Two decades ago this week, the first version of Mac OS X hit shelves. We're not talking figuratively. The software was sold direct to consumers on disk, with a suggested retail price of $129 (roughly $190 today, adjusted for inflation).
Back in 2001, Mac OS X 10.00 Cheetah was a rough-around-the-edges break from the ageing Classic Mac OS, which had much of its origins in the original Macintosh's System 1 software. In the years since, the platform has undergone two architecture shifts (PowerPC to Intel, and now Arm) and matured to the point where it commands nearly 10 per cent of desktop market share globally.
The 'classic' Mac OS is the original Macintosh operating system that was introduced in 1984 alongside the first Macintosh and remained in primary use on Macs until the introduction of Mac OS X in 2001. Apple released the original Macintosh on January 24, 1984; its early system software was partially based on the Lisa OS and the Xerox PARC Alto computer, which former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Play a horror game. And lucky you, the Mac has no shortage of great horror games. In fact, the best Horror games on Windows have a Mac version too. This can't be said of all gaming genres, so you have no more excuses. It's time to turn off the lights, pump up the sound and prepare to be scared! A quick word about the games below. Find games for macOS tagged Horror like Cold Shot, Dying of Thirst, Wrong Floor, DEEP FOG (DEMO), Delivery Victim v1.1 on itch.io, the indie game hosting marketplace.
MacOS Big Sur elevates the most advanced desktop operating system in the world to a new level of power and beauty. Experience Mac to the fullest with a refined new design. Enjoy the biggest Safari update ever. Discover new features for Maps and Messages. And get even more transparency around your privacy.
Getting there, however, wasn't easy.
From big problems to big cats
The story of Mac OS X didn't start in 2001, but rather in 1985, when Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple following a failed boardroom coup, and multiple product flops. The Apple Lisa project was a dismal failure, selling just 10,000 units. The Macintosh, although infinitely more successful by comparison, failed to slow the ascent of IBM in the PC market, and didn't meet the company's lofty sales goals.
Although Jobs was no longer part of Apple, he remained involved in the computer industry, later founding NeXT Inc, which aimed to build workstation-class machines for the higher education market. Its first computer, revealed in 1988, was a powerful (albeit excruciatingly expensive) cube of black aluminium based on a 25MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU, with 8MB RAM and an optional 330MB or 660MB hard disk. It came with a bespoke UNIX-based operating system called NeXTSTEP that was founded on the Mach and BSD kernels, with object oriented programming principles throughout.
It was revolutionary, but that wasn't enough to overcome its steep $6,500 ($14,500 in today's money) asking price. Universities didn't bite – although the hardware was used to develop the first web browser and server, as well as id Software's Doom and Quake. By 1993, NeXT had left the hardware business to focus on porting NeXTSTEP to IBM-compatible PC, as well as PA-RISC, SPARC, and the Motorola 68k architectures.
Apple had its own problems, too. The Macintosh was stagnating. Windows 95 – which combined the previously separate DOS and Windows software – proved to be a roaring success, helping Microsoft expand its market share. When it arrived in 1995, Windows 95 was highly usable for first-time computer owners, and had features Mac OS 7 simply lacked, like preemptive multitasking. Separately, a disastrous decision by then-CEO Michael Spindler to license Mac OS 7 to third-party manufacturers resulted in the company's high-margin hardware sales shrinking further.
The Next Step
By 1997, Apple was mere weeks away from bankruptcy. As a Hail Mary, CEO Gil Amelio (who replaced Spindler in 1996) acquired NeXT, bringing Jobs back to the company he founded from a Los Altos garage. While Jobs (who would assume the top role the following year) would ultimately nurse the company back to health, Apple was most interested in the NeXTSTEP operating system.
The Fat iPhone, 11 years on: The iPad's over a decade old and we're still not sure what it's for
READ MOREYou see, Mac OS was, at the time, stagnant. Whereas Windows had made leaps and bounds in terms of things like peripheral support and the internet, Apple had yet to implement basic system-level features like pre-emptive multitasking, multithreading, and protected memory. During the Amelio years, Apple had attempted to create a new operating system on a clean-sheet kernel called Nukernel, but it died in the fiery pits of development hell.
With Jobs at the helm, work started on a new operating system based on NeXTSTEP. The old Mac OS 9 nanokernel was replaced with Darwin, itself a direct descendant of the NeXTSTEP kernel. Other NeXT features - like the use of object-oriented programming, the Objective-C language, and the Dock - also made an appearance. It was a clean break with the past, with a brand new interface dubbed Aqua, and APIs that would allow developers to port their existing software.
The full release version of Mac OS X 10.0's UI (click to enlarge)
This, ultimately, became Mac OS X 10.00 Cheetah. And while its legacy continues to this day, the initial launch was somewhat underwhelming. It lacked feature parity with Mac OS 9, with DVD playback and CD burning unavailable at launch. Despite the release of a public beta, many developers (including Microsoft and Adobe) hadn't updated their software to use the Aqua APIs. And it was dog slow, particularly when running applications using the backwards-compatible Classic APIs.
Worse, while many had hoped the Unix foundations and protected memory of Mac OS X would improve stability when compared to its predecessors, the software was rife with fatal bugs, which frequently presented themselves when using external peripherals.
The road since travelled
Teething problems with Mac OS X Cheetah didn't stop Apple's upward trajectory, and many of these issues were resolved in later releases. The next release, Mac OS X 10.1 Puma focused on performance improvements and improving feature parity with the Classic Mac OS, and was offered as a free update to existing users.
The next major update came in 2002. Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar fixed the long-standing issues with printer support through the release of CUPS – the Common Unix Printing System – which was subsequently open-sourced and is now widely used across the Linux sphere. By that point, Apple was so confident in Mac OS X, Jobs performed a mock funeral for the Classic Mac OS X on stage at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference.
At the time, Mac OS X was exclusively available for the PowerPC platform. By the decade's halfway point, it was struggling to compete with chips from Intel in key metrics like power consumption. IBM, which built PowerPC chips on behalf of Apple, was manufacturing on larger nodes than those used by Intel, which was already transitioning to 65nm. Whereas it once enjoyed a competitive edge in processing power, Apple was faced with the prospect of losing that advantage.
And so, in 2005, Apple announced the transition to Intel, starting with Mac OS X 10.4.4 Tiger. This had been on the cards for some time. For each version of Mac OS X released, Apple had secretly created an x86 port, so there wasn't much re-architecting required internally.
Apple had flirted with a move to Intel in the past. Rhapsody OS, which later became Mac OS X Server 1.0, was released for both PowerPC and x86, with versions for IBM RISC System/6000 and DEC Alpha architectures considered. Additionally, the foundational basis of Mac OS X, NeXTSTEP, was also available for Intel processors. This preparation and experience allowed Apple to recognise the writing on the wall and pivot.
As transitions go, the shift to Intel was as painless as could be, especially compared to the jarring leap from Mac OS Classic to Mac OS X. Legacy apps were able to run via the Rosetta compatibility mode (which was later discontinued in 2012). Developers could target both PowerPC and Intel platforms with universal binaries. And Apple offered developers a rental 'transition kit' ahead of the public launch, giving them a head start.
In retrospect, this experience informed Apple's next platform shift, with the company moving from Intel to its own Arm-based Apple Silicon processors in 2020. It has used the same playbook, down to the developer tools and pre-release transition hardware.
Plus ça change
In the two decades since the launch of Mac OS X, a few things have changed. Objective-C is declining in popularity, with Apple's syntactically nicer Swift programming language gathering pace. The name changed a few times too, with Apple re-branding the system OS X in 2012, and finally macOS with the launch of version 10.12 Sierra. We've seen the launch of the Metal graphics API, which provided better rendering performance for games and other visually-intensive apps, as well as the inclusion of iOS and iPadOS features, like Siri.
Apple: We'll tailor Swift to be a fast new programming language
READ MOREBut the foundations first introduced in 2001 are still there, from the UNIX underpinnings to the NeXTSTEP Dock. While Windows has undergone multiple UI changes, macOS has largely remained mutually intelligible with its predecessors. As a collector of retro Apple kit (your correspondent has around 30 machines, ranging from a Mac OS 7-era Performa, to various post-Jobs PowerBooks and iBooks), it's amazing to see how little has changed. I can use an iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.3 Jaguar and feel just at home as I would with a latest generation M1 MacBook Air.
And that is the story of Mac OS X. It didn't seem like it would make it, but getting the fundamentals right – dare we say it even more than the cult of Steve Jobs – matters. ®
Related Articles
Music Profile: Elliott Waits For No O…
MICRO BUSINESSES
3M Philippines Volunteer Program Crea…
SEO Trends and Vitals for 2021
There's only one thing a self-respecting gamer can do this Halloween weekend:
Play a horror game.
And lucky you, the Mac has no shortage of great horror games. In fact, the best Horror games on Windows have a Mac version too. This can't be said of all gaming genres, so you have no more excuses. It's time to turn off the lights, pump up the sound and prepare to be scared!
A quick word about the games below. All are scary, but some more than others. I'm not too keen to shit my pants while playing games so I prefer games that focus more on the action, like Metro: Last Light or the original BioShock. But if you prefer jump scares or an impossibly tense atmosphere, Outlast or Layers of Fear should do the trick.
Game | Name | Genre | Requirements | PC Metascore | Price range |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alien Isolation | Alien: Isolation | Horror | High | 81 | $$$ |
Layers of Fear | Layers of Fear | Horror | High | 72 | $$ |
Metro: Last Light Redux | Metro: Last Light Redux | First-Person Shooter | High | 82 | $$ |
SOMA | SOMA | Horror | ⚠ Medium | 84 | $$ |
BioShock | BioShock | Shooter | ✅ Low | 96 | $$ |
OUTLAST | OUTLAST | Horror | High | 80 | $ |
The Walking Dead | The Walking Dead | Adventure | ✅ Low | 89 | $$ |
STASIS | STASIS | Adventure | ✅ Low | 79 | $$ |
Slender | Slender | Horror | ✅ Low | NA | Free |
Doom 3 | Doom 3 | First-Person Shooter | ⚠ Medium | 87 | $ |
Do you want to learn more about these games? Wondering why they're so scary (and perfect for Halloween)? Read on.
Alien: Isolation is the latest and greatest Horror game to come to the Mac.
Set fifteen years after Ridley Scott's original film, Alien: Isolation embarks you on a journey to the Sevastopol space station. This probably sounds like a standard Alien-scenario, but Isolation is unlike any other Alien game you've played before. Isolation is the first game to finally captures the essence of the original film.
This game is about survival. The monster is to be feared and respected. It can't be killed. All you can do is run and hide.
Luckily, the Sevastopol is full of places to hide, including vents, lockers, and cabinets. This means stealth will be your best weapon against the monster. But don't forget about the killing robots and psychotic survivors.
The bottom line?
This is the scariest game you can play on Mac. Plus, it looks great and plays smoothly on Mac thanks to Feral Interactive‘s fine work. That said, you will still need a powerful Mac to run it:
A recent Mac with a powerful graphics card.
Alien Isolation Mac requirements: OS X 10.10.4, 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 35 GB HDD space, NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M, ATI Radeon HD 5670, or Intel Iris Pro with 1GB of Video Memory.
SOMA is the most recent game from the creators of the Amnesia series.
This first-person shooter takes place in an underwater research facility. It's Rapture meets the Nostromo, and that's the best part of the game. The horror and tension come from the environments here, not the characters or monsters.
The game will ask you to go from one end of the facility to the other to survive. Along the way, you will have to hide from the monsters that roam the corridors and discover what happened to all the missing employees.
But it gets worst: There are no weapons and you can't fight back. All you can do is run and hide.
Just like in past Amnesia games, you can interact with everything around you. You can grab door handles, yank cables, move items and more. This will give you one more reason to want to explore the claustrophobic corridors around you. To play it, you'll need:
⚠ A recent Mac with average specs.
Soma Mac system requirements: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM, 25 GB HD space, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, AMD Radeon HD 5750, or better with 512 MB of Video Memory.
You may be surprised to see BioShock here since the newer and shinier BioShock Infinite is also available on Mac. And BioShock Infinite is a better game in many ways. But if you're looking for a scary experience, the original BioShock is the top choice.
This game is darker, grittier and scarier. BioShock is not about jump scares, it's about immersing you in one of the most desperate places ever. The game takes place in Rapture, a city full of psychopaths ready to do the most gruesome and terrible things. Rapture's atmosphere is so intense it will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout BioShock's terrific story. The gameplay mechanics are very good too, making this an extremely fun game to play.
But here's the kicker: As BioShock is slightly old now, it can be played on most Macs:
✅ Any Mac, even an older one will do.
BioShock Mac requirements: OS X 10.5.8, 1.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.5 GB RAM, 8 GB HDD space, NVIDIA Geforce 7300, ATI Radeon X1600, or Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 128MB of Video Memory.
Layers of Fear is a unique take on the horror genre. There are no monsters to be found here, but this is still one of the scariest games you can play on your Mac.
In Layers of Fear, you play as a painter who has gone mad in his pursuit to finish his masterpiece. The entire game takes place in a single house and it all seems quite ordinary at first. Except it starts to change, slowly becoming something horrible. You enter the room and turn around, only to see that the door disappeared. Paintings seem to follow you with their eyes. At some points, you begin to understand what it must feel to go mad.
The more you play, the more disturbing this game becomes. You'll find clues of the horrible things you've done in your madness and you'll hear or see terrifying specters of the things you used to know and love.
This is an unsettling game that also looks great. Aspyr certainly did a great job here, but to run properly you'll still need:
A recent Mac with a powerful graphics card.
Layers of Fear Mac system requirements: OS X 10.10, 2.3 Ghz Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, 5 GB HD space, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB VRAM, Nvidia GeForce 750M or Intel HD 6100.
Many claim Outlast is the scariest game that can be played on Mac.
The game puts you in the shoes of a freelance journalist who decides to investigate a psychiatric hospital lost in the mountains. That was obviously a bad idea, as hell breaks loose and you find yourself surrounded by homicidal patients. Plus, most of the corridors, rooms, and sewers you'll navigate are pitch black. The only way to see is by using the low-battery video camera you have on you.
But it gets worse:
You are completely incapable of combat.
With no weapons at your disposal, you will have to be quick on your feet in order to stay alive. Needless to say, Outlast is a must if you enjoy horror games. This is a great-looking game too and to run it at the highest settings you'll need:
A recent Mac with a powerful graphics card.
Outlast Mac requirements: OS X 10.9, 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 5 GB HD space, GeForce GT 750M, Intel Iris Pro 5200, or Radeon HD 3xxx.
Slender is a unique take on the horror genre. The game takes place in a dark and scary wood. Build it (itch) mac os. It gives you a weak flashlight and asks you to find the eight pages that are scattered throughout the woods.
The problem is, the Slender man is out to get you. Staring at the Slender will cause everything to fade to black, so your only hope is to run from it. I won't lie to you, this didn't sound that scary at first, but once I find myself in those dark woods, I got why this little game was so popular.
But here's the kicker:
This is one of the top free horror games for Mac you can find. I won't cost you a dime and it will never ask you for money. To play it, you'll need:
✅ Any Mac, even an older one will do.
Download for free.
Slender Mac system requirements: OS X 10.6 or later. Spades lite mac os.
Horror games are going through a renaissance. Indies are largely responsible for this, with Outlast and Soma as main ambassadors. All great games, but all first-person games.
That was the case until the excellent point-and-click adventure game, STASIS, was released last year.
In STASIS you wake up in a seemingly abandoned spaceship. There are no signs of survivors, but the bloodstains on the floor help you understand that something went terribly bad. Turns out human experiments were carried out on the ship, but could not be contained. Monsters lurk in the shadows, but they can't stop you from finding your lost wife and daughter…
STASIS is an indie achievement, but what impresses me the most is how macabre this game can be. It doesn't need jump scares, the atmosphere does all the work. Point-and-click adventure games aren't supposed to be scary…
If you want a solid story, interesting puzzles, and a terrifying experience, look no further than STASIS. To play it, you'll need:
✅ Any Mac, even an older one will do.
STASIS Mac system requirements: OS X 10.7, 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 5 GB HD space, Nvidia GeForce 205, AMD Radeon HD 3400 Series, Intel 4000 Graphics with 256 MB VRAM.
The Walking Dead: The Game is based on the award-winning comic book and television series by Robert Kirkman. And it too does a great job at recreating the hopelessness of a zombie infested world.
The game has its fair share of jump-scares, but the actual horror comes from the desperate world it recreates. The Walking Dead will show you how the world has gone to hell, how zombies could tear you apart and how survivors can be even more dangerous.
Want to know the best part?
The game is a monument to storytelling in video games, featuring an amazing story full of choices that matter. Those choices will shape your adventure and define who your friends and foes will be. To play it, you'll need:
✅ Any Mac, even an older one will do.
The Walking Dead Mac system requirements: OS X 10.6, 2.3 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 2 GB HD space, NVidia or ATI graphics card with 512MB of Video Memory.
The Horrors Of More Mac Os X
The Horrors Of More Mac Os Version
Metro: Last Light was recently enhanced and improved for next generation consoles. Reborn as Metro: Last Light Redux, the game looks amazing. But looks aren't enough to earn a spot here. If Last Light Redux is one of the most chilling experiences on Mac, it's because of its setting: the post-apocalyptic city of Moscow.
As the name of the game suggests, most of the story takes place inside the metro system, with occasional missions above ground.
But here's the deal: The attention to detail is what makes Last Light such a disturbing game. And the game's stealth mechanics are the perfect feature to go along with it.
Needless to say, the beautiful graphics help bring Last Light's world to life. To play it, you'll need:
A recent Mac with a powerful graphics card.
Metro Last Light Mac system requirements: OS X 10.9.5, 3.2 Ghz Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 9 GB HD space, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750m or Radeon HD7950 with 1GB of Video Memory.
Does Doom 3 really need an introduction?
Ported to the Mac by Aspyr Media, Doom 3 is as old-school as it gets. Set in 2145 on Mars, the game takes place in a research facility where an experiment goes horribly wrong. A gateway to Hell is accidentally opened, causing a demon invasion. As a space marine, you will have to fight your way through the base and find a way to close the gateway and stop the demons from invading Earth.
Doom 3 isn't subtle, but the endless waves of demons will keep you at the edge of your seat for the entire campaign.
The bottom line:
While the game is over 10 years old, it's still one of the scariest experiences you can have on your Mac. To play it, you'll need:
✅ Any Mac, even an older one will do.
Doom 3 Mac system requirements: Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 2GB HD space, ATI Radeon x1600, NVidia Geforce 7300 or card with 128MB of Video Memory.
With first-person shooters, adventure games and more, this list has something for everyone. I'm confident that no matter your particular preferences, at least one of these games will be a good fit for you. And most importantly, they all have what it takes to put a chill on your spine. What better way to celebrate Halloween than that?
Do you have a favorite Horror Mac game for Halloween that wasn't included here?
The post The 10 Best Horror games for Mac appeared first on Mac Gamer HQ.
This post first appeared onMac Gamer HQ: Mac Games News, Guides, Videos, And, please read the originial post:here