Ambrosia Software has made an announcement that may inspire some nostalgia for the early days of Mac gaming, when an LC II with a 12" monitor was an excellent gaming rig and you grabbed your shareware from a BBS. Maelstrom wasn't just the ultimate shoot-the-asteroids game, it was also one of the few games which truly inspired envy among the PC gamers at the time. In an ironic twist of fate, Maelstrom has returned to the Mac platform via the PC platform -- from Linux to OS X.

Here is the press release:

Years ago, in a dorm room far, far
away, Maelstrom was written by Andrew Welch for Ambrosia Software, Inc.,
mainly to prove that a Mac IIsi could handle decent 256 color
animation. A classic Mac game was born, filling Mac users with fond
memories of exploding rocks, sweaty palms, and NC-17 sound effects.

Fast forward a few years. A little OS named Linux burst upon the scene,
and in another dorm room far, far away, Sam Lantinga began work porting
Maelstrom to Linux, with Ambrosia's blessing.

Sam coded fast and furious, bringing Maelstrom faithfully over to Linux,
letting Linux users enjoy lowered GPAs and callouses that made them look
like they worked for a living. Sam even added some cool features like
network play.

Now we've come full circle. Sam has ported his Linux port of Maelstrom
to OS X. It's fun, it's free, and you can even download the source code
and play with it if you are so inclined.

This free version of Maelstrom isn't supported by Ambrosia Software,
Inc., but we do highly recommend it. Grab it, enjoy it, play over the
LAN with your friends.

Download Maelstrom for OS X (800k)(.tar)

Ambrosia Software

Maelstrom for Linux Web Site

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