robertj@yale-zoo-suned..arpa (Rob Jellinghaus) (10/20/87)
Well, I know there are many of you who are just as desperate
for Mac II games as I am, so I thought I would share with you
my results from about a half-hour of calling various game com-
panies and asking them about their products.
1) SSI has converted North Atlantic '86, Computer Baseball,
and one other which I don't remember to the Mac. They are
planning to get Computer Ambush out by December. As far as
the lady in Cust. Serv. knew, none of these are currently
Mac II compatible. She asked someone in the background, and
he said that Comp. Ambush should run on the II. They haven't
playtested it, though :-)
2) Electronic Arts intends to do Deluxe Music Construction Set
for the II. No timetable, no news on whether it'll support
color or anything else. The guy in Cust. Serv. said they get
no coversion info from the companies they distribute for (i.e.
Datasoft, etc.), so he couldn't tell me any more. I asked about
Starflight, and he said that he knows the writers are planning
to do some conversions, but he has no idea what machines they're
gonna be doing first.
3) DataSoft said that Alternate Reality: The City is currently
available for the Mac, but it's not Mac II compatible and they
have no plans to make it so.
4) Origin Systems said that none of their currently available
stuff is Mac II compatible. They may patch Ogre and Ultima III
to be Mac II compatible, but there's no real timetable. (Color
support? Dream on, I said to myself.) Moebius is due out around
Christmas, Ultima IV is coming next spring, and Ultima V and Auto-
duel coming next fall (!!). The lady in Cust. Serv. said that all
the new releases will probably be Mac II compatible. Let's hope
she had a clue.
5) Mindscape said that ALL their current Mac software is Mac II
compatible!! The rep said that Shadowgate can even be installed
on a Mac II's hard disk. He said that no color support is planned,
though :-( Can anyone who has tested Mindscape's software verify
his claim to 100% compatibility??? I find it a bit hard to be-
lieve...
6) Omnitrend Software's rep couldn't tell me much. She did tell
me that their newest release, Breach, is not II compatible and
there are no plans to make it so. She didn't know why there were
no compatibility plans.
So all in all, the picture looks pretty bleak. If any of you get
any new news about Mac II games, or if you're interested in knowing
anything I learn about, please send me Email.
Dosveedanya! (Is that right?)
Rob Jellinghaus | "Lemme graze in your veldt,
jellinghaus@yale.edu.UUCP | Lemme trample your albino,
ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET | Lemme nibble on your buds,
!..!ihnp4!hsi!yale!jellinghaus | I'm your... Love Rhino" -- Bloom Countybrian@hpfclm.HP.COM (Brian Rauchfuss) (10/21/87)
I am converting a public domain X-Windows program called "xconq" (It's copywrit, but the author allows modifications) to the Macintosh. It is an Empire-like game, superior to "Strategic Conquest" except in the intelligence of the machine. I will keep it in color if and when I get information on Color-Quickdraw. Brian Rauchfuss
mrh@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU (Marc Hannah) (10/22/87)
In article <17863@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>, robertj@yale-zoo-suned..arpa (Rob Jellinghaus) writes: > 5) Mindscape said that ALL their current Mac software is Mac II > compatible!! The rep said that Shadowgate can even be installed > on a Mac II's hard disk. He said that no color support is planned, > though :-( Can anyone who has tested Mindscape's software verify > his claim to 100% compatibility??? I find it a bit hard to be- > lieve... Well I have the Uninvited by Icom Simulations which is distributed by Mindscape and it works great. While all the bitmapped graphics is limited in screen size relative to the Mac II screen, all the other windows are resizable, etc. Another program I'm sure is Mac II compatible is the 'Alice' game from Apple. It was written by Steve Capps and seems to work rather well but it is IMPOSSIBLE to beat since it is so fast. David Gelphsek
cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (jeff t. segawa) (10/22/87)
In article <17863@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> robertj@yale.UUCP writes: > >Can anyone who has tested Mindscape's software verify >his claim to 100% compatibility??? I don't know about Deja Vu or Shadowgate, but I just picked up Uninvited, and it works fine on the II, although disk #1 is copy protected and cannot be installed on a hard disk. Disk #2 is unprotected, so it can be installed without problems, which makes life for owners of single-floppy + hard disk systems a lot nicer.
paulm@nikhefk.UUCP (Paul Molenaar) (10/22/87)
In article <980@uhccux.UUCP> cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (jeff t. segawa) writes: >In article <17863@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> robertj@yale.UUCP writes: >> >>Can anyone who has tested Mindscape's software verify >>his claim to 100% compatibility??? > >I don't know about Deja Vu or Shadowgate, but I just picked up >Uninvited, and it works fine on the II, although disk #1 is >copy protected and cannot be installed on a hard disk. Disk >#2 is unprotected, so it can be installed without problems, which >makes life for owners of single-floppy + hard disk systems a lot >nicer. To put it even more strongly: I've seen all Mindscape games running on an Atari ST, emulating a Mac. I noticed that 99% of the programs that run on the Magic Sac or similar products, also run on the Mac II. The only problems that occurs with these emulators is that sound routines sometimes 'bomb' the system. Should you run into trouble on the Mac II, the solution might be to turn off the sound using the control-panel (just like the Atari users do) Paul Molenaar "Just checking the walls" - Basil Fawlty - -- Paul Molenaar "Just checking the walls" - Basil Fawlty -
futor@lll-lcc.aRpA (Randy J. Futor) (10/23/87)
I finally gave up on Deja Vu &, in a fit of pique, mangled the diskettes (once I finally got the damn things out of the II!!) so as to make absolutely certain they didn't get reinserted. As a MacTyro, I was momentarily freaked to find that the system could no longer 'see' my internal harddisk, but a few deep breaths & a couple minutes looking through what the System Utilities disk had on it cured that problem. I now make salespeople promise to take software back if it doesn't run TO SUIT ME on my machine at home (since very few of them are fortunate enough to have a II there to play with! 8-) & I define "run to suit me" to mean I don't have to go find the damn disks every time I want to play it. If enough of us vote with our $$$$, this copy protection crap will go the way of the pterodon -- just as it ought!!
alan@pdn.UUCP (Alan Lovejoy) (10/25/87)
In article <17863@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> robertj@yale.UUCP writes:
/So all in all, the picture looks pretty bleak [very limited selection
/of games compatible with (let alone customized for the Mac II)].
Since the Market Analysts are projecting Mac II sales to the fortune 500 alone
of about 500,000 units IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS, it looks like the
marketing opportunity for Mac II games couldn't be better: there's
almost no competition!
/Dosveedanya! (Is that right?)
Well, it's two words: "Do svidaniya" where "Do" means "upto" or
"until" and "svidaniya" means something like "meeting" (literally,
"off-sighting"). Alternatively, it might be parsed as "DOS-vidaniya"
(goodbye to DOS)!! :-)
/Rob Jellinghaus | "Lemme graze in your veldt,
/jellinghaus@yale.edu.UUCP | Lemme trample your albino,
/ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET | Lemme nibble on your buds,
/!..!ihnp4!hsi!yale!jellinghaus | I'm your... Love Rhino" -- Bloom County
--alan@pdnhammen@csd4.milw.wisc.edu.UUCP (10/29/87)
In article <17863@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> robertj@yale.UUCP types:
/So all in all, the picture looks pretty bleak [very limited selection
/of games compatible with (let alone customized for the Mac II)].
One game that works fine on the Mac II (and even the Mac XL) is "The Dungeon
Revealed", which is the commercial successor to the old shareware "Dungeon of
Doom" series. While it doesn't offer any other advantages (other than playing
remarkably fast) it is a good and addicting game.
Robert Hammen Computer Applications, Inc.
hammen@csd4.milw.wisc.edu Delphi: HAMMEN GEnie: R.Hammen