 Mac Carmageddon II Available for Preorder!
It looks like Interplay decided to publish the Macintosh version of Carmageddon II themselves. According to an article on fellow gaming website Mac Gamer's Ledge, you can preorder Carmageddon II for $39.95 from the Interplay online store.
Those who are fans of the original Carmageddon need no excuse—order it now, we don't care if you have to sell your last pair of knickers to afford it! (well, actually, we do, but you get the idea.) For those not in the know about this monstrous car-crashing pedestrian-bashing feast of violence, we humbly offer our own preview of the game. No word on a final ship date of course, but IMG suspects that the more pre-orders, the faster this title will hit the street (ah, the pun lives.) [Eilers]
IMG Issue 7-2 Soon to Arrive
The next issue of Inside Mac Games, Volume 7 - Issue 2, will be going to duplication on Monday and shipping about a week after that. The issue, the first under IMG's Tuncer Deniz, will be in a completely new and more flexible HTML format. That's right, DOCMaker is history for now. Unlike previous issues, 7-2 will be jam packed with fresh new articles, previews, reviews, walkthroughs, Quicktime movies, a ton of new demos and shareware games, and much more!
If you'd like to get this issue and you haven't subscribed to IMG, don't delay, the next issue is just around the corner!
 Pro Pinball: Big Race USA Released by Interplay!
Pro Pinball: Big Race USA has supposedly been released to retail outlets in North America, according to an Interplay press release. The most recent in an impressive series of releases by Empire Interactive, BRUSA is yet another eye-popping, ear-tickling totally original pinball game with graphics and physics that are nothing short of jaw-dropping. For those who haven't seen it yet, a playable demo is available at the Empire FTP site.
Empire's pinball sims are almost better than reality. Not only do you get astounding graphics and physics so real it boggles the mind, you get a totally tweakable table which allows multiple viewing angles and adjustments to table slope, flipper strength, scoring bonuses and the like. Dedicated to complete realism, the Empire team creates virtual pinball games that can be configured and tuned the same way an actual coin-op table would.
Big Race USA follows the path of a taxi participating in a race from the West coast to the East. Traveling through five different cities or out on the highway, a cast of wacky car characters compete to win while avoiding police, potholes and other hazards. The soundtrack ranges from smooth jazz to blistering drum-and-bass techno, and the visuals—well, let's just say the game is so detailed you can see the rust spots on the chrome pinball. Bonuses and combos abound, of course, including the ability to have ten balls in play at once!
No word yet whether the US release is a Mac/PC hybrid or the Mac version is separately boxed. Watch for an upcoming review from IMG. [Eilers]
Imperialism II Demo Renamed, Updated
Yesterday we brought you news that the Imperialism II demo had been released. Well, for the most part, it was. After we posted our news about the demo being released, SSI updated the demo to a newer version. The correct link to the demo is now:
 Imperialism II Mac Demo (44 MB)
In other news, SSI has also released a patch to Imperialism II. The new patch brings the game up to version 1.0.2 and includes the following extensive changes according to the readme:
1. Made some tweaks to the tactical battle AI, Computer players sometimes didn't put generals in fort attacks when they should have.
2. Made some changes to the diplomacy AI to address the problem that some computer players wouldn't go to peace when stalled by very weak enemy Great Powers.
3. Some players have said that forts are too cheap, so we've added an option to adjust the cost of forts, by allowing for forts to cost more.
4. Modified downward the military advantage required for a computer player to join another Great Power's empire. This was set too high, making is very hard to get a Great Power to join another Great Power's empire by diplomatic means.
5. Made some changes to increase the Computer players valuation of provinces with coal, fur, and tobacco. They will now consider them to be more valuable.
6. Made a change to the AI to increase the priority of building coal mines, and then transporting the coal.
7. Addressed the issue that AI players would sometimes not build clipper ships when short on coal for other more "advanced" ships, even though the AI player still had enough available resources to build clipper ships.
8. Fixed problem where AI players were sometimes unable to build merchant ships while at war.
9. Fixed problem where late in the game AI players would sometimes set there transport orders too high on luxuries items (i.e., Tobacco, Sugar, and Fur), while not transporting enough coal.
10. Fixed very rare crash when two countries at war with each other, attack and reduce same level 1 fort of a 3rd nation causing a negative value for the fort.
11. Fixed crash when fast clicking buttons in tactical combat.
12. Fixed crash with "Unknown Error 25" on Macintosh
13. Fixed problem where purchased civilians would occasionally not show up in multiplayer game
14. Fixed problem where Aztec units had European unit pictures in battle report
15. Fixed problem where Horse Warriors gotten from colony didn't show up if Harquebusier technology hadn't been researched yet. [Deniz]
Imperialism II 1.0.2 Patch (2 MB)
 PC-Only DVDs? Not For Long
A recent series of articles on the excellent website MacCentral has brought to light an issue that many didn't even know existed: the fact that certain DVD movie titles are being produced in such a way that they will not run well (or at all) on the Mac OS. These DVDs, which are marked "PCFriendly" on the box, have Windows 95/98-based "extra features" and use Windows' "autorun" command to launch themselves. Results vary when these movies are run on a Mac, from normal function without any extras to total failure to play (Jackie Chan's actioner Rush Hour is one example.) Ironically, the Mac-saturated film You've Got Mail is a PCFriendly (and therefore PC-only) release.
It seems that DVD manufacturers chose to anticipate the fact that every PC sold this Summer and beyond will ship with a DVD-ROM drive by adding PC-specific content to their movie releases, ranging from desktop themes and "wallpaper" to video games and interactive presentations. It also seems that once again, the Macintosh scene gets left out in the cold.
But not all is bleak. According to follow-up reports on MacCentral, the company behind the "PCFriendly" software is now bringing it to the Mac. InterActual Technologies has reportedly told several individuals that e-mailed their tech support that a Mac OS version of their interactive software is forthcoming. It appears that many of the studios creating DVD releases are Mac-based (a real shocker there!) and those studios are eager to go back to working on Macs again instead of the PCs they must use to currently create "PCFriendly" content.
The implications of the PCFriendly content are quite interesting; supposedly, some DVD movies will be linked to the Internet and offer the viewer exclusive content, such as private chat rooms only accessible by owning the DVD or even extra footage of the film that can only be seen on the Web. Other features include printable text versions of the screenplay, interactive games, and of course access to secure online shopping for yet more PCFriendly DVDs. While many of these features seem gimmicks designed to get the viewer to look at web advertising, it does seem like an interesting way to extend the viewing experience.
While there is no word on a final ship date, conversion of the software to Mac OS is currently underway. The PCFriendly website has details on the features of the software and a list of PCFriendly titles. We'll let you know when a final version of the software is available. [Eilers]
 Oni Q & A posted on Bungie.Org
Bungie.Org has posted a huge Q & A for Oni , Bungie's third-person full-contact action game currently in development at their San Jose studio Bungie West. All of the questions are answered by Brent Pease, Oni's project leader. Here is a little taste of this long FAQ:
Q: Is Oni going to ship as a Mac OS and Windows 95 hybrid?
A: Yes.
Q: What kind of players Bungie is aiming for in Oni?
A: Action oriented players. If you liked Marathon you will love Oni.
Q: Obviously, when is this little gem going to be released?
A: We are shooting for releasing it by the end of the year. However, we will not ship it until it is ready.
Q: Can you manipulate/blow up scenery objects? Use a box for cover, crap! the enemy blew it up!
A: Yes. Since the AIs will be using cover in a similar way that you would they will be in the same situation.
Q: What is the game play like? Are you just running around blowing up whomever is in your way or are you trying to learn something?
A: You are trying to learn how to blow things up better. Additionally, you will learn how to inflict pain and terror via hand to hand combat with rapid punches, spin kicks, and many totally cool special moves. Imagine the third-person games you're familiar with, but with serious action for a change.
Be sure to give Bungie.Org a visit and check out the rest of the Q and A. [Wertz]
Unreal Updated
Westlake Interactive has released a second beta of Unreal 2.2 to fix "a nasty bug that caused problems on 4MB Rage cards." Beta 1 was up for only a few hours before being replaced by beta 2. Unreal 2.2 adds compatibility with PC version 220 servers as well as 220 maps and mods. [Deniz]
Unreal 2.2.0 Beta 2 (5 MB)
Unreal 2.2.0 Beta 2 (mirror site) (5 MB)
Unreal 2.2.0 Beta 2 (mirror site) (5 MB)
Unreal New Beta Bugs, Tips and Tricks
The Unreal 2.2.0 update has been a boon for many fans of the game, especially those who play online. However, as is the case with many beta releases, this update has its share of bugs. Here is some information posted to Usenet by Mark Adams, president of Westlake Interactive (the company which ported Unreal to the Mac OS):
"We're tracking down the problems loading certain maps in botmatch and when servers switch levels and it appears to have something to do with the length of file names. Maps with over 12 letter names crash the game when trying to start a bot match, and probably if you try to host a net game with them. I'm guessing this is some weird hold over from the PC code and the old dos 8.3 names (12 chars if you include the .) This is probably why we never saw any problems in my tests, I usually play the original maps that all have short names.
"We're trying to track down what is causing the problem, its obviously a memory overwrite bug, but we haven't been able to track it to the exact spot in the code yet. But getting this far is a big step, so hopefully we'll have it resolved soon.
"Just thought I'd let people know where things were at."
Many players of the update have reported that the "bots" (computer opponents) are much tougher than before; according to posts on Usenet, the problem is a bug in the PC code which sets the bot skill level to 255—well above the typical range of 0 to 3, and well above the ability of many players such as myself. The fix to this is as follows: During a botmatch (not before) bring down the console and type:
set bot skill x (x being a number between 0 and 3)
Note that you have to do this each time you start a level.
There have also been many complaints by users of 3Dfx (VooDoo-based) video cards that the game is now too dark. Mark Adams explained in another post that the reason for this is that a particular variable was accidentally left out of the Unreal.ini file (a critical file which saves many game settings.) To solve this problem you need to add the following to the GlideRenderDevice section of the .ini file:
LightModify=1.0
Note that several persons have reported that this failed to work for them; their suggestions were to try different numbers lower than 1.0 (going above 1.0 has no effect.) Playing with the Gamma control in the Options menu of the game also seems to help. Adams commented that there seems to be a bug that allows the LightModify setting to be ignored in certain situations; a fix will be forthcoming in the next update to Unreal. It is important to note that Mark Adams and Westlake Interactive are not being paid for this extensive debugging and updating of Unreal, and deserve our praise and thanks for their extra efforts. Send them a note of thanks, if you get the chance! [Eilers]
Even More Unreal News!
WarZone has posted an interview with Unreal programmer Tim Sweeney. In the brief Q&A, Sweeney talks about the progress on the 223 Unreal patch and Unreal Tournament. [Deniz]
Warzone: What new features will the patch incorporate?
Tim: The big thing for gamers is the graphical in-game server browser. This is going to be a big Unreal Tournament feature, but we're including an early version of it in Unreal to help give Internet Unreal players a boost, and get feedback. At the same time, we're including the latest GameSpy lite for out-of-game server finding, which contains some cool enhancements, such as a built-in IRC client tuned to #unreal.
Warzone: How is the UT code progressing?
Tim: Pretty well. The new GUI makes creating complex user interfaces a snap. Steve Polge's AI has grown and improved by leaps and bounds, handles complex navigation more rigorously, and is now very well suited for cooperative situations in addition to pure deathmatch. The OpenGL code keeps improving, UnrealScript has some enhancements, the net code has been tweaked even further. MOD support is enhanced, with a new mod installer, and hooks that enable mod makers to expose their mods through the GUI (no more command-line parameters and "summon" commands to remember!)
IMG News Hounds Wanted!
Have a nose for news? Do you scour the sites, wander the web, nose the newsgroups in search of tasty tidbits of information about your favorite games and gaming platform? If so, IMG wants you, because you are already trained for the job! We need reporters for our news page who can crank out short articles on upcoming Mac games and game events. You'll receive the honor and prestige of having your name emblazoned on the proud pages of our fine online magazine, as well has having your words etched for time eternal on our CD-ROM edition. And you might even get paid! Contact Senior News Editor Michael Eilers for details; a writing sample is greatly appreciated, though no experience is necessary.
IMG/Starcraft Special Offer
Starcraft, the long awaited strategy game from Blizzard, is nearing completion and should be shipping for the Mac soon. In celebration, IMG is offering Starcraft for a mere $35 when they buy a subscription to Inside Mac Games.
Head over to the Inside Mac Games Order page for more info on this great deal. This offer is for a limited time offer so hurry!
If you're already an IMG subscriber, you can still take advantage of this offer. Simply renew your subscription to IMG, and place your order for Starcraft on the same renewal page.
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