Hi Bryan, Yes, I know. In terms of what platform or OS has the most games Windows is the clear winner. That's true in the mainstream PC gaming market as well as the accessible gaming market. Waiting until platform x has a certain number of users is a bit of a misnomer though, because it creates a catch 22 situation. Developers won't create software for Linux and Mac until they are as widely used as Windows, and gamers won't switch to Mac or Linux until developers begin creating software for Mac or Linux that they personally want. There really isn't a great solution for this problem for the blind that I can see.
For the sighted gaming market a third-party company called Transgaming has created some comercial game emulators like Cider for Mac and Cedega for Linux which allows mainstream game companies to market their games on Mac and Linux with only miner changes to their games. >From what I've read companies like E.A. games and a few others have teamed up with Transgaming to create ports of their games for Mac and Linux using Cider and Cedega which has got things moving in the right direction for non-Windows gamers. Transgaming has really opened up the Mac and Linux platforms to mainstream companies. However, that doesn't really work for us. For one thing our game developers often use proprietary languages like Visual Basic 6 which Cider and Cedega don't support. Were they written in C++ using native Windows libraries they could be modified to use the Cider and Cedega Windows compatibility libraries. Then, there is the matter of something like Sapi. since Transgaming wasn't specifically thiniking of accessibility there is nothing like Sapi 5 emulation available for Mac or Linux through Cider or Cedega which throws another rench into the works. That said, something like BGT might be able to be modified to run using Cedega and Cider which would greatly open up the number of games for Mac and Linux. Although, I don't know what it would cost Philip to use Cider and Cedega as part of the BGT engine. Cheers! On 5/17/11, Bryan Peterson <[email protected]> wrote: > I think Philip is hoping to go cross platform at some point. I think the > main reason he hasn't is because at the moment Windows is still the main > gaming OS most blind folks use. > We are the Knights who saaaaay...Ni! --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
