Aspyr Media Game Report--Their March to Universal Applications Continues

Aspyr has already released or soon will release a total of four Mac games as a Universal Application (i.e. they run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs):

Quake 4
Call of Duty 2
Civilization 4
Sims 2 Open for Business (coming soon)

Aspyr has also released free downloadable Universal patches for six PowerPC-based Mac game titles that run under Rosetta:

Doom 3
Shrek 2
Sims 2
Sims 2 University
Sims 2 Nightlife
Spiderman 2

There are six more PowerPC-based games that currently run under Rosetta on Intel-based Macs for which Aspyr plans to release Universal patches:

Civilization III: Complete
Command & Conquer Generals/Zero Hour/Deluxe
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
Simcity 4/Rush Hour/Deluxe
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Unfortunately, the Universal patch for Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive seems to be out of the picture. In an earlier report, Call of Duty was listed for a Universal patch. While Call of Duty 2 (Universal) remains our favorite first person shooter, the original Call of Duty has many enjoyable maps that were not carried over into Version 2. Call of Duty runs in Rosetta on our 2.16GHz MacBook Pro but only marginally.

With regard to the development of new games, Aspyr reported that work internally at Aspyr Studios has wrapped up on Sims 2 Open for Business Mac and it should be shipping any day. Much of their internal development is on unannounced projects. Aspyr says it has several exciting Mac titles in the works for Christmas 2006 and early 2007. One of their goals for Mac development in the new world of Intel-based Macs is to ship more of their Mac games close to the release of the Windows versions and they hope to have a couple of good examples out in the coming months.

With regard to other patches and demos, Aspyr's recently released patches include the final Civ IV Mac Rev A patch and a Tiger Woods 2005 Mac patch. Updates for the Mac that are still in testing and due to be released any day now include Call of Duty 2 v1.3, Civilization III Universal, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Universal, and Jedi Knight 2 & Jedi Academy Universal. A demo for Quake 4 Mac was released in early August.

We, of course, are waiting eagerly for Call of Duty 2 v1.3. That update will bring parity with the Windows version. [Bill Fox]