This was to be the biggest Macworld in years--possibly ever. Apple's stock was the highest it had been in years, developers were starting to take serious notice in the Mac OS platform, and fans were intensely waiting to see which rumours were true and which were just puffs of smoke.
Questions. Nothing but questions. Would the iBook (codenamed the P1) make its debut? Skepticism and serious questioning as to a Macworld iBook introduction wafted through the air to the point of suffocation. Would Apple show OS X or would it be the show of OS 9? Notice, however, that none of the questions prior to this Macworld were even remotely close to the Macworld of a year and a half ago in San Francisco: "Will Apple survive?" "What do you think of all the doom and gloom?" Instead, this Macworld's questions were all oriented towards "What's Next."
The situation in Mac gaming was much the same. There were tremendous rumours alluding to the fact that Apple was to make a HUGE announcement in the way of games. What would it be? Would Electronic Arts sign an exclusive deal? Would John Madden get on the jumbotron and put in a plug for the Mac OS version of Madden 2000?
Instead, Apple and Bungie announced HALO, Bungie's latest creation that not only caused jaws to drop, but whistles and cheers to echo throughout the keynote hall. Still, more in the way of games was to be expected at the keynote, insiders say. Most of us still aren't clear on what exactly happened, but all the same, Macworld New York '99 was another huge boost for Mac Gaming.
When we began preparing to cover this Macworld, we realized something. Mac Games aren't just about companies like MacSoft, Blizzard, Aspyr, and Bungie. Sure, all of the Macintosh developers and publishers play a very large role in Mac gaming. But we realized something more. We need hardware to play games. We need things like joysticks, mice, keyboards, and 3D hardware acceleration. We need processor acceleration. We need high-quality monitors, hard drives, and CD ROMS.
And then we began to realize that Mac Gamers aren't just interested in Mac games. To generalize, Mac Gamers are interested in simply having fun with their Mac. That's right. We like to Play With Our Macs, and we're damn proud of it. So why shouldn't we cover "toys" for your Mac? Why can't we cover things like Canon's latest Firewire Digital Video cameras? What's stopping us from covering LaCie's latest and greatest in USB CDR's and DVD Drives?
We slowly began to realize that, "Hey, we're only covering a fraction of what our readers want to see." So, we approached this Macworld with an entirely new perspective. Not only have we brought you the goods on the latest in Mac Games, publisher by publisher and developer by developer, but we've also gone to great lengths to cover Hardware & Utlities on the Mac.
This also marks a new direction for MacReactor. We will shortly be debuting a new section devoted entirely to hardware and utilities, because let's face it. We like to play with our Macs, we like to have fun, and we LOVE toys.
So, without further ado, we bring you MacReactor's Macworld New York 1999 wrap-up. Play With Your Mac.
-Rafi Guroian
Editor in Chief
