rec.autos.simulators

by **Stephen Ferguso** » Tue, 18 Jun 1996 04:00:00

I've been out of touch with things in sim-land for a while. What is the
status of the Papyrus sims on the Macintosh platform? Are they out yet...
will they be soon? The next question is going to seem rather pathetic,
but I want advice on a notebook purchase based on its ability to run
these sims. For about the same coin, I can get a P133 notebook, or a
100MHz PowerPC Power Book. They will both run the apps I need for work
(ie. MS Office) equally well, so what the hell... which one will run the
games better (those long flights get mighty boring). Also, what options
will there be for control input on the Mac version of the sims?

thanks for any answers
--
Stephen Ferguson

by **Getze** » Wed, 19 Jun 1996 04:00:00

Good News!
Papyrus has just announced that a combination Mac/Win95 version of Indy Car
Racing II should hit the stores by the end of June.

The "preview" version of ICR2 which I got off of the Inside Mac Games CD
(November 95?) showed tremendous potential. And it performed very well on
my Mac 7500/100. Suprising for what must have been a fairly early version.

Hopefully, Papyrus will follow suit with Nascar 2 and release a combination
Mac/Win 95 version of that as well.

Jim

by **RickGent** » Wed, 19 Jun 1996 04:00:00

> For about the same coin, I can get a P133 notebook, or a
>100MHz PowerPC Power Book.

A 133 MHz Pentium will outperform the 100Mhz 603e. Sorry.

IndyCar Racing II for the Power Macintosh went gold last Friday. It should
be on store shelves by the end of June. Personally, I'd still go for the
603e :-).

IndyCar Racing II supports the full joystick line from CH Products and
Gravis. We are working on a patch to support the soon-to-be-released
ThrustMaster T2 for the Macintosh (wheel/pedal combination).

Rick Genter
Technical Lead, IndyCar Racing II
Sierra On-Line, Inc.

by **Banfi Fol** » Thu, 20 Jun 1996 04:00:00

>> For about the same coin, I can get a P133 notebook, or a
>>100MHz PowerPC Power Book.

>A 133 MHz Pentium will outperform the 100Mhz 603e. Sorry.

I'm not that sure about this one. I read that the PowerPc processors were
up to 80% faster than Pentium processors, so a 100MHz PPC should be as fast
as a 150MHz P5.

Now, this surprises me. It's the first time I hear a game programmer (who
programmed many games for DOS) say that he likes Macintosh better than PC.
Thanks Rick!

So now I have to decide whether to buy a new PowerMac (my 6100 just won't
cut it for ICR2 and NCR2) or a new PC...
Do you plan to release NCR2 for Mac for Christmas, too?

Cheers

Folco

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by **Getze** » Thu, 20 Jun 1996 04:00:00

I have both a 100MHz desktop system with the PPC 601 chip and a 100MHz
Powerbook with the 603e. The 601 "felt" about 15% faster before I added a
256K cache. Now it "feels" about 40% faster - particularly with games. I
*highly* recommend a cache. The problem with the 603e in the current
Powerbooks is that there is no way to add a cache.

Now if you really want speed, the PPC 604 is the current king in the Mac
world. And the upcoming 604e chip is supposed to be significantly faster
than the 604! Of course, these aren't available in the Powerbooks yet.

The moral: there are significant speed differences between the different
types of PPC chips.

by **Peter Tilman** » Fri, 21 Jun 1996 04:00:00

On 17 Jun 1996 20:48:57 GMT, Stephen Ferguson

>I've been out of touch with things in sim-land for a while. What is the
>status of the Papyrus sims on the Macintosh platform? Are they out yet...
>will they be soon? The next question is going to seem rather pathetic,
>but I want advice on a notebook purchase based on its ability to run
>these sims. For about the same coin, I can get a P133 notebook, or a
>100MHz PowerPC Power Book. They will both run the apps I need for work
>(ie. MS Office) equally well, so what the hell... which one will run the
>games better (those long flights get mighty boring). Also, what options
>will there be for control input on the Mac version of the sims?

Get the Pentium. It'll be so much faster for games.
BTW if your notebook will have a hi-res screen, it's better to get one
with a Cirrus Logic graphics card - it expands the LCD pixel size to
fill the screen; I have a Toshiba notebook with a hi-res screen, and
it has a Chips & Technologies VGA accelerator - and I get a 1.25"
black bar on each side of the screen, making 11.3" go down to about 9"
for SVGA mode ICR2 or about 8" for VGA mode.

--

[]_.-' (Q_,._ http://netspace.net.au/~petert/
`(*)_[6]___(*)Z> Go Jacques Villeneuve!

by **RickGent** » Fri, 21 Jun 1996 04:00:00

Well, I've programmed both and I can tell you that a P5-133 is faster than
a 603e-100.

There are no plans to release NASCAR Racing 2 for the Macintosh at this
time.

Rick Genter
Technical Lead, IndyCar Racing II
Sierra On-Line, Inc.

by **Peter Tilman** » Sat, 22 Jun 1996 04:00:00

That would be the 604 chip they're talking about. Basically comparing
a chip of P6 standard with a Pentium.

The 603e is the slowest type of PowerPC chip (when taking MHz into
account).. i'd put it more on par with something between a P75 and a
P90 in raw speed, and about a P75 when System 7.5 is put on it.

No flame war intended, just a statement of my experiences.

--

[]_.-' (Q_,._ http://netspace.net.au/~petert/
`(*)_[6]___(*)Z> Go Jacques Villeneuve!