Each week MacCentral brings you news and headlines from the world of Mac gaming. But every so often there are stories that don’t find a place on our daily news pages, so we have this weekly retrospective. Welcome to the week in games.
Anthrax game now online
No, not the punk/metal band, silly, the disease. “Real life simulations” maker Legacy Interactive (publishers of the “ER” series of emergency room doctor games) has a new Shockwave-based game you can play online. The new game is at ERSim.com. In this online game you assume the role of an emergency room doctor on call when a patient comes in with symptoms that look suspiciously like the deadly biological contaminant anthrax.
Galactica A.D. 2.0.9 released
MonkeyByte.com and Sacred Tree Software have announced the release of a new version of Galactica Anno Dominari, the companies’ space-based game of strategic conquest. Specific details on what has changed in this version has not been offered. The software runs on Mac OS 8.5 or higher, including Mac OS X.
H.M.S. Freeverse, AspyrWorld to merge
Colin Lynch Smith of Freeverse software recently announced plans to merge Freeverse’s own multiplayer gaming system with that of Aspyr Media’s AspyrWorld service. AspyrWorld was developed to help encourage online gaming of the Aspyr-published Freeverse game, iPuppet Presents: Colin’s Classic Cards. Smith offers some details about the merger that are important to read if you’re using H.M.S. Freeverse now, so make sure to click on that link if it’s up your alley.
Neverwinter Nights back on track following settlement
Things turned ugly between game developer Bioware Corp. and PC game publisher Interplay late into the development of Neverwinter Nights, an exciting new 3D role-playing game that had been intended for Mac, Windows, and UNIX systems. The companies announced that the game will by publishing by MacSoft’s parent company Infogrames instead, “subject to certain pre-existing Interplay licenses.”
It’s important to note that none of the parties involved have yet commented specifically on the game’s Mac development, and nothing should be inferred by Infogrames’ specific involvement. At least initially, Bioware planned to support all three platforms out of the same box.
Quake, Quake II for OS X: the Fruitz of Dojo
The offbeat by very Mac-centric developers at Fruitz of Dojo continue to plug away at OS X-compatible versions of the landmark Id Software first person shooters Quake and Quake II. Both versions are based on publicly available source code, and require the game’s data files to work. So if you have a copy of either title that you shelved since making the move to Mac OS X, maybe now’s the time to dust it off and see how well it plays.
Red Faction 2 announced for PC, PS2
If you’re a big fan of GraphSim Entertainment’s first person shooter Red Faction, you might be interested to know that developer Volition and its publisher THQ have announced that Red Faction 2 is now in development. There hasn’t been any Mac version of the new game announced yet, but GraphSim seems happy enough with sales of the first title to at least consider the possibility of licensing the second one.
Vampire: The Masquerade — Redemption updated
MacSoft has published a 1.0.1 update to its release of Vampire: The Masquerade — Redemption, a 3D role-playing adventure game with a strong online component. The update corrects some problems with online play; MacSoft also noted some outstanding issues, so make sure to read the notes before installing.
Z Sculpt Entertainment updates
Zachary Black of Z Sculpt Entertainment recently provided subscribers to the company’s newsletter a comprehensive update of what the game developer has going on right now. First off to bat, the company is continuing efforts to develop a new beta of Dark Castle 3, which will published by Delta Tao upon completion. They expect a new demo “within the next few days.” A new release of the puzzle game Khufu is coming, complete with OS X carbonization. After that’s out, the company plans to release OS X compatible versions of Meteor Storm and Retro.
Elsewhere on the Web
MacGamer.com this week opened up its Flight Sim Arena, a new area of the site designed to assist an underserved group of Mac gamers — those that like aircraft flight simulators. Inside Mac Games, meanwhile, has posted a review of Sacrifice, the new real time strategy game published by MacPlay. Skewed Perspective has posted a review of Civilization III from MacSoft.
Closer to home
This week at MacCentral we brought you news on WarBirds III and Mac OS X. We also had a couple of stories related to the upcoming Game Developers Conference about who will be speaking and when early registration deals end. Aspyr Media had some exciting news about Spider-Man shipping, and the status of various other projects that are near to or at completion. And Apple added a ton of games content to its Web site this week, including info on gaming at the Expo, a profile of Civilization III, and a look at action games.
As always, we heartily encourage you to let us know if you have games or game-related services you’d like to let our readers know about, or if you have ideas for ways that we can improve our games coverage. Thanks for reading!