MacHouse - A World of Video Tutorials

We have four PC games to introduce in the third edition of ‘Running PC Games through Boot Camp on Intel Mac Machines.’ The PC games that we introduce this time are

Screenshot 01: Source - MacHouse

Screenshot 02: Source - MacHouse

Screenshot 03: Source - MacHouse

Screenshot 04: Source - MacHouse

Screenshot 05: Source - MacHouse

Screenshot 06: Source - MacHouse

Mac gamers may find the Galactic Civilizations II series similar to Master of Orion III. Honestly, we haven’t really played Galactic Civilizations II. We just wanted to make sure that Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords and its expansion pack Dark Avatar, which are both available in one with Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords Gold Edition, will run on our test machine. So we want to concentrate on FlatOut 2 and Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich. (more…)

My 10-year-old niece came to my office to see me last week. She said she needed some help for her history class assignment. She said






Uncle Tom, why did Mr. Bush decide to attack Iraq? Is that because Iraq had atomic bombs?






It took me a few minutes to sort things out. But, honestly, I don’t know exactly why. I tried my best by saying






Honey, Mr. Bush saw many things that other people didn’t see. He thought Iraq had purchased uranium ore from an African country, which didn’t happen. He thought Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11, which didn’t happen, either. The truth is that Mr. Bush was delirious. That’s what happens to people when they drink too much alcohol in their 20s and 30s.

Then she goes But Uncle Tom… How will history remember Mr. Bush? Will the history book say America went to war with Iraq because the president of the time was confused?

Smart kid… We will know what the history book will say about Mr. Bush in several months. Till then, let’s see how Adobe After Effects will remember him. (more…)

According to Macworld, English game publisher Virtual Programming will soon bring a 2-year-old car racing game to Macs. Vivendi Games published the PC version of FlatOut 2 on August 1, 2006. The game was originally developed by Bugbear Entertainment. FlatOut 2 is similar to… Hmm… Well, let’s just watch a game play video. (more…)

Last month, I went to Peru as a volunteer to show Peruvian kids magic. I arrived at a very small village and went straight to the only elementary school there. I was well prepared. I knew several good coin tricks. I even took two pigeons with me if kids wanted to see real tricks. I entered a large classroom where I was silently welcomed by about 50 kids. I started my magic show with a couple of coin tricks at first. But the kids responded only with grim faces. So I said






All right, kids. Guess what’s going to appear when I open this cloth.






I expected that kids would be amazed to see my pigeon trick. But a little boy sitting at back stood up and said













iMac?






Huh!? What is this kid? I didn’t bring my iMac all the way to Peru with me. What was he thinking? I didn’t forget to bring my MacBook with me, though. So I responded






Class, do you know what MacBook is? (more…)

15 years ago, Many Mac users had a free virus program called Disinfectant installed inside their system folders. It was one of the first programs that I downloaded with a dial-up modem back in November, 1992. Disinfectant was developed by a Northwestern University professor. These day, ‘free anti-virus software’ sends a totally different message. Free is a word that cyber criminals widely use to lure naive Internet users, right? If you are a Windows OS user, would you like to try executing a file titled AntiMalwareGuard_Free.exe that is distributed at http://antimalwareguard.com? (See Screenshot 01.) The website says the file is free. (See Screenshot 02.) Even the file name implies it’s free. And if I use Sophos Anti-Virus to scan this file… Ahh… The file contains malicious codes driven by a Trojan Horse derivative. (See Screenshot 03.) Not surprisingly, you will get something undesirable in the name of getting freeware or saving money.

Screenshot 01

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Screenshot 03

How about ClamXav? According to its website (http:// www.clamxav.com),






ClamXav is a free virus checker for Mac OS X. It uses the tried, tested and very popular ClamAV open source antivirus engine as a back end.






We don’t believe this freeware title contains malicious codes like AntiMalwareGuard. In fact, we just want to find out how good ClamXav is. So let’s see what ClamAV does for Mac users. (more…)

About a week ago, we released a short list of PC games that may run on iMac 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo through Boot Camp. We have extended this list, now covering 21 PC games. The following is a list of games we have added to the list. It has turned out that one of the games in the list doesn’t run properly on our Intel Mac computer.

Running old PC games may not be such a bad idea. Old games cheap. We don’t want to spend more than 20 bucks for each game. (more…)

Feral Interactive publishes the Mac version of The Movies. The game is originally developed by Lionhead Studios. It’s a simulation game somewhat similar to Electronic Arts‘ hit game series The Sims and The Sims 2. But The Movies is a bit different from The Sims: Superstar. In this game, as the title suggests, you are in the movie industry. You run a movie studio and do nothing but to develop black & white silent movies.

Currently, Feral Interactive is working on the Mac version of add-on game The Movies: Stunts & Effects. The PC version was released on June 6, 2006. So it’s about two years and two months old. This expansion pack adds Stunt School to the game. In addition, you will be developing color films.

Anyway, this game play video shows briefly how the PC version of The Movies: Stunts & Effects works. The run time is 13 minutes and 30 seconds. Enjoy! (more…)

15 years ago, Macs were still sort of luxury goods. Even a low-cost model called LCII cost more than US$3,000 with a 13-inch monitor. iMacs are relatively affordable these days. You can find an iMac 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo like ours for US$1,500 to 1,600 at online stores.

How about Mac Pro? Or why would you want Mac Pro as opposed to iMac in the first place? One good reason is that you want to extend your machine with a better video card and additional internal hard disk drives. Mac Pro isn’t so cheap, though. According to Apple Store, an entry Mac Pro machine equipped with two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon chips, one 2 GB DDR2 memory card, a 320 GB 7200 rpm hard disk drive, an ATI Radeon HD 26000 XT 256 MB video card and more costs US$2,799.

So some Mac users assemble computers on their own in the name of saving money. I’m sure there are many local custom build shops where they can put parts including a Mac-compatible logic board from ASUS, Gigabye or others, a power supply box, a cooling fan and more together for you. But they are unlikely to install Mac OS on your custom machine with your request. So you will be on your own to customize BIOS (ROM) settings and go underground to obtain revised Mac OS installation discs.

Or get an Open Computer from Psystar Corporation (hereafter, Psystar)? Southernmost Florida-based Psystar is one of the first companies officially accepting orders online for Mac OS-running PCs with Intel processor. According to its website (http://www.psystar.com), Psystar says






The Open Computer is a PC that works just like a Mac with Apple’s latest operating system OS X 10.5 a.k.a. Leopard. With the Open Computer you can run OS X natively as if you had purchased an expensive Apple computer except that, while paying less, you receive more. (See Screenshot 01.)






Actually, the company doesn’t necessarily guarantee that their computers can run all software programs intended for Mac OS, by stating






… Psystar does not guarantee that each and every program and feature will operate correctly as the Open Computer and/or OpenPro is not supported by Apple Computers. … Psystar does not guarantee that any of your peripherals, Apple-related or not, will function correctly. Psystar will not be responsible for your usage of the Open Computer and/or OpenPro in any way. (See Screenshot 02.)

Screenshot 01- Source: Psystar

Screenshot 02- Source: Psystar

Screenshot 03- Source: Psystar

Psystar’s name first went around several months ago. So their selling Mac clones is not a new story. We are aware that Apple, Inc. sued Psystar at the beginning of the last month in the federal district court for copyright infringement and other charges. Now, according to CNET News, Psystar has filed a counter-lawsuit against Apple partly for violations of antitrust law. Interestingly, the company has created a page under Company titled Litigation possibly to document their court battles with Apple although the page itself is empty for now. (Screenshot 03.) (more…)

A few weeks ago, we introduced a couple of game play videos for Activision’s war game Call of Duty 4: Modern War. We still don’t know when the Mac version of this game will be available from Austin/Texas-based game publisher Aspyr Media. It’s not exactly a new game any more. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released on November 5, 2007 for PC, XBox 360 and PS3. If you are a Mac user running an Intel Mac computer and cannot wait to play Call of Duty 4, it may be a good idea to play the PC version through Boot Camp just as we do.

Screenshot 01 - Source: Call of Duty Headquarters

Screenshot 02 - Source: Call of Duty Headquarters

Good news for Mac gamers playing the PC version of Call of Duty is that Activision is already talking about a new version of the war game. According to information gathered at Call of Duty Headquarters (http://www.callofduty.com) and through a video interview for NVISION 08 in San José that is made available by GameSpot, Activision will release Call of Duty: World at War in November. The exact release date has not been set yet. (more…)

There are about 7 to 8 screen-capture shareware titles for Macs that we are aware of. Ambrosia Software’s Snapz Pro X is by bar more popular than any other screen-capture shareware title. But Snapz Pro X is not perfect. Ambrosia Software has not been able to fix Snapz Pro X’s incompatibility issue with Final Cut Pro for years.

How about Screenium? This Mac software title is developed by Synium Software, a developer of CleanApp, which we reviewed about 2 months ago. The latest software version of Screenium is still 1.0. And the price is only US20, more than one-third cheaper than Snapz Pro X. Usually, its price tells you what it does, right? Does that mean we cannot expect good performance on Screenium?

When you launch Screenium for the first time, you will probably see the settings under the Audio/Video tab. (See Screenshot 01.) This is where you make importance choices including ones for audio and video compressors.

Screenshot 01

Screenshot 02

Screenshot 03

Let’s first go to Audio at the bottom. There are three input devices listed. If you want to include system audio (audio run by the system like the beep sound and iTunes music), you need to enable System Audio (Screenium). If you click on the check box, you will be prompted to enter a system administrative password. (See Screenshot 02.) Furthermore, there’s a button with up & down arrows next to Audio CD. If I click on it… I get to customize audio compression settings. (See Screenshot 03-4.) Looking at Screenshot 04, it looks like Screenium doesn’t let the user choose not to compress audio (to have uncompressed audio). Does that mean Final Cut Pro users have to re-compress the audio track? We will get to that later on. (more…)