Ares (video game)

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Ares
Developer(s)	Nathan Lamont
Publisher(s)	Ambrosia Software
Version	1.2.0 on 11 May 2001
Platform(s)	Mac OS
Release date	1996, 1999
Genre(s)	Strategy
Mode(s)	single player, multi player

Ares is a lesser known video game originally created by Nathan Lamont of Bigger Planet, and released commercially around 1996, without much success. It is possible that the lack of success was due in part to the ineptitude of the game's original publisher, Changeling Software, who defrauded Nathan Lamont of his rightful income from the game^[1]. Changeling became defunct in 1998.

The game was later released as shareware by Ambrosia Software. Here, it reached its peak in the late 1990s, thanks to Ambrosia's marketing efforts. The key component and most innovative feature of the game was the integrated zoom feature which brought a third-person view into a near lifelike battle scene and out to a strategic war field automatically as the situation of interest changed focus.

[edit] Story

The player is cast as the commander of the U.N.S. Apollo, humankind's first interstellar vessel. She was dispatched at sub-light speeds to investigate the source of a mysterious signal broadcast at Earth from one hundred and fifty light years away. On reaching the source, the crew are shocked to discover that Earth has been taken over by the zealous Cantharan Order, and the source was a ruse from the friendly Ishimans, who wish to preserve free humans. Although the Ishimans are unwilling to enter into direct war with the Cantharans, the Apollo's crew are able to persuade them to supply a limited amount of their technology to attempt to recapture Earth, and rename their ship Ares. The player then has to fight their way through Gaitori and Cantharan space, finally liberating Earth. Each system that is invaded is portrayed as a level, and must be completed successfully for the player to move on.

[edit] Gameplay

Ares offered combat situations and strategic planning situations combined into one game through allowing the player to directly control one ship while building and instructing others. Most players of Ares lingered around the GameRanger service, offered for free with the game as a way of connecting Macintosh computer users. A key thing to note about Ares is that it was never built for the PC and only the Macintosh. Users of Ares were very few due to the limited advertising budget, but they were very dedicated as many GameRanger users would testify to.

Ares consisted of a saga between 6 main alien species, with humans being one of the less advanced races in the universe. These species were: Audemedon, Salrilian, Ishiman, Cantharan, Gaitori and Human. There were however, numerous smaller species which come up throughout the solo play levels. However, these species were not available for online play.

The solo play consisted of a story plot, acclaimed techno music, and roughly 20 levels. When released as a shareware game, Ares came with limited functionality and a plot which didn't advance past level six, giving the user a taste of the story, and incentive to register the game. Ares multiplay really set the Ares masters apart as the skill level required multiplied by quite a bit. This perhaps led one to the conclusion that the computer AI was not very strong in the solo levels. Nonetheless, once the solo levels were over, multiplay was where most users went. In multiplay roughly 5 different games were available. Each game had with it a set of absolute strategies to use which usually worked – yet finding these strategies took time and adaptation. There was room for creativity, supreme piloting, or supreme strategy as well.

Ares left its imprint on the Macintosh Gaming League with its own page, organized by Ares supporters. Clans were also found around Ares briefly. One of the oldest and highest ranking clan was called "TAG".

This game had a short, but sweet life with a revision of the game released roughly 3 years after its conception. The revision added an element named Hera, which allowed Ares levels to be edited and plugins to be made. This is similar to the plugins available for Ambrosia software's hit game Escape Velocity.

[edit] Current Status

As of 2007, the game is only compatible with Classic Mac OS system software, or run in the Classic environment in OS X. As such, it cannot be run on Intel-based Macs, as these do not support the Classic Environment.

Running the game in the Classic environment on PowerPC-based Mac OS X machines poses severe performance penalties, and the game is essentially unplayable due to choppy zooming and low framerates.

However, using the Basilisk II Macintosh emulator, Ares can be run in single-player mode under most operating systems, including Windows and Linux. This is an alternative to the Mac OS Classic environment, however it only emulates a 68k processor, and therefore cannot be used to emulate Mac OS 9 except in some rare cases. The 68k emulation environment Sheepshaver is likewise able to run Ares.

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/support/faqs/faq.php?forum=45&title=Ares&version=1.2.0&link=games/ares/