I have a confession to make. I'm a Mac gamer. (gasp!) I've always been a Apple/Mac guy, and I've been playing games ever since college when Wolfenstein 3D would be playing not-stop on the Apple IIs and people would skip classes because they were glued to their Macs playing Myst. I spent hours upon hours in the school newspaper office on campus not studying or polishing my craft but flying fighter planes in Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Good times, I tell ya.

But over the last decade, Mac gaming has been a frustrating experience. There
aren't that many games ported to the Mac, and you usually have to order the
titles online or buy them at an Apple Store. Plus, Apple couldn't have cared
less about making Macs a better platform for gaming. Still, I soldiered on,
playing Call of Duty and Aliens Vs. Predator II and having a great time, thank
you very much.

Now comes the news that Aspyr is building a href="http://www.twitchguru.com/2006/07/18/aspyrs_gamerhood_takes_aim_at_mac_gam
ing/">digital download store for Mac games. Aspyr, which specializes in
porting many popular PC games to the Mac, plans on releasing Gamerhood, a free
application that will serve as a sort of iTunes for games, later this year.
Apsyr says the price point will be the same as retail versions of the game, but
at the very least Gamerhood will increase the availability of Mac games and make
it a whole lot more convenient to purchase them. Aspyr also says it plans on
having around 15 major titles ready for Gamerhood by the launch date, whichis
schedule for the fall. Current big sellers for the Mac include Call of Duty 2,
Civilization IV and The Sims 2: Nightlife expansion pack.

Considering the rampant rumors about games coming to the iPod (see Aaron's post
below), we may be seeing a renaissance for Mac gaming in the very near future. I
can only hope...

So, I've decided that as I'm only going to verifiably live once I might as well try this MacCrap at least once in my life. Last night (or rather, at around 2am this morning) I ordered a MacBook with a 1.83 GHz Core Duo processor (really, the price / performance hike to 2.0 GHz is not worth it.) This morning Apple announced that they're putting Core 2 Duo processors into MacBooks, and I nearly kicked my own arse into the Apple store to see if I could try and upgrade my order.

It would seem that, quite contrary to my usual luck and sense of good timing, things have turned out quite well for me - Apple has automatically upgraded my order to a Core 2 Duo processor; and, by a happy coincidence, it will cost me €20 less for the pleasure. Cha cha cha cha cha cha, etc.

Of course I've probably just been doomed to a life of tech support woe or something with this machine. Or I'm about to walk out under a bus / truck / the only SUV in

North Dublin

. But I'll go out with a rare smile on my face.

I had a long - and I mean real long - talk with Liquilife and Vicious over at UncleGamer Radio about CES 2007. I chatted with the guys about some of the more interesting news and events at the show, such as Bill Gates' keynote and Microsoft's Windows Vista, as well as some of the hot gadgets and technology like a $15,000 gaming chair.

In addition, we discussed how Apple and the iPhone pretty much trumped everything in Las Vegas and how MacWorld stole CES's thunder; the prospect of cross-platform gaming with the Xbox 360 and PC games on Vista, as well as the implications for the Xbox platform with Microsoft's IPTV technology. From there, we talked at length about how the next-generation console war is shaping up in 2007 and some of the new games coming out for the PC this year, such as Crysis.

What were the coolest gaming products at the show? Will Vista have a big effect on gaming? Will Crysis be Vista's Halo? Are console games overtaking PC games? And who's got the edge in the next-gen console war? Check out Episode 16 of UncleGamer Radio to find out.

Also, here are some leftovers from CES 2007, including some Wolf King gamer keypads, Sandio's 3D gaming mouse, the Novient Falcon controller, Voodoo PC's new laptop, the Straight Power cooling system and Enermax's cooling system, and some gaming chairs from D-Box, Hotseat Chassis, and others.