Pangea re-releases Cro-Mag Rally as shareware

After a successful run as a commercial game and a bundle on Apple’s consumer Mac models, Cro-Mag rally was re-released today as shareware title by its developer and publisher, Pangea Software.

Made by the same Mac-only developer responsible for hit 3D games likes Nanosaur, Bugdom, and Otto Matic, Cro-Mag Rally puts Mac gamers behind the wheel of race cars driven by cavemen (and cavewomen). The cars race across a variety of courses spread across different eras each with unique themes.

It’s a whimsical and fun game evocative of the so-called “kart” racing games made popular on video game consoles. And like those games, it’s not just about crossing the finish line first. In addition to being able to choose different vehicles, each with different attributes and capabilities, you’ll find your racing impeded by various obstacles that you’ll have to drive around. Additionally, you can pick up an array of offensive and defensive tools like bone bombs and oil slicks to keep your opponents at bay.

And if you have multiple Macs running Cro-Mag Rally on a local area network, you can also play the game in one of various multiplayer modes, like Tag, Capture the Flag and Survival. Or, you can opt for two players on one Mac in split screen mode.

Released originally as a commercially available, boxed game that could be purchased off the shelves of leading Mac software retailers and from Pangea itself, Cro-Mag Rally was also picked up by Apple for a while as a game that was bundled with its iMac and iBook systems. Recently, though, the inventory of boxed copies has dwindled, encouraging Pangea founder Brian Greenstone to offer this new version — identical in every way to the commercial release, except locked as shareware, requiring a US$20 registration fee to activate its full features.

Cro-Mag Rally Shareware 2.0.4 is available for download from Macgamefiles.com. It’s about 130MB, so make sure you’re on a fast connection before attempting a download.