What's New
by Jason Whong



What is new? New comes from the Latin adjective "novus", which could be
used after a Latin noun to denote that something was new. It probably
has some Greek roots, too. But I don't speak Greek. If you're American,
you'll find this word on the $1 bill.But enough about money - Let's get
down to the nitty gritty - what's Novus at Ambrosia Software?

Mars Rising 1.0.1 testing












That's right, Mars Rising 1.0.1 is in beta testing right now, and should be released Real Soon Now. The new
version supports InputSprockets, so you'll be able to use a whole mess of joysticks without worrying about
arcane hardware configuration. You'll even be able to use the mouse as a controller!

Additionally, the release fixes a resolution-switching bug. More details about this in David Dunham's Eeek! A
Bug piece later in the issue. All in all, it looks like it will be a pretty important update.

Override this!

Override is progressing smoothly. For those that haven't read the AT in a while, Override is our forthcoming
followup to Matt Burch's fantastic Escape Velocity. The underpinnings of the game will be similar, with
enhancements to the EV engine made by Matt Burch himself. The scenario, however, should be one of the most
immersive scenarios ever made. John Cook, our accounting person and office manager, is completely addicted
to the alpha version. If it passes the Cook test, you know it has to be good.

An interview with Peter Cartwright, the boffin responsible for this part of the game, can be found later in this
issue. Too bad he didn't send us a picture for all of the women to ogle.

Cythera details

Cythera is now in its second beta release. We've been expanding the world of Cythera to make the game much
more fun, and it looks like the changes are starting to pay off. The testers seem pleased with the latest beta, and
hopefully this means that we're that much closer to a release. But all new additions require testing, so it may be
just a little longer.

You'll find some nice screenshots later in this issue.

Network_Tool

Matt Slot has been busy chugging away on our Network_Tool API. An API is a building block of code which
can be used to quickly add functionality to a program. To the developer, this networking API is great news
because it makes development of network games that much easier, slicing development time. That means that
networkable games can show up faster for the gamers.

Network_Tool will be in the foundation for many of our forthcoming games. This is a Very Good Thing.

Spinoff_list

James Tolchard has set up an e-mail list for discussion Ambrosia-related and other topics. To join, drop a note to
Majordomo@tom.forfree.at, with "Subscribe spinoff" (without quotes) in the body of the message.

New UK Mirror!

Tim Dunton at Always Apple has set up an official Ambrosia Software mirror at
ftp://ftp.alwaysapple.co.uk/ambrosia/. If you're in Europe, and want to download Ambrosia's
products more quickly, please use this site for all of your downloads. Also, Always Apple is a great web site as
well. Tim's a great guy, and we're thrilled to be working with him.

Ambrosia Marketing Survey

We've recently posted the Ambrosia Marketing survey. Check out
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/New/survey.html and tell us a little bit about yourself. Leave your e-mail
address for a chance to win a free Ambrosia game. We will not use the e-mail addresses for any other purpose.

What's New is New!

After a brainstorming session in the company Hummer, Andrew and I decided that our What's New page was
not informative enough. So, we've added some more info to the page - The products and their latest version
numbers, the status of projects currently in development, and other important info.