Classic Cribbage 1.0
Author: FreeVerse Software
Shareware: $19.95
http://www.freeverse.com

Mike: Right off the heels of last month’s Deathground, FreeVerse has released yet another game. This one is a traditional card game, in the same vein as their other classics, Hearts Deluxe and Spades Deluxe. This time, the game of cribbage gets the FreeVerse treatment.

Adam: Freeverse is famous for well done card games, and their latest, Classic Cribbage, is no exception. It combines all the fun of Cribbage with the intuitive interface and interactive gameplay that only Freeverse does so well.

Mike: Neither Adam nor I had ever played cribbage before, so we had to rely on the online help system to show us the ropes. Luckily, the folks at FreeVerse had this in mind, and made sure the help was pretty good.

Adam: While I’m surprised that Mike has never played Cribbage, being the card buff he is, I botch every card game I lay my hands on. Luckily, Freeverse is forgiving, with as-you-play help, and entertaining music to calm your nerves.

Mike: You’d be a card buff, too, if you lived in Iowa and had nothing else to do! Anyway, the basic concept of cribbage is to move your peg around the playing board and reach the end before your opponent. You get to move your peg according to the number of points you score during the hand being played. You can score points for bringing the point total of the hand to 15 or 31, or by playing the same ranked card twice in a row. You also score points based upon the overall strength of your hand, and the dealer scores points from the discard pile, as well. (The discard pile is called the crib, for those of you wondering where the name of the game comes from.)

Adam: Scoring precisely 15 or 31 can be quite challenging, and can yield all types of expressions, so Freeverse was kind enough to include some “expression” faces that allow you to show your emotions in creative fashion!

Mike: Adam is absolutely right‹FreeVerse’s trademark sense of humor and fun is present in Classic Cribbage, as well as many other great features and options. Computer opponents have three different skill levels (dumb, good, and god-like), and you can use either the included music or any music file that’s in the QuickTime format.

Adam: Fortunately for me, I can set it to dumb, because when it comes to card games, I’m dumb!

Mike: Even better than computer opponents, of course, are real-life human ones. And, in a rarity for shareware games, FreeVerse allows you to do just that over the Internet, using their very own game server, the HMS FreeVerse. Quite impressive!

Adam: Very impressive, indeed. I wish more shareware companies would take notice of Freeverse’s dedication to the Internet and allow Internet play. It creates a whole new experience for gamers, and with so many commercial games supporting online gaming, it’s great to see a shareware company following suit.

Requirements/Availability
Classic Cribbage 1.0 requires Mac OS 8.1 or higher and a minimum of 8 megabytes of RAM. It also requires NetSprocket 1.7.1 or higher for Internet play. The game costs $19.95 to register, and may be downloaded from FreeVerse’s own website, http://www.freeverse.com, or other software libraries such as C|Net’s Download.com, http://www.download.com.

The Summary
Mike: FreeVerse has come through again, with a fun and enjoyable computer version of Cribbage. Fun features, adjustable difficulty, and Internet play makes it well worth the $19.95 price tag. I think all card playing fans should check it out!

Adam: Best of all, FreeVerse lets you evaluate the majority of its features in a free demo. Once you register, playing card games will never be the same. Their breakthrough to the Internet is well worth $19.95. It may seem like too much to some, but it’s not to us.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.freeverse.com/deathg/index.html
http://www.download.com

Deathground
Author: FreeVerse Software
Shareware: $29.95 + $3.00 S&H
http://www.freeverse.com/deathg/index.html

Mike: The “big guns” of the shareware gaming scene have been flexing their muscles lately. Last month, we showed you Cythera from Ambrosia Software, and this month, we showcase Freeverse Software’s Deathground, a gangster strategy game based on the classic board game RISK.

Adam: Like Ambrosia, Freeverse Software has a wonderful reputation for high quality shareware games, and Deathground doesn’t disappoint. It shows the same all-around quality that we’ve come to expect from Freeverse. So what exactly is Deathground, Mike?

Mike: In Deathground, you play the role of a gangster who’s out to control as much territory as possible. You spend your turns attacking rival gangs to gain control of their territory, and then shuffling your troops around to fortify your areas. You gain money and resources for each territory you own, making it easier to “off” your opponents.

Adam: The more territories you own, the more troops you have to deploy, and the more fun the game becomes. Once you own all the territories on the map, you win the game.

Mike: The default map is New York City, which is divided up into boroughs. Each borough is divided up further into neighborhoods. You receive resources and cash for each ‘hood you control, but get big bonuses for controlling an entire borough. However, with the other players trying to do the same thing, it’s tough to keep total control of any one borough for too long!

Adam: Definitely true, Mike. And you really have to watch out for your enemies gaining ground, because they move fast once they’re in control, and you’ll be forced to surrender or face certain death.

Mike: FreeVerse went into a lot of detail to make the game more than just a computer re-creation of a game board. When you attack a territory, animated gangsters do battle with each other with tommy guns, and the game is full of FreeVerse’s trademark one-liners and comments by the players. The board also zooms in and out in real time, allowing you to see one borough up-close, or look at all of New York from a bird’s-eye view to see the whole scene.

Adam: FreeVerse has also included plenty of fine-tune controls so you can tailor your Macintosh to the game. If you have an older Mac, you might want to scale back on a few of the preferences. But if you have a G4, well, you know what to do!

Mike: The game can be played by up to seven players, and as many of those can be computer-controlled as necessary. There are also three maps to play, which enhances the replay value of the game, too. The downloadable demo limits you to three players and the map of New York, though. The full version comes on a CD-ROM–a first for FreeVerse–and can be bought directly from the company.

Requirements/Availability
The demo requires System 7.6 or higher, 20 megabytes of hard drive space, and approximately 32 megs of free RAM. The Deathground Demo is available for download at the FreeVerse website, http://www.freeverse.com/deathg/index.html, or from any of the great Mac shareware libraries online such as Download.com http://www.download.com. The full version, featuring additional playing maps, more players, and more, comes only on a CD-ROM, and can be purchased directly from FreeVerse for a total of $32.95.

The Summary
Adam: Deathground is a quality shareware game that is both addicting and fun. Its different levels of gameplay allow you to play for hours on end, even if you’ve never played before. The price-to-performance ratio is top notch for this first-rate shareware game.

Mike: I agree, Adam. FreeVerse’s high reputation for making excellent card games and board games for the Mac is well-deserved, and they prove it once again with Deathground. If you like strategy games and want something that’s not quite as complex as StarCraft, or if you just want to see another great example of fine shareware gaming, take a look at Deathground. Highly Recommended by The Game Guys.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.freeverse.com/deathg/index.html
http://www.download.com

QuickMail Pro 2.0
Company: CE Software
Estimated Price: $39.95
http://www.cesoft.com

In its promotional materials and advertisements for QuickMail 2.0, CE Software promises the Holy Grail of good software programming–a clean, easy-to-learn interface to comfort the newest of newbies, combined with enough features and muscle to keep the true power users happy. Even though I have a few minor quibbles with this underdog of an email client, for the most part QuickMail 2.0 delivers on its promises, and provides users with a good, solid alternative to the heavyweights of the market.

For many people, an email client isn’t just an application they run on their computer, it’s the application they run on their computer, and life without it would be almost unimagineable. As such, it’s worth doing a little comparison shopping to make sure that this indispensable tool is the best you can get, not only in terms of features, but in its of ease of use and efficiency. If you take the time to do this, you’ll probably find that QuickMail Pro stands up pretty favorably to the competition. Whether or not it stands above the big boys is ultimately, of course, your own decision.

Looks to Die For, and a Good Personality, Too!
CE Software isn’t just giving QuickMail lip service when it touts its easy-to-learn, easy-to-use interface; it is quite intuitive, and for the most part self-explanatory. Toolbar icons are well-designed, and if you can’t figure out a button’s function by the icon, hold the cursor over the icon for a second, and some text will pop up and tell you. Menu commands are where they are expected to be, and most of them have keyboard equivalents for people who are inclined to spend as much time with their hands on the keys as possible, as I am.

The interface does break a little from the now-standard three-paned motif popularized by clients such as Netscape Messenger and Microsoft’s Outlook Express. By default, the main window shows only the status of your accounts: how many messages are unread, how many have been sent, and so forth. Clicking on the triangle widgets on the left hand side of the window collapses and expands the account hierarchies, much like a Finder window in list mode. If you like, you can expand your mailboxes to show your messages, reveal the optional preview pane at the bottom of the window, and read all of your email from this one window. I find it easier to double-click on messages and show them in their own windows, though.

A look at the main Message Browser window in QuickMail Pro 2.0Like nearly all email clients, QuickMail allows you to create subfolders to store your read mail in, but the program takes a different approach to how you put them there. Instead of a third pane on the left side to drag-and-drop the messages onto, or a menu in the menubar, QuickMail has a “File” icon in its toolbar; clicking on it pops up a dialog box allowing you to select which of your personal folders you’d like to move the message to. Alternatively, clicking and holding on the “File” icon pops up the your personal folders in a list, from which you can easily choose the proper destination for your piece of email.

But, as slick as the interface is, it could be slicker. People who prefer to read their email in the main window’s preview pane must use the keyboard or the menubar if the wish to reply to a message–the only time a “Reply” button is present in the toolbar is when a message is being displayed in its own window. Also, the toolbar buttons are not contextual–in other words, the “New” button always creates a new email message, which can be confusing if you are working with your personal folders and expect it to create a new mail folder!

Looks Aren’t Everything ­ What Can It Do?
In addition to its outstanding interface, QuickMail Pro 2.0 offers many power features that make it a strong contender: support for multiple users; multiple accounts; multiple signatures; scheduled mail checking; contextual menus; mail filters; styled text; LDAP directory servers; and more. The built-in spell checker is both complete and customizable, and the Contact Manager is so robust for an email client’s address book that I’ve taken to using it as my own lightweight PIM of choice. QuickMail also supports Auto-Completion of email addresses (if you have them stored in the Contact Manager). For example, by the time I’ve typed “Kar” into the To: field of a new message, QuickMail has already matched my typing with the name of My Mac’s webmaster, Adam Karneboge, and has completed his name and email address for me. Finally, in one of the niftier features, you have the option of recording a voice message within QuickMail and sending it as an attachment to an email message. (That is, as long as your Mac has a microphone and/or an audio-in jack–sorry, iBook users!)

In the two months that I have been regularly using the program, QuickMail has done all I have asked it to, and more. The only gripe I have with its operation is the way it handles multiple accounts. If you have several active accounts, QuickMail doesn’t consolidate your mailboxes. For example, mail that gets sent to my My Mac address, my college address, or my home ISP address gets put into three different inboxes, and mail I send from the three addresses gets stored in one of three different outboxes. I know this is a highly subjective point, but I would have preferred one inbox and one outbox, with a column in the mail browser window devoted to specifying from which account the message originated.

Plays Well With Others… Sort Of
QuickMail Pro makes it easy to keep your current contacts and address book lists from other programs. You can directly import QuickMail 1.x address books, and, even more importantly, Outlook Express Export files, into QuickMail Pro 2.0. Additionally, you can import other contact files (from other programs) as LDIF files or text files. However, since I previously used Outlook Express 4.5 as my email client, I didn’t have a chance to try out that option.

In the other direction, QuickMail Pro 2.0 also allows you to export its Contact Manager file in either LDIF or text fomats. This is useful if you want to use that information in another program.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to import email messages from another email program into QuickMail. So, if you have tons of mail archived in another format, like I do, your options are either converting the archives to text files and storing them that way, or keeping the archives in their old format and keeping a copy of the old email client around “just in case.”

Compatibility-wise, QuickMail has been relatively trouble free, though I had some problems with the program crashing due to Type 2 errors when I first started using it. The problem went away when I disabled, among other things, desktop printing; I never investigated further to know if that was the true culprit or not, and it may well have been something else. In any case, since then I haven’t had a single problem with the program.

In another minor annoyance, the QuickMail Menu extension insists on putting its menubar icon closest to the Application menu on the right hand side. The problem with this is that America Online Instant Messenger wants its menubar icon in that position, too, and the QuickMail extension “wins.” When both extensions are active, AIM’s menubar icon disappears, which led to me disabling the QuickMail menu extension. (I use a QuicKeys keyboard macro for checking my email, anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for me.)

A Quick(Mail) Fix for What Ails
Users of QuickMail 2.0 should download the 2.01 update from CE Software’s website for interface improvements and bug fixes. It cleans up the user experience even further by adding icon flags to messages that have been replied to and/or forwarded, adding button titles to the Contact Manager, sorting the Account Assistant’s user list by last name instead of first name, and marking as read messages which have been read in the preview pane but not in their own window, among many other minor improvements and fixes. Get it at http://www.cesoft.com/updates.html.

That’s The Price You Pay
Unfortunately, the biggest drawback to QuickMail Pro, in light of such popular email clients as Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, and Eudora Light, is that it isn’t free. Even though the saying goes that you get what you pay for, in this case forty bucks doesn’t get very much extra. Don’t get me wrong–I’m a big fan of QuickMail Pro, but the fact remains that it does precious little that Outlook Express can’t. This will only become all the more true when Microsoft releases 5.0 of their email client, with promised features such as direct access to Hotmail accounts and intelligent spam blocking. Even the current version of Outlook Express offers some features that QuickMail Pro doesn’t, such as the ability to access news servers.

I do strongly believe that QuickMail Pro is much, much better than the underpowered freeware offerings from Netscape and Eudora Light, and any users of those programs should check into QuickMail Pro. However, the program doesn’t have much to set it apart from other commercial offerings, nor does it offer a truly compelling reason–other than it’s interface–to pay for it, when you can get a high-powered client like Outlook Express for free.

Personally, I’m in love with QuickMail Pro’s interface, and am willing to pay for the privilege to use it. But that will probably not be the case with most Mac users, and understandably so. The fact that you have to pay for QuickMail Pro shouldn’t cause you to immediately write it off as an option, because if it sounds like a program that might be up your alley, I strongly suggest you “try before you buy” by downloading the demo from CE Software’s website, at http://www.cesoft.com/demo.html. The demo is fully functional for thirty days, and CE Software even provides free technical support during the 30-day evaluation period, so you can’t go wrong by checking it out.

The Target Audience
Given all of the above pros and cons, whether or not QuickMail Pro is for you probably depends on who you are and what type of situation you’re in. For example, even though I didn’t get a chance to test it personally, CE Software’s QuickMail Office package, which offers clients for both Macintosh and Windows as well as mail server and directory server software, seems like an ideal way to set up a cross-platform mailing system. Using the same software on both platforms will keep support simple, and the intuitive interface will keep the learning curve and training cost at a minimum.

Even if you’re not running a network, QuickMail Pro’s support for multiple-user accounts is great for a single Mac with multiple-users. For example, my three roommates and I can all use QuickMail Pro to check our email without worrying that one of us will read someone else’s mail or send a message using someone else’s name (either intentionally or accidentally).

A single user who is searching for an email client right now should definitely give QuickMail Pro a look, too. But, for someone who’s on a budget or already using an email client they’re happy with, it’s hard to recommend switching to QuickMail Pro too strongly.

Summary
I do think that, overall, QuickMail Pro is a very, very good email client. Its stellar interface makes it a snap for anyone to get used to, and its feature set is robust enough for all but the most demanding users to appreciate. It has enough power to be a true workhorse while maintaining a light footprint (requiring 6.5 megs of hard drive space and less than six megs or RAM), and you’ll never find yourself scratching your head wondering how to perform a certain task.

Whether or not you should choose to use QuickMail Pro as your email client depends on several factors, such as your user environment, needs and wants, and willingness or ability to pay money for a program which has top-notch freeware competition. Rest assured, though, that if you do choose QuickMail, you’ll be getting a solid program that you won’t regret buying.

I’ve always thought that the truest test of a reviewer’s opinion, regardless of what gets said in the printed review, is whether or not the reviewer actually uses the program in day-to-day life over its competitors. This is the case with me and QuickMail Pro, and in the last two months of using it I’ve made it my email program of choice. As such, even though it’s not for everyone, I recommend QuickMail Pro 2.0. It’s not a Holy Grail, but it is a solid contender in the battle for email client supremacy.

MacMice Rating: 3

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.cesoft.com
http://www.cesoft.com/updates.html
http://www.cesoft.com/demo.html

Alta Vista Makes Good
Call it a case of bad timing. In the time between I wrote last month’s column (about Alta Vista’s FreeAccess ISP and the lack of a Mac version) and the time it was actually published, Alta Vista had revised their plans. The FAQ on their web page now admits that a Mac version of the free software is being developed, but doesn’t give a timetable on how soon we can expect it. Oh, well, at least it’s a start.

(You can be sure I’ll follow developments in this story fairly closely, and provide a download link as soon as one become available!)

AllAdvantage Promises Mac Users an Advantage, too
Another company that has been promising to provide Mac users with their software but has yet to do so is AllAdvantage.com. The folks at AllAdvantage pay you to surf the web, as long as their advertisement-laden task bar sits at the bottom of your screen every second that your web browser is open. But hey, that isn’t so bad–especially when there’s money involved! Up until now, the only stipulation has been that you’ve also needed a Windows9x system to use their software. The Mac version is due by the end of the month; let’s see if they deliver.

Trexar is Awesome!
It’s not everyday I use a superlative in reference to a software company, but these guys (located at http://www.macalive.com) are doing a lot of things right. Their three products–MacTuner, WeatherTracker, and MacHeadlines–do an excellent job of filling niche roles that are both enjoyable and practical for the user. I’ve been especially impressed with WeatherTracker–it’s great to be able to take a quick glance at my PowerBook’s screen and know whether or not I should grab my jacket before I head across campus to class. WeatherTracker, and the headline-scrolling MacTicker (formerly the shareware program NewsTicker), beg to constantly be open, sending me constant streams of important information. Trouble is, my 11.3″ laptop screen just isn’t big enough for that! Man, that monitor-spanning option on the new PowerBook G3s is looking might good right now…

What’s Up, Dock?
My summer job left a little too much cash burning a hole in my pocket (this was BEFORE I made a trip to the campus bookstore and bought my textbooks, mind you), so I spent a little dough on some goodies for my PowerBook 1400. The most invaluable has been a BookEndz docking station from Newer Technology. I have a lot of stuff plugged into my ‘Book when it’s sitting on my desk: the power adapter, a pair of external speakers, a gamepad, a mouse, an Ethernet cable, a SCSI cable for an external hard drive, and a printer cable. The BookEndz does its job of cleaning up the cable clutter and allowing me to go from desktop to portable mode quickly and easily. Sliding my ‘Book in and out of the dock is a snap, and is much easier than manually disconnecting over a half-dozen cables and making sure that they don’t all fall behind my desk while they’re not connected! The dock does have some inconveniences: I can’t change expansion bay modules while the ‘Book is docked, and I need to shut down the computer every time I want to dock or undock it (due to the SCSI and ADB connections, of course, which are not hot-pluggable). Overall, though, the dock is a blessing when I want to grab my trusty 1400 in a hurry and take it to the library, and an even bigger blessing when I come back and don’t have to worry about re-connecting all of those cables! I do think that Newer’s price tag on their docks (they also have models for the various G3 series PowerBooks) are overpriced, usually in the $200 ballpark. Longtime My Mac sponsor Small Dog Electronics has a limited supply of BookEndz for the 1400 for only $39, though–a price which is much easier to swallow.

Au Revoir
That’s going to do it this month for this paper-and-test swamped college student. More next month, I promise! Until then, happy Mac-ing!

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.macalive.com

Cythera 1.0.2
Author: Ambrosia
Shareware: $25
http://www.ambrosiasw.com

Mike: Every game that Ambrosia Software releases is met with great anticipation and expectation, and their latest offering is no different. This time, Ambrosia breaks from their usual mold of fast-paced arcade games to give Mac users a complex, elaborate role-playing game called Cythera.

Adam: I’ll be the first to admit that Cythera was not what I was expecting… and while I’m a bit disappointed with the role playing-oriented game, it does show the polish that we have come to expect from Ambrosia.

Mike: I’m not a big role-playing aficiondo either, so Cythera did have a tough time keeping my interest. The pace of the game is slow and meticulous, but so are most RPGs, and fans of the genre should find plenty to like with Cythera. In terms of quality, it is everything we’ve come to expect from Ambrosia.

Adam: In the game, you have been transported away from your home by Cythera’s inhabitants, and your job now is to save the land. In order to do that, you must explore the city while solving challenging puzzles and battling enemies along the way.

Mike: The graphics aren’t flashy, but are well-done. The three-quarters aerial view is similar to that of games like Diablo. In fact, the entire game can be compared to Diablo, but with a bigger story, more talking and interaction among characters, and less hack-and-slash fighting.

Adam: The music is also pleasant, and the controls are fairly intuitive. But then again, we’ve come to expect nothing less from Ambrosia.

Mike: Cythera does a good job of holding your hand early in the game, requiring you to get the hang of basic commands and actions before you can advance too far. The puzzles start out fairly simple and get increasingly harder. Overall, the learning curve is nearly perfect, and the difficulty level will keep even the most seasoned RPG veterans coming back for more.

Adam: But what makes Cythera really shine is the way it captivates even the fiercest arcade gamers around. Whether or not you like role playing games, you’ll like Cythera because it doesn’t immediately seem like one, and before you even call it a role playing game you’re already way too immersed in it to stop.

Mike: Agreed. The storyline is rich and full of twists‹you’ve been presented with a possible double-cross by one of the major characters before you’re even five minutes into the game. Cythera’s plot is as good as most mystery novels, and even if you’re not a RPG fan, you find yourself playing just to find out who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy.

Adam: Cythera is also very interactive‹decisions you make early in the game can effect who characters treat you and what help you receive later in the game!

Mike: Cythera was written using a versatile game engine named Delver, and if Cythera turns out to be the rousing success that it should be, you can expect other role-playing-games based on the Delver engine to start appearing soon.

Requirements/Availability
Cythera requires a 68040 or better processor, 12 megabytes of hard disk space, and 12 megabytes of free RAM. It can be downloaded directly from Ambrosia’s website, http://www.ambrosiasw.com, or from any other Internet software library, such as CNET’s Download.com http://www.download.com.

The Summary
Mike: Cythera is a very rich, immersive role-playing game that fans of the genre will love. Personally, I tend to like my battles in real-time and my action a little more twitch-oriented, but I still liked Cythera nonetheless. It’s another good game from the pros at Ambrosia that deserves a look.

Adam: Immersing fans of arcade games into a totally different genre is never easy, but Ambrosia has taken that task head-on and succeeded. It’s for this reason that The Game Guys RECOMMEND Cythera for Macintosh gamers near and far.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com
http://www.download.com

Heretic PPC
Author: Brad Oliver
Freeware
bradman@primenet.com

Mike: We’ve reviewed some great shareware games in these pages before, but one type of game you rarely see a shareware developer write is a first-person shooter. This month, however, we review Heretic PPC, a freeware port of the PC game that never made it to the Mac.

Adam: It’s rare that you see a shareware developer port a game to the Mac, and even rarer to make it free. So when Mike suggested Heretic PPC, I thought we’d give it a try. While it didn’t fully work as advertised, it’s a great gesture to the Mac community. Is there a plot/storyline to this game, Mike?

Mike: The included Read Me file didn’t say much: “The object of this game is simple–shoot stuff and don’t get killed.” Like most first-person shooters of its time, Heretic relied more on trigger-finger reflexes and less on plot. The game, and its sequel, Hexen, was released by id Software in between its smash hits, Doom and Quake, and it’s set in a medieval setting rather than a futuristic, sci-fi one.

Adam: When Heretic PPC is first launched, it almost looks like it crashed. Your screen goes black and white, flashes a few times, and then a progress bar comes up to show the loading sequence. Once it’s loaded, you navigate with the arrow keys through the various options and into the game play.

Mike: Anyone who’s ever played Doom or another of id’s shoot-em-up titles will be right at home with the menu navigation and game play. It’s not always true to the Mac interface, and some commands are a little counter-intuitive, but what would you expect from a Windows port?

Adam: There are options for pixel doubling and tripling, but they looked horrible on my 1024×768 screen. And even though music was listed as an option, it failed to be produced on my PowerBook.

Mike: Since my screen has a maximum resolution of 800×600, I didn’t try the pixel doubling option, and kept the game’s resolution at its standard 640×480. The graphics looked dated, but acceptable at that resolution. Unfortunately, although I tried all of the tips listed in the Read Me, I couldn’t get any music while I was played, either.

Adam: One good thing is that it did render well on my PowerBook G3/250 (WallStreet) with the ATI Rage LT graphics chipset. However, it crashed numerous times throughout game play, so I had a tough time keeping interest in the game long enough to give it a fair review.

Mike: Excuse me while I express my jealousy at the fact that Adam *has* an ATI chipset in his PowerBook… OK, with that over, I can say that I never experienced the crashes that Adam did, for unknown reasons. I can attest that the game plays, well, like a first person shooter. You run around an intricate maze, searching for the exit, and killing all of the monsters in your way with your magic scepter. It doesn’t have the plot depth of Marathon, the graphics or Unreal, or the pure adrenaline rush of Quake II, but you don’t have to lay down a couple of twenty dollar bills to play it, either.

Requirements/Availability
Heretic PPC requires a PowerPC processor and System 7.5 or later. You can download Heretic PPC from Download.com http://www.download.com or any other Macintosh shareware archive.

The Summary
Adam: All-in-all, a freeware port of Heretic is a wonderful gesture towards Mac users, and for that reason, we can cautiously recommend it. However, if you have the crashes that I experienced, delete it. You’ll get more excitement out of seeing the trash can empty than you will playing the game.

Mike: Well put, Adam. I applaud Brad Oliver for making Heretic available to Mac users, but I hope that there will be an updated version in the near future that fixes a few bugs. If that happens, he will really have done Mac gamers a great service. Cautiously recommended by The Game Guys.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.download.com

I WANT MY FREE INTERNET!!!

Over on the Wintel side of things, the word “free” is the current fad. The “free PC” movement is becoming increasingly popular–if a customer buys a cheap PC, he or she is eligible for a number of rebates, the sum of which equals the cost of the PC itself. Often, these rebates include a very large rebate from an Internet service provider, such as CompuServe or Prodigy, which you only receive if you agree to subscribe to their service for three years or so. There is a similar concept for Mac users, too–FreeMac.com, http://www.freemac.com offers a “free” iMac if you amass enough of the rebates and agree to their conditions. But there are still other “free” movements for Windows users that aren’t available for Mac users, and I hope that the situation changes soon.

Juno, at http://www.juno.com, has offered free email for Windows users for a couple of years, but seemingly has never even considered a Mac-compatible version of their service. It’s a straightforward experience; download the software, install it on your computer, and use the proprietary Juno client and phone numbers for your email. It’s entirely free; you just have to tolerate ad banners on the email client and a tag line at the end of all email you send. In other words, Juno works very similar to the free email services on the World Wide Web, with the big difference that it’s not on the web. And the bigger difference is that it’s not on the Mac.

As much as I would like to see a Juno client available for the Mac, I’ve never complained too loudly about it. As a member of a minority group of the computer world, I’ve come to accept that there will be some things that third-parties won’t produce for my platform. It’s not nice, it’s not ideal, and it’s not always fair, but it’s the truth. A recent announcement about another free service currently available only for Windows users prompted me to raise my voice a little, though.

AltaVista http://www.altavista.com recently announced free World Wide Web access. Their proprietary software puts ad banners at the bottom of your Web browser, but gives you full, free access to the Internet. As of this writing, AltaVista had made a Windows version available, but was putting Mac and Linux users on hold.

I think that AltaVista has a very good idea; it’s worked for email, it should work for WWW access, too. I also think that AltaVista (and Juno) is missing out on a big opportunity by not opening this offer up to Mac users. Thousands of iMac users have bought their new Apples specifically to get them on the Internet quickly and easily, and now there would be a possibility that they could do that for free! Think of it: you pay $1,200 for an iMac and $200 for a printer, and, with the iMac’s bundled software, free email via Juno, and free Internet access via AltaVista, many people would never have to spend anything on their computer after their initial investment. Wow.

Not developing Mac versions of practical software with a wide appeal may have been a sound business decision when Juno first rolled out its email client, because Apple was teetering on the brink of extinction. But that is obviously not the case anymore, and there are countless numbers of people who are buying new iMacs and wanting to use the Internet. Why can’t Juno and AltaVista see the opportunity that I see?

SOME NEW, GOOD MAC ANNOUNCEMENTS
It’s nice to see that there are some new and exciting developments for Mac users, too. I’m looking forward to the grand opening of MacLaunch http://www.maclaunch.com , an Internet portal similar to Snap.com, Go.com, Netscape’s NetCenter, and others, but with a Mac-centric twist. It may turn out to be the site that actually sells me on portals (right now, I still start up my web browsers with a blank page).

Also, I have extremely high hopes for a new Mac print-based publication, called MacLiving. There was a preview issue #0 given out at Macworld in July, and the first issues should be available soon. I like the writing and style of MacLiving’s website http://www.maclivingdaily.com and I hope that the print publication is just as excellent and successful.

That’s it from me this month. Talk to you again next time!

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

“Mac Advocacy, or Counterproductivity?”

I had an interesting conversation with my girlfriend the other day. She told me her family is considering buying a new computer because their old ’386 running Windows 3.11 just isn’t doing the job anymore. Since she knew that I’m a bit of a computer geek, and a computer science major in college, she gave me an advance invitation to go shopping with them and offer advice. But before I could even begin thinking about the chance for a little Macintosh evangelism, she told me, “As long as you promise to pick out a good Windows computer, and not an iMac or something.” (Just like a mind reader, a case may be made that my girlfriend knows me a little too well!

Of course, this led to a discussion about the differences between Windows and Macintosh. I tried all of the usual “trump cards” that I use when defending the Mac OS, including:

1. Apple updates their Operating System with bug fixes and new features regularly, and often offers these updates for free (or at least discounted) to users of the previous OS. You don’t have to wait three years for the next version to come along and fix a longstanding bug, and then have to pay over a hundred dollars for it.

2. Installing, deleting, or moving around software applications won’t cause your shortcuts, aliases, favorites, and System software to go haywire. And if an alias on the Mac OS does break, it’s very easy to fix.

3. Adding peripherals like hard drives, scanners, external modems, printers, speakers, and video cards is truly a plug-and-play experience. This is surely not the case for Windows computers, with all of their device driver conflicts and the like, no matter what Microsoft would like you to believe.

I had several other points, too, but it was three that my girlfriend took and threw back in my face. It was a very eye-opening counterattack. It went something like this:

“To me, what you’re saying is that Apple computers are best suited to computer geeks. People who LIKE updating their operating system, installing and trying out new software, tinkering around inside their computer with RAM and hard drive upgrades, and adding a ton of peripherals. My family doesn’t care to do all that. They want a computer, a modem, and a printer, and they want to set it up and install software one time, and then use the computer without ever having to worry about updating anything or buying anything new ever again.”

About that time, I had just realized the error in my arguments, but it was too late. Just as I was about to extol the virtues of the iMac in that category, I was shot down with:

“And sure, you can do that with a Mac, too–no one says you HAVE to update stuff just because Apple lets you. But, then the Mac starts to lose its appeal. If you’re just talking about taking a computer out of the box, setting it up once, and then using it, things are about equal between Windows and Mac, right? I mean, didn’t you even say that Macworld ran a test in one of their issues a couple months ago and found that the iMac and a Gateway computer tied in that respect?”

Ouch. That was a tough one to fight. At least, it was tough to fight given the arguments that I had previously presented. Going back on them now, and saying how easy the iMac was to maintain without updating or adding anything, would definitely lend a touch of dualism and hypocrisy to my earlier “easy to update and expand” argument. (“So, what you’re saying is that this computer is easy to update and expand, but you never need to? What’s the point, then?”)

I lost the argument that day, but you can rest assured the discussion will come up again; I refuse to lose that easily! I did learn a valuable lesson in Macintosh advocacy, though. Namely, when arguing persuasively for the Mac, you have to point out the features and advantages the Mac has that will appeal to the crowd you’re trying to persuade, and not features that will drive them away or scare them. Professional and business users will appreciate the fact that Apple’s computers are powerful, easy to maintain, update, and expand, and have cutting-edge technical specs. Tell those same points to a family or mainstream consumer, though, and you’ll probably end up scaring, confusing, or intimidating them. Likewise, saying that the iMac is easy to set up, will be on the Internet in less than ten minutes, and won’t need to be updated will appeal to the consumers and families out there, but the professional will be unimpressed and more concerned with how much muscle and upgradability their computer will have. The Mac has advantages over Wintel machines in all of these areas; it’s just a matter of knowing what buttons to push with a particular potential Mac buyer.

Apple is doing a superb job of this in their commercials and print ads. The power and easy expandability (can you say “hinged door?”) of the blue and white G3 towers has been highly touted by Apple, but ads for the iMac focus on their style, looks, and simplicity. After being looked down upon and criticized for their mediocre ad campaigns for so long, Apple appears to have gotten a handle on how to advertise to their target audiences–and WHAT to advertise. Up until just recently, they obviously had a better grasp of this than a certain college-aged Mac-advocating columnist, who shall remain nameless.

The point is, even though Apple is doing a fantastic job with their current ad campaigns, they still need their tub-thumping loyal fans to help them out. But, as Mac advocates, we should be sure we’re helping Apple out by giving the right arguments to the right people, or else our good intentions may end up hurting our favorite fruit company more than we realize. Before you begin to point out certain advantages of the Macintosh, make sure you know who you’re talking to and what their interests are. By doing that, you’ll be able to point out the right combination of features that’ll make the Mac sound like an offer they can’t refuse!

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

QuicKeys 4.0
Company: CE Software
Estimated Price: $99.95
Upgrade Prices: $35.95 – $49.95
http://www.cesoft.com
http://www.quickeys.com

QuicKeys has been a staple on many Mac users’ computers for a long time. The robust macro-utility allows you to create keyboard shortcuts and toolbars for dozens of common, repetitive tasks, saving time and giving added convenience to the Mac’s interface. With version 4.0, CE Software has added more options, plug-ins, and interface enhancements to their excellent flagship product. The new version does up the ante a little in System requirements-you need a PowerPC-based Mac with at least 16 megabytes of RAM and Mac OS 8.0 or later-so users of older Macs will have to stick with version 3.5 or look elsewhere for a macro-utility. The majority of Mac users, though, will find plenty to like in this update.

IN WITH THE NEW
Probably the first, and arguably the most important change in QuicKeys 4.0 is the addition of the Setup Assistant. The Setup Assistant works very much like the Setup Assistants in the Mac OS, or a Wizard or template in other applications. It presents the user with a series of dialog boxes and choices, and creates a QuicKeys Shortcut based on the user’s input. While there’s a limited number of Shortcut types the Assistant can make, and the results must be fairly generic and universal in structure, it greatly simplifies the process of creating many common shortcuts that most users will want. The Assistant offers Shortcut creation help in the areas of File, Multimedia, Network, System, and Text Tools. If you’re a QuicKeys veteran, want to make very complicated or elaborate Shortcuts, or have a very unique system setup, you may want to skip the Assistant and make Shortcuts on your own. However, most users-especially QuicKeys “newbies”, will find the Setup Assistant a Godsend. (Also, for those that like them, the written manual is also very helpful, well written, and thorough-it’s half an inch thick!)

The toolbars in QuicKeys have gotten a major overhaul in version 4.0, as well. Toolbars can now be edited and manipulated using contextual menus and offer pop up arrows for accessing menus. More importantly, the toolbars now fully support drag-and-drop; dragging a file, folder, or text selection to a toolbar will automatically create a File Launch, Folder, or Type Text Shortcut on the toolbar. Dragging a file or folder onto a File Handler or Folder button on a toolbar will bring up a drop-down window from which you can select an action to be performed, as well. Toolbars can be made to always float on top of other open windows, or they can be hidden by other active windows.

In addition to the pre-existing suite of plug-ins, which allow you to do things such as launch applications and files, select printers, or type a string of text, QuicKeys 4.0 offers ten new ones. Some offer greater manipulation of files on your computer: File Handler allows you to lock, unlock, rename, move, or modify the type and creator codes of a file, while File Recall is a beefed-up, customizable version of the “Recent Documents” feature in the Apple Menu. Also, Project Saver can open and manipulate a set of files grouped together as a project, and Advanced Text Tools can perform many reformatting features, change case, and remove quotes from a text file. Other plug-ins allow you to change interface and OS settings, such as View Switcher, which allows you to specify view settings for individual folders, and Network Switcher, which enables you to switch between various network settings quickly and easily. There are the obligatory Internet-specific plug-ins: Instant Email automates many email tasks, and Web Launcher lets you launch your favorite websites with one keystroke. Rounding out the new plug-ins are Audio CD Player, which allows you to control audio CDs using the keyboard, and Password Vault, which stores and protects all of your passwords in one place.

The interface changes in the new version of QuicKeys make the program more intuitive and less confusing to new users. The utility now sports a built-in toolbar in the Editor, an icon toolbar instead of a menu bar in the Sequence Editor (thus eliminating one of the more confusing interface features, in my opinion), an updated and improved Configure QuicKeys dialog box, and several new icons and renamed items for clarity. One of my favorite interface improvements is that the QuicKeys Editor is now non-modal when QuicKeys is active. That is, you can click outside the Editor window, which minimizes the Editor into a floating palette. QuicKeys 4.0 also supports Mac OS 8.x technology, such as Contextual Menus.

PUTTING THE SHORTCUTS INTO USE
As in previous versions of QuicKeys, there are several ways of creating Shortcuts. You can use the Setup Assistant, use the Record feature to have QuicKeys keep track of your actions and create a Shortcut of them, use the Create menu to manually make one, use the contextual menus, or drag-and-drop an item onto a QuicKeys toolbar. Although you don’t ever need to use it if you don’t want to, QuicKeys also offers its own scripting language, QuicKeys Script, which can be written and compiled using Apple’s Script Editor.

Likewise, you can trigger the shortcuts you make in various ways. You can assign a keyboard combination to the Shortcut, or click on its toolbar icon. QuicKeys can put a menu in the menu bar to list all of the Shortcuts, and a Shortcut can also be made as a standalone, double-clickable application icon. Finally, Shortcuts can be set to launch at a specific time and date.

It’s true that some of QuicKeys’ features now have Mac OS equivalents. Double-clickable Internet shortcuts and Navigation Services’ Favorites submenu have taken some of the wind out of the Web Launcher’s sail, and many of the Network Switcher and Printer Switcher functions can be taken care of using the Location Manager. According to Apple, the next version of the Operating System (Sonata) will have a password keychain (see Adam’s beta preview of the new OS for details), which will limit the usefulness of one of the brand new shortcuts, the Password Vault.

It’s also true that other programs can mimic some of QuicKeys’ functionality. Connectix’s Speed Doubler 8 offers some very basic macro and file launching capabilities, and there are tons of toolbar and palette-based utilities available also. However, nothing that I’ve tried offers the total package of options, features, intuitiveness, power, and customizability that QuicKeys does. If you already have a large investment in other utilities, QuicKeys may be overkill, but if you want one utility that will act like the Swiss army knife of Macintosh shortcuts, QuicKeys is your answer. If you want to see for yourself before you lay down a Benjamin for it ($100 bill American currency)–always a good move–you can download a 30-day demo version from CE Software’s website, at http://www.cesoft.com/quickeys/qkmdownloads.html

SUMMARY
Ultimately, what you get out of the new version of QuicKeys will largely depend on what type of user you are. For example, I prefer to use the keyboard as much as possible, and cut down on the number of times my right hand has to move from the keyboard to the mouse and back. As such, I’m in love with keyboard combinations for launching Shortcuts, so the toolbar improvements aren’t a big deal to me. (I can appreciate their usefulness and coolness, though.) I’m also a veteran macro and shortcut user, and don’t mind scripting if necessary, so the Setup Assistant is only marginally useful for me. However, everyone-myself included-will be able to make use of the cleaner interface and added support for Mac OS features, such as drag-and-drop and contextual menus. This new version adds something for all Mac users, and especially for those who are unacquainted with the world of macros, scripting, and shortcuts. If you want to make your Mac easier to use and more customizable, as well as increase your own productivity and save time, you need to take a look at QuicKeys 4.0.

MacMice Rating: 4.5

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.cesoft.com
http://www.quickeys.com
http://www.cesoft.com/quickeys/qkmdownloads.html

Thrones 1.01
Author: Rocco Bowling
Shareware: $10.00
http://mgr.simplenet.com/cafe/atropos/thrones

Mike: This month, we deviate from our standard diet of action, arcade, card, and puzzle games to try a real time war simulation, Thrones. The strategy game has a lot of polish and is nicely put together, but when it’s all said and done, it’s not as much fun as some similar games out there.

Adam: I agree, Mike. Some shareware games are good enough that they could be sold as commercial. Unfortunately, Thrones is not one of them. However, you may feel differently, so we’ll take you through the game and let you decide. Mike, the story behind the game, if you would?

Mike: Well, Earth has fallen under the power of Hades, keeper of the Underworld. You are the king of one of the last human settlements on medieval Earth, and you must direct your armies to victory over the armies of the undead.

Adam: Thrones has a very easy learning curve, and thanks to the superb manual, I was up and fighting in no time. Thrones also includes several excellent scenarios that you can beat, and you can even create your own scenarios with the battle and army editors.

Mike: You have a great point, Adam. The HTML-based manual is very thorough, and the tutorial scenario is also well done. Between the included levels and the editor, you can be certain you’ll have hours of playing time, too. The website for Thrones even has a “Scenario of the Week” section and other scenarios for download that users have created themselves.

Adam: However, the burning question really is, how entertaining will the playing time be?

Mike: Unfortunately, the answer is “good, but not that great.” The excellent QuickTime-based graphics and sounds allow you to enjoy the game’s setting, but the game play itself is only mediocre.

Adam: For example, when you go to attack an enemy, even putting the game on the rabbit setting will leave you as slouched as a snail. Once the enemies engage in battle, it’s time to plan your battle strategy. But, again, that’s boring, also. The interface is horrible and once the battle begins, you’re left to watch the humans and skeletons fight to the death. When I was watching, though, all I wanted to happen was for the battle to get over with.

Mike: Yes. Planning your strategy is easy enough to do (Option-clicking on your armies brings up a pop-up menu of choices), but you are limited in what you can do. The ugly battle-planning screen is also a far cry from the rest of the game’s superb graphics.

Requirements/Pricing
Thrones requires a PowerPC-based Macintosh with 7 megabytes of hard drive space, 13 megabytes of RAM, System 7 or higher, and QuickTime 2.1 or later. The game costs $10 to register, and some parts of the game are crippled until it is paid for. Thrones can be downloaded from http://www.download.com or from the Thrones home page, at http://mgr.simplenet.com/cafe/atropos/thrones.

The Summary
Mike: Everything about Thrones adds up to a game that, as the cliché goes, “is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”

Adam: Well put, Mike. Thrones has well done graphics, and the price is right. Overall, it’s an excellent idea, but it needs a little cleaning up. Add some entertaining music, spice up a few parts of the game, and it’d be a winner. However, as Thrones stands now, The Game Guys cannot recommend it.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.download.com
http://mgr.simplenet.com/cafe/atropos/thrones

Pontis MPlayer3
Company: Pontis
Pricing: $159 for MPlayer3 player only
$49 per 16 MB MultiMediaCard
$195 for MPlayer3/16 MB card bundle
http://www.mplayer3.com

I’ve mentioned a couple of times in my “Wall Writings” columns that I use the MP3 audio format quite a bit on my Mac. But my use of MP3s has been limited to just that­using them on my Macintosh. While Mac users have had MP3 encoders (such as MPecker and Xing AudioCatalyst) and software MP3 players (such as MacAmp and QuickTime 4) for several months, there has not been a Mac-compatible solution for portable, pocket-sized MP3 players. Devices such as Diamond’s RIO player have been available for the Wintel platform for quite some time, but companies who produce such players are just now starting to develop Mac-compatible versions. Once they do hit the market, most of these players will be compatible only with USB-equipped Macs, leaving many Mac users out in the cold. Fortunately, a European company called Pontis has decided to fill in the gap with their MPlayer3. The standalone MP3 music player is the first on the market to support Macs, and offers a serial cable adapter so that users of older Macs can join in the fun, too.

The MPlayer3 package contains the player, a MultiMediaCard for MP3 storage, a pair of earphones, cables for connecting the player to your Mac, and a CD-ROM containing software for loading MP3 files from your Mac’s hard drive onto the player’s MultiMediaCards. Pontis also offers software for Windows and Linux, as well as PC-compatible cables, making the MPlayer3 a good cross-platform solution, too. The MPlayer3 runs on two AA batteries, which last for up to 14 hours.

GETTING TO KNOW THE MPLAYER3
The MPlayer3 itself is very small­a little larger than my credit card, but smaller than my wallet. Pontis describes the player as “roughly the size of a pack of cigarettes,” and that’s a pretty accurate comparison. The MPlayer3 fit very comfortably in both my jean pocket and hand, making it easy to carry and use while riding, walking, or jogging. One big advantage of the MPlayer3 over a portable CD player during “active” use is that the MPlayer3 is not susceptible to skipping during quick or jarring movement. The only thing missing that would have increased the MPlayer3′s convenience on the go is a clip for attaching to a belt buckle or waistband.

The MPlayer3 is very easy to control and use, and produces very good sound. The player only has five buttons on its face, located next to the LCD display. The rightmost button is used to turn the player on, and the other four are standard CD controls (play/pause, stop, forward, and reverse). The forward and reverse buttons can be used to skip to a different track or go to different points within a song, just like on a CD player.

Those same five buttons are used to navigate the player’s onscreen menus, which allow you to adjust settings such as treble and bass, random or repeated track play, and the download mode (Mac or PC) for loading songs. You use the four control buttons to make your choices, and the power button is used to return to the main menu. Overall, the system is very intuitive while keeping the number of buttons you need to push and memorize to a minimum.

Listening to the MPlayer3 is just like listening to a portable CD player. MP3s are known for their CD-quality sound, and the MPlayer3 plays the files in all of their glory. The bass and treble controls on the player also add to a better listening experience. Things sound great through the included earphones, and (obviously) even better through a pair of expensive, high quality headphones. Just for fun, I hooked up the MPlayer3 to my pair of Benwin flat panel speakers, and the result was fabulous! It’s definitely the smallest, coolest stereo setup I’ve ever used!

USING THE MEDIA AND SOFTWARE
Unfortunately, the only aspect of the MPlayer3 that falls a little short of fabulous is loading songs onto and using the MultiMediaCards. That’s not to say that the media is bad or disappointing in any way–the cards are roughly the size of a postage stamp, and worked flawlessly for me. Although they are not as ubiquitous as the SmartMediaCards which are often used in digital cameras, MultiMediaCards are gaining in popularity, being used in high-end cellular phones and digital video cameras. The included software worked fine, too, but both hardware and software suffer from a few inconveniences that make the necessary tasks a little more annoying than they should be.

Using the included software works is a fairly straightforward procedure. The routine of searching through the MP3 collection on your computer’s hard drive, choosing songs to include in a playlist, and finally creating and saving a playlist will be familiar to anyone who has used MacAmp or similar software products. When the MPlayer3 is connected to the Mac via the serial port (which, by the way, is a simple plug-and-play operation), and is in download mode, the Pontis software will transfer the chosen playlist onto the MultiMediaCard in the player. This process is painless and easy to do, albeit a little slow (see below). The only problem I have with the included Mac software is that it is far behind the included Windows software. While Windows users also have a full-featured, proprietary encoder and decoder package for ripping and creating MP3 files from audio CDs, Mac users are left to find other software to use for this task; the Pontis software for the Mac only allows you to take previously encoded MP3 files and load them onto the MultiMediaCards. However, I was assured by Pontis that there will soon be parity in the feature set of both versions of the software, and that Mac users will receive free upgrades to the new software when it becomes available.

The number of songs that can be handled at one time is also a little disappointing. Using MPecker, the encoding scheme for MP3s usually translates into one megabyte per minute of audio, meaning that an average song encoded into the MP3 format will take up about 3 to 5 megabytes of disk space. At press time, the largest capacity cards for the MPlayer3 were only 16 megabytes, enough for roughly the equivalent of four songs. According to Pontis, 32 megabyte cards are supposed to be available very soon, which will help alleviate this problem. Assuming that you take advantage of both card slots in the MPlayer3, the 32 megabyte cards will allow you to load a little over a CD’s worth of audio at one time. Cards with capacities of 64 and 128 megabytes are also scheduled to be shipped within six months to a year, so this annoyance will be overcome with time.

In a perfect world, I could buy a couple of 128 megabyte MultiMediaCards and store all of my favorite songs on them, but that would be very cost prohibitive. The other option, of course, is to rewrite the contents of my existing 16 megabyte cards every time I get tired of a playlist or want to include different songs. This isn’t a big deal to me, but it is unfortunate that doing so takes extremely long amounts of time. Loading one song onto a MultiMediaCard takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes, so you better have some time set aside if you plan on rewriting any 32 megabyte cards! (Even rewriting an entire 16 megabyte card takes the better part of an hour.) This is due to the MPlayer3′s serial connection, which has a maximum throughput of 11.5 k/sec, as opposed to the Mac’s ceiling of 23 k/sec. Pontis admits that averages of only 6-10 k/sec is normal when connecting the MPlayer3 to a Macintosh. This is not likely to be changed anytime soon for older Macs, but users with brand new Macintoshes can look forward to a forthcoming USB external cardwriter, due by the end of September, which will offer higher transfer rates.

SUMMARY
Pontis has really done Mac users a favor by being the first to offer a Mac-compatible portable MP3 player. Its small dimensions, simple design and operation, and high quality make the player itself a surefire winner. The only complaints I had about the player were minor ones at best, and Pontis is committed to fixing them. Once they deliver the high capacity MultiMediaCards, a full-featured Mac software package, and speedier methods of loading songs from your Mac to the player, they will have a product that will be ready to change your portable music habits for good!

MacMice Rating: 3.5

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.mplayer3.com

Action GoMac 2.02
Cost: Download $29.95, CD-ROM $39.95
Company: PowerOn Software
http://www.actionutilities.com

Having spent the last two years on a virtually Wintel-only campus, I’ve gotten to know Windows95 pretty well. In doing so, I have had to uncomfortably admit to myself that even though I still find the Mac OS easier and more intuitive to use–and overall far superior–there are some things that Windows gets right.

One of these things is the task bar at the bottom of the screen. It provides an easy way to switch between open applications, documents, and windows; gives one-click accessibility to many control panels and system settings; and, via the Start menu, allows simple navigation of drives and often-used applications.

Well, of course, anything that Windows software does, new Mac software can be written that can do the same thing better. Such is the case with PowerOn Software’s Action GoMac. In preparing for this review, PowerOn told me that it would take two or three weeks to get used to the new features, but once I did, it would become so easy and intuitive that it would seem like second nature. I proved them wrong–maybe it was due to my previous Windows experience, but I got used to using GoMac in less than a week! The latter part of their statement was dead-on, however, even though willingly installing a Windows-like system enhancement on your Mac may seem like sacrilege, once you try it out, you’ll wonder why Apple didn’t beat Microsoft to the punch and write this into the OS in the first place.

The Improved Task Bar
Firstly, PowerOn cleaned up the task bar a little. In Windows95, if you have several applications open, and have two or three documents open in each, the task bar can get very cluttered. GoMac solves this problem by listing only every open application in the task bar, rather than every open window . Clicking on a button in the task bar switches to that application, and clicking and holding on a button brings up a menu showing the open windows of that application. This menu also shows memory usage, and options for hiding or quitting the application.

The Start menu (which you can customize to be labeled Start, Mac, Macintosh, or simply the Apple logo) offers the same efficiency and ease of use as its Windows counterpart, but offers more customizing options. You can choose to show or hide Find, Recent, Progams, Settings, Drives, Internet, and Office 98 submenus in the Start menu, and you can also add your own folders, files, or favorites to it. All of the submenus are very clever–Find lets you perfrom a Sherlock search; Recent acts just like the recently used items option in the Apple Menu; Programs reads from the Applications folder of the root level of your hard drive (assuming you have such a folder); Settings offers easy access to your control panels, Extensions Manager, Chooser, and Monitors & Sound preferences; Drives allows you to navigate through all mounted drives on your computer (you can choose to exclude certain drives from the list, too); Internet shows your email, web, ftp, news, and telnet applications as defined by your Internet Config settings; and Office 98 shows, obviously enough, the Microsoft Office 98 programs you have installed (I have none, so I chose not to show that menu). Finally, as I mentioned before, you can also add your own folders, aliases, files, or bookmarks to the Start menu.

I still haven’t mentioned what I find to be the real beauty of Action GoMac, however. The region between the Start menu and the task bar area is called a QuickLaunch area. You store the equivalent of aliases to your favorite programs here, and you can launch those apps with one click, just as if you were using the Launcher or had the icon view set to “buttons.” What’s more, on the right of the screen, next to the clock, you can install control strip modules. As you can see from the screenshot, I chose to install quite a few! The clock on the far right is also nice–clicking on it reveals a monthly calendar. Finally, GoMac allows you to define a keyboard shortcut for switching among open applications.

A Swiss Army Knife for the Desktop
With all of this functionality, GoMac can be many things to different people. Some people may be content to use it just as a task bar, or just for the Start menu. I tend to use all of its features, and as such, it acts as a replacement for many parts of the operating system. The Start menu nearly replaces the Apple Menu, the task bar itself replaces the tear-off application pallette, because of the keyboard combination option I can disable the Application Switcher extension, the QuickLaunch feature means I can go without the Launcher, and being able to install control strip modules in the clock tray allows me to keep the actual Control Strip hidden. If I wanted to, I could even disable the menu bar clock!

Being able to hold all of this in one small, unobtrusive bar along the bottom of the screen is a blessing for me, because my PowerBook’s screen is only 11.4 inches with a resolution of 800 X 600. There’s even an option to hide the task bar itself, and have it pop up only when you bring the cursor down to the bottom of the screen!

But don’t get me wrong–even if I didn’t need the extra screen real estate, I would keep GoMac installed. It’s just too darn convenient to do without! It’s also been conflict-free in the six weeks that I’ve used it.

Summary
Action GoMac is an incredibly well-written piece of software, packed with enough features and functionality–without reaching the point of bloating–that every user can probably find something to like about it.

After more than a decade of Windows ripping off the Mac OS, it’s about time that Mac users were able to benefit from a “originally-Windows” feature. Even so, Microsoft could probably learn something from Action GoMac, too–because in this case, taking an idea from a competitor didn’t result in a cheap knock-off imitation, it resulted in the way the idea should have been done in the first place. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

MacMice Rating: 3.5

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.actionutilities.com

“The Why-My-Column-Is-Always-Late Column” or, “Why the Increase in Mac Games is Going to Ruin Me” or “An Explanation for the Dominance of Windows in the Business World”

Hi again. You readers might not be aware of this fact, but if you just ask Tim, Russ, or anyone else involved in the “printing” process of My Mac, I’m sure they’d let you know what I’ve just admitted in the above title-I am chronically past deadline in turning in my columns. This month, I’ve been especially bad; I’ve never actually kept track, but this month may be the all-time latest I’ve ever submitted anything to the Big Guys.

They’re always very cool about it, and they always seem to be able to get my column revised and polished in time to make the appropriate issue. But, if My Mac is ever a day or two later than usual in being published, and you’re wondering why, chances are it’s because of me. I would’ve kicked myself off of the staff by now, or at least severely reprimanded myself, but thankfully, so far, they’ve done neither. (Oh, wait, did I just say that aloud? I don’t want to be giving them any ideas…)

Anyway, I thought that this month I would try to publicly explain why I have such a nasty habit of missing deadlines. I would like to be able to say that it’s because I wait until the last possible moment in order to write about the latest, up-to-the-minute Apple news stories. But even though that’s happened a few times, that’s rarely the case. I would also like to say that I’m very busy with other important things in my life, such as studying or working. That, too, is sometimes the case, but right now it’s summer, and I don’t have any studying to do. I have a summer job, but it certainly doesn’t demand all of my time. So, although it’s a noble excuse, I can’t use it and keep a clear conscience. No, there is actually only one passable excuse for why my column is always late.

I’m a horrible procrastinator.

Now, before you wonder too much why I’m spending an entire column talking about my procrastination habits, I ask you to hang with me at least until the end of this paragraph. Please don’t quit reading my column because this is a Mac magazine, and this column doesn’t relate to the Macintosh at all. Because, in a brilliant segue, I’m going to rescue this column from off-topic land and tell you that the Macintosh itself is the reason that I find it so easy to put off writing about the Macintosh. Ironic, huh?

The fact is, while I’m sitting at my Mac, there’s always something else more fun to do. There’s always a new website to visit, there’s always a new game to play, there’s always a new email list to subscribe to and read, there’s always some more CDs that I can encode into MP3 tracks, there’s always a new shareware program to try out, there’s always a new system-enhancing extension to install, there’s always someone to chat to or write to, and, well, you get the picture.

Which leads me to the two subtitles for my column this month. I had a hard enough time staying on task when the only games I had to play were the new shareware offerings from Ambrosia and FreeVerse. Then, game companies made a few Mac games and PC ports, like DOOM, Marathon, Sim City, and Myst. Recently, we’ve had excellent ports of games like Unreal and Tomb Raider, plus the amazing PlayStation emulator from Connectix. But in the coming months, with lots of game makers jumping onto the iMac band wagon, I’ll have to try out Half-Life, Duality, Star Wars Episode One: Pod Racer, Diablo II, StarCraft, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, and, my own personal most-anticipated title, Madden NFL 2000! What’s a guy to do???

My second subtitle comes from something I’ve learned in my dealings with Windows, wherein installing stuff is scary. Moving stuff around and customizing things is even scarier. If an installer put a file in a certain place, I’m not going to move it, because I might mess something up. I’ve got be really careful about what I install, because it might lead to software or driver conflict so severe that I’ll have to reinstall the whole system. There has been more than one occasion where I-and others-have made the comment that my Mac running VirtualPC is the most stable Windows system on my college campus. And because of that, I don’t dare try to have too much on a PC. When I’m using Windows, I do what I have to do, and I leave before I ruin something. If I wrote for a magazine called My PC, I bet I’d have my columns turned in early every month, because using Word would be about the only thing I’d feel safe in doing. (In all fairness, using the Internet is fairly straightforward on new PCs, and installing a few games probably wouldn’t render the computer unusable, but you never know…) But, it certainly wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

And when you get right down to it, that’s what the Mac is all about. Ease of use. Simplicity. “Customization.” And, in my opinion, most important of all, fun. So, of course, you can understand my column being late every month, right? Perfectly understandable, right? Tim? Russ?

I didn’t think so.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Wow.

My inaugural column for My Mac appeared in Issue number 9, January of 1996. Three and a half years and over 40 issues later, I find myself sitting at my computer, trying to finish this edition of my chronically late-for-deadline column. A lot has changed in three and a half years, both in my own life and in the world of Macintosh. However, I’m actually typing this column on my parents’ LC 575, the same computer that I pounded out that inaugural column on 41 issues ago, so maybe not so much has changed. But I digress…

Personally, I’ve gone from being a junior in high school to in-between my second and third years of college in the time that I’ve been on board the good ship My Mac. I’ve gone from the familiar confines of my high school and the care and resources of my parents to the new faces, strange places, unique experiences, and general independence of college life. (Of course, as you may have gathered, I still mooch off of my parents during the summer months!) But as I write this, having just completed the midway point of my college education as a computer science and mathematics double major, I have only this to say: life is good!

My computing experiences have also been varied and a little exciting. When I joined My Mac, I was using the aforementioned LC 575 and a Color StyleWriter 2400 at home, and a lab full of Power Macs in my high school. Two years ago when I moved into college, I did so with an old, underpowered original LC and an original StyleWriter printer. The campus itself provided little relief; it was virtually 100% Windows, and I soon was forced to get used to the task bar at the bottom of the screen and the icons lined up on the left side of the monitor. A little over a year ago I bought a PowerBook 1400c, the first Mac I’ve ever personally owned, which I upgraded to a 250 MHz G3 processor about nine months ago. After some friendly cajoling with my computer science professors and a little help from the campus support staff, I had my PowerBook peacefully coexisting on the campus network alongside a handful of other Macs and about a zillion Windows machines.

All in all, it’s been great–my own Mac has never been better, and it works wonders, whether it’s attached to the network or being lugged around in the library or on the road. I have become comfortable using other operating systems, too, and can now honestly say that I prefer and love the Mac OS not because it’s the only computer I’m familiar with, but because I’ve tried others and still can’t find anything else that comes close to being as good. In addition to Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 3.11, and DOS, I’ve even tried UNIX out (by force–I spent this past semester doing assembly language code on a DEC Alpha!), and am ready to begin my summer project of getting MkLinux to run on my PowerBook. Not one of them is as smooth or refined as the Mac OS, though, even if it’s only System 7.1 running on that old LC!

But enough about me; Apple has done some incredibly noteworthy things in the last forty-one months, too. Clones have come and gone, Steve Jobs is back, there are six profitable quarters in the books, and the infamous inventory problems have greatly improved. Apple’s advertising presence in print and on television is exponentially greater, and their public image has gone from that of a company knocking on death’s door to one who has surged back into prominence through impressive innovation and daring risk taking. The operating system has gone from System 7.5 all the way to Mac OS 8.6, and the incredible Mac OS X is on the horizon. Apple has totally revamped their product lines, and have amazing new machines in the iMac, Blue and White G3 desktops, and new “Lombard” PowerBooks. The bang-for-the-buck ratio has never been better for Apple, either, and Apple is providing tons of features and ground breaking performance at prices that, three years ago, I would have only expected from of one of the cheap PC makers. Peripheral vendors and software companies have recommitted to the Mac platform, and Apple is finally realizing that games are cool. (Most importantly, Madden NFL 2000 is coming to the Mac!!!!!!!!!!!!) Indeed, things are looking brighter and brighter for Apple. But if you would have predicted this scenario about eighteen months ago, no one but the most diehard Mac faithful would have ever believed you.

And that brings me back to my earlier comment that even though so many things have changed during the last three and a half years, a lot is still the same. Even though I much prefer the power, portability, increased RAM, and larger storage space that my PowerBook provides, this same LC 575 that I began my column with all the way back in issue nine is the same one that I’m using to write my column for issue fifty. My family uses this machine each and every day to write papers, surf the web, send and receive email, and play games. It has a paltry 250 meg hard drive, 8 measly megs of RAM, a 33.6 modem, and is still running System 7.5.5. The Macintosh has a longevity that is rarely seen in the Moore’s-law-ruled world of the computer industry. There are a couple of 486 PCs on campus that are similarly equipped, and they are avoided like the plague and regarded as ancient has-beens. This LC 575, though, still has plenty of miles left in it.

There’s an even more important thing in the Macintosh world that hasn’t changed in the last three and a half years. For that matter, it hasn’t changed in the last ten years, or even the last fifteen. The sense of community that Macintosh users share is incredibly unique, not only in the computer industry, but in nearly all industries in the world. How often do you have arguments over why people prefer Coke over Pepsi, or in-depth discussions concerning the newest burger at McDonald’s?

The Macintosh community feeling is evident in user group meetings, mailing lists, Usenet newsgroups, magazines, and websites. It isn’t just the end users who share in this community, either–software companies who have stuck with the Mac through it all are generally a pleasure to work with, local authorized Apple dealers are usually friendly and helpful, and the industry pundits and journalistic bigwigs are rarely so rude or too busy to reply to an email message. Owning a Mac is your membership card; not a membership into a club, but rather into a family.

It was this prevailing sentiment that convinced me to become active in the Apple community and join My Mac, way back when I was busy snatching up every e-zine that I could get my hands on while I was logged onto eWorld with my 14.4 modem. And it’s that prevailing sentiment that will keep me writing about, using, and loving my Macintosh for a long time to come. Is this unexplainable passion for a machine a little crazy? Yes. But Mac users don’t need it to be explained to them, and PC users wouldn’t understand even if it could be. Like Louis Armstrong once said, “some people, if they don’t know, you just can’t tell ‘em.”

Anyway, thanks for reading, fellow Mac users. And take heart as we continue into what hopefully will be a new golden age for the fruit company at the Infinite Loop in Cupertino, because amidst all of the changes and innovation, we’re still part of a community, and that’s something special.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Bubbles PPC 1.3
Author: Maxym Runov
Shareware: $10.00
maxym@elegantsoft.com
http://www.elegantsoft.com

Mike: This month, we have chosen a puzzle game called Bubbles, by Maxym Runov. The author states in the Read Me that “the task is easy, but the way is hard,” and that’s a pretty good description of the challenge involved.

Adam: Bubbles is definitely a game that takes skill. It involves a good amount of strategy and a huge deal of thought. You can’t just go in and play, you have to think every time you move a ball. Now Mike, why don’t you tell us how Bubbles is played?

Mike: Sure, Adam. The game field is a rectangular grid, and the game starts with a set amount of balls (for example, 3) in random spots on the grid. The balls have both different colors and patterns, and your job is to move balls that look alike into rows of 5. However, every time you move a ball, 3 more appear in random spots in the grid, making it harder to move the balls to the places you want. You get points for every move you make, and additional points when you group 5 like balls together. The game ends when all of the spaces are covered.

Adam: Scoring in Bubbles is similar to scoring in Tetris, which means you go for as long as you can while accumulating points. You can play with a small, medium, or large grid, adjust the number of new balls that appear every time you make a move, and also set a limit on the amount of time allowed to move a ball before new ones automatically appear.

Mike: You’re right, Adam; there are lots of options in the game. If you don’t like the built-in grid sizes, you can even create your own playing field of any size you want! Additionally, the game is very easy to control; everything is done with the mouse, and is very straightforward.

Adam: You can also easily turn the sound off for those late night players who have roommates, and registered users have the advantage of saving high scores. Also, the shareware fee is only $10, which is very reasonably priced.

Requirements/Availability
Bubbles requires a Color QuickDraw-capable PowerPC-based Mac PowerPC, Mac OS 7.6.1 or higher, and 2 MB of free RAM. You can download Bubbles PPC from either Download.com http://www.download.com or the author’s home page, http://www.elegantsoft.com.

Summary
Mike: So, to sum things up, Bubbles offers a fun, easy-to-learn challenge for a very reasonable price. The game is simple and straightforward, but that doesn’t keep it from being fun and addicting. I would recommend Bubbles for puzzle enthusiasts.

Adam: Bubbles is just one of those wonderful games that is made available to the public for a price that won’t empty our wallets. As Mike said, if you’re looking for a fun, challenging game, Bubbles may be just what your looking for. Recommended by The Game Guys.

Download Bubbles PPC 1.3 

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.download.com
http://www.elegantsoft.com

First Things First
Thanks to a couple of astute readers who pointed out a rather dubious error in last month’s column. It turns out that Apple’s Speakable Items have been around awhile (since the days of System 7.5, according to those who wrote in). The oversight on my part was probably a combination of the fact that before this past year I didn’t have a Mac with the horsepower to run the speech recognition software, and that Apple’s new installer made it easier for me to spot custom installation items in Mac OS 8.5 that I had previously missed. Anyway, the rest of the information in my article remains accurate, and knowing just how old the software is makes me even more disappointed that Apple hasn’t been able to refine it in the last three or four years. Now that Apple’s financial situation has improved so dramatically, I hope it’s not too late for them to devote some R & D money to improving Speakable Items. But I digress…

My “What’s Hot” Mac List – College Edition
College life is interesting. I wouldn’t trade it for very many things, and anyone who has experienced living in a college dorm would agree that it is truly unique. But in addition to the midnight pizza deliveries, loud stereos, and impromptu wrestling matches in the student lounge, there is something that effects every student’s life–computers. I don’t doubt that my campus is very typical when it comes to computing; all students have their own email account and free Internet access, and spend many hours typing term papers, writing email, and checking the latest scores in the NCAA Basketball Tournament (don’t even ask me about my personal entry into the dorm pool; March Madness indeed!). Of course, there is much more to computers in college than word processing and Internet access; there are lots of games to play! Network games of first person shooters are a common study break activity (in honor of the upcoming Star Wars movie, Dark Forces is currently the game of choice), and there’s plenty of single-player action in every game genre, as well.

My own computing habits have changed a bit in college, too. So, without further ado, I give you my own “What’s Hot” list in my personal computing life and the college computing scene in general, and in no particular order:

Swoop, Apieron, and Mars Rising — Yes, all three of these games are Mac-only, and I’ve mentioned in the past that Apple computers are sadly not very prevalent on my campus. But everyone who lives near me in the dorm (myself included) would like to thank Ambrosia for this great triumvirate of grade-point-average-decimating shooters. As cool as Unreal, Tomb Raider II, and Starship Titanic are, the trouble with commercial games such as those is that they are so big. This is normally considered a good thing, and for good reason–no one wants to pay $40 for a game that they will finish in a couple of hours. But all too often, I need a quick fix, not an expansive level that will take the better part of an hour to complete. These three games do just that-keep my trigger finger happy, and do so in a reasonable amount of time. Fifteen minutes to spare before I have to leave for class? Sure, I could cram a few extra minutes for that quiz, but I could also try for a new Apieron high score… What, the pizza’s getting delivered in twenty minutes? Great, just enough time for another go at Mars Rising! You get the picture: they’re fun, addicting, and quick enough to keep the interest of a college student, whose attention span is only slightly longer than the average three-year-old’s. (And I don’t want anybody writing in and telling me their average Apieron game lasts 45 minutes. If that’s the case you’re too good for your own good, and I don’t want to hear about it!

AOL Instant Messenger — This one surprised me a little but, but personal chat clients like this one have caught on big on campus, and AOL’s seems to be leading the pack. Like many college freshmen, last year all of my friends were obsessed with forwarding every email joke in the world to everyone they knew, checking every web page in existence, and spending hours in chat rooms. However, this year we’re sophomores, and of course more refined. We understand that forwards get annoying to their recipients very quickly, that it is more efficient to only bookmark the really cool web sites instead of several hundred, and that 99% of all chatting done on the Internet is incomprehensible. Using a program like AOL Instant Messenger, though, we can all chat with only the people we want to chat with: high school friends, relatives, each other, etc.–and leave the “a/s/l” checks for other people to waste time with.

Video Game Console Emulation — I claim partial responsibility for this one. It started when a friend of mine walked into my room one day and saw me playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on my Mac. Now, my PowerBook doubles as a Nintendo, Game Boy, and Super Nintendo, and there are tons of my friends hunting down emulators for their PCs. Truthfully, I’m getting bored with old 8-bit Nintendo games, especially given the high quality of new Mac games, but that doesn’t stop me from getting the newest versions of my favorite emulators the day that they’re released.

MPEGS – By the time you read this, I will probably have finished converting all of my favorite songs from my personal CD collection into MPEG format on my Mac’s hard drive. (Hey, what good is a 6 gig hard drive if you don’t fill it up?) The tools needed are easy to use and cheap: MPecker is freeware, and it’s used to convert audio CD tracks into MPEG format; MacAmp Lite is a great, fully functional MPEG audio player that only costs $10. The advantages to doing this (besides being just plain cool) are numerous: for example, now I can create a playlist with as many songs from as many different CDs by as many different artists as I want–I’m no longer constrained by the 3-CD limit of my shelf stereo system. It also makes it a lot easier to enjoy my favorite tunes when I’m in the library with my PowerBook. Now I don’t have to worry about packing all of the CDs in my laptop bag and taking them with me, and I can use the CD-ROM drive for something else. The sound quality of the PowerBook 1400′s speaker isn’t that great, so when I’m in my room I still crank up my stereo, but whenever I want to listen to music using a pair of headphones, I turn to my PowerBook.

Finally, as an honorable mention, I’ve got to say that the excellent, hilarious trivia game by Berkeley Systems, You Don’t Know Jack, was made for college. Every dorm floor should have a copy.

That’s going to do it for this month. I realize I was a little bit random this month, but such is the life of a college student. Thanks for reading, everybody, but I’ve got to run. And if I hurry, I can make one more run at the Swoop high score list before my Statistics class.

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Royal Flush 1.2.1
Author: Gerard Putter
Freeware
gp@xs4all.nl

Mike: Royal Flush may sound like a card game, but really it’s an exact mockup of a pinball game from the 1970s. The playing board and the sounds are all authentic, even down to the physics of nudging the table! Royal Flush was originally going to be a commercial product, but the project was scrapped, and the author decided to release it as freeware. Unfortunately, the lack of polish shows, and Royal Flush suffers from too many bugs and problems to recommend it.

Adam: From the minute you open Royal Flush, you notice the lack of polish. The interface is very confusing, and you have to click on the “pinball” table to play. However, I didn’t know it was a pinball game, so I was very confused when a scene depicting a restaurant came up!

Mike: I agree with that, Adam. The opening scene is supposed to depict a 70s-style diner, but it gives no instructions or indication of what to do next. The menu bar is hidden when the game starts up, but you can’t start the game without moving the mouse cursor up to the menu bar. This is obviously not very intuitive.

Adam: And it gets worse, Mike! You have to select “insert coin” and then “new game,” but you can still open the pinball window before you do either of these, so it can become very confusing as to how to begin. Locating both of these options on the “table” (in the table window) would be a much better strategy, much less confusing, and much more intuitive.

Mike: Once you’re finally able to get the game started, the game play is straightforward and decent enough. You control the two flippers, and there are also keys to nudge the pinball table in different directions. Nudging quickly becomes a crucial part of your strategy.

Adam: While the gameplay is straightforward, smooth, and mildly entertaining, there are no real “bells and whistles” to this part of the game. There are sound effects, but no music. While you’re supposed to feel like you’re in an arcade, I felt like I was still at my computer.

Mike: I realize that the game was meant to be a 100% conversion of an old game, and in that regard it does a fairly good job. But the beeps and boinks (70s-style sound effects) get annoying very quickly. Also, I prefer modern pinball games, with extra flippers, loops and curves in the playing table, and special bonus points. Starplay’s pinball games, such as Crystal Caliburn and Loony Labyrinth, are just a couple of examples of great pinball games on the Mac that have those features…

Adam: I agree. Modern pinball games are much more enjoyable to play! Also, Royal Flush is plagued with bugs that caused it to crash several times on 3 different machines that I tested it on: a PowerBook G3, an iMac, and a Power Mac 7200/90.

Requirements/Availability
Royal Flush requires System 6.0.7, 3.5MB of hard disk space, and 3.6MB of free RAM. You can download Royal Flush from download.com, at http://www.download.com.

The Summary
Adam: Royal Flush is a freeware game that does what it says, and nothing more. No special features, and nothing to attract potential players. While being a conversion from a commercial game is an excuse for the lack of bells and whistles, it is no excuse for the lack of compatibility with Mac OS 8.x and the numerous bugs and crashes that I experienced. Unfortunately, due to these stability problems, The Game Guys cannot recommend Royal Flush.

Mike: We would instead recommend that players interested in a good pinball game for the Mac look into come of the commercial offerings, many of which can be had cheaply! (Starplay, for example, ships both of the games I mentioned earlier on one CD-ROM.)

Download Royal Flush 1.2.1 

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.download.com

Welcome to another edition of The Game Guys. After much planning, Mike and I have decided to switch over to a “true live” format. That means that what you are reading is our actual conversation/review of the game, uninterrupted. This new format makes it much easier for us to complete a review, and we really enjoyed using it. As always, we welcome any feedback. (We are actually known to beg for it at times). Without further ado, our first game reviewed with this new format is Slithereens, from Ambrosia Software.

Slithereens 1.0
Company: Ambrosia Software
Shareware: $20.00
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com

Mike: Ambrosia Software has a big reputation in the Mac shareware world for turning out games that are commercial quality but making them freely available and affordable. The folks at Ambrosia have struck gold again with their latest offering, Slithereens.

Adam: Mike, would you please bless us with the storyline of the game?

Mike: I’d be honored, Adam. You play the part of Luther, a snake who has been subjected to genetic experiments and is now trapped in a garden, along with many other genetically-mutated snakes. As a result of the experiments all of the snakes are segmented and can gain and lose segments without penalty, as long as they keep their heads. Segments are gained if the snakes eat other animals, and segments are lost if the snakes lay eggs or get eaten. The snakes are now prone to eating their own species, too, so Luther had better watch out! The only way out of this snake-eat-snake world is to eat all of the other snakes yourself, thus passing the levels and eventually escaping from garden.

Adam: From the minute you launch the installer, you can tell Slithereens is an Ambrosia game. Installation is straightforward, and you can start playing right away. No restart necessary.

Mike: Slithereens is very snappy and responsive during game play, too. Using the keyboard was easy (you only need to control your snake with the arrows or numeric keypad), and using a game pad or joystick was also simple and responsive.

Adam: Slithereens was very fast and stable on my G3, and I thought the graphics, sound effects, and especially the music were topnotch.

Mike: I thought so too, Adam. I also ran Slithereens on a G3, and the animations and graphics were very fluid. The digitized sound effects and spoken comments were exceptional too, and often hilarious!

Adam: Agreed, Mike. I loved the comments. They really added to the overall experience of the game. I couldn’t help myself from playing the game every time I turned on my computer. Horribly addictive.

Mike: Absolutely! It was so bad that I considered putting an alias to the game in my Startup Items folder! I really appreciated the fact that Slithereens takes advantage of Apple’s InputSprockets technology, so setting up your Game Pad or joystick is exceptionally easy.

Adam: Definitely. InputSprockets are also returning to the Extensions folder in Mac OS 8.6. It’s wonderful to see quality software adopting that standard.

Mike: The documentation in Slithereens was straightforward and helpful, but to be honest, I didn’t refer to it all that much. Slithereens is very easy to play and also easy to get started, and I found that the excellent tutorial at the beginning of the game was all I needed.

Adam: That tutorial was one of the best things I have ever seen from a shareware game. I am always one to skip the documentation, and when I started playing, I was a bit confused. Luckily, the helpful 2-minute tutorial was included right in the main menu. After watching it, I had no trouble playing Slithereens.

Mike: Slithereens even offers a two-player option, and you can work competitively or cooperatively to complete each level. Unfortunately, you do have to both be using the same computer, because there is no option for network play.

Adam: True, network/modem play would be awesome. Hopefully Ambrosia will consider it for a future version of Slithereens.

Mike: Like most of Ambrosia’s recent games, Slithereens costs $20 to register. Given how polished this game is, I consider that a steal!

Adam: It is a steal! You get to play 7 levels with the unregistered version, and when you register, you get 44 (I’ll check on that). Exceptional Value!

Requirements/Availability
Slithereens requires a 68040 or higher processor, Mac OS 7.1 or later, a 13″ color monitor, and 12MB of RAM.

You can download Slithereens from the Ambrosia Software/Slithereens website, at http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/Products/Slithereens.html, or from download.com, at http://www.download.com.

The Summary
Mike: Our minor complaint about the lack of a network game play aside, Slithereens is a near-perfect shareware game. It should come as no surprise that Ambrosia has yet another winner on its hands. Any Mac gamer should check Slithereens out as soon as possible! It’s a blast!

Adam: Ambrosia Software has always had a reputation for high quality, low cost shareware games. Slithereens further strengthens that reputation. If you enjoy nonviolent, fun, addicting games, chances are you’ll enjoy Slithereens. Highly Recommended by The Game Guys.

Download Slithereens 1.0 

Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com
Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/Products/Slithereens.html
http://www.download.com