More than a year and a half following the game’s initial release on the Macintosh, MacSoft has finally released a demo version of Halo, the first person action game developed by Bungie Studios. The 122MB demo download is available from Macgamefiles.com.
Halo originally debuted as a first person shooter for Macs and PCs developed by then-independent game developer Bungie Software, creators of the legendary Myth and Marathon game series. Shortly after publicly introducing the title, Bungie Studios was acquired by Microsoft Corp. as a first-party developer of software for Microsoft’s then-fledgling Xbox video game console.
Long after Halo first debuted as an Xbox-exclusive game title, Gearbox Software set to work on a PC game conversion, and Macsoft licensed the Macintosh rights to the game, releasing it only a couple of months after the PC version was released in late 2003. Bungie Studios has since released Halo 2, thus far an Xbox-exclusive.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told Time magazine earlier this year that Bungie is working on Halo 3 for the company’s next-generation Xbox 360 video game console, which will make its debut later this year. Gates said that Halo 3 is expected to be released for Xbox 360 sometime in 2006, roughly at the same time as Sony is expected to release its PlayStation 3 video game console. Neither Microsoft nor Bungie has confirmed that news, however.
The demo version gives players a taste of both single and multiplayer gameplay, with some limited vehicle combat. The single player campaign level included is called “The Silent Cartographer,” while the multiplayer map is called “Blood Gulch” and supports up to 16 human opponents. The demo version is Mac to Mac only and you can’t save your progress.
System requirements call for a G4/1GHz or faster, Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later, 256MB RAM, and a 3D graphics card with 32MB VRAM or more.
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