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In another very interesting Macworld announced, MacPlay has said they are working with Activision to bring some classics to the platform. These games include titles like Heretic II, Hexen II, and Zork: Grand Inquisitor. This is an unexpected, but very good announcement for Mac gamers, as all three are highly acclaimed (if not exactly new). The titles should also run nicely on a wide variety of systems, including olders Macs that might not play the latest and greatest games so well anymore.

The choice Heretic II is interesting because Logicware nearly finished this Quake 2-based game back in 1998. Unfortunately, the port sat unpublished, and was assumed dead by many up till now. Heretic II received many accolades on the PC side, though, and we are very happy to see it finally get published on the Mac. It should also be noted the titles support OS X as well, and we assume could be ready soon given the nearly completed state of the game. Both Heretic II and Zork are former Logicware titles that never found a home; however as Bill "Burger" Heinemann developed both of these titles and several former Logicware members are on staff at Mumbo Jumbo, this seems a logical decision to recycle old resources.

Hexen II is also interesting to see on the roster because the title was recently open sourced by Raven Software, the developers of this and Heretic II. Brad Oliver actually ported the application to the Mac to work with the PC boxed version. Finding a copy of the PC version wasn't always easy, though, so it's great to see MacPlay will be publishing a separate Mac box. Here's the full press release with more:

MacPlay announced today at MacWorld Expo plans to
publish three classic Activision titles for the Apple Macintosh computer.
The company will publish Heretic II, Hexen II, and Zork Grand Inquisitor
later this summer.

The winner of a PCGamer Editor’s Choice award, Heretic II sets you upon an
epic quest across an entire continent to find a means to cleanse a world
infected with a deadly magical plague that has victimized the people of the
realm. As Corvus – the character from Heretic who has been banished to the
Outer Worlds by D'sparil – you perform a variety of acrobatic, swimming and
climbing maneuvers in order to penetrate the mystery of the plague.
Exploring city, swamp, canyon and dungeon levels, you use a variety of
offensive and defensive spells such as the Sphere of Annihilation, Repulsion
and Fireball in conjunction with a magical bow and staff to defeat a
multitude of insane plague-ridden denizens of Parthoris. The award-winning
game will ship for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.

An epic adventure set in the famed Zork universe created by the legendary
game studio Infocom, Zork Grand Inquisitor centers around restoring magic to
the ailing Great Underground Empire so its inhabitants may be freed from the
Dark Ages of Zork. In an effort to maintain control of the citizens of the
lands and because of his own weakness, the Grand Inquisitor of the Empire
outlawed the practice of magic in the kingdom. As the "Adventurer," players
must join forces with the magic resistance and the disembodied spirit of a
Dungeon Master to battle the Grand Inquisitor's regime. Along the journey,
players time-travel back to classic Zork eras to restore three enchanted
treasures to Zork -- returning magic to the lands. The classic adventure
game will ship for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.

Hexen II transports players into four worlds - a medieval town and castle, a
Roman villa, Egyptian Pyramids and Meso-American ruins. One of the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse lies in wait at the conclusion of each world.
Gamers must choose to battle as one of four classes in single-player mode,
or fight against all four classes in multi-player death matches. Gamers
inflict brutal pain and death on their enemies with swords, daggers, wands,
staves and spells, and each class offers a choice of four weapons of
destruction. The game will ship for Mac OS 9.

“We’re pleased to be working closely with world class games publisher
Activision to bring these frequently requested games to the Macintosh,” said
Diane Zammit, President of MacPlay. “We’re excited to be bringing them to
the Macintosh community.”

IMG Review of Hexen 2

MacPlay

Raven Software

MacPlay

Raven Software

HeXen II

Buy HeXen II

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