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By Brad Cook What if you woke up one day and discovered that you had magical powers? You may have had that dream when you were a child. Maybe you have it now. But what if you could live out that dream?
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 Harry Potter will enchant you with magical gameplay. |
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Mac OS X Patch: Game patch for Harry Potter, which includes correcting an issue where the screen would go black if you jumped the wrong way. |
Well, you can. Simply pick up a copy of the new game Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone from Aspyr Media. This immersive 3D title runs in both Mac OS X and Mac OS 9. All you’ll need to enroll in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a copy of Harry Potter and your Mac.
A Phenomenon
“Harry Potter is a phenomenon,” states Aspyr president Michael Rogers. “From our first exposure to the books, we’ve been trying to work out how to make a Mac game of the experience, so when Electronic Arts announced that they were making the games, we went after them.”
Harry gets magic lessons.
Like the hit film of the same name, the game stays faithful to the characters and situations from J.K. Rowlings’ best-selling novel. You are Harry Potter, and as you explore the environs of Hogwarts, you encounter many familiar characters such as Harry’s pals Hermione Granger and the Weasley brothers, his nemesis Draco Malfoy, and school headmaster Aldus Dumbledore. You even get the chance to take broom flying lessons from Madam Hooch, which is important if you want to be successful at Quidditch (a wizard sport played on flying brooms).
The game begins with a series of storybook-like screens that explain Harry’s backstory: he lived with his rotten relatives, the Dursleys, until a giant named Hagrid rescued him and revealed the truth about his lineage: his long-deceased parents were wizards, and Harry is destined to be one too. Hagrid sends him to the London train station, where Harry boards the locomotive that arrives at platform 9 3/4, which is invisible to Muggles, or non-wizards.
The game’s graphics bring the world
of Harry Potter to life.
of Harry Potter to life.
The train whisks Harry away to Hogwarts, where he meets Albus Dumbledore, the school’s headmaster. All new students must don the Sorting Hat, which decides which of the four Hogwarts Houses they will live in during their time at the school. The hat places Harry in Gryffindor House, where he meets his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
There are four houses at Hogwarts, each led by one of the wizard or witch teachers at the school. (See “A Guide to Harry’s World” for more details.) As you complete various challenges in the game, you earn points for Gryffindor. The house with the most points at the end of the school year wins the House Cup.
Something for Everyone
“Harry’s world is full of mystery, adventure, growth, and, most of all,
creativity,” says Rogers. “The stories offer something for everyone of all
ages, which is rare for any medium.”
Like the book, the game revolves around Harry’s schoolwork and the adventures that come with it. You guide Harry to each of his classes, where he learns different spells. Use your mouse to trace the shape of each spell; if you trace it successfully within the time allotted, Harry adds that spell to his repertoire, and you get to try it out in a test set up by his teacher.
Each test requires you to gather the challenge stars hidden around an area of Hogwarts Castle. When you find them all, it’s time for the next class. (Hermione is usually around to help you get to your classes.) As you progress through the game, you’ll need the spells Harry learned in previous classes to solve the increasingly difficult puzzles.
(A tip for parents: If your youngsters don’t have their hand-eye coordination mastered yet, go into the Options menu and activate the Auto Jump option. It will make Harry automatically jump in the appropriate spots.)
Beautifully detailed environments await around every corner.
Trolls and Beans
Harry also encounters various creatures during his adventures at Hogwarts. Certain ghosts that haunt the castle, such as the malevolent poltergeist Peeves, try to distract you, a Troll attacks you, and carnivorous plants snap their jaws at you. Every time a monster hits Harry, he loses power in the meter (shaped like a lightning bolt scar, of course) that sits in the upper-left corner of the screen; if it reaches zero, Harry faints and you’ll have to start over from the last point in the game that you saved. (Don’t worry — you’ll get opportunities to replenish the meter.)
Another type of creature to watch out for are the gnomes that try to steal your Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. The Beans are magical candy for wizards, and you’ll find them scattered around Hogwarts. Collect as many as you can, and somewhere in each level you’ll encounter Ron’s older brothers, George and Fred, who trade you wizard cards for the beans. There are 24 wizard cards, and each features a different wizard from history and some interesting facts about him. You place the cards in your Folio Magi, where you can look at them any time you want.
A Superior Operating System
For the ultimate Harry Potter experience, you’ll want to play the game in Mac OS X.
“The folks at Westlake Interactive have done a great job of making the game run in Mac OS X,” says Rogers. “The Mac OS X version should run slightly faster [than the Mac OS 9 version], because of all the efficiencies in memory and task management, so Mac OS X will reveal the best of the game.
All of Harry’s friends are here to lend a helping hand.
“We’re very happy with Mac OS X and Apple’s commitment to making it a superior operating system,” he continues. “We’re confident that the system will continue to improve and be an even better platform for playing and making games.”
So where can you find Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Simply cast your accio charm (that’s a spell which summons an object) in the direction of the online Apple Store, an Apple retail store near you, or an Apple authorized reseller. You’ll turn from Muggle to wizard (or a witch) in no time.
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Who’s who in Harry Potter? Find out. 
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