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August 4th -- December 31st, 2001: The "who, what, where, when, why" for the first part of the 'year'.
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Almost 1400 news items were published over the past 12 months on Apolyton, an average of 3.8 per day!
July 2001
July 26 SIMGOLF WEBCAST
"Head on over to the SimCity website on Thursday, July 26th, at 6PM ET (3PM Pacific) for the first SimGolf webcast"
July 29 JEFF MORRIS INTERVIEW
"Apolyton opens it's Civilization III Interviews Series with an interview of Jeff Morris, Civ3 Assistant Producer. Jeff gives answers to many open questions on the number of civs, the official site, the release date and much more. We hope that you find it interesting!"
July 31 CIV3 LIMITED EDITION
"We're still working out the final details, but it'll come in a very nice tin with the game, manual, a "Making of Civ III" CD and some other cool stuff, Gilmore said."
August 2001
August 3 COC JOINS APOLYTON
"Apolyton is proud to announce its newest affiliate and hosted site, The Cradle of Civilization."
August 7 APOLYTON STORE OPENS ITS DOORS
"We are delighted to finally be in the position to offer you a series of Apolyton products. The Apolyton Store opens its doors with hopefully a variety large enough for your... shopping apettite!"
August 9 CIV3.COM IS HERE!
"Screenshots, videos, screensavers, etc, as well as the "Civ of the Week" feature where one of the civilizations is presented."
August 12 THE APOLYTON 100
"And welcome to Apolyton's Forums. Enter here and meet some colorful personalities. What's that you say, what type of people reside within the "dark" walls of the forums? Come read this essay on 100 of the posters who have made the most posts on Apolyton."
August 14 LOKI FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
"Linux Game Developer Loki Software, which handled the Linux ports of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Civilization: Call to Power, has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. LinuxPorts suggests that the cause for the bankruptcy is the fact that Loki owes Activision USD 330,000 and Prolix USD 100,000."
August 20 LIMITED EDITION BOX ART
"EBgames.com has some quite interesting snippets of new info concerning the Limited Edition of Civilization III, not least the amazing-looking tin box the game will come in."
August 23 CIVILIZATION 3 IS NOW IN BETA!
"Here is an Apolyton Exclusive (until other sites catch up :)) Civilization 3 is now in beta Firaxis' Communications Manager Kelley Gilmore informed us just now: Sid Meier's Civilization III hit beta this week."
August 25 DRAGON SUN SHIPPING
"Pre-orders for Dragon Sun, the second of three books in a mini-series Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri written by Michael Ely, have started to be filled -- it begins to ship nationally and internationally from the United States starting today."
August 27 CGM COVER STORY
"When you pick-up a copy of the October issue of Computer Games next week, remember when you saw the exclusive first look at its cover [at right]. The publication's primary feature not only offers a preview of Civilization III but also a retrospective of 10 years of Civilization"
August 28 CIV-MACINTOSH FORUM
"The Civ - Macintosh forum opened today, serving as the place for all discussions on civ games on the Mac."
August 28 APOLYTON ANNOUNCES MOO COVERAGE
"After much discussion, speculation and anticipation, Apolyton Civilization Site ( http://apolyton.net ) is today announcing its commitment to add the Master of Orion (MoO) computer gaming series series to its lineup. To officially kick off its coverage, the well-known strategy game fan site opened its forum for Master of Orion 3, set to be released in the first quarter of 2002 by Quicksilver Software."
August 28 DRAGON SUN EXCERPT!
"We are glad to present to you an excerpt from Dragon Sun, the just released book by Michael Ely (author of original SMAC Story as well as of the Centauri Dawn book)!"
August 29 NO CIV3 DEMO!
"There are no plans to for a Civilization 3 demo, either before or after the release. This comes as a contradition to Firaxis' history, who had demos for all it's games up to now. Infogrames has had demos for most of the games it has published as well."
September 2001
September 1 FACES OF APOLYTON #4: YIN26
"The fourth edition of Faces of Apolyton interview series is just posted. This time our victim is Yin 26, a poster contributing a lot to Civilization III section, who is well known for his work on the suggestions lists, and lately for his pessimism regarding civ3... :)"
September 5 NEW FIRAXIS.COM!
"The new Firaxis logo that had appeared a couple months has brought along a new corporate site. Going to the opposite of the old dark blue theme, the new site uses a white background with light purple and orange colors. The navigation has become easier, with handy drop-down menus. A certain page with links to fan sites is gone though.."
September 7 MEIER IN NY TIMES
"Thursday's NY Times has an article titled "In Historical Games, Truth Gives Way to Entertainment" written by David Kushner. The article talks about historical simulations in computer games such as Civilization and Age of Empires. Both Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley offered their views in the article."
September 8 CIV3 TO BE RELEASED WITHOUT MULTIPLAYER?
"In a shocking post in our Civ3 forums, Mister Pleasant announced the contents of an email message sent by Kelley Gilmore, Firaxis' Communications Manager. The contents are as follows: Civ III is set to release in October, but the multiplayer component won't release until some time next spring (May-ish), which will be too late for your class this year. I could send it to you for possible use next year once it's released. We are awaiting official word from Firaxis, but if this is true, it means that Civilization 3 will be ONLY single player out of the box. The Multiplayer component is to come months later. Speculation revolves around either it being packaged in an expansion pack or available as a free download"
September 11 VERY CRUDE DRAGON SUN MAP!
"When SerapisIV was asking form Michael Ely a map(even drawn) showing the events of the Dragon Sun book, he didnt expect to such a "crude" drawing :) Just joking, many thank to Michael for posting it!"
September 12 SYMPATHY FOR VICTIMS OF TERRORISM
"Apolyton expresses its utmost sympathy for those victims of the terrorist acts that occured on September 11th, 2001 on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. We hope that the survivors in New York City and Washington D.C. are safe tonight. At the same time we express great sorrow to those that were not able to make it through this day. We urge all Apolytoners that are able to, to donate blood or help out in anyway they can. See the related forum thread were Apolytoners are uniting together to co-ordinate their efforts. Thank You."
September 14 ASK THE TEAM: STATS, GOVERNORS, U.N. BUT NO MP INFO
"A question on multiplayer is answered, but no details are given nor was the rumour(?) on Civ3 being released as single player only(with multiplayer coming as patch months later) denied or confirmed."
September 16 FEATURE CUTS IN MOO3 ANNOUNCED
"Alan Emrich, MOO3 designer, made an announcement regarding feature cuts that will have to be done on MoO3 from now on "due to time and budget considerations". Until now the "cut list" contains 1. The Annals of Space and Time (i.e., the "end game story review" of a civilizations adventures in MOO3) 2. The entire Ethos system 3. Team victory conditions (i.e., Factions and Unity)"
September 18 NO. 2 OF ALL TIME: PCGAMER
"The October, 2001 issue of PC Gamer spotlights the magazine's Top 50 Games Of All Time listing, the first update to it in more than two years. Civilization II ranked a more than respectable showing landing in the No. 2 spot, second only to Half-Life."
September 26 BIG HUGE GAMES SITE RE-LAUNCHED
"Big Huge Games has re-launched their site(bighugegames.com). Keeping some elements from the second(or was it the third?) version, the more interesting part is the highly updated(as well as amusing!) team page."
September 27 SIMGOLF PUSHED BACK
"Sid Meier's response for a release date on the last SimGolf chat was "October", but now the official EA SimGolf site says "Coming Early 2002". Firaxis confirmed the delay, with Kelley Gilmore telling us that Sid needed more time to work on the game."
September 28 INFOGRAMES ANNOUNCES CONTENTS OF LE
"The limited edition comes packaged in a tin box, and in addition to the Civilization III game and manual, it includes an exclusive video of the making of Civilization III, another video of Sid Meier's induction into the Interactive Digital Software Association's Hall of Fame, designer notes from Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs, and a foldout guide to the game's technology tree."
September 29 VELOCIRYX IN CGW
"Velociryx got his name in ink, as his strategy guide was mentioned in a "web highlight" feature of Computer Gaming World magazine. The printed version of Vel's guide should be out very soon..."
October 2001
October 3 VELOCIRYX'S SMAX GUIDE PUBLISHED!
"(We told you it would be very soon...) This is an amazing moment for the Civ Community and of course Christopher "Velociryx" Hartpence as "Vel's SMAX Guide v4.0" is published in paperback and ebook forms. "
October 4 SID MEIER ON APOLYTON!
"In his first interview to a Civ fan site, Sid Meier talks about his latest "crazy idea", SimGolf.
The...
God of game design answers questions on the ideas behind SimGolf, it's strengths and it's goals. Oh, and something about immortality... :)"
October 8 CIV3 GOES GOLD!
"Infogrames and FIRAXIS Games are thrilled to announce that the ultimate version of the greatest strategy game of all time will soon be in the hands of the millions of fans around the world who've been eagerly awaiting it's completion. Sid Meier's Civilization III has gone gold and will ship to retailers October 30th with games reaching store shelves soon after."
October 12 `OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL` : NO MULTIPLAYER
"Civ III will not be shipping with multiplayer included. The single-player experience has always been our main focus throughout the development of Civilization III. However, we're working on some cool multiplayer concepts that will take a fresh approach to the challenge of making multiplayer for a turn-based game fun. Once we have more details to report, they'll be posted on this FAQ."
October 13 FIRST CUSTOMIZED T-SHIRTS
"Master Marcus was the first to order a customized Apolyton t-shirt. The result was a white and a gray t-shirt saying: "Official Civ III & MOO III Addict"."
October 14 INTRO VIDEO PUBLISHED
"Gamespot has published the Civ3 introduction video. The video is availiable in widnows media and mpeg format as well as a stream"
October 16 CIV3 SCENARIO HAVEN ON APOLYTON!
"Apolyton Civilization Site is proud to announce the inclusion of one more site to it's family of civ sites. The Civ3 Scenario Haven, created by veteran scenario maker Harlan Thompson, will feature maps and resources for use in scenario creation. Haven opens with over 150 images of real maps which have probably helped Harlan to make some of his famous civ2 and ctp maps ;)"
October 23 NEW CHAT ROOM
"We've installed a new chat system, which will be permanent if it doesn't kill the server at high peak hours :) The new system has the following benefits: - Integration with the forums - Use of the same username on the chat as in the Apolyton forums - No mirc needed(for those who dont know how to use it) - No java (for those who hate it) - No problems with proxies and company firewalls ;) "
October 26 SOREN JOHNSON INTERVIEW ON AI
"We are contuining our series of interviews around Civilization III, with Soren Johnson, the AI Programmer on Civ III. It's a short one, with fewer than usual questions, but it's all about AI. The man behind Civilization III's AI talks about his creation, describes his behaviour and what you can do about it!"
October 27 STRATEGY GUIDE OUT
" In our Civ3 forums, Andrew1999 (who interestingly registered in August 2001 ;)) has purchased the Civ3 Strategy Guide and answered questions by posters"
October 28 CLASH DEMO 5 IS HERE!
"Demo 5 features a new, detailed military model, pathfinding and improved movement AI, a new low-micromanagement economics model, new task force orders, and much more. But you'll have to play it to see the rest!"
October 29 CIV3 IS HERE!
"Aparrently EB has started selling the game today! manhattan82 got his copy only minutes ago! But the first civer to get the LE is probably Jonah Falcon, who got his pre-ordered copy of the Limited Edition from EB as well. "The Tin is worth it's money!" he said to us. "
October 30 NEW FORUMS
"If you havent noticed, yesterday we opened the following forums to manage the increasing civ3 traffic: - Civ3-Strategy - Civ3-Creation - Civ3-Help - Civ3-Stories"
October 31 RELEASE PARTY TRANSCRIPT
"Totally uncut, all 8 pages of the 7 hours(!), here is the Civ3 Release Party transcript!"
November 2001
November 2 FILES FORUM
"Today we opened our Civ3-Files forum, which will be our central for civ3 files until we have a more "classic" file database."
November 6 POLY IN CIV3!
"You may have seen the easter egg new item over in the Civ3 section... Here's another. Many people were hoping for a mention of the site or the forums somewhere in the game. Well, here it is! The last greek city is... Apolyton! Now you can make that Forum Invasion you've always dreamed about... "
November 7 REVIEWS: APOLYTON DAY 1 / KORN469
"Today we start our journey to Civ3, with the MarkG's first impressions. However there are people who have the game for many more days and have a better view of it. Korn469 is one of them and has provided us with a splendid review!"
November 8 SOREN JOHNSON AI CHAT TRANSCRIPT
"As promised, here is the transcript of yesterday's chat on the Civ3 AI with Soren Johnson. Many thanks to Soren and everyone who participated in the chat, as well as the Firaxians who dropped by. "
November 9 INFOGRAMES Q1 PROFITS UP 60%
"Europe's Infogrames Entertainment said on Wednesday its first quarter sales rose 60 percent to 136.6 million euros from 85.6 million in the three months to September 30, 2000."
November 12 STRATEGY GUIDE ONLINE AVAILABLE
"A 32-page strategy guide for Civilization III in Adobe Acrobat format has been compiled by HurricaneGaming.com and is available for purchase from their website."
November 15 SIMGOLF DEMO RELEASED
"Firaxis released a demo of the upcoming Sid Meier's SimGolf (and it's certainly "Sid Meier's", since Sid is listed on the credits as both the designer and one of the two programmers!)."
November 15 CIV3 RELEASED IN EUROPE
"Civers from at least UK and Italy report the release of Civ3 in Europe!"
November 16 1ST CIV3 TOURNAMENT!
"Continuing our civ2 tradition, we are starting the 1st Apolyton Civ3 Tournament. The idea is the same: everyone plays the saved game which starts 4000bc. At the end of the tournament(November 30), the winner is determined by the highest civ3 score."
November 20 APOLYTON MUSIC STATION
"Making use of cool mp3.com feature, we have opened the Apolyton Music Station! The responsible for the original idea and the list compilation was Paris of Top40-Charts.com"
November 22 15000 LOGINS
"We only needed 3 days to go from 13000 to 14000 logins, but it took 11 days to reach 15000. That's a little bit beow 100 registrations per day."
November 25 FAN SERVED CEASE AND DESIST ORDER
"A grassroots effort is gaining momentum this weekend in an attempt to help a fellow Civ fan after it came to light that Infogrames (IG) Germany served a private citizen with a cease and desist order for attempting to translate parts of the English (US) version of CivIII into German. Accompanying the order is a $500 bill for the lawyer fees for drawing up and issuing the order."
November 28 LEGAL ISSUE OVER TRANSLATION PROJECT CLOSES
"Kai informed us that on advice of his lawyer he signed the c&do to avoid further legal problems. Infogrames in a show of good will decided to pay the fee($850) of their lawyers, although Kai had to pay the fee of his own lawyer(signing the c&do could mean that Kai would have to pay for Infogrames's fees as well). Also, the c&do to civ3.de hosts were replaced with a non-disclosure agreement between them and Infogrames, after the removal of the web pages of the project. We should note that under the c&do, Kai Fiebach faces a $10,000 fine if he involves himself with modification of Civ3 in any way in the future."
November 28 PRIMA SICS LAWYERS ON HG
"Prima, the company behind the official CivIII strategy guide, informed Hurricane via their parent company Random House Publishing that they had an exclusive agreement with Infogrames, CivIII's publishers, to produce and market a guide for the game. According to Doug Walsh, Hurricane Gaming's President/CEO, in an open letter explaining the sudden removal of the guide, written by Michael Lummis from their site, [t]he 32 page [document] which sold for $2.50[US] apparently contained too much helpful information and infringed on Prima's rights to the game."
December 2001
December 3 EXPANSION PACK CIVS VOTE ENDS
"The Expansion Pack Civs vote has ended after 277 votes and 38267 points. Here are the top 16: 1.Spanish 2.Mongols 3.Arab 4.Inca 5.Vikings 6.Turks/Ottomans..."
December 7 CIV3 PATCH IS HERE!
"The first Civ3 Patch is a fact!"
December 11 NON-SAFEDISK EXE AVAILIABLE
"For those who have problems with the copy protection feature of the Civ3 CD, Jeff Morris informed every on the forums today that there is sollution. You can contact Infogrames tech support and ask for a non-safedisk version of the civ3 exe."
December 21 SEVEN YEAR WAR NOW IN ENGLISH
"FRITZ has announced on the forums that he has finished the English translation of his `Seven Year War` scenario."
December 21 CIV3 MAC IS GOLD!!
"MacSoft`s Nate Birkholz announced on our forums that Civ 3 for Macintosh went gold this week. Brad and John did a fantastic job and managed to get it out in time to have it for sale at Macworld."
December 22 GAMESPY PC STRATEGY GAME OF THE YEAR!
"And the awards for civ3 have begun: Gamespy declared Civilization III the PC Strategy Game of the Year!"
December 24 CHRISTMAS CHAT TRANSCRIPT
" For those who missed it, here is the Civ3 Christmas Chat transcript. You`ll find many interesting things in it, like the the effects of September 11 on Civ3, the significance of the bug list in our forums, sales projections and whether or not Sid has lost his mind doing a golf game! :)"
December 31 TEMPORARY SERVER MOVE
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