Apple had a handshake deal with Bungie, until Microsoft bought Bungie and made the Mac exclusive an Xbox exclusive.
It came full circle when Halo CE SE was released as a Mac exclusive on Mac & PC. And it is arguably the best version of the original game on any platform (higher resolution textures without a complete remake, exclusive multiplayer weapons, etc.).
It’s a popular misconception that Halo was intended to be a Mac exclusive when it was revealed. It was going to be released on Mac and PC.
You may know that, but a lot of people think that it was revealed at Macworld because it was exclusive. But it was just a headliner in a statement of “hey, we can play games too!” In fact the literal game they were running on stage was actually running backstage on a PC.
Can you elaborate on CE SE? Is this different from the 2003 Mac port? As far as I’m aware, the port to Mac had lower resolution textures on top of certain rendering issues, poorer AI behaviour etc.
Bungie made games for Mac originally. The 2003 Mac version isn’t a port, It’s the original game. The PC and Xbox versions are the port. That’s why it feels like it’s behind those. Because it literally did have less development time despite coming out later.
They released another Halo for Mac a few years later that I think is the one the other commenter is talking about. It came out around the time of the MacBook Air and as a result is the only game I know of that has an official no-cd patch.
I was not aware of any of those problems. And I played the Mac version. When I had an Xbox, I spent a lot of time looking at textures up close cause the quality was amazing to me. Once I played it on the Mac I instantly noticed how much cleaner and sharper everything was.
It was released during the PowerPC era, and the internet says it works on Intel Mac through Rosetta emulation. That might result in the graphical issues you mentioned. Having to run through Rosetta means Microsoft (or Macport) never issued a patch for native Intel compatibility.
I was wrong about it being Mac exclusive. I though the Windows PC version was a straight port from Xbox, but it’s the same “enhanced” version of the game that Macs got.
If I recall right, the only exlusive weapon was the Flamethrower, but they also added the missile Warthog. Might be forgetting some other weapons though, as I never had the Xbox version.
I had some fun when I was younger modding the demo. The only content stripped out of it were the levels, so there were all these custom versions of the Blood Gulch map floating around with Ghosts and Scorpion tanks, etc.
I liked messing with weapon properties. Had my own temu/wish.com “cursed halo at home” long before it was a real thing.
Sniper rifle fired plasma grenades, and you could do fun stuff like stacking two so the first would throw the second into the air and the trail and explosion made it like a flare.
Shotgun fired a spread of frag grenades instead of bullets, and pushed you backwards a bit.
Pistol was more accurate, slightly faster, much less damage, and pushed whoever got hit back a ton. You could easily juggle someone up into the skybox with it. It pushed vehicles too.
Rocket launcher fired a massive ball of rockets that would lag everything.
Flamethrower fired rockets instead of flames, with a much higher ammo pool, but no other changes. So rocket sprinkler.
Fully charged plasma pistol fired a Scorpion Tank shot. I think the non charged ones homed in to a stupid extent.
Chaingun Warthog fired needler rounds with an increased lifetime.
Assault rifle worked as area denial, setting an area in an orb shape around you on fire.
The plasma cannon thing would spawn a Scorpion tank over your head, crushing you.
I think I turned the needler into a shotgun blast thing, but it still fired needles.
I think I changed the elites’ plasma smg thing to start firing slowly but “rev up” to stupid fast speeds, and then the cooldown hurt your shields?
There was something that would call down a larger version of the plasma cannon projectile from the sky, with a larger explosion radius and a stupid big/strong pushback effect.
Vehicle crashes called the same kind of system as a projectile hitting, so you were effectively “shot” with a vehicle impact “bullet” as a rider if you crashed too hard. Congrats that’s now a frag grenade explosion. That one was shamelessly stolen from a tutorial.
Apple had a handshake deal with Bungie, until Microsoft bought Bungie and made the Mac exclusive an Xbox exclusive.
It came full circle when Halo CE SE was released
as a Mac exclusiveon Mac & PC. And it is arguably the best version of the original game on any platform (higher resolution textures without a complete remake, exclusive multiplayer weapons, etc.).It’s a popular misconception that Halo was intended to be a Mac exclusive when it was revealed. It was going to be released on Mac and PC.
You may know that, but a lot of people think that it was revealed at Macworld because it was exclusive. But it was just a headliner in a statement of “hey, we can play games too!” In fact the literal game they were running on stage was actually running backstage on a PC.
Can you elaborate on CE SE? Is this different from the 2003 Mac port? As far as I’m aware, the port to Mac had lower resolution textures on top of certain rendering issues, poorer AI behaviour etc.
Bungie made games for Mac originally. The 2003 Mac version isn’t a port, It’s the original game. The PC and Xbox versions are the port. That’s why it feels like it’s behind those. Because it literally did have less development time despite coming out later.
They released another Halo for Mac a few years later that I think is the one the other commenter is talking about. It came out around the time of the MacBook Air and as a result is the only game I know of that has an official no-cd patch.
I was not aware of any of those problems. And I played the Mac version. When I had an Xbox, I spent a lot of time looking at textures up close cause the quality was amazing to me. Once I played it on the Mac I instantly noticed how much cleaner and sharper everything was.
It was released during the PowerPC era, and the internet says it works on Intel Mac through Rosetta emulation. That might result in the graphical issues you mentioned. Having to run through Rosetta means Microsoft (or Macport) never issued a patch for native Intel compatibility.
I was wrong about it being Mac exclusive. I though the Windows PC version was a straight port from Xbox, but it’s the same “enhanced” version of the game that Macs got.
If I recall right, the only exlusive weapon was the Flamethrower, but they also added the missile Warthog. Might be forgetting some other weapons though, as I never had the Xbox version.
I had some fun when I was younger modding the demo. The only content stripped out of it were the levels, so there were all these custom versions of the Blood Gulch map floating around with Ghosts and Scorpion tanks, etc.
I liked messing with weapon properties. Had my own temu/wish.com “cursed halo at home” long before it was a real thing.
That’s what I remember at least.