PC AND MAC GAMES LOOKING BETTER THAN EVER.Byline: David Bloom David Bloom (May 22, 1963 – April 6, 2003) was an NBC journalist (co-anchor of Weekend Today and reporter) until his sudden death in 2003 at the age of 39. Early life Staff Writer These are good times for computer gamers. A smoking-fast Pentium III computer can be had for less (in some cases, far less) than $2,000, tricked out with all manner of multimedia goodies to turn a game into an overwhelmingly immersing experience. Even for the less obsessively tweaked gamer, a perfectly decent machine with a still-muscular Intel Celeron or AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, www.amd.com) A major manufacturer of semiconductor devices including x86-compatible CPUs, embedded processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices and networking chips. K6-2 chip can be had for several hundred dollars. Supplement the chip with any of a range of good-quality hardware accelerators, and you've got more than enough machine for a ton of fun. And on the Macintosh side, Apple has finally acquired a few major clues, including outfitting all its machines with a 128-bit ATI Rage accelerator to go with those screaming-fast G3 PowerPC chips. Gaming companies are starting to take note, issuing more and more titles for Macs, either as ports from an earlier PC best seller, or as hybrid discs that run on either platform. Among the recent notable additions to that list: For Macs Caesar III: (Sierra Studios). It's a ridiculously engaging city-building simulation that is set in the Roman Empire. Think of it as a kind of SimCity B.C., but better-looking and with a pantheon of meddling med·dle intr.v. med·dled, med·dling, med·dles 1. To intrude into other people's affairs or business; interfere. See Synonyms at interfere. 2. To handle something idly or ignorantly; tamper. gods and emperors. To win, you must keep Caesar, your city's residents and five sometimes petulant pet·u·lant adj. 1. Unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish. 2. Contemptuous in speech or behavior. [Latin petul gods happy while building up commerce, culture, education, infrastructure, agriculture, religion and trade. The graphics are gorgeous and often quite witty, and the challenges are many, including the possibility of exile or invasion if you can't keep everyone happy, fed and entertained while remaining in the black. Quake II: (Activision) Mac players with an itchy itch·y adj. Having or causing an itching sensation. trigger finger trigger finger - overuse strain injury will welcome the conversion of Quake II by Activision. It comes just ahead of the release of Quake III Arena Quake III Arena or Quake 3, abbreviated as Q3A or Q3, is a multiplayer first-person shooter computer and video game released on December 2, 1999. - the much-anticipated online sequel - and should whet the appetites of hard-core gamers for that release. As it is, this one allows up to 32 people to play each other on the Internet or a local-area network. As with the various PC iterations of Quake, you're a Marine cleaning out an infestation infestation /in·fes·ta·tion/ (-fes-ta´shun) parasitic attack or subsistence on the skin and/or its appendages, as by insects, mites, or ticks; sometimes used to denote parasitic invasion of the organs and tissues, as by helminths. of deadly invaders with a wide variety of lethal weaponry. Not politically correct politically correct Politically sensitive adjective Referring to language reflecting awareness and sensitivity to another person's physical, mental, cultural, or other disadvantages or deviations from a norm; a person is not mentally retarded, but , and please keep it away from the kid, but definitely one of the best of this particular genre. Brood War expansion set for StarCraft: (Blizzard) Another notable conversion, this one of last year's best-selling PC game, the real-time strategy StarCraft. The game features three very different species battling each other for control of the universe, or at least a little part of it. The expansion set gives you more of the same good stuff, including 26 new scenarios, more than 100 new multiplayer maps and many new units. For PCs Total Annihilation: Kingdoms: (Cave Dog) This is one of the most eagerly awaited games to come out this summer, a sequel to the dark and foreboding real-time strategy game Total Annihilation. That game, set to wonderfully done music in some distant science-fiction future, created a rich mood and challenging game play. The Kingdoms sequel takes a very different tack, transporting a player to an ancient world called Darien, where four very different nations jostle against each other and a threatening new force. The sequel shifts the game from sci-fi to fantasy, adding magic, dragons, skeleton fighters and the like. The scale of the fighting somehow feels different from the original, too, but it still works great. And, taking a cue from Blizzard's Battle.net, you can play online for free at Cave Dog's Boneyards Boneyards was the massive online server created for the Total Annihilation series of computer games by Cavedog Entertainment, allowing thousands of players to compete in organised battle over the internet. online community. This is a very good thing. Disney Action Game - Tarzan: (Disney Interactive) In a completely different realm, Disney recently released a rash of titles connected with its excellent new ``Tarzan'' animated film. I have to grouse grouse, common name for a game bird of the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 18 species. Grouse are henlike terrestrial birds, protectively plumaged in shades of red, brown, and gray. a bit about the genericized names of the new titles, which include Disney Print Studio Tarzan, Disney Activity Center Tarzan and Disney Action Game Tarzan. Disney Interactive, which routinely puts out good-quality products, has come to see these things as almost rote efforts, issued along with the backpacks, burger-franchise kid-meal toys and other merchandise of every big release. After a while, it's hard to remember if this is a title for Tarzan or Hercules or the Lion King, but that attitude can be the death of good gaming, or any other kind of entertainment, for that matter. That said, the action game is excellent (quite similar to the PlayStation version), with a choice of four characters you can play, tons of video excerpts from the film, great 3-D graphics and a range of challenges, including swimming, swinging, riding elephants and storks, and more. The activity center title is pitched for a younger crowd, ages 4 to 8. Its best features include a journal-making capability and a musical ``trash the camp'' function, just as the apes did in the movie. The activity center also provides lots of printable goodies, games, stickers and more. The print studio, like its predecessors for other movies, allows you to easily create a wide array of Tarzan-themed stationery, greeting cards, invitations and the like, as well as make online greeting cards. Atari Arcade Hits: (Hasbro Interactive) For you old-school gamers, and I mean really old school, Hasbro has revived the old Atari name and begun issuing an array of classic arcade games on the PC, PlayStation and elsewhere. On Atari Arcade Hits, Hasbro hasn't even revamped the games to take advantage of new technologies. Instead, you get to play six much beloved classics: Asteroids This is a list of numbered minor planets, nearly all of them asteroids, in sequential order. As of late September 2007 there are 164,612 numbered minor planets, and many more not yet numbered. Most asteroids are ordinary and not particularly noteworthy. , Tempest, Centipede centipede, common name for members of a single class, Chilopoda, of the phylum Arthropoda. Centipedes are the most familiar of the myriapodous arthropods, which consist of five groups of arthropods that had a separate origin from other arthropods. , Missile Command, Super Breakout and Pong (games) Pong - A computer game invented in 1972 by Atari's Nolan Bushnell. The game is a minimalist rendering of table tennis. Each of the two players are represented as a white slab, controllable by a knob, which deflects a bouncing ball. . There's some other window dressing Window Dressing A strategy used by mutual fund and portfolio managers near the year or quarter end to improve the appearance of the portfolio/fund performance before presenting it to clients or shareholders. , such as an interview with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, but this is basically the first legal chance to play these games on a PC. Most of the code for the games has been available, illegally, for years on the Internet's Usenet newsgroups, free for the downloading. All you had to do was find the riDght emulator software (also available for the persistent) to make your computer mimic the old code's old platform, and you were ready to start shooting centipedes centipedes many-legged members of the class Chilopoda of the phylum Arthropoda. They are relatively harmless, but some of the 1500 species can inflict a painful bite to humans and it seems reasonable to assume that bites to animals could happen. . But now, for less than $30, you have a more honorable alternative - and a better-looking one, too. Atari forever. Amen. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Total Annihilation: Kingdoms for PC mixes science fiction and fantasy elements in an ancient world. |
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