Apple has always had terrific computer hardware but any compueter game fan knows that hardware is not enough. Games are all about software - the games! For a game player, Apple's failure to get software is legendary and long-standing.

Sure there was a bright period in the 1990's with the powermacs. Major companies like Blizzard (Warcraft), Westwood Studios (Command & Conquer) and Bungie (Marathon, Myth) supported the mac platform but most games that came to the mac were ports of PC games.

Porting was not an inconsequential step. Developers had to recompile their code from Intel to PowerPC architecture, possibly change artwork, and do at least some code rewrite. Consequently, ported games arrived months (if not a year) after the PC version but more importantly, few companies felt the financial return was there to do a port at all. Despite comments by John Cormack (Doom, Quake) and others that OpenGL rocked, most game developers just wanted to move onto the next new game.

The Mac gamer lived in this alternate game reality; always late to the party if they were even invited. And things only got worse.

With Ultima Online and the MMO revolution, Apple gamers were left out completely. UO is why I invested in a Windows95 PC and I never looked back. Apple made great computers but if the tool doesnt do the job, you get a new tool.

A lot of Apple and game fans cried out to Apple for help but this game boycott lasted for many years. For whatever reason, Apple clearly decided not to invest in Mac games so the only thing on the store shelves was family stuff for kids.

In 2006, Apple moved to Intel hardware and things suddenly looked very different. Overnight the whole Mac-game equation changed because Mac hardware could run Windows too. With dual-boot systems or even Parallels, Mac hardware owners could run PC games - no rebuild or translation required. You still could not run with the big boys and their dual-video card systems but it was a HUGE step forward. Now you could have a single computer that ran OSX during the day and played Windows games at night.

Of course, none of this is terribly interesting to me anymore. I want to play PC games and I have the means to purchase a PC just for playing games. Problem solved.

The reason I bring it up is the iPhone.

A portable media player, with a hard drive, powered by OSX, with a large high resolution screen, a touch screen, and internal motion sensors. The iPhone has all the physical requirements to take on the Nintendo DS as a portable game machine extraordinaire.

It may not make sense for Apple to push games very hard in an iPod, but the iPhone is already a multi-function device and it has all the pieces needed to be a serious game machine. Except the games.

So I will be watching over the next few months to see if there is any movement on this front. Cell phone games are very profitable for phone companies and developers alike. In fact, the iPhone is coming around at a time when there is sort of a revolution going on in the gaming world. From our of nowhere, casual games are making money while AAA games struggle.

With the PS3, 360 and PC games, creating a new game has involved increasing costs. It now takes teams of dozens of skilled developers, years of time, and 5 to 10 million bucks to build a game. Like Hollywood, these spiraling costs have lead to more predictable games and less innovation.

In contrast to traditional AAA game development, casual game market has taken off. Tiny games like Bejeweled can be built by small teams for around $200K and then distributed over the web or cell phones for a decent profit. The iPhone is the first phone that I have seen which has all the physical ingredients to provide a really good phone-game experience.

Let's hope that Apple doesn't ignore us game-fans this time around.