News


Altor News

March 16th 2001

    What is Xomorph?
    Outside, form, changing.
    We know the specs, but not the purpose.
    Platform independent, trillions of objects, the latest technology.




    WeĠre waiting..........

    Visit the Xomorph page.

March 12th 2001

    The making of Nightfall
    If you want to find out how Nightfall was made, there is a detailed look here, courtesy of iDevGames. You can also find out some details of our next generation engine in this interview.

December 9th 2000

    We have updated the 3D engine page with new screenshots and extra details on the next generation features.

December 1st 2000

September 16th 2000

    Nightfall has a fan site! Intense of Flame is an independent site featuring a forum, news and secrets in Nightfall.

April 26th 2000

    Nightfall reaches #1 again!
    Mac Central Top Ten Games has Nightfall at #1 from Mac-o-Rama . Nightfall is the first Mac only game ever to top the MacCentral game charts. Thanks again to everyone!

    Nightfall ftp server crashes
    We apologize if you are having trouble downloading the Nightfall demo, but the demand has brought our server to its knees! We estimate it will be up again 9am PST (USA) on Thursday 27th April. Thank you for your patience.

March 20th 2000

    Nightfall reaches #1
    Mac Central Top Ten Games has Nightfall at #1 from Mac-o-Rama . Peter Cohen writes:
    "This week's list shows Altor Systems' non-violent 3D exploration game Nightfall in first place, beating even giants like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena.". Nightfall is the first Mac only game ever to top the MacCentral game charts. Thanks again to everyone for spreading the word.

March 13th 2000

January 25th 2000

    Nightfall recieves 4 1/2 Mice from MacWorld Australia!
    We just read the September 1999 issue of MacWorld Australia. The first words of the review are "To put it simply, Nightfall is a stunner. Think Riven in a fully 3D environment with complete movement". They say "It looks great and plays well" and give it 4 1/2 Mice out of 5.

    Nightfall is #3 in the charts again!
    MacCentral has published its latest chart of game sales from Mac-o-Rama , and Nightfall has reached the top 3 again. It has now been at various positions in the top ten for almost four months!

January 12th 2000

    In the latest Mac Central Top Ten Games chart, Nightfall is at number 6. It reached number 3 on both Christmas and New Years weeks, and has now been in the top ten for a total of over 3 months!!! Thank you everyone, and hope you all are enjoying the game. Thanks again to everyone at Mac-o-Rama and happy new year!

    Oh, and yes, we are still here, and Nightfall is Y2K compliant!

December 21st 1999

    Nightfall is #3 in the charts!
    MacCentral has published its latest chart of game sales, and Nightfall has reached the top 3 just in time for Christmas. A big thank you to everyone at Mac-o-Rama !

    News is spreading about Nightfall. The January 2000 issue of Magical Blend Magazine has published an outstanding review, and says "What you will find is a simply stunning, thoroughly enjoyable exercise for your mind...where myth becomes reality!".

October 9th 1999

    Just Adventure has reviewed Nightfall. They say "This has to be one of the most highly original adventure games to make it out of the 'hey, wouldn't it be cool to ...' stage in a long time. " and give it a B+. To read more, go to Just Adventure Nightfall Review.

September 15th 1999

    Our apologies to those trying to access the web site or upload patches for Nightfall. Yesterday we released G4TimeDemo - the first game engine we are aware of designed ground up for the G4 and Velocity Engine. Worldwide demand has been so high it repeatedly crashed our site! The web site is back on line, but our ftp servers are heavily overloaded. If you could wait to ftp Nightfall upgrades, press kits etc, until 5pm PST we should have more spare capacity for you. You can get more details about G4TimeDemo at the Project B page.

September 2nd 1999

    We are working some testbed gaming concepts for the new SUPERCOMPUTER level machines coming out, such as the G4 from Apple Computer. You can get more details now and in the coming months on our new Project B page.

April 11th 1999

    In the Nightfall review in the May issue of MacAddict magazine, the reviewer says "One outstanding aspect of the game is that you can jump right in." and also states that "Myst, Amber, and Morpheus fans will enjoy Nightfall". They give it a "spiffy" rating and include the demo in the magazine CD so you can try it for yourself. All this can be found in the May issue of MacAddict Magazine.

April 2nd 1999

    In the Liquid Reality FPS... SOS article in the Mac Game Gate, Brice Unland talks about the lack of originality in the big name games available for the Mac. He then describes Altor Systems, one of only 3 companies who are exceptions as follows: "The ones taking the chances are the KEY players, that will keep gaming alive and continue to make it worth our while.".

    "I recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed Myst or Riven." is the conclusion of the My Mac review of Nightfall in the April edition of My Mac Magazine.

March 31st 1999

    Nightfall is mentioned three weeks in a row in the Nightfall: An Idiot's Guide where they talk about playing the game. They were "surprised at Altor's innovative ideas" and talk about the "new freedom to its players" Nightfall allows. "we found ourselves sucked into Nightfall until the wee hours of the morning on more than one occassion". Finally, they rated Nightfall as allowing "more player freedom than any adventure game before it", and said "Nice job, guys!". For the other two weeks of reviews go to The Name of the Game series in The Mac Observer. Thank you to the Idiots!

March 25th 1999

March 24th 1999

March 9th 1999

February 27th 1999

    The Nightfall 1.1 update is available. We highly recommend you upgrade, as it makes many improvements to the game, and it's free! You can load it from our web site today. All the details are available on this page.

February 24th 1999 Double Update!

February 24th 1999 Update

February 24th 1999

    International news! Nightfall was shown at the MacWorld Expo Tokyo. We hope that everyone that played it enjoyed the experience (a challenge, given the sheer number of people attending!).

    A new review of Nightfall has been posted at Mac Warrior. Read these excellent words and make up your mind!

    The demo is out there! We have made a new page which contains links to places hosting the demo online, and reviews of Nightfall so you can get some independent advice. Just click here to find out more.

    In addition, there are more hints for playing the game at the Support page.

February 15th 1999

    Mac Reactor has (as far as we know) the first full review of Nightfall! To read the review, click here.

    Lots of news to tell! We had a great time chatting at World Without Borders. You can read all about it here.

    Nightfall is world famous! The current issue of Mac Magazin in Germany has an article about the game. Just turn to page 55 of the March issue. Nice screenshot too.

January 25th 1999

    Lots of Nightfall info today at Mac Gamers Ledge. The current news includes a big section with pictures, and press information on reasons why the game is different.

    There are links to sites with news and opinions in the January 22nd 1999 Altor news a few lines down from here.

January 24th 1999

    There are some extra hints on solving levels 2 and 3, up now on the Support page.

January 22nd 1999

    Some organizations and people have been kind enough to give their opinions or news about Nightfall. If you want to check them out for yourself, some of the sites are listed below.

    Randy Whitted at TechWeb mentions Nightfall as one of My Favorite (Macworld) Things.

    Inside Mac Games magazine gives the lowdown on Nightfall in this news article, along with a great screenshot.

    Apple kindly posted some of our art as a Mac logo example at their Developer Web Site.

    Mac3d have published a very enthusiastic news artricle.

    If you want to find what Nightfall looks like from an Unreal perspective, Unrealintosh has put pen to keyboard.

    If you want all the details, Mac Fury has a lot of information on their site.

    Finally, in case you missed it, Mac Gamers Ledge still has a photo of our MacWorld Expo stand, along with some great copy about the game.

January 19th 1999

    We have added new choices for ordering Nightfall. You can already order on the web, but now in addition you can mail or fax credit card forms, and mail cash (in many different currencies) or US$ checks to purchase the game. Details are on the Purchasing & Specifications page.

January 14th 1999

    We are famous! Seriously though, Mac Gamers Ledge has a photo of our MacWorld Expo stand. Come and see the great art, an iMac, and the diet drinks that were our life-support during the show.

January 11th 1999

    Tested it with the ATI Rage128 card (used in the new G3's). It ran at over 500 frames per second. Smoooth!

    Also added a new Support page. We will use the page to put up hints for the game, frequently asked questions, as well as list known problems, and how to fix them.

January 8th 1999

    Thank you to everyone who showed up at our MacWorld Expo stand! We had a great time, with lots of positive feedback, especially about the beauty of the game, and producing a non-violent game for the Mac that is also leading edge. It is very good to know that so many people liked it. Thanks also to all the Expo and Apple staff for their help.

    We were also filmed for Japanese TV. Unfortunately, the show was such a wirlwind that we did not see the station! If anyone sees Nightfall on TV, please let us know.

    We have put some new screenshots used at MacWorld on the game description page. Click on the small images to see full sized versions.

January 4th 1999

    At last - Nightfall is shipping! You can find out details and order it here. You can also 'try before you buy' at the MacWorld Expo - we are at the Consumer Showcase (Booth 135) in the North Hall. Look forward to meeting you there.

December 29th 1998

    Bad news and good news. The bad news is that due to an error by the manufacturer, we will not receive the Nightfall CD's until January 4th. For all of you who pre-ordered on or before December 29th, we are burning special CD's (could these become collectors items ;-) which we will be sending you today and tomorrow - in addition to the manufactured copies which will be mailed to you when they arrive at our offices. Sorry, but we cannot extend our offer to those of you ordering on December 30th of after - our CD burners are melting under the load!

    The good news is that we are confirmed at MacWorld Expo! We will have some special offers, and will show Nightfall on a new RevB iMac! We will be in the Consumer Showcase (Booth 135) in the North Hall - just turn left as you walk in the North Hall exhibit room, and we are around the corner.

December 6th 1998

    The pre-order page is now live! Just go here to find out about how to purchase Nightfall.

December 3rd 1998

    Have received lots of email about how the game will run on your Macs. As a result, here is a brand new page devoted to the topic. The page will be updated in the next couple of weeks to allow online ordering of Nightfall.

November 25th 1998

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    For all those who asked (we were swamped!) and those yet to ask - we will give you our best guess of the release date. DECEMBER 28th!! Don't hold us to this, but we are pretty sure of it. You will be able to get hold of it on this web site near that date. If you just can't wait (you know who you are!) it is likely we will accept web pre-orders starting in mid December. That way we can send the game to you minutes after we receive it - you might be one of the lucky ones to play it first in 1998! It's a pretty large game, so if you finish it in 1998, we will be really surprised!

    Also, thanks very much for all you enquiries about the game, and all your encouragement. It's great to know that so many people would support this new type of game, especially as it's out on the Mac first.

    Finally, we are in the process of finishing the game, and would welcome any suggestions from you. What did you love, or hate, in 3D or puzzle/adventure games? What would you always have liked to do, but were stopped (because there was no way to do it, or it was too clunky to do it etc)? If you could change the game yourself (you want to edit an existing game or create a totally new one) what would you like put in so you can do this? We can't guarantee anything, but we want to try and make the best possible game in the time available and will try and incorporate any feedback we get. If you have something to say, feel welcome to email us. If we don't reply, please don't think we are ignoring you - we get really enthused about your good comments, but are working around the clock, and our fingers are getting tired!

November 21st 1998

    Want to have a hands on experience with Nightfall? The world premier will be at MacWorld Expo 1999, in San Francisco, January 5th-8th. Find us at the Consumer Showcase in the North Hall. Come and meet the team behind the game, and find out what is happening next with Nightfall. There will be lots more to do, even after you have finished the game, but we don't want to give away all our secrets just yet ;-). The game will definitely be out by then!

November 17th 1998

October 28th 1998

    Sharky has done us the honor of a preview! If you want to know what they think of the game, take a click over to the Nightfall Preview.

October 21st 1998

    Nightfall is alpha! Not much longer to go until we are done.

September 19th 1998

    Next Generation magazine October issue has an article about new game technologies. Nightfall is one of the games mentioned - check out page 5!

September 4th 1998

    If you want an unbiased opinion of the game, look to the journalists at MacAddict. There is a preview of Nightfall in the October issue.

September 1st 1998

    We can finally reveal more of our revolutionary technology! If you want to see what makes this game different, read about it (especially the VR hand) here.

August 12th 1998

    Nightfall and the technology behind it is going to be previewed in some well known magazines - watch this space!

August 5th 1998

    Nightfall runs amazingly on the iMac. Tried it at the recent Apple kitchen. You can use the RageIIc 3D hardware to get up to a smooth 90fps, or go all out in software (all the light glare, dust etc) - it's playable even in millions of colors! We didn't even have to install the game - all this running just from the CD! Thanks to those who invited us!

July 17th 1998

    Added dynamic light flares to software (light glows that can flicker) - already present in some hardware 3D. Speed hit is OK - you can turn them off by choosing a lower quality setting. Really adds to the burning sensation around flames.

January 1st 1900

    Hmmm! Must be the Y2K bug.

last update: 12th March 2001 Web Maestro