Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

QuakeWorld Server Released
Get qwsv1213.zip here or from id's ftp site or Stomped, and the first batch of clan skins right here. Here are the server documents in text and HTML formats. (Thanks to Don Peterson and Benjamin Alexander for spotting the screwed links). To install the skins, create a \quake\qw\skins\ subdirectory and unzip this file into it.

QuakeWorld Newsflash Part III
There's a new update to the RevCo page pointing out that the first batch of clan skins have been released (also available on on Stomped). Thanks for that to Ozzie.

The RevCo page was updated earlier with Disruptor's QuakeWorld server docs and this note (thanks Greg_Gibson aka angryHelmut):

Expect the server to be uploaded "shortly"

Here are the server documents in text and HTML formats.

Carmack Gives the Lowdown on 3D Cards
Thanks to sCary for letting me know John Carmack updated his .plan. Because a system integrator ran a blurb in their customer update newsletter that seriously misrepresents John's experiences with Intergraph and SGI hardware, there's a lucky side effect for us: He has chosen to fight back by giving his views on all the 3D hardware options available.

QuakeWorld Server Distribution Plan
Disruptor (Christian Antkow), the QuakeWorld main man, and master of the master-server, let me know that the Revco page has a very significant update: The news that the Server software would be distributed in advance of the client software ("soon"). This of course only makes sense, otherwise five minutes after the client is released we'll have 5,000,000 users trying to log into two servers. Shortly after that I got word from the source of the distribution (who'll remain nameless, not that anyone around here likes to hound people), filling me in on the plan, and I am comfortable that this is going to work out with a minimum of bloodshed. Stay tuned for further details...

Happy Birthday, Evil Person
American did the .plan thing again... I hope he doesn't blow out the candles with a rocket launcher again. Thanks Benjamin Black (WilyKit).

Friday the 13th... and guess what
evil persons birthday this is.

John Cash Fixes, errr Updates His .plan
Thanks to coe@qnet.com for the word on this update:

doh: a deer, a female deer? no, more like I overwrote my .plan file by accident and didn't have time to fix it

Cool song: "Jingle Hell's Bells"; if you like AC/DC and Christmas

cheese: lamers who get you with the grappling hook (in CTF) and then use an alias to fire another weapon and reattach the hook... just plain sad

llama: people who complain about campers in CTF. In deathmatch it's camping, in CTF it's called defense

congrats: Steve "Reaper" Polge
Wedge and Coryoth (Steve and John) of "Quake Command"

id in USA Today
There's an article in USA Today online (old Jay Leno joke: USA Today, the paper that should have a "Think and Do" page on the back...) about id Software's new $119 boxed set. Oddly, they choose to tie this in with John Romero's departure calling the article Game boxed set out amid id upheaval (kinda weird). Thanks Sewell Tang.

Now, or Later
Thanks to Mark Britton for sending along the QuakeWorld Later! button (above). Perfect to cool out those ever-escalating expectations. I thought I'd make use of it by linking it to the RevCo page for when you're jonesing for the latest word.

New Ranger Movie
If you're like me, you were blown away by the Ranger Clan's last cinematic achievement Ranger Gone Bad 2, with just one drawback... it's a silent movie. Well now we have Torn Apart ][: Ranger Down (1.8M), which, since it includes voices, will go down as The Jazz Singer of quake movies. Heath Brown (ColdSun) wants to be sure that everyone knows how much hard work ARCHV puts into editing these epics, saying he works day and night

QuakeWorld Update
There's more QuakeWorld stuff on the RevCo page--the master server seems stable, and they've put up a QuakeWorld Now! button to whet your appetite (thanks Larry Sylvestre aka BUNGLE). Also, speaking of anticipation, check out sCary's, he's posted his QuakeWorld tutorial, so you will be clued in by the time the actual release comes (which according to the RevCo page isa still in "two weeks").

Word of the Day
Hehe. Jeff Atwood sent along the "word of the day" he got from Bookshelf '97 today:

Cash's .plan
Don Petersen points out that John Cash update his .plan to simply read:

doh

As Don said, at least it loads quicker now.

Swords in Quake
Qyv has put together an interesting essay about the difficulties in implementing swords and other melee-type weapons in 3D games like Quake.

BSP Tutorial Page
Hot on the heals of the new BSP release (below), comes word from Steve Thoms about his BSP news page.

BSP Version 0.6 b
The newest version of BSP (Win95 Quake editor) is now available on the BSP homepage. Thanks to Brian "Plucky" Ploeckelman of the Gulf Breeze Quake Site.

Thor's Hammer Part III
Well look at that. The evening that one of the topics of the day here at the ole rag was Thor's hammer Mjolnir, CNET's Gamecenter has this artice, Romero gets his hammer in Quake, which discusses the Hipnotic's add-on, focusing on the hammer, as well as Rogue's add-on. There are also some teeny screenshots. Thanks to Jeff Parke for that. Here are the two stories from earlier today:

I dunno, I was glad when id bagged the hammer from the Quake design, it just didn't seem that exciting. But reading Eric Hoch's description of his planned (hoped for?) Quake C mod, Mjolnir (I'll buy a vowel, Pat), the legendary hammer of Thor, has actually got me interested in seeing the mod... sounds very cool, I hope it gets made.

After posting the above story, I got an email with some screenshots from Jim Dose' of Hipnotic Interactive letting me know that my wish would come true (one way or another):

Funny, but it's been included in our design spec for 5 months now. :)
Here's a few screen shots.

Here are the screenshots (click on a thumbnail to see it full screen):

It looks just as cool as the original description that got me so fired up.

No Plans to Release Reaper Source
I got a response from Reaper Bot author Steven Polge to my question about whether he was planning to release the source to his "baby," and this was his response:

"I have not released the source for the reaper bot, and at this point I will probably not do so..."

Books For Kids
Thanks Tracy "Sky" Walker for passing along this URL which will link you up to Houghton-Mifflin's generous offer to send books to childrens hospitals based on the number of emails they receive. Here's a chance for those of you who enjoy using your mailer as a weapon (you know who you are) to do a good deed with that sucker.

CTF Shirt
There's a really nice looking design for a CTF T-Shirt on Threewave. I don't know if they'll be made, or available, but it's sharp.

QSoccer Beta 3.3
There was a problem in the QSoccer Beta 3.2 in that it relentlessly overwrote the users config.cfg file. Here's QSoccer Beta 3.3 which corrects the problem. (Thanks Jordan.)

Llama Bot
I like to think I've been pretty good about not overdoing the llama craze (until today). I didn't think anything could compel me to post a third llama story in one day, but the Llama Bot page is one of the funniest variations on the theme I've seen, so I hope that any (all?) of you who are sick of this will forgive me (oh, hell go ahead delete my bookmark--I deserve it). Thanks to Jason Gibson for pointing this one out (yeah, blame him!).

Latest on QuakeWorld Part II
There's another update on the status of QuakeWorld on the RevCo page (No shirt, No shoes, Pants? No service!). The bug that crashed the master server has been fixed (John Carmack to the rescue). Thanks to Gary Hillard for the news on the new update, and Darren L. Tabor for the news on the original bug report.

American's .plan
Thanks to Richard Pistole (coming this fall to ABC: Dick Pistole P.I.) for pointing out that American updated his .plan (just what I was afraid of when I posted the Llamatron link. Sorry gang ;-)

Man... just wasted 3 hours playing Llamatron.
Not sure if I can stop playing. This is the
most awesome game I have ever seen.

Beasties!

And durn if by the time I checked it if Tokay hadn't added a new carol:

On the twelth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,

Twelve grunts-a-grunting,
Eleven shamblers shambling,
Ten players playing,
Nine llamas grazing,
Eight heads-a-rolling,
Seven vores-a-screeching,
Six gibs-a-bouncing,
Five shadow rings,
Four love ewes,
Three Crack Whores,
Two days in vis,
and a Quad Damage killing spree!

Thanks to:
Darkwing - Brian Osman (osmanb@rpi.edu)
Snowlock - Paul Belemjian (belemp@rpi.edu)

Hmmm Llama Gibs
Yugo Nakai (who has a lttle too much time on his hands) sends along the results of an interesting experiment. If you overfeed Larry the Virtual Llama (from Llamas.org) he will gib! The Quake/Llama connection becomes stronger everyday. Skeptical? Here's proof:

As I've said in the past, you can't make this stuff up...

New FastVid
A new version of FastVid, the utility to enhance video performance on Pentium PRO systems has been released (this will do nothing for non-PPro users). Also available on SciTech's site Thanks to Chris Cason for sending along the word. Sorry about the bad link earlier (and thanks Gabe for finding it).

Games That Aren't Quake
Been a while since I dropped a line about another game that might be of interest to Quake players, but when Dominic Salvia sent along word about Llamatron (also available on ftp.cdrom.com), an old takeoff on Robotron, my duty was clear. I only hope id doesn't lose Tokay to the lure of Llamatron level design.

QSoccer Beta 3.2
The latest version of the sports simulation just like the real-life version (only less violent) is out. Here's the QSoccer Beta 3.2, which can also be found on the QSoccer homepage, of course.

End of the Reaper Bot Line
The father of the famed Reaper Bot, Steven Polge (Dr. Reaperstein), sends along word that he will no longer have time to update the Reaper Bot, now that he had signed on with Epic (makes sense).

"...I am really looking forward to this opportunity. I was only able to spend a relatively small amount of time on the reaper, because of work and life. I hope to be able to do some really cool stuff, and make single player (and multiplayer) more immersive and more fun. BTW, I am very impressed with the Unreal engine and editor.

Best of luck, Steven.

Superheroes!
Check out the Quake Superheroes page where you can download the patch, and find the servers that can let you run faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a ... you get the idea. (To the bluemobile...)

For Your Browsing Pleasure Part II
One of the nicest looking websites I have seen in a long time is the d a r k m a r e: of wolf and man page. Thanks to Slipgate Central maintainer Joost Schuur for pointing that one out as well as a couple more sites worth visiting: A nice new deathmatch tips page is Quake Weenie Deathmatch Tactics Website (you've got to love it for the name alone), and this German Clan Scene page.

Speaking of Browsing
I should have known the smiley at the end of my comment on American's .plan wasn't big enough to keep me from getting grief about browser preferance (avoid browsers and religion and avoid contoversy). It was just a joke (smile). I kid Explorer because I care...

Bad Reactor Reaction Part II
Don't use the recent BIOS upgrade from Intergraph on your Reactor. A big thanks for the warning to David Curtis, who wrote Intergraph asking about the BIOS upgrade, and got this response:

"Wait on the BIOS. The flash utility may deprogram your card. We are working on a [new] flash utility. it should be ready today or tomorrow."

Thanks to Jonathan Bentley who sends along this helpful suggestion, if you zapped your Reactor with the faulty BIOS:

"There is a way to fix the new bios if your card is re-programmed. Use a boot disk for win95 that goes to the c prompt. Retype the command prompt for the upgrade and wait a few minutes. Restart your PC. This should clear the problem. I had the same problem and this is how we solved it. It took two tries(mainly because we didn't wait long enough after the first try before restarting) to fix the problem."

Browser Wars
Thanks to Jason Seifer for sending along word that American updated his .plan, correcting my misconception about what browser he uses, and of course including the manditory gross link (which is basically the Jeffrey Dahmer cookbook--you've been warned):

Really gross:

http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/coe/e-sermons/butcher.html

Blue writes:
>(Hmmm seems Tokay uses Explorer. In my browser, the URL is thus):

NO! Wrong Blue! Never never never. Netscape, thank you very much.
What do you think I am a freak or something?

Sorry Tokay, I know we kid each other about llama love and stuff, but I guess the Explorer thing was kind of a low blow. I apologize.

It's been clarified for me that American's URL using %7Esc (see yesterday's story) is correct, but not for the reason I was told (that European keyboards lack tildes (~). Blake Winton (Coder on Threewave) tells me:

The RFC for URLs states that any character not defined within the RFC is invalid, but that you can use a "%" followed by 2 hex digits to specify that character. Since ~ isn't part of the URL spec, %7E is the proper form.

You see, this site doesn't just deal with the minutia of Quake, we have time for general minutia, as well...

Hipnotic Artist
sCary sends along word that Hipnotic is looking for an artist to hire for a new project (a whole new game) slated to start in January.

Proxy Revisited
Achim Huegen author of the Quake Windows Proxy Version 0.91 (also at ftp.cdrom.com), asked me to post a brief explanation of the program to help answer the questions that keep coming in. The Quake proxy server is a Windows95/NT app to connect a computer without direct Internet access to a Quake Internet server. What you need is one computer in your local network that serves as Internet gateway and has direct access. For example if you use Wingate at the gateway machine you should be able to use the proxy. Further information is in the readme.

WorldCraft Contest
Go check out Impulse 1's WorldCraft prefab contest, where ten skillful authors who can design the best prefab objects will win registered copies of WorldCraft.

Guess QuakeWorld's Release Date
If the Void's new contest, Guess the QuakeWorld Release Date, had started yesterday, more than half the entrants would have been eliminated already.

Definitive Quake Server List Glitch
The Definitive Quake Server List is experiencing server configuration difficulties (CGIs are not accessible). They are working on this stuff even as we speak (so to speak). SkyLord asks that we please bear with them while they look to restore the lost functionality (things like player lists and server details).

'Twas the Night Before QuakeWorld
Brandon Ferguson has rewritten the Christmas standard into 'Twas the Night Before QuakeWorld.

Rain Update
QuakeX has been updated with a new version of their rain patch. The update contains a new rain sprite (that no longer looks like snow), and improved sound effects. Thanks to Don Peterson for the word.

The Canadians Are Up in Arms. Eeek!
Toyman of Quake clan "In Praise of AMMO" has cooked up an idea to end international harmony:

Topic: North American Challenge
Date: .Nominations and Trials begin immediately.
Notes: Where does you loyalty lie?! With your clan or your COUNTRY?! The North American Challenge will pit America's best Quakers against Canada's best. Regardless of clan. The format of the match will be an NHL style playoff consisting of a best of 7 tournament. Each match will be run under QuakeWorld. The US Quake community should field its best 16 players. Anyone. Comparisions would be done on a ping basis (ie, lpb or hpb) and 8 would be lumped into each category (lpb hpb). We run two USA v. Canada matches of best 4 out of 7 20 minute matches. The Canadian community should check out the Canadian Connection for more information on nominations, tryouts, etc.

Anyone willing to handle the assembly of the American team should email me (Toyman) at khansen@mgl.ca.

American's .plan
Today's update is another "interesting" link (thanks Brian Osman):

http://www.webcom.com/%7Esc/elven-love-slave.html

(Hmmm seems Tokay uses Explorer. In my browser, the URL is thus):

http://www.webcom.com/~sc/elven-love-slave.html

PowerBall
PowerBall (note the new URL, PlanetQuake sucks in another one) was originally stuck on my TC's page, because it was originally mailed to me as a TC (I'm not sure why, but the page also calls it "The First Total Conversion for QuakeWorld"). Not a TC in the common usage, PowerBall, is more of a server mod, like Capture the Flag. I played a little last night, one-on-one, which is not the right way to play, but the idea was apparent. It looks like a lot of fun, and I kind of hope it doesn't get too much more elaborate than its current "guy with the ball does double damage formula." It would be nice to see a few simple game-variations like this become staples.

Screamin' 3D BIOS Update
Unhappy at being outdone by all the other Vérité board manufacturers, Sierra has released a BIOS upgrade for their Screamin' 3D Card. Disclaimer: you break? No my fault. Thanks Chris Runge.

Happy Birthday!
It's only semi-quake related, but I can't let today pass without noting that it was three years ago today that id Software showed us the future of computer gaming with the original release of Doom. Thank you to an old newsgroup pal Simon Garlick for reminding me.

Dark Forest Beta Released
A while back I posted a story on the Dark Forest Project, which has since been completed. The second beta of the finished map (of a dark forest of all things) has been released, so you can download it from here, or the Dark Forest homepage. Warning this map requires more than 8 megs of ram ... be sure to allocate AT LEAST 12 megabytes to Quake if you use Windows 95. According to the readme, "Quake -winmem12 +map darkfst" should do the trick.

Quake Command Lives
We have a pulse. A quick update to Quake Command, just to let us know they were alive. Wedge and Choryoth promise more updates to come. Thanks to Richard Pistole (what a great Quake name) for the news.

3D Blaster BIOS
An updated BIOS for the 3D Blaster has been posted on Creative's website. Usual disclaimers apply (don't come to me if you bust your machine). Thanks to mr_maker and Buzman (Clan Terminus) for that.

Quake C Archive
The Quake C Archive, or QCA for short, is up and running. This is a nice looking new site that is devoted to being the ultimate archive of Quake C patches. The webmaster over there, Chris Connolly, is currently looking for new Quake-C Patch reviewers for the page, so if you think you can help, drop him a line.

And The Hits Just Keep on Coming
I used to take the time out to do this every once and a while, and I don't know why I stopped. I just noticed the counter on this page has passed the 700,000 mark, and I just want to take some time out to say thank you to all of you who are part of this nutty little band that's become known as the "Quake Community." This site represents a significant investment in time and effort, but because of all the great people I've gotten to "meet" through Blue's News, it's the very rare bad day that I don't feel like I'm getting the better of the bargain. Thanks to all of you who've helped make this site such a success.

We now return you to your regulary scheduled carnage.

American v. Cash Part III
American updated his .plan for the third time today, responding (apparently) to some llama's not getting the joke about Tokay's cash-bashing (um, we're supposed to be having fun here kids, let's not get our panties in a bunch ;-)

>X-Sender: -----------
>Date: Mon, 09 Dec 1996 15:49:56 -0500
>To: American@idsoftware.com
>From: Kean <---@---.net>

>Quit bashing Cash. You are sounding like some
>egotistical asshole. Even if you are good at
>Deathmatch, give Cash a break. Btw, you are
>NOTHING without your T1.

Uh, how did Cash get his "Inflatable Love Lamb"
(http://www.muttonbone.com/) to talk!?!?
Scary... did you get yours to talk?! Mine just
goes "squeak squeak squeak".

Thanks to Lone Wolf (finger jcampbll) for word of the new update, which was an addendum to American's earlier update with some news that suggests a problem for my contest...

Man, John Cash just *won't* play me.
I guess he realizes that he doesn't have
enough Depends around to handle all the
crap I am going to beat out of him.
Better run to the store and get some John!

Thanks to Ben Sherman (Zith of U|A) for letting me know. I'm guessing the battle will still take place (you can't tell me the man is going to take that lying down). But, if it doesn't take place, obviously some quick thinking will have to be done to rescue my current contest. More details as they're available (I wouldn't be surprised if Cash's .plan isn't updated soon).

New York Tourney
A while back I wrote about a large LAN party/Tournament being planned for the New York City area (which I might attend myself). Their web page has been updated to include further info about the event, as well as registration instructions.

It has long been threatened, and now it will come to pass: if you want me to publicize your local (non-profit only) Quake event or tournament, please email relevant information to local@bluesnews.com. I will start a calendar to track these events in the future.

You Can Say That Again!
American McGee updated his .plan with some true words to live by (thanks to Brian Osman):

Bah. Monday.

Don't Fear the Reaper: Hire His Creator
Steven Polge, author of the famed Reaper Bot, has been hired by Epic Megagames to do enemy AI programming for their upcoming Quake competitor, Unreal. This is according to Shadows (thanks to Brad Dietz aka Nighthawk).

In an interesting related note (also on Shadows), Quake editor WorldCraft's author, Ben Morris, says he plans on making WorldCraft into a better Unreal editor than UnrealEd.

Redwood Update
Tall as a tree and twice as strong, Redwood sends along word that he's posted his logo contest results. He's also got screenshots of QuakeWorld and the front-end to whet your appetite, and finally, he's put out the word that he's looking for a (free) host for his site, now that his college career is coming to a close (amazing how six years can fly by ;-) so if there's an ISP, or someone with space on a server to spare who's interested, check Red's page for details and get in touch with him.

GB3D Update
The Ghostbusters 3D TC Page has been updated with screenshots and I'm told that we should expect an alpha sometime this week.

For the Record
Sandeep (Sandeep's Quake Editors), points out that I never mentioned Quake Studio .94's (Quake editor) release.

FraQuake
Steve Fukuda, main mad scientist at the QuakeLab, sent along a screenshot of a map he generated using FraQuake the fractal landscape generator I mentioned yesterday:

Pretty cool, huh? FraQuake is available at Modesty's Web Page.

QuakeWorld Skins
I see on sCary's that ^Drag0n^ will be the official QuakeWorld skin collector (ripped straight from the Quakeholio):

John Carmack has asked ^Drag0n^ to collect and maintain the official QuakeWorld skins file for people to download and optionally put on their server for dynamic downloads when needed / used.. send your skins as an attacment to tron@cyberportal.net with the file attached in MIME format.

Proxy Server
I got the following note from Achim Huegen:

I've written a Quake Proxy Server for Windows 95 or NT. It seems to work fine, although its still a beta version, but it is not very well known. And this is the point, where you could help all the killers out there to find what they are searching for. There seem to be a lot people that don't know of the existence of a working proxy server. It's to be found at ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.

NCQA
The National Collegiate Quake Association, is the newest effort to briging order to the chaos (or vice versa) of Quake warfare.

Canadian Connection Moves
All the latest destruction from the great white north is at a new location. And revamped (looking nice).

Fractal Generator
Thanks to Jon Platt for pointing the way to Modesty's Web Page home of FraQuake, a Quake fractal landscape generator.

Rocket Jumper's Overhaul
There's been a big overhaul at the Rocket Jumpers Guide. This site is now very graphically heavy... the bandwidth impaired should proceed with caution.

Just For Fun...
Couple of frivolous things that came my way... a new sponsorship opportunity:

And Geopumpkin sends along a Quake joke (originally by Dave Jones)...

Q) What do you call a dead Quake monster? A) Poly-gone!

WorldCraft University Back
The paint's just barely dry on the spankin' new campus of WorldCraft University, the website devoted to the IRC classes in the use of Ben Morris' cavity-fighting Quake editor WorldCraft. USteppin promises that this is the site's permanent address.

American's .plan
Amercan published a llama song by Beau Harrington. Thanks to Clint Simon, aka CTRL, for the word:

This is total asskissing, but its funny.
Thanks to:
Beau Harrington
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/7830

I wrote a song...

To the tune of "Zero"
========
Tokay

My high ping time
Dirty bastards
There's no connection
with the server

I'm your savior
I'm Tokay

I'm the one who saves the llamas

So get a set-up
with a T3 installed

Join Tokay and fly

Wanna kick some butt?

I'm the one who rules
I save all the llamas
oh yeah
I'm the one who rules

lagginess is leet-ass-ness
and leet-assness is godliness
and godliness is llamaness
and llamas kick ass

Just like me...

Intoxicated
by the spped
I'm in love with
40 ping

Crushing players and shooting people
dishing out boomstick until the end of time

I never let up
I can kick ass all the time
I never let up
when I kicked ass

You blame yourself
for endless lag
Then Tokay comes
and makes you leet

Am-er-ican McGee
He can kick ass
oh yeah
Am-er-ican McGee
he's the one and

ONLY!!

TeamFortress Beta
There's beta testing of TeamFortress on the Netspace server. The new version has, among other things, Threewave CTF map support and includes the Grappling Hook (so bring your marshmallows for the campfire). The server is 203.17.103.34, running CTF 3 maps.

CNET Shootout
CNET's following up on the poll to focus a shootout segment to try and answer the question that's on the lips of gamers everywhere... Can somebody please, please... tell us just which game is better, Bungie's Marathon 2 Durandal or id Software's Quake. I'll ruin the suspense, Quake wins. Thanks CyBER.