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BSD Operating Systems Businesses Apple

Darwin Gains Some Game Development Steam 17

Posted by timothy from the no-long-white-beard-on-this-darwin dept.
PowerMacDaddy writes: "Apple's Darwin project is gaining momentum. Aside from finally having a mascot and an approved OSI license, Darwin now has some serious programming resources behind it. According to this article over on ZDnet, Monkey Byte CEO Lane Roathe is now heading the development of networking communications tools for Darwin-compatible games. Apparently, Roathe is currently working on versions of NetSprockets and OpenPlay for Darwin. Is it time for Slashdot to add another topic just for Darwin news?"
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Darwin Gains Steam -- And Game Development More

Darwin Gains Steam -- And Game Development

Comments Filter:

  • With the whirlwind of BSD articles and posts on Slashdot, I hardly have any time get any work done.
  • Where you an Apple ][ developer? How about a school district that bought more Apple's after the marketing slogan "Apple ][ Forever" was created?

    No matter if it is old news, Apple *DID* yank the chain of a number of developers *AND* customers. And they havn't been back, and won't be back.

    Just like the OpenDOC developers or Newton Developers won't be back.

    Developer Landscape:
    USe Microsoft, get abused via buggy code/discontinued code, have 90+% marketshare. If they like your idea, they eat you.
    Use Apple, get abused via buggy code/discontinued code, have sub 5% marketshare.
    Use OpenSource, if your frameworke is broken, fix it, if it isn't supported, you can do that too. Have an unknown marketshare.

    As a developer of software, the reward for picking Apple is small marketshare and a history of abuse.
  • Banter about Apple deleted
    Notice how the complaints about Apple are based on failed promises. Look at Microsoft's history....if Microsoft was not raising the expectiations beyond what they do deliver, the level of hatred woudn't be there.

    With Open Source, you have no promise of much of anything. You have HOPES based on past results. Because of the promise/deliver, the ability to move the code to a non-dead platform (newton) or fix the buffer that causes the program to choke when you get larger data amounts.

    I think if you write GNUstep code you have to GPL your code.

    GNUStep is LGPLed the last time I checked.
  • Stuffit isn't Mac only..
  • Ever checked slashdot HTML source? GIFs all over!

  • Also, most people who have Linux have Windows also.

  • I didn't say Mac-only; I said "proprietary [gnu.org]".
  • Yeah, Stuffit is the ubiquitous compressor for Macintosh (I use a Mac; I know). But it wouldn't hurt to use gzip. I don't know much about vector graphics, but I'm sure there's a free/open version they could have used. Or, at least a free-as-in-beer format like PDF or EPSF.
  • uh yes....eps

  • Re:How Apple treats developers. (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Use Open Source, make absolutely nothing on the time you spend

    As opposed the time you spend in, say Access, creating a query that works with the smaller set of test data you are working with, and works on the early rollout, only later to fail when the dataset gets larger. There is no way for you to fix Microsoft's code, so you just 'hope' the problem gets fixed in the future. Yet it never does.

    fixing things because you have to give it back

    Most of the time it is in the best interest of your firm/you to give back your fixes. However, if you feel that you may not want to share or do not like the idea of viral-forced sharing, then you don't pick GPLed code to work with, you pick code with a BSD or other non viral license.

    and have support nightmares because of all the incompatible library versions

    Can we use you as a poster child for why one does not pick an ad-hoc designed system like Linux?

    If you picked, say FreeBSD, the system is designed to be a WHOLE system. Its not a kernel here, userland installed there and someplace else, config files scattered in 10 different places, etc.

    And picking Apple gets you the hardware AND software all designed together.

    distros,

    Some people LIKE 180+ variations. If one picks Darwin or FreeBSD, there is only ONE Darwin and only ONE FreeBSD.

    It is a shame that the media has confused you that Linux == Open Source and you seem to be unaware that Open Source OSes like FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Darwin exist.
  • Today's Apple developer has an out, something they never had before. Darwin and GNUStep. So if Apple slaps the developers about, they can bail to a larger market of Unix running GNUStep.

    Maybe it's just me, but I don't really understand how this is an "out" for developers...

    --

  • Yeah, that sucks. However with a combination of Stuffit for Linux, [aladdinsys.com]ill2svg [sourceforge.net], and Sodipodi [sourceforge.net] you should be able to play with it under linux. In fact, I'm going to give it a try.
  • Am I missing something here, or did anyone else notice that the printable-image files of their mascot [blackholemedia.com] are in proprietary formats [adobe.com] in proprietary compressed archives [stuffit.com]?

  • > I dont understand why apple gets game support and not linux

    Thats an easy one.

    a) there's enough of a critical mass that the average "AA" title will sell 50k units after its ported... maybe more.

    b) stable, well defined target for porting

    c) size of market - Macs are good home machines. They're everywhere. They're visable. People know what a Mac is. The average Linux box isn't rigged for mom & pop or little sister access. Joe Consumer still doesn't understand what Linux is, or what it means to him.

  • Re:How Apple treats developers. (Score:3)

    by melatonin ( 443194 ) on Sunday May 20, 2001 @01:16AM (#223290)
    It's late in the night for me... I'm just bored.

    Apple /// developers and customers were told the platform had a 5 year future. Killed in 2.5 years.

    The Apple /// was killed because the product launch sucked. I don't think the 3 users and 2 developers were crying about it much.

    Apple ][ Forever (yea, right)

    Yeah, right! That thing had an insanely great lifespan; and I can still play Super Puckman on my //e emulator on my G4 :)

    OpenDOC

    OpenDoc. I loved OpenDoc.

    OpenDoc got killed for a variety of reasons.

    • Novell, the company with the septic touch(TM) [mackido.com], promised to port it to Windows. The windows port went to crap.
    • Apple's stock sucked and John C. Dvorak probably said something about Apple's death being nigh.
    • If any idiot with a clue had to choose between shoving two object technologies down developers' throats, or just shoving OpenStep down developers' throats, the idiot would choose OpenStep. They paid $450 million for it.

    Newton

    I loved those things. Never bought one though; too damn expensive. My Palm is pretty cool though. I don't like knocking the Newton, because it was awesome, but I don't need a full-fledged computer in my pocket. I can code lisp on my Palm, what more do I need :)

    You didn't mention QuickDraw GX. I still miss GX. But it died for valid reasons too...

    Apple is a company that creates and promises everything. But you can make money doing that, unless if you're Sony (unfulfillment of promises is made up for by Sony's marketing budget).

    Games aren't dead on OS X or for Apple. It's just not their time to shine yet. It's not the OS's time to shine yet.

    So if Apple slaps the developers about, they can bail to a larger market of Unix running GNUStep.

    I'm a fan of GNUstep, but going that route isn't an out for developers. They'd still make more cash on the Mac platform. Additionally, I think if you write GNUstep code you have to GPL your code.

  • LOL (Score:3)

    by macgames ( 452033 ) on Monday May 14, 2001 @12:57PM (#223291)
    Let me get this straight:

    • - Apple now has some gaming muscle because the OS community is helping them out, even though they they are not doing squat to rebuild their Games SDK? Hello? Apple has grudgingly added DrawSprocket to Carbon support, but hey, where is that video hardware abstraction layer any decent system should boast? Where is your joystick API?

    • - The hype over Roathe's joining of the OP effort is laughable. Roathe was "CEO" of a 3-person company that shipped sub-standard products (read: crap), and after the failure of MBO in the software area the company goes dyslexic and tries to sell Australian outback music over the Internet. Yeah, there's focus for you.

      - Apple couldn't care less about games on their platform. There were some dedicated individuals back in '95 that got the Game Sprockets up and running, but even then getting funding for that team was like pulling teeth (and when the layoffs in '96 hit, Apple chose to axe all but one token engineer on the team). Their product Marketing after Ben Calica left is non-existent. Their "games evangelist" group after after Mark Gavini left spent their days trying to make developers feel good about getting nothing from Apple.

      - Jobs' only "support" for games was to affirm that OpenGL is the king of 3D, acknowledging that people weren't going to switch to QD3D if you paid them.

      - Compare and contrast with Microsoft, who has the common business sense to see that games drive new computer sales, which in turn drives sales of their OS. Apple, OTOH, could rake it in since they could reap both the HW and the OS profits.

    Don't get me wrong, I love the platform and I love working on games for the platform, but don't kid yourself that the state of Mac game development is any better now than it was before, and the addition of Roathe to the OS effort of OpenPlay is not a shot in the arm, it's cutting the arm off at the shoulder if you look at the track record of MBO.

  • How Apple treats developers. (Score:4)

    by mr ( 88570 ) on Monday May 14, 2001 @02:46PM (#223292)
    Think game developers have it bad?

    Apple /// developers and customers were told the platform had a 5 year future. Killed in 2.5 years.

    How about.....
    Apple ][ Forever (yea, right)
    OpenDOC
    Newton

    After a while, you run out of people to upset. Given the way Apple has treated Newton devbelopers, OpenDOC developers, the Apple ][ group, why would you think for your sub 5% market share that Apple would treat you any better?

    Today's Apple developer has an out, something they never had before. Darwin and GNUStep. So if Apple slaps the developers about, they can bail to a larger market of Unix running GNUStep.

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