In early spring of 1995, a LucasArts press release came out titled “Big Mac Attack.” In short, the announcement was the Lucas-owned gaming company’s way of publicly saying to the Mac gaming community: “We’re back, we’ll stick with Mac, and we’ll never turn back!”
You see, history (actually, rumor) shows that LucasArts was one of several large computer gaming corporations that may have contemplated on abandoning the Macintosh OS sometime back in 1994. By late 1994, there were Internet-wide jitters in the Mac newsgroups that Rebel Assault for the Macintosh may be LucasArts’ final salute to the Mac. Those rumors were fanned by the increasing hype of Windows 95 in those days, and thus common “wisdom” had it that Windows 95 gave cross-platform gaming companies the incentive to finally abandon the puny Mac arena in favor of consolidating all their resources into PC games.
For whatever reason, LucasArts announced in early 1995 that Dark Forces for the Macintosh would trail the IBM-PC version by only a few months. It also promised early on that Mac users would have an excellent game to look forward to, boasting “hi-res” graphics and other features that would “take your Power Macintosh to the limit.” In effect, LucasArts made an advanced, preemptive decision to evolve into a dedicated Macintosh games provider.
The year is almost over, and LucasArts (for the most part) has lived up to its promise to the Mac gaming world. Dark Forces is currently ranked Numero Uno among Macintosh Top 10 games. Many gamers who have tried both the Mac and PC versions of DF would swear that the Mac version (when played on a PowerPC) is at least as good as, if not better, than the PC version.
Full Throttle (a non-SW game) also came out for the Mac as promised. When I last checked with LucasArts’ online presence, there is every indication that the X-Wing Collector’s Edition CD-ROM for Macintosh should be finished in a few more weeks. But wait, there’s more...
 
Screenshot from the upcoming X-Wing title for the Macintosh
A month back, I downloaded and viewed an 11-megabyte MPEG-styled trailer for Rebel Assault II for the Macintosh! No, it’s not an interactive demo; you only get to watch, you cannot play. But it’s still an impressive full-screen video of what the actual game should look like once it’s released. It certainly convinced me that LucasArts was showing some genuine dedication towards the Mac gaming market here. I mean.... 11 megabytes for a CD-ROM-quality, 35-second, full-screen video which ended with the words: Rebel Assault II, Coming to the Macintosh.
You see, many other large PC game companies tend to have a conservative wait-and-see attitude before they commit anything to the Macintosh camp. Is it any wonder why Macintosh versions of originally PC games often come out many many months after the IBM-PC release? By the time these games are ported to the Mac side, the games are considered outdated by most Mac gamers (who, contrary to popular belief, actually have access to some great, state-of-the-art Macintosh-only games these days). And when those outdated PC-to-Mac releases don’t do so hot in the Macintosh games market, the PC gaming companies can’t figure out what went wrong!
At least LucasArts has figured out the secret of how a traditionally PC-oriented gaming company can succeed in the smaller, choosier, and more discerning Mac market. It’s certainly not by using a wait-and-see attitude. The increasing dedication LucasArts devotes to the Mac gaming world has earned them the overnight loyalty of Mac gamers left and right. In turn, Mac gamers can look forward to a bright future of high-quality games centering on the Star Wars universe.
I’m hopeful that many others in the computer gaming industry can learn something from LucasArts. Thanks to them, The Force is quite strong in Macintosh gaming.
