmas]

the way the cutting, pasting and selection

You basically only have to replace the PC CTRL key with the CMD key on the Mac. Everything else is the same:

The cut - copy - paste and select all, key combos are:
on PC: CTRL+X - CTRL+C - CTRL+V and CTRL+A
on Mac: CMD+X - CMD+X - CMD+V and CMD+A

the apparently lack of an ALT-PrintScreen (capture current Window to clipboard)

CMD+SHIFT+3 = full screen capture to desktop
CMD+SHIFT+4 = mouse cursor turns into capture selection cross - Clic+drag -> capture to desktop
(With Onyx (freeware - 'Settings' menu) you can easily choose among 10 picture formats and set up your preferred default capture name and path)


-> Apple Macintosh keyboard shortcuts basic list <-

- - - - - - -

I'm working with Macs since 1990.
I'm playing with PCs since 2 years.

I played almost everything out there Quake 1 during years on the Mac, but to really enjoy Q1 currently, you need a PC. Hands down.

I also use Safari - with some rare help of Firefox - for my regular internet surf and business.
I'm really happy with it and personnaly think IE sucks.
It's only a matter of taste and knowledge of your tools after all...

[Dreadful]

Damn, he beat me to the punch.

=\

[Baker]

You basically only have to replace the PC CTRL key with the CMD key on the Mac. Everything else is the same:

The cut - copy - paste and select all, key combos are:
on PC: CTRL+X - CTRL+C - CTRL+V and CTRL+A
on Mac: CMD+X - CMD+X - CMD+V and CMD+A

I'm fine with the cut, paste, keys. I actually meant the way that you select text with Windows. For instance, I like holding down shift and pressing home, end, pgup, pgndn etc. I know that on a Mac you press the up arrow as the equivalent of home and the down arrow as the equivalent end.

A nice surprise, OpenOffice.org for the Mac actually uses the Windows method of selecting text.

CMD+SHIFT+3 = full screen capture to desktop
CMD+SHIFT+4 = mouse cursor turns into capture selection cross - Clic+drag -> capture to desktop
(With Onyx (freeware - 'Settings' menu) you can easily choose among 10 picture formats and set up your preferred default capture name and path)

I'll have to look into Onyx. Eventually I'll find a utility that does the equivalent of Windows ALT + PrintScreen which captures the current Window to the clipboard (I've read all the docs and OS X doesn't have this). Saving the pic to the desktop adds extra work in the middle that I don't want.

Btw, the mouse settings utility you once recommended to fix mouse acceleration has proved to be invaluable.

I played almost everything out there Quake 1 during years on the Mac, but to really enjoy Q1 currently, you need a PC. Hands down.

Can you explain this statement further?

Damn, he beat me to the punch.

=\

[Dreadful]

Baker,
Use "Command + Shift + 3" To capture the whole screen. It should save it to your desktop.
If you want to select the field you want to capture, use "Command + Shift + 4"

[JohnXmas]

Baker,

Screencapture to clipboard on Leopard:
CMD+CTRL+SHIFT+3 = full screen
CMD+CTRL+SHIFT+4 = selector tool
Then paste clipboard content image somewhere else (i.e. in a RTF or PSD doc...).

(On previous Mac OS X system, you might hit CMD+ALT+SHIFT+3 or 4 instead)

. . . .

which captures the current Window

What content? A list? a picture?
If you're looking to get perfectly framed windows pics captures, try SnapzPro. The best tool around.

. . .

Quake 1 developpement has ever been alive and of increasing interest on Windows. The result is a wide choice of capable engines, accessibly and easily modifiable to your fun. The graphic rendering has been optimized on most PC engines. Many mods and recent big levels (specific names don't come in mind right now) are simply not playable on Mac engines. Worse, in many mini-mods, you can load and play the map and find yourself trapped inside cause of some non-working trigger. I realised that when I replayed almost all my preferred Quake stuff on the Mac and then on the PC.

Q1 stuff on Mac has always been scarce. Close to the bone engines, barely correctly ported, Fruitz-of-Dojo was the only choice and the MacNehahra engine came in handy several times. DP has always been plagued by bugs and underdevelopped such as Tenebrae. The recent FitzQuake and ProQuake engines are very promising and should interest new gen Mac users.

Me, for one, coundn't resist the lure of a windows game rig.
It's really hard to come back to Quake on the Mac (outside of vanilla Q lan co-op )

I've never tried Quake & Bootcamp. Anybody?
(Sorry for the Mac Mini! )