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Date: Dec 24 1998 17:17:12 EST
From: Apolyton Announcements (Apolyton Civilization Site)
Subject: Apolyton Weekly News 24/12/98


Seasons Greetings everyone!

Our apologies for the delay this week in getting out the weekly news, but
things have been pretty hectic! Markos is on vacation for a couple of
weeks so I will be 'doing' the news for the next little bit. Since it has
been a little longer than usual in sending this out, this message may be a
little lengthier than usual (my apologies) but hey, just consider it as
our extended Christmas Edition! :-D

Our biggest announcement is the opening of Hodadian Awards Central
(civilization.gamestats.com/hac). Now, here's what else has happened in
the "civ world" and on Apolyton in the past while...

** CivII Section (civilization.gamestats.com/civ2) **

* NEWS *

MGE PATCH UPDATE December 23, 1998
MGE Lead Designer and Programmer William Denman has informed us that
the MGE patch is in the process of being approved. In the meantime, he
sent us a copy of the 'Readme' file. Not only does it explain what fixes
are included in the "first patch" (indicating that there will be others?),
but it also includes a better explanation of how to setup one-on-one games
through Dial-Up Networking.

GAMESPOT UK PREVIEWS! December 23, 1998
GameSpot UK Editor Ian Bloke got in touch with us earlier this week to let
us know of their War And Peace: Strategy Games Special feature. The titles
under the TBS ladder include MGE and Test of Time, as well as others
historical and sci-fi products. But this is only the start of its coverage
and after all, have the fun is in the discovery!

"IT'S ALIVE!"... UNDER WindowsNT December 23, 1998
We have received a report from Trey Morita that MGE works fine under WinNT
4 with Service Pack 3. Shortly thereafter, Timothy Trimble informed us
that he successfully installed MGE also under NT but with SP4. He believes
that because SP4 provides support for DirectX 3, it is the reason as to
why it is working. Thanks, Trey & Tim, for the emails!

ONE-ON-ONE POSSIBILITIES December 19, 1998
Since MGE's release, there has been heated debate over the different types
of multiplayer capabilities available. One of the most notable is perhaps
modem-to-modem, aka direct connection. Many have questioned how to do it,
and some have come to the conclusion that it's simply not possible, and
understandable so. However, take a look at your "Readme.txt" file where
you installed MGE (default is
'/MicroProse Software/Civilization II Multiplayer Gold Edition'). In there
look under the heading Setup Procedure For Direct Connect Multiplayer
Games.

ONE HOT ITEM!
(Dec.18) Is it safe to assume that CivII: MGE has proven itself a Holiday
Success? Although it is still too soon to tell, it has
certainly gotten off on the right foot: EBWorld reports that
it is one of the Top 5 PC Games in demand at their online establishment.
On a similar note, we have gotten word from Nicolas Holzapfel that MGE has
finally been released in the U.K. at a retail price of £29.99 (EB and
Virgin Megastore anyway). At the same time, Derek Lande has informed us
that it will not be available in Ireland until after Christmas. We really
appreciate these updates. If you have any MGE related news in terms of
availability (or lack thereof) in your area, please email Dan.

Finally, we have gotten a number of emails regarding MGE's system
requirements. They are as follows (minimum): * Pentium or later
compatible; * Windows95 with DirectX; * 16MB RAM; 95MB HDD Space Free; 2X
CD-ROM; Super VGA graphics for 640 x 480 x 256 colours. MPS recommends at
least a: * Pentium 90Mhz compatible or higher; * 4X CD-ROM; *
Win95-compatible sound card. For multiplayer capabilities, the following
is required: * Null-modem serial cable (2 players); * 28.8kbps Win95
compatible modem (2 players); * Local area network with
TCP/IP or IPX protocol (2+ players); * Internet play requirements 28.8kbps
or faster connection (2+ players).

MGE REPORT SUBMITTED
(Dec.14) We would like to take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of
ourselves and MicroProse, all those who submitted CivII: MGE bug reports
in recent weeks. Dan submitted the completed report, three weeks in the
works, to MicroProse earlier this evening. Feel free to continue to submit
bug reports to MicroProse, and to us either by email or on our forums. On
a final note, a future publication of this report is now being taken into
consideration.

* SITE CHANGES

19.Dec -> Resimark I covers our 20th column installment
3.Dec -> Hall of Fame updated
1.Dec -> Three entries finish November's TG. A new TG has started.

** C:CTP Section (civilization.gamestats.com/ctp) **

* NEWS *

STEVE MARIOTTI INTERVIEW (Dec. 24)
The latest installment of our feature interviews with members of the CTP
team is here. Steve Mariotti, Lead Programmer, took time out of his busy
schedule to answer some questions.

GAMESPOT UK PREVIEWS! (Dec. 23)
GameSpot UK Editor Ian Bloke got in touch with us earlier this week to let
us know of their War And Peace: Strategy Games Special feature. Included
under the TBS titles is, naturally, CTP. But this is only the start of the
coverage so take a look and enjoy!

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST? (Dec. 18)
You response in our second poll was great. 551 Votes in 8 days(while the
first had 305 votes in 13 days! :)). The results about a 32 civs
possibility in C:CTP are: "Yes, no matter how long the delay is" 35%(!),
"Yes, if the game isn't delayed much" 37%, "At least make it easy to
change" 11%(this is what we have been promised by Activision), "No, I want
C:CTP ASAP!" only 13% and 1% didn't know about it. Well, it seems like you
want it bad! Activision has said in the past that the engine supports 32
civs but the game will ship with 8. The problems against it were the
increase of the system requirements and the extra playbalancing and beta
testing time that would be needed.
Anyway, check our new poll about what you like most on C:CTP from what
you've read and heard about it.

A NICE SHORT POST (Dec. 15)
We found another informative post on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic by
Peter Karpas(Sr. Product Manager on the CTP team) about changing the unit
graphics: Players will be able to replace the graphics easily, especially
if they don't care about having 8 facings per unit
and so on. There are actually 5 facings per unit, and they'll have to
provide 5 facings (at least) for Idle animations for units. The 5 facings
turn into 8 facings in the code (the last 3 are flipped versions of 3 of
the 5). The most minimal unit is 5 images for each of the facings. They
could also just make all the facings the same frame. It wouldn't look as
good, but it would work just fine. Sounds good to me!

* SITE CHANGES

19.Dec -> New unit animations
18.Dec -> Third poll about what people like most on CtP

** Scenario League (civilization.gamestats.com/sleague) **

* NEWS *

21.Dec -> 4 New scenario reviews
15.Dec -> New rating guidelines...


That's all for now, folks! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you
all! Keep On Civ'in!

--------------------------------------
Daniel Quick; Apolyton CS
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