iGame Radio

The Aspyr Non-blog has an interview with Mac game developer legend Glenda Adams. The interview covers her thoughts on iOS game development, gaming trends, and her favorite Mac game that she ported.

An excerpt:

GA: What are some of the gaming trends in 2010 that you really liked?

Glenda: I like the trend of smaller scale, snack size gaming. The type of games on the iPhone, or downloadable games on the Mac & PC or console. While a big blockbuster like Civilization 5, or Call of Duty is great (I’m just now finally finishing up playing Red Dead Redemption on the 360), I like playing smaller games that don’t have quite the learning curve or time commitment. I think that trend is a good one for the game industry, and good for gamers.

Aspyr Media has announced that Civilization V is now available for pre-order for $49.99. Better yet, pre-ordering will get you entered into a random drawing to win a copy of the game signed by Sid Meier himself!

Civilization V is the latest in the long running world dominating sim by Sid Meier. Civ V sports an all new graphics engine, a new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions and a cavalcade of expanded features. Players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known, from the basest civilization to leaping into the stars.

Boxed pre-orders will get free shipping. Also, if you pre-order, you will automatically be entered into a random drawing to win a copy signed by Sid Meier himself. These limited Special Edition copies are not available for sale to the public. Ten runners-up will receive an Aspyr t-shirt.

There will also be more chances to win these autographed copies through Aspyr’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. They’ll be posting details on how to win to the GameAgent NonBlog soon.

Civilization V will be released November 23, so better get your order in soon.

Aspyr Media has announced that RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum is coming to the Mac in time for the holiday season. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum will include for the first time on the Mac RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Mac is the third installment of the popular tycoon sim game. Create 3D amusement parks and view them in the CoasterCam, which allows you to see your park from any angle and ride what you build. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked! Mac allows you to select from more than 50 new rides and coasters, and use the Swimming Pool and Waterfall Designers to easily create water-based amusements.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild for the Mac gives you the ability to add animal exhibitions, enclosures and animal viewing galleries to your amusement parks. This game contains twelve Wild!-themed scenarios, two new wild design themes, dozens of additional rides and coasters, and the ability to create safari expeditions and train your animals to perform in choreographed shows. In addition, challenges and novel scenery elements have been added to the scenarios to increase the diversity of play.

There is no pricing information available at this time, but system requirements have been posted:

• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
• CPU Processor: Intel chipset
• CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz or faster
• Memory: 512 MB or higher
• Hard Disk Space: 2GB free disk space
• Video Card: ATI Radeon X1600, NVidia GeForce 7300
• Video Memory (VRam): 128 MB
• Media Required: DVD Drive

Aspyr warns that these system requirements are not final, but has released preliminary minimum system requirements for playing Civilization V for the Mac. The requirements are about what you might expect, although I was happy to see that it seems that Mac Pros from as early as 2006 will still be able to eke under the wire (if you update your graphics card from the default, that is).

Expected Minimum Product Spec Requirements:

• Operating System: 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard)
• CPU Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual-Core)
• CPU Speed: 2.4 GHz
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 8 GB
• Video Card: ATI Radeon HD2600, NVidia Geforce 8600
• Video Memory (VRam): 256 MB
• Media Required: DVD-ROM
• Peripherals: Macintosh mouse and keyboard

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas of MacGamer talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. Apple held another “event” this week, introducing iLife 11, OSX 10.7 Lion, the Mac App Store, a new MacBook Air, and more. After Omaha snored through the iLife demos, she and Corey talk about the impact a Mac App Store might have on the Mac gaming community. Also, can you game on the MacBook Air?
• Civilization V for the Mac was finally announced by publisher Aspyr Media…after everyone else already knew. Notwithstanding, Omaha and Corey talk about some of the new aspects of the game, and Corey admits his secret shame.
• EA has admitted to purchasing iPhone publisher Chillingo. What will this mean for EA? How will the purchase change the iPhone games out there? And why are the Angry Birds so angry?
• Phillip Rosedale of Second Life’s Linden Labs has stepped down as interim CEO to pursue a new startup, while the board searches for another CEO. What’ll you hear the name of that startup…
• Omaha and Corey talk about games released, soon to be released, and they’ve played.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Zach Young for featuring music from The Great Tree.
• Tomas Dvorak for featuring music from Machinarium.

GameAgent, the download service for Aspyr Media, is hosting a weekend of Flash Sales of all of their Windows and Mac games, such as Call of Duty, Civilization, and Star Wars. And a few people will be able to win a free download of some of their most popular games. All you need to do is follow GameAgent on Twitter or Facebook to get in on the action.

Aspyr Media has officially launched their European and UK GameAgent digital download platforms. To celebrate, they are offering 15% across the board on all digital download game sales. The sale lasts through July 28th, but unfortunately won’t include anything on MarketStream, so you won’t get the discount for any Civ for Mac games.

They have also opened up new forums as well, and are encouraging folks to participate. Right now a poll is ongoing about what old school Aspyr Mac port you want to see sent to digital.

The GameAgent NonBlog has announced that GameAgent is coming to European customers. Starting today, Europeans in select countries will have access to what Asypr is calling their “Beta” period to test out the download and purchasing platform. There are two separate locations, GameAgent UK for purchasing in pounds, and GameAgent EU for purchasing in euros.

As an added incentive, international customers between now and the end of day on Sunday, July 18, who purchase from either location will receive a 15% discount on their orders. Send in your feedback about the experience (good or bad) to gameagent@aspyr.com to the email address registered and you’ll get a coupon for another 25% off the next purchase.

At the moment, GameAgent UK and GameAgent EU are only available for digital products. But Aspry promises that they will have boxed products available later this summer. Click on the link to see the list of supported countries.

As is sometimes the case with an event like GDC, limited info can pop out to those who aren’t in attendance, leading to incorrect conclusions. Yesterday, I posted that Monkey Island: Special Edition would be coming to the Mac via Telltale Games. Well, the site I had linked to didn’t mention TellTale. I had just assumed this because TellTale had just recently released Tales of Monkey Island for the Mac and, stupid me, I thought that they would be continuing with that.

My bad. Secret of Monkey Island: SE is in fact being brought to the Mac via Aspyr Media! They actually have it on pre-order right now for $9.99.

The game brings the original version from 1990 and includes redrawn art, a new score, and new voice acting. Players will be able to switch between the original and enhanced versions on the fly.

The long awaited release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition has come. Aspyr Media announced this morning the availability of the most recent of the Star Wars game episodes for the Mac for both retail and digital download. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed places you in the role of Darth Vader’s “secret apprentice”, through which you understand more about the Force than you ever wanted to. Naw, who are we kidding!

This Ultimate Sith Edition includes all of the original missions found in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as well as three new levels, including a brand new bonus level not released before set on the planet Hoth, and a host of new costumes and character models. The retail version is packaged in a premium case along with a special edition art book and collectible art cards that showcase the memorable characters in the game.

The system requirements are:

• Operating System: 10.5.8 (Leopard), 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual-Core)
• CPU Speed: 2.4 GHz
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 25 GB + 1 GB Swap File
• Video Card (ATI): Radeon HD2600, (NVidia): Geforce 8600
• Video Memory (VRam): 256 MB

The game is available for $39.99.