May 31 MacWeek had a little bug announcing reports from E3 several days this last week reporting that the Mac is really heating up the E3. I didn't need to read any further because anything beyond this single soundbite of crap is beyond the relm of plausability, possibility, or the worse unverified dellusional hack crap that any pinhead journalist would type onto screen. I mean let's take a good hard look at the gaming industry. First, everyone can take their unbiased eye - and just see - SEE - what the imbalance is on the store shelves are across america for games between Mac and Wintel computers. I mean forget the 10-1 lopsided coverage of the general publishing industry. Forget the fact that the development community between the two platforms has gone from 70% parity to 10%. Just keep in mind that while the OVERALL software picture for the Mac is pathetic in the relm of software support, the support for games makes up only a portion of the overall scene. And a small scene it is. Second - with ID reporting Mac users staying away from their products in droves, while chalking up record numbers of PC sales, one can surmise that for this hit-producer, the miserable 50 thousand sold sales figures would otherwise be a high-water mark for game makers on the Mac. I would say the greatest proof about all of the above though is this. Can you - or ANYONE - name me a single MacGame publisher that is still in business or hasn't tossed in the towel for higher ground? Silicon Beach? Gone. Cassedy and Greene? Gone. ID? Left the building. EA? Left the platform high and dry. With the only exception of Bungee - which sells mostly to Wintel users these days - I can't think of a single game publsher apart from the Myst folks that gives a rats ass about the Mac anymore. I mean cheese and rice - even Douglas Adams won't publish games for Apple's fruitcart! And speaking of carts - here's number three. Console games you frigging MacWeek idiots! Lessie TRST numbers indicate that Sony has - ooooh - 11 million Playstation's sold, at 129.00 - and Nintendo has around 7 million Nintendo 64's sold. Sega regrettibly has fumbled the ball by blowing the consumer price curve at the kickoff line. What do these companies have that Apple doesn't? Their entire existanal neck on the line with the gameplaying public! That's what! PC game makers usually have to fight for shelf space, and take a gamble with oversized packaging that their product will sell. Well, EVERY NINTENDO GAME has sold 1 million units. That means every product that Nintendo has marketed - has gone Gold in record industry measurements. Sony, no slouch can't assure those numbers-per-game anymore since they have HUNDREDS of titles selling for their system vs Nintendo's trickle out policy to increase long-term positioning vs possible gaming glut scenearios ala Atari Inc., and their 2600 circa 1983. Mind you, this convcern is a bit of a cop-out in this day and age when Video Games have surpassed 8 BILLION DOLLARS a year in revenue with a 1 BILLION dollar increase in revenue forcast for the new year. This is larger than the revenues of TV, Records/CD sales, and Hollywood combined and dwarfs both the sell-through and the per-home numbers of Video Game's golden age when Pac-Man was the rage. And Apple - with their pittance of a pittance in marketshare - a marketshare divided to selling entertainment on 1200 and up dollar boxes rather than 120 and up dollar boxes - Apple - SOMEHOW - is setting the E3 on fire? In your dreams MacWeek and Apple. In your dreams. If anything is on fire, or is otherwise baked, it smells a lot like crap roasting next to a fruity brand of hype. Good God.

June 01 Well it's official. Multi-slot Macintoshes have died the big kackeroo. That would be 6 slotters which are the mainstay and staple of the music and video crowd. But with most producers, post-producers, and directors getting the hell out of the fruit-based TV and Hollywood business - who can blame Apple and the demise of the clone vendors for choosing to do otherwise? Of course what ZDnet neglected to mention was that - in spite of jury rigged breakout box solutions - no producer in his right mind is going to sacrafice bus-bandwith with their professional ass on the line. I mean lessie. Could use about a hundred or so off the shelf Wintel software solutions, all rigged into an off the shelf multi-processor Wintel box, come out cheaper on the hardware and software cost estimate, be more in lockstep with the majority of their peers in workflow - SGI and Sun solutions aside - and NO no no no no - we'll sod all that and get a new pretty Power Mac! And it has a break-out box TOO! In an industry that now applies the computer to creating more flights of fancy - this one takes the cake. This wouldn't be a dream system for your average video and film pixel pusher. This would be an outright nightmare. That would be a little more in keeping with why Apple and what remaining - dying - clone vendors would be doing with them. IE: dropping them like a penny off the Empire State Building. In this case, if the reamining pro-box setups out there are taking over Hollywood like King Kong, Apple isn't more than the splotch left under the footprint from the innocent bystander scene. You'll note I left Godzilla out of this - because not only is the movie tanking - I almost wonder if Steve Jobs was pitching that stinkburger. Trust me. If you want to see a good movie with a more across the board - popular public demographic target (in stark contrast from my fave - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) - go see The Truman Show instead. You'll never look at the JennyCam site the same again. Smartest scenario film since Brazil in my book - or my site for that matter.