Apple has released a Graphics Update for Snow Leopard, and this is particularly good news to Mac gamers. Remember those pesky Starcraft 2 crashes I wrote about two weeks ago? This update specifically addresses some of the problems with Starcraft 2 for Mac as well as other issues with Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Aperture 3.

If you are a Mac gamer it is highly recommended to install this update. You can download the graphics update through the Software Update control panel, accessed through the Apple menu.

Here are the release notes from Apple:

The Snow Leopard Graphics Update contains stability and performance fixes for graphics applications and games:

Addresses frame rate issues occurring in Portal and Team Fortress 2 by Valve, on iMac (Late 2009 and Mid 2010), Mac mini (Early 2009 and Mid 2010), Mac Pro (Early 2009), MacBook (Early 2009 and Mid 2010) and MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) or MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) models.

Resolves an issue that could cause Aperture 3, or StarCraft II by Blizzard, to unexpectedly quit or become unresponsive.

Resolves an image corruption issue that may occur when disconnecting and reconnecting external displays while the system is running.

The hardware and software affected by this performance update are the following: MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009), MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010), MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010), iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009), Mac Pro (Early 2009), Mac mini (Early 2009), Mac OS X 10.6.4, Mac mini (Mid 2010), iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010), iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010), MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010), Portal, StarCraft II, Team Fortress 2

It’s no secret that I’m basically a Starcraft 2 addict, whether it’s multiplayer or singleplayer doesn’t even matter I just love playing the game. Of course it’s also fun to get a little extra help in the form of some cheat codes, so here is the complete list for SC2. These cheat codes work for either PC or Mac versions of Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2 Cheat Codes

You activate the cheat codes within Starcraft 2 by hitting the Enter or Return key and then typing the cheat and hitting return/enter again to enable it. You will get a notification saying the cheat is active and letting you know that achievements are disabled (see note below).

• God Mode – terribleterribledamage
• Create Units at No Cost – moredotsmoredots
• 5 Billion Credits – whysoserious
• 5000 Vespene Gas – realmendrilldeep
• Unlimited Energy – jaynestown
• Upgrade Weapons, Armor, and Shields – iamironman
• Disable Ability Cooldown – hansshotfirst
• Disable Tech Requirements – sosayweall
• Disable Victory Conditions – tyushasleftthegame
• Play “Terran up the Night” Song – overengineeredcodpiece
• Cinematics Menu – eyesofsauron

Remember that cheats only work in Single Player, either in Custom Games, Tutorial, Campaign, or any other Single Player mode.

Starcraft 2 Cheats Disable Achievements

This is very important to note; if you use cheat codes in Starcraft 2 you will lose your ability to earn achievements while the cheat is activated for that game. This is the message you will see:

“CHEAT PlayerName Achievements have been disabled due to cheat usage. To enable achievements again, start a new game or load a saved game.”

You then need to either start a new game or load a previously saved game to get achievement unlocking back again.

The cinematics cheat can cause Starcraft 2 clients to randomly crash which is likely part of the wider bugs but the framerate cap listed on the Starcraft 2 bugs and fixes page seems to help.

Alright gamers, fire up iTunes and the App Store because for a limited time the Civilization for iPhone app is free. No this isn’t the trial lite version, it’s the full Civilization Revolution, which usually sells for $6.99. The game is being given away for free courtesy of the FreeAppADay program, but there’s nothing to sign up to get the game.

You can grab the 80 MB download of Civilization Revolution from the iTunes Store or the App Store client on your iPhone but the deal is expected to expire by tomorrow.

Civilization Revolution is the iPhone version of the Sid Meier Civilization dynasty, where the objective is to build an empire, discover the in-game world, and conquer all to eventually rule the world. It’s a really fun turn-based strategy game and well worth a download even at $6.99, so being free is an absolute steal and comes highly recommended.

I’m always looking for good mobile games and Civilization Revolution fits the bill well when I’m (temporarily) pulled away from my current addiction of Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2 has been out for about a week now and since launch date my life has basically revolved around the game (I’m a nerd, I know). The game is an absolute blast and you should buy it if you like real time strategy games. Now all that said, it’s not without problems. Despite a lengthy beta testing period, there are still some pretty annoying bugs and crashes in SC2, particularly for Mac users who have NVidia hardware.

Here is the known problem list for the Starcraft 2 Mac client, and more importantly some potential fixes for the problems:

* No user interface or menus – if you are missing user interface elements, try quitting and restarting the game, or do a full system restart

* Random crashes with Mac OS X 10.6.4 and NVidia graphics hardware – no current workarounds, Blizzard is aware of the problem and working on it – Update: some of the random crashes have been fixed with the Snow Leopard Graphics Update, it is highly recommended you install this update!

* NVidia hardware dramatically underperforms in Mac OS X – potential driver issue, reduce graphics settings to lower settings until a fix is released

* Mac OS X underperforms compared to Windows on the same hardware – similar to the above problem, there is speculation this is a Mac OS X video driver problem. The extent of the performance hit varies from system to system, further suggesting it’s related to video drivers. Lower graphics settings for the time being, or run the game in bootcamp.

* MacBook Pro overheats and game stutters in gameplay and cutscenes – possibly related to above graphics driver problems, some users report adding the following two lines to their variable file helpful (variables is located at ~/Documents/Blizzard/Starcraft II/variables.txt):

frameratecap=40
frameratecapGlue=30

This forces your frame rates to cap at a consistent level, some hardware is overworking when it doesn’t need to be thus sending your MacBook Pro into a ridiculously hot CPU eating festival with itself and crash city. This actually works on other hardware too if it’s overheating during cutscenes and videos.

* Black screen on startup but sound plays anyway – switch from fullscreen to windowed mode (Command+M), or do a system reboot

* Huge performance hit when using USB Headset with some NVidia hardware (GeForce 9400M in particular) – unplug the USB headset for now, Blizzard is working on a fix

* Mouse gets stuck off screen in dual monitor setups – if this happens, switch to windowed mode (Command+M) and back into full screen mode, usually your mouse will be released

* Starcraft 2 crashes, fails, or freezes when trying to download/install patch update – known problem, the cause is thought to be users having a case-sensitive file system. There is no current fix but a workaround is to install Starcraft 2 onto a newly created disk image. You can create a disk image with the Disk Utility tool, located in /Applications/Utilities. Create a New Image onto the Desktop that is about 16GB and install Starcraft 2 directly into this disk image – some users have reported success just copying their current Starcraft 2 install into that folder and deleting the original installation. Be sure to launch Starcraft 2 client from the disk image.

* Incompatibilities with LittleSnitch, AppCleaner, FileVault, and PeerGuardian – these apps are known to cause problems with the Mac Starcraft 2 client, ranging from inability to connect to Battle Net to a patch installation loop. Current workaround is to disable these applications if they are running on your Mac.

* Patches won’t download, Starcraft 2 won’t connect to BattleNet – check for aforementioned problems and applications running, if the patches still do not download or you can’t connect to battlenet it’s possible the proper ports are not open on your network/router. The following ports need to be open: 3724, 1119, and 1120

This is part of the official known Mac problem list from Blizzard, hopefully we’ll get an update soon to patch up the serious bugs and performance issues.

You can test your own game performance by showing frames per second within Starcraft 2, just hit Option+Control+F while anywhere in the game and a framerate counter will appear in the upper left corner.

Even though the Mac system requirements for Starcraft 2 are relatively low, they should not be counted on at this point due to the above problems. Even some of the best hardware is underperforming in Mac OS X. If you want the game to perform it’s absolute best, carefully watch the frame rate in response to graphics changes, and have things like “Shaders”, “Shadows”, and “Lighting” set to Low and “Reflections” set to Off, although you can generally have the resolution native and game textures medium to high and still retain decent performance.

Update: Apple has released the Snow Leopard Graphics Update – this is HIGHLY recommended to install as it should help some of the crashes and problems.

Update: Apple has seeded a ‘Snow Leopard Graphics Update’ to developers:

The Snow Leopard Graphics UPdate contains general fixes that enhance the stability and reliability of graphics applications and games.

MacRumors reports that “While the exact focus of the update in testing is unclear, it appears from the areas in which developers are being asked to focus their testing that it addresses several aspects of graphics performance including VRAM utilization and hot-plugging and wake-from-sleep issues.”

Hopefully this will solve some of the Starcraft 2 graphics problems with the Mac client!

Starcraft 2 is out and it’s pretty much eating all my free time at the moment. I’m still in the process of tweaking my graphics settings for optimum performance, and the easiest way to benchmark Starcraft 2 performance on machines is to check the FPS (frames per second). Here’s how to do that on both a Mac and Windows SC2 install:

Check Starcraft 2 FPS on Mac

To check the frame rate on a Mac, while you are in a game hit: Control+Option+F

Show Starcraft 2 FPS on Windows

Checking FPS in Windows is basically the same key command, in SC2 hit: Control+Alt+F

On either operating system, once you hit the command to display frame rate, the FPS counter will show in the upper left corner and look like so:

If you’re wondering how well SC2 will run on your machine, check out the Starcraft 2 system requirements for Mac. Later I will post some preliminary findings on how well the game runs on a few different Mac setups.

If you’re a fan of Blizzard and real time strategy games and you haven’t gotten this one yet, you can order Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty on Amazon.com and get free shipping. I love RTS games, and I can say it’s definitely worth it.

RTS fans around the world are having a party today; Starcraft 2 is out for both Mac and Windows, and you can download the game now directly from Blizzard or pick it up from various retailers. The game costs $60 regardless of whether you get the digital distribution/download or if you opt for the physical box.

For a completely digital release, you can get the game directly from Battlenet and Blizzard:
Download & Buy Starcraft 2 from Blizzard

If you’d like to have a physical box, install DVD, and manual, you can get the game with free shipping from Amazon:
Buy Starcraft 2 on Amazon.com

Be sure to check the Starcraft 2 system requirements for Mac before getting the game.

Is it just me or do some of the scenes in Starcraft 2 look like they’re right out of Avatar?

The countdown to the Starcraft 2 release date closes in, July 27 is less than a week away and it’ll be available for Mac and PC users. This is really exciting for RTS fans like myself, and I’m especially happy that Blizzard is going for a concurrent release for both Windows and Mac OS platforms. Be sure that you meet the Starcraft 2 system requirements for Mac so that you can enjoy the game, they’re pretty reasonable so most people who bought a Mac over the last couple of years should have no problem running the game.

You can pre-order Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty on Amazon for $60.

These are the Mac system requirements for running Starcraft 2:

Minimum Starcraft 2 System Requirements for Mac

These are the baseline specs that you’ll need to run the game, if you are near the lower end of the settings here you probably won’t have great performance.

• Mac OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer
• Intel Processor
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT or ATI Radeon X1600 or better
• 12 GB available disk space
• 1 GB RAM (2 GB highly recommended)
• DVD drive
• Broadband Internet connection
• 1024X768 minimum screen display resolution

Recommended Starcraft 2 System Requirements for Mac

In addition to the system specs above like available disk space and an internet connection, to run Starcraft 2 the best on your Mac these are the recommended specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 4 GB system RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT or ATI Radeon HD 4670 or better

Obviously the better and newer your Mac, the better Starcraft II will perform on it.

You can order Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty on Amazon.com.

The Nintendo 64 was another great console that had many great games, and you can relive many of the gaming experiences of the N64 by getting an emulator for Mac OS X. The N64 Emulator I use in Mac OS X is called SixtyForce, it opens and plays N64 ROM’s quite well and allows you to run the games at full screen or in windowed mode, customize your controls to use either a keyboard or USB gamepad, and more.

You can download SixtyForce for free at sixtyforce.com but you’ll have to get game ROM files elsewhere.

SixtyForce isn’t as full featured as some of the other emulators out there in the Windows world, but as far as I know it’s the best option for emulating the Nintendo 64 console natively in Mac OS X.

Do you love emulators too? In case you didn’t notice, we’re pretty big fans of emulators and the older game consoles around here. Here’s some of the other ones we’ve covered in the past:

PS2 Emulator for Mac – PCSX2 is the best PS2 emulator for Mac OS X that I’ve seen so far, it’s not perfect but it works.

Nintendo DS Emulator – Play Nintendo DS games in Mac OS X. Biggest downside is that it doesn’t support full-screen mode (yet at least).

SNES Emulator for Mac OS – SNES is my favorite console of all time, and SNES9x is arguably the best emulator for Mac OS X ever.

SNES9x is a full featured SNES emulator for Mac that lets you do all sorts of things, including using an external game pad, customized controls, enter cheat codes and Game Genie codes directly into the game, create freeze states (ie: saving anytime anywhere), export movies of gameplay, and so much more.

It’s been out a while, but I just wrote about playing SNES on the iPad and realized that we’ve never covered the very SNES emulator for Mac that I mentioned in that article: SNES9x. Yes, there are other SNES emulators for Mac but I always find myself returning to SNES9x, I never have a problem with it and I’ve been able to play through games completely without a crash. In my opinion, it’s the most developed SNES emulator for the Mac platform, if there is a better one I haven’t found it yet.

Downloading the SNES Emulator for Mac

SNES9x is open sourced and a free download but it’s nowhere to be found on the official developers homepage so you usually have to Google around to find a download link. At the moment, Softpedia download works for SNES9x 1.52 and this link works to download SNES9x 1.43 but these may change and you may be forced back to Google around for the package. The version I am using is 1.52 and was released this year, it works flawlessly in Mac OS X 10.6.4.

Playing SNES Games on the Mac

Now that you’ve downloaded SNES9x, you’ll need ROM files of the games to actually play SNES on your Mac. Playing the ROM files is simple, you just double click the .smc and it will launch automatically into SNES9x.

Downloading and Playing SNES ROM Files

Many ROMs are available to download without issue and these are called abandonware, but some ROM’s are considered a legal grey area; some people say it is straight piracy to download ROMS, others argue that if you bought and owned the SNES games a long time ago you should still have the legal right to play them in whatever form today, and of course there are others who say they’re ancient games so it shouldn’t matter anyway. This is made even more complex due to the various copyrights that may or may not exist for the games themselves. Due to this ambiguous nature and various copyrights, you should probably just Google around for specific ROM files and check the copyright yourself, they are generally really easy to find and many games belong to the public domain.

I always end up playing games that are either not controversial (aka Abandonware) or that I owned before anyway so I don’t have any moral dilemma with ROMs, but that’s me, and by no means am I an expert on ROM copyright or rights usage. Do your own research and enjoy playing SNES on your Mac!

Farmville for iPhone is now available as a free download on the iTunes Store. Farmville is considered the most popular game on the web, and one of the most popular games in the world, with an estimated 70 million monthly users.

The basis of the game is that you have a virtual farm that you plow, plant, and harvest farm goods, and those that play the game say it is very addictive. Bringing Farmville as an app to the iPhone will certainly serve this addiction, I have several friends who are absolutely thrilled with the fact they can now literally play the game constantly since it’ll be in their pockets and not just on Facebook.

Of course you’ll be able to run Farmville on your iPod touch or even iPad if you just can’t get enough of the game. The fact that it’s on the iPhone is pretty significant though because prior web based versions ran in Flash which made it impossible to bring to the iPhone platform.

You can get Farmville on the iPhone through the iTunes Store [iTunes Store link] if you’re interested, or just launch your iPhone/iPod touch and head into the App Store, where you’ll find it.

Counter-Strike Source (CSS) was released today for Mac users via the Steam client. Dubbed as the “Worlds #1 Online Action Game”, Counter-Strike features highly competitive multiplayer and team-play shoot-em-up action. Fire up the Steam app and you can download Counter Strike right now for $6.80, which is 66% off it’s standard $20 price tag.

The newer your computer the better CSS will run, but official system requirements to run Counter Strike on your Mac are as follows: OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, or ATI X1600 or higher, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection.

You can see more screenshots and get more information about Counter Strike for Mac at the Steam Store.

The wait is over, Team Fortress 2 has been released for Mac OS X. Often called TF2, Team Fortress 2 is a fun multiplayer first person shooter that has cartoony graphics and fast paced gameplay.

TF2 System Requirements

The system requirements to run Team Fortress 2 are similar to other Steam games; Intel processors only, newer versions of Mac OS X, and a decent video card. Obviously the better your Mac the better the game will run. Read on for some tips you can use to improve the performance of TF2 in Mac OS X (the tips work for Windows versions too btw).

TF2 Performance Tips & Tweaks for Mac

If Team Fortress 2 performance is a little slow on your Mac (either lagging graphics or low FPS rating), give these tips a try:

• Turn off Anti-Aliasing (AA) support – this typically gives the biggest frame rate boost
• Disable HDR (high dynamic range) in graphics options
• Change graphics settings to Low or Off
• Lower the game resolution to a setting below your displays capability
• Update to the most recent version/patches
• Restart Team Fortress 2

Performance reviews of Team Fortress 2 on a Mac have been mixed so far, while some gamers say the app runs great, other users are reporting choppiness, general bugs, lagged network play, and lower frame rates than they’d expect. Much of these problems are likely the result of growing pains, as this is the first version of TF2 to show up on the Mac platform. It’s safe to assume that most of these complaints will be ironed out in update patches released over the coming weeks as Valve refines the Mac user experience, so hang in there if you’re experiencing anything unusual!

Release announcement

Valve was a day late on the release (not that they ever set a definitive date for TF2 for Mac), the protocol had been that every Wednesday a new Steam game is available for Mac gamers to download. I don’t hear anyone complaining though, everyone is just excited to get their hands on the fun filled FPS.

The announcement came on June 9 in a peculiar manner from Valve’s TF2 blog:

Big things are happening RIGHT NOW at Valve. Things involving cultivated tree-fruit. BIG things. Things that rhyme with “grapple.” Things that rhyme with “Speem Gortress zmavailable on the Babac.”

Not today. But tomorrow. BIG THINGS. Stay tuned…

Obviously cultivated tree fruit rhyming with ‘grapple’ is Apple, and this is indeed pretty big news for Mac gamers. TF2 has been a big hit in the Windows world, and now Mac users will get to join in the multiplayer fun. So when you launch Steam you’ll be able to download the Mac TF2 client, awesome huh?

Here’s a screenshot of Team Fortress 2 in the Mac section of Steam:

For a limited time the price is $9.99, or you can get it as part of the larger Orange Box for $29.99. The game was actually free to play until June 14th, and you’ll get a free set of in-game earbuds as well (not sure how that works exactly).

You might be asking yourself, what’s mouse acceleration? Essentially mouse acceleration is an algorithm that is deployed in an attempt to make mouse movements feel “natural”.  For many PC users, when you first use a Mac, it becomes quite obvious that the mouse is behaving very differently.  It will feel sluggish, unpredictable and unresponsive (to varying degrees depending on the user).  This type of acceleration “curve” (as they call it) is useful when using a trackpad device, but very problematic when using a “high performance” mouse such as a logitech gaming mouse.  I was recently reminded of how problematic the OS X acceleration curve can be while playing the recently released (for the mac) Half-Life 2.  Trying to navigate a first person shooter while mouse acceleration is enabled is a nightmare!

Rather than paying for a shareware application that does the same thing, try out this free command line utility.

In your terminal:
macpro:~ user$ curl -O http://ktwit.net/code/killmouseaccel
macpro:~ user$ chmod +x killmouseaccel
macpro:~ user$ ./killmouseaccel mouse

Voila. You have freed your cursor from the chains of a bad acceleration curve! If you would like to return to the old and sluggish mouse: open your system preferences, go to the mouse section and click on the “Tracking” slider. If you aren’t convinced it’s back to normal, just reboot.

You can read more about mouse acceleration including some other ways to adjust it.

The popular first-person shooter/action game Half-Life 2 is now available for Mac OS X. At the moment it costs $6.99, which is 30% off the regular $10 price. The expansions of Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two are also available to download for $5.99 each.

System requirements for running Half Life 2 on your Mac are pretty similar to other Steam games:
* Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.6.3 or later
* 1GB of RAM
* NVidia GeForce 8, ATI X1600, or better
* Mouse, keyboard, internet connection

You can check out Half-Life 2 at the Steam store and download it from the Steam client. If you’re a fan of the Half-Life 2 series and Team Fortress 2, it’s worth getting the Orange Box set which includes the expansions and Portal, although TF2 isn’t released for the Mac yet (Steam says “Coming soon”).