Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

More Experience  [8:01 PM EDT]
The Experience site where those cool looking screenshots recently appeared (story) has now posted a lot of new stuff, including more screenshots and four movies in MPG format (accessible through the menu on the upper right above the text), showing off this upcoming game from the folks who engineered the Cyberspace Mountain Attraction for DisneyQuest LBE in Orlando, FL. Here's the description of this project from their page:

Experience is a 1st person 3D shooter with adventure elements (environmental puzzles) and a storyline delivered via in-game realtime 3D cinematic sequences. Experience also brings some interesting new features to the 1st person genre, including the ability to ride creatures. Experience will feature some of the most detailed outdoor environments ever seen in a realtime 1st person shooter, with seamless transitions to the more traditional indoor/corridor environments.

George Broussard Interview  [8:01 PM EDT]
There's a George Broussard Interview on Duke4ever.com.that discusses the state of Duke Nukem Forever in the time since the switch to the Unreal engine.

Thief Update  [8:01 PM EDT]
The homepage for Thief: The Dark Project has an update that adds two new screenshots showing this game from the makers of Ultima Underworld and System Shock that looks to create what they describe as "a world of stealth, subterfuge, and mystery." Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Unreal Hunting Game  [5:24 PM EDT]
There's a hunting game in the works called TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter that uses the Unreal engine (since the previous state of the art in these games was Deer Hunter, this sounds like replacing a Pinto with a Ferrari). There are more details and a few screenshots on of this upcoming release on PlanetUnreal.

Text Mode Quake  [5:00 PM EDT]
The sound you hear is my mind continuing to boggle. In the early days of GLQuake, I used to joke with friends about starting a spoof TTY Quake project. Now, if the Text Mode Quake page is to be believed, someone (Bob Zimbinski) has turned this twisted dream into a reality by creating a Linux-based all text port of Quake. I seem to recall progress on this front before, but don't recall a release (to be honest, I have no way of knowing if this is real or not, but it is funny). Thanks to JIBA-Phantasmo for first word on this. Here's a screenshot of the Start Map I snagged, and a quote:

What if it doesn't work for me?

Well, don't come crying to me. Do you think I care if a useless, buggy hack for an unsupported port of a game on a free operating system doesn't work for you? Hah! Think again. Err, but if you, heh, fix anything I'd sure love to hear about it.

Unreal Movie  [5:00 PM EDT]
Preacher at Unreality.DK sends word of a new Unreal movie. I haven't gotten to check this out yet, so I'll just tell you what he preached about it:

The Unreal Movie Team has released the worlds first Unreal movie.

The action may be a little jumpy, and there may be a few glitches, but it shows that it can be done, and i think we can expect some cool stuff from these guys in the future.

Check out their page here http://www.jh-m.demon.co.uk/

They will be moving to www.unreality.dk/UMT within a week or so.

IE Security Fix  [5:00 PM EDT]
The Internet Explorer Security Area has a new fix for an IE security hole. Thanks Lithium.

Ground Zero Screenshots  [3:12 PM EDT]
With Quake II: Ground Zero just having gone gold (story, also noted in the .plans of Berenger Fish, Robert "Robs" Selitto, and Jim Molinets), Phoebus sent along a pair of new screenshots:

Levelord Interview  [2:48 PM EDT]
HalSiN Interview's has posted a staccato back and forth with the Levelord about sin levels and other lordful interests. Thanks Dave at Voodoo Unlimited Power.

Quake II Ground Zero Gold  [2:28 PM EDT]
Hot word on the Rogues at Rogue is that their Quake II mission pack Ground Zero just went gold, which would likely have it appearing on shelves sometime next week (word from Activision is Sept. 12).

Heavy Gear II Sketches  [2:28 PM EDT]
The Heavy Gear II site has been updated with a new piece of concept art from the game showing one of the outer space missions. Phoebus sent along the quote that accompanies it from GH2 Art Director, Danny Matson:

As a team we were all excited about the potential of space. But when the physics were implemented and we were able to run on literally every angle of this huge spacestation we knew we had something great. Gears are able to run upsidedown on a ceiling above you, or ditch you by running around the backside of the hull. So we put a lot of effort into designing this Gatestation to have many different areas to explore taking full advantage of our true 3d environment. I believe we have taken what is essentially a terrain based game to a whole new level.

Painrift  [2:05 PM EDT]
Missed amidst my travels is that RMD Software has posted the release of Painrift for Quake II (thanks WaX). Here's a local copy on GamesNET, and here's a quote from the page:

Painrift is the extension of Quake2 Deathmatch that you have been waiting for. Complete with new weapons and levels, this mod gives you everything you like about Q2 DM while offering a whole new range of tactics and environments to explore.

With levels from such acclaimed authors as Yooshin Yang and Doug Magee, code from the guys who brought you the first transparent water effects for Classic Quake, and a weapon range that includes the return of the Airfist and Grappling Hook, as well as a destructive collection of new weapons, you will be glad you took the time to check out Painrift.

Condolences  [2:05 PM EDT]
I'd like to offer my condolences to family and friends of Mrs. Susan Mae Essig Anderson, mother of id Software programmer John Cash. There's a link to her obituary in his .plan.

Shogo-Rama  [12:58 PM EDT]
There are three new Shogo screenshots on OGR, and Billy has posted a Shogo poster and another screenshot on Voodoo Extreme.

Heretic II Movie  [12:52 PM EDT]
Frans at 3D Action Gamers points out a Heretic II trailer on GameSpot. While the name of the trailer seems maddeningly familiar, I don't recall seeing this before, and I believe it's new (hedge, hedge).

New Heretic II Designer Diary  [12:41 PM EDT]
Heretic II: Designer Diary Part 3 on OGR offers Raven programmer Pat Lipo's insights into the game, its engine, monster AI, and gameplay. Thanks Redwood.

Aliens Versus Predator  [12:41 PM EDT]
The Fox Interactive Alien Vs. Predator page is online (thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers, who points out this may have already been up for a while), offering a homepage for this upcoming game based on the two popular action/sci-fi movie series' (about time, I reckon, this is one of the games I get asked for more info about quite often). Here's the deal on AvP from the page if you're unfamiliar:

FOX Interactive's AvP combines elements from the films "Alien" and "Predator" for a hard core game of survival. Choose one of three first-person gaming perspectives and experience a completely different 3D world of fright. Become the Alien and your arsenal includes a lethal set of claws, TWO lethal sets of jaws, a forceful tail, and unique wall-crawling abilities. The Predator, the ultimate hunter, is armed with wrist blades, a shoulder cannon, and other savage energy and projectile weapons. Choose to be the Colonial Marine and use your military training and heavy ordnance to stay alive.

AvP is fueled by an entirely new 3D engine and allows you to progress through the game with total freedom of movement. AvP also includes multi-player capabilities so you can battle it out online.

Aliens vs. Predator lashes out in Early 1999 for Windows® 95.

Video Video Video Cards  [12:41 PM EDT]
Guillemot Maxi Gamer Phoenix Review @ FastGraphics, looking at this Voodoo Banshee based card and offers benchmark comparisons to a MGA G200, RIVA TNT, S3 Savage3D, Voodoo II, Voodoo II SLI. also, Sharky checks in with a preview of the Canopus TNT offering, the Spectra 2500.

K7 Preview  [12:41 PM EDT]
Computers R us has a short preview online detailing some of what to expect from thew K7, AMD's planned next processor.

Opinion  [12:41 PM EDT]
loonyboi, probably the biggest all-time fan of the ancient "Rants" section on blue's Quake Rag (he admits to being loony), has willingly diluted all the content in this week's edition of his e-mag, loonygames with a guest editorial from yours truly called Whose Community is it Anyway. The editorial recounts a recent bit of thinking I did on the subject of our gaming community, addressing  my concerns about what happened to the once happy Quake community as more venom and personal attacks than ever occurring on various websites. It was an interesting exercise for me, as the conclusions I ended up drawing are not what I expected when I started the project. I'm quite interested in feedback about this, both on the content of the editorial, and on editorials in general (should I resume the occasional editorial here on Blue's News, or just keep my pie hole shut?).

Thresh on Quake versus Quake II  [4:01 AM EDT]
Quake vs. Quake II -- My meager two Cents... is the latest edition of Thresh's Frontline, where he discusses his feelings about the merits of both games. The detailed analysis is part one, with part two promised tomorrow.

AMEN Bio  [4:01 AM EDT]
The AMEN: The Awakening page has a character Biography of Bishop 6, the main character in CaveDog's upcoming 3D shooter. Thanks Dyno at CaveNews.

Valve Interviews  [4:01 AM EDT]
Half-Life Lands in London is the title of a brief interview from ECTS on GameSpot News that talks with Valve's Gabe Newell about Half-Life. Thanks Aurum from Level Alpha. Also, there's an interview with Yahn Bernier, Valve coder, responsible for the ongoing development of Worldcraft, among other things, is up on United States Half-Life Map Database.

Secret Ops Episode 2  [4:01 AM EDT]
The second episode on the free Wing Commander Secret Ops saga, weighing in at a svelte 482 KB, is now available for download. Thanks Prophet. The files are also available on The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List, and 3DFiles.Com. and here's a local copy on GamesNET FTP.

Loki's Minions TE 4.1  [4:01 AM EDT]
Word from the minions over at Loki's Minions Capture the Flag is that Unix versions of LMTE 4.1 are out (server-only upgrade), so the Windows and Linux versions of 4.1 are online and they are currently looking for volunteers to verify that the untested Solaris upgrade is stable.

QPong .DLL  [4:01 AM EDT]
The .dll for QPong the winner of the PCGamer Quake II mod contest is now available on PC Gamer Online in the updated QPong archive, so that anyone who wants to run a QPong server can grab it and get serving.

Quake Server Control Poll  [4:01 AM EDT]
There's a WWWBoard to collect pre-release suggestions about Quake Server Control, a program to allow telnet access to a Quake, Quake II or Unreal server to allow remote administration (including anonymous access, if so desired).

GUNMETAL Patch  [4:01 AM EDT]
The GUNMETAL download page has a version 1.1 patch for both the demo and retail version for GUNMETAL, a vehicle based 3D combat and adventure game from Mad Genius Software. The patch, actually, four patches for the retail version fixes Voodoo2 bugs, AI "weirdness," level glitches, tweaks enemies & powerups, adds enhanced in-game movies , and corrects level briefing bugs. The version for the demo is a single patch solely addressing the Voodoo2 bugs. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers, who points out that a fast mirror of the patches on 3D Action Gamers' Gunmetal page.

Heavy Gear II Shots, Demo News  [4:01 AM EDT]
It's more Gears in space on the Heavy Gear II page with two more screenshots of Gears doing combat on spacecraft. Phoebus sends word that an outer space level will be included in the demo, which he says will be released in October. He also passed along a quote from project director Jack Mamais describing what this is about:

You've got Gears all over the place, firing at you from every conceivable direction. They're attacking from above you, from below you, firing at you upside down, walking around corners of the ships, thrusting towards you from all directions in space. These missions are just insane. You have to see them to believe what you're seeing.

Navy SEALs  [4:01 AM EDT]
A few stories of Unreal license games to report: First up, it's been learned that the planned squad-based 3D shooter Navy SEALs (not to be confused with the unrelated (unealated?) Quake/Quake II TC of the same name) will use the Unreal engine. This info was gleaned from a meg-board posting by Planet Unreal and confirmed through the developer, Yosemite Entertainment, by Gamer's Alliance.

Klingon Honor Guard Preview  [4:01 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault Previews Klingon Honor Guard, the upcoming Unreal engine game set in the Star Trek Universe.

Wheel of Time Feature  [4:01 AM EDT]
There's an extensive Wheel of Time Feature on 3DGaming.Net. This look at Legend Entertainment's upcoming Fantasy RPG-type game using the Unreal engine, offers an interview with producer Glen Dahlgren, and a log of their chat with the team, some 2½ hours worth.

TF2 Impressions  [4:01 AM EDT]
Nade's Half-Life Preview gives more response to the recent showing of Half-Life and Teamfortress2 at Aftershock98.

More Joy of SAXS  [4:01 AM EDT]
The Messiah Interview, Pt. 2 on PSX.IGN.COM talks TeamEgos' Lead Programmer Mike "Saxs" Persson about Shiny's upcoming third-person 3D action game, Messiah.

Evolve Rebuttal  [4:01 AM EDT]
Alex Maybery, a level designer for Xatrix Entertainment, sent along a rebuttal to a comment made in the recent TeamEvolve interview on PlanetQuake (story):

In the Team Evolve interview posted on planetquake, this statement was made about Xatrix entertainment:

"As for Xatrix, seeing our ideas included is both cool and crappy, but understandable either way. It's cool because it's like seeing your peer adopt your idea because it's a good and original idea. It's crappy because its kinda like they are stealing your idea without asking. It's understandheheable because there aren't enough cool ideas to go round and, especially in the games industry, good ideas get reused all the time because they're good ideas."

The fact is, while developing The Reckoning, we never even looked at Painkeep. Instead, the trap was inspired by the Ghostbusters movies (as it has been correctly surmised in many reviews of the mission pack). Any similarity to items in Painkeep is purely coincidental and unintentional. As noted in the above quote, good ideas get reused all the time.

Quake Info Pool  [4:01 AM EDT]
An update to the Quake Info Pool adds more info and solutions to the buglist and the QuakeC pages, as well as version 1.02 of the Ultimate Quake Patch (though theoretically you shouldn't be able to improve upon the first Ultimate anything... but I quibble). The new patch offers all the QuakeC fixes and workarounds they've devised to date.

Heretic II Poll, Update  [4:01 AM EDT]
Activision's Heretic II News page has a quick poll asking opinions on the third-person perspective planned for Heretic II. Also, Raven programmer Jake "Body By" Simpson updated his .plan with a Heretic II development update, discussing the newer realistic (or at least more realistic) physics that have been recently coded into the game. his update also mentions the departure of Josh Heitzman.

TNT Config, Battle of the Benchmarks, Review  [4:01 AM EDT]
MPOG NewsVault has posted a config for the RIVA TNT based on 3 Fingers' RIVA 128 tweaks. Thanks Gamers Depot. Also, updated Viper V550 benchmarks from Diamond show improved 3DWinbench98 (a non-gaming benchmark, to be sure) results, edging STB's recently announced superiority a that benchmark on their TNT-based VELOCITY 4400 (story). Finally, there's a Canopus SPECTRA 2500 Review on AGN3D.

Level Reviews  [4:01 AM EDT]
Gonz-O-Matic is a nice looking new level review site devoted to Quake and Quake II, and a bunch of reviews already posted.

Game Audio Pro Mailing List  [4:01 AM EDT]
A new Mailing List for audio professionals!in the gaming industry is underway. To Subscribe, go to this page.

Myth II Beta  [4:01 AM EDT]
The Myth II Soulblighter Beta Test Application is online. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

The Deathmatch Experience  [4:01 AM EDT]
The DeathMatch Experience only has a couple of stories up of tales of deathmatching, but all who are inspired to record their war stories from their 3D shooter of choice are encouraged to submit them.

NVIDIA DX6 Announcement  [4:01 AM EDT]
NVIDIA Announces Co-Development of Microsoft DirectX 6.0, declares a press release from NVIDIA affirming their commitment to Direct X and describing their participating in the development of DX6. Thanks Prophet.

Out of the Blue  [4:01 AM EDT]
There's no place like home... There's no place like home... There's no place like home...

Unreal Patch Status  [8:17 AM EDT]
PlanetUnreal has word from Tim Sweeney on the next patch for Unreal which will include netplay improvements (though not yet the "ultimate" fixed netplay), bug fixes, OpenGL, dual TMU support, and more.

TF2 Update  [8:17 AM EDT]
Spyder's Fortress has a new Teamfortress2 update posted, written in conjunction with TFS's Ian Caughley to give the lowdown on multiplayer in the upcoming TF2, centering on efforts to reduce lag. Thanks TF CTF.

Spec Ops Add-on Screens  [8:17 AM EDT]
Mark from Zombie sent along some new screenshots of Ranger Team Bravo, the upcoming add-on for Spec Ops that offers 15 new levels and multiplayer functionality (cooperative, deathmatch or force on force). Here they are in a zip file (2.8 MB).

Evolve Interview, Zaero Shots  [8:17 AM EDT]
A PlanetQuake interview with Stephen Karl of Team Evolve also offers some new screenshots from their upcoming Quake II add-on Zaero.

Messiah Shots Redux, Interview  [8:17 AM EDT]
It's the joy of Sax as an interview with TeamEgo's Mike "Saxs" Pearsson, lead programmer for Messiah, is up on PSX.IGN.COM (thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme). Also, to complete the deja vu, since I noted this with yesterday's TeamEgo interview story, I forgot to put in the hyperlink for the Messiah screenshots on Game-Interviews.Com (details, details).

Heavy Gear II Shots  [8:17 AM EDT]
Two new Heavy Gear II screenshots are up on the Heavy Gear II page showing Gears in space.

Akolyte Interview
There's a Steve Chan interview on Voodoo: Unlimited Power talking about Akolyte, and how important the story is to this upcoming third person action game.

AnachroShots  [8:17 AM EDT]
ION Storm's website has posted six Anachronox screenshots, including a new one, in honor of Tom Hall's birthday.

Omikron Preview  [8:17 AM EDT]
The Adrenaline Vault previews Omikron: The Nomad Soul a 3D action game they describe as "unique," when looking for a game for comparison.

New GameLaunch  [8:17 AM EDT]
GameLaunch 3D beta 5 with Sin support is now available.

NightHunters Quake II  [8:17 AM EDT]
NightHunters Beta 2 is now available, a deathmatch based Quake II mod sets a group of marines vs. one Predator.

NIQ Source  [8:17 AM EDT]
The source code for NIQ for Quake II is now available. NIQ is the mod where all players are given the same weapon for a server-determined length of time.

Unreal Magnet Gun  [8:17 AM EDT]
The latest oddity on Oddities is a magnet gun for Unreal to dislodge your opponent's weapon.

QBS Name Game  [8:17 AM EDT]
What's in a name? Enough that there's a contest on Processed News offering four games from Microsoft: Motocross Madness, Urban Assault, Combat Flight Simulator, and Baseball 3D for the creative-type that comes up with the best name for the sequel to QBS2. Since QBS stands for nothing in particular anymore (though it was originally an acronym for Quake Broadcast System), QBS3, is not going to be the name of the next release of this gaming news page sniffer utility, which will add a bunch of new features, including and "ICQ-like chat."

Out of the Blue  [8:17 AM EDT]
I got a lot of questions about the hotel in Seattle (Bellevue, actually) that offers T1 access in the rooms, it is the Hyatt Regency, which is an awfully nice place. Today is going to be one big road trip... I'm looking forward to getting back up to speed, as the time difference and my running about has left the news here a little lagged this week, my apologies for that, any patience you can muster is appreciated. Ack! I see now the site is down, which is a bit of a bummer since I've forsaken sleep for an update (it's 6:33 now, and I am meeting people at 10:00), but it looks like at least I can upload it so it will be available when the server is.

AirQuake II  [1:09 PM EDT]
Version 0.3 of AirQuake II for Quake II is now available. The new version of this mod that puts you behind the stick of a jet plane offers new planes, combat drones, and new maps.

SB Live! Value  [1:09 PM EDT]
Creative Launches Sound Blaster Live! Value is a press release announcing a new $99.00 (US) version of Creative's new high-end soundcard. Thanks Sean at Tech-Review.

Half-Life Preview  [1:01 PM EDT]
sCary has posted his Half-Life preview from his visit to Valve a couple of weeks ago, along with a few new screenshots.

Tomb Raider 3 Wallpaper  [1:01 PM EDT]
There's a new Tomb Raider 3 desktop image up on Eido's FTP site in three sizes, 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

New Kali  [1:01 PM EDT]
Version 1.54 of Kali 95 (2521 KB -- not local) is up on their FTP site. Thanks Jeff Tom of AMD Zone.

Monster Sound MX200 Review  [1:01 PM EDT]
There's a review of the Diamond Monster Sound MX200 on Gamers Depot.

New Freeze Tag  [3:04 AM EDT]
Brrrr. A new three team scoreboard, an option of team_skins or "floaty keys" (though these don't yet support the third, green, team), and a fix for the ED_Alloc server crash bug are all part of the new version 1.71a of the Freeze Tag mod for Quake II . Available on the Freeze Tag Home.

Blood2 RealAudio  [2:55 AM EDT]
The interviews just keep on coming: Blood II The Good The Bad and The Chosen is a RealPlayer interview on The Game Show, talking with Jay Wilson, Blood 2 project leader. Saw that on AGN3D.

Quake II Ground Zero Screenshots  [2:41 AM EDT]
Phoebus sent along a pair of new screenshots from Rogue's upcoming Quake II mission pack, Ground Zero. One shows off the ETF (186 KB), a nailgun that shoots explosive flechettes, and another showing the use of Tesla coils (167 KB). Bzzzzt!

Gabe Newell Interview  [2:41 AM EDT]
Valve head honcho Gabe Newell is interviewed on Voodoo Extreme in a piece descriptively called One Man a leaf blower a tub of Crisco and a circus midget as well as a new exclusive screenshot.

Team Ego Interview, Messiah Shots  [2:41 AM EDT]
There's a Team Ego Interview on The Messiah Universe talking with the development team for Shiny's upcoming Messiah. Also, the gang at Game-Interviews.com have posted a whole boatload of Messiah Screen Shots.

AMEN Interview  [2:41 AM EDT]
An interview on CaveNews talks with Greg MacMartin, project leader on CaveDog's upcoming shooter AMEN: The Awakening. Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance.

Trespasser Interview  [2:41 AM EDT]
An interview with Seamus Blackley is up on Trespasser Central offering 19 questions and answers with "Mr. Trespasser."

Mortyr Interview  [2:41 AM EDT]
An interview on 3D-Unlimited talks with Pawel Kalinowski of Mirage Media, the team in Poland working on a new shooter called Mortyr. There are also nine more Mortyr screenshots on AGN3D, making 26 in all.

George B IRC  [2:41 AM EDT]
Lon's Prey Page has a log posted of a recent IRC visit by 3D Realms' George Broussard answering questions about Duke Forever and Prey. BTW, there are some shots of the Duke action figures on the Apogee/3D Realms Site.

Urban Assault Chat  [2:41 AM EDT]
Terratools, the development team for Urban Assault, will be on the Internet Gaming Zone this Thursday September 3, at 6:00 PM talking about the game in the "Theater Chat room." Afterwards there will be an open challenge where players can take on the developers at UA.

New Monster 3D II Drivers  [2:41 AM EDT]
New version 4.10.01.0203 Win 9x drivers for the Diamond Monster 3D II are up on the Monster 3D Drivers page. Thanks Kevin Misner.

New PERMEDIA2 Drivers  [2:41 AM EDT]
3Dlabs' drivers page has new Win9x PERMEDIA2 drivers. the new release is said to address DirectX 6.0 issues and fix a problem with Age of Empires. Thanks Mr. John Gotti and p00h.

JailBreak Gold  [2:41 AM EDT]
The Jailbreak page has the release of JailBreak Gold, a new five level map pack for the Quake II incarceration mod.

Kombat Teams for QuakeWorld  [2:41 AM EDT]
A new version of the Kombat Teams mod for QuakeWorld is out, offering a QW 2.30 compatible version of this deathmatch mod with new features like Kombat TV, random power-up respawn time, and new bot kick code.

Canopus TNT  [2:41 AM EDT]
Canopus has announced their TNT board, called the SPECTRA 2500. The Canopus TNT card will offer the same cool reverse pass-through technology for Voodoo2 owners (as well as internal pass-though for Pure3D II owners) as their RIVA 128-based Total3D 128D Witchdoctor, and in addition to the card's TV-out feature, an add-on card is planned to allow video capture as well. There's a TNT article by Ken Feinstein on GameCenter summing up the latest TNT developments that points out that NVIDIA has lowered the spec for the TNT's internal clock speed from 95 MHz to 90 MHz (the article originally said 91, but has been amended).

Sharky Beats His Banshee  [2:41 AM EDT]
Sharky looks at the Banshee on a mid-range machine in what he says is the last of his recent forays into analyzing 3Dfx's new 2D/3D card.

Sinister Interview  [2:41 AM EDT]
A Sincorps interview with Peter "ResDe" Zhou talks with the author of sinister, a Sin editor based on QE4.

On Unreal SE  [2:41 AM EDT]
Unreal sound coder Carlo Vogelsang answers a few questions about the Unreal Special Edition that works with the SoundBlaster Live! on Kert's page.

Competitions  [2:41 AM EDT]
The National Capture Association, a new league for NQ, QW and Q2 CTF, offers a unique approach to fair Internet play by having a league where each participating clan has a "home server" and then plays home and "away" matches throughout the season (I'm subsequently told this is not unique (thanks Talon), but anyway...). Also, a new ladder called BattleCenter is seeking 2,000 beta testers for their service, which ladder rankings in a whole gang of multiplayer games, 35 in all, including Quake, Quake2, Starcraft, Total Annihilation, Unreal, Sin, Blood, Doom, and more They are currently seeking 2,000 testers.

Quetiquette  [2:41 AM EDT]
Quetiquette: Quaker's Etiquette focuses on the part of deathmatch many strategy guides neglect: how not to be a dork.

Travel Day 3  [2:41 AM EDT]
Back in Seattle after a day in Eugene: today the last of my rounds here in the Pacific Northwest with a visit to Monolith.

Out of the Blue  [2:41 AM EDT]
CornBoy at Dynamix helped kill two birds with one stone in my recent exploration of high-caffeine drinks that have emerged in the years since Jolt first hit the scene. I got to try Big Red, and I can see why all the mail about this beverage (and I got dozens of comments on it) is so polarized: people either love it or hate it, because it does taste a bit like bubblegum. Contrary to the polarization I just spoke of, I thought it was okay, but not that big a deal: I don't love it or hate it. He also sprung me with another hard-edged soft drink I'd been steered towards by some  reader recommendations: Red Bull. Words cannot describe the horror that is Red-Bull, about the best I can do is carbonated cough syrup (I couldn't even finish the 8 oz. can). Anyway, BAWLS is still king of the high octane specials in my book (still working on my pimpage).

Levelord Interview  [4:54 AM EDT]
An interview with Levelord on quake.ie - The Pit talking about stuff his lo'ness knows well: Sin, level editing, and being Irish.

George Broussard Interview  [4:54 AM EDT]
Game-Interviews.com talks with 3D Realms' George Broussard about Duke Nukem Forever.

TeamFortress2 Preview  [4:54 AM EDT]
There's a TeamFortress2 preview at Spyder's Fortress based on the showing at Aftershock last week in Toronto. Thanks Billings of CF TF.

Gorey Story  [4:54 AM EDT]
4D Rulers Hard at Work Creating Gore is a look at Gore on Exscape that includes 3 new screenshots.

Starsiege Screens  [4:54 AM EDT]
Some new Starsiege screenshots on Game Post show off the mech-type combat of this upcoming first-person action title formerly known as Earthsiege 3 from Dynamix (not to be confused with Starsiege Tribes).

HomeWorld Screens  [4:54 AM EDT]
There are five new HomeWorld screenshots on Sharky Extreme, Relic Entertainment's upcoming space game.

Blood2 WAV  [4:54 AM EDT]
The Blood 2 The Chosen page has a new .wav file available of r download, this one of Ophelia, one of the game's principle characters.

Heavy Gear II Update  [4:54 AM EDT]
The Heavy Gear II site has a developer's update from Game Designer Doug Pearson as the now-alpha HGII heads towards beta. The update talks of the state of the particle systems, animé-style multi-rockets, and supported resolutions. There is also word of an online chat with the developers this Thursday.

New Matrox G200 Drivers  [4:54 AM EDT]
Matrox sends along some new drivers for their MGA-G200 based cards. Here's a local copy of disk 1 (537 KB) and disk 2 (1.1 MB), which are up via HTTP for the moment, which may cause unreliable downloads. Here's the skinny on the drivers:

Here are the newest Matrox MGA-G200 drivers. These drivers provide:

1) Full DX6 support
2) Optimized for AMD K6-2 (3DNow!)
3) Full support for ALI Aladdin V and VIA MVP 3 chipsets under Windows 95

These new drivers will only appear on the Matrox public web site in days to follow. Please share these drivers with all your friends/readers.

Reference Banshee  [4:54 AM EDT]
Sharky sinks his teeth (teef) into a 3Dfx reference version of the Voodoo Banshee, and, oddly, finds a fair degree of difference in the benchmarks compared to the Diamond Banshee he looked at last week, with the reference board turning in better scores.

Tectonic & TecTray  [4:54 AM EDT]
Version 0.6 of TecTray, a system tray utility for the Tectonic multi-mod Quake II launcher is up on the Tectonic page, along with an updated version 2.03 of Tectonic (mainly updated to work with TecTray).

BotJohnny  [4:54 AM EDT]
An alpha of version 2.0 of Bot Johnny is now available, offering a bunch of new features to this Quake II bot launcher, but the release is described as for testing purposes only.

Monolith the Publisher  [4:54 AM EDT]
News for developers, Monolith's Jason Hall updated his .plan with word that Monolith is looking to acquire titles to publish.

Secret Ops Strategy  [4:54 AM EDT]
A big ole Secret Ops Strategy Guide is up on 3DGaming.Net offering hints, cheats., hacks, and trainers for the free multi-episode Wing Commander game.

Today's Travels  [4:54 AM EDT]
Off to Oregon, to the home of Dynamix to take a look at Starsiege Tribes first hand. Speaking of traveling, I'm just going to keep all the times on the page Eastern time.

Out of the Blue  [4:54 AM EDT]
I had to scramble to get an Ethernet card (something  I needed anyway) to connect with my laptop from my hotel room. That's because in conjunction with problems with the dial-up account I planned to use for local access in Seattle, I find that this hotel offers T1 access for $9.95 a day! Muahahah! On the zippy soda front, I'm told Big Red is also available in Washington and Oregon, (where I'll be today), so maybe I can scare some up, though several people, including Joe Siegler, who says it's stocked in the 3D Realms fridge, tell me it tastes like bubble gum, which sounds pretty frightening.

Travel  [6:01 AM EDT]
Off in the BlueJet to the Pacific Northwest today: First stop is a return visit to Valve (that's right, there are no broken promises here, just the occasional remarkably long delay: more on this to come). I should be back online this afternoon, and should be making semi-regular updates through the trip, which ends with a travel day Thursday (which I do believe will cancel this week's shooters).

MacUnreal Real  [6:01 AM EDT]
Word on the Westlake Interactive page is that MacUnreal is a reality (thanks BOSSMONKEY). Also for the Mac crowd, word there is that Mac Tomb Raider II has entered beta testing, and will "definitely be out in October." Here's the scoop on MacUnreal:

Unreal Macintosh should be showing up in stores later this week. Our last check in with MacSoft indicated that duplication has been going well and it should begin shipping out to pre-orders and stores today or tomorrow.

Quake II RTS  [6:01 AM EDT]
Shadowgate development has posted beta build 2 of their QWar2 RTS mod for Quake II. The new release offers some new features, improved gameplay (only one-on-one now), and less crashes.

Unreal Timedemo  [6:01 AM EDT]
This new Unreal Timedemo patch (4 KB) sent along by Lothar is said to offer a more accurate gauge of your Unreal framerate than previous such patches.

Sincest  [6:01 AM EDT]
The newly released version 1.0 of Sincest is a launcher for the Sin demo based on the Tectonic Quake II launcher. The launcher features the ability to configure a client as well as a server, and a name that's just plain wrong. Thanks Philip Hedley.

Designer Demos  [6:01 AM EDT]
Designer Demos is a nifty new demo resource that offers Quake and Quake II demo design and recam services in addition to downloads. Thanks Ant.

More Hi-Res Shogo  [6:01 AM EDT]
Over on Voodoo Extreme, Billy has posted yet another spiffy 1024x768 Shogo screenshot.

Rocket Arena 2 Map Contest  [6:01 AM EDT]
The Rocket Arena 2 Map Contest is underway, looking to collect between 8-16 new RA2 maps for the official map pack release. It should be noted that the rules specify "Winning maps remain property of their respective creators, however all distribution and licensing rights will retained by David Wright and PlanetQuake." Entries will be accepted for the next two weeks.

Simulator Sickness  [6:01 AM EDT]
Are You Sick of Games is the first of this week's features posted in the new issue of loonygames, offering an in depth look at the possibilities of "simulator sickness" from virtual reality simulations, drawing on US Army research to help explore the subject.

Nocturne Feature  [6:01 AM EDT]
A Nocturne preview on AVault takes a look at this upcoming third person horror adventure. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Descent 3 Server Requirements  [6:01 AM EDT]
The kind of system that will be required to run a multiplayer Descent3 server is the subject of a post by Jason Leighton from Outrage to the Descent BB sent along by Deep Space.

The minimum requirements to run a D3 server will be based on how many players you'll want to support. I'm speculating here, but I'm guessing that supporting 8 players will probably take a P120 and an ISDN connection, while supporting 32 players will take at least a T1 and P300. This is with a dedicated server, not a server that is in the game. A server that is in the game (ie displaying graphics) will be more CPU intensive.

As far as tracking stats - the game will do that for you automatically. Tracking stats that we don't track will be able to be added through a DLL mod.

Demoplay Patch  [6:01 AM EDT]
A Demoplay patch is out that updates this automated Quake/Quake II/QuakeWorld/Hexen II/HexenWorld/Sin Demo demo launcher to support .qwd demos recorded with QuakeWorld 2.29 beta, and the new 2.30.

On the 10 FPS K6-2 Boost  [6:01 AM EDT]
To clarify something about the story (here) about boosting the Quake II framerate with a "cl_lights 0" command, since it was not made clear at the time, is what this command does is turn off all the dynamic lighting in the game, including muzzle flashes. This can put you at a strategic disadvantage, so it should not be thought of as a "free" framerate boost. Thanks Randy for pointing out that this note was in order.

Babylon 5 Space Sim Shots  [6:01 AM EDT]
There are six new screenshots on the Babylon 5 Space Combat Sim page showing off an alpha build of this upcoming offering from Sierra based on the TV series. Thanks Gamer's Alliance.

Q2 Tournaments  [6:01 AM EDT]
Clanring's Fragmented Tournament F1 is a Quake II CTF tourney for 64 high ping and 64 open division teams (thanks Ben Dobbs). Also, the Head On Collision 98 will have 32 teams facing off in three phases, CTF, deathmatch, and Rocket Arena 2, with applications starting tomorrow, and the action kicking off in two weeks..

Out of the Blue  [6:01 AM EDT]
Yesterday marked the two year anniversary of the first in store appearances of the Quake Shareware CD with the encrypted full version of the game that could be unlocked by calling paying the registration fee. Thanks Jeff Bacon for noticing that.

More on BAWLS. The website, it turns out, has a RealPlayer version of their commercial radio jingle that is quite surreal, titled They've got you. Buy the Bawls! (spotted by Jeff Bacon). The MIME types seem messed up, the only way I can get it to play it is to open my RealPlayer and paste in the location manually. I still can't believe this jingle aired on the radio with lines like "I never thought I'd want blue BAWLS!" On the hyper-caffeinated front, I'm told that what I really need to look out for is a brew called Big Red, mentioned by several readers, which is apparently only available in the US in Texas and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, while it will never happen that you will see me suck up to anyone for any sort of gaming consideration, I think it's out of the realm of the conflict of interest that I I'm going to try and pimp BAWLS until they send me some...

Rainbow Six Uniform Patch  [2:02 PM EDT]
Andy Sieben sent along his All Uniforms All Levels patch (15 KB) for the registered Rainbow Six, which, as the name implies, gives you access to all the uniforms on all the levels.

New Zaero Screenshots  [2:02 PM EDT]
There are four exclusive New Zaero Screenshots on John "Dirty Harry" Callaham's Web Page showing off this upcoming Quake II add-on.

Shogo Video Cards  [2:02 PM EDT]
Monolith's Mike Dussault updated his .plan commenting on Shogo's imminence, and giving a rundown of the video cards that will work best with the game, also word on Revolt: Shogo Intelligence Division is the are more Shogo shots on Bokatu's Realm.

VWep Page  [2:02 PM EDT]
An update to the El Niño Quake Extensions (VWep) page adds some new VWep plug-in player model packs, and like L-fire's recent instructions page adds sample source code for mod authors wishing to add 3.15 VWep support to their mods. This sample code from Hentai, VWep's author, is said to be a little cleaner, and also includes a repositionable chasecam.

Heretic II Interviews, Screenshots  [4:10 AM EDT]
The newly opened Heretic2.Com is underway with a bang posting interviews with both Pat Lipo and Dan Freed of Raven Software, as well as five OpenGL Heretic II screenshots.

STB Velocity 4400 (TNT) Ships  [4:10 AM EDT]
STB sent along an advance copy of a press release for Monday announcing they are beginning shipment of their TNT based Velocity 4400 cards. The release mentions the bundle will include an enhanced version of the full Forsaken, and talks about speed improvements STB is seeing from their drivers over the reference design:

“We are seeing scores on 3D Winbench 98 over 1700 while Diamond is posting a 1490 score on their website1. Creative Labs traditionally ships a copy of the chip vender’s reference design, and we are almost 50% faster than the reference board2,” points out Nathan Bozeman, Executive Director of Product Marketing at STB. “Knowing that we outperform our two biggest competitors, I am confident the Velocity 4400 is the fastest 2D/3D accelerator available today.”

New TweakIt and DirectControl  [4:10 AM EDT]
New on the bgr software page are new releases of TweakIt Version 3 Beta 3, for tweaking Voodoo-based accelerators, and DirectControl for DirectX 2.0.3 for all your DX tweaking needs. Thanks Billy "Tweak" Wilson at Voodoo Extreme.

RIVA 128 Unreal Tweak  [4:10 AM EDT]
DanTech has posted updated files and info on getting OpenGL Unreal running acceptable on a RIVA 128 based card. Thanks gw "Thump".

AMD Quake II Tweak  [4:10 AM EDT]
The 3DNow! NOW Page has a tip for improving performance on K6-2 processors by adding "cl_lights 0" to your autoexec.cfg to add a cool 10 FPS to your Quake II performance. Thanks indy from The Bind.

Worldcraft Pro?  [4:10 AM EDT]
This Computer Games Coming Soon page on EB World has an intriguing mention of a product called Worldcraft Pro said to be due in November. Thanks Halflife.net.

Tournaments  [4:10 AM EDT]
Last Clan Standing Tournament is a QuakeWorld competition getting underway within the next couple of weeks. Also the next TopGun tourney is already seeking clans to participate in their next Quake II tourney.

But What Does It Mean?  [4:10 AM EDT]
Robosaurs & the Space Bastards VS. Speedy Zone DEBATE! Sub_Ubi humps the leg of the gaming industry (16). On 3DGaming.Net. What's it all about? Nope, I don't know either, but it's pretty damn amusing, and it even includes an apparent chat with the Levelord. Oh yeah, speaking of Sinful nonsense, the Pope Condemns Sin, taken from Joe Selinske's .plan.

Out of the Blue  [4:10 AM EDT]
Sharky, Sharky, Sharky, its always coffee in the morning, but it's Dr Pepper over the Dew in the Blue Tower every time... Actually I tried a cool soda today called "BAWLS" (thanks Mopar for the link to the homepage) I found in a local Italian grocery. It contains Guarana, and enough caffeine to be called a "High Caffeine Guarana Beverage" on the front label, and to warrant a caution on the back: "Warning: this product contains high levels of caffeine." Woo! Sure enough I found half a 10 oz. bottle of this stuff more potent than a couple o liters of your run of the mill Pepper/Dew-type beverage. Remember kids, don't try this at home, I'm a trained professional (I grew up in the Seventies).

John Romero Interview  [11:18 PM EDT]
Planet RIVA has posted an interview with John Romero focusing mostly on Daikatana (it's a pre-"death" conversation).

Descent 3Dfx Patch  [11:18 PM EDT]
Adam at Deep Space sends word (via Descentia) that a 3Dfx patch for the original Descent is available on the D1_3DFX Site.

SB Live Reviews  [11:18 PM EDT]
There's a SoundBlaster Live! review on BGN Battlezone Games Network that is a nice detailed look at Creative's new high-end offering. There's also a SoundBlaster Live! look on Kert's page called a gamer's perspective.

Evil Core Demo  [11:18 PM EDT]
The lads at 3DFiles.Com have posted an updated demo for Evil Core on this page. They describe this 12 MB download as reminding them of a fancy G-Police.

Final Eraser  [12:37 PM EDT]
Impact Development Team has word of the release of the Eraser Bot version 1.01, which Ridah says will be the last release from him off the Eraser, the Quake II bot. This will also mark the last update from Ridah to the Impact page (remember he's working for Xatrix now), capping his notes with some very kind words for his hosts at Frag.Com. The new release fixes some VWep problems and a bug with CTF support, as well as a problem with QuickStart. Here's a local copy of the full installer (8.0 MB), the no-launcher installer (2.0 MB), the zipped version, the patch to upgrade from 1.0, the Solaris ports, and the source code also available on the Impact site.

Unreal D3D Shots  [10:48 AM EDT]
There are five new screenshots of Direct3D Unreal on Sharky Extreme showing off the upcoming D3D version of the game running on a Matrox G200.

Messiah Screenshots  [10:48 AM EDT]
The caption on the Game-Interviews.com page o' shots sums it up: Messiah Screen Shots! (some old some new not sure which ;).

Nocturne Screenshots  [10:48 AM EDT]
The Nocturne page is up on the Gathering of Developers showing off a couple of new screenshots from the upcoming Nocturne, TRI and g.o.d.'s gift to third-person action adventure gaming that sounds rooted in Lovecraftian horror.

Notes on QuakeWorld 2.30  [10:48 AM EDT]
3 Fingers sends along some notes about a couple of nifty new features on the new QuakeWorld (story)

QuakeWorld 2.30 has a couple of cool new features:

1. By selecting "crosshair 2", you can variably adjust the color of the crosshair by select values between 0-255 with the command: "crosshaircolor". I played with the colors a while a decided I liked the bright yellow crosshair so I added this to my QW autoexec.cfg: crosshaircolor "195"

2. A new command called "gl_cshiftpercent" (default 100) has been added to adjust the degree of blend you see when you have gl_polyblend set to "1". When you set gl_polyblend to "1" you will see your screen change color when you get quad or any powerup, take damage, pickup items and jump into the water etc. You can adjust how much of a color change you see by selecting a value between 0 and 100 for gl_cshiftpercent. A value of 100 would be the normal gl_polyblend 1 setting you have always seen. A value of 0 for gl_cshiftpercent would be the same as setting gl_polyblend to "0" (no color change). If you set gl_cshiftpercent to about "10", then you would just see a slight amount of color change to your screen when you get quad or any powerup, take damage, pickup items and jump into the water etc. If you have gl_polyblend set to "0" then this will turn off the color blend and gl_cshiftpercent will not have any effect regardless of the gl_cshiftpercent value you select.

New BattleField Communicator  [10:48 AM EDT]
An updated public beta 2 of Battlefield Communicator, the software that allows real-time voice communication during multiplayer games is now available. The new release fixes some minor problems with Quake 2, GLQuake, QuakeWorld, Sin, Diablo, and Fighter Ace, and is not compatible with beta 1.

Unreal MageWars  [10:48 AM EDT]
Unrealistic has posted version 0.3DEV of their Unreal Mod MageWars. Only one spell is available in this release, but more are expected to be available in a new version soon.

Freeze Tag Alternate
The Freeze Tag Home has released Freeze Tag Alternate version 1.7 which offers support for three team Freeze Tag, as well as VWep support, so you can get rid of your diapers (not so fast Ms. Allyson).

Quake II GameCam  [10:48 AM EDT]
The GameCam Page has posted version 0.12 beta of their GameCam patch for Quake II. This server-side only observer mod offers three points of view, Free, Chase, and Action (based on q2cam by Paul Jordan). When using this mod, spectators don't appear on the scoreboard and will see no HUD. There are also security measures that allow the disabling of spectator chat messages and such.

Level Paradise  [10:48 AM EDT]
Coconut Monkey's Level Paradise is a new effort by PCGamer to acknowledge the best in user created levels for Unreal, Quake and Quake II, with sections for other games planned for the future.

Tweaking the RIVA 128  [10:48 AM EDT]
Dan the TweakMonkey over at DanTech has posted a section called Tweaking Games for Riva 128 cards with tips and workaround for RIVA-izing a bunch of games, as well as a RIVA 128 overclocking article.

Descent 3 Notes  [10:48 AM EDT]
Jason Leighton, Senior Programmer on Descent 3 has made a Developer Notes Update giving what's up with the upcoming installment in the Descent series, including some details on how multiplayer networking will work, and a mention of tweaks to the headlight feature from D2 and the addition of reflective surfaces. Thanks Timur at Deep Space.

Wheel of Time Log  [10:48 AM EDT]
A log of last night's Wheel of Time chat session on 3DGaming.Net has been posted.

ISP Guide  [10:48 AM EDT]
CNET's Ultimate ISP Guide is online to try and help folk find a better connection. Ultimate is a strong word, but this looks like a worthwhile resource. Thanks Ant.

More on the Life of an Online Gamer  [10:48 AM EDT]
An addendum to Cliff Bleszinski's .plan (a follow-up on yesterday) gives one more barrier to online gaming: "Download the *huge* patches for the games to make them work with the current servers *and* install them properly." I'm feeling peckish enough to point out that waiting for those patches to be released so that multiplayer play is possible is another tough road to hoe sometimes, you know?

Tourney  [10:48 AM EDT]
Slovenska Klan Liga (QW, CTF, & Q2) kicks off September 7, 1998.

Out of the Blue  [10:48 AM EDT]
I'm gearing up for a road trip next week... busy, busy... I think I need to get one of those pine trees air-fresheners for the BlueJet, and other chores like that. From the "you can't make this stuff up" department, Ant sent along this link (immature audiences only).