Pippin

I was thinking about the Macintosh situation lately.

There are bugger all games for it.

They've got the main big names there.

Everything from The Sims seems to have made it to Mac.

World of Warcraft is there, but I'm a Guild Wars player and my WoW alternative hasn't made it to Mac yet.

StarWars Jedi Academy, Doom3, Quake4, Age of Empires III, Civilization IV and Tiger Woods 2005 are all there in the Apple Store.

But the pickings are slim.

If EB Games were to only stock these few games, they'd be out of business real fast.

What Apple have on their stock list are some of the biggest games of all time.

But some of my favourites are missing.

Games like The Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion or, indeed, Operation Flashpoint for example.

No real biggie though, Macs run Windows now, so when I get a Mac I can still get lost in Oblivion from time to time.

But the whole idea of buying a Mac is to climb out of our Windows.

So I thought to myself.

"Self," I thought.

Because that's what I call myself.

"Self, why don't Apple make a games console."

Microsoft successfully built and marketed the Xbox, why can't Apple do that.

The Xbox runs a cut-down version of Windows so Apple's console would be able to run a custom version of OSX.

That's what the iPhone uses.

They practically make consoles anyway!

Most of their computers are built as sealed units with minimal or no user-serviceable parts so games developers have standard hardware to write for.

That's the attraction with consoles, so why haven't they started doing this yet?

I searched Google for Apple Games Console to see if anyone in the world has already had this brilliant idea.

Google told me Wiki had a whole page on the subject.

Wiki told me that Apple did in fact build a games console and it was called Apple Pippin.

It was released in 1995 in Japan and 1996 in the US and in my opinion, looked like an Xbox.

Heh, can't Microsoft think of anything themselves?

At the bottom of the Wiki page, I found a link to another site that had a complete listing of every game ever made for the Pippin.

All twenty-two of them.

A little reference check allows me to clear Steve Job's name of this abomination.

Jobs was relieved from his position at Apple in 1985 and came back in 1997 so he had nothing to do with this...Pippin.

So come on Apple.

You have created AppleTV and iPhone, both of which run OSX, so where are the games?

Put a decent graphics chip in the Mac Mini and get some games for it.

A games console that does everything a Mac does.

What are you waiting for?

Well, they're not waiting.

Games are not going to appear for Mac overnight.

Games have to be developed and ported and rewritten.

EA, one of the biggest names in the Games Industry and just released four new titles for the Mac.

Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed Carbon, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars for Mac are now available to order.

So?

So!

EA have never made games for the Mac.

Ever!

And since 20th of August 2007, they are.

Do you think Microsoft are worried?

I reckon!