LOAF Switched! (Calling all Mac Wing Commanders)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Well, I've finally made the leap towards adding a Macintosh to my Wing Commander system: I purchased a cute little PowerMac 7300 desktop from eBay (for $23). I must admit -- I'm fairly lost.

My plan is to purchase a KVM switch (anyone know anything about these?) and some audio cables so I can share the keyboard, monitor and speakers of the rest of Wing Commander Computer (still needs a better name!). That seems simple enough. But then I need to outfit her for optimal Wing Commander-ism... and I haven't used a Mac since owning an Apple ][ in the early eighties, so I'm not familiar with them at all.

I see that Thrustmaster made Macintosh variants of the FCS and WCS (joystick and throttle) which work well with Wing Commander games -- I suppose I'll have to go with these. Does anyone know if SWC, WC3 or WC4 supported the Thrustmaster Rudder Control System? The one I have claims to be multiplatform, and I could probably make a system of switches to use it with both PC and Mac if necessary... anyone have any experience?

Also -- operating systems. What 'MacOS' do I want for the three Wing Commander games, and how do I go about installing it if the Macintosh I've purchased has been formatted? Is there somewhere I can buy old Mac operating systems?

Basically, though, what kind of advice can people give me for Mac Wing Commandering... what kind of things should I be looking for to make it the best possible experience?
 
No, he bought a Mac computer for $US 23.

I'm sure we had some Macintosh users on the board at some time. Don't know if they're still around...

LOAF, I suppose you could build a multiple monitor setup and then call it a Wing Commander Flight Simulator. :)
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
No, he bought a Mac computer for $US 23.
Click to expand...

It would really make more sense if the first word in that sentence was 'Yes' rather than 'No'.
 
As best I can tell, the Mac I've bought should be more than enough for playing the three Mac Wing Commanders. It's just the computer, though -- no keyboard/mouse/speakers/monitor.

Apparently, old Macintoshes are readily available, since when you 'upgrade' a Mac you replace the entire system -- you don't salvage parts like you would with an IBM PC.

No dual-monitor is necessary, though -- there are switch devices that will let you share a single PS2 mouse, keyboard and monitor between a PC and an older Mac.
 
About the monitor thing...

I was thinking about a multiple monitor setup like you see in the cinema foyers, eg nine monitors setup to display one big picture... but that's probably more trouble than it's worth. I suppose you have one of those TV out port thingies to play on a giant projection screen or something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top