(27 February 2000, 15:28 EST/CtPMac) Jeffrey Chen from macgamenews.com has reviewed Civilization Call to Power and marked it fairly favourably. He summarized by saying:
"In the end, Call to Power isn't so much a Civilization game as a turn-based Age of Empires. Instead of an open-ended, multi-tactic empire game, you're guided towards a military, action-based philosophy whether you like it or not, and your technological advances are geared towards that end. The domestic administration features are more of a backdrop than an essential feature, despite the fact that these are the best improvements. The gameplay and interace suffer from this muddled mentality, and that's a shame, because if Activision had gone one route or the other, this could have been a very good game."
http://www.macgamenews.com/games/civctp -Baston
PCDATA: FEBRUARY 6-12, 2000
(27 February 2000, 14:42 EST/Misc) Below are the Top Selling Computer Games for the period February 6-12, 2000 according to PCData:
1. The Sims | Electronic Arts
2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire | Disney
3. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon | Hasbro Interactive
4. Microsoft Age Of Empires II: Age of Kings | Microsoft
5. Half-Life | Havas Interactive
6. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon Corkscrew Follies | Hasbro Interactive
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Gold Edition | Red Storm Entertainment, Inc.
8. Frogger | Hasbro Interactive
9. Deer Hunter III | GT Interactive
10. Hoyle Board Games 2000 | Havas Interactive -DanQ
MGL REVIEW: 4 OUT OF 5
(27 February 2000, 6:37 EST/CtPMac) Head over to Mac Gamers Ledge for Greg Weston's review of Civilization Call to Power that has just been posted. It would have no doubt scored higher if it were not let done by its system requirements. Greg's conclusion was:
"The system requirements really killed me on this one. It's a decent enough game in general, and I'm giving it a good rating because for a typical strategy gamer it'll be fun, and as a game it's decent. There are, however, some technical issues that a potential buyer should really be aware of".
http://www.macledge.com/Reviews00/CTP/CTP.chtml -Baston
SMAC FOR MAC PATCH IS NEAR
(27 February 2000, 4:42 EST/SMAC) Copying from the February issue of the official Aspyr Newsletter
In the next few days, we will be releasing an update patch for S.M.A.C. that will clear up a few problems that people were experiencing. I spoke with the man, the legend, Brad Oliver, to get the scoop on the S.M.A.C. patch.
> What problems were some folks experiencing?
The bulk of the issues were DrawSprocket oddities - the game would pick the wrong resolution, or would accidentally start up in a window. There were also some miscellaneous issues with keyboard commands. These are all fixed
> Was correction fairly easy?
Yes, I've managed to kill every issue that's been reported that I can
reproduce here.
> Any entertaining stories?
"These two guys walk into a bar..."
Hmm...no, none are popping out at me. One guy did mention that he customized the Gaian faction to change the name from "Deirdre" to "Mark". He noticed that whenever his name was mentioned in the game, he was referred to as "Lady Mark". ;-)
> Any neat features or special areas in the game that gamers might enjoy?
In the upcoming patch, I added a feature that allows you to see how many hours and minutes you've been playing SMAC. If you go to the Apple menu and choose "About Alpha Centauri.." it will tell you.
> You're awesome!
You don't really want to give me a big ego, do you?
Thanks again to Brad and the Westlake Interactive team for all of their hard work. The S.M.A.C. patch will be available soon through our web site's support (http://www.aspyr.com) page and through your favorite online Mac game site, like Mac Gamer's Ledge (http://www.macledge.com)
And Apolyton of course! :) -MarkG
1.2b POST INSTALLATION
(27 February 2000, 4:22 EST/CtPMac) In various reports filtering through on the newsgroups and by way of personal e-mails it seems that the patch has largely been very successful in rectifying many of the problems:
* The unable to restore AI appears to have been eliminated
* There still seems to be a DVD issue with Music and Wonder movies forcing some players to "force quit" the application response.
I haven't heard any remarks about any other patches yet, so presumably everything has been technically resolved.
MEMORY
Several people have e-mailed querying the new memory requirements for the game. This is what to expect:
Here's the complete rules for CTP's memory requirements:
- CTP now requires at least 75MB of memory. If it can't get this amount, the game will not run (you'll get a warning dialog).
- By default, CTP will request 105MB of memory (the "preferred size" in the Get Info window). If it can't get this amount but there is still at least 75MB available, the game will run in whatever amount of memory is available. In this case, a warning dialog will be displayed to let you know that CTP is not running with the full amount of memory that was requested.
- If you have changed the "preferred size", the rule above still applies. CTP will request whatever amount is in the "preferred size".
I'll be looking out for any more news on future patches. -Baston
1.2b DOES NOT MEAN BETA!
(26 February 2000, 17:32 EST/CtPMac) In a posting on the newsgroup comp.sys.mac.games.strategic Phil Sulak from Westlake Interactive posted the following interesting point:
"IMG currently has CTP 1.2b listed as a Beta patch. It's not. It's simply the second update we've released for CTP 1.2 (1.2a was the first). In the future, Westlake will try to label their patches with uppercase letters (ie, CTP would become 1.2B) to try to minimize confusion." -Baston
COLUMN #104; BY JASON BEAUDOIN
(26 February 2000, 14:02 EST/Misc) "Micro Focus In Civilization Killing Civilization III" is today's column from Jason Beaudoin, former webmaster of the Beyond Alpha Centauri website (now our SMAC section).
Jason shares his thoughts on micromanaging in Civilization, and how the heavy emphasis on it, in his opinion, is shooting the development of Civilization III dead in its tracks.
Comments/questions are welcomed in our forums. -DanQ
THUMPED IN GS `99 READER`S AWARDS
(26 February 2000, 12:24 EST/SMAC) SMAC got smacked in the GameSpot 1999 Readers' Choice Awards unveiled today.
In the Strategy Game Of The Year category, SMAC did not make it into the top five; in the race for Game Of The Year, however, SMAC tied Quake III Arena, Everquest and Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear in 6th place with 5% of the total votes.
Unreal Tournament edged Age of Empires II: Age Of Kings by a margin of a single percential to take Game Of The Year (the latter did however capture Strategy Game Of The Year). -DanQ
COMMENT FROM CGO STAFF
(25 February 2000, 19:58 EST/CtP2) In the weekly Strategy newsletter from Computer Games Online, CGO staff member Cindy Vanous made reference to Activision's announcement of CTP2 in her introductory remarks in the latest issue.
"You'll find some fascinating tidbits in the news department, not the least of which is Activision's announcement of
a sequel to Civ: Call to Power. This time, it looks like they've dropped the Civ part of the name. Surprising? Not really -- considering the legal wrangling which seems to attend any use of that name in any respect these days, I'm sure Activision is thrilled to have Call to Power as a recognizable, and completely proprietary, brand". -DanQ
NEW DATABASE FILES
(25 February 2000, 15:50 EST/Civ2) As announced yesterday, here comes the next DB update with files processed by Tim Davis. This time we have five modpacks, two patches and one special: a tool to watch all wonder movies one after another. I guess this takes half an hour, if somebody has tried it, please mail me how you long were watching...
The Arab-American War
In the Beginning
Operation Seelöwe
The Wheel of Time
The Wild World
Purdy Units
Wonders of the World
Ultimate Civ Sci-Fi units Collection -Sven
1.2b PATCH IS AVAILABLE
(25 February 2000, 9:23 EST/CtPMac) Westlake have posted the 1.2b patch Update on their site. It has yet to be posted on Macsoft's site. It is available here at Apolyton.
http://apolyton.net/cgi-bin/ctp/files/download.pl?id=115
Warning: Its 1.2MB but again, an essential download.
"Civilization: Call to Power has been updated to version 1.2b. Fixes include the "NavigationLib not found" error, the "Could not restore AI" error, arrow key map scrolling, and a few more updates to CD music playback. Check the Read Me text for more detailed information." -Baston
PORTRAIT OF A WEBMASTER
(24 February 2000, 20:12 EST/About) What you have you always wanted to know about Apolyton, but never dared to ask the administration, or even conceive of asking? You now have your opportunity to fire away by filling out a simple form on the subject and I, DanQ, will answer.
I will compile all questions received, and, those I select and the answers I write to them will be published as an installment of The Column on Saturday, March 4th.
Your question(s), up to a maximum of 3, must be clearly, concisely worded, and contain no explicitives of any kind. Be careful in wording any questions of a personal nature --- questions about Apolyton and/or my involvement with Apolyton and the online Civilization community as a whole, and the games that we cover are preferred and will be given priority over all others in the question selection process. We reserve the right to discard any questions that we feel are inappropriate.
Your questions must be received by 10PM EST on Thursday, March 2nd, 2000 to be considered for inclusion.
Finally, you must provide a valid email address so we can send you a quick thank you letter for the time you took to write us.
So, get cracking already! 
-DanQ
YOUR INTEREST IN DINO`S SO FAR?
(24 February 2000, 19:09 EST/Dino) Here is our new poll:Comments? -MarkG
COMING TO A LINUX BOX NEAR YOU
(24 February 2000, 19:01 EST/SMAC) 
As first reported by LinuxGames, and then confirmed today by GameSpy's Managing News Editor John Keefer, Loki Software Entertainment will port SMAC to the Linux platform.
"When asked point blank what games Loki would be releasing this year, Draeker gave only a coy smile and replied that because of ongoing license negotiations he couldn't comment say other than the titles they have announced", states the LG article. "Those announced ports include Soldier of Fortune, SimCity 3000, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Heavy Gear II".
What we learned from Keefer, who today was given a development tour at Loki's studios in Tustin, CA, was a general timeframe when Linux gamers can expect to start conquering Planet. Loki President Scott Draeker stated that the Linux version of SMAC is due in April or May, but that no firm deadline had yet been set. -DanQ
NOT JUST SCENARIOS PLEASE!
(24 February 2000, 18:29 EST/Dino) Our second poll, titled Scenario vs Big World is over with a total of 212 votes. Here are the results| Scenarios(like Gettysburg, Starcraft) |  8 / 3% |
| Big World(like Civ) | 109 / 51% |
| Why not both? | 93 / 43% |
| Not sure/No opinion | 2 / 0% |
You can give your comments on the forum -MarkG
PLANETARY PACK RELEASED
(24 February 2000, 16:08 EST/SMAC) 
It seems like the March 16th date that Amazon was giving for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack was wrong as it is now availiable for ordering. Therefore, you can now find it in the Alpha Centauri/Games and Books category of our Apolyton Links&Products Directory(long titles, no? :)) at the price of $35.99. Suddenly, buying just SMAC is a bad deal, since you can now get both SMAC and SMAC-X(and both patched) at exactly the same price(talking about Amazon prices only). Anyway, if you dont have SMAC already it seems like a good deal! If you have SMAC and/or SMAC-X please take the time to write a short review for it -MarkG
DATABASE PASSES ANOTHER MILESTONE!
(24 February 2000, 15:41 EST/Civ2) Today our Civ2 database passed another milestone as the 100,000th download was recorded. Right now we have 100,439 downloads of 378 files which were rated by civers with an average of 6.2 points. Look out for new files, as there will be another update on the weekend. -Sven
COLUMN #103; BY MARKG
(23 February 2000, 22:21 EST/Misc) In Part 2 of 2 in his article "The Essential CTP2: Beyond The PR Stuff", MarkG takes one more day to say his peace on the attitude Activision should take towards CTP2.
Comments/questions on this artlce? Post them publicly here. -DanQ
SGO`S GAME OF THE DECADE
(23 February 2000, 19:30 EST/Civ2) Smigs informed us that Strategy Gaming Online has completed conducting a poll of their visitors as to what the best PC game of the past decade was.
The winner? Civilization II by a margin of 1% over Starcraft. Out of 690 votes tabulated, CivII was the choice of 26.5% of them. -DanQ
DOWNTIME FROM CIV3 CIVILOPEDIA
(23 February 2000, 19:18 EST/Civ3) The CivIII Civilopedia has been experiencing some downtime recently. To explain the reasoning, webmaster Dustin Bainbridge sent us the following email message this afternoon:
"As you've already noticed, the Civilization III Civilopedia is having some server difficulties and is currently unavailable. We are in the process, well, SNGaming.com is anyway, in the process of switching servers due to the shutting down of Zerobearing.com. We hope to be back up and running as soon as possible and come back better than ever with some new features. I apologize for this unexpected downtime, and hope to see you coming back when were back online". -DanQ
MOST INTERESTING FEATURE?
(23 February 2000, 14:59 EST/CtP2) Our first CTP2 poll is here, and it's about the improvments that the press release described. More details can be found in the (updated) Information page. So, what sounds best to your ears? Vote, and give your comments on the forums. -MarkG
ESSENTIAL CIV3 REPORT
(23 February 2000, 14:02 EST/Civ3) 8 Days later, we have 31 proposals with new ideas for civ3 and 18 for things to be fixed! The List Forum has been quite active as you can understand... Submission for new ideas or fixes are still accepted, start from the Essential Civ 3 - Guidelines thread. -MarkG
1.2b PATCH DUE TOMORROW
(23 February 2000, 13:44 EST/CtPMac) Nate Birkholz from Macsoft posted this in the newsgroup today:
"We hope to have a new CTP patch to fix some of the music errors, as well as the AI error and the NavigationLib Not Found error."
The subject was "New CTP Tomorrow". -Baston
MD PATCHED; NEW DEMO
(22 February 2000, 17:44 EST/Alt) The Manifest Destiny team has released a new demo version (1MB) of the game, bringing the current version to 0.3.6 from 0.3.5; those who are currently running v0.3.5 can download an update (968K).
The reason for the patch stems from the excessive memory the previous version of MD leeched, and the response to the problem from the public.
"I think everyone will find the game is a lot more
stable", lead programmer Ron Hiler says of the update. "We also enhanced several areas of the game, including adding polar ice caps"!
Hiler has stated that the team will now focus on adding more playability to the game before releasing the next downloadable installment to the public. -DanQ
LOCALIZED SMAC-X PATCH NEWS
(22 February 2000, 17:26 EST/SMACX) We contacted Jeffrey Morris at Firaxis today if he could pass along any news regarding the status of the localized SMAC-X patches.
His response: "SMACX German and French v2 are off to EA [Electronic Arts]. They're focusing on SMACX Spanish, SMACPP French and German [right now]".
The "PP" in "SMACPP" is short for Planetary Pack, the gaming combo where you can purchase both SMAC, the game, and SMAC-X, the expansion, together. Amazon.com is currently listing a March 16th release for this product, but when we asked Jeff if this date was in line with the title's progress, he apologized saying that he did not have a clue either way on the subject. -DanQ
5 NEW VIKING SCRIBES
(22 February 2000, 11:53 EST/Civ2) Who said we gave up on the Viking Scribes? Here are 5 new ones: Oh the Humanity!, Collision Course, God Bless Colonies, Restart and The Great Patriotic War. We are of course always accepting new ones, send them over! -MarkG
PCDATA`S TOP 15 FOR JANUARY, 2000
(22 February 2000, 10:48 EST/Misc) PCData has released the Top 15 Selling PC Computer Games for the month of January, 2000.
One word: Regis.
1. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire | Disney
2. Roller Coaster Tycoon Hasbro | Interactive
3. Age Of Empires II: Age of Kings | Microsoft
4. Centipede | Hasbro
5. Parker Brothers Classic Card Games | Hasbro
6. Milton Bradley Classic Games | Hasbro Interactive
7. Starcraft | Havas
8. Quake III: Arena | Activision
9. Roller Coaster Tycoon Corkscrew Follies | Hasbro Interactive
10. Deer Hunter 3 | GT Interactive
11. Unreal Tournament | GT Interactive
12. Hoyle Board Games 2000 | Havas
13. Sim City 3000 | Electronic Arts
14. Cabela's Big Game Hunter 3 | Activision
15. Half-Life | Havas
-DanQ
NEWS IN REALAUDIO©: FEB. 12-19, 2000
(22 February 2000, 9:27 EST/Misc) Have the winter blues put you in the doldrums but still want your weekly dose of Civilization news without having to strain your tired eyes to read it?
Today is your lucky day.
The audio version of the Feb. 12-19, 2000 newsletter is now available for listening in RealAudio© format. To listen, you will need either the RealPlayer G2+ or Windows Media Player installed on your system, you can left-click on the file to have it stream through your player of choice (28.8K+ Internet connection recommended) or right-click to download the 2.3MB file to listen at your convenience at a later time. -DanQ
1.2b PATCH IN THE PIPELINE
(22 February 2000, 4:04 EST/CtPMac) In response to my post on the newsgroup "comp.sys.mac.games.strategic" this reply was posted by Phil Sulak:
"Sorry about the problems, Gang. Apparently none of our 16 testers (or 2 programmers) are running with System 7.x :-(
I'll talk to Mark Krenek tomorrow about a "b" patch. We can have one up within a few hours, but it will only fix the NavigationLib problem. However we may end up waiting a few days; I've isolated many of the remaining music problems and I'd like to get those fixes in also.
Thanks for your patience."
So it looks like more of the "still" reported errors will be corrected at the same time. I'll keep you all posted if i hear anything! -Baston
APOLYTON NEWS: FEB. 12-19, 2000
(21 February 2000, 23:11 EST/Misc) The latest issue of "Apolyton News" is here. Read up on what was making headlines in the Civilization world in the past week, February 12-19th, 2000.
Both the text and Web versions are presently available for viewing; the audio version of the newsletter will be published ~24hrs. -DanQ
NEW PATCH TO BE RELEASED SOON!!!
(21 February 2000, 19:07 EST/CtPMac) I just got word from Mark Krenek at westlake regarding my query on the NavigationLib error, and found out something very interesting:
"NavigationLib is the Apple extension that provides a new set of save dialogs. It became available sometime during MacOS 8. HOWEVER, we made a last minute mistake in the patch such that if you are running a system that does not have this extension, then the app refuses to launch. We should get a new patch out tomorrow. Until then, you'll have to go back to the old version. The updater should have left the old version of CTP in the trash."
Keep your eyes peeled my friends :) -Baston
PLAY BY EMAIL @ APOLYTON
(21 February 2000, 15:46 EST/CtPMac) I'd like more people to get gaming and specifically with a focus on PBeM gaming. The new Mac CTP forum held here at Apolyton is a good place to record and monitor your game, or to start new games. Please feel free to drop by!
http://apolyton.net/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=34 -Baston
PATCH 1.2A STILL APPARENTLY BUGGY
(21 February 2000, 15:16 EST/CtPMac) It seems there are still a few issues with the release of the 1.2a patch, here is a summary of things that have either been e-mailed to me or posted on the newsgroups:
The patch issues are as reported by users and should only be used as a guide to the problems you may experience, some problems seem more common than others.
- Music play. If you have animations on in the Library, and are playing music, then open the library, the game still has problems opening the Library window.
- Music AutoRepeat.
- 'Can't restore AI'. Players are still getting this error when loading a saved game.
- Some unloading issues with ships.
- Preferences not remembered. It seems that players are reporting that they have to reset these each time they start the game.
- Not able to open the game becaue of a 'navigationlib not found' error. This seems to be by far the most common error experienced by players *.
* The best solution seems to be to save off all of your old games, re-install the application and then apply the patch. This really seems to only cure the navigationlib not found error (but don't quote me!). -Baston
PCZONE READER AWARDS 1999
(20 February 2000, 16:01 EST/Misc) PCZone out the UK is holding their Readers Awards 1999, where any member of the public can vote for their favourites gaming titles on the PC platform last year.
The website is only listing suggested titles for each categories, as opposed to having set candidates; this unusual approach to the voting process should be well received by those who, in the case of other publicly-open award features, felt restricted in only being able to vote for those games nominated, often chosen by the staff of the website which was hosting the proceedings.
Thanks to Smigs for dropping us a line about this. -DanQ
CTP BEST SELLING GAME AT MAC-O-RAMA
(20 February 2000, 8:23 EST/CtPMac) Call to power has outsold Quake3 Arena, Unreal Tournament and the fabled {grins} Alpha Centauri in the present top ten games listings on the games page of Mac-O-Rama. I don't know how often this listing is updated but it's a good indicator of CTP's recent success.
See http://www.mac-o-rama.com/GAMEShome.lasso -Baston
CTP 1.2A PATCH AVAILABLE AS AN APOLYTON DOWNLOAD
(20 February 2000, 4:28 EST/CtPMac) Both the HQX and SIT versions of the patch are now available from Apolyton. If you haven't already got em' then download them now! The patch is essential for any CTP player.
http://apolyton.net/cgi-bin/ctp/files/download.pl?id=114 (HQX version; 972K)
http://apolyton.net/cgi-bin/ctp/files/download.pl?id=115 (SIT version; 714K) -Baston
COLUMN #102; BY MARKG
(19 February 2000, 19:48 EST/Misc) In Part 1 of 2 of his article on the recently announced Call To Power 2 by Activision, entitled "The Essential CTP2: Beyond The PR Stuff", MarkG talks about a pre-release demo equalling a bug-free release, good earth maps and scenarios, and the allurement of full and easy customization.
If you would like to comment on this article, or read about what others are saying on the piece, see our forums. -DanQ
WIN2K COMPATIBILITY
(19 February 2000, 12:51 EST/SMAC) Win2K users take note: some 40+ gaming titles may have difficulties running under Microsoft's newest OS, and SMAC is among them.
On Wednesday of this past week the software giant from Redmond, VA posted a small but critical 159K patch that corrects some compatability issues.
"During product compatibility testing prior to release, Microsoft focused on the top volume business applications (thousands of applications run out-of-the-box)", states a company press release. "With that testing complete, as you can see below, we are now broadening our original focus and have addressed some minor compatibility issues with a few of the more popular home/entertainment/gaming applications".
Other titles benefitting from this fix include Caesar III, Imperialism II, Tomb Raider III and some non-gaming titles as well, such as Frontpage 98.
Thanks to Pythagoras for pointing this out in our AC General forum. -DanQ
PATCH IS DEFINITELY HERE!!!
(19 February 2000, 3:00 EST/CtPMac) The patch has definitely been released.
See http://www.wizworks.com/macsoft/mactech/CivIICall_ftp.html -Baston
TOP TBS OF 1999: SGO
(18 February 2000, 17:41 EST/SMAC) After reading this story, some will agree that SMAC is finally getting some much needed recognition.
Strategy Gaming Online has named Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as the top TBS (Turn Based Strategy) game of 1999.
"Equipped with talent the likes of Sid Meier himself, Brian Reynolds, and other very skilled and creative staff there was no doubt that Firaxis would produce at the minimum a "good game"", praised the writeup. "But seemingly rising above the feral snarlings over the "Civilization" moniker, Sid and crew produced the only true sequel to Civ2. And what a sequel it was --- they kept the basic turn-based gameplay, the city-building, and the technological tree structure that made Civ2 easy to grasp but hard to walk away from".
And if that wasn't enough, SGO also gave SMAC the award for best Storyline of any PC game of 1999.
Congratulations Firaxis! :) -DanQ
REWORKED INFO PAGE, NEW DIARIES PAGE
(17 February 2000, 15:13 EST/Dino) The information page has been heavily updated, with all the info we've known so far(if we missed something please send us a note). Also, there is a new page for the designer diaries, with a small summary and the related threads on our forum. Check them out! -MarkG
PC DATA: JAN. 30-FEB. 5
(17 February 2000, 13:08 EST/Misc) PC Data has issued their weekly list of the top selling computer games in the industry. For the period January 30 - February 5:
1. The Sims | Electronic Arts
2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire | Disney
3. Centipede | Hasbro Interactive
4. Parker Brothers Classic Card Games | Hasbro Interactive
5. Milton Bradley Classic Games | Hasbro Interactive
6. Roller Coaster Tycoon | Hasbro Interactive
7. Age of Empires II: Age Of Kings from Microsoft
8. Final Fantasy VIII | Electronic Arts
9. Roller Coaster Tycoon Corkscrew Follies | Hasbro Interactive
10. Starcraft | Havas Interactive
-DanQ
THE FIRST ART
(17 February 2000, 12:18 EST/CtP2) 
What you see on the right is the first piece of art from CTP2, as posted today on Gamespot UK. What it represents? Not sure about it yet. Give your guesses on the forum. -MarkG
COLUMN #101; BY CYBERSHY
(16 February 2000, 23:16 EST/Misc) The 101th column is written by Cybershy, entitled "Internet Communities". He discusses the many times of online communities that are currently available, and all you have to do is stop and look.
To have your thoughts on this article become publicly known, post them in this thread on our forums. -DanQ
MD`S LEAD PROGRAMMER SPEAKS
(16 February 2000, 16:13 EST/Alt) Ron Hiller, Lead Programmer of Manifest Destiny, got in touch with us today with a message he would like us to pass along to you, the gaming public, on behalf of the busy-as-beavers MD team:
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the enthusiastic support you've shown for Manifest Destiny. We had *tons* of downloads, and the suggestions, comments, and bug reports have been coming in in droves. I hope I've been able to keep up with everyone's mail, but if I don't respond to you right away, don't get discouraged. I read
everything that comes my way, and I will respond,
eventually. Just give me a bit of time to get out from the pile of e-mail I've gotten. And don't hesitate to send more, we *need* those reports, the more the better :)
Two comments have prevailed about the new release. The first involves the map tiles, and the fact that there is only land and water. Worry not! There will eventually be more than two tiles on the map. In fact, we have a whole mess of tiles planned. It *will* get more interesting.
The second comment is more serious, and has to do with the memory requirements of the game. We are aware that the game is a memory hog. A few people are unable to run the game at all, and others cannot run with texture resolutions greater than 50! Listening to your comments, it is increasingly obvious something needs to be done to resolve this problem. So, a patch will be released as of February 20th (or around there somewhere) which should ease the memory load quite a bit. We weren't going to release another version until the game was playable, but enough people have "asked" (heh) for this to be fixed sooner than
that, that I think it's worth doing now.
Ron Hiler
Lead Programmer
-DanQ
COMING TO YOU THIS FALL
(16 February 2000, 15:51 EST/CtP2) Plans are to release Call To Power II this fall reports an article on GameCenter, a division of C|Net, in a discussion with Activision's Senior Producer Parker Davis.
He also said that some of the fundamental elements of the original will be revamped in this sequel, in response to at times detrimental criticism from analysts and gamers alike.
"We've taken a lot of [the criticism, re: the original CTP] to heart. It's definitely shaped our strategy and our goals for this project. The previous product was spread a bit too thin... more isn't always better".
In addition to simplifying the user interface and balancing the game's combat, the design team is improving the game's diplomacy. In CTPII, the player will be able to make diplomatic proposals and counterproposals, as well as threats. More importantly, according to Davis, "diplomacy will be much more directly tied into the game", so AI behavior will be more consistent between enemies and friends.
One of the more prominent items on the chopping block is the Space Era that was very much apart of CTP.
"We actually are removing [the futuristic space era] altogether, because that was an area where we really bit off more than we could chew".
While the time span of the sequel is shedding some decades, the number of turns is being increased to 500, from the 350 in CTP, to improve the overall pacing of the game. -DanQ
NOT TO BE
(16 February 2000, 15:28 EST/SMAC) Once again, SMAC falls shorts of earning top honours in another round of gaming awards for 1999.
The reader's choice for the Best Strategy Game in the Gamer's Choice Awards 1999 was Homeworld, which then went on to defeat SMAC again and a number of heavy hitters from the other genres to receive the coveted Game Of The Year distinction.
No percentages/numbers were given to indicate just how close the nominees were to each other in the voting. -DanQ
LAST MINUTE PATCH WORK
(16 February 2000, 15:05 EST/CtPMac) Mark Krenek replied to my remark concerning the delay and very kindly responded:
Baston: Looks like you weren`t able to post it... :( Is this "bug" anything we`ve been testing?
Mark Krenek: No. The format of saved games changed since the first release and we needed to add code that could read the old files. Should get posted on Wednesday.
Either way it should be here real soon. The last time i checked though it hadn`t been posted. -Baston
CTP2 SECTION LIVE
(15 February 2000, 19:52 EST/About) With all the recent construction and expansion buzzing around on Apolyton, it's a wonder we haven't been ordered to obtain a building permit... :D
The time it takes to watch an average-length movie is the net difference between Activision Inc.'s announcement of Call To Power II, the sequel to Civilization: Call To Power, and the grand opening of our section on the game. We had been working behind the scenes for some time leading up to its unveiling to ensure the site's quality was not sacrified at the expense of speediness.
We at ACS were one of the first gaming sites to bring the news of CTPII's development and, without a doubt, first out of the fan-site starting block to open a section on it.
As more information on the title is made public, we'll be right on top of it, reporting on it in the professional fashion you have grown to know, love, and trust from us. -DanQ
WHERE`S THE PATCH?
(15 February 2000, 17:25 EST/CtPMac) Well doesn't look like the patch has made it to macsoft's tech support page today... i believe we'll see it some time soon... hopefully this week. I have just written to Mark Krenek asking for any further information on the release date. Admitedly in earlier dialogue he did say hopefully tuesday so we can't hold westlake or macsoft to this day... wednesday maybe?
Fingers crossed we'll see it tomorrow. -Baston
CTP2 FORUMS!
(15 February 2000, 17:00 EST/CtP2) And 3,5 hours after the announcement, here are the CtP2 General Discussion forum and the CtP2 Suggestions forum(the old "ctp-suggestions to the team" forum). Use them! -MarkG
CTP2 SECTION!
(15 February 2000, 15:26 EST/CtP2) Two hours after the official announcement here is our new section for Call to Power II. I think we broke our previous record :)
Details about the game are a bit limited as you can understand, however check out the press release, as well as the information page, with a summary of the main changes and improvements of CTP2.
It goes without saying that we're waiting for your comments on the color scheme of this section! :) -MarkG
THE ESSENTIAL CIV3
(15 February 2000, 14:49 EST/Civ3) The last column has generated a lot of talk about a short list of things that should either be done or fixed in civ3. Instead of producing a 500 page document with every suggestion that ever came to a civers' mind(which is of course a great resource), the effort now is to give short list of what all civers consider the most important things to be done on civ. For more and better explanations, head over to the Essential Civ 3 - Guidelines thread in our List forum. -MarkG
THE SEQUEL IS ANNOUNCED!
(15 February 2000, 13:25 EST/CtP2) "Call to Power II Prepares to Conquer the PC Landscape" is the captivating subtitle to Activision Inc.'s announcement that Call To Power II, the sequel to last year's Civilization: Call To Power, is under development.
Quoting from the full press release:
"Call to Power II offers players several new governing tools, diplomatic options and trade features. The player’s diplomatic strategy will play a large role in the development of their civilization, as enemy states will survey the diplomatic landscape before attacking or forming their own alliances. A robust diplomacy interface will assist players in choosing their political stance, and allow counter proposals when dealing with other civilizations. Players who are inexperienced in managing an entire civilization may consult their ministers and advisors who will offer advice and make recommendations".
Our extended thanks to Ata who notified us about the official press release today; we were waiting for word directly from Activision, but it was first posted on Activision's official German site.
On a final note, the word "Civilization" is not in the title of the sequel. Activision had a licence to use it in only one game: the 'original' CTP.
See, we told you something was brewing at Activision's CTP Labs... :) -DanQ
NEW MD DEMO: v0.3.5
(14 February 2000, 22:51 EST/Alt) Ron Hiler, Lead Programmer for Manifest Destiny (MD), contacted us today announcing that a new version of the game's demo had been released, v0.3.5. It is now available for download from our MD section, and that is where you will also find general information on the project. -DanQ
JUST MISSED THE TOP TEN
(14 February 2000, 19:40 EST/CtP) A little while ago we reported on the "Games Domain Review 1999 Readers Awards" accepting nominations and then voting for the top PC games of 1999. The readers' choices have been tabulated and C:CTP ended up 12th with 2.6% of the popular vote in the Strategy Camp in the midst of some heavy competition. Age of Empires 2 came in first with 18.1% of the total votes.
Cross-town rival Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri came in third with 10.7% of the popular vote, a showing good enough to earn both a spot on the podium and in the Game Of The Year Knockout Poll. -DanQ
THIRD ON THE PODIUM
(14 February 2000, 19:32 EST/SMAC) A little while ago we reported on the "Games Domain Review 1999 Readers Awards" accepting nominations and then voting for the top PC games of 1999. The readers' choices have been tabulated and SMAC has come in third in the Strategy Camp with 10.7% of the popular vote. Homeworld placed in second with 12.3% and, at 18.1% and earning the number one spot in the process, is Age of Empires 2.
GDR Strategy Editor Tim Chown had a mixed message in his take on SMAC's respectable placement.
"OK, so it was more Brian Reynolds than Sid Meier, but while a lot of Civ fans were turned off by the sci-fi setting and hard-to-relate-to technology items, enough of you voted for it to give it a clear berth of the fourth place game. Firaxis now move on to Civ 3 and Dinosaurs, which we can hope will be a little more innovative than SMAC".
Nonetheless, SMAC's stellar performance in a tough pool of competiton has earned it a spot in the Game Of The Year Knockout Poll.
Cross-town rival Civilization: Call To Power captured the #12 spot with 2.6% of the popular vote. -DanQ
PATCH DELAYED BY A DAY
(14 February 2000, 19:31 EST/CtPMac) Mark Krenek from Westlake just wrote to me concerning the delay on the patch.
"The patch didn't make it out the door because of one last bug. Hopefully, we'll post it tomorrow."
Keep your eyes peeled!
-Baston
SMAC SCREENSHOTS NEEDED
(14 February 2000, 18:48 EST/SMACX) Jim, aka The Undertaker, is looking for some screenshots from SMACers, with a few minutes to spare, that detail what not to do during the course of a game; take, for example, before and aftershots of a planetbuster in action. He plans on using them in his upcoming updated strategy guide for SMAC. Those whose contributions are published will be credited.
If you can help out, email them to Jim (link above) as an attachment in JPG format. -DanQ
CTP-MAC SUBSECTION AND FORUM!
(14 February 2000, 17:36 EST/CtPMac) Yeap, as of yesterday our CTP for Macintosh subsection is open at http://apolyton.net/ctp/mac and today we opened our CtP-Macintosh forum. The webmaster of the subsection and moderator of the forum is Mark Hunter a.k.a. Baston. Any comments (on the forum of course!) are welcome. -MarkG
SMACX V2 BUG LIST FINISHED(FOR NOW)
(14 February 2000, 16:31 EST/SMACX) The SMACX V2 bug list(shouldn't it be v3, since v2 is the first patch?) has reach a point where one can say that it's done. Five weeks and 190 reports since it started, it is really a great piece of work! Many thanks from all smacers should go to zsozso who put the list together and everyone who reported a bug with good descriptions and even saved games. Firaxis has been notified about it, we hope we see the results of all this work on the SMACX V3 patch. -MarkG
ALL WONDERFUL THINGS HAVE AN END... :)
(14 February 2000, 10:16 EST/About) Don't think any extremely bad though :) The... race of our weekly traffic numbers has come to an end(for the time being of course). After 6 consecutive weeks of increasing weekly traffic, we broke twice our all time record(lasting from the days of the release of CTP! :)) Still, our monthly average traffic is increasing for the 11th consecutive time, making a new record for the 8th consecutive time!
What do you mean with "vanity"? What does vanity have to do with this news item? ;) -MarkG
INTRODUCING OUR CTP MAC SECTION
(13 February 2000, 22:25 EST/About) On behalf of the Apolyton Civilization Site administration, I am happy to announce the latest addition to our lineup, and our team.
The "Mac: Call To Power" website (located here) was started by Mark Hunter a short while ago in an effort to promote the Mac port of Civilization: Call To Power within the online gaming community. Hunter has proven himself to be a knowledgable source for the game, and in conducting himself in a professional manner from day one has helped push his website into the community spotlight.
Effective today, Mark and his website have joined the Apolyton crew in its continuing committment to deliver the most comprehensive, up-to-date information on the games that we cover. The "Mac Call To Power" website is now our CTP Mac section, administered by Hunter. Within the next week or so a forum specifically targetted for Mac CTP users will be opened within our forum community, which will moderated by Hunter (aka Baston).
Today's announcement coincides with Hunter publicly confirming that he has been privledged enough to work closely with Westlake Interactive, the company who ported C:CTP to the Mac last year, as part of a private beta testing team working on the first patch for the port. The patch will be released tomorrow by MacSoft.
In closing, let me be the first to say to Mark: Welcome Aboard! :) -DanQ
THE OUCH POLL
(13 February 2000, 17:58 EST/CtP) For Civilization: Call To Power fans, the latest poll posted at Strategy Gaming Online (SGO) may taste a little bitter.
SGO is conducting a "most disappointing game of 1999" poll of the gaming public, and C:CTP is one of the choices alongside Tiberian Sun and Braveheart.
At the time of this article's posting, C:CTP is in 2nd with 32.3% of the accumulated votes, with TS leading the way with 40.1%. -DanQ
WEEK`S NEWS IN REALAUDIO©: FEB 5-11, 2000
(13 February 2000, 13:18 EST/Misc) The RealAudio© broadcast of our newsletter, "Apolyton News", for the period Feb. 5-11, 2000, is now available for public consumption (~28 minutes in length).
With either the RealPlayer or Windows Media Player installed on your system, you can left-click on the file to have it stream through your player of choice (28.8K+ Internet connection recommended) or right-click to download the 3.4MB file to listen at your convenience at a later time. -DanQ
PATCH TO BE RELEASED MONDAY 14/2/99
(13 February 2000, 4:18 EST/CtPMac) I Have been priveledged to be part of the Westlake community of beta testers since the 9th and we have tested two patches so far. Mark Krenek from Weslake Interactive has confirmed this Monday as the official release date of the patch and from what i have seen and tested it will be great all round for all us Macintosh Players.
Here is a version history of the two patches i have been involved in testing:
- Play By E-Mail has been added.
- Double clicking saved game files will now launch Call To Power and load the game. You may need to rebuild your desktop to get this feature to work.
- Keyboard setup now accepts function keys. Other special keys, such as page up, page down, home end, etc. can not be used. This limitations exists in the PC version as well.
- Saved Network Games can now be reloaded sucessfully (The "Scenario not found" bug).
- Fixed problem using pillage command on a plasma cruiser.
- Saving and loading of single player games now uses the standard Mac save dialog. This means you can now save your games anywhere on your disk. This also helps prevent running out of memory while saving games.
- Call to Power now requires a minimum of 75 MB of memory to run. If necessary, use the "Memory" control panel to increase your Mac's Virtual Memory setting.
- Call to Power now alerts you if it is not running with the "Preferred Size" of memory specified in the application's "Get Info" window. The "Preferred Size" of Call to Power has been changed to 105 MB. Please note that Call to Power uses more System resources the longer you play it, so you may need to increase the application's "Preferred Size" to over 150 MB to complete long games.
- Music should play much more reliably on DVD-equipped Macs.
- Music should continue to play when the Great Library window is opened. Music should only stop if you have the "Great Library Animations" option turned on.
The Patch will be posted in Macsoft's Technical Support page for Call to Power at:
http://www.wizworks.com/macsoft/mactech/CivIICall_faq.html -Baston
COLUMN #100; BY KORN469
(12 February 2000, 19:53 EST/Misc) Brian (Reynolds) may be gone, but don't anyone give up on Civ3, korn469 persists in his article entitled "Brian Is Gone, But Civ3 Is Still Going Strong".
It is this week's installment of "The Column" and, notably, the 100th in this continually running series.
Comments on this piece? Post them in our forums. -DanQ
MAC PAGE UPDATE: SCENARIOS AND UTILITIES
(12 February 2000, 18:47 EST/Civ2Mac) It finally happened, I fixed some links and added stuff to the Civ II Mac page! New to the page is a scenario by Michael Witry along with better descriptions of the existing scenarios. Additionally, two oh-so-cool scenario utilities have been added. Chris Beigner has written an Apple Script for converting PC Scenarios to Mac versions! It is appropriately called Convert Scenario.
To go along with the Convert Scenario Script, we have the latest version of GraphicConverter for PPC! If you subscribe to MacAddict, you can avoid the download as it is on the Feb Phat-CD (also known as THE DISC)! Speaking of MacAddict, there is a link to their review of Civ II on the Reviews page.
So, now your saying to yourself "what'a bout the OTHER broken links...the OLD MPG page...the nonexistent CtP page...and where's THE DEITY's Gwani scenario???" Yeah, yeah...go and play Mike's W.W.I scenario and by the time the Kaiser is done moping up Europe with you, I'll have some MORE stuff to post! 'til then. -macuser
IT`S MODPACK NIGHT!
(12 February 2000, 15:37 EST/Civ2) The new year is just 6 weeks old and we already have our fourth database update! This time thanks to my new helper Tim Davis. Tonight we welcome eight modpacks in our growing database. Get those downloads!
Lance
The Fog of War
Ocean and Sea
End of the New Republic
The Battle for Middle Earth
Sea Quest
Magic vs. Steel
The Terran-Kilrathi Conflict -Sven
REYNOLDS INTERVIEWED BY IGN
(12 February 2000, 12:46 EST/Misc) Yesterday, PC|IGN posted a lengthy interview with Brian Reynolds, conducted by Mark Harrison.
Too much to reproduce in whole, Harrison not only asks about Reynolds' educational and professional career, but also about the family behind the man. And Reynolds delivers.
Below are some interesting excerpts:
IGN: Have you played [Civilization] Call to Power? If so, which new features in that game do you feel really add something to the subgenre?
BR: I've only played it a bit, in a professional-evaluation-of-competition kind of mode. It had some cool ideas, like stacked combat, that I certainly would have wanted to adopt for Civ3; I thought its greatest shortcoming was probably the interface...
IGN: Please describe a few of your most important principles of game design.
BR: Well the most important one is to always be playing your own game as you're developing it. Developers who don't play their own games either through not wanting to or because some technical element (e.g. graphics engine) isn't done and therefore prevents it, usually wind up with inferior products.
IGN: Expansions to Civilization II merely involved exploitation of the original engine without adding any new AI or gameplay. To what degree do you feel the expansion to Alpha Centauri has done better?
BR: The Civ2 expansions were done by Microprose after I'd already left, and I have only passing familiarity with them. The Alien Crossfire expansion for Alpha Centauri was done by Tim Train as producer/designer with Chris Pine doing the programming and Doug Kaufman co-designing and balancing. I think they did a great job putting a whole new feel on the game.
Our thanks to Imran for pointing this interivew out to us. -DanQ
NEW LAYOUT CHOICE FOR FRONT PAGE
(12 February 2000, 8:34 EST/About) As of today, we have one more choice for the layout of the front page and the display of news headlines. Beyond the existing options for headlines, separated into sections(which is also the default display) and for no headlines, there is now an option to display headlines, not separate into sections. The new option displays the last 35 headlines of all sections, and should look better on a 800x600 resolution.
As always, you can set your choice from the HEADLINES box on the bottom half of each of these pages. Comments? -MarkG
NEW SMAC SCENARIO LEAGUE
(11 February 2000, 22:14 EST/SMAC) Drew Heard contacted us to let us know of the debut of the Chiron Scenario League, dedicated to gathering an archive of scenarios created by players, for players, for SMAC. -DanQ
POLLS 14&15: ANIMATIONS CHOICES
(11 February 2000, 19:50 EST/CtP) In our two new polls we ask you about your choices on the various animations, but also on the kind of animations you would like to see in mods. Please vote and explain your choice on the forums -MarkG
DEMAND FOR BETTER DIPLOMACY, SCENARIO SUPPORT
(11 February 2000, 19:44 EST/CtP) This was longest running poll so far(over 2 months :)), but it was an important question: What would you most want to see in an future patch/expansion/version?. After 1648 votes the results were
| A better diplomacy model | 537 / 32% |
| Better balanced combat results | 184 / 11% |
| Better AI | 240 / 14% |
| Improved scenarios/scenario support | 309 / 18% |
| More units/improvements/wonders | 256 / 15% |
| More interface additions | 84 / 5% |
| None of the above | 19 / 1% |
| Don't care/No opinion | 19 / 1% |
Let's hope Activision listens... Post your comments on the forums -MarkG
"NEW" STRATEGY AND SCENARIO GUIDES
(11 February 2000, 18:36 EST/Civ2) The "" are there cause these guides are not exactly new. I've found them while digging in my quite long to-do list :)
The "new" stuff is first a "Recipe for invasion". Short but interesting. The other is a zip file(128K) with two rather lengthy and detailed guides: Player's Guide and Strategy Ideas and Scenario Guide & Templates. Check them out! -MarkG
IN DEVELOPMENT SINCE APRIL
(11 February 2000, 13:25 EST/Dino) The more Tim Train posts about Civ3, the more Dino news we get :) Explaining a bit more on the release order of Dino and Civ3, he posted
"Dinos was in prototype phase (just Sid working on it) months earlier than Civ III was announced in late May. Dinos had a full team on it since about April or so, so it is ahead development-wise. That's why we're releasing it first."
Hmm.... April '99. Done by Christmas 2000? Check out some other... prophecies on the forum :) -MarkG
IF JUST ONE IDEA...
(11 February 2000, 13:18 EST/Civ3) "If just one idea from the hundreds contained here makes it into Civilization III, we will know this was all well worth the effort."That was the main philosophy behind The List, as Yin was writing in the introduction of version 1. Well, I'm glad to say that the list was succesfull. I'll just quote Tim Train from his latest post:
"There are already several things taken from the list in the prototype or Design Koran (we're tired of design bibles around here). Many more are to come. All the anti-cheat stuff was extremely helpful, and just about every section has items we've adapted. It feels silly to list just a few things out of a 500 page document, but here's a representative sample: Minor Nations that you deal with along the way. More complex fortification \ siege warfare system, including multiple levels of city walls and specialized siege engines. The Martial Law button is a popular idea, possibly along with a 'put in jail' button whose effectiveness changes with your government types. Dozens of things from the interface, diplomacy, and combat sections"
Tim explained that while you would love to, he wont be able to be very active on the forums either due to lack of time but also cause some things could change. He made clear though that The List is indeed used by the team as reference during the development. -MarkG
NAME THAT SITE: "APOLYTON"
(11 February 2000, 11:20 EST/About) Q: How DO you pronounce the word "Apolyton"?
A: Listen and find out.
You will need to have the latest version of either the RealPlayer, or the Windows Media Player. If you are going to have the file streamed through your player, please be advised that you should be connected at 28.8K or higher. -DanQ
DINO BEFORE CIV3
(10 February 2000, 20:04 EST/Dino) Tim Train posted in our forums about civ3 today(see more about it in our civ3 section), but he also game some news about Dino. Explaining the lack of info from Firaxis' side about Civ3, he said that's simply because Dino will be released first. Based on the fact that civ3 will not be released in 2000(also according to an earlier post from Tim), can we speculate on a Q3-4/2000 release? Don't really know, give us your own guesses :) -MarkG
THE FUTURE OF CIV3
(10 February 2000, 19:56 EST/Civ3) "As we stated early this week, Brian has left Firaxis to pursue other interests. Several people on Apolyton have had questions about the status of the project, and I hope I can address some of these questions"
That's how Tim Train started his post on Civ3 forums today. With some common parts with the FAQ that was posted today(Tim actually said that most of the FAQ was based on his post), Tim presented the civ3 development team and gave some details on where the game is right now. What probably stands out more is that
"the first thing the art team did was throw out the graphics engine of Alpha Centauri ;-)"
As for why we have seen a lot of info on the dino game(well, not very much actually, but the updates on the official site have been focused on it) and none(until today) about civ3, is simply because Dino will be released first.
Above all of course, the big news is that Firaxis has finally started to talk about civ3. Waiting to hear more Tim! :) -MarkG
FAQ FROM FIRAXIS
(10 February 2000, 17:27 EST/Civ3) What are your burning questions about Civilization III at this very moment? Firaxis unveiled the first incarnation of its CivIII FAQ today; while there are numerous questions covered that Civ fans have been dying to have answered since the game was announced at last year's E3 Conference in Atlanta, GA, below are excerpts from our picks for the most "pressing three".
What is the status of Civilization III?
Our team is in heavy prototyping mode at this point, working out many of the new game concepts and features. We develop all our games starting with months of prototyping - we want to be sure the game is fun before we commit to a specific set of features...
What are the game design objectives for Civ III?
We have two main goals: to have this game be as fun as Civ I and II and to make the graphical presentation as good as any game on the market. We will accomplish this by keeping what is great about Civ I and II and adding new elements that complement the existing system...
When is Civ III scheduled for release?
An official release date has not been set for the game. We'll announce a date when the design is more solidified. -DanQ
REYNOLDS TALKS TO GAMESPY
(10 February 2000, 16:54 EST/Misc) Not long after being interviewed by GameCenter, and then informing us here at ACS about how he was quoted could have been misinterpretted, John Keefer over at GameSpy contacted us with a heads up on the one-on-one interview he had just conducted with the Firaxis co-founder.
As was hinted at over the past couple of days, Reynolds' future still lies in the gaming industry. However, today we learn that he may try his talented hands in working on titles that fall under different genres.
""I am still a strategy-games kind of guy", said Reynolds during the course of the interview. "But I will probably will move into some new genres, probably something other than what I have been typecast for".
Keefer also had the opportunity to talk to Firaxis CEO Jeff Briggs about the reorganization within the company, particularing with the development of Civilization III which Reynolds was heading.
"Believe me, losing Brian is no fun", Briggs said, "but the team we have in place has more Civilization experience than any other group anywhere, so I'm confident that the team can pull it off".
It is reported that Tim Train will lead the project role as Producer for Civilization III; the article also documents other key members on the team, and what their refined responsibilities are.
On a final note, Reynolds remains --- for the time being, anyway --- part-owner of Firaxis. No decision has been made on whether the company will buy out his shares. -DanQ
BRIAN CLARIFIES ABOUT GS INTERVIEW
(10 February 2000, 5:16 EST/Misc) We got a mail from Brian Reynolds on the Gamecenter interview. He said that the "I don't want to discuss why I left. Things happened between Sid [Meier] and Jeff [Briggs] that I don't think need to be discussed"i was not exactly accurate.
What Brian actually said was
"It just didn't work out for me with Jeff and Sid, and I'm really more interested in discussing what I'm going to be doing in the future, which I'm very excited about"
(which obviously has a better tone, doesnt it?) Anyway, Brian considers the parting with Firaxis "considerably more amicable" than what it has been presented so far.
As for the future, he said
I'm not ready to discuss what my future plans are yet, but I'm really excited about them and I look forward to sharing them with you later on!
We're all ears Brian! :) -MarkG
THE SILVER SPOT
(9 February 2000, 22:43 EST/SMAC) GamePower has posted a feature on their website about the best games of the past year, as hand picked by their reviewers, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri fell short of earning the top-spot in the strategy category, losing out to rival Age of Empires II (and this is not the first time).
SMAC also earned an Honourable Mention, along side AoK II, for Game Of The Year --- they both lost out to System Shock 2.
-DanQ
COLUMN #99; BY JOHAN PALME
(9 February 2000, 22:24 EST/Misc) Johan Palme has garnered this week's Column with his article entited "At Every Level, In Every Way".
Palme laments how creators still crave a half decent modification editor, and issues a challenge to gaming companies to take him up on it.
To comment on the article publicly, click here. -DanQ
BEST TBS OF 1999: PCG
(9 February 2000, 16:26 EST/SMAC) In the March issue of PCGamer, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is rated the best TBS (Turn-Based Strategy) title for 1999.
An excerpt from the magazine's description of the title: "Elegant, addictive and thought-provoking, Alpha Centauri has set a new standard for this genre..."
Congratulations Firaxis (and, incidentally, for posting about it first)! -DanQ
OVER 500,000 COPIES SOLD!
(9 February 2000, 15:19 EST/CtP) Some times you only have to ask. JimMac wondered about CTP's sales. We asked John Heinecke(more known to apolytoners as "Lt. John") about it and the response came fast as always: over 500,000 copies sold. To be exact: 225,000 in the US, more than 275,000 in Europe.
Comparing with SMAC, we dont have any numbers at the moment from Firaxis, but John noted that in the US SMAC sold only 5,000 copies more than CTP. -MarkG
GAMECENTER INTERVIEWS REYNOLDS
(9 February 2000, 10:18 EST/Misc) In their news roundup for today, C|Net's GameCenter has posted a brief interview with Brian Reynolds on his departure from Firaxis Games; this is the first time that Reynolds has spoken publicly on the matter.
However, not all was disclosed.
"Gamecenter: There is a lot of speculation as to why you left so abruptly. Was the departure amicable?
Brian Reynolds: I don't want to discuss why I left. Things happened between Sid [Meier] and Jeff [Briggs] that I don't think need to be discussed".
According to the article, Reynolds stated that he intended to found another game studio, perhaps with partners, and that he'd like to work on a strategy game. He said he was not lured away by another studio.
Lastly, GC is reporting that Firaxis had known about Reynolds' intention to leave since December. -DanQ
FORUM MAINTAINANCE
(9 February 2000, 7:43 EST/About) Threads archived or deleted from our forums in the last 10 days:
Deleted from S&D: 20 threads with 203 posts
Archived from S&D: 85 threads with 1496 posts
Deleted from Off-Topic: 768 threads with 12892 posts
Archived from Off-Topic: 70 threads with 4112 posts
Archived from Civ3-General: 120 threads with 1267 posts
Archived from CTP-General: 272 threads with 4421 posts
Archived from Civ2-General: 201 threads with 1742 posts
Archived from Civ2-Test of Time: 74 threads with 472 posts
Archived from AC-General: 185 threads with 1039 posts
Total deleted: 788 threads with 13095 posts
Total archived: 1025 threads with 14549 posts.
Small numbers, no? :) -MarkG
INTERVIEW WITH TIM TRAIN
(8 February 2000, 23:23 EST/Civ3) Dustin Bainbridge over at the Civilization III Civilopedia had an opportunity to talk with Tim Train about the progress of Civilization III; the conversation brought about some interesting and informative responses.
For example, when asked about the current stage of production, Train replied that the team is in the "heavy prototyping phase at this point, working out many of the new game concepts". And in response to Bainbridge's question about how the game would fit into the "Sweep Of Time" series, Train responded that "how well you do constructing your spaceship in Civilization [III] will influence how you start off in Alpha Centauri".
To read the interview in its entirety, head over to the Civilopedia website today. -DanQ
THE APOLYTON LIBRARIAN
(8 February 2000, 21:54 EST/About) No, we're not geting a new member on the team every day! :) Still, JohnT is our Librarian. What's his job you ask? Well, he will be managing the very soon to come Miscellaneous/Books and Games subcategory of AL&PD. What will this category contain? The basic idea is "not 100% civ related books and games that civers read and play". Please mail your comments, ideas and suggestions to John. -MarkG
NOMINATED FOR BEST ADD-ON
(8 February 2000, 20:09 EST/SMACX) Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, the expansion pack to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, has been nominated in the category for Best Add-On in the 1999 Computer Games Awards, as featured on Computer Games Online's website. This list does not include CGO's nominees for the Game Of The Year, however; these will be made public at a later date.
On March 1, Computer Games will announce the winners. -DanQ
PC DATA: JANUARY 23-29, 2000
(8 February 2000, 19:22 EST/Misc) Here are the titles that PC Data tracked to be the contenders for the top-selling PC games in the industry for the period January 23-29, 2000:
1. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire from Disney
2. Centipede | Hasbro Interactive
3. Parker Brothers Classic Card Games | Hasbro Interactive
4. Milton Bradley Classic Games | Hasbro Interactive
5. Roller Coaster Tycoon | Hasbro Interactive
6. Final Fantasy VIII | Electronic Arts
7. Age of Empires II: Age Of Kings | Microsoft
8. Roller Coaster Tycoon Corkscrew Follies | Hasbro Interactive
9. Microsoft Flight Simulator Pro | Microsoft
10. Starcraft | Havas Interactive
-DanQ
HASBRO LOSES $53M IN 1999
(8 February 2000, 19:15 EST/Misc) As first reported by the Adrenaline Vault, Hasbro Interactive lost $53 million for the 12 months that was 1999 despite watching its games dominate the top sellers list.
Hasbro Interactive did not fare well in the fourth quarter or during the year, with a $53 million after-tax loss for all of 1999. The company blamed the shortfall on an industry-wide slump in video and CD-ROM sales. The company said its original interactive software plan going into the year was $300 million in revenue. They missed that by 25 percent. Analysts said it was not a Hasbro-specific indication, citing instead the price discounting in the education segment spilling over into games.
For more information, click the link above to read the full article. -DanQ
NO LOOKING BACK
(8 February 2000, 19:08 EST/Misc) The Adrenaline Vault early this afternoon posted some additional information on Brian Reynolds leaving Firaxis and the details around it.
AV contacted Reynolds today, who, according to the Vault's news item, "offered no concrete explanation other than that things did not turn out between himself, president and CEO Jeff Briggs, and designer Sid Meier".
The only comment Reynolds offered on his future plans is that he does not want to, quote, "dwell on the past because I am very excited about what I will be doing in the future".
Our thanks to the Civilization III Civilopedia for informing us after scouping the headline first. -DanQ
HEY! SOMETHING`S MOVING OVER THERE!
(8 February 2000, 17:11 EST/CtP) Most would say that Activision have given up on CTP. Still, our sensors are indicating signals of life in the offices of the CTP team! And looks like they have been actually working on something all these months of silence.
Be sure that this site will be one of the first(if not the first) sources of information for whatever is in the works in Activision's CTP Labs... -MarkG
NOT IN 2000!!
(8 February 2000, 12:21 EST/Civ3) Finally some more info from Firaxis. Tim Train on the Release Date Pool thread in our Civ3-General forum:
"FWIW, (and I apologize if this has already been answered elsewhere) this game will not release in 2000 and has never been slated for that timeframe. We're still a long ways from figuring out a release date. We plan to make Civ 3 a triple-A title in every category, including of course art, design, AI, and playbalance; unfortunately these things take time. But happily, when we're there, you will have the best incarnation of the series, and we won't release it until it is the best.
Hope this clarifies!"
It does Tim, thanks! So, next time you see a site mentioning a release date for Civ3, send them a "you're an idiot!" mail (j/k) -MarkG
