Aquaduct, the Xbox tunneling app for Mac OS X that lets people play Xbox Halo on the Internet using their Macs, turned one year old awhile ago (August 30, to be exact), but it seems that we all-- including the program's creator, PfhorSlayer, missed it. Word has it he's hard at work on something new for the program's next version, but we've all been warned not to bug him about it; however, there's always the Aquaduct forum.
Tycho at Marathon Resurrection, which is a Marathon TC for Unreal Tournament being made by Team Unpfhorgiven, has put up a new poll asking users if they want M:R to have completely polished single and multiplayer play before release, or if the team should kick the mod out the door now. At the moment, this is the state of play:
My MacAddict issue has arrived, and as promised there is a Mac Halo preview , about 3 pages in length with a handful of screenshots, some of which seem new. Here's a snippet:
Well it looks like IMG has gotten its hands on a preview of Mac Halo. The preview is 3 pages long and contains a few screenshots, some of which seem new. The only problem is it doesn't really refer to anything specific to Mac Halo, its just more info for those who have been hiding under rocks. I am soooo jealous; someone send me a copy of Mac Halo darn it! Anyways its mostly a preview of the story and a little about the original development of Halo. Here's a snippet:
Louis Wu at HBO, with a tip from momo, and MacCentral have posted, along with Sphtman who pointed us to a markedly similar IMG story, that Mac Halo has now entered beta
Zandervix over at MBO has posted a note on the availability of Myth Browser v1.81; it runs on Windows and Mac OS X (requires X11) and allows you to browse Myth games running on PlayMyth and Marius.net.
HBO's Louis Wu got Westlake president Phil Sulak to provide the most up-to-the-minute info on the status of the Mac Halo port; in addition, Blackstar pointed out an interview with Westlake's Brad Oliver at IMG that tangentially mentions that Mac Halo is such a "complicated beast" that it requires three programmers to port. Hmm.
The HBO interview has some great info in it, namely:
Drawing on data from Bungie's own PC Halo FAQ, Shishka's Pre-Release PC Halo FAQ, and the recent inter views with
A: The PC version of Halo, according to Bungie's own SketchFactor, will have a playable demo, available for download, after the full game is released. It is anticipated, but not known for a certainty, that the Mac version will get the same treatment.
A: A private beta test of Halo has been going on for some time now. It is unknown whether or not the Mac version will have a similar test, or whether it will be public or private.
A: This is a thorny question. The President of Westlake, Phil Sulak, has been quoted by Macteens as saying that:
While we don't have any plans to release Mac-based tools, the Mac version of Halo should be fully compatible with the Mods released by the PC Halo community.
However, shortly thereafter, Peter Tamte of Destineer Studios / MacSoft, who are publishing Mac Halo, said the following:
A: PC Halo does not have bots in its initial release form, although it is conceivable that a post-release patch could support them. Gearbox has on staff programmers responsible for bot support in several other games. It is not yet known if Westlake Interactive would attempt to port a bot multiplayer patch if Gearbox could produce one.
A: Xbox Halo supported 5.1 surround sound because the Xbox hardware itself supported it. PC Halo supports Creative 5.1 surround. The Macintosh G5 has support for 5.1 surround, and there are external boxes that can provide such support for other Macintoshes. It is not yet known if Mac Halo will support 5.1 surround.
A: Xbox Halo supported a split-screen-only, two-player-only, one-Xbox-only cooperative play mode that, while quite a lot of fun, was a relatively late addition to the game. It was decided during the development of the PC port not to create a splitscreen cooperative mode for PC Halo, as this would not match the expectations of most PC gamers. Gearbox intends to attempt adding a networkable cooperative mode to the game, but not prior to the initial release.
A: Xbox Halo shipped on one DVD. PC Halo, it has been announced, will ship on one CD. It is expected that Mac Halo will ship on one CD as well. It is not known if there will be a simultaneous release or a hybrid CD, as was previously done with Bungie's Myth games.