EVE Online: Now Flying on Mac

Posted by Marius Masalar on 02/6/08 in Games, Internet

Eve Trinity
In May of 2003, the Icelandic game development company CCP released their flagship title: a sci-fi MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game) called EVE Online. Now, four years later, EVE Online is one of the largest persistent virtual universes in existence, home to tens of thousands of dedicated players.

And with the release of their new Trinity expansion, this game world is finally open to Mac (and Linux) users everywhere.

So, do you have an adventurous bone in your body that’s calling out for a gigantic new universe to explore? Or do you have the skills to manipulate the player-based economy of EVE to build your own galactic corporate empire? Perhaps you’ve always been drawn to a life of piracy? Whatever your calling, EVE Online delivers. With 5,000 individual solar systems — each with its own planets and stations, and each planet with its own moons and asteroid belts — the possibilities are virtually limitless. The new Trinity expansion also features a major graphics overhaul, and space has never looked so gorgeous.

In-Game Screenshot 1

When CCP designed EVE, they were dreaming of a new generation of MMOs which could break out of the previous constraints of the genre. No longer would they have to split their game world in to several identical “shards” in order to accommodate all their players; instead, the world of EVE Online takes place in a single, epic game world. And the level of inter-personal interactivity really pays off in gameplay terms. With the ability to form and join corporations which are thousands of members strong, EVE provides extremely rewarding gameplay. Its player-driven economy ensures that every sale and every purchase affects every other player, so all citizens of EVE are constantly contributing to the game’s universe.

In-Game Screenshot 2

If you’re a fan of sci-fi and long for a game to satisfy your warp-drive wants, look no further than EVE Online. It may just be the largest game release that the Mac world has seen to date.

You can try it out for free for the first 14 days, after which a monthly subscription fee is necessary to continue playing. For more information, including specific system requirements, visit EVE Online.

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14 Comment(s)

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Leon Freyermuth said on

February 6th, 2008 at 11:51 am

I used to play Eve-Online and it really is an amazing game. The expansive world and limitless possibilities make it extremely appealing. The skill system is completely different from every other MMO on the market and the ability to change your profession at any time with no preset professions means you really can do whatever you want.

Bob Rudis said on

February 6th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Has the client been stable for *anyone* on OS X? It has been practically unusable (unless you don’t mind sitting in or near a station.

MacApper staffers: I know you have little control over the ads that come up, but the EVE article has at least two “Buy ISK” ads in the rotation. Purchasing in-game currency out-of-game is against the EULA and should not be encouraged (even if the encouragement is not deliberate).

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G said on

February 6th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

I’ve been playing Eve on Tiger and Leopard since a mac client was released. I haven’t had any serious problems. Currently my Macbook Pro is my primary platform for Eve.

F1sh said on

February 6th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Is anyone playing this on low end MacBooks? Like 1.8Ghz?

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Bob Rudis said on

February 6th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

@F1sh: My wife tried to get the Mac client working on her MacBook to no avail. Unlike @G, I’ve had absolutely no success getting EVE to run with any semblance of stability on my MBPro (fully loaded, late-2007 edition Core2Duo). I am not the only Mac user experiencing problems with this client (just glance through the official EVE forums to get an idea of the frustration level).

We both wound up going the BootCamp route (which works fine, but I’d rather not have to use Windows).

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Daniel said on

February 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

I tried out EVE for a few days. I didn’t like it very much because you are basically just telling a virtual avatar what to do (although its much more involved than that). The avatar’s skills are important, not the players, and the combat is turn-based instead of real-time. Seems like Sims in space. So if you’re like me, you might not like this game (but you should still try it out, as it’s one of very few Mac space MMORPGs).

Other than that, it seemed to work fine, the graphics are absolutely amazing, and the possibilities seem endless. To all new and current players: I hope you enjoy/continue to enjoy this game.

F1sh said on

February 6th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

@Bob: I checked out their forums, and ya you were right. I know of a friend who plays on his MBP without any issue and is bugging me to try this. It’s downloading now so I guess I will have to test it and see. I don’t know of _any_ other MMORPG with a Mac port other than WoW and this one.

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Marius Masalar said on

February 6th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

In case it helps, here’s a direct quotation of their minimum system requirements list for the Mac, taken straight from the website:

* The client does not run on a PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Macintosh Machines (PowerMac). MacBook laptops are also not supported nor the Mac Mini.
* Supported hardware is MacBook Pro laptops, Mac Pro machines and iMacs. All these machines have to meet the following minimum requirements below:
* Intel based computer with CPU speed equal or greater than 1.8GHz
* OS: OS X 10.4.9 or later.
* Video: ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT or higher with 128 MB of Video RAM
* RAM: 1024 MB or more
* HD space: 6 GB
* Network: 56k or better Internet connection

So I suppose that explains why some of you were having trouble getting it to run on a Macbook, though I must admit that I’ve had no issues getting it to work on my Macbook Pro, so it IS possible.

As for stability, I agree that it’s still quite rickety, but considering its the first instance of EVE that’s made it to the Mac, I’m taking the performance with a grain of salt and expecting that future patches will smooth the transition.

Christian said on

February 6th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

You’re late. The Mac client was already available in December.

The Mac client, while quite functional, is buggy.

While the graphics look great, there are no Trinity graphical elements available for the Mac as yet. Scheduled first quarter ‘08, so should be soon.

Get the Windows client and run the Trinity goodness via Boot Camp in the meantime. Looks sweet.

Note: when the recommendations say you need at least 1 gig of RAM, they really mean you need at least 1 gig of RAM.

Miles Evans said on

February 7th, 2008 at 7:58 am

The poster above is right. I installed Trinity on my MBP a few weeks after we first mentioned this in Nov. The graphics are great but the random crashing, and other bugs don’t really warrant me buying a subscription right away. Which sucks because it’s a killer game.

Having said that I’m sure these guys will get the issues sorted out even by the end of this month, as they mention in this thread:

“Both the team here at CCP and the team at Transgaming are working on a new Mac patch which should address several graphics and stability issues. We are also working closely with Apple, Nvidia and ATI on some issues related to device drivers that are causing some of the reported graphics glitches. A release date for the patch has yet to be confirmed but it looks likely to be within the next two to three weeks, pending QA approval. I will update this thread with the full list of fixes once they are available.”

…

“The problem with current Macbooks and Mac Minis is mainly a hardware issue. The Intel chipset in those machines cannot handle EVE’s graphics consistently. So while in theory you can get it running under the likes of bootcamp, the result is far from pretty or stable. We have a Mac Mini in our office and have tried everything we can think of to get EVE to run better on it in the hopes of providing a workaround, but so far it has been an exercise in frustration. Which is a shame because I really would like to get myself a Mac Mini for home use. Sad.

That being said, it looks like the new Macbooks (and the Mac Air) include the Intel X3100 chipset, which on paper means they will be able to run EVE. However the shared graphics memory is not ideal, so until we can benchmark performance on one of these new machines this is not reliable information (read: Please don’t go buy a Macbook and then come back to yell at me if EVE runs poorly Smile). If it turns out to work, then I for one will probably end up buying a Modbook…got to play with one at Macworld and it made a really good impression. Whether EVE is playable with a pen interface is another question entirely. I certainly hope so.”

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Christian said on

February 7th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

Just to be clear, running EVE Online on XP via Boot Camp - provided you meet (and ideally exceed) the hardware requirements, is fine. Just like running it on a PC, because essentially, Windows running on a Mac is basically Windows running on a PC.

Just make sure you have the correct drivers. Boot Camp will install drivers for you, but you might want to visit your vidcard maker’s website, for example, for updated drivers or tweaked drivers.

Greven said on

May 29th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Have somebody tried eve online with XP bootcamp with a iMac 24″, 3.06GHz, Geforce 8800GS 512Mb? how many FPS do you have in the game?

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Nick said on

June 15th, 2008 at 7:13 pm

I am on a macbook pro. The game is running fine, but I get stuck trying to find, for instance, the way to depress F1….

Anyone out there have a KB map?

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Ward said on

July 2nd, 2008 at 10:20 am

I’m a twenty-six year puter geek running a two year-old 2 Ghz Intel Core Duo 20″ iMac w/2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM on OSX 10.4.11. Perhaps some can, but I can’t justify the payed-for account with the amount of instability Eve Online gives to this usually extremely-stable iMac; if it wasn’t for the instability, I’d pay for a year@a time without hesitation. Perhaps if I try it again sometime, and it seems fixed, I’ll go4it but… That’s my two cents.

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