Independent Mac shareware publisher Freeverse Software dominated the 2004 Apple Design Awards, snagging three awards to take home, including the prize of "Best Mac OS X Product" for their innovative title Big Bang Chess.

The freeware chess game, which integrates with a number of Apple technologies such as iChat, Mail, iTunes, Address Book, and Rendezvous, also managed to take an award for "Best Mac OS X Technology Adoption."

Another Freeverse product from earlier in the year, ToySight, took the prize for "Most Innovative Mac OS X Product" for its integration with Apple's iSight web camera. ToySight was originally developed by Strange Flavour.

MacSoft's shooter Unreal Tournament 2004 got the nod for "Best Mac OS X Entertainment Product," rounding out the winning games on the list. Runner up in the category was Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the 3D real-time strategy expansion from Blizzard.

For a full list of winners and runners-up, head over to 2004 Apple Design Awards Winners page now.

2004 Apple Design Awards

Big Bang Chess (add to watch list)

ToySight (add to watch list)

Unreal Tournament 2004 (add to watch list)

WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne (add to watch list)

Pre-Order ToySight

Buy Unreal Tournament 2004

Buy WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne

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The IMG Store has begun shipping the eagerly anticipated Battlefield 1942: Deluxe Edition from Aspyr Media. All pre-orders have been shipped out. The game is available for $48.99. If you are an IMG Pro or MacGames DVD subscriber, you can order it for just $44.99.

For more information or to place your order, please follow the buy link below.

Aspyr Media (add to watch list)

Battlefield 1942: Deluxe Edition (add to watch list)

Buy Battlefield 1942: Deluxe Edition

Click to enlarge

Inside Mac Games has posted a review of The Sims: Makin' Magic, the latest expansion pack for The Sims. Here's a clip from the review:

Your path begins when a mysterious stranger drops off a mysterious package on your mysterious doorstep. The box contains a wand, a cauldron and a handful of starter spells, kind of a "Magic for Dummies" kit to help your Sim get started. It'll take them awhile to learn how to cast spells and make magic, but it's worth the patience and the wait. There seems to be almost no limit to what your Sims can do. They can cook up sumptuous banquets with a flick of the wrist, create storms of cash or even turn your pets into acquaintances.

IMG Review: The Sims: Makin' Magic

Aspyr Media (add to watch list)

The Sims: Makin' Magic (add to watch list)

Buy The Sims: Makin' Magic

For folks that may have missed the info, an IMG forum goer posted news late last week informing readers that a new beta of Doom Legacy for OS X was made available earlier this month. The latest version currently seems to be sitting at v1.43, and the dev team has asked for feedback regarding any issues.

You can thanks Sebestyen Gabor for providing this new version! It's still a beta version because there are known major issues but it should be playable. Some things working in Mac Doom Legacy 1.40 might not work anymore. In fact, we haven't the all the source code used for that version (Calum, if you hear me, that would be great to say "hello" because the e-mail I have from you doesn't work ;)). On another side, some bugs found in that previous version might be fixed now. You can have a look at the archive for known issues.

New Doom Legacy Beta (June 26, 04)

Doom Legacy

A new game tie-in to this fall's movie release Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow has been released for Mac and PC. The 45MB download lets you take control of a Flying Legion airplane in the same stylized environment as the movie, attempting to drive back the mysterious invading creatures.

While the game appears to be Flash-based, its heavy use of 3D demands some newer hardware in order to run properly. In addition to needing to register on their site to play, here are the system requirements for the Mac version:

• OSX 10.3 (Panther)
  
• G4 1.25Ghz or equivalent
  
• 512 MB RAM
  
• Supported 3D Accelerator Card (64 Mb minimum)

Sky Captain

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