 Freeverse Software, Coming the week of June 21, 1999. For more information, visit Freeverse Software at http://www.freeverse.com.
Sneek Peek by Rafi Guroian
I have a confession to make. Yes, that's right, a confession, and I am going to let you, and you alone in on my secret. I never learned to play solitaire until last year. Yes, that's right, last year. I'm not sure why. It's not that I'm never alone. I've infuriated enough people in my time to feel quite alone at times. And it's not that I don't enjoy playing cards, because I am a compulsive poker, blackjack, bridge, and canasta player. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why I had never learned to play Solitaire until last year; it must just be one of those things.
Things weren't looking up, either, in my Solitaire department, until the 1998 Macworld New York. I had just been promoted to the Managing Editor position of Inside Mac Games Magazine, and was preparing for the train ride up to New York, when I realized that I was going to need a time killer between Amtrak Cafe Car breaks. I did some rummaging around the shareware archives on the Internet and came across this game called "Burning Monkey Solitaire." Well, I had heard about this "solitaire" thing, and wasn't really pining to learn a new game, but the mere fact that the name had "Burning Monkey" in it was enough for me to warrant a download. Two Macworlds, an E3, and a brand new magazine later, I'm a solitaire nut, thanks to Burning Monkey and Freeverse Software.
Life didn't seem like it could get any better--especially on long train and plane rides to various conventions--until Colin Smith at Freeverse started hinting to me that the release of Burning Monkey Solitiare II was approaching quickly. When he offered us the chance to take a look at the latest build a week before the final game was released, I jumped at it, obviously. That's right. I'm doing this preview out of pure, selfish, and unadulterated greed; who am I to lie?
There aren't any drastic format changes in the newest installment of Burning Monkey Solitiare, and perhaps that was the most conforting thing that came to mind upon booting the application. The atmosphere is the same (complete with the wacko voices and really, really bad jokes). What has changed are the features the game has to offer.
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For your enjoyment, we've included Freeverse's brand-spankin' new company animation right off of the rendering board, which will debut in Burning Monkey II (requires at least Quicktime 3 or RealPlayer G2).
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The new features list is quite extensive, but a few include a Casino Scoring Option, a self-touted "world's most extensive cheating mode", all new rude sound effects, and plenty of different games. Two features struck my fancy, however: background music and the "boss key".
Freeverse has added a truly ingenious feature to this revision of Burning Monkey: the ability to play background music of your choice via Quicktime, meaning you can not only play the most annoying MIDI files known to man, but you can play any and all MP3's that you own within the game! It's a feature that truly makes the game that much more enjoyable.
Freeverse has also added a simply hilarious "boss" feature, flashing some truly hilarious "innocent-looking" material on your screen. That's all I'll say for now, until the final release.
Burning Monkey Solitaire II is looking to be a worthy successor to its predecessor, and I, for one, will be pining for its release. For more information, I encourage you to take a trip over to Freeverse's website, and see what other games they have in store for us, and as always, keep it here at MacReactor for the latest in Mac Gaming. |