The News section is maintained by Jonathan Dreyer. Please send any comments or submissions to him.
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Ultima Online for Mac?
According to IMG, MacSoft is CONSIDERING to pursue Ultima Online to bring it to the Mac, note this is just a consideration, not a for-sure-thing.

Bungie.net free Myth server
As reported by Tikkabik, Bungie Software will be ready for Myth Internet players with their free internet game server Bungie.net. bungie.net will be available to anyone with an Internet connection. TEN players are able to take advantage of bungie.net directly over their low-latency network, and dial-up access to bungie.net is supported as well.

What we missed yesterday
We missed some BIG MacSoft news, MacSoft has struck a deal with Accolade to release the Mac versions of 3 of Accolades games and maybe more, this could eventually bring some of Accolades sports games to the Mac.

Riven the sequel to the highly succsefull game Myst will be out by Halloween (October 31) of THIS year.

ZAP THE LITTLE WILD-HAIRED GUY: BOINGO ELECTRO GOES FREEWARE
ISSAQUAH, WA - October 15,1997 - Dadgum Games released Boingo Electro, a new version of the promotional game that shipped with Bumbler Classic, as freeware. From the documentation:
"Boingo Electro is a sketch of a neat little game idea we had. We've had a lot of fun with it and hope you will too. Boingo Electro is freeware. If you enjoy the game, please see the Dadgum Games Catalog for information about our commercial products.
"Boingo Electro requires a Power Macintosh. It really shouldn't, but it was written using the PowerPC-only graphics system developed for Bumbler Bee-Luxe, so that's the way it is."

The URL for the demo is:
http://www.dadgum.com/downloads/boingo-electro.hqx

Dadgum Games, best known for Bumbler Bee-Luxe, develops original games for the Macintosh, and is constantly tinkering with new ideas; Boingo Electro is a by-product of that experimentation.

ATI announces their next "VR" card:
Yesterday, ATI officially announced their new XClaim VR PCI 2D/3D graphics card, based on the Rage Pro engine, that dramatically improves performance in QuickDraw 3D acceleration, MPEG playback, QuickTime capture, and 2D acceleration. ATI offered information on several enhancements over the original XClaim VR card:

• QuickDraw 3D performance up to two times faster than previous cards form ATI. Now expandable up to 8 MB of SGRAM memory, the new Xclaim VR has more memory for textures and provides 3D performance up to 1152 x 870 resolution.
• QuickDraw 2D performance in true color in resolutions up to 1152x870. 2D performance optimizations result in 2D performance improvements up to 84 percent compared to the original Xclaim VR.
• Capable of capturing stills and video at 32Ox240 resolution up to 30 frames per second.
• 3D RAGE PRO graphics chip which provides advanced 3D performance features including a floating-point set-up engine capable of processing up to 1.2 million triangles per second, 4K texture cache bi-linear and tri-linear filtering, Z-buffering and perspective correct texture mapping.

The new Xclaim VR card will be available in November and will be priced under $300 (4 MB SGRAM configuration) and will be upgradeable to 8 MB. A 4 MB memory upgrade module will be available for around $69 as well. So you've got an older XClaim VR card? No problem...ATI is offering a trade up program for existing Xclaim owners to upgrade to either the new Xclaim VR or the higher priced Nexus GA, the recently announced graphics board for designers and content creators.

What games will work with this card? Well, ATI has been working actively with 3D and multimedia developers to ensure that titles and applications are available that make best use of the power and features of Xclaim VR. Quake has been optimized for ATI's 3D RAGE PRO (i.e. the Quake "RAVE" version) and makes great use of the power and the card's features. Dark Vengeance, an intense next-generation 3D action game (due hopefully around Christmas), will run quite well on the new VR card as well. Other game developers are looking to support this card too.

Choices...choices: The nice thing about ATI's VR card is the video in/out and 2D/3D acceleration...not to mention the ability to connect your Mac into a TV monitor and capture full-motion video at astonishing high quality. This card is definitely aimed at gaming and low-end video editors. The VR's competitor, Techworks' Power3D, is based on the 3Dfx technology (a popular PC gaming 3D technology), offers a lower price (around $210) but it doesn't offer upgrading, 2D acceleration, or video capture. The Power3D is a gamer's 3D card that is only triggered when you launch a game that uses the 3Dfx hardware. I have used both the Power3D card and a card with the RAGE PRO engine. Both offer sound gaming performance, as long as the game is written for that particular hardware. Only time will tell on how many game developers plan to develop for either (or both) 3D engines. Even if a game doesn't support a specific card, the ATI VR card's 2D acceleration will still help a game's performance, whereas the Power3D card will not be activiated unless the game calls on it. Early indications, however, show several 3Dfx games coming to the Mac (games compatible with the Power3D), so we'll just have to keep track and see what developers do. --M. Dixon, MGL Founder

Starfleet Academ goes Silver!
In a newsgroup post yesterday, a representative of Macplay/Interplay post a message saying that the Mac version of Starfleet Academy has entered the silver stage and that the golden master should be done next week.

MacRequests starts 3 new petitions
The MacRequests WarRoom has started 3 new petitions to bring the games MechWarrior 3, Ultima Online, and Temujin, go there and add your name to the petition.

Myth page updated, Demo coming soon!
The MGL has reported that the Myth page has been updated and that there will be a demo soon!

Sorry, it's a Canadian holiday!