Every day MacCentral includes as part of its regular news coverage articles that cover what’s happening in the Mac game market. There are usually a few items that don’t make it onto our regular news pages, however. That’s why we have this feature, a retrospective called the Week in Games.
Since we don’t post weekend coverage right before and after Macworld Conference & Expo, this week’s Week in Games features several weeks’ worth of news items dating back to right after Christmas, so please refrain from commenting if you see some items that strike you as a bit old.
America’s Army v2.0.0a released
America’s Army has released a 2.0.0a patch to its game. The new release features some minor fixes over the 2.0.0 release, and also includes a new Special Forces map called SFsandstorm. It’s network-compatible with the previous release, too.
Burning Monkey Solitaire 3.0.1 released
Freeverse has updated Burning Monkey Solitaire to 3.0.1. The new version includes a fix for leapfrog, customizable backgrounds, bug fixes and stability improvements.
Emuscene.com debuts
There are several resources to find out about the emulation of different computer and gaming systems on the Mac — two of them, Macemuscene.com and Macemu.com, have merged into Emuscene.com, the “Emuscene Network.”
GameSmith 3.4.2 released
Freeverse Software’s GameSmith game matching service has been updated to v3.4.2. The new version addresses numerous bugs and adds a multitude of enhancements.
Hangman Pro 1.03 released
Hangman Pro — the successor to Hang3000 — has been released by Ken Winograd and Space-Time Associates. The educational word-guessing game features more than 65 categories of words, and supports various foreign languages. This release shows the total count of valid photos when the Choose Photo Folder option is utilized.
Jedi Knight II patch released
The developers at Aspyr Studios have released a v1.03/v1.04b patch for Jedi Knight II. The patch fixes glitches, stability issues, improves GameRanger support and works better with Panther.
MacMOHAA updates GSC tool
MacMOHAA — the Web site of Mac Medal of Honor fans — has released a new version of the Game Server Configulator (GSC) tool, which helps Mac MOHAA fans configure their systems to serve games instead of just play them.
Microsoft Game Studios loses Fries
Microsoft announced earlier this week that its vice president of games publishing Ed Fries has resigned. Fries was responsible for growing Microsoft Game Studios to a huge organization that includes acquisitions like Bungie Studios. Fries appeared at a Macworld Expo keynote address in New York several years ago following the acquisition, promising that Microsoft would release its games on the Mac as well. That plan hasn’t quite worked out as he intimated it would, although MacSoft has released key Microsoft titles in the intervening time. Fries cited a desire to spend more time with his family as his motivation for leaving.
Name the Song released
UnFun Games has released Name the Song. Available for Mac OS X and Mac OS 8 or higher, the game is a bit like the old game show Name That Tune, but instead of winning cash, you win “UnFun Tokens” that you can redeem online to buy “UnFun stuff.” It’s free and requires QuickTime to play.
Nanosaur 2 to be available in 3D, too
Pangea Software used Macworld Expo to publicly debut Nanosaur 2, the sequel to one of its best-loved 3D action games. President Brian Greenstone reports that he’s gotten the game to work in 3D using red-blue stereo 3D glasses, and he says the results are amazing.
Planet Thinktanks bows
Are you a fan of ThinkTanks, the 3D action game from GarageGames ? If the answer is no, you should be. And if you are, you should represent the platform on Planet ThinkTanks, a new “uber-fan site” dedicated to the Torque Game Engine-based title developed by BraveTree.
RPGMapMaker 3.1.0 released
If you are a fan of real-life pen-and-paper role playing games, you may be interested in Francois Menneteau’s RPGMapMaker, a drawing utility that helps dungeon masters produce maps with polygonal grids.
Solace 1.045 released
Freeverse Software has released Solace v1.045, a new version of their Risk-like strategy board-style game for the Mac and Windows. The new release fixes bugs introduced in the last point release.
Temple Tantrum carbonized
Ground Zero Software has released an update to Temple Tantrum, an arcade-style exploration game in which you collect gems, treasures and other goodies. The 1.1 release finally runs natively on Mac OS X and implements other changes and tweaks to improve the game.
Ultimate SlotZone updated
Ultimate SlotZone is a collection of four slot machines compatible with Mac OS X and Mac OS 8.5 or higher, as well as various flavors of Windows. You can download the games from the Web site and a shareware registration costs $19.95.
Warcraft III 1.14b stand-alone patch now available
Following the release of Warcraft III to players of Blizzard Software’s Battle.net online game matching service, the company has released a standalone patch to allow other players of Warcraft III to update their game as well.
Elsewhere on the Web
MacGamer has posted reviews of X2: Wolverine’s Revenge and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003. Inside Mac Games has posted reviews of the Nostromo N52 Speedpad by Belkin and Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Apple’s Web site has posted a preview of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc as well as a trailer for Command & Conquer Generals.
Closer to home
The week after Macworld Expo is usually a quiet one, but we had a lot of great news from the Expo that’s related to games, including Feral’s plans to bring Chessmaster 9000 and XIII to the Mac, as well as Bionicle. Aspyr will bring Medal of Honor: Breakthrough and SimCity 4 Rush Hour to the Mac. Aspyr will also produce a Mac conversion of Call of Duty. Freeverse picked up a Macworld Best of Show nod for ToySight. Freeverse has also entered into a multi-title distribution license deal with e.p.i.c. interactive. They also released a multiplayer only Backgammon Deluxe game for free. ATI showed off its Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition and also displayed a prototype PCI card based on its 9000 architecture. MacSoft showed off Unreal Tournament 2004 at the show, which should, with any luck, hit shelves about the same time as its PC counterpart.
As always, we encourage you to drop us a line if you have questions, comments or suggestions.