Every week MacCentral brings readers the latest news and info from the Mac game market, but there are usually a few stories here and there that don’t make it on to our regular news pages. That’s why we have this feature, called The Week in Games.
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ATI October drivers updated
After an initial release that caused problems for some users, graphics card and chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. released updated October drivers for its retail cards. The new version improves support for Radeon 7000 cards running Warcraft III and Mac OS X 10.2 and makes other changes.
Chicken Shoot coming next year
Zuxxez Entertainment AG has announced plans to produce Chicken Shoot, a shooting gallery-style arcade game, for multiple platforms including Mac OS during Q1 of 2003. The game sports cartoon-style animation and graphics.
Heroes of Might & Magic IV goes gold
Although there’s been no official word from 3DO Interactive confirming the news, Contraband Entertainment founder “Burger” Bill Heineman recently told MacCentral that his company’s Mac conversion of the fantasy-based strategy game Heroes of Might & Magic IV has gone Gold master and is now in duplication. 3DO previously indicated the game would hit store shelves in November, so expect to see the game soon.
Marathon: Aleph One Carbon build updated
Aleph One, the open source project to bring Bungie’s classic Marathon game to the modern day, has been updated with a new improved Carbon version that runs better on Mac OS X. The new build gets a major speedup, “usable” TCP/IP networking, and more.
Neverwinter Nights Mac status updated
Bioware Corp. is making its Mac version status updates for Neverwinter Nights a weekly affair. The company noted that this week’s Mac development progress has yielded resolution of problems with saved games, lighting issues and other concerns. New screenshots are available for your viewing pleasure.
Only Mortal 2.0b4 released
Only Mortal, a Mac OS X-native game server browser, has been updated to 2.0b4. The new version sports support for Jedi Knight II, features new enhancements and improvements, and more.
Reckless Drivin’ updated for Jaguar fixes
Jonas Echterhoff has released Reckless Drivin’ v1.43, an updated version of the 2D car-driving shareware game. The new version fixes HID support under Jaguar (to help improve support for game controllers) and also fixes a problem with add-on levels under OS X.
Quake III Arena developer offers updated PunkBuster news
Id Software Mac developer Graeme Devine has updated his .plan file with news of a new pubic test release of Quake III Arena 1.32, this time with PunkBuster (anti-cheating) support. Since his notification that the new build was available, however, Devine has again updated his .plan file to indicate that there are “a few problems” with the test 5 build. He expects to post a new version soon.
Westlake offers up porting news
Mac game porting powerhouse Westlake Interactive has updated its news and project status pages with details on its development efforts. The company noted that EverQuest is now at alpha “and is looking great,” with work being done to tune performance on Jaguar and more. Dungeon Siege is at First Playable status. Also in Alpha are its unannounced titles code-named “The Chosen One” and “Finest Hour,” and two new secret titles have been to the roster, code-named “Writer’s Block #1” and “Writer’s Block #2.”
Elsewhere on the Web
Inside Mac Games has reviewed Incoming, part of MacPlay’s Value Series line. MacGamer’s MacGamer X column takes a look at backups. Apple’s Game site looks at Clone Campaigns, Aspyr’s new expansion pack for Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. Pangea Software founder Brian Greenstone was interviewed on Your Mac Life to talk about Bugdom 2.s
Closer to home
Aspyr Media has released a demo version of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Bold has released Links Course Converter to let Links Championship Edition users convert courses designed for older versions of Links. Aspyr Media shipped Ghost Recon Game of the Year Edition, a squad-based tactical strategy game with 3D action elements. Riverdeep’s The Learning Company shipped Zoombinis Island Odyssey, a new education game that emphasizes math and science. Phelios has released Android, a shareware platform action game reminiscent of Lode Runner. The developers of anti-cheating technology PunkBuster noted their Mac development progress for Quake III Arena and Soldier of Fortune II. Aspyr Media shipped two Star Wars titles this week: Jedi Knight II and Clone Campaigns. A new educational CD-ROM for Mac features The Powerpuff Girls.
As always, we encourage you to drop us a line, whether you have questions we didn’t answer, have an idea for how we can improve game coverage here on MacCentral, or have a Mac game-related product or service you’d like to see featured here.