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Date: Mar 15 1999 03:55:10 EST
From: Apolyton Announcements (Apolyton Civilization Site)
Subject: Apolyton News 27/Feb-5/Mar/99


We continue with the news between 27/Feb-5/Mar/99

----------------------------
**Civilization II Section

*News
IT'S A HIT ON PSX February 27, 1999
Civilization II hit the Playstation earlier this year and its porters
(Activision) have been basking in the sunlight of praise ever since.
consoledomain.com recently posted their take on the game, and the verdict
is good. Really good. Some would say this is merely because CivII is one
of a few titles in the strategy genre for the console, and that is even
mentioned in the review itself. But, most would agree the real reason is
that it's just simply highly addictive (news flash :)). Reviewer Josh
White is a true supporter of the latter belief and has named it one of the
site's "Gold Award Winners". Another award for a Civilization title...
time to add another shelf to the trophy case!

*Site News
27.Feb Column #30, by MarkG


----------------------------
**Civilization: Call to Power Section

EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: PART 1
(Mar. 4) Things that made go "hmmm" :) MarkG's Day One and Two and DanQ's
Day One impressions.
(Mar. 3) We continue our preview with more info. Today, the full list of
all 42 civilizations with lots of info for each of them.
(Mar. 1) You read right! Today, we are proud to unveil the first part of
our comprehensive, exclusive preview of CTP -- most of the information,
such as what you can start browsing through today, has never been before
publicized on the Net.

NT SUPPORT PROMISING (Mar. 5)
Sr. Activision Product Manager Peter "Enjolras" Karpas recently posted the
following in the alt.games.civ2 newsgroup in response to an inquiry
regarding CTP's WindowsNT compatability:
"Not definite yet, but the odds are VERY good we will support NT. The
current version of the box does indeed list NT as being supported, but you
never know until it's out of QA. :-)"

EARS & EYES OPEN (Mar. 4)
Peter Karpas from Activision wants you all to know that they are listening
to your suggestions! Just a few days ago in fact, he made this
announcement:
"We have changed the Genetics advance to have a pre-requisite of
Electrification (Advance 6 along the Construction line for those of you
who have pre-ordered and gotten the poster).
I didn't want to say anything until now because we've been
play-balancingthe change -- we wanted to make sure the change was fun
first. We elected to make the pre-req Electrification versus Electricity
(which is itself a pre-req for Electrification) because: a) the
play-balancing worked out better that way, and b) it also seemed to make
more sense. Thanks for the input!"

LINUX VERSION BETA TEST (Mar. 3)
Loki has started a beta test for the linux version. Sign up here.
According to Patrice LaFlamme who mailed us(thanks!) there is a lot of
people trying to get to the site so if you experience problems see this
"mirror" page



----------------------------
**Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Section

Warning: Sleep Deprivation - 4 March 1999
--CNN is warning all gamers of the possible side-effects of excessive use
of SMAC. "...contents can become highly addictive when exposed to strategy
game players. Firaxis Games is not responsible for lost jobs, ruined
relationships, lack of sleep, or forgetting to bathe. Use at your own
risk". A little late for that now. Oh well. 8-) "Designed by Brian
Reynolds with help from Sid Meier, who designed "Civilization" and
"Civilization II," this game is not revolutionary, but it does take
evolutionary steps. It adds a wealth of new game features to the basic
formula of "Civilization," while simplifying and even removing other
features. Overall, this game is a very satisfying blend of science fiction
and turn based exploration and conquest."


Pick A Review - 3 March 1999
--The title says it all; we have a couple to mention here. First, you'll
want to check out the one over at ESC Magazine, which was posted today.
Also worth a look is Stephen Lee of SidGames' take on SMAC.

Files Of The Day - 3 March 1999
--Earlier this week, we had two files submitted to us for inclusion here,
including our first user-created scenario to enter the archives! Visit our
Files page for more detail.

Podlotto Trick - 3 March 1999
--Just heard this:
What you get from playing podlotto [sending rovers out to 'pop' pods in
the hope of getting presents] in part depends on the path you take to the
pod. If you always take the same path you will probably get the same
result. If you want something different, take a different path.

Color Blind Pallete - 27 February 1999
--The alternative pallete files for those with red/green color blindness
is here. In order to use them, copy the contents of the zip file into the
directory you installed SMAC into. If prompted to overwrite files, do so.
The next time you start the game the new artwork will be used. To restore
the original palette, reinstall the game from the CD-Rom.

Extremely Nice Trick - 27 February 1999
--A nice trick from the newsgroups:
If you have a pact with a player who's nearby you can support an infinite
number of units for free. Move your units over to their cities and hit
control-H to change the base that supports them to your
pact-sister/brother's base. You will no longer be charged for their
support and neither will your pact partner. Even if you go to war with
your pact-sister/brother your units will still be supported by their
cities.

SMAC on Time Magazine - 27 February 1999
--The March 1st issue of Time Magazine has a short article on "Playing
God." It discusses Sim City 3000, Populous and SMAC! Time describes them
as "The Most addictive games known to mankind." The March 1st issue is the
one with Hillary Clinton on the cover. (News tip from Pythagoras)


----------------------------
**Alternative Civs Section

MANIFEST DESTINY DEMO: VERSION 2
(Mar. 4) RJCyberware this week released the second version of their
Manifest Destiny demo (287k), and we are proud to be one a few mirror
sites for it. It requires a PC running Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows
NT (with SP3). There is currently a non-fatal bug associated with DirectX
5 users, which will prevent you from seeing or using the globe, so, for
now, DirectX 6 is recommended.
Also, we should note that this is a non-playable version of MD. As Lead
Programmer Ron Hiler explains, "we are releasing it to allow future
players to get a feel for the game, and to better be able to give us
feedback and suggestions. But we are also looking for bug reports [be sure
to check the known bugs list first]. If you run across a bug in the game
that we are not already aware of, please let us know about it". He is also
asking that no one disassemble, modify, or otherwise tamper with any of
the files included in the download, or any file created via the program
itself without prior written permission from the team.
Demo 3 is currently under development, whose status you can check at any
time here. For more information on MD, check out our section devoted to
it.



----------------------------
**CivLeague (hosted site)

Tournament Semi-Finals Posted - March 03
--The Matches for the Semi-Final round of the tournament have been posted.

Dispute Win is Up - February 27
--Fretting about false reports? Anxious of accidental reports? Worry no
more, good CivLeaguer, because Dispute Win is here!
Next stop: multi-game support.


----------------------------
**Scenario League (hosted site)

3 March, 1999
-New design tip: Using Multiple Events Files
-Review of Fantasy Scenario: Dungeon: Heroes of Beckhorn
-Review of Historical Scenario: Spanish-American War: Cuba

1-2 March, 1999
-Newest versions of the Puma and Lion scenarios are available on the
contest winners page.
-Reviews of Fictional Scenarios: World War III, 1998 and Europe: 2020


That was all, ladies and gentlemen
Until next time(which will again be very soon)...
Markos, Apolyton CS