New Arcade Game Hits Mac OS X

by , 10:00 AM EDT, September 27th, 2001

A company called illumineX has released a new Mac OS X game called BabelBloX. BabelBloX is an arcade style game where you have to eliminate a mixed grid of different colored blocks by clicking on groups of two or more. From illumineX:

illumineX today announced the availability of BabelBloX, a new arcade game for Mac OS X.

BabelBloX is actually several games in one. The free trial lets you play the "X Free" game. With a license, you can pick among several games from the BabelBloX menu. BabelBloX is an original game concept, not a clone of an 80's arcade game. Included with BabelBloX are the following game worlds:

• Classic BabelBloX - Start with a three color grid, and work up to progressively more challenging levels.
• Big Ben -Based on Classic BabelBloX, this game adds the challenge of a race against the clock for each level.
• Bubbles -BloX are morphed into clear Delay BloX when you destroy a cluster. The delay BloX survive until you destroy another cluster, and then they "pop" out of existence.
• Shockwave - A relaxing visual treat. This game is sorta like doodling -- you can play it while talking on the phone (don't play it while driving!)
• Gravity Pong - Gravity changes directions each move.
• Gravity Delay Pong - Delay BloX add to the challenge of this game.

BabelBloX is designed to make extensive use of the modern OS features found in Mac OS X, and to reflect the design intent of the Aqua interface, without copying it verbatim. This gives the game a nice flavor on Mac OS X. It fits in well, and yet it's fresh and original.

illumineX used a variety of Mac OS X technologies in BabelBloX, including:

• OpenGL & Quartz (including animation and transparency)
• Cocoa (Objective C and Java)
• Mac Help
• Aqua Interface compliance
• animated dock icon with transparency (animates about once a minute)
• Windowed & Full Screen display modes
• Threads

In addition, BabelBloX is the first fully-skinned Cocoa application to appear on Mac OS X. BabelBloX uses a "Chrome" theme developed by illumineX for use with games.

Registering BabelBloX gives the customer access to play several other game worlds included in BabelBloX, as well as free updates to BabelBloX for a year.

BabelBloX runs on Mac OS X only.

You can find more information on BabelBloX at the company's Web site. The game is shareware, and is priced at US$19.95.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We have played this game, and we deem it a good thing. It's fun, entertaining, challenging, and well built. It's been very refreshing to see just how many cool shareware games have been coming out for the Mac. BabelBloX is definitely a good addition to that group.

illumineX