Every day MacCentral brings you the latest news and info from the world of Mac games. There’s occasionally news that doesn’t make it to our regular pages though, and that’s why we have this retrospective, which we call the Week in Games.
AstroSquid released
Lost Minds has released AstroSquid, a new side-scrolling arcade-style action game set in outer space. You pilot a squid-like vessel as you blast alien fleets that threaten you. The game is the first that Lost Minds has based using a new OpenGL graphics engine that features anti-aliasing and scaling capabilities, and is an entry in this year’s uDevGames contest.
GamePad Companion 2.1 released
Carvware has released GamePad Companion 2.1, a new version of their game controller programming software for Mac OS X. The new version sports Mac OS X 10.2 compatibility, among other things.
IllumineX releases Infinity Game PaX, MnemoniX
IllumineX has released MnemoniX, a new tile-based memory arcade puzzle game for Mac OS X. The game is offered as $15 shareware. The company has also released the Infinity Game PaX, which bundles MnemoniX, BabelbloX, RoX and MarbleX together for $20.
Lineage updated for Jaguar
NCSoft has noted an issue related to Lineage, its massively multiplayer online role playing game, and Mac OS X 10.2, “Jaguar.” It’s related to windowed mode, and some guidelines for a fix have been posted at the link above.
Space-Time Associates Carbonizes Hangman games
Space-Time Associates and Ken Winograd have announced the release of Carbonized versions of Hang3000 and American Hangman, their “secretly educational” hangman games for the Macintosh.
Super Collapse passes 100,000 unit sold mark
GameHouse has announced it has sold 100,000 copies of Super Collapse, a downloadable game in which you must collapse blocks before they rise to the top of the screen. Initially released for Windows, Super Collapse has since been released for OS X along with most of GameHouse’s other downloadable games. The downloadable games sports features not available on the online version.
Tranquility 5.2 updated for Jaguar
Tranquility has been updated for Mac OS X 10.2, “Jaguar.” It also features a 10 percent improvement in frame rate and an on-screen help guide for new players. Tranquility is a 3D exploration/action game featuring abstract spinning geometric shapes.
X-Plane supports joysticks in 10.2
Laminar Research put out word last week that its flight simulator X-Plane sports support for joysticks under Mac OS X 10.2. Sticks are supported in the version of X-Plane 6.30 beta currently in circulation.
Wordsmith released
Dracosoft has released Wordsmith, a word-forming game in which you form words up to seven letters long before time expires. You can use bonus letters for additional points. Wordsmith has been released as $10 shareware.
Elsewhere on the Web
Inside Mac Games has posted a review of Down, the new adventure game from Fantasoft. MacGamer.com has reviewed Beach Head 2002, the casual game from MacSoft. Apple has looked inside the World Editor included with Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Forerunners.org has opened, it’s a new Bungie games fan site.
Closer to home
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is now available in demo form. New pictures of Ghost Recon are available for review. Ghost Recon has also gone beta. An August update for The Sims is available. The online role playing game Arcane Arena is now OS X compatible. ATI has announced the Mobility Radeon 9000, a new mobile graphics processing unit.
As always, we encourage you to e-mail us if you have any ideas for ways we can improve our games coverage; if you have questions we didn’t answer; or if you have Mac games or game-related services you’d like to see featured on MacCentral.