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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Apolyton is proud to present the first installment of it's weekly news of
1999.

Before we begin, I'd like to make a subscriber base update for this list:
913 of you to date! Just in the last week, 43 new subscriptions became
active.

At the same time, on behalf of the administration and staff of Apolyton
CS, thank you to all who supported us in the past year, and we look
forward to serving you again (and even better) this year! For those of you
who signed up recently, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to
begin to deliver your weekly dose of
Civilization-related news. We promise you won't be disappointed!

This week's "HeadLine Of The Week"? It's a close call, but MicroProse
revamping the official CivII website captured top spot (and just in time
for this issue!) You can check it out @

Now, onto the rest of the weekly news...

-------------------------
** Civ2 Section **

* HEADLINES *

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE December 30, 1998
Sorry, the Wallflowers are not playing here (they were already booked :)).
Perhaps you've heard the product titles CivII: Multiplayer Gold Edition
and Ultimate Civ Classic Collection used interchangably.
Confused? You're not alone. Getting to the heart of the matter, I [Dan]
contacted William Denman at MicroProse to clarify the situation. His
response? They're exactly the same! The title is known as MGE in North
Amercia and UCCC in the U.K. Now there's one question remaining: why? It
was a marketing decision. As Will reminded me, "...the original Civ II
released in over a dozen languages."

Finally, we have received the good word that the German and French MGE
patch versions are now in testing.

CHAMPIONSHIP APPROACHES December 30, 1998
It's almost time for the Champsionship Game over at CivLeague. Take a look
and see how the competition is stacking up!

REDISCOVER MAC DEMO December 29, 1998
As we enter 1999, Mac Civ'ers are preparing for the release of the ported
MGE. At this time, we invite our Mac users to d'load the appropriate
version of the 'original' CivII demo for the Mac, based on the actual game
which was released last August. Both have been compressed ("binned") for
speedier downloading. Happy Holidays!

NT CORRECTION December 29, 1998
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Guy Gascoigne for pointing
out an error in a news item we posted earlier this week. In our December
23rd article ""It's Alive"... Under WinNT", we mentioned that DirectX 3
support was present in WinNT Service Pack 4. This is, in fact, incorrect.
As NT patches are cumulative, the fixes in SP's 1-3 are in SP4, plus the
new ones exclusive to that update. The minimum SP required for any NT
DirectX support is SP3. Sooner or later, Guy tells us, they [Microsoft]
will provide support for an up-to-date DirectX version under NT, but at
the monent this is scheduled for NT 5.0 (to be released sometime next
year, at present).

In short, the fact is that both SP 3 and SP4 contain DirectX3 for NT.
Again, we at Apolyton apologize for the error.

PATCH PROGRESS December 28, 1998
MicroProse representative William Denman informed me [Dan] today that more
progress has been made with the MGE patch. The U.K. version is currently
being tested as things wind down towards completion. Denman also said that
the AI's speed/intelligence during latter stages of the game has been
greatly improved in the patch. He also confirmed that those without the
patch installed will not be able to play against those who do to avoid
'loophole explotation'. It will be, reportedly, released in a matter of
days.

MAC PORT NOT FORGOTTEN December 27, 1998
MacSoft, which ported the 'original' CivII to the Mac platform last
August, is set to do the same with CivII: MGE next January. Since its
announcement in a June 3rd press release, the Mac flavoured version of the
latest installment in the Civilization series has been equally (and
eagerly) awaited by its faithful following as it was by
Windows-based Civ'ers^. During a visit to Macsoft's website earlier this
week, the company had entered the home stretch of its development. In
addition, a full preview has been promised and will be online soon. We'll
keep you up-to-date with the latest developments as they are made
available to us.

[ ^ We should bring it to our readers' attention that MGE is not yet
globally available for the Windows OS. As always, we will post availablity
updates as often as data permits. For the latest reports, please consult
our news archive. ]

* SITE CHANGES *

1.Jan -> Updated Links
26.Dec -> Old news archived
26.Dec -> Column by Morton Monk posted

** CtP Section **

* HEADLINES *

IT'S A BETA! (Dec. 30)
Lt. John spread some holiday cheer yesterday by announcing that they
[Activision] will be holding an open beta test after all.
"We have coordinated an online signup with one of the major gaming sites
to accept applications for one of a very limited number of beta test
seats," Lt. John posted to our CTP General Forum. "Beta testers will
initially be covered by a Non-Disclosure Agreement that will prohibit them
from talking about the game. At the end of the testing period, the NDA may
be lifted, like Firaxis did with their beta testers, or it may not be
lifted until the game ships. More news will follow about where and when
the signups occur..."

COW SLAUGHTERED (Dec. 30)
As promised, Lt. John delivered news this week regarding two very
controversial units. Here is the description of the changes:
Park Ranger. "The name has been officially changed to Eco Ranger. We
[Activision] wanted to call it the Genesis Device, but our legal guys
thought that Viacom (and the Star Trek folks) might have a problem with
that. Functionality and appearance hasn't changed, though, so it still
operates like a clean nuke."
Combat Engineer. "This is old news, but is restated here [Our CTP General
Forum] for those who may not have seen it, but land mines and the combat
engineer (whose primary focus was to find land mines) were cut from the
game because they were difficult to balance.

At the same time, he threw in a tidbit regarding the Cattle unit's fate --
it's been eliminated altogether.

MAC ATTACK! (Dec. 27)
Look out! Mac gamers are working together to be guaranteed a piece of the
pie. The Games4Mac website started a public campaign this week to get
C:CTP ported to their preferred platform.

In addition, Games4Mac has started to publish eye catching animated
banners to promote their campaign.

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.

* SITE CHANGES *

26.Dec -> Old news archived

-------------------------
That's all now!

As always, we welcome questions/comments/suggestions. Feel free to get in
touch with us by email and/or ICQ.

Until next week, Keep On Civ'in!
---------------------------------
Dan; Apolyton CS
Co-Owner/Webmaster
EMAIL: dan@gamestats.com
ICQ: 1804738
---------------------------------