People using bogus and hacked Game Wizard drivers has had its [feared] effect... Micro Conversions has gone out of business. (This after providing award-winning Mac graphics and video solutions for 14 years!... Its a shame, I think we were the only remaining 'Mac only' hardware developer. Guess that should finally answer the issues as to our [allegedly] having had too much margin and whether or not we should have tried to protect our drivers!)

Those who have read our article on Voodoo II cards ('To Voodoo or Not Voodoo') already know that Mr. Archer is a man of strong and perhaps controversial opinions, and this quote seems right in line with his earlier statements. We think lack of product availability, high price, and lack of SLI (scan-line interleave) support were also a factor in Game Wizard sales.

Further statements support the idea that iWonder, a company composed of many former MicroConversions employees, will take over support and sales for the Game Wizard, iWizard, and future products. Older products and product rebates are now history, however, and there may be a significant gap in availability for the Game Wizard and iWizard products. iWizard seems to be a sleeker, more agile company than MicroConversions, and we can only hope they succeed where other companies have failed -- Voodoo II support on the Macintosh is vital. [Eilers]





Caesar III Goes Gold!
Ken Parker of Impressions Software recently stopped by the IMG Forums to answer a poster's question about Caesar III's availability for the Mac. Here's his full response:

The Mac version of Caesar III went gold yesterday (5/25), meaning that we sent it to the replicator for production. Barring unforeseen complications, C3 should hit store shelves around mid-June, a few weeks ahead of schedule.

Ahead of schedule? Now that's good to hear. Way to go, Impressions! You've certainly impressed us. In the interim, Caesar III's demo is available. [Daranciang]





Gungan Frontier Released!
Lucas Learning today announced the release of The Gungan Frontier, a $29.95 hybrid CD-ROM for PCs and Macs.

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]





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]





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]





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]





Deer Avenger Ships for Mac
This delightful send-up of those terrible "hunting sims" which have been outrageously popular for a while is now available for the Mac OS. Simon and Schuster Interactive have published the game on hybrid CD-ROM; it is expected to cost around $18. Deer Avenger allows you to be the deer and put the hunters in your sights for a change - your victims being various cultural stereotypes with hilarious dialogue and animation.

Those who have perused our E3 coverage know that Simon and Schuster are also bringing the sequel to this title, called "Deer Avenger II: Bambo's Revenge". Authored with the help of one of Late Night with Conan O'Brien's writers, this title was pretty darn hilarious, if one of the least politically correct titles we saw at the show.

Oh, and for those who think that the hunting sims are "last year's news:" At E3 we saw Deer Hunter III, several bass and fly fishing sims, and (I kid you not!) a virtual birdwatching game. Looks like some game companies are convinced people would rather sit in front of their computers than venture into the great outdoors... [Eilers]





Bungie Has Action Sack in the Works
Bungie has an interesting plan to hook iMac buyers on their products from day one... The Bungie Action Sack is a burlap sack with six Bungie titles inside: Minotaur, Abuse, Pathways to Darkness, and the complete Marathon trilogy. It seems bungie thinks that a first-time buyer of an iMac will consider it a no-brainer to get six games for the low price of $19. A fiendish plot to twist the minds of men, if we've ever seen one! [Eilers]





Graphic Simulations Announces OpenGL Support
Graphic Simulations today released a beta version of F/A-18 KoreaGL which offers stunning graphics and unparalleled realism when used with Apple Computer's new OpenGL software. The new version also supports Input Sprockets which allows the use of all Mac friendly USB input devices.

In this new version, F/A-18 KoreaGL displays beautifully textured terrain, sky, water and airbase runways at consistently fast and fluid speeds in high-resolutions, as high as 1024x768. Also visible are enhanced effects like translucent smoke, sun glare, haze, cloud-layers, dynamic sky illumination, per-pixel fog, and HUD transparencies. These features require OpenGL and Rage ProÆ or greater graphics with 6MB of video RAM. All current iMacÆ and G3Æ computers are compatibly equipped.

The beta version also includes support for Apple's Input Sprocket device manager. Now, all Mac friendly joysticks and other input devices are compatible with F/A-18 KoreaGL. USB sticks from popular manufacturers like CH Products, Thrustmaster, Saitek, Gravis, Ariston and others are supported.

A free upgrade patch for the beta version of F/A-18 KoreaGL is available for download from the GSC website located at http://www.graphsim.com. F/A-18 Korea v.1 or greater is required to upgrade. F/A-18 Korea is available for purchase through major Macintosh software retailers. Currently a promotional price of $29.95 is offered for F/A-18 Korea, which includes a free copy of F/A-18 Hornet v3.0.





Notes from the WWDC Keynote Speech
Steve Job's Keynote at today's WWDC didn't have many surprises for mac gamers, but a lot of reasons to take hear that out gaming platform is healthy and thriving. Another quarter of profitability under Apple's belt, WWDC attendance up 41% from last year - not all of those new attendees are game developers, but we can hope! - and continued push of the iMac into first-time-user and ex-Windows user markets gives developers even more reasons to bring games to the Macintosh.

Perhaps most significant for gamers was the release of the final version of OpenGL for Mac OS. Jobs demoed the civilian flight sim X-Plane running OpenGL (no demo of Quake III, Steve? Where's Carmack when you need him...) which looked great and of course got lots of applause, though the demo pilot crashed the plane. While I would have liked to see a demo of Unreal Tournament instead, we'll see that at the upcoming E3 on Thursday. OpenGL should be available from Apple's web page later today; no word as of yet on whether this fixes the conflict with the Apple DVD Player, though it is safe to assume it will.

The other big news is the release of 8.6. This is both a minor and major update to the Mac OS; minor in terms of new features (a few tweaks to Sherlock, some networking improvements) and major in the "guts" of the system (a microkernel implementation, improved stability, better memory management.) 8.6 also integrates Input Sprockets (a fancy way of saying that they are now installed by default); this isn't a big issue, as most games that need Input Sprockets already include them on installation. It does however confirm that Sprockets are here to stay and considered an Apple core technology.

The sneak peek of Sonata (9.0) was interesting; it promised Sherlock 2.0 (which looks pretty damn cool, with integrated access to auction sites, online maps and such), multi-user support, and a release date of early Fall. OS-level encryption technology was also announced, not a big issue for gamers, but great news for those parents who want to "lock" games such as Carmageddon away from their children - now you can just password-protect the folder and forget it. The encryption will even include James Bond-style voice recognition! Now I know why I got that translucent microphone with my G3 Pro even though Speech Recognition is not supported on this model...

On the hardware side, there was a conspicuous absence of news. Although the new PowerBook models were announced (and they are hot machines! DVD, USB, 5 hour battery life), no iMac revisions were announced, and no speed bumps for the G3 Pro models were announced (confirming rumors that Motorola and IBM are having trouble meeting demand for high-speed G3 processors). No word of the Sawtooth machines (G4 series), AGP support or TNT2 support was mentioned, but such "major" announcements are probably being saved for this Summer's Macworld Expo.

Apple's FTP servers are of course totally slammed right now, so you'll probably have to wait until later tonight or tomorrow to try the new software. [Eilers]





Battlefront.com Preps Combat Mission
The folks at Battlefront.com, the new online company formed by Steve Grammont and Charles Moylan, recently sent us two new exclusive screenshots of Combat Mission. During its early days this game was called Advanced Squad Leader and was to be published by Avalon Hill. But the two parted ways early on during development, and Moylan and company were forced to start from scratch on a new game. The result is Combat Mission, a World War II tactical warfare game.

Combat Mission is a 1-2 player, turn based 3D simulation of WWII tactical warfare. It combines unparalleled game depth and ease of use with a true 3D environment.

Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord takes you from Normandy 1944 to Germany 1945 on World War Two's Western Front. Play as Allied or Axis, ranging from US Airborne to German Volkssturm. Battle across the bocage, tackle a village or two, drive through the plains, push into the woods, and slog it out in cities. CM provides all this and more with its historical scenarios and campaigns. And if there is a battle that isn't covered, make it up yourself with the easy to use editor.

Combat Mission is nearing completion and should be done within the next few months. As always, we'll keep you posted on future developments. In the meantime, check out the screenshots below (click on them to enlarge them).

• Munch Man: Munch Man is on a mission to rid the universe of evil ghosts! Over the course of his journey, our hero will face a wide variety of enemies, obstacles and unforseen challenges. Only you can help him stay alive and munching!

• Qube Jumper: Join Jumpy in his amazing adventures through a series of wonderfully wild and weird 3D worlds. Complete each level by jumping on blicks and changing their color.

• Tetrimadness: Prepare to enjoy hours of hair-raising action with this updated 3D version of the arcade classic. Line the geometric shapes into rows and clear them before the pieces pile up and end your fun.

• Alien Invaders: Nasty aliens have launched a deadly assault on your space stations. They'll use their arsenal of powerful weapons to destroy you at all costs. Take heart, you'll have your own supply of weapons and powerups to help you win the battle.

America's Greatest Arcade Hits 3D for Mac is available at retail outlets nationwide for a suggested retail price of $19.99, as well as through secure online transactions at www.gtstore.com.





Dynamix to show Tribes 2 at E3, Mac Version Confirmed
Sierra On-line's Dynamix, creators of the much-lauded Starsiege: Tribes, have announced they will be showing Tribes II at the upcoming E3 Expo. Mac users in particular might want to note the last item in this list of proposed features:

• A new fifth tribe - the BioDerms. The BioDerms are former slaves of humanity, and for the BioDerm Hordes, the war is... personal. Humanity will perish. The BioDerms are a genetically engineered slave race who now seeks humanity's destruction. Once nearly human, they craft powerful bodies for themselves in order to swell the ranks of their devastating Hordes.
• One of the five brand new worlds beautifully rendered using an entirely new terrain engine
• A new powerful and more robust weapon that is bigger and meaner with cooler explosions and effects than ever seen in TRIBES
• Compatibility for PC and Macintosh platforms, a first for the Starsiege Universe.

Of course IMG will be there at E3, and we'll be sure to get any scrap of information we can about this upcoming title. Yet another huge PC release comes to the Mac; I'd ask someone to pinch me, but I'm already black-and-blue from the flood of amazing announcements these past few weeks! [Eilers]