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One day after the release of their new game Bugdom 2,Pangea Software has released a point update to their long-anticipated game. The updates fixes a major problem that caused Bugdom 2 to not work under older systems such as Mac OS 9 and Mac OS 9.1.

According to their website, the 1.0.1 addresses issues for users running the game in OS 9:

Should now work fine on old versions of OS 9 like 9.0 and 9.1.

Fixed a problem saving games on OS 9.

Fixed some minor localization issues.

Improved some vague error messages that some people were encountering.

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Bugdom 2 1.0.1 Update

Bugdom 2 1.0.1 Demo and Full Version

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Bugdom 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the popular action-adventure game, has finally been released and so far has been garnering high praise. We recently caught up with Pangea's Brian Greenstone to chat about the game he just released.

Here's a clip from the interview:

IMG: Now that the game has been release, how do you think it turned out?

Greenstone: I think it turned out 3x better than I had expected when we first started. Seriously, I had my doubts if we were going to be able to come up with 10 more unique levels when we started. It took a lot of effort, but I think we ended up with a game that's much better than the original Bugdom, and I'm very happy with it!

IMG Feature: Bugdom 2 Post-Mortem Interview

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IMG is looking for a few dedicated writers and news reporters to work on the Inside Mac Games web site. Here's some of the current openings at IMG:

Writer
Write reviews, features, and previews for Inside Mac Games. Must have outstanding writing skills. If you're interested, please email tuncer@insidemacgames.com with a little bio of yourself and include writing samples (or URLs to writing samples).

News Reporter
Scour the Internet and other sources for news stories and submit them to our Senior News Editor. Must have good writing skills. If you're interested, please email tuncer@insidemacgames.com with a little bio of yourself and include writing samples (or URLs to writing samples).

We're looking for dedicated peope only who can write well and commit some of their time to a cool web site. If you don't think you'll have the time or energy, please don't e-mail us. But if you love Macintosh games and love writing, then by all means, let us know!

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Brad Custer, IMG's desktop guru has once again graced us with one of his creations. This week's desktop features e.p.i.c. Interactive's Earth 2140.

Here's what Brad had to say about his latest creation:

Earth 2140 has been a request resurfacing in my email for awhile now. With the help of the gang at e.p.i.c. interactive and their generous supply of art I was able to create this week's desktop. I entitled it "Apocalypse" and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Custer's Desktops

Owners of the PCI Radeon 7000 who have yet to download and install ATI's recently released October 2002 drivers may want to hold off on updating. A recent thread in IMG's forums concerning the new drivers contains several reports from Radeom 7000 users that the latest drivers cause graphical problems with Warcraft III, including "funny colors and flashing textures."

A thread at Accelerate Your Mac also reports the same issues with yet more users:

Installed the update on my Beige G3 updated with G4 466 and a ATI 7000 (OS X 10.2.1). Quartz extreme NOT enabled via PCI hack. Now the video in Warcraft III is all screwed up. Not sure how to explain it but everything was the same color. The colors they would flicker in and out Green, Yellow, Red. Sometimes it would look fine but only for a second. Made the game very hard to play. Just a word of caution to others.

I don't think the July 2002 update will install in OS X 10.2 (the installer checks the OS X version usually based on past history with ATI updaters for OS X.) Note - one reader later wrote the July 2002 updater did install in 10.2, but I'm not going to test that personally. ATI had commented in the past that the installer checks of OS X versions were to prevent possible problems with future OS X versions that could have components like Opengl, etc. changed.) There may be a way to manually remove the update/reinstall the ATI drivers from the OS X 10.2 CD. Pacifist is a popular utility for extracting the DVD player, etc. from OS X CDs but have not used it personally.

Accelerate Your Mac

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Computer gaming site HomeLan Fed has recently released an interview with Jeff Morris, a Producer/Designer for developer Firaxis. The focus of this interview is on Play the World, an upcoming expansion for the popular turn-based strategy title Civilization III.

Most of the interview focues on the new multiplayer aspects introduced with the expansion. Though the various modes and new civilizations have been covered in the past, Morris notes that there will be flexibility even in multiplayer games, as the senario editor can be used in both single and multiplayer senarios.

He also expounds a bit on the innovative Turnless mode:

Our new Turnless mode is as close as a player can get to a real-time experience in a turn-based game. When playing Turnless, you never have to wait for another player to end their turn. If they don’t make a move within a certain time, they simply lose it. To prevent a single unit from being moved over and over, all units and cities operate on an individual turn clock. Once a unit moves (or a city produces something) you can’t move them again for a set amount of time. It takes Civ multiplayer to a whole new level of fun.

As for a Mac release, there's no word yet, but given the popularity of Civ III, we're hoping to hear an official announcement sometime in the future.

HomeLan Fed - Civilization III: Play The World Interview

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Civilization III (add to watch list)

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Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software has posted a new thread on his company's forums page seeking help to stamp all the bugs out of the new patch of their recently-released game pop-pop.

According to Andrew's post, the 1.0.2 update to pop-pop sports new gameplay tweaks, and incorporates Apple's new Rendezvous networking technology.

For those of you not in the know, pop-pop is a new twist on the "Breakout"-type of game play, with flashy graphics, brightly-coloured screens, and highly-stylized artwork that makes for an amazingly addictive game. On top of the game's 100 single-player maps, pop-pop also features multiplayer capabilities, allowing you to find other players through either the game's game tracker feature or using the game's built-in GameRanger support.

If you're serious about your commitment and you're interested in helping Ambrosia develop better software, or want to get an inside look on game development, head on over to the forum thread and check it out!

IMG Review: pop-pop

Beta Testers Required for pop-pop Version 1.0.2

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Apple's Rendezvous Technology

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The Wolfpack Studios Team has just posted a new feature at popular video gaming community Gamespy, regarding their upcoming MMORPG, Shadowbane.

The feature gives gamers an in-depth look at the choices players will have when they wish to create their own character in Shadowbane. Included is a complete list of all 10 races (with more on the way), 4 classes, 5 attributes, and explanation of both traits and talents, and appearance options. Here's a sneak peak:

Minotaurs: Half-man, half-bull, the minotaurs are the products of experiments by elves upon humans. In past ages the slow-witted, but powerful, creatures were used for labor and as shock troops. Free now, they are fearsome warriors. All minotaurs are male. They are monolithically strong, even greater than half-giants, and their constitution is a thing of legend. Regrettably, they are generally clumsier, less intelligent, and far less spiritual than other races.

Shadowbane: The Races (And More)

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Video gaming community XGR has posted another exclusive Q&A with Digital Extremes designer James Schmalz, and have a little chat about two upcoming games in the Unreal series, Unreal Tournament 2003 (out for PC, coming soon to Mac), and Unreal Championship (for the XBox gaming console).

All the questions that are asked in the interview are from some of the many emails fans sent in during a previous interview with Shmalz. The follow-up hopes to answer the questions that were left out. Here's an excerpt:

Are you guys going to charge us for downloadable content?

No. The first batch of downloadable content is already made up and it's free as long as you have purchased UC and signed up for XBox live. Most of the downloadable content will be offered this way. That is not to say there is no possibility of a large add-on pack that could be made available for download at a cost, but there are no current plans for it.

James Schmalz Follow-up Questions

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