Baldur's Gate, Descent 3 Mac Bound!
Our friends at MacHome report that Graphic Simulations has signed an agreement with Interplay to publish Descent 3, Baldur's Gate, and an undisclosed title for the Mac. The agreement, signed last week, paves the way for a June release of Descent 3, and a September release for Baldur's Gate.
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. The gripping non-linear 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.
Baldur's Gate System Requirements:
• Any PowerPC or G3 processor Macintosh
• 16 MB RAM
• 300 MB Hard Drive
• CD-ROM drive.
 Developed by Outrage Entertainment, Descent 3 is the next installment in the revolutionary Descent 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 Engine, gamers face a new challenge as they attempt to conquer a new way to play first-person action games.
Descent 3 system requirements:
• 200 MHz or greater PowerPC or G3 based Mac
• 32 MB RAM
• Rage Pro graphics or greater with 6 MB of RAM
Railroad Tycoon II Ships, Demo News!
PopTop Software and Westlake Interactive today announced that Railroad Tycoon II for the Macintosh, a strategy simulation game, has left the station and is shipping to retailers and distributors nationwide.
Rich with historic scenarios, a sophisticated stock market and a multitude of maps from around the world, Railroad Tycoon II for the Macintosh is the highly-anticipated Mac version to PopTop's PC smash hit Railroad Tycoon II. Co-developed by PopTop and Westlake Interactive, Railroad Tycoon II for the Macintosh features over 30 scenarios and a realistic stock market and economy system. The game allows players to build railroad, industrial and financial empires. Railroad Tycoon II for the Macintosh, published by developer-driven computer and video game publisher Gathering of Developers and distributed by Jack of All Games, and is available in software stores, mass-merchandisers and hobby stores for a suggested retail price of $49.95
System Requirements
Railroad Tycoon II for the Macintosh can be played on a PowerPC 132mhz or greater, a Mac OS 7.5.3 or later, or an iMac. 16MB RAM, a 4x CD ROM, 800x600 capable video card and monitor and 130MB free hard disk space are required. A 1024x768 capable video card and monitor and 32 MB of RAM are recommended.
Mark Adams of Westlake Interactive indicated to IMG that a demo of Railroad Tycoon II is complete and has been sent to the publisher for final approval. We'll let you know as soon as its released. [Deniz]
 Quake 3: Arena Test Released, Mirror Servers Updated
Well, it's old news by now but we're still in shock. Q3Test, the pre-Alpha networking test for Quake III: Arena, has been released, and on the Mac first to boot. Demand has been so high that even the mirror servers for downloading this game are overloaded.
However, many of those downloading are sure to be disappointed. The game will only run with ATI chips and Apple's OpenGL drivers; you must have a Rage Pro 6 MB or above to play. There is no native VooDoo I or II support, period, and none planned. Several players have reported some success using the Mesa OpenGL libraries, a freeware set of OpenGL runtimes, but said performance was mixed at best. Those who own 3Dfx cards may have to wait for their card manufacturer to create an OpenGL driver.
If you have the hardware to run this game, download it and give it a try immediately—it is a blast. Read on for a hands-on preview of this test release... [Eilers]
 Mac Q3 Test (22 mb) (iD server)
Mac Q3 Test (mirror)
Mac Q3 Test (mirror)
Mac Q3 Test (mirror)
Mac Q3 Test (mirror)
 Quake 3: Arena Test First Impressions
Wow, it is finally here. As we bask in the glory of having our platform be the very first to see Quake III: Arena in action, we must also feel the bite of John Carmack's scorn; he picked us because we have a small installed base of graphics cards and OpenGL drivers, not because he likes us. But at least he admits we exist! That alone is progress...
Now, before I begin let me emphasize that this is just a test release designed to troubleshoot networking issues. There is no AI, no solo game, no monsters, only 2 maps and only 1 player skin. This is only a rough estimate of the final version of this game, and this does not constitute a preview or review of Quake III: Arena in any way.
So, what is it like? I'm glad to say that Quake III: Arena has retained the classic "feel" of Quake: barreling down hallways filling the air with rockets while feeling a tingle in the back of your neck as a dozen players try to put you in their crosshairs. In fact, Quake 3 is a greatly simplified version of Quake in some respects: the weapons have no alt-fire; the ammo and armor system have been simplified and are represented with large, graphic icons; and helpful "low ammo" and "low armor" warnings tell you when it is time to hunker down and look for some power-ups.
How does it look? Fantastic. I'm running the test on a new Blue G3 400 MHz system with Apple's OpenGL Drivers and the built-in Rage 128 chip. The textures are smooth and extremely detailed, the 32-bit lighting and effects are splendid, and the frame rates are very good—in fact, the game seems markedly faster than Unreal at similar settings. Curved surfaces are used only sparingly in the two supplied maps, but you can definitely see a difference, and possibilities for future map designs. Quake III: Arena has also learned a few tricks from Unreal, with the addition of colored fog, lens flares and the like; honestly, I much prefer Unreal's versions of these effects.
 Overall, Q3Test's visuals do not blow me away. I am disappointed that the iD designers still seem obsessed with "gothic" images such as upside-down crucifixes, grinning skulls and pentagrams—please, that is so '80s. The graphics are a step above what I have seen of Quake II, but do not put Unreal (nor the screenshots of Unreal Tournament) to shame. In fact a recently released Unreal map demonstrates that the Unreal engine can do a lot of the "tricks" shown in the Quake III: Arena movie, such as moving mirrors, colored fog and curved archways. It is obvious that game play will be the deciding factor in the success of these two games, and not graphics. The market for 1st-person shooters is so huge I'm sure both games will do quite well.
The player models are extremely detailed and well-animated; especially impressive is the way the player's head movements "lead" the body movements—very eerie when someone is zeroing in on you at close range. While the infamous "moonwalking" effect is still present, the character actually sidesteps instead of just hovering on his heels as you "strafe," and the "backflip" when you jump while running backwards is a sight to behold. Still no damage for falling, however, a minus point in my book. The "Quad Damage" (which is now only triple damage) effect is not as cool-looking as I expected.
The weapons are a modified set of Quake II weapons: gauntlet (default weapon), machine gun, shotgun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher, railgun. Overall they are quite fun to use, and seem well balanced—I made as many kills with the machine gun as with the railgun. However, the plasma rifle and rocket launcher make so much flash and racket that they are very tough to be accurate with. Obviously, I just need some practice.
There seems to be a limited version of "shot accuracy," meaning that a head shot does more damage than a shot to the knees, but the effect of this is not as profound as in Unreal—there are no beheadings nor 1-shot kills. In fact the weapons have such large area of effect that there is no real point in going for the headshot when a nice blast to the chest does the job.
The weapons blacken the walls and leave transparent smoke trails in the air, a very satisfying sensation. As we have come to expect from the Quake series, the sound effects are excellent and really put my subwoofer to the test.
 Internet play was very interesting. I use an asynchronous cable modem, 56k upload/ 1.5kbs download; effectively a 56k modem for netplay. Even with a ping of 716(!) I was able to dominate several rounds of play, winning one by 5 kills. It seems that Q3Test has built-in "hinting" features like Quakeworld has, anticipating player movement to even out the accuracy and speed difference between those on a T1 and those on dial-up modems. In fact, it seems like the scales have tipped slightly in favor of those with slower connections! The correction/prediction got so out of whack at one point that I was actually able to outrun my own rockets, allowing me to fire point-blank and escape without getting caught in the blast. Obviously the very purpose of this test release is to tweak these very variables to improve gameplay. iD testers were in all of the games I played, presumably monitoring the combat and looking for anomalies.
Overall, for having such a high ping I was amazed at the smoothness and reliability of gameplay. iD has obviously figured out how to get the network traffic down to a minimum and the prediction routines seem solid, if a bit exaggerated; gone are the abrupt "jumps" of Quake and Quakeworld. I did get disconnected from the server a few times, twice out of eight games. Not having two Blue G3s, I was unable to test LAN play.
For a "test" release Q3Test is quite impressive. The first solid use of Apple's OpenGL drivers for ATI chips, it looks great, runs very fast and provides megadoses of terrifying fun. iD has taken many steps to simplify the learning curve for this game, from the oversize crosshairs and icon-based ammo system to weapon use itself. If I can get good game play on my bizarre hybrid net connection, then the majority of players out there can have some fun too—and maybe even be able to challenge those Low Ping Bastards on those T3 connections. And remember, you heard it on the Mac first! [Eilers]
Carmack Provides With One Hand, Slaps With the Other
It has recently been made known that the Mac version of the Quake III Test was released before any other platform. This has delighted Mac fans and peeved PC users across the world. But in response to this John Carmack has written a statement (quoted at Blue's News) which he intended to 'clarify' any misunderstandings the PC (and Mac) community might have about the significance of this release. Here's an extract:
Don't be spiteful. This is just the beginning of the testing and release process.
One conspiracy theory suggests that Apple is somehow getting us to do this.
What we have "gotten" from Apple is a few development machines. No cash payoff. No bundling deal. No marketing contract.
I am looking at this long term. I want to see OS X become a top notch platform for graphics development. I think highly of the NEXTSTEP heritage and I might move my development from NT if it turns out well. There is a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid with apple for this to happen, and my working on the mac right now is part of that. Plus a lot of complaining to various apple engineers and executives. :-)
To be clear:
At this time, there is no mac that is as fast for gaming (or just about anything, actually) as a pentium III with a top of the line 3D card. Period. I have been misquoted by some mac evangelists as saying otherwise.
The new (blue and white) G3 systems are very good systems in many ways, and make a perfectly good gaming platform. However, a high end wintel machine just has more horsepower on both the CPU and the 3D card.
A 400 mhz G3 performs about the same as a 400 mhz PII if they aren't fill rate limited, where the faster cards on the PC will give about a 25% advantage. A 500 mhz PIII with an appropriate card in 30% faster than the best mac you can buy.
The multi colored iMacs, old G3 desktops, and powerbooks can play Quake3, but the RagePro 3D acceleration defines the absolute bottom end of our supported platforms. A serious gamer will not be satisfied with it.
Voodoo cards are not currently supported by the OpenGL driver, which is very unfortunate because many serious mac gamers own voodoo cards. I hope Apple and 3dfx will be able to correct this soon, but I certainly understand Apple's prioritization -- obviously, good support for the OEM video options is of primary importance.
The voodoo performance will still lag the windows platform by some amount, but some strides have been made in that area recently, so I expect good performance,
Gaming is not a reason to buy a mac, but Apple is taking steps so that it may not be a reason to avoid a mac if you have other reasons for wanting one.
MacOS still sucks.
I humbly submit that any apparent weakness in the Mac Gaming industry is not the result of alleged processor limitations, or small-scale support for Open GL. Instead it is due to people like Mr. Carmack who seem intent on demeaning the Mac as a gaming platform, when we all know that the Mac is perfectly viable and remarkably powerful. Recent bench tests are suggest that the B&W G3s can still outperform a 500 MHz PIII processor (though only just).
The sad part of the story is that Carmack, with all of his rudeness and arrogance towards the Mac platform, is somebody who the gaming industry still listens to. While his acclaim is well deserved - he has done many great things for computer gaming in general - I feel that he has been abusing this privilege by waging a personal campaign against a minority platform and using his position to influence the gaming community in general. In this writer's opinion, Carmack has behaved childishly in the past and continues to do so. [ed note: while 'childish' is not the word IMG would choose as our official position on the matter, we do agree with David that Mr. Carmack was a bit out of line in his statements. Think of it this way—he was trying to placate the masses so that he wouldn't get his box full of flame mail, so he told them what he thought they wanted to hear.]
While we appreciate the decision to develop Quake 3 for the Mac and some of Carmack's recent, begrudging statements that "Apple has got it's act together" - I would like to remind the world that this is only one game, in an ocean of hundreds, indeed thousands. Whether one man decides to develop a single game for the Mac in no way reflects on the value of the platform.
The Mac is rapidly growing as a gaming platform and, judging by Apple's plans, will continue to do so for as long as people continue to play games. Meanwhile, we get the rich satisfaction of knowing that Q3Test arrived on the Mac first, and many PC news sites (including Blue's News) went out and bought a brand-new Blue G3 just for this very event. Who knows—maybe they'll even come to appreciate it as we do. [Simon]
Caesar III Demo in June, Release in July:
At the new web site devoted to Impressions Software's Mac
games , a source at the company has posted in the discussion forums that a Ceasar III demo should be out in June and release is expected in July. "Development is moving along very smoothly and we have every confidence in making that target." For more information, check out the Impressions web site and put a good word for the Mac in the forums. [Bailey]
Titanic for Mac Hits an Iceberg?
SimonSays.com, the official website for Simon and Schuster, publishers of Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic, released the following news:
ALERT: Problems installing the Macintosh version of Starship Titanic
MEDIUM INSTALL ERROR
There is a known problem with the current Starship Titanic installer for the Macintosh. This problem relates to the medium installation option provided by that installer.
The medium install option states that 550Meg of disc space is required to complete the install operation. It has been reported and has subsequently been confirmed that a medium installation will fail if less than 750Meg of disc space is available before the install is attempted. The installer will proceed to install Starship Titanic without warning the user of the lack of disc space. At a later stage in the installation process a dialog will appear indicating that the destination volume has become full. At this point the installer will recover the installation by removing all files it has installed and report that further disc space is required.
For the time being it is recommended that when using the medium install option, you should ensure that at least 750Meg of free disc space is available in your destination folder.
CD#2 I/O ERROR -- FREE REPLACEMENTS AVAILABLE
A number of customers have encountered difficulties with CD#2 of the Macintosh version of Starship Titanic, which appears to be the result of a manufacturing error in some of our discs. If you experience an I/O error during installation of CD#2, you may have a bad disc. A supply of replacements is being made available upon request to customers. Please call (800) 910-0099 for your replacement disc. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.
If any of you have been having trouble with this title, these may be solutions to your problem. Simon and Schuster deserve congratulations for their honesty and excellent support of the Mac. (IMG thanks astute reader Michael Avers for the tip!) [Eilers]
MacMAME .35b11 Released
Fans of this one-stop game emulation shop known as MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) will be glad to know that the crack porting team in charge has once again updated the game in sync with the DOS version.
Here's a list of changes:
0.35 beta 11 - 25 April 1999
• In sync with DOS 0.35 beta 11. [Brad Oliver]
• Some changes to the InputSprocket code. [Dave Lawrence]
• Some internal code cleanup and miscellaneous bug fixes. [John Butler]
• Various fixes to the 3D code. It should be more stable now. [Brad Oliver]
MacMAME .35b11 (2.3 MB)
MacMAME .35b11 (2.3 MB ) (mirror)
Mac-O-Rama: Sales Upon Sales!
Those wacky folks at Mac-only Mac-O-Rama are having yet another sale to tempt you with great prices and service on Mac games.
Here's the dirt:
Ten bucks, ten bucks, ten bucks! It’s “Old-School” week at MAC-O-RAMA Get the games that you grew up with at a price that won’t break the bank! Check these out:
D!Zone Collector’s Edition $10 Dungeon Master 2 $10
Dust: A Tale of the Wired West $10
F/A-18 Hornet 3.0 $10
Havoc $9
Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon $15
W!Zone $10
Warlords 2 $10
And get FREE Priority Mail shipping (in the US) on these great titles:
Klingon Honor Guard $44
STAR TREK: Borg $40
STAR TREK: Starship Creator $29
Starcraft $35
In case you missed our out-of-this world sale last week, all STAR TREK titles are specially priced for another week!
Sale starts April 26, 1999 and ends May 2, 1999. Prices good while supplies last. FREE gift wrapping available upon request.
Free shipping? Somebody shake me! [Eilers]
IMG Chat with Westlake this Wednesday
IMG is proud to announce our chat with Mac porting powerhouse Westlake Interactive this Wednesday at 10 PM Eastern, 7 PM Pacific. Westlake 'big cheese' Mark Adams and his wife Suellen will be joining us to discuss their ports-in-progress as well as possible future projects. The just-released Railroad Tycoon II will be also a major topic.
The chat will be held in the IMG Chat Room. All you'll need is a Java-enabled browser to join the chat! See ya then! [Daranciang]
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