Every day MacCentral brings readers the latest news and info from the world of Macintosh games and entertainment. Every so often there are items that don’t make it onto our regular news pages, though, and that’s why we have this weekly retrospective called The Week in Games.
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The Belt released; uDevGame entry
Feline Entertainment has released The Belt, its entry into the uDevGame 2002 contest. It’s an old-school arcade game in which you and another opponent try to annihilate each other’s plasma turrets.
GameRanger 3.0.1 released
The online gaming service GameRanger got an update to version 3.0.1 recently. The new version adds some features, fixes problems, and changes some functionality — check the read me file for the latest details. GR users are automatically updated to the latest version when they connect to the server.
Gridz 1.5.x released
Green Dragon Creations has released a new version of Gridz, its strategy game in which you use ToolBots to grab territory in NetSpace. The game now sports OS X support, network support has been improved, and the price has been lowered.
IndieGamesCon ’02 coming next week
Garage Games, developers of the Mac-compatible Torque game engine, are holding IndieGamesCon ’02 next week in Eugene, Or. The event runs from November 1-3 as it gathers independent game developers to talk about the art and business of game development. The event includes presentations, roundtable discussions and more.
Infernal Contractor II offered
Mushware Ltd. has noted the release of Infernal Contractor II, a new game in development (and another uDevGame ’02 entry) that uses OpenGL to create a rotating 3D display. “This episode sees you racing round the office against the clock in an attempt to prove your fitness to the demanding recruiters,” explained the developer. At least superficially, the game reminds us a bit of Harry the Handsome Executive from Ambrosia Software.
Jinni Zeala High Score Contest underway
Little Wing Pinball, maker of Jinni Zeala, has announced a high score contest for the game. Little Wing said that the contest is only open to those folks who register their copies directly through Little Wing, which would seem to exclude folks who bought the game from MacPlay.
Neverwinter Nights Mac version update
Bioware Corp. continues its work on the Mac version of Neverwinter Nights, the graphical role playing game. The developers noted that “significant progress was made” this week, with movies and sound both functional. “We have a lot more work left to do, but at least the speakers are now doing more than squeak at us. A lot of progress was also made on the config utility. We can hardly wait to hear what our wonderful Mac department is doing next week,” they said. Neverwinter Nights will be published by MacSoft on completion.
Rhem released
If Myst or Riven is your bag, then you might be interested in Rhem, a new graphical adventure spread across 3 CD-ROMs. In Rhem, you must “uncover the secrets of a mysterious letter.” Four years in production, Rhem runs on Macs and Windows, although it supports Mac OS up to 9.x only.
Squish players compete for Xbox
Monkey Byte Development LLC and IGN have teamed up for the Play Squish Sweepstakes. People who play Squish — the action puzzle game featuring falling drops of toxic waste — can enter a sweepstakes to win a Microsoft Xbox game console.
Elsewhere on the Web
Inside Mac Games has posted a preview of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, the new extreme action game coming to the Mac from Aspyr Media. MacGamer reviews the Power Mac G4 Dual 1.25GHz’s suitability as a game machine. Apple’s Games site has taken a look at The Sims Vacation expansion pack from Aspyr Media. Macworld UK talked with Destineer founder Peter Tamte, whose Bold label produces Mac conversions of popular Microsoft games.
Closer to home
Quite a busy week for game news on MacCentral: Bugdom 2’s demo and full version (sans registration code, which you have to buy) is available for download from iDisk for .Mac users. Targetware said that it’s going to work on Mac OS X only for future Mac efforts on its Target Korea flight simulator. New screenshots of World War II Online running on the Mac have been released; it’s a massively multiplayer online game set in Europe in World War II. Aspyr Media announced plans to publish a Mac version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. Three months after Contraband Entertainment noted that it’s doing the Mac conversion of Heroes of Might & Magic IV, publisher 3DO noted plans to release the game this fall. The Learning Company published Liberty’s Kids, a history game set during the American Revolutionary War, aimed at kids ages 8-12 and based on the new PBS Kids television series. ATI introduced new prototype graphics card based on DDR-2 memory, which it says offers enhanced performance. Aspyr Media noted that its Mac conversion of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast has gone gold master and should hit store shelves imminently.
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