Pangea Software

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Pangea Software, Inc.
Type Private
Industry Video games
Headquarters Austin, Texas
Key people Brian Greenstone, CEO

Pangea Software is an Apple computer game company based in Austin, Texas that is owned and operated by Brian Greenstone. The company is a former developer of Macintosh and Apple IIGS games, the former of which they still currently sell, however have recently stated their intention to focus solely on iPhone games.[1] Formed in 1987, the company began by writing a number of shareware games for the Apple IIGS computer, with their first commercial game, Xenocide, being released in 1989.

Games

Pangea is primarily a game company. All recent games have used 3D graphics and many have been third person shooters. All recent titles have a shareware/demo version available for free download from the company's website. Serial numbers for unlocking the full Mac version of the games, can be purchased for $19.95 (or less, depending on the age and popularity of the title). They are additionally available on both the Mac and iOS App Stores. Some Pangea games have been bundled with Macintosh computers; this is always the full version.

Weekend Warrior

Weekend Warrior was the fourth game to be developed by Pangea for the Macintosh.[2] It was published by Bungie, and came bundled with the Performa 6500 (which Greenstone described as a "Power Computing clone"), and the ATI Rage II graphics cards.[3] Development on the game began when Brian Greenstone left the development team at Mindscape to create Weekend Warrior.[4] He considered it to be "the first 100% 3D game on the Mac," since, according to him, all of the game's art, including the credits, was done in 3D.[3] He believed it "push[ed] the limits of the technology at the time"[3] and was "fairly ground breaking in its technical achievements of the day"[2] but thought the gameplay suffered as a result.[3] The producer of Weekend Warrior was Tuncer Deniz, who had a stint at Bungie at the time.[5] Greenstone's comments on the game have ranged from "not the best game we've ever done"[2] to having "sucked big time" and almost causing Apple to "go belly up" in the video game industry.[4] In addition, sales were poor; according to Greenstone, the game only sold around fifty copies.[3]

Pangea Arcade

The Pangea Arcade is composed of three different games, each inspired by old arcade games, enhanced with additional gameplay-related, graphical, and musical features. It was released in 2006. Firefall was partially based on a much older Pangea Software title of the same name, which in turn was derived from Centipede. It involves shooting at "worms" and avoiding obstacles from a ship with limited maneuverability. Warheads evolved from Missile Command, and the player uses three ground batteries to destroy an onslaught of missiles from the sky. Unlike the original game, this version features four "sectors", each with their buildings to protect and missile launchers to destroy incoming fire (for a total of twelve, three per sector), so the game does not end until all four sectors are destroyed.

In Nucleus, the player maneuvers his or her spaceship through a dense field of asteroid or other space debris. The gameplay is similar to Asteroids, but with a twist. Instead of needing to destroy all asteroids on the screen, blowing up asteroids sometimes produces electrons, shown to be balls of light that can be "picked up" and follow the ship. The player must take the electrons to the nucleus, a fixed feature located by a homing device. Once an atom is built, it (against all of the laws of physics) collapses into a black hole. The game starts with hydrogen, which requires one electron, but as the player progresses through the periodic table and the elements become heavier, it takes longer to complete each level.

Enigmo

Main article: Enigmo

Engimo was released in 2003, while Enigmo 2 was released in 2006; both are puzzle games where the player must guide substances into containers. When all the containers are full, the player wins the level. As a radical departure from the standard shoot 'em up games Pangea produces, the original game was the most successful game Pangea had ever made at the time. It was later ported to iPhone, iPad, Windows Mobile, PlayStation Portable, and Windows Phone 7.

Nanosaur

Main article: Nanosaur

Nanosaur and Nanosaur 2: Hatchling are third person shooter type games where the player's avatar is a dinosaur from the future. The objective of both is to collect eggs and bring them to wormholes. Nanosaur was released in 1998; Nanosaur 2 in 2004. It is possible to buy a serial number for both games, but the complete games came bundled with the Macs of their time.

Bugdom

Main article: Bugdom

Bugdom and Bugdom 2 were also in third person, but not shooters, this time from the view of an insect. The avatar and story lines were different in each game, but the gameplay was largely similar. The object of Bugdom is to free ladybugs trapped in spider webs; in Bugdom 2 the player searches for his stolen knapsack. Bugdom was released in 1999; Bugdom 2 in 2002. The original game was bundled with certain Macs when it was new.

Mighty Mike

Main article: Power Pete

Mighty Mike was released in 2001, but it was a repackaging of Pangea's 1995 Power Pete. Both games are identical, except the hero Power Pete was renamed Mighty Mike and an option for screen resolution was removed. It is similar to Bugdom in that the game world is a larger version of the world as a human sees it, it uses gates and keys, and the fuzzy bunnies can be compared to ladybugs. There is a heavier emphasis on the use of projectiles, though.

Otto Matic, Cro-Mag Rally, and Others

Main articles: Otto Matic and Cro-Mag Rally

Otto Matic, released in 2001, involves the title character (a robot) destroying aliens and saving humans, and can be seen as a homage to corny science fiction films. Cro-Mag Rally is a racing game with settings starting in prehistory and working through time to more modern levels. The Pangea Super Pack, released in 2003, contains Cro-Mag Rally, Otto Matic, Bugdom 2, and the original Enigmo. Billy Frontier, released as shareware in 2003, has a "cowboys in space" theme.

Air Wings

Air Wings, released in 2012, is an iOS multiplayer paper airplane battle game, which makes use of Game Center to match opponents. The player can choose from a range of paper airplanes and weapons, which are all based on common office products.[6] The game has received generally positive reviews on the App Store, with an average rating of 4.5 stars.[7]

Discontinued

In the fall of 2000, Brian Greenstone agreed to change the status all of Pangea's original games, for the Apple IIGS platform, to freeware. This included their commercial title Xenocide.

  • Gerbils (a roller-coaster demo for Apple that came with QuickDraw 3D, 1996)
  • Firefall Arcade (now freeware, 1993)
  • Cosmocade, with: Journey to Calibus and Naxos (shareware, Apple IIGS, 1990)
  • Senseless Violence II: You Use, You Die (shareware, Apple IIGS, 1990)
  • Xenocide (now freeware, Apple IIGS, 1989)
  • Senseless Violence: The Survival of the Fetus (shareware, Apple IIGS,1989)
  • Orbizone (shareware, Apple IIGS, 1989)
  • Copy Killers (shareware, Apple IIGS,1989)
  • Quadronome (shareware, Apple IIGS,1989)
  • Grackle (freeware, Apple IIGS, 1989)
  • Bloodsuckers (freeware, Apple II, 1984)

Other products

Brian Greenstone has also written The Ultimate Game Programming Guide ($39.99 USD), a book about making a 3D game engine for Mac OS X, in 2004. They have also provided a panoramic photography service, allowing customers to have a 360˚ view of an area that can be navigated and interacted with via a cursor.

References

  1. ↑ Chris Ullrich. "TUAW @SXSW Interview: Pangea Software CEO Brian Greenstone". 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Greenstone, Brian. "Pangea Software: Museum". Pangea Software. Retrieved 2011-07-04. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Simon, Jon (1999-07-16). "Interview With Brian Greenstone". Sharky Extreme. p. 1. Retrieved 2011-07-04. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Covert, Trevor (1999-06-25). "Interview: Brian Greenstone — President, Pangea Software". The Covert Gaming Corner. p. 1. Retrieved 2011-07-04. 
  5. ↑ Yanovich, Michael (2003-02-10). "Interview with IMG's Tuncer Deniz". Inside Mac Games. p. 2. Retrieved 2011-07-04. 
  6. ↑ Capelle, Sean. "Take To The Skies to Take Down Your Opponents In Air Wings". AppAdvice. Retrieved 16 May 2012. 
  7. ↑ "App Store - Air Wings™". Apple App Store. Retrieved 16 May 2012. 

External links

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