Can you install and play Windows games directly in MacOS X without installing Windows?

Currently, the best way to play Windows games on an Intel-based Mac is to install Apple Boot Camp, install Windows, and then boot into Windows to play Windows games. However, Parallels is hard at work adding support for hardware accelerated 3D graphics, OpenGL, and DirectX to the next version of their software as well.

CrossOver Mac officially supports Half-Life 2 and works with some other Windows games to varying degrees of success running "inside" MacOS X without having to install Windows.

Additionally, TransGaming has announced "Cider" which the company refers to as a "Mac portability engine" that promises to make it possible for game developers to "encapsulate the original source code" of a Windows game. In turn, a Mac user would then be able to install and run the "encapsulated" game within MacOS X.

TransGaming explains that:

Cider is a sophisticated portability engine that allows Windows games to be run on Intel Macs without any modifications to the original game source code. Cider works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an Intel-Mac and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 APIs. Games are simply wrapped up in the Cider engine and they work on the Mac. This means developers only have one code base to maintain while keeping the ability to target multiple platforms. Cider powered games use the same copy protection, lobbies, game matching and connectivity as the original.

If you read that quote and immediately assumed that this "portability engine" is based on WINE, like CrossOver Mac, you would be correct. Although Cider is specifically "targeted at game developers and publishers" rather than end users.

MacWorld published an interview with Vikas Gupta, the CEO of TransGaming, who makes a number of bold promises about Cider's abilities. The full piece is well worth reading, but in particular Gupta claims that "Cider games will run as if they were made for Mac OS X" and "the average user won’t be able to discern any difference". On the other hand, the interviewer was able to extract that "users are bound to see 10 to 15 percent lower frame rates than they would in a truly native game."

Cider sounds great, but so does Cedega, TransGaming's Windows "portability engine" for Linux that the company claims "delivers an amazing gaming experience that matches the Windows experience". However, from reading through a couple of Slashdot postings about Cider and Cedega, it is safe to say that opinion is decidedly mixed.

An article on Linux.com provides more insight into the performance of Cedega, which the author refers to as a "melding of Wine and DirectX". The complete article should be read for the full perspective provided by the author, but in particular, referring to Civilization 4 (an "officially supported" game), the author reports that:

I haven't been able to play Civ4 under Cedega; the menus worked great, the intro movie as well, but as soon as it is finished loading a scenario or a quick game -- crash, boom, bang.

The author also says:

For older games, sometimes Wine alone is a better option. . . Generally speaking, games do work with Cedega, but most of the time (even for officially supported games) you should stay away from "high" details, and expect crashes.

He ultimately concludes:

Cedega may not be the answer to games under Linux, but it's better than not being able to play at all, until gaming companies notice Linux users as a market and release games for Linux. The sad part is that even as an intermediate solution, Cedega is still more like "plug and pray" than "plug and play."

Since August 3, 2006, when Cider was introduced, TransGaming has been rather quiet regarding any further developments, but MacWorld notes that Freeverse is using Cider to port Heroes of Might & Magic V to the Mac, and it will be a "big litmus test" for the system.

On January 2, 2007, a company dubbed Falling Leaf announced a system dubbed the "Alky Project". Although it sounds very much like Cedega, the company claims that it is not based on WINE or winelib, but works by "converting a specific Windows game into a fully native OSX or Linux executable".

Little information regarding the Alky Project has been provided thus far, but the company offers access to a "Sapling Program" for US$50, which purports to offer advanced access to future game-specific "converters" for free that will be sold to others for US$20 each.

One should note that Falling Leaf has a disclaimer for the Sapling Program that includes "while we have every intention of releasing Alky Converters to the general public in the near future, we make no such guarantee." Certainly, one should be extremely cautious regarding paying up front for "future products" from any company.

Only time will tell if TransGaming or Falling Leaf are able to live up to their promises.