Gungan Frontier Released!

As a hero of the Battle of Naboo, you've been called before the Gungan High Council to handle a critical mission. Their city is threatened by overpopulation, and you must establish a new colony on a nearby moon. The Gungans need you to create a new world filled with fantastic Star Wars creatures and plants from across the galaxy. You must discover how these alien animals and plants interact and how they depend on each other to live. Only when you have an ecologically sound environment can a new Gungan city truly thrive. The fate of an entire civilization rests in your hands because, on the moon of Naboo, the most powerful force of nature is you.

In this first ever Star Wars simulation designed for players age 9 and up, your goal is to transform the barren moon of Naboo into a thriving, balanced ecosystem and help the Gungans build a new underwater bubble city. From your transport ship, you control the release of Star Wars creatures and exotic plants into the empty landscape. Creatures move and interact in life-like, 3D animation and digital sounds. Monitor population levels, manage the food web, consult your online encyclopedia, and harvest valuable resources that can be used to build the new Gungan city.

System Requirements

* Mac OS version 7.6 or higher
* Minimum 200MHz PowerPC 603e, 132MHz PowerPC 604 or any G3 processor
required
* 32MB RAM minimum required
* Minimum 120MB free hard disk space required
* 4X or higher CD-ROM Drive required
* Mouse and keyboard required
* 13" or larger display
* QuickTime 3.0*

Don't be fooled by that low suggested age and the Lucas Learning label; this game is actually pretty tough, and quite addictive. If you don't believe us, download the demo (40 MB). Don't want to tackle a download that size? Hurry up and subscribe to IMG, the demo will be on our upcoming issue! [Deniz]





Myth II 1.3 in the Works
For those who thought that the 1.2.1 update was the final - think again. Bungie is continuing to hunt down bugs left right and center according to DeathWhore (a bungie.net admin). DW has spoken about some of the fixes and additions at the Myth Townhall web site:

Yes, 1.3 is in testing now... we're going to have at least one more version to test after this, but hopefully it will be out soon. Some features which I feel I can share:

* Options lag with plugins will be improved/fixed. As noted on alt.games.myth, it isn't working correctly for all Admins yet, and Bungie is still trying to determine what the difference is. However, for the majority of Admins so far, it appears to have completely corrected the problem.

* Chat lag should be improved even more than in 1.2.1.

* You will no longer crash when changing rooms (wheee!). As a note for players who run into this problem, until 1.3 comes out you can avoid this by always waiting for the player list/games list information to completely load before trying to switch rooms.

* New Admins stuffs. Behinds the scenes things to give us a little more control and information as to what exactly is happening in the world that is b.net.

* Miscellaneous game stuff (such as true random starting locations on multiplayer).

* 1.3 WILL be backwards compatible with 1.2/1.2.1, but not vice-versa (1.3 users can join 1.2 games, but 1.2 users can't join 1.3 games). The patch contains all of the changes from 1.2 as well, and will be about 2-2.5 megs.

* There's a new game option called Deathmatch. It involves death. Lots and lots of death. I have a screenshot I took of a WWII game played with Deathmatch turned on, which is about all the info you're going to get out of me on this one.

This will be the first time that a Bungie update will add a new game option to any of their titles. While very little is known about "deathmatch", one theory is that it is similar to Body Count - but all dead units are replaced so that carnage can continue until the end of the time limit. Other theories abound as well.

One fix which Bungie still hasn't talked about is backwards compatibility for films. In Myth:TFL films recorded with version 1.0 could still be viewed under 1.3, even if changes had been made to the mesh or unit stats. The film would display which version of the game it was playing under and would proceed accordingly. However Myth 2 doesn't support this. If you have a film recorded in version 1.1 on a map which had the smallest of changes vs version 1.2, then it will go Out of Sync every time you try to view it. Come on Bungie, surely this can't be too difficult to fix!

But in the end I must say that I am constantly impressed by Bungie's efforts to produce the best games they possibly can, keep up the good work! [Simon]





Baldur's Gate, Descent 3 Officially Coming to Mac!
We announced the impending releases of these two PC titles for Mac a while back, and confirmed that information at E3, but now here is the final proof: a joint press release from Interplay and Graphic Simulations Corp stating their intention to bring these hot titles to the Mac OS.

From the press release:

Interplay Entertainment Corp. (Nasdaq: IPLY - news) announced today that it has reached an agreement with Graphics Simulations Corp., to develop the following Interplay titles for the Apple® Macintosh: Baldur's Gate(TM) and Descent3(TM). The new deal allows Graphics Simulations Corp., a Macintosh development and publishing house, rights to develop both titles for the Macintosh while Interplay will retain all OEM rights.

``We are very excited about this new relationship with Graphics Simulations Corp.,'' states Kim Motika, Vice President of Strategic Development for Interplay. ``This deal will bring additional awareness and success to these titles as well as to the iMac.''

``We are very pleased to be working with a solid company like Interplay to bring titles of this caliber to the Mac,'' notes Jeff Morgan, President of GSC. ``Apple has re-energized this market with the release of the new iMac and G3 computers along with the support of OpenGL, a technology vital to 3D games.''

Released for the PC last December, Baldur's Gate was the editor's choice for ``1998 Role-Playing Game of the Year,'' and has received tremendous attention worldwide. Baldur's Gate is an epic role-playing game set in the Forgotten Realms®, TSR®'s most popular Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® campaign setting, on five CDs featuring an enormous game world filled with nearly 10,000 unique scrolling game screens, heralding over 100 hours of gameplay. Developed by Canada-based software company BioWare Corp., the adventure spans seven chapters, with dozens of subplots that branch in and out of the main narrative, and the seamless adaptation of the AD&D rule set allows the game to be played by anyone.

Descent 3 is the next installment in the revolutionary Descent(TM) series that pioneered multiplayer gaming. This time around, gamers will experience not only the same frenzied, subterranean shooting action, but also the thrill of flying out of the mines into the planetary atmosphere.

Players will soar above the surface of the planet, engage in combat with enemy air and ground forces, and use ten new, lethal weapons to obliterate the most sophisticated robots to date! From the innovative 360-degree, 3D technology to the new Fusion(TM) Engine, gamers face a new challenge as they attempt to conquer a new way to play first-person action games.

This marks a new way of doing business for both companies; in the past, most Interplay releases for Mac were developed in-house (released by MacPlay); and Graphic Simulations is known for their original titles (such as Hellcats over the Pacific and Hornet: Korea) rather than as a porting house. Hopefully they will be able to focus their considerable programming prowess, honed from years of flight-sim precision, on getting these two great titles into Mac gamers' hands as soon as possible! We expect Descent 3 to be here by this Summer, soon after the PC release due to the fact that the game is written to support OpenGL; Baldur's Gate will probably take much longer, owing to the game's tremendous size and the difficulty of troubleshooting such a massive game. [Eilers]





Myth World Cup 99 Begins
The second Myth World Cup is now open for registration. Sponsored by The Mac Observer, this tournament is unique in that it emphasizes team play rather than platform wars or one-on-one competition. Read on for the details:

MWC99 is open to anyone with an order, and the force of will to meet the challenge. If you aren't a member of an order, go register one! All you need is a team of four people to compete in MWC99. Remember that you must get at least two players to each game.

NEW: Quite a few people have asked if teams really have to be made up of the same Bungie-registered Order. We checked with Bungie and no, you don't have to be. So bring on the rabble forces!

On the other end of the scale, if you're a member of a large order, you can enter more than one team. Why would you do this? Because you can only have 7 people playing at once in any given game, and it gets tiresome to swap players in and out all the time. Also, the maximum size of a team roster in MWC99 is 16 players.

We suggest that you don't split your order into more than one team unless you have be sure of getting a decent-sized (3-4) team to every match. We don't realistically expect anyone except Clan Plaid to enter more than one team, but the option is there if you choose to exercise it.

Because the MWC99 website will track a lot of information about teams and their members, we need a lot of information from you about your order and your star players. You must supply this information when you register; if any is missing, your registration will not be accepted and you'll have to try again.

There are 96 spaces available for orders in MWC99. Orders that competed in MWC98 are guaranteed a place, as long as they still have at least one of MWC98's players. Oh, and they must have the same order name! If you've changed your name, you're a different order.

After accounting for all MWC98 orders, the remaining slots will be filled from the new entrants in the order that they first expressed interest. Only entrants who have sent in a complete registration will be accepted. Registration opens at 12:01 CDT on Monday the 24th of May, and finishes at 9pm CDT on Sunday the 31st of May.

So grab your teammates and register for this all-out bloodbath. [Eilers]





Falcon 4.0 Hits the Streets, Gets Updated
Several of our readers have written in to say that they have seen Falcon 4.0 in stores; in fact one said he bought the game and was playing it last Friday. So now you have no excuse for not buying most high-tech air combat sim the Mac platform has seen in a while... Remember, the game *requires* a joystick to play.

Westlake Interactive, always on their eternal quest for perfection, have already updated the game with a small patch that should solve some minor problems:

"This is the 1.0.6a patch for Falcon 4.0 Mac. Fixes include keeping your
plane from randomly exploding on the runway when certain game options are
turned on, occasional hangs when launching the game, and some MFD
clipping problems."

So get out there and fox some bogies, or whatever they say. [Tuncer]

Falcon 4.0 1.06 update (350k)





Westlake Has Two More On the Way
Suellen Adams, Westlake Interactive's Business Coordinator, recently posted some interesting info on the newsgroups regarding projects under development. Of note, Adams said the company is working on two unannounced projects (we suspect Tomb Raider III is one of those) in addition to the five titles they are currently working on:

First, as to Tomb Raider, we do indeed have something to do with the series. We ported both Gold and II. Aspyr is the publisher, we are the developer. We work with Aspyr as well as a couple of other publishers.

Second, Brad Oliver is working for us on an as yet unannounced project. We can't announce it yet because we don't have permission from the publisher for that particular project to say anything about it.

FYI, we have two unannounced projects as well as the 5 the were mentioned in the original post for this thread--those being Unreal 224, Unreal Tournament, Madden 2000, Total Annihilation, and Civilization 3: Call to Power. These projects are all signed, currently under development and should be out this year.

Also someone asked in regards the 224 patch if we got paid for continuing to keep up with the PC patches. The answer is we are obligated for a few months by contract, after that--no. Because we have done some Unreal based games (UT and Klingon) it has been worthwhile, but normally we would be well beyond our contractual obligation and financial remuneration.

So, if we interpreted that financial-speak correctly, Westlake isn't getting a dime for all the time they have spent patching, bug-fixing and troubleshooting the never-really-finished Unreal. If that isn't a sign of true dedication to the Mac gaming market, then we don't know what is. [Deniz]





Ambrosia Times Reveals Screenshots, Sneak Peeks
The latest issue of the Ambrosia Times has hit the virtual newsstands, and there is plenty o' dirt on Ambrosia Software's latest activities and impending releases. Ambrosia has several huge blockbusters lined up: Ferazel's Wand, Pop-Pop and Cythera, as well as the 2.0 version of Snapz Pro (not a game, but very good news for game reviewers such as myself!). I have to say that those Ferazel screenshots look nothing short of incredible - but we always seem to get commercial-quality releases for shareware prices from Ambrosia. I'm also extremely excited about Pop-Pop, from the author of the amazing (and tragically under-appreciated) Battle Girl. Along with this info is the usual contingent of feedback, advice, tidbits and opinions that we have come to expect from the varied and vocal crew at Ambrosia. Stop by the online version of the AT or download it directly to view it at your leisure. [Eilers]

Ambrosia Times May '99 (1.2 MB)





Redneck Gets Out of the Barn
After being in development for two years, Logicware announced today that Redneck Rampage has gone 'golden master' and will be shipping soon.

Fourteen different levels and multiple locations provide fast action fighting, with power-ups of pork rinds, whiskey, and beer aplenty. The rustic, quirky charm of the deep, DEEP South comes to life in hilarious detail in Redneck Rampage with rich 640x480 graphics and guarandamnteed authentic redneck dialogue. A real kick-ass soundtrack features Mojo Nixon (UFO's, Big Rigs and Bar-B-Que), and special tunes from The Reverend Horton Heat. Nine different weapons (some impractical, some illegal, some both), including dynamite, a crow bar, double-barrel shotguns,a ripsaw gun, and an alien arm gun.

System Requirements

Power Macintosh 7.5.3
16 MB Free Mem
30 Mb
640X480 256 Colors
2X Minimum CD-ROM

Of particular interest to those of you with more 'humble' Macs should be the low processor requirements; now those of you who haven't made the leap to G3 yet have a new first-person shooter to play that won't force you to upgrade just to get playable frame rates. Yeeee-haw! [Deniz]





Austin Powers Gets Trivial on the Mac
Berkeley Systems, a division of Sierra On-Line and the creators of the You Don't Know Jack trivia game series, began shipping Austin Powers Operation: Trivia today. The CD-ROM game's release coincides with the opening of the second Austin Powers film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Austin Powers: Operation Trivia is the fast-paced psychedelic, and trippy game that tests your mojo and your mettle! Choose up sides - play as Dr. Evil's apocalyptic apprentice or as Austin Powers's paisley protege - and answer questions about the pop culture, people movies, TV shows, fads and gossip of the 70's, 80's and 90's. The stakes? The fate of the world. Can you and Austin Powers vanquish the most adequate criminal mind of all time? Or will you and Dr. Evil prevail and enslave the globe? Whatever side you choose - swinger or square - you'll be the one to decide the fate of the world.

Yeah, baby yeah! I wonder if the rumor that 10% of the profits go to fund the Book of British Smiles is true... [Deniz]





Next Issue of IMG Coming Soon!
The next issue of IMG is fast approaching and will be shipping within the next 10 days. IMG Volume 7 - Issue 3 will feature previews of games like Fly! (Quicktime movie included), Caesar III, and reviews of hot new games like Starship Titanic, Imperialism II, Tomb Raider Gold, Civilization II Gold and more.

We're also proud to announce the return of an extremely popular feature, our video interviews. In 7-3 we video interview the folks from Aspyr Media who recently scored Madden 2000 for the Mac. Find out what's in store for Madden 2000 and what we can expect from Aspyr in the near future.

And of course we'll have the hottest new demos on the CD including Caesar III, Railroad Tycoon 2, Gungan Frontier, Freddi Fish 4, Tomb Raider Gold, and much more.

If you haven't signed up for a subscription, now's the perfect time! Subscribe today and you'll be guaranteed to get IMG 7-3. Subscriptions start at just $39 a year.

And get ready for our hardware extravaganza. IMG 7-4 will be shipping in late June and will cover all the latest hardware including USB joysticks, accelerated video cards, and more.