From April onwards Mac-users will be able to use Valve's Steam platform natively on OS X. Using Steam on OS X was possible before by using Wine but compatibility was varying. Wine is a set of open source Windows Libraries ported over to Linux/OS X allowing Windows applications and games to run natively within the Linux/OS X environment. Together with the appearance of a Native OS X Steam variant the recently announced Portal-2 will appear on Steam simultaneously in both PC- and OS X flavors.

Here's the latest Matt Chat, this time with rockstar designer John Romero!

In a surprise to no one, Apple announced the iPad, their long rumored and hoped for tablet-style device. Despite being saddled with what in my opinion is the worst name for a new product since the Wii, it will surely be lapped up by Apple fans. Unlike the Wii, though, I don't think the name will eventually become catchy or memorable, particularly since a single letter separates it from Apple's own iPod. Basically an upsized iPhone and compatible with all existing apps for that platform, the major revelation thus far about the new device is the companion iBooks store, which I imagine would be a subset of iTunes. While iBooks is an important step for the eReader market and digital books in general - shockingly Apple is supporting the industry's ePub standard - it remains to be seen even with a no doubt beautiful 10inch color screen whether it will have any of the gentle-to-the-eye qualities of eInk displays. (Owners of recent gen eBook readers will know what I'm talking about, i.e., eInk is as paper like as we have at this point, and it's a huge distinction for electronic reading from traditional displays.)

As both an iPhone 3G owner and an enthusiast of and user of graphics tablets (a Gateway Tablet PC is my primary personal laptop these days), I'll be curious if there is any stylus support, as that would make this device much more useful for sketching and note taking than standard finger input. If it's missing that feature AND it has a high price tag, I fail to see the niche such a device could ultimately fill, particularly with netbooks being fully functional mini computers with keyboards and similar 10 hour battery life.

Further news, updates and discussions will take place in the comments to this blog post. Let us know what YOU think!

I'll be doing a review of both teh internets - Attack of the Memes and classic CRPG remake, Sword of Fargoal, for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch soon, and the rest of the Armchair Arcade team will be doing special feature(s) TBA in conjunction with Sword of Fargoal creator and legendary programmer Jeff McCord, but for now I just wanted to give a heads-up that teh internets - Attack of the Memes is in Apple's "Hot New Games" section of iTunes and Sword of Fargoal was quickly approved after author submittal and is now available. If you can't wait for the reviews/features, now is a great time to snatch these games up.

Today I received a package in the mail, it was send to me by Apple and it contained my 29 euro Snow Leopard update. Which is dead cheap when you compare it to the regular 129 euro / dollar OS X upgrade Apple was charging consumers in the past.

The Leopard OS was the last OS to support PPC machines and Snow Leopard is x86/intel only.

Rosetta wasn't installed by default and I had to select it manually as I do have some older PPC software I am still using. The only thing not working was Crossover Games the rest does function without any problems.

The install went very smoothly and the new OS feels a lot quicker. Safari is much snappier.
The experience - and increase in user response time - compares to changing over from Windows Vista to Windows 7.

I say, if you own an intel Mac it may be very worth installing the Snow Leopard OS X !

Today's casual photos, again taken with the Panasonic digital camera, are Kriya Systems, Inc.'s Typing Tutor III (1984) from Simon & Schuster for the Apple Macintosh, and three cartridges for the first ever programmable videogame system (i.e., utilizing interchangeable cartridges), the 1976 Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES), later known as the Fairchild Channel F after the release of the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) in 1977. In fact, after the name change, Fairchild would come to pull out of the market entirely and Zircon would assume rights to the platform, which limped its way into the bargain bins of the early 1980s.

Today's casual photos (bit higher quality than usual, with my Panasonic digital camera), shown below, are two rare Apple Macintosh RPG's from 1989, Xor's TaskMaker (original version) and Postcraft's Citadel: Adventure of the CRYSTAL KEEP. The classic Macintosh platform is not known for its RPGs, and stand outs on the platform have been few and far between. Some of the others I own are rare and generally highly sought after, including Legends of the Lost Realm, a multi-character role playing game from Avalon Hill (1988; I don't have the sequel, which uses the same box, just with a small sticker on it to distinguish it), and the classic, Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth (1988, Infocom), which was originally released by Simulated Environment Systems in 1987 as simply Quarterstaff before Infocom's acquisition, and is considered one of the few authentic pen and paper-style RPGs in videogame form. Photos below:

Today's casual photos (shown below), this time taken with my Canon camera, is of Eric Knopp's Orbitron, published by Sirius software for the Apple II in 1981. The game was written in Assembly Language (versus the less professional BASIC) and required a 48K Apple II or II+, which was somewhat hefty for the time. The game's graphics were drawn using Sirius's E-Z Draw, first published in 1980. As you can see, this came in packaging not only common to Sirius at the time, but also the industry at large, in this case a small cardboard folder in shrinkwrap (the other common variety being a small cardboard folder or insert in a plastic zipper bag). The instructions, which aren't shown, are actually on the interior of the folder. I didn't want to remove what is most likely the original shrinkwrap, even though it's damaged. I'll likely transfer this to a plastic zipper bag for even more protection (and hey, that's still fairly authentic).

Anyway, as for Orbitron itself, you can play it yourself in your browser, here. It's a noisy, challenging and fairly fun game of essentially shooting through a series of rotating shields. Use the 1 and 2 keys to rotate your ship and the spacebar to fire. Enjoy!

Today's casual iPhone photos are of the boxes for SubLOGIC's Flight Simulator II, by Bruce Artwick and Matt Toschlog for the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 3, and Activision's Aliens: The Computer Game by Steve Cartwright, among others, for the Apple II. We of course had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Cartwright along with David Crane for the upcoming feature film documentary, Woot!: The Videogame Revolution. The photos: