Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

Rocket Arena for Quake II
The first version of Rocket Arena for Quake II has been released on the Rocket Arena page as a client patch (959 KB) and a server patch (330 KB), with both patches required to run a server (both Linux and Win32 game .dll's included). Here's the lowdown from the redesigned Rocket Arena page (it's a little whack on Navigator 3.x, you might need to highlight the text to read it like I did):

The version being released today is still not feature complete, but it includes much of the framework on which we will build. It supports team play with up to 128 teams and 128 players per team. It supports maps with up to 256 arenas on a single map! It also supports single-arena style play on any normal deathmatch map. We've got the most advanced and easiest to use menuing system of any mod, including in-game configuration and administration.

Our map makers are still hard at work on the Rocket Arena 2 maps, so we have included a conversion Tesh's Multi-Arena 1 map marenrg1 to give you a taste of Rocket Arena 2 on a map with multiple arenas.

Newer C.R.Bot
Another new C.R.Bot, version 0.96 has been released on the C.R.Bot page (thanks Prophet), which has newly relocated to www.planetquake.com/crbot/.

GSLogMod
Version 1.1 of GSLogMod, a log output analyzer, has been released on the GibStats page, supporting GibStats II for Quake II and GibStats for Quake, and any other programs written to its standard. There is also a  Linux version of GSLogMod up on Linux Quake 2 Mods. Thanks Prophet.

Quake II Single Player Secrets
OGR has published a complete guide to all the secrets in Quake II single player play. Thanks REG.

Battle of the Sexes
Version 2.0 of the Battle of the Sexes mod has been released on Spinoza's Quake 2 Mods Page.

QuakeCast
I was delayed in the bad weather last night, and showed up at Pseudo to find that the engineer had cancelled the QuakeCast (seems like the tail wagging the dog to me), as Loony's arrival was close to the wire as well. Kinda weird.

.plans

• Jack "morbid" Mathews updated his .plan with a lengthy discussion of his GameSpy programming issues, and a revelation that there's a math bug in the 3Dfx GL minidriver (but it's not certain it actually causes any problems). Okay Jack, I want my $12 now (though I'll take a Voodoo 2 if you don't want to send cash in the mail).

Interviews

• The Razor Edge has an interview up with Jonathan 'Nelno' Wright of ION Storm.
• There is an interview with Spectre, the author of the FlameBot, up on House of Milamber.
• The Daily Death will be conducting an interview of Ted Backman of Valve and they are accepting submitted questions until January 29, if you have an idea for a query to include.

Movements

• crash's Quake II Pages (formerly crash's SPQ) has relocated to www.quake2.com/crash/.
• The TF Yellow Pages have moved to www.neurogamer.com/slade/tfyp/ as part of Slade's Place.
• Chi's DOSDoom page has moved to www.frag.com/dosdoom/. Thanks Prophet.

etc.
Packit, a Quake II pak browser/manipulator for Linux/X11 has been released on the Packit page. Thanks Prophet ...

Out of the Blue
I'm off to LAN for the weekend, not to DC-Con, but to the Brothers Gib semi-regular MutantFest (which is why I'm missing DC-Con). I am not certain what updates will be like over the weekend, but it is quite possible there will be none after this afternoon until I return late Sunday or Monday. Enjoy your weekend, and my best to those at DC-Con, I hope it's a blast. Also, my comments about losing the throbber (the pulsing graphic in the upper left-hand corner) have inspired a bit of a save the Throbber campaign, with many suggesting use of the stop button to kill the animation for when it's a problem.

Quake II CTF Screenshots
Disruptor sent along a note to announce that Zoid has released four screenshots for Quake II Capture the Flag:

QuakeCast/StormFront
Okay, here's the deal with the QuakeCast. First, if you aren't aware, JUDGECAL has retired as co-ringmaster to focus full time on his duties as Executive Producer of Pseudo's Gaming Channel. Also, the show is now an hour, beginning at 9:00 PM Eastern time Thursdays. Loony, Joost and I are going to produce and co-host the show (though Joost is off in London this evening). Tonight's guests are going to be some of the folks from H3D to describe the virtues of stereoscopic Quake, and some of the Xatrix team, responsible for the id Quake II Mission pack. As for StormFront, the status of that is up in the air at this point, I'll pass along word on what's up with that as soon as I know.

PGL Finals
It's been announced that the finals for the initial season of AMD's Professional Gamers League will take place in a face to face showdown at GameWorks in Seattle, WA over the weekend of January 30-31. The PGL will provide transportation, lodging, cash and prizes for the 16 finalists.

Unreal Assault Rifle
A new weapon page, for the Assault Rifle, has been added to Epic's Unreal site, along with the four recently released Unreal screenshots. Thanks The Unreal Culture Center.

New C.R.Bot
Version 0.95 of the C.R.Bot is out on the C.R.Bot homepage, fixing some bugs that caused crashes in the previous release. Thanks Prophet.

New Quake II Lithium Server
Version 0.73 of the Lithium Server has been released on the Lithium Quake II Server Mod page.    

Riot Update
In the new Weekly Update on the official Riot site there is a detailed rundown on character design along with original art showing the creation of a starship. Thanks Revolt: Riot Information Center.

.plans

• Ritual's Charlie Brown updated his .plan talking about their first milestone for the UberEngine project, describing one of the project's strengths as scalability, and saying screenshots may become available as soon as March.
• Raven's Eric Biessman updated his .plan with a help wanted ad for a programmer.
• Tim Willits updated his .plan thanking all that participated in the Base100 test, and pointing out that 100 player maps were not part of the plan for the deathmatch pack, which will feature 4-8 player maps.

Interviews

• There is an interview with Valve Software head honcho Gabe Newell on GameHut talking about the state of Half-Life and at the very end mentioning that Valve has a second project in development that they haven't talked about yet (which means that they've talked about it now).
• Raven's Eric Biessman is interviewed by Phoebus on Activision's Hexen II Page. Saw that on PlanetQuake.
• Zanshin of the GLQuake Dojo submits to a 20 Question interview on Quake2CTF.com.
• There is an interview with Ritual Artist Joel Thomas on Ritualistic.Com. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Movements
Quma has moved to www.frag.com/quma/. Thanks Prophet.

Departments
As promised I updated the MailBag about .dll security. Interestingly, most of the comments I received were about .exe security.

etc.
Have Questions about Future versus Fantasy? The FvF FAQ has just been released for just such eventualities ... Lotus Look is a new review site for Quake II levels that's already coming together nicely ... Version 1.2b of the CuteLauncher (157 KB) Quake II front-end has been released ...

Out of the Blue
I killed the JavaScript on the contents frame today. I don't know why I resisted so long, since I receive a few emails a week saying it causes problems on some systems, I guess I was just being stubborn, since I think it was a problem on the browser end. In the long run, however, the enriching experience of getting little mouseover messages on the status bar is not worth the trade-off if it's crapping out on some people's systems (like I say, I don't know why it took me that long to decide this). I guess next victim is the throbber, since I receive occasional  complaints that it sucks all the cycles out of your CPU on some systems. Ouch department, just when I thought I was getting back on track around here, the follow-up appointment for my root canal reared it's ugly head (forgotten or denial, a psych major's dream question). It's no big deal, I just mention it in case I give in and take some pain killers and start posting my memoirs in a stupor.

Apocalypse Drivers (Updated)
To clarify this story which appeared earlier, there aren't new drivers in the updated version 4.1 Windows drivers archives for the Apocalypse 3D and Apocalypse 3Dx released on the Apocalypse 3D Software page yesterday (thanks Frans P. de Vries of 3D Action Gamers' ). The change was an expanded read me, which is why the version didn't increment (makes sense now). If you already have the version 4.1 drivers, there is no need to download them again. Thanks to Lorien from PsychoNews for the clarification.

Sin Screenshots
There is an interview with Michael Hadwin, Ritual Art Director over on Voodoo Extreme. Michael talks primarily about Ritual's upcoming Sin, and posted at the end of the article are four new Sin Screenshots.

GameComm
GameComm is a cool sounding program that works as a companion to GameSpy. Designed for finding games when you want to play with friends, GameComm can tell your buds which server you've joined in GameSpy, and automatically update them when you change. It includes a simple chat client, and even the ability to let the program interrupt your game when urgent messages are received if you so choose.

Newer Vérité Renderer
Beta 5 of the Native Vérité Renderer (156 KB) was released on Rendition's site hot on the heels of Beta 4 yesterday (thanks Justin Pinder). From the note on the page, it would seem the change from beta 4 is the addition of id's updates:

This is a Rendition native renderer for Quake 2 that has been optimized for the V1000 family of chips. It will work on the V2x00 family, but because of the nature of the optimizations you may not notice a significant speed increase over the V1000.
(Beta 5 included transparent water bug fix and some updates from Id)

Juice Up Linux Quake II
There is an article and patch on Epicenter that describe how to patch your Linux Quake executable to allow 320x200 resolution, which can afford a boost to the framerate on slower computers (166's or less) by as much as 35%. Thanks Prophet by way of Frag.com.

MacQuakeWorld Update
There is an update on Tikkabik Mac Game News (thanks Seb) quoting a comment posted to a Mac Game newsgroup recently by MacSoft's online spokesperson Nate Birkholz on the status of QuakeWorld for the Macintosh:

As far as QuakeWorld and future versions of Quake go, I believe Mark Adams has already stated that we have been discussing future updates with him. We certainly want to bring all the code up-to-date, and we are very intent on working out a deal for QuakeWorld ASAP. Until now, id has been very busy with Quake2. Obviously they would have to be involved with and approve anything having to do with QuakeWorld on the Mac. Nothing is definite, but we are hopeful. We understand that everyone has begun to get impatient, but please bear with us, as we have had many other products to finish lately and have not been able to afford to yank programmers to work on shareware. This is as much a business as it is a labor of love for us and we have to be realistic.

Cyber Sports Network
Cyber Sports Network is a new site maintained by sCary of VRGames, Lindril of Clanring, Lordvader of CyberAthletes, and Dru of nowhere (low self esteem?) devoted to following organized computer competitions.

NPherno's Skin Tool - Modeler/Animator Q&A
Version 0.53 of NPherno's Skin Tool (NST) has been released on the Quake2 Modelling Studio, where you can also find responses from modeler/animators in the industry about their work and the tools they use.

First Contact
PC Games' GameWire Weekly looks at Star Trek: First Contact, an upcoming 3D shooter, from MicroProse, which, like Klingon Honor Guard, is set in the Star Trek universe and uses the Unreal Engine (I mention Klingon Honor Guard to segue to a mention that it seems the screenshots of KHG I mentioned yesterday were not actually new, but hey they're still cool). Thanks Prophet.

Quake II Mod Updates

• Fight Til Finish
  Fight Til Finish is a Quake II mod that institutes rules like Deathmatch 4 that was played with for a while in QuakeWorld where you start with almost all the weapons. Details are on the newly formed The Abyss - Fight Til Finish Mod page.
• LM CTF
  Beta 1.24 of Loki's Minion's CTF has been released on the LMCTF Page with a bunch of new features and fixes.
• C.R.Bot
  Version 0.94 of the C.R.Bot has been released on the C.R.Bot homepage. Thanks Prophet.
• Battle of the Sexes
  Version 1.9 of Battle of the Sexes has been released on Spinoza's Quake 2 Mods Page adding a grappling hook and custom map support.

BSP Malice Support
There is a file on Epochalypse News to allow support for creation of Malice maps. Thanks Prophet.

.plans

• ION Storm's James Daly updated his .plan with a reaction to his perception that there is are those rooting for the Daikatana team to fail.
• Ritual's Charlie Wiederhold updated his .plan asking for reactions from those who participated int he Base100 test.

Interviews

• There is a 20 Questions interview with Paul Steed up on Quake2CTF.com, where there is a similar grilling of Brian Hook that I think I missed when it was first posted.

Competitions

• Registration is underway for BFT 10K a 128 player Quake II deathmatch tournament (with a webpage that has higher minimum system requirements than Quake).
• terraFORMA is holding a Quake II map contest, with an autographed Quake Mission Pack #2 as the prize.
• There is a Quake II Tournament at the Coffee Haus in Dallas with a Canopus Pure3D for the winner and another for one random entrant, details are on this page.

Movements

• The 1on1 Quake ladder is located at www.neurogamer.com/1on1/.
• The website for Respawn, the big LAN event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has relocated to www.respawn.com/

Departments
Still sorting through all the mail for the MailBag on the .DLL issue, I'll post a batch tomorrow. I got word on a new Green Ribbon campaign that has the good intention of protecting users from nasty .dll's, but I'm not sure that's the way to go, at least not with only two outfits doing the testing. I guess feedback on this will be added to that MailBag dealie too. Added a LAN Party in Düsseldorf, Germany; and something that had been in the planning stages in Tulsa, OK has become a monthly event.

etc.
Want fame and fortune? Look elsewhere, what you'll find on this page is an opportunity to be part of the world's biggest Quake Guy Tower ... There are config files for Quake and Quake II for both the Rage 3D and the Millenium 3D Interceptor on the Thrustmaster site (under Support) ... Hawsta's Page is a source of Quake news en Français ... Quality Control Central is dedicated to being a resource for level authors to create great levels to the last detail ... Catnaps Speed Site is dedicated to demos of stuff going fast, right now primarily of the Slide modification ... Happy belated Birthday to Requiem ...

Out of the Blue
Thanks again for all the good wishes on my recent complaints about the ailing heath of myself, my computers and my net connection, all seem to be in pretty good order at this point (though there has been something funky on alter.net for me lately, which I guess isn't unusual enough to be significant). A clarification on my comment on needing to trust the authors of Quake II mods: I will still post stories about mods where I don't know the author to be completely trustworthy, I am just concerned about a policy for hosting files locally  when there is potential for abuse.

New Vérité Drivers
A pair of new Vérité drivers, the miniGL driver (170 KB) and the Rendition native renderer (156 KB) have been released on the Rendition - Software Download page (thanks Terry L. Adams and Neal White III). Here's the scoop on both drivers from the page:

Rendition miniGL Driver - January 13, 1998
This ZIP file contains beta, unsupported "Mini" OpenGL drivers for boards based upon the V1000 and V2x00 chips from Rendition

This release should fix problems seen in the recent patches to Quake 2.

---

Quake 2 ref_v1k.dll for V1000, beta 4 - January 13, 1998
This is a Rendition native renderer for Quake 2 that has been optimized for the V1000 family of chips. It will work on the V2x00 family, but because of the nature of the optimizations you may not notice a significant speed increase over the V1000. (Beta 4 included transparent water bug fix)

New Righteous 3D Drivers
Version 3.01 of the Righteous 3D Drivers (3.1 MB) have been released on Orchid's site. There is no word on what is up with the new version other than it will reinstall Glide 2.01. Thanks to Wicked the 3D newshawk over at Voodoo Extreme.

New Dynamite 3D/GL Drivers
New Drivers for the Hercules Dynamite 3D/GL have been released on the Dynamite 3DGL Driver Library. Thanks Prophet.

.DLL Security Revisited
Joey Liaw made an update to his .plan  following-up on his previous post about .dll security issues (next story) reflecting his realization that the idea he had for filtering .dll's isn't practical, and that at this point the OpenQuake idea, though flawed, is still the most effective solution available.

.DLL Security
ION Storm's Joey Liaw updated his .plan with an unflinching look at the potential dangers of user-created .dll's in the Quake II environment. It's too lengthy to post here, but if you are not yet aware of the dangers of using untrusted .dll's you should definitely check it out before you download any Quake II modifications from the net. He also goes on to describe measures ION is taking to prevent this from being a problem in their Quake II engine games:

"...there is a solution we are working on for all Anachronox (and probably Daikatan) DLL's. Basically it involves having Quake provide DLL's with file, network, and graphics services, and rejecting DLL's that make these calls directly to Windows. More on this when we finish it, it's mid-progress right now and my design may change unpredictably. Also for Anox and Katana you never replace gamex86.dll, you download plug-in DLL's, and you can have as many as you want running at the same time."

This is an issue I haven't yet been able to resolve for this site, since I'd like to be able to provide local copies of modifications. Unfortunately, since there is no way for me to guarantee the contents of someone else's code, I feel I have to know and trust the source implicitly (like Ridah in the next story) for stuff I post here, which leaves most things out (no offense intended to anyone). I've been considering adding a footnote to local files with a warning about .dll's, and maybe that's the way to go (but you know it's going to get ugly at some point). The OpenQuake guys have a great idea to handle this, but I think there might just be more projects being produced so quickly than anyone can keep up with. I'm interested in opinions on this subject, if you feel like sharing. Maybe I'll post some responses in the ole MailBag.

New jawMD2
Version 1.27 of jawMD2 has been released on Jawed's Software. The new version has been rewritten to take advantage of Silicon Graphic's OpenGL implementation, which shows a considerable speed improvement over Microsoft's OpenGL.

Eraser Bot Alpha 2
Alpha 2 of Ridah's Eraser Bot (1.6 MB) for Quake II has been released on the Impact Development Team page (thanks Zac Heismann), along with support for three external deathmatch maps, crdm1 (171 KB), ikdm1 (178 KB), and mpq1 (330 KB). Here is the lowdown:

I spent last night adding in bot configuration, via external files, which has worked out pretty cool. You can make up you're own bot names, specify which model/skin to use, and even specify individual abilities, like aiming accuracy, combat skills, aggressiveness, favourite weapon, etc. These have all been mildly implemented, but I intend on taking this stuff even further, to allow you to program in stuff like chat lines for individual bots or general chat, adding and leaving the game while in progress, so if a bot's getting it's ass whooped, it may leave and let another bot in.

Act of g.o.d.
An article on OGR has word on the developers that have signed on with Gathering of Developers (g.o.d.) with distributions deals (thanks Reginald Levy), which include Terminal Reality, Epic Megagames, Ritual Entertainment, 3D Realms, and PopTop Software.

Cluster
Version 0.2 (including source) of the Cluster mod has been released on the Quake II Cluster Project page. This cool sounding mod allows Quake II servers to operate in clusters where you can exit a level on one server and join the next level on a connected server.

Klingon Honor Guard Screenshots
The AVault has posted some screenshots from Klingon Honor Guard, Microprose's upcoming game in the Star Trek universe using the Unreal engine.

New Headhunters
Headhunters version 0.6 for Quake II has been released on Headhunters Central. The new version works with Quake II 3.10.

XQF - Linux Server Browser
XQF version 0.1 has been released on the XQF page. This is a Linux/X11 QuakeWorld/Quake II server browser that uses Steve Jankowski's QStat.

New Superheroes Quake II (Again)
Beta 1A of the Superheroes patch for Quake II has been released on the Quake II Superheroes page fixing the bug that was preventing autobinding from working on the first release.

Calls for Quake II Projects
Bill Harms from PC Gamer Magazine is looking for Quake II projects for inclusion on their monthly CD, which will now have a regular Quake II section where they hope to offer the best new levels, mods, TCs, etc. You can send your files directly to Bill, unfortunately the only compensation they are offering  is exposure. Also, Quake II TC authors interested in having their project listed on Nakedman's new and improved TC List should send information on their projects to NakedMan who plans to re-open soon.

PERMEDIA GLQuake Page
3Dlabs has a page up with resources and information for PERMEDIA/PERMEDIA 2 owners using GLQuake and Quake II. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

.plans

• Disruptor updated his .plan with news of Microsoft's Teardrop fix (protection for NT machines against malicious attacks).
• Paul Steed made his first .plan update in some time, mentioning he's finishing up the CTF stuff. He also talks of an article he's written for Computer Game Developer about the art in Quake II and another he's working on about the cinematics, both of which will be part of a talk he'll be giving at the CGDC. He also mentions (it is a lengthy update) that the winner of his Crackwhore contest will be announced soon.
• ^Drag0n^ updated his .plan with some Quake II Skinpack Oddities.

Competitions

• The ThunderWalker Invite Capture Ring is underway, looking for 16 clans for a double-elimination tourney slated to get underway January 19.
• Genocide Tournament 3 is a QuakeWorld tournament starting soon (signups are underway) with both high-ping and open classes.

Movements

• Operation Urban Assault TC has moved to quake2.stomped.com/uassault/.
• Quake Purity has moved to www.quakepurity.com/.

Departments
In the MailBag, a response on the topic of weapon lethality as the thread about camping mutates.

etc.
CiDcO of the Daikatana Bushido points out that Mike Wilson's new endeavor g.o.d. was mentioned in yesterday's USA Today in an article that teasingly says that g.o.d. (Gathering of Developers) has already signed "development talent responsible for such games as Duke Nukem, Monster Truck Madness and Prey" ... Michael Houston wrote to mention there's an ice-storm related problem with the Dank & Scud homepage at the moment, which should be cleared up in a few days (seems fine to me--maybe I have a mirror linked?) ... Version 0.89 of Bruce Lewis' WinDoom is available on his newly re-done WinDoomGLDoom homepage ... Quake2Fortress.Com has opened up, looking forward to the coming of the sequel to TeamFortress ... Happy Birthday to QuakePsycho ...

Sin Files
Volume IV of the Sin Files, Levelord's behind-the-scenes look at the goings on over at Ritual during Sin development, has been posted on Games.Net. This edition takes a look at the millstones that are milestones in Nose to the Milestone. Thanks Prophet.

New Mysteries of the Sith Screenshots
A bunch of brand new screenshots form the upcoming Jedi Knight expansion pack Mysteries of the Sith have been posted by LucasArts. There is also an extensive preview of Mysteries of the Sith on Gamesmania. Thanks JediKnight.Net.

New Unreal Screenshots
OGR has posted four exclusive new screenshots from Unreal. Thanks Prophet.

GLQuake Optimization Guide
Gamer's Extreme has posted an OpenGL Quake II Optimization guide with tips on how to get the most out of 3Dfx-based cards.

New All Star CTF
Version 1.01 of All-Star CTF has been released on the All-Star CTF page as a client upgrade patch (1.6 MB) and a full server patch (4.5 MB). Here's the lowdown from Dakota:

For those dedicated souls who are still playing Quake in a Quake II world, I have a special gift  All-Star CTF 1.01.  The updated client offers a revised version of one level (Xeno3) and improved documentation, and is available as an upgrade patch (1.6 meg). The server has also been updated to version 1.01.  The server includes a couple of minor bug fixes and is only available in a full version (4.5 meg). I'll post mirrors for these files as soon as possible.  Unless one of the members of All-Star CTF releases a new version of their mod, or unless I somehow screwed up putting version 1.01 together, this will likely be the final version of All-Star CTF for Quake 1.  I can assure you, however, that this will not be the final All-Star CTF.

New Daikatana FAQ
Version 0.3 of the Unofficial Daikatana FAQ has been posted on The Razor Edge.

New LA Quake II
Version 0.40 of LA Quake II, the patch to allow use of the manned turrets in Quake II deathmatch (among other things), has been released on the The LA Quake II Patch page.

Quake II Mission Pack Details
As mentioned by Todd Hollenshead, the information for the upcoming id Quake II mission pack has been released in the form of an Activision Press release I snagged from Yahoo (thanks Focus on Quake). The release says the add-on is being developed by Xatrix Entertainment, with new monsters, levels and weapons described as "including a deadly plasma accelerator that delivers a pulsing energy blast, an energy trap that captures enemies within a specified radius and turns them into a food cube for players' consumption, and a particle shotgun that shoots a deadly wad." Here's the release:

MESQUITE, Texas, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Activision, Inc. is enlisting players for another tour of ``Quake II'' duty with the distribution of id Software's ``QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning.'' The new ``QUAKE II'' add-on, developed by Xatrix Entertainment and published by id Software, is expected to be available for the PC in March.

``QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning'' casts players as part of an elite commando force that must infiltrate an alien city and locate and destroy a secret alien moon base. Players dive into a series of mission-based campaigns and navigate through three hazardous episodes that challenge them to explore industrial landscapes, crawl through waterways and airducts, navigate treacherous canyons teeming with vicious mutants, and stow away on an alien spacecraft. Once gamers have annihilated the malevolent beings, they can jump into specially designed deathmatch levels that allow at least 32 players to join together as part of a cooperative-mode platoon struggling to destroy the alien race.

``With `QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning,' we are able to up the ante in the first person shooter genre by extending the 'Quake II' phenomenon with a new dimension of gameplay,'' states Robert A. Kotick, Chairman and CEO, Activision, Inc. ``The developers at Xatrix are creating a superb action packed add-on that will keep 'Quake II' guns blazing throughout 1998.''

``id fans can't get enough of 'Quake II,' and with this action-packed addition, the ruthless carnage continues,'' said Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. ``In the spirit of 'QUAKE II,' gamers can continue saving the world from destruction.''

``Gamers who were blown away by 'Quake II will be stoked that this new gaming QII extra continues the gibbin' adventure,'' said Drew Markham, CEO and creative director of Xatrix Entertainment. ``Xatrix is excited to be making history with id Software through the creation of the 'QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning.'''

Brimming with mutant aliens and carnage-blasting weapons, ``QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning'' puts gamers' fraggin' skills to the ultimate test. Hordes of wild Gekk can stalk virtually undetected, but attack with lightning quick moves as they drop from the shadows to claw or bite unsuspecting prey. Alien Repair Bots prove to be a deadly force against players' survival and bio-mechanical, hulk-like Symbioids deliver deadly particle stings as they chase players through a variety of perilous environments.

``QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning'' boasts a savage arsenal of new weapons including a deadly plasma accelerator that delivers a pulsing energy blast, an energy trap that captures enemies within a specified radius and turns them into a food cube for players' consumption, and a particle shotgun that shoots a deadly wad.

Mission Pack Update
Todd Hollenshead updated his .plan correcting the report on the bundled Quake II/Mission pack, also mentioning that word was coming soon on id's first Quake II mission pack:

I've seen posts on several Quake II news sites that there is a new commercial product "bundled" with Quake II. First, this is not true. There is nothing bundled with Quake II other than the manual and some promotional dropcards. Of course, most of you know that since you've bought the game already ;) (thanks again, btw). Second, this product is not in any way affiliated, authorized, or licensed by us, since we haven't even seen it yet. I'm not sure where the "bundled" story got started, but just wanted to stop it before it got out of hand.

We should be releasing some exciting news tomorrow about our first Quake II Mission Pack. Once the press release is finalized, I'll make an announcement here.

Quake II Skin Pack
I saw over on Redwood's that ^Drag0n^ released a new Quake 2 SkinPack (3.2 MB) on QuakeWorld Central (though I can't actually find it there, I snagged it from Red's).

PaintBall Final Released
Version 1.0 Final of PaintBall the Quake deathmatch modification has been released by Quake Innovations as a separate installation for Windows 95/NT (6.5 MB) or as a zip for UNIX/DOS, etc. (5.2 MB). Both the Quake and QuakeWorld versions are included. It is warned that version 1.0 is incompatible with the previous betas, and that connecting to an older server with a newer client could mess up your PaintBall installation (a list of servers running the new version is being kept on the Quake Innovations page).

Superheroes 2 Beta
The first beta of Superheroes II, the Quake II version of the popular Quake Superheroes patch, has been released on the Quake II Superheroes page.

New Qtracker
Version 1.51 of Qtracker (4.3 MB) has been released on the Qtracker page. This is a maintenance release for Jedi Knight, fixing several bugs, and updating the .dll. Qtracker now also has a "Max Rank" column so you know how powerful a character you can take into a Jedi Knight game.

New Lithium Mod
Version 0.61 of the Lithium Quake II Server Mod has been released by Lithium Software.

Linux ServObit
A Linux version of ServObit 1.3, the server-side mod that adds obituary messages to Quake II deathmatch, has been released on SteQve's No Frills Quake Mods Page.

MarTim Nostalgia
The MarTim team has released a pair Quake II maps: MarTim 12 "Raw Sewage", their first single player Quake II map and a remake of the popular Quake map MarTim 5, now called MarTim 5 Remake "Addiction to the Fifth Sin".

New FAQ Proxy
Version 0.02 of the FAQ Proxy for Quake II has been released on the FAQ Proxy page, featuring Quake II 3.10 support.

Inteview
Jim (H2H) Elson will be on this week's Happy Puppy Radio show talking about X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse. Thanks Prophet.

.plans
Brian Hook made a .plan update with more about his Java epiphany, and the issues surrounding Java.

Movements

• The Ranger's Clan has resurfaced at rangers.gamesnet.net/, where you can find the first chapter (with more promised to follow) of an all new Science Fiction story by ColdSun in the Quake II setting called Sgt. Creed in Thorn of Stroggos.

Departments

• The Quake II Tips page is back online with lots of fresh new goodies and all that dusty old pre-3.10 information sent to the old news home. There's more to add, but it's accurate again (to my knowledge.
• In the MailBag, as promised more (and I mean more) on the ant-camper patch thread, which inspired a long essay on weapon lethality.
• On the LAN Parties front, and event in Bolton, England; a regular event in Long Beach, CA; and a semi-regular event in Rawson, England; also, someone gauging interest in Central Florida.
• The Help Wanteds have been updated as well.

etc.
Plug and Play's David Israels casts a skeptical eye at the recent 3dfx Magazine announcement in this column. Thanks Prophet  ... Version 1.5 of QuakeLauncher (538 KB), a front-end for Quake, was sent along by author Daniel Schmitt ... Image(s) of the Day are these screenshots of the Photex 2 Engine on the Terminal Reality website (the folks that created Terminal Velocity), where they are part of a Technology Preview Page (if you haven't seen them already, the Demon and KAGE screenshots are also cool). Thanks Wayne Dean ... A new version of ATB Doom (897 KB) has been released by author Andy Bay. This new version of Doom adds hi-rez modes, and fixes a couple of minor bugs ... Version of the day for Battle of the Sexes is 1.8, on Spinoza's Quake 2 Mods Page ...

First Commercial Quake II TC
Word on PlanetQuake is that Juggernaut for Quake II, a commercial TC is already (!) available in Computer City as a "lite" version bundled with Quake II, with a full version (featuring more levels and cutscenes) to be available in stores soon.

New C.R.Bot
Version 0.93 of the C.R.Bot has been released on the C.R.Bot page. Now bots attack each other, understand teamplay, and feature improved search and roaming code. In next version the author hopes to make the bot jump and crouch (and maybe swim).

New ServObit
Version 1.3 of ServObit, a server-side mod to add obituary messages to Quake II deathmatch, has been released on SteQve's No Frills Quake Mods Page, featuring some minor improvements over version 1.2, including the ability to specify the length of time obituary messages remain on the screen.

QGraph Update
Version 2.0.1 of QGraph, the popular deathmatch statistics program has been released on QGraph's homepage. The new release fixes an incompatibility with Quake II version 3.10 messaging, so it works with Quake II again.

CTF Skins
Hot on the heels of the releases of his popular colored skin packs, Millenium has released a colored CTF Quake II skin pack (79 KB) on Millennium's Editing Page. The skins aren't the official skins of any of the CTF mods for Quake2, but can be used with any of them. Here's the requisite accompanying image:

Competitions

• Queen of the Hill II has been announced, organized by Focus on Quake. QOTH2 is an all-female Quake II Tournament slated to begin February 27. Registration ends January 31.
• Here's a 1-on-1 Quake Ladder.

Movements

• The GrudgeFest Clan Arena Tournament as moved to www.warzone.com/grudge/. The tourney actually gets underway today, but entries are welcomed throughout.
• Jagged's Quake Movie and Demo Reviews has moved to www.qmovies.gawd.org/.
• Slade's Place has moved to www.neurogamer.com/slade/.

Departments
Went through the Want Ads, they're up to date. Added LAN Parties in North, TX, Also, the Lanapalooza organizers are offering web space to LAN Party-related pages, check their affiliates page for more details. I have gotten a few interesting responses on the camping issue recently discussed in the MailBag, which I'll post tomorrow.

.plans

• John Carmack made a lengthy .plan update requesting no email while he's out of town (working) next week. He also describes his new laptop which is nicer than many desktop computers, and hashes out the issues surrounding single processor server performance.
• Disruptor updated his .plan with another bug discovery. 3Dfx users should be sure they're using the GL Minidriver (137 KB) that was updated December 19, and not an earlier version. Christian also uses the encouraging word "soon" (though in quotation marks) for the upcoming id deathmatch pack.

• Brian Hook updated his .plan describing his morning Java epiphany (that has nothing to do with coffee, probably primarily of interest to programmer types). In an earlier .plan update he talks about bug fixes and features, including a tease about RIVA cards:

"... I've also fixed a lot of crap in our support for glPointParametersEXT, and the next patch should have that working (and NVidia is going to be supporting it Real Soon Now)."

etc.
Armin Rigo (QuArK author) has posted part 4 of his essay on Standards for Quake II modifications discussing the implications of the use of Java, C, or C++ for mods. Thanks Blood Skier (who describes himself as a Prophet wanna-be) ... There are Quake and Quake II drivers and information on just about any mouse with a doohicky (wheel) on Buzzkill's Quake Page, now known as the "Home Of The Wheel Doohicky Archives" ... Until the ZGE server is back online, this X-Men Quake page on PQ is the best source of X-Men Quake info and updates. You can find updated QuakeWorld files there now ... KtBMS stand for "Killing the Boss My Style," a demo on Destroy's QuakeD Site of him taking out Quake II's final boss with only the weapons, etc. you start with on the last level (10 grenades, health, armor, and the blaster) ... Version 0.41 of DosDoom has been released on Official DOSDoom Homepage as a quick bugfix ...

Out of the Blue
Pretty much have my new machine up to speed: it's such a pleasure having a fresh Windows install, so many mysterious crashes and bugs disappear, including (thank goodness) the difficulty I had been working around that resulted in so many broken links around here lately (how unprofessional is that?). Thanks again for everyone's patience this week as things have been a little rough around here.

Coop Lives
John Carmack updated his .plan with the news that coop play is coming together, and should be ready for the next release:

Coop play works now, including coop savegames.   I also fixed the savegame problems when under doors or on lifts.

We still have some game issues we need to hack around to allow coop to be played all the way through the game (like needing to pick up multiple power cubes, but still leave them for other coop players to grab), and the monster ai needs a bit of work for multiple players, but it will all be there for the next release.

100 Player Quake
Yesterday evening Disruptor made a .plan update announcing the testing of a 100 player map by Tim Willits, Base 100. Later John Carmack made an update detailing how the test went (here are some screenshots OneThumb took):

We got 70 people on a base100 server, and it died after it wedged at 100% utilization for a while.  Tomorrow we will find exactly what overflowed, and do some profiling.

Base100 is really only good for 50 or so players without overcrowding, but we have another map being built that should hold 100 people reasonably well.

I will look into which will be the easier path to more server performance scalar optimization of whatever is critical now, or splitting it off into some more threads to run on multiple processors.  Neither one is trivial.

My goal is to be able to host stable 100 player games in a single map.

I just added a "players" command that will dump the total number of players in the game, and as many frags/names as it can fit in a packet (around 50, I think).

Sin Screenshots & Elexis Art
There are four screenshots from Sin Phoebus describes as "rare" on this page on HardCorps SiN News, where there is also some more magazine artwork: a new John Blade ad and the OGR magazine cover art of Elexis Sinclair.

New Qtracker
Version 1.5 of Qtracker has been released on the Qtracker Homepage. The new release of this server browser features enhanced Jedi Knight support (you can now see who is playing on JK servers), as well as other enhancements and bug fixes.

New Total3D 128V Drivers
New Windows drivers for the Canopus Total3D 128V (3.3 MB) have been released on the  Total3D 128V Software Updates page. The new drivers are up to version 1.10.10, and features fixes for a few games, including Jedi Knight, and support for PAL video capture. Thanks Jamal Qureshi .

New QuMa
Version 1.6 of the QuMa Quake editor, featuring Quake II support, has been released ion the QuMa homepage.

New Battle of the Sexes
Version 1.7 of Battle of the Sexes has been released, featuring "full capture the flag  support."

.plan
Brian Hook made a .plan update announcing the time and date of his upcoming lecture at the University of Florida.

Interviews

• New Ritual Programmer Scott Alden is interviewed on Bokatu's Realm of Sin. Thanks Prophet.
• There is an interview on SPQ2 Level Heaven with Robert Duffy author of QeRadiant, the Quake II level editor based on id's QE4.
• There's another interview with Robert Duffy on Lair Of Rebel Design.

PReviews

• There's a Sin Preview up on Gamers-Zone.

• Obiwan has posted a review of QuakeRally.

Competitions

• GrudgeFest is a Clan Arena tournament now accepting applications.

• P1mp Wars is a 5 on 5 TeamFortress tournament just gearing up (you need shockwave to visit their site).

Movements

• Quake 2 DM Depo (another site reviewing every single DM level on cdrom.com, with over 70 reviews already) has moved to www.q2depo.gawd.org/.
• The Coven website has moved to www.planetquake.com/TheCoven/.
• The Team Fortress Newswire has moved to tfnewswire.tfdomain.com/.
• Major League Quake 2 has moved to www.unclespanky.com/MLQ2/.
• Chronos TC has moved to quake2.com/blackeye/.

Departments
Additions to the LAN Parties page, an upcoming event in San Francisco; and someone gauging interest in Atlantic City, NJ.

Clarification
It was pointed out to me that in the updated Reaper Bot II story yesterday I seemed to imply that I was correcting the Quake Devels page on their Reaper report. It was, in fact, elsewhere that I saw the erroneous report that author Steven Polge had given his blessings for a Quake II version of his work. My apologies if I made it look like I was correcting the Devels guys.

etc.
With the release of Linux Quake comes the Linux Quake II Mods page, as a resource for Linux Quake server operators to be able to keep tabs on mods that have been ported, with plans to work with OpenQuake ... Team Fortress Domain is a newly opened site dedicated to TF happenings, and hosting TF sites ... Version 0.40 of DosDoom, Chi's DOS port of Linux Doom is out on the Official DosDoom Homepage ... Looks like sCary has got most everything buttoned down at his new home ... And on the subject of sCary's old home. Ritual, they have announced that Don "OneThumb" MacAskill is joining them as their network administrator and maintainer of Ritual's web page. Best of luck and congrats to Don, who says, "This job at Ritual is basically my dream job..." ...

Out of the Blue
Thanks for all the get well wishes for me and my hardware. I think things are getting under control, and that my goal of being back to normal (or for whatever passes for normal around here) by the end of the weekend is attainable.