Well, I've used a mac all (15 years of) my life, and I just got my first personal computer, a mid-priced late 2008 model macbook, shipped with 10.5.4.

Problem: No 265 colors, apparently this was removed in 10.5.3. Apple claims that you shouldn't install versions earlier than what your computer shipped with, so I can't install any downdates, as apple apparently put in a safety feature in the installer (and it sounds like I wouldn't want to, either). As someone who had no internet until a year an a half ago, most of my favorite games were brought home by my dad. All my favorites need 265. (Basically, marathon is the only game I ever played on a computer for the first 13 years of my life , although I just got starcraft and fallout). This is more of an annoyance, as our desktop iMac runs 10.4.x, but it is still an annoyance I'd like to get rid of. If someone knows of a way/hack to restore 265/thousands of colors, great. (PS: Something that doesn't involve using any windows os's to play. I don't want to a) pirate the games I legit bought and pirate windows [I'm that kind of guy]).

Problem: Graphics card. Is there any way to hook up an external graphics card, or something that will make this computer a little more powerful for gaming/graphical design? Price is no concern, but as always cheaper is better.

Answers: I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. I've been using the dumb-user-frontend my whole life, but I know the basics of unix and terminal and such, and if need be, I can, but step by step would be required in those more complicated areas.


Thanks a lot, I know this is a tall order.

what game cant run on millions of colors?

Marathon, although Aleph One can, Starcraft (duh), Fallouts 1 and 2, and probably some other stuff.

Funnily enough, roguelikes work. Return of the ASCII? Maybe. Nethack was another of my favorites

Hey! Cool! I just found some new Marathon scenarios that look cool.

1. They all use AlephOne as the game engine and it works great. I have used versions 17 and 19. My brother tried AlephOne 20 and had some problems, so what can I say...???
2. AlephOne uses the OpenGL graphics engine which will really please you. The transparency of the water is too cool. You can be under the water and see the Pfhore up there and get them with the SMG!
3. I am not sure which Mac you got, but, you are stuck with what you have. The new aluminum Macbook has a very fast graphics chip. I hope you got that one. It is great.

There are a lot of great games out there but Marathon is one of my favorites.