IF YOU CAN'T FIND IT HERE, MAYBE IT DOESN'T EXIST.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

Just in time for E3, here's a rundown of some of the notable titles of recent months on various gaming platforms. Among the trends: lots of simulation games, a post-iMac revival of the Mac gaming market (often with hybrid titles that will run on both platforms) and burgeoning developer interest in making games for the Nintendo 64, which had suffered from a dearth of titles in its first couple of years.

PC

SimCity 3000 (Maxis) - The whole genre of simulation games basically started with SimCity. In this most recent update, the game looks better than ever, with more details to control and more scenarios and real-life cities. You even can create a Los Angeles-specific city with accurate topography. SimCity is a great way to both learn about the interrelationships that make a real city (or your own virtual city) work while having a good time. I still wish there was a better way to undo things such as badly drawn street routes, however.

Roller Coaster Tycoon (Hasbro Interactive) - And here's a very different but equally fun simulation. Build your own theme park, designing everything from rides to restrooms, including choosing from 14 different kinds of roller coasters. Be careful in creating your rides, though, because they can be hazardous to the health of your park's customers, and its finances.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (Acclaim) - The much-vaunted N64 dinosaur-fighting first-person shooter comes to PC, with a raft of weapons, multiplayer capabilities (and special weapons) and even the ability (actually, it's a requirement if you're going to get to some areas) to ride a triceratops. Typically, console games don't translate well to the PC, but this one is well done.

Baldur's Gate (Interplay) - This massive role-playing game takes its cues directly from classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, with the chance to play a wide array of characters, and accrete followers and assistants needed for various parts of your quest. Beautifully done, and one of the best games of its type in years. But it's a major resource hog that will do better on a bigger, faster, newer machine. Still, if you have the horsepower to run this, it's worth the ride.

Commandos Beyond the Call of Duty (Eidos) - A sequel to the excellent strategy game Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines based on a squad of World War II commandos. The improved graphics look just smashing, combining several new missions, weapons and enemy units to make for a fun challenge that requires some stealth and smart use of limited resources to win.

Scrabble, Battleship and Grand Master Chess Emil (Hasbro Interactive) - Hasbro has come up with a nifty two-person wrinkle on some of its classic titles (the company plans to release 11 such titles this year), allowing you and a friend to play these games by e-mail. It's really a wonderful updating of the old war-gaming-by-mail-by-mail world. Now all you need is an opponent.

Civilization: Call to Power (Activision) - Uber-designer Sid Meier isn't involved anymore, but this remains a pretty darned good sequel to one of the great games of all time. Build cities from ancient times to 3000 A.D., on land, undersea or in space, while developing your empire's scientific, economic and military power, while negotiating or fighting with neighboring civilizations. This version of the game also adds unconventional combat such as economic and biological attacks, great graphics and much better control of construction. Highly recommended, but be forewarned; it vacuums up more than half a gigabyte of hard-drive space.

Quake II Quad Damage(id Software) - Id keeps milking the monster success of Quake II, this time with an all-in-one package that's great for people who somehow managed to miss it the first time through. The set also includes two mission packs (The Reckoning and Ground Zero) and a compilation of the best fan-created levels (Netpack I Extremities). There's nothing like fragging a strogg with a railgun before breakfast. It can make your whole day.

Warrior Zone 2100 (Eidos) - A real-time strategy war game with a couple of extra wrinkles that set it apart from its many predecessors. One is the ability to research hundreds of different weapon types, so you can customize your fighting forces as you'd like. The second is the game's 3-D nature, which lets you get closer to the action.

Fighter Squadron: The Screamin' Demons Over Europe (Activision) - One of a recent rash of excellent flight simulator games set in World War II's European Theater. Fly any of 10 U.S., English and German planes, in 90 missions, with excellent graphics, realistic damage and flight models and Internet play.

Everquest (989 Studios) - This smash-hit online-only role-playing game comes with some steep requirements - an accelerator card and a monthly subscription fee - but also delivers a lot of bang for your fantasy-playing buck. The subscriptions finance fast servers that allegedly will let up to 1,500 people play at a time in the same gaming universe, unlike, say, the pioneering but sludgy Ultima Online.

Jack Nicklaus: Golden Bear Challenge (Activision) - Get in the swing with this golf simulator from one of the game's all-time greats. Jim Nantz and Gary McCord do commentary, Nicklaus gives tips on shots, and you can play six top courses or create your own with the course editor. You also can create your own player or even be Jack.

New Millennium Encyclopedia and Home Reference Library (Simon & Schuster) - A pretty good two-disc reference set that includes not only a solid multimedia encyclopedia that comes with free monthly updates from online, but also sturdy additions such as a thesaurus, quotes collection, the World Almanac and more.

Mac or hybrid Mac/PC

StarCraft (Blizzard) - Last year's best-selling PC game comes to the Mac, with its three wildly different but evenly matched species duking it out for control of the galaxy. The game, from the same folks who made the great WarCraft series, is a keeper. Even better news: Blizzard promises the Mac version of the StarCraft: Brood War expansion set will be released this summer.

Starship Titanic (Simon & Schuster Interactive) - Last year's rollicking PC adventure game from author Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and Michael Palin (Monty Python) has gone Mac, with blessings to all for the conversion. A barmy sense of humor, challenging puzzles and wonderful design (thanks to contributions from Oscar-winning Isabel Molina and Oscar Chichoni). It even comes with a free strategy guide.

Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball (Fox Interactive) - This hybrid Mac/PC title includes pinball games with art from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Predator and The Fly. On-screen pinball will never rival the tactile feel of the real thing, but this one is nice enough.

Elite Darts (Patch) - This Mac/PC title lets you play a variety of dart games, including (somewhat confusingly for newcomers) cricket, baseball and a variety of '01 countdown games. The disk even comes with a set of real darts from Arachnid, with extra tips, so you can try out what you've learned in the pub.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (Epic Megagames) - The rabbit faces off against the tortoise in this retro side scroller filled with kinetic and imaginative play. My two children, both relatively young, loved this game, though it's challenging and involving enough to draw in older players, too.

Railroad Tycoon II (Gathering of Developers) - The brilliant railroad empire-building simulation comes to the Macintosh in all its robber baron glory.

Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch (Humongous Entertainment) - A delightful and sweet-natured little brain-building game for younger children that has occupied the attention of my two for some time.

Puzz3D CD series (Wrebbit) - The Puzz3D series of puzzles have been a pretty cool alternative to flat jigsawers for a while now, allowing you to piece together real-world versions of cathedrals, monuments and other prominent buildings. Now the puzzles have come to the computer, with a twist. Once you assemble the parts, you can walk through the building - a Victorian mansion, Bavarian castle or Notre Dame cathedral - and play through a mystery.

PlayStation

Syphon Filter (989 Studios) - A sleek espionage action game that puts you in the role of a counterterrorist. More shooting than the stealthy superhit Metal Gear Solid, and nearly as clever and challenging.

Akuji the Heartless (Electronic Arts) - Play a voodoo witch doctor trying to avenge your own murder by fighting evil spirits, collecting health points and spells. What the game does is fairly standard, but I really like that it focuses on a black hero and is set in a vivid underworld based on a seldom-seen set of religious beliefs. It'll put a spell on you.

MLB 2000 (989 Studios) - A top-notch baseball simulation franchise gets a Southern California dose of sunshine: The Dodgers' play-by-play god Vin Scully and former Padres announcer Dave Campbell provide the voice-overs, while new Angels' slugger Mo Vaughn graces the cover and provided some of the motion-capture used to animate players. The game includes a dizzying array of options, from exhibition and all-star games to home-run derbies, the World Series and more. In create-a-player mode, you can choose everything from facial hair to one of 50 batting styles.

Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter (Capcom) - The 2-D Street Fighter series goes from the ridiculous to the sublimely comic, with the arcade crew taking on Marvel big guns like Spiderman, Captain America and Wolverine, even in tag team matches.

Street Sk8er (Electronic Arts) - Somehow in the wad of ``extreme'' sports titles on the market, they forgot about skateboarding titles. No more. Choose from more than 200 trick moves, grind railings, do 180-degree turns on big half-pipes, and race through the streets of Los Angeles and other burgs. Lots of board-customization features, too.

Rushdown (Electronic Arts) - Another EA extreme sports title, this one focusing on kayaking, snowboarding and mountain biking. European techno/fusion soundtrack backs beat-the-clock exercises in a variety of tracks around the world.

Freestyle Boardin' '99 (Capcom) - With good graphics and pretty good controls that take advantage of the dual shock controller, you get a pretty good ride down the slopes on a range of snowboard tracks. You also can build up points to create a customized character.

Need for Speed: High Stakes (Electronic Arts) - EA keeps raising the stakes on this enjoyable racing series, which was only updated about nine months ago with Need for Speed III. This latest version lets you upgrade your car with earnings from previous wins, then risk all by betting its registration slip against an opponent. Lose the race, lose the car. The game still has NFS III's Hot Pursuit mode, so you can be lawbreaker or law enforcer. It also lets you drive in bad weather, at night and in traffic, and tracks car damage realistically. Way cool, and looks great, too.

T'ai Fu (Crave) - A long-delayed 3-D action platform game about a fighting kung fu tiger proves worth the wait. As you work your way through dozens of levels, the tiger learns a variety of additional fighting styles. It looks great, with lots of imaginative combination attacks and skills, plus some magical abilities. Fun and challenging.

Gex 3 Deep Cover Gecko (Eidos/Crystal Dynamics) - The latest installment of the Gex franchise is still fun, and has added a ``Baywatch'' babe to goofball comedian Dana Gold's one-liners. Gold's smarm helps make the game fun, but so do 25 levels and lots of little extras.

Sports Car GT (Electronic Arts) - Race 45 licensed sports cars day and night on the GT circuit, with four authentic tracks, including Laguna Seca and Sebring, and three more fantasy ones. There's a ``pink slip'' mode for racing your carefully upgraded vehicle against someone else. Loser gives up his car, and any attempt to pull out the memory card during the race deletes both competitors. Ouch.

Nintendo 64

Mario Party (Nintendo) - A fun collection of dozens of minigames in numerous genres, all packed together with the idea of encouraging head-to-head play by as many as four people at a time. This one is best when you're playing a roomful of pals. A great rental for that birthday party or visit by the cousins.

Castlevania (Konami) - The long-running vampire-hunting saga goes 3-D and N64 with a vengeance, letting you play either a whip-cracking adventurer or a magic-wielding girl. One cool feature: The coming of night in the game means more and meaner enemies. And if a vampire puts the bite on you, get help quick or you'll go, um, batty.

Vigilante 8 (Activision) - This hugely enjoyable car combat game, which already has come out on the PC and PlayStation under two different names, feels a bit like ``Mad Max'' in a post-apocalyptic Southwestern U.S. Now it's gone N64 and looks great. Up to four players can take each other on, or fight cooperatively against the computer's bad guys. Loads of fun and, given the lack of bloodshed in the cartoon violence, reasonably appropriate even for younger gamers.

Loderunner 3-D - The venerable Indiana Jones-ish puzzler has added an extra dimension. I have some quibbles with the controls, but it's a good challenge figuring out how to snag the gold and dodge the mad monks without getting killed.

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Photo: A top-notch baseball simulation franchise gets a dose of Southern California sunshine in MLB 2000.