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G3/500 Ok for Mac development?

by Ed Averill · in Torque Game Engine · 08/18/2006 (10:08 am) · 4 replies

Ok, I'm considering trying to move one of the games I'm working on over to the Mac.. problem is I'm not rich and can't afford a fancy new machine!

I have a Pismo powerbook (G3/500) that runs OSX well enough to be functional (lol). It needs more RAM (only has 256M right now) but is otherwise reasonable.. for what I use it for..

Is that machine powerful enough to compile and run a simple TGB/TGE game? I don't care if it takes hours to compile, just that it eventually will and that I can run the resulting executable.

Comments and insights welcome, I'm new to the whole Mac development thing...
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Torque Owner Ed Averill

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Programmer, writer, game developer. Born in Florida, lived all over the U.S. Now in Austin, TX!

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    Associate James Urquhart
    #1
    08/18/2006 (10:18 am)
    Ed,

    Considering the mac platform is going intel, i would not recommend limiting yourself to a G3 for development. Also take into consideration whether or not you are using the latest version of Mac OS X (tiger).

    When i compiled Torque on my PPC Mac Mini, it seemed slow (especially when compared to my pc using visual c++), so i cannot begin to imagine how much slower it would be on a 500mhz G3 with 256mb ram. By contrast, my Macbook was much faster (especially since xcode decided it was ok to compile 2 files at once, due to the dual core processor).

    Personally i would upgrade to at least an Intel Mac Mini. I've heard that it runs torque quite well.

    Torque Owner Mike Rowley
    Mike Rowley
    #2
    08/18/2006 (3:10 pm)
    I attempted doing a mac cross using a g3, but couldn't even get the game to load. I ended up getting a g4. (it only has 256mb as well, but it works)

    Torque Owner Ed Averill
    #3
    08/19/2006 (7:54 am)
    Ugh.. OK, thanks for the feedback. Any Mac port is going to have to wait a long time as I can't afford anything reasonable right now. Oh well!

    *starts saving pennies*

    Torque Owner Mike Rowley
    Mike Rowley
    #4
    08/19/2006 (10:02 am)
    Ed, take a look at ebay. I got mine for less than $300.00 US. (with shipping included)