Now available. Download it now and get Portal FREE. Although it won't do people like me any good. My 7600GT is under the min specs (only on Mac)

But you can always get access to it now and download it later on your next Mac.

If you download it, look me up! My handle is zweiosx.

direct link is here: http://store.steampowered.com/about/

took me a bit to find it.

Got it, mine is osxaddict

Portal isn't exactly free. Looks like it's a demo until the 24th. Still trying to figure out how to download that.

A lot of people are confused about that. From everything i've heard it's free all the way. The promo just ends on the 24th.

Have you gotten it yet? I just get a black screen.

And this is what makes me think that they'll charge:
So you only have a few days to decide if your free copy of Portal is worth the price we're currently charging

Oh, and did you ever play on GameRanger? http://www.gameranger.com/about/

That's what I always played on before and so I don't get how Steam is so big?

ok, FINALLY figured out how to download Portal. Very un-intuitive.

I've been reading about it in their forums. Even if it did expire it wouldn't matter ...you can finish the game in under 6 hrs.

I'm thinking about getting that indie bundle that's on mega sale right now. Those WILL play on the Mac side.

I guess i'll be reinstalling bootcamp. I need it for starcraft II anyway.

I downloaded the Indie game bundle for $20 …5 games, and no duds. I REALLY like world of goo. http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4326/

Can't wait to see what this Wednesday brings. (I'm assuming TF2 ..which I want even though I'll have to run it in Windows)

why would you have to run it in windows if you can play it in Steam?

Because the Mac Nvidia 7 series graphics drivers are missing some function that the steam engine requires to run. In short, it runs fine in Windows …won't run on the Mac side unless Apple updates their drivers.

I'm not holding my breath on Apple tweaking drivers for 3+ year old hardware.

Where did you find that out?

I have the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GS that has 512MB. Is that affected?

On the steam forums …I went there after I tried to open Portal on my machine and it said it was below the minimum system specs.

Nvidia 8+ series cards are not affected.

Well, if you have to run it in Windows anyways, why wait until Wednesday?

Hoping they have a 50% off deal

Ah. Sly dog ;-)

You can use that time to shop for a newer video card =D

No TF2 this week …oh well, I've got 6 other games to tide me over for at least several more weeks.

Yeah, I just saw that. A bit disappointing. But I also knew when they announced the weekly release of new games that probably very few of them would be the one's I'm waiting for, so not a huge surprise =

My question is how do you back up games from Steam? Most of my old games I played off of a Firewire HD to save space on my machine. Can this be done with Steam games? Doesn't look like it.

Well, if you're just looking to back stuff up, the games appear to be stored in your User --> Documents --> Steam Content folder

If you're looking for steam to store those on another partition or drive automagically, I'd bet there's a setting for that in the preferences but I don't really know of the top of my head =)

There is some sort of backup system in steam, although I don't know exactly what it does. Not sure if you even really need it, as you can just download the game again. (unless there's some sort of limit to downloads per acct?)

On another note, if you want to put those games on a different drive, all you would need to do is drag that folder off to the other drive and create a symbolic link (i think)

Well, it looks like they released Orange Box for the Mac today ... sans TF2 ("Mac version coming soon!") =P

With Portal being previously released, that means today they essentially released the Half-Life games ... which is still a good thing, even after all these years ...

Of course, the servers are slammed =D

It's too bad Bioshock (and presumably Bioshock 2) were/are being developed for the Mac elsewhere. I doubt we'll ever see Bioshock for the Mac available via Steam (all those who bought the PC version would get it for free, acing the Mac developer out of any moolah) -- prolly Bioshock 2 will have to be a separate purchase, too ...

Still some shaking-out to do with of the existing games, but so far I'm loving Steam and the future is looking pretty good for any new stuff coming down the line =D

What's your handle, if you don't mind sharing? I'll be looking for some TF2 buddies to play with.

Well, I just bought the orange box. Downlading tf2 on the PC side right now. Their 1/3 off deal was good enough for me! $20 for multiple award winning games is hard to pass up

Yeah that's a great deal!

I recently had to repartition my PC space to a new Mac one ... might be a while before that functionality returns =)

I just bought the Orange Box too. Excellent deal! My handle is ezyridertx. I can't wait until TF2 comes out. When I started the download it put a TF2 icon on my desktop so I'm assuming since it is included with the Orange Box bundle that when its released the download will be available in the Library>Games. I'm loving Steam!

I got out of the computer gaming scene once we got the PS3 but this has definitely renewed my interest. I have XP installed via Bootcamp and could've continued computer gaming in Windows but I really wanted to support native Mac games. All the computer games I own are Mac and I wanted to keep it that way. I don't even want an Xbox 360 because I just hate giving MS any money...I give them enough for Office.

Played TF2 for 3+ hours last night. No idea what the crap I'm doing yet, but I was having a blast!

I've been stuck on Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory for the past couple years …this looks like the game that will help me move on.

Ok, so what is TF2? Team fortress 2. I see it now

So this orange box comes with Portal too? Too bad you can't switch that out for a different game since they just gave it away.

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first person shooter. Think Quake deathmatch with more of a focus on co-operative gameplay.

It's a rather humorous game. The characters all look like they came out of the Incredibles. Think incredibles + blood and body parts

Well, poo! No update at all this week it seems. Not that I expected "every Wednesday" to last terribly long, but I did think it would have the legs to last longer than two weeks ;-)

There was a post in their forums saying that they have been busy doing something for WWDC, and to expect something next THURSDAY …instead of Wed.

Saw an article yesterday somewhere that Mac users have grabbed 8% of the Steam market.

Slightly more if you count all the people like me that run Steam on a Mac in Boot Camp

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=3923&p=1

Tomorrow it is!

Awesome!

Can't wait =)

And there it is!

Downloading now, assuming the servers cooperate ;-)

SWEEEET!

http://www.teamfortress.com/macupdate/earbuds/

Awesome! lol

I bought the Orange Box a month ago which included TF2. When I launched Steam it was there ready for download. Cool! I installed it and plan on playing this weekend.

Yeah, that's what's really cool -- I already had Orange Box and some other games on my now-defunct Boot Camp setup, and they all were ready to download again on the Mac side as soon as they were available. Pretty nifty =)

TF2 probably is the last of the freebies for me, though ... unless they swing a deal for Bioshock I think I have everything on the Mac side that I was running in Windows ...

so does anyone else have the nvidia problem since the update to 10.6.4?

Not yet, but I haven't had much time to play =)

I played a few hours Saturday (Half Life 2) and had no issues.