It’s the first time that a major Mac game title has been released exclusively for Mac OS X. Today, MacPlay announced their conversion of Giants: Citizen Kabuto has gone gold master. The game will ship in North America on October 25, with French and German releases coming later this year.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto was developed by Planet Moon Studios and published for the PC earlier this year by Interplay, the game was converted to the Mac by The Omni Group, makers of OmniWeb and other Mac OS X software.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto combines elements of real-time strategy gaming — base building and resource management — with frenzied action. You can take the role of one of three different races: the Sea Reapers, which can call upon the forces of magic and nature; the Meccaryns, which possess high levels of technology or the massive (and singular) Kabuto, who possesses enormous strength and stamina. Each race fights for control of the surface of an alien world, vying to overpower foes on dozens of different islands. You must also use the indigenous population of this island planet, called “Smarties,” to your advantage.
MacPlay president Mark Cottam said that his company is thrilled to bring the new game to Mac OS X. “The talented engineers at Omni Group have implemented SMP (Symmetric Multi Processor) support into Giants, which takes advantage of Mac OS X’s symmetric multiprocessing feature when running the dual processor Power Mac G4. Playing Giants on a Dual 800 MHz Power Mac G4 with Mac OS X and a GeForce 3 graphics accelerator will be the best gaming experience one could enjoy on any platform.”
In addition to being the first major game exclusive for Mac OS X, Giants: Citizen Kabuto also stands out for its support of the pixel and vertex shading capabilities built into the premium graphics cards that Apple makes available as a build to order option on its Power Mac G4. Those cards utilize Nvidia’s GeForce3 graphics chip. MacPlay said that such systems “will gain a noticeable performance boost.” It’s the first Mac game to feature specific support for the GeForce3 chip’s advanced capabilities.
If you’re not lucky enough to have a Mac equipped with a GeForce 3 card, fret not — Giants: Citizen Kabuto doesn’t specifically require it. System requirements for Giants: Citizen Kabuto calls for Mac OS X 10.0.4 or later; a 3D video card with at least 16MB of memory; and 128MB RAM. The game’s suggested retail price is US$49.99.