 Quake 3: Arena Is Gold
As just about every darn news page and .plan file reports this morning, id Software's next entry in the famous Quake series has gone Golden Master, and should be packaged and duplicated within the next several weeks.
In a post yesterday Id's Graeme Divine reported that the game was Release Candidate 2. Then this morning id software's Kenneth Scott reported that Quake 3 has "gone gold" in a .plan update.
Golden Master means that a final copy of the game has been burned to CD-ROM, and only awaits a Fed-Ex (or in this case, probably an armored car ride) to the duplicators. All three versions (Mac, windows, linux) are scheduled for simultaneous release. Expect to see this game in stores very soon, within the next two weeks at the latest. Make sure to call you're local store and ask about the Mac OS version, since the game will not be sold on a hybrid CD. [George]
Descent 3 Mac Has Shipped!
We've received news that GraphSim's port of Descent 3 to the Macintosh has now officially shipped, and is screaming towards store shelves just in time for that long, boring Thanksgiving weekend with the relatives. What's turkey day without spending the afternoon with a joystick resting on your full belly as your hurtle through 3D tunnels, blasting things to bits? Here is the announcement:
Descent 3 for Mac is now shipping! Tuesday afternoon at about 3pm the first P.T.M.C. Pyro GL ship to come off of the assembly line burst out of the Graphic Simulations' office front door and headed for the shelves of Mac software retailers worldwide. Descent 3 is the pinnacle of the revolutionary Descent series that pioneered multiplayer gaming. Descent 3 for Mac features complete cross-platform multiplayer gaming allowing you to blast your PC (and Mac) brethren into oblivion. Mac gamers experience not only the same frenzied, subterranean shooting action, but also the thrill of flying out of the mines into the planetary atmosphere. Players 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 for Mac requires hardware graphics support found in all current iMac and G3 computers (RagePro or greater graphics with 6 MB of video RAM, 64MB of RAM and 200MB of hard drive space).
Buy it now at http://www.graphsim.com/graphsim/orders.htm and get the Descent 3 T-shirt for free!! Our free T-shirt preorder special has been extended while supplies last. Get your order in now-they’re going fast!
So, if you've downloaded the demo and loved it, this is definitely one for the holiday season! If you haven't downloaded the demo yet, grab it below - or wait for it to arrive on your next issue of IMG. [Eilers]
 Teenage Witch: Brat Attack Ships
Simon and Schuster doesn't just do Star Trek; they also do edutainment of all forms. Based on the popular TV show, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch: Brat Attack is now shipping for Mac and PC. Here is a lengthy description from the press release:
Melissa Joan Hart, star of the hit ABC-TV show Sabrina, The Teenage Witch,(TM)from Viacom Productions, makes the leap from TV to the PC in SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH: BRAT ATTACK - now available at computer software retailers nationwide. Co-starring her sister Emily Hart as the bratty cousin "Amanda," and Nick Bakay as the voice of Salem the mischievous cat (both seen on the TV show), this CD-ROM game for Power Mac and PC (Windows(R) 98 and 95) gives fans an opportunity to play the game as Sabrina, casting spells and controlling her every move.
"Brat Attack is such a great game for Sabrina fans because they get the feeling like they're part of the show," said Melissa Joan Hart.
In its fourth season, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch is one of the highest rated TV shows for kids and teens.
About Brat Attack Sabrina's mischievous cousin Amanda, has captured "The Beanie of Ultimate Power" placing Sabrina and Salem in jeopardy with the Witches Council. But not to worry as Sabrina has access to the "Labtop" (which fans of the show know as the computerized version of a magical chemistry set). The Labtop is loaded with recipes for magic spells and potions such as "Dork-in-the-Box Spell," "Invisibility Potion" and the "Airhead Spell" to aid Sabrina and Salem's mission.
Fans control Sabrina and guide her through wacky witch worlds including:
* The Spelleria - The wise witch's warehouse in the Other Realm, better known as the mall.
* Mars - The red planet is equipped with its own ski resort, snowboarding martians, volcanoes, caves and even a frowning Buddha in need of a good laugh.
Sabrina and Salem's ultimate goal is to get the Beanie of Ultimate Power back from Amanda and return it to the Witches Council. But this won't be so easy with Amanda sending Mall Rats, zombie cheerleaders and flying books to thwart our heroine and her cat.
This game is $29.95 and should be available right now on the Simaon and Schuster online store as well as in retail outlets. It is a hybrid CD-ROM, so don't forget to check the PC section if you can't find it in the Mac section. Hm, that "dork in a box" spell may come in handy some day... [Eilers]
3dfx Drops Napalm On Gamers
Well, the fated day has arrived, and 3dfx - even though they bungled the promised webcast - did manage to get enough information up on their websites to blow this reporter, and most likely anyone else who read this information, totally away. Featuring a new chip, the VSA-100, and some totally insane claimed (note that word!) fill rates of up to 1.47 GIGApixels, this is one product line that looks to put the competition back into the research lab for a long time to come.
3dfx has announced the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 series of cards, which range from 32 MB PCI versions to 128 MB 4x AGP versions. They are currently scheduled to ship in March of 2000.
Two initial shockers: there are PCI versions available for the low-end cards, which seemed unlikely due to the massive bandwidth you will need to feed these chips. The second shocker is sticker shock: the high-end card (with a totally ludicrous 128 MB of texture RAM) is $599.00. Ouch! You'd better really love your games!
There was no mention of a Macintosh-compatible version in any of the product specs or the press release, although Windows 98, 2000 and NT drivers were mentioned. This is pretty much what we expected, and a typical 3dfx way of hedging their bets, but after their promise at Macworld NY we think they will deliver Mac versions, eventually. The existence of PCI versions certainly makes this more feasible. Unfortunately, those without AGP will get shut out of the high-end cards, but that was to be expected as well. The cards aren't due until March, so a lot can happen between now and then.
Without further ado, here are some specs to chew on, from the low-end Voodoo4 4500:
The Voodoo 4 4500 AGP delivers all the power and performance PC owners demand from 3dfx. Designed around the new 3dfx VSA-100™ chip, the Voodoo4 4500 AGP features a 3D engine capable of rendering over 333 Megapixels per second and a 350 MHz RAMDAC for 2D resolutions as high as 2048x1536. Working together, they bring both 2D Windows applications and 3D games to life in glorious 32-bit color. With support for all major API's including DirectX®, Glide® and OpenGL®, the Voodoo4 4500 AGP boasts the largest library of titles available for the PC. A perfect balance of price and performance, the Voodoo4 4500 AGP is the ideal 2D/3D accelerator for today's home PC enthusiast.
Fully integrated 128-bit 2D/3D Video Accelerator
32 MB of Graphics Memory
Fill Rate of 333-367 Megapixels per second
FXT1™ and DirectX® Texture Compression
8-bit Palletized Textures
4X AGP with Full Sideband Support
32-bit Rendering
32-bit Textures
2k x 2k Textures
24-bit Floating Point Depth Buffer (Z or W)
8-bit Stencil Buffer
350MHz RAMDAC
The industry's most complete API support:
DirectX, OpenGL, and Glide
DVD hardware assist: planar to packed-pixel
conversion
The Voodoo5 5000, the next step up, adds real-time anti-aliasing, motion blur, depth of field blur, and soft reflections. Of course, support for any of the features mentioned above on the Mac OS is not confirmed, or even speculated as of yet; certainly DVD assist and OpenGL support are in doubtful, since these features aren't supported with the Voodoo3 drivers now available (nor are they planned for future support.) Screenshot examples of all of these can be found on the 3dfx web sites.
The four screenshots shown here are examples of anti-aliasing, motion blur, and soft relfections. They have been scaled down and considerably brightened compared to their versions on 3dfx.com which for some reason are very dark.
Here is an excerpt from an article on 3dfxgamers.com about what these cards mean to gamers:
At the heart of both the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 family of products is 3dfx’s newest chip, the VSA-100 Engine. 3dfx will be able to offer an extremely wide range of products based on this hardware. You’ll see anywhere from single chip (Voodoo4 4000 and 4500) to dual chip (Voodoo5 5000 and 5500) to quad chip products (Voodoo5 6000). Quantum3D will even be offering a 32 chip solution, but with a price tag of up to $40,000, it may not be the type of product you run out and buy for your home computer.
The VSA-100 is everything you need for your games. The chip is AGP4x compliant, but 3dfx will also be producing PCI versions for those of you without AGP slots (PCI cards are also keen for our Mac gamers out there, as well as folks who want to run multi-monitor systems). Each chip can take advantage of up to 64MB of memory, which is how we’re managing to crank out incredible gaming boards like the 64MB Voodoo5 5500 and the "so powerful it's kind of ridiculous" 128MB Voodoo5 6000. The new hardware also supports both DirectX texture compression and 3dfx’s superior open-source FXT1 compression scheme and 32-bit color textures up to 2048K X 2048K in size. FXT1's texture compression is a visual leap forward, allowing large textures to be compressed into a relatively small footprint, with no noticable degradation in image quality...
This is certainly an impressive set of claims, but we'll have to wait until March to find out if the product actually performs up to spec. The two trump cards that 3dfx has over all of the competition are the extreme "scalability" of the VSA-100 chip - you can stack up to 32 of them in scan-line-interleave, for astounding performance - and full-scene anti-aliasing, which no one else has promised or delivered so far. Personally, I think that full-scene anti-aliasing is the single most important feature of the card - it will make new games look astounding, and since it is totally backwards-compatible with any Glide game, it will make old games look new again. We'll keep digging and bugging our contacts at 3dfx for more info about the possibility of Mac OS drivers for these cards... Meanwhile, jump to our forums and rant and rave about what you think of the new cards and what they mean for Mac gaming, and gaming in general! [Eilers]
 Apyr Media Ships Madden 2000
IMG has gotten word from Aspyr Media that Madden NFL 2000 for the Mac is now shipping!
Madden NFL™ 2000 delivers authentic NFL football designed specifically for the Mac. With a new interface, Madden NFL 2000 lets you easily and quickly navigate with keyboard commands and drag-and-drop mouse control. With increased frame rate for lightning fast gameplay, you will hit with unreal speed and explosive power.
Madden Football gives you the options to play the game the way you want to. From an expanded Multiplayer Franchise mode (compete against your friends up to 30 seasons), to a Player Editor and Situation Creator, this game is deep.
According to Aspyr, a demo for Madden NFL 2000 for the Mac will be released sometime in the near future. [Deniz]
Diablo II Delayed, Mac Version On Track
In a recent letter to Blue's News, Susan Wooley, PR director of Blizzard, announced that the anticipated RPG Diablo II has been delayed. Diablo II was set to be released before the end of the year, but this date has been moved back and Blizzard now expects beta testing to begin before the end of the year.
Most of the delays are attributed to the new Battle.net server system, and the difficult task of balancing gameplay between six player characters and hundreds of monsters. Luckily, delays of this kind are unlikely to affect the release date of the Mac version, which according to a post-announcement chat is now up and running:
<Bridenbecker> Any news on the Mac port to Diablo 2?
<BRoper> We have our first single-player version up and running internally, and the Mac team is excited and enthusiastic on the progress they are making with porting the game.
Could it be... Might we see... Oh, it almost hurts to say the words! Might we see a simultaneous release of Diablo II for Mac and PC? Only time will tell... [George]
Bungie To Give Chimera Away, Total Codex Announced
After long, long periods of speculation on the numerous Bungie Software fan pages and in the newsgroups, Bungie's fabled "third project" has finally been officially announced - Myth: The Total Codex. Along with this announcement, Bungie dropped a little bombshell, as they are wont to do occasionally. The single-player expansion scenario, called Chimera, which was supposed to be the core of this new retail product, will be available for download free of charge! Read on for more details:
CHICAGO - Nov. 8, 1999 - Any sane game publisher charges money for their games' scenario packs. But on November 15th, when Bungie releases its new single-player Myth scenario, Chimera, it will be available for download free of charge at http://chimera.bungie.com. For those who want to save themselves some modem time, Chimera will also be available as part of the new all-inclusive, eminently affordable Myth compilation, Myth: The Total Codex.
The most recent addition to the Myth world, Chimera tells the story of three heroes, veterans of the wars against the Fallen, who set out to confront a vengeful sorceress and the evil she has awakened. Developed by Badlands, Chimera features new units, characters and maps, and spins a new tale in the Myth universe.
Myth: The Total Codex features the award-winning Myth titles, Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter, Chimera, the official hint books for Myth and Myth II, a collection of officially endorsed plug-ins and fan-created multiplayer levels and the easy-to-use level editors called "Fear" and "Loathing. "Myth: The Total Codex will ship on November 15th and retail for $19.99. It will ship as a hybrid title for PC and Macintosh.
The Total Codex is a tome of great power in the world of Myth. It contains the life histories of all beings, and many a hero has risked life and limb to possess it. As such is the perfect title for this all-inclusive Myth collection.
Since the release of the "Fear" and "Loathing" level editors with Myth II, hundreds of Myth players have evolved into game designers, making third-party maps and plug-ins and releasing them online. Some of the best of these are included in the Codex. Many of the plug-ins take place in game worlds entirely different from the fantasy battlefields of the Myth games, among them:
· Assassin! - A single-player map set in feudal Japan pitting one ninja against a Shogun's army.
· WWII Recon and WWII Titans - WWII-era combat with rifles, grenades, tanks.
· Wild West - Gunslingers fight it out with six-shooters, shotguns and dynamite.
· Civil War - The Blue versus the Grey with cavalry, cannon and rifles.
· Pirates of the Caribbean - Cutlasses, rum and wild monkeys.
· Worlds Collide - High-energy combat in an original sci-fi universe.
For those of you who are new to Myth, this is Bungie's entry into the real-time strategy genre which breaks all the rules and breathes life into that stale category. No boring resource mining, no tech trees to climb, just true 3D landscapes and melee combat galore! And as a bonus that has turned into an incredible boon, Myth and Myth II are practically endless games thanks to the amazing creations by legions of Bungie fans with Bungie's own tools Fear and Loathing. These tools have been used to create all the plug-ins mentioned above and hundreds more, some that completely change the game, others that simply refine the already balanced and addictive combat.
Note that all of these plug-ins are available for "free" (The Mill is a good place to look for them) - but some are very, very large in size and may not be free for those who pay by the minute or hour for access time. In that case, the $19.99 for the Total Codex may be quite a bargain, and save your hours of downloading to boot. We're still kind of scratching our heads about Bungie giving the Chimera scenario away for free - we're not ones to look a gift horse in the proverbial mouth, but truly, sometimes Bungie seems just too darn good to be true! Keep watching that site for the download on November 15th... [Eilers]
King of Dragon Pass Ships
As noted on PC game news site GamePost, A Sharp software's King of Dragon Pass has shipped for Mac and PC. King of Dragon Pass is an interesting and attractive return to story-based gameplay, similar to the text-based "kingdom" games of the early days of gaming.
Featuring hand-drawn artwork and an extended plotline set in the world of Glorantha, this game will run on almost any system. Here is a description of the game, from the web site:
King of Dragon Pass is the saga of colonizing a magical land. You control the future of a ragged clan which has decided to settle the empty land of Dragon Pass. Your decisions determine whether they prosper over the course of a century, and whether they will be remembered forever as a great clan.
Of course, yours isn't the only clan which has emigrated to Dragon Pass. You will have to cooperate and compete with other clans of your own people, as well as folk you know nothing about. Each has their own personality.
Your goal is to become King of Dragon Pass, uniting all these people through diplomacy, magic, and battle. (The objective for a shorter game is to forge a tribe and remain king for ten years.)
The game is set in the magical world of Glorantha, explored in detail through the game RuneQuest. This provides a rich background not seen in most computer games.
For more information, or to order through their secure web store (KODP lists at $37.50), visit the A Sharp web site. [Eilers]
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