Hey all so as you know I did a big expose on Crossover by Codeweavers. Well, I’m very active in their discord and their forums for the Mac version of their software. Well between all the help I’m doling out I’ve had numerous medical appointments. I still have to shoot the G & W games for my article. I’m hoping to do this within the next day or so. I just honestly don’t want to open them from the way I have them displayed in custom bags for NES Manuals (they fit perfectly in them.
Do you use Crossover for Linux or Mac? Do you enjoy G & W games? Drop me a line in the comments section to let me know if there’s a desire for the articles. If I don’t hear from anyone I’m still gonna post them! Why? It’s my site LOL! Till the next article I leave you with a toy line that I always thought was fun! There were blue and orange ants and I think their butts glowed in the dark if I remember! They are called Army Ants. They were always in the cheap section of the toy aisles due to the fact they didn’t do much. But I enjoyed the one pack of blues I had!
Upcoming article! I have to do the photography now. Anyway, the article is all about the Nintendo Game & Watch games! Pre-Gameboy, some Pre-NES, and some during the NES. So many fun games! The hardest part is getting ahold of them due to their new collectible market. I was able to get a lot of mine before the market exploded. What I have left is to shoot 8 games. I’d like to do a proper shoot with the ones that open / close like a clamshell LONG before the Nintendo DS they were pushing dual-screen technology. I don’t want to say much more at this point as I don’t want to ruin my 1-2 minute read and pictorial. Enjoy the picture above of Super Mario Bros. and yup that one is in the collection! I’m going to leave you with a stroll down memory lane with a picture of Babbage’s! The place to get your PC Demo on floppy, and eventually cartridge video games! These stores lived in malls and they were one more reason to visit your local mall!
So a long time ago (2-3 years) I purchased an Atari Lynx v2.0 model along with a slew of games from an online friend. He found it all in his parent’s house when he was cleaning it out. I didn’t want him to toss it so I made a fair offer and he sent it promptly.
The original screen was intact, working in all the ways it should, including the brightness wheel. However, being the first portable system to offer a color and a backlit screen. The quality back then was amazing but to play it today is virtually impossible. Even with the hood that goes over the screen to black out the light doesn’t help.
I was very lucky to get in on a special mod by Benn Venn a hardware modder out of Australia. This kit required no soldering permitting the original screen to be popped back in should I want to do that for some unknown reason.
Sure it was $75 but shipping from Australia made this a $95 part. While I normally would do all my modding I didn’t want to risk ruining a screen. I took it to a local store called One Up Games they can fix or mod anything you can think of video game-wise. They are amazing. I was quoted $80 to have it done based on the directions I provided. Much to my surprise it was done the next day when they opened! I knew the total cost was just going up but I figured well that’s what it’s going to take. I’ve only ever seen one of these Lynx on Mercari with a different person’s mod where they had to cut open the top of the case to get an output jack of some kind to sell for over $350 so perhaps it was a wise investment. But I have no desire to get rid of this thing. One big difference is I have the original screen in an anti-static bag so if I were to sell it the person buying can put the original screen back in!
The first handheld color gaming system was by Atari! I only knew one kid that had it and he was in like 7th or 8th grade and I was in like 5th or 6th we’d see him around the neighborhood and he was always cool to us so one day I asked if I could borrow his and he said sure! I was up playing Xenophobe A game I played the game in arcades whenever I saw it or once or twice on an Atari 5200 but it was garbage. The NES version was much better but for some reason that washed-out image on the Lynx v1.0 was the best version I had ever played. Yes, it’s in my collection!
My games look so good and crisp and like a modern system on this portable gaming console! See my pics of the before and after below. He won’t be making any more screens so I was very lucky to get in as soon as pre-orders became available!
As any of my friends will tell you I’m no fan of Microsoft Windows. My reasons go back to being a child of the 80s and learning to type on an Apple IIGS to playing word/number munchers on other Macs. There was a time when Macs would get a lot of the top-tier Windows games but eventually, that came to an end.
That didn’t stop me from always being a Mac lover at heart but being forced into Windows at version 3.1. My first computer was a 3.1 and then a ’95. I learned how much trouble one could get in if you so much as typed the wrong drive letter in DOS and tried to run a program. Before I knew it I was fixing everyone’s computers. But that’s not what this article is about.
It’s about playing indie – AAA titles on the Mac! A company known as Codeweavers has a piece of software for Mac and Linux that uses the WINE Project as a core to play and work in Windows-only applications and games.
Crossover of which I volunteered to be a “better tester” is the best thing to hit the Mac since Adobe Photoshop 3.1. What a better tester does is take a piece of software, and attempt to get the software to work using various parameters within the front end Crossover. I have only had a few games as that’s what I test if it will or will not be supported after installation not work (sorry no app testing from me everything I need runs native on the Mac application-wise).
What happens if I use their interface to install say Steam? (if you are a gamer you should know this company and if you are not a gamer check out the link). Once I have Steam installed into a “bottle” I can launch the Windows version of the Steam Client. The client believes it’s running on Windows even though you need not purchase a license for Windows. This is not using Windows so there’s no piracy involved just the components it needs to run the game or application. There’s more to it than that but let’s just stick with the basics.
I own over 200 games on Steam. I’ve owned Windows laptops during this time which is why the count is so high. Plus I’m a collector and a HUGE supporter of independent studios’ work. I believe an indie game is far superior to a big-budget AAA title. There’s more heart and soul in it just like Crossover.
I have no idea how to use the Wine Project. I have tried multiple times and well I just don’t understand it. I’m not a coder or a Linux user which means I’m more or less left out to dry knowledge-wise. But Crossover gives me an interface to use and a means to install my gaming software.
Steam isn’t the only gaming store that’s supported there’s battle.net and a couple others. However, for the sake of my article, it will all be talked about as if I’m running Steam because I am.
I stumbled upon Crossover and Codeweavers studio by accident. I was looking for a way to play my copy of Diablo IV on the Mac. Now for the sake of argument, yes as of writing this 01/22/25 Diablo IV is down due to an update Blizzard put out to its software (restored with a patch 1/25/25). Codeweavers is aware of this through tickets, the forum, and Discord.
Their support is the best I’ve ever received for a piece of software so small. In fact, as an example, I was having overheating issues with my M3 Macbook Pro and submitted a support ticket thinking it was Crossover that was responsible. The CEO of the company *name withheld* let me know after he researched it that it wasn’t their product but a problem with my M3 Macbook it was a flaw in the design. He took my support ticket and the time to research what was going on and personally respond!
Upon further research, this proved to be true as I had to send my laptop to Apple and have them send me a new one from overheating. (Thank the makers for Applecare). So I sold my M3 and upgraded to the latest as of writing this an M4 Pro Max. No more problems. Now while Blizzard (battle.net / Diablo IV) is currently down I play dozens of games that were once regulated to a Windows computer or my Steam Deck on my Mac in full-screen, full-speed glory!
As a better tester, I test games and rate them based on performance. I just submitted a Terminator game for review and approval. However, if you look at a game like G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra. I have tested the game aggressively and only found it deserved 4 * based on an issue with the display when changing resolutions. This can be found if you scroll down and select “Rating Breakdown” My name appears with a circle in front of it. Hover over the circle to get my testing notes and settings. I also submitted under the Media tab all the screenshots for the game to show it works at full resolution. Next, I chose to be an advocate for this game. This means if users are having trouble yet I can still run it or have the same trouble I do my best to help them out and constantly test this game as Crossover moves up in versions.
I can’t speak enough about the quality of this software. At first, I was skeptical, thinking no way this would work then to my surprise everything was running like clockwork. I have a few games that don’t run well or run at all but I have a Steam Deck to fix that problem and still do not have to use *SHUDDDER* Microsoft Windows.
Codeweavers did NOT endorse this review nor did they prompt me to write it in any way shape or form. This is me just going on about a great piece of Mac software. I just picked up a lifetime license this past Black Friday from a yearly license. I see the potential for this small software company and the big things it’s doing for us on the Mac architecture! Keep it up Codeweavers!
Check out the photos below of the interface and then I will also include some screenshots I have submitted for games that I tested as working. Thanks for reading. If you are on their Discord I go by James and my full name on their forum as required. Same for better testing.
Below are some stills of the site, the better-tested info areas I worked on. Below the thumbnails is a video file I put together of the game running full speed @ 720p on a 140hz Gaming monitor and an MBP Max M4 64 GB RAM, Mac.
When this bad boy hit the market my best friend talked it up like it was the best thing since sliced bread! He would constantly talk up this device till I was sold. Also being a design student my files were getting more complex, bigger, and better. I needed a way to get my files to Art School or the Career Center and home again.
This bad boy came in standard IDE and SCSI formats. I picked up a SCSI card and velcrowed the drive under the corner of my desk over my computer. The SCSI increased the R/W Speeds.
Of course, we all know that the Jazz Drive hit from the same manufacturer, but it never took off with disks that cost a fortune. Sure it had a massive amount of space however by then one could have a standard CD-R from 650mb for far far less and the only problem you’d have is writing them getting that dreaded “Buffer Underrun Error”. So sure you bought a spindle and oh 1/4 of that spindle wound up as either coasters or trash due to that error.
But the ZIP Drive was great! Reliability was awesome and the disks came in multiple colors eventually! How can you argue with all that? There was also an internal version of the drive but come on who would want that when they could bring their drive wherever they went (except me cuz. I had a SCSI model) I chose speed over transporting my drive everywhere. My best friend had a parallel version and being we were always around each other bam instant drive!
The one thing to look out for was that you USED it only as a transport method because at any time you would hear the dreaded *CLICK* of the disk going bad… Ah, memories.
