What's New
by Andrew Welch


Manse

If you're in love with the latest 3D gaming engines, but are a bit turned off by the "Whack-a-Mole" mentality that pervades the majority of games in that genre, have we got the game for you. Manse has a killer 16 bit color 3D rendering engine for stunningly good looks, but more than that, it has both brains and personality (sounds like the perfect date, no?).

Manse is an adventure game authored by Brian Barnes (with a little help from the Ambrosia crew, and several digital artists) that promises to be a refreshing break from "blow up the demon -- get the yellow key -- go through the yellow door" style of games. There's a more in-depth treatment of it later on in this issue, so read on!

Updates

Barrack jumped up to version 1.0.3, while Escape Velocity was bumped up to version 1.0.2. Both are merely bug-fix releases, although the Escape Velocity update also adds a few new capabilities for Plugin developers. We've also come out with an Escape Velocity FAQ, which answers commonly-asked questions about Escape Velocity.

David and Alex are progressing well with Bubble Trouble, which has just entered beta testing. Mark Conge (who did the artwork in Barrack) is in the process of giving Bubble Trouble a facelift with his magical digital paintbrush.

Avara is in what we consider to be the final stages of beta testing. Juri is nearly done with the programming. Once that portion of the game is complete, it is just a matter of polishing the documentation and bundling the levels that will ship with the game. We conservatively estimate that Avara will be released within 2 months.

Web news

We've added the capability to do secure transactions on our web site. Click on the Register icon, and you'll begin an encrypted transaction with Ambrosia's secure server. This allows you to register for any one of Ambrosia's products by filling out a simple form with your personal information, and clicking on the "Register" button.

Although we're a bit skeptical about how necessary secure servers are for credit card transactions, many of our customers asked for it, so we decided to bite the bullet (expensive bullet!) and go for it.

New blood

We've recently added a new employee here at the Ambrosia home office. His name is Toby Kamp (toby@AmbrosiaSW.com), and as he gets up to speed here at the office, his duties will include putting together this majestic newsletter, working with distributors, and handling various marketing duties.

Hummer

In a fit of stupidity, Andrew decided to give up on his Jeep (it's for sale, if anyone wants a Jeep
with no doors, no tailgate, no top, and no stereo -- they were all stolen), and is awaiting delivery of a 1996 Hummer. Expect to hear stories of Andrew doing stupid things with it in the future, like trying to scale Mount Everest.