Why are some games pc/mac and some are pc or mac only?

PC games are cheaper. My copy of WOW has requirements for mac and pc. Why do most games only work with one game or the other?

Command and conquer generals is for PC and MAC, but why don't they have just a single copy on DVD or CD-ROM that works for both? Why make 2 different copies?

On a side note, why is the PC version only 20 dollars now but the MAC version is still 50?

 

I though Sim City was mac compatible...I have a copy of Sim City 3k Unlimited and the box says windows 95/98 but I heard that it was mac compatible.

 

It all depends on the effort the developer puts into their game. Blizzard make all their games PC and Mac compatible, I have a PC but I could install WoW on a mate's Mac using my disks.

A lot of games are coded using the Direct X graphics subsystem, which at the moment, only runs on PCs running Microsoft Windows. Games that run on Macs are usually written in OpenGL, which will run on basically any operating system. WoW has OpenGL code in it, so it makes it easy to run it on Mac.

C&C Generals, until recently, only ran on Windows, and a company only just ported it over to Macs. That's why it's more expensive, because it's a "Newer" product.

Wait until OpenGL 2.0 comes out. It supports the same features as DX10. That means (if decent drivers are released by AMD and nVidia) that OpenGL 2.0 games should run better on Linux (perhaps Mac too) than in Windows. Don't hope for the hack-job to come to your platform, pray for the better system to become mainstream.

And, the OpenGL group are already looking to OpenGL 2.1...

 

Ok that makes sense then. Well I'm incredibly thankful that they did make it so I can run it on my future mac.

 

It's sad because OpenGL is inferior to DirectX these days. I hope we will eventually see DirectX come to Mac. Until then Bootcamp is the way to go for games. Otherwise performance takes a hit in almost any pc ported game.

 

Indeed, and the best way to ensure that more games in the future are released for your chosen platform, is to buy the ones that are. It's for those reasons I buy games from Id and Epic games, as they release Linux native version of their fantastic games.

 

Would I get better performance out of command and conquer generals running it with the MAC version or running bootcamp and running the PC version?

 

Currently it is. But hopefully OpenGL2 will be able to fill that gap a bit.
I doubt DirectX will ever go to Mac, because it's from Microsoft, and they wouldn't want other Operating Systems using their API.

Performance should be the same if your hardware is the same.