Steam coming to OS X

[Lead Head]

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/02/26/valves-steam-coming-to-mac-os-x/
http://www.destructoid.com/confirmed-valve-games-hitting-the-macintosh-165964.phtml
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/03/valve-teases-upcoming-half-life-release-for-mac/

Looks like they've at least ported their Source engine over to OS X, and probably Steam as well. This will be GREAT news for OS X Gamers, and other-platform gaming in general.

Hopefully they'll be native ports, unlike other OS-X games that just run ontop of a Wine-based program.

[Refalm]

Anyway, you can download Portal for Mac OS X free here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/

[Kintaro]

Refalm, that made me laugh so hard I would have shat myself if it wasn't compressed at 50 psi within my bowels.

[Lead Head]

That is definitely one of the better ones I've seen.

Interesting that Portal is free though, I've heard some people say it will expire on the 24th, while others say its good forever?

[Refalm]

That is definitely one of the better ones I've seen.

Interesting that Portal is free though, I've heard some people say it will expire on the 24th, while others say its good forever?

It's good forever, but you need to download Portal on Steam before the 24th. If you download it after that date, it will cost € 30.

[Kintaro]

I wish they did that with something multiplayer because I would get the freebie registered to heaps of accounts so it no longer matters if one is banned for hacking.

[worker201]

Although installing the Steam client can be done on 10.6.2, 10.6.3 is required to play Portal.  However, if you're one of those unfortunate folks whose logic board doesn't have your serial number flashed to it, upgrading to 10.6.3 breaks Adobe CS3 products.  As interested as I am in trying out Portal, Illustrator is much more important.  Oh well.

[Lead Head]

What does 10.6.3 add? More OpenGL commands or something?

[worker201]

What does 10.6.3 add? More OpenGL commands or something?

Looks like it:
http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1018

[Kintaro]

Although installing the Steam client can be done on 10.6.2, 10.6.3 is required to play Portal.  However, if you're one of those unfortunate folks whose logic board doesn't have your serial number flashed to it, upgrading to 10.6.3 breaks Adobe CS3 products.  As interested as I am in trying out Portal, Illustrator is much more important.  Oh well.

Funny, I have both those on Windows. You should try getting a real operating system, one that works.

[worker201]

Yeah, you're right, what have I been thinking?  Fuck Apple, I love Windows!

[Kintaro]

With a bug like the one you just described actually happening, I can't believe I've not heard of it before. Do you have a more technical description? Something doesn't seem right about that.

[worker201]

Here's the official Adobe response:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/834/cpsid_83499.html

When an Apple is produced, the system serial number is flashed onto a chip on the logic board.  When your logic board is replaced by Apple (as mine was when I first bought it, because of a faulty Airport card connector), they sometimes don't flash your serial number onto the new board.  If this happens, the system identifies your serial number as being "Serial Number SystemSerialNumb".  As far as most software is concerned, that's not a big deal at all.  But Adobe does all these little cross-checks with serial numbers and MAC addresses and other such nonsense, in order to prevent piracy and license fraud.  And so it does care what's in that space.  Now, for some reason, 10.6.3 adds some non-alphanumeric characters to the representation of the serial number, which causes Adobe's check to fail.  It's a pretty stupid bug, and Adobe blames it on Apple and Apple blames it on Adobe.  Probably has more to do with the intrigue between the companies than it does with API compliance and lazy compatibility.

Probably the reason there hasn't been a lot of noise about this bug is that it only occurs with 10.6.3, CS3, and a Mac whose logic board doesn't have a serial number flashed to it - a fairly rare combination.  Honestly, you can't blame them for not including this scenario in their test strategy.  It's unlikely that a patch for CS3 will be released, because CS5 just came out, and Apple insists that it has done nothing wrong.  Well, so it goes.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Fuck DRM!

Isn't there a patch for this?

Maybe you could check out piratebay.?

[worker201]

Here's the official Adobe response:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/834/cpsid_83499.html

When an Apple is produced, the system serial number is flashed onto a chip on the logic board.  When your logic board is replaced by Apple (as mine was when I first bought it, because of a faulty Airport card connector), they sometimes don't flash your serial number onto the new board.  If this happens, the system identifies your serial number as being "Serial Number SystemSerialNumb".  As far as most software is concerned, that's not a big deal at all.  But Adobe does all these little cross-checks with serial numbers and MAC addresses and other such nonsense, in order to prevent piracy and license fraud.  And so it does care what's in that space.  Now, for some reason, 10.6.3 adds some non-alphanumeric characters to the representation of the serial number, which causes Adobe's check to fail.  It's a pretty stupid bug, and Adobe blames it on Apple and Apple blames it on Adobe.  Probably has more to do with the intrigue between the companies than it does with API compliance and lazy compatibility.

Probably the reason there hasn't been a lot of noise about this bug is that it only occurs with 10.6.3, CS3, and a Mac whose logic board doesn't have a serial number flashed to it - a fairly rare combination.  Honestly, you can't blame them for not including this scenario in their test strategy.  It's unlikely that a patch for CS3 will be released, because CS5 just came out, and Apple insists that it has done nothing wrong.  Well, so it goes.

In case anyone was waiting with bated breath to find out how it would end, this issue is resolved by the 10.6.4 update.  Since Apple provided the fix, I can only assume Apple was the source of the problem.