September 21, 1999 15:41 EST
Reorganisation at Sierra
hile I was browsing my collection of bookmarked gaming sites, I cam across a very interesting article at Avault.  It's about Sierra (publishers of Caesar III and Pharaoh) cancelling several of the games they were developing.  Pharaoh is, of course, not amongst them, but there was a paragraph which directly affects Impressions:

The company today also announced a reorganisation into three business units: Core Games, Casual Entertainment and Home Productivity. This new structure is effective immediately. Core Games features several renowned development teams including Impressions Games, Papyrus, Sierra's Northwest studio and the Tribes team. In addition to Valve, other third party relationships include Relic and Massive Entertainment. Core Games will focus on strategy, action, RPG and adventure games.

I doubt this will have any affect whatsoever on Pharaoh, but I just thought it was an interesting article, and worth mentioning.

If you're eager to hear about games going gold (being sent off to be mass-produced), and missed Age of Kings going gold last week, then head over to Tzar Heaven for some potentially interesting news.  I shall say no more;).

Angel Reckless Rodent

September 20, 1999 16:42 EST
Once more into the fray
o, it's still Angel Jayhawk and it's still rather quiet on the forum. Innovandora is wondering whether or not anybody found a Pharaoh pre-order place that offers the soundtrack CD. If you found one, please tell her here.

Angel Draco has uploaded a bunch of signature GIF files. You may have seen them populating the forums at various times, but they now have their own hide out on the site an can be used by everyone.
You can find them here.

Angel Jayhawk

September 19, 1999 15:17 EST
New Seraph on the block
his may sound like blowing my own trumpet, or I might be borrowing King Tut's, but I just wanted to mention that I've received a promotion. As of today, I'm a seraph.
This means more work so don't be jealous

Well, tomorrow will see you in the capable hands of Angel Reckless Rodent again, as I will be off to Caesar III Heaven once more.

Angel Jayhawk

September 18, 1999 14:27 EST
Another Alex Rodberg Interview
ame Tropics Ogre was kind enough to point me to an interview with Impressions' Alex Rodberg on their website. Alex gives us the definitive age bracket 3200-1500BC and stresses the historical element.

Players will trace ancient Egypt through the Pre-Dynastic, Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, as well as some interregnum parts in between. The game spans about 3200 - 1500 BC. Appropriately, the goals of the historical campaigns will roughly correspond to real history.

He also tells us about the sound track

There are over 20 different musical tracks on Pharaoh. All are original music composed and recorded by our in-house music department. There has been so much interest in this aspect of the game alone, that we're releasing the soundtrack, "Music to Build Pyramids By."

You can find it here and you can share your comments in the forum, right about here

Angel Jayhawk

September 17, 1999 15:17 EST
Pharaoh Forums Received Facelift
ngel Zen worked his magic on the Pharaoh forums too and upgraded them to the same version and those of our sister site Caesar 3 Heaven. He even included the top aligned navigation bar.

When you want to know the theory behind why your bazaar traders keep getting lost, you can do worse than have a look at Innovandora's post on path finding algorithms. 

When you want to know the theory behind why your bazaar traders keep getting lost, you can do worse than have a look at Innovandora's post on path finding algorithms. 

As promised, I'll show the small version of the second picture I put up in the forum. It shows a couple of bulls that are part of a procession or just a show piece telling you how rich Ptah-Hotep, the owner of the tomb, was.
Again, just click on the image to go to the bigger picture.

Angel Jayhawk

September 16, 1999 14:51 EST
Have you been smacked yet?
entry Of Gaza writes us to say that the Smacker program not only plays Caesar III smack files, but also those of Caesar II and Jedi Knight. He expects there's a lot more games around that will open up their videos for you. 

With the forum being a tad quiet I thought I'd treat you to another photograph. This one was taken inside the Abu Simbel temple and shows Ramases II and some luckless captives.
Just click on the image to go to the bigger picture.

There's one more, but I'll hide that inside the forum for a while.

Angel Jayhawk

September 15, 1999 14:35 EST
Pyramid Power
yramids are at the center of our attention again. LShaul has posted a very interesting link, that gives us a whole new explanation on how they were build.
How did they do it?
Well, they poured the rock into place, not dragged it...want to know more? Just click here.

There is just no stopping Angel Draco. Another add-on to the downloads section has been made. This time it's a smacker.
A what?
Okay, it's a little (1.91Mb) application, that allows you to watch those illusive Caesar 3 and (hopefully) Pharaoh SMK files.

Just had a peek myself. Draco this is so neat! Now I can finally have a look at all the disaster videos... <G>

Angel Jayhawk