News Archive for 01/03/09

Choose an article from the archive listing on this page or refine your selection using the controls in the gray box below.

Deus Ex MP Map Pack Released

03/09, 7:50pm

Deus Ex MP Map Pack Released

Mac Deus Ex has released a Deus Ex Multiplayer Map Pack, which contains 16 multiplayer maps for the Mac version of Deus Ex. The pack, which is fully compatible with GameRanger, includes both maps extracted from the single player game in addition to original maps created by third-party designers.

Mac AvP Gold update

03/09, 5:50pm

Mac AvP Gold update

Joe Dury let us know that Fox Interactive's Kyle Peschel has made a post in IMG's forums concerning the status of Aliens vs. Predator: Gold Edition for the Mac. "I would love to give you all details about the status of the project, and what we are doing, and a release date. (Yes, I swear the game will come out soon, we won't can it.) But, unfortunately I am under NDA not to talk."

REALbasic 3.1b1 offers several bug fixes

03/09, 5:45pm

REALbasic 3.1b1 offers several bug fixes

REALbasic 3.1b1 finalizes Mac OS X and Carbon functionality and contains several fixes to the programming environment for Mac OS/Mac OS X.

PlayerPRO 5.8 adds features, fixes bugs

03/09, 5:45pm

PlayerPRO 5.8 adds features, fixes bugs

PlayerPRO 5.8 has been released both in freeware and commercial versions. The new version features a new envelopes function, improved sound quality, is for PowerPC-only, and offers other changes and additions. PlayerPRO is an audio editor/player that supports dozens of formats. The commercial version costs $69.

Console: The Nintendo Show

03/09, 5:45pm

Console: The Nintendo Show

Evening console news: Nintendo has elected to skip the ECTS trade show in London this year, instead hosting its own pre-show event called The Nintendo Show to showcase its upcoming GameCube game console; Bizarre Creations' secret title for the X-Box is a street racing game largely based on Metropolis Street Racer for the Dreamcast; and Microsoft has declined to comment on the Merrill Lynch report earlier this week projecting that Microsoft would lose $2 billion over five years before breaking even on its X-Box game console, saying that the report was based on assumptions that were the brokerage's own.

IMG: Clent Richardson Interview

03/09, 3:45pm

IMG: Clent Richardson Interview

IMG has published an interview with Apple's Clent Richardson, Director of Worldwide Developer Relations, on the company's strategy towards games and how it feels it is doing in that market. "Apple recognizes the importance of gaming to the Mac platform," says Richardson, "and is constantly striving to ensure the hottest gaming titles are available for Mac users."

LU: Neverwinter Nights interview

03/09, 1:25pm

LU: Neverwinter Nights interview

A brief interview with Bioware's Aidan Scanlan, a designer on Neverwinter Nights, has been published at Lost Universe. Aidan comments on the game's multiplayer capabilities and what it will offer to RPG gamers. "The first and foremost way to play a multiplayer game," said Scanlan, "is to form an adventuring party and play through an adventure. The other ways are as limitless as your imagination. Modules involving arena combat, dungeon races, castle stormings, and capture the flag are only the beginning."

WarBirds III private beta next week

03/09, 1:20pm

WarBirds III private beta next week

iEntertainment has posted a new screenshot from the Mac version of WarBirds III, its upcoming combat flight sim, which is expected to go into private beta testing next week. The game requires a Power Mac with at least 64 MB RAM and an ATI Rage 128 is the minimum graphics card.

New Target Korea movie

03/09, 12:55pm

New Target Korea movie

Targetware has released a new movie featuring in-game action of its upcoming massive multiplayer online flight sim combat game, Target Korea. The movie, produced and directed by Keith 'Wicked' Harrison with original music score by Mike 'Mach-1' Smith and Rick Calderone, is about 90 seconds and shows "close-ups of both the F86f-30 Sabre and Mig 15bis engaged in aerial combat high over the Korean peninsula."

Westlake addressing Radeon bug

03/09, 12:50pm

Westlake addressing Radeon bug

Westlake Interactive President and programmer Mark Adams responded to a Usenet query today, noting that the Deus Ex patch released yesterday includes a workaround for eliminating the graphical glicth experienced by many ATI Radeon owners in Unreal Tournament and games using the Unreal Tournament engine. "I found a workaround (with some help from ATI)," said Adams. "I'll roll it into UT and Rune at some point as well."

Console: ESPN X Games Skateboarding

03/09, 12:45pm

Console: ESPN X Games Skateboarding

Afternoon console news: Konami is gearing up to take Tony Hawk head on with its ESPN X Games Skateboarding for the Playstation 2; The 3DO Company has released the first details on its upcoming air combat game for the Playstation 2, World Destruction League: WarJetz; Eidos Interactive has cancelled the Dreamcast version of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2, although it is still planned for release on the Playstation 2; and Alone in the Dark 4: The New Nightmare is set to be released for the Dreamcast and Playstation this summer.

Developers get OS X release candidate

03/09, 12:20pm

Developers get OS X release candidate

Apple Select and Premier developers are reporting receiving a (final) Release Candidate of OS X, along with a Developer Tools Release Candidate, although Apple announced that it went 'GM' only days ago: "I'm in the middle of installing it on my TiBook. I do think this is version 4K83, as I had to interrupt an install (it was going very slow, telling me it would take 2 hours and 26 minutes to install on my machine) and one of the temporary install folders that made it onto the drive was labeled '83temp' or something similar..."

New MacSpeech ScriptPaks for Office 2001

03/09, 12:10pm

New MacSpeech ScriptPaks for Office 2001

MacSpeech has released four new ScriptPaks for the MS Office 2001 suite, which it says will sell for $15 to $20 each or in a bundle for $40. The ScriptPacks collectively have over 200 commands, offering voice control of Office 2001. For a limited time, MacSpeech will be including all four Office 2001 ScriptPaks with every purchase of its $140 iListen program (without headset).

Audio Overload

03/09, 12:05pm

Audio Overload

Richard Bannister's video game music player, Audio Overload 1.2, adds the ability to adjust the output volume, an option to adjust the delay between songs, and support for playing Atari XL/XE ".SAP" files and Atari ST ".SNDH" files.

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Interview

03/09, 12:05pm

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Interview

games.macnn.com has published its latest Covert Gaming Corner featuring an interview with Blizzard Entertainment's Brian 'Doc' Love on the upcoming expansion set, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

Covert Gaming Corner: Brian 'Doc' Love

03/09, 12:00pm

Covert Gaming Corner: Brian 'Doc' Love

Today's Covert Gaming Corner features an interview with Blizzard Entertainment's Brian 'Doc' Love, covering Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the expansion set for Diablo II set to release on the Mac this summer.

Audio Overload 1.2 Released

03/09, 11:50am

Audio Overload 1.2 Released

Audio Overload 1.2 is a new version of Richard Bannister's game music player for the Mac. The new version adds the ability to adjust output volume, the ability to adjust the delay between songs, support for some ATARI files and a few miscellaneous bug fixes.

Parsec: March Screenshot

03/09, 11:45am

Parsec: March Screenshot

The Parsec screenshot of the month for March shows "two ships fighting in the near vicinity of a planet with rings." The team working on the persistent online space combat game excuses their lack of updates in February by noting work on the game's engine internals.

DR: WWII Online First Look

03/09, 11:35am

DR: WWII Online First Look

Daily Radar's first look at World War II Online covers the features of the massive multiplayer online war combat game in addition to offering more than a dozen scerenshots and the game's trailer.

Roundup: Simon II Review, Deus Ex MP

03/09, 11:30am

Roundup: Simon II Review, Deus Ex MP

Yesterday we published a review of Simon the Sorcerer II, a newly released adventure game featuring a sorcerer on a mission to return to his own dimension; Aspyr Media released the Deus Ex Multiplayer Patch featuring altered skill, augmentation and inventory implementations in both deathmatch and team deathmatch; Westlake Interactive announced that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Mac has entered beta testing and is on track to go golden master in a few weeks; and Blizzard Entertainment announced that it had closed a loophole that allowed some players to duplicate Diablo II items on Battle.net.

Console: Online gaming growth

03/09, 11:30am

Console: Online gaming growth

Morning console news: A poll conducted by PC Data suggests that online gaming is still in its infancy with much more growth and demand in the area, but admits that the results of the poll are skewed in light of it being conducted via e-mail; Take Two Interactive has begun development on a title for next-generation consoles based on MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch; and Interactive Imagination has shipped Magi-Nation, a role-playing game for the Game Boy Color.

Adobe officially posts Photoshop 6.0.1 update

03/09, 10:40am

Adobe officially posts Photoshop 6.0.1 update

Adobe has re-posted its Photoshop 6.0.1 update, after making the file briefly available two weeks ago. Customers who downloaded the previous update, which was pulled for unknown reasons, must reinstall Photoshop 6 to apply the new updater. Photoshop 6.0.1 includes a number of fixes and feature enhancements that are documented on the page.

Tech: human cloning, Intel warns, more...

03/09, 10:30am

Tech: human cloning, Intel warns, more...

Morning tech news: an internernational team has announced plans to clone a human; Intel issued an earning's warning last night that has sparked a tech sell off, sending the Nasdaq down as much as 100 points in morning trading; hackers in Russia have infiltrated more than 40 US e-commerce sites, obtaining credit card and other personal information; and Handspring and Palm are both set to unveil new, high-end PDAs later this month.

OS X to include QuickTime 5 final

03/09, 10:30am

OS X to include QuickTime 5 final

Mac OS X will include the final version of QuickTime 5, according to a c|net article that quotes Apple VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller. The article also notes that Apple plans to offer bother iTunes and iMovies for OS X, although neither will be included in the box. DVD support, as noted previously, will not be included, nor will iDVD.

db Reports 2.3.1 improves mySQL connections

03/09, 8:05am

db Reports 2.3.1 improves mySQL connections

Aaron Bratcher's db Reports 2.3.1 is a maintenance update to the database tool for viewing data, improving reliability of mySQL connections and bringing other changes.

Jef Raskin to keynote at MacHack

03/09, 8:05am

Jef Raskin to keynote at MacHack

Interface guru Jef Raskin has been added as a keynote speaker for MacHack, the annual developer conference which takes place June 21-23, 2001, in Dearborn, Michigan. Other speakers for the keynote panel include Andy Hertzfeld, Caroline Rose, Guy "Bud" Tribble and Bruce Horn--all of whom are "members of the early Macintosh engineering team and promise a keynote full of reminiscences of computing by-gones as well as a unique look at the future as envisioned by people who continue to lead the computer industry."

'Official' Photoshop 6.01 info at Adobe sit

03/09, 8:00am

'Official' Photoshop 6.01 info at Adobe sit

After inadvertantly being made available on its ftp servers, Adobe has finally updated its Website with information on the Photoshop 6.01 update, although the included download links are not yet functional. The update is available on CD-ROM for $20 by calling Adobe Customer Service at 1-800-492-3623.

StevePerfect 5 has integrated email client

03/09, 7:55am

StevePerfect 5 has integrated email client

Steven Massey's StevePerfect 5 is an update to his SimpleText utility replacement that offers additional support for themes, Internet access, WorldScript, and playback of MP3, QuickTime audio and movie files, MPEGs and VCDs, and live internet media content. Version 5 includes a interface and toolbar, find & replace features, an integrated email client, and picture viewer functions.

Eudora 5.1b2: email client with OS X support

03/09, 7:40am

Eudora 5.1b2: email client with OS X support

Qualcomm's latest Eudora 5.1b2 makes several OS X-specific updates to the developmental version of its popular email client and also adds Keychain support for SSL certificates. Specific changes are outlined in the release notes.

Press event for OS X; iTunes, iMusic showcase

03/09, 7:35am

Press event for OS X; iTunes, iMusic showcase

Apple will be holding a press event announcing the rollout on March 21st at the company's Cupertino headquarters, according to wired.com and other sources. Apple is also advertising a number of "Apple In-Store Events" across the US showcasing Mac OS X as well iTunes and iMusic for OS X.

Exec changes at Apple France, says to ADA

03/09, 7:30am

Exec changes at Apple France, says to ADA

According to a note from the ADA (an ad hoc group of disgruntled French Apple distributors), Apple France director Patrick Benkemoun has been replaced by Jean-Rene Cazenueve as director of distribution. The group hopes that Benkemoun's sudden departure will help solve what the group sees as serious distribution problems in France, including the mixing of "consumer" and "professional" lines among different tiers of resellers, and stock problems including the lack of any Titanium Powerbooks in the country, more than more than two months after their introduction.

Apple to participate at NSBA Annual meeting

03/09, 7:25am

Apple to participate at NSBA Annual meeting

Apple will be participating at National School Boards Association (NSBA) Annual Meeting, where Madeleine Albright will keynote the General Session on Saturday, March 24 at 11:00 am. The NSBA conference, which attracts school board members and superintendents nationwide, will take place at the San Diego Convention Center. Apple will have its iBook Wireless Mobile Lab and will a also be sponsoring an iBook Loaner Program as well as email stations for attendees.

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.