GOTO HOME CITY (27 May 2000, 1:07 EST) Do you use this command? How often? Chris Pine(the Firaxian of course) is wondering on the forums. Answer! -MarkG
THREE NEW SPRITES (24 May 2000, 22:23 EST) Three new sprites have been added to our file database, all courtesy of the renowned Tom Davies: Medieval Cog (190K), Ironclad (201K), and Medieval Bombard (350K). -DanQ
BEOS GUIDE PART 4 (23 May 2000, 9:45 EST) Part 4 of beGamer's CTP How-To Guide, written by Justin Sherill, examines CD Audio usage, Animation, Viewing Movies, and last but not least Speeding Up The Game.
Sherill says that Part 5 is to be released shortly, and will probably be the final installment of the series. -DanQ
Apolyton News
21-31/May 2000
FIRAXIS SMAC SITE (23 May 2000, 12:19 EST) Firaxis webmaster Dan Magaha has been busy putting the finishing touches on the company's Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri website, and his work was unveiled this morning on firaxis.com.
"This site is intended to be a wealth of information for the SMAC and SMACX player", introduces the visitor to the site and this is already proving to be true to its word.
Sections include the story behind the game and the expansion pack, Alien Crossfire, detailed profiles of each of the factions, a database of the vast technology available to the player, and even a page on the various forms of native life to be found on Alpha Centauri. -DanQ
NEWEST FIRAXIAN INTERVIEW (31 May 2000, 9:14 EST)SidGames was recently given the opportunity to talk one of the newest members of the Firaxian family, Michael Breitkreutz, a long time programming veteran in the gaming industry.
In the two-page interview, Breitkreutz relays what projects he has been assigned to at Firaxis Games and why he left his position at DreamForge to join the Hunt Valley, MD company in the first place. -DanQ
FIRAXIS HIRES PROGRAMMERS (22 May 2000, 13:23 EST) FIRAXIS Games today announced the addition of three programmers to the company, as they continue to ramp up their development teams and further the growth of the organization. Michael Breitkreutz, Soren Johnson and Jacob Solomon bring a wide array of programming knowledge to the deeply talented and experienced teams at FIRAXIS.
Michael Breitkreutz is a veteran game programmer having spent the last six years as Lead Programmer at DreamForge Intertainment. He's been on the programming team of games such as Ravenloft: Stone Prophet, Chronomaster, Sanitarium and 101 Dalmatians: Escape From DeVil Manor.
Since 1994, Soren Johnson has been immersed in the study of computer programming and design at Stanford University where he recently received an AB in History with honors and a MS in Computer Science with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction. While at Stanford, he was an intern at Electronic Arts, where he worked as part of the programming team for Knockout Kings 2000 and 2001 for the PSX.
Jacob Solomon is a recent graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he earned a BS in Computer Science while working as a Computer Graphics Teaching Assistant.
FIRAXIS has doubled their number of employees in the last year and recently expanded the size of their Hunt Valley offices, as they continue to grow to meet the needs of the production teams dedicated to each of their projects.
"We're excited to have these new programmers on board", said Jeff Briggs, President and CEO of FIRAXIS Games. "Together they bring a great mix of experience, knowledge of state-of-the-art game programming techniques and plenty of exciting new ideas. Both the Dinosaur project and Civilization III will benefit from their talents". -DanQ
MAC PATCH V1.2B (HQX) (27 May 2000, 22:17 EST) MacSoft released patch v1.2b in SIT format some time ago, followed by the 1.7MB HQX equivalent which is now available for downloading directly from Apolyton CS.
A quick re-cap on the fixes included in this version:
Fixed problem that caused a "NavigationLib not found" error.
Fixed problem with arrow keys not scrolling the map.
Fixed the "Could not restore AI" error that would sometimes occur while loading a saved game. This fix should also improve stability of large saved games.
Music now plays correctly. Track Selection is in sync with the CD-ROM, Auto Repeat works, and Random Playback works.
Fixed CD-ROM "thrashing" problem when the Great Library window is displayed.
