Year: 2002

Aspyr Media has announced it will release 4×4 Evo 2, the sequel to the offroad racing game from Terminal Reality, for Mac OS 8/9 and Mac OS X in February. The game features a mission-based adventure system that allows players to explore environments in their favorite truck, SUV or other offroad vehicle (120 to choose from). 4×4 Evo 2 is currently available for pre-order for US$39.95. The game will be on display at next week’s Macworld Expo San Francisco, with additional game announcements expected from Aspyr at the show.

Apple has released an update to its professional DVD mastering software, DVD Studio Pro 1.2. The free update adds support for external FireWire drives that use the Panasonic combination DVD-RAM/DVD-R mechanism, such as the LaCie DVD-RAM/R drive, and includes a number enhancements to the process of creating DLT tapes for use as replication masters, particularly with solutions that use copy protection technologies, such as Macrovision and CSS.

Unsanity has released yet another haxie for Mac OS X: Xounds. Xounds brings Appearance sounds to Mac OS X, converting and implementing Mac OS 8/9 soundsets into Mac OS X. The company notes that not all sounds are working correctly under Mac OS X with this initial release; they plan on correcting this with a future release. Other haxies from Unsanity include Fruit Menu, for customizing the Apple menu, and Window Shade X, which brings the traditional minimizing effect to Mac OS X. Xounds is US$7 shareware.

iHam on iRye 1.1 is an application for remotely controlling iTunes over a network. The software allows users to view and select playlists and songs on a computer running iTunes 2.0.3 and the server software. The software is now stable under Mac OS 8.6 and later and is available free of charge.

Casady & Greene today announced the release of Conflict Catcher 9, a new version of the long-standing startup manager. Conflict Catcher allows users to manage system items, similar to Apple’s Extensions Manager, and can help a user identify problematic items. Version 9 makes the conflict testing process faster and easier, supports the Classic layer of Mac OS X, adds logging and enhanced USB and FireWire reporting, and more. Conflict Catcher 9 sells for US$49.95 and comes bundled with InfoGenie 2; upgrades are $29.95.