NOTE: Screen shots and information presented in this article are based on a pre-release version of these games and are subject to change before final release. This article is not a review.
Mini-Preview: Absolute Zero
Thanks to the success of Flying Nightmares and Out of the Sun for the Macintosh, Domark is gun-ho about developing more titles for the Mac. Their next release, Absolute Zero is being heralded as a Sci-Sim or Science Fiction Simulator. The development of a Sci-Fi simulator grew out of customers demands for a flight simulator in space.
The year is 2374 AD. The European Mining Colony is 200,000 people strong and is a major refueling depot for Earth. The colonists’ gigantic, mobile arcologies ensure their survival amidst the freezing temperatures and thin atmosphere of Europa. But when a hostile alien race erupts from the inner core of the icy planet and one-third of the population dies in a single blazing instant, the miners take to battle.
 
To survive, you must convert your mining equipment into weapons. The game will allow you to choose from thirteen different characters. You can also choose from ten uniquely designed sci-fi vehicles as you in over 100 missions. Another option allows you to either fight for either the colonists or extra-terrestrials.
Absolute Zero features spectacular high-resolution texture-mapped graphics, but at a price. Absolute Zero will run on 040 Macintoshes but a PowerMac will be the optimum platform to play on. Multiple graphics resolutions will also be supported up to 1024 X 768. Absolute Zero is scheduled to be released in March or April.
 
Mini-Preview: Jewels of the Oracle
Discis (800/567-4321), a pioneer of CD-ROM based “interactive books” for Children, in February will be releasing their first ever Macintosh game. In Jewels of the Oracle, players explore the ancient stone halls of the “domain of the Oracle”, a 7,000 year-old structure in the region known as the Fertile Crescent, and decipher the puzzles that have externally perplexed mankind. As players travel though these ancient environs they’ll discover a pre-Sumerian city with artifacts, hieroglyphics, and a Well Room which provided the interface of the game. Jewels features realistic textured 3-D graphics, sounds and music and will be released on CD-ROM. Check out the demo below!
But before running the demo below please make sure you have the Apple Multimedia Tuner installed. You can find it in the Put in System Folder on this CD-ROM. Also, the demo below is set to run the demo in 256 colors. There are 16-bit and 24-bit versions of the demo in the Demos under the JEWELSCD folder.
