Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

Worldcraft 1.6
Version 1.6 of the Worldcraft level editor is out. Here is the updater (1.6 MB) for registered users that Choryoth just sent along. Here's some of what's new with this version:

• Quake II and Hexen II support
  A Game Configurations tab has been added to the Options dialogs which makes adding support for these games very simple.  You can control the palette, entities, and textures from here. Worldcraft ships with entities for Quake, Quake2, Hexen2, and Quake2CTF.

• Ease-of-use features
  It is now possible to add multiple PAK files or WAL file directories in the Texture Options dialog.  This is important since Quake II stores its textures in a WAL format within the PAK, as opposed to within the BSP files (as was done with Quake).

  Worldcraft has the ability to extract WAL files from within the PAK, and supports both formats simultaneously...

  The Worldcraft 'Check for Problems' feature will detect and correct mixed content types.

  One of the noticeable improvements in Quake II is the colored lighting and Worldcraft makes picking colors a snap...

Where's Ben?
On the occasion of the new Worldcraft release, Ben Morris sent along an update on what he's up to since his departure from Valve:

I decided to leave Valve because I wasn't happy in Seattle. It was a difficult decision since Valve is obviously full of talent and they're doing some amazing things with their games. I only wish I hadn't had to stop developing Worldcraft. But I'm back in Victoria now, and I'm working on a new project for ACD Systems - gamers and developers will love this one. You'll all be hearing about it soon! If anybody wants to contact me, my email address here is bmorris@acdsystems.com.

Unreal Screenshots
Five new Unreal screenshots are up on the net, one over at Unreal Nation, and the other four at Gamesmania (thanks Stonage). The shot on Unreal Nation shows some previously unseen items, and the weapon in a couple of these shots is held in the right hand, as opposed to previous shots which are all lefty.

Half-Life Screenshots
As mentioned last night on QuakeCast, here are some Half-Life screenshots that Choryoth sent along (preview! preview! -- yes I hear you):

Quake II License Agreement Article
There's an article that examines the Quake Source License Agreement from a legal point of view  over at PlanetQuake (the author is not a lawyer, but works in the legal department of a publishing house).

Apocalypse Drivers
Version 4.1.1 of the drivers for the Apocalypse 3D, the 3Dx, the 5D and the 5D Sonic have been released by VideoLogic. Thanks August West's PowerVRoom.

Festival of Sin
A few goodies for all you sinners:

• Levelord Interview
  There is a Levelord interview up at HardCorps SiN News.
• Sin Files
  After a bit of a delay, the new installment of the Sin Files (Volume V), featuring the words of Project Manager Joe Selinske (with Levelord as the Crypt-keeper with the intro).
• Sin BMP
  Also, for all you Ritual killers out there, a cool Sin bitmap has been posted on Ritualistic. Be careful, though, it weighs in at over 2 megs.

Update
I got my email working again, so I'm in catch-up mode. Also, sorry about the bad links in etc. earlier today, they're fixed now. If you're curious, Eudora has a habit of translating "~" into "%7E" when launching a web link (%7E to your browser is the same as a tilde), and FrontPage has this curious habit of turning "%7E" into "%257E" when creating links (%257E to your browser is the same as %257E, which does no one any good in this case), and sometimes I forget to manually fix them. Talk about two programs cooperating to cause a problem. Thanks Graham "Teach" Mitchell for pointing out that I left out an "E" in my initial explanation of the tilde problem.

Quake II Goodies (Updated)
Things will probably hop for a while on this front as mod authors play with the new source releases:

• Battle of the Sexes
  Version 2.8 of the Battle of the Sexes mod has been released on Spinoza's Quake 2 Mods Page. The new version is a server-side only upgrade that is fully Quake II 3.14 compatible.
• Quake II Scene Builder
  Version 1.12 of the Quake II Scene Builder, a Quake II model viewer, is out on the Quake II Scene Builder home page.
• Oop
  A Quake II 3.05/3.14 source diff has been posted on the Quake 2 - Oop Conversion Project page.
• New JailBreak Server Beta
  A beta server patch of the JailBreak for Quake II mod has been posted on the JailBreak page, having been updated with the new Quake II 3.14 source. Clients can connect to the new servers with the 1.5 client, and word is the new code should be running soon on Jailbreak.ml.org.
• TagYerIt
  Beta version 1.1 of the TagYerIt Quake II patch is up on SteQve's No Frills Quake Mods Page.
• Minion
  The first version of Minion, described as Quake I meets Battle Chess, has been released on The Minion's Lair. Thanks Prophet.
• Weapons Factory CTF
  The first mod I've heard of based on Zoid's CTF source is the Reno Brothers Weapons Factory for Quake 2.

Creative's Voodoo 2 Not on "Engineering" Hold
As I suspected, the report on a vendor's saying that "Creative Labs have officially put the Voodoo2 Cards '...on engineering hold...'" was unfounded (the page has subsequently been edited, removing the allegation), according to a follow-up on Operation 3Dfx, who got on the blower to Creative to clear this up. Here's the quote from Op3Dfx (thanks Randy Perry):

I just got off the phone with Dylan Rhodes, and was assured that the rumor going around that creative is having card problems is false. It seems that a certain WV reseller posted something on their page about the Creative Voodoo2 burning up and Creative sticking it on Engineering hold. None of this is true so current and present Creative owners have nothing to worry about. Expect an official statement from Creative Labs within the hour.

Another LucasArts Departure
Hot on the heels of Jedi Knight Project Leader Justin Chin's departure from LucasArts, comes word that Ray Gresko, Lead Programmer on Jedi Knight, is also leaving (today will be his last day) to form his own company called "Nihilistic Software". This scoop comes exclusively from JediKnight.Net courtesy of a very reliable anonymous source. Another tidbit on this subject: I am informed by my own little birdie that Corrinne Yu's recent poetic .plan update was an homage to Ray, who apparently included the same poem in his recent internal announcement of his departure (how's that for insider info?).

Quake Broadcasting System
The first version of the Quake Broadcasting System, or QBS, has been released on the QBS page (brought to you by the "THC Network": what's up with that?). QBS is a system tray utility that keeps track of .plan and website updates for those times when browsing the web can just get too exhausting. When a news page or .plan is updated, the utility will alert you by blinking.

New NT SoundBlaster Drivers
New WinNT 3.5x drivers and WinNT 4.0 drivers for the Sound Blaster 16/32/AWE32/AWE64 have been posted on Creative Labs' FTP site (thanks Jonra). While checking these out, I see new Win95 drivers there for the Creative Gamepad, and the GraphicsBlaster Exxtreme (I don't know that anyone actually uses either of the latter two, but there you have it).

New Map Utils
ZanBSP? Zanshin has released updated versions of the BSP utilities on Zanshin's GLDojo (thanks Todd Belcher, 2184). Here's his update:

I tuned up the source for QBSP3, QVIS3 and QRAD3 for threads, memory and speed on PPro/PII. Don't try running these on a 486. I'm seeing quite an improvement on large maps. I plan to modify QRAD3 to render the final pass in chunks instead of taking ungodly amounts of RAM in the next release. Props to id for making the source public. Get the package here.

Thresh Post-Game Report
A post on PC Gamer describes the outcome of the Thresh Challenge (or, as they referred to it, PC Gamer's first ever Quake II Pro-Am Invitational Classic). Thanks Enigma. The story clarifies that contrary to some grumbles, Thresh was playing on equal ground with the contestants:

A couple of players got bogged down by bad ping times but on the whole it was a fair fight (to set the record straight, Thresh did NOT have an advantage by playing from the server, he was located in his own office)...

PReviews

• Two Unreal Previews
  An Unreal preview has been posted at PC Fan as part of their grand-opening. Also GameSpot UK has posted no less than 30 Unreal screenshots (or "pix", as they're called), which are apparently not new, as originally reported.
• Daikatana
  PC Gamer has posted a large Daikatana preview, chock full of info and screenshots, including some showing the detail on the groovy skins being designed for the game. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
• Mysteries of the Sith
  GameCenter has posted a review of Mysteries of the Sith, the Jedi Knight add-on pack. Thanks Jedi Nights.

Competitions

• Cyrellis 3D Games & Hardware is having a Creative Labs Voodoo 2 3D Blaster giveaway (thanks Pure3D Central). All it takes to qualify is to drop them an email, but hurry 'cause the deadline is today. I can't believe I posted this, knowing how badly it hurts my own chances of winning!
• Aeon Trinity is a league that conducts online Quake II tournaments every two weeks.

etc.

• 3DG 411: The 411 on 3DG is a special report on GameCenter on the state-of-the-art in 3D graphics ...
• Q2 Model: There's a pretty cool Quake II model on AlphaWolfs model page ...
• Log Parser of the Day is the Qlog QuakeWorld Stats Generator, now up to version 1.50. Thanks Prophet.

Out of the Blue
Technical difficulties this morning, I'm still not receiving a majority of my email (basically nothing to the new DNS). I have also been told that much of the email sent to me yesterday just plain bounced: hopefully that's no longer happening. I expect these last few remaining glitches to clear up pretty quickly.

Valve on QuakeCast - WC 1.6 Tomorrow?
On QuakeCast we will talk with Team Hostile, as well as Gabe and Choryoth (and maybe Wedge and others) from Valve about Half-Life. The show can be found tonight and from now on at its new time, 8:00 PM Eastern time, as usual, Real player required. One bit of news we'll discuss is their plan to release the eagerly awaited (and admittedly overdue) version 1.6 of Worldcraft, featuring full Quake II support as early as tomorrow. They sent a release outlining the new features, so as I run out the door let me post the part about Quake II/Hexen II support:

• Quake II and Hexen II support
  A Game Configurations tab has been added to the Options dialogs which makes adding support for these games very simple.  You can control the palette, entities, and textures from here. Worldcraft ships with entities for Quake, Quake2, Hexen2, and Quake2CTF.

New C.R.Bot
A fully Quake II 3.14 compatible C.R.Bot version 1.0 has been released on the C.R.Bot Page

Thresh's Quake DM3 Teamplay Bible
The latest update to Thresh's Quake Bible on Gamers Extreme is an Abandoned Base (DM3) teamplay guide.

Fixed 3Dfx D3D Drivers
Updated Direcct3D Drivers have been posted on 3Dfx's website with the same version number, 2.15, as those released the other day, so presumably the only change is a fix to the faulty control panel. As usual, there are separate drivers for Voodoo Graphics cards, Single-Board Voodoo Rush cards, and Dual-Board Voodoo Rush cards. Thanks Brian Davids.

HexenWorld Playtester's Diary
A new installment of the Playtester's Diary has been posted on Activision's Hexen II Site talking of efforts to balance the character classes in HexenWorld.

Quake II CTF and Linux 3.14 Source
The source code for CTF in both Windows (1.3 MB) and Linux (270 KB) varieties have been released on id's FTP Site along with a Linux installer for the version 3.14 game .dll source (363 KB). Here are a pair of updates from Disruptor's .plan:

The CTF v1.02 source is up;

ftp[...]q2-ctf-source.exe -- Win32 Installer
ftp[...]q2ctf-1.02-source.shar.Z -- Linux Installer

--- Mar.4.1998 (9:21pm) ---

As you probably know by now, the game.dll source code has been released.

Here's the locations on our FTP site;

ftp[...]q2-3.14-source.exe -- Win32 Installer
ftp[...]q2source-3.14.shar.Z -- Linux Installer

To get the Linux source, simply uncompress q2source-3.14.shar.Z, then sh q2source-3.14.shar and, if you agree with the terms of the license agreement, type yes. It will decompress the source and makefile to the current directory.

New MacQuake
A MacQuake version 1.08.5 patch (470 KB) has been released on the Westlake Interactive Quake page. The new release fixes over 30 bugs and adds some features for the normal version of Quake, as well as the 3Dfx and RAVE versions. This update only works on the full retail version of MacQuake version 1.08.4. Thanks fissure_king.

Lithium Mod
Version 0.91 of the Lithium Mod for Quake II has been released on the Lithium Quake II Mod page, the first mod I know of to update using the newly released 3.14 source.

PQ Q2 Master
There's a PlanetQuake Master Server online. Information on how server operators can configure their server to report to this master as well as id's can be found on the PlanetQuake Server Lists page.

Zoid Interview
Quake2CTF.Com has posted a 20 Question interview with Zoid.

.plans

• Zoid
  Zoid updated his .plan, noting the CTF source release, and mentioning his work on the Solaris and BSDI dedicated server ports (which he hopes to have completed soon). The ports he's planning are Linux i386 (server and client), Solaris Sparc, and BSDI i386.
• Tom Hall
  Tom Hall's .plan has an update on the state of Anachronox.
• Brian Hook
  Brian Hook's .plan update is installment 3 of his "How to Enjoy What You Do Without Selling Out".
• Corrinne Yu
  A .plan poem. Cool!.

etc.

• Map authors may want to stop by the The Quake Prefab Park 2, which has loads of ready to use building blocks for your levels ...
• Masterclass is dedicated to the search for the Holy Grail of Quake players: the perfect config file ...
• Front-End of the Day is QTray, now up to version 1.11, available on the QuakeOn page. Thanks Prophet ...

Site Seeing

• Another site closing, as the Pitstop, once the premier source of news about QuakeRally, has gone the way of... QuakeRally.
• A while back I mentioned that the Games.Net (PC Games - not to be confused with GamesNet) folks had given Prophet his own little corner of the Internet, but it had one of those shifty database URLs with all the commas and stuff in it that's never at the same location twice. I've been meaning to mention this for a couple of days, you can now find Prophet's news at a consistent URL: www.games.net/prophet/

Out of the Blue
The DNS entry in the Internic's database has been updated, so Blue's News and JediKnight.Net should both resolve to their proper homes over the course of the next day or two.

Quake II 3.14  .DLL Source
John Cash made a short sweet update to his .plan announcing that id has released the game .dll source for version 3.14 of Quake II (1.4 MB) on their FTP Site (thanks Deathpain). Todd Hollenshead updated his .plan to point out that the .dll source installation has a new wrinkle in the form of an end-user license agreement:

Christian just finished uploading the 3.14 .dll source.  You'll notice that there is an installer with an end-user license agreement that must be agreed to before installing. The purpose of the license agreement is to ensure that unscrupulous third parties will not take what we are making available for recreational purposes and use it instead for profit.  In a nutshell, the license agreement requires that you agree that you won't commercially exploit our source code before you install it.  This is something new from us, but it is done both in the interest of protecting consumers from low quality shovelware and protecting id from people who would take advantage of our generosity.

Unreal.Com Update
In what's described as a big site update, new environment highlights (SKYCITY) and creature (Slith) pages have been added to Unreal.Com, Epic's official Unreal page, in addition to updates to the Nali and Brute creature pages. Thanks The Unreal Culture Center.

Autoexec Poll
Quake2CTF.Com! is running a poll to try and answer the question John Cash posted in his .plan today about how to handle multiple autoexec.cfg files.

New m2m
Version 0.8 of m2m the Quake to Quake II map conversion utility has been released on the 5thD Page.

Mission Pack Mania
A tidbit for each of the upcoming mission packs in progress:

• Portal of Praevus
  There's a new GamePen Designer Diary covering the Hexen II Mission Pack, Portal of Praevus with lead designer Jon Zuk, that will continue to total three parts.
• Reckoning
  Sharp-eyed Jim Tooley spotted the cover of the upcoming Quake II Mission Pack, The Reckoning, on Xatrix's website:

John Cash on the Source
John Cash updated his .plan with more on autoexec confusion (reluctantly soliciting feedback), a clarification of his point about playing as a high-pinger, and word straight from the source on the status of the Quake II .dll source:

3.14 game dll source
--------------------
Real Soon Now. I know it sucks, but I'm held up waiting on the legal stuff. Yes, that means it's all packaged up and ready to upload, just waiting for somebody to make sure that all the t's are crossed and all the i's are dotted.

Newer C.R.Bot
Version 0.99e of the C.R.Bot, still Quake II 3.13 compatible, via the "hack,"  has been released on the C.R.Bot Page fixing a crashing problem in version 0.99d.

TF RealAudio
Sentinel's Report, a ranting and raving RealAudio program focusing on the TeamFortress community can be found on the Brimstone Keep. "R" rated, or beyond, it's kind of Howard-stern-esque, and kind of funny (even if I find myself criticized for my perpetual failure to run stories with headlines like "gee TeamFortress Rox", with the implication that other mods get that treatment (whatever...). A little ranting and rambling, but from one of those from the QuakeCast, I guess I can't really hold that against him (in fact he claims to supplant QuakeCast, but I don't think his show is quite stupid enough yet). Thanks --rOt--.

Pure3D D3D Warning
There is a warning on Pure3D Central about a possible conflict between the just-released Direct3D 2.15 Drivers for Voodoo Graphics from 3Dfx and the Pure3D's drivers. Thanks monKeyWrench.

New Quake/Quake II Comic
If you've got some time to let some hefty images load, I highly recommend The Adventures of Ace and Flak, a new Quake/Quake II comic, inspired, as the title might suggest, by the Adventures of Dank & Scud. Unlike a lot of strips inspired by D&S, this one hits on all cylinders, being both clever and funny, as well as cool-looking. What's in store for our two heroes when they cross paths with Dr., Fiendish and Mr. Bigglesworth, his pet Shambler? Only time will tell (I look forward to finding out myself).

Fields of War
Version 0.6 of Fields of War, a Quake II Total Conversion, has been released on the Field of War homepage. FoW is a teamplay variant described as a less-complex homage to TeamFortress, featuring multiple goals and classes.

New Qtracker
Version 2.01 of Qtracker has been released on the Qtracker Homepage. The update fixes a few bugs and adds a new server library to this server browser that supports Quake, QuakeWorld, Quake II, Hexen II, Jedi Knight, and Mysteries of the Sith (as well as limited X-Wing versus TIE Fighter support).

Dave Taylor Interview
Dave Taylor, Crack dot Com Owner/President, and ex-id employee talks to Sgt. Hulka about Golgotha.

.plans

• John Cash
  John "Dietmeister" Cash updated his .plan commenting on the .dll source (he wanted to release it yesterday, but it's looking like today), autoexec confusion, his experiences as a HPW (normally High Ping Whiner, but in this case High Ping Winner), Fun Names, Samoas (thin mints rule!), and last and seemingly least, Life.
• Zoid
  Zoid made a lengthy .plan update talking about Linux Quake 3.14a, and detailing what's changed with Quake II CTF 1.02 (he actually refers to it as Threewave CTF, which I thought was no longer the name).
• Disruptor
  Disruptor updated his .plan with a workaround on how to get QPlug working for Microsoft Internet Explorer users.
• Rick Johnson
  Raven's Rick Johnson made a .plan update detailing progress on Hexen2World. Beta testers will likely be contacted sometime today.
• Joey Liaw
  ION's Joey Liaw updated his .plan with a couple of tidbits, including an apology to id Software for a recent outburst (a subject Brian Hook touches on in his .plan), and word that they will "definitely be showing Anachronox at E3. This is the first .plan I recall seeing with a table of contents (A+).
• Joe Powell
  TeamGameSpy's Joe Powell's .plan file updates us on the status of GameSpy 2.0 beta testing, which is still at least three weeks away with morbid overseas.
• Levelord
  Levelord updated his .plan remarking on the new ION digs from attending their Penthouse warming party (I thought I saw you waving: ask my wife, I was like, "Honey, is that BeerF*ck waving from the top of the Texas Commerce building?", but then I got distracted by a UFO). There's also Real footage of JUDGECAL and Scott from All Games rampaging through the party posted up at Pseudo, as usual in high-bandwidth, and low-bandwidth varieties for your viewing pleasure.

PReviews

• 3D Accelerators
  See You Later Accelerator is the title of the feature on GameSpot UK, who are in the middle of a week long look at 3D accelerators, with articles on 3D behind the scenes Part 1 & Part 2 as well as looks at the Voodoo 2, the Intel740, and the next-generation PowerVR. Word is that sometime today features on Half-Life and Duke Nukem Forever will be added to the mix.
• Half-Life
  Speaking of Half-Live, GameSpot's Half-Life Preview has been updated. Thanks CiDcO.
• Prey
  Not really a preview, but Prey Project leader Paul Schuytema posted a Prey development update on 3D Realms' website. Thanks Lithium of PreyStation.

Competitions

• Capture 98 is a Quake II CTF tournament currently being organized, hoping to launch in the Spring.
  The Original Q2 Capture the Flag League is a similar competition, also accepting sign-ups.

etc.

• 3D Realms' Scott Miller comments on Duke Nukem movie casting options on GameWEEK ...
• Dan Bickell, famed for his skins, has created his first Plug-in Player Model, available in the models section of Dan Bickell's Skin Exhibition ...
• THE Deathmatch Database is a collection of contact for modem games all around the world. Looking for a partner in the dance of death? Just grab your dance card (and your shotgun) and get going ...
• Front-End of the Day is beta 3 of QuakeLauncher, available at Schmitt's United Home ...
• Results of the Keeg's Fortress poll on TeamFortress demographic have been posted here ...
• If you're curious how a Daikatana demo disc can be packaged with the Monster 3D 2 (as mentioned in their release), when the game is so far from completion, the answer is, it won't be, according to John Romero, who answered the Edge's query on the subject saying "Don't think so, might be The Frag video or something." ...

Site Seeing

• America Must Be Destroyed: The Gwar Quake II Homepage has relocated.
• The Quake2 Capture The Flag Ring has been Captured.
• Fond farewells to the War Council Game Site, which had been maintained by the tireless John "Hosebag" Graham, who has moved on to greener pastures as a member of MPOG, and also to Paco & Cromwell's CTF pages, where I was told a farewell message had been posted, but the URL seems to not work already.

Out of the Blue
Grendel was working on the server last night, and performance seems to have improved significantly, if it can crank through heavy traffic at this pace, I think we're in great shape. Thanks to everyone for your patience through all the recent transitions around here (keeps you on your toes, I know). I'm still testing things out, so there may still be some broken links and other glitches.

New Eraser Bot
Ridah has posted version 0.7 of the Eraser Bot (thanks Redwood) as a Win95 Installer (1.1 MB), and a zip file (1.0 MB) with a bunch of new features, including  what sounds like really nifty new team AI. The post on the Impact Development Team says this may be the final version of the Eraser, teasing an announcement:

Get ready to lead your team to victory! The Advanced Squadron AI has really come off better than I expected it to be. This changes the game drastically, as you'll now find team games are more of a "team game". Don't be surprised if you find yourself in a stand-off against the other team, who's guarding the Rocket Launcher, or Quad. I've included some new teams, with 8 players on each squad, boys vs. girls, so bump up the players_per_team to 8 and away you go. See bots.cfg for the names of these teams. Tip: press G to form a new squadron.

A lot of work has gone into this version, which should result in a much faster game, more intelligent AI, and the ability to play with more bots.

Please see the readme.txt for information on how to use the new Advanced Squadron AI and how to modify the new configurable chat system.

Eraser Bot v0.7

• Advanced Squadron AI
• Increased Intelligence
• Faster AI System (play against more bots!)
• Configurable Chat System
• Automatic Disabling/Enabling of Dynamic Routing
• see EraserTodo.txt for complete list of changes

Linux Quake II 3.14a
There was a small bug in Linux Quake II 3.14 that caused a big problem, 100% CPU usage on a dedicated server. Zoid has released Linux Quake 3.14a (872 KB) on id's FTP Site fixing this.

3Dfx D3D 2.15 Problem
3Dfx is warning of an error they made in the D3D drivers released yesterday (thanks Voodoo Extreme for forwarding this post from 3Dfx:

We Goofed!

There was a mistake with the control panel in the D3D 2.15 release that caused the drivers to be unrecognized.  The problem is NOT with the drivers.  It is only with the control panel.  We have fixed the problem, and we are testing the fix (Tuesday 3/3/98).  We will post the new kit as soon as it passes QA's inspection (which should be today, 3/3/98).

Please accept our sincerest apologies for this mistake.  We (those of us burning in hell for this) are putting steps in place to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Thanks Again For Your Continued Support,

3Dfx

Mac X-Men Quake Update, Unreal News
The Macintosh version of the 1.11 patch for the X-Men Quake TC (allowing the player to play the game as an X-Men, err, Man, among other things) has been released by Westlake Interactive. There is also a blurb there describing the alpha version of MacUnrreal being signed-off on, as the project heads into beta. Thanks Prophet.

Riot Team
This week's update to the Riot: Mobile Armor site features a look at the team behind Monolith's upcoming DirectEngine Game. Thanks Prophet.

New C.R.Bot
Version 0.99d of the C.R.Bot has been released on the C.R.Bot page featuring the now famous "hacked" 3.13 support (courtesy of Wonko the Sane). Thanks Prophet.

New Permedia2 NT Drivers
3D Labs has released new beta NT drivers for Permedia2-based video cards on this page. Thanks Warren T. Schultz.

Quake II  3.14 & CTF 1.02
id Software has released Quake II 3.14 on their FTP site. The file is available as a Windows upgrade to 3.14 (533 KB), a new Linux binary (872 KB), and a DEC Alpha binary (897 KB). Also, version 1.02 of Quake II Capture the Flag is available as a full Win95 installer (6.8 MB), a zip archive (5.3 MB), and a zipped upgrade (270 KB). The full lowdown on what's new can be found in John Cash's .plan along with the following:

Version 3.14 is ready and will be uploaded shortly.  We have both intel and alpha versions ready.  I believe Zoid had the Linux version ready and the latest CTF to boot.  So get them bits a burnin.   My apologies to all the ISP's who are trying to figure out why all their links just maxed out.

The game dll source will be uploaded tomorrow evening (tuesday, March 3rd) provided there are no major problems encountered with this version.

There were no changes for fun/extended/whatever names.  I don't know how to make it any clearer than saying we have no plans at all to change the code that deals with names.  The only really good argument I've heard was from somebody in europe who pointed out that there are a number of characters used by other languages that reside in that part of the normal character maps.

I might have seen fit to do the work needed if we actually had those characters in our table, but we do not.

Here's the bug fix list from 3.13 to 3.14

[...]

Interim Quake II Mod Releases
A couple of mods that have implemented interim Quake II 3.13 support have been released:

• New Rocket Arena Server
  Rocket Arena version 2.098 server has been released on the Rocket Arena page, featuring the now-familiar Quake II 3.13 support (which, I am informed, works for 3.14, as well).
• New Quake II PowerBall
  An interim Quake II 3.13 compatible PowerBall for Quake II has been released on the PowerBall page.

Q2Plug Released
Disruptor and Zoid have completed and released Q2Plug (39 KB), the browser plug-in to allow you to view Quake II server info on a web page, also available from id, and Redwood's. Thanks RonSolo.

New Qtracker
Version 2.0 of Qtracker has been released on the Qtracker Homepage. The new version boasts a bunch of new features, including, Mysteries of the Sith Support, Limited X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter Support (IPX only), Quake II IPX Support, and more server libraries, including the new JediKnight.Net libraries

.plans

• Paul Steed
  Paul Steed updated his .plan again to mention a new and improved webpage for his contest winner.
• Brian Hook
  Brian Hook updated his .plan with Brian's General Guide to Making It In Life.

Out of the Blue
Okay, there's the announcement. We moved again. I know, it seems like only last week that we moved ('cause it was). But once we were able to tap into the main vein at GlobalCenter, it became apparent that the previously deprived Blue's News crowd was going to use enough of their bandwidth to force me to take a job that involved a stocking mask and a pistol. Fortunately I was able to arrange a new home for Blue's and JediKnight.Net through my friends at GamesNet (their own website is currently offline, or I'd post a link). I want to thank Grendel for helping work this out, things seem great so far on the new server, so here's to a smooth transition (we're due for one of those). Thanks again to GlobalCenter for being cooperative throughout our stay, including this latest move.

Voodoo Graphics Direct3D Drivers
Version 2.15 of the Direct 3D Drivers for Voodoo graphics cards has been released on this page, the 2.15 Voodoo Rush (single board cards) are on this page, and the Voodoo Rush (dual board cards) on this page. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

New Quake II GL Tweak Guide
Also thanks to Wicked from Voodoo Extreme for sending along version 1.07.04  of 3 Fingers Quake II GL Tweak Guide (44 KB).

New Orange 2
Version 2.3 of Orange for Quake II has been released on the Orange 2 CTF page. The new release is Quake II 3.13 compatible. Thanks Prophet.

Quake II QStat Beta
Beta 2.1z of QStat, the Quake II version of Steve Jankowski's program that reports the status of Quake (and now Quake II servers) has been released on the QStat page. The beta release of version 2.1 support's id's Quake II master server. Thanks Prophet.

Competitions (Updated)

• PC Gamer Online has announced a Quake II modification contest with $2,000.00 as a grand prize (about a penny an hour for this kind of work, but still about $2,000 more than anyone else is offering). Details can be found on this page.
• Gateway sends along a reminder that the QERadiant "The Best Of The Net" level design contest ends a week from tomorrow, on March 10.
• Paul Steed updated his .plan to announce the winner of the Steed's Chick contest. Time considerations prevent Steed and Disruptor form creating a webpage for this, but he has posted the images of the winner on this webpage. Paul also mentions that there's just a GL fix that stands in the way of releasing the corresponding player model.
• The Immortal Death Quake Ladder is underway featuring several categories (QuakeWorld, non-QW, CTF, etc.).
• If you are interested in more information on a Quake II league being formed in the UK, email Chris.

New Lithium
Version 0.90 of the Lithium mod for Quake II has been released on the Lithium Quake II Mod page. The new release adds the ping command, and is compatible with Quake II version 3.13 (and therefore, incompatible with versions 3.10 and below). Lithium is a server-side only patch, so clients need need not download the mod to play.

Battle of the Sexes Du Jour
Version 2.7.4 of the Battle of the Sexes Quake II mod has been released on Spinoza's Quake 2 Mods Page, with preliminary Quake II 3.13 support (see below), with full 3.13 support promised when the source code is made available.

Mods for Quake II 3.13
The current support for Quake II 3.13 in Battle of the Sexes is offered utilizing a technique posted on Inside3D, which is a more significant hack than simply iterating the API Version from 2 to 3, so mod authors looking for a temporary workaround to upgrade until the game source is made available may want to check it out.

QuakeFinder
Version 1.5 of QuakeFinder, the Quake server browser for the Macintosh, has been released on the QuakeFinder page, featuring a load of enhancements.

New QERadiant
Build .45 of QERadiant, as perpetually noted, the Win95 friendly version of id QE4 Quake editor, has been released on the QERadiant page. The new version has built in support for the new CTF entities, as well as bug fixes, including a fix for the one that crashed SGI machines. Also, there is a new tutorial on Ravages of the Radiant on how to use the programs preferences, among a host of other QERad tutorials.

OS/2 Quake II
There is information on this page on how to get Quake II running under OS/2 using a package that apparently emulates Win32 API calls. I received word on this in the past, and tried to find out a bit more information about it, but was unsuccessful, so thanks Per Hammer for reminding me not to let this fall through the cracks.

All-Star CTF Plans
Word on the All-Star CTF page is that All-Star CTF (the variant that combines a bazillion different Capture the Flag variants under one "roof") will soon be a featured game on Heat.Net. Also, there is news on the progress of Allstar2, for Quake II, which. like the original, has already attracted attention, as designers from id Software, ION Storm, and and Ritual Entertainment have agreed to take the time to create new custom CTF levels for Allstar2.

Server Lists
There are a pair of new server lists on TeleFragged, one specifically for Quake II deathmatch, and the other for Q2 CTF.

New BSP2WRL2
Version 1.1 of bsp2wrl2, the tool to convert Quake II maps to VRML is up on the bsp2wrl page featuring the ability to convert the wireframe of Quake 2 BSP files into DXF format (readable by AutoCAD, 3D Studio, and other 3D/CAD packages). There are also some screenshots showing some Quake II levels imported into 3D Studio with their program.

Interviews

• Zoid
  Zoid is interviewed over on the Tejaz Clan Homepage, submitting to a brief third degree on Quake II CTF, talking about the scoring change, the grapple sound bug, and mentioning the imminence of Quake II CTF version 1.02.
• William Scarboro
  3D Realms' William Scarboro is interviewed on Voodoo Power talking about Prey and gaming issues in general.
• GL Doom
  Bruce Lewis of the OpenGL Doom project is interviewed on Extreme Doom.

PReviews

• There is a review of the Creative 3D Blaster Voodoo 2 on Next Generation Online. Thanks TRON.
• There is also a review of the Creative 3D Blaster Voodoo 2 on Tom's Hardware Guide, that draws comparisons to the Monster 3D II (which Tom has also reviewed already).
• Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith is reviewed on GamePower. Thanks Jedi Nights.

Departments
An update to the official LAN Party FAQ (now at version 1.4b) inspired an update to the LAN parties page, including word on GibCon '98, slated to be a huge convention in Sydney Australia this summer.

etc.

• Unreal Nation has switched their news to a database format that allows you to customize how you view their site. The guys over their asked permission to include the Blue's News headlines in the customization, so you can add those, as well as headlines from  Quake2.com to your custom viewing options.
• Here's an editorial defending the role of play in our lives that you might want to keep handy for those occasional emergency rationalizations for your wife, girlfriend, mom, boss, etc. Thanks Duncan Wyley.
• There are a few portraits on The QuakeEasel putting heads from people you are probably familiar with from the world of Quake/II (Joost, sCary, Redwood) on the bodies of Quake Marines.

Site Seeing

• Guard Guild, dedicated to the art of defense in Capture the Flag, has been Captured!

Out of the Blue
Wow, commentary on Cookies still rolls in: interestingly, the comment about considering a messageboard also drew passionate responses on both sides of the issue. Quite an opinionated bunch we have around here, but I guess that's what makes it all so fun. Oh yeah, I'm almost positive you can expect the little announcement I teased the other day later today.

Ruination CTF Arena
The first beta of Ruination CTF Arena has been released on the Ruination page. Described as a combination of CTF and Rocket Arena, Ruination CTF Arena is a Quake II mod featuring two constantly moving (courtesy of a flag carrier for each team) flags, with each player only gets one life per round.

Save the Lemmings
There is a save the Lemmings modification for Quake on the Nocturnal Conversions page that gives the player lemmings to protect, with scoring based on the number of your charges you can safely escort to the exit.

Quake II 3.13 Compatible Requiem
Requiem Preview Version 0.002 for Quake2 3.12/13 has been released on the Requiem - Ode To The Dead page. Here's the deal on whether or not this is actually Requiem II:

I'm still not sure if it will actually be called Requiem when it's finished (if it ever is), as so far it isn't really a conversion of the Q1 Requiem patch, and alot of the Q1 Requiem's patch I won't be able to port across to Q2. But, it's still fun making this Woteveritscalled Q2 patch, so let me know what you think.

Battle of the Sexes
Version 2.7.3 of the Battle of the Sexes mod for Quake II (version 3.10 only), boasting a bunch of new features for several classes as well as bug fixes, has been released on Spinoza's Quake 2 Mods Page where there is also now a Battle of the Sexes strategy guide.

Quake II Usage
Disruptor has a chart online (as mentioned in his .plan) that shows the number of Quake II players playing on servers reporting to id's master on an hour-by-hour basis.

Quake II Network Specs
There's a page of Quake 2 Network Protocol Specifications doped out as part of the Pandora Bot project.

Quake II Environment Maps
Steve Funkadooda has doped out some techniques for using Bryce to create Quake II environment maps, and has posted information on the subject on QuakeLab 2.

Interviews

• Dr Sleep
  ION Storm's Dr Sleep is interviewed over on The RazorEdge. Thanks Andrew "kolinahr" Wu.

• dark_skye
  dark_skye, of the S.A.B.I.N. project is interviewed over on Metropolis.

etc.

• Front-end of the Day is patch specific: A program called Eraser Launch which eases configuration of Eraser Bot games ...
• Q2 CTF Walkthroughs: There are walkthroughs of Quake II CTF in demo format on False Dot Com.
• BattleZone Screenshots: There are no less than 45 new screenshots of BattleZone up on Battlezone Center ...
• Know your weapon: If you're interested in some facts about real Railgun technology, here's a link to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's documents on the subject. Thanks Jared 'HazMat' Davies.
• There is an editorial on Inside 3D called Can't We All Just Get Along that discusses some of the issues raised in the Fun Name IRC discussion last night (here's an edited log). Additionally, here is an article called What's the Deal With Names in Quake II on this subject as well. Finally, the Fun Name Petition, which had been closed, has been re-opened.
• Vital Question of the Day is "What is the best food to eat while playing Quake?" Fill out an the online survey on this subject on the Quake 2 Haven.
• Happy Birthday to erstwhile interviewer and full time .plan maniac Lone^Wolf, who became legal yesterday.

Site Seeing

• Frag Central is a new level review site.
• The Official WinDoom/glDoom Homepage is now on Frag.Com.

Out of the Blue
I've gotten so much interesting mail on the cookies question, I am thinking it may be time to do something I always resisted, which is start a messageboard. I just don't know if I am willing to deal with the headaches of board abuse, so I'll consider it (guess I'm just thinking out loud). Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to mention the finger insert on this page is not being properly automatically updated yet (the problem is on our end, not QuakeFinger's), that will be working properly again in the next couple of days.

Daikatana Unveiled
There's an article on GameCenter called Daikatana Unveiled at Ion Storm that reports on the doings at ION's big penthouse warming party the other day. Thanks Redwood.

FAQ's of Life
Prey Portal passes along word that the official Prey FAQ has been updated to version 1.2. Thanks to author Lon Matero for permission to store this local copy. Also thanks to Richard Sat Connery for permission to store a local copy of the Quake II FAQ (the only FAQ I know of that concludes with a frequently asked questions section!), as well.

Bot Message Board
There is a messageboard for bot related postings over on the Quake2 Bot Epidemic.

TF2Ring
TeamFortress 2 is not yet available, but the anticipation seems to be growing, as the TeamFortress 2 webring is already accepting members.

Half-Life Print Ad
Here's a copy of an upcoming three page print ad for Half-Life, slated to appear in the April CGW and PC Gamer, with this page (32 KB) opening to reveal this two-page fold out (84 KB).

Competitions

• Pure3D Giveaway
  There's a giveaway on Pure3D Central providing an opportunity to win a Pure3D Voodoo card from Canopus, which, if Blue's News gave out a boot-esque "this product kicks ass!" award, would have been the 1997 winner (in fact, I just decided I do have some such award and the Pure3D did just win, so congrats Canopus on winning this spontaneous, and soon to be highly coveted honor).
• Model Sounds
  Deconstruct is holding a competitions to create sounds cool enough to go along with their cool Fuel4.46 model.

Brian Hook's .plan
id's Brian Hook made a two part update, first mentioning there will be a DEC Alpha version of Quake II 3.14 (no word on a time-frame), and in this later update outlines what he's working on, mentions plans for a couple of future lectures, and mentions he still plans on posting his recent University of Florida lecture as promised.

MotS Review
There's a review of Mysteries of the Sith over on TheForce.net.

Interviews

• Gabe Newell
  Valve Software's Gabe Newell is interviewed on GameWeek.
• Ridah
  Eraser author Ridah is interviewed on over on Metropolis.

• Frog
  There is also an interview with Robert 'frog' Field, the author of the FrogBot on Metropolis, where there is also a demo of man a versus machine deathmatch showing the FrogBot for Quake in action.

etc.

• Log Parser of the Day is FunLog, on the Wmned Windows page. Fun log can read the output of a Quake frag log, and include the characters in fun names.
• Voodoo Vroom: It makes me a little nervous, but there's a web based Voodoo overclocking utility over on Accelerate! that adjusts your registry settings (eeek!).
• Happy Birthday to Crack dot Com's Dave Taylor, who turned all of 29 yesterday, as mentioned in his .plan.

Out of the Blue
William Hickey in Prizzi's Honor: "Have a cookie..." I dunno if I'm glad or sorry I asked before I did anything about the cookie question: man do some people get irked when asked about cookies for their browser: I guess I'm leaning again towards a simpler HTML-based solution, maintaining the tradition of Blue's News being cookiless and decaffeinated. The funny thing is that in dozens of letters expressing mistrust of cookies, no one was able to detail a reason, other than an uncertain assumption that there is a potentially evil cookie abuse to be protected from (I got mail with subject lines like: "Cookies are Evil!").