Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

OpenGL Unreal Patch  [10:37 PM EDT]
The beta OpenGL Patch for Unreal has been released on the Rendition Website. Here's a local copy of the GL Unreal patch (278 KB). Thanks Robo_Grunt. Here's a bit of the read me:

At this time there are only a couple of video cards that will run under OpenGL correctly.

the Rendition v2100 and v2200 should work fine with the included OpenGL driver. The Intel 740 chipset also runs well, however Intel has not made their drivers public as of 8/21/98. A beta version of their driver is expected to be released in the near future.

Local Eraser  [8:15 PM EDT]
Downloads of the final Eraser bot from the Impact Development Team page (story) have been a little tough today. Here are some local links, thanks to our fine  friends at GamesNET: The full Eraser Installer with Launcher (8.0 MB), the Eraser installer with no launcher (2.5 MB), and the no-frills zip version (2.5 MB).

Online Gaming Article  [8:15 PM EDT]
Is Online Gaming Getting Better -- Or Just Bigger? is an article on ZDNet that mentions Quake past and future in its analysis of where online gaming is heading. Thanks Faustus.

Want to Write a PC Game?  [8:15 PM EDT]
"So you want to write your own PC game?" is the subject of a From the Trenches Column on GamePen that may appeal to potential game developers.

GibStats  [8:15 PM EDT]
Version 2.2 of GibStats, the Quake log analysis tool is now available, offering a host of bug fixes, a new zero-sum ranking system (like chess), and support for Linux logs among the new features.

New Sidewinder Drivers  [8:15 PM EDT]
Microsoft SideWinder Game Controller Software page has posted version 3.02 of the SideWinder Win95/98 drivers. Thanks Chris at BetaNews.

FreeSpace Expansion Announcement  [8:15 PM EDT]
Interplay Announces Expansion Disk for 'Descent FreeSpace - The Great War' is the official press release for the FreeSpace expansion disk first mentioned last week (story). Thanks Euwyn Poon.

New Forsaken Level  [2:52 PM EDT]
A new multiplayer level for Forsaken called Sunk from Probe themselves has been posted on The Gaming Krib.

Daikatana Screenshots  [1:45 PM EDT]
Daikatana.Com has posted another new Daikatana screenshot, this one from the near-future San Francisco episode. The shot, titled "Under the Rock," is set in the sewers below Alcatraz, and has some accompanying commentary from the level's author Sverre Kvernmo. Additionally, Processed News has posted a Daikatana shot, promising another each day over the next three days.

Rainbow Six Out?  [1:45 PM EDT]
The Rainbow 6 Retreat is reporting that Rainbow Six is out in many stores across the US, which would be about a week earlier than anticipated. Thanks Mike Bondo.

SpecOps Add-on  [1:45 PM EDT]
Cash's Fresh 3D has posted a report from their SpecOps forum detailing what to expect from an upcoming Spec Ops add-on called "Ranger Team Bravo" which is said to be nearing completion. The add-on will offer three new campaigns, Vietnam, Bosnia, and one other.

3D Week  [12:01 PM EDT]
GameSpot UK is holding another 3D Week (every week is 3D week here at the ole Blue Tower) kicking the shebang off with another of those Engine Wars articles, talking about Unreal versus Quake II. In general, however, this go-'round of 3D Week looks like it will concentrate far less on the first-person shooter genre than the last time they did this, with previews planned of Dungeon Keeper 2, Aliens versus Predator, Gabriel Knight III, Driver, and Grand Prix Legends. There's also an opportunity to Win Creative Labs Voodoo2 Cards.

CNN-gines  [12:01 PM EDT]
An article on CNN titled The game engines of the not-too-distant future looks ahead at Prax War (Rebel Boat Rocker), Prey (3D Realms), and Nocturne (Terminal Reality). Thanks The Mighty Ball.

TIE Fighter Patch  [12:01 PM EDT - Updated]
A patch for the TIE Fighter game in X-Wing Collector Series (not X-Wing versus TIE Fighter as I originally wrote) patch is been made available by LucasArts on this page. Thanks to my force-ful friends at JediKnight.Net / LucasGames.

The Final Eraser Bot  [11:04 AM EDT]
What's expected to be the final release of the Eraser bot for Quake II, version 1.0, is up on the Impact Development Team page. The new Eraser offers many tweaks to Capture the Flag, comes with a full installer, and version 2.23 of the Quick Start Eraser Bot Wizard for ease of configuration. Thanks Redwood.

X-Com Alliance FAQ  [11:04 AM EDT]
Version 0.1 of The Unofficial X-COM Alliance FAQ & Strategy Guide is up answering questions about this upcoming first-person real-time sequel to X-Com that will use the Unreal engine. Danke Voodoo Extreme.

Descent 3 FAQ  [5:19 AM EDT]
An update to the Descent 3 Frequently Asked Questions brings it up to version 0.24. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Updated CyberStrike2 Demo  [5:19 AM EDT]
An updated CyberStrike 2 playable demo is now available, as well as a set of new high resolution textures. While the previous demo only supported certain 3Dfx cards, the new one supports all 3Dfx cards, as well as many other accelerators (though it's warned that the game is still 3Dfx optimized). CyberStrike2 offers 3D multiplayer combat in customizable "CyberPods" in what's described as "the future of internet gaming." Thanks again Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Kali 1.53  [2:19 AM EDT]
Version 1.53 of Kali has been released on Kali's FTP Site. The new release offers StarCraft 1.02 support and a GameList command that will retrieve a list of games a user has installed on their system (you can choose to block this). Thanks Jeff at the AMD Zone. Here's a local copy of Kali 95 1.53 (2.4 MB) on GamesNET FTP.

Trespasser Chat Log  [2:19 AM EDT]
A log of last night's chat with the Trespasser development team is up on 3DGaming.Net.

DirectX 6.0 Version Numbers  [2:19 AM EDT]
This page explaining the Microsoft DirectX Diagnostic Tool will help you keep all your 4.06.00.0318s straight (huh?). Thanks Billy "DX4ever" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme.

onethumb Interview  [2:19 AM EDT]
Under the thumb is the title of the interview with Ritual's OT on Ritualistic.

Paul Richards Interview  [2:19 AM EDT]
Universal Gaming Network interviews Paul Richards about the sketch artist's past as a member of ION Storm and (briefly) id Software, and his future at 3D Realms.

Repair Multi-level Quake II Demos  [2:19 AM EDT]
MUlti-Level DEmo Repairer kit (MULDER) is a PERL script by Uwe Girlich that will repair demos recorded across multiple levels in Quake II, which will normally not play back past the level change. Uwe says this functionality will be included in the next release of his Little Movie Processing Centre (LMPC).

SoundBlaster Live! Review  [2:19 AM EDT]
AnandTech reviews the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live!

Colors!  [2:19 AM EDT]
Colors! is a deathmatch, one-on-one, and teamplay mod for Quake II. Multiple teams (up to seven) compete for control of the items on a level, which you claim for your team by standing over for a certain amount of time (varying based on the power of the item). More details and downloads are on the Reactive Software page.

Final Eraser Soon  [2:19 AM EDT]
Ridah updated his .plan with word that he has completed what he believes is the final compile (*sniff*) of the Eraser bot, which will be released after testing (barring any unforeseen circumstances).

l33t 455 Action Movie Contest  [2:19 AM EDT]
Word on Action Quake2 HQ is that they're holding a l33t 455 Action Movie Demo Contest, where you can win the ultimate l33t 455 prize...MAD PROPS! Thanks Ant.

Wired Quake  [2:19 AM EDT]
Culture News from Wired News looks at the Quake III Arena announcement. Thanks BaM.

Quake TV  [2:19 AM EDT]
I got a deluge of mail about Quake appearing in the answer on Jeopardy last night, which was a re-run, I guess this will happen every time that one, or the Robin Williams Quake reference on Letterman gets shown again.

Out of the Blue  [2:19 AM EDT]
I just have to comment that in my opinion, this past Wednesday's South Park was the Citizen Kane of potty humor.

Quake II 3.18 Beta  [11:56 PM EDT]
John Cash made a .plan update announcing the availability of the Quake II 3.18 beta (2.5 MB) as an unsupported beta release:

Quake2 version 3.18 beta released

It is at ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/q2_318_beta.exe.

Please read the file 3.18_Changes.txt contained within this self-extracting zip file for details about the release.

No Shooters  [7:00 PM EDT]
A last minute cancellation from our guests, and lack of availability of Loony for tonight's show added up to derail the whole shebang, so there will be no live Shooters this week. The good news is that this eliminates the conflict with the Trespasser chat tonight (story), because I know there were many torn like one of Mudd's women trying to reconcile a contradiction over which to check out. The Trespasser chat kicks off at 8:30 PM Eastern time.

Daikatana Release Date Slips  [6:12 PM EDT]
When Billy passed along this press release from Eidos that mentions Daikatana's release date as now being fourth quarter, rather than November, it seemed like splitting hairs, but now I see the impact, as Geoff from GameSlice points out that this means Eidos' financial fourth quarter 1998 which is actually January-March 1999, so this announcement does indeed represent a slip for the game's expected release date.

First Voodoo2 Rev 3 Announced  [6:12 PM EDT]
According to MaximumPC (not to be confused with Maximum PC the outgrowth of bootNet) California Graphics has announced the first cards using the Voodoo2 Rev 3 spec, which incorporates faster RAM (thanks 3DNews.Net). What I found surprising in the quoted press release was what seems like a shot at the reliability of pre-rev 3 Voodoo2 boards (I was not aware of any such issue):

"Some of the initial designs from other companies for Voodoo2 boards had problems with overheating and failing after long use," explained Vincenzo Coccoli, Chairman and CEO of California Graphics. "We have worked closely with 3Dfx and are the first to have the new second generation design (Rev 03), which has been tested and approved by 3Dfx, and does not suffer from these problems. In addition, our tests show that our 3D Wizardä design has faster memory access giving a performance improvement or around 10%."

Heretic II Update  [5:33 PM EDT]
Raven's Rob Gee made a large and enthusiastic .plan update outlining the current state of the Heretic II project from stem to stern.

Rainbow Six Cheats  [5:33 PM EDT]
Rainbow Six Command Center has posted a bunch of the cheats for the Rainbow Six demo if you're stuck (thanks Cash's Fresh 3D).

Where is the PVRSG?  [5:33 PM EDT]
The mysterious disappearance of PVRSG is an article up on Sharky Extreme that talks about the chipset that we've been hearing less about than we were a while back, the PowerVR PVRSG. The article talks of the technical and marketing reasons for the timing of the chipset's planned rollout.

The Best Laid .plans  [5:33 PM EDT]
Just a few observations from some .plan files, basically off-topic. ION's James Daly speaks truth: "Jack Kirby is the ArtGod.(especially for comicbooks!)," follow the links in his .plan for a wealth of King Kirby lore. Another thing for us old guys (I'm mentioned as an example of the elderly target for this), the Levelord updated his .plan with word on the B.O.C. concert in Dallas. The 'lord was foolish enough to pass along a photo from his bygone youth (I can say that since mine is just as bygone, so let's just let bygones be bygones), which I cannot resist posting here. Behold Levelord in his B.O.C. t-shirt (complete with Sabbath on the sleeve), circa 1975, when he was but a Levelsquire. This one's kind of on-topic, I have to ask Cliff Bleszinski (since I know he can take a little ribbing) if a Skaarj was holding a gun to his head when all the things in the over-used list in his .plan found their way into Unreal? (There's probably a good explanation for what seems like a paradox there.) The apt observation of the day is from Kenneth Scott's .plan, with honorable mention to Whaleboy for conciseness. The comments by Rick Johnson and Maarten Goldstein could have won, but the redundancy hurt. Finally, happy birthday Joe Siegler.

Inside an Internet Project  [5:33 PM EDT]
Inside Team Evolve and Zaero is an article by John "Dirty Harry" Callaham that looks at what goes into creating a project like the Zaero Quake II add-on with a team working over the Internet.

MarTim Quake II Preview  [5:33 PM EDT]
A preview of The Charge, an upcoming Quake II mission pack offers some screenshots, and info about this planned add-on from the famed MarTim design team.

New Daikatana Screenshots  [1:27 PM EDT]
Game-Interviews has posted four Daikatana screenshots, two of them new to accompany their John Romero interview from yesterday. Also, Frans at 3D Action Gamers notes that the 160x120 format Daikatana AVI released recently on Daikatana.com was corrupted originally, but is fixed now.

RIVA 128ZX & MiroHISCORE 3D Drivers  [1:27 PM EDT]
RIVA 3D has posted word of new Microsoft WHQL certified drivers for the RIVA 128 ZX. Also, new drivers for the miroHISCORE 3D and miroHISCORE² 3D are available on their Windows 95 Driver page. Thanks to Billy "DriverMeister" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme for both of those.

3D Video Update  [1:27 PM EDT]
Combat Simulations 3d Hardware Update has been, well, updated, adding more info to their look at current and future video cards: Voodoo2, Voodoo Banshee, Matrox MGA G200, Intel740, RIVA TNT, and the S3 Savage3D. Thanks Voodoo Extreme again.

Local Half-Life Movie  [1:27 PM EDT]
The call has gone out for mirrors on the Half-Life movie released earlier (story), as demand has swamped the Valveworld server. A list of cd-rom.com mirrors are up on Contaminated.Net, and here's a local copy (7.3 MB) courtesy of GamesNET swift and sure FTP.

Rainbow Six Demo Multiplayer  [10:19 AM EDT]
Word on how to enable multiplayer play in the Rainbow Six demo (story) comes from the intrepid Jean "EvelGod" Void:

I "cracked" R6 so you can deathmatch and everything. Those [swell guys] disabled the option, but left the code in. Same thing applies to training. On the starting screen press down arrow once and push enter to go to multiplayer options. This include Create server and manually join. Those are all that work. You must know the IP of the server to join. They are not displayed. I just had a blast playing 1 on 1 with Go. That was the first ever deathmatch session by a private party.

Word from Cash's Fresh 3D is that similar information has come his way, and the write up on this page gives more details on what's available like this, including training scenarios.

Half-Life Movie  [10:19 AM EDT]
There's a movie posted on Valveworld called "train" they say is new (I know I've also seen a couple of train sequences in previously released AVI's).

Sinterview  [10:19 AM EDT]
Ritual's Charlie Wiederhold is interviewed on Outpost 21 talking about his work as a Sin level designer.

Quake III Arena Press Release  [10:19 AM EDT]
Here's The official Quake III: Arena press release from Activision.

MotoCross Madness  [9:29 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List has posted the playable demo from Microsoft's new off-road motorbike game, MotoCross Madness. There's no carnage (unless like MotoRacer, you count the crashes), but hey, if you've got some bandwidth at your disposal, free software is where it's at. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers and Ant. Here's a local copy (19.0 MB) on GamesNET FTP.

QuakeWorld DX6 Workaround  [3:04 AM EDT - Updated]
I wasn't aware that people were having problems with QuakeWorld and DirectX 6.0, but Rumble passes along word that he and a few others he knows of were having trouble staying connected to servers after upgrading, and based on a tip from Zoid, found the problem seems to be based on DirectSound, and goes away when starting QW using the -wavonly parameter (not "waveonly" as I mistakenly originally wrote).

Trespasser Chat Tonight  [2:42 AM EDT]
There is a 3DGaming.Net online chat with the folks from DreamWorks Interactive talking about their upcoming first-person Jurassic shooter tonight at 8:30 PM Eastern in #3dgaming on 3Dnet.

Quake II War Mod  [2:42 AM EDT]
Version 1.1 of the WarMod a class-based Quake II CTF mod, is now available, along with a Linux server and a new GameSpy tab.

Requiem Preview  [2:42 AM EDT]
The Requiem Preview on Voodoo Unlimited Power gives a first-hand account of seeing this first-person shooter from Cyclone Studios in action.

JkEdit  [2:42 AM EDT]
Version 1.17 of JkEdit the level editor for Jedi knight and Mysteries of the Sith is now available. Thanks Redwood and Jedi Knight.Net.

Out of the Blue  [2:42 AM EDT]
Trey Harrison updated his .plan looking for my (among others') support for his efforts to get Late Night with Conan O'Brien moved earlier in Houston. I dunno, I think I'm the wrong one to try and get behind this cause... remember the Blue's News credo: "Sleep is for the weak."

New ThunderWalker CTF  [8:13 PM EDT]
ThunderWalker CTF's House of Fixins has posted the second beta of ThunderWalker Capture the Flag 2.0. The new release of this Quake II CTF variant fixes ladders and jumping, smoothes running and adds support for three resolutions with the sniper scope.

Romero Interview  [8:13 PM EDT]
Game-Interviews.com talks to John Romero in a conversation that mainly covers Daikatana.

American McGee Interview  [7:58 PM EDT]
Zdim roving reporter interviews American McGee talking to tokay, who's settled in as a Game Director for Maxis, about id Software, level design, first person shooters, and what he's up to now.

Deus Ex Interview  [7:58 PM EDT]
The Daily Informant on the ION Storm site talks to Deus Ex designer Dan Rubenfield in part three of their "on the level" interview series.

Big Half-Life Thingy  [7:58 PM EDT]
Twisted Half-Life has posted their "Big Half-Life Thingy," with loads of info from a recent visit to Valve.

Interstate '82 Preview  [7:58 PM EDT]
Driving Interstate '82 is GameSpot's preview of Activision's upcoming drivin' and shootin' eighties extravaganza. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

V2000 Demo  [7:58 PM EDT]
There's an playable demo of V2000 up on the Adrenaline Vault PC Release List (thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme). V2000 sounds like a Rendition chipset, but is actually an action strategy game that's a follow-up to VIRUS. The demo offers the opportunity to fly a really cool air-car in a pretty nice 3D environment and shoot buggy guys (they're crude but damn do they bleed rivers of blood). The demo offers a single level, and another demo is expected by the end of the month. Here's a local copy (10.5 MB) on GamesNET FTP.

Sin Rocket Jumping  [3:45 PM EDT]
A post on Ritualistic (thanks Processed News) describes a planned enhancement to Sin to allow rocket jumping in deathmatch (but not in single-player):

The rocket jumping in Sin is now back to more like what you would are used to in Quake. The patch will have this in it. But only in deathmatch. In single player you won't be able to rocket jump because it ruins the reality (which is already difficult enough to maintain).

Shogo Log  [3:45 PM EDT]
Here's a log of last night's chat with the Shogo development team in frightfully unedited format. Thanks Humbleone.

Screenshots - Gore, I'82, & More Shogo Shots  [3:45 PM EDT]
Screenshots, screenshots, screenshots, just like the real game, except the framerate is (usually) worse. Gamer's Alliance has posted a new Gore screenshot giving another look at 4D Rulers' upcoming shooter. Also, there are more Shogo Shots than one can keep track of surfacing, there's one from yesterday on Processed News where he promises more to come on a daily basis, also Billy has posting a Shogo shot a day for a while himself, there are four shots on this Shogo Preview on 3dfx World, and OGR has posted seven new Shogo screenshots (I guess they blew a week's worth of shot-of-the-days there), as well as 11 new Interstate '82 shots.

Obsidian2 X-24 Review  [3:45 PM EDT]
OGR Hardware Reviews looks at Quantum3D's Obsidian2 X-24, the single PCI slot Voodoo2 SLI card.

Prax War Screenshot  [12:26 PM EDT]
Rebel Boat Rocker Randy Pitchford sent along a new Prax War screenshot (note the homage on the box, perhaps that's Ripley in the foreground?).

The thumbnail links to another .jpg, and here's a less lossy version of the same shot in .tga format (600 KB).

Hardwar Demo  [12:26 PM EDT]
A playable demo of Hardwar has been released by Gremlin Interactive (thanks NetGamer). The demo puts you in control of a anti-gravity car (of course bristling with weapons), where, as a mercenary type, you accept salvage and sabotage missions. Here's a local copy (12.0 MB), on GamesNET FTP.

Hidden & Dangerous Screenshots  [11:13 AM EDT]
There are a few screenshots from an upcoming first-person World War II based game called Hidden & Dangerous up on Cash's Special Warfare.

Heretic II Preview, Programming Notes  [11:03 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault Previews Heretic II in AVault's usual thorough manner. The preview offers a bunch of new screenshots. Thanks Shanaynay Jenkins. Also, H2 programmer Jake Simpson updated his .plan on several topics, including a Heretic II programming update, here's a bit of that part:

We had a big old deathmatch game here yesterday, to try and shake the code tree a little to see what fell out. Got a big old list of stuff to tidy up, but its certainly coming together. The morph Ovum needs work, but its still pretty cool... We are looking forward to hearing some feedback on the new interface we put to the front end of Heretic II.. its something a bit different - Brian Pelletier had some cool ideas in that direction. There's a substantial revision going on of some of the original Quake II physics as well, as some wave designers may have noticed, with the original physics there are some occasions where you can get hung up on the world, stuff that had to be "designed out". Hopefully we'll get that sorted out.

Paul Richards (3D Realms) Interview  [11:03 AM EDT]
There's an interview with 3D Realms artist Paul Richards up on Processed News talking about his new 3DR gig, as well as his previous work at ION Storm and his brief stint at id Software.

3Dfx Interview - Benchmark Bashing  [11:03 AM EDT]
3Dfx's Greg Ballard is interviewed on the fiscally-focused Motley Fool. Thanks 3 Fingers. Also, a 3Dfx press release refutes a recent set of benchmarks for the Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo2 from Mercury Research, since they were run with V-Sync on, limiting the framerate in the tests to the monitor's refresh rate.

New Quake II PaintBall  [10:29 AM EDT]
Beta 3 of Digital Paint's Quake II PaintBall mod is now available.If you are a server operator who was an early adopter of the new patch, there is also a server-only bugfix for beta 3 now available.

OverClocking  [10:29 AM EDT]
The Overclocker's Comparison Page has posted updated Quake II benchmarks on a 266 MHz Intel Celeron Processor overclocked all the way through a room-warming 448 MHz. Speaking of the warmth, there's an article called Cooling the latest Voodoo 2 cards up on HPC Hardware Guide looking at some new copper heatsinks (looks like they're still unavailable) that will be part of a Voodoo2 cooling kit as well as another upcoming cooling kit for Socket 7 motherboards.

Action Quake Update  [4:02 AM EDT]
An updated version 0.95a of Action Quake2 is now available as a server-only patch. The new release polished up some features and fwaps a few bugs, including a couple of bugs that could be exploited. There are also three new maps available there that are not in the new map pack. Thanks Str][ker at Pure Death Edmonton.

Rainbow Six Review  [4:02 AM EDT]
AGN3D's Rainbow Six review is an enthusiastic look at the new Tom Clancy inspired game.

Trespasser Previews  [4:02 AM EDT]
GameCenter takes a Sneak Peek at Trespasser (thanks CiDcO  at StormTroopers). Also, Sharky has posted a short Trespasser preview along with some screenshots from this upcoming dino-rific shooter.

Daikatana Screenshot  [4:02 AM EDT]
Daikatana.com has posted yet another Daikatana Screenshot, this one of  Wyndrax's Tower from the Medieval Norway, along with commentary by designer  Matt "DaBug" Hooper. It blowed up real good.

id Box Designers' Quake II Level  [4:02 AM EDT]
PC Gamer Online has posted an article describing the work of focus2, who have been awarded the contract to create the box art and promotional materials for id Software's upcoming games. The blurb (passed along by Redwood, thanks Red) also offers a Quake II level designed by the designers.

Soldier of Fortune Interview  [4:02 AM EDT]
An Eric Biessman interview on Cash's Fresh 3D focuses on Raven's upcoming Quake II engine Soldier of Fortune game.

Joe Siegler Interview  [4:02 AM EDT]
There's an interview with 3D Realms' webmaster Joe Siegler on the The Apogee Temple.

Quake II LavaCam  [4:02 AM EDT]
A new version 1.08 of the LavaCam for Quake 2 offers an update to this deathmatch camera client to allows CTF and eraser bot support, as well as a new HUD and several bug fixes.

Game Links  [4:02 AM EDT]
There's a pre-opening submission form for a new gaming website links page looking to fill the void since Slipgate Central closed its doors back in the seventies.

Competitions  [4:02 AM EDT]
Challenge-au has word of a project in the works called the World Deathmatch Tournament (thanks riot.com.au). Gathering Of Champions (g.o.c.?) is a series of Quake II competitions that includes a few different ladders and challenges. Also, from a post on the PGL message board, it looks like a fixing a bug is going to cause the loss of the accumulated Season 3 Quake II rankings. Thanks OtterFondler.

MS Updates  [4:02 AM EDT]
Microsoft has released Win95 Dial-up Networking version 1.3 (thanks David Hughes), here are the release notes, thanks Steve (though a profile must be created to read them). When checking that out I saw a file called dun40.exe posted there which I saw on BetaNews is a Win98 update to DUN offering 40 bit encryption, to fix a few security holes. I was at BetaNews.Com because they passed along word of a new Win98 security patch for a "Window.External JScript Vulnerability Issue" available through that Win98 update dealie. Also, Win98 users who are waiting for DirectX 6.0 though the Windows Update, it's there now (thanks AJ Donnelly). Here' a bit from the DUN 1.3 release notes:

The IP Packet size for dial-up connections is now automatically adjusted based on connection speed. The setting toggles between "Small" (576) for Dial-Up connections of 128kbps and below and "Large" (1500) for faster Dial-Up connections or LAN connections. In addition, the PPTP frame size is adjusted based on the Maximum Transit Unit (MTU) in order to avoid fragmentation. One can manually set both the dial-up and PPTP MTU sizes to a specific size. These are configurable under the advanced properties for the Dial-Up Adapter. The default PPTP receive window size was increased to 16

Out of the Blue  [4:02 AM EDT]
The Windows USER heap! Bring me the head of the man that decided the infinitesimally small memory allocation for the USER heap! Arrrgh!!! Thanks I feel (a little) better now. BTW, Happy birthday sCary.

Quake II Ground Zero AVI  [6:50 PM EDT]
Phoebus and friends over at Activision have released a new movie from Rogue's upcoming Quake II mission pack, Ground Zero. The movie (5.7 MB) is in AVI format, and shows off many of the pack's new features including the new weapons, enemies, and some of the enhanced behavior of the old enemies.

Recoil Demo  [3:30 PM EDT]
An updated playable demo of Recoil has been released (thanks to our old mate Sharky for the word). Here's the description of this game from their website:

In RECOIL, players are transported to a futuristic 3D world to drive a state-of-the-art carbon fiber tank where fast shooting and fast thinking are required to save not only themselves, but the entire world.

The XB-80 tank is made of a future high-tech carbon composite that is extremely light weight and provides for unprecedented agility, speed, and ability to navigate among the different environments.

Players, however, must find additional technologies for the vehicle to continue on its quest. Player's must use the tanks hovering capabilities to get through lava and quicksand fields, morph into an amphibious vehicle to glide across water, and become completely submersible to travel underneath water when above ground is impassable.

Here's a local copy (27.9 MB) on GamesNET FTP, and a tip of the hat to Frans at 3D Action Gamers who was actually the first to pass word of this, had I been alert enough to notice.

Akolyte Developer Diary  [1:53 PM EDT]
This week's Akolyte Developer Diary is up on the Revenant website looking at character design & modeling for this upcoming first-person game.Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance.

Tom on Savage3D, Banshee and G200  [12:59 PM EDT]
A new article on Tom's Hardware Guide takes an updated look at three of the upcoming crop of current 2D/3D offerings, the S3 Savage 3D, the Matrox G200, and the Voodoo Banshee, with in-depth commentary and extensive benchmarks. Thanks Redwood.

Shogo Chat Tonight  [11:01 AM EDT]
There's a live IRC chat with the developers of Shogo: Mobile Armor Division today at 6:00 PM Pacific time (9:00 PM Eastern). Here are the details:

IRC Server: irc.entr.net
IRC Channel: #gamers_digest
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 1998
Time: 6:00 PM Pacific Time
Questions? Problems? Contact:
saint@gamersdigest.com

There's also another brand-new screenshot on Shogo Extr... err, Voodoo Extreme  =]

Heretic II Feature  [11:01 AM EDT]
GameSpot's Heretic II Preview is online. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Half-Life Tidbit  [11:01 AM EDT]
Also on GameSpot is a story called Sierra Shows Off Games detailing a party at Sierra last week, making the following note about Half-Life, or the absence thereof, that makes it sound like the game is fairly imminent, and an announcement on the game is even more imminent:

Interestingly, Valve's Half-Life was nowhere to be seen. A Sierra spokesperson said that the reason for Half-Life's absence from the demo event was that Valve didn't want to show the game off since it is so close to completion. That's unfortunate because GameWorks had an area where gamers had a chance to play multiplayer Tribes and Starsiege in four pods. It would have been great to play the multiplayer portion of Half-Life in the area. An announcement from Sierra on Half-Life development is expected next week with more information on the final version of the game.

I'82 Preview  [11:01 AM EDT]
Next Generation Online's Interstate 82 Preview. Looks like my fears about the soundtrack losing the funky '70s feel in favor of the Mr. Mister sound were well founded:

First and foremost, there's the music. We listened to a sample today and it's very ... 80s. Though Activision currently has some 80s sounding music in the early version (mostly early 1980s new wave-ish stuff), the company is in talks to license the music from actual bands for Redbook audio in the game. Mmmmm ... imagine the possibilities: DEVO and destruction.

3D Compatibility Chart  [11:01 AM EDT]
Carsten has compiled an extensive Game-Compatibility list that lists over 300 computer games and gives details on what 3D API's they support.

3Dfx Interview  [11:01 AM EDT]
One Man a six-pack of vaseline and a trained chimp -- or an interview with 3Dfx's Steve Schick. Where? Read that title, Voodoo Extreme, of course.

Articles -- AI & Jerry Springer Journalism  [11:01 AM EDT]
Here are a few new articles: There's an interesting essay on artificial intelligence on Cash's Fresh 3D. Also, in quite the unrelated article, Prophet opines on the subject of some of the opinionated views that have become popular these days calling it Jerry Springer Journalism in an article on 3DGaming.Net. And speaking of opinions, the Games Domain Rant has made its return after a brief absence, with a column complaining about expansion packs, focusing on their pricing compared to the original games.  Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Rainbow Six  [11:01 AM EDT]
Here's a local copy (32.8 MB) of the Rainbow Six demo released yesterday (story).

Quake II Zaero Add-on Screenshots  [3:18 AM EDT]
Sgt. Hulka's Bootcamp, taking advantage of the Sarge's ties to Team Evolve, has posted some exclusive screenshots of the upcoming Zaero add-on for Quake II.

Requiem Screenshots  [3:18 AM EDT]
Hell on Earth has posted four new screenshots from the in-progress first person action title, Requiem, Wrath of the Fallen.

Myscha's Unreal Contest Winners  [3:18 AM EDT]
Myscha has posted his Unreal Level Design Charette Winners showing off the two levels that tied as winners, The Court of Izn-Nali (1.0 MB) by Claycle, and The Rescue of PaNunu (884 KB) by Greygore, as well as his mad HTML skills  =]

EA Buys Westwood  [3:18 AM EDT]
Should have mentioned this yesterday, Spelling sells game studio to Electronic Arts. Among the assets EA acquired for their reported $122.5 Million is Westwood Studios. Thanks Marc A. Jones.

Gamer's Exchange  [3:18 AM EDT]
The Gamers' Exchange, an outgrowth of the Voodoo Exchange, is designed to allow gamers to sell off their older computer equipment as they upgrade by offering it on this automatically updated website.

Inertia  [3:18 AM EDT]
Gamer's Alliance First Look at Inertia previews this "3D vehicle shooter."

Tourneys  [3:18 AM EDT]
Target_X RocketArena2 Tournament is looking for clans to enter, as is the TopGun Quake tournament. Also, Wired News is reporting an online Quake II tournament sponsored by the Cable network company Comcast to show off their spiffy cable modems, thanks devilbunny.

Out of the Blue  [3:18 AM EDT]
Statistic of the day from this Poll More Americans Satisfied With Clinton's Explanation showing that while 33% of the Americans polled have lost confidence in President Clinton over the Lewinsky matter, is the one showing 17% have conversely gained confidence in him since his testimony.

John Carmack on Hi-Res Quake III: Arena  [11:55 PM EDT]
John Carmack updated his .plan describing his work on hi-resolution ("HDTV-style") displays for Quake III: Arena, along with some thoughts on the MacOS:

I added support for HDTV style wide screen displays in QuakeArena, so 24" and 28" monitors can now cover the entire screen with game graphics.

On a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen, a 90 degree horizontal field of view gives a 75 degree vertical field of view. If you keep the vertical fov constant and run on a wide screen, you get a 106 degree horizontal fov.

Because we specify fov with the horizontal measurement, you need to change fov when going into or out of a wide screen mode. I am considering changing fov to be the vertical measurement, but it would probably cause a lot of confusion if "fov 90" becomes a big fisheye.

Many video card drivers are supporting the ultra high res settings like 1920 * 1080, but hopefully they will also add support for lower settings that can be good for games, like 856 * 480.

I spent a day out at apple last week going over technical issues.

I'm feeling a lot better about MacOS X. Almost everything I like about rhapsody will be there, plus some solid additions.

I presented the OpenGL case directly to Steve Jobs as strongly as possible.

If Apple embraces OpenGL, I will be strongly behind them. I like OpenGL more than I dislike MacOS. :)

New Sin Images  [9:09 PM EDT]
Dhabih Eng, noted for his own art, discovered the GlyphX website that contains a bunch of artwork they've rendered for Sin ads and such. Some of this stuff I haven't seen before, and all of it is damn cool. Here are a couple of samples:

New QBS2  [8:48 PM EDT]
Version 1.05 of QBS2 is out offering an updated version of this game website update tracker. There is a problem for some users with the new version where the QBS2 window goes nuts, and there's now a set of registry settings posted to import that will hopefully solve the problem.

Blood 2 Weekly Update, Screenshots  [3:49 PM EDT]
The Weekly Update 14 to the Blood 2: The Chosen page offers an update on the game's progress, which sounds like it's moving along, as 20 of the game's 21 weapons are completed, as are the models for all the monsters but the boss. The update goes on to cover AI, Level Design, General Game Engineering, and Sound, and caps the whole thing off with a few new screenshots. Thanks Kris Siuda.

Rainbow Six Demo  [2:22 PM EDT]
PC Gamer has posted the Rainbow Six demo, a playable demo of the action/strategy game based on the Tom Clancy book. The demo weighs in at 34 MB, and the server seems pretty swamped, so it may be a while before mirrors are available. Thanks CiDcO at StormTroopers. Here's the scoop on R6:

Rainbow Six is an anti-terrorist simulation based on the best-selling novel by Tom Clancy. Although it is played from a first-person perspective it has little in common with Quake-style games. At the beginning of each mission you are given a briefing on the situation. From there you will choose the members of your assault squad and outfit them with the proper equipment. Then you plan your attack and jump into the level to execute it. Stealth and smart thinking are the keys to successfully completing missions in Rainbow Six. If you barge with guns a blazing the terrorists will panic and shoot the hostage you were supposed to rescue. Try wandering around a house filled with terrorists without checking around all the corners and you're likely to find yourself capped in the head. One well placed bullet is all it'll take to put you or a terrorist down.

Carnivores  [12:27 PM EDT]
The Action Forms Ltd. Home Page has been updated with some new screenshots from Carnivores, their upcoming dinosaur-hunting 3D action shooter, that's shooting (heh) for a Christmas 1998 release. Here's a quote from the Carnivores site that gives a sense of what the game is to be about:

Carnivores" represents a brand new genre in 3D action games. It is not just mindless pure killing of everything that moves, but instead is a life-like dangerous hunting experience. However, this doesn't mean an absence of action, you can also become the prey for predators by being the hunted.

Heretic II Preview  [12:27 PM EDT]
Part one of OGR's Heretic II preview is online.

Battlefield Communicator  [11:54 AM EDT]
The first public beta of Battlefield Communicator is now underway. BC attempts to offer real-time two-way voice communication over the Internet or a LAN, apparently finely optimized for minimal bandwidth impact. The program comes with out of the box (or, rather, straight from the download) support for Quake II, GLQuake, StarCraft, and Unreal. The process all works peer-to-peer, so server support  is not required.

Shogo Shots  [11:54 AM EDT]
There are a pair of new screenshots form Shogo: Mobile Armor division over on Billy's House o' Polys offering a before and after look at the effects of a large energy weapon.

Trespasser Screenshots  [11:54 AM EDT]
The latest in what seems like an outpouring of screenshots from Trespasser, the upcoming dinosaur epic, are up on Trespasser Central. The three new images are shots that have appeared in Trespasser print ads.

Steven Polge Interview  [11:54 AM EDT]
A recent TechRadio (broadcast) radio interview with Epic's Steven Polge is up on PlanetUnreal in RealAudio format, talking about his work on Unreal's AI, and his famed Reaper bot for Quake.

NVIDIA Interview  [11:54 AM EDT]
There's a Q&A with Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA on Gamasutra, the web based magazine for game developers. Thanks Prophet.

Quake II Battleground  [11:54 AM EDT]
Quake 2 Battleground version 1.05 is now available, fixing a couple of camera-related problems in version 1.03a, and adding a pair of overtime modes among other enhancements.

GameCam  [11:54 AM EDT]
The GameCam Page has beta 0.10 of the GameCam mod, a plug-in camera mod for Quake II that should be able to work with any (well-behaved) Quake II mod, adding client camera (spectator) abilities.

Free Sun OS  [11:54 AM EDT]
Free Solaris Promotion for Non-Commercial Use offers a copy of the Solaris operating system for either Intel or SPARC machines, for the cost of shipping the media. Thanks Eric Rose.

Solaris Action Quake 2, NIQ  [3:42 AM EDT]
The latest Solaris ports on Solar Eclipse are new releases of NIQ and Action Quake 2.

Unreal DM Map Pack  [3:42 AM EDT]
Snarf's Unreal Map Emporium has posted SUMEPAK #2, a new collection of nine deathmatch maps for Unreal, including one map exclusive to the pack.

Quake II Demo Mania  [3:42 AM EDT]
Uwe Girlich the Cecil B. Demo-mille of Doom and Quake/Quake II demo technology, has released an updated version 3.19 of his The Little Movie Processing Centre, which can now compile QWD text files back to binary QWD files, and can now handle Quake II VWep in DM2 files. In addition, updates to The unofficial QWD format description bring it up to version 1.0.1, The unofficial DM2 format description is now at version 1.0.2, and The recording FAQ is now up to version 1.0.1.

Happy Fun Bot Source  [3:42 AM EDT]
The source code for the now cancelled Quake II Happy Fun Bot project can be found on Gazpacho.

ICQ Security Follow-up  [3:42 AM EDT]
I've been told the ICQ security hole I mentioned yesterday (story) was fixed shortly after it was discovered (thanks Jacob Matthews), so if Bill has been ICQing you with Monica stories... oh never mind.

Return of an Old Friend  [3:42 AM EDT]
Dig it:

Quote of the Day  [3:42 AM EDT]
From Rebel Boat Rocker Jason Zelsnack's .plan:

I'll make this guarantee, PraxWar will have the most advance and best looking projectile vomiting out of any game ever!

Out of the Blue  [3:42 AM EDT]
Seems the kibble is a success... got a couple of real projects in the works, but no promises on time-frames (I've learned that lesson).

Q2: Ground Zero Tag  [8:28 PM EDT]
Rogue programmer Pat Magruder updated his .plan with word on an aspect of the upcoming Ground Zero Quake II Mission Pack he failed to mention the other day on Shooters, a deathmatch variant called Tag, as well as a bit on AI:

I realized, after the show, that we totally forgot to mention our new multiplayer game .. Tag! A lot like regular deathmatch .. but with a significant twist. One of the players is IT .. don't worry, you can't miss it. You get bonus frags for killing the player who is it, as well as bonus frags for killing when you are it. Of course, if you manage to kill the person who is it, you get a nice bonus .. in the form of health and armor. There's more to it, of course, but that's enough for now. Suffice it to say it's a heck of a lot of fun.

The whole AI puzzle of how to make a monster look smart in the 1-5 seconds it lives is an interesting one. The obvious one is to make the monster smart enough to live longer (by dodging, ducking, weaving, taking cover). The other trick you can pull is to have one monster distract the player, while the other monster does something smart. Pursuit code is also very important, so the players can't just hop out of sight, figure out the strategy, and pop back in and mow the monsters down at the player's liesure. It's quite a sight to see a monster take a plat after a player ..

Low Res Part 2 Part 2  [8:28 PM EDT]
Jack "morbid" Mathews updated his .plan adding his voice to those disagreeing with the Return to Lo-Res article, recently published in two-parts, stating that "Kraemer is wrong. Period."

MailBag  [1:21 PM EDT]
Some reading for a Sunday afternoon in today's MailBag, with three responses to the frames per second thread (a couple quite lengthy), as well as mail about PingPlotter, the Hi-Res/Low-Res debate, and this week's rant, on the subject of dogfights (or lack thereof) in Descent FreeSpace.

Low Res Part 2  [1:21 PM EDT]
Speaking of the Hi-Res/Low-Res debate (previous story), with Stomped down all weekend (dunno what's up with that), Kraemer has his follow up to his Return to Low Res article that inspired the responding article Return to low res I think not posted here on Cyrellis 3D or here on AGN3D.

MessageBoard Madness  [1:21 PM EDT]
A few messageboards about which to pass along messages: The official support bulletin board for Loki's Minions CTF is up on Nachos.Net. Also, the AGN3d - Voodoo Extreme 3DBoard is up and running, under the supervision of 3Fingers, designated for "discussion of 3Dfx Interactive's Voodoo technology and games which use the Voodoo platform for 3D acceleration." Before you get bored, the final messageboard message is that the GM Hardware/Software Forum (GL Faux-Jo) MessageBoard is back up and running on a faster host.

LMCTF WebRing  [1:21 PM EDT]
Speaking of Loki's Minions Capture the Flag (previous story, I love a segue), the LMCTF WebRing is underway, linking sites devoted to the popular CTF mod.

Mac CTFBot+  [1:21 PM EDT]
The CTFBot+ page has posted a new version of the CTFBot+ AI playmate for classic Quake Capture the Flag games that now works on the Macintosh.

Security Shtuff  [1:21 PM EDT]
There's an updated version of the Outlook security patch available from Microsoft that is supposed to actually work on the long attachment security hole. Also, beware another ICQ hole has been discovered, this one can allow a user to log into other people's accounts, so if you start getting messages from Bill Clinton offering to chat you with the real Monica story, you can probably bet it's not really him, even if it's Bill's UIN. Finally, Joe Killer passes along word of a post by the Internet Security Systems (ISS) about the Cult of the Dead Cow Back Orifice Backdoor for Windows 95/98.

WinAmp  [1:21 PM EDT]
Needless to say this isn't gaming related, but WinAmp version 1.92 SP1 is now available for your listening pleasure. Here's a local copy (587 KB). Thanks Billy "Plug In" Wilson at VE.

Image du Jour, the Car Mack  [1:21 PM EDT]
Image of the day comes from the .plan of Rebel Boat Rocker Jason Zelsnack, who cooked up this image of John Carmack the Car Mack. Thanks Tim Behrendsen for the IotD nomination.

Action Mirror Part II  [4:59 AM EDT]
I should've posted a link to the local version of the map pack (10.2 MB) that goes with the Action Quake2 release when I posted the other files yesterday. In case you missed those, here's a local copy of the installer (6.9 MB), and the no-installer zip (6.8 MB) of the Action Quake II 0.95 client. Downloads, as always, courtesy of GamesNET's sterling FTP services.

JailBreak Fix  [4:59 AM EDT]
A fixed version 2.3a of the Jailbreak for Quake II server code is available for both Win95/98/NT and Linux, fixing a random crash bug and properly taking away a frag for killing prisoners.

BraZen for Quake II  [4:59 AM EDT]
The subtitle on the BraZen website reads "Can you handle a little realism?" BraZen is a Quake II mod exploring the realism concept that gets bandied about from time-to-time, with such Newtonian features as players slowing down as they get more loaded with equipment (consequently he mod also adds a key to pick up items so you don't accidentally encumber yourself). There are also such real world features as wounds, bleeding, healing, the ability to pull yourself up ledges, search bodies and more. The latest version is 0.90 released a  few days ago (a hunt for servers is underway).

Heretic II Interviews, Screenshots  [4:59 AM EDT]
The Universal Gaming Network has posted a Heretic II Preview that offers three new screenshots as well as interviews with Jeremy Statz, Jake Simpson, and Dan Freed talking about their upcoming third-person action game.

idGamma95  [4:59 AM EDT]
idGamma95 is now available, offering a graphical front-end for Bill Farmers idGamma utility, an essential tool for users of some video cards that end up rendering Quake, Quake II, and Heretic II too dark on some monitors. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Quake/Quake II Contests  [4:59 AM EDT]
Rising from the ashes of the old European Quake Contest Page, Twisted into Form is a new site offering Quake and Quake II competitions. Currently they are running three Quake speedruns, four Quake Reaper bot contests, and the official SwissCon '98 map contests.

Geeks in Bed  [4:59 AM EDT]
Stop the presses, Geeks don't make the greatest lovers. At least that's the conclusion that one seems to be able to draw from this ABC News story (thanks Baraka) that correlates the jobs held by American men with what kind of lovers they are. Here's the word on the Joy of sex (or lack thereof) in being a Geek's mate:

Artists won high praise from the wives and doctors were faulted. But the worst group of lovers, according to the survey of 400 American women, was computer workers.

Separated at Birth  [4:59 AM EDT]
Chris Sparks (DaFragsta) sent along a new separated at birth that probably surpasses any of my own past efforts, offering a side-by-side comparison of id Software's Tim Willits (from his id Gallery mugshot in Quake II), and Seinfeld's Jason Alexander:

Out of the Blue  [4:59 AM EDT]
You'll probably not be able to help noticing the new HTML kibble below this section, a little attempt at some handy new functionality. This does however get us into an area fraught with controversy, as it is also another attempt at the (previously, at least) fairly unpopular change of only housing one day of news at a time here on the front page. I'm hoping that this will turn out to be an acceptable trade-off (haha--after some early feedback, I've already added back yesterday's news). Oh yeah, BTW, if you go for the new Netscape release from yesterday, back up your bookmarks -- it ate mine  =\

Action Quake Mirror  [7:13 PM EDT]
The new Action Quake2 (story) has been tough to come by since as of this writing none of the mirrors are up yet, so if you are having trouble here's a local copy of the installer (6.9 MB), and the no-installer zip (6.8 MB) of the 0.95 client.

Netscape 4.06  [7:13 PM EDT]
Be the first on your block! Some of the versions of Netscape Communicator 4.06 are now available on Netscape's FTP site. Thanks Ant.

3Dfx Interview Part II  [7:13 PM EDT]
Part II of Game-Interviews.com interview with Andy Keane.

Must Sin TV -- Levelord on the Air  [1:19 PM EDT]
Friends and Fans of Sin and Ritual's Levelord may want to keep an eye out for his Lo'-ness on the tube this weekend as I'm told he makes an appearance on CNET Central in an on-camera interview about Sin.(though it's not mentioned in the listings). The show airs at various times on the Sci-Fi Channel, and the USA Network (I am unsure what, if any, international availability there is on this).

Blood II For Halloween?  [12:54 PM EDT]
GT Interactive has opened their official Blood II The Chosen page, since they are publisher for this upcoming shooter from Monolith. The page offers a Blood II discussion forum, a short synopsis of the game's story, and surprisingly, a release date, as the top of the page boldly proclaims, Release Date: Halloween '98. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

New Weapons Factory, Mod Construction Kit  [12:54 PM EDT]
Version 3.0 of the The Weapons Factory for Quake2, a TeamFortress-style class-based CTF mod for Quake II, is now available. The 3.0 release also symbolizes the release of the Mod Construction Kit, which allows "one version of the code to support multiple class configurations, where each configuration in effect is a separate mod." The new release is for Windows and Linux only, with a Solaris version to follow "shortly."

Xtreme Quake II  [12:54 PM EDT]
A new version 0.95 of Xtreme Quake II is available, adding new weapons, including a Nuclear Launcher, tweaking several features, and fixing some bugs.

Myscha's Unreal Level Contest Winners  [12:54 PM EDT]
Epic's Myscha the sled dog updated his .plan announcing the winners (there was a tie for first) of his level design contest, promising to post a page dedicated tot the winning entries on Monday.

New 3Dfx Quake Scene Viewer  [12:54 PM EDT]
A new 3Dfx specific scene viewer is now available for Quake II   Scene Builder, the program that easily allows you to compose scenes with Quake II models with many options to control lighting effects, animation, etc.

Infiltrate for Jedi Knight  [12:54 PM EDT]
JediKnight.Net has posted a new level pack for Infiltrate, one of the most popular mods produced for JK. There's also word over there of a new version of JK Edit, the level editor for Jedi Knight.

Deus Ex Interview  [12:54 PM EDT]
There's an interview with Michelle Bagur , producer of of ION Storm's upcoming Unreal engine Deus Ex on Deus Ex Incarnate (part of StormTroopers).

Daikatana, Trespasser Vivos  [12:54 PM EDT]
Jeremy over at AGN3D (soon to be the All-Vivo Network) has Vivo-ized the Daikatana FRAG video from yesterday  in a few different sizes, each more bandwidth friendly than the original (story). The original AVI is also available now on QNEWS 77 (Swiss 3D Gaming News) split into in 5 MB chunks. There's also a newly Vivo-ed Trespasser video on AGN3D for your dino-licious enjoyment.

New Action Quake  [6:00 AM EDT]
A new release of one of the best Quake II mods going, Action Quake, brings AQ up to version 0.95. Those who upgrade are advised to delete their old AQ subdirectory (backing up any config files of course) before installing the new release, and are also warned not to try and join a non-0.95 server after upgrading. New to the new version are changes to many of the weapons, including new characteristics and new models, and many gameplay changes, as well as 15 new maps.

QVoice  [6:00 AM EDT]
Beta 13 of QuakeVoice, the real time voice project for Quake II is out, as usual, offering even greater possibilities that it will work on your system.

Shogo Shot  [6:00 AM EDT]
There's a new screenshot from  Shogo: Mobile Armor Division over on Voodoo Extreme.

Hook on Rants, Benchmarks  [6:00 AM EDT]
Brian Hook's .plan has a message for those experiencing .plan lag and are offended at some of his personal rants from a while back (pointing the way to his personal column on VE, and word that we should be seeing some of his comprehensive benchmarks showing performance numbers on Quake III: Arena

FreeSpace Expansion, Contest  [6:00 AM EDT]
The Volition, Inc. page has word on Descent FreeSpace - Silent Threat, a 60 mission expansion disk, and in answer to the question how to come up with that many levels, they;'re also holding a level design contest where winning entries will earn there designers prizes, and also be included in the expansion pack. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

3Dfx Interview  [6:00 AM EDT]
3Dfx's Andy Keane is interviewed on Game-Interviews.com in the first of  a two-parter.

Playable Demos  [6:00 AM EDT]
An Urban Assault Demo is now available. I haven't had a chance to check it out, but UA is described as a real-time strategy offering that should appeal to action gamers. Also, an Exclusive CyberStrike 2 Demo download is available on Games.Net putting you in command of a "CyberPod, an agile fighting machine, to engage in visceral battles with your opponents in state-of-the-art 3D environments." Thanks Ant.

Out of the Blue  [6:00 AM EDT]
Little under it or something last night, but I'm feeling better now (please save any sympathy for someone who needed more than a long nap to recuperate from something.