Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

Half-Life Movie
Choryoth sent along word that Sierra has released a new Half-Life .mpg (8.2 MB) showing off turbulent water, a firefight between the player and grunts and more. Very cool (is that a Farrah poster?).

MacQuake Demo
The playable demo of MacQuake (7.2 MB) has been released. Thanks Louis A. Koplin who pointed the way to it on GameCenter.

Today's Quake II Screenshot
PC Gamer has posted their Quake II  screenshot of the day (The Quake II Editor). Here's the thumbnail.

Morbid to 3Dfx
Congratulations to Jack "morbid" Mathews, who updated his .plan with the news that he is going to be working for 3Dfx, as he says "basically porting games of all sorts to 3DFX hardware."

.plans .plans .plans
Lots of newsworthy .plan updates today:

Tokay's Quake Contest
American updated his .plan with news about his Quake II contest, which has a homepage here on Redwood's. The first prize is Tokay's one-of-a-kind leather jacket which has the id logo and is autographed by every member of id Software. The contest:

Go forth into the world and create a Quake II symbol. Make it as large as you can. Put it wherever you can. Make it out of whatever you can. Take a picture of it. Send it to me.

Process and Tokay will judge the winner, check the page for full details.

Quake II Weapons in id Mission Pack
Paul Steed updated his .plan again, elaborating on the weapons in Quake II, saying that the ability to discern your deathmatch opponents' weapons will be added in an "id mission pack next summer" (that's cool, that's the first I'd heard of that):

The lack of varying weapons in the game is unfortunate but a necessity. When we come out with our own id mission pack next summer, chances are we will have a patch or modification which will allow for this. Stop getting so bummed out about it. You still play Quake don't you? We'll hook you up. Eventually.

Again, we're just as disappointed, but understand that it takes a helluva a lot of discipline to stay on schedule. Do some research and re-read some magazines and count how many games were supposed to ship by X-Mas or by whenever and actually made or will make that deadline.

Rest assured multi weapons are a big deal to us. A satisfying and rich single-player game is important to us as well. Please be patient.

GL on Non-3Dfx
Brian Hook has advice in his plan for those trying to get GL Quake to work on a RIVA 128, Permedia2, or V2200 system.

Congrats
Congrats to onethumb, who updated his .plan announcing he was going to work at Accolade on a new 3D shooter. Here's an excerpt:

In the end, I accepted a job here in California with Accolade. I've already begun, and am getting even more excited about the project as it goes along. I'm sortof a hybrid assistant producer and game designer, and hope to have quite an impact on the project. The game is an unnanounced 3d shooter using cutting edge technology. No, it is not using the Quake engine or Unreal, it's using an engine the wizards here developed in-house.

Anyway, it looks like it's going to be a great ride, and believe me, this game has a great vision, lots of talent and passion, and should make a big splash. I'll certainly do my best to bring everyone the best game possible.

GL Doom
Jim Dosé updated his .plan with the cool news that he's working on GL Doom. He says he may even add mlook!

Hexen II Stuff
For Hexen II demo servers to play on there's ][ronMan's list, as well as the Quake Domain's list. Tim of TeamQSpy promises a new version of QSpy that talks to Hexen II servers today or tomorrow. Prophet also sends along word that Questgate is running four Hexen II Demo servers, (as well as a Deathmatch Essentials server), more info on their servers page. On the lighter side, you can read about the aerodynamics of Hexen II Sheep by TitusC.777 (and yes, I do believe some electronic animals were harmed in the making of that page). Finally, Rick Johnson updated his .plan saying he has already got the network packet size cut in half, which should significantly aid 'net performance in future versions.

If you're still looking for a place to download the Hexen II Demo (11.6 MB), here's a list that Rotwang the news ninja went wild with, plus a couple more:

Blues News; CDROM.COM; id Software; Brutality; sCary's; OGR; Avault; Avault (again); Activision (West); Activision (East - may be better); Redwood's; ftp.lithium.com; http://scuzzy.lithium.com/; ftp.opcode.ml.org; Gamespot; Voodoo Extreme; WarZone; ftp.office.akorn.net; PC Gamer; PC Gamer (again); http://crymson.hizbollah.com/; Gamesmania;  http://amberg.simplenet.com/hexen2/; http://www.pathwaynet.com/~quast/; http://shell.discreet.net/~druid/; Hexen2.com; PlanetPrey.

Paul Steed: No Multiweapons in Quake II
Paul Steed made a very large .plan update covering a range of subjects like choice of programs and OS'es for the computer artist, the Quake II woman's ponytail, his motorcycle accident ("Since it was almost dark, I'm sure the light show from the shower of sparks was actually pretty cool"). He also shares the bad news that due to time constraints, the ability to distinguish your opponents' weapons in deathmatch will not make it into Quake II:

Speaking of the game. I have some bad news. There will not be different weapons during deathmatch. We've made a commitment to get Quake2 on the shelves for X-mas and there just isn't enough time to devote to making the multi-weapon thing work. We're just as disappointed as you are, trust me.

Brian Hook: id's Porting Strategy
Brian Hook made a lengthy .plan update talking more about his testing of new 3D cards and other hardware with Quake II, and also outlines id's current strategy for Quake II ports:

Our porting strategy consists of the following levels:

- port to another processor of a similar type (little endian) on the same OS, which will eliminate processor dependencies
- port to a similar or same but on a different OS, which will eliminate OS and compiler dependencies
- port to another processor of a different type (big endian) on a different OS, which will eliminate all other dependencies hopefully

Our respective platforms for the above are:

different processor, same OS - DEC Alpha Win32
similar processor, different OS - Linux (Zoid is handling this I think)
different processor, different OS - Rhapsody (John is doing this soon)
very different processor, different OS - SGI Irix (grab an SGI MTS to do it)

I'm hoping the Linux port will just run on about every CPU out there. Obviously the OpenGL stuff won't run on a Linux implementation that doesn't have a decent OpenGL available for it.

The Snipe
PC Games weekly Snipe column is up. Thanks Prophet.

New QSpawn
QSpawn version 1.0 (shareware) has been released on the QSpawn page. Thanks Prophet.

3DNet
Christian "Disruptor" Antkow made a .plan update about the current status of 3DNet:

(Not Quake II Related)

The 3DNet service bot is now up and running.
Drop by the oper's channel, #underworld, to inquire about registering a channel.

To check to see if a channel has been registered already, try

/msg lobotomy chaninfo #chan

Please note: Major game channels are reserved for their publishers and typically do not have ops (The standard for 3DNet).

(To connect to 3DNet, you can use irc.3dnet.net and it will connect you to a random server)

Raven Jobs Available
Patrick Lipo sends along word of a few programmer openings at Raven:

...things they are a-changing at Raven Software, and with our recent merger with Activision, we intend to strengthen our relationship with id Software. As a result, our next run of three projects are ALL going to be using the Quake II technology. This means we're going to be looking for programmers that not only know C, but love the hell out of Quake and everything that is Quake. ...

Remember, these positions are full-time, and would involve living and working in Madison, Wisconsin. Your current location is not a major concern. Again, if possible, please provide a demo of your work and sample code. Raven is an equal-opportunity employer.

If you think you're ready for Raven Software, contact:
Patrick Lipo
Programming Manager
Three Point Place, Suite One
Madison, WI 53719
Email: plipo@mail.ravensoft.com

Interviews

• The All Female Tourney finalists, are interviewed on Gamer's Extreme by B2 and Jokey Smurf.
• Glen Dahlgren, of Legend Entertainment talks about Wheel of Time (Unreal engine) on galaXy Wheel of Time. Thanks Prophet.

RantWatch

• RubyWalker update - Responses/follow-ups to the RubyWalker/ThunderWalker editorial yesterday are up on the RubyWalker CTF page and the ThunderWalker page (where they thank DaKoTa for inspiring the communication).
• .plan Wars - Scott Miller and Dr Sleep exchanged another round of words, followed by Scott's peace offering. On a semi-related note, id's Kevin Cloud offers his opinion in his .plan on the "coolie" issue (that started this).
• Nick Newhard of Monolith updated his .plan decrying all the .plan file "shanking" that goes on.
• GameCenter updated their video cards article to correct their mistake about whether or not GL Quake is a "true" Open GL application (it is) that morbid was ranting about. Thanks Christopher Dickens.

Leagues

• The QuakeWorld High-Ping Capture League (QWHPCL), a revival of the HPCL (under completely new management), now being run on PlanetQuake, is currently accepting applications for their first season. The site has been significant;y revamped, and they are making great claims about the high standards this league will hold to.
• The 1-on-1 QuakeWorld Deuling Ring is underway for those times you just feel like throwing down a gauntlet or two.

TeamFortress on MPlayer
Starting today you can play TeamFortress Quake on MPlayer's network. Thanks Spaceman Spif of the Team Fortress Newswire.

Movements

• Gooseman's Guns (about the Navy Seals patch), has moved to www.planetquake.com/qca/goose/.
• The LAN Parties Connection Page has moved to http://fly.hiwaay.net/~jpbryant/netquake.htm.
• MacQuake Nexus has moved to www.brutality.com/macquake/.

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties page, an event in Grass Valley, CA; Another date change for QuakeFest II.

etc.
Thanks Steven Dunk for the reminder that today was Judgment Day ... More Fray recollections - Steve "Dipstick" Towle updated his .plan with his Fray recap ...

Hexen II Demo Released
Here's the Hexen II Demo (11.6 MB), also available through Activision's Hexen II Page, CD-ROM.COM, Brutality, and OGR. Direct X 3.x or greater required. Also, ][ronMan's Hexen II server listing is online already. Also, according to the Activision page:

There is a small chance that you may experience problems running GLHexen in this demo. If you get an error, please refer to section entitled "3D Accelerators" in the online help installed with the demo.

QuakeCast
Tonight on QuakeCast, Embryonic Pete to talk about Malice from Quantum Access, Doug Magee from the After the Fall TC, Kevlar from the new Map repository 24, and Dave Chan from Fragapalooza.

Today's Quake II Screenshot
PC Gamer has posted their Quake II  screenshot of the day (Don't Point That Thing at Me!). Here's the thumbnail.

Master Buglist
In anticipation of the imminent release of the Hexen 2 demo, RadPipe has opened his Master Buglist, with the daunting goal of being a central location for bug reports for 3D games.

MacQuake Out?
I've heard from several people that the full MacQuake is now available in stores (CompUSA is the one specifically mentioned, a few times). Remember to check for the availability of two or three button mice while you're there.

MadMan's Guide
The MadMan's Guide to Game Design has had its weekly update (scheduled for Sunday nights) with several new TC reviews and articles.

GamesNET Upgrade
CoolHandLuke ("I'm shakin' it, boss") sends along news that GamesNET's IRC network has completed a coast-to-coast upgrade, as well as the availability of a free Java chat client for web pages:

GamesNET IRC has just completed its server and java upgrades. The new network is highlighted by a East to West coast fiberoptic link. Not only is GamesNET the first chat network dedicated to gamers, it is also the home to most of the Quake community. It now boasts the fastest IRC network in North America with less than a 75ms delay from coast to coast (if only our pings in Quake were that nice). Anyone with a java-capable browser can jump into the network. The really awesome thing is that ANYONE can embed this java applet onto their webpage for free. Visit the website at http://www.GamesNET.net  and the irc network at irc.GamesNET.net port 6667 with your IRC client or http://www.GamesNET.net/javairc.htm with a java-capable browser. Get info on imbedding the applet onto your homepage by emailing Java@GamesNET.net

SoundBlaster NT 4.0 Drivers
Looks like Creative Labs recently released some new NT 4.0 sound drivers here. Thanks PB

New Qoole Beta
Beta 1.998 (talk about splitting hairs) of Qoole is out on the Qoole Page. Thanks Prophet.

RantWatch

• Open GL? morbid updated his .plan with his second rant in as many days, attempting to correct GameCenter. Today's subject: why GLQuake is a true Open GL application.
• RubyWalker editorial - DaKoTa has an editorial on the Academy News Terminal about the newly announced RubyWalker CTF conversion (which has moved, see below).
• .plan Wars I - 3D Realms' Scott Miller takes a shot a Ion Storm in his .plan.
• .plan Wars II - Ion's Dr Sleep also takes a shot at Apogee in his .plan by taking a shot at the definition of "coolie" (related reading, prior Scott Miller .plan).

Tournaments

• Queen of the Hill is a new all-female, all-QuakeWorld tourney. The tourney is USA based, with East Coast, West Coast, and Mid-America divisions, as well as separation between high and low ping players.
• The Central Alliance League has been revamped and relaunched.

Movements

• TFiguration - The utility to quickly create TeamFortress configurations has its own homepage at www.gibbed.com/koq/t_index.html, where you can find an updated version 1.4 of the program which now supports Team Fortress version 2.6 final.
• RubyWalker CTF has moved to www.brutality.com/rubywalker/.
• Wolfenstein 3D Mini-Conversion is now at www.brutality.com/wolf3d/.

Fray

• More funny Fray recollections are here (thanks Cpt.Wussie).
• El Tigre has posted his Fray recollections (he's a better player than photographer <g>).

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties page, a regular event in Melbourne, Australia, with a special event coming up there too; a LAN party in Longmont, CO; another in Bolton, England; a date change for QuakeFest II in Sydney, Australia; a postponement in Ridgeland, MS;    Also, Fragapalooza (Canada) starts in less than 48 hours, directions, as well as info on the 'net connection, and other last minute stuff. Thanks Prophet. Finally, the LanTactics page, also devoted to tracking these events, is back in the swing after a brief hiatus.

etc.
A change in focus for Rocketmount.com where the thrust will be clan activities and tournaments. Thanks GlocK ... Expanding scope is the plan for the California Quake page is getting uppity and expanding: it is now West Coast Quake ... Quake Fair? If you are attending the Great New York State Fair this weekend, look for the tent with the Quake symbol on it where Clan Death Dealerz will be doing a Quake deathmatch demonstration ... Fantasy Review, there is a review of the Fantasy Quake TC on HotGames. Thanks Rotwang.

3D Realms Hirings
3D Realms has posted a Press Release announcing that John Anderson (not to be confused with Ion Storm's Dr Sleep) has been hired on to the Prey team, and that Mark Morgan and Chris Hargrove have departed Raven Software to join the Duke Nukem Forever team. Thanks Rotwang.

Messiah Movie
Shiny has posted a Quicktime Movie of Messiah, as a preview of their upcoming 3D game. Saw that on sCary's. A playable demo is promised "this winter".

New GLQuake
Version 0.95 of GLQuake (270 KB) has appeared on id's FTP site, without much fanfare as far as I can tell. 3Dfx (or Intergraph Realizm) video card required.

Deathmatch Essentials
The final version of Deathmatch Essentials has been released by RAzOR Entertainment. This mod, impressively demonstrated at QuakeCon, adds ducking to deathmatch, as well as the ability to tell which weapon your opponent is holding. In a feat of efficiency, the final patch will even run on systems with only 8 MB of RAM, in spite of the approximately 80 frames it adds to the animation of the player model.

CTF Mods Part II

• CTF Glow Part II - FatalSync sent along an updated server-side patch for CTF 4.x (479 KB) that works for both Quake and QuakeWorld to add the colored lighting glow (blue when carrying the Quad Damage and red with the Pentagram) in GL Quake. The yellow glow of the flag carriers remains unchanged to avoid confusion. As per Zoid's request, as a modified version of his source, source code is included. It has come to my intention that this patch also includes the drop rune impulse (not in Threewave CTF), which brings us to:
• CTF Glow Part III - this QW CTF server patch (206 KB), created by Khyron will add the colored glow without the rune dropping.
• DarkCTF - The Scrap Heap has a version of the CTF Bot that's been merged with Alan Kivlin's bot ranking code to create a CTF Bot with advance scoreboard functions.
• RubyWalker CTF - RubyWalker CTF is a truly bizarre sounding homage to ThunderWalker CTF that will have a Ruby Walker bot (modeled after the 5th Element character) "with an affinity for stealing the flag from players."

QSpy Chat
Bastard sent along word about a QSpy chat event:

Team QSpy is having a chat event this Tuesday, September 2nd at 7:00 PM PST. This chat is a formal kick-off for the development cycle of QSpy 5.4. All members of the community are invited to hear our plans for QSpy 5.4 and to contribute their own suggestions. Tuesday! 7:00 PM! Channel #qspy!
Snacks provided!

This chat will take place on irc.3dnet.net

Current 3dnet servers:
chat.quakespy.com:6667
id.3dnet.net:6667
best.3dnet.net:6667
lith.3dnet.net:6667

Today's Quake II Screenshot
PC Gamer has posted today's screenshot (Patrolling the Area) and the thumbnail.

Caught Up (Kind Of)
Okay, I caught up with the remainder of my email, and redid today's news to consolidate like stories.

Opinions

• Wampeys Censuses have been updated with two weeks worth of Q&A after a weeks absence.
• Adams Game Reviews has a message board up polling opinions about which of the upcoming "Quake kin" is most eagerly anticipated.

New Doc Holiday Poster
Ahh... finally got my email from the new server. It turns out Doc Holiday sent along this new Quake II poster he did:

this image may only be distributed unaltered. no part of this image may be used
without artists permission. (except for personal use. i.e. wallpaper, startup..etc.)
Quake 2 is copyright of id software.

Hexen II Preview
Electric Playground has their Hexen II Preview up. Thanks Prophet.

Quake Add-Ons
There is an article on AVault about various essential modifications, programs and hardware to enhance your Quake experience. Thanks Prophet.

What Would They Do?
Nailed has an article up on what some members of our gaming community what they would be doing if they weren't doing whatever it is that they do. Thanks Prophet.

More Fray

• More Photos of the event have been posted by JakFrost on this page (names are well labeled: America's Most Wanted should be able to track most everyone down).
• Levelord speaks about his Fray experience in this .plan update, and also gives a great tip on handling unsolicited phone calls.

AFT Preview
There is a preview of this weekend's AFT Finals on EnterMedia. Thanks Prophet.

Movie Updates
As for the rumored Doom & Duke movies mentioned yesterday:

• Doom Doomed? - This page tracks info and rumors about the Doom movie. Thanks Pariah, who was also one of two people to pass along this response from John Carmack: "The movie option lapsed, so it will probably never happen."
• Dolph-Free - Joe Siegler of Apogee says that according to George Broussard "This Dolph Lundgren thing for a Duke Nukem movie is untrue. Nothing has been signed for a movie, and nothing has been cast."

Interviews

• KillCreek is interviewed on GameSpot, giving lots of playing tips, and talking a bit (of course) about man-beating the Romero.
• Three members of the Terra 219 TC are interviewed on Nakedman's TC List.
• Bobby Prince, the maestro of Doom music (and Duke Nukem 3D, according to the article, which I did not know) is interviewed here, he talks about the future of computer game music. Thanks marduk (this is from a while ago, I found it waiting patiently in my new mailbox... weird).
• Dave Shaw - Speaking of Doom music, Prophet conducted an interview with Dave Shaw of Intersonic Music, who has contributed to the score of several Doom2 add-ons.

Movements

• DigitaL, the TC formerly known as the Borg TC has assimilated to www.planetquake.com/future/.
• WolfeN's Lair has relocated to lair.telefragged.com/.
• Squishy's Anachronox Cantina is now at www.brutality.com/anachronox/.

etc.
Reactions to the new server here have been almost all positive (though we're still working out a few of the bugs) ... A new Quake IE4 Channel is being started by QuakePerfect, the UK Quake site ... Calling Hannibal Lecktor - if you have any female skins you would like to include in the QWF's next female skin pack, mail them to qwf@planetquake.com ... Shameless plug dept. PC's and computer components, as well as timely hardware news and info can be found on MicroGuys Computer Services, a cool new website/business opened by my pal ColdSun, the Ranger's CO (hence the plug) ...

Quake II Story Explanation
Paul Jaquays updated his .plan with a some thoughts on the Quake II storyline, and why Quake II can't really be considered a sequel to Quake. Thanks Ranger CO ColdSun. Paul also mentions doing a bit of home testing of MacQuake (and suggests Mac users get their three-button mice), and he talks of a breakthrough with the BSP system that should have level designers drooling:

QUAKE 2 EDITOR

I HAVE THE POWERRRRRRR!!! The new BSP system just landed last night and John Carmack linked it to our editor tools. Oh, MY!! The things we can do with brushes now!! Christian's map that was taking a full day (+) to BSP, zipped through in 39 seconds!!! I can make any texture squirm and warp, flow like a river, act like water, do damage, be slippery, glow, be transparent, be really transparent .... the possibilities are near endless. WOW!!

MS Unreal
Unreal.Org has posted a humorous (albiet "unreal") Press Release describing Microsoft licensing the Unreal engine for, among other things, Word 8.0. Thanks 3ABXO3.

Today's Quake II Screenshot
PC Gamer has posted today's screenshot (titled Spiral Staircase) and the thumbnail. I saw that on sCary's.

Moved!
I mentioned something cool in the works for this site a while back, and it has come to pass. Blue's News is now hosted through the kindness of GlobalCenter, a worldwide Internet Service Provider. The GlobalCenter guys have an ever-increasing focus on gaming fanatics (for instance they host the main Battle.Net server under their previous company name of Primenet), as well as oodles of bandwidth and storage to offer, so the match with this site is a natural. I want to thank the folks at Digiweb for hosting Blue's for close to ten months now, clearly at the expense of a ton of bandwidth and headaches. In particular, let me mention my gratitude to Brian and Michael for setting up the hosting deal (as well as my domain registration), and Alan, the Digiweb head honcho. I appreciate the flexibility Digiweb has displayed in coping with the ever-increasing traffic to this site, but it has also become clear that traffic here has grown to the point where the time had come to move along. So thanks to Digiweb, for their contributions in the past, and thanks to GlobalCenter, spearheaded by Peter Gransee, for stepping up to the plate when the need arose. I look forward to using the expanded resources now at my disposal to enhance this site's value. The first step will be the restoration of a files area (another thing I mentioned a while ago: yes this is why). I'm very eager for feedback concerning the site's performance on the new server, please feel free to share any positive or negative reactions. Also, it's my understanding that I won't lose any email in the DNS switch, but I can't be sure. Also, if you're here at an IP address, please don't bookmark it, but wait for the Domain name to propagate.

Fray Updates
A few more Fray reports etc., have been posted:

• Prince Mystery, of the cool Computer Games Automated News Service has posted his Fray review.
• Phoebus has posted his Fray review on his Cult.
• Mars has posted the stats from the QuakeWorld server he was running at the Fray on the Red Planet (also, [MoD]FauxPas tells me there's a demo there of the CTF finals from Mars' POV).
• Random attendee plug: at the Fray, f0de showed me his site, Ground Zero, and asked for a mention (and here it is).

Beta?
There is an interesting editorial by Sinistar up on RAzOR Entertainment's site about the use and misuse of the word beta in our community, or to quote the article quoting the Princess Bride: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

New QRUN
Version 1.30 of QRun32 a Quake front end (mainly for LAN-sessions) by Slop has been released with new features such as a CTF 4.x plugin. Available on the Ocrana-Homepage (on the files page).

Internet Modem Hints
There is a very detailed and informative article up on CNET about troubleshooting your Internet connection for speed. Thanks DR_HarPax.

Interviews

• Tom Hall, the brain behind Anachronox is interviewed on UnrealNation. Thanks Rotwang.
• Kelly Bailey, the creator of the music and sound effects for Half-Life, is interviewed on Jaspur's Half-Life, perfectly coinciding with yesterday's release of the Half-Life mp3's.

John Carmack on .plan Wars
John Carmack updated his .plan:

I want to apologize for some of the posturing that has taken place in .plan files.

I have asked that attacks on our competition no longer apear in .plan files here. I don't think it is proper or dignified.

If everyone clearly understood that an individual's opinion is only that -- the opinion of a single individual, I wouldn't have bothered. Unfortunately, opinions tend to be spread over the entire group, and I am not confortable with how this makes me perceived.

Building up animosity between developers is not a very worthwhile thing.

A little chest-beating doesn't really hurt anything, but putting down other developers has negative consequences.

I think that we have a track record that we can be proud of here at id, but we are far from perfect, and I would prefer to cast no stones.

The user community often exerts a lot of pressure towards confrontation, though. People like to pick a "side", and there are plenty of people interested in fighting over it. There are a lot of people that dislike id software for no reason other than they have chosen another "side". I don't want to encourage that.

Magazine articles are usually the trigger for someone getting upset here. Its annoying to have something you are directly involved in misrepresented in some way for all the world to see. However, I have been misquoted enough by the press to make me assume that many inflamatory comments are taken out of context or otherwise massaged. It makes a good story, after all.

Sure, there ARE developers that really do think they are going to wipe us off the face of the earth with their next product, and don't mind telling everyone all about it. Its allways possible. They can give it their best shot, and we'll give it ours. If they do anything better, we'll learn from it.

New Quake II IRC
Quake2.com has begun their own IRC server, irc.quake2.com.

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties page, A new event in Sydney, Australia (the Aussies are cranking). Someone planning an event in Nashua, NH; Also, if you are willing to attend a Canadian event (QuakeCan), fill out this form to help them get a handle on the interest level.

etc.
Movies? According this blurb about the Doom movie (Howie Long, not bad), and this one about Duke Nukem (Dolf Lungren, the guy who screwed up the Punisher? Figures...), both movie adaptations of these games have been cast and are approaching production. Thanks Prophet ...

More DM7
I received an okay from id to post the new deathmatch map DM7 (263 KB), that was recently released on the UK's PC Format (not PC Zone as I said originally, thanks Spike).  Ion Storm's Cleaner sent along the text file which was omitted (I've included it with my zip), as well as an explanation of the map's odd history :

Here at IonStorm I have access to all the original id maps. On this cd was a map call DM7, being the curious bastard I am I tried to load it. The original map was screwed up (some type of texture problem). I fixed that textured and begun to play with it and revise it a little, more to my liking for a deathmatch map. What came out was Acrophobia - DM7. So for the most part it is an one of the original quake deathmatch levels.

As for servers, there is QuakeWorld server in the UK at 158.143.100.69:27500. Thanks James. Also Redwood is running it on his server at 204.52.135.50:27500.

Half-life Music
Steve Bond, a.k.a. Wedge, sent along a couple of mp3's of music from Valve's upcoming Half-Life. Here they are in a zip file (3.2 MB) because, while they don't compress, uploading them as raw mp3's seems to corrupt them on my end. An mp3 player is required, so here's winamp (202 KB). Here's what Steve had to say:

The music in Half-Life is a mix of classical orchestration (with a lot of horror themes), techno, and ambient. Typically music with a strong melodic or rhythmic element is only played once to set a tone for a space or situation, although some of the ambient tracks were designed to loop. The first track (Half-Life1) is the opening track of the game and combines the orchestrated and techno elements. The second track (Half-Life11) is orchestrated and is from the alien world.

Later on we'll be releasing some of the ambient tracks to give people a sense of what they are going to sound like. There are around 20 total tracks in the game.

Box Art Bye Bye
I removed the Quake II and Hexen II box art and text at the request of id Software (it was not ready for public consumption. Among other things, there are errors in the text).

Hexen II Screenshots
Speaking of Hexen II, there are some new screenshots have been added to OGR's Hexen II preview.

Quake II Screenshot of the Day
PC Gamer has posted another Quake II screenshot: here's today's screenshot (titled A Tank Gets Angry) and the thumbnail. Thanks FRIDGE.

AGP Ships
According to my buddies over at OGR, Intel announced the availability of the new 440LX chipset. This chipset, for motherboards of Pentium II systems, supports the Advanced Graphic Post (AGP). Not coincidental is the announcement that several new video cards that support AGP, including the Velocity 128 (based on the RIVA engine from NVidia), as detailed in this Press Release, sent by NakedGoat.

Spiders!
Requiem, author of Requiem Quake, has created a new monster model of a Redback Spider. The model, along with the AI QuakeC and source code are available on the Requiem Quake page. Also, on a related note, legion sends along word of a pair of new animated graphics of a pair of bosses that have been posted on the Human Decision Required (HDR) page, one of which, though named the Dragon, looks very spidery as well.

Michael Abrash Book
Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book, Special Edition has been released. Here's the Amazon Books link to this 1200 page technical tome with included CD-ROM on a subject this ex-id Software programmer knows well: 3D engine programming. The book also apparently has a two page introduction by John Carmack. Thanks The Mash-Rinx.

Interview
Paul Schuytema of 3D Realms' Prey team is interviewed on the AVault. Thanks legion.

RGB3: When it's Done
The RangerWeb has an update giving some news on the state of Ranger Gone Bad 3, production of which is on hold for "confidential reasons". The release date is described as "when it's done" (sounds familiar). The myth of the 80+ MB download has finally been debunked: the movie will ultimately be around 16 MB. Thanks Philber.

After the Fall
The demo of the After the Fall (ATF) TC has been released on the After the Fall Page. In conjunction with the release, Flood Anxiety (of TC Magazine) and Nakedman (of Nakedman's TC list) have conducted an interview with three of the members of the After the Fall team, which can be found on either Nakedman's List, or TC Magazine.

Dan's Skins
Dan Bickell, Señor Skin himself, has released an updated version of his "personal" skin collection (379 KB) with some redone versions of some of his skins (with his own face on them -- eeek!), including the feared Nude Dan (double eeeek!). Here's the text file.

New Fantasy Quake
Another new version of Fantasy Quake has been released. Get version 0.65 at the Fantasy Quake: Rise of the Phoenix page. Thanks Prophet.

Map Author Database
A map and map author database has begun, 24 is a new site devoted to tracking this information. It is quite extensive, and also includes links to the maps. This well done site is already a valuable resource.

Malice Preview
I see over on the ShugaHolio that the Felix and Oscar of Quake, Prophet and sCary, have teamed up to do a preview of Malice, Quantum Axcess' upcoming commercial TC.

Daikatana Video Redux
The E3 Daikatana preview Ion posted seems fux0red. Fortunately JUDGECAL, master of RealVideo, is on the job, and has posted both a decaffienated version (for modem users), and an, umm, espresso version (for ISDN or better). As always, Real player required.

#QSpy FAQ
Got QSpy questions? Check out the #QSpy FAQ on the QSpy homepage, which is constantly updated by FRAGaLOT with questions and answers from QSpy chat to help you get the most out of your QuakeSpy/Quake/QuakeWorld experience.

New Visage
A new version of Visage, the all-purpose Quake editing utility for the Macintosh, has been released (actually it was out Friday) on the Visage page. Thanks Prophet.

Fray Stuff

• Fray CTF Tourney: Thanks LoZ for sending along this screenshot of the final screen from the CTF tourney at the Fray.
• Fray photos: are already being posted. A handful have been posted here, including shots of the event's MVP: the power generator.

Movements

• The Bricks (Anachronox news) has moved to games.nextlevel.net/bricks/.
• The TeamFortress Bot Project is now at www.lockandload.com/tfbot/. Thanks Prophet.
• The Scrap Heap (bot news and info) has moved to www.brutality.com/scrap/.

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties page, more carnage being planned down under: this one is being worked up in Adelaide, Australia.

etc.
Devoted to Daikatana? Then the Daikatana Shrine is the place for you ... Another new Anachronox site is up, called Squishy's Anachronox Cantina (looks to be moving to Brutality already) ... In-game photography is the nature of GL Observation shots ... Java 3D Shooter: Frag Island has been updated (remember Java Quake?), it is amazing what these guys have accomplished: play a first-person shooter in your web browser! Thanks Josh Straub ... 

Back
Just got off the BlueJet safe and sound. The Fray was a blast, I think most everyone had a good time. I've got some jet lag to work off, but I think I'm pretty caught up. The free-for all tournament finals at the Fray was won by Clan Gib's AceJas, and my buddy DR_Zith (the good Doctor, for QuakeCast fans), sent along a demo of the final match (2.6 MB) in .qwd (QuakeWorld demo) format. Here's the order of finish in the finals:

1st place: AceJas (Clan Gib)
2nd place: Zith (Dark Requiem)
3rd place: Sploidicus (sp)
4th place: El Tigre (Clan Time2Quake)

Secret
The secret (shhhh ) page on id has been updated with a couple of cool screenshots of a level in progress. Thanks Tsuba.

Brian Hook Reviews Open GL Cards
Brian Hook made a large .plan update Friday detailing GLQuake performance on a variety of 3D accelerators, along with the accompanying how's and why's. Excellent news for those in the market for a video card.

Hexen 2 Demo Delayed
As you are probably already aware, the release of the Hexen 2 Demo (scheduled for Friday night) has been postponed due to a couple of bugs that reared their heads at the last minute, as Brian Raffel's .plan file describes. The release is still expected within a few days, according to Rick Johnson's .plan.

Server Browsers

• QMaster - Version 1.0 of QMaster has been released. QMaster is a shareware server browser (à la QSpy) with several features useful for tracking and coordinating clan activities.
• QSI - Version 1.0 of Quake Server Info (QSI), a server browser utility written in Java, has been released.

DM7
According to Jim McCauley, Features Editor of PC Format (UK), the CD included with their September issue (due out August 28) will have DM7, the oft-rumored follow-up to the six original id DM levels.

TeamFortress 2.6
The final release of TeamFortress 2.6 is out on the Teamfortress page. Thanks INTIMIDATOR. Also, happy first anniversary to TeamFortress, which is one year old today. Sgt.CoolGuy (who informed me of the occasion) has posted a copy of TeamFortress 1.0 on his site, Sgt.CoolGuy's Detail Duty to commemorate the occasion.

Slide
The first version of Slide, a TC where you race downhill on hoverboards, has been released. We played this at the Fray, and it was a lot of fun.

New Rise of the Phoenix
Version 0.646 of Fantasy Quake: Rise of the Phoenix has been released, fixing the precache bug. Thanks legion.

The Demon King
Version 1.0 of The Demon King is up on The Demon King page. Thanks Eric Braun.

PaintBall Fest
Quake Innovations is holding an on-line Paintball Quake Fest the weekend of September 5-7. More details are up on the QTeam page (the server will be posted at as later date).

French PC
QuakeFR, the French PC has been released. This partial conversion has new maps a few minor QC modifications, some prominent French clans' skins, and all the messages in the game are now en Frañçais.

Quake II Screenshot
Of course, PC Gamer posted another Quake II screenshot on Friday, here's the today's screenshot and the thumbnail. Thanks razor2.

Hexen 2 Screenshots
A new set of eight screenshots from Hexen II are up on PC Gamer. Thanks Prophet.

Jedi Knight Screenshots
There are some Jedi Knight screenshots and a Jedi Knight preview up on PC Games. While the screenshots seem new, apparently the accompanying article is not (it lists an expected release date for the game as "late May").  Thanks Bryant Luk of Star Wars Gamers.

Daikatana  Video
Ion Storm has made the Daikatana promotional video from E3 available in RealVideo format (Real player required). Thanks Prophet.

QTray
QTray is a system tray front-end for Quake from the makers of QuakeOn, but without as much overhead. Available on the QuakeOn page.

New QSmack
Version 2.0 of QSmack has been released. QSmack is a Quake server administration tool that, among other things, provides full ability to kick and ban players.

New QSpawn
QSpawn 0.98, fixing some bugs, has been released on the QSpawn page. Thanks Prophet.

New BSP
Version 0.85 of BSP, the Quake Editor is out on BSP.com. Thanks Andy-san.

Quake C Manual
A new version of the Quake C Reference Manual has been posted. The 60 page document is available in Word and Adobe Acrobat formats.

Movements

• Linux Quake Page has moved to linuxquake.telefragged.com/. Thanks Prophet.
• Headhunters has moved to www.planetquake.com/headhunters/.
• Anachronews moved to http://www.anachronews.com/.

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties page, an event in Omaha, NE; a monthly gathering in Tucson, AZ; a weekly event in Adelaide, Austrailia; a date change in Sydney Australia; Armageddon 2 has been postponed (the date conflicted with Thanksgiving); an event is being planned in Melbourne, Australia.

etc.
The most badass Quake Player has been named on NAWC Badass survey (thanks Fuhrer) ...

At the Fray