Every week MacCentral brings you the latest news and headlines from the world of Mac gaming, but occasionally there are stories that don’t make it to our regular news page. We collect them and post them here in this weekly retrospective, which we call the Week in Games.
Arcane Arena b13 released
Freeverse Software has released a new public beta build of their entry into the massively multiplayer online role playing game genre, Arcane Arena. B13 is now available for download, and if you follow the link you can get more info about the full distribution, if you want to give the game a try but you haven’t downloaded earlier builds yet.
Colin’s Classic Cards updated
iPuppet Presents: Colin’s Classic Cards is Freeverse Software and Aspyr Media’s multiplayer card game collaboration, and this week developer Freeverse offered up a new version: 1.1. Freeverse boss Ian Lynch Smith outlined dozens of changes and improvements in the new version on the Freeverse Lip Service discussion board. Performance has been enhanced and features added, so check it out.
Down is coming
Down is a new Mac-only action/adventure game in development (it’s in beta right now) that will be published by Fantasoft upon its completion. It’s a departure from some of the other games that Fantasoft has released, mixing 2D and 3D elements in a combination that at least seems superficially similar to Bungie’s Myth games. The game features tons of environments to explore, monsters to kill, and items to trade and use.
Harpoon3 3.4.9 released
As regular as clockwork, Jesse Spears has produced another build of Harpoon3, the naval warfare simulation game. The new build, 3.4.9, gets some crash bug fixes, several OS X-specific improvements, and more.
Harry Potter 1.0.1 released
Aspyr Media has posted an update to its Harry Potter game to bring it to version 1.0.1. The new update fixes black screen problems, mouse control under OS X, and a texturing problem on low-VRAM video systems. The 2MB patch is available for download from Aspyr’s FTP site now.
IMG founder becomes a papa
Okay, not strictly game-related, but worthy of note regardless: Inside Mac Games head honcho Tuncer Deniz and his wife Maria had a baby this week. Congrats to the Deniz family.
MOO3 loses lead designer
Alan Emrich announced on the official Master of Orion 3 forums that he is leaving Quicksilver at the end of the month. Quicksilver is the developer of Infogrames/MacSoft’s forthcoming space strategy game Master of Orion 3, and Emrich has been the lead designer. He said the decision to leave “was not one of [his] choosing.” It’s unclear at this stage if Emrich’s departure will have any deleterious affect on MOO3’s completion — the game had already been pushed back to a Q3 release before this news was announced.
MonkeyByte.com opens brick and mortar retail store
MonkeyByte.com already sells and publishes a variety of games for Windows and Mac from their Web site, but now they’re taking the plunge into brick-and-mortar retail sales. They’re opening a new store in San Leandro, Calif. called the Game Arena. They plan to sell their own wares along with “a whole range of peripheral products” from other companies.
TacOps Map Manager 1.0.1 released
Pariahware has announced the release of TacOps Map Manager 1.0.1, their freeware map manager for the Tactical Ops UT mod (not the excellent strategy wargame called TacOps). The software “parses your TacOps cache file and allows one to move their downloaded maps, textures et al into permanent locations so they do not need to be downloaded again.” The first version was released earlier this week, and the update fixes icon problems and OS X distribution.
Elsewhere on the Web
MacGamer.com has posted a preview of Simon the Sorcerer 3D, a new Mac conversion currently underway at the offices of e.p.i.c. interactive. Inside Mac Games has taken a look at Sheep, the absurdly cute action/strategy/puzzle game from Feral Interactive. Apple’s games site this week focused on WarBirds III, the OS X-native World War II-era aircraft dogfighting game from iEntertainment Network.
Closer to home
There was tons of game content on MacCentral this week! Galactic Patrol has been released for Mac OS X. e.p.i.c. interactive announced plans to release Software Tycoon for Mac, a simulation of what it was like to run a video game company in the 1980s. Coderus announced MacDX this week, which promises to help DirectX-dependent Windows game developers bring their titles to the Mac. CarvWare released Gamepad Companion 2.0 this week, which enables Mac OS X users to map keyboard and mouse movements to their favorite game controller, thus providing some level of game controller support in OS X. LittleWing is releasing a new pinball game for the Mac in May called Jinni Zeala. If you want to use an ADC-equipped display with ATI’s new Radeon 8500 for Mac video card, you’ll be happy to know that Dr. Bott has certified the card for use with its DVIator ADC-to-DVI adaptor. Aspyr Media announced that Return to Castle Wolfenstein has gone gold master and should be on retailers’ shelves by month’s end at the latest. Virtual Programming Ltd. released a Carbon update to Wipeout 2097, enabling the game to support Mac OS X natively, with gamepad support too.
As always, we heartily encourage you to drop us a line if you have ideas for ways that we can improve our games coverage, or if you have Mac game related products and services you’d like to let our readers know about.