M1 Mac Gaming Questions

D

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Hi, I plan on buying a new Mac at some point, my poor old 2010 MacBook Pro is a bit knackered. I will be getting a new Apple silicon machine. but haven’t decided which yet, although the new iMac is tempting. But with it looking like I will be partly working from home moving forward I will need to think about a setup.

Anyway, I want to play games on it, old games. I’m talking the first original Crysis, Half Life 2, Portal Series, Starcraft 2 etc. I have seen videos showing newer games running under Arm Windows 10 through the new Parallels. Has anyone got any advice on this or had experience with Arm Windows through Parallels running some games? My old MacBook Pro could run Crysis just about, but this Arm stuff is new to me.
 
I'm very happy with my new M1 iMac (having upgrading from a 2010 iMac) although I haven't done any gaming on it. But aren't Mac versions available for at least some of those games? Given that they are old games it might be cheaper buying Mac versions rather than spend £70 on Parallels.
 
I'm very happy with my new M1 iMac (having upgrading from a 2010 iMac) although I haven't done any gaming on it. But aren't Mac versions available for at least some of those games? Given that they are old games it might be cheaper buying Mac versions rather than spend £70 on Parallels.

I don't k is if they do work because the new Macs are Arm based and not X86 based, or Apples own chips as opposed to Intel chips. And even if the Steam games work it's a small example of my collection. Also with Bootcamp on Mac very often games would run better on a Mac under Windows because Mac drivers are not the best.
Unfortunately I haven't found an answer to my question anywhere :(
 
I don't k is if they do work because the new Macs are Arm based and not X86 based, or Apples own chips as opposed to Intel chips.
EDIT: Per posts below, @apolloa's ancient games likely won't run on Mac (ignoring the Intel vs. M1 processor question) as 32-bit support was dropped in macOS Catalina.
The crossed out section of this post does apply for 64-bit Intel Mac applications / games.

Shouldn't be an issue. The new M1 machines use a technology called Rosetta 2 to run older software built for Intel-based Macs. Rosetta is invisible to the user (other than taking slightly longer to start an application the first time it is run).

Have a look at this guy's experience of running older (Intel) Mac games on a new M1 machine using Rosetta 2, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=MrMacRight+rosetta
 
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Portal 2 won't run on my Intel Mac on Catalina as it's a 32bit application. Not sure how rosetta copes with 32bit apps.

I can play Portal 2 by using windows 10 bootcamp but not in MacOS.
 
Portal 2 won't run on my Intel Mac on Catalina as it's a 32bit application. Not sure how rosetta copes with 32bit apps.

I can play Portal 2 by using windows 10 bootcamp but not in MacOS.
Good point... 32-bit apps don't run on macOS Catalina or later (Rosetta 2 doesn't change that). :(
 
Can anyone here advise? I use my M1 MacBook Pro in camshell mode hooked up to a monitor. What are the best settings so the display goes to sleep when not used? Since installing Monterey the monitor keeps waking up? Last night I was sat watching TV and saw the monitor light up in the other room. I shut down the Mac but that meant the this morning I have to take it out of it's stand and open it up to turn it on again. Any ideas?
 
Can anyone here advise? I use my M1 MacBook Pro in camshell mode hooked up to a monitor. What are the best settings so the display goes to sleep when not used? Since installing Monterey the monitor keeps waking up? Last night I was sat watching TV and saw the monitor light up in the other room. I shut down the Mac but that meant the this morning I have to take it out of it's stand and open it up to turn it on again. Any ideas?
I think you need to have a look around "System Preferences -> Energy Saver".
 
I “kind of” sorted it out by just turning the monitor off. The MacBook can’t be running then surely?
 

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