Each Friday, join me for a discussion of the latest developments in Mac, iPhone, and iPod gaming. This week, we’re going to look at Apple’s new MacBooks, which had gamers singing their praises when CEO Steve Jobs unveiled them earlier this month. The company dropped integrated Intel graphics chipsets in favor of NVIDIA’s new GeForce 9400M, which is also integrated but which promises more than a basic step up in 3D performance.

"The new graphics chips are going to be at least twice as fast as the older MacBooks, and that should put them in the range to support more games," said Glenda Adams, who heads up internal development at Aspyr Media. "It’s still a mobile part in a lower end config, but I’m excited about the possibility for us to take some of our new games (and even a few older ones) and get them running on the full lineup of Apple laptops now."

MacSoftpresident Peter Tamte agreed, but added: "I think the real impact of this decision will be seen down the road when everyone making software for the Mac -- whether it be Apple with the OS, games developers, or other application developers -- can depend on having programmable graphics throughout the entire Mac line. There are lots of things you can do with programmable graphics cards that you just can’t do with Intel’s crappy integrated graphics chipsets." Apple’s Mac mini, which has been neglected by the company for a while now, still uses Intel integrated graphics.

But with a wider range of hardware to target with games, when will the long-moribund Mac gaming market take off? Many developers and publishers have noticed that software sales in general are not growing at the same rate as Mac sales, which have posted double-digit year-over-year increases over the past few quarters.

Ms. Adams singled out distribution as the culprit: "The main place for people to buy games are the Apple retail stores, and there we’re fighting for shelf space with iPod speakers and iPhone cases. We’ve been pushing into digital distribution with our GameAgent.com service, and so far that has gone very well. But I think the holy grail would be for Apple to open up a Mac App Store, similar to what they have on the iPhone."

Bruce Morrison, a producer at Freeverse Software, added: "There’s just a lot to overcome. Right now console is king for games (with a few exceptions). So everyone has to get back into using the computer for games, not just Mac users. And it’ll take a long time to change the ’Macs don’t play games’ mentality that a lot of people have. We just need to keep making great games."

Mr. Tamte, who pointed to solid sales of his company’s recent games, such as Age of Empires III and its expansion packs, elaborated on that point: "Our biggest challenges in selling Mac games are: 1. The PC games market has shrunk by over a third, which means there are far fewer PC games to bring to the Mac. 2. Piracy. A lot of PC and Mac publishers are moving our development dollars to platforms where it’s more difficult for people to steal our stuff -- like iPhone and consoles."

Speaking of the iPhone, its success has led Apple to embrace gaming in a big way on that platform -- perhaps they see a chance at a fresh start, given the fact that gaming on the Mac went into decline over a decade ago and hasn’t fully recovered. A recent iPod touch ad emphasizes its handheld gaming capabilities, and Macworld’s Peter Cohen recently posted an article headlined: "Developer: iPhone can rival Nintendo DS, Sony PSP for games."

It profiles Ngmoco, which was founded by ex-Electronic Arts employees Neil Young and Alan Yu. They have a lot of interesting things to say about the new ecosystem, including this intriguing comment from Mr. Young: "One long-term aspect of our business is to introduce what I’d describe as Xbox Live for the iPhone. A social networking system for tracking achievements, gamer tags, and scores. Something that will let you ’poke’ and challenge other players through that network."

I’ll be back next week with some thoughts on a gaming franchise that has seen enormous success on the Mac.