While MacCentral strives to bring you the top news and headlines from the world of Mac gaming every week, inevitably there are a few items of interest that fly under our radar the first time around. For those items, we offer this retrospective, which we call the Week in Games.
Alice demo fixed for OS X
Some compatibility problems between Aspyr’s recently released demo of American McGee’s Alice and Mac OS X have recently come to light. As a result, the folks at Aspyr and Westlake have released a revised demo app to fix the trouble. (The problem affects only the demo, not the release app.)
Arcane Arena b2 released
Freeverse Software has released a new beta version of Arcane Arena, a new multiplayer online role playing game. If you haven’t already signed up for the beta, you still can, and you’ll get b2 right away. If you downloaded b1 last week, this update will give you what you need. Freeverse says to expect updates more or less weekly.
Civ III PC goes beta
Normally we don’t care too much about the development status of PC games. Because Civilization III stands to be a major release and because MacSoft is firmly committed to providing a Macintosh version of it, it’s worth noting that game news resource GameSpot says that Firaxis Games has hit an important milestone — Civilization III is now in beta testing. It’s the latest edition of Sid Meier’s enormously popular strategy game series in which your goal is to bring a civilization from primitive to modern state.
Deimos Rising hits beta 3
David Wareing is king of the Mac top-scrolling shooter — his Mars Rising (published by Ambrosia Software) is a bona fide classic. The follow-up, Deimos Rising, packs more punch and offers more challenge to fans of that style of arcade game. Wareing noted this week that Deimos Rising has hit beta 3 — this version incorporates tweaks to the gameplay to adjust difficulty, scoring and bonus opportunities.
Spears outlines post-Westlake plans
Last week we noted that game programmer Jesse Spears had left Westlake Interactive, and this week he’s given some new details about his plans. For the short term, Spears plans to continue developing Harpoon3 — the naval warfare simulation. Over the long haul, though, Spears plans to develop his own original titles.
Elsewhere on the Web
MacGamer posted an analysis of game engine development and licensing; Apple has done a look at some of the game-show related game titles that have emerged recently; and Inside Mac Games has done a preview of Otto Matic, the hot new 3D action title coming from Pangea Software and Aspyr Media.
Closer to home
This week MacCentral brought you news about the Mobility Radeon 7500, a hot new mobile graphics technology that could providing cutting-edge game performance to the PowerBook line, if Apple chooses to use it; word from Ambrosia Software about the release of Pillars of Garendall, a new role-playing game; news from Infogrames and MacSoft that Mac users will get their own version of the Survivor game based on the television show; info about the release of a demo version of Alice from Aspyr Media; and more.
As always, we encourage you to get in touch if you have ideas for ways that MacCentral can improve its game coverage, or if you have game-related products and services you’d like to see us cover.