The week in games

MacCentral strives to bring readers the latest news and info from the Mac game industry alongside our other headlines every day, but there are always some stories that don’t make it onto our main pages. Accordingly, we’ve created the Week in Games, a retrospective of some of the game news that’s happened throughout the week.

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Cro-Mag Rally 2.0.3 released

Pangea Software has released a new version of Cro-Mag Rally, their 3D racing game for the Macintosh. The new version of Cro-Mag Rally corrects some issues with OS X compatibility.

Hang3000 1.04 released

Space-Time Associates has announced the release of a new version of Hang3000 — a “secretly educational” word guessing game that features word or phrases in dozens of categories, like Countries, Authors, Composers and many other options.

Harpoon3 3.4.6 released

Jesse Spears has released a new version of his naval warfare simulation game Harpoon3. The new build, 3.4.6, sports a variety of under-the-hood improvements both for “Classic” Mac OS and Mac OS X.

Kewlbox.com features simple, downloadable games

If you’re in the mood for some simple gaming fun, check out “advergaming” site Kewlbox.com, created by Blockdot. The site features a variety of different simple arcade and puzzle-style games that can be downloaded or, in some cases, played online. The games work on Windows PCs and Macs, and were created on the Mac. These are the folks behind the bizarre Tetris-style game Viva Los Straitjackets and Elf Balls (now called Santa Balls).

Rival Ball released

Longbow Digital Arts has released a Mac version of Rival Ball, a breakout-style game. It’s got stylish graphics and multiple different game play styles, so if you’re into the genre, check it out.

Elsewhere on the Web

Inside Mac Games has posted a review of Escape Velocity Nova, the new game from Ambrosia Software. MacGamer has a look at Get Amped, an unusual new import from Japan. Apple’s Web site, meanwhile, has posted a look at the ever-elusive Mac sports game genre.

Closer to home

Blizzard Entertainment released Mac OS X versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Freeverse Software released updates to its CrossCards and X-Words Deluxe games, two Mac board games that build on the foundation laid by Scrabble. GameRanger and Aspyr separately denied rumors that the online gaming service was being acquired. ATI announced the Entertain Your Mac combo, which combines the Radeon 7000 card with the XClaim TV USB Edition. MacPlay shipped Icewind Dale for the Mac last week, after announcing earlier this month the game had gone gold master. Xavagus Prime Software released Oids 2.0, a new version of the once-commercial decade-old Mac arcade game. Aspyr said it’ll bundle the Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds strategy guide with the game for its first run.

As always, we encourage you to drop us a line if you have ideas for ways that we can improve our games coverage or if you have questions. And if you’re a game developer and you’d like to see your product highlighted on MacCentral, make sure to get a hold of us too.