Avara is a 1996 first-person shooter written by Juri Munkki for Macintosh and published by Ambrosia Software. A fast 3D engine, integrated Internet play, and easy level editing were notable features at the time of its release. While not commercially successful, the game found a cult following. Munkki publicly released the source code in 2016, the game's 20th anniversary. Gameplay Players operated a remote-controlled bipedal robot known as a Hostile Environment Combat and Tactical Operations Remote, or HECTOR. The unit's characteristics were customizable, ranging in mass from , and stood about tall. Larger models could hold more weaponry, useful in the game's primary mode as a shooter, but were less maneuverable in combat. The name HECTOR represents a thinly-guised tribute to Hector D. Byrd, Ambrosia's mascot, a female grey parrot. Flying scout units controlled by each player provided an aerial view of the action, but were defenseless and could be destroyed by enemies or other HECTORs. Up to 6 players could join a game at once, either free-for-all, or in arbitrary teams which were chosen by color. Team color choice also affected the in-game HECTOR model's appearance. During games, players could communicate using an integrated text-based chat system. Level maps for the engine's fully 3D world could be created using user-friendly, vector-based drawing programs such as ClarisWorks, ClarisDraw, or ShareDraw. Avara was bundled with some of these level packs, both for solo play and multiplayer modes, and fan-created packs were available for download from Ambrosia's website. Development Juri Munkki, the designer of Avara, had been interested in 3D graphics since the release of Apple II, however, the computer lacked the processing power required for his ideas. Upon the release of Hellcats, Munkki realised that fast polygon rendering was possible on Mac II. For the second time, Munkki attempted writing his own polygon rendering library in late 1992 and successfully created an early version of the rendering used in Avara. Although Munkki was working on 3D wireframe graphics at the time, this animation library was strictly 2D. Munkki used this polygon library to write a unique sprite animation, in which sprites were polygons able to transform (scale, rotate, distort) freely. In May 1994, Munkki attended Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference for the first time. Due to the fast speed objects were moving up and down the screen, people tended to incorrectly assume he was using very fast 3D graphics. Munkki wished to