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HardwareAccelerated.com recently got a chance to talk to Tom Anthony, a lead game tester at Ambrosia Software about their hit Space Shooter/RPG Escape Velocity: Nova. The article mainly focuses on the porting of Nova to the Windows platform, including the reason for the port and some other information related to the port.

Here's a preview of the article:

HA: What type of process do the Mac executable and essential files go through to become Windows compliant?

TA: Chris Jacobson at Contraband is the lead programmer on the port, and he could probably give you quite a tale of trouble and tribulation on this. The Mac platform uses a method of file storage that allows for two 'forks', one is the 'data fork' and the other the 'resource fork', which is used for all of EV Nova's essential files. PC's have no method for storing resource forks, and so Contraband's president, Bill Heineman, developed a system that they now use to store this information. So each of the essential files has to be converted to this format.

HA: Planning on adding anything new or different to the Windows version, or is Contraband Entertainment sticking to the game plan? What type of differences could users see between playing EV: Nova on their Mac and their PC?

TA: Nope, this will be an out and out port of the Mac version, we are keeping the builds in synch with the current Mac build and intend to keep them as close as possible.

Ambrosia Interview

Ambrosia Software (add to watch list)

Escape Velocity: Nova (add to watch list)

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