The week in games

Every day MacCentral brings readers the latest news from the Mac gaming business, but there are occasionally stories that don’t make it onto our regular news pages. That’s why we have this weekly retrospective, called the Week in Games.

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Battle for the Universe 2.01 released

Misty Software has released Battle for the Universe 2.01, a new version of its multiplayer action/arcade game. The new version corrects GameRanger-related problems and monitor switching issues, and more.

Game sales break record in 2002

The Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) reported last week that 2002 was another record-setting year for sales in computer and video games. The industry raked in $6.9 billion in sales for the year, according to the organization. What’s more, a majority of Americans — 56 percent, overall — plan to buy games this year. There’s one telling statistic, however, that bodes ill for Mac games and PC games alike: 80 percent of last year’s sales were in the console market specifically.

Gorky 17 updated

e.p.i.c. interactive has released a patch for Gorky 17, its role playing/adventure game that puts you in the role of a recon team exploring the ruins of a derelict Soviet “secret city” populated by terrifying genetic monsters. The new version fixes hardware graphics rendering problems with Mac OS X 10.2.x.

MacGames DVD ships

Inside Mac Games has released its very first MacGames DVD. Up until now, the company’s collections of demos, shareware, updates, add-ons and more have shipped on CD-ROM, but now they’ve created a compendium on DVD-ROM as well. It costs $19.

Parsec goes open-source

After years in development, a “commercial quality freeware” game called Parsec — which put players in a 3D environment in outer space — appears poised for release as an open-source project, as well. The game’s developers originally hoped to release Parsec themselves, but were working on it in their spare time. They’ve finally acknowledged that Parsec might have a better chance seeing the light of day if they open up its development to other folks, too.

Reckless Drivin’ 1.44 released

Jonas Echterhoff has released Reckless Drivin’ 1.44, a new version of his top-down scrolling car racing game. The new version fixes a crashing bug.

Redline development status updated

Ambrosia Software has posted a development update for its forthcoming 3D auto racing game Redline. The developer said that the AI has been reworked to be tougher, multiplayer features have been improved, and the game’s career mode has been reworked too.

Rolling Marbles released

Red Marble Games has released Rolling Marbles, a new shareware action puzzle game in which you must group marbles together to make them burst.

Elsewhere on the Web

Inside Mac Games reviews Marble Blast, the new 3D action game from GarageGames. MacGamer looks at peripheral offerings from MacAlly. Apple’s Games section looks at Master of Orion III, the forthcoming strategy game coming from MacSoft.

Closer to home

This week MacCentral’s games-related headlines included news from Freeverse about its final release of eight board games that are free and multiplayer. Aspyr Media noted that it’s shipping Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. In a momentous shift for the Mac game business, Destineer acquired MacSoft, putting MacSoft back under control of the man who started it back in 1993. Id Software’s John Carmack compared high end graphics hardware from Nvidia and ATI. Freeverse Software is shipping Payback, a GTA-style theft game — in North America. Aspyr Media released Ghost Recon 1.4, a new version of the team-based action/strategy game. The Radeon 9700 is not yet shipping for the Mac, but it’s now a build-to-order option for the Power Mac G4. Educational software publisher Riverdeep has licensed its characters and properties to the KidsEdge Web site. Apple is offering new Power Mac G4s with clock speeds up to 1.42GHz. Aspyr said that its new Harry Potter game for the Mac will ship in February. Master of Orion III went Gold Master this week, and is expected to ship in February. The Mac version is close behind.

As always, we encourage you to get in touch with us if you have questions that we haven’t answered, ideas for how we can improve our games coverage here on MacCentral, or Mac game related products and services you’d like to see featured on the site.