 June 7, 1999 17:10 PM EST
Want to learn more about the Pharaohs?
If you do, then today's your lucky day. I received my
books about ancient Egypt in the mail this morning, and spent the day getting a new
section ready here on Pharaoh Heaven.
Ok, so the history section here at Pharaoh Heaven
might still only be in its infancy (there are only so many hours in the day, after all),
but you can still brush up on your Egyptian history. Click here to check out
a list of all the Pharaohs who ruled during the periods covered by the game (the Old,
Middle and New Kingdoms). I certainly never realised that there was so much intrigue
in ancient Egypt - I'd always seen it as something of a serene golden age exemplified by
the great construction works like the pyramids. Well, peaceful is certainly not the
word to describe certain periods of Egyptian history, and I for one will be really
interested to see how Impressions deal with the Intermediate periods which crop up from
time to time. Don't know what I'm talking about? Then you need to read about the Pharaohs!
Angel
Reckless Rodent
June 6, 1999 16:30 PM EST
New poll
But I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that - it's
plain for all to see that a brand new poll graces Pharaoh's Court today. Using an
idea by Cherub Et Flavius from Caesar III Heaven, this week's (perhaps the next 2 weeks')
poll wants to find out your opinion of demos. Are they in invaluable tool in the
decision making process when it comes to buying a game or leaving it on the shelf, or are
they merely bug-ridded, download-intensive programs that don't really serve any purpose
and which the developers shouldn't waste their time on? Let us know what you think!
Oh, and I'm also on the lookout for some new ideas for future polls. So, if
you've got a bright idea, then let
us know. Who know, you might get your name carved forever in the annals of
Pharaoh's Court register...
What's going on in the forum at the moment?
Well, the hot topic right now is a discussion about the merits of an extended scenario
editor. Here's a snippet:
| 1. The ability to choose
freely which cities you want to trade with. 2. The ability to put down buildings so you could create scenarios like
Carthago (C3 military career path) without having to use utilities like those created by
Dragon2.
3. An opportuinty to include the description
in the scen itself - in C3, you couldn't write a piece describing the scen unless you
wrote a .txt file and included it w/ the scen. Not good, IMO.
4. The ability to edit the graphics? Not too
sure about this one, but it's something that should be discussed 
5. Perhaps most of all, we need a career
editor!! It's all very well being able to build up individual scenarios and package
them in the same .zip file as you did w/ C3, but it'd be much better if you could put them
together and release them as a career file, much along the lines of AoE. IMO that would
increase the replayability value of Pharaoh, and also lay the route open for Sierra to
release an expansion pack somewhere down the line. |
If you want to post critiques and comments on the
above, then you
can do so here.
Angel
Reckless Rodent
June 5, 1999 12:30 PM EST
Something for the weekend, sir?
That's the question that Angel Jayhawk is asking in the forum.
Not content with bringing us the best pics of Egypt to be found anywhere on the
Internet, he's bringing us the best in terms of links too. Here,
you'll find all the information you could ever want about ancient Egypt. Thanks,
Jayhawk! And you're doing all this on a wee 14.4 modem too...
Speaking of something for the weekend, how about
something that'll change your life forever? How about working for Impressions, the guys responsible for bringing
us the wonders that are Caesar II and Pharaoh (and Lords of the Realm 2 which, although
it's a few years old, is currently getting my attention...pesky castles). Yup,
they're looking for and experienced Senior Game Designer. If you're interested and
reckon that you've got what it takes to be a part of the hottest game development company
in the world, then you can apply here.
Good luck!
Some general HGS news here. If you are a
regular visitor to all the sites under the "Heaven's Gaming Sites" banner, then
you'll know that, in the last couple of days, I became co-webmaster of Tzar Heaven to help out busy old Angel Hamlet, and
am now the head newswriter over there. Well, as soon as I arrived, things started to
happen (nothing to do with me, of course<g>). Tzar now has a publisher!!
Wahay! Head over to Tzar Heaven to
find out its identity!
Angel
Reckless Rodent
June 3, 1999 17:40 PM EST
Get squawky
That slide scanner belonging to Angel Jayhawk is sure
getting some use at the moment...he only just posted one picture a couple of days ago, and
today another one appeared in
the forum. Here it is, along with his comments:
|
This is a
picture of a bust of Tut-Ankh-Amun as I found it in Karnak. Tut is of course world famous
for his wonderfully intact crypt, with the beautiful mask and everything. Even the four
canoptic jars on the front page seem to be the ones taken from his grave.
Curiously enough Tut wasn't much of a
Pharaoh, a boy-king brought to power to erase Akhen-Aton's blasphemy and killed after only
a short reign.
Still the statue, even lacking it's nose, is
truly stunning. |
So what about some site news? Well, I spent
the entire afternoon today standardising the links and other stuff on every page of the
site, and while I was doing this I updated the Sneak Peek section to take account of all
the new screenshots which appeared last week. So, feel free to take a peek<g>.
I'm also currently testing something out for this page, and the feedback I've got
on it so far from fellow HGS chaps has been very positive. I won't mention any more
about that for the moment, but suffice it to say that it'll make navigating the site a
whole lot easier. Check back every day to see when I'll get it all up and running!
Angel
Reckless Rodent
June 2, 1999 14:20 PM EST
Competition time
There are a couple of competitions going around at the
moment which I thought you might be interested to hear about. First off, if you
enjoy (like me) playing Civilisation: Call To Power, then you'll be interested in the
competition that our fellow GameStats affiliate Apolyton is running at the moment. If you enter here, you can win
some really cool Civ: CTP-related stuff. Worth a try, I'd say!
Speaking of Gamestats, they've got a brand new
competition this week too. At the moment they're giving you lucky, lucky people the
chance to win a copy of TriBond. Not only that, it's autographed by
its creator too! Cool, eh? If that grabs your fancy, then you can enter the compy
here. Good luck!
Angel
Reckless Rodent
June 1, 1999 16:40 PM EST
Forum roundup
It's been a while since I've done a roundup of everything
that's happening in the forum, what with all the E3 pics and screenshots and everything
else. Still, I suspect that you didn't really mind, eh;)?
In one topic, Innovandora has
given us a release date strategy which we'd all love to see put into action. Here's
a wee excerpt:
| As you already know the timing
of a games general market release is a BIG DEAL. So do you feel that we might be looking
for PHARAOH to emerge in a lull where it can make the biggest splash. I think that August
is still a good bet...and early September because of school starts, and pocket money is
more available at this time. After this, the only major money window is Christmas, where
the competition is really fierce especially in the software area. Unlike Hollywood movies, software houses can't really afford
to sit on developed products to schedule perfectly timed releases. The instant you stop
working on a product it starts its countdown into obsolescence --nor do these guys have
large cash reserves to float on. Look at how Half-life's initial version was completely
scrapped becuase it fell behind the graphical curve --only Microsoft Millionaires could
afford to write off their first two years of development without a penny of revenue and
still keep their company afloat. |
Any comments or thoughts you have, as well as the
full piece by Innvoandora, can
be found here. Another hot topic at the moment was started by Cherub
Onoculator from Caesar III
Heaven, who wonders about what sort of ritual we might expect in Pharaoh:
| I just wanted to know. 'cause
I think the ancient Egyptians use to do that right? I saw a show where they had dozens and
dozens of scraficial alters made for bulls and monkeys. Also will you be able to tame wild animals? Maybe in
a sort of ranch? maybe monkeys and zebras or aligators? You could even use the aligators
to fight your enemies. |
Thoughts and comments can
be posted here.
Angel
Reckless Rodent
|
