Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.
| Friday, July 11, 1997 |
Spoofed
Paul Steed updated his .plan (thanks Rotwang)
with word that he too was being impersonated:
Wholly preposterous imposters, Batman! I've been impersonated! Whoever you are, at least you were nice. And yes I welcome all suggestions, but am in no way without ideas for the presentation. Wow.
Paul confirmed for me that he was referring to the mail posted here earlier (and now deleted) asking for topics for QuakeCon seminars.
Skins Again
I received mail from Yojimbo saying the he's taken his Skins R' Us site down due to
the large number of negative responses he's received (he's left a parting shot in it's
place). I was also cc'ed on a cease and desist order sent to him by Carl Kidwell, Kenneth
Scott, Dan Bickell, and the Skin authoring community, who still encourage the Quake
community to send any skins done by Skins R US to melkior@usa.net
in case there is need to pursue this further. If you're just joining us, here's what started this.
DirectX versus OpenGL
Another letter has been sent to Microsoft
on the subject of DirectX versus OpenGL as this GameCenter article
describes. The letter is signed by 254 developers (up from 54 who signed the first letter
a few weeks ago), additionally, this letter includes an online (Java) form so supporters
can add their names to the letter (here's a list of who's signed so
far). Thanks Destroy.
$141 Revisited
Thanks to the two readers (Gerry Shaw
and Kevin Jaget) who each wrote in with the same
(logical) explanation for the $141.95 Quake 2 price-tag
story: when that mail order house advertises games before they are released it uses a
generic $141.95 price tag till an MSRP is announced (this apparently bounced around a
flight-sim newsgroup when the same thing was discovered on a Falcon 4.0 ad). Just as a
sanity check, I received this message from John Cash that leaves no doubts:
That 141.95 stuff is bullshit... you can quote me on that ;-)
QuakeCon
onethumb passed along the following
important news for attendees of QuakeCon (tons of
quoted text today):
It's very very important that people bringing their own machines to QuakeCon read and understand the guidelines for computers and the network at QuakeCon. We've prepared a list of guidelines at www.quakecon.com:
http://www.quakecon.com/byoc.html
There is also local rental information on that page for renting machines while in Dallas. Decent prices too, for a whole week and such late notice.
Skingate
I received the following very disturbing letter from a very disturbed Dan Bickell (super skin artist), describing a skin
scam:
Hi everybody, I was recently very disturbed by something:
I checked out this page after some guy with an AOL account emailed me to call me an idiot for charging $50 US for custom skins when you can get a "better" one for cheaper at this Skins R Us site.
When I got there, I was shocked to see that the skins on display there were blatant rip-offs. All of them were nothing more than cut-and-paste jobs of original id graphics and other people's (including my own) skins, with some re-coloring (and bad re-coloring at that). They aren't even good rip-off's.
These guys are charging $10 US a piece to "make" these skins custom designed, and going so far as to require that they be credited on the skin itself as the skin's author. This is downright wrong, and I thought that I should get the word out about this guy. Guys like this give the Quake community a bad name, and need to be publicly humiliated.
His name is Garret Blair
email: gblair@hiwaay.nethttp://fly.hiwaay.net/~eblair/yojimbo/skinsrus/
this is the address of Skins R' Us
Operation
Modesty
Vanessa "Modesty" Bell, as you may recall from a mention here
recently is in the hospital after her recent auto accident. Now, Operation Modesty has been
undertaken to create a body of art and writing to send to her in her hospital room, as a
get well soon from her friends in the Quake community, in particular the organizers of the
All Female tourney (I'm sure all
who have had anything to do with Modesty in the past will be eager to participate). If you
are not familiar with Modesty's unique projects, you should check them out her equally
unique sideways homepage and read a bit about
PhaseII, an editor to convert ASCII maps (like in Nethack) into BSPable Quake .map files,
FraQuake, the fractal landscape generator for Quake, and her original Quake art. Get well
soon Modesty. If you can deal with 358 KB, check out this really nice JPG for Modesty
that Reptilian of The Quakeworld 32 Player Project cooked up.
Cool, But
$141??
I don't know what the heck this means, but check out this webpage advertising the Quake 2
for Win95 CD-ROM from Activision to be released November 18, 1997 for (gulp) $141.95?
Thanks Jalepeno^MiB (thanks also to Ryan who showed me this a while back, too). Weird, huh?
DNF Screenshot
There is a screenshot of Duke Nukem Forever up on PC Gamer (thansk Amsterdam). The shot is fairly blurry, as it's
taken from a photo of the office that showed the screen with the level (Prophet tells me it is old, to boot).
PreyView
There's a very enthusiastic preview
of Prey on Avault. thanks Prophet.
Girl Gamers
JUDGECAL has gone to the trouble of encoding the broadcast of The Site from Wednesday
night called Girl Gamers (featuring KillCreek, Phoenix, Kornelia, and the decidedly male
John Romero) for RealVideo. Here is the bandwidth hog version for
better than one channel ISDN connections and a lite version for 28.8. RealPlayer 4.0 is required.
QuakeCon
OneThumb
updated his .plan to ask for help with hubs for QuakeCon:
We need ethernet hubs VERY badly for QuakeCon. Some wires got crossed (no pun intended) and we are running short of ports. Please please, if you are coming or know someone who is, bring or send your hub!! PLEASE!
A few people have offered to "loan" their hubs, that would be GREAT!
They are shipping them to me at:
Don MacAskill (guest)
Holiday Inn-Plano
700 East Central Expressway
Plano, Texas 75074Also drop me an email with your name, return address, that sort of stuff and I'll be sure to get them back to you after QuakeCon.
THANKS!
3D Net
I failed to make note of Disruptor's
.plan update that describes the current state of 3DNet:
3DNet.net is registered with the internic!!! You can now connect to the IRC network using the following servers.
id.3dnet.net:6667
best.3dnet.net:6667
planetquake.3dnet.net:6667We also hope to have monolith.3dnet.net up and running later on tonight (the guys who worked on Blood).
Remember, if you are a 3D Game Developer and wish to help out with the network by running servers, please let us know at;
Also, I saw on Redwood's that OneThumb updated to comment further on this:
Disruptor recently updated about the new DNS and stuff for the 3DNet servers, but he left off one nice little thing I've done:
irc.3dnet.net - this will rotate between IRC servers, so you only have to remember the 1 name/address (pretty easy to remember if you ask me :) and it'll always connect to a server. Enjoy!
Daikatana Clip #8
Eye on Ion has released
Daikatana music clip #8 in both .wav and mp3 formats. Thanks Rotwang.
Mail
Speaking of computer vandalism (next story), I have evidence that someone
has been playing around with sending email through my SMTP server to appear as if it came
from me. This has prompted me to have to go out and get a PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) key (thanks templar who told me about
the new version of Eudora that supports PGP), and from now on I will be signing all my
messages with it.
Peace
Andrew of The Beauty of Madness
has made public his list of Quake bugs (thanks Homeslice),
and things seem to have settled down on that front. I see also that the reason his site
was down recently was because it was hacked. A brief editorial (like anyone cares): The
free exchange of ideas is one of the most valuable freedoms we can have. Anyone who feels
justified vandalizing someone's website because they don't agree with what that site is
saying is doing all a disservice. Sigh.
Half-Life
There is an excellent Half-Life preview with new
interviews with most of the H.L. team, as well as some brand new screenshots over at OGR. Also, congrats to the boys at Valve, as Half-life
edged out Quake 2, Hexen 2, and Unreal in being named Best Action Game at E3 by Gamepen's E3 best
of show awards.
OpenGL versus DirectX
In this
GameCenter Interview, Alex Saint John, recently fired Microsoft DirectX evangelist,
reveals that his dismissal was related to comments he made on the OpenGL versus DirectX
debate generated by the game developer community. Thanks doozy.
DMCon
Quantum Axcess' Embrionic Pete is in Iowa for DMCon, and will be filing reports on the
festivities on the NAWC pages.
YCam
YCam v1.2 (by Wes Morrison) is available at Yevs' QuakeC Mods.
Wing Commander Quake
Version 0.04b of Wing Commander Quake has been released on the Wing Commander Quake Homepage.
PowerBall
The PowerBall pages have
been updated on news of the planned version 1.666. They are in danger of losing their
server running the mod, so if you are a PowerBall fan, you are urged to get in their an
play (Josh Dalcher the project leader is always
willing to join you, so drop him a line).
GibStats
Version 0.93 of GibStats is up on the GibStats page. GibStats now
supports statistics for TeamFortress (only frags), PainKeep (full support) and
Superheroes.
It's the Golgotha Demo (Dammit!)
The demo of Crack dot Com's upcoming action-strategy game, Golgotha has
been released to the public (it was originally going to be for the press only). A couple
of caveats: The demo is pretty large (35 MB), and requires a 3Dfx based video card to run.
Here's the Golgotha Demo (35 MB). More
information on Golgotha can be found, as always, on Fragmaster's definitive Golgotha site,
It's Golgotha Dammit!
Free Web Graphics
BoNe is offering to do free
graphics for web pages, so drop him a line if you are interested (enjoy the mail, BoNe).
Interview
Tournaments / Competitions
Movements
LAN Parties
| Thursday, July 10, 1997 |
The Fray
The Fray Page was
updated (thanks Mike Jaegle) with the location: the
Sheraton Meadowlands in East Rutherford New Jersey. There are a few more details up there
and registration should begin very soon.
Hoc Opus
Hoc Opus, Wedge and
Choryoth's page has been updated (thanks Prophet)
with their tales of E3, word on the Aircraft patch and links to a page of Half Life AVI's and
screenshots.
Online Gaming Review
I'm proud to announce that Blue's News has begun an affiliation with Online Gaming Review. Covering the computer gaming scene
down to the last byte, OGR is a fine gaming site, and I look forward to working with them.
This is a good association for both sites, as we can each give the other the scoop on the
areas where our coverage overlaps. There will not be any change in editorial policy around
here (you know, where I run around sticking my foot in my mouth), as those guys are cool
with my continued coverage as usual (look at the two stories after this one). I'll
probably get some sort of graphic to link for them online tomorrow.
QuakeCast
Big show tonight on the QuakeCast
at 8:30 PM Eastern, with Anna from the All Female tourney, Andy Bay who brought you VISpatch, Polish (one of the QuakeCon organizers), and the ELM guys, authors of the new six level deathmatch pack, Cenotaph of the Magi (2.3 MB).
Quake 2 Preview
Gamespot has a Quake 2 preview online.
Thanks Mohammed.
Sandy Petersen Update
There's an article on what Sandy
Petersen is up to at Ensemble Studios on Gamespot.
Thanks Prophet.
QuakeWorld Master Monitoring
Dweomer and Hank (the mad scientists
behind QuakeFinger) have cooked up a really
cool doo-dad on the front page of PlanetQuake
that shows how many players and servers are currently playing on the PQ master server.
Dear Mynx
The new Dear Mynx
column is up on PQ (thanks Prophet). If you have never read this
page, I strongly suggest you check it out. Here's my quote of the day (on why someone
would have an All-Female Tourney):
Quake is still a penis-dominated field
AMD Redux
Jack
Mathews (morbid) updated his .plan reflecting on a few things, among them this article about Quake's use of the FPU, which he
dismisses. Brian Hook also updated his .plan (thanks QuakePsycho [MR]-yeah!) to correct this
misinformation:
Saw that article on why Quake is so slow with non-Intel CPUs. While the original author seems to know things technically, he's actually incorrect with his assumption that memory copying is the issue. It's not. We don't do that much memory copying to begin with, and we don't use the FPU to do it at all.
The reason that Quake is slower on AMD and Cyrix CPUs is that they don't have good floating point. Period. They don't pipeline as well as the Intel processors (if at all) and a lot of our code really benefits from pipelining, e.g. dot products and matrix operations.
Hopefully this will be addressed in future versions of non-Intel processors.
Modeler Wanted
The Dimensionality team is looking for a modeler for their commercial 3D
1st person action adventure game:
Model Designer Needed!
Dimensionality is searching for a highly skilled model designer who can create high quality character and object models. This person should be able to create low and high poly count models, as well as their accompanying skin. Previous experience with advanced 3D modeling including: inverse kinematics, skins, and animation skills is a must. Coding experience in C, C++ or Java a plus, as well as work in texture mapping.
Prospective designer should be able to work in a team environment and have good communication skills. Being an obsessive game player is a must, and you should be able to produce work with a basic description in mind. You must be at least 18 to apply.
Please submit examples of your work to webmaster@dimensionality.com. Please include at least 5 two dimensional renderings of your work, and at least three 3D models (3DS meshes are acceptable). If you have a model in Quake, this would also be a plus.If you have any further questions please contact:
Head Designer
Matthew Keller (watcher@dimensionality.com)
Head Artist
Stephen Whittam (ichaos@dimensionality.com)
Interviews
Local Interest
Movements
| Wednesday, July 9, 1997 |
The Site
The Site will air their female gamers story
tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern on MSNBC (thanks Brandon
Wilkerson). I believe this story features interviews and footage shot with KillCreek
and Phoenix at m3.
Ion Stormtroopers
I forgot to mention earlier a funny .plan updates by Jeff
Wand and Sverre Andre Kvernmo describing Ion's internal playoffs to find
their team for the team tourney at QuakeCon.
Help Wanted
Rogue Entertainment's Steve "Gateway" Tietze sends along the
following (which is also the subject of his .plan
update):
Team Member-Level Design!
This individual will be responsible for the creation and completion of levels for Rogue's next exciting project! He/she must possess a solid knowledge of level and game design. You must be skilled in the manipulation and design of 3D environments utilizing the Quake engine, or similar technologies. Samples of completed or published works also a must.
If you're a forward looking individual, with the drive to seek out new opportunities with a team-oriented company and are willing to relocate, submit your resume and sample works to:
Rogue Entertainment Inc.
18601 LBJ Freeway, Suite 660
Mesquite, Texas 75150
c/o Jim MolinetsOr, e-mail us at: jobs@rogue-ent.com
Interested parties who are going to be attending Quake Con should let us know in advance. We may be able to set up an interview on site there.
Human Decision Required
The first beta of the Human Decision Required (HDR) TC has been released
on the HDR Homepage. the patch
features:
- 72 new models
- 8 new weapons
- Totally new console artwork and graphic
- 3 monsters out of 8 scheduled for the final release
- more than 40 new sounds and effects
Shrak Winners
The full list of winners from the Shrak
Secret Level Contest have been posted on the SHRAK
Contest Page.
Tanks for the Memories
QTank public beta v0.1 is out on the QTank Homepage. The first version
includes the new vehicle, new weapons and ammo, plus three custom levels.
New QSpy Map Data
Thanks Rotwang for word there's
another new QSpy map data file (2 KB) on
QSBN.
New Vispatch
Andy Bay has released the newest (and
the intended final) version of VisPatch which allows you to quickly re-vis maps for
transparent water. Here's VisPatch 1.2 (27
KB), also available on the DeathDealer's
QuakeDeck. The new version fixes NT infinite loop and disk space problems. Andy says
version 1.1 wasn't intended to be released which is why the docs didn't reflect it.
Opinion Poll
Next Generation Online is
conducting a poll of PC owners
to find out what games best represent the future of online gaming. The choices they offer
are Quake, Unreal, Ultima Online, Meridan 59, Diablo or none of the above. Thanks Prophet.
Hexen IRC
Hexen2.com has a new IRC log with two of
Raven's Hexen 2 developers.
Future versus Fantasy 3.0
Hap sends along word on the future of Future
versus Fantasy:
FvF 3.0 is expected to be released within three weeks. FvF 3.0 will likely be the final FvF. FvF [Shareware] will be the first released and uncrippled. This will soon be followed by FvF [Registered], costing $10, with have 13 levels with 382 new textures. (Yes, that three hundred eighty two textures.) FvF QW start porting after FvF 3.0 is released.
Clan Database
The Clan Database at Quake
Clan Central is up and running, set to handle the daunting task of tracking the
seemingly infinite number of clans out there.
Why Quake
Dislikes K6 Processors
Here's an article
(originally a USENET posting) that describes in technical detail, why AMD's K6 processors
do not perform as well as Intel processors for Quake. Thanks Chrisco]3[.
Quake at MeccaWorld
Quake at MeccaWorld has resumed
doing full level reviews, and has opened up a new section, Screenshots at MeccaWorld.
Compiler Beta Test
If you are interested in helping to beta test a new Quake C compiler / IDE
for Windows 95 and NT 4.0 called Turbo QC please email Troy
Tomasky.
DLL Site
WM_QUAKE2 is a new
site poised to be the authority on Quake 2 DLL's (once we have some).
Competitions
LAN Parties
Movements
| Tuesday, July 8, 1997 |
Mike Wilson on CNBC
It seems that Ion Storm CEO Mike Wilson's interview on CNBC is airing
today (thanks quiksand). Apparently the main topic
of discussion is Daikatana.
Teamplay Article
Fargo, the J.D. Salinger of
Quake (reclusive writer joke), has written a new article for PlanetQuake called A Brief History of Teamplay
that discusses the difficulties of trying to merge complex teamplay rules with the simple
approach of Quake deathmatch, along with a few suggestions on how to do so. Good stuff,
highly recommended.
Wampey's Censuses
Wampey's Censuses has
been updated with new questions, results, and responses. This week's new questions include
topics such as enemy AI, and underwater projectile behavior.
Midnight CTF
There is a new version of Midnight CTF, the patch that turns out the
lights in CTF and gives each player a flashlight, up on the Midnight CTF page. The new
version is a server-side addition to traditional CTF, meaning clients no longer need any
files to play.
New QSpawn
Version 0.95 of QSpawn, the Quake front-end, is out on the QSpawn page. Thanks Prophet.
John Carmack IRC Appearance? No.
The apparent John Carmack appearance on EFnet #quakeed described here this
morning turned out, in fact, to be a spoof. From his reaction to my question, it sounds
like future visits to IRC by John Carmack are to be viewed with serious skepticsm:
Nope, wasn't me. I have never typed a character on IRC in my life.
Unreal at E3 Photos
Epic has posted their photos of E3 showing
demonstrations of Unreal and the Unreal editor. Thanks Prophet.
The Fallout Continues
Another reaction to the accusations printed recently in the Beauty of Madness has appeared. John
Carmack updated his .plan to actually address the contention that id Software is
deliberately ignoring bugs in their software, and Brian
Hook updated again, reflecting on his lost productivity. To catch up quickly, Beauty
of Madness (a site dedicated to the upcoming Unreal-engine Wheel of Time game) recently
printed allegations that id Software is "lying" about the status of bugs in
Quake, and that the dropping of native modem support was evidence of this. Brian Hook
exchanged some mail with the author, and made a .plan
update to address the issue, but a subsequent interview with Andy of BoM came out, restating
the allegations, which seems to have lead to John Carmack's involvement. John's update is
rather large, and should be read in its entirety, but I'll excerpt a couple of quotes:
The quality of Quake's software has been a topic of some discussion lately. I avoid IRC like the plague, but I usually hear about the big issues.
Quake has bugs. I freely acknowledge it, and I regret them. However, Quake 1 is no longer being actively developed, and any remaining bugs are unlikely to be fixed. We would still like to be aware of all the problems, so we can try to avoid them in Quake 2. [...]
The idea of some cover up or active deception regarding software quality is insulting.
To state my life .plan in a single sentance: "I want to write the best software I can". There isn't even a close second place. My judgement and my work are up for open criticism (I welcome insightfull commentary), but I do get offended when ulterior motives are implied. [...]
I want bug free software. I also want software that runs at infinite speed, takes no bandwidth, is flexible enough to do anything, and was finished yesterday.
New IRC Network
Disruptor updated his .plan discussing a planned new IRC network (both
Disruptor, and Brian Hook have recently been involved with incidents on UnderNET that
have apparently dimmed their enthusiasm for that network).
Daikatana Shots
The Daikatana screenshots keep appearing. Thanks to Sandmoose (of the Daikatana Cabana) for word that two new
(dark) shots have appeared, from time periods we haven't really seen much of yet: future
Japan and San Francisco (the shots are a bit dark):
QWatch
QWatch 1.1 beta has been released on the QWatch page. This program allows you to
monitor a QuakeWorld Server refreshed at intervals of five or more seconds, tallying total
frags for up to three teams.
The New Thresh Times
Quake and Thresh were both mentioned yesterday on the front page of the
Business section of the New York Times (thanks Bitstream).
3D Card Info
A new 3D card information site is online called 3DInfo.com, covering Vérité and 3Dfx based accelerators.
Thanks Prophet.
New Vispatch
Thanks Oatmeal for word that there
is a new version of Vispatch up on the DeathDealer's
QuakeDeck. Version 1.1 fixes the problem with duplicate backups being made when you
use two part patches (like CTF).
32 Player Quake Update
The guys over at the QuakeWorld 32 Player Quake Project (to create maps
appropriate to 32 player QuakeWorld), are set to release their first .pak in two weeks
(apparently, as in 14 days, rather than "two weeks" in quotes). They are also
opening up an invitation to join them for their next project. More details on the QuakeWorld 32 Player Quake Page.
Skillz
Thankz to CR-Skorpian for
the newz that Skillz haz their new competition
(#4) online. Today'z update wuz brought to you by the letter Z.
Haiku You
The submission pages for Quake,
the Universe, and Everything are back on-line after a two-week downtime, so you can
once again submit your Quake haiku and limericks.
They Clan Help
Gamer's Alliance Quake has
started a new department devoted to clans called The Clan Complex to post
clans news, help in designing clan sites and graphics, etc.
UK Quake Awards
Thanks Mr.BoomBastic for word
that the first UK Quake
Awards, voted on by UK players, have been posted.
Clan Meet ii
Speaking of UK doings, the recap of Clan Meet ii has been posted (thanks RawMeat).
Female Skins
The Quake Women's Forum now
has the female skin pack available for download, under the QWF's Fashion section. The pack
includes over 30 female skins and the full set of Paperdoll skins created by Dan Bickell.
Interview
LAN Parties / Competitions
Quaker State
Movements
| Monday, July 7, 1997 |
QSpy 5.3 Beta
Here is the beta of QSpy 5.3 (361
KB). This will not work if you are not a registered QSpy user (thanks dweomer).
QSpy Beta Release
An IRC release party (Bring Your Own Electronic Beer) is planned this
evening to celebrate the release of the beta of QuakeSpy
5.3 to registered users. Bastard sends along
the following:
TeamQspy is releasing the 5.3 beta to registered users for feedback and testing at 5:00PM PST today. There will be a release party open to everyone at the QuakeSpy chat network (chat.quakespy.com, chat.planetquake.com. chat.cgk.com) where members of team qspy will be available to answer questions and comments.
This new version features a great number of enhancements and upgrades and it's anticipated that several thousand registered users from over 70 countries will participate in this beta test.
The final release date will depend on the feedback, but it's anticipated to be only a few weeks away.
New KasCam
Version 1.8 of KasCam (249 KB)
has been released. The new version of this camera patch fixes some bugs and features
enhancements to spectator modes, including more cameras at once, locking on individual
players, and forced follow mode.
More Daikatana Music
Zep has posted the sixth Daikatana Music Clip on Eye on Ion. Thanks Prophet.
A3 Multiplayer Gaming Convention
A3 is described has
the "largest gaming event ever in Oz", and sounds like one of the largest ever,
anywhere:
This is David Vandenberg here.. I run the Armageddon multiplayer gaming conventions in Brisbane, Australia. My next event (A3) will be the largest gaming event ever in Oz. It's on July 27, 1997 in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center. There will be 200-250 computers there and 500-1000 people.
The main attractions of the day will be the 2 Quake Tourneys (one for singleplayer and one for clans) and the special preview release of Dark Reign, presented by the programmers. I'm expecting well over 20 clans to attend and so far around 3 clans have formed just for A3. The Dark Reign developers are also forming a clan to compete at A3. We will be running a very fast network with 10M branches running off a 100M backbone. There will be 15 dedicated Quake servers and another 15 public access PCs for those not able to bring one. The public PCs will be Pentium IIs with Diamond Monster 3D cards, 19" monitors, Monster sound cards and more. Auran will also have 8 PCs on a separate network running Dark Reign. Greg Lane, the Auran head-guy, will be demonstrating Dark Reign one of the 2 big-screens. These screens will be projecting all the action of the main games throughout the day. We'll also be showing previews of the latest games under development. There are huge prizes for the tourney winners, including Diamond Monster 3D graphics and 3D sound packs and other hardware, games, shirts, posters, internet accounts and more. Nintendo will also be there with their latest products on show. There will also be many other game industry companies with stands there.There's heaps more happening at A3, but I don't want to bother you too much. Check out the web pages at http://armageddon.thehub.com.au for the full scoop.
Brian Hook Q&A
sCary's posted a mini
interview with Brian Hook that contains a few Quake 2 tidbits (I see that the Q2 demo at QuakeCon is in doubt now--bummer).
Hunted Demo
There is a non-playable preview of the Hunted TC up on the Hunted page.
Quake Newbie Guide
The Quake Newbie Guide has
two new topics under Quake Derivatives: Hexen 2 and Daikatana, with the other upcoming
Quake engine games to follow.
QMET Renamed
The model editor formerly known as QMET has been renamed to Unscrewed. Thanks caesar4.
Quake Rally
There was an update to the Quake
Rally page yesterday (thanks Pizza Pie)
announcing that the first version of Quake Rally will be geared towards single player and
LAN play, with Internet support to follow. There is also the unfortunate news that Modesty, author of the Quake utility FraQuake,who's doing half the QR
texture set, was "hit by a car and has been layed (sic) up in hospital for quite a
while!..." Best wishes to Modesty for a speedy recovery.
A Rose By Any Other Name
My comments yesterday Star Wars Quake TC
were more appropriate than I thought. Send suggestions for a new name for this TC to redknight@iname.com, and help prevent a
"Foxing."
Game Design
Game Design, A Madmans Guide
To... is a new site devoted to the art of designing computer games.
Trois-D
Les Descendants de
Doom is a 3D Games news page in French.
Lan Parties / Competitions
Movements
| Sunday, July 6, 1997 |
Transparent Water Redux Redux
Christoper Bolin sends along word
of his new project that fits right in with transparent water day:
I've been working with Ken Alverson and Andy Bay to help with a project that will allow those with glQuake to download a small patchfile and a home-grown patch utility (VISPATCH) and within a few minutes have fully re-VIS'd levels for transparent water effects.
It works very well and is very easy and quick (and even has a non-destructive option that will just make a new PAK and not overwrite any of the original files). I threw up a web page with screenshots, instructions and all the latest patch files for everyone to grab.
We have patches for: All the registered Quake levels, Mission Pack #1, CTF 3&4, Shrak, Cenotaph of the Magi, Dimensionality, DeathMatch eXtreme, and various other popular DM maps.
Transparent Water Unwarning
This reply was sent by Shaitan
to the following post about transparent water problems.
"...I can verify (or send screenshots if needed) that there is no such problem. I was a part of the vispatch effort and have done ctf 1 & 2, the id levels, several DM levels (for vispatch) and the hipnotic pack (has one buggy level but it doesnt crash, the water always looks normal) with no problems ... I'm not saying the problem isn't there. It must be. I can say it will not be there for everyone. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, baring software problems it WILL work. Also, you CAN see players in the water IF the server is running modified maps. Otherwise, as Carmack pointed out, the data simply isnt sent over to the clients.
Transparent Water Warning
Awaken sends along the following
caveat to anyone planning to re-vis levels for transparent water in GLQuake:
"... You may want to mention that if a person takes the time to re-vis all the levels then they may not all work correctly. I re-vis'd all my ctf and quake levels. I haven't tried them all, but I can say for sure that ctf2 from capture the flag's pak0 will crash with some kind of a brush mismatch error in glqw when loading the level. It doesn't crash glquake. However all the levels from pak1 (ctf2m1 - ctf2m8) work fine. I've only played a few of the original quake levels, so I can't say if they all work or not. Two other points that probably haven't been mentioned: 1. Re-vising levels takes a long time. They took over 24 hours on my p-200 w/128 megs of RAM. 2. Glqw doesn't allow you to see players or other entities in the water when you're not in it and visa-versa."
Screenshot Archive
A couple of webmasters from, as they describe them "ancient"
Quake websites, Jason Springer (Quakeworld) and Doug Porter (the Quake Seismograph) have
teamed up along with Jody Vining to create The
Screenshot Archive with screenshots of games coming out in the near future that use 3D
like game engines.
Canada v. USA TeamFortress Match
Thanks Meat Hook for word of the
Canada USA TF Match yesterday in which Canada won the first match by 15 points, and
apparently romped in the second match. A demo of the first match, as well as scores,
screenshots, etc., are available at the Electronic
Xecution homepage.
Shrak Attack
Embrionic Pete sends along word that the
Top 8 winners of the Find the Secret Shrak Level contest (that were announced Thursday on QuakeCast, are posted on The Embrionic Files.
Duh
I just added a couple of links I forgot with earlier stories (thanks Spike from Impulse
1).
Requiem News
There has been a simultaneous release of Requiem - Special Edition version
1.03, and Requiem QuakeWorld Server version 1.03 on the Requiem Homepage. There are also some demos
to download and some new information about the patches.
More Transparent Water
Thanks to Simon H. Garlick for word on
Vispatch, a new utility to aid in the struggle to bring transparent water to all. The
program and more information can be found on the DeathDealer's
QuakeDeck:
"Vispatch is a program written by Andy Bay to allow vis data to be extracted from a bsp and imported to another bsp, even within PAK files! This was written for the purpose of extracting vis data from levels re-vised for transparent water by using bsp2prt, and allowing a fast patching process for other users of the levels."
Unreal Firing
Thanks Prophet for
word that according to the Unreal Nexus, Unreal
recruiter (not level designer, as reported, thanks James Hills, Dimensionality for the correction) Vince
(Quatto) Cavin was fired from Epic yesterday, due to "political reasons".
Search Siren's
Siren's Pic Page has been
updated with a search engine, so you can now easily find those shots of your Quake
buddies.
MageSlayer
I forgot to mention the other day that Jesse
"Sknny" Glen, maintainer of TC Magazine,
has opened up a site dedicated to Raven's upcoming game, Mage Slayer, called The Mage Slayer Times.
PowerBall
Clan Defender's PowerBall
patch is running on game.ott.igs.net:26002, if you want to check that out. Also, another
PB release (version 1.666), is in the works (in about "two weeks"), which will
include admin codes, a new map, and several fixes. Email Josh Dalcher with questions, comments, etc.
Camper Heaven
Some new light on the not-so-noble art of camping (thanks Prophet): Fine Young Camper is a pro-camper site,
and there's this article on Camping
and Guarding on RocketMount.
Speeder Bike
The Star Wars TC Page
has been updated with some nice shots of the model for the speeder bike. INAL (I'm not a
lawyer), but maybe this TC ought to consider a name change soon (Space Fight TC? Galaxy
Battles TC?). Thanks Matt Stevens.
UK Quake Movie
Quake War: Invasion is
the official site of the UK Quake movie. Thanks Prophet.
Who's Who in Irish Quake
Thanks Prophet for
word on the Who's Who in Irish Quake page.
Midway's N64 Quake Site
Midway has put up a
new site (really just three screenshots at this point) for the upcoming N64 Quake
(thanks Thrashing Rage of Quake64).
LAN Parties / Events
Wars Between the States
| Saturday, July 5, 1997 |
Custents 5.2
Custents version 5.2 has been released on the Trench of Mental Warfare, which has
reopened following the attack on Warzone/TeleFragged. The new version has a bunch of new
features, and to aid in learning how to use Custents, there is now a Help Board for
Custents questions and answers.
Daikatana Movies
Thanks to TheSnipe for word that PCGames has a Real Video version of the Daikatana E3
Trailer on-line. Also, thanks to whomever uploaded the Quicktime Daikatana trailer (4.2 MB) to my FTP site. I
believe this was the one that came with the CD in the July issue of UK's Edge magazine.
Cenotaph of the Magi
ELM has just released their first
project, a deathmatch pack called Cenotaph of the Magi
(2.3 MB). The pack's six original levels range from one-on-one to large "cat and
mouse" levels. The pack can also be found on its homepage.
Paradigm
Paradigm is an upcoming commercial TC from Katana Software. Paradigm is to feature new weapons
and gameplay, and the team includes Quake C guru Howard
Roy of the Killer Quake Pack. Here's the blurb on
the game, and a couple of screenshots:
Ever want to play Wing Commander in quake? Jump into an alien ship and kick ass? Well now you can in Paradigm and thats only one of the cool features in our TC. We will be demoing at Quake Con 97 and check out our web site daily for screen shots at www.katanasoft.com.
Dan's Paper Dolls
Dan Bickell, skin artist
extraordinaire, was working on some skins for the Quake Women's Forum female skin pack,
and he ended up creating a whole new little project called Paperdolls (185 KB). Here's a description in
Dan's words:
Basically, it is a set of graphics that are designed as components to put together female Quake player skins, sort of like playing with paper dolls. You get to dress up your female skin however you like, with about 40 different components of clothes, shoes, hair, weapons, and other accesories.
DEMentED
DEMentED, programmed by Tom
"PharCyde" Vykruta is a new demo editor. Actually it calls itself a
"Demo Editor and Movie Studio," appropriate since it's being used to edit United Ranger Film's: RGB3, as
well as several other high profile movie projects. the DEMentED site (run by Jonathan
"W_Wallace" Daughtrey) is now up to make this project available to the
public.
Requiem Update
Version 1.02 of Requiem for QuakeWorld (a server-only patch) has been
released on the Requiem page.
WaterHack
WaterHack is a utility written by Dr.Splat[GT]
to allow non GLQuake users to see into and out of the water if the server is running maps
vis'ed for transparent water. Available on the WaterHack page.
The Adventures of Axeboy
Hook sends along word of his project in
progress, a Quake on-line comic called the
Adventures of Axeboy. The first couple of pages from the first issue are online, and
he is now willing to subject himself to feedback from the community, so if you feel like
Siskel or Ebert, check it out and let him know what you think.
Deathmatch Strategies
Frag-o-Matic Tactics
page contains level by level tips and demos on how to frag like a champion in
deathmatch.
Updated CTF Tips
The CTF tips co-maintained by Paco
and Cromwell's or Phantom
Lord's Quake Lair (the tips are accessible through either site) has been updated to
cover all the CTF4 levels.
Fixed Map Data File
There were boo-boo's in the QSpy Map Data update posted on QSBN a couple
of days ago, so a corrected version has been posted. Thanks Rotwang.
TeamFortress Page
The Unofficial OZ
TeamFortress Page (called the home of Australian TF) has opened for business (thanks VuduChild).
Name Animator
Personally if I never see another message scroll across my tally screen
(half the time generated by someone with an invisible name) in deathmatch again, I'll be
happy, but that's just my personal opinion (I feel better having shared that, though). My
feelings notwithstanding, Tony Browneller, author of BspBuild, is creating a new name
animator program, and is seeking beta testers, so if you are interested in testing the
program, check the BSPBuild page
for details.
LAN Party
Movement (Correction)
| Quake and the
stylized "Q" are trademarks of id Software, used with
their kind permission All rights reserved. Copyright © 1997 by Stephen Heaslip |
