Articles in the archive contain broken links
because outdated files are removed.
- Down With LPBs! Part II
You know it's a good day here at Blue's when we have a clarification or
two. Obviously I touched a nerve with my comments about LPBs (Low Ping Bastards), because
a couple of them wrote me to complain that I was being unfair, because they shouldn't have
to apologize for their connections, etc. I guess my snide comments about my own occasional
suffering at the hands LPBs overwhelmed the point that a clan should post this graphic on
their page to tell the T1 boys not to bother knocking for a challenge.
If you're like me, and you play Internet Quake over a dial-up connection, you know the
frustration of getting repeatedly gibbed by some LPB on a T1 who's running rings around
your sorry lagged butt. Well, John Krutke of Lag City (who invented the
term LPB) has designed the following logo for Clans (presumably those on modem
connections) to display on their pages:
I think that about sums it up...
- Okay, I Un-Surrender
Logistics stuff: Updates will NOT carry times from now on. I tried for a
bit today, but it's not gonna work for me (at least not until I can automate it somehow).
OTOH, I think I've finally solved the problem of having to read my page from the bottom
up.When I update a story during the day, I'll add it to the original story and move it to
the top (like above). Not bad, huh?
- Quaaaaake!
Hey! Scohop wrote to tell me he
revamped Quaaaaake! and is updating this old
standby with renewed vigor. Another convert to BlueFrames™, the site is cleaner
looking and easier to navigate now (in my objective opinion). His main focus will be
strategy and gaming tips.
- Central Gibbage
Got a line from Chuck Mays about
his new Quake news site. Check out Central
Gibbage, there's an interesting account of the war that's apparently raging over who's
in control of #Quake.
- Quake C Department
Thanks to Kevin Hemenway
for passing along a couple of Quake C tidbits:
At Quake Command, Wedge is going to be putting out the necessary info
(hopefully sometime this weekend) for map builders to design "tracks" for the
upcoming Quake Kart mod. Details on their Quake
C Page.
Also... over at the QuakeLab, they
have a Quake C mod that creates explodable walls. Improved over version 1.0 which used
jagged doors and what not, version 2.0 is an actual entity built in Quake C which can be
incorporated into any map by designating a brush as the exploding wall entity. On their Tricks 'N Traps Page.
- Vérité of the Day
I've exchanged a little mail with Mike Boich of Rendition
regarding VQuake (Vérité-enhanced Quake). As noted yesterday, the current version of
VQuake is 1.01, as opposed to 1.06 for Quake. John Carmack's comment yesterday on the
update's time frame was vague, so I asked about that, as well as the way updates will be
handled in the future (I also asked about the new Windows drivers, to boot). Here's what
Mike had to say (this is a combination of two emails):
I'm glad to see you like Verite-enhanced Quake. As John
Carmack said, VQuake 1.06 is coming together, and I'm betting that you'll like it even
more. It will have a performance optimization or two vs. the current version in addition
to the general differences between "regular" Quake 1.01 vs. 1.06.
As far as features go, it will be Quake 1.06 plus performance
improvements. We (id + Rendition) didn't get to do as much performance optimization as we
would have liked the first time around, so this is a chance to do a little more. I
hesitate to provide dates, but I would guess by mid-Nov at the latest.
Our plan for updates is to stay reasonably in sync, but that
doesn't mean tracking every release that id does. We'll probably tend to batch the changes
and do them a little less frequently.
New Windows drivers are available to our OEM customers now,
but they need to test and redistribute them, so I can't say when they'll hit the streets.
- multiple sorted views (find a teamplay server fast! ;)
- ping times (for what it's worth to the viewer)
- average uptimes
- server details (comments from serverop, current players, etc)
- Cool Domain
DaKiller has moved his page to frag.com, same cool page, new cool URL. Please mark your
records accordingly.
- Found Fargo
If you can't seem to find my way into Fargo's from Planet Quake, it's kind of hard to find his link, so
if you want the latest on the clan scene, click here.
I had to type the URL from memory. It seems to cap my screw-up day yesterday, the time
when I aborted an upload of my page by hitting the "cancel" button, apparently
didn't cancel the upload, it cut it off where it was. I seem to have lost the first couple
of days new from this week. Sorry. (If anyone, for whatever reason, has some sort of hard,
or local copy of this stuff, please contact me.)
- Client Side 'Bot II
Joel Baxter, AKA lemurboy,
wrote in to point out that the Terminator
wasn't as I wrote, the first client-side 'bot, since AE_Playmate, and C/S Bot, came before it. D'oh!
True enough, stories about each of these are actually buried in Blue's archives (BTW,
gonna add a search feature soon). I had a bad day today (guess this is a good place to
thank Matt Armistead for pointing out the
six typos in one story and Jeff Borenstein for
catching a bad link in another). While we're clearing the client 'bot air, there's also ZaphBot, based on C/S, born
October 8, 1996. It does seem fair to say that the Terminator is probably the most advanced of these client 'bots (I'll
wait for the corrections on that...). Here's the corrected story:
The Terminator 'bot, the most advanced client-side 'bot to date, has been created by Olivier Montanuy (Thanks to Joost Schuur for letting me know). Client-side
means no Quake C is required, it just connects to the game as a player. There are also
commands that servers can use to disallow such 'bots. All in all, the kind of terrific
effort we expect from Olivier. Here's the text file. You can
also play in "proxy mode" where the 'bot connects to the game, and you connect
to the 'bot, which allows the 'bot to govern some of your "reflexes." As Whaleboy of QuakeX points out:
"didja know what?? This BOT supports proxies!! In other
words, I don't have to disconnect from my LAN and connect via modem on my main machine to
play Quake anymore... I just put it on my server and away I go! :)"
Download the Terminator from Blue's FTP site:
Olivier's comment on the source code:
"You will find it very confusing. It is a temporary
release, most comments are missing."
- DQL 0.5
Beta 3 of Version 0.5 of DQL (Dan's Quake Launcher) is available for
download on Dan's Quake Page. I
know because he told me so with Dan's Email. DQL is a Quake C patch launcher, and the new
release features auto-binding of impulses and many other improvements and bug fixes.
Version 0.5? Used to be you were afraid of version 1.0 of a program, because it was
untested. Nowadays programs are over the hill by the time they hit version 1.0...
- Rocket Jumper's Guide
The Rocket Jumper's Guide is a
cool page, and it just got a facelift. As long as your browser supports frames, it's a
perfect opportunity and brush up on your rocket jumping.
- I Was Just Wondering About That
I love my Vérité enhanced Quake, but was starting to wonder what the deal was with new
versions, since it is already outdated at version 1.01. Well thank you to Jeff Phillips who passed along this email he got
from John Carmack answering that very question:
"We will be releaseing a new 1.06 vquake. Dunno
when."
Makes me fell a little better.
- New Thred?
I see on the Thred Homepage
that it's possible that a new version will be released this weekend.
- Okay Already
I honestly decided not to make note of GameSpot's big announcement yesterday that Vérité
enhanced Quake was released because it was obviously well covered here. But emails
pointing this out to me just keep pouring in so go read it here.
- PC Gamer
On the other hand, due to a case of brain-lock, I've been meaning to pass along some stuf
from the November PC Gamer for it seems like forever now (I believe Kevin Bowen was the first to point me to this, oh
so long ago). There is an interview with John Romero in which he talks about the
(amicable, he says) split with id, and plans for ION's future. There is also an article on
the Apogee upheaval/Hipnotic formation, where Hipnotic's Mark Dochtermann says:
"This is one of the reasons we left 3D Realms; we always
felt that the company was following in id's footsteps and never developing its own
innovations"
Quote from George Broussard on the Hipnotic defectors:
"I wish them well, but I think it's a mistake."
Quote from George Broussard on the Tom Hall's defection:
"I wish Tom the best luck in the world."
No word on whether he thinks Tom made a mistake. For what it's worth, I wish George and
Apogee/3D Realms all the luck in the world.
- Author's Signature
If you are a map author, or plan on being one, check out the QuakeLab where the idea of using brush
"signatures" to prevent map piracy is being bandied about.
- Vérité Rocks
It will not be hard to keep to my vow to play more Quake with with my Reactor (brand
unimportant; it's my understanding that all the Vérité cards are exactly
alike). It's faster and nicer looking than "ordinary" Quake, so what could be
bad...
- Pseudo SwanSong
SwanSong (U|A), one of the world's best
deathmatchers, says he will be dispensing some deathmatch tips on Pseudo's QuakeCast, tonight from 9-10 PM EDT. I guess
that means I'll listen again (maybe they'll actually have content), but I worry
so that I'll end up smashing my computer if it's more of the same ("bye
guys!!!")...
- etc.
A very useful idea for a new site is the Q-Files, which keeps tabs on
server mods, with a list of CTF Servers, TermQuake servers, etc. It also has tips and
lists of what the client side needs for mods, etc. ... No,
it's not a dating service, Quake Rendezvous is a new Quake
news-oriented site that has opened for business.
- sCary Contest
The Hugh Hefner (Larry Flynt?) of the Internet, sCaryname has come up with a contest looking for the best
demo of someone wooping up on a Reaper 'Bot one-on-one. Read all about it on the Quakeholio. (He says his
"vacation" will probably end tomorrow.)
- Newer Quest
I've learned my lesson with Quest. From now on, I'm just going
to mention there is a new version with out the number. Yep they just released another. On
the Quest homepage. Thanks to Keith Jaskot (aka TheUnforgiven) for letting me know.
- Clan Abuse
I received a disturbing report from Dave
Riller that DFF are claiming RevCo ping flooding them during their match in the clan
ring semi-finals. According to Dave, that's what they meant when they said "then the
RevCocks pinged us to death" in a letter that I posted on these pages (I just thought
they were complaining that RevCo were being low-ping-bastards on T1's or something).
Apparently this has spilled over into ugly accusations in IRC, and other clans have picked
up on this abuse of RevCo.
All I can say is that I have met Dave and a couple of the other guys in RevCo, and I
would be shocked if this were true. That's all I will add to this ugly mess. I post this
here as equal time for the first post. It would take extreme circumstances for me to add a
follow-up to this subject (if you can't play nice together, I'm gonna take away your
shotguns).
- Actura Info III
I don't think I clarified the Actura info well enough as I weeded through
it today. Here is their contact info in all its glory (thanks to Whaleboy of QuakeX for the great job in confirming the
offender's identities):
Greg Hutchenson, CEO of Digital Entertainment - Hutchola@aol.com
Digital Entertainment
7400 49th Avenue North
New Hope, MN 55428 USA
Phone: 612-535-8333
- Dank and Scud
According to their newspage,
Issue #2 should be out "in less than one week." I can't wait...
- Newer Quest
As always for Quest, the post release release (now 1.091). On the Quest homepage. Thanks to Redwood's for the clue.
- Apogee/3D Realms Interview
Got this from Redwood too (though he got it from Quake
Fiction--you follow?) that GameSlice has an interview with George Broussard
and Scott Miller.
- Vérité Update
Apparently the 2D performance on the Vérité is not going to be as big an
issue as thought (good thing, I have my Reactor Card ready to install tonight <g>).
First, the latest .plan update from John Carmack addresses the issue (thanks to Mark Shibla for letting me know):
The latest windows drivers from rendition fix the lousy GUI
performance I had been complaining about to several people. While it may not be
state-of-the-art 2d acceleration, it doesn't get in your way anymore. I do not consider
windows performance to be a negative for rendition anymore.
John Carmack also wrote DaKiller
with a little more on the Voodoo port (or lack thereof). Read it there.
Also Randy Perry (who's review appeared earlier)
sent along the following email from Eric T. Busch:
Try changing your mouse cursors to Win95's default b/w
cursors. I had the same problems you experienced (slow text scrolling and window
dragging), but after this change everything improved. According to Mike Boich of
Rendition, using the color cursors for some reason turns off 2D acceleration. Hope this
helps.
Randy's reaction:
WOW! Right on the money! I now am back to my old self with
moving windows and smooth scrolls.
And, Randy also received the following email from Walt Donovan with Rendition saying:
FYI, the newer drivers, which we will make available on our
web site when they are ready, fix the s/w cursor deceleration problem.
Finally, Erick Cid (PrIeSt), whose Reactor I
bought (because he also owns a Voodoo Card) wrote up this
review comparing the two cards. He is very up on 3D technology, and his objective
review is worth reading (bear in mind that his comments about the 2D performance came
before today's developments).
- Actura Info II
Just received this (from a source that wished to remain anonymous):
"The CDs produced by Actura Software are being
distributed by Digital Entertainment in Minneapolis, MN. The person in charge of the
Actura Quake product at Digital is Greg Hutchenson. His phone number is (612) 535-8333. I
have called this number and verified that he does work there and he is in charge of the
product."
This and other info I have received has convinced me that this is them. Sic 'em!
- Modeling Contest
Being run by NeoTECH, a
QuakeC-oriented site, with a first prize of $50 (hey, you would throw away $50, if someone
handed it to you?).
- Actura Info
I guess I wasn't clear enough at the time, because I'm getting a lot of
mail pointing out that one of my favorite sites, QuakeX, has posted an address for some sort
of parent company of Actura. I had a link to this address the day the story broke; click here, and click the link that says: link to the game.
The point is, I don't know if anyone's figured out the link between this company
(Digital Entertainment) and Actura. As I wrote at the time, when I called that number, the
answering machine referred to the company by some other name, so this all gets a little
fuzzy. Seems like we've got a publisher/author/distributor tangle to work through here...
I'd hate to send everyone off to harrass the wrong people...
- New Quest
A tanned and relaxed Mr. Wolf (aka
Heath Fowler) dropped a line to point out that there's a new version of Quest (1.090),
which adds lots of group functions, available on the Quest
homepage, and that the WorldCraft
homepage has Direct X 3 available for download, which fixes a lot of WorldCraft bugs
(actually, that makes it sound like they were DirectX bugs).
- Bullfrog
Friend of Blue's Jason
"^Fiend^" Keddie points out that the report that Peter Molyeneux is poised
to jump (sorry couldn't resist) from Bullfrog
(possibly to join ION), isn't so surprising considering Bullfrog's current chaotic state,
as indicated by an article in Online Gaming Review
that says:
"Bullfrog is rapidly slipping from its pedestal as the
darling of the game development industry ... Bullfrog is rapidly becoming a major casualty
of the computer gaming industry, and one can only hope that they start turning their act
around, before they become the next Epyx (a company some of you may not recognize for very
obvious reasons)."
- Rumor Mill
A (reliable) little bird tells me that QuakeWorld is delayed because John
Carmack's furiously coding a new WinNT port of QuakEd (apparently a little embarrassed at
the sloppy state of its code).
- More ION Developments?
Saw on Redwood's that Gaming Central is reporting Peter
Molyeneux, creator of Populous, is planning to leave BullFrog after completiton of Dungeon
Keeper this Christmas. They also report speculation that he will be joining "Dream
Design," John Romero's new company.
I guess I would trust them on that rumor more if they were up to speed that Romero and
Tom Hall announced a while back that they were dropping Dream Design, and were plainning
on calling their company ION.
- Tons O' Fun
Just got back from a little carnage. Loads of fun, thanks to His Satanic Majesty for inviting
us. I need to play more Quake... I took a fair beating. HSM also topped us in the 3 on 3
match. MrCoffeeGib and Spuds were both on fire--nice playing boys.
As promised, we got to check out Intergraph Reactor. It's quite impressive. Here are a
couple of screenshots. The one on the left is 320x200 (because most people will still play
in that). It looks so much better than straight VGA. The right is 640x480, but, contrary
to what's said, it's not really playable at that resolution (at least not on our test
machine, a P133). Click on either picture to see it full size.
- Carmack on 3Dfx Quake
Thanks to Harry Goeller for sending me this email exchange he had with John Carmack which
clearly explains the reasoning behind the Rendition port, as well as outlining some flaws
in the Vérité's execution:
"I couldn't have known that...rendition would have the
problems it does with poor windows performance and dma incompatability."
And a hint about WinQuake:
"The d3d version will be an outgrowth of the regular
winquake, which is nearing completion."
- Legal Advice to Skrewed Map Authors
Thanks to Simon H. Garlick for going to the trouble
to get BSP author Yahn Bernier's permission to repost this
letter he wrote to the Skrew
Actura Page concerning map authors legal rights and copyright law.
- Thunder Beta
Steve Larsen sent along word that
they are going to open up testing of his editor, Thunder, to 50 beta-testers. They're
looking for participants that have editing experience and are willing to actively
participate in the program (send in bug reports or suggestions). Details on how to
volunteer on the Thunder Homepage
(look on the "What's New" Page).
- QuakeWorld Delays on GameSpot
There's an article
on the delays in QuakeWorld on Gamespot.
- etc.
Now on the air is Da Killer'z Quake Page featuring
news and files ... There's sword and sorcery-oriented TC called
Earthquake in the works. Check out their homepage.
Nice new website out there, take a look at Dave's Totally Quake Page.
It's got news, nice graphics and he's working on a Quake story (looks like it might turn
out to be a novel) Good luck Dave.
- Eye On ION
Yeah, it's clever headline day here at Blue's. A webzine called Titania has a big profile on ION (John
Romero and Tom Hall's new company). Thanks to Xenothon
Stelnicki (maintainer of one of the original Quake sites) for finding that.
BTW, id: all lowercase, ION all caps... Coincidence?
- Clan Destined
Gonna be killin' with my bro's tonight. That's right the Brothers Gib got
an invite from His Satanic
Majesty, another NYC-based clan, to come on down for a little 3 on 3 killing on their
LAN, so Abraxas, Mrcoffee and I have our van, all loaded with weapons, packed up and ready
to go. If there's an update this evening, it'll be later on (shouldn't be a problem, it's
common knowledge I only need 20 minutes of sleep every other night), or in the morning. I
can't promise demos, it'll depend how much time anyone wants to spend setting up one of
those chase-cam patches, but I should have some goodies to post, as HSM's leader, PrIeSt tells me he just got his brand-new Intergraph
Reactor card, and will let me take some screenshots of Vérité-enhanced Quake.
- Fast Modem Caveats
A while back Rockwell announced a
new chipset that seemed to be the answer to every Quake player's dreams, 56.6 Kbps modems.
This new technology offered the hope of reducing lag with near ISDN (albiet one channel)
speeds, without requiring special equipment and lines for the user and their Telco, like
ISDN and ADSL. Well the other shoe has dropped (one of these "no such thing as a free
lunch" deals). In this
article, found in LAN Times Online
(thanks Jordan Hylton a.k.a. PFB-Fluffy),
we learn that there are actually quite a few gotchas on this one:
- The technology is an analog/digital hybrid that won't be full-duplex. Instead, it
provides 56Kbps only from the access server to the remote client.
- 56Kbps modems will require a digital connection between the ... ISP ... and the carrier
network, as well as a quiet and quirk-free local loop wherever the remote user is
connecting.
- Because of a noisy analog-to-digital conversion that must take place at the phone
company's central office, ... a 56Kbps modem placing a call to a remote-access server will
experience no upstream performance gain over today's top-of-the-line modems.
- However, information from the server to the remote client could conceivably achieve
56Kbps if the server were to use digital modems with a digital connection ... to the phone
network.
- Kevin Gagnon, senior product-marketing manager at Microcom Inc. in Norwood, Mass.,
speculated that only 40 to 50 percent of phone lines in the United States can even support
33.6Kbps communication.
- "In more residential and rural areas, where access is primarily analog and there is
no ISDN, you're not going to get 56Kbps," said Kieran Taylor, a broadband consultant
at TeleChoice Inc. in Verona, N.J.
- At the corporate and ISP end of the equation, there is also work to be done. Taylor
estimated that less than half of the remote-access servers deployed terminate digitally.
- In many cases, then, network managers must acquire new equipment and expertise to
achieve a digital connection. A network's remote-access server must have a T-1 or ISDN
interface, as well as digital modems that can demodulate V.34-based calls and turn them
back into bits and bytes.
Oh well, sounded too good to be true... I think I'm gonna start investigating ISDN
again.
- Deutsch Quake
Check out Killian's
Quake Page, then check it out in German. Cool, huh? I
have a hard enough time with English (and German, for that matter. Thanks to Gothmog for correcting my spelling of
Deutsch)...
- 3D Blasters
Thanks for all the nice people that passed along press releases on the
release date, but I was on a mission to find folks that had seen them in stores (which
seems to be happening, as well). I was unaware of this, but apparently they've been
available in Australia for some time now.
- Tokay Talk
sCary's got an update on what American
McGee isn't doing. Read it on the Quakeholio.
- Either Ya Got It, Or Ya Ain't
Seems pretty obvious that 3D Blasters have, in fact, shown up here and
there (my apologies to Matthew Lee for my skeptcism). I even received a message from Lawrence (Chief Bastard in quake) "Way down here in
New Zealand" (his words, not mine) saying he had one.
- 3D Blaster Screenshots
Saw on Stomped that there's a page with screenshots from the 3D Blaster
(I'm not sure there is or isn't an affiliation with Creative here, that's an awfully nice
logo up there). They look insane, I really can't wait to get one of these babies.
To make things more confusing about the release date, I received the following from Matthew Lee:
I have seen the comments on your page about a wait for the 3D
blaster to hit the shelves. I just wanted to say that the Micro Center down the street
from me (I am a student at MIT in Cambridge, MA) has both the PCI and VLB versions of the
3D Blaster in stock. Maybe it's a Boston-area thing, but if Micro Center has it, it's
strange that other areas of the country don't have it.
But this is the only report I've heard of them being on the streets anywhere, so I'm
skeptical.
- Carmack's.plan
John Carmack updated his plan (thanks to Jason for the word). As suspected, QuakeWorld is
currently on the back-burner, apparently some "other stuff" has gotten in the
way (that sounds so ominous):
Oct 14:
I haven't been able to work on QuakeWorld for a week, and am
unlikely to for a couple more days.
I've been working with the utilities and editor most of the
time, but there has been a lot of other stuff going on lately that has kept me from being
very productive.
- Skrew Actura Now!
Thanks to Chris Evans for the
button. Why people get so nauseated by these buttons I'll never know, but I'm always glad
to be an irritant.
- Planet Quake
After threatening to get underway for some time, Planet Quake is finally up and running in its early
forms. New home to some fine established pages (][ronman, QuakeX), and some new content (I told you
yesterday's about Fargo's page--now reachable through the "front door"). Planet
Quake is also running a bunch of servers, and is going to try and stay at the cutting edge
of QuakeServer technology, both in terms of Quake C mods, and lag reduction, both over the
net, and with direct dial. My buddy Bastard,
who runs the place, has put a lot of work into it, and I wish them good luck and
congratulations on their grand opening.
- HTM Hell
Couple of changes in the night (click on the animated logo in the corner till it stops
bugging you). Thanks to Cyber and JoE CulberT for pointing out errors along the way.
- Hell Scrag
I haven't had a chance to check it out, but this was sent along by Toby
Reed, Helscrag.zip (214
KB) is a new version of the scrag (skrag?) that
I'm sorry due to humanware error, this is all there is of the 13th and the 12th's
news... bzzzt bzzzt...
Quake and the
stylized "Q" are trademarks of id Software, used with
their kind permission
All rights reserved. Copyright © 1996 by Stephen Heaslip |
