DAVE INSCORE ON APOLYTON
(20 July 2002, 22:38 | RoN | 8 comments) 
Former Firaxian, Co-founder and Vise President of Graphics of Big Huge Games and Art Director on Rise of Nations, Dave Inscore talks to us about the mysterious ways of those "developers" creatures as well as a huge list of the most important things in this life: Alpha Centauri, Rise of Nations, etc :) - MarkG
JEFF BRIGGS INTERVIEW
(20 July 2002, 22:18 | Misc) Jeff Briggs, Firaxis Games CEO, discusses his career and the company he leads in a new interview on Player of Games posted yesterday. Items touched upon include a revisit on the origin of the company`s name -- says Briggs, the words Fire and Axis, when combined into FIRAXIS, create for me a dramatic image of elemental creation -- but also the highs and lows of running one`s own gaming company, general advice for would-be developers and what lead to the formation of Firaxis in 1996 in the first place.
At MicroProse... the situation had become untenable and I could no longer, in good conscious, implement the plans that were being made for me by the guys at Spectrum. I had just finished producing Civilization II and was convinced that I now knew enough to strike out on my own.
Thanks to Apocalypse for the news tip. - DanQ
C#211 CIV3: THE LAST GLASS OF WINE
(20 July 2002, 21:03 | Misc | -1 comments) Our latest column is here:
CIV3: THE LAST GLASS OF WINE
The eternal issue: exactly how much does civ3... ;)
2.5 Articles in one!
Btw, in a week, we`ll be desparate for articles: Submit your Column today! - MarkG
APOLYTON NEWS 8-14/JUL/2002
(20 July 2002, 20:56 | Misc) The 8-14/July/2002 Newsletter has been sent
The main headlines are:
- New Rise of Nations Videos, Preview, Civ Showcase
http://apolyton.net/ron
- Civ2 MultiSite Democracy Game!
http://apolyton.net/civ2
- SEGA/Infogrames rumours, Firaxis gets 3D technology
http://apolyton.net/misc
IN A FLASH: Tons of RoN stuff(Microsoft knows how to build up hype i guess ;)) this week with new videos, a new preview and civ showcase feature. On the civ side, the first big step towards a multiplayer site democracy game has been made. The teams are forming up, the greatest civ2 battle ever is coming soon! :) In our corporate news, Firaxis got some 3d technology license for the next game that will certainly have lots of... 3d graphics while rumours on the stock markets say that SEGA might be buying Infogrames. And we`re having a hat offer that ends tomorrow! http://apolyton.net/store. - MarkG
ACSR DAILY: JULY 18TH, 2002
(19 July 2002, 21:39 | Misc) The July 18th, 2002 edition of "ACSR Daily" is now available for broadcasting live on-demand.
Encoded in RealAudio format, total length is 2m:04s. - DanQ
ACSR DAILY: JULY 17TH, 2002
(18 July 2002, 20:28 | Misc) The July 17th, 2002 edition of "ACSR Daily" is now available for broadcasting live on-demand.
Encoded in RealAudio format, total length is 1m:57s. - DanQ
V1.29F PATCH UNLEASHED
(18 July 2002, 19:48 | Civ3) A day earlier than expected, Firaxis Games released the latest patch for Civilization III, v1.29f, on their website. The 10.1MB file can be downloaded from either Firaxis or the Apolyton mirror (North America). The European mirror will also carry this latest release within the next 48hrs.
The French and German localizations are anticipated to becoming available over the next few weeks. Thanks to That Gene Character for the heads up. - DanQ
MULTIPLAYER TOURNAMENT
(18 July 2002, 18:50 | CtP2 | -1 comments) The Single-player Tournament has quickly become popular so the next step is a logical one: a Multi-player Tournament. So that`s exactly what`s currently being organised - and we need players! So if you`re interested in playing Multiplayer CtP2, whether you`ve never played MP before and would like to give it a try or whether you are a veteran player keen on showing all of Apolyton you`re the best, sign up for the MP tournament now! So far only 2 players have signed up, so there is plenty of room for more people. A sign-up bonus has been written out for all participants: everyone who plays gets a discount from the Apolyton Store! Details on the structure and the rules of the tournament are currently being discussed and you are most welcome to join in, just proceed to the forums. - Locutus
NPD CHART: JUNE 30-JULY 6, 2002
(17 July 2002, 22:25 | Misc) Below are The Top Ten Selling PC Games for the week June 30-July 6, 2002, according to NPDTechWorld. 
Blizzard Entertainment`s Warcrraft III: Reign Of Chaos dethroned the two-time defending roleplaying game, Neverwinter Nights, in its first week on the chart thanks to impressive sales even befoe its release -- pre-orders numbered several million. Seemingly out of nowhere, Starcraft Battle Chest captures the tenth position giving Blizzard a full 30% reign of the chart. In other moves, Zoo Tycoon returns to the fold at number nine.
Rank. Title (Publisher) -- $Price [USD]
1. Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos (Blizzard Entertainment) -- $60
2. Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos Collector`s Edition (Blizzard Entertainment) -- $75
3. Neverwinter Nights (Infogrames) -- $55
4. The Sims: Vacation Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts) -- $26
5. The Sims (Electronic Arts) -- $41
6. Grand Theft Auto 3 (Take 2 Interactive/Rockstar) -- $49
7. Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault (Electronic Arts) -- $46
8. Backyard Baseball 2003 (Infogrames Entertainment) -- $20
9. Microsoft Zoo Tycoon (Microsoft) -- $30
10. Starcraft: Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) -- $20
Source: [ PC|IGN ] - DanQ
MUSIC SOUND BYTE
(17 July 2002, 22:09 | MoO3 | 25 comments) A 1.46MB MP3 file, entitled "Love Song For A Harvester", has now been made available for download from the official Master of Orion III website. It`s a sample of the music you`ll hear in the game, created by Brian Williams.
Thanks to timorange and Randal "Playshogi" Andrews for the news tip. - DanQ
ACSR DAILY: JULY 17TH, 2002
(17 July 2002, 16:52 | Misc) The July 16th, 2002 edition of "ACSR Daily" is now available for broadcasting live on-demand.
Encoded in RealAudio format, total length is 3m:20s. - DanQ
1.29 EDITOR SCREENS
(17 July 2002, 11:27 | Civ3 | -1 comments) Mike Breitkreutz, the Firaxian programmer behind the Civ3 editor posted two screenshots of the properties winows of a city and a unit in the upcoming version of the editor:
Mike also posted some additions that are not in the posted readme:
* Editor: Enabled Add/Delete buttons for Units.
* Editor: Enabled Add/Delete buttons for Natural Resources.
* Editor: Added compression to BIC files. Use View->Options to disable.
* Added ability to set number of autosaves in INI file using "Max Autosaves=#" where # is the number of autosaves to use (the default is 5).
- MarkG
1.29F PATCH README!
(17 July 2002, 09:29 | Civ3 | -1 comments) A really huge list of fixes, changes and additions makes the 1.29F Patch Readme!
Check it out and prepare yourselves for one more "Patch&Chat" Friday! - MarkG
GC BETA FOR NON-DRENGIN USERS
(16 July 2002, 20:27 | GalCiv) Non-Drengin.net users will soon be able to try out a beta version of Galactic Civilizations. First, it was 1A and then before many released it was set to be made publicly availalbe, 1B is replacing it. 1A was available via the Game Manager earlier today and reportedly 1B is available now. Among the changes, 1A/1B included, those in bold of are particular note:
* AI loads troops more intelligently
* Extra files removed (should fix some crashing)
* Invasion spacebar bug fixed
* "No governor" is no longer a governor
* Music won`t cause slow down on systems with no sound card.
* New alien player views added
* AI resource adjustments on different difficulty levels. Play at Average/Cake walk and you are on even ground.
* When enough trade routes have been destroyed, a dialog informs you that the trade route is permanently gone.
* Economic calculations switched from integer to floating point (more of this will go throughout the calcs) to better demonstrate the benefits of social improvements.
For a full list of changes, click here for the write-up on GalCiv`s official website. - DanQ
TO INDUSTRY, THANKS FROM IG
(16 July 2002, 20:08 | Misc) Infogrames is today touting all the awards and nominations they picked up for its product line-up shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo back in May in Los Angeles, California. On that list included Sid Meier`s Civilization III.
[It received] praise from Rolling Stone magazine [and] the magazine`s "2001 Rolling Stone Gaming Award" as one of the best games of 2001, the press release highlights. The magazine praised the game for the addition of new concepts "without losing the fundamental playability that makes it a mainstream hit". [..] [CivIII] also captured PC World magazine`s "World Class Award," as well as "Strategy Game of the Year" awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and Computer Games magazine.
Thanks to GameSpyDaily for the news tip. - DanQ
ACSR DAILY: JULY 15TH, 2002
(16 July 2002, 16:59 | Misc) The July 15th, 2002 edition of "ACSR Daily" is now available for broadcasting live on-demand.
Encoded in RealAudio format, total length is 5m:41s. - DanQ
21000 LOGINS, COUNTRY FLAG FEATURE
(16 July 2002, 14:11 | About | -1 comments) Our pace seems to be not changing at all! Once more it tooks us 5 weeks for the next 1000 users, reaching 21000.
In celebration, we added a new feature: you can now state your country in your profile. A flag (like this 
) will appear next to your name in your posts, your profile and in the members list. Also in the members list, we are showing statistics on the country field, as well as members filtered based on a specific country. We`re looking forward to your feedback.
And now for our visitors numbers: from 233,396 in May, "only" 217,475 people visited us in June. The summer is affecting us and the so far numbers for July show yet more decrease. Our posting levels are certainly high though, often surpassing 3000 posts per day!
So once again, THANK YOU! - MarkG
FC V1.13 FINAL RELEASE
(15 July 2002, 20:11 | Alt) The final release of Freeciv, version 1.13.0, in both GZip (5.45MB) and BZip2 (4.10MB) formats was unveiled today. While a a full list of what`s new in this release is available on the game's official website, here is a highlight reel of what has changed from v1.12.0:
* Citizen Management Agent (CMA) allows you to automate workers and specialists in cities.
* Sound support has been added.
* The new "isotrident" tileset has been made the default. The "hires" and "engels" tilesets have been taken out of the distribution but can be downloaded from the web page.
* Improved players dialog shows sortable and colored information, including the players` flags.
* Trade routes are more effective.
* CivII ruleset now has Fundamentalism.
* If you lose your palace, you get a new one for free in a randomly chosen city. This behaviour can be turned off with the server option "savepalace".
* The limit on the number of nations that can be included with Freeciv has been removed.
Note that this is only a source code release. Binaries for various platforms will be made available soon. Thanks to CapTVK and Paul Zastoupil for the news tip. - DanQ
ACSR WEEKEND: JULY 14TH, 2002
(15 July 2002, 18:38 | Misc) The July 14th, 2002 edition of "ACSR Weekend" is now available for broadcasting live on-demand.
Encoded in RealAudio format, total length is 5m:59s. - DanQ
1.29 CHAT THIS FRIDAY!!
(15 July 2002, 12:44 | Civ3 | -1 comments) So it`s true! Exactly 3 months after the third patch, the 4th Civ3 patch is coming this Friday, July 19, 2002.
Keeping the tradition we will be chatting with Firaxians on the changes especially thwe work on the editor.
The details...
- Date: Friday, July 19th, 2002
- Time: 16:00est (21:00gmt)
- Location: #Apolyton channel, DALnet
network
- Access via: any irc client(like mIRC) or java applet at http://apolyton.net/misc/chat/room.shtml
Be there! - MarkG
PATCH 1.29F THIS FRIDAY
(15 July 2002, 11:42 | Civ3 | -1 comments) Firaxis` Barry Caudill contacted us to bring us the good news:
Civ3 v1.29f is just about ready to ship. We are finishing up the testing process right now and we should be releasing the patch this Friday (7/19/02).
The readme.txt should be made public on Wednesday as usual. - MarkG
CHIPS&BITS TOP10 4-10/JUL/2002
(15 July 2002, 05:03 | Misc) 
WARCRAFT III PC is, by far, above and beyond every contender in the #1 seat. NEVERWINTER NIGHTS PC is unchanged at #2 for the 6th straight week. SPACE EMPIRES IV GOLD PC has gained the #3 spot.
1. WarCraft III $47.95
2. Neverwinter Nights $54.95
3. Space Empires IV Gold $44.95
4. Championship Manager 2001-2002 Season $37.95
5. Grand Prix 4 $39.95
6. Sid Meier`s Civil War Collection $14.95
7. Fulda Gap `85 $34.95
8. Age of Wonders II $38.95
9. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind $42.95
10. Transport Tycoon Deluxe $19.95
- MarkG
C3DG: ELECTIONS!
(15 July 2002, 04:53 | Civ3) Elections are being held on the Civ3 Democracy Game(C3DG), and especially the Presidential vote is an exciting one(currently at a 47-47 tie)! The full list:
- President
- Vice-President
- Minister of Imperial Expansion
- Minister of Public Works
- Minister of the Economy
- Minister of the Military
- Minister of Science
- Minister of Foreign Affairs
- City Planner
- Historian
For more news on the C3DG, check out one of the best sources for it, http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=55629>The Jungle Gazette! - MarkG
C2DG: VICTORY!
(15 July 2002, 04:02 | Civ2 | 27 comments)
July 2002 Council
President: MrWhereItsAt
Vice-president: 123john321
Science Advisor: H Tower
Foreign Advisor: Hydey
Minister of War: Shade
Minister of Trade: Matticus
Minister of Cities: atawa
Historian: cavebear
Former Presidents
Marquis de Sodaq
Shaka Naldur
Shade
cavebear (May&June) |
The first Civ2 Democracy Game is now over as President MrWhereItsAt announced the vistory of the Apolytonian people over the entire world!
Congratulations are very certainly in order - we have taken a civilization from nothing to world domination before the 20th century, and with collective decisions. I have been privileged to be involved in this endeavour, and honoured to have been chosen as final Premier of Apolytonia - to lead us all to final victory.
The ending was quick, taking over 5 civs in 50 years!
1776 AD - Egypt and Rome
1778 AD - America
1810 AD - India
1818 AD - Babylonia
1826 AD - Carthage
End game shots, graphs and celebrations at the vistory thread.
A new game should start soon. - MarkG
CIV3 FOR $5.... PER MONTH
(15 July 2002, 03:39 | Civ3) Adrenaline Vault has presented their Rental service for some time now, offering broadband(DSL/cable/T1) users easy access to games at a small cost.
Now AV is having a special offer for Civilization III at $4.99 per month. The offer is among lots of other options of packs of Infogrames titles.
It will be certainly interesting to see an offer with Play the World in it, this fall. Thanks to ColdFever for the newstip. - MarkG
