News Archive for 01/03/08

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Yesterday: $3k G4/733, two reviews...

03/09, 12:00am

Yesterday: $3k G4/733, two reviews...

Yesterday we noted a new $3,000 G4/733 Power Mac configuration and Iomega's 100MB PocketZip announcement. We also posted reviews of Apple's Pro Speakers/iSub/SoundSticks and Simon the Sorcerer II.

Blizzard closes Diablo II duping loophole

03/08, 7:55pm

Blizzard closes Diablo II duping loophole

A loophole being used to allow people to duplicate items in Diablo II has been closed, according to Blizzard. "We would like to thank those individuals who provided us with information regarding this problem. Your help was most appreciated."

Review: Simon the Sorcerer II

03/08, 6:10pm

Review: Simon the Sorcerer II

We have published a review of Simon the Sorcerer II, the humorous adventure game featuring a witty sorcerer on a mission to return to his own dimension.

SimpleBrowser 2.2: shareware file browser

03/08, 5:58pm

SimpleBrowser 2.2: shareware file browser

Alexandre Carlhian's Simple Browser 2.2, a file browser with some extra features, is a tool to manage files on your hard disk and across a network, increases speed and stability and adds option-drop shortcut to copy a selection of files.

New Diablo II: LoD screenshot

03/08, 5:50pm

New Diablo II: LoD screenshot

Blizzard Entertainment has posted a new screenshot from Diablo II: Lord of Destruction "straight from the desktops of Blizzard." The new screenshot shows the Druid using three wolves, a spirit and a vine to make his way through the Barbarian fortification in his pursuit of Baal.

Console: Playstation 2 on the rise

03/08, 5:15pm

Console: Playstation 2 on the rise

Evening console news: Sony's Playstation 2 is finally starting to consistently make its mark on the sales charts with four titles now gracing the top ten for the week ending February 24 including Star Wars Starfighter at number one; Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for the Game Boy Advance will resurrect the original NES version of the game on the handheld system; Sony is developing a strange game for the Playstation 2 where players control a mosquito that must suck blood for several different hosts without being swatted; and Dodge Ball Advance for Nintendo's upcoming Game Boy Advance handheld will be loosely based on Super Dodge Ball for the NES and includes 50 super throws, 9 teams including hidden squads and the ability to play with two players using the GBA link cable.

Targetware's Spanish-speaking community

03/08, 4:05pm

Targetware's Spanish-speaking community

Targetware, which is hard at work on the first of its online flight combat sims for the Mac and PC, Target Korea, has announced its affiliation with Escuadrón 111. The distinguished combat simulation squadron will provide exclusive representation for the Spanish-speaking flight-sim community of the Targetware series of flight simulations. "Escuadrón 111 kicked off its launch by introducing two of E-111's exclusive articles titled 'F-86 Vs Mig 15' and 'Primer derribo de un sabre sobre un Mig' (First Sabre´s Mig kill), which make for an excellent introduction about what future Target Korea 'virtual' dogfights may look like."

Pangea drops Bugdom, Cro-Mag Rally prices

03/08, 4:00pm

Pangea drops Bugdom, Cro-Mag Rally prices

Pangea Software has dropped the price on both Bugdom and Cro-Mag Rally to $33. Bugdom is the company's 3D action/adventure game featuring pill bug Rollie McFly, while Cro-Mag Rally, the company's latest game, is a kart-racing title set in the pre-historic era.

MacSSH 2.1a10 continues its development

03/08, 3:45pm

MacSSH 2.1a10 continues its development

MacSSH 2.1a10 is yet another development version of the SSH2-enabled terminal application based on BetterTelnet.

TDMC System 1.01 fixes bugs in shareware

03/08, 3:35pm

TDMC System 1.01 fixes bugs in shareware

TMDC SysMenu 1.01 is a bug-fix release to the $15 shareware utility that creates a system-wide for organizing favorite applications, documents, and folders.

Apple offers $2,999 Power Mac G4/733

03/08, 3:15pm

Apple offers $2,999 Power Mac G4/733

Apple today announced that due to a greater-than-expected supply of 733 MHz PowerPC G4s, it will be offering a G4/733 Power Mac for $3,000 with CD-RW drive. The system features 256 MB RAM and 60 GB HD. The Apple Store has not yet been updated, and is currently showing the price on the system as $3,100. "With available quantities of the 733 MHz processor now surpassing those of the SuperDrive, Apple is offering this new configuration with a CD-RW drive to provide its highest performance system to a wider audience, sooner."

Deus Ex Multiplayer Patch Released

03/08, 2:00pm

Deus Ex Multiplayer Patch Released

Aspyr Media has released the Deus Ex Multiplayer Patch for its award-winning action/role-playing/adventure game, developed for the Mac by Westlake Interactive and originally developed by Ion Storm. The patch adds deathmatch and team deathmatch to the game and allows players to compete against nano-augmented opponents. Opponents can be found online using GameRanger. More information can be found in our preview of the Deus Ex Multiplayer Patch including new implementations of the inventory, skills and augmentations.

Games: Deus Ex MP Patch Released, more

03/08, 1:45pm

Games: Deus Ex MP Patch Released, more

games.macnn.com has information on today's release of the Deus Ex Multiplayer Patch and the status of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Mac. [updated]

The Sims: House Party screenshots

03/08, 12:20pm

The Sims: House Party screenshots

GA-Source has posted six new screenshots of The Sims: House Party, the upcoming second expansion pack for the award-winning The Sims. The new expansion pack, which has yet to be officially announced for the Mac but is expected in the coming months, will focus on throwing parties with three new architectural styles: Country Barn Dance, Hawaiian Luau and a Techno Rave.

HardOCP: NVIDIA HRAA

03/08, 12:15pm

HardOCP: NVIDIA HRAA

[H]ardOCP looks at NVIDIA's High Resolution Anti-Aliasing (HRAA) technique, a feature of its new GeForce3 graphics chip. "To explain it very simply, NVIDIA's new method, QCAA, draws information from surrounding pixels to fill in the jaggies."

Console: Microsoft signs X-Box developers

03/08, 12:00pm

Console: Microsoft signs X-Box developers

Afternoon console news: Microsoft has signed six worldwide developers to create games, which will be published under the Microsoft label, exclusively for the X-Box; Nintendo has released an $80 Pokémon Limited Edition Game Boy Color which features Pikachu and Pichu around the screen; and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, its new handheld game console coming to the U.S. on June 11 with 25 titles, will feature 32,000 colors—compared to the Game Bay Color's 56—and cables allowing up to four players to play games together using a single cartridge.

NOVA 4.1 screensaver gets security fix

03/08, 11:50am

NOVA 4.1 screensaver gets security fix

NOVA 4.1, an application-based screen saver with password security options, now allows any application to be a NOVA 'saverlet' and fixes a security hole in the application as well as compatibility with Drop Drawers and Sherlock.

Tropico Char. HC Male Tourist

03/08, 11:45am

Tropico Char. HC Male Tourist

This week's Character Highlight for PopTop Software's upcoming strategy/simulation game, Tropico, is the male High-Class Tourist. "Tourists come and tourists go.  What's important is that they spend money while they are here!" (Our in-depth preview of Tropico covers many more of the game's characters.)

Summoner Elements: Blue Imp and Impaler

03/08, 11:35am

Summoner Elements: Blue Imp and Impaler

This week's Summoner Elements of the Week at RPG Vault are the Blue Imp, one of the few summons which casts spells on its own, and the Impaler, a weapon ideal for close-range combat with slower enemies. Each item is showcased using both screenshots and an AVI movie showing it in action.

Tony Hawk 2 goes beta

03/08, 11:20am

Tony Hawk 2 goes beta

Westlake Interactive has announced that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Mac has entered beta testing, noting that the game "is in the final weeks of testing before shipping." The company has done compatibility testing on both ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards. "Soon you'll be doing sick moves with the best of them, all on your Mac," proclaims the site.

Centipede begins beta testing

03/08, 11:15am

Centipede begins beta testing

Centipede, a 3D remake of the arcade classic now in development for the Mac at Westlake Interactive, has reached beta status. "The new update of the arcade classic has all the gameplay elements you loved from the old Centipede machine down at the bowling alley," notes Westlake's web site, "all spruced up with 3D graphics and new game modes. You can play the classic arcade mode or new adventure mode with multiple levels of fun."

TradeAssist 2.2.4: stock trade management

03/08, 11:10am

TradeAssist 2.2.4: stock trade management

Essentrix today released Trade Assist 2.2.4, a maintenance update to its $25 stock market trading and portfolio management program. It fixes real-time quotes retrieval as well as problems with Yahoo! UK. A 5-day trial version is available online.

Roundup: Unreal Tournament: GotY Edition

03/08, 11:00am

Roundup: Unreal Tournament: GotY Edition

Yesterday MacSoft announced that Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition for the Mac had reached golden master status and will be appearing on store shelves soon; Apple announced that Mac OS X has reached golden master and is now on target to ship worldwide on March 24; NVIDIA expanded its GeForce2 MX product line with two new configurations; and ATI Technologies' President and COO disclosed that the company will announce their own GPU later this year which outperforms the specs of NVIDIA's GeForce3.

Echo Networks announces Mac compatibility

03/08, 10:50am

Echo Networks announces Mac compatibility

Echo Networks today announced Mac compatibility for its streaming service, which "allows members to create online communities where listeners hear music that directly reflects their preferences." [link updated]

NetFile due March 15 for Canada QuickTax

03/08, 10:50am

NetFile due March 15 for Canada QuickTax

Following up on yesterday's note on QuickTax for Canada, Kevin Ball writes: "I called Intuit and they confirmed that, while NetFile is currently unavailable it will be available after March 15 by using the one step upgrade feature."

More info on AirPort 1.3 software

03/08, 10:45am

More info on AirPort 1.3 software

Apple has posted several new Tech Info Library articles on the recently released AirPort 1.3 software: (1) problems accessing Computer-to-Computer Networks (may not display password error dialog when joining network); (2) the Base Station Extras folder no longer includes a separate file for AirPort Base Station Software; (3) AirPort 1.3 is the first version of AirPort software to implement the IBSS standard for creating a small network of AirPort-equipped computers without the use of a base station; (4) AirPort 1.3 includes DHCP Client ID support while providing NAT.

MacNN Review: G4 Speakers

03/08, 10:00am

MacNN Review: G4 Speakers

We have posted a review of G4 Power Mac speaker systems, comparing Apple's Pro Speakers, Apple's Pro Speakers with iSub, and Harman Multimedia's SoundSticks.

Roundup: OS X 'GM'; Dell in edu market...

03/08, 9:55am

Roundup: OS X 'GM'; Dell in edu market...

Apple yesterday announced that Mac OS X went 'GM'. We also noted Dell's self-proclaimed lead in the education market, Nvidia's OpenGL SDK for its forthcoming GeForce3 graphics chip, Native Instrument's audio software announcements, FWB's discontinuation of SoftWindows 98, and success in a TAM trade-up. Other updates included MacTella 1.04, FoolProof 3.5, and CD/DVD SpeedTools 5.7.

Iomega announces 100MB PocketZip

03/08, 8:00am

Iomega announces 100MB PocketZip

Iomega today announced the new 100MB PocketZip Drive, an extension of its 60MB PocketZip (originally known as Clik!) platform. Devices with the new 100MB drive, including MP3 players, are expected to ship in the third quarter, with individual PocketZip 100MB disks selling for about $10 each. PocketZip is seen as an affordable alternative to solid state memory cards (SmartFlash, CompactFlash, MultiMedia, and Memory Stick), which can cost more than ten-times as much. New PocketZip 100MB drives will be compatible with the older 40MB PocketZip disks.

Password Wallter 2.0, 1.0 for Palm released

03/08, 8:00am

Password Wallter 2.0, 1.0 for Palm released

PasswordWallet 2.0 for Mac [387 KB] is an application for keeping track of usernames and passwords. Version 2.0 features a new interface, the ability to generate random passwords, improved copy/paste and print support, and the ability to import passwords from text files or spreadhseets. Also included is a Palm HotSync Conduit for synchronizing passwords with PasswordWallet for Palm OS 1.0 [27 KB].

oAzium Events adds scheduling to FM scripts

03/08, 8:00am

oAzium Events adds scheduling to FM scripts

oAzium Events 3.0 is a $90 plug-in from Waves in Motion that adds script scheduling and control to FileMaker. The software is based on a complete re-write of the company's Script Scheduler, users of which can upgrade to oAzium Events for $40.

DR: Doom 3 Interview

03/08, 3:00am

DR: Doom 3 Interview

Daily Radar talks to id Software programmer Jim Dosé about Doom 3, which has officially yet to be named. Precious few details are discussed about the game, but Jim does touch briefly on the game's story. "The story in this game dwarfs anything in previous id games, which admittedly isn't too hard," admits Dosé. "Let's just say that there will be a very interesting story."

Eternal Team Arena 1.1 Released

03/08, 2:50am

Eternal Team Arena 1.1 Released

Eternal Team Arena 1.1 adds seven new single player tournaments, the ability to drop TA runes, bug fixes and more to the mod for Quake III: Team Arena. In addition, the site has posted a screenshot of the unskinned pulse rifle that will be the next weapon added to the mod.

Volition releases Summoner trailer

03/08, 2:40am

Volition releases Summoner trailer

Volition has released a new movie trailer for its upcoming role-playing game for the Mac and PC, Summoner. The trailer, which includes both gameplay and cinematic footage, is available in several formats including an AVI and high and low-resolution BINK movies.

Console: GameCube in October

03/08, 2:25am

Console: GameCube in October

Morning console news: Reuters has corrected its earlier report on the release of Nintendo's GameCube gaming console, with the system now set to be released in the U.S. in October; Activision has announced that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, set to be released on the Mac next month, will be available with the launch of the Game Boy Advance this summer; a new Pokémon game is in the works for the GameBoy Advance, tentatively titled Pokémon Advance and set in an entirely new world in the Pokémon universe; and top executives from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will be the featured speakers in a keynote to kick off the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2001 in May.