It's Keynote Eve, and you know what that means-- Apple Watchers the world over are tossing and turning, unable to sleep with the anticipation of lots of juicy surprises to be unveiled by Uncle Steve at noon EST tomorrow. Is it pathetic and sad that we find ourselves more excited on the night before the keynote than we were on the night before Christmas? After all, we knew that the presents under the tree contained happy little gifts like CD's and computer games, but somehow that all pales in comparison to getting a kick-butt surprise or three on Keynote Day; ripping the wrapping paper off of the X-Files Game is a thrill, but a Steve Surprise is a joy forever.

And so, just as you'd expect, the rumor mill is working overtime as the big event draws ever closer. Most of the speculation to date has dealt primarily with the 1999 advent of the "P1" consumer portable, and frankly, it's all wearing just a little thin-- especially since both an official Apple representative and Uncle Steve himself have stated clearly that the P1 won't be making an appearance at this week's Expo. That's why we're thrilled to read about a slightly different twist on Apple's consumer strategy over at Apple Insider: after tomorrow, the Mac may suddenly become a mach more interesting computer for gamers. And we mean a lot more interesting. Because the latest buzz is that tomorrow, Apple and Connectix will unveil a new software-based emulation product that will let Macintosh users play Playstation games.

VirtualPlaystation? Criminy! Rumors of impending Playstation compatibility for the Mac have been circulating for a long time now; we recall hearing about supposed Playstation meetings between Apple and Sony over a year ago. So will tomorrow be the day that all of these alleged back-room meetings reach fruition? As it stands, we have more Mac games than we have time to play-- but that doesn't mean that the prospect of adding another 1200 Playstation games to the mix doesn't make us drool. Don't get too worked up yet, though-- this is still rumor, and odds are that you'll need a G3 to run such a processor-intensive emulation product with any reasonable speed. But if VirtualPlaystation runs on the iMac, well-- all we can say is, the consumer sales landscape might shift pretty darn rapidly. Suppose Apple bundles VirtualPlaystation with every iMac? Hoo boy. This is us, keeping our fingers crossed.