Some
people think there are no "shoot-em-up" games for
Macintosh, not quite! Most of the greatest PC games have been
ported to the Mac. I went to Apple expo in Paris (140000 visitors
this year) on Sunday September 20th, and there was a booth
dedicated to games for the Mac. There were eight iMacs connected
to each other thanks to an ethernet network. They all had
96 MB of RAM and a large crowd was gathered around them. Two
iMacs were running Diablo, the famous role playing game from
Blizzard. This game consists of venturing into a labyrinth
to find and kill Diablo. You begin your quest in a village
where you can talk to many people: a blacksmith, he sells,buys
and can repair your weapons (no guns or bazookas,Diablo takes
place in the Middle ages) ; a healer ; a storyteller ; a sorceress
who sells magical staffs and spell books; and many other villagers.
There is 3 classes of characters: a warrior: strong but weak
in magic and dexterity ; a sorcerer: he's great at casting
spells but isn't very strong, a rogue (a woman !): she excels
in archery but has little vitality. This
game was so much fun that I bought it. There was a beta version
of Starcraft on two other iMacs, the game was running very
well and didn't crash once. There are 3 races in Stracraft:
the terrans (us), the protoss, and the zergs but it really
looks like Warcraft 2 - the concept is the same. In the beginning
you have some working class robots that can collect ore in
cristal fields, and build buildings - you have to set up a
base. In multiplayer mode you just have to kill your friend
(or you and your ally have to team up to kill the computer),
so I haven't had the chance to see what the missions are like
in a single player game. I played with the terrans against
zergs - they are sort of Aliens (like in the film "Alien")
and they spit a green acid to kill their ennemies. Unlike
in Warcraft your barracks can train up to 5 units at the same
time.You can also hide your fighting units in a bunker in
order to protect them from the attacks of your enemies, but
they can still fire from there. When the enemies destroy the
bunker your units get out of it without losing any lifepoints.
The greatest invention is that you can make your main base
fly anywhere you want. So when you are in danger you can always
try to flee. The third game on display was Unreal. I haven't
had the chance to play it, but it is the best doom-like game
I've ever seen. Of course there is Quake to on the PC, but
it always takes place in dark corridors
whereas Unreal lets you play in the open-air in small valleys
where you can see lakes and much more. There are also fortress
to explore too. I strongly recommand a G3 or a very fast 604e
processor with at least 64 MB of RAM to run it - it took 3
to 4 minutes for an iMac to load the first level. I think
a 3DFX2 (voodoo 2) graphics accelerator should considerably
improve the graphics and of course the number of frames per
second. Games missing for the Macintosh are the driving simulators.
There is only Carmageddon, Racing days R, and IndyCar 2. Here
are some games that will be released in late 98 or in 99:
Tombraider 2, Myth 2, Quake 2, RedNeck Rampage, Carmaggedon
2, Total Annihilation, Diablo 2 and many more...
Samy is 15 and lives in France ( the country of wine and
camembert he says) He discovered the Macintosh in 1995 when
he got a Performa 5200. He has learned to use DTP programs
with it ,and created his own website
but is looking forward to purchasing a G3 next year because
his machine is just too poky. He hopes to get a job where
he can use a Macintosh.
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Some
people think there are no "shoot-em-up" games for
Macintosh, not quite! Most of the greatest PC games have been
ported to the Mac. I went to Apple expo in Paris (140000 visitors
this year) on Sunday September 20th, and there was a booth
dedicated to games for the Mac. There were eight iMacs connected
to each other thanks to an ethernet network. They all had
96 MB of RAM and a large crowd was gathered around them. Two
iMacs were running Diablo, the famous role playing game from
Blizzard. This game consists of venturing into a labyrinth
to find and kill Diablo. You begin your quest in a village
where you can talk to many people: a blacksmith, he sells,buys
and can repair your weapons (no guns or bazookas,Diablo takes
place in the Middle ages) ; a healer ; a storyteller ; a sorceress
who sells magical staffs and spell books; and many other villagers.
There is 3 classes of characters: a warrior: strong but weak
in magic and dexterity ; a sorcerer: he's great at casting
spells but isn't very strong, a rogue (a woman !): she excels
in archery but has little vitality. 
This
game was so much fun that I bought it. There was a beta version
of Starcraft on two other iMacs, the game was running very
well and didn't crash once. There are 3 races in Stracraft:
the terrans (us), the protoss, and the zergs but it really
looks like Warcraft 2 - the concept is the same. In the beginning
you have some working class robots that can collect ore in
cristal fields, and build buildings - you have to set up a
base. In multiplayer mode you just have to kill your friend
(or you and your ally have to team up to kill the computer),
so I haven't had the chance to see what the missions are like
in a single player game. I played with the terrans against
zergs - they are sort of Aliens (like in the film "Alien")
and they spit a green acid to kill their ennemies. Unlike
in Warcraft your barracks can train up to 5 units at the same
time.You can also hide your fighting units in a bunker in
order to protect them from the attacks of your enemies, but
they can still fire from there. When the enemies destroy the
bunker your units get out of it without losing any lifepoints.
The greatest invention is that you can make your main base
fly anywhere you want. So when you are in danger you can always
try to flee. The third game on display was Unreal. I haven't
had the chance to play it, but it is the best doom-like game
I've ever seen. Of course there is Quake to on the PC, but
it always takes place in dark 
corridors
whereas Unreal lets you play in the open-air in small valleys
where you can see lakes and much more. There are also fortress
to explore too. I strongly recommand a G3 or a very fast 604e
processor with at least 64 MB of RAM to run it - it took 3
to 4 minutes for an iMac to load the first level. I think
a 3DFX2 (voodoo 2) graphics accelerator should considerably
improve the graphics and of course the number of frames per
second. Games missing for the Macintosh are the driving simulators.
There is only Carmageddon, Racing days R, and IndyCar 2. Here
are some games that will be released in late 98 or in 99:
Tombraider 2, Myth 2, Quake 2, RedNeck Rampage, Carmaggedon
2, Total Annihilation, Diablo 2 and many more...
