Handpicked Software » Stategy Games

20th Century Aerial Joust – Close-quarter biplane dogfight game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

TACS is a real-time strategy/arcade game involving close-quarter biplane dogfighting. 1-3 Players.

Developer’s website: Ben Mitchell

Ben`s Game – This hero kills cancer cells

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

[ Via Apple.com ] Ben, nine years old, is in remission from Leukemia. He also had a unique wish. Ben’s wish was to create a video / computer game in which the hero kills cancer cells. The game would have several levels of battling the cells. Ben felt that this game would be helpful for kids like him who have cancer, a way to fight back and relieve some of the pain and stress involved with treatment. Ben is a big fan of video games and computers — so the Greater Bay Area Make-A-Wish Foundation went out to local game companies to find a champion to make Ben’s wish come true. A hero stepped forward: Eric Johnston of LucasArts. Not only did Eric want to make Ben’s wish a reality, he wanted to involve Ben in every step of the process. For months, Ben and Eric have been meeting on a regular basis to make the game just as Ben has envisioned it. Now you have a chance to see it too!!

Developer’s website: Make-A-Wish

Galcon – Multi-player galactic action-strategy game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Galcon is an awesome high-paced multi-player galactic action-strategy game. You send swarms of ships from planet to planet to take over the galaxy.

What’s New:
Version 1.3.2 of Galcon includes several bug fixes. A cheat whereby you could take over unpassworded accounts in mid-game has been patched. A number of crashes in the single player game have been patched. Also, when rounds end, a “ding” sounds so that if you are AFK you can get back before the next round begins.

Developer’s website: Imitation Pickles

United Offensive Weapon Mod – Add new weapons to Call of Duty United Offensive

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

This is the official UO weapon mod, it adds new weapons from the Call of Duty� United Offensive� Expansion Pack.

What’s New:
Version 1.2b:

The game does not crash anymore if you select a Russian weapon.

Developer’s website: jeremymeile

Age of Empires III – Many fixes and improvements

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Age of Empires III is a game where you command one of eight mighty powers grappling to conquer the New World in this new generation of the landmark Age of Empires series.

Experience the Age of Discovery through amazing 3D graphics. Crush your enemies with devastating cannons and rifled infantry. Navigate your naval fleet to claim strategic waterways. Build cities with towering cathedrals, and forge a thriving empire with a booming economy.

What’s New:
Version 1.0.2:

Fixed a memory problem in the tech tree system.
Reduced semaphore timeout values in the SFX system which could lead to a rare brief halt during gameplay.
Increased the size of the MP3 decoding buffers to reduce music drop-outs.
Fixed a crash on the Client if a timeout occurs while trying to connect to the Host.
Fixed a crash in the map data transfer system when the Host sends 3rd party map data to the Clients.
GameRanger: Improved the UI for creating new Home Cities.
GameRanger: GR games no longer require the use of the OverrideAddress IP setting. It is now recommend that you only use this setting for Direct IP games.
About… box may no longer be displayed multiple times.
CMD-Q now displays a dialog asking if the user wants to quit the game.
The Mac codebase is now in sync with version 1.11 of the PC Age 3 software.
Addressed some possible exploits and added further file validation (PC 1.11).
Changed effect when a unit is healed to be less resource intensive and obstructing (PC 1.11).
Several low level network optimizations have been added (PC 1.10).
Fixed a recorded game Out of Sync issue involving Mac 1.0 & 1.0.1 games with high level home cities (PC 1.10).
Decks are now limited to 32 per home city (PC 1.10).
After each game players will now be granted bonus experience, meaning all Home Cities will now level up faster (PC 1.09).
The experience requirement to level up Home Cities that are level 100 or higher has decreased (PC 1.09).
The Russian card Ransack no longer effects teammates (PC 1.09).

Balance Changes

Spain: Shipment bonus changed to .73 (PC 1.11).
Spain: Wardogs damage reduced to 15, but they get a 20% bonus vs. guardians (PC 1.11).
German: Uhlan +10% Ranged Resistance (PC 1.11).
British: Longbowmen get 1.25 bonus damage vs. heavy infantry (PC 1.11).
Portuguese: Organ Guns get +10% damage, +2 range, and +4 LOS (PC 1.11).
Ottomans: Abus guns get 0.75 damage vs. artillery (PC 1.11).
Ottomans: Abus guns get 1.5 bonus damage vs. heavy infantry (PC 1.11).
Ottomans: Abus guns Ranged Resistance reduced to 20% (PC 1.11).
Russians: Cossacks +10% Ranged Resistance (PC 1.11).
Reduced Spanish shipment bonus (PC 1.10).
Reduced Longbowmen ranged attack by 2 (PC 1.10).
Reduced Longbowmen hand attack by 1 (PC 1.10).

Developer’s website: MacSoft

Otis – Strategy/puzzle game based on the classic game Same Game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Otis is a strategy/puzzle game for Mac OS X, based on a classic game popularly known as Same Game, Chain Shot, or JawBreaker.

The object is to remove all the blocks from the board by clicking on groups of two or more blocks with the same color. Clear as many blocks at once as possible to score higher, but only through careful maneuvering can you clear the entire board.

Written in Cocoa with an attention towards design and interface, Otis packs addicting gameplay, stunning visual effects, and multiple levels of difficulty for every player.

What’s New:
Version 1.0.1:

Fixed behavior in high scores where new scores would replace those that they best, rather than being inserted above the lower score.
Fixed several small UI glitches.

Developer’s website: Wonder Warp Software

Professor Fizzwizzle – Platform puzzle game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Professor Fizzwizzle needs your help! His once-friendly Friend-Bots have gone in to rage mode, and have thrown him out of his lab! Can you puzzle your way past the Rage-Bots and help Professor Fizzwizzle set things right? He’s counting on you!

What’s New:
Version 1.02U:

Now a Universal Binary

Developer’s website: Grubby Games

magnetiX – Magnetic Scrolls text adventure interpreter

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Magnetic is an interpreter for the games written between 1985 and 1991 by Magnetic Scrolls, a text adventure producer based in London, England.

What’s New:
Version 1.2:

magnetiX is now a universal binary
simplified installation: it’s now possible to use a user-defined game file folder
other very minor fixes

Developer’s website: Jan Schliemann

Freeciv – Free open-source X11 Civilization game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Freeciv is a free turn-based multiplayer strategy game, in which each player becomes the leader of a civilization, fighting to obtain the ultimate goal:
To become the greatest civilization.

Players of the Civilization series by Microprose should feel at home, since one aim of Freeciv is to have modes with compatible rules.
Freeciv is maintained by an international team of coders and enthusiasts, and is easily one of the most fun and addictive network games out there!
It also means it has very extensive multilanguage support, something rare in games.

What’s New:
release notes not available currently

Developer’s website: Tony Stuckey

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos – Lush 3D strategy war game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

After receiving an ominous warning from a mysterious prophet, the Orc warchief Thrall must guide his warriors to a strange new land in this fully playable demo of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Whether you’re new to real-time strategy or a skilled veteran, you’ll be in for a challenge as you navigate the Orcs through lush 3D environments and lead them into battle against those who stand in their way. Can you rally the Horde in the face of extinction?

The Warcraft III demo features:

A two-mission tutorial introducing players to one of the central Heroes of Warcraft III
Three all-new missions that chronicle the Orcs’ embattled journey to Kalimdor
Head-to-head play through Battle.net?, Blizzard’s free online gaming service

What’s New:
Version 1.2.1 release notes are available.

Developer’s website: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

EV Nova Updater – Fixes many issues

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

EV Nova Updater 1.0.10:

Engine changes:

- corrected problem that could cause a crash when clicking on an empty square in the ship selection window
- improved handling of compressed PICT resources in plugin files
changed some beam handling logic so that multiple fast firing beams cause the correct amount of damage
- improved collision detection when using rle8/rle16 resources
- updated the Windows Register program to address a graphical glitch

Developer’s website: Ambrosia Software, Inc.

EV Nova – Sequel game to Escape Velocity

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

In EV Nova (the “three-quel” to Escape Velocity), the developers are working on a huge update to the game — it’s been rewritten so that the graphics engine is 16 bit, handles transparencies, hue tinting, thruster and laser “glowing”, and a number of other really cool features. The graphics for the static scenes are all 32 bits of love, and there are QuickTime movies for many aspects of the game (don’t worry, they augment the game, the developers aren’t turning the game into an “interactive novel” or anything silly like that).

What’s New:
Version 1.0.10:

corrected problem that could cause a crash when clicking on an empty square in the ship selection window
improved handling of compressed PICT resources in plugin files
changed some beam handling logic so that multiple fast firing beams cause the correct amount of damage
improved collision detection when using rle8/rle16 resources
updated the Windows Register program to address a graphical glitch

Developer’s website: Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Bushfire – Protect the forest from fires with your helicopter

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Bushfire is a game where you protect the experimental Goose Spruce forest with your firefighting helicopter and smoke jumpers. Beware though, strange things are afoot and it�s more than just the odd dropped cigarette you have to watch out for. If you already have 1.0.x, you can download the updater.

What’s New:
Version 1.1 adds resolution switching in Mac OS X (10.0.2) and a Save Game feature has been added.

Developer’s website: Strange Flavour

Homeworld 2 – 3D space ship game w/multiplayer support

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Homeworld 2 continues the epic struggle of the Hiigarans and their leader Karan S’jet. Many thought their hardships would end when they returned to Hiigara, yet fate has not been so kind to the Exiles. Now the Hiigarans face a new and bitter enemy, a renegade clan from the eastern fringes of the galaxy, who wield the power of the ancients. Homeworld 2 chronicles the valiant journey of the Mothership and its crew into the oldest regions of the galaxy to confront their new foe and discover the truth behind their exile.

What’s New:
Version 1.1.1:

Fixed a crash that could happen on startup, especially while using Shapeshifter.
Fixed a problem with multiplayer games over the internet. The game uses UDP ports 6074, and 5000 to 5100. Make sure these ports are open and forwarded correctly in your router/firewall.
Added an option in the launcher to disable mouse scaling in the game. This option enabled by default, but it can your mouse to act slowly on some machines when the game exits. Disabling this option in the launcher will prevent such issues from happening, but could make the mouse in the game less responsive.
Added an option in the launcher to scale mouse movement. Increasing the scale factor will make the mouse move faster, but it will also make the cursor less precise.

Developer’s website: Aspyr Media, Inc.

Starcraft Broodwar X – Fixes and improvements

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Starcraft Broodwar X updater patches the Starcraft Broodwar expansion pack.

What’s New:
Version 1.15.1:

Bug Fixes:

Fixed a replay saving bug that occasionally crashed games.
Fixed a bug where the map download progress was not shown.
Pressing alt-f4 while in Starcraft and logged into a league now logs you out
of the league.
Updated some of the localization for the league page.
Fixed an exploit that allowed nukes to fall anywhere on the map.

Developer’s website: Blizzard Entertainment

Dungeons of Omaz – Sound-only treasure finding game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

This game was entered in the CreateMacGames.org contest “Blind.” It has no graphics, only sound. The object is to find the giant’s treausure. The treasure is hidden in a dark dungeon, and you must work your way through the caves using only your sense of hearing and direction.

Read the Read Me or I can’t be blamed for how confused you are.

If you beat the game and want more levels, I’d be happy to make you some more, as it’s not very hard.

Developer’s website: Diordna Software

MacFungus – Multiplayer tile-eating grid game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

MacFungus is an addictive strategy game where players on a grid have to eat each other’s tiles to win. The game can be played on the same computer or online. It supports up to 4 players.

What’s New:
Version 1.0b5:

Online Tracker: MacFungus now automatically posts your game to the online tracker. The tracker can be accessed through http://macfungus.com/servers/.
New Shapes : Two Tetris-like shapes.
Auto-updater : MacFungus will automatically download the newest version of itself. Can be toggled off.

Developer’s website: Alexandre-Tristan St-Cyr

Call of Duty2 – German war strategy game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Call of Duty 2 redefines the cinematic intensity and chaos of battle as seen through the eyes of ordinary soldiers fighting together in epic WWII conflicts. The sequel to 2003’s Call of Duty, winner of over 80 Game of the Year awards, Call of Duty 2 offers more immense, more intense, more realistic battles than ever before, thanks to the stunning visuals of the new COD2 engine.

What’s New:
This is an official update for Call of Duty 2. It will fully update any previous version of Call of Duty 2 to version 1.3. It is recommended for all users.

The Call of Duty 2 1.3 patch fixes some multiplayer game and level
issues, raises the gamestate from 16k to 128k and addresses the PunkBuster
GUID issue where players were not being assigned PunkBuster GUID’s of
exactly 32 characters.

Notes for Mod Users:
- It is recommended that any user modifications that have been installed
to the Call of Duty 2 directory be removed before installing this patch.
These modifications are not supported by Activision and may not be
compatible with some of the new features that are included.
- Call of Duty 2 does not support mods that have spaces in the mod’s
folder name. Be sure that the folder that contains your mod does not have
spaces; otherwise users will not be able to download the files. For
example, a mod in a folder called “My Mod” would be invalid, whereas
“MyMod” or “My_Mod” would work.

Multiplayer Fixes:
-Raised the gamestate from 16k to 128k
-Added loading bars to maps mp_harbor and mp_rhine
-Addressed the PB GUID issue where players were not being assigned PB
GUID’s of exactly 32 characters.

mp_rhine map changes:
-Fixed player getting on top of broken wall and seeing through second
story of bombed out building.

mp_harbor map changes:
-Reduced overall fog density
-Fixed missing water texture
-Fixed player not being able to shoot through lower portion of the first
gap in a railing found on east side of map.
-Fixed player not being able to shoot through lower portion of railing
found on east edge of map.
-Fixed a partially floating crate and a couple holes in sandbags.

Known Issues:
When hosting a PunkBuster enabled server for the first time after
installing the 1.3 patch, you may experience stability issues. To avoid
this, launch the Multiplayer application, wait 10 – 20 seconds, then quit.
Once you relaunch Call of Duty 2 Multiplayer, you will be able to host
PunkBuster servers without any issues.

Developer’s website: Aspyr Media, Inc.

Aquatomic – Arrange atoms into logical structures

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Aquatomic is a logic game. The goal is to arrange atoms into structures on a game board in order to advance to the next level. It is similar to the Sokoban game, but the player isn’t represented by a piece in the game.

The objective is to solve puzzles by moving molecules around. Solving the increasingly difficult levers in as few moves as possible is quite a challenge. Aquatomic is based on the KDE game KAtomic, but sports a nice Aqua UI.

What’s New:
Version 1.0.1 fixes some bugs in the puzzle game.

New in this update, the miniature view of the level updates properly on Panther systems, and the Hall of Fame score submission is once more operational.

Developer’s website: Infinity-to-the-Power-of-Infinity

Space Colony – Manage a space community

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Save the Colony! Your staff are brawling, the Harvester Robot is chain sawing its way through the oxygen supply and small furry aliens have taken over the disco. This is home.

Each unique personality has a mind of its own so remember happy colonists make for productive colonists. Ignore them and they’ll pick fights, argue, get depressed, and eventually go crazy. Nurture them and they will work hard for you, become friends and maybe even fall in love!

With over 100 buildings at your disposal, it’s up to you to build a colony that meets all the colonists’ needs and keeps them safe and happy. So before you shell out all your credits on iron extraction and space chicken productions to bring in the cash, remember, that without a gym, a sauna or a half decent restaurant, nobody’s going to want to work for you.

Features include:

Manage Your Space Community-Over 20 unique personalities. They brawl, argue, get depressed, go crazy and fall in love.
Contend With 20 Alien Species-They hunt, socialize and get on with their weird and varied daily lives. But be ready to allocate power to your force fields as they may turn their eyes on you.
Choose Your Properties-Use the many robots and androids at your disposal to establish profitable extraction industries and hi-tech factories…so you can spend more time at the slot machines.

Developer’s website: Aspyr Media, Inc.

ExaChess Lite – Play chess against the computer

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

ExaChess Lite is a freeware version of ExaChess, a full-featured chess database. ExaChess Lite allows up to 256 games per file, reading and storing Chessbase (CBF) and PGN formats among others, and can be used with a variety of chess engines to play computer games or annotate existing games.

What’s New:
Version 3.1.3:

Fixed the problems of earlier releases when closing game windows under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Developer’s website: Exant Software

Ultimate Mac Othello – Othello game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Here is THE ultimate Othello game, now available for MacOS X. Enjoy its new, aqua-friendly graphics, full Cocoa interface and animations.

Developer’s website: FloBo & Jeko

FloboPuyo – Clone of PuyoPuyo strategy game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

FloboPuyo is a free clone of the famous PuyoPuyo strategy game.

What’s New:
Version 0.20:

Improved game control settings
Added key repetition
Made the “main puyo” more visible by blinking
Added score board and hall of fame
Added a new music and game theme
Added some sound effects
Added OpenGL support
Added a useless effect (corona) in the about menu
Improved in-game animations
Improved menu appearance
A lot of bug fixes

Developer’s website: iOS-Software

Battle for Wesnoth – Strategy game with fantasy theme

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme.

Build up a great army, gradually turning raw recruits into hardened veterans. In later games, recall your toughest warriors and form a deadly host against whom none can stand! Choose units from a large pool of specialists, and hand-pick a force with the right strengths to fight well on different terrains against all manner of opposition.

Wesnoth has many different sagas waiting to be played out. Fight to regain the throne of Wesnoth, of which you are the legitimate heir… step into the boots of a young officer sent to guard a not-so-sleepy frontier outpost… vanquish a horde of undead warriors unleashed by a foul necromancer, who also happens to have taken your brother hostage… guide a band of elvish survivors in an epic quest to find a new home.

200+ unit types. 16 races. 6 major factions. Hundreds of years of history. The world of Wesnoth is absolutely huge and limited only by your creativity – make your own custom units, compose your own maps, and write your own scenarios or even full-blown campaigns. You can also challenge up to 8 friends – or strangers – and fight in epic multi-player fantasy battles.

What’s New:
Version 1.3.8 release notes available here.

Developer’s website: Wesnoth Open Source Developers

Pocket Tanks – Artillery arcade game

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:07:31 +0000

Pocket Tanks is the fastest game of artillery you’ll ever play. Pocket Tanks is designed to be easy to learn, and fun to master. All the excitement of lobbing projectiles over a mound of dirt without all the complicated details found in most artillery games. Select your angle, power, and fire over 30 distinct weapons at your opponent. There is an innovative Weapon Shop to keep the game moving fast and a Target Practice mode for experimenting with all the weapons – no holds barred!

Developer’s website: CTSP Games