 Bugdom Goes Final!
Pangea Software's highly anticipated game Bugdom has now gone "final," which means that this is the final candidate before release to golden master and duplication. You might remember Bugdom from the extensive preview we did of the title a few weeks back.
Bugdom was showing at Apple's booth at E3, running on iMacs, and it drew quite a crowd. The game looked extremely fast, gorgeous, and playable even with Rage Pro hardware.
Brian Greenstone, author of Bugdom, also dropped us a note to know he has managed the seemingly impossible feat of getting the game to run with 2 MB of VRAM, meaning that a non-upgraded Revision A iMac and first-generation G3 machines will now be able to play this amazing, delightful game. If you have watched our movies of game play, seen the screenshots, or been lucky enough to play this lush, visually rich game at E3, you would know what an astounding accomplishment that is. Anyway, check out our preview for more details while you wait the last few weeks before Bugdom's duplication and release. [Eilers]
 Sim City 3000 Available for Pre-Order
Maxis' Sim City 3000 is now available for pre-order from Electronic Arts' online store. You might remember that this is the award-winning sequel to the equally award-winning Sim City 2000. We were able to see this game running on both iMacs and G3s at the show, and from the looks of things this game will definitely be ready for the stated ship date of June.
Interestingly enough, Sim City 3000 is being ported to the Mac by a team of Russian programmers; if they do a successful job with this title, perhaps new porting houses for Mac titles will spring up all over Eastern Europe. In any case, pre-ordering Sim City 3000 is a great way to show Maxis the strength of the Mac game market, and convince them to bring The Sims (see our E3 page for details) to our platform as well. [Eilers]
Oni FAQ Released at Onicore
Onicore has released version 1.0 of their Oni FAQ, a list of frequently asked questions about Bungie's upcoming third-person fighting/action game. Much of the information in the FAQ is at this point speculation or educated guesses, due to the long development time for the game (we might not see it until Christmas). However, it is an interesting peek at the details of the game and the history of Bungie as a company. Check our E3 pages for more details on Oni, and look for an Oni preview in upcoming months [Eilers]
 Blizzard's Diablo II to Support Open GL, 3D Hardware
You already know the big news from Blizzard released at E3 - Diablo II is coming to the Mac for certain, most likely ported by Future Point. Here are some more details about the graphics engine and hardware support of this sequel to the smash-hit original:
At the Electronic Entertainment Expo starting today, Blizzard Entertainment® previewed Diablo™ II, the sequel to its top selling role-playing game of 1997, featuring 3D accelerator support via Glide™ 3 and OpenGL®.
Blizzard for the first time showed Diablo II's perspective scaling and parallax, a new display option within the game's suite of 3D-accelerator support features. Scaling and parallax effects add a near-perfect perspective to the 3D-accelerated isometric view. Most striking when running through terrain populated with trees or around buildings, this feature provides a more realistic and immerse visual experience for players with supported 3D accelerators.
Diablo II is the most significant game to combine 2D elements such as sprite-based characters with 3D elements such as colored lighting and atmospheric effects. Tailored to be a value-added feature for computers with 3D hardware, Diablo II's 3D support improves the game's frame rate, as well as the general quality of lighting and other visual effects.
We got to see all of this firsthand at E3, and the description does not do it justice. The 'parallax' features are really eye-popping: walls and trees seem to tower over the player, coming toward the viewer in a manner that is extremely realistic; a literal "treetop" view of the action. The transparent lighting effects were also quite impressive, with the many spells in Diablo II causing huge explosions, walls of fire, lighting strikes and glowing orbs. The use of OpenGL will guarantee that Rage 128 (and perhaps even Rage Pro) gamers on the Mac side won't miss out on the fun, and may even speed up the conversion of the game to Mac OS (fingers crossed!)
Blizzard has also released a gallery of pictures taken at E3 around the Blizzard booth. Check them out to get a flavor for the heated excitement and huge crowds this upcoming title attracted. [Eilers]
Blizzard to License Novels, Game Guides
Action figures wasn't enough for Blizzard; they are looking to leverage the fictional worlds created by their real-time strategy and RPG game titles by allowing novelization of the game "universes" for publication. In addition, official TSR role-playing games and a game guide to Diablo II are also in the works.
From the press release:
Blizzard is in final negotiations with a major book publisher to license novelization rights for its Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft universes. Under a nine-book deal, three novels will be published for each game. The first in each series will begin appearing during the spring and summer of 2000.
Additionally, Wizards of the Coast subsidiary TSR Inc. is designing traditional role-playing adventures set in the Diablo and StarCraft worlds. TSR Inc. is creating a variety of products including fast-play games, boxed sets and adventure module. The Diablo games will be based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rule book, while the StarCraft products will follow the Alternity® science fiction role-playing rules system. The first games are scheduled for release later this year.
BradyGAMES is the official and exclusive strategy guide publisher for Diablo II. The official guide will contain complete coverage for all weapons, shrines, armor, spells, and abilities needed to defeat the bosses. Scheduled to coincide with the release of the game, the 200-page guide will also include information on all five character classes, their abilities, strengths and weaknesses.
Following last year's successful launch of StarCraft and Warcraft action figures, Blizzard also announced plans to self-publish a line of Diablo II figures. The first series will include Diablo and three other heroes and monsters from the game. The action figures will be available when Diablo II launches later this year. "As a company, we take a very conservative approach to extending our brand through licensing. Our first priority is protecting the integrity of our games and offering new products that make sense for our target market of gamers," said Paul Sams, vice president of business development. "By partnering with companies such as TSR Inc. and BradyGAMES, we are able to grow our properties without diluting the value of our franchises."
Blizzard is already one of the few game companies that can lay claim to being a household word; now it looks like their empire will spread into print media. Can a Fox mini-series be far away? [Eilers]
Q3Finder Updated to 1.01
Scott Kevill's ingenious little utility that allows you to list, search for, gather statistics on and join servers for iD Q3Test (the test version of Quake III: Arena) has been updated.
Here are the changes, from the 'read me:'
• Updated id Master server to reflect change of address
• An update to Q3Test changed a server's hostname info. Q3Finder now supports this new method
• Q3Finder will no longer automatically open the User Profile at startup the first time that it is run as this caused crashes for some people in rare circumstances.
This utility is freeware, but those who use it are encouraged to register some of Scott's other excellent utilities such as QuakeFinder, UnrealFinder and his Quake map editor Quiver. [Eilers]
 Q3Finder (223k)
Sid Meier Returns to Civilization
One of the interesting little details of the E3 expo (and one we missed, until our reporter Terry Green put us on the trail) was the return of Sid Meier to the Civilization franchise. You might remember that the current Civilization title, Civ: Call To Power (currently in development for Macintosh) was done by Activision and was not created by Sid Meier. Well, it looks like he has decided to reclaim his throne:
At a press conference conducted at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), two of the entertainment software industry's biggest players, powerhouse publisher Hasbro Interactive and legendary game developer FIRAXIS Games announced a strategic partnership to bring the next generation of Civilization® strategy games to life in Sid Meier's Civilization III CD-ROM.
The conference reunited industry legend Sid Meier and his FIRAXIS Games partners, President and CEO Jeff Briggs, and Vice President of Software Development Brian Reynolds with their long-time friend and former MicroProse colleague Tony Parks, now Vice President of Research and Development at Hasbro Interactive. The event marked the coming together of the original team that worked on the groundbreaking Sid Meier's Civilization and Sid Meier's Civilization II interactive games - touted by many as two of the best games ever created in the history of the entertainment software industry.
"To be partnered with FIRAXIS Games and legendary designer Sid Meier on this exciting project is truly a crowning moment for Hasbro Interactive," said Tom Dusenberry, Hasbro Interactive president. "We have had our eyes on the Civilization franchise for some time and we are thrilled that we can bring together all the critical people behind this great game to make some more industry magic."
We're not sure of the implications of this arrangement; Neither Hasbro Interactive nor Firaxis has a history of publishing Mac versions of their games. But as we learned repeatedly at E3, many PC game companies are coming around to the Mac platform, and Apple's position in the games market seems to strengthen by the day. Considering how many other Civilization titles have come to the Mac, we might see this one on our platform some sunny day. [Eilers]
ChessWorks Online Chess Game Updated
Ever vigilant, always on top of things, Mike Bailey has released ChessWorks 1.5.1, yet another update to the networkable chess game. This version corrects a minor bug found in 1.5, further improving stability in the 1.5.x incarnations of the game. [Daranciang]
ChessWorks 1.5.1
ATI Guide to Extension Onslaught
ATI Engineer Ray Swartz has posted a helpful guide to the morass of ATI extensions now available for Mac OS computers with ATI hardware. Recent versions of Apple's OpenGL, Quicktime 4.0 and Mac OS 8.6 all install different flavors and versions of the ATI extensions, sometimes on machines that don't even need them. Here is a guide to sorting out what you need on which machine:
OK, this is kinda off the top of my head. I may have to amend this later.
But I think this lays out the current situation.
B&W G3
===============================================
ATI Driver Update {provides update to the ROM/BIOS}
ATI Graphics Accelerator {2D}
ATI Rage 128 3D Accelerator {3D}
ATI Resource Manager {essential support code}
ATI Video Accelerator {quicktime, mpeg}
ATI Video Accelerator Update {additional quicktime support}
(if you also have a Rage Pro or Rage-II card, add ...)
ATI 3D Accelerator {3D for Rage Pro and Rage-II}
iMac, PowerBook, 6500, or any Mac with Rage-II or Rage Pro on motherboard
===============================================
ATI Driver Update {not sure if Apple supplies this file}
ATI Graphics Accelerator
ATI 3D Accelerator
ATI Video Memory Manager {essential vram management}
ATI Offscreen Mem Manager {optional, accelerated offscreen rendering}
any retail card with Rage-II or Rage Pro
===============================================
ATI Driver Update
ATI Graphics Accelerator
ATI 3D Accelerator
ATI Extension {enables ATI Displays for retail boards}
ATI Video Memory Manager
ATI Offscreen Mem Manager
(if your card is an Xclaim VR, add ...)
ATI Video Accelerator
ATI Displays {control panel }
Xclaim Video Player {application}
======================================================
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