Mac Gaming 101: Steam Basics That Everyone Should Know

Mar

Mac Gaming 101: Steam Basics That Everyone Should Know

Posted by JMatula

Welcome to Mac Gaming 101! This will be an ongoing forum for discussion of the basics when it comes to gaming on the Mac. Both basic explanations and in-depth explorations will be included. We’ll start off by explaining the basics of the popular Steam platform.

Whether viewed as a Godsend or as a frustrating piece of middleware, the impact and presence of Steam on the world of gaming in the past 5 years or so has been undeniable. Originally launched in 2002, the Steam platform has grown to dominate the PC gaming landscape. It has also begun to leave its mark on the Mac gaming landscape as well since it began offering Mac support in 2010. While it may not be perfect, Steam is a great gaming solution with many highly desirable features.

To make sure everybody’s on the same page, we thought it’d be good to explain Steam and how it works.

What Is It and How Does It Work?

In the most basic and technical terms, Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer, and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. First and foremost, this means it is used to distribute games and other software online. Whether from major game studios or small independent developers, you can find an incredible selection of games to play (and other software) on the platform.

In addition to acting as a simple distribution platform, Steam also provides security features important to publishers and community features important to you.

For example, the software provides a freely available API, called Steamworks, that developers and publishers can take advantage of to integrate many of Steam’s functions within their software products, including copy protection, networking and matchmaking, in-game achievements and micro-transactions, and support for user-created content through Steam Workshop.

On the user side, Steam provides installation and automatic management of software across multiple computers, community features such as friends lists and groups, cloud saving (meaning saved game data can be accessed from multiple computers), and in-game voice and chat functionality.

Minimum System Requirements: Intel Mac, OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3, or later.

Steam also offers an extensive marketplace where you can purchase a wide variety of games. After downloading and installing the Steam Mac client, any time you buy a game from Steam, it is saved in your game library. Once you purchase a game, it’s yours forever. As long as you have Steam installed and are logged into your account, you can download any game in your library to any computer. Each game is stored locally in one single, non-compressed file. When you start downloading a game, Steam will allot the HD space ahead of time to reduce potential problems when downloading large files.

**Pro-Tip**: If you already have some games on disc lying around, whether they are PC or Mac discs, look for the CD Key. Many games can be yours to play through Steam by inputting this key from your disc games (Caveat #1: these games must already be available through Steam–non-Steam games won’t work). No need to keep up with discs anymore, and you can play your old PC games on your Mac without Bootcamp (Caveat #2: your old PC game must be a Steam Play game to play it on the Mac), isn’t that cool? See a complete list of compatible titles here.

Features Galore

In addition to the basics listed above, Steam offers tons of cool features that give gamers a very enriched experience. Here are just a few:

Steam Play: You can tell is a game is a Steam Play game by the Steam Play icon on the game’s product page. Owning a Steam Play-supported game on one OS will get you copies of the game to play on other OSes, like Windows or Linux, for no additional charge. If you own a game that later supports Steam Play, you’ll get access to all supported OSes without any further work or purchase. Sometimes (though not always) this also means that you can play a game cross-platform with other players (meaning Mac and PC players can play together).
Friends: Grow a friend list of fellow gamers to play games with or compare stats. You can import friends from Facebook and even get notifications when they’re online so you can get your game on together. There’s also a robust community in the Steam forums where you can talk to other gamers and get troubleshooting help.
Auto update: Never be out of the loop on the latest bug fixes or patches. When you boot up Steam, it will see if there are updates for your games and download them automatically, making sure you’re playing on the latest version. This option can also be turned off.
Steam Sales: Everybody has sales, but these guys do it frequently and for unbelievable savings. The centerpieces are Steam’s big Summer and Winter Sales, but there are always mid-week sales and other smaller sales too. You never know when your favorite game will be 75% off (or more!) one day.
The Library: This is more than just where the games you own are displayed! For each game, it tells you which of your friends play it, what achievements you have and can get, and links to news about the game. Additionally, the Library lets you re-download a game on any machine you want, as many times as you want.

This just scratches the surface of everything Steam has to offer. It’s a content-rich ecosystem that provides an experience above and beyond just playing a game. We hope this clears the air a little for everybody.

Look for more Mac Gaming 101 articles coming soon, where we will cover how to use Offline Mode in Steam and other Steam features; we’ll also go in-depth with Game Center functionality for those Mac App Store folks who want to understand how this new feature integrates the multiplayer experience.

Have questions about Steam? Are there certain Mac gaming topics you’d like us to cover in Mac Gaming 101? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: Mac Gaming, Mac Gaming 101, Special Feature, Steam Posted Mac Gaming, Mac Gaming 101, Special Feature |

bbrown95

I have a couple important (to me, at least) questions:

you say:

“No need to keep up with discs anymore, and you can play your old PC games on your Mac without Bootcamp, isn’t that cool? See a complete list of compatible titles here.”

First, is the “complete list of compatible titles” you get when you click the link a list of PC games, or are PC and Mac games mixed up together (several of the games have been ported to the Mac, like the WW II-era “Call of Duty” titles)

Next: I was about to create a Bootcamp partition and install a licensed Windows 7 OEM System Builder Pack, so I could install some racing sims (like GTR2 and iRacing, and older ones like Grand Prix Legends), as the Mac platform suffers from an almost complete lack of racing sim titles. To me, the biggest problem on the Mac OS is a complete inabilty — AFAIK — to be able to handle multi-axis control hardware, specifically a racing sim steering wheel, shifter, and accelerator, clutch, and brake pedal set (like my Logitech G27 that’s been sitting around for a year while I tried to figure out how to run PC Games on the Mac — tried Parallels, no go), and I thought Bootcamp would be too simple to be able to deal with multi-axis control devices.

BUT, I talked to AppleCare the other day and they swore on the ghost of Steve Jobs that if I created a Bootcamp partition and installed a licensed Windows OS 7 or higher, that — given the correct drivers for the G27 — my steering wheel/shifter would be totally plug ‘n’ play. I was about to do that this weekend, then I read the above blurb, especially the “you can play your old PC games on your Mac without Bootcamp…”

So, FiRST, what does that mean, exactly? I see “GTR Evolution” on your game list, but I don’t see GTR2 and I don’t see “Grand Prix Legends,” “Colin McRae WRC,” or any of the other older racing sims — the original “Grand Prix Legends” was put out in 1998, for example, but kept up-to-date by a worldwide coterie of fans who created new tracks, cars of all sorts, graphics enhancements, etc., thanks to the generosity of Papyrus “GPL” chief designer Dave Kaemmer leaving the code open after embalmers Sierra Sports bought Papyrus and let GPL die on the vine.

So what I need to know, given all that preamble, is this: can I play my old PC racing sims in the Steam environment on my “Mac without Bootcamp” USING my Logitech G27 wheel/shifter/pedal setup, or if I play in Steam, am I stuck with the totally unacceptable lowest common denominator, a WIRED Playstation controller?

If I can’t use my Logitech G27 setup, I’m better off using Bootcamp + Windows 7 and giving Steam a miss. My Mac is a mid-2011 27″ iMac, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, currently with 12 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM, with an AMD Radeon HD 6770M Chipset w/512 MB VRAM.

I’d be grateful if you’d help me out of my conundrum. I’ve been a Mac-exclusively user since 1989, and I’ve always been pretty bummed that there were practically NO racing sims for the Mac that didn’t have you driving with a mouse or a Playstation controller. If theis Steam deal works with my wheelset, I’ll be delighted.

Thanks for your time!

Bart Brown

If anyone else has any recommendations, warnings, etc., please email me at

comeondarkness@gmail.com
- http://blog.gameagent.com/ Russ Looney
  
  Hey, Bart, thanks for the questions. There are a few things we need to clear up that, upon further review, are not apparent in the article above.
  
  First, the “complete list of compatible titles” is a list of PC games, though there are a few Mac games scattered in the list as well (or rather, some of the PC games are also available on Mac). Unfortunately, whoever curated that list did a poor job of indicating which games are also available on Mac.
  
  Second, only games that are already available on Steam (and on that list) will work with the CD key import. Trying to import the older racing sims you mention will not work (save for GTR Evolution).
  
  Third, you’ll only be able to play the Mac version of a game through CD key importing if that particular game is a Steam Play game. As far as I know, GTR Evolution is not a Steam Play title (much less offered on the Mac).
  
  So to sum up, you won’t be able to play your old PC racing sims on the Mac through Steam without Bootcamp, unless there is an existing Mac version available through Steam that is Steam Play-supported.
  
  I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer regarding controller/wheelset support. I can only suggest contacting the publisher(s) of your racing sims and asking them whether certain control options will work.
  
  Hopefully this clears up some of your questions. If there’s anything else you’re unclear about, please let us know, and we’ll do our best to better explain.
Thomas Connolly

I love computer games but never have enough time. But I have heard (and heard and heard) about Steam. I found this article very helpful, so thanks. I hope you can make good on your promise to delve deeper into Steam with additional articles sooner rather than later.

Also, I think Mr. Brown has a good question about hardware compatibility on controllers of all types. I hope you can answer his question and discuss this topic more generally.

Thanks again.
- http://blog.gameagent.com/ Russ Looney
  
  Glad you found the article helpful! Are there any particular features of Steam that you are more interested in knowing about than others? Or other potential, non-Steam topics for our Mac Gaming 101 series in general? We’re still working out the publishing schedule for these guides and would love to hear your feedback!
GideonK

“Owning a Steam Play-supported game on one OS will get you copies of the game to play on other OSes, like Windows or Linux, for no additional charge.” This is often true, but not always. I own The Sims 3 on my Windows machine but can’t access it from my Mac, even though there is also a Mac version available (I have to buy it separately). However, I can play other titles (such as various Grand Theft Auto games) from both machines. Otherwise, good article.
- http://blog.gameagent.com/ Russ Looney
  
  You’re right that not all games on Steam give you access to multiple platforms. The key is that the game must be Steam Play-enabled. “Steam Play” is the designation used to indicate whether a game is available on multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, and/or Linux) for a single purchase. There are several games that are on both Windows and Macs but aren’t necessarily Steam Play-supported. As you mentioned, Sims 3 is one of these titles; Call of Duty: Black Ops is another. You can tell if a game is Steam Play by the Steam Play icon.
  - GideonK
    
    I didn’t know about this distinction. Thanks for explaining.

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