Aspyr Media wrote in to announce they have partnered with Vivendi Universal to publish NASCAR Racing 2003 Season for the Mac. The game is already in development at Westlake Interactive, who also ported Nascar Racing 2002 Season.

NASCAR Racing 2003 will include many improvements over its predecessor. Here's a list of new features from Aspyr's mini-site:

First with 2003 Drivers, Teams, Sponsors and all 23 NASCAR® tracks including the newly renovated Infineon Raceway and New Hampshire International Speedway™

3D graphics immerse drivers in a dynamic race environment where dirt and oil accumulate on your windshield and sun glare creates a new driving challenge

Technical partnerships with Goodyear and Jasper Motorsports improve the physics model accuracy giving drivers an unparalleled racing experience -International Speedway and Infineon Raceway

Adaptive AI allows even rookies to experience fender to fender racing as the field adjusts to the driver's skill level automatically

A populated pit road with team war wagons and pit signs, aerial objects including helicopters, and dynamic lighting create a more authentic and immersive world

Detailed track surface mapping allows you to feel every bump, dip and rumble strip like never before.

Compete against your friends in a full field of 42 NASCAR® drivers online via Internet or LAN

• Mac OS X only
• 256MB of Memory
• G4 processor at 733 MHz or faster (Dual Processors supported, 500Mhz x2 or above)
• 4X CD-ROM (16X recommended)
• Hard Drive, with 665 MB minimum free space
• 3D Graphic Acceleration or better ((ATI Radeon/NVidia GeForce2 or faster)

Aspyr Mini-Site: NASCAR Racing 2003 Season

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season

Aspyr Media

Westlake Interactive

We here at IMG would like to apologize for the recent website downtime. The server hosting IMG required an unexpected move by our ISP yesterday, and the new DNS is now propagating through the internet. It's likely some folks will be unable to access the site for a few more hours, but thanks to those of you who can for visiting.

We appreciate your patience in the matter and will now return you to your normally scheduled IMG experience.

KavaSoft has recently released a maintenence update for their strategy game iConquer. Version 2.0.1 improves the managing of plug-ins for the game.

iConquer is a highly polished Mac OS X remake of the classic board game Risk, built around the advanced features of Apple's modern operating system. The game features a beatiful Aqua interface and the ability to use Rendezvous for network play, as well as a quick link to iChat for chatting. There is also multi-language support; the game is currently available in 10 languages.

For more information about iConquer, follow the links provided below or head over to the official site to download the game.

Download iConquer 2.0.1

iConquer

More information about the freshly unveiled Jedi Knight III is being released. Games Domain has posted an interview with Graham Fuchs and Jon Zuk, respectively theproducer and designer at Activision. The interview also features Steve Raffel, JKIII project lead and co-founder of Raven Software, along with screenshots of the upcoming sequel to Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. The game will be based on the same engine as JKII, but with a lot of improvements.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

We've enhanced GHOUL 2, which is our modelling and animation system, to allow for the character creation system, color choices and options. We ported over the Arioche terrain system from Soldier of Fortune 2, which allows for expansive terrain environments. We've done an update in ICARUS, which is our in-house scripting system. It allows us to do just a little bit more than we did in the past. The saber system is enhanced; it's basically the same as the Jedi Knight 2 engine, but we've added new moves and enhancements. We've tried to make a lot of the game friendlier to the mod community.

The first thing people did when JK2 came out was create their own sabers and their own characters. It was a lot easier to do that in multiplayer than single-player, so now we've made it easier for single-player. Now you can just drag it into a folder or update a file and you'll be good to go.

Head over to Games Domain to read the full interview and to view at the screenshots of this highly anticipated title. No Mac version has been announced yet, but based on the success of Jedi Knight 2 on the Mac and the track record of Aspyr Media, there is some hope that Mac gamers will play this game on their Mac someday.

Games Domain: Jedi Knight III Interview

Raven Software

Activision

Click to enlarge

SpiderWeb Software has announced an April Sadness Sale for those who think that April is a bad month. They are offering 10% off at all games to make people happier.

From their website:

April is the cruelest month.

That is what T.S. Eliot said, in some poem somewhere.

Now, we don't know what he meant by that. We are simple people at Spiderweb Software. We only really understand one thing: writing cool games in which you track down evil monsters, beat them like rugs, and take their stuff.

But T.S. Eliot was smarter than we are. So if he said it, it's good enough for us. That's why, for the entire cruel month of April, all of our games are ten percent off. Geneforge. Avernum Three, Two, and One. Nethergate. The Exile series. All the rest. All on the cheap.

Spiderweb Software: April Sadness Sale

Spiderweb Software

Click to enlarge

Aaron Fothergill, programmer for Airburst Extreme, recently updated his iDev developer diary. Airburst Extreme is the upcoming sequel to the hit shareware game, Airburst, in which players float above the Earth on a ring of balloons while battling computer or human opponents.

Here is the full update from Fothergill:

Back at it again after 3 disrupted weekends in a row (illness, travel and work). Mostly been sorting out elements of the menus and structuring the main game loop (it's organized differently from the original Airburst in that each primary game type gets its own loop. More memory usage, but a lot faster).

The Menus look like taking a really big chunk of the development time on AE, as they're so different from Airburst. Hopefully, they'll be a lot cleaner, easier to use and nicer looking :)

We also got the chance to start adding the 'Extreme' powers to the players. Each character will have their own Extreme powerup and we've even added a 4th key to use it!

I've also been sorting some of the other music that could possibly go in the game. Adam will still be doing a whole heap of Jaffa Mountain stuff for Airburst Extreme, but we're also talking to a couple of other bands about possibly using some tracks.

Airburst Extreme Update

Strange Flavour

Airburst

Click to enlarge

ATI has informed Inside Mac Games that the Radeon 9700 Pro video card is now shipping from Apple. Currently, it is only available as a Built-to-Order option from the online Apple Store, so you must purchase it with a new Power Mac G4. The OEM variant will only work in Mac OS X and is restricted to use in Mirror Drive Door Power Mac G4s due to power requirements.

The Radeon 9700 Pro is ATI's high end video card offering for the Mac. It features 128 MB of high speed DDR-memory, 256-bit memory interface, SMOOTHVISION, HyperZ III, support for dual digital displays, and all the other whiz-bang features you would expect to find in a modern video card. Stay tuned to IMG for a preview of the Radeon 9700 Pro.

ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Mac Edition

Apple Store

ATI

Apple

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