Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

Hands-on Heretic II Report Updated  [8:21 PM EDT - Updated]
Some updated info on deathmatch and character animations has been added to the Heretic II impressions from GenCon '98.posted earlier today. If you didn't see it already, Jim Gaynor brought his camera and notebook along to GenCon in Milwaukee, WI to record his impressions of the hands-on showing of Heretic II. Jim was nice enough to write up his impressions, and sent them along with a few photos, as well as some new screenshots from a press CD they were handing out.

GameSpy Jobs  [8:21 PM EDT]
Word of some openings comes from TeamGameSpy, where they are looking to hire an Interface Programmer, a Network Programmer, and a Lead Delphi Programmer. Full details are available on this page.

Falcon Northwest Interview  [8:21 PM EDT]
20 Questions with Kelt Reeves on the Falcon Mach V Fan Page talks with the President of Falcon Northwest Computer Systems about their high-end gamer machines.

Sin FAQ  [7:48 PM EDT]
The Sin FAQ on Ritualistic has been updated to include new sections on Demo support and GameSpy support, and updated information in several other sections.

S3 Interview  [7:48 PM EDT]
An interview with S3's Paul Crossley on Kert's page talks about the upcoming Savage3D chipset.

Mark Rein Interview  [6:58 PM EDT]
Mark Rein talks is the title of the interview with Epic Megagames VP Mark Rein on HardwareTechs.com discussing Unreal.

Heretic II Demo Confirmation  [6:33 PM EDT]
An email from Raven's Dan Freed clarifies a misimpression in today's Hands-on Heretic II impressions from GenCon '98, saying that there are, in fact, plans for a Heretic II demo:

I wanted to clarify for you that we are going to be doing a demo for Heretic II. It will be released in October. We are not sure yet which day in October, but there will be a demo.

Paper BFG Model  [6:33 PM EDT]
FnW´s Q2 Page has a paper model of a Quake II BFG that you can print out and cut out and glue together (in the files section).

Flat Earth Quake Mod  [6:33 PM EDT]
Flat Earth is a modification for classic Quake that adds a Plasma Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Ricochet Nails, Morphing into Monsters, new monsters, tweaked AI, crouching, footsteps, and still more to classic Quake.

Delerium Quake Music  [4:53 PM EDT]
The following post on Delerium on the web describes Bill Leeb, a member of Delerium and FLA, working on a project said to be a "Quake video-game:"

Bill Leeb is currently working on a soundtrack for a Quake video-game, as well as a new Front Line Assembly LP. There will be a mini-tour for the summer through the southern USA.

Heretic II Programming Update  [4:22 PM EDT]
A busy day on the Heretic II front, as Raven Programmer Jake Simpson updated his .plan announcing that they've dumped the idea of using tinting in the game, going on to describe the framerates they're currently getting in software mode, and talking about the shrine effects they've put in (not to be confused with the Shriner effect, which causes you to drop things out of your hotel window).

New miroHISCORE 1 & 2 Drivers  [4:22 PM EDT]
New Beta Drivers for the miroHISCORE 3D (1 & 2) are now available. This unsupported release includes Glide 3.0. Thanks Mårten.

Unreal Partial Conversion  [2:39 PM EDT]
Crescent Moon Software has posted one of the first Unreal Partial conversions, titled Crescent Moon Squad. The add-on features 12 new levels (and an ending), ten new deathmatch skins, two new deathmatch levels, two new darkmatch levels, and three new music tracks.

Mail Security Update  [2:32 PM EDT]
After a recent patch for Outlook and with a workaround for Netscape mail security problems, on my mention of using Eudora, I received a few messages about the discovery of an email security hole for Eudora Pro users, a workaround is now up on Qualcomm's site (a fix was posted as a 4.1 beta patch, and then pulled: a new one is promised today).

Spec Ops Final Patch  [12:14 PM EDT]
Secret transmissions from Special Agent Cash reveals that word on Cash's Fresh3d is that the Spec Ops Final patch (681 KB) is out, which fixes stereo panning and tweaks around some grenade effects.

Starsiege Tribes Preview  [12:14 PM EDT]
There's a Preview of Starsiege Tribes on Games.Net. Thanks Billy "CIH" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme.

Anachrochat Tonight  [12:14 PM EDT]
A reminder comes from Ion Troopers that tonight is this month's Anachronox Chat. You can join the chat with the game's designers through ION Storm's website by hitting the live chat button, or by pointing your IRC client at www.ionstorm.com and joining #ion. The festivities begin at 8:00 PM Central time.

Heretic II Designer Diary  [12:14 PM EDT]
Heretic II: Designer Diary Part 2 with inside info and new screenshots is up on OGR.

Weapons Factory  [12:14 PM EDT]
Beta 7 of Weapons Factory 3.0 is out adding a bunch of new features and fixing some bugs. A final version 3.0 release is expected next week sometime. Thanks Prophet.

GC's Next Five Q2 Mods  [12:14 PM EDT]
In response to all the feedback they received about their recent 5 Coolest Quake II Mods article, GameCenter posted a list with another five Quake II mods recommended by readers that end up covering four of the most popular Quake II mods and, oddly, a TC that isn't out yet (though The Down certainly sounds interesting). Thanks Amer at Cyrellis 3D.

Video Game Stumpers  [12:14 PM EDT]
Video Game Stumpers offers video game trivia questions (and your answers don't even need to be in the form of   a question). saw that in Randy Pitchford's .plan.

New Rocket Arena & CTF Packs  [12:14 PM EDT]
Multi-Arena Headquarters (MAHQ) has posted a new Rocket Arena 2 Pack that is currently playing on 208.24.189.49:27910. There's a new four level Quake II CTF pack at EX CTF PAK.

New Jedi Anti-Cheat Patch  [12:14 PM EDT]
The CWT Anti hack Page on Jedi Knights has an updated version of the Jedi Knight anti-cheat patch.

Descent 3 FAQ  [12:14 PM EDT]
The update du jour to the Descent 3 Frequently Asked Questions bring the FAQ up to version 0.21. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

On Pro Gaming  [12:14 PM EDT]
Could playing computer games online become a professional sport? asks Fortune. Thanks Lithium.

More High Jumps  [12:14 PM EDT]
Inspired by the demos posted here recently, the demo section on Fragbait Studios has a couple of demos online, including the highest jump they could manage, as a challenge to other daredevils who think they can do better. Then there's this one (604 KB), sent along by Ray which shows why you shouldn't drink and jump (it's not just an amusing demo, but an object lesson for youngsters).

Like the Energizer Bunny  [12:14 PM EDT]
User Friendly does Quake again. This one seems to keep going, I think I'll assume that interested parties have this one bookmarked by now. Thanks Bones.

Out of the Blue  [12:14 PM EDT]
There are no problems only opportunities (it's B.S., but what the hell). I'm hoping my new mailbox will turn out for the best if I can use the fresh start to keep up with my correspondence better, but I just want to apologize again to all those inconvenienced by that. As for the the late start on today, clearly the lingering side effects of trying to reorganize, sorry about that.

*Asterisk
For the record, a running tally of the minor slipstream corrections made throughout the day (real corrections will be noted in the news): The new Weapons Factory was originally listed as beta 6; I originally mistakenly wrote that the security flaw in Eudora was the same as the one in Outlook and Netscape (thanks Kyle D. Lanclos for the clarification). I added a word or two to Out of the Blue to add a touch of semi-coherence. I originally wrote miroHISCORE as microHISCORE (thanks John Mitchell). I reworded the Delerium story to avoid causing confusion by trying to categorize their music.

Vortex 2 Announced  [10:14 PM EDT]
A press release titled Aureal Announces Vortex 2 Next Generation PCI Audio Processor gives the first word on A3D's planned next-generation PCI 3D audio processor.

Quake Jewelry  [10:14 PM EDT]
id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead updated his .plan with a plug for Queen Village Trinkets, makers of jewelry for gamers, including Quake related items.

Quake II BattleGround  [10:14 PM EDT]
Version 1.03a Quake II Battleground is out, as a quick-fix to allow "maps.txt" to be read even if you run the mod from baseq2, and fixes a few other minor bugs.

Type Kill Killer?  [10:14 PM EDT]
Ever frag someone only to have them shoot of a message saying "I was typing!" (my response is usually "go to IRC"). Well, Paul Bowlay has cooked up an interesting solution: a custom Quake II skin with a red circle and slash for ("no") across the chest, and a blindfold to symbolize when you are typing (on the off chance it inspires some mercy). Completing the package is an alias that changes to the skin automatically when you hit "t" to talk. More info and the package are up on Otser's Site.

More TNT Announcements  [10:14 PM EDT]
Creative Labs Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT is announced (thanks azero), and Hercules Dynamite TNT (like they've been planning on this chipset's name all along), thanks Voodoo Extreme.

All Joey  [10:14 PM EDT]
Today's edition of ION Storm News is an "all Joey" issue, as they pay homage to Joey Liaw, who is departing for college.

Quake Etiquette  [10:14 PM EDT]
This guide to online etiquette in Quake II games is amusingly titled the Unofficial Quake 2 CAT (Complained About Things).

Gamer's Homepage  [10:14 PM EDT]
Gamer's Portal is designed as a gamer's homepage, with links to many essential gaming resources.

Alien Annihilation Follow-up  [10:14 PM EDT]
There was a corrupted file in the archive originally posted with the Alien Annihilation release (story). The error has been corrected, so if you had trouble with the download before, you can get the files now.

Back Online  [10:14 PM EDT]
All set with a new hard drive. I have lost no data with one exception: For better or worse, I now have a fresh mailbox. This is not something I do lightly -- I have/had backlogged email in three different email clients going back two years, and one of my delusions has been that I will get to all those old unfinished threads. I am trying to turn this into a positive with a fresh install of Eudora, and a newfound resolve to try and keep up with replies where appropriate. That having been said, I humbly request that anyone with unfinished email correspondence with me (going back however long) to drop a reminder if you still have the patience, and I'll do my best to deal with what comes in. Oh yeah, here's the image of the day (thanks Bogart-MP). BTW, thanks for all the sympathy (and even a kind offer of a replacement drive), you all are pretty damn nice.

Kaboom!  [12:17 PM EDT]
This is a test of the Blue's News Emergency Broadcast System. I have just suffered what appears to be a complete catastrophic hard disk failure on my desktop machine. I am jotting this update from my laptop (logging into an ISP in Dallas no less) to let you know I am off in search of a replacement hard drive. I was in the midst of discussions of what will happen with Shooters tonight, and I'm not sure I can make the show at this point. Hopefully my next update will be within a short time... here's hoping at least.

Frag Stain  [11:17 AM EDT]
A public beta test of Frag Stain is now underway, offering another version of PaintBall for Quake II.

LinuxQuake HOWTO Update  [11:17 AM EDT]
The Linux Quake HOWTO page has been updated. this site is dedicated to helping you install, run and troubleshoot Quake, QuakeWorld, and Quake II on an Intel Linux system. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

FFVII PC RIVA Patch  [11:17 AM EDT]
One of those I keep forgetting to post (sorry), is that a new patch for Final Fantasy VII (PC) was released a couple of days ago fixing problems for owners of RIVA 128 and 128ZX video cards. Here's the The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List page for the patch.

GameForge 3D Demo Revisited  [10:30 AM EDT]
Here's a local (uninfected) copy of the GameForge 3D Terrain engine demo (1.7 MB) from the other day (story). A story of the demo's infection with a virus (here) implied that the original file was infected, which I can vouch was not the case (I forgot at the time, but I downloaded the demo from the original server, and it was fine). Clearly the demo was infected further down the line, as one of the mirrors I was sent this morning was still infected (BTW, most anti-virus software does detect CIH virii).

3D Now! Beta  [10:30 AM EDT]
The 3DNow! NOW Page has word on a little BETA Test Contest where you can win the opportunity to Beta test the new Quake2-v3.17-3DNow! driver (and possibly other betas as well).

Vote40 BSP Generator  [10:30 AM EDT]
Now this is a project with a couple of unusual twists. VoteBSP40 is a custom TeamFortress Quake map pack that you can generate by entering the maps you want included in this Vote40 Automatic vote40.bsp maker webpage. The BSP is then mailed to you, and when run on a TF server, users can vote for which of the up to 40 maps in the pack by shooting at doors.

Descent 3 FAQ Update  [10:30 AM EDT]
The unofficial Descent 3 Frequently Asked Questions has been updated already, to version 0.15. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

TNT Announcements  [10:30 AM EDT]
Thanks 3 Fingers for word that you can pre-order the RIVA TNT-based Diamond Multimedia Viper V550, (pre-orders, the next best thing to shipping first), and also news from Purified3D is that the Canopus TNT offering is probably going to be available next month, not later as was imagined, and in the Canopus fashion, will "have a unique Canopus feature to support current serious gamers."

Another Half-Life E3 MPG  [3:30 AM EDT]
Contaminated.Net has gotten their (virtual) hands on another MPG from Valve's showing of Half-Life at this year's E3. This movie shows off a bunch of scripted sequences, including a favorite of mine, where two scientists choose the wrong air duct to hide in. Here's a local copy of offices.mpg (29.0 MB)

Messiah Story & Shots  [3:30 AM EDT]
I forgot to mention the new in-game Screenshots of Messiah up on Shiny's site (thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme. Also, the prologue from the story of Messiah is up on Gamer's Alliance along with three new shots showing off characters from the game.

Alien Annihilation  [3:30 AM EDT]
Slaughter Development has the first beta up of a Quake II mod called Alien Annihilation, a class based team-play mod, with a research system (as a game progresses, teams research new technologies, so new classes and weapons become available).

Arcade Quake Review  [3:30 AM EDT]
There's a brief Arcade Quake Review on Next Generation Online. Thanks Da Gimp.

Next-Gen 3D Accelerator Articles  [3:30 AM EDT]
Next Generation Of 3D Accelerators at MeccaWorld and 5-Dimensions Pros and Cons of Upcoming 2D3D cards.

Death in Sweden  [3:30 AM EDT]
The first four games of the Death Row versus Clan Nine challenge in Sweden go to the home team, Clan Nine, as they defeated DR 70-52 and 114-28 on DM3 (DR's choice of map), and then won 146-29 and 159-69 on e1m2 (Clan Nine's choice). DR won the fifth game on DM3 152-22, leaving clan nine with a 4-1 advantage, with the remaining matches to be played on Friday. PlanetQuake's coverage of the event includes play-by-play from each game, and interviews and commentary form the participants.

Win A Voodoo2 (and a Geek to Install It)  [3:30 AM EDT]
PCGamer's Fancy Man to the Rescue Contest may have a silly name, but the prize is a Voodoo2, installed in your machine by their Technical Editor Greg "Fancy Man" Vederman.

Yep - Funnies  [3:30 AM EDT]
Today's User Friendly Comic continues the Quake theme, as well as some sticky political humor. Thanks Ant.

Out of the Blue  [3:30 AM EDT]
The ongoing saga of the benchmarks: okay I've watched those same demos play over and over till my eyes hurt, but before posting the results of my furious benchmarking I'm going to make sure I've covered all my bases so this can be a post that doesn't require more follow-up. I am also having trouble getting the Turok demo to run, so that may be a set of numbers I omit.

OpenGL & D3D Unreal Update  [8:50 PM EDT]
A Mark Rein post to the Unreal MegaBoard gives the latest on the status of Direct3D and OpenGL Unreal (thanks Billy at VE):

Good news and bad news...

I tested our latest OpenGL yesterday before leaving for Europe where I am now. The performance was pretty good on a P200MMX with a Hercules Thriller 3D at 640x480 with all the options turned on. But I had some problems changing resolutions, going in/out of hardware/software modes and the interface to the Advanced Options Menu in Unreal wasn't hooked up yet so I wasn't able to adjust any settings to make it faster. On a machine like mine (a P200MMX) under OpenGL I would expect better performance at a lower resolution (512x384 which I use with the Voodoo1 card) and I'd like to be able to turn off one or two other features (the big hog ones like reflective surfaces) to see what extra speed I can get out of it.

So, we're still not ready to release the OpenGL driver, even in beta form. But we're definitely getting close.

Dreamforge are working dilligently on these things and with the IHVs to get their issues resolved. If things are corrected by Friday then I'll test again over the weekend. Once we get around these basic problems we'll be ready to go.

It's really important to be able to change resolutions and tweak the settings to accomodate for the wide variety of OpenGL cards and system specs. I can't endorse a release without these things working both on our side and on the side of at lease ONE OpenGL card. I don't expect a whole bunch of cards to run well on day 1 of the OpenGL beta but I want at least ONE card to be working well before we release it. We're VERY close now.

We've talked a lot about Rendition who have worked very hard to get their driver working well with Unreal. Kudos to Rendition. But I understand we'll be able to extend some kudos to other card manufacturers soon too. Watch this section for further information.

On the D3D side: The release of DX6 is paving the way for some progress in that area. As soon as I know something more concrete I'll post it here. I'm pretty excited about D3D because everything I'm hearing about version 6 is sounding like it might end up performing a little better than OpenGL on several cards. We'll just have to wait, with fingers crossed to see if that's true.

Heretic II at GenCon  [8:50 PM EDT]
With his .plan temporally on the fritz, Kenn Hoekstra mailed word of Raven's plans to show off Heretic II at this year's GenCon:

Activision will be showing HERETIC II at this year's Gen Con.  The conference is this weekend, August 6th - 9th, in Milwaukee, WI.  Representatives from Raven and Activision will be on hand to answer questions about the game and a PLAYABLE DEMO will be on site.  If you are in the area or planning on going to the conference, stop by the booth and play the game! It's going to be tons of fun! If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me. (khoekstra@mail.ravensoft.com)   If you have questions about the Gen Con conference in general, there is a great informational site at: http://www.andonunlimited.com/enter.htm#GENCON

More Game Tester Positions  [8:50 PM EDT]
The following comes from EViLz:

I work at a company that is looking for two full time game testers for a system they are developing.  The perspective applicant should be 18 years of age, live in the bay area (San Jose area) , be able to work full time, and loves to play games. This would is a great position, whoever gets the job will play games 40 hours a week. Talk about a killer job.  Games from Duke to Quake and all the latest third person games.  If you do post this for me, could you have the perspective applicant send me email to bvharmer@yahoo.com  I really appreciate any help you could give me.  =)

Another Seed Interview  [8:50 PM EDT]
Voodoo Unlimited Power has the second Seed interview of the day (the first covered here), talking with Human Head Studios about their upcoming shooter.

Descent 3 FAQ  [3:45 PM EDT]
Here's the Descent 3 Frequently Asked Questions version 0.11.

morbid on New Voodoo Drivers, etc.  [3:31 PM EDT]
TeamGameSpyer & 3Dfx port stud Jack Mathews updated his .plan talking about this Unreal problem with the new Voodoo drivers (next story), a bit about FPS, screenshots, and a GameSpy tidbit (as well as parts I'm not quoting about Windows foibles, and dental woes, with which I sympathize). Here's the lowdown:

3Dfx: We released new Voodoo Graphics drivers, which fix a lot of things, but break Unreal. Why? Because Unreal only asks for 3 color buffers, which Voodoo Graphics doesn't support. However, the old Glide 2x would just bring it down to double buffering (it should have failed). Well, this breaks assumptions that newer games were using about triple buffering, so we broke Unreal to fix other games. We did this because our multitexture patch also had this bug fixed, which is why the mtex patch is required to fix the bug. It has nothing to do with Glide 3 (Blue! You should ask me these things :-) )...

Blue's note: Hey Jack, if you knew about the Unreal problem, you should have posted about it before idiots like me started speculating! =]

Also, there's another could things I wanted to address. First, someone posted "misconceptions about fps" that I saw on Voodoo Extreme. When IHV's put out fps's of like 100 or 200 fps in games, we KNOW people can't see that fast, and we KNOW people don't like tearing. What we're trying to say is "here's how fast a game can drive our hardware, assuming we don't need to wait around for a monitor." However, we're not asking you to actually play at these framerates, this is to show two things:

1) How fast the hardware is in raw power. 2) How, if we can drive game X this fast, then imagine how fast the next generation version of this game will be.

We don't ask people to play like that, just because I know of a lot of people that happen to.

Another gripe is about screenshots for new hardware. Sites will post screenshots saying "look how great this 800 bit color on this card looks" and they'll post a #@$#ing JPEG! To people that post card screenshots: JPEG is lossy. It will not show off a card's visual quality. JPEG artifacts will make things look REALLY bad. What should you do then? Take it as a 24 bit BMP, zip it up, and tell people that if they're using 16 bit color, that, guess what, that 24 bit BMP will be shown in 16 bits...

GameSpy: By popular demand, I'm changing the way custom tabs are shown. Instead of tabs, it will now be a dropdown. This only makes sense, as people want to see all the tabs at once, but they only need to see them when they need to change them. Simple.

Unreal Voodoo Driver Problems Solved (Update)  [2:56 PM EDT]
I posted a link to the wrong patch at first, sorry about that: A solution to Unreal problems (story) with the new Voodoo drivers released yesterday (story), can be found on the Epic MegaBoard. If you are using the new Voodoo drivers, you need to install the Multitexture patch (21 KB). Thanks fubar.

Frogbot Editor  [2:56 PM EDT]
Version 1.8 of the FrogBot Editor is up on the QNM page. The editor allows you to easily create configs for games against this classic Quake bot, with the new version adding file type registration for bot files among the new options.

Virus Warning  [2:56 PM EDT]
I saw on AGN that the GameForge engine dealie (story) may suffer from a case of that trendy CIH virus, so cautions is definitely advised.

Quake II JailBreak 2.3  [12:42 PM EDT]
Version 2.3 of Jailbreak for Quake II is now available. The new release fixes the turret cheat, makes observer mode safe, and adds some new features.

On Sin and More  [12:42 PM EDT]
GamePen's Insider talks about the Sin demo, touches on Sin versus half-Life, and touches on the failings of online services.

Rainbow Six Preview  [12:42 PM EDT]
GameSpot previews Rainbow Six (thanks illusion of Prey.Net).

CPL Photos  [12:42 PM EDT]
Some photos from the recent CPL event in Dallas shows off the good, the bad, and the ugly from the event.

Sinterview  [11:57 AM EDT]
An interview with Charlie Wiederhold on Gamersdigest talks to the Ritual level designer about his work on Sin.

Catch the Chicken Interview  [11:57 AM EDT]
The Network Gaming Site has a brief interview with Simon, the Colonel Sanders of the  Catch The Chicken Quake II mod.

GameForge 3D Terrain Engine  [8:50 AM EDT]
The GameForge Website has a public release of their 3D terrain engine for 3Dfx cards (Glide 3.0 required). Here's the dope, passed along by Billy at Voodoo Extreme: (Important! see virus warning in this story).

At GameForge we have been working on our landscape engine for over a year now, and we've got the results to prove it. Our terrain engine produces very realistic and highly detailed outdoor environments which can be used for not only games, but also in commercial applications. It is completely scalable,and thus able to achieve the best balance between detail and framerate on ANY machine.

Currently developing our first title, we are making maximum use of these large and detailed outdoor environments to create a unique gaming experience. Also supported are AMD's K6-2 and 3DNOW! technology and Creative Labs' Environmental Audio.

All development thus far has been self-funded, and we are trying to find a publisher and/or investors to aid funding for current and future products. Interested parties should please contact Bernhard Kotzenberg at bernhard@gameforge.com. "

Please note that the latest drivers for voodoo2 and voodoo graphics based boards can be found at http://www.3dfx.com/download/download.html - you'll need Glide3 installed to run the demo.

Quake III: Arena FAQ  [8:50 AM EDT]
Here's an updated version 0.2 of Telefragged's Unofficial Quake Arena FAQ.

Conspiracy Interview  [8:50 AM EDT]
HARDgame.Com Interviews Mr. Jun Kawaguchi, Rendition's Product Marketing Manager.about the Conspiracy. This is Rendition's upcoming V2200 2D/3D card with a Pinolite 3D Geometry Processor that offloads geometry set-up from the CPU, making the card a much better performer on lower powered machines. The story also includes a Quake II screenshot.

Daikatana Interview  [4:43 AM EDT]
A Daikatana Interview on Game Post talks with John Romero and Andrew Collins about ION's upcoming time-spanning game.

Seed Screenshots/Interview  [4:43 AM EDT]
Some new exclusive Seed screenshots and an interview with Gabor Kadas from Human Soft on VoodooNation give a look at this upcoming 3D shooter.

Banshee P/Review  [4:43 AM EDT]
Cyrellis 3D has posted a nice in-depth review of a 3Dfx Banshee 8MB AGP Alpha Board on their hardware center.

Motion Capture in Messiah  [4:12 AM EDT]
This Gamer's Alliance article describes Shiny's use of motion capture in creating the animations for their upcoming Messiah (it's tough to get those little angels to flap their wings for the camera on cue).

Shogo Screenshot  [4:12 AM EDT]
PVR-NET has posted a screenshot of Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, but I don't believe it was taken using a PVRSG accelerator, in spite of the site's theme. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Half-Life Preview  [4:12 AM EDT]
Here's VE's Half-Life Preview with a write-up on Valve's upcoming release.

New Voodoo Drivers & Unreal Warning  [4:12 AM EDT]
I've gotten a few emails from those who have discovered that upon installing the new Voodoo reference drivers released yesterday (story) that Unreal fails to run. You have been warned (cue spooky music).

Mac Unreal Gold  [4:12 AM EDT]
Saw on Unreal Nation that WestLake is reporting that Mac Unreal is close to going gold. Apparently the only thing that prevented being finished by the end of July as planned was a last minute trip to Cupertino to enlist some Apple engineers for final speed optimizations.

Unreal Wolf TC Foxed  [4:12 AM EDT]
Wolf3D News has word that id software has requested that they not release their planned Unreal Wolfenstein 3-D conversion for fear of id "waiving" their copyright by allowing a project with that name to be released as freeware. Saw that on Redwood's.

Online Versus Print Game Reporting  [4:12 AM EDT]
Dimensions: Print vs. Online Gaming Media is an Adrenaline Vault feature article that examines the pros and cons of print versus online gaming publications (though a print magazine article on the same subject might demonstrate a different perspective).

Later for 3D Now! Heretic II & Requiem 3D?  [4:12 AM EDT]
In an email posted on AMD Zone, Raven programmer Pat Lipo talks about plans for AMD K6-2 support in Heretic II saying that a tight production schedule, and lack of test systems from AMD mean 3D Now! support in Heretic II is in jeopardy. Also, Hell on Earth has a similar message posted from Ron Little, programmer for Requiem: Wrath of the Fallen, saying saying 3D Now! optimizations are part of his schedule, but is "one of the last items on [his] list," so he may not be able to get to it.

V3300 in 1999?  [4:12 AM EDT]
Björn's 3D World has posted some info gleaned from SEC documents filed in association with the planned Rendition/Micron merger. Revealed in the papers is word that the Vérité 3300 chipset, anticipated for release in the fourth quarter of this year, is not likely to be available until first quarter 1999. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

DirectX Uninstaller  [4:12 AM EDT]
Here's an unofficial DirectX Uninstaller. I do not know of any hearty souls who have tried it, so use at your own risk: sometimes the cure is worse than the illness. But if you're really in a DX6 (or earlier) bind, it may help. Thanks FrenZon from riot.com.au.

BH6 Review  [4:12 AM EDT]
There's an ABIT BH6 Motherboard Review on Anand's Hardware Tech Page not with an early look at the new BH chipset, but an improved BX board from ABit (I wacked that all around the first time I posted it).

The Suits and Their Suits  [4:12 AM EDT]
3Dfx Sega NEC and VideoLogic Settle 3Dfx Lawsuit, so less of the money you spend on your next accelerator will represent legal fees. Thanks Jennerstein.

Quake II: Ground Zero Mini-Preview  [4:12 AM EDT]
I've been on a roll lately with my write-ups of some of the new stuff I've had the chance to see, and I continue it today with a write-up about what I got to see in a little mini-preview, based on a couple hours playing the upcoming second Quake II mission pack in both single and multi-player. I tried to keep my write-up brief enough to post on the main page, and it just got a hair too long, so I formatted it a bit (adding a couple of carriage returns in an homage to organization), and posted it separately.

Q2 Jump Movie Revisited  [4:12 AM EDT]
Just for fun, here's a demo (261 KB) sent along by TiggerDawg showing Hermann 'WaR' Hans in an attempt at duplicating the jump demonstrated in TiggerDawg's recent short but explosive demo (story), edited with KeyGrip 2, and complete with music. He did say not to try this at home (clean-up in aisle three, again).

Da Funnies  [4:12 AM EDT]
User Friendly does Quake again (like the funny pages in the paper down here three days running). Alternate title for today's comic: search for esses. Thanks Fallout.

Out of the Blue  [4:12 AM EDT]
I'll post those benchmarks of the TNT & Voodoo2 today at some point, some of those take a long time to run... what's up with the length of some of those demos?

Amen Preview/Interview  [10:23 PM EDT]
There's an Amen The Awakening Preview and an interview with Greg MacMartin, the project leader on CaveDog's upcoming 3D shooter on 3DGAMING.NET.

Gore Update  [10:23 PM EDT]
The 4D Rulers Page has a Gore update that offers a look at a finished model and another screenshot from the recent Gore preview in PCGamer UK.

DirectX 6.0 SDK  [10:23 PM EDT]
The full Software Development Kit for DirectX 6.0 is now online at a full-bodied 91 MB. Thanks Amar Patel.

Rainbow Six Chat Log  [6:42 PM EDT]
A chat transcript with Tom Clancy from earlier today (story) has been posted on MSNBC talking mostly about the book, but touching on the game as well. Thanks Rainbow 6 Retreat, where word is that this game is set for an August 27 release.

New Voodoo RUSH Drivers  [6:42 PM EDT]
New reference Voodoo Rush drivers are up on 3Dfx's site. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

GameSpot on TNT  [4:36 PM EDT]
TNT Blows Voodoo2 Away is the declaration of GameSpot's TNT feature. Since some of their results don't seem to correlate to what I have seen here, I am in the process of downloading that whole GameGauge dealie to run the suite on my machine. I'll post the results in a while (it's like 60 MB worth of download). Thanks Redwood.

Crusher Quake II Model Viewer  [4:36 PM EDT]
Gazpacho has posted a new Quake II model viewing program called Crusher that does not require the installation of an API like OpenGL or Direct3D to view models. The source code is also available.

Tom Clancy Chat  [4:05 PM EDT]
Rainbow Six is in the spotlight again today, as MSNBC is holding an online chat with author Tom Clancy about his latest techno thriller (though it's not specified whether any of the chat will be about the game). This is apparently getting underway as I write these words (it says August 4 at 4:00 PM Eastern time) in the MSNBC Chat Auditorium. Thanks Rainbow Six HQ.

New Voodoo Drivers  [4:05 PM EDT]
Billy at Voodoo Extreme sends word of new reference 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics Drivers for Windows 95/98. These are Voodoo drivers (Voodoo classic?), not Voodoo2 or Voodoo RUSH.

PraxWar Interview  [2:22 PM EDT]
There's an interview with Randy DuvalMagic Pitchford, Chief Game Architect at Rebel Boat Rocker talking about Prax War up on Voodoo Nation. Thanks Cyrellis 3D.

Slave Zero Announcement  [2:22 PM EDT]
Here's Accolade's Slave Zero announcement that give the first word on Slave Zero (thanks John at GameStone), a game that features giant robot combat in an an urban environment that sounds highly interactive from this quote from the game's producer, Matt Powers:

"Slave Zero being able to stomp cars, pick up pedestrians and swat hovercrafts and zeppelins out of the sky. In order to create a world with such detailed animation and tremendous scale, we developed the Ecstasy engine.''

International Challenge  [2:22 PM EDT]
Word is that Thresh and his Death Row crew are off to Sweden to play an international challenge against Clan Nine. Apparently there will be some sort of live web-based coverage on the AMD PGL Page on August 5 and 7 at 10:00 AM Pacific time, though no word is up on the page yet about how that will work.

Rainbow Six Gold  [2:22 PM EDT]
Speaking of Rainbow Six (next story), according to the Rainbow 6 Retreat, the game has officially gone gold (to manufacturing), and should be on store shelves soon.

Rainbow Six Previews  [12:21 PM EDT]
CombatSim.Com has a hands-on preview of the upcoming Tom Clancy inspired shooter Rainbow Six. Thanks Billy who heard this from Billy. Also there's a PCM&E First Look at Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six that offers a preview and some exclusive screenshots.

Akolyte Developer Diary  [12:21 PM EDT]
There's an Akolyte Developer Diaries on the Revenant page describing their decision to use existing tools to make their upcoming 3D action adventure game, rather than creating a custom editor from scratch. Thanks Gamer's Alliance.

Lara Croft Figures  [12:21 PM EDT]
OGR is reporting new Lara Croft action figures to be marketed fourth-quarter of this year, coinciding with the release of Tomb Raider 3. The collectable figurines are said to be 9" tall, though it's not specifically mentioned if that's standing or laying down. BTW, the latest grist for the rumor mill says Demi Moore is now slated to play the role of Lara in the oft rumored about film production of Tomb Raider.

New Rocket Bot  [10:39 AM EDT]
Version 0.6 of the Rocket Bot, the version of the Eraser Bot specifically designed for Rocket Arena, is now available. In addition to the normal Eraser features, new to the Rocket bot specifically are innovations like a basic menu system; a countdown; a self-damage toggle; sounds; camera; and map rotation. The file is up on cdrom.com, or here is a local copy (261 KB) on GamesNET.

Balance of Power  [10:39 AM EDT]
Version 0.92 of the Balance of Power - Quake II Mod is out  BoP is the mod that attempts to add game balance based on the speed of the player's connection. BoP servers can now be set up for the following mods: Deathmatch (w/ GibStats & VWep); Threewave CTF; Freeze Tag; Freeze Tag w/ Grappling Hook; and Q2 COMP v0.20. Some changes have been made to the way Balance of Power handles these balancing adjustments, most notably, lagged players are no longer made invulnerable, but are temporarily made into observers.

Catch the Chicken  [10:39 AM EDT]
Version 1.4 of Catch the Chicken, the Quake II mod that requires you to, well, you probably have the idea already. This is my favorite note on the new release from their page: "The chicken respawns after it explodes. No, we can't stop it from exploding it's just a part of Quake2 that we have no control over."

The Engines of 1999  [10:39 AM EDT]
The Engines of '99 is a PC Games feature that looks at some of the first person game engines expected next year, profiling Prax War, Prey, and Nocturne. Thanks Prophet.

The ADSL Tease  [10:39 AM EDT]
The ADSL Tease Why Super-Fast Cheap Access Is Taking So Darned Long, is a new column on the ZDNet AnchorDesk.

PaintBall Master Server Lists  [10:39 AM EDT]
Digital Paint has posted word on a master server list for PaintBall servers that GameSpy users can add for ease of use, and this server list uses QPlug2 for even more user-friendliness.

Joe Siegler Interview (& Apple Wolf3D!)  [10:39 AM EDT]
Universal Gaming has posted an interview with 3D Realms web-dude Joe Siegler. Also, speaking of Joe, he posted a back to the future article on the Apogee / 3D Realms website revealing that he's discovered the Apple IIgs version of Wolfenstein 3-D that was released on Valentine's Day this year, for those feeling a little retro, both software, and hardware-wise.

Devil's Covenant Parts 4 & 5  [4:06 AM EDT]
Parts four and five of the epic Devil's Covenant Quake movie are up on The Clan Phantasm Page. Also now available there is an autoexec.cfg for use with the movie, and information along with fixes about some of the problems folks have had with the film, including the "out of handles" error with WinQuake and GLQuake. The full version of Devil's Covenant will end up weighing in at a staggering 56 MB zipped, which is about 110 MB uncompressed, with a playing time of approximately two hours.

Klingon Honor Guard  [4:06 AM EDT]
Unreal Nation has word up of a Klingon Honor Guard preview on Pepsi World (Pepsi World?) as their August Games Feature. The feature offers a few new thumbnail screenshots, and a QuickTime movie.

GC's Top Five Quake Mods  [4:06 AM EDT]
They're all darn cool, so while you may not agree with The 5 Coolest Quake II Mods according to GameCenter's list, it's nice that they're recognizing this stuff (are they playing back-and-forth with The AVault and their Unreal mods feature (story)?). Thanks Amer at Cyrellis 3D.

S3 Savage3D Interview  [4:06 AM EDT]
An interview with Paul Crossley of S3 on 5-Dimensions, discusses the upcoming Savage3D video chipset. Thanks Jeff at AMD Zone.

G200 Review  [4:06 AM EDT]
There's a new Matrox Millennium G200 Review on Anand's Hardware Tech Page. Thanks Jeff at AMD Zone.

TNT Follow-up  [4:06 AM EDT]
A couple of follow-ups for my STB Velocity 4400 write-up from yesterday (story). First a correction: I said you'd have to go Voodoo2 SLI to beat the TNT's 3D performance. In fact a single Voodoo2 will outperform the Quake II numbers I gave for the TNT in the resolutions it supports (up to 800x600). I made a correction on that part of the original story to avoid misleading anyone who reads it from now on. Also, I've gotten a few questions about the image quality on the TNT, since poor visuals were associated with the TNT's parent chipset, the RIVA 128. While it seems none of the RIVA 128's ugliness was inherited, I found the TNT to be quite dark playing Quake II and the Sin demo. While it's probably no darker than other cards (and not nearly as dark as the RIVA 128), since the brightness slider doesn't change anything, it is a problem. The third party idgamma utility (available on RivaZone) will help in Quake II, but one hopes that this will be addressed in future versions of the drivers (I believe the problem is in the OpenGL ICD). Speaking of drivers, one more thing I should mention is that the Windows drivers are still buggy (not too surprising: they're still beta) with an occasional tendency to crap up things like buttons on taskbars.

More Funny Papers  [4:06 AM EDT]
Quake in User Friendly again. Thanks Fall[o]ut.

Out of the Blue  [4:06 AM EDT]
I'm surprised at all the positive responses to the hit-and-run style of my little previews on the Savage 3D and the Velocity 4400, I know there are a lot of places that you can find all the press release info, but I prefer the concentrated blast myself. What I will do is put these things in a separate section to find them more easily. I've got quite a few housekeeping projects like that piling up on the site, I'd better get cracking.

DirectX 6.0 for Win98  [9:13 PM EDT]
The DirectX 6.0 Core Distribution has been released, and will install on Windows 98 machines. Thanks to both BetaNews.Com and ActiveWindows for simultaneous word on this.

DNF Update  [9:13 PM EDT]
3D Realms' George Broussard updated his .plan with the latest on Duke Nukem Forever (after airing a gripe about UK PC Gamer's Duke 3D commentary). Here's the DNF stuff:

We're about where we wanted to be after the swicth. The mappers are all 100% up to speed now and can do anything and everything with the editor. There is nothing in Unreal that they don't know how to do, and they've done some new things  that make people go 'Whoa!' when they walk by their desks. The guys are all working on "real" levels now.

Textures and models have been continuing as if the switch never happened. Actually we seem to be able to have higher res textures under Unreal and still run fine, so you can expect that. We also know a few tricks to speed up Unreal and/or the maps to make it run acceptably on a P200 64 megs. I think 90% of the bog people are reporting are map abuse or texture usage related. These are things that are easy to control.

The programmers have been busy as well. We added a significant low level piece of tech I will talk about later, as well as basic stuff like the USE key. We also enhanced the Unreal keyframe, moving object system A LOT and now we seem to have nearly unlimited freedom. It's great to walk up to a swicth, USE it and see something happen. Something very complex at that. Also reworked the resource system so we don't have to recompile a 10 minute file every time we add a piece of art. Very hand for fast updating of data. In short, the foundation is there, and we're ready for the new and "fun" stuff. The programmers will be moving to AI, guns, and game play type things asap.

Keith is prototyping his "back of the truck" map we showed at E3. This is mainly to test out the new object system and get any last little things that would keep that type of map from working.

At this point, we are really in full production mode again on the game. We expect to have gun and guys walking around any day like we never switched engines.

The progress from here should be exponential, as we just drop in new data, and the programmers focus on gameplay more than tech additions.

Don't be surprised if we're silent for awhile. We plan to just keep working hard on the game and keep our mouth's shut about what we are doing.

Banshee Preview  [9:13 PM EDT]
There's a 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee preview on GameCenter. Thanks Amer from Cyrellis 3D (and Billy at VE for the advance warning).

Robert Duffy Interview  [9:13 PM EDT]
There's an interview with Robert Duffy on Quake.ie - The Pit. Robert, the author of QERadiant, is currently working with id on the tools that will ship with Quake III: Arena.

DirectX 6.0  [5:59 PM EDT]
Here's you go: DirectX 6.0 English-language version. Thanks Peanut. Windows98 users can just use the Windows Update dealie from the start menu (though there's no Win98 DX6 update there yet).

STB's TNT Visits the Blue Tower  [3:49 PM EDT]
Coincidental to S3's visit Friday (story) some intrepid souls from STB braved the rooftop sniper rifles and other high security measures at the Blue Tower to come by and demo their new RIVA TNT board, the STB Velocity 4400. Since I just saw S3's Savage3D 2D/3D chipset in action, comparisons are inevitable (although the 16 MB RIVA is planned as a higher priced product at this point than the 8 MB S3-based boards). I'd have to say I was more impressed with the RIVA than the S3 card. Both support TV out (I didn't really play with it on either: it's a non-influential factor for me, your mileage may vary). The S3 does have hardware motion compensation for DVD playback (also a non-gamer issue in my eyes), but the RIVA supports higher resolutions, and most importantly, showed much less performance fall off at the higher resolutions. Both cards are in the high 50's / low 60's framerates on Quake II timedemo on demo1 at 640x480, but where the S3 dropped to 27 FPS at 1024x768, the TNT with STB's current drivers clocked in at 39.3 in STB's test machine (like S3's a PII 400 w/64 MB of RAM, presumably set up optimally for the card), and the board I just installed actually clocked even higher rates on my own little beast here (PII-400 w/256 MB of RAM): I don't know if it's the extra RAM, but with no tweaks at all (I didn't even change my sound settings down from high-quality) it managed 42.9 FPS at 1024x768. Here are some timedemo results for Quake II side-by-side with the S3 numbers:

Quake II timedemodemo1 (PII-400 64 MB RAM):

And for fun I've been playing around on my machine with higher resolutions, and they show off some impressive capabilities (many users get worse framerates than this at 640x480). Quake II timedemo demo1 (PII-400 256 MB RAM):

I'm impressed as hell with this card. As a 2D/3D card that will debut between $200 and $300, with 3D performance you'll have to go Voodoo2 to beat, the TNT looks like a winner.

Diamond's TNT Announced  [3:49 PM EDT]
Also coincidentally: Diamond Multimedia Announces New Viper V550 Graphics Accelerator Based On NVIDIA's RIVA TNT Engine. Thanks 3 Fingers.

Tom Hall Interview  [2:10 PM EDT]
The Apogee Temple interviews Tom Hall talking to the ION designer briefly about various aspects of his career.

Starsiege Alpha on WON  [2:10 PM EDT]
World Opponent Network has announced they are offering Starsiege games on their free Internet Gaming service using the recently released second Starsiege alpha technology demo (story).

Sooner or Later  [10:15 AM EDT]
How Soon Is Too Soon? is a new GameSlice editorial that discusses the impact early announcements of games have on public perceptions, asking if game announcements are coming too soon. Similarly, a PQ featured article called When It's Done talks about why release dates "slip."

Q2 Jump Movie  [10:15 AM EDT]
Here's a nifty Quake II film (394 KB), edited with KeyGrip 2 sent along by TiggerDawg of Portals showing off a Quake II grenade/BFG jump from the main floor to the top perch on the Edge (Q2DM1).

Unreal Mods  [10:15 AM EDT]
Total Conversions -- More Real Than Unreal? is an editorial on The Adrenaline Vault that looks at the world of Unreal TCs.

Devils Covenant Part III  [8:49 AM EDT]
The third part, described a less action-oriented than the previous two, of the Devil's Covenant Quake movie is now out on The Clan Phantasm Page (parts one and two were released yesterday--story). It's possible that there is a problem running part III under WinQuake, so if you run into that, you should try DOSQuake. Though the entire remainder of the film as supposed to go up today, but a bit of real life intrusion means this probably will happen tomorrow.

QWAdmin  [8:49 AM EDT]
Beta four of QWAdmin is available, offering advanced remote administrative functions for QuakeWorld servers.

Beware the Killer Unreal Rabbits!  [8:49 AM EDT]
The latest quirky Unreal modifications on Oddities include a Gravity Gun, and a new version of the rabbit that will flock together with other bunnies when provoked to become... killer rabbits (cue scary music):

Max Payne Preview  [3:43 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault Previews Max Payne in a lengthy look at Remedy/3D Realms' upcoming 3rd Person shooter. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Interview with Romero's Mom  [3:43 AM EDT]
An interview with Virginia Schuneman, John Romero's mother, is up on Gamer's Alliance. You can't make this stuff up.

Requiem FAQ  [3:43 AM EDT]
The Unofficial Requiem FAQ on Hell on Earth has been updated to version 1.0. Requiem: Wrath of the Fallen is an upcoming first-person action title from 3DO.

Unreal Spell System  [3:43 AM EDT]
Unrealistic has a preliminary release of their SpellAPI for Unreal which will allow any Unreal modification that wants to implement magic to do so using their system.

Anand on the 440GX  [3:43 AM EDT]
The AnandTech Chipset Guide on Anand's Hardware Tech Page has been updated with info on the Intel 440GX chipset, which adds support for up to 2 GB of SDRAM and Xeon processors. Thanks AMD Zone.

Clan Central  [3:43 AM EDT]
A new clan database is online at CyberClan Central.

Competitions  [3:43 AM EDT]
The Cyberathlete Organization has announced the cash prizes, including $5,000 (US) for the top spot, for the FRAG II, which will be a one-on-one Quake II tourney. The 1on1 - Prizes on the Liga.net  tourney have been posted. Also on the Euro-tourney front, 3D Action Quake1 Liga and 3D Action Quake2 1on1 Liga are underway.

Funny Papers  [3:43 AM EDT]
Quake is mentioned in User Friendly again. Thanks Ant.

Out of the Blue  [3:43 AM EDT]
There are so many projects underway to make modifications, that it's been quite some time since a story has appeared here about a project before it's released. But boy do I get loads of mail about them, so I just thought I'd mention it here to try and clarify this.

New Quake Movie  [8:14 PM EDT]
The Clan Phantasm Page has the first eight scenes from their epic Quake movie "Devil's Covenant." The movie requires the installation of a pair of .paks for sounds and graphics, and the eight scenes currently available are in four other .paks for download. The remaining scenes are supposed to be available by tomorrow night. I got to check this out after finding out how to change the batch file to get this to run, change the line in  runpart1.bat from "+playdemo tintro" to "+playdemo tintro4" (thanks Jagged from Jagged's Quake Movie Reviews for that tip). The movie is cool so far (though I had a lot of sound overlap in the beginning of the movie: I think it might me the multi-channel playback on my PCI sound card), with ambitious sets and props (helicopters and tanks).

Quake II LavaCam Demos  [8:14 PM EDT]
Speaking of Quake cinema, the LavaCam for Quake II has three demos posted for download showing off what kind of results can be produced using their fixed point camera mod.

New Qizmo  [8:14 PM EDT]
A new version of Qizmo, the shareware proxy for QuakeWorld, is now available.

PaintBall for Quake II  [4:20 PM EDT]
Digital Paint has released the first beta of their new PaintBall 2.0 for Quake II. D.P. is one of the teams that sprung from the ashes of Quake Innovations, coders of the original PaintBall for Quake. The release contains three converted maps from Quake 1 PaintBall and a brand new Quake II PaintBall map (designed for the Q2 features such like ducking).

UnrealEd Manual Update  [4:20 PM EDT]
An updated version 0.5 of the Windows Help File format UnrealEd Manual is up on Skarz News. The new version adds some new info, fixes some errors, and adds a tutorial for beginning designers.

Sin Demo and the SpaceOrb  [4:20 PM EDT]
A new Sin Demo SpaceOrb Support page on Birdman's Lair will help you get going in the demo with your Sporb. Thanks Prophet.

QuakeVoice  [11:27 AM EDT]
Beta 12 of QVoice is up on the QuakeVoice page. QVoice uses DirectSound to allow real-time voice communication during Quake II deathmatch (high-speed connection required). (Update) - The test is over, so the server that was listed here is no longer running QVoice.

Prey Interview  [11:27 AM EDT]
3DRealms' Scott McCabe is interviewed on the Universal Gaming Network talking about his work as a texture artist on Prey. Thanks Voodoo Extreme. I was looking at Scott's photo from the interview, and it inspired a new separated at birth:

3D Realms' Scott McCabe	Beach Boys' Brian Wilson

KeyGrip 2 for Quake II  [1:30 AM EDT]
KeyGrip 2 is now available. Here are some of the features of this demo editing/movie creation tool for Quake II:

• Supports all Quake 2 demos, from 3.05 to 3.17, including server recorded demos
• Highly advanced demo server works directly within Quake 2 to preview and edit the demos.
• Easy to use and FAST camera studio, built directly into the demo server, allows you to recam demos and create spectacular movies in a matter of minutes.
• Wide variety of camera transitions and effects make any movie look like it was done by a pro.
• Easy to understand tutorial gets new users up and running fast!
• Full sound editing, mixing, and previewing Multiple demo interface allows you to have an almost unlimited number of demos open at once.

Survival Keys  [1:30 AM EDT]
Thanks to Mean Devil for sending along a list of key commands translated to English from that Survival demo released yesterday (story).

Matrox G200 Review  [1:30 AM EDT]
Cyrellis 3D has posted their review of the Matrox Millenium G200 16MB AGP

Out of the Blue  [1:30 AM EDT]
More from the archive: today is the second anniversary of the first announcement of QuakeWorld in John Carmack's .plan.

New Quake II CTF Beta  [10:51 PM EDT]
Quake II CTF Beta 1.09 is out on id's FTP Server as a server-only upgrade. Here's Zoid's note from the archive with what's up, as well as subtle reminders that this is a beta:

BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA

Quake2 CTF 1.09

BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA BETA

This a beta release of the Quake2 CTF. It features new features such as a full timed tournament/match mode, user admin functions, and support for Quake2 3.15 features such as VWeap, IP banning and flood protection.

A full user and server operator manual is provided in HTML format in the "docs" subdirectory. Simply load it up in your favorite web browser. You can also access the user manual online at http://www.idsoftware.com/q2ctf/. Special thanks for Walter "|2|" Costinak for helping on the manual's layout.

This upgrade is for servers. Clients (players) do NOT have to install this upgrade into order to play on servers using it.

Do note that this is a public beta. There may be bugs and you may want to be cautious. I do want some feedback on it tho! So if you are running it on your server, let me know how it's doing and what things you do or don't like about the server side of CTF.

I hope everyone enjoys this beta release.

Here's a local copy (428 KB) of this, yep, beta release on GamesNET.

Unreal & UnrealEd Load Optimizations  [10:26 PM EDT]
Tim Sweeney updated his Unreal Technology page describing optimizations that significantly reduce the time it takes to start up both Unreal and UnrealEd, capping the update mentioning "Network play investigations continue...". Thanks John B. Sprague.

Number 9 Interview  [10:26 PM EDT]
Kert's page has posted a conversation with Phil Parker, Director of Corporate Communications at Number 9, talking about their new Revolution IV.

Two New Forsaken Multiplayer Maps  [7:14 PM EDT]
ForsakenNet has posted two new multiplayer maps for Forsaken as a preview of a new multiplayer patch expected from Probe as early as next week, that will add 11 new multiplayer maps to Forsaken, as well as the ability to run a dedicated server. Thanks Jesse LeFort.

Daikatana Screenshots, Chat Log  [7:14 PM EDT]
The Daikatana Cabana has three new screenshots showing Superfly ("you're gonna make your fortune by-and-by") Johnson. Also, they have posted a log of the chat session with the Daikatana team from the other night.

Next-Gen CPU Comparison  [7:14 PM EDT]
A Next Generation Processor Comparison on Anand's Hardware Tech Page takes a look at the state-of-the-art in the CPU market. Thanks AMD Zone ("Dedicated to Fighting The Man!").

Survival Demo  [12:48 PM EDT]
A playable demo of a first person flying shooter called Survival has been posted by Enjoy Entertainment. The demo and instructions are in German, do I couldn't work out the controls, but it looked kind of like Terminal Reality with 3D enhanced graphics (3Dfx required). Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance (here's a page on Gagames with the story of the game).

Requiem Preview  [9:02 AM EDT]
There's a Requiem Wrath of the Fallen preview up on Next Generation Online as their "3Dfx game of the week" (though it isn't out), giving a short look at this upcoming first-person shooter.

Volumetric Fog  [9:02 AM EDT]
There's a healthy chunk of info up on Voodoo Extreme from Gary McTaggart explaining the deal with volumetric fog.

Demo Follow-ups  [9:02 AM EDT]
I know of many who had trouble downloading the MotoRacer II Demo yesterday (story): it's now up on the The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List if you are looking for another source.

Conflicting email reports (thanks Duke & Phoenix_X) point out that in addition to whatever "improved effects" are in the newer Recoil demo (story), the newer version of the demo either removes multiplayer or single player capabilities, which, if either is true, doesn't sound like an improvement to that effect, and you should consider that before replacing the older version if you have it already (of course if it's not true, we have today's first correction lined up already).

Half-Life MPG  [4:25 AM EDT]
Choryoth and the gang over at Valve sent along an MPG of one of the Half-Live movies from E3 (13.4 MB). This is pretty high resolution jobbie that I think does a lot better job of representing gameplay than many movie demos. Featured in the short clip is some combat with some pretty smart grunts that includes a lesson in the use of proximity mines (clean-up in aisle three!).

Mac Unreal Screenshots  [4:25 AM EDT]
Mac Central has posted a couple of screenshots showing off 3D accelerated Unreal on a Macintosh in an article called Unreal and Voodoo 2 An amazing combo. Thanks Unreal Nation.

Behind Valve's Closed Doors  [4:25 AM EDT]
A continuation of the Behind Valve Software's Closed Doors feature on Half-Life.Org is a conversation with level designer Brett Johnson.

DX6 SDK to Manufacturing  [4:25 AM EDT]
Word on the Microsoft DirectX Website is that "Team Direct" has signed off on DirectX 6.0. Here's the skinny (thanks Stephen Murray):

This morning, Team Direct signed off on the latest version of the DirectX software development kit -- DirectX 6.0. With dozens of new features (single-pass multitexturing, bump mapping, texture compression, stencil buffers, and much, much more), performance improvements (in Direct3D, DirectDraw and DirectSound), and enhancements to overall stability, we think you're going to love what you find.
    It's going to take a few days for DirectX 6 to go through our distribution channel and become available. And before you ask -- no, we can't send just you a copy of the code. We're still waiting for it to make its way here. Keep checking this Web page: we promise we'll let you know as soon as it's arrived. In the meantime, you can order the DirectX 6.0 SDK on CD-ROM. We'll send you a disk as soon as they're in stock.

H3D/Wicked3D Review  [4:25 AM EDT]
Cyrellis 3D reviews H3D LCD Glasses and Wicked3D Voodoo2 combination.

Competitions  [4:25 AM EDT]
The World Quake League is holding a Single Player (one-on-one?) Open Quake 2 Championship. Also, BETA WARZ is a 2-on-2 TeamFortress league, dudez.

In Case You Feel Left Out  [4:25 AM EDT]
The Bind ("All Your Aliasing Needs") has a "lefty's config," a left-handed version of one of those complex config/comm setups.

QBSed  [4:25 AM EDT]
Version 1.1 of QBSed is now available. This program allows website maintainers to quickly and easily create and maintain QBS2 headlines for their sites.

Out of the Blue  [4:25 AM EDT]
Today is the second anniversary (two years!) of what was probably the first great Quake modification, Multiskin by Dennis Noordsij, which allowed you to see your DM opponents in their distinctive skins long before QuakeWorld existed, much supported skins. Just something to keep in mind today as you deathmatch with naked CrackWhores and gun-toting Ned Flanders. Thanks Dennis (and all the others who contributed to that patch), wherever you are.