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Illwinter Game Design has announced the release of Dominions for Mac OS X, including a demo available now for you to try. The title is a turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy world in which you get to be a pretending god. The full game is very large, with many hundred spells, magical items, and units.

In Dominions you design your own god, and then strive to take over the lands of other neighboring deities. You're able to play either alone or online with up to 13 other 'pretender gods' in many modes of play like TCP/IP, hotseat, or email. Here are a few features from the game's web site:

• Design your own God by choosing his physical form, magic skills and how his dominion affects the world.
  
• Dominion. Make sure that the dominion of enemy gods doesn't enter and corrupt your lands.
  
• The worlds most famous heroes will be granted heroic abilities that grows with their fame.
  
• Mercenaries are bought on a global market, all players can bid, but only one will get them.
  
• Build fortresses to protect your lands and to boost your production. Fortresses must be besieged before they can be stormed.
  
• Huge automatic battles with hundreds of units.
  
• Create your own monsters and scenarios.

The port seems to be possible thanks in large part to the cross-platform SDL (Simple Directmedia Layer), which allows developers to share code between Mac, Windows, and many flavors of Unix. In order to run the game, or the demo, the instructions require you first install an included version of the SDL. After unzipping the Dominions demo package, simply run the SDL installer and copy the game to your hard drive in order to play.

Dominions (add to watch list)

Dominions Manuals & Quick Start Guides

Download Dominions Demo (15MB)

IMG's OS X Week continues with a look at some essential software for OS X. While OS X is still in its infancy, its library, while understandably sparse at the moment, continues to grow at a steady rate as more and more developers turn their efforts toward it. Today we look at utilities, hackies, and applications you'll need for OS X.

Here's a snippet:

As a tribute to this growing library, I’d like to present some programs that I consider to be indispensable for my day-to-day use of OS X. Though “must-have software” is at best a matter of opinion, I feel that the presented list should be useful to most users, particularly those that are still getting their bearings as to this latest of Mac OS flavors.

OS X Week: Essential Software

Apple (add to watch list)

Recently IMG migrated to a brand-spanking new X-Serve and a new host. However, thanks to our increase need for bandwidth (we're currently serving about 250 Gigs a month), we're now looking for a new host for our X-Serve (our current host rocks but we're cheap bastards and need a good yet cheap solution).

So, we're looking for ideas. If anyone out there is interested in hosting IMG or has ideas on where we could move to, please contact IMG Publisher Tuncer Deniz at tuncer@insidemacgames.com.

Inside Mac Games (add to watch list)

Due to popular demand, Inside Mac Games is now offering IMG t-shirts in various sizes from medium to XXL.

The first IMG t-shirt features the IMG "joystick" logo in the left-front pocket area with a big IMG "joystick" logo with the words "Inside Mac Games" below the logo on the back.

The second IMG t-shirt features the IMG "joystick" logo and the words "Inside Mac Games" on the front chest area and the IMG "joystick" log on the back with the words "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Half-Life" on the back.

Both t-shirts are in white and available in medium, large, extra large, and extra-extra large, and will begin shipping in early October. Each t-shirt costs just $14.95 plus shipping and handling.

To place your pre-order, head over to the IMG Store.

IMG Logo T-Shirt (Front)

IMG Logo T-Shirt (Back)

IMG No Stinkin Half-Life T-Shirt (Front)

IMG No Stinkin Half-Life T-Shirt (Back)

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Mac game publishers take note. According to a press release issued by Atari, the Unreal Tournament 2003 demo released for the PC on September 13th has garnered nearly 1.2 million downloads between the 13th and the 18th. What's more, the global Internet Traffic Index, which tracks how fast information is transferred through the Internet, took a sizeable hit when the demo was released. According to the index, the average speed of the Internet worldwide was cut nearly in half.

"After the long hard hours the team spent working on this game it's really gratifying for us to see so many people so eager to play what we've created," said James Schmalz, founder and creative director of Digital Extremes. "It's great to see the incredible reaction we've gotten to the innovations in gameplay that we've added to the sequel. It confirms what we set out to do in evolving the game to the next level."

"It's great to see the community that loved Unreal Tournament embrace the new iteration of the franchise in such overwhelming numbers," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games. "I can't wait to deliver the full version of the game and watch the community strengthen and expand as competitions, LAN parties and new, innovative mods are born from the new technology."

Unreal Tournament 2003 for the PC recently went gold and will be hitting the store shelves in a few days. Epic Games also recently announced that they would be porting UT 2003 to the Mac. According to Epic, the game should be available for Mac users before the end of the year.

Digital Extremes (add to watch list)

Unreal Tournament 2003 (add to watch list)

Buy Unreal Tournament 2003

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A recent post in the World War II Online forums talks about an upcoming 1.67 patch and what it means for users. In the two-post thread, producer Chris "Mo" Sherland explains why the requirements on the user's video card will increase with the update. It seems they've been working hard to offload much of the work of the CPU onto video cards that support hardware T&L (texturing and lighting).

They have also upped the quality of the textures across the board, so the game should look even better now. Users with video cards having 32MB of VRAM or less will likely have to run the game in "reduced textures" mode, but they assure players even this will be an improvement over the current situation:

Video cards with 32MB or less of memory will need to run WWIIOL with “texture reduction” routines enabled within the setup app to be able to render some of the new larger textures. This means that the new textures will be reduced and not look as pretty as they do on the higher memory cards. Keep in mind that they will still look a lot better than the old textures even when reduced, and give the same fields of cover as they would not reduced.

Also, cards that do not support Hardware Transform and Lighting (“Hardware TnL”) will probably see performance drop as the rendering routines that are now designed to push data to the video card are still being run on the CPU. We took advantage of hardware TnL and added or enhanced some graphic features, there’s simply more to see. This means that non-TnL cards will simply be working harder than they do now and so will the CPU.

DX 8.1, WWIIOL, and your video card

Strategy First (add to watch list)

Cornered Rat Software (add to watch list)

World War II Online (add to watch list)

The on again, off again DOOM movie may finally be on again. Despite several failed attempts over the past few years, it seems Warner Bros. Pictures is in final negotiations to bring the video game to the big screen. Once a deal is in place, a writer will pen the screenplay and production on the film would begin shortly after the script is finished and approved.

According to published reports, the film's story will likely resemble DOOM III's storyline, which is set on a futuristic military base on Mars. When a scientific experiment goes awry and accidently opens a portal to hell, the hero must battle demonic forces.

Warner Bros. is targeting a PG-13 rating for the movie.

id Software (add to watch list)

Buy DOOM 3

The GarageGames site has mention of tickets for their upcoming Indie Games Conferernce 2002 event now being up for sale. There are a limited number of spaces available for this three-day convention on November 1, 2, and 3, and tickets cost $150 a piece. The price of the ticket covers the catered food, an Indie Games Con T-Shirt, and full access to all events in the three days.

If you're in independent game developer (or would like to be), you might consider attending the conference in Eugene, Oregon. The official web site has now been fleshed out with much more information, and a schedule is available to see what will be going on. Here's a quick overview:

• Keynote Speach -- Jeff Tunnell, GarageGames
  
• Presentations from Industry leaders
  
• Panel and Group Discussions
  
• Show-and-Tell
  
• Prizes and Give-Aways
  
• LAN Party

Indie Games Convention 2002

GarageGames (add to watch list)

Logitech, maker of popular peripherals for Mac and PC, has announced the addition of a new line of mice to their already impressive inventory. The MX mouse returns to some of Logitech's earlier styling influences, but mice like the MX 700 contain many impressive new features for those users needing many buttons, confortable grips, and wireless, optical control. In a particularly impressive engineering feat, the MX 700's wireless receiver also doubles as a charger for its batteries:

MX™ 700 Cordless Optical Mouse - The flagship of the new series, the MX700 is the first mouse to feature Logitech's new Fast RF cordless technology; an advanced digital system that delivers the responsiveness of a corded connection, but without the cord. The receiver for the MX700 also serves as a fast charging station. The rechargeable nickel metal-hydride (NiMH) batteries will be powered for a whole day's worth of use with just a ten-minute charge.

The MX700 has a new comfortable contoured right-handed shape with a continuous key plate and eight programmable navigation buttons. The mouse is painted with a blue/black surface and has highly polished silver accents. Now available for $79.95 USD.

Logitech MX Mice Press Release

MX700 (add to watch list)

MX500 (add to watch list)

MX300 (add to watch list)

Logitech (add to watch list)

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