Civilization II for the Mac
Dear IMG: As you probably already know, Civilization II has just been released - for Windows only. According to the Microprose online rep, no Mac version is planned at this time. If we want a Mac version, it looks like we’re going to have to make some noise. Would it be possible to post something in IMG requesting anyone who would like to see a Mac version to contact Microprose to request one? They can be contacted at microprose@aol.com or <http://www.microprose.com>. Thanks, and keep up the work on a great magazine. — Rick Vonderbrink via Internet

More on Microprose
Dear IMG: What rights, if any, do I have as a paying customer of a software company when that company releases a piece of software that doesn’t work on my computer even though it is advertised to work and then the company refuses to fix the problem?

I ask this because I am having such a problem. The original version of Colonization by Microprose had a bug that literally made it unplayable on AV Power Macs with single monitors plugged into the secondary monitor port. I and many other AV users notifed Microprose of the problem and an update was promised “in a couple of months.” Many months passed and soon I could no longer return the game to where I bought it. I contacted Microprose several times asking for a fix and was eventually told the number of users experiencing the problem was insignificant and didn’t warrant the effort to make an update. Finally though, 6 months after the game’s release, a “beta” update was released that fixed the monitor problem, but also created so many new bugs ON ALL MACS that it made the game all but unplayable. 

Today Microprose’s AOL representative told me no further updates for the game are planned despite his past promises. I and other AV Power Mac users are now not only stuck with a game we can’t play, but we’ve been swindled out of $50. I find Microprose’s actions, or rather inaction, to be totally unprofessional and irresponsible. — Niels Hirschmann via AOL

M2 Save
Dear IMG: While all the positive elements from the original Marathon carried over to the sequel, so did the sole ailing save feature. Various specially marked terminals sprinkled about within the game are the only means of saving a game. This can be quite annoying for one single reason: players want to get on with the game and not have to backtrack to the terminal to save. When playing on large and extensive levels, this problem is grossly magnified.”

Either the full game removes a feature that both demo’s have, or you didn’t try the standard Mac save key [Command]-S which seems to bring up a save dialog that works fine.  There are still save terminals, and when you die your automatic recover is to the last save terminal you saved at you CAN save at any point! — David A. Smith via Internet
 
Apple Dying?
Dear IMG: Listen, right now I think that Apple will not die. But, the propaganda is thick and the subliminal messages are getting to me. Is Apple in serious financial trouble? I want to know the truth the articles plugging Macs say that the Mac platform is growing and those for PCs say that Apple will go bankrupt in a week!?!?! — Breandan1 via AOL

• Posting a $700 million loss in one quarter is “serious financial trouble.” But most people believe Apple’s troubles are behind them. We’re confident that Apple will be back on its feet within a few months (at least we hope they will).

Thoughts on Outpost
Dear IMG: While reading your March issue, which was excellent as usual, I noticed a letter from a reader asking about Outpost from Sierra On-Line. As a warning to other Mac gamers, I’d like to relate my experiences with the game.

I have to say that this game has great potential; in fact, I think it could’ve been one of the best Mac titles I have ever seen. However, it suffers from HUGE flaws that make it virtually unplayable. I bought the game in early March and have played it for about 25 hours.

First, I’ll cover what I consider to be the good points of Outpost. The premise of the game is excellent, and the graphics are beautiful, rich, and detailed. The game is wonderfully complex, giving fans of God-games everything they’ve ever hoped for in micromanagement. Beyond that, it sucks.

As for the problems with it, where should I begin? How about the total lack of a Mac-like interface? (Left-click, right-click...hello?...oh, they mean click, option-click). I’ve seen some crappy ports before, but this one is insulting. The menu bar is virtually ignored. You can only view your colony in chunks of 6 by 6 map squares. (No “big picture here). You can’t zoom the game map. Various game windows cannot be resized. There’s no support for multiple monitors, a common configuration in the Mac world. It’s slower than whale doody at low tide...and, believe me, that’s SLOW. And I’m running it on a 7100 40/500/CD in a 25MB partition!

Information in the “Master Reports” is presented in a confusing manner, making it difficult to pursue a coherent line of research in a systematic way. Ditto for the factory report. There’s no way to get a list of all your working robots in one place (you have to click on Robot Command Centers individually to view data on 10 robots at a time, and you will have many more than 10 of ‘em working at a time.) Transporting raw ore from mines is an exercise in guesswork; you never know where your trucks are, or what they’re actually doing, even when you’re “manual trucking” and painstakingly creating routes for them. “Students” never seem to graduate to the workforce or scientist levels, and there’s no info on how many turns this should take.

But here’s the grand-daddy of ‘em all. I’ve built a colony through 247 turns (15+ hours of working carefully) and seem to be doing well. I’m through most of the research tree, and starting to get to the good stuff...Nanotech is just a few turns away. Well, turn 248 is as far away as the blown-up earth. No matter what I do, trying to run from 247 to 248 locks up the game. CMD-OPT-ESC lets me bail back to the Finder, but it’s GAME OVER for that colony. Needless to say, this is unacceptable.

Sadly, this is just another example of a Wintel platform game company releasing a half-baked Mac game and expecting us to like it. I can hear the company’s quote when they abandon our platform, “We did a Mac strategy game...it didn’t sell.” Well, if they’d give us a decent product, we’d buy it! Just ask Maxis. — Pete Andrews via Internet

Game Companies and the Mac Market
I regularly read with amusement about the blind rationalizations of companies that develop only for the Wintel platforms (or for Wintel and SNES, and so on). I was a retailer with close ties to SSI back in their boom days 10 years ago. We would go directly to their offices to pick up our orders, and talk to the staff there about our sales experiences.

Every time we had their ears, we told them they needed to start developing for the IBM platform (as it was then known). Without fail, they scoffed at us. They couldn’t be bothered; the Atari-C64-Apple platforms were all they needed to support. And, after all, what did that big B in the name mean but Business? No, our advice was worthless to them.

Until, of course, they saw their competition eating them up with IBM titles. Then Atari died. Then the C64 started to fade. The Mac platform was there all the time, and they did some nice work on it, then abandoned it. Why? The market, they discovered, was in IBM. What a brilliant executive insight by those high paid corporate honchos!

Now, a number of companies put out high quality, high value games for the Mac, and the rest of the industry ignores them. I wonder if these Mac developers bad mouth the market to keep their brain-dead competition from waking up. I wonder how long the competition is going to let the smart, Mac oriented game companies have a protected niche for themselves.

My advice: don’t waste your breath begging or complaining. Let the companies that don’t want to support Mac go. Put your dollars, time and praise where it belongs: on companies that turn out first rate, high value Mac-based games. Maybe it’s just me, but there isn’t enough time to play all the great Mac games, much less complain about the Wintel games that aren’t available. I’ll reward the companies that cater to my interests, and the devil take the rest. — Dean Steede, Exodus Online Services