Madden NFL 2000, Half-Life, And Diablo II Coming to Mac!

Westlake is proud to announce the start of development on an incredible new addition to its lineup of current titles- Madden NFL 2000! In partnership with Aspyr Media and EA Sports, Westlake is pleased to bring the biggest sports franchise in computer gaming to the Mac.

Madden NFL 2000 is the next game in the extremely popular series of football simulations produced by Electronic Arts, featuring legendary coach and sportscaster John Madden. Full NFL and NFL Players Associaton licenses let you play with the real teams and players.

The full feature set for Madden 2000 hasn't been announced yet, but for a look at some of things in store for Mac gamers, check the Madden 99 web site. Much of the current 99 game feature set will be in 2000, like super high quality 3D graphics and sound effects, great player AI, extensive playbooks, full NFL rosters and of course commentary by John Madden himself.

Madden NFL 2000 is scheduled to be released in the Fall of 1999, right around the time the NFL season gets in full swing.

And finally, as if your head isn't spinning already, Blizzard, king of the real-time strategy arena, was able to verify that their RPG Diablo II would be winging its way onto the Macintosh platform a few months after its PC counterpart hits stores. [ed note: we'll believe this when we see it.] A continuance of the original Diablo, this game promises to be yet another Blizzard hit, with more characters, dungeons, and free multiplayer through the Blizzard-provided servers of Battle.net. This game will also be the first from Blizzard to incorporate 3D hardware acceleration through the 3dfx chipset for realistic lighting and transparency effects.

These latest announcements for the Macintosh games industry are incredible, and each of the companies involved deserves our congratulations and thanks. A few years ago, this many announcements would have provided the year's complement. We're not even halfway through 1999 yet! [Daranciang]





Bleem Ships for the PC
The Bleem! Website has been updated to announce that the final CD version of this PC PlayStation emulator is now shipping:

THEY'RE HERE! At long last, after much trial and tribulations, the CDs have finally arrived and the first units are already packed and ready to go! Watch your mailbox for a confirmation notice when your order has shipped. Shipping takes place on a first-in first-out basis and we'll be working all through the night and all through tomorrow and all through whenever until every last order is out the door. Thanks so much for your patience -- we don't have much time to explain the delay right now, but once we get your orders out the door, we'll tell you the whole story ... and it's an ugly one!

Why should Mac gamers care? Well, because Bleem! is making a Mac version of their emulator! Now that the final PC version has shipped, we assume this means they will have time to cook up our version of this very exciting product. How exciting? Imagine Tekken 3 at 1024x768 using your 3D accelerator! We'll keep you posted on developments... [Eilers]





Virtual Gamestation Shipments Halted
On Wednesday a court decision has, for now, stopped shipments of Connectix's Virtual Game Station, the PlayStation game emulator released back in January. The 28-page ruling by US District Court Judge Charles Legge in San Francisco means Connectix can no longer ship Virtual Game Station.

Connectix was quick to point out that the order does not apply to units that is in the channel, which remain available for resale. The company also said that it will continue development and support of both the Mac product and the planned Windows version.

Connectix's President Roy McDonald yesterday told MacWeek, "It's unfortunate, and we do not agree with the decision."

Connectix plans to appeal the decision. The saga continues! Perhaps it is a lucky thing we have Bleem! coming to our platform... [Deniz]





Apple Exec Jumps to Bungie's Team
Mac and PC gamer alike will be thrilled by this news from Myth II: Soulbighter's creators:

CHICAGO-April 20, 1999-Bungie Software is delighted to announce that Peter Tamte, currently Senior Director of Consumer Marketing for Apple Computer, Inc., will soon join Bungie as Executive Vice President of Publishing. Tamte has been responsible for Apple's consumer marketing worldwide under the direction of Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO.

But Tamte is eager to return to the games industry. As he recently noted, "the Internet is creating tremendous opportunities in entertainment that most traditional publishers are not ready for. Bungie is in a unique position to help drive this change through its three internal development studios and through leveraging its successful multiplayer gaming site, bungie.net, in innovative ways. Most of all, as one of the only publishers intimately involved in game development, Bungie is in a much better position to work with third-party developers to deliver the most compelling content possible."

Thus far nearly all of Bungie's games, including the multi-award-winning "Myth" and "Marathon" franchises, have been internally developed. In his new role, Tamte will put his considerable talents to use building Bungie Software into a premier publisher for both internally and externally developed titles.

Tamte brings a wealth of practical experience to the job. Before joining Apple, Tamte founded software publisher MacSoft and grew it to become the largest publisher of Macintosh consumer software worldwide. MacSoft is a unit of GT Interactive, a leading global publisher of entertainment and edutainment software for personal computers and game consoles. Prior to MacSoft, Tamte was director of sales and marketing for The WizardWorks Group, the creators of "Deer Hunter".

Based in Chicago, Bungie Software is a rarity in the electronic entertainment industry, a private corporation dedicated to both developing and publishing outstanding, immersive electronic games that surpass the boundaries of conventional technology and provide compelling and highly repeatable play. Makers of the hit games "Myth: The Fallen Lords" and "Myth II: Soulblighter", Bungie was recently inducted into the Inc. 500 as the 101st fastest-growing private company in the United States. For more information, surf to http://www.bungie.com.

*Sniff* *Sob* They grow up so fast! Many Mac gamers have a soft spot for Bungie, a company that started out on the Mac and consistently made deep, intense and well-plotted games that broke new ground while retaining a classic 'feel.' Now that Bungie has made a splash on the PC side with their Myth series (and the upcoming Oni) it looks like they are going to be even more aggressive about their future! Here's hoping they don't forget their (Mac) roots! With a former Apple executive at the publishing helm, we think that is unlikely. Steve Jobs, your loss is gaming's gain. [Eilers]





Gamers Beware QuickTime 4 Beta
After several days' experience with the recently released beta version of Apple's QuickTime 4.0, I can heartily recommend that gamers steer clear of this download for now. While the new QuickTime does have a great new look, improved playback and many cool features, it also has an extremely unintelligent installer and some quite buggy drivers. Specifically, the new version of the Sound Manager extension that is installed causes problems with Myth II, Unreal and Quake; message boards on MacNN and Accelerate Your Mac are full of horror stories about these crashes. The problems don't end there for gamers; owners of Blue and White G3s with rage 128 cards will be dismayed to find that the QT4 installer replaces their ATI extensions with older, out-of-date versions; these ATI extensions also disable playback from the DVD player. [Note: Apple's OpenGL beta does the same thing.] Adding insult to injury, using the QT4's installer to "remove" what was installed does not solve the problem; you have to manually reinstall Apple's Display Software Update and ATI 3D Driver Update as well as re-install QuickTime 3 Pro to get back to where you started. So for now, leave QuickTime 4 on the server! [Eilers]





Oni, Myth Soundtracks in MP3 Format
Perhaps to coincide with the recent preview release of QuickTime 4.0, Bungie Software, makers of Myth II: Soulblighter, released some soundtracks of the upcoming Oni in MP3 format. There are two: Strikers! and Konoko Chase by the group Power of Seven.

Also on MP3.com, a page dedicated to songs from Total Audio features songs from Myth: TFL and Myth II: Soulblighter.

Got the QuickTime 4 Preview Release (or an MP3 player)? Head on over and take a listen! [Daranciang]





WarCraft II Platinum Sets Sail for the Mac
Blizzard Software has announced that WarCraft 2: Platinum is making its way to Mac and onto Battle.net.

From the press release:

The Orcs and Humans are about to invade Battle.net with Warcraft II Platinum, the definitive version of the classic real-time strategy game. Combining the original Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and the expansion, Beyond the Dark Portal, with free Internet play over Battle.net will allow players to compete against opponents from around the world.

Overview Warcraft II Platinum is the continuation of the ruthless clash between the Orc and Human civilizations. As the commander of either the Orc or Human forces, players must successfully construct and rule their medieval empire while engaging in real-time tactical warfare over land, sea and air. Warcraft II has sold two million copies worldwide and has won Game of the Year as well as Best Multiplayer Game. The game's expansion set, Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal won Best Game Enhancement of the Year.


* Seamless one-click free access to on-line gaming via Battle.net. Blizzard charges no hourly or monthly fees for game play.
* Multiplayer support for as many as eight players via modem, network, direct link and the Internet.
* Unique player IDs and worldwide rankings for challenge ladders on Battle.net.
* Collection of Blizzard signed and approved multiplayer maps.
* Blizzard's spawning technology that allows up to eight players to compete over Battle.net by installing multiple copies from the original CD-ROM.
* Support for Win95/98/NT, Mac
* Compatibility with the DOS version of Warcraft II via network or modem.

Warcraft II Platinum will be available worldwide Summer 1999. Suggested retail price is US $35 with a substantial rebate for current Warcraft II owners.

Years after the release of this game, it still manages to top sales charts and attract new players all the time. The addition of Battle.net support will make the game even more fun—no more futzing around with buggy Kali and IP addresses! While a Mac version is mentioned in the press release, no timetable was mentioned; as Blizzard-watchers know, their Mac releases can lag signifigantly—up to a year or more—behind their PC versions. [Bailey]





Ambrosia Chat Follow-Up
Thank you to everyone who came to IMG's Ambrosia Software chat last night. It was a huge success. Discussion focused mainly on Cythera, as well as other Ambrosia-related topics. Glenn Andreas provided a status update on the game, and also detailed many of its unique features.

Didn't make it last night? Bad mac gamer! In any case, you can read the full transcript here.

Watch for more Inside Mac Games chats with game industry bigwigs in the future! [Daranciang]