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Posts tagged with "games"

The Mac mini Excels as a Videogame Emulation System→

Over at Retro Game Corps, Russ Crandall put the new M4 Mac mini through its paces to see how it handled videogame emulation. As Crandall’s video demonstrates, even the base model version of Apple’s tiny Mac did very well:

Crandall walks viewers through the basics of setting up Emulation Station Desktop Edition on a Mac, which serves as a front-end that uses a variety of emulators to play classic systems. It’s not surprising that the M4 mini didn’t break a sweat emulating the oldest systems like Nintendo’s NES and Game Boy. However, it also did well with more modern systems like GameCube, running at six times the native resolution at 4K.

The mini struggled at times with the most modern systems Crandall tested, like Xbox, but the takeaway is clear: the Mac mini is a capable videogame emulation system. That will be true for other M4 Macs, too, but what’s unique about the mini is its size. The computer’s small footprint lends itself to sitting under a TV or pairing with a portable monitor to play games wherever you have the space.

Uses like Crandall’s are what make the Mac mini such a compelling update. It’s always been small, but by shrinking the mini even further and significantly improving its power, Apple has opened up new possibilities for its smallest Mac.

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Apple Announces New Games Coming to Apple Arcade

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple has announced fifteen games coming to Apple Arcade between December 5 and January 9, ranging from all-new titles to App Store games making the jump to Arcade.

Snowman is making another Skate City game dedicated to New York. The original Arcade title takes place in cities around the world, but on January 9, Skate City: New York will take Arcade subscribers on a tour of the Big Apple.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Arcade is getting three Final Fantasy titles too. Apple describes Square Enix’s Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake)+ as:

beautifully revived with updated graphics, and improved gameplay and voice acting for event scenes. The hit fourth game in the iconic FINAL FANTASY series is also the first title to introduce the Active Time Battle system that players have come to love in the franchise.

The game, which will be out on December 9, looks similar to what is available for Windows on Steam. FF IV: The After Years+ will also debut on Arcade December 9.

Then on January 9, Apple Arcade will get Final Fantasy+, which is the first of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games that are currently available as paid upfront games on the App Store and other platforms.

Apple also announced Gears & Goo, a Vision Pro exclusive game by Resolution Games. It’s a colorful tower defense game that plays out in front of you and will release on January 9.

Apple announced the following games, too:

That’s a lot of games for the holiday season with a nice variety that should appeal to a wide audience. I’m looking forward to dipping into a few of these games soon.

iPod Fans Are Trying to Preserve Lost Click Wheel Games→

I last wrote about iPod click wheel games here on MacStories in…2011, when Apple officially delisted them from the iTunes Store. Thirteen years later, some enterprising iPod fans are trying to preserve those games and find a way to let other old-school iPod fans play them today.

Here’s Kyle Orland, writing at Ars Technica:

In recent years, a Reddit user going by the handle Quix used this workaround to amass a local library of 19 clickwheel iPod games and publicly offered to share “copies of these games onto as many iPods as I can.” But Quix’s effort ran into a significant bottleneck of physical access—syncing his game library to a new iPod meant going through the costly and time-consuming process of shipping the device so it could be plugged into Quix’s actual computer and then sending it back to its original owner.

Enter Reddit user Olsro, who earlier this month started the appropriately named iPod Clickwheel Games Preservation Project. Rather than creating his master library of authorized iTunes games on a local computer in his native France, Olsro sought to “build a communitarian virtual machine that anyone can use to sync auth[orized] clickwheel games into their iPod.” While the process doesn’t require shipping, it does necessitate jumping through a few hoops to get the Qemu Virtual Machine running on your local computer.

Olsro’s project is available here, and it includes instructions on how to set up the virtual machine so you can install the games yourself. Did you know that, for example, Square Enix made two iPod games, Crystal Defenders and Song Summoner? Without these fan-made projects, all of these games would be lost to time and link rot – and we unfortunately know why.

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Nintendo Releases a Music App

Nintendo just released a surprise new iOS app: Nintendo Music, a music player that draws on Nintendo’s decades of videogame soundtracks.

The iPhone-only app is an exclusive perk for Nintendo Online members. Once you sign into your account, you’re greeted with a deep catalog of classic Nintendo music. You’ll find old favorites from the biggest titles, but there are also many, many more obscure songs. A prime example is the Globe: Daytime Forecast song from the Wii Forecast Channel. It turns out it’s an excellent tune for writing.

A sampling of some of Nintendo Music's playlists and collections.

A sampling of some of Nintendo Music’s playlists and collections.

There’s a lot here, and I’ve barely scratched the surface, but I’m impressed with how much thought has gone into the app. The app’s design has a lot in common with Apple Music, featuring rows of rectangular and square artwork divided into categories that include:

  • Highlights, which currently displays a playlist called Nintendo Music Selects,
  • Recently Played
  • Top Recommendations
  • Find Your Favorites
  • Character-based collections
  • Mood based playlists
Looping the Wii Forecast Channel soundtrack.

Looping the Wii Forecast Channel soundtrack.

One of the most interesting sections for anyone who likes to work with background music playing is called Extend Your Enjoyment. It includes songs like the Wii Forecast Channel music that you can loop for 15, 30, or 60 minutes.

That’s just the Home tab of Nintendo Music. The two other tabs feature Search and My Music. In addition to the ability to search for a particular title, the section displays songs from the games in your games library, allowing you to extend your obsession with certain games beyond playing them. My Music includes any track or playlist you’ve marked as favorites.

Kirby is such a classic.

Kirby is such a classic.

Songs and playlists can be downloaded for offline playback, AirPlayed to compatible speakers, and shared via the share sheet. Nintendo Music also features full playback controls, queue management, and playlist-building tools, similar to Apple Music.

So, that’s a quick look at Nintendo Music. It’s packed with endless classics to explore and is delightful. I love it, although I’d love to see Nintendo add support for widgets.

Nintendo Music is available as a free download on the App Store but requires a Nintendo Online account.

GameSir G8+ iPad mini and iPhone Controller Walkthrough→

The new iPad mini is the first model with Wi-Fi 6E support, which makes it the best mini for game streaming yet. Of course, it’s a great size for playing App Store and Apple Arcade games too.

Last weekend, I did an in-depth review of the GameSir G8+ for Club MacStories Weekly, which included an early look at the controller and a video walkthrough on the MacStories YouTube channel as a new perk for Club members. The video is now available for everyone to watch here:

For early access to future hardware walkthroughs and the full review, you can join Club MacStories now through November 1st for 20% off all annual plans by using the code CLUB2024 at checkout, as detailed here.

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Pokémon TCG Pocket Launches Early

Pokémon TCG Pocket, originally slated to be released on October 31st, is out now and available to download from the App Store. The free-to-play game from The Pokémon Company recreates the company’s trading cards as a mobile experience, with a focus on collecting and casual battling.

According to the game’s release notes:

  • You can open packs every day to get cards!
    Collect cards every day! You can open two booster packs every day at no cost to collect Pokémon cards featuring heartwarming illustrations from the past as well as all-new cards exclusive to this game.

  • New Pokémon cards!
    Immersive cards, a brand-new kind of card, make their debut here! With new illustrations that have a 3D feel, immersive cards will make you feel like you’ve leapt into the world of the card’s illustration!

  • Show off your collection!
    You can use binders or display boards to showcase your cards and share them with the world!

  • Casual battles—alone or with friends!
    You can enjoy casual battles during quick breaks in your day!

I’ve played through the game’s tutorial, which walks players through how to retrieve packs of cards, explains missions, and tours other parts of the game’s interface. The highlight of the game is the cards themselves, which look beautiful on the iPhone’s screen. Battling is locked at first, as are a few other areas, which I think makes sense given the depth of areas and features that are available to explore initially.

It’s worth noting that there have been many reports on Reddit of the game crashing on launch. I haven’t experienced that, but I know, for example, Brendon Bigley has.

It’s too early to judge whether The Pokémon Company will have a hit on their hands with Pokémon TCG Pocket, but I like what I’ve seen a lot. The game offers a premium subscription and in-game currency, but my early sense is that there’s plenty to do for free, too. If The Pokémon Company can get the game stabilized quickly, I expect it will become a big hit.

Pokémon TCG Pocket is free to download on the App Store and offers In-App Purchases for a premium subscription and in-game currency.

Developers Demonstrate AAA Windows Gaming on M1 and M2 Macs Using Linux→

Yesterday, developer Alyssa Rosenzweig gave a talk at the XDC conference in Montréal, Canada about gaming on Asahi Linux installed on M1 and M2 Apple silicon-based Macs. According to GamingOnLinux:

They announced their “Asahi game playing toolkit” which brings together their Vulkan 1.3 graphics driver with, and x86 emulation with Windows game compatibility. It’s all still “Alpha” level quality, but good enough to run some AAA games now. Unlike Apple’s own macOS, Asahi Linux has the only conformant OpenGL®, OpenCL™, and Vulkan® drivers for this hardware (as Apple focus on their own API - Metal).

With Asahi Linux installed on your Mac and at least 16GB of memory to handle emulation overhead, Rosenzweig explained that demanding games like Control, Fallout 4, and Cyberpunk 2077 are all playable. That said, it’s still early days for the Ashahi game-playing toolkit, with more work to be done to support more modern AAA Windows games running at 60fps.

Still, what Rosenzweig and other contributors to the project have achieved is impressive, with more details available on Rosenzweig’s website. It’s also heartening to see developers coming up with solutions that work with commonly-used Windows graphics APIs instead of waiting for game developers to adopt Apple’s Metal framework.

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New Items and Deals on Federico’s Desk Setup→

It’s been a few months, which is why it’s once again time for a setup update. This time, Federico has added several items to his desk setup. Below, you’ll find a selection of top picks from the changes he’s made, but be sure to visit the Setups page to see everything he’s currently using.

For those who have already spent time on the Setups page, welcome back. There’s a handy changelog at the top of the page just for you, with a list of everything added and removed, so you don’t have to go searching for each item.

Also, because today and tomorrow are Amazon Big Deals Days, I’ve highlighted the items on Federico’s setup list that are currently available at steep discounts on Amazon.

Changes to Federico Viticci’s Desk Setup

Part of the story of Federico’s latest setup changes is that he’s re-added a few key components that were previously removed:

But there are plenty of new items in Federico’s setup, too. The 11” M4 iPad Pro with a nano texture display and AirPods 4 are the two big Apple additions. For NPC: Next Portable Console, Federico got a white low-profile microphone arm, which looks great on the video version of the show and is currently 20% off. If you’ve listened to the latest episode of NPC, you know why he also added a Samsung 990 Pro SSD with a heat sink, which is currently 42% off on Amazon. That SSD was used to mod his Lenovo Legion Go (22% off on Amazon), for which he’s also added a Mechanism gaming pillow and universal grips.

Other additions include:

That’s it for the time being for our setups. I’ll also be back soon with updates on what I’ve been using for work and play.

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Balatro+ Is Coming to Apple Arcade on September 26th

Balatro+. Source: Apple.

Balatro+. Source: Apple.

Earlier today, Apple announced several new and updated games are coming to Arcade, including one of my favorites of 2024: Balatro. Balatro is a roguelike deck-builder that mixes the familiarity of poker with special joker and other cards for combos that result in an incredibly fun roller coaster ride that’s hard to put down.

The game was originally released earlier this year on consoles and PC, but the potential for a mobile version was immediately obvious. My and many others’ wish for an iOS version of Balatro will come true on September 26th as part of the Apple Arcade service with Balatro+, which will also be available on the iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro.

Other notable Arcade announcements today include NFL Retro Bowl ‘25 and Monster Train+, which are out today along with Puzzle Sculpt, a spatial puzzle game for the Apple Vision Pro. NBA 2K is returning with NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition on October 6th, too.

Of all these games, though, I’m mostly excited about Balatro+. We’ve discussed this on NPC and elsewhere many times, but this is exactly the sort of game that Apple Arcade needs. There’s plenty of room for variety on Apple Arcade, but for a while, it’s felt like the artistic, indie corner of the catalog has been in decline. Balatro+ is just one game, but it’s an important one that many consider a contender for ‘Game of the Year,’ so I’m very happy to see it on Arcade.