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Phasers On "Ignore" (10/11/99)
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So have you been following the latest saga in the churning world of Mac gaming? As you know, Apple recently pulled a 180° on its official policy regarding games development for the Mac. Until a couple of years ago, the pre-Jobsian Apple actively discouraged the development of games for the Mac platform, fearing that the availability of games would only reinforce the view that the Mac was "just a toy." Accordingly, games programmers were shunned by Apple like a Twisted Sister cover band at a Pat Buchanan campaign rally. That all changed when Steve Jobs returned and actually started encouraging the development of fun games for the Mac. In theory, anyway.
See, the latest scandal started when Rick Johnson of Raven Software publicly stated in his .plan file that a Macintosh port of his company's upcoming Quake 3-based game "Star Trek: Elite Force" was unlikely. The reason? "We haven't had any support from Macintosh at all to do ports, haven't received any equipment, and they won't even do us the courtesy of returning emails... Macintosh has typically been one to ignore the gaming scene, and it appears that they still haven't changed." At first we just assumed that Rick was contacting entirely the wrong company; we considered emailing him to tell him that the name of the company he needed to call was Apple, and that MacIntosh Plumbing and Heating of North Huntingdon, PA was probably wondering why some guy named Rick Johnson keeps emailing them and demanding free computers.
Anyway, according to MacCentral's latest update on the whole situation, things have improved vastly. It seems that Apple did in fact send development G3 systems to Raven, but they were "misappropriated" by Raven's previous publisher, Activision. That's all been straightened out now; Raven has their development systems, and hopefully a Mac version of "Star Trek: Elite Force" will be making its way to shelves sometime next year. Unfortunately, Raven still isn't making any promises-- but at least they're now willing to give it a try.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 10/11/99 episode: October 11, 1999: If you're concerned about the intense heat pouring out of your new fanless iMac, you can relax-- a little. Meanwhile, the latest brouhaha in the turbulent world of Apple games development reaches a (semi-)happy conclusion, and Gateway recalls a million foam rubber cows due to concerns over choking...
Other scenes from that episode: 1836: Ask Dr. Science (10/11/99) We at AtAT have received more than a few letters from concerned viewers who are skeptical of the new iMac's lack of a cooling fan. Captain Steve's dislike for fans is well-known, and it's entirely possible that it amounts to nothing more than a perfectly rational belief that computers should be as quiet as possible... 1838: Mmmm, Foam Rubber! (10/11/99) Child-loving bovines the world over sounded a collective "Moo!" of approval earlier when Gateway ordered a recall of approximately a million foam rubber cows. Apparently the PC manufacturer best known for its innovation in the realm of spotted cardboard boxes gave away these 5-inch squishy cows as promotional gimmicks, but complaints started rolling in that strong-willed (and strong-handed) children were able to tear the cows into yummy bite-size morsels which constituted a choking hazard...
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