Kirk Hiner's

"When thinking differently just isn't different enough."

I Got Half An Hour Of Sleep Last Night

By Kirk Hiner

I'm explaining this to you so you'll understand if I should become even less coherent than normal. I also don't want you to think I've fallen off the wagon and started to snort Pixie Stix again. I actually recommend that all parents encourage their children to do that once. Once you've inhaled pure sugar into your sinuses you'll never want anything up there again. Trust me.

Anyway, the reason I barely slept last night is because I agreed to help chaperone a "lock-in" at my church. For those that have never heard of this, a church is a place where religious people (or at least those who pretend to be) gather to socialize and worship their God.

Wait a minute...that's not what I meant to define. I meant to define lock-in, which basically is a large slumber party of male and female junior and senior high youths. This one last night consisted of about twenty kids (four of whom were males), four adults, eight boxes of pizza, a seemingly unlimited number of cap guns and far too many Backstreet Boys CDs. From 8:00p.m. to 7:00a.m., it was my duty to make sure that no bones were broken and, if any were, that they weren't the important ones.

As some (but not enough) of the youth drifted off to sleep, I pulled out my PowerBook to do a little work on my next never-to-be-published novel. Before I began, I allowed those that wanted to play some "Jewelbox" or "Bubble Trouble" to do so. As one girl was challenging my mother's high score on "Jewelbox" (which she didn't beat, by the way), a guy named Ben looked at the Macintosh desktop with an expression of utter confusion. He then turned to me and said, "What is that...Windows '98 or something?"

What was I saying about broken bones?

After explaining to him what he was looking at, he revealed to me that he's never actually seen the MacOS. I repeat, this boy is a sophomore in high school, and he's never seen the MacOS in action.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Ashland, Ohio ("Someplace Special," or so the water tower says) is heavily PC biased on both the high school and university levels. Of the three computer stores in town, none of them sell Apple products and only one offers technical support. The only local ISP begins all support calls with, "Are you using Windows 95 or 98?" and one representative tried for five minutes to convince me that the only way to check email online is with Outlook Express.

Is it any wonder I refuse to move back there? If it weren't for my family, my girlfriend and Donna D's Pizza, I wouldn't go back to Ashland at all.

This bias is not new to you, the avid Mac user. We've all dealt with this preposterous PC prejudice since the mid 80s, each of us doing our own part--in our own way--to be a fisher of lemmings. But one of our fishermen, Peter Cook, is casting into deeper waters for bigger fish (I know a lemming is not a fish, but work with me...I'm tired, and the analogies aren't biting). When I say deeper waters, I mean the computer gaming industry. And when I say bigger fish, I mean the Hammerhead LucasArts, the Blue InterPlay, the Killer Electronic Arts.

In May of 1998, Peter officially launched the Games4Mac (http://www.games4mac.com) web page. As he describes it, Games4Mac "...is a web page whose purpose is to get more Mac Games. We encourage readers to write game companies to ask for more Mac games. We have petitions for gamers to sign. We also have articles on Mac Gaming, if your looking for a good read." Peter is quick to point out, however, that he began petitioning for games well before May of 1998.

"I started a campaign to get 'X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter' a a few years ago, and then I started campaigns for more LucasArts games. I wanted to make a page that had campaigns for lots of games, and expand so that campaigns are not the only thing on the page, which we have now with the Games 4 Mac Campaign (G4M)."

Although Peter's efforts never received anything more than generic responses from LucasArts, we all know that they're now making Mac versions of their newest games. Along with Apple's resurgance, it's certainly possible that the Games4Mac campaigns played a part in this decision. Other campaigns have proven more directly successful.

"We had a campaign for 'Rainbow 6,' and now 'Rainbow 6' is coming to the Mac this fall from MacSoft." Peter also pointed out that, because of the contacts he has established, he knew of the port before it's official announcement in Jaunary. "We try to post the most important rumors to our news."

Games4Mac's main method of attack is through petitions. Individual petitions are run by four active staff members who collect signatures online and then forward them to the proper company. Peter explains, "I suggest that they wait until they have at least 1,000 signatures, or at least three months or so. I prefer to take the list of signatures and print them out and mail them along with a letter to the respective company. Although we might send some of our completed petitions via email every once in a while. I think maybe 'Jedi Knight' has gotten the most singnatures over all...it depends a lot on how long we run each petition."

Aside from the petitions, Games4Mac also has a "Games We Want" section in which visitors can find information about non-Mac games, including details on how to contact the company.

Just how dedicated is Peter Cook to Macintosh gaming? Get this; he even likes Sierra. I asked him, "Have you ever thought of starting a campaign called 'Games To Stay-the-Hell-Away-from Mac' to ensure that Sierra titles never again crawl their way to the Mac platform?"

His reply? "Not really, since only games that sell well on the PC will come to the Mac, and bad games don't sell well. Sierra, makes a lot of good games. They make 'Half-Life,' which looks very good, and has a really good possibilty of coming to Mac. They've also made a few other games that are coming in the near future."

Amazing. Not only in his dedication, but also in his efforts; we all now know that 'Half-Life' is indeed coming to the Macintosh and that Sierra has committed to bringing over many other titles. I'll have to trust Peter and assume that this is a good thing.

Peter actually makes me feel guilty. I've spent many a day lamenting the fact that games such as "Fallout 2" and "Queen: The eYe" never made it to the Macintosh, but I also never did anything about it. Peter, on the other hand, had an absurd notion of his own; rather than just email the company, he took the time to design and build a site that gathers our numbers and attacks in force. A petition with thousands of signatures, after all, holds much more weight than a few scattered emails.

So if there are any games you want to see on the Macintosh ("Fallout 2!" "Fallout 2!"), let Peter know by visiting Games4Mac (http://www.games4mac.com). Sure, the world of Mac gaming is on the rise, but it's up to us to dictate just how far that rise continues.

And speaking of rise, I'm actually feeling pretty alert now that I've finished this article. I guess it's true what I say..."Absurdity never sleeps."

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Tuesday, 07-Oct-2008 09:51:00 EDT