With the October 25th deadline looming just around the corner, the organizers of this year's uDevGames Contest, the annual Mac game development contest, want to remind all interested developers to visit the contest website and fill in the required registration form before the weekend is up.

The goal of the uDevGames Contest, organized and run by Mac game development resource center iDevGames, is to promote game development on the Macintosh platform, as well as to recognise the best developers in the growing community. Contestants are required to create an OS X game from scratch, whose final compressed size must be less than 10 MB. The game's executables and source code are made available for free to the public under an Open Source license; contestants are also required to pen a postmortem detailing what they've learned through the experience.

Contest entries are voted on by the public according to the following criteria: Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Originality, Story, and Polish. Over $20,000 USD worth of prizes, donated by the contest's generous sponsors, are then awarded to the top five entries in each category; three additional prizes are awarded for Best Overall Game, Best Newcomer, and an Editor's Choice Prize.

So far this year, a total of 64 games have been officially entered into the contest. This year's game deadline falls on Saturday, November 6th; the two-week public voting period begins the following Monday, November 8th to November 22nd. The uDG2004 Awards Show is currently set for Monday, December 6th.

Readers interested in participating in this year's voting should visit the uDevGames Contest website by navigating through the links below, as well as check back here at IMG as we'll bring you all the news regarding this year's event. Good luck to all of this year's contestants!

uDG 2004

iDevGames

The IMG Store has marked the price down on a dozen Aspyr titles. They are as follows:

Indiana Jones and the Emporer's Tomb - $19.95 (was $29.95)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - $19.95 (was $39.95)
Shrek 2 - $19.99 (was $29.99)
Space Colony - $19.95 (was $29.95)
Star Trek: Elite Force II - $19.95 (was $39.95)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast - $19.95 (was $49)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy - $39.95 (was $48.99)
The Sims: Makin' Magic Expansion Pack - $19.95 (was $29.95)
The Sims: Superstar Expansion Pack - $19.95 (was $29.95)
The Sims: Unleashed Expansion Pack - $19.95 (was $29.95)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield - $39.95 (was $49.95)
Zoo Tycoon - $39.95 (was $49.95)

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Shrek 2

Space Colony

Star Trek: Elite Force II

Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast

Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

The Sims: Makin' Magic Expansion Pack

The Sims: Superstar Expansion Pack

The Sims: Unleashed Expansion Pack

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

Zoo Tycoon

Click to enlarge

Feral Interactive today announced that Ford Racing 2, the company's upcoming racing simulation has gone gold and is now off to manufacturing. Here's the announcement:

News fresh in from the Feral pits – Ford Racing 2 has screeched out of the workshop, headed straight for the open road and into manufacturing. Our latest racing title will be hugging the games corner at Mac stores near you in 2 to 3 weeks. This game is such a rush we almost put seatbelts in the system requirements - so wipe down your screens, adjust your steering wheels and lube up your keyboards!

Feral Interactive

Ford Racing 2

Buy Ford Racing 2

Click to enlarge

Brad Cook, Apple's prolific freelance writer, has penned a detailed preview for Guild Software's space combat, online role-playing game title Vendetta Online.

The game, set against the backdrop of a massively multiplayer universe, refreshes the popular RPG-style of gameplay by putting the setting in space. Players can comandeer a number of different characters, from peaceful traders, military pilots, guards for hire, or dastardly pirates, each equipped with their own specific ships and weaponry. The strategy game features a real time flight model and combat system, offering players first person shooter-style player vs. player, and player vs. non-playing character battles. The game also offers co-operative gameplay, a dynamic and open-ended economic system, and an extensive communications system between players.

The title has seen a rocky development cycle during its three-year history. In December 2003, project lead John Bergman posted a direct plea for help as the company's funds had dried up, forcing the developers to possibly close their doors before completing the title. Since then, however, the fledgling development house was able to secure the support of private investors, and signed Montreal-based strategy game specialists Strategy First to publish the title.

The Mac, Linux, and PC versions of the title are scheduled to ship November 1st of this year. Readers interested in the title can head over to Apple's Online Store, where pre-orders for the title are being taken for $29.99 USD.

Apple's Vendetta Online Preview

Guild Software

Vendetta Online

Click to enlarge

Our friends over at Aspyr Media have released patches for two of their games.

First out is a patch for the first person shooter Delta Force: Black Hawk Down - the patch allows the game to run on machines that previously reported their CPU as running slower than it actually is. This was particularly an issue for some PowerBooks running OS X 10.2.8. The patch also solves bugs that forced computers to randomly crash.

The second patch is for the sports title Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003. The update addresses an unusual issue where the game wouldn't launch if the computer had a video card with more than 128MB VRAM.

You can grab the updated by navigating through the links below -

Aspyr Media

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

Westlake Interactive

Electronic Arts

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003

MGF: Black Hawk Down Patch 1

MGF: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 1.1.1a

Buy Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

Buy Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003

Click to enlarge

The IMG Store has begun shipping Enemy Engaged for the Macintosh. It is available for $29.95.

With Enemy Engaged you're in for the ultimate helicopter flight and combat experience. We're talking seriously realistic 3D simulation here, with animated pilots, state of the art cockpit and landscape design and TRULY dynamic campaigns. Surpassing even the graphic standard of the acclaimed Apache Havoc and with enough attention to detail to please even the most ardent simulation enthusiasts, Enemy Engaged definitely sets the standard for the 21st century chopper sims.

To purchase this game please follow the link below.

Feral Interactive

Zonic

Enemy Engaged: Comanche vs. Hokum

Buy Enemy Engaged: Comanche vs. Hokum

TwinFeats Software, makers of various Java Programs, recently updated their WebWizard program, a program which allows people to play the classic Trading Card Game Magic the Gathering Online.

The latest update adds the newest Magic expansion to the mix, Champions of Kawigama. Here's some more info about WebWizard:

WebWizard is the exciting new way to play Wizard of the Coast's (WotC) Magic the Gathering (MtG) collectible card game over the world wide web. Sure, WotC has their own official MtG Online game, and there are several other third party applications for playing MtG over the web - so what sets WebWizard apart?

WebWizard is written in Java so you can enjoy online MtG on just about any platform on the planet, not just Windows like those other guys. And unlike most other MtG apps, WebWizard puts you in total control by emulating the real game. You decide where to put your cards, your tokens, everything! For convenience WebWizard provides predefined locations for your deck, your hand, and your graveyard but you are free to ignore that and put everything just where you like it! It's as close to playing with the cards on a table as you're likely to find anywhere!

WebWizard Website

WebWizard Updated with Magic Expansion

Magic the Gathering: Champions of Kawigama expansion

Click to enlarge

IMG desktop guru, Brad Custer, has once again updated his section with a brand new desktop. This week's creation features Aspyr's upcoming third-person shooter, True Crime: Streets Of L.A..

Here's a snippet from Custer's update:

True Crime: Streets Of L.A. from Aspyr Media recently entered alpha status and is still a little bit off from the February 2005 release date, but that still doesn't stop the loyal viewers from wanting a desktop for this game. Personally, I've been playing this game to wet my appetite for a certain console title slated for a release next Tuesday. Hmmm. Wonder what that could be? ;) In this week's feature I wanted to create a wallpaper that captures the feel created by the design that went into the official site, wallpapers and packaging.

IMG Desktop: Unconventional

Aspyr Media

True Crime: Streets of L.A.

Buy True Crime: Streets of L.A.

Click to enlarge

The Community Bonus Pack project, a communal endeavor to promote and distribute the best community-created maps, models, skins and mutators for Epic Games' Unreal Tournament franchise, has re-released the original, "critically acclaimed" Community Bonus Pack.

The community bonus pack contains nineteen maps, originally created for Unreal Tournament 2003, which have been further debugged and updated for UT 2004. The packaged, compressed into a 137 MB download, is available through the link below.

While visiting the site, readers are encouraged to also download CBP's second Community Bonus Pack. This time around, 41 custom-made Unreal Tournament 2004 maps, four new characters and two new mutators, have been packaged into two seperate downloads, weighing in at just under 200 MB each. Follow the links from Beyond Unreal's File Works link listed below.

And of course, if you haven't yet done so, why not drop by the IMG Store and pick yourself up a copy of the popular online fragfest for only $39.95 USD -

Download The Re-Released Community Bonus Pack

Beyond Unreal's File Front

Digital Extremes

MacSoft

Epic Games

Unreal Tournament 2004

Buy Unreal Tournament 2004

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