Games on iBook.

[jesperht]

Im thinking about getting the 800mhz iBook (mainly for the combo drive),, but im wondering how well it works for playing games (taking a break from coding :)). Im thinking along the lines of xmame. What are your experiances with debianppc (or other ppc linii) and gaming (without dual booting)?

Thanks! :)

[jesperht]

Could someone please try to compile/run xmame on a linux ppc? Preferably debian.

x.mame.net

I refuse to buy a ibook until i know that this emulator will work :)

[KarrottoP]

You need to keep a couple of things in mind if you get an ibook, one, the major fact that even though it is decent now it has an onboard graphics processor, that means that it is not going to upgradeable later. Also, that machine uses a Radeon processor I believe, you will get alot of compatibility issues if you try to use alot of commercial linux games like Unreal Tournament 2003 that rely on Nvidia. Not to mention we are dealing with an entirely different chipset than most linux games are designed for. Now, here is my suggestion. Get the Ibook, it is an excellent computer, especially if you are looking for an inexpensive laptop, then use MacOS X, it is the operating system that should come with that particular machine, and you do not need to sacrifice the nix side of linux. OSX is built on top of a linux like os (actually its a sibling of netbsd called darwin) and you can do all sorts of command line things including installing common linux applications via the fink project, xmame may even be ported already for this system. Not to mention there is a version of mame for OSX and even though I do not use it myself I can tell you for sure that the SNES9x port is really nice, probably the best of the three OS's Ive used it on. And, last but not least, their are alot of really nice commercial, freeware, and sharware software title available for the mac, that makes me wonder why anyone would use a mac for anything other than macos, unless it starts getting ridiculously old and you want to breathe some new life into it, that machine should be completely viable by itself for at least a couple or more years.

[jesperht]

I'll see...but I would really still like to know wether or not xmame compiles on an ibook in debianppc. I dont really intend to use it for any serious gaming (thats what my stationary is for :D), but i would like to relax in front of some marvel vs capcom inbetween coding sessions :)