Daily News Spin — April 2, 2001 (Monday)

Those pesky teenagers!

Seems like some new LAN and Internent gaming centers that have opened up in Pasadena have their business neighbors up in arms, according to the Pasadena Star-News.

The sheriff's department has received complaints from neighboring businesses about littering problems, fights and loitering, Deputy Robert Nichol said.

Loitering! Can skateboard gangs be too far behind!

Bing Medina, who owns an office supply store next to PC Station, said his business went down 60 percent since the computer places opened. His customers circle the lot two or three times but can't find parking and decide to go elsewhere, he said.

Access to vital office supplies is being blocked?!? Oh the humanity!

Thanks Supertanker!

Gamers Alliance network gone...

...but eUniverseGames rises from the ashes. According to a note that's all you see when you go to GA-RPG, here's what's going on:

With the launch of eUniverseGames, it closes a chapter in the history of the Gamers' Alliance network, as we are combining all of our separate gaming publications into one site. In merging all of the various content that you usually read under separate sites, we will provide our readers access to content related to the whole gaming industry, rather than one platform or genre. Our new advanced system produces gaming content in an easy to navigate format, so you can find all the news and information that suits your needs.

Hey, they have an advanced system now!

History of real-time strategy games

Quarter to Three contributor Bruce Geryk has a fascinating look at the history of RTS games up at Gamespot.

For a game that is largely credited with revolutionizing the strategy genre, Dune II begins with a very simple premise. Brett Sperry, the visionary behind Dune II, recalls his thinking at the time of the game's creation.

"What became Dune II started out as a challenge I made for myself. The challenge was that strategy games would be out-of-control fun if the real-time aspect of Eye of the Beholder could be combined with resource management and a dynamic, flat interface. Just one mode of play and no additional screens. But how? Long before I decided to experiment with actually building this new game in a Dune setting, I kept toying with the answer."

"The Ascent of the Video Game Industry"

That's the title of an article at Wall Street City, which looks at the gaming industry from a stock picker's perspective. It's a short article. The only real information of note is their prediction of five year growth for some of the publicly traded game companies.

GalCiv website launched

Stardock's GalCiv has its own website now. What's different about this space strategy game?

As a game, what sets GalCiv apart from other games in the genre is the emphasis placed on under-the-cover depth. This is accomplished through a multi-threaded design (the game multitasks within itself). As such a great deal more calculating and AI analysis can be done. The result is a far richer game environment than normally allowed. Each game will feel like a completely new epic story.

Trade Empires announced

Eidos has announced Trade Empires, being developed by Frog City (Imperialism 1 and 2). From the press release:

Beginning at the dawn of human civilization and progressing up through the 19th century, Trade Empires is an economic simulation game in which gamers focus on building a successful and profitable merchant empire. Gameplay revolves around the relatively simple model of producing and delivering commodities to make more money than the other players. Gamers build vast transport and trade networks that change over thousands of years, as new technologies are developed and more modern products are discovered. The rules of the game are simple and the variety in gameplay comes through the discovery of new products to trade and new ways to transport those products....

The game is episode-based, and each episode covers an area during a time period, for example trade along the Silk Road between the Roman Empire and the Han dynasty. The time period varies dramatically from one episode to another. Consequently, time passes at a different rate in each episode. Each episode also has a unique list of available products and technologies. Some episodes cover a relatively short time period, depicting a historical situation. Other episodes cover a longer period with more dramatic technological advances. The longest episodes depict periods over 1000 years.

Creatures developer writes book

We spotted a review of a book by Steve Grand, the developer of Creatures, a game that is sort of Black & Whitish. The review is at Red Herring.

In Creation: Life and How to Make It, Mr. Grand observes that our bodies' cells replace themselves every seven years, making each of us the corporate enterprise of generations of microbes. He notes that we, like clouds, embody patterns that persist over time while remaining in flux. Indeed, the universe, Mr. Grand points out -- from light and other subatomic particles to genes and minds -- is nothing but variously self-maintaining patterns.

Mr. Grand believes, paradoxically, that while computer simulations of nerve cells are not real neurons, higher levels of patterns arising from such simulations can be considered brains. Maybe, by simplifying this small fraction of Creation's argument, I'm giving the impression that the author tends toward fuzzy mysticism. Nothing is further from the truth. Mr. Grand is unpretentiously straightforward and lucid -- deceptively so, perhaps, since the ramifications of his ideas are sometimes profound. Creation is a book to read more than once.

Yeah, it's not a game, but there's not much news today.

Stronghold website launched

Firefly Studios has launched their new Stronghold website. Stronghold is a castle building, seige warfare sim.

In concept it is a unique cross between a city builder and a real time strategy game. The key to the game is the castle; designing it, managing it and defending it. Each of these elements has its place in Stronghold and you will need to consider all of them to be a really good player. There is no open field combat, only ever increasing hordes of besiegers whose sole purpose is to destroy all you have built. Depending on how well you have built your 'castle' you may or may not survive!

The will be published by Gathering of Developers.

Desert Storm website launched

Pivotal Games, a new development team comprised of former members of Pumpkin Studios, makers of the excellent Warzone 2100 game, have launched a Desert Storm website.

Conflict: Desert Storm places you right in the middle of the action. It makes you the star of your very own war movie as you lead your Special Forces team against the Iraqi Republican Guard. You have the whole Gulf War to live through. Jets roar overhead, tanks race past you, and helicopter gunships shoot up enemy positions.

The game will be published by SCi.

3am

Yeesh, not much on the news front. Malaysia may ban Pokemon as well, according to a story posted on Ananova. Now if only the U.S. would ban it.

Sharky has left the building. Alex Ross, who founded Sharky Extreme, is quitting the business. You can read his farewell here.

In what is probably an unrelated note, Internet.com, the company that now owns Sharky Extreme, is laying off 15% of their staff due to the advertising downturn.

We noticed that Lum the Mad's site is now asking for donations to help defray bandwidth costs.

Also, Quarter to Three in general and Tom Chick in particular got mentioned today at Gone Gold in Rich Laporte's Roll Call.

Finally. It looks like Gameloft's closing has taken down one of our favorite console news sites -- we can't access the English version of Famitsu.com anymore. The Internet's getting smaller. In the words of the Wicked Witch of the West, "Oh what a world, what a world!"

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