Macworld's Game Room has posted a new article on the upcoming GameTap service for Macs. VP of Content Ricardo Sanchez offers some specifics about the what Mac users can expect from the service. Set to launch June 28, GameTap will offer Mac gamers a list of "hundreds" of titles from which to choose. The service will be powered by TransGaming's Cider emulation technology and thus will only be available to Intel Mac owners.

Sanchez notes that Cider imposes some performance limitations compared to a truly “native” Mac OS X version of GameTap, but said it shouldn’t be an issue. “The Intel Macs are already so powerful that the emulation layer doesn’t have any impact on performance,” he added.

While final system requirements are yet to be determined, GameTap for Mac should run on any Intel-based Mac, according to Sanchez, including MacBooks and Mac minis.

Mac users won’t get quite the same experience as their PC counterparts. Recently, GameTap has begun to offer Windows games for play, as well — everything from Tomb Raider to Far Cry, and more.

Those games won’t be accessible to Mac users, though Mac users will have access to all of GameTap’s arcade games and older PC games that were developed to run on DOS. And when the Deluxe version launches later this summer, Mac users will also have access to titles originally developed to run on Sega’s Saturn and Dreamcast consoles. Ultimately, Mac users will be able to count the number of games they’ll have access to in the hundreds, said Sanchez — more than 500, in fact.

“That subscription fee [for Deluxe] will also provide access to ‘Challenge’ games,” said Sanchez. Challenge games enable GameTap users to play online against each other, in games that support multiplayer. And as Cider is being used to enable Mac gamers to play with GameTap, they’ll be able to take on PC gamers in online challenges as well.

Macworld's Game Room: GameTap Brings Classic Gaming To Macs

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