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Week of March 24th |  |
FridayThursday Wednesday
- Pirate List Picks Winners?
- Empire Explains Loss of TalonSoft
- Nutty New Game
- Even More Games Shipping
- Blue Byte Shows Off Extreme Assault
- New ThrustMaster Stick
Tuesday
- Creation Canceled
- ionos, Marlin Part on The Roswell Omen
- PC Titles to Surpass Console Sales
- More Games Shipping
Monday
- More Tomb Raider in the Works
- New Palace for PC Gamer
- Jack Nicklaus 4 Shipping
- Shadow Warrior Invades the Web
- Intel's Visual Computing
- AGP Cards On the Way
- Creative Does DVD
- Trident Allies with QSound
- 3Dfx and Newfire Team Up
- GT Drops Distribution
- Streets of SimCity Delayed
Pirate List Picks Winners?3/28/97 -- Though it's rarely discussed publicly, game companies can get a good indication that their game is going to be a commercial success if it ends up on the "most-wanted" lists of Internet software pirates. One such list is the 'Net Guru Hot Warez List', posted periodically on the gaming newsgroups.
"This is taboo," says Mark Shander, a spokesperson with game publisher ionos. "It's something publishers don't talk about, but most of us know it exists. Games appear on this list because there has been an incredible consumer demand for them built up by a publisher, so much so that they've attracted the attention of software pirates."
Though ionos' LEDwars has recently made the list, Shander doesn't approve of software piracy. "This list is nothing more than a solicitation for criminal activity," he says, "and it's something we want no part of."
Empire Explains Loss of TalonSoft3/27/97 -- Last week we reported that wargame developer TalonSoft has switched publishers, moving from Empire Interactive to Broderbund Software. Empire is trying to put a good spin on things with a statement of their own. According to their statement, "a mutual decision was made not to renew the contractual agreement that had existed between the companies since 1995."
Chris Mate, president of Empire, explains: "We premiered the TalonSoft line and take pride in our role of helping them achieve their initial success," he says. "While we will no longer be the exclusive distributor of their titles, we will take an active interest in their future accomplishments and we wish them the best of luck."
Mate also notes that Empire has had recent success with Stars! and Flying Corps. They're also excited about their upcoming titles, Pro Pinball: Timeshock and MiG Alley.
Nutty New Game3/28/97 -- A new game software company, Running With Scissors, is banking on its nutty name to generate interest and enthusiasm for their upcoming action game, Postal. According to their website, Postal is a "Non-Stop Killing Action-Strategy Psycho Software Thriller". The game should be out this summer for both PCs and Macs, and the company hopes to announce a deal with a major publisher sometime soon.
Even More Games Shipping3/28/97 -- Electronic Arts has begun shipping Theme Hospital and Darklight Conflict. Theme Hospital was developed by Bullfrog, and challenges players to manage a quirky hospital. Darklight Confict is a new space combat game with 50 missions and 16 different weapons. Check out the demos of both of these games in our demos section.
Also shipping is Quake Mission Pack No. 2: Dissolution of Eternity. Developed by Rogue Software, it includes sixteen new Quake levels as well as an enhanced version of 'Capture the Flag', a popular Quake variant played on the Internet. Speaking of Quake, Sony's film division is promoting their movie Anaconda by creating a special Anaconda level for Quake, which will be free for download later this spring.
Blue Byte Shows Off Extreme Assault3/28/97 -- Blue Byte Software will be putting up a preview site of their upcoming action game, Extreme Assault, this weekend. Included in the preview will be MMX shots of the game and selections from the storyline.
New ThrustMaster Stick3/28/97 -- ThrustMaster will release the Millennium 3D Inceptor this summer, a new digital joystick based on some of the same technology used in ThrustMaster's NASA Space Shuttle program. The stick will feature four programmable axes, non-contact optical sensors, and six programmable buttons and a hat-switch.
New Sierra Game3/27/97 -- Sierra's Impressions division is at work on a new strategy game, Lords of Magic. It's a real-time strategy game with a fantasy theme, similar in many ways to the well-received Lords of the Realm II. But rather than flat trees and mountains forming obstacles, the game features true 3D terrain.
One of the game's developers, Chris Gurski, has set up a home page about the game, with some preliminary artwork and a few details. The game is expected this fall.
TEN at Game Developer Conference3/27/97 -- The Total Entertainment Network is planning to host a Developer Day at the upcoming Computer Game Developer's Conference. The special event will be held Friday, April 25th, just before the conference itself begins.
At the Developer Day, TEN will host a variety of sessions and forums covering topics important to the burgeoning online gaming industry, including multi-player game design, network and server strategies, and issues with marketing and the online gaming business model. Pre-registration is required, so TEN has set up a sign-up page for developers interested in attending the proceedings.
Passport 2 Network Launches3/27/97 -- The Internet gaming network Passport 2 has launched, and to celebrate, the network's creator, Legacy Software, is keeping the service free through the end of April. The Passport 2 Network hosts parlor games such as bridge, chess and backgammon, educational games for kids, and a trivia game called 'Cloak and Dagger'.
The network went into beta last November, and to date has signed up 5,000 members. The service will charge a flat rate fee of $4.95 when it goes fully commercial on the first of May.
Creation Canceled
Ex-Bullfrogs Form New Company3/26/97 -- The plug has finally been pulled on the troubled Bullfrog game Creation, and three former Bullfrog employees have since struck out on their own. Mike Diskett, Fin McGechie, and Guy Simmons are the founding members of a new game company, Mucky Foot Productions. Among the team's credits are a number of landmark Bullfrog products, including Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Syndicate Wars and Populous II.
The creation of this new company became possible when Simmons left Bullfrog and the Creation project, which he had been working on for the last two of the game's five years in development. The Creation team was down to only two programmers, and support at Electronic Arts was minimal, with one executive even suggesting the game should be released as a screen saver.
Though disappointed with what happened to Creation, Simmons is upbeat about the future. "While it's very exciting to be setting up our own company, it's very sad to leave Bullfrog," says Simmons. "We learned a lot about the industry, and specifically the craft of creating great games. Sadly, though, there comes a time when you feel you have to move on, and we feel that our time spent as part of one of the greatest software developers in the industry has given us a great foundation to be able to go it alone."
The new company is already forging ahead on its first project, Dark City.
ionos, Marlin Part on The Roswell Omen3/26/97 -- Game publisher ionos and game developer Marlin Studios have agreed to part ways in regards to Marlin's upcoming adventure game, The Roswell Omen. According to statements by both companies, The Roswell Omen has evolved into a much larger project than ionos can support, and the two companies have amicably agreed that Marlin should seek a larger publisher for the game.
"ionos has always been very open and honest with us," says Tom Marlin, President of Marlin Studios. "The funding requirements for this game have changed a bit from what we originally expected from ionos. Together we've decided to look for another publisher to finance the development of the game."
The Roswell Omen is a graphic adventure based on an alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.
PC Titles to Surpass Console Sales3/26/97 -- PC game sales are expected to surpass those of console games by the year 2001, according to a new market research study put out by Datamonitor. The two markets are already close: last year, PC games earned about $1.2 billion, while consoles earned $1.5 billion.
The study bases its prediction on the yearly growth in the installed base of multimedia personal computers, with a prediction that the console game market will bottom out early in the next century.
More Games Shipping3/26/97 -- Yesterday Accolade shipped Jack Nicklaus 4, their golf game, today Test Drive: Off Road should be hitting the shelves. Activision's Interstate '76 should also be available by the end of the week.
More Tomb Raider in the WorksScoop! 3/25/97 -- Tomorrow Eidos Interactive will announce an add-on pack for their critically-acclaimed action game, Tomb Raider. The new pack, called Unfinished Business, will include two new expert levels, a library of high-resolution Lara Croft art, and a special preview of Tomb Raider 2.
In the expansion pack, Lara will have to destroy the last hatchery of Atlantean pods, home of the alien beasts who menaced the daring explorer in the final levels of the original game. There are only two new levels, but since the levels in Tomb Raider are huge and sprawling and take a long time to complete, and because these new levels are billed as the toughest yet, there should be many hours of gaming in the package. The add-on pack requires the original Tomb Raider game, and is expected to sell for only $19.95. Look for it this summer.
New Palace for PC Gamer3/25/97 -- Those of you who have been enjoying the chat rooms of PC Gamer Online should take note that we've changed the port number on the Palace: it's now 9998. The PC Gamer Palace is now integrated with all of the Palace sites on the Imagine Gaming Network, so you'll have many more people to talk to online. If you haven't tried out the Palace chat area yet, now is a great time to give it a try.
Jack Nicklaus 4 Shipping3/25/97 -- Accolade has begun shipping Jack Nicklaus 4, their eagerly-anticipated golf game. The game includes five courses, five different animated golfers plus Jack Nicklaus, and computer golf's most complete course editor. The game requires Windows 95 and has a suggested retail price of $49.95.
Shadow Warrior Invades the Web3/25/97 -- GT Interactive and 3D Realms have launched a website to promote their upcoming action game, Shadow Warrior. The game runs the Build engine used so successfully in Duke Nukem 3D, but with new features such as tanks you can drive around and trees you can smash into and knock over. Check it out at www.shadowwarrior.com. For more information on Shadow Warrior, check out the October '96 issue of PC Gamer.
Intel's Visual Computing3/24/97 -- Today Intel held Visual Computing Day, a media event that demonstrated a host of compelling 3D applications running on the Intel platform.
At the event, major developers of high-end graphic tools used for special effects, video editing and web technologies all expressed support for the PC, with plans to bring their software over to NT work stations and, eventually, home PCs. Among the companies in attendance were Electric Image, SolidWorks, Softimage, Kinetix and Macromedia.
Several key alliances and investments were announced: Intel has bought a 6% stake in Avid, a maker of desktop video software including MCXpress. Much of Avid's product line will also become available on the Intel platform. Intel and Kodak also announced a partnership to develop a standard for digital photography on the PC.
One of the more interesting demos, at least to gamers, was a flight sim put together by Intel. The demo used four Intel platform PCs each with four 200MHz processors, making a total of 16 CPUs linked together for amazing performance.
AGP Cards On the Way3/24/97 -- Both S3 and ATI have announced new graphics accelerators that will take advantage of Intel's new Accelerated Graphics Port. ATI's 3D Rage Pro will be the first graphics chip to support the new 100MHz SGRAM frame buffer, which gives it 800 megabytes-per-second bandwidth. The S3 ViRGE/GX2 Home PC/TV accelerator offers TV support, DVD playback, and Accelerated Graphics Port compatibility in one card.
Creative Does DVD3/24/97 -- Creative Technologies today released their PC-DVD kit, making them the first vendor to ship a DVD kit to the retail market. DVD is a new disk format that holds 17 gigabytes of information on a platter the size of a CD-ROM.
The Creative PC-DVD drive reads DVD disks at 9x speed and CD-ROMs as a 6x speed drive. It has a suggested retail price of $499, and includes Dolby Digital audio and an MPEG-2 video decoder.
Trident Allies with QSound3/24/97 -- Video card maker Trident has teamed up with QSound to add QSounds' Qsurround 'virtual speaker' technology to Trident's 3Dimage line of graphics controllers. Qsurround is a multi-channel audio delivery format that creates 'virtual speakers' to create a surround sound effect for DVD and MMX computer systems.
"DVD is expected to become a standard of computer and consumer audio products by the end of the year," says David Gallagher, president of QSound. "The combination of Trident's leading-edge 3D graphics and QSound Labs' innovative audio technology offers OEMs a high-quality, cost-effective PC DVD solution.
3Dfx and Newfire Team Up3/24/97 -- Accelerator-maker 3Dfx has teamed up with Newfire to deliver an accelerated version of Newfire's Torch 3D Internet gaming engine. Torch is a Netscape plug-in that facilitates online gaming, supporting resolutions up to 640x480 in 256 colors and is based on open Internet standards such as VRML and Java. The accelerated version of Torch will work on cards that use 3Dfx's Voodoo graphics chipset, including the Diamond Monster 3D. Torch was originally called Heat, but the name was changed, possibly to avoid confusion with SegaSoft's new Heat online gaming service. More information about the Torch plug-in is available on the Newfire website.
