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THE YEAR IN HEADLINES (part I)
Take a trip back to time with the most important civ and apolyton headlines of the year
JULY 99
July 28 Alien Crossfire is officially announced
"Yes, we finally now what SMACX is! The expansion pack of SMAC will be named Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire(as you can imagine the initials are SMAC :)), and according to the official press release it will be in the stores late this year"
July 29 Feature list for the 1.2 CTP Patch
"The patch 1.2 is here! Actually, only the features list :) But that's still good news as some long waiting features are in. First of all PBEM and Hotseat is included and "all known crashes fixed"."
AUGUST 99
August 2 PC Data announces that CTP was #16 in sales for the first half of 1999
"For the first half of 1999, can you guess what title holds the #16 spot for top-selling software for the PC? If you guessed Activision's C:CTP, than you would be right!"
August 3 The Spanish Civilization 2 Site is one year old
August 4 Jeff Morris writes a not so well accepted article on bugs...
"Yes, the one almost everyone has been talking about the last two days. What it is? Well, Jeff Morris wrote an article on Avault.com titled "The Myth of the Bugless Game"
August 4 Our first birthday chat
"If you missed our Birthday Chat(trancript now available), youalso missed Owlboy(Steve Mariotti, Lead Programmer) and Azmel(Richard Myers, AI Programmer) from the CTP Team..."
August 9 We interview Tim Train on Alien Crossfire
"Just like a year ago, we are again waiting for SMAC :) but this it is Alien Crossfire, not Alpha Centauri. We wondered about some things and we got Tim Train(Designer and Producer of SMACx) in a cell until he confessed everything about SMACx :) "
August 8 CivLeague adds support for ToT
"For now you can also report any Civ: Test of Time game to CivLeague and count them toward the ladder or tribe games."
August 10 The CTP database is our first to have ratings. The rest will follow in a few days
"A dream has come true today. Our CTP Files Database now allows visitors to rate the files"
August 20 We give away 19 copies of ToT in our bigest contest ever
"That's right folks! Apolyton is teaming up with MicroProse to give you the chance to win* a copy of Civilization II: Test of Time! We have * 19 COPIES * to give away in roughly 216 hours (9 days)"
August 21 We open our first forum for the Mac
"Due to the increasing need and support for the CivII MacIntosh community, we at ACS have opened up a forum specifically for this platform!"
August 26 Microprose opens an official site and forums for Civ2
"It's open for several days now, but Microprose has come with a very nice looking official site for Civ2:ToT. The site includes a quite large faq, but more important are the new official Civ2 forums on Delphi."
August 28 Activision releases the 1.2 CTP Patch and we post it first :)
""Good things take time" says a old greek saying :) So, here is(only on Apolyton at the time of this writing), the CCTP Updater 1.2!"
August 31 We are voted as the first Firaxis Fan Site of the Month
"Thanks to all of you who voted for us, Apolyton is the first Firaxis Fan Site Of The Month for the month of September! If you watched it as closely as I(reload every 15 minutes :)), it was quite a tough fight for several days. In the last couple of days though we gained a clear difference from AC Nexus"
SEPTEMBER 99
September 1 We start posting 2 columns per week
"Yes, why not? As we explain in out note in the 57th Column, today begins a new era for the Column, as we will hopefully have two articles each week, one on Wednesday and one Saturday."
September 9 The entries of the 2nd SDC go public
"It's what you've been waiting for... our official entries for the Second Scenario Design Contest are now available!"
September 11 Lots and important files posted in our CTP database
"New and updated files in our Database: Meet the Challenge, Ultimate CTP Combo MOD v1.5(the best add-ons for CD's mod combined), and the Harlan's WW2 Units(64 of them!), as well as a new version of Medieval Mod(1.2). Also 3 Maps for multiplayer games, and a new map of Europe. In the Modification section, a Huscarl units, and Harlan Thompson's WW2 Units in "raw" format(4MB), plus the latest version of EasyMod Utility(v3.2)."
September 13 Scenario League re-opens
"SLeague reopens! The great update fury begins today. We expect to work off some of the backlog of old reviews and changes in the next few weeks."
September 17 Loki and Activision announce Loki Hack 1999
"Today is raining news :) Loki, Activision and the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts announced today Loki Hack 1999 to be held on October 11 through 13 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta in conjunction with the Atlanta Linux Showcase. According to the official press release "During Loki Hack, up to 30 qualified hackers will have 48 hours in a secure setting to make alterations to the Linux source code for this game."
September 17 German 1.2 CTP Patch
"As with the first patch, the Germans are the luckiest of the people with a localized ctp. Without further delay, here is the German Updater v1.2."
September 17 1999 Firaxis posts story episodes and information for Alien Crossfire
"Lots of news from Firaxis... Episode 5: The fifth episode of SMACx's story is here. Title? "Snowfire studied the sea". Yes, Snowfire! :) Pirates: New faction from SMACx, the Pirates. A tribute to a Sid classic? Coupon: EA offers a coupon to get SMAC(7 months after the release?) and save 10$. The interesting about it, is that the coupon is "electronic", you print it out to take to the store! "
September 20 Vote for the 2nd SDC starts
"If you voted in the People's Choice Awards this past couple of days, please resubmit your ballot. A mistake in the mail code has forced us to restart the voting. We apologize for the inconvienence. The viewing period is now over... so get to the S.D.C. section and vote for your favorites in the Second Annual Scenario Design Contest!!"
September 21 Spanish and French 1.2 CTP Patches
"Next week, they said, next week they deliver. Patches v1.2 for the Spanish and the French CTP fans are here."
September 23 First ToT patch
" It has arrived. Less than two months after it was released, the first patch for Civilization II: Test of Time is now available to the public."
September 25 TP releases PowerSLICs 2.00
"Another beautifull piece of CTP modification is complete. PowerSLICs v2.00 is the final version(for the time being at least) of TP's work with the SLIC language"
September 26 CivLeague and sister-site AlphaLeague are merged to form GameLeague
"I'm sure all of you are a little bit peeved about the neglect CivLeague and AlphaLeague has suffered for the past month or more."
September 28 Alien Crossfire goes gold!
"Well, I basically said everything with the title. Firaxis announced today that Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire(or SMACX for short) has gone gold and will be shipped on October 19th. Firaxis also announced that they will release a demo of SMACX before the shipping date."
September 29 300 Files and 50000 downloads on our Civ2 database!
" Today is a glorious day for our Civ2 file database. Sven added the 300th file, and some unkwown civer did the 50,000th download!"
September 29 Italian 1.2 CTP patch, Demo on magazines(finally!)
"All sorts of news today from Activision. The "circle of the 1.2 patches" :) is closing today with the Italian Patch v1.2(3.6MB). The demo of CTP has appeared on some magazines(at least on Novemeber's issue of PC Gaming World as JimMac has posted on the forums), and according to John Heineicke it will be available online next week. Watch out though, as it is 75MB!!"
September 30 Scenario League celebrates one year of life
"The Scenario League now has about 75 reviews available, and over 25 design tips, in addition to two completed scenario design competitions"
September 30 SMAC Comic announced!
"A big surprise was waiting in my mailbox today. "Graphic novel publisher NBM has announced the release in November of the first of a series of adaptations to comics of the highly acclaimed newest best selling game designed by Sid Meier's studio, 'Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'.""
OCTOBER 99
October 4 The Apolyton Pack is released!
"This should be called "The Day Of The Packs" :) Two more packs: the Apolyton Pack v1.0, an effort to combine the best player created files, and Skorpion59's Map Scenario Pack v1.0 Add-on, a series of real and fictional maps. In more details: The Apolyton Pack contains the following: Celestial Dawn's Mod v4.2 and the graphics for it, Harlan's Graphic Mod v1.0, TP's PowerSlics v2.00, Slax's Colors00.txt, Zaz's World maps and Uppsala's Mediterranean map. AP uses the scenario pack feature of the 1.2 patch, which means that no default files are overwritten, and installation and uninstallation are pretty easy. Some problems do exist, but there ways to overcome them."
October 4 GameLeague scores 100 members in it's first week
"Just one week after launching GameLeague now has over 100 members! We would like to thank all of you for joining, but don't forget to spread the word"
October 6 Our Alien Crossfire sub-section opens
"Waiting for the release of Alien Crossfire, anticipating for it's demo today or tomorrow, we've gathered all the SMACX related info and we present it to you on our Alien Crossfire Section. All the news about it, the story, the factions, the polls, everything. We hope that you find it helpfull."
October 7 SMAC-X Demo is out
"As we had posted, the smacx demo was released today on Gamecenter. The size is 23MB"
October 7 A chapter of civ history closed along with the OWO forums
"Owo forums closed 1999) A chapter of the history of SMAC ended today, as the official smac forums on alpwa.owo.com closed today. With lots of "noise" and noone to "clean" it up, one could only seeing it coming. The replacement is the two new smac forums on Firaxis' site: Alien Crossfire and Support."
October 13 CD's Mod gets 1.2 patch compliant
"Wow, ctp news have really slowed down... Still, two good files today. First Celestial Dawn's Mod v4.22. It's only change is that it's 100% 1.2 patch compliant(before it was about 95% :)). "
October 13 One of the best utilities for a civ game, MapUtility is released
"It's really a utility of great value. A must have for everyone interested in map and scenario making for smac. Simply said C.A. Flinchbaugh's MapUtility 1.0, can load a digital elevation terrain map in grey-scale .pcx bitmap format, a Civ II map, a Sid Meier Alpha Centauri map, or a Railroad Tycoon II map"
October 14 Loki releases ctp for linux demo
"Are you a skeptical Linux gamer anxious to get your first taste of CTP without having to first buy the product? Well, set the table and pop the champagne.LokiSoft has released the long-anticipated demo of their port of Activision's CTP, the first commercial game to make the historic entrance that opened Linux's gaming lineup potential"
October 15 Loki shows the results of Loki Hack 1999(which only work on linux though)
"Remember this? LokiSoft Entertainment, the company who ported C:CTP to the Linux OS, in cooperation with Activision, Inc., the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts and VA LiNUX Systems, held Loki Hack 1999 this week. And what a success it was."
Ocober. 16 2nd Demo of Clash
"It is an early demo of Some of our Game Concepts, Not the final game..." says Mark Everson about the Demo v2 of Clash of Civilizations. More precisely, "It has something like 5% of the required functionality in it". "
October 20 You give the Alien Crossfire demo a 3.8/5 rating
"Yeap, exactly that's the rating you gave to the Alien Crosffire demo: 3,824468085(5 was best). Hmmm... could it better."
October 22 Winners of 2nd SDC are announced
"The ballots have been counted, you've tantalized yourself for days -- and now they're here! Check out the results of the Second Scenario Design Contest right here! Congratulations to all of the winners! Thanks to the community for their votes and participation, and let's look forward to the next great SDC!"
October 22 Firaxis forums close as well
"The newsweek for Firaxis fans ended on a sad note. Days after releasing Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, Firaxis Games' President Jeff Briggs, in an open letter to its website visitors, announced that the company would be shutting down their forums until further notice."
October 23 We hold a chat with Tim Train and Greg Foertsch about Alien Crossfire!
"This is just a reminder of our chat with Alien Crossfire Producer Tim Train and Artist Greg Foertsch of the SMACX team. The chat will take place on our IRC channel on irc.dreamnet.org, which is also accessible via our Chat Page. The date and time is Sunday, October 24, 5pm EST -- each and every SMACer is invited and expected to attend"
October 23 Linux CTP patches
"We now host all the 1.1 patches for the Linux version of CTP, for x86, PPC(Beta version) and Alpha platforms."
October 27 Microprose releases on the net the Yime Thread Paradox scenario for ToT by Civ-team veteran Mick Uhl
"The wait is over. MicroProse has released their long awaited Test of Time scenario Time Threat Paradox by reknowned graphics king Mick Uhl. The download, 11MB, is a self-extracting EXE which makes setup a snap. At 100MB when installed, it is quite an endeavour."
October 29 French patch for ToT
"MicroProse has released the second localized version patch for Civilization II: Test of Time -- French patch v1.1; this can be downloaded directly from Apolyton by clicking here (3MB)."
NOVEMBER 99
November 10 Version 2 of The List is ready and sent to Firaxis!
"Finally! It took almost four months(!), but version 2 of The List is done, mailed to Firaxis, and here on Apolyton. For now it is only available in the original form, as it was sent to Firaxis, in .doc format. It includes both the work of the apolyton and the official firaxis forums, extending to a total of 479 pages"
November 17 SMACX v2 patch on the works. Bugs reports "flood" our smac forums :)
"Tim Train made two important announcements on our forums today, concerning SMACX V2, or better the first Alien Crossfire patch. One was about what has been fixed so far, a rather long list. The other was about things that have been reported, but Firaxis hasn't been able to reproduce, so more info and saved games are requested"
November 20 Clash Demo v3
"This past week has seen some exciting developments in The Clash of Civilizations, a game that will "sketch out pretty much the whole of history in game form", as the official website reads. A week ago demo 3 of Clash for Windows was released, followed by the Mac version a few days later."
DECEMBER 99
December 1 An egg apears on the Firaxis' site. It turns out it's a din one
"Nice egg, huh? Imran Siddiqui (who else?) saw it first on the official Firaxis site. What it is? Well, beyond the nice image of what looks like a dinosaur egg, there is only a sign-up form for a mailing list to get notices about the... evolution of "Sid's Next Big Game". The page also announces that "Sid's Designer Dairies begin in January 2000". There is also a date, "12-17-99", without any explanations. Now, what's "sids' next big thing"? The choices are two: CivIII or the so called "Sid's Secret Project". "
December 6 The egg is evolving every day!
"Things are still happening at "Sid's Next Game"
website! Thanks to a subtle tip from Warrior of tamec.org, you will see one of six tagline images when you load the page -- "tagline1.jpg" through to and including "tagline6.jpg". To see them all, either hit the Reload or Refresh button, depending upon your browser of choice, or load the images one by one, starting with this one. The taglines are: Something Big Is Evolving At Firaxis, Extinction Is Not An Option, Requires A Brain Bigger Than A Walnut, Sid's Next Game: It's No Walk In The Park, 65 Million Years In The Making, Big Feet. Small Arms. And Everything In Between."
December 7 Aien Crossfire itself gets an 8.05 from you
" 1999] Yeap, exactly that is the rating you gave to SMAC-X. While half of the 557 voters gave it 9 or 10, the other half were enough to get it to 8. As a comparison, the rate you gave to SMAC a few months ago was 8.6927."
December 11 GameLeaue starts the Dream Team tourney
"This new Civ2 tourney is part of a joint effort with GameLeague and many other sites in the Civ Community. The top two players from this tourney as we;ll as two players selected in an election on the forums will compete in a "Dream Team Game" which will be similar to a televised sports game."
December 14 The front page gets a new layout
"You obviously noticed it, but Apolyton's "face" for the last 15 months is history as of yesterday. We're preparing to welcome the new millenium with a new one! :) We've also installed a cgi script to speed up the process of news posting and save time"
December 15 And Apolyton passes the 10 mil hits mark
"This past week Apolyton CS surpassed 10 million pageviews(hits that is ) since its creation in July, 1998. On behalf of the Apolyton CS administration, we thank you for your loyalty and patronage over the past 16 months"
December 15 Medieval Mod 2 is released
"An update(without a lot of work behind it) for Wes Whitaker's Medieval Mod. Major 2.0 Changes: "adjusted the values of most pre-Genetic Age units. added a new ship, new advance, new Spy, and included changes to many other aspects of gameplay. Air combat has been modified". "
December 16 Awesome Aips mod for ctp is released
"It seems that ctp mod creators are following the civ2 tradition, with their... awesome works! :) It would take a couple of pages two include all the changes of the Awesome Aips mod"
December 17 We open out Dinos section!
"Although we're not very sure about the actual name yet, our Sid Meier's Dinosaurs section is up and running. We've only got all the news we've posting these last couple of weeks and some information from the official site, but it's something :) "
December 17 The first Dino diary is published
"Yeap, it is a dinosaurs game after all. Read Sid's first diaries and a note from Mike Ely, on the forums"
December 17 The SMAC comic is out
"NBM Publishing out of New York, New York USA has published "Power of Mind Words", a 48 full-colour comic book inspired by a game none other than Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, just in time for the Christmas season."
December 17 The Apolyton Newsletter now reaches more than 2000 people
"We are proud to report that Apolyton's Newsletter, "Apolyton Announcements", has surpassed the 2000-subscriber mark. It was only on January 12th, 1999, that the newsletter recorded its 1000 subscriber."
December 18 CTP for the BeOS goes gold
"According to WildCard Designs, their BeOS port of Civilization: Call To Power has gone gold (dated December 3rd)."
December 19 German ToT Patch
"MicroProse's German outfit released patch v1.1 for Civilization II: Test of Time on November 11th. The patch is not widely known as being available because it is as of yet not listed on the official CivII website."
December 21 The forums get a new titles system
"The new set of forum titles was applied today. The system is based on post count and goes like this Settler 1-30 Chieftain 31-100 Warlord 101-300 Prince 301-1000 King 1001-3000 Emperor 3001-10000 Deity 10001+"
December 29 Clash demo 4
"The Clash Demo Version 4 for Windows is now posted for download on the Clash of Civilizations site New features include tiled graphics, unit graphics, partial implementation of the new Military Model, and an improved instruction manual."
December 30 About section redesigned
"Following the series of big updates on the site that you might have been noticing :) during the last month, we redesigned our About section. It follows the new layout(with small variations) you first saw in the Dino section"
December 31 Second dino diary
In the second edition of Sid's Dino Diaries, a number of topics are discussed about how Sid Meier's Dinosaurs will play out. The first and foremost is a comparison between the real-time and turn-based genre of strategy gaming, which includes a chart of the pros and cons of each. An intersting note to read was that the first Civilization prototype was a real-time model."
Previous: THE MING PERSPECTIVE
INDEX
Next: THE YEAR IN HEADLINES (part II)
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