It’s time again for our weekly retrospective of what’s happened in the Mac game business this week, which we call the Week in Games. It certainly isn’t our only coverage of games-related news from week to week — we carry plenty of daily news content that’s game related as well — but this gives us an opportunity to bring you up to speed on some of the announcements and news that we didn’t get around to the first time.
Freeverse updates card titles
Freeverse Software has updated several of its popular card game titles including Spades Deluxe, Hearts Deluxe, Bridge Deluxe and Euchre Deluxe to new versions this past week. The new versions are available for download from Freeverse’s Web site.
Gathering drops Shadowbane, Wolfpack defiant
Mac gamers looking forward to the multiplatform massively multiplayer online role-playing game Shadowbane got some bad news this week — publisher Gathering of Developers has apparently dropped its plans to publish the title, which was expected to be released later this year. The game’s developer, Wolfpack Studios, says it still has plans to publish the title, however — and assures Mac fans that it’ll be a multiplatform release.
Harpoon 3 OS X notes
Earlier this week programmer Jesse Spears noted some Mac OS X-related info about his game Harpoon 3, the latest version of the naval warfare game. There are a few X-related glitches that Harpoon 3 users may want to bear in mind. Spears, by the way, just finished up work on Escape from Monkey Island, the new game from Aspyr Media.
Return to Dark Castle Demo Beta 2 released
ZScuplt Entertainment has released a new beta version of its demo of the forthcoming game Return to Dark Castle. It’ll be published by Delta Tao once it’s done. It’s a platform action game based on a popular series that was originally released when the Mac was still young.
Sound Blaster Live! for Mac makes its way to users
We’ve gotten word from some users who pre-ordered their Sound Blaster Live! for Mac cards at Macworld Expo that the long-awaited consumer audio boards are finally making their way home. Several users have received their cards in the past few days, and many others are still anxiously awaiting delivery. The cards — from Creative Labs — aren’t just for games, although gamers will love the four-point surround sound that OpenAL and EAX-enhanced games can now support. Westlake Interactive, one of the Mac’s major game porting houses, seems solidly behind the technology.
Elsewhere on the Web
MacGamer.com had several new feature additions this week, after a lengthy hiatus. Among this week’s gems was a review of Majesty, the strategy game published by MacPlay. And the folks at Inside Mac Games turned their trained gamers’ eyes to the iMac Special Edition model to see how it squared up as a gaming box.
Closer to home
We carried a lot of games related content ourselves this week, including news about Star Conquest’s release; info from e.p.i.c. about the release of Earth 2140; fun news about Microsoft’s Xbox creative director’s choice of computers; word from GameRanger that Monopoly Casino is now supported; and, perhaps most significantly, positive news from Westlake Interactive about its commitment to Mac OS X. That’s not all, either — check our News Archive page for more games-related content.
As always, we encourage you to read MacCentral every day for the latest news from the Mac game industry (and every other facet of the Mac business). And if you have ideas for how we can improve our games coverage — or if you’d like to see your products mentioned — please e-mail us with the details.