latest news

3/24/2021

The best $400 million Apple, or any other company, ever spent.

2/24/2021

Today is the 66th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth.

10/5/2020

Today is the ninth anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death.

9/21/2020

Battle for the Universe v2.2.7 released! Improvements include:

bug fix for issue where app would exit early if opened on a 2018 MacBook Pro with Retina display

4/10/2020

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the founding of Misty Software.

2/24/2020

Today is the 65th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth.

10/5/2019

Today is the eighth anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death.

2/24/2019

Today is the 64th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth.

10/5/2018

Today is the seventh anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death.

7/9/2018

Battle for the Universe v2.2.6 released! Improvements include:

bug fix for issue where a telecomm message was sent to all players instead of just teammates or the targeted player

2/24/2018

Today is the 63rd anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth.

10/5/2017

Apple CEO Cook remembers Steve Jobs on the 6th anniversary of his death.

2/24/2017

Today is the 62nd anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth.

10/5/2016

Today is the fifth anniversary of Steve Jobs' death.

2/24/2016

Today is the 61st anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth.

10/5/2015

Today is the fourth anniversary of Steve Jobs' death.

2/24/2015

Today is the 60th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ birth.

10/5/2014

Today is the third anniversary of Steve Jobs' death.

2/25/2014

Battle for the Universe v2.2.5 released! Improvements include:

refined user interface for creating multiplayer games
red color for object creation countdown in base

2/24/2014

Today is the 59th anniversary of Steve Jobs' birth.

2/5/2014

Battle for the Universe v2.2.4 released! Improvements include:

bug fix for extremely poor network performance which would occur if players started a game over a public IP address

7/24/2013

Battle for the Universe v2.2.3 released! Improvements include:

improved user interface for registering the app
bug fix for issue where the Smoother Networking preference was treated opposite to its setting

9/26/2011

Justin became a father today! Wow!

8/25/2011

Keith and Justin turned 40 years old! Holy moly!

4/30/2011

Battle for the Universe v2.2.2 released! Improvements include:

bug fix for crash which would occur if the user tried to host a game on Tiger

4/29/2011

Battle for the Universe v2.2.1 released! Improvements include:

bug fix for block which would occur if a player tried to send another player a message
bug fix for cosmetic issue which would occur if a player received a message from a player with a long name

4/25/2011

Battle for the Universe v2.2 released! Improvements include:

bigger map and radar panels on displays which have enough space
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

2/19/2011

Battle for the Universe v2.1.2 released! Improvements include:

refined user interface for creating multiplayer games
improved cursor display during game play
improved keyboard input handling for telecomm panel
mouse movement is now ignored when app is not switched in
bug fix for crash when hosting a game when the network is not reachable
bug fix for crash when canceling the Gather dialog quickly
bug fix for editable IP address in Game Bindings dialog when hosting

10/27/2010

Battle for the Universe v2.1.1 released! Improvements include:

bug fixes for strings with ellipsis character

10/23/09

Five and one half years following our last release,Misty Software is happy to annouce the release of Battle for theUniverse v2.1! This new version addresses the following fixes andfeatures:

Universal binary
Improved access to help book
Key input is now ignored when app is notswitched in

4/3/04

Misty Software is happy to annouce the release of Battle for the Universe v2.02! This new version addresses the following fixes and features:

Drawing issues on Panther
GameRanger fails to spawn games on Panther
Slightly garbled telecomm messages on Panther

11/19/02

Misty Software is happy to annouce the release of Battle for the Universe v2.01! This new version addresses the following fixes and features:

bug fixes

gameranger appleevent was lost after bftu launch if user was not registered
monitor switching could crash on 10.1.x systems

build features

latest gameranger sdk
latest OpenPlay build (2.1r1)

7/28/02

Misty Software is excited to annouce the release of two new screen savers for Mac OS X - Sorta and Wiggly. These screen savers are very entertaining and, best of all, they are free. A special thanks goes out to Kevin Murray!

2/1/02

Misty Software is excited to annouce the release of Battle for the Universe v2.0! This new version includes the following dramatic improvements:

Mac OS X Port - The greatest modification made to the game has been the port to MacOSX! We are currently working on a Fat Binary download, but in the meantime click here to download Battle for the Universe X 2.0.
Help Display - A help display has been built into the control panel to guide newbies. Pointing the curser at any frame in the control panel will produce a brief guidance message in the help display. Clicking the mouse button will then display additional information on the frame in question. The help display can be disabled via the preferences.
Redesigned Control Panel - (1) The size of the map in the control panel has been increased to 84*84 pixels to make navigating the universe easier. (2) Telecomm messages are now automatically sent to all players (as opposed to only the player identified in the target display), resolving the problem of messages being sent to the wrong player by pilot error. (3) Cosmetically, the borders have been reduced to 2 pixels (from 3), giving the control panel a crisper look.
New Graphics - All of the graphics have been re-rendered in thousands of colors (versus 256 colors) to give the game a much richer look while the planets and nebulae were made larger. In addition to re-rendered graphics, a cool translucent effect was programmed into the shield, the cloak, the pulse, and the ghost images. New loadscreens were also created.
Level Restriction Removed - The demo now allows users to access all 9 levels.

8/25/01

Happy Birthday to us! Justin and Keith turned 30 years old today!

2/16/01

Misty Software is pleased to announce that we now can accept online purchases for Battle for the Universe!

Updated the about the authors page.

8/25/00

Happy Birthday to us! Justin and Keith turned 29 years old today!

8/16/00

Justin fights off a mad cow in Central Park!

It was a real struggle. That cow was nuts! But, in the end, I managed to tame the brute. My awesome cousin, Rebekah, captured it all on film. Click on the pics below to enlarge. ;)

4/23/00

Added zero22@earthlink.net to the You may call me Master! list as he has whipped both Keith and Justin in several games (thereby winning a free BftU code)!

3/1/00

Published a progress report (with screenshots) of BftU's port to OS X (DR3)!!!

11/17/99

Battle for the Universe v1.1.1 released! It fixes the following four bugs:

Bogus assertions from GameRanger if the user hosted via the BftU tracker after hosting via GameRanger
BftU would crash if it received a host message from GameRanger and it was already hosting via the BftU tracker
Rarely, the telecomm, map and radar displays would be drawn in the action area when receiving a message and typing a message at the same time
[enter] and [return] would sometimes not map to the OK button in the "waiting for joiners to terminate" alert.

This version of Battle for the Universe also utilizes the connection timeout functionality in the latest NetSprocket.

8/29/99

Released BftU v1.1 Updater. To update a previous version of BftU, simply download and expand the updater. Then launch the updater application and select a previous version of BftU.

8/25/99

Happy Birthday to us! Justin and Keith turned 28 years old today! And just because we know you want to know who is older... Justin is (by 4 minutes)!
Misty Software is proud to announce the launch of longbond.com, an investor's one-stop shop for information affecting the bond market.

8/17/99

Come check out Battle for the Universe's new message board! Rant! Rave! Say anything you want!

8/13/99

Released Battle for the Universe v1.1. This version provides support for GameRanger, fixes a minor bug regarding game play (your HUD target indicator can now be fooled by your enemy's hologram), and has some more descriptive error reporting (no more blank dialogs when joining fails for an unknown reason). A BftU updater will be made available soon.

6/25/99

Released an updater for Battle for the Universe. The updater will update BftU v1.0 to BftU v1.0.2.

6/15/99

Released Battle for the Universe v1.0.2. This version fixes a synchronization bug that occured in some network games as well as provides more informative messages. In effort to mainatin high quality, v1.0.2 will not be compatible with v1.0.

6/13/99

Updated the appearance of our website.

5/15/99

Released Battle for the Universe v1.0 ! BftU is the sequel to Battle for the Planets (BftP) and features many *big* improvements. Some of the exciting new features are:

dramatically improved artificial intelligence (AI) for solo-play
3 different maps
tag-along fighters
fog-of-war
cheats
new artwork
improved gameplay

The Hotline tournaments will now be hosted weekly (Saturdays at 8:00 PM EST). Come see what all the fuss is about and try to win a free reg code! All registered codes for BftP will work in BftU. See you there!

3/18/99

Battle for the Universe (BftU) has been progressing wonderfully and should be released in early april.
The Malkin Trader now has its own web site (http://trader.malkin.com).

6/9/98

Updated the appearance of our website. The next BftP tournament will be on Sunday 6/14/98 at 8:00 PM EST. Win a free reg code!

5/26/98

Released BftP v2.1.1! This minor upgrade fixes some bugs and improves the tracker's ease of use. Download BftP v2.1.1 today!

5/11/98

The Malkin Trader is a calculator aimed for professional fixed income traders. The calculator is modeled after The Monroe Trader and performs the same functions. However, because The Malkin Trader is software-only, there are no manufacturing costs, thereby dramitically reducing the price. In addition, The Malkin Trader is written in Java (a cross-platform programming language). This means that interested customers will most likely run on the intended computer. Furthermore, The Malkin Trader will most likely be distributed as an Applet which means that any Java-enabled web browser can run it. Please try out the demo. If interested in purchasing The Malkin Trader, please e-mail Trader@Malkin.com. Discounts will be availible for quantity purchases.

1/31/98

BftP v2.1 is released! This version features "moveable modals" which allows you to host a game while returning control to you. In other words, you no longer have to just stare at the screen when waiting for someone to join your game. You can surf the net or chat on Hotline simultaneously. When a player joins your game, you will hear "player joined". Version 2.1 also features better integration with Hotline. So go download the latest: BftP v2.1!

1/15/98

The fourth bi-weekly tourny is cancelled because Ill be out of town. The next one will be in 2 weeks as scheduled. We will soon be releasing BftP v2.1 which will feature "moveable modules". This feature will allow u to perform other Internet tasks while hosting a BftP game. This way, u can wait for an Internet opponent to join u without tying up your computer. U will also be able to easily switch to Hotline. We'll keep u posted.

In non-BftP news, Keith and I may appear on the Jenny Jones show (the topic being about twins)! We'll let u know!

1/3/98

The thirdbi-weekly tourny will start @ 7:00 PM EST today (1/3/97). Meet on Hotline as usual. Keith and I will accept challenges for the first 15 minutes. If you can beat us, you win a free reg code! Happy New Year!

12/20/97

The second bi-weekly tourny will start @ 7:00 PM EST today. Meet on Hotline as usual. Version 2.01 is available for download. It fixes a bug which cause the program to crash on some 68K Macs.

11/30/97

We have decided to host a bi-weekly tournament for BftP players. We will meet on Hotline at our server which is tracked at tracked.dyn.ml.org. Kicking off each tournament, Keith and I will accept challenges on a first-come, first-served basis. If you manage to "beat the masters", we will give you a free registration code. The "beat the masters" kickoff will be for only 15 minutes at the start of each tournament so be prompt! The tournaments will begin at 7:00 PM EST on the first and third Saturday of each month. See you there!