Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

QuakeWorld 2.30  [11:10 PM EDT]
Zoid updated his .plan to announce a new version 2.30 of QuakeWorld available on id's FTP server. Here is a local copy of the client installer (817 KB), the client zip (593 KB), and the server zip (217 KB). Here's the update:

QuakeWorld 2.30 Release
-----------------------

The long awaited Quakeworld version 2.30 has been released. Head over to http://www.quakeworld.net/ for download information. The main archive for QuakeWorld can be found at ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quakeworld/

2.30 doesn't introduce a lot of new features over 2.29 (the most notable is the packet loss meter on the scoreboard), but mostly consists of "behind the scenes" fixes from the 2.29 BETA.

All servers should upgrade to 2.30. This will end the current situation of 2.1, 2.21 and 2.29 server differences. The 2.30 version covers all the bases and offers all the functionality of the previous versions.

Assuming that no major bugs show up in this 2.30 release (one can only hope murphy doesn't rear his ugly head), this will probably be the last QuakeWorld release. QuakeWorld has been an amazing project from John Carmack's early origins, to over a year of tweaking at Jack 'morbid' Mathews and my hands. It is one of the most complete and best first person internet gaming experience available today. It's been a pleasure working on it and keeping in contact and participating with the thousands of players. Thanks to all for your feedback and requests in helping me build a great product.

3Dfx Gore  [8:43 PM EDT]
4D Rulers page has posted the first screenshot from the alpha 3Dfx version of their upcoming first-person shooter, Gore.

D3D Unreal Status  [8:43 PM EDT]
Word on PlanetUnreal is that Epic Veep Mark Rein posted to the Unreal messageboard that D3D Unreal is up and running, and will be shown off in London at ECTS (no word on expected timeframe for release.

Updated Motorhead Demo  [8:43 PM EDT]
3DFiles.com has posted an updated version of the Motorhead (driving game) demo available on this page.

Quake II 3.17 3DNow! Driver  [5:19 PM EDT]
A new version of the 3DNow! optimized driver for Quake II 3.17 has been posted on the 3DNow! NOW Page. Here's a local copy (728 KB) on GamesNET FTP. Thanks joman and Bill "TooSLoW" Holman.

H3D Obsidian2  [5:19 PM EDT]
The H3D Entertainment page has word of instructions on the Quantum3D website on how to get the H3D stereo glasses to work with Obsidian32 cards and the 3Dfx reference drivers. Thanks Jeff.

Wheel of Time Chat  [4:58 PM EDT]
The 3DGaming.Net gang have one of their online developer chats this evening, talking with Legend Entertainment about their upcoming Unreal-engine RPG, Wheel of Time. The action kicks off at 8:00 PM Eastern time in 3DNet IRC in channel #3dgaming.

Akolyte Diary  [4:58 PM EDT]
An update on the Revenant page give a development update on their upcoming Akolyte (thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance), talking about their new character technology. Here's an excerpt:

In this build we will have the new character technology that I keep talking about. This includes simple double-body motion, bone influence, and variable body-nodes.

Variable or Multi body-nodes allows us to create any sort of creature hierarchy and not just human shapes or forms. It also allows us to breakup an entity like a regular human being into more than just an upper torso or lower torso without much overhead at all. Most people are talking about how they have double-body motion, but the character technology we've been devoting time and resources to allows us also to include influential animations that move and function based on damage or strength.

Imagine if a creature or minion is damaged by the arm, well, we can make that arm move less based on forward kinematics or through weighted blends between a wounded arm keyframe and the actual attack move keyframe itself, for example. The blend ratio is dynamic, based on the degree of damage. A simple example would be for a creature to limp with three limbs functioning normally and one wounded limb to drag. Whether this is something that will effect the main character differently and for gameplay (i.e. does it make it frustrating and not fun), has yet to be determined. If it is bad for play, then it will come out for the player, but certainly it could be implemented for the minions and other opponents adding significant realism to combat.

More AMEN  [4:58 PM EDT]
Discovered on the Amen The Awakening website is the link off the "New Century News" banner on the site, which (obviously enough) leads to The New Century News page with news from the game's future setting. among the top headlines, Gates elected President (though no explanation is given why he would except the Pay cut and loss of power that would accompany the job switch). Thanks Brian at Cavedog for the heads-up.

It Had to Happen  [4:58 PM EDT]
A .plan update by ION artist Ken Scott asks the inevitable question in light of the Romero shooting rumor.

That Romero Dealie  [3:01 PM EDT]
Regarding the false John Romero death rumor (story), John updated his .plan on the subject, taking responsibility for the confusion. Here's the update:

Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. I take full responsibility for last night's confusion -- maybe I shouldn't have taken that morbid picture for Texas Monthly magazine, because someone apparently called the Dallas PD and heard that a John Romero got shot last night. Coupled with the actual picture, you have yourself a news story (although a false one).

I was out of touch with people up here at Ion for a while last night, so they couldn't confirm nor deny the rumors, so Adrenaline Vault ran the story and got the "scoop" first. Too bad it was incorrect, eh? Well, don't blame them -- I got a call from their writer who told me where and how he got his information and I would have run the story myself, so don't slam on them, they were only doing their job.

And for all of you who really did care and got upset: I love you all!

For the Avault story, go here: http://www.avault.com/news/news_temp.asp?story=8281998-14324

Also, the ION Storm website has posted their accounting of the story from last night:

Despite reports to the contrary, John Romero is alive and well and hard at work on Daikatana. News stories, which surfaced late last night, reported that John had been killed by a gunshot to the noggin. Within a half-hour, John was on IRC dispelling the rumors of his demise.

The stories apparently were rooted in an article in the current issue of Texas Monthly, which was accompanied by a grisly (but faked) photo of Romero ‘s cold, dead body.

Proceeding to have fun with it, ION's site has also posted the grisly faked photo of the Romero's corpse, as well as Top 10 Things That Went Through My Mind When I Heard John Romero Was Dead from William Haskins with an irreverent, but very funny take on the thought of the demise of his boss.

3D Card P/Reviews  [2:51 PM EDT]
Closing out their 3D Week, GameSpot UK has posted a feature called 3D Cards The new breed that looks at 3Dfx's Voodoo Banshee, the NVIDIA RIVA TNT, the S3 Savage3D, the 3DLabs Permedia 3, the PowerVR SG, and a vague mention of ATI (written before the RAGE 128 announcement I guess), as well as Benchmarks for the available cards.

Stealth II G460 Drivers  [2:51 PM EDT]
The Diamond Multimedia Stealth II G460 Drivers page has new version 4.10.01.1346 Win95/98 drivers for the G460 that are WHQL certified. Thanks Zero|CI.

JQuan Engine Screens  [1:29 PM EDT]
Seven new JQuan Screen Shots are up on the JQuan site. JQuan is a 3D engine project that currently supports colored lighting, 16 bit color (24 bit w/MMX), dynamic lighting, dynamic levels, and multiplayer play. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Mortyr Preview  [1:29 PM EDT]
There's a preview of a new first person shooter called Mortyr on AGN3D, (screenshots included) that Binky describes as a cross between Wolfenstein 3-D and Unreal. A demo is expected next month          to help figure out what that means.

S3 DX6 Wrapper  [1:29 PM EDT]
When reporting the story on GLQuake on the ViRGE family (here), I failed to note that part of the story was a new DX6 optimized S3 wrapper available for download that will improve GL Quake performance (but apparently does not work on Quake II). Thanks again to the ever-alert Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

New SB64 PCI Drivers  [1:29 PM EDT]
New Windows 95/98/NT4, Sound Blaster PCI 64 drivers are available on the Creative Labs FTP site. Thanks Sean at Tech-review.

Shogo in October  [5:35 AM EDT]
Last night marked a momentous occasion on Shooters, as the first time in the history of Shooters / QuakeCast that I can recall getting a straight answer to a question about when we can expect a release. To our shock (to be honest, I'm surprised we still ask), Monolith's Jason Hall assured us that Shogo will be available this October, and that Blood2 will be released this fall as well. BTW, thanks again to Jason for being a terrific guest.

On the when is "when it's done" front, Contaminated.net is doing a bit of mongering with a rumor about Half-Life delays from someone claiming to have info from a Cendant source in Germany.

TeamFortress 2 Hires  [5:35 AM EDT]
While on Contaminated.Net (and thanks to CF TF for passing the word as well) I saw that they're reporting that the latest map designers on TeamTeamfortress2 (I like that one) are Alex 'Hobbit' Manilov (author of the famed RangerBase DM level for Quake, among others), and Mackey 'Avatar' McCandlish author of many innovative Quake projects, including a side-scroller, and co-creator of the Blahbalicious move (as well as some of my favorite Doom2 DM maps from back in the day). Congrats to Hobbit and Avatar, as well as TeamTeamFortress2, who have picked a pair of winners.

AMEN Updates  [5:35 AM EDT]
CaveNews devoted to the doings of the gang at CaveDog points out that Greg MacMartin, Lead Designer on AMEN: The Awakening, CaveDog's upcoming shooter has begun a developer's diary on his work on the game. There is also some new AMEN concept art posted in their gallery.

Spec Ops Add-on Preview  [5:35 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault Previews Spec Ops Ranger Team Bravo with a look at the planned Spec Ops add-on that will improve your stupid squadmate's IQs a bit, and add what's described as "a beefy multiplayer option."

Quake II Late Nite  [5:35 AM EDT]
Quake II Late Nite is a full-voice Quake II movie (thanks to the Keygrip2 demo editor) that offers an innovative talk show  that's "broadcast" with Quake II. In the debut installment, Toxy, our host, and his inevitable sidekick Essobie, talk with TiggerDawg of the [PORTALS] Map Making Team who is also known for some Quake 2 movie making himself. Already better than Tom Snyder (hmm, shouldn't kick him when he's down) and Larry King, Conan and Dave should be afraid (after all Toxy and Essobie have weapons).

New HeadHunters Quake II  [5:35 AM EDT]
The bold print on the HeadHunter's page proudly proclaims the 2.0 release of HeadHunters Quake II is now available, as both a client pack, and a server pack (eagerly seeking servers, of course).

New ThunderWalker Beta  [5:35 AM EDT]
ThunderWalker CTF's House of Fixins has posted beta 3 of ThunderWalker Capture the Flag  2 (Rolling Thunder) for Quake II, with the new release supporting visible weapons (they think). They're also holding a contest over there to come up with a manual for their mod.

Action Quake Interview  [5:35 AM EDT]
A PlanetQuake Interview with A-Team talks with the authors of Action Quake 2 about their hit TC. Also on the AQ2 front, the Action Q2 Map Depot is up and running, and official repository of levels for the mod.

Sonic Mayhem Interview  [5:35 AM EDT]
The Quakelab Multimedia as posted An Interview With Sonic Mayhem talking to Sascha Dikiciyan one of  the creators of the music for Quake II and the official Q2 mission packs.

Unreal on the PERMEDIA2  [5:35 AM EDT]
Gamer's Resource has posted instructions on how to get OpenGL Unreal running on PERMEDIA2 accelerators. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

GLQuake/Quake II on the ViRGE  [5:35 AM EDT]
GLQuake on the ViRGE family is an extensive look at running Open GL quake and Quake II on S3's ViRGE chipset, experimenting with a few beta drivers and such to find the most acceptable performance. Thanks Gary7.

3D Game Compatibility  [5:35 AM EDT]
The extensive 3D-Game-Compatibility chart has been updated, and now has word on what sort of hardware and API support is available for over 400 games

AMD & Banshee  [5:35 AM EDT]
There's a clarification on Sharky Extreme from AMD saying his Quake II Voodoo Banshee benchmarks on the K6-2 will improve greatly when a Banshee optimized (or optimised, to Sharkey) 3DNow! driver is available.

JK Patch Commander  [5:35 AM EDT]
JediKnight.Net has posted a new version 3.5 of JK Patch Commander, an essential program for JK to automatically run files, patches, and modifications for both Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith.

Barriers to Online Gaming  [5:35 AM EDT]
Cliff Bleszinski's .plan has an update with CliffyB's $0.02 on what obstacles that stand between a novice and the world of online gaming (it is a project, isn't it?).

John Romero Is NOT Dead  [2:49 AM EDT]
Usually affirmation's like this aren't news, but AVault has retracted a report they made on the well-being of John Romero (thanks Terje Alexander Barth), apparently caused by a case of mistaken identity. What is up with the grisly photo they have posted there as of this writing, I cannot even hazard a guess.

Out of the Blue  [5:35 AM EDT]
The Surrealist Compliment Generator, thanks Q (yours welcome). Maybe it's only funny at 5:00 AM...

Shogo Does Shooters  [6:06 PM EDT]
Tonight on Shooters, the Sixty Minutes of first-person gaming (at least in length), we will be speaking live with Monolith honcho Jason Hall, and whomever he decides to bring along to discuss what's going on up at Monolith, which will definitely cover Shogo, and possibly what's up with Blood2 and other LithTech projects. The festivities kick off at 8:00 PM Eastern time, RealDealie, or the latest MS Media player required.

Interim Rainbow Six Patch  [5:40 PM EDT]
The interim patch for RSE's Rainbow Six is now available on the Rainbow Six website (thanks Rainbow 6 Retreat) on this page. Here's a local copy (1.6 MB), and the poop:

The interim patch has been released! If your game is playable, and you are not experiencing these problems, you may wish to wait for the Full Patch, set to be released Sept. 11.

Primary Fixes (Interim Patch):
- mouse should no longer jitter when inverted
- action bar updates properly when in Hi-Res
- you should not be kicked out if the person you are observing is killed (MP only)
- you can now use double quotes in your player name (MP only)
- fixed a crash involving starting a tutorial after entering and exiting the planning phase
- random crashes caused by switching back and forth between Night Vision Goggles fixed
- fixed crash for destroying a door with multiple breaching charges placed on it
- fixed insertion zone cheat involving deleting the first waypoint

View the Readme.
Download the Interim Patch.

Dr Sleep Interview  [5:11 PM EDT]
StormTroopers has posted a Dr Sleep Interview talking to Xatrix's newest employee about his past working on Daikatana and ION, and his future working on KingPin.

Shogo Music  [5:11 PM EDT]
Monolith's Jeremy Blackman updated his .plan with word of mirrors of the MP3 he posted of the music from the Shogo movie recently released (story), which previously corrupted on download for many (myself included). Here's a local copy of the Shogo MP3.

FRAG 2 Registration  [5:11 PM EDT]
The registration page for the upcoming FRAG 2, scheduled for Friday, October 30th until Sunday, November 1 in Dallas TX, is up on the newly opened FRAG 2 page. Registrants for the one-on-one Quake II tournament must arrive October 30 before 3:00 PM (Central time), and the entry fee for all participants is $20.

More Sharky Banshee  [5:11 PM EDT]
Sharky Extreme's Diamond Banshee sneak peek part 2 is online including tests on the AMD K6-2 3D.

Q2 Demo Analyzer Update  [5:11 PM EDT]
The Quake2 Demo Analyzer, a program to extract statistics from Quake II demos, has been updated to include support for Rocket Arena 2 demos. Thanks RD|trriger.

WC Secret Ops Postscript  [1:16 PM EDT]
A (hopefully) last follow-up on the Wing Commander Secret Ops demo release (here's the most recent story) is that the files page on 3DFiles.Com with the installer is now updated with known virus-free copies of the file. I was able to snag it from there and put up a new local copy of this 112 MB whopper on GamesNET's FTP. Finally, if the whopping download is too much of a problem, there's a smaller whopping download on the way, as GameCenter/Download.Com's page for downloads says a 64 MB version will be available today, with the speech pack available as a separate 54 MB download, and word on CG Online (as reported on OGR) is that WC Prophecy Gold will ship this fall with the original Prophecy and this Secret Ops stuff all in the same package.

New Unreal Player Class  [12:25 PM EDT]
Unreal.Moonbase.Com has posted a mod that allows you to play Unreal as a Kraal Warrior. Thanks Dreadnaut. This is in addition to a previous mod they've posted that adds a mercenary class for the player.

Driver (Vroom)  [12:25 PM EDT]
GameSpot UK's 3D Week continues with a Driver Preview, which they describe as "Quake II Meets Steve McQueen," as you play a getaway driver for hire (no word on the inclusion of Ali McGraw).

Chip Chart  [12:25 PM EDT]
This Comparison of 3D Chips chart has been updated to include the specs of the just-announced ATI RAGE 128 (next story). This chart gives a rundown of all the announced features of most current and future 3D chipsets for easy comparison of all the numbers.

New ATI 3D Chipset  [10:13 AM EDT]
ATI Introduces Next-Generation RAGE 128 GL Graphics Chip is the announcement of ATI's new generation of 2D/3D accelerator that looks to capture gamer's hearts. Thanks Redwood's. Here's an excerpt:

The RAGE 128 GL's other innovative architectural features include a Twin-Cache Architecture including on-chip texture and pixel caches, an 8-bit stencil buffer, a 32-bpp renderer for full accuracy 3D rendering, a deep 32-bit Z-buffer, and high-quality alpha and fog effects. Ideal for both high-end consumer and professional environments, the RAGE 128 GL's extensive 3D feature set and raw performance take real-world application performance to a new level of interactivity and quality.

AMD K6-2/350  [9:12 AM EDT]
AMD Announces Shipments of 350-MHz AMD-K6-2 Processor With 3Dnow! Technology. Thanks Prophet. Here's a quote in the release from AMD executive vice president and chief technical officer S. Atiq Raza:

"We will continue to aggressively increase performance of the AMD-K6-2 processor product line, and plan to deliver speeds of 400-MHz in Q4 and 450-MHz in Q1 '99 to provide users with a full range of processor solutions."

Requiem Preview  [9:12 AM EDT]
PC Games Previews Requiem: Wrath of the Fallen, looking at Cyclone Studios upcoming first-person action title.

Shogo Shots and Shots and...  [9:12 AM EDT]
Billy "loonygames" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme has posted another hi-res Shogo shot in 1024x768 resolution.

3D Forge  [9:12 AM EDT]
3D Forge.com is the new homepage of the 3D benchmarks division of Futuremark Corporation, described as the first company to specialize in creating 3D Benchmarks. With 3DMark '99 for gamers due this fall, offering extensive 33D testing, including DirectX 6.

On the Liga Mod  [4:12 AM EDT]
The Loki's Minions Capture the Flag page has a clarification of what's up with that announcement about an anti-cheat mod for Quake II (story)

In reference to a rather premature announcement made by an overly enthusiastic third party :-) we would like to explain the mysterious Liga.net project. We haven't officially started work for a mod called Liga (German for league), which features one on one DM play. It isn't even an LM project but something a few members of our team were approached to do. While we are discussing the feasibility of making it difficult for people to cheat, an apology goes to Zoid, Cash and id software for any inference that we were going to solve bot problems they were "unable" to fix, we're just exploring the possibilities of making it harder and less rewarding. I'll keep you posted should we decide to "sign" anything.

More Messiah Screens  [4:12 AM EDT]
There are four new exclusive Messiah Screenshots up on messiah.world.

Secret Ops Follow-Up  [4:12 AM EDT]
Uninfected versions of the Secret Ops installer (story) are up on PC Release List and Download.com. As Avault points out, if you got the file from them between 8:45pm EDT to 9:05pm EDT you should make sure you don't have an infected file, as you should also do if you got it from Blue's News between around 11:00 and 11:30 PM EDT (estimated) because that was a mirror of the 3DFiles copy on cdrom.com, which as of this writing (4:12 AM EDT) is still infected, so beware of that (here's a link to the story about CIH from yesterday). By the way, thanks to those who sent along word about the Virii, I got so busy sending mail and stuff when that happened that I failed to properly thank and credit anyone, but the many rapid alerts were greatly appreciated.

DemoPlay  [4:12 AM EDT]
Version 2.1 of DemoPlay is out, adding Hexen II and HexenWorld support to this utility that allows you to view a demo by double-clicking it. Several other new features are in this release, perhaps most noteworthy a beta of DemoSaver, which allows you to run demos as a screensaver.

Unreal OpenGL FAQ  [4:12 AM EDT]
This Unreal page has updated the FAQ for OpenGL Unreal focusing on the RIVA 128. The author, Celimar,  points out he's lost any Unreal-related mail unanswered or not addressed in the FAQ along the way, so if you have a question, please email him again.

On Advertising  [4:12 AM EDT]
Here's a GameSlice editorial on game advertising, and there's an interesting poll on the front page of 3DNews.Net asking about tolerance for advertising within games.

Half-Life Thingie  [4:12 AM EDT]
Wavelength A Day with Valve is Spider's hands-on look at Half-Life.

TeamFortress 2 Thingie  [4:12 AM EDT]
The Citadel has posted Part I of Moriarty's TF2 Preview / Review, and after reading it, I can't even tell if he really played the game, but the article is funny as hell. Thanks Ace.

Game Programming Article  [4:12 AM EDT]
Code on the Cob is a bi-weekly column by Chris "Kiwidog" Hargrove on loonygames all about game programming (at this early stage it's still a good read for the programming deficient, like myself). The goal of the series of articles will be to create an actual working game by the time you're through ("when it's done").

On Game Originality (or lack thereof)  [4:12 AM EDT]
Also on loonygames is the first guest editorial, by DreamWorks' Rich "Beaker" Wyckoff called Nothing New Under the Sun with a game designer's take on why he feels there's a lack of innovation in today's games.

Expendable Shot, Intel740 Review  [4:12 AM EDT]
Sharkey has posted another Expendable screenshot, as well as a review of the Diamond Stealth II G460.

Quake Demo Site  [4:12 AM EDT]
There are already over 340 MB of demos up on the newly formed Demos @ Quake DOT at.

New Viper V330 Drivers  [4:12 AM EDT]
New version 4.10.01.0128 Viper 330 drivers are available from Diamond, though not yet posted on the Viper V330 Drivers page, there's a set of AGP Drivers and a set of PCI Drivers (read me). Thanks Cyrellis3D.

New VELOCITY 128 NT Drivers  [4:12 AM EDT]
Cyrellis also posted about new NT drivers for the STB VELOCITY 128 on the VELOCITY 128 Drivers page.

Competitions  [4:12 AM EDT]
Genocide4 is a clan competition in QuakeWorld with low and high ping divisions. 3d Palette Half-Life art contest voting booth is up the entry with the most votes wins a copy of Half-Life. A copy of Unreal is at stake for the winner of Unreal Giveaway on the Falcon Mach V Fan Page in a bizarre essay contest.

Jobs  [4:12 AM EDT]
Raven's Robert Love updated his .loveplan with a little on what it might take to get hired by Raven, at least I think that part is new -- it's way at the bottom below a few KB of story (A tale from the land of confusion - by Bob Love -- now up to chapter 45).

Out of the Blue  [4:12 AM EDT]
I'm still amused by this: I changed the nonsense in the title bar because I learned the word se... err s - e - x, was preventing the site from loading on sites protected by parental guidance software. Pretty wild stuff. Here's the bizarre link of the day (thanks toepick), just think of it as a menu for Hanibal Lector.

Are You Experienced?  [11:41 PM EDT]
The Whole Experience has posted some impressive-looking new shots of Experience, described as first-person action/adventure. Thanks Billy "Hendrix" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme.

Wing Commander Secret Ops--Update  [10:30 PM EDT]
Update: There was, in fact a CIH virus in the original AVault Wing Commander Secret Ops file, and the cd-rom.com file, which was mirrored here (sorry about that -- it's really hard to believe that infected files are making their way out like this). Download.com's page for the file is up, but I do not know if this is an uninfected copy either. The installer for this series that's to be released in weekly installments contains the executable and much of the game's art and sound assets, and weighs in at a fairly staggering 112 MB. As the guys on 3DFiles point out, since this is all a bit messy right now, it may be wise to wait until tomorrow before trying to download this.

PC Gamer Q2 Mod Contest Winner  [9:19 PM EDT]
The winner of the PC Gamer Online Quake II mods contest has been announced as QPong by Dave Wallin. Here's a local copy (6.1 MB), and the lowdown on the mod from PC Gamer:

And now we've come to the moment everyone's been waiting for--the grand prize winner. And who is this lucky person? Let's see…stupid envelope. Oh, my! None other than , for Q Pong. Q Pong places players in a living pinball machine, where points are scored by shooting giant balls into goals (and flattening other players in the process).

Cheating Summit  [7:26 PM EDT]
The Liga Quake II one-on-one tourney, is holding an IRC conference this evening to discuss methods of preventing and detecting cheating in Quake II (a patch by the LMCTF team is planned to help in this regard). Here's the poop:

We will have a big discussion about cheating in quake2 on our IRC channel on EFNET called #LIGA (Wednesday Night 22:00 eastern US) Guests will be zappah (maker of zbot), the LM LIGA team, and of course our sponsors and me.... We are talking about ways to prevent cheating. And we are offering informations for server-admins, how to easily detect BOTS.

More Messiah  [7:26 PM EDT]
Wow, there are a lot of screenshots surfacing lately. There are what I'm told are four new Messiah shots up on the Messiah Universe Screen Shots page.

3D Cards  [7:26 PM EDT]
Gamespot UK's Voodoo 2 Roundup is online as part of their 3D Week, and a video card article on PC Gamer Online that looks to answer some basic questions like the difference between AGP and PCI, and what does all that RAM stuff do anyway?

Serpentine Unreal  [7:26 PM EDT]
Beta 5 of the Serpentine Unreal mod is now available. Among the changes Serpentine offers are      several realistic weapons with new models and ballistics. Thanks Apache from PlanetUnreal.

Savage3D Unreal Screenshots  [5:19 PM EDT]
The Savage3D Unreal Screenshots mentioned earlier (story) are now online. Thanks Mike Myers (yeah, baby!).

Shogo Vivo, RealVideo  [5:19 PM EDT]
The big ole Shogo movie release (story), has been Binky-ized as AGN3D's Jeremy "Binky" Allford has removed the bad bytes and left in the good ones to post more bandwidth friendly Vivo and RealPlayer format version of the Shogo movie ranging from 1.4 MB to 2.9 MB.

Soldier of Fortune Multiplayer Ideas  [5:00 PM EDT]
I meant to post Kenn Hoekstra's first .plan update soliciting suggestions about multiplayer mods for Soldier of Fortune, Raven's upcoming Quake II engine game, and forgot. Luckily Kenn mad another update mentioning it again, helpful for forgetful webmasters. Here's the scoop (from the original):

Alrighty...in light of the focus on the multiplayer experience for Soldier of Fortune, if people could send me a list of their top three favorite Quake/Quake II multiplayer mods (Capture The Flag etc.) so I can get a list of what people like, I'd be really interested to get it! Of course there is no guarantee of what the future will bring with time constraints and the like, but if there are clear faves then maybe we can try to incorporate them. This is in NO WAY a promise that SoF will ship with ready to play mods, but if we know what people would like to see, if the opportunity presents itself, we will know where development time can be best spent... =) Send your comments/suggestions to me at khoekstra@mail.ravensoft.com Thanks people!

High-Res Shogo Shot  [4:37 PM EDT]
Billy has posted a 1024x768 screenshot from Monolith's upcoming Shogo: Mobile Armor Division on Voodoo Extreme. Speaking of Shogo, Monolith's Jeremy Blackman updated his .plan with the lyrics to 'Negai', the Shogo vocal theme, including a karaoke-able format.

Messiah Shots  [4:37 PM EDT]
There are what are described as new character engine shots from Messiah posted in the messiah.media section of Messiah World.

Heavy Gear Screenshots  [4:37 PM EDT]
The Heavy Gear II page has a few new screenshots showing off the use of Jump jets. And to cap off the endless desire for more screenshots, there are some NBA Live 99 Screenshots on OGR (a few friends and I played about a million hours of NBA Live '95).

R6 Sniper Rifle Add-on  [4:37 PM EDT]
The Rainbow 6 Retreat has posted what looks like the first modification for Rainbow Six, a sniper rifle. Thanks PerK.

Web Resources  [4:37 PM EDT]
Wplan is a new resource that allows anyone to have a web-based .plan file. This free service is available to everyone, and is especially catered to mod authors. Also, the Clan Script Center offers free use of web-based message-board and "war-planner" scripts to help clans make their battle arrangements.

Separated at Birth  [4:37 PM EDT]
Here's a Separated at Birth (manufacture?) sent along by Larry Sanders (hey now!). Funny stuff.

Heretic II Impressions, Shots  [1:17 PM EDT]
GamePen has posted some Heretic II Screenshots and some Heretic II impressions, and Rainbow Six gripes are in the GamePen's Insider.

First Secret Ops Tonight  [12:21 PM EDT]
The Wing Commander Secret Ops new page has word that the first release of the initial files (the executable, etc.), for Wing Commander Secret Ops (the free multi-episode installment in the WC series), will begin tonight, a day earlier than first expected, as an exclusive arrangement with Download.com. The registration area is up on their site as well, requiring some info to play, along with a bunch of other questions you can answer if you feel like sharing (the choices for "What online site do you most often get product information from?" is missing an obvious choice or two--hehe). Thanks Osan`gar MessiahPress (I see I missed word of this on VE).

Savage3D Unreal  [11:28 AM EDT]
S3 and Epic MegaGames Announce Savage3D-Based Version of Unreal is an press release from S3 (thanks Prophet), announcing the news that the Savage3D is joining the ranks of supported accelerators for Unreal. The announcement mentions screenshots on this page (they have not been posted as of this writing, there's just Forsaken and Incoming there right now). Here's a quote from the release:

S3 Incorporated announced today that it has worked closely with Epic MegaGames to fully optimize its Savage3D accelerator for the Unreal game engine.

Based on its support for 32-bit true color rendering, large textures (up to 2K x 2K) and palletized textures, S3's Savage3D is the first 3D accelerator to provide an uncompromising hardware platform for the Unreal game engine.

Additionally, S3 will continue to work closely with Epic MegaGames to deliver a version of Unreal that takes advantage of S3's Microsoft-endorsed texture compression technology -- speeding up game play while enhancing image quality by allowing for the use of 24-bit textures and up to a 4X resolution increase.

"With its 32-bit color, excellent frame rates and no performance penalty for turning features on, Savage3D is currently the best choice Unreal accelerator in its price range," said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic MegaGames.

"The texture compression is amazing. It's almost impossible to tell the difference between compressed and non-compressed textures in Unreal on the Savage3D -- I challenge users to run the game in both modes and try to spot the difference!"

Unreal Movie Trailer  [11:28 AM EDT]
I haven't gotten to check this out yet, but there's a short trailer of a movie being developed to play in Unreal posted on Evolve.Net. Thanks Dreadnaut.

Diamond Banshee & MX300 Announcements  [11:10 AM EDT]
Diamond Announces MX300 the latest addition to the confusingly overpopulated Monster Sound line. The new card will feature Aureal Semiconductor's Vortex 2/A3D 2.0 positional 3D audio processor. Thanks Don WarDog French. Also, Diamond Multimedia Reveals New Monster Fusion 2D3D Gaming Accelerator Featuring 3Dfx's Voodoo Banshee Technology, the press release for Diamond's new Voodoo Banshee offering. Thanks 3 Fingers. Finally, word is that both will be available in a bundle (thanks Billy). Check this out:

Beginning September 1st, Diamond Multimedia is offering a monstrous deal to pre-order customers at Babbages Etc., CompUSA and Electronics Boutique. For just $199.95, consumers can pre-order a powerful gaming combination including Diamond's Monster Fusion 2D/3D gaming accelerator (also announced today) and Diamond's newest audio accelerator, the Monster Sound MX300, resulting in up to a $60 savings. If pre-ordered separately, the Monster Fusion is available at a U.S. ERP of $149.95 for the PCI version and $159.95 for AGP and the Monster Sound MX300 at a U.S. ERP of $99.95.

WC: Secret Ops Movie  [11:10 AM EDT]
GameCenter has posted a WingCommander Secret Ops Trailer to prime everyone for the release of the first installment of the serialized WC game tomorrow evening.

Tom CPU Update  [11:10 AM EDT]
An updated CPU article on Tom's Hardware Guide with more details on Intel's new CPUs. Thanks mammal (AKA taxi_driver).

Carmageddon 2 RIVA 128 Tweak  [11:10 AM EDT]
Dantech has posted a fix for running the Carmageddon 2 demo on RIVA 128 accelerators. Thanks Planet RIVA.

Bank Heist  [11:10 AM EDT]
Next Generation Online's BankHeist Preview is online offering a short first look at this game that will use Monolith's LithTech engine. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Prax War Dune Buggy  [4:00 AM EDT]
Rebel boat Rocker Jason Zelsnack's .plan has a nifty screenshot of a model in progress of a dune buggy being driven by another model (a generic "good guy").

Messiah Shots  [4:00 AM EDT]
Game Post has put up a pair of new screenshots of Shiny's upcoming third person game, Messiah.

New Shogo Movie  [3:40 AM EDT]
As promised in Monolith's Jason Hall's .plan, the new Shogo: Mobile Armor Division movie is online, showing off gameplay and cool weapon effects (and the game's credits), and helping to illustrate Jason's point that this is more of a Quake-style FPS game than its mech style first suggests. The movie is up on the Shogo website, and here's the Large (and I mean large) AVI (78.4 MB), the small (and I don't necessarily mean small) AVI (22.1 MB), the large QuickTime (49.5 MB), and the small QuickTime (14.2 MB), note that these are four different sizes of the same movie. Jason also wants to spread the word that Get Medieval is on shelves as of today. Finally, there's a Q&A Billy had with Monolith's John Jack over on Voodoo Extreme about LithTech engine type stuff.

Scott Alden Interview  [3:40 AM EDT]
There's a Scott Alden Interview on Ritnews offering a conversation with Scott, a member of the Sin programming team, on a wide range of Sinful subjects, even getting him too hazard a guess on the subject of a release date:

Sin will be released when we're done with it, but if I had to fathom a guess it would be in October. Yes, we are still in crunch time.

AMEN Preview  [3:40 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault Previews AMEN: The Awakening looking at Cavedog's upcoming first-person shooter.

Starsiege Tribes Screenshots  [3:40 AM EDT]
Exclusive Starsiege Tribes Screenshots on Gamer's Alliance showing off Dynamix's upcoming multiplayer shooter.

New Doom Legacy  [3:40 AM EDT]
The Doom LEGACY Home Site has posted version 1.25 of their spin on the Doom source. The new release offers extensive skin support, improved networking, more console commands, and more.

Cyberathlete Poll  [3:40 AM EDT]
The Cyberathlete Organization page has a poll running to determine the people's choice for the DM maps to use in the one-on-one Quake II tourney at the upcoming FRAG 2, planned for Dallas October 30-Nov 1, 1998.

MOTD Edit  [3:40 AM EDT]
The QNM page has posted version 0.6 of MOTD Edit, the Message of the Day Editor for Quake II that uses a Win95 GUI. MOTD can be added to other mods easily, and a tutorial on how to do this is promised soon.

GunMetal Demo  [3:40 AM EDT]
Demo-mania continues (they seem to be coming out of the woodwork these days, not that this is a bad thing at all). The Gunmetal Demo Premiere on GameCenter is a 21 MB playable demo of a 3D driving shooter from Mad Genius. Thanks Ant.

Out of the Blue  [3:40 AM EDT]
I don't know why Danate[WCS] thought it was appropriate to send me this link (oh yeah, I have a dentist appointment today, so I'll be MIA for a while this afternoon).

ION Opening  [10:22 PM EDT]
John Romero's .plan reiterates the point he made about the departure of Dr Sleep, that he's looking for a replacement for Daikatana pronto:

Good luck, Dr. Sleep and Xatrix. The stop was short but fun while it lasted.

Now to find a fast monster of a map designer. Anyone have any leads, send 'em my way: romero@ionstorm.com. Thanks.

Return Fire 2 Demo  [10:22 PM EDT]
I added local copies of the Return fire 2 demo,  both the software version, and 3Dfx version. Thanks AGN3D.

Quiver (Mac Editor) Update  [8:02 PM EDT]
The Quiver Download page has an updated version 1.01 of the just-released Quiver Quake level editor for the Macintosh. Thanks Prophet.

CIH Virus  [8:02 PM EDT]
A few impassioned pleas inspire a warning that tonight at midnight will mark the 26th of the month, when the nasty CIH virus likes to rear its ugly head. Here are a few links to help protect yourself before its too late (thanks for some links to Misery, who in this case is apparently willing to avoid company): CIH Virus Scheduled to Activate Again On Wednesday August 26 (BW article), MSNBC - Guarding against CIH, Program to scan and clean Win95.CIH (Spacefiller) virus, Network Associates Free CIH protection, AVP CIH FAQ, and this CIH virus article.

On Half-Life's Release Date  [7:31 PM EDT]
The Contaminated Forums on Contaminated.Net (remember your cootie shots) have a post from Lisa Mennet from Valve on the status of Half-Life's ship date (basically that it will not be in August), and what's up with the promised "big announcement:"

"Guys: I want to give you an update before people get too anxious over the course of the week, waiting for an announcement from Sierra/Valve. It looks like the announcement Sierra was alluding to at their party last week is actually going to happen at ECTS, which is in London over Labor Day weekend. We're going to be talking about our developer support plans and give a status report on Half-Life and Team Fortress 2. (Half-Life won't be shipping in August.)

We know how impatient you all are to play Half-Life and we want to repay your enthusiasm with a fantastic game. We're all in extreme crunch mode and will be until ship....we're as anxious to play the final version as you are. Thanks for continuing to support us through the tough final push toward gold."

Sten 'ztn' Uusvali & Charlie Wiederhold Interviews  [7:31 PM EDT]
Rust never sleeps, and apparently it doesn't stand still either, as the editing-oriented Rust has moved to its own spiffy domain at www.gamedesign.net, and are celebrating the move by posting new interviews with Ritual's Charlie Wiederhold, and famed non-pro designer Sten 'ztn' Uusvali.

Q2 Demo Analyzer  [7:31 PM EDT]
The Q2 Demo Analyzer homepage has word of a new version of Q2DA, a program to analyze the .dm2 demos recorded with Quake II (even the 3.18 beta and the Xatrix mission pack) and output statistic in HTML or plain text. The result offers stats on things like kills, selfkills, kills by weapons, telefrags, etc.

Q2 Autoexec Creator  [7:31 PM EDT]
An updated version of the DanTech Autoexec creator is online, stamping out a few JavaScript errors, and adding a few more commands to this online config utility for Quake II. Thanks Billy at VE.

Viper 550 (TNT) Review  [7:31 PM EDT]
There's Diamond Viper V550 Review @ FastGraphics looking at Diamond's TNT offering, with a table comparing benchmark performance to several other accelerators.

Worldcraft Shareware  [5:16 PM EDT]
With the release of the premiere issue of PC Accelerator magazine, which includes the Worldcraft 1.6 shareware among the goodies on the included CD, I've been waiting for it to appear on the Worldcraft site (mentioned a while back as the plan). While that has not yet happened, but the intrepid souls at GameFiend.Com have snagged it and posted it for download. Here's a local copy of the Worldcraft 1.6 shareware (1.7 MB) on GamesNET FTP.

Trespasser Preview  [5:16 PM EDT]
A Trespasser (revisited) preview has been posted on OGR with an updated take from them on this upcoming dino-thriller from Dreamworks interactive.

Heavy Gear II Vivo  [5:16 PM EDT]
Jeremy over at AGN3D has done his thing again, taking the Heavy Gear II movie released yesterday (story), and encoding it more bandwidth friendly Vivo and RealPlayer formats, posted on here.

GameDay '99 Demo  [5:16 PM EDT]
Speaking of AGN3D, there's also a new playable demo of GameDay '99 posted there offering carnage without guns, in the form of (American) football.

SoundBlaster Live! Review  [5:16 PM EDT]
A Sound Blaster Live! Review on 3DsoundSurge gives an enthusiastic look at Creative's new high-end soundcard.

Sharkey on the Banshee and Expendable  [4:13 PM EDT]
There's a Diamond Voodoo Banshee sneak peak on Sharky Extreme, as well as a preview of Rage's upcoming Expendable offering lots of new screenshots

More on the Quake III Arena Soundtrack  [1:19 PM EDT]
Delerium on the web is reporting a personal confirmation from Bill Leeb on the reports that he's working on the soundtrack for Quake 3 Arena (story), and a follow-up on TUDISH (thanks Hanzo) reports that other parties besides Mr. Leeb will be involved:

"i've also been in contact with several of the developers at id software, who have not only gone on to further confirm that bill leeb will be doing music for quake iii: arena, but he won't be the only one...more to come..."

Guide to 3D  [1:19 PM EDT]
GameSpot UK's Ultimate Guide To 3D is online, a look at what's what in 3D technologies, as part of their 3D Week.

Prey Designer's Journal Part 6  [12:53 PM EDT]
The Unused Prey Designer Journal #6 is up on Apogee/3D Realms Site. Unused, because internal delays posting it on GameCenter resulted in GC's eventual decision not to post it a all due to a lack of timeliness, since the subject is Prey's E3 showing in a piece titled: "The Road to Hell is Paved With Demo CD's" Thanks Redwood.

Steed on .plans  [12:05 PM EDT]
I Think, Therefore I .plan is the title of Paul Steed's column on loonygames, the first episode of a weekly weekly feature dubbed "Outside the box." This week the focus is on .plan files.

Beta ATI OpenGL ICD  [11:56 AM EDT]
The ATI Technologies Inc. Beta Driver Pre-Releases page has posted RAGE PRO TURBO Beta "OpenGL ICD" Windows 95/98 Display Driver Version: Lonsdale b37f, a full Windows 95/98 driver set with an integrated OpenGL ICD component and DirectX 6 support (DX6 required). Here's a link to the Release Notes, and here's a noteworthy blurb from the page for gamers:

This driver may not provide a performance increase over the version 1036 OpenGL Quake driver. It is a full Windows 95/98 display driver with an integrated OpenGL ICD component.

Unreal Update  [5:10 AM EDT]
Tim Sweeney posted a lengthy update to his Unreal Technology page (thanks Apache) offering news on many different fronts, including plans for a comprehensive patch, and an update on multiplayer support. Here's an excerpt:

Multiplayer Woes

The bad news is that the growth of Internet Unreal gaming--servers, players, teams, and competitions--continues to be held back by the performance problems many gamers are having with Unreal on low-bandwidth connections (mostly modem connections, but some even on ISDN lines). One recent sign of the frustration showed up on the Portal, a cool Unreal site:

"With the lackluster performance of Unreal's Multiplayer Internet games, many players are feeling discouraged. Especially when expectations have built up to such a high level in anticipation of the release of Unreal. This discouragement has found itself with Cabless, founder of Portal. Cabless has, therefor, decided to pass the reigns of Portal on to Gadget Factor while he presses other interests."

Believe me, these shortcomings are very much on our minds, and improving Internet play is the team's top priority. The next patch will offer some improvements in this area, and there's more to come. After the patch, there will be a rewrite of Unreal's low-level game protocol, which will incorporate some major new bandwidth improvements, based on the stats I've been collecting lately during 28.8K and 56K gameplay lately. We aren't going to stop until Internet play is very competitive.

Unreal OpenGL Info  [5:10 AM EDT]
An Unreal OpenGL Page (titled a FAQ), is online to help answer questions about the recently released unreal OpenGL patch. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Quake II Tweaks Updated  [5:10 AM EDT]
The indispensable 3 Fingers' Quake II Tweak Guide has been updated. Thanks Charlie.

New idGamma  [5:10 AM EDT]
Billy at Voodoo Extreme has posted news of a new version of IdGamma, the program to help gamma correction on 3D cards that present darkness problems. The new release supports the beta of Quake II 3.18. Here's a local copy (95.5 KB).

On Dr Sleeps Departure  [5:10 AM EDT]
To Sleep, perchance to dream, there's a Tribute to Dr Sleep on StormTroopers as well as a Q&A with John Romero talking about the Dr's departure with the following on the possible impact on Daikatana's release date:

StormTroopers: Will there be any further delays in Daikatana with Sleep's departure?
John Romero: We shall see.

Levelord Interview  [5:10 AM EDT]
Unforgiven has posted an interview with the Levelord--good stuff from his lo'ness.

Tom's CPU Shootout  [5:10 AM EDT]
Big CPU Shoot Out - Intel Launches New Celeron with Mendocino Core and Pentium II 450 is an under-construction guide on Tom's Hardware Guide giving a look at the latest offering from Intel which include the new PII-450 and a redesigned (highly-overclockable) Celeron that has a full-speed L2 cache. Thanks mammal.

g.o.d. does N.P.R.  [5:10 AM EDT]
A large story on Gathering of Developers is scheduled to air today on All Things Considered on National Public Radio, check your local listings for times in your area (I always wanted to say that).

NT H3D Voodoo2 Drivers  [5:10 AM EDT]
The H3D Entertainment page has a new (as of Saturday) rebuild of the Windows NT Voodoo2 driver for the H3D stereo glasses. Thanks The Gamers' Warehouse.

PGL Interview  [5:10 AM EDT]
Party on Garth! There's an interview with Garth Chouteau of TEN and the Professional Gamers' League on Game-Interviews.com talking about the PGL.

Rainbow Six Interview  [5:10 AM EDT]
The Rainbow 6 Retreat has posted a brief interview with John Sonedecker, RSE 3D Modeler/Designer.

On the 32 MB Revolution IV  [5:10 AM EDT]
Kert's page has posted a Q&A with Phil Parker of #9 talking about the recently announced 32 MB version of the Revolution IV 3D accelerator.

Quake Water Sports  [5:10 AM EDT]
I've gotten a few mails lately asking about resources for transparent water in Quake maps, and a revamp to the The AquaQuake page offers an opportunity to give it a mention as a resource for all your aquatic Quaking needs.

Hardware Group Therapy  [5:10 AM EDT]
A new edition of Hardware Group Therapy is online, beating the bushes of the newsgroups for what the hardcore hardware junkies are saying, this time out discussing the Banshee, some consumer affairs, the Tom & Savage3D which TNT to buy and much more.

Out of the Blue  [5:10 AM EDT]
Happy belated birthday to TeamFortress Quake, which turns two years old as of yesterday (thanks Bundy).

Missing Rainbow Six Sound Files  [11:29 PM EDT]
Rainbow Six News has word of the release of some missing sound files from the retail release, along with word that a patch is expected Thursday addressing jittery inverted mouse , action bar updates properly when in Hi-Res, no longer kicked out if the person you are observing is killed (MP only), and you can now use double quotes in your player name (MP only). A fuller patch addressing further issues, including multiplayer cheating is due September 11. Here's 3DFiles.Com's page for the patch, and a local copy (523 KB).

New Recon Wars  [11:29 PM EDT]
Version 8.23.98 of Recon Wars, the class-based teamplay mod for Quake II is now available adding a bunch of new features including class banning options.

New Obsidian2 Drivers  [11:29 PM EDT]
New Win95/98 and WinNT drivers for the Obsidian2 -X24 are up on on Quantum 3D's web site. Thanks Sharky.

New HacX2 Screenshots  [11:29 PM EDT]
Banjo Software has posted some new HacX2 screenshots.

Heavy Gear II Movie  [11:29 PM EDT]
Phoebus sent along word of a new movie on the Heavy Gear II site showing off actual gameplay and cutscene clips from Heavy Gear II recently played in Activision's booth at the Gen Con trade show. Here's a local copy (5.4 MB) on GamesNET FTP.

Rainbow Six in the Zone  [11:29 PM EDT]
Microsoft has announced that as of tomorrow, free multiplayer support for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six will be available on the Internet Gaming Zone.

FreeSpace Add-on Preview Mission  [6:06 PM EDT]
The Awakenings page has a preview mission available for download showing what's up with this upcoming add-on for Descent FreeSpace. Thanks Phil "Cain" Hall.

Newer OpenGL Unreal Patch  [5:30 PM EDT]
The Rendition Inc. website has posted a newer version of the OpenGL patch for Unreal. According to Björn's 3D World the newer version offers a 4-5 FPS improvement over the previous version due to the removal of some debugging code. Thanks Hank Stafford. Here's a local copy (284 KB) on GamesNET FTP.

Lerch! Mail's In  [5:30 PM EDT]
Monkeyed with the files pages so much this weekend, I forgot to post the MailBag. this week a bunch of follow-up on the FPS stuff, ping plotter, and a couple of votes on soda preference.

PCI StarFighter Drivers  [5:30 PM EDT]
New Win95/98 PCI StarFighter Drivers are now available (version 0285). Thanks Billy "Last StarFighter" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme.

Dr Sleep Leaves ION for Xatrix  [1:40 PM EDT]
Xatrix Entertainment sends along word of a new employee, level designer Dr Sleep (John Anderson), who worked on Epic's Unreal at one point, and who was at ION Storm up until now on the Daikatana project. Here's the announcement (for the record, there's no period in the Dr's nickname: it's like Dr Pepper):

Xatrix Entertainment is pleased to announce the arrival of John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson, formerly of Ion Storm. John will be bringing his formidable level design talents to the Kingpin development crew. We believe that John will greatly enhance an already strong team, and we would like to take this opportunity to welcome him aboard.

Half-Life Weapon Not  [1:15 PM EDT]
Thanks to Bakshra from Contaminated.net for word on the weapon mentioned in this blurb, that is not, in fact, unknown, I'm just behind the times. Here's the word:

That same basic post went thru the Half-Life scene right after the mpg was released, and that weapon is indeed known. Its called the Snark, and it's a weapon that the player lets go, and it will run across the floor, find the nearest enemy, then explode, hurting them. Pritty nifty, eh? It's esp. good for DM, where it is unaffected by lag.

Bill Leeb Confirmed for Quake III Arena Soundtrack?  [12:01 PM EDT]
The musically inclined TUDISH is reporting a story from a UK print magazine called Hard Wired, where they say they are confirming that Bill Leeb (Delerium and FLA) will be doing the soundtrack for Quake III Arena (first mentioned in this story). Thanks Hanzo.

Half-Life "Secret" Weapon  [12:01 PM EDT]
TLF[GP] wrote in to point out an observation his quick eyes caught in the recently posted MPG from Half-Life called gruntfight (12.8 MB), which indeed contains what appears to be a glimpse of a previously unseen weapon:

I just want people to know that in frames 840-849 of the gruntfight.mpg that was released a few weeks ago, there is a weird, new weapon. I can send you screenshots if you need but the alien parasite type weapon is there inside the movie. Look closely after Gordon retreats back inside the hallway and starts switching weapons. It looks like a bug in the game or a unknown weapon mistakenly left inside the mpeg. I hope this is news to you!

ELSA Acquires Hercules  [12:01 PM EDT]
This press release announces the acquisition of Hercules, a name once synonymous with the graphics adapter, by ELSA, Inc. Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance.

loonygames  [11:37 AM EDT]
The premier issue of loonygames is online from our loony friend loonyboi. The new gaming web magazine offers several features a week, kicking off with an interview with Chris Taylor (Total Annihilation) conducted by none other than 3D Realms' George Broussard. The site will have regular features added through out each week on a scheduled basis, with additions during the coming week to include Paul Steed's (id Software) column "Thinking Outside the Box," a column by Chris Hargrove (3D Realms) called "Code on the Cob", a guest editorial by Rich Wyckoff (DreamWorks Interactive--Trespasser), and a community profile on Steve "sCary" Gibson.

WC: SecretOps  [11:37 AM EDT]
The press release announcing the Launch of Wing Commander: Secret Ops is online,with the first installment available this Thursday. WC: SO is a free serialized episode in the Wing Commander saga that will be made available through the Internet.in weekly installments, for a total of 56 new single player missions. Here's the lowdown on this unique arrangement:

ORIGIN is making the first Secret Ops episode, including the Startup Kit, available on Aug. 27 on the Secret Ops Web site http://www.secretops.com and on other commercial Internet sites. Players will have a choice of initial downloads when they log on to a download site.

-- Secret Ops Basic Startup Kit: The required startup kit consisting of the Secret Ops executable file, graphics, music and episode 1 (four missions). Approximate size: 63 MB
-- Secret Ops Speech Kit: An optional speech pack download (requires Basic Startup Kit) that includes in-flight communications and mission briefing audio. Approximate size: 51 MB
-- Secret Ops Full Startup Kit: The Basic Startup Kit and Speech Kit combined. Approximate size: 114 MB

Episodes 2 through 7 will be approximately 1 MB each and will be available only on the Secret Ops Web site. Once the Startup Kit becomes available, a new Secret Ops episode will be available for download each Thursday for seven straight weeks.

Rainbow Six Interview  [11:37 AM EDT]
Cash's Fresh 3D has posted an interview with RedStorm's Carl Schnurr, the producer on the Rainbow Six design team. There's also the lowdown on R6's "debug keys" in Fresh News.

Aliens Vs. Predator Preview - G200 Review  [11:37 AM EDT]
GameSpot UK's 3D week continues with a preview of Aliens Vs Predator, as well as a look at the Matrox G200.

JK / MotS Cheat Kicker  [11:37 AM EDT]
Version 1.03 of the most popular anti-cheat program for Jedi Knight is now available on JediKnight.Net offering support for Mysteries of the Sith for the first time, as well as a new method for kicking players who are using names with high ASCII characters.

Quake II Front-End  [11:37 AM EDT]
The Q2SU Downloads page has the public beta of Quake 2 Start Utility, a Quake II front-end is available.

On Java Games  [11:37 AM EDT]
A Gallery of Games in Java(tm) Technology is a section up on Sun's Java Technology Home Page giving their take on Java's present and future in gaming. Thanks [QcK]Dim.

LMCTF Interview  [11:37 AM EDT]
There's an interview with Michael "LM_Jormungard" Scandizzo, the father of Loki's Minions CTF, up on Captured.Com.

Funny Pages  [11:37 AM EDT]
The Lara Croft thread mentioned here a while back is now appearing on The Official FoxTrot Web Site. Thanks ShieldWolf .

Of Mice and Men  [4:31 AM EDT]
I meant to mention earlier that Jack "morbid" Mathews made a post to a thread called Voodoo2 Blurry and Choppiness Prob. Mouse on 3 Fingers' Forum on the AGN3d - Voodoo Extreme Message Board saying he's confirmed that the USB mouse does indeed sample at a higher rate under Windows than the serial and PS/2 varieties (I mentioned thinking this was possible when I first tried one), helping to overcome the stuttering some players notice:

Hey guys. The mouse sampling problem is not fixed by dinput and stuff. It is just that for PS/2 port mice and serial mice, Windows only takes in the data at 40Hz. This could be because they don't want the 16 bit mouse driver to strangle the system, or that anything above 40Hz clogs the system with interrupts or something, but if you want to play smoothly, you can either cap your fps at 40 or buy a USB mouse. I meansured the USB mouse updates and got between 75Hz and 80Hz sample rate. This makes Quake and Quake 2 infinitely smoother. Also, one of my friends at 3Dfx has a Kensington Trackball which seems to have a higher sampling rate too (non-USB)

New TweakIt & DirectControl  [4:31 AM EDT]
bgr software has posted a new TweakIt version 3 Beta 2 for Windows 95/98 the Voodoo / Voodoo 2 / Voodoo Rush / Direct3D / Glide tweaker, as well as DirectControl for DirectX version 2.0.2, the DirectX tweaker/control utility. Thanks Billy "Tweak" Wilson Voodoo Extreme.

Battle of the Sexes  [4:31 AM EDT]
Version 2.9.8 of the Quake II Battle of the Sexes Mod is up on Spinoza's Quake 2 Mods Page. The new release of this teamplay mod that pits the boys against the girls tweaks several features and fixes a bunch of bugs.

New MotS Mission Pack  [4:31 AM EDT]
JediKnight.Net has posted a three level mission pack (apparently five months in the making) for Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith that they are raving about.

Heretic II Preview  [4:31 AM EDT]
Gamesmania takes a Sneak Peek at Heretic II. Thanks Voodoo Extreme and Billy "Sneak Peek" Wilson.

MotoRacer 2 Preview  [4:31 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault has posted a Moto Racer 2 Preview.

Linux Weapons Factory Server  [4:31 AM EDT]
The Weapons Factory for Quake II page has posted an updated version of the Linux server port.

More Video Overclocking  [4:31 AM EDT]
CC Overclocking Your 3D Accelerator II covers the Matrox G100, G200, and the Intel i740 in a sequel to their original article on overclocking the RagePro 2X, RIVA 128, Vérité V2200, and the Voodoo2, and again the same caveats apply: proceed at your own risk, you may be voiding your warranty.

Another Community Editorial  [4:31 AM EDT]
The Online Gaming Community: Destined for a Bleak Future, or Simply Adolescent? is a new editorial on Gamer's Alliance.

Out of the Blue  [4:31 AM EDT]
Spent some time on the slow weekend working out the new latest files listing that will appear with a mirror page when local files are listed. I think it worked out pretty well, and it was a fun exercise in trying to make some efficient code (the local file listing below is fed from the same list as the local pages).

Navy SEALs 2  [8:55 PM EDT]
Beta 1 of Navy SEALs 2 for Quake II is out on the Navy SEALs page along with the NS2 map pack. A server is currently up running the mod at 207.225.208.191. Here is a local copy of the mod (5.4 MB), and the map pack (3.2 MB) on GamesNET FTP as an experimental use of some nifty new file pages I'm playing with (call it a beta test -- there may be some glitches yet). I also added a pager for the Carmageddon 2 Demo along with word from TripleX on how to circumvent the demo's five minute timelimit.

Barrage Screenshots  [8:55 PM EDT]
Sharky Extreme has posted a boatful of screenshots from a D3D version of Barrage, the eye-candy filled game from Mango Grits that just snagged an Activision publishing deal.

Amen Screenshot  [8:55 PM EDT]
A new AMEN The Awakening Screen Shot is up on CaveNews with a large version of a shot that previously appeared on GameCenter. Thanks Matthew Rorie.

Half-Life Video Part II  [11:33 AM EDT]
The Half-Life video released earlier (story) has been Binky-ized, as AGN3D's friend of the bandwidth unfriendly videos has posted Vivo and RealVideo versions of the 14 MB AVI on this page in both high and low bandwidth versions, the largest weighing in at a relatively slim 1.6 MB. There is also an STB Velocity 4400 preview (RIVA TNT) preview up (though non-beta drivers for the board are still unavailable).

Overclocking the PII 450  [11:33 AM EDT]
This article should appeal to those fascinated by the prospects of overclocking your Voodoo2 (story), a Cyrellis 3D Special: Intel Pentium II-450 Overclocking Results using the Abit BH6 motherboard, offering the results of over 60 hours of testing.

Half-Life Video  [5:16 AM EDT]
Another Half-Life video has appeared, this one on Sleepnever Central Half-Life apparently pulled from a PC Accelerator CD (funny how CD's in geek mags have almost gotten like those subscription cards, where you open it up and they scatter on the floor). The video, a 14 megger from E3, is the Tentacle attacking a scientist, showing off an updated version of this giant monster, looking far, far more menacing than its previous incarnation (which looked a little too much like asparagus).

On VWep for Mod Authors  [5:16 AM EDT]
This page by L-Fire has instructions for mod authors on how to enable support for Quake II 3.15/3.17 visible weapons, which uses somewhat different implementation than when VWep was an unsupported mod. the outline is described as the simplest way to demonstrate the technique, but is not an efficient example.

Community Editorial  [5:16 AM EDT]
An editorial on PQ titled The Death Of The Quake Community?, subtitled "Decline of Respect and Good Spirits in the online community" looks at the effect poor sportsmanship has on the community.

Overclocking the Voodoo2  [5:16 AM EDT]
For the too much is never enough crowd, DanTech's Overclocking your Voodoo2 covers the entire subject of how to tweak your Voodoo2 card (obviously at your own risk, which they tend to downplay, just don't come crying to me if a bad thing^TM happens) with instructions and benchmarks on several systems to show what performance gains can be achieved this way.

100 Players or Bust  [5:16 AM EDT]
The Weapons Factory for Quake II page has details about another attempt this evening to get a 100  player Quake II game going (last time the server choked at 63, but they've got a second T1 going this time).

Out of the Blue  [5:16 AM EDT]
In what is hard not to interpret as a pair of subtle tributes to id Software, the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day May 31 1998 is titled Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars. If you think the fact that the Martian moon will crash into the red planet's surface or be torn apart in 100 million years is the real root of the "Doom" reference, rather than a reference to the game's setting, then it's quite a coincidence that the next day's Astronomy Pic O' the Day is titled Solar Flares Cause Sun Quakes. As sunstorm, who wrote in pointing this out says, "Coincidence? Now we know why NASA needs all that super-computer equipment."

RIVA 128 OpenGL Unreal Support  [11:27 PM EDT]
Planet RIVA has instructions on how to get Unreal support going on RIVA 128-based accelerators. The version posted there now is an update to the original one they posted that now includes dynamic lighting.

Carmageddon Pre-Demo  [11:27 PM EDT]
What's described as a pre-demo of Carmageddon 2, the game where driving like a NYC cab driver is rewarded (come to think of it, it's rewarded in NYC too) is available through the Spanish MicroManía magazine web site according to 3DFiles.Com where it is posted on this page. Here's a local copy (27.9 MB) on GamesNET FTP. Thanks Ant.

Spicy Demo Driver for Intel740  [11:27 PM EDT]
740 has posted an unsupported demo driver for Intel740-based video cards called "Spicy" that is said to accelerate DirectX performance "anywhere from 5-25%."

Quake II BattleGround  [11:27 PM EDT]
Version 1.06 of Quake II Battleground fixing a couple of small bugs.

New QStat  [11:27 PM EDT]
Version 2.1y beta of QStat, the command-line program to display the status of Internet Quake servers (used for many web-based server lists) is now available. The new release adds HexenWorld support, and support for id's Quake II Master Server.

Quiver Quake Editor for the Mac  [11:27 PM EDT]
Quiver, the Quake level editing tool for the Macintosh is available from Scott Kevill, author of QuakeFinder, the Mac server browser.

Red Baron 3D Patch  [11:27 PM EDT]
The Red Baron II 3D Patch has finally been made available by Sierra (thanks Garrett Galten), so go get 'em, Snoopy.

Sin A3D Support  [9:08 AM EDT]
Ritual level designer Matthias Worch posted a message to the HardCorps SiN Messageboard regarding A3D support in Sin (thanks Hexagon from Ritualistic):

"A3d support is in, the demo patch will already have that. Dunno about EAX yet..."

Blood2 and Shogo Shots  [9:08 AM EDT]
Billy and Alex: are reunited in Monolith screenshots with Blood2: The Chosen shots on Sharky Extreme, and another Shogo shot on VE.There's also a Shogo MAD preview on 3D Unlimited with three more new shots (still loads of Shogo shots appearing during the self-imposed moratorium mentioned in Jason Hall's recent .plan).

Rainbow Six Preview & Review  [9:08 AM EDT]
PC Games previews Rainbow Six, just in the nick of time, with the game appearing on store shelves even as you read these words. Also, Next Generation Online's brief Rainbow Six review is up.

RIVA TNT Unreal  [9:08 AM EDT]
RIVA 3D has posted screenshots and benchmarks running OpenGL Unreal on the RIVA TNT on an AMD K6, in spite of the lack of K6 support, or actual RIVA OpenGL support in Unreal for that matter.

Benchmarking Sound  [9:08 AM EDT]
ESS 3D Sound Benchmark is available over on HARDgame.Com to help test a factor usually not considered when gauging a system's performance, the sound.

PII 450 Review, More CPU Stuff  [9:08 AM EDT]
There's a review of the Intel Pentium II-450 CPU on Cyrellis3D that offers Quake II results among the benchmarks on the latest CPU offering from Intel. Also, Tom's Hardware's Intel CPU Pricing Roadmap Q3/98 has been updated with the latest look into the Liquid Crystal Ball (LCB) at the future of CPU prices (thanks mammal). And speaking of the future of CPUs, part two of an article on IA-64 technology on Computers R us looks ahead at the next generation Intel CPU being made in conjunction with HP.

Whoops  [9:08 AM EDT]
The first full version of the Eraser I uploaded locally yesterday (story) was corrupted, sorry about wasting anyone's time with that, the fixed version was uploaded a couple of hours after the bad one.

Out of the Blue  [9:08 AM EDT]
Forgot to mention that yesterday's was John Carmack's birthday (well, forgot is a loose term, I didn't realize it until I saw the note on VE), with id's lead programmer turning a ripe old 28. On the happy occasion, let me offer a gift worthy of his achievements at such a young age... MAD PROPS! Happy belated birthday Mr. C.