The sound of rolling dice bounced from my Mac's speaker. My modem's lights flashed and my invisible human opponent's backgammon pieces moved mysteriously around the beautifully textured board on screen - and landed on me. "Take that!" my opponent wrote in the chat window. I was in Outland, a network devoted Mac games: chess, Go, Backstab, Reversi, a cool group strategy game called Spaceward Ho!, and others. In this fantastic cyberstop, everyone has one purpose - to play.
True to Mac style, the interface is intuitive, and it sports good-looking graphics. Most games have different skill levels, and no matter what you're playing, you can carry on live chats with your adversaries.
Without hourly charges, I found myself typing, "Hmm, got to think about this move" in the chat window and pac-ing around my room in my boxers glancing at the board on each lap.
Finally, no more wandering around the house begging people to play with you.
Outland: US$9.95 a month. (800) 752 9688, via the Web http://www.outland.com, e-mail: info@outland.com.
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Playing in Outland
