Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

No one on their death bed ever said "I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer!"
  Dani Bunten Berry (February 9, 1949 -- July 3, 1998)

Infiltrate for Jedi Knight  [9:10 PM EDT]
The JK Gangstas Homepage has word of their release of Infiltrate for Jedi Knight, a multiplayer mod described as being CTF-like.

New QuArK Beta  [9:10 PM EDT]
Beta 5.0.b8 of QuArK, the mult-purpose editing tool for Quake/Quake II/Hexen II is up on The Official Quake Army Knife Homepage. Thanks Fist.

Quantum3D Price Adjustment  [9:10 PM EDT]
Since they are introducing their products in stores with new lowered prices, Quantum3D has posted a special price adjustment offer. North American customers who purchased an Obsidian2 product directly from their online webstore or by calling Quantum3D, may be eligible for a rebate. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

More TNT  [9:10 PM EDT]
The video card stuff keeps coming, here's Cyrellis 3D's Diamond Viper TnT 16MB AGP Video Card Review. Calling itself a review, rather than a preview, this is nonetheless based on a showing of a pre-production board rather than a final product (like all of the TNT commentary from today).

Dead Reckoning Art  [9:10 PM EDT]
Processed News has posted three pieces of character art from an upcoming 3D game called Dead Reckoning from Piranha Interactive, promising more tomorrow.

OEM Incoming Cyrix Patch  [6:40 PM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List has a patch for the OEM version of Rage's Incoming running on Cyrix processors. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Mistique G200 Review  [6:40 PM EDT]
There's part one of a Mystique G200 review on the Matrox User's Resource Center. Also, word there is that the Matrox website has announced that G200 cards are now shipping. It's a lengthy look, but as a kid I would reach through the cereal for the prize, and in that vein here are a couple of benchmarks (PII-300 64MB):

Savage 3D Gets More Savage  [6:12 PM EDT]
The Cyrellis 3D S3 Savage3D Review-Part 2 is already up, adding updated benchmarks using new drivers they received this morning that double the card's Quake II performance. Here's a look at the side-by-side comparison to a 12MB Voodoo2-based Wicked3D (PII-400 64MB):

Xatrix Interview  [5:35 PM EDT]
An interview with some of the team at Xatrix Entertainment (Alex "Aldawg" Mayberry, Dan Koppel, and Mal Blackwell) on TerraFusion talks about level design, in particular their work on the Quake II mission pack, the Reckoning.

Exklusiv Intervju Med Joseph Selinske  [5:35 PM EDT]
Exklusiv intervju med Joseph Selinske on Swedish Gamer.

Ritual Project Manager  [5:35 PM EDT]
There's a help wanted for a Project Manager on the Ritual Site to work on their upcoming game Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2.

Savage 3D  [1:15 PM EDT]
The day of the accelerator continues with cyrellis 3D's review of a the S3 Savage3D 8MB AGP Video Card. The review offers Forsaken and Quake II screenshots and benchmarks and calls it the best 2D/3D accelerator they've ever tested.

More TNT  [12:46 PM EDT]
Yesterday's All-Games Hardware show gives a RealPlayer look at the RIVA TNT card from Diamond that made a recent tour, and GameCenter's hands-on review is titled RIVA TNT No Voodoo 2 Killer.

Unreal Review  [12:46 PM EDT]
Still a couple of Unreal reviews trickling in, here's one from the mainstream Salon 21st that doesn't call Unreal a Quake killer, but an id-killer. Thanks Reaper.

Heretic II Ads  [12:46 PM EDT]
The latest Heretic II Print Ad Images are up on Activision's site. Thanks Frans P. de Vries of 3D Action Gamers again.

Chat-o-Rama  [10:47 AM EDT]
3DGaming.Net has an IRC chat tonight with the Valve gang to discuss Half-Life. The festivities kick off at at 8:30 Eastern time in 3DNet IRC #3dgaming. Also, tonight at 8:00 PM Central time (9:00 PM Eastern) is this month's installment of the Anachro-chat with the creators of Anachronox. To join in, click on the flashing "Live Online" button on the ION Storm site or by connecting to server www.ionstorm.com with an IRC client and going to channel #ion.

Reckoning Secrets  [10:47 AM EDT]
A Quake II The Reckoning Secret Guide is up on Gamesmania offering all the secrets in the first official Quake II mission pack. Thanks Frans P. de Vries of 3D Action Gamers.

RIVA TNT Preview  [10:47 AM EDT]
Anand's Hardware Tech Page's NVIDIA RIVA TNT Preview is up (thanks Billy at VE), based on a demo by the folks at Diamond who showed them a pre-production board, similar to other first looks provided by the travelling STB TNT show. Like the other previews that got to see the card in action, the benchmarks and descriptions are impressive enough, but do seem to dispel the notion that the TNT is a Voodoo2-killer. They also offer a too-dark Quake II screenshot saying this:

"While the gamma could benefit from a little fine tuning (ok maybe a lot), and keeping in mind that there is a loss of image quality when using JPEG compression, the visual quality of the TNT isn't bad at all.   In action, the TNT can rival a Voodoo2 in terms of quality, especially once you break the 1024 x 768 barrier."

Free Tanarus Weekend  [10:47 AM EDT]  
989 Studios Offers Free Weekend of Online Gaming for Hit Online Game Tanarus is the announcement passed along by Lorien at Gamer's Alliance describing how to play Sony's online Tank battle for free this weekend.

CPL Mad Catz Bounty  [10:47 AM EDT - Updated]
Mad Catz offers $10,000 Cash Prize at the CPL Event, is the latest news from the Cyberathlete's upcoming tourney in Dallas July 23-26. cK-Turmoil points out that this prize is only to be awarded if someone uses a Mad Catz trackball/joystick combo to win the one-on-one tournament.

Unofficial Unreal FAQ  [4:47 AM EDT]
Version 0.3 of Unreal Kingdom's unofficial Unreal FAQ is online, updated with the latest info after the recent beta patch release.

AvP Preview  [4:47 AM EDT]
Next Generation Online Aliens vs. Predator Preview adds some info to go with those screenshots from yesterday. Thanks Frans P. de Vries of 3D Action Gamers.

On the Sin Scripting Demo, SinEd & K6-Sin  [4:27 AM EDT]
Ritual's Charlie Wiederhold's .plan has more info on the Sin scripting demo film for the editing types that are dealing with it. Also, onethumb made a .plan update asking for feedback on the scripting demo as well as giving the word on SinEd and Sin K6-2 support. Here's an excerpt of the larger update:

-[ SinEd ]-

Along with this scripting release, I suppose it's appropriate to remind everyone that SinEd will be included, free of charge, on the Sin CD. Since the scripting language is in text format, and you'll be equipped with the editor right out of the box, there shouldn't be anything stopping mod makers from creating amazing environments to show off.

-[ AMD K6-2 3DNow! ]-

I've gotten some email wondering what's up with Sin and AMD's 3DNow! stuff. I can tell you that we have a couple of boxes here, and we're actively working with AMD on including support. No promises of course, but it's looking good.

Quake II Comic  [4:27 AM EDT]
Part one of a new Dank & Scud inspired Quake II comic is up on BAV Design (thanks Slade). It has a spelling glitch or two, but I'd say it's a keeper. The scene of the two crash landed marines in that pod is worth the effort right there.

Dementia Extreme  [4:27 AM EDT]
It's an extreme case of dementia at the Daily Dementia today, as Billy and Sweet Dick from Voodoo Extreme stop by to share wit and wisdom with TC, RealAudio style.

Dear Mynx  [4:27 AM EDT]
She's at it again: In this week's Dear Mynx:

"Pubic hair on the lam, losing your shorts while you sleep, speedbumps on the road to willieville, Dad's stank-ass pron habit, becoming a man, and fingering Mynx. Where did I put that butter flavored Crisco?"

Unreal Game Guide  [4:27 AM EDT]
A new Unreal Game Guide on GameSpot offers the path of least resistance through the single player game.

Eraser Solaris Ports  [4:27 AM EDT]
Solar Eclipse has the Quake II Eraser bot for Solaris platforms available as compiled Sparc and x86 binaries

Catch the Chicken  [4:27 AM EDT]
Version 1.3 of Catch the Chicken for Quake II is out including Linux and Solaris ports. Thanks Buke.

Q2 eVolution CTF  [4:27 AM EDT]
Version 1.0a of Quake II eVolution CTF is up on the SolarWave Development page.

New Eraser Wizard  [4:27 AM EDT]
Version 2.20 of the Quick Start Eraser Bot Wizard is out, hot on the heels of 2.18 to squash some major bugs.

Out of the Blue
A lot of folks jumped in to "clarify" what id means from the last two OotBs, which was not really in doubt (it's id as in Freud, ego, etc.). The discussion was the capitalization and variations on the spelling people use, and why. In a neat conclusion to that discussion, John Romero updated his .plan providing the time-line for the name changes: "Oh yeah, the name "id Software" was spelled "ID" in the beginning, then "Id Software" during Wolf3D, then "id Software" from DOOM onwards." The main point of his update is to mourn the recent death of  Danielle Berry, certainly sad news for computer gaming enthusiasts. M.U.L.E. is one of those games that perpetually stays on what seems to be everyone's all time favorite games lists (including mine), and many of her other titles are just as seminal in the world of multiplayer and online gaming. A great place to catch up on all this is the Mpath Dani Bunten Berry Memorial Site that CDC-Bone found on BitchX's page.

Sin Cinema Confirmed  [10:21 PM EDT]
I got an email from Harry Miller, biz dude at Ritual, confirming that the report earlier about the Sin animated movie is not one of those flights of film fancy, but a real project to create animé-style Sin cinema.

New Monster Sound Drivers  [9:55 PM EDT]
The Diamond Multimedia Monster Sound Drivers page has new version 1.07.06 Windows95 drivers for all versions of the Monster Sound card. The drivers are available as a full install as well as an incremental upgrade for those with a previous version of the drivers installed. Thanks Randy Perry.

Quake II Bible Update  [9:55 PM EDT]
The Gamers Extreme Quake II Bible has been updated with extensive deathmatch strategies for Q2DM5.

Shooters  [6:20 PM EDT]
Tonight on Shooters, the RealPlayer extravaganza formerly known as QuakeCast, we will be talking with Bagpuss about his upcoming QBS2 gaming news notifier dealie, dyermaker of Blueprints (no relation) who does a RealAudio show of her own about TeamFortress map making, and we will speak with Joel Huenink of 4D Rulers Software, who are working on their own 3D Shooter called Gore. Shooters is tonight, and every Thursday, live at 8:00 PM Eastern time.

On the subject, here are whatever other links I could recall off the top of my head for RealAudio gaming stuff. In addition to Blueprints there are a bunch of TF-oriented shows, including shows on MegaTF, UnHumans Vault, and others I'm sure I've missed. Also, the Daily Dementia at MeccaWorld almost perfectly lives up to its name (the show is always demented, but isn't technically daily as it does not broadcast on weekends). Pointless Audio - By = iMMoRTaL = also almost perfectly lives up to its name, the caveat here is that far from pointless, it is occasionally quite pointed (he likes ripping into easy targets like Shooters for one thing). Pointless Audio is recommended for mature (or at least older) audiences only, by the way. Finally, SmokeBreak has come and gone a couple of times, and is currently back on the "air" again. I'll post the links to shows I hear from that I missed, but for now that's more than an earful.

Sin Scripting Video Demo  [6:20 PM EDT]
Ritual Entertainment has posted a Sin scripting demo video on this page. This is not intended for gamers to show gameplay, but rather for hardcore editing types described as "a simple video used to show how easy it is to create the interactive, immersive environment that is Sin" intended to get their "creative juices flowing." Thanks Redwood.

Quake Action Figure  [6:20 PM EDT]
Quake action figure news, courtesy of the Raving Toy Maniac (thanks Bret Young):

Quake Hits Resaurus

ReSaurus, makers of Duke Nukem as well as the upcoming Virus and Bone lines, has acquired the rights to produce an action figure line based on Quake, the hit computer game from Id Software. Work is beginning now on planning the line, and the team at ReSaurus is working hard to get the first figures on the shelves by Christmas. If you've ever played Quake you know just how cool this line will be. There's tentative talk of a Quake/Duke Nukem two-pack as well.

Expert Quake2  [3:58 PM EDT]
The Expert Quake page has posted version 2.3 of their Expert Quake II mod (a fix for the equally recent 2.2). In addition to tweaks to the weapon balance, the new release adds two new modes: an Alternate Restore mode, which allows wounded players to heal themselves only by grabbing backpacks and resting. A new Expert CTF mode has been added as well, which will show players the distribution of your team on the map relative to the base. In case you're not familiar with what EQ is all about, let me paste a handy little blurb they have on the subject:

Expert Quake2 is the product of extended design focusing on game depth and playability. Through many means, including balance and lowered lethality, simple-minded tactics such as camping and ambushing are eliminated in Expert because they are ineffective, and reflexes and ping have a reduced role in the game. Only through great skill and teamwork can players excel at Expert.

Mac TombRaider  [3:58 PM EDT]
News on the Westlake Interactive site is that they're gearing up for the Macintosh ports of TombRaider I & II. MacTR II is due to ship around Christmas of this year, "and will take full advantage of the PowerMac's speed, graphics, and ease of use" (in case you were having trouble using the PC/console versions?). Thanks Grey Digger.

Gore Music  [3:58 PM EDT]
A music composer is sought for Gore, no, not Tipper categorized music for the US veep, but tunes for the upcoming gory shooter titled Gore from 4D Rulers. Details are here on this volunteer job.

Worldcraft Shareware Returns  [2:21 PM EDT]
Somberfire from the Worldcraft Website passes along the news that a new shareware version 1.6a of the Worldcraft level editor (Quake/Quake II/Hexen II, etc.), apparently in "secret" development for some time now, will be included on the CD in the September issue of PC Accelerator Magazine. After the mag hits the newsstands, the new shareware version will be made available on the 'net.

S3, Matrox, & PowerVR OpenGL  [2:21 PM EDT]
Techland has posted OpenGL minidrivers for S3, Matrox, & PowerVR based cards that were developed for their game Crime Cities (thanks Burr). I'm not sure what, if anything there will do for other games, but it may be worth checking out. Here's what they say about the drivers (you need to go sign a EULA to download them):

The below drivers are some of the results of our endevours. Typically these drivers retain some compatibility with OpenGL™, and quite often function very well with computer games designed for use with OpenGL™ such as our own Crime Cities™.

These drivers were developed for use with Crime Cities^TM, and thus include additional instructions which currently are not present within other MiniGL drivers, but are included within the full OpenGL™ v1.1 ICD (Installable Client Driver) specification. Additional features which may not be present might include such things as realtime lighting, fog etc. This heavily depends on the 3D specifications for your 2D/3D or 3D add-on graphics card.

Performance claims are always subjective, but we feel all the following drivers can happily stand-up and be accounted for.

These drivers are not sanctioned in any way by Silicon Graphics Inc, and were designed purely for compatibility with Techland products.

These drivers have not been submitted for compatibility with Microsoft at their compatibility labs, and should be considered as beta software, and whilst every effort has been made to ensure that they are of the highest quality, they may contain bugs that are harmful to your computer system.

AvP Screenshots  [12:05 PM EDT]
There are some Aliens versus Predator screenshots up on OGR.

Sin Animated Movie  [11:45 AM EDT]
No word from Ritual yet, but Dan Rockwell of ADVFILMS sends word that it's been confirmed (though he says all the details are not yet in) that a Sin animated feature is in the works. Here's the quote from their Catalog:

Prepare to SiN!

Now many of you maybe familiar with Nadia & PowerDoLLs, but what's SiN you ask? SiN is a bold new Original Video Animation project we're producing in Japan based off the upcoming computer game SiN, from Ritual Entertainment: http://www.ritual.com/sin/index.html

Unreal Multiplayer Guide  [11:45 AM EDT]
Final Rest's Unreal Resource page has posted an Unreal Multiplayer Guide. The guide is considered to be a work in progress, and will be enhanced as improvements to the Unreal net code make further testing possible.

Q2Java  [11:45 AM EDT]
Version 0.6.0 of Quake II Java is out. Q2Java allows mod authors to write in Java (I believe they all already write "on" Java), instead of C. Q2Java apps run under Windows using Sun's Windows JavaVM.

BoatRocker Interview  [11:45 AM EDT]
Forgot to mention yesterday that an interview with Kerry Wilkinson of Rebel Boat Rocker is up on BoatRocker.com.

3D Card Roundup  [11:45 AM EDT]
A 3D Card Roundup on HARDgame takes another look at a current crop of accelerators.

Work at 3Dfx  [3:47 AM EDT]
Jack Mathews' .plan has a help wanted for 3Dfx:

A couple cool things going on. First, anyone want a job at 3Dfx? No, I'm not leaving, but there's an opening that I want to check out here for. Basically, we need someone that has lots (5 years) Windows programming experience, MFC experience, and stuff to actually SHOW for it. If you fit this description, and don't mind moving to San Jose, CA, send me a resume at jack@gamespy.com and PLEASE include the subject "job" in the subject line. Also, don't expect a reply, as you likely won't get one. Also make sure that you ONLY send resumes. I don't want stuff like "I wrote hax000rpr0s, hire me!" Also, please don't include lots of questions about what the job will entail. If you're unsure, send the resume, and you may find out :)

Interstate '82 Screenshot  [3:22 AM EDT]
Thanks to Charlie Hill at Activision and the Interstate '82 team, who, aware of my Interstate '76 affection, passed along another Interstate '82 screenshot. This one is an '82 Lionetti Perrigrina driving through a mineshaft to show off the ability of the upcoming game's engine to render indoor scenes.

Thief Interview  [3:22 AM EDT]
An interview with Greg LoPiccolo on Next-Generation Online talks to the project director on Looking-Glass Technologies' upcoming Thief: the Dark Project looking for "proof that Eidos really was going to present us with something other than Quake with a different backstory."

Dead Reckoning Preview  [3:22 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault previews Dead Reckoning, an airborne action shooter that the article says promises an unorthodox gaming philosophy (though the article goes on to explain that a quick save feature has been added):

Luke Ahearn, the president of Goldtree, states that, "Originally I felt that too many games allowed people to cheat to extremes and further felt that Goldtree needed to create a game that only a great gamer could beat." The game would contain "no cheat codes, no save level option, no running a maze and popping grenades around corners because you know exactly where the monster will be standing." You would have no chance to chose an easy level of difficulty, and you would face "enemy AI better than your computer teammates later in the game."

OpenGL/D3D (Unreal)  [3:22 AM EDT]
Billy posted a letter on Voodoo Extreme from Keith Leonard of DreamForge, who are doing the OpenGL Unreal implementation. Keith gives his perspective on some recent comments by Brian Hook and Alex St. John about OpenGL and Unreal.

LucasGames  [3:22 AM EDT]
Holy Guybrush Threepwood, Batman! Several of the webmasters involved in the Jedi Knight community, including our fine colleagues at Jedi Knight.Net, have gotten together to create LucasGames, dedicated to all the games of LucasArts, from the Star Wars games to the upcoming Grim Fandango, and everywhere in between.

Win98? Careful With Those Files!  [3:22 AM EDT]
Just thought I'd pass this along: PC World Today - Beware Windows 98's File Deletion Bug. Thanks [Ff]Ghostjammer.

Out of the Blue
A follow up on yesterday's ramble. Well darn it if there weren't a couple of actual explanations for a couple of the variations folks have mistakenly adopted for id Software's name. Several wrote in pointing out that Wolfenstein 3-D had a logo that said iD. This sounded familiar, but when I checked (I'm proud to say I didn't have to reinstall it), I found the graphic logo is more like a giant capital "I" and a smaller capital "D." When the game ends the ASCII shareware screen does say "Id Software," so it has not always been all lowercase. Something else I noticed when looking at that shareware screen is though the price of computers has dropped considerably in the time since Wolf3D's heyday, software is a different story: Registration for all six episodes of Wolf3D was US$50 (specify 3.5 or 5.25 disk when ordering). Finally Tim Allen (grunt grunt) points out that he thinks it was Commander Keen that had the "iD" logo (sorry, I'm not hardcore enough to have that still installed, where he also recalls the phrase "We're In Demand," which of course, suggests that In Demand is what I.D. would stand for, explaining where that mistake came from (John from PQ confirmed the "In Demand" quote, but points out that id is still "ID"). Looks like it went from Id/ID to id sometime in between Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom.

New Unreal Network Documentation  [9:45 PM EDT]
Tim Sweeney sent along word of an update to his Latest Unreal Technology News page announcing new Unreal network documentation:

New Documentation: Complete overview of Unreal's networking architecture. This is of interest to UnrealScript programmers who are putting together fairly advanced mods which introduce new kinds of data that need to be communicated in network games, want to add server administration capabilities, or create new kinds of user interfaces for chatting, server-side menus, or other cool things I can't yet envision. It's also aimed at our licensee programmers, many of whom are doing innovative new things with network play. I'm trying to be as open as possible about releasing licensee documentation to the Unreal community whenever possible.

Still working on: Updated IpDrv.u. And, I'm juggling some of the upcoming UnrealEd improvements.

Messiah Screenshots  [5:05 PM EDT]
Processed News has posted four new screenshots from Shiny's upcoming third person game of action and possession, Messiah.

New Outlands (Q2CTF4)  [4:23 PM EDT]
Disruptor updated his .plan with word of a re-released version of Q2CTF4 (Outlands) that is more balanced:

I've released a new version of the q2ctf4 (Outlands) CTF map which is now available on our FTP site;

ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/maps/q2ctf4a.exe
or
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/maps/q2ctf4a.tar.gz

It should be extracted to \quake2\baseq2\maps. This version of the CTF map attempts to address issues with making play more balanced.

It is currently running on our CTF server at 192.246.40.37:27913

Thanks to Brian Hook, John Cash, the people on 3DNet and EFNet (you know who you are) for their input in making this map more balanced.

Here is a local copy of the Windows installer (996 KB) and the Unix file (970 KB), on GamesNET FTP.

Sin Demo & CPL Event  [4:06 PM EDT]
The Cyberathletes have announced there will be Sin giveaways at their upcoming tourney celebrating the demo release:

The Cyberathlete Organization announced that Ritual Entertainment and Activision will also release a playable demo of Sin, their new 3D action game, at the upcoming Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Event that will take place at the Infomart in Dallas, Texas on July 23 to July 26. During the first ever Sin LAN competition, the CPL will give away Sinday and Activision prizes in several random drawings throughout the day.

5th Element Demo Fix  [4:06 PM EDT]
There's a version of the recently released 5th Element demo on Gamer's Alliance that adds two enhancements: You do not need to burn the demo onto a CD to get it to run, and second, it runs, since even burning a CD was not enough to get the first version working for most people.

I-War Demo Fix  [4:06 PM EDT]
Speaking of fixed demos, Billy at Voodoo Extreme points out that the The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List has a joystick fix for yesterday's I-War demo (story).

BC3KAD Patch  [4:06 PM EDT]
Though there's now word on the BattleCruiser Website as of this writing, Dr. Smart sends word of a Version 1.08A patch that runs about 675 KB. The patch is said to fix a software rendering problem not evident in the 3Dfx version. This patch is for the registered version, not  the free version of the game.

Seed Interview  [2:22 PM EDT]
VoodooNation has an interview with Gabor Kadas from Humansoft talking about their upcoming shadowy 3D shooter, Seed.

Giants Preview  [2:22 PM EDT]
The busy beavers over at LA Reviews have posted a Giants preview giving a brief look ahead at this third person action game they describe as "MDK-ish."

Max Payne Update  [2:07 PM EDT]
Part two of Sam Lake's three part Max Payne development update is up on the Max Payne Website talking about the game setting and the levels.

SciTech Display Doctor  [11:58 AM EDT]
Version 6.53 of SciTech Display Doctor is out. SDD describes itself as a "universal Windows 95 display driver," and the new release adds or enhances support for the following cards (bringing the number of supported cards to over 100 billion!):

3DLabs Permedia 2, Alliance ProMotion 6410/6422/AT24/AT3D/AT25, ARK Logic ARK1000VL/PV, ARK2000PV, ARK2000MT, Chips & Technologies 65545/48/50/54/55, Cirrus Logic CL-GD5462/64 Laguna VisualMedia, Matrox Millennium, NeoMagic NM2070/90/93 LCD, NVIDIA RIVA 128, OAK Technologies 64105/107/017/111/217/317 (Warp 5), SiS 6201, 6202, 6205, 6215, 6326, and Trident 8900-9000 series ISA cards.

USENET Moderator(s) Wanted  [11:58 AM EDT]
Andrew Brennand of MINOS Games sends along word that the USENET Doom & Quake announce groups are being revived, and need moderators:

I've been tasked with resurrecting the now long dead USENET newsgroups rec.games.computer.quake.announce and rec.games.computer.doom.announce. I'd be grateful if any of your readers with USENET moderating experience who fancy moderating both of these groups could get in touch with me at:

andrew@minos.co.uk

The successful applicant will have *total* control over the groups and can re-write the posting guidelines as they see fit. Quake Announce is intended to take posts on Quake2 / Quake Arena - so it isn't old news by any means.

QW Requiem Source Update  [11:58 AM EDT]
The Requiem - Ode To The Dead page has an updated version of the recently released Requiem for QuakeWorld source code. A couple of files were mistakenly left out of the first version of the source.

Q2 NIQ Fix  [11:58 AM EDT]
A new version 1.9 of NIQ Mods for Quake II is out, fixing the spawning problem in the last release.

Quake Waterworld  [11:58 AM EDT]
Squonkamatic's AquaQuake Vault is a site uniquely dedicated to the celebration of water-based combat, with aqueous levels for download.

Gateway does Voodoo2  [11:58 AM EDT]
This press release sent along by 3Fingers describes Gateway's plans to offer Voodoo2 cards, possibly the Black Magic from STB, as an optional component in their Destination line.

Editorials  [11:58 AM EDT]
Fun and Realism on sCary's Shack looks at whether those two elements can co-exist, and Benchmark Baloney on AGN3D discusses the not-so-shocking generalization that companies don't always play it straight with benchmarks.

Quake II Tweaks Tweaked  [4:03 AM EDT]
3Fingers' Quake2 and GLQuake Tweak guide on Billy's House o' Pancakes has been updated, now with up to 30% more tweaks. Both the Quake and the Quake II sections have been enhanced.

Blood2 Feature  [4:03 AM EDT]
3DGamingNet has a big ole Blood 2 Feature which includes interviews, and IRC log, and some exclusive screenshots.

Hexen II/HW/Siege Strategies  [4:03 AM EDT]
The Strategon over on Hexenworld has re-launched set to serve your Hexen II strategy need, with a Siege section in the works.

TombRaider III  [4:03 AM EDT]
There are some TombRaider III (AKA T.R. ai, ai, ai!) screenshots and a look at the game in GameSpot UK's Tomb Raider III Preview.

More id Ranting  [4:03 AM EDT]
Prophet sends word that before moving on to other things, the new Games Domain Rant has some follow-up on last week's rant about id Software. The author (who makes a mention this site, though he has mistaken italics for a hyperlink), does not think much of brand loyalty:

"The way that things are today, you're an idiot to have any brand loyalty, whether it's to id, RCA, or General Motors."

Jobs  [4:03 AM EDT]
Ensemble Studios is hiring. Thanks Prophet.

Out of the Blue
Just a nonsense thought out of the whatsits here: I noticed a long time ago that if you try and do anything interesting with the capitalization of your nickname or your company name (as folks on the Internet like to do), you should resign yourself to some people getting it wrong. I learned this during a time when my nickname was the uncapitalized "blue," that was always "Blue" to some. In the same way, ION Storm and id Software get changed quite often when written about, becoming Ion Storm in the case of the former, and for the latter we've seen all variations, including Id, I.D. (also a favored spoken error), and the inexplicable iD. You know how hard it is to keep it straight when you go the lower case route? Check out John Carmack's .plans from July 4 and July 5 where id is typed Id once in each.

Sin AVI - Demo News  [10:03 PM EDT]
The Sin Demo Premiere news on GameCenter is that they will be the exclusive point of release for the Sin demo on Sinday July 26. In the meantime they have posted an exclusive Sin AVI, the first what they promise will be several looks at the game.

Independence War Demo  [10:03 PM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List has posted the Independence War (I-War) playable demo for download, presumably the exclusive dealie from the August issue of CGW (US). The demo clocks in at around 45 MB and is said to represent all aspects of gameplay for this space-sim.

Boat Rocker Forums  [10:03 PM EDT]
The Boatrocker Forums are up and running, giving opportunities to provide input on the creation of Prax War that will be read by the game's developers.

3Dfx's Fortunes  [10:03 PM EDT]
The Motley Fool talks of how business is going for 3Dfx as competition heats up in the marketplace, focusing in particular on Intel's impact. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

AGP or Not AGP?   [8:00 PM EDT]
An article on MPOG called Real 3D response to article Does AGP Really Improve Performance is a reaction to a recent article on Tom's Hardware called Does AGP really Improve Performance? The two articles go into the pros and cons of the Accelerated Graphic Port. Also, this CPU Madness article that Billy at VE sent along talks of "The Mystery behind the 100mhz FSB for the PII" saying the advantage of the 100 MHz front-side bus on BX motherboards (another criticized piece of technology) is going to be found in AGP performance.

Daikatana Background  [8:00 PM EDT]
Daikatana.com has a new image suited to Windows wallpaper (in 800x600 and 1280x1024 sizes) depicting "the RoboCo Ragemaster 5000, one of the many denizens from Steve Rescoe’s futuristic Japan episode."

Anachronox Interview  [8:00 PM EDT]
Gamer's Digest's Anachronox interview talks with DeathJester Dotson, Joey Liaw, and Squirrel Eiserloh about their upcoming Quake II engine RPG.

New PingTool  [5:27 PM EDT]
Version 2.1 of PingTool, a shareware multi-game server browser, is now available. New in this version is Quake II master server support and extensive new filter options. Here are local copies of the (recommended) full program (2.4 MB), the upgrade for 2.1 beta 4 (251 KB), and the "static (no dll) version (868 KB), all thanks to GamesNET FTP.

Valve Behind Closed Doors  [5:27 PM EDT]
Behind Valve Software's Closed Doors is the title of part one of the profile of the Half-Life team on VX Half-Life, with two more parts planned..

Prey Interview  [5:27 PM EDT]
There's a Paul Schuytema (Prey) Interview on LA Reviews.

VideoLogic Win98 Patch  [5:27 PM EDT]
A patch to ensure Windows 98 compatibility for users of VideoLogic GrafixStar 400, 410, 600, 600 Pro, Apocalypse 5D, and Apocalypse 5D Sonic cards is up on this page. Thanks Prophet.

Still More on the AMD Q2 Drivers  [3:17 PM EDT]
Brian Hook passed along an email from Silvino Orozco at AMD that explains the version dependence in their Quake II drivers. Here's Brian's comment:

Here's an e-mail from Silvino Orozco describing the situation right now with the AMD releases.  According to AMD a newer release should be out reasonably soon that is compatible with 3.17.  Feel free to repost this.

Here's the scoop on the versions from Silvino Orozco (Technical Marketing at Advanced Micro Devices):

We had enhanced a few things in Quake2.exe (sound and one other  thing) which means we replaced the existing file.   Doing this made our driver become version dependant unfortunately so now people are having to overwrite Quake2.exe to get the newest versions working until we release our new version.  Of course we do not support doing this.  I think the actual renaming is going on in Quake1 which we never claimed to support but people have renamed the Glide/MiniGL driver file to opengl32.dll.  I hope this cleared things up for you.

New Stingray Drivers  [3:17 PM EDT]
Billy at Voodoo Extreme passes along word of new Stingray 128/3D drivers on the Hercules Stingray 1283D Drivers library.

AMD Q2 Driver Follow-up  [1:22 PM EDT Updated]
id Software's Brian Hook sent along a clarification on an easier way to deal with the new AMD drivers with later versions of Quake II.

Er, people shouldn't have to rename anything to use the AMD stuff with Quake 2 -- they should only have to use:

gl_driver 3dfxglam
vid_ref glam
vid_restart

The DLLs were designed to coexist, which is why they have different names. I'm not quite sure why people are renaming them unless there is a problem that I or AMD am unaware of.

You type the three commands he gives at the console.

[Update] Thanks Justin 'CypSteel' Pedersen for passing along word that this works fine (you probably want to add the commands to your .cfg).

AMD Drivers in Q2 3.17 (&H2)  [11:25 AM EDT - Updated]
Doug Smith sends word on using the AMD K6-2 drivers on later versions of Quake II (since they are designed for 3.14). The technique is similar to the one described in getting them working under classic Quake (described here). You rename the 3dfxglam.dll to 3dfxgl.dll and place it in the Quake2 directory (backing up the existing 3dfxgl.dll is probably advisable), and Mat Bettinson points out you should also rename ref_glam.dll into ref_gl.dll. Doug says his Creative Voodoo 2 @ 800x600 gained 10 fps (47 FPS on a K6-2/300). Word is the same technique will also work for Hexen II.

Turok2 Multiplayer  [10:23 AM EDT]
Acclaim has announced that they will license the "high performance RTIME Interactive Networking Engine(tm) for red-hot multiplayer gaming over the Internet," for the PC version of Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. Also, Acclaim.Net has unveiled their Turok 2 Seeds of Evil site (called, but not located at, Turok Dot com) to be the focal point for news releases on the game (apparently Tuesday is now "Turok Tuesday"). Spotted this on OGR. Check out this physics-defying description of RTIME from the press release:

The RTIME Interactive Networking Engine is a high performance, client/server networking engine that manages the flow of information between game players spread across the Internet. Game developers integrate RTIME's software into their games to enable 2-2,000 players and spectators to participate in the same game at the same time.

With RTIME, fast-action games are not limited to dialup or dedicated game networks, thereby opening up access to over 50 million consumers located anywhere on the Internet -- even those with slow modems and/or poor Internet connections.

RIVA & 3Dfx on FFVII Textures  [10:23 AM EDT]
Voodoo Extreme points the way to a post on RivaZone from NVIDIA talking about what's up with funky FFVII PC support on RIVA 128 & 128ZX chipsets, blaming the problem on 8-bit palletized textures, saying they're working on a solution "as fast as possible." 3Dfx's Jack "morbid" Mathews updated his .plan clearing up what he feels are inaccuracies in the description of the effects of using 8-bit palettes.

Gabe Newell IRC Log  [10:23 AM EDT]
A log of an IRC conversation with Valve head-honcho Gabe Newell is up on  Twisted Half-Life

New Lithium II Mod  [10:23 AM EDT]
Version 1.12 of the Lithium II Mod for Quake II, one of the more popular server-side mods is out. The new release is bug-fixes/tweaks and additions to the Lithium Master Server support, and server operators are urged to upgrade.

New Eraser Wizard  [10:23 AM EDT]
Version 2.18 of the Quick Start Eraser Bot Wizard is out, offering a ton of fixes and new features.

Rainbow Six Screenshots  [2:06 AM EDT]
Rainbow Six HQ has posted three exclusive Rainbow Six screenshots, showing off this upcoming game based on the Tom Clancy novel.

Quake How-to's  [2:06 AM EDT]
Here's the Linux Quake HOWTO. Thanks slothdog. Also, the Quake II Server Setup Guide version 1.0 is up, described by the author as "an ongoing project until it is the best reference material on the subject."

Monolith Jobs  [2:06 AM EDT]
Jason Hall's .plan has word on Monolith looking to hire some experienced talent for "a very ambitious project" Monolith will be starting over the next few months.

Giveaways  [2:06 AM EDT]
GameStats July Giveaway offers a shot at free copies of "Songs for Deathmatch" from Gigadeth Productions, and Quake jewelry from Queen Village Trinkets.

Hosting  [2:06 AM EDT]
Gibbed.com has posted info on this page about their system for fulfilling web hosting requests.

Out of the Blue
A couple of follow-ups today: For the record, here's the correct Martian quotation in .wav format (55 KB). Thanks Paul Baker (MPOG), Speed and paranrml for all sending the .wav. Also sent along by many, Randy Perry being the first, is word of another cool CD player (I suspected this would happen after posting the note about one yesterday) called Notify CD Player which also connects to the CDDB (the Deluxe CD Player in the Win98 Plus Pack.apparently does this as well). Notify CD works conveniently from the system tray offering a boatload of features, and is free. Here's a local copy (119 KB) since it seemed to be an awfully slow connect for me when I tried it.

Stealth II G460 (Intel740) OpenGL ICD  [9:28 PM EDT]
Diamond Multimedia's Stealth II G460 Drivers page has new release candidate version 4.10.01.1400 Windows 95/98 drivers and a new release candidate BIOS for their Intel740-based Stealth II G460 cards. New in this release of the drivers is an OpenGL ICD. Thanks Erick Cid (who reports good results running Quake II under the ICD).

K6-2 Quake II Drivers in Quake (1)  [7:51 PM EDT]
Matt at Duke4.com sends word that the AMD K6-2 Quake II drivers released today (story) can be used with Quake as well:

I just tried using the new K6-2 3DNow! drivers with my Voodoo 2 in Quake 1, and it worked!  I backed up opengl32.dll in my Quake 1 directory, copied 3dfxglam.dll to my Quake 1 directory, and renamed 3dfxglam.dll to opengl32.dll.  It worked, and increased my FPS from ~60 to ~67 (I'm running my K6-2 266 at 300/66).

Game Testers Wanted at ION Storm  [5:50 PM EDT]
The ION Storm website has word that they are looking for game testers from the Dallas area:

If you reside in the North Texas area and would like to become a game tester for ION Storm,here is your chance. QA Director Chad Barron is currently looking for four new testers for upcoming ION Storm games, including Daikatana, Anachronox, and Deus Ex.

Previous game testing experience is helpful, but not required. The openings are for full-time, on-site testers, so please no emails about working from your house after school.

To apply, email Chad here.

AMD K6-2 Quake II Driver  [5:38 PM EDT]
The AMD Optimized Drivers for Quake II Page has the new K6-2 3D Now! optimized Quake II drivers, said to be best suited to systems with Voodoo2 cards. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme:

Sin & Independence War Shots  [5:13 PM EDT]
RitNews has a couple of Sin shots from current ads sent along by onethumb so that no one has to suffer through any scanning incidents. Also, Processed News has a few exclusive Independence War (space combat) screenshots.

Prax Wars Wishes  [5:13 PM EDT]
In response to one of the more serious suggestions in Jason Zelsnack's .plan, here's Prax World's Wish List to provide suggestions to RBR for Prax War. Also on the RBR front, congrats to DuvalMagic (he and his wife are expecting).

Just for Fun  [5:13 PM EDT]
Check out Quintessential CD, a CD player I downloaded this morning at the recommendation of TC over at the MeccaWorld. It automatically grabs your CD's info from a CDDB database... neat.

New Freeze Tag  [3:47 PM EDT]
The Freeze Tag Home has a new version 1.51c of Freeze Tag for Quake II, eliminating a bug that could crash servers when exploited.

Permedia2 Turok  [3:47 PM EDT]
Gamer's Alliance spotted a patch from 3D Labs for Turok running on Permedia2-based cards posted a couple of days ago on PGR-3Dlabs Permedia2 General Resource.

Starsiege Tribes Report  [2:08 PM EDT]
Voodoo The Official 3Dfx Interactive Magazine Website has a Dynamix trip report online telling the tale of their trip to Dynamix high command with a peek at Starsiege Tribes, complete with some new screenshots of this upcoming first-person multiplayer game.

Quake II CTF League  [2:08 PM EDT]
Battle Command the grandpappy of CTF leagues is getting underway with their pre-season, and has posted a list of participating clans in their Q2 CTF tourney.

More on Linux Unreal Server  [11:09 AM EDT]
Though it's been noted that an Unreal Linux Client is probably not going to happen, I saw on UnrealNation that Linux Quake and Utilities posted the full email exchange with Epic Programmer Tim Sweeney about Linux ports that elaborates a bit on the possibility of a Linux server. Here's an excerpt of a lengthy post:

Are you planning or working on any of the Linux server ports of Unreal?

It would be a great community resource if we committ to Linux, but that's not yet decided.

We're not working on it now, but we're still surveying peoples' interest in it and considering it.

At least the server port?

We are considering this.

An this interesting note at the end:

Have you considered posting out on news groups for help in this matter? Have you tried talking to Q2 Linux porters for tips or help (Zoid in particular)?

We talked to Zoid a while back, and he was interested in Linux porting, but his contract with id was renewed and he's spending a lot of time on those projects.

Unreal DLL Source  [11:02 AM EDT]
Saw on UnrealNation that Tim Sweeney passed along some info about the Unreal DLL release (useful to those who want to modify the game) to Green Marine of Hard Tech Industries:

Re DLL's: Feel free to post this: Yes, I will be releasing the headers and link libraries shortly after the improved UnrealEd (probably 6-8 weeks from now). In the meantime, I'm doing a lot of cleanup that would break DLL compatibility with each new version, so releasing the headers now would be problematic.

Heretic II Designer's Diary  [10:13 AM EDT]
Raven's Dan Freed (Daniell...who knew?) gives the first installment of the Heretic II designer's diary on OGR. Here's a quote:

The final result weighs in at about 80-85% action, maybe even a little more. There are still puzzles to be solved, but they are streamlined into the world. Puzzles are consistent with the environment players find them in. Despite early misconceptions I have read about Heretic II, we are not throwing in a bunch of dexterity based puzzles (like platform jumping and timing events). Players will have to negotiate some of these, but they are definitely the exception not the norm.

Paul's .plan  [9:41 AM EDT]
Paul Steed deleted his .plan at id a week or two ago, for what were described as reasons of his own. I asked Dweomer at the time, and was told Paul didn't want to make a big deal about it (so much for that), but it looks like public speculation has broken out that this has to do with Paul leaving id Software. As far as I know, that is not the case, it was just meant to retire his .plan, which had been the source of controversy in the past (that's speculation on my part: I can't even say for sure that's the reason he deleted it).

S3 Savage 3D Preview  [9:41 AM EDT]
OGR previews the S3 Savage 3D, again referring to the card's smooth performance on that Quake II demo with the 20 MB worth of textures, but no "real-world" Quake II numbers. Also, I saw on AGN3D that STB has announced their Savage 3D3 card, and that Diamond has made a Savage 3D announcement as well.

TeamFortress2 Interview  [3:45 AM EDT]
There's a log of an IRC interview with Brian "Midori" Green of Team Fortress Software on the newly moved Half-Life Haven. Thanks Prophet.

Romero on Doom  [3:45 AM EDT]
There is a log of John Romero talking about Doom and the like on Doomworld. Thanks Ant. Speaking of Doom, here's a blast from the past for the old-school Doom denizen: Dr Sleep's DOOM Apothecary (home of the HETH and DETH level editors) has moved to StormTroopers.

Romero on CNN  [3:45 AM EDT]
Apparently John Romero and Daikatana were in a story that aired on CNN yesterday. Thanks Mop/Raul Burriel. Also on the broadcast front, apparently the episode of Soldier of Fortune that featured Quake re-ran this weekend.

Dave Taylor Interview  [3:45 AM EDT]
Crack dot Com Prez Dave Taylor is interviewed on TeleFragged.

New Quake II Camera  [3:45 AM EDT]
LavaCam for Quake II is a new server-side mod that allows clients track the action in a deathmatch.through a panning camera at the intermission points or DM starts on the level.

RPG Movies  [3:45 AM EDT]
There's a new Diablo II movie up on The Diablo II Guide showing off what's described as smoother action than previous (choppier) builds. Thanks Yegg's Diablo 2 Tavern. Coincidentally, Billy from VE points out an Ultima Ascension (what would that be, like Ultima CXXVII?) movie is up on EA's FTP Site as an AVI, or a MOV, and AGN has it in VIVO format.

Out of the Blue
I feel like the Martian in the Bugs Bunny cartoon (I don't think he was really named Marvin back then was he?). "What happened to the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!..." Thanks NaS for being the the first to correct me that the kaboom is "earth-shattering," not "resounding"   =]

John Carmack Clarification  [8:04 PM EDT]
John Carmack updated his .plan with clarifications about the physics issue in 3.17, as well as some thoughts on how this played out publicly:

I am not opposed to adding a flag to control the movement styles. I was rather expecting it to be made optional in 3.17, but I haven't been directly involved in the last few releases.

The way this played out in public is a bit unfortunate. Everyone at Id is busy full time with the new product, so we just weren't paying enough attention to the Quake 2 modifications. Some people managed to read into my last update that we were blaming Zoid for things. Uh, no. I think he was acting within his charter (catering to the community) very well, it just interfered with an aspect of the game that shouldn't have been modified. We just never made it explicitly clear that it shouldn't have been modified.

It is a bit amusing how after the QuakeArena anouncement, I got flamed by lots of people for abandoning single player play (even though we aren't, really) but after I say that Quake 2 can't forget that it is a single player game, I get flamed by a different set of people who think it is stupid to care about single player anymore when all "everyone" plays is multiplayer. The joy of having a wide audience that knows your email address.

Tronic Sound for Quake II  [11:38 AM EDT]
Tronic Sound by Tronicmind is a complete replacement of every single sound in Quake II. Here's the deal.

Every sound in the game is NEW.   All monsters, weapons, items and ambient sounds have been carefully enhanced. The player sounds for cyborg, male and female are also new, as are all of the multiplayer sounds.  It is not meant to be funny or obscure.  My goal was to create a serious and intense experience for the player by adjusting and enhancing all of the sounds in Quake2. There are 3 versions for your downloading convenience:

You find it at: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames2/quake2/sounds/

Here's a link to the demo version, and a local copy (3.2 MB readme); the Deathmatch version, and a local copy (11.8 MB readme); and the full version, and a local copy (33.1 MB readme). Local copies, of course, thanks to GamesNET FTP.

RIVA 128 versus Voodoo2  [11:38 AM EDT]
RIVA 128 vs. Voodoo2 Which should I buy? is a side-by-side comparison of the Voodoo2 and the RIVA 128 (though I would say these two cards are no longer really targeted at the same segments of the market). The comparison looks at visual quality as well as performance, and examines each card's performance after visual and speed "tweaks," not just the out of the box performance.

New Quake CTFBot+  [3:44 AM EDT]
A new version  of the CTFBot+ and CTF Bot Coordinator are available, for those times when a pair of teams are not. Thanks Paul Seul.

Quake II eVolution CTF  [3:44 AM EDT]
Version 1.0 of eVolution CTF for Quake II is up on the SolarWave Development page.

QW Requiem Source Code  [3:44 AM EDT]
Requiem has released the source code for version 2.0 of Requiem for QuakeWorld on the Requiem - Ode To The Dead page.

5th Element Demo  [3:44 AM EDT]
Micro Revue, a French site, has posted a demo of a 5th Element game, based on the movie. The deal here is you need to burn the demo onto a CD before you play it (when I heard this, I assumed it was some sort of pirate deal, but Lorien at Gamer's Alliance tells me it's legit). In his write-up of it on Gamer's Alliance, Lorien describes it as a 3D action / exploration game. Here's a local copy (27.4 MB) for those with a CDR and some bandwidth.

Quake II League  [3:44 AM EDT]
The Quake II League is accepting clan sign-ups for the next two weeks.

Out of the Blue
I suspect the pyrotechnicians in the neighborhood were waiting until after dark to unleash their fury last night, but as the sun set, it began to rain. The quietest 4th of July I can remember, that's for sure.

John Carmack on Q2 3.17 Physics  [6:09 PM EDT]
John Carmack updated his .plan with the lowdown on what's up with the changes in in physics (specifically, the control you have over your direction and where you face while jumping) from Quake II 3.14 to 3.15 and then back in 3.17. Here's the update:

Here is the real story on the movement physics changes.

Zoid changed the movement code in a way that he felt improved gameplay in the 3.15 release.

We don't directly supervise most of the work Zoid does. One of the main reasons we work with him is that I respect his judgment, and I feel that his work benefits the community quite a bit with almost no effort on my part. If I had to code review every change he made, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

Zoid has "ownership" of the Quake, Glquake, and QuakeWorld codebases. We don't intend to do any more modifications at Id on those sources, so he has pretty free rein within his discretion.

We passed over the Quake 2 codebase to him for the addition of new features like auto download, but it might have been a bit premature, because official mission packs were still in development, and unlike glquake and quakeworld, Q2 is a product that must remain official and supported, so the scope of his freedoms should have been spelled out a little more clearly.

The air movement code wasn't a good thing to change in Quake 2, because the codebase still had to support all the commercial single player levels, and subtle physics changes can have lots of unintended effects.

QuakeWorld didn't support single player maps, so it was a fine place to experiment with physics changes.

QuakeArena is starting with fresh new data, so it is also a good place to experiment with physics changes.

Quake 2 cannot be allowed to evolve in a way that detracts from the commercial single player levels.

The old style movement should not be refered to as "real world physics". None of the quake physics are remotely close to real world physics, so I don't think one way is significantly more "real" than the other. In Q2, you accelerate from 0 to 27 mph in 1/30 of a second, which just as unrealistic as being able to accelerate in midair...

No Linux Unreal Client  [10:35 AM EDT]
There's a post on Linux Quake and Utilities (I saw on PlanetUnreal) that gives a response from Epic's Tim Sweeney on why they will probably not be porting the Unreal client to Linux:

"of the huge amount of work it would to take to convert all of the Windows-specific rendering, sound, input, etc etc etc code to Linux, and the fact that it would break and have to be re-ported with each new version. Doing this or even just coordinating it and having an external programmer do it would take way more time than I have available.

Porting Unreal is a different ball game than porting Quake. Both engines were obviously designed with the primary goal of supporting their game. But a major secondary goal of the Quake engine was clearly portability. Unreal's secondary goal was modularity and usefulness to our licensees. So, Quake is easy to port, but not tremendously easy for licensees to use. Whereas, Unreal is very hard to port, but great for licensees. I think an Unreal client port would take perhaps 4X more effort than a Quake client port."

Cry Havoc Engine Demo  [5:07 AM EDT]
Eclipse Entertainment has announced the Genesis 3D Engine, described as state-of-the-art, offering volumetric fogging, skeletal animation, real-time mirrors, and more. On their page is a demo of a first-person deathmatch game using the engine called Cry Havoc showing off the engine, as well as its ease-of-use, as it is said the game demo was created in one week. A level editor is also included, and they're giving away a Voodoo2 card to the designer of the best deathmatch level for Cry Havoc. Here's a local copy (6.0 MB) on GamesNET FTP.

Walking on Quake II Water  [3:43 AM EDT]
It's not as strategically useful as 3.15 air control, and not as dramatic as loaves and fishes, but Sven Hoek / CFC sends word of a bug in Quake II version 3.17 that allows you to make like the Sea of Galilee and walk on water:

How to: Press jump button twice when you have reached water surface, and on the second time keep it down. Then you can reach speeds matching running and rope in CTF. Outlands (ctf4) is a good place to use this.

Descent III AVI  [3:43 AM EDT]
The Descent 3 Page has posted the Descent 3 trailer movie from E3 in AVI format. Here's a local copy (9.8 MB). Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Spec Ops Mini-Loadout Patch  [3:43 AM EDT]
SpecOps.Org has a new mini-custom loadout patch (999 KB, here's a local copy). This is the lowdown ripped straight from the page (thanks Billy "Navy Harp Seal" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme):

OK--here's the "mini" loadout patch. It gives you a selectable inventory, but doesn't provide "all weapons in all levels" functionality. It also fixes the "shoot through walls" bug without breaking the "close kills" bug fix. Also, random enemies work a *lot* better (though maybe there aren't enough of them now. *sigh*).

Cash and John: BE SURE TO NOTE THAT THIS PATCH IS *NOT* OPENGL COMPATIBLE!!! If people install this patch over an OPENGL   version, everything will break. If OPENGL users want to install this patch, they should:

1) Uninstall the game.
2) Re-install it.
3) Install the newtex patch (if they own a Voodoo2 board, otherwise skip this step).
4) Install this patch.

This is a little overkill, but it's the safest and simplest procedure.

Unrelease Party Photos  [3:43 AM EDT]
The GamesCon website has a Pictures page up with photos form the recent Unreal release party in Toronto.

New Stealth II S220 Drivers  [3:43 AM EDT]
A new release candidate for Win95/98 drivers for the Diamond Stealth S220 are on the Diamond Multimedia Stealth II S220 Drivers page. According to Björn's 3D World there are still a few more issues to be worked out before they are released as a non-beta. Thanks "Partol Spaking the Dick."

New Wally Q2 Texture Editor  [3:43 AM EDT]
Wally's Home has version 1.10 of Wally, the texture editing and conversion utility that uses Quake II's .wal format.

FvF Registered Server  [3:43 AM EDT]
This from Hap at Freeform  Interactive:

The FvF Quake TC Registered Site (http://fvf.warzone.com/registered) has been fixed.  Registered users, please email hap@freeformint.com for your new password.

Out of the Blue
Yep, pretty quiet all right, news-wise and explosions-wise. The former is nice on occasion to take it easy, the latter is kind of surprising, there are enough kids in my neighborhood that every year is pretty dang loud, but nothing so far... weird (and ominous).