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SMAC UNDER CIV3? NOT EXACTLY, BUT...
(24 January 2000, 11:11 EST) It was a wise move when connorkimbro added the word "firaxis" in the subject of his thread titled: "question for firaxis: the civIII engine". Why? cause he actually got some response from Jeff Morris :)
You might now the speculation that civ3 will use the smac engine, in way or the other. JKM replied
"The SMAC engine is an elusive beast. It uses a bunch of different components that are pretty much interchangable. If you're talking about graphics-wise, it most likely will NOT being using the SMAC graphics-engine"
Now, what does that actually mean? Well, first that we will have a new graphics engine, and second that other parts of the smac code could be used. Or not... :) Give your thoughts in the same thread in the civ3 forum. -MarkG
MIND WORMS BOOK REVIEW
(28 January 2000, 22:41 EST) A user in our forums has posted his review of the graphic novel "Power of The Mind Words", based on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
The user, who goes by the nickname 'Captain Kirk', states that while the techs and the mind worms themselves were "way messed up" that "it was an okay book".
Have you read the book? Feel free to add your input in the entry of the book in AL&PD. -DanQ
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Apolyton
&Friends News22-28
January
2000
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AC PLANETARY PACK!
PLANETARY PACK=GOLD
(27 January 2000, 14:34 EST) On the 21st we had posted about something we found on EBWorld, called "Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack". At the time we had no other information about it, but today Firaxis' Lindsay Riehl confirmed to us that it is actually what Jeff Morris had referred to as "SMAC Gold"(see news item on the 24th). According to Lidsay a retail price is not set yet, but the pack is expected to be available sometime in spring. -MarkG
COMING: SMAC 5.0, SMAC GOLD
(24 January 2000, 19:29 EST) It's another "Jeff Morris Day" for our forums :) About the SMAC 5.0 patch that will include all the fixes of smac-x, he replied and also gave some news SMAC Gold, a soon to be relased "bundle" of smac and smac-x.
"It's done, but hasn't entered testing. We're currently focusing on SMACGold, which is a marketing SKU containing SMAC and SMACX (that's it!).
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Once that's done, we'll start looking at the patch question again. If we do a v3 for SMACX, we might wait until it's done and incorporate any SMAC fixes into a new v5. We'll have it more organized in a few weeks"
So don't hold your breath... :) Give your comments in the same thread -MarkG
LOCALIZED SMACX 2.0: NOT VERY SOON
(25 January 2000, 8:45 EST) If you're waiting for a localized version of the smacx v2.0 patch, you'll probably have to wait a bit more. Jeff Morris reported that status of it in a related thread of our smac-general forum:
"It's being translated is all we know. Once we get the text back, we'll put it together and submit it to EA test"
In other, a bit related, news, SMAC Gold(see yesterday's news item) will have all the fixes of smac v4 and smacx v2 included, right from the box. -MarkG
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INTERNATIONAL ORDERS AT FIRAXIS.COM
(28 January 2000, 20:06 EST) Firaxis announced yesterday that their e-commerce section of the official site (titled "Shop@Firaxis") is now accepting international orders. Available are all Firaxis' games: "The Great Battle Series" - Gettysburg!, and the newly released Antietam! (which is available for purchase exclusively through the Firaxis website) as well as Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire.
Something interesting to note here is that SMAC and SMAC-X are listed as part of the "Sweep of Time Series". -MarkG
ACS CHOSEN AMONG 100 BEST FAN SITES
(26 January 2000, 12:45 EST) Atahualpa reported to us that the German "PcAction" magazine in it's latest 02/2000 issue published along with the "PcGames" magazine(also German) a list of the best fan sites for 100 games. Apolyton was chosen as the best fan site for Civilization 2 and Civilization: Call to Power. The description(translated by Ata) for our civ2 section(only 50% right about that "From Greece" :)) was:
"From Greece, this english-speaking site provides Civ-Fans with information. Now that Game-Guru Sid Meier works at Firaxis, news from this company is included. For Civ 2 you find lots and lots of stuff."
and for the CTP one:
"On this page you discover especially much material, in order to "revalue" Call to Power. New maps, complete scenarios, even whole campaigns can be downloaded. Detailed strategies and tactics to the game by Activision included. Particularly interesting: Detailed polls reflect the opinion of fans. Can't be done better!"
Beyond that, each site was rated, and our was(3 stars as the best)
actuality ***
information ***
design **
overview **
overall ***
We should also note that Sidgames was awarded as the best fan site for Alpha Centauri, and that at least two Gamestats affiliates, the AOE Heaven and AOK Heaven sites, were awarded for the respective games.
Our thanks to the PcAction and PcGames magazines for choosing us. It's always encouranging to keep us... civin' when something like this happens. :)
End of course our thanks to Ata who posted about it. -MarkG
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THE BEST OF 1999
TOP 10 GAME PUBLISHERS
(28 January 2000, 20:08 EST) A couple days ago we posted the Top 20 games for 1999 in sales. Here are the Top 10 game publishing companies for 1999| Publisher | 1999 Revenue % | 1999 Unit % | 1998 Revenue % | 1998 Unit % |
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| Havas Interactive | 15,7% | 16,7% | 18,4% | 19,7% | | Electronic Arts | 14,3% | 13,1% | 13,2% | 13,0% | | Hasbro Interactive | 12,3% | 12,5% | 9,3% | 8,5% | | Mattel Interactive | 9,9% | 11,1% | 11,6% | 11,7% | | Microsoft | 8,1% | 5,4% | 7,4% | 4,8% |
| GT Interactive | 6,5% | 9,4% | 8,6% | 12,0% | | Activision | 5,1% | 6,2% | 5,6% | 6,5% | | Interplay | 4,0% | 3,5% | 3,9% | 3,7% | | LucasArts | 3,2% | 2,0% | 3,2% | 2,5% | | Eidos | 2,5% | 1,9% | 3,1% | 2,0% | | Total | 81,5% | 81,7% | 84,2% | 84,3% |
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-MarkG
CIV2 MAC IN THE SALES TOP 10 FOR 1999
(25 January 2000, 10:41 EST) PC Data relased their top sales listing for the US. In the games for Macintosh category, Civ2 for Mac is 10th. The Top 10 list is the following:
(1) Starcraft - Havas Interactive ($31)
(2) Unreal - GT Interactive ($19)
(3) Entertainment Pack - Havas Interactive ($20)
(4) Fun Pack - GT Interactive ($20)
(5) Sim City 3000 - Electronic Arts ($48)
(6) America's Great Solitaire - GT Interactive ($20)
(7) MP Falcon 4.0 - Hasbro Interactive ($43)
(8) Star Wars Rebel Assault - LucasArts ($15)
(9) Tomb Raider II - Aspyr ($20)
(10) Civilization 2 - GT Interactive ($33) -MarkG
1999 US TOP 20
(25 January 2000, 10:42 EST) PC Data released their US Top Sales listing for 1999. Unfortunately, in the top 20 for PC's no civ game was included. As for the Mac list, check the civ2 section ;)
(1) MP Roller Coaster Tycoon - Hasbro Interactive ($28)
(2) Sim City 3000 - Electronic Arts ($42)
(3) Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Disney ($19)
(4) Microsoft Age Of Empires II: Age Of Kings - Microsoft ($43)
(5) Starcraft - Havas Interactive ($28)
(6) Half-Life - Havas Interactive ($32)
(7) Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun - Electronic Arts ($40)
(8) Microsoft Flight Simulator - Microsoft ($43)
(9) Frogger - Hasbro Interactive ($19)
(10) Baldur's Gate - Interplay ($39)
(11) Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2 - Activision ($16)
(12) Wheel Of Fortune - Hasbro Interactive ($28)
(13) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Gold Edition - Red Storm Entertainment ($28)
(14) Starcraft Expansion: Brood Wars - Havas Interactive ($19)
(15) Need For Speed 3 - Electronic Arts ($20)
(16) Monopoly Game - Hasbro Interactive ($15)
(17) Deer Hunter III - GT Interactive ($19)
(18) Star Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace - LucasArts ($40)
(19) Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator - Microsoft ($28)
(20) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear - Red Storm Entertainment ($43) -MarkG
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Apolyton&Friends News 14-21/Jan/00
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