News: September 1999

September 28, 1999 15:16 EST
Official news on the “Demo”

Marketing Weasel Alex Rodberg (I think?) put this post in the Sierra Pharaoh website. Here’s an excerpt from the actual post.

The downloadable demo should be available at the end of this week. For the first 48 hours, it will be available exclusively on C-net’s Gamecenter and Download.com – we want to measure initial response to it. After that, it will be available here, and on every major gaming site.

Remember folks, this is the official word…

Angel Dracoenkhamen has been busy in the Download section again and added just short of half a dozen images. Half a dozen icons in this case, that have a definite Egyptian flavour.

Angel Jahakemhotep


September 27, 1999 14:14 EST
Another preview

GameSpot UK is doing a preview on Pharaoh, which you can find here. I was just taking a look at the screenshots and the second one shows a money wise way of adding “For Sale” signs.
As usual you can post your comments in the forum.

Apart from that we seem to have a little posting problem. It seems harmless enough, though. When you get the “file missing” warning just use the back button to go the thread and hit refresh there. I don’t think I’ve lost a post yet…

Angel Jahakemhotep


September 26, 1999 15:24 EST
Demo reactions

The demo release last week has provoked some reactions (there’s a surprise;)) in the forum. First off, we have someone complaining that the demo was released here in the UK before over there in the US:

Is it just me or is everyone else in the lovely US jealous of the UK for getting the demo first. Why can’t they ship it here? Too much postage?

Then, we have some feedback from someone who’s played the demo (and having problems building the mastaba):

I built a warehouse accepting only bricks next door and directly next to the Mastaba. The warehouse on the other side of the road was fine. One side of the tomb remains unfinished with steps for the workmen to drag their sledges up. I can only guess that you have to leave a clear tile between the tomb and anything on the same side of the road. No videos on the demo, just a deeply sad voice telling you that he is befuddled at your failure to complete the scenario and tough luck some other family gets the double crown.

That’s it from me this week. I might be back here in a couple of weeks, or I might not. I’m heading off to Germany early Thursday morning, where internet access shouldn’t be a problem, but might take a few weeks to get sorted out. If I’m not here, then I’m sure that Angels Jayhawk and Alexander I will be bringing you all the latest news about demos and such like.

Angel Reckyamen


September 24, 1999 19:10 EST
Another way to get the demo

This bit of news was spotted by me on Gone Gold earlier today, and confirmed via this news piece at Avault:

Sure, Homeworld might be one of the most anticipated games of the fall, but what else does Sierra have on the burner that strategy fans might be anticipating? How about Impressions Games’ city building offering Pharaoh? Sierra has confirmed with the Adrenaline Vault that Homeworld, which is slated to be in stores late September, will come with a playable demo of Impression’s Egyptian inspired offering.

There you go. Buy a copy of Homeworld, and you’ll get a copy of the Pharaoh demo thrown in. But then again, you could always download it…Stay tuned for news of that pretty soon.

Angel Reckyamen


September 24, 1999 13:15 EST
Demo is confirmed!

I’ve been holding off announcing this bit of news for a day or so, just to make sure that it was indeed the case. Yesterday, simonghent posted the following message:

Don’t know if this is common knowledge, but I couldn’t spot anything on the site –

There’s a demo of Pharaoh on the cover disc of this month’s PC Zone (UK).

(not looked at it yet, just bought it on my lunch hour)

I tried yesterday to get my hands on a copy of the latest PC Zone, but couldn’t get out of the house (because I had to wait for another piece of software to be delivered). Therefore, I popped out to the local newsagent today and found a copy of the November 1999 edition of PC Zone (yes, the November edition is out in September…clever, eh?). I am pleased to report the following (as I posted in Simon’s thread):

Yup, just to confirm this news. There is indeed a playable demo (not a video) of Pharaoh on the cover CD of this month’s PC Zone here in the UK. Shame they insist on spelling it “Pharoah” at several points. The accompanying article is a fairly good read, but not absolutely essential. The screens are nothing new either (some look remarkably like some of our PH exclusives).

Impressions permitting, I’ll have a walkthrough and some piccies up later today.

Did you read the last bit of that message? Well, Impressions did permit (thanks Itchy), and so I am pleased to be able to open the newest section of the site, the walkthroughs section. There are hints and tips for the last demo level in there, as well as 6 piccies, so even if you can’t get hold of the demo (because you’re not in the UK) you can at least look at some pics of it.

Angel Reckyamen


September 23, 1999 12:31 EST
Downloads snafu

Please re-read the bit in the downloads section about placing images in forum posts. Draco missed out 1 of the directories when he wrote that bit up, meaning that the links have all been dead. Here’s what the HTML should have been:

<IMG SRC=”http://pharaoh.heavengames.com/
downloads/files/misc/sigpics/filename”>

Voila.

Also, while you’re here, take some time to take a look at the bottom of this page, where there’s abrand new dropdown box showcasing some of the other great sites on the Gamestats News Network – it’s likely that there’s a fansite for whatever game you’re interested in in there.

Angel Reckyamen


September 22, 1999 12:36 EST
More about reorganisation

Looks like Avault is the place to be to read all about Sierra’s latest reorganisation. Hot on the heels of yesterdays news of some cancellations and 105 job losses, there’s an interview posted with the Sierra president David Grenewetzki.

For those interested in Babylon 5, one of the games cancelled by Sierra, here’s a rant that I found on the Sierra C3 forum.

In the PH forums, there’s 1 chap complaining about the cancelled games, and also a thread that was initially about cheats but which, in the time-honoured tradition of our forums, has wandered off into something completely different, namely how we can all Egyptianise our handles (see below for mine).

Angel Reckyamen


September 21, 1999 15:41 EST
Reorganisation at Sierra

While I was browsing my collection of bookmarked gaming sites, I cam across a very interesting article at Avault. It’s about Sierra (publishers of Caesar III and Pharaoh) cancelling several of the games they were developing. Pharaoh is, of course, not amongst them, but there was a paragraph which directly affects Impressions:

The company today also announced a reorganisation into three business units: Core Games, Casual Entertainment and Home Productivity. This new structure is effective immediately. Core Games features several renowned development teams including Impressions Games, Papyrus, Sierra’s Northwest studio and the Tribes team. In addition to Valve, other third party relationships include Relic and Massive Entertainment. Core Games will focus on strategy, action, RPG and adventure games.

I doubt this will have any affect whatsoever on Pharaoh, but I just thought it was an interesting article, and worth mentioning.

If you’re eager to hear about games going gold (being sent off to be mass-produced), and missed Age of Kings going gold last week, then head over to Tzar Heaven for some potentially interesting news. I shall say no more;).

Angel Reckless Rodent


September 20, 1999 16:42 EST
Once more into the fray

No, it’s still Angel Jayhawk and it’s still rather quiet on the forum. Innovandora is wondering whether or not anybody found a Pharaoh pre-order place that offers the soundtrack CD. If you found one, please tell her here.

Angel Draco has uploaded a bunch of signature GIF files. You may have seen them populating the forums at various times, but they now have their own hide out on the site an can be used by everyone.
You can find them here.

Angel Jayhawk


September 19, 1999 15:17 EST
New Seraph on the block

This may sound like blowing my own trumpet, or I might be borrowing King Tut’s, but I just wanted to mention that I’ve received a promotion. As of today, I’m a seraph.
This means more work so don’t be jealous

Well, tomorrow will see you in the capable hands of Angel Reckless Rodent again, as I will be off to Caesar III Heaven once more.

Angel Jayhawk


September 18, 1999 14:27 EST
Another Alex Rodberg Interview

Game Tropics Ogre was kind enough to point me to an interview with Impressions’ Alex Rodberg on their website. Alex gives us the definitive age bracket 3200-1500BC and stresses the historical element.

Players will trace ancient Egypt through the Pre-Dynastic, Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, as well as some interregnum parts in between. The game spans about 3200 – 1500 BC. Appropriately, the goals of the historical campaigns will roughly correspond to real history.

He also tells us about the sound track

There are over 20 different musical tracks on Pharaoh. All are original music composed and recorded by our in-house music department. There has been so much interest in this aspect of the game alone, that we’re releasing the soundtrack, “Music to Build Pyramids By.”

You can find it here and you can share your comments in the forum, right about here

Angel Jayhawk


September 17, 1999 15:17 EST
Pharaoh Forums Received Facelift

Angel Zen worked his magic on the Pharaoh forums too and upgraded them to the same version and those of our sister site Caesar 3 Heaven. He even included the top aligned navigation bar.

When you want to know the theory behind why your bazaar traders keep getting lost, you can do worse than have a look at Innovandora’s post on path finding algorithms.

As promised, I’ll show the small version of the second picture I put up in the forum. It shows a couple of bulls that are part of a procession or just a show piece telling you how rich Ptah-Hotep, the owner of the tomb, was.
Again, just click on the image to go to the bigger picture.

Angel Jayhawk


September 16, 1999 14:51 EST
Have you been smacked yet?

Sentry Of Gaza writes us to say that the Smacker program not only plays Caesar III smack files, but also those of Caesar II and Jedi Knight. He expects there’s a lot more games around that will open up their videos for you.

With the forum being a tad quiet I thought I’d treat you to another photograph. This one was taken inside the Abu Simbel temple and shows Ramases II and some luckless captives.
Just click on the image to go to the bigger picture.

There’s one more, but I’ll hide that inside the forum for a while.

Angel Jayhawk


September 15, 1999 14:35 EST
Pyramid Power

Pyramids are at the center of our attention again. LShaul has posted a very interesting link, that gives us a whole new explanation on how they were build.
How did they do it?
Well, they poured the rock into place, not dragged it…want to know more? Just click here.

There is just no stopping Angel Draco. Another add-on to the downloads section has been made. This time it’s a smacker.
A what?
Okay, it’s a little (1.91Mb) application, that allows you to watch those illusive Caesar 3 and (hopefully) Pharaoh SMK files.

Just had a peek myself. Draco this is so neat! Now I can finally have a look at all the disaster videos… <G>

Angel Jayhawk


September 14, 1999 14:35 EST
Pyramid Power

Pyramids are at the center of our attention again. LShaul has posted a very interesting link, that gives us a whole new explanation on how they were build.
How did they do it?
Well, they poured the rock into place, not dragged it…want to know more? Just click here.

There is just no stopping Angel Draco. Another add-on to the downloads section has been made. This time it’s a smacker.
A what?
Okay, it’s a little (1.91Mb) application, that allows you to watch those illusive Caesar 3 and (hopefully) Pharaoh SMK files.

Just had a peek myself. Draco this is so neat! Now I can finally have a look at all the disaster videos… <G>

Angel Jayhawk


September 13, 1999 16:00 EST
More on Tut-Ankh-Amun’s Trumpet

Angel Draco not only found us the trumpet, he also found an image of noisemaker. Digging in memory I’d say the picture shows us the young king with Re-Horakte (or Ra or Horus) on the left and either Osiris or Ptah on the right.

MRed94 has found us another game to keep us busy while we eagerly await the arrival of Pharaoh. It’s a puzzle/mahjong kind of game called the Curse of Ra.
Rumour has it it is really curse…you just can’t seem to stop playing… <G>

Angel Jayhawk


September 13, 1999 16:00 EST
Tut-Ankh-Amun’s Trumpet

Found in Tut-Ankh-Amun’s tomb and un-earthed by Angel Draco. We’ve got a new addition to the Download pages. Here’s some info
about it taken right from the small program:

“The trumpet, which is currently in the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (CGC 69850 / JE 62007), is 58 cm in length, the bell being 8.8 cm wide and the tube between 1.7 (near the mouth-piece) and 2.6 cm (at the bell joint).
It is made of beaten silver, with a thin gold band of decoration around the edge of the bell and a mouth-piece of plain thin gold, both beaten onto the silver. The conical tube and the bell were made in two separate pieces, soldered together with silver
(see: L. Manniche, “Musical Instruments from the Tomb of Tutankhamun”, Oxford 1976, p. 7-13).”

In the forum we’re still discussing how to build a pyramid and ideas just keep coming in.
There’s also a nice bit of news about the Alexandria Pharos, you know, the one of Wonders of the World fame…

Angel Jayhawk


September 11, 1999 8:39 EST
New pre-release FAQ

The FAQ section would be a good place to visit today, as I’ve just uploaded an updated version of Innovandora’s Pre-Release FAQ. If you’re relatively new around here and are wondering just what Pharaoh’s all about, then it’s definitely worth reading.

Angel Reckless Rodent


September 10, 1999 12:55 EST
It’s the Itchy and Scratchy show

Apologies for the somewhat sporadic updates this week. My new computer arrived last week and I’ve been on the phone to tech support for quite a while since then. I won’t mention the company, but it seems as if they can’t co-ordinate their efforts – combine 3 different solutions from 3 different tech support operatives, and the inability to pass a phone number on correctly, and you have 1 frustrated rodent.

Ok, enough of my computer woes. On to what’s happening in the Pharaoh world right now. The title of this update has nothing to do with a cartoon which appears in The Simpsons from time to time, but instead to Impressions’s great QA manager, who’s ever eager to keep us up to speed with what’s going on in the press. Today he’s come up with the goods again, with this little titbit:

The 10/99 issue of Computer Games Strategy Plus (the one w/ Lara Croft on the cover) has a 2 page preview of Pharaoh.

Enjoy…..

The relevant thread is here, so please let us all know what’s in the article if you can get your hands on the appropriate mag. I’ll keep an eye out for any similar articles in the UK press.

Angel Reckless Rodent


September 8, 1999 16:40 EST
New pyramid building theory

Moquel, one of our Pharaoh Heaven forum regulars, has posted a thread about how the pyramids were built.

A new theory was presented a few weeks ago, I may be a little behind and everyone knows about it already. But here it comes.
The Egyptians rolled their stones up the ramp to the pyramid, they didn’t know of the wheel, but they put the stones into wooden frames, one on each sido of the stone, and due to them they where able to roll up the stones.

Interested? Then take a look.

Angel Reckless Rodent


September 6, 1999 15:03 EST
Jayhawk’s at it again

Clearly, the recent lull in the forum has prompted Angel Jayhawk to fly into action once again, this time posting some pics of the Aga Khan memorial. This one on the right is a wide angle shot – click the pic to get all the info. There’s also another one in there (different thread) which is worth checking out.

This week, I thought I might read over the notes I took during my interview with Alex Rodberg. You see, the interview which you’ve (hopefully) all read only took up about half of the time I had with him. The first 20 minutes or so were taken up with him showing me various in-game parts of Pharaoh, and explaining them to me so I could take notes.

So, I’ve got a fair bit of stuff in note form which didn’t make it into the interview I’ve posted. Therefore, I’ll release a few more of those details during this week.

The first thing to explain more fully is the Gods system. We all know that there are 15 gods, divided into 5 groups of 3. If you want to refresh your memory as to which gods are in there, then you can do so here. However, there’s a particular way of worshipping the junior gods. Say, for example, that you wanted to worship Horus, God of the Pharaoh.   What you’d do to achieve this goal is to build a large temple to the major god of that group (in this case Ra, God of the Kingdom). You can then add bits on to this large temple to worship the gods who are in the same group. For example, you might be able to add a hall to Ma’at, or an altar to Horus. These don’t enlarge the temple complex, just make a few changes.

Ok, that’s it for now. Any questions, you’re welcome to post them in the forum.

Angel Reckless Rodent


September 5, 1999 15:37 EST
Quiet times at Pharaoh Heaven

There’s not much going on in the forums, this Sunday. The Alex Rodberg interview has triggered some speculation about the demo.

The visit to Tut-Ankh-Amun’s Court is still going strong, though. The current state of affairs is that Queen Akhensenamen has been kidnapped. ET, mouse, Incontinentia, yours truly and friends are off to the rescue.

I’ve added a bit of rock art to the Colours of the Desert thread. (I know, it’s called differently, but this is what it’s all about.)

Angel Jayhawk


September 4, 1999 17:07 EST
Say what++ Scenarios?

Forum regular Innovandora, is giving us some of her ideas on the ideal scenario editor form Pharaoh.

Apart from that there’s some feedback on the Alex Rodberg interview, which can be found here.

Angel Jayhawk


September 3, 1999 15:47 EST
Interview Online

He did it again, Angel Reckless Rodent is proving he’s a reckless reporter as well. Only just returned for the London Game Show thingy, he’s already put up his interview with Impression’s marketing weasel Alex Rodberg.

The interview will tell you about workcamps, people falling of sphinxes, Kingdom ratings, bridges across the Nile, roadblocks, succession, the demo(!) the release date, and much, much more.
You want to read it?
Oh, okay, just follow the link then…

Angel Jayhawk


September 2, 1999 15:58 EST
Out on the Town

Our very own Angel Reckless Rodent Extraordinair is ready for the interview. The thread has been closed, the notes have been made. All that remains is for me to which him lots of fun and hopefully he’ll get some straight answers. <G>

Some of our visitors are wondering about the colour scheme this game is going to bring us. Will it all be beiges and tans?
Well, I’ve put up a few shots of the various bits of desert I’ve visited, so you can see just how tanned the desert actually is.
The thread?
Oh, right here.

Angel Jayhawk


September 1, 1999 16:46 EST
Questions, questions everywhere, but not an answer in sight

Angel Reckless Rodent’s list of questions to ask is getting longer and longer. I’m really curious to see the answers to most of them.

The importance of having people from Impressions actually read the forums is shown in the comments Itchy is giving us on the multiplayer rumour. Here’s a quote from the man himself:

I dunno where they got the idea there was going to be multiplayer – there is no multiplayer component in Pharaoh. I think because most games do have some sort of multiplayer wedged-in, they probably just assumed Pharaoh did as well.

Angel Jayhawk