Man this is weird need help badly

Question

I just got my new imac today from fedex and I'm having some problems early on ok I got quite afew programs that run windows and mac and none of them will install and run right take warcraft 3 for example it just crashes as soon as you run it then there myst 4 and 5 don't run right either all of them just crash whats going on with this thing anyways love the computer but getting very fustrated that nothing I have runs on this mechine.

Answer 1

The older iMacs used PowerPC chips from IBM/Motorola. Software for those Macs were written in binary code specifically for those chips. The new iMacs have Intel chips and software must be written in binary code for those chips. In this interim period Apple has incorporated into the Operating System software called Rosetta, named for the famous stone which finally allowed archeologists to decipher ancient Egyptian. Rosetta allows software applications written for PPC Macs to run on Intel Macs by translating the PPC binary code into native Intel binary code on the fly, or in real time. However, it has its drawbacks, especially where games are involved. PPC software using Rosetta are much more memory intensive than native Intel software. There is a new creature added to the mix called Universal binaries. These are a new breed of software applications that contain both PPC and Intel binary code. They can run on both PPC and Intel Macs
So, first you need a lot of RAM to run games. Second if the game manufacturer has issued a patch to your game that makes it more Intel friendly or updates it to be a Universal binary, it is to your advantage to check with the game maker and download and install the patch. Third, Windows games will not run on Intel Macs unless you have used one of the methods available to install Windows XP on your Intel Mac.