January 2008

MacPool is a neat little Pool game for the Mac that has recently been updated. it’s got some nice touches, including network play:

Simple and easy to play computer simulation of the popular 9-Ball, 8-Ball and 14:1 Pool games. 3-Balls Billiards and Snooker are also included as Add-Ons to the game.

Amazing Online Game Mode to enjoy hours of fun with connencted players around the globe. Give it a try downloading the evaluation version. Tell your friends (Win or Mac) to do the same and experience the emotions of playing real Pool from the convenience of your computer.

MacPool is a great complement to your iChat, Skype, MSN, Yahoo or any other messenger application when you want to have some fun with your remote friends or family.

Explore several game settings and options to customize your game. And when you get that great shot, save it and share it to show off your skills in our Best Shots Gallery.

It’s also worth checking out some of baKno’s other games - they’ve got quite a collection, including Snooker and Pinball.

NASA have requested input for a proposed “NASA-based Massively Multiplayer Online Learning Game”.

The NASA LT Project Office is requesting information to support the development of a NASA-based STEM educational MMO. A high quality synthetic gaming environment is a vital element of NASA’s educational cyberstructure. This new synthetic world would be a collaborative work and meeting space as well as a game space of a kind familiar to increasing numbers of American students. Games and challenges in the MMO would engage students in a way that is both familiar and comfortable for them. In turn, participation in the MMO would build increased student awareness of STEM fields and lead more students to pursue STEM courses of study. The MMO will foster career exploration opportunities in a much deeper way than reading alone would permit and at a fraction of the time and cost of an internship program.

You can read the complete article on the NASA web site.

Electronic Arts has made Rail Simulator available to the US market this week.

The product has received mixed reviews on Amazon, but it seems it’s the best available at the moment. The release of Microsoft’s Train Simulator 2 could change all that, though. You can watch a video trailer over on Gamespot, where you can also find a number of tutorial videos.

This has been around for some time, but I’ve only recently “discovered” it. Trukz is a text-based truck driving simulator.

Here’s the sites description of the sim:

Trukz (pronounced “Trucks”) is a text based trucking simulation game designed to let you try your hand at being a truck driver hauling loads to and from various cities around North America and Europe. There are over 35 cargo types in the game each with its own driver skill requirements so take the little jobs early on to get started and work your way to become the best driver making the most money in the game.

It’s clearly popular, with “31,888 Truckers Simulated To Date” and actually looks like it’s pretty good fun. I think I’ll set up my new company based in London, but I can’t see myself getting to the top of the leaderboard any time soon - the current top driver has nearly 400,000 miles under his belt!

The source code for the original SimCity is being released under the GNU General Public Library. The game will no longer be referred to as SimCity, due to copyright restrictions and currently has a working title of Micropolis.

The Fear and Loathing blog reports:

The “MicropolisCore” project includes the latest Micropolis (SimCity) source code, cleaned up and recast into C++ classes, integrated into Python, using the wonderful SWIG interface generator tool. It also includes a Cairo based TileEngine, and a cellular automata machine CellEngine, which are independent but can be plugged together, so the tile engine can display cellular automata cells as well as SimCity tiles, or any other application’s tiles

This is great news for all SimCity fans and I’m looking forward to seeing the first of the ports.