Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

Quake II Screenshots
A couple of new Quake II screenshots have been  posted on OGR and on PC Gamer's Quake II Preview (different ones on each page).

Contest Ends
John Cash announced the winner of his contest in his .plan (Slipgate of Quake2.com), though I was the first to get the extra credit question. Yes, John Cash is the lead programmer for Quake II.

Turok Demo
A playable Demo of Turok Dinosaur Hunter for the PC (9.9 MB) has been released. 3Dfx card required. Thanks to my boys at OGR, who have it here on a fast connection as well.

Updated What They Say

• John Cash, id Software Programmer, updated his .plan with some nifty info about programming mods for Quake II:

How about some Q2 info. I know I've not said much about Q2 in quite a while, but that's only because we've been working so hard on it to get it ready on time. "For this Christmas" is a lot tougher than "When it's done". Here's a few tidbits for you who like to mess with the QC/progs. It's not exactly news, but, yes, we changed to using a DLL for the progs. There are just so many good things for progs programmers it's hard to know where to start. The physics has been moved into the game DLL. So now you can even change the laws of physcis! All aspects of the player's view can be controlled by the progs, note I said "can be" not "will be at all times". CTF and Quake Rally will be soooo much eaiser for Q2. The progs actually make up about half of the Q2 source, so when we release the progs source, you'll be getting a serious chunk of code. We also have entity teams. For things like doors, plats, etc a team is a group of entities that move (or don't move) as a unit. That way you can make a set of doors so that if one gets blocked they both stop. A million and one fun uses for that. You can also makes teams of items; very useful for DM. Teamed items work like this: when the map loads one (and only one) of the ietms will be spawned. When somebody picks up that item there is the usual respawn delay time and then one of the items on the team is randomly selected to respawn. For example, you could put a quad and a invulnerability on a team so that they are both on the level but never at the same time. Or you could put 5 RL on a level as a team so that you can't camp on it because you don't know which one will cme back next. I'll try to give ya more info later... maybe a little less stream of conciousness next time.

John Cash is also holding his own .plan based contest. Here's my entry (in alphabetical order):

John Carmack
John Cash
Brian Hook

Extra credit:

John Cash

Wish me luck

• Paul Jaquays, id Software Level Designer/Occasional Artist, updated his .plan talking about the speed optimizations the programming team had made to Quake II, jokingly giving away the company secret that the texture set had been pared down (but he promises we'll like all three textures).
• Chris "Vertigo" Johnson, Ion Storm Artist, updated his .plan paying a deserved complement to Shadow on his work on Ion's new look website (construction still in progress), which  features some cool new images of skinned models from Daikatana under the games link). I could not get the page to load in Navigator 3, however, as the Java seemed to crash, though it worked fine in Netscape 4 (which I tend not to use, ironically, because it crashes so often).
• Brian Hook, id Software Programmer, updated his .plan discussing getting 8-bit paletted textures working on Voodoo cards:

I got 8-bit paletted textures working last night with the 3Dfx Voodoo. There is a new extension to allow for shared texture palettes, and 3Dfx, as far as I know, is the first hardware company to implement it. The difference in performance is quit astounding -- far less thrashing occurs, so the frame rate maintains consistency extremely well.

I'm now back to cleaning up the menuing code and doing optimization of various bottlenecks.

Screenshots

• There are exclusive screenshots of the Doom3D TC (not to be confused with YPOD Doom) up on TC Magazine. Thanks Ant.
• More Malice screenshots are up in the Malice area of  Strag's Place of Quakeness ...

Interviews

• Marin Gazzari - The interrogations continue unabated at the busy Voodoo Extreme where they've posted another interview; this time with famed level author Marin Gazzari, (AKA Kandyman), author of KandyBase (399 KB) and KandyCity (492 KB), among others, and part of the team working on the upcoming (downright imminent) über-TC, Zerstörer - Testament of the Destroyer.
• Paul Steed - The ink (um, electrons?) had barely dried on the above interview, when "Wicked" (aka Sleepy) Billy Wilson alerted me that Voodoo Extreme had already posted the next one: a brief discussion with id Software Art dude, Paul Steed.
• loonyboi, played "Honey I Shrunk the Video" with the 90 second video interview with Eric Biessman (7.7 MB) from the NextGeneration CD to make it huge instead of gigantic, for those who would download it. Thanks Phoebus (HexenWorld).

Break MPlayer (they want you to try!)
MPlayer members are encouraged to try and overload their servers to see what happens in a stress test tonight. Details can be found here. Thanks Prophet.

New Blood
Version of 1.11 of Blood (build engine) has been released on the Blood Homepage. Here are all the confusing upgrade options:

• Blood 1.11 Shareware (16.5 MB)
• Update for Internet shareware 1.1 (294 KB)
• Update for the shareware CD (293 KB)
• Update for registered version 1.0 (2.7 MB)
• Update for registered version 1.1 (617 KB)
• Update for registered plasma pack 1.1 (701 KB)
• A patch to put the Blood back into censored versions of the game (134 KB) which is required before upgrading to 1.11 if you have the blood-free Blood.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Review
The Adrenaline Vault has posted their Hexen II Review. Thanks Prophet.

Movements

• The Star Wars TC, staying one step ahead of the DeathStar, has relocated to swtc.telefragged.com/.
• Grendel's Qoole Page (formerly Matt Lee's Qoole Page) has moved to www.planetquake.com/qoole/.

Help Wanted
Sunstorm Interactive is looking to hire a programmer and a level designers. Relocation to Indianapolis, IN is required. More details can be found here.

etc.
Tips for getting started editing Hexen II levels in WorldCraft are up on the WorldCraft page ... Warzone has had a makeover by my buddy ColdSun (who is available for hire as a web designer), and is looking really good. There is a Buzzsaw server running the Buzzsaw Gun patch mentioned here the other day at 206.181.98.60:26001 ... Reflections from a newbie on Quake's time condensation effect can be read in this newspaper column, passed along by Tuco ... The Client Bot debate rages here on the MikeBot page, just be careful of the flying opinions. Thanks Prophet ... Log Parser of the day is FragStats, now up to version 1.04, on the FragStats page ... Kwak in Playboy - thanks Piotr Marek Jr. for word that Quake (or Kwak, in Polish), is profiled in the current Polish edition of Playboy magazine ...

"Be excellent to each other"
Ted (Theodore) Logan

New Rocket Arena
As crt announced on QuakeCast tonight, version 1.1 of RocketArena (2.6 MB) has been released on the Rocket Arena page. The new version includes the eagerly anticipated NetQuake version in addition to the QuakeWorld version, and boasts 18 maps (five original RA maps, two from the original pack that were revised, and 11 new ones).

Half-Life AVI's (Wedge and Choryoth Live!)
Wedge updated his and Choryoth's page at Valve with a whole bunch of entertaining stuff (it's like Quake Command lives, too), as well as the down and dirty of three new Half-Life MPG's: turret.mpg (2.7 MB) headcrab.mpg (1.2 MB), and grunt.mpg (1.4 MB). Saw that on sCary's.

New AirQuake
AirQuake test 20 (1.8 MB) has been released on the AirQuake TC homepage. The new build features a HoverCraft. Thanks Skullhammer

QuakeCast
Tonight on the QuakeCast, David "crt" Wright will talk about what's up with the new Rocket Arena release (still expected today last I heard), Tony Fabris to discuss LavaBall, and Steve Huff from the CTF League. Plus, of course, the usual insightful blather on the topics of the day. As always, 8:30 PM Eastern time, Real player required.

New HeadHunters Server
HeadHunters Server version 2.1 has been released on Headhunters Central.

What They Say - Updated

• American McGee, id Software level designer, and Quake II soundmeister made a .plan update excitedly talking about the music for Quake II he just received from Rob Zombie:

When I came into work this morning I was greeted with a Fed-Ex package from LA. Contained inside was a DAT on which was recorded something beyond cool. Everyone gathered around as I slid the DAT into the player and pressed play. Silence... and then... ass-kicking, head-pounding, hairs standing on end music spewed forth. Ahhh... the sounds of Rob Zombie doing his music thing as only he can do! We all smiled at each other. We were all thinking the same thing: "This is the bad ass theme song that goes with the bad ass art that fills the bad ass levels that contain the bad ass monsters which is all  coming together into Quake II"

I hope everyone is prepared for this.

And then American made a follow up clarifying:

I'm getting a lot of requests from people to release the "Quake II Theme" early. This is not going to happen. Also, the Quake II music has been done by Sonic Mayhem. Rob Zombie has done the Quake II Theme song and that's it. And to clarify what I mean by theme song...
Kinda like the Imperial Theme song in Star Wars which say to you: "Join the Dark Side or we'll poke your eyes out with a Death Star."
Except our says something more like: "This is Quake II, we'll just poke your eyes out." :)

• Paul Steed, id Software Artist,  made a late update to his plan describing the animation problem he is working through. He also passes along the advice that "Wine and animation do not mix", reminiscent of Arnold's immortal line in Raw Deal, "You shouldn't drink und bake..." One of his later updates (he's on a roll), is a further clarification of his contest.
• Brian Hook, id Software Programmer, updated his .plan with some more detail on the breakthrough that will allow the Quake player to appear to hold his weapon left or right-handed (presuming John Cash works out the programming part of it as well as they have the visual). He adds that this works in software too, so it will not be an OpenGL only feature.
• George Broussard, 3D Realms President, updated his .plan on a variety of subjects, including PC Gamer's exclusive Duke Nukem Forever coverage in their November issue, the imminent 3Dfx Shadow Warrior patch, the now out (?) Shadow Warrior novels, Mac Shadow Warrior, N64 & Saturn Duke, and more (he goes like the energizer bunny).

Ion Profile
There is an article on PC Gamer called Our Time with Ion recapping a visit from the Ion Storm travelling road show. Thanks Prophet.

Happy Birthday
I keep forgettting to wish a Happy Birthday to Walter |2| Costinak, the artist who did the logo on this page, and a bunch of the coolest art on the web, including id's amazing website. Happy Birthay |2|! Thanks Slipgate (Quake2.com).

sCary Movie
There's a movie up on sCary's that seems to be a promo for Malice, starring the Shuga' Shack. Confused? Good. So am I.

New DirectPlay
Microsoft has posted an updated DirectPlay 5.0a Installer (226 KB) on their DirectX Page to update the version of DirectPlay included with DirectX 5.0. There is no explanation of the difference, except that the new DirectPlay "fixes a few problems in the original release". Thanks Spyke.

More on the Rush Return
There is an article on GameCenter discussing the 3Dfx exchange program for owners of Voodoo Rush-based cards, discussing some further ipmlications like which cards are affected by the offer. Thanks Skoonen.

New QuArK
Version 3.92 of QuArK (666 KB-eeek!), the Quake editor also known as the Quake Army Knife (handy for when you forget your corkscrew), has been released on the QuArK page. New features include the ability to resize several polyhedrons at once, improved error logging, the ability to manually change the coordinates of a single vertex, and some bug fixes.

Half-Life Monster of the Week
My boys over at OGR have posted the first installment of some exclusive Half-Life coverage, that features a Monster of the Week, including "exclusive screenshots, never-before-seen video clips and all-new information". This week the featured creature is the Tentacle (Hypersuctor Sensitiva, for Roadrunner fans). A new monster will be profiled each week until the Half-Life demo is out (currently estimated at mid to late October).

Unreal Screenshots
There are a bunch of new GL screenshots of Unreal over on GT Interactive's page. There are also some shots up at UnrealNation which seem to include some not on GT's page, but it's pretty easy to lose count on screenshots these days, so no promises. Thanks Prophet.

Jedi Knight Update
The OGR guys are going Jedi Knight nuts, as they have updated their Jedi Knight preview with even more screenshots and a discussion of multiplayer play.

More Hexen II Reviews -- Desktop theme
HexenWorld has posted Fargo's review of Hexen II (to accompany loonyboi's). There is also an H2 review at EnterMedia that Prophet pointed out. Finally, (for now), thanks to Phoebus for passing along word on HolyAvenger's Win95 Hexen II Desktop Theme (672 KB).

Interview
There is an interview on Voodoo Extreme with 3D Realms President George Broussard.

Movement
Bubbah's back - Bubbah's Modeling page is back on-line (after and ISP disaster) at www.planetquake.com/epoch/bubbah/.

etc.
A Dank and Scud update appeared on their newspage. Author Michael Houston has returned from Italy to his new apartment where there's "nothing for me to do here except finish issue 5, and there's nothing more I want to do." ... A pair of Blue's News screensavers have been created by Tim  Hitchings of Visual FX Software. The first one (243 KB) moves |2|'s Blue's News logo aground the screen, and the other makes |2|'s logo the background and floats Sujoy's flaming blue "Q" around the screen (276 KB). Thanks Tim ... Alpha Testers are requested for Quake 40K. Thanks Wario64 ... An "essential" Quake add-on section has begun at ZDNet UK Games. Thanks Rotwang ... Parser of the day is QLog, now up to version 1.41. Thanks Prophet ...

New Worldcraft
A bug fix for Worldcraft 1.5 has been released on the Worldcraft page. Here's the new Worldcraft 1.5a shareware (1.1 MB), a shareware version 1.5a patch (194 KB), and a registered version 1.5a patch (199 KB). Both patches are to upgrade version 1.5 to 1.5a.

MageSlayer Demo Released
Our friends over at Raven have released a demo of MageSlayer (8.8 MB) a top down 3D combat game. Read about what's up with this game in this GamePen preview, or one of the fine MageSlayer sites like MageSlayin' or the MageSlayer Times. Thanks Prophet.

What They're Saying - Updated

• Paul Steed, id Software artist, updated his .plan mentioning that Brian Hook had worked out a technique (at least in hardware, for now) to mirror the models of the character's hands in Quake II (lefties rejoice!), the end monster, and he Crackwhore contest:

Excellent news. Brian Hook implemented a mirror function in the GL version of Q2 that allows you the option of having left-handed or right-handed weapons. Still unsure as to whether or not the software version will be able to support this type of mirroring, but who knows? So all you lefties out there rejoice! See? I passed your ideas along to the Carmack and occasionally they get realized.

I've built the final boss and have begun to animate him. You people are going to be REALLY impressed. I made it exactly to Adrian's specs and design and its/they are very, very cool!

Crackwhore entries are slim and no one has yet to realize that this is a COSTUME contest: "Dress up like the CW and win some cool id prizes." Speaking of cool prizes, we just sent Julianne, host of the Queen Hill Tournament a box of goodies including an id-signed copy of Quake. Anything to keep getting the girls involved...

• Mike Gummelt, Raven Software Hexen II programmer, updated his .plan. In addition to his impending marriage (congrats Mike), he also mentions the Hexen II Patch, saying Friday is a possibility, and reveals Hexen II add-on pack is planned:

...The add-on pack (which I hope gets started soon) MAY have a 5th character class, 5 new monsters, a 5th weapon for each class, a 3rd special ability and (I think) one or two more hubs? I'd like the 5th class to be a Warrior Princess with a Chakram! And maybe one of the new hubs can be Medieval Japan or Feudal China? Any ideas?

• Mike Werkle, Raven's Hexen II 3D animator updated his .plan admitting that the Eidolan (H2's final boss) is not a snail, but that he was going to distribute the hoax snail art to see if someone will bring it to life.
• Brian Raffel, Raven's Hexen II Project Director, updated his .plan making the Hexen II patch sound quite imminent.
• John Carmack, id Software Lead Programmer, updated his .plan with a lengthy discussion of what's new in the Quake II BSP format, focusing on how a new "areaportal entity" allows level designers to remove large chunks of levels from the PVS (potentially visible set) making the levels run faster.
• Paul Schuytema, Prey Project Leader updated his .plan talking about portal technology, present and future.
• Kevin Cloud, id software Artist, and Quake II Project Manager, updated his .plan reflecting Hexen II's retail success in the UK.
• Todd Hollenshead, id CEO, updated about Kevin's update.
• John Romero, Ion Storm GOD, (that's his description in his .plan) made a rare .plan update plugging Age of Empires like crazy (and this OGR preview, along the way).
• Scott Miller talks about the Duke statues, movie licensing, and Monday Night Football in his .plan, and also takes a shot at Sierra (not Valve, as I originally wrote).
• Rick Johnson, Hexen II Programmer, updated a bit more about the planned Hexen2World.

Rocket Arena Extension
This is one of those conversions of a conversion, Telefragged Arena (1.2 MB) is a variation on Rocket Arena (the original Rocket Arena pack (1.2 MB) is required), that adds a few wrinkles especially in how many options can be modified. Zoid (Threewave CTF) is involved in this project, which actually pre-dates Rocket Arena. You can read about it on the Telefragged Arena page.

Buzz Saw Gun
I just played around a bit with a really nice weapon replacement, the Mental Flux Buzzsaw Cannon (481 KB), that replaces the Grenade Launcher with a nasty piece of work that fires buzzsaw blades that sometimes stick to walls and sometimes ricochet around (and always hurt). Here's the read me.

YPOD Demo
Moxill Interactive has released a Your Path of Destruction Doom Demo AVI (8.8 MB), showing what to expect from this Doom TC (I swear I thought a complete Doom TC would be the first patch released after Quake came out). The demo is amazing, with all of the Doom accessories looking completely authentic (though it's a little bizarre to see someone rocket jump with the old Doom RL), right down to the BFG 9000. Thanks Rotwang.

eXtreme Tag
Version 0.8 of eXtreme Tag has been released on eXtreme development.

Quake Forever Fix
A bug -fixed version of Quake forever has been posted on the Phantom Interactive Page.

New Qoole -- Qoole Academy
Version 2.05 of the Glide-based GLQoole (535 KB), as well as version 2.05 of WinQoole, available in Install Shield (1.3 MB), No-Setup Program (697 KB), and upgrade from 2.0 (518 KB) varieties, have been released on the Qoole page. There is also word there on Qoole Academy classes (on IRC) starting today. Thanks The dark Monkey.

Client Bots - Point/Counterpoint
There is an editorial on the MikeBot page called Client Bots are Not Evil, as well as a counter argument. Thanks Hanif.

Interviews

• Andy Keane, 3Dfx VP of marketing is interviewed on Next-Generation Online discussing the Rush trade-in offer. Thanks loonyboi.
• An interview with Iikka Keränen, author of AirQuake is up on Tour's Syn of Critique.
• Steve Conway did a Raven Software interview discussing Heretic and Hexen.

Previews/Reviews

• GameFan Online has posted their Hexen II first impressions.
• Eidolon Gamers Society has posted a review of Shadow Warrior.
• Headhunters 2.0 is reviewed on Inside 3D. Thanks Prophet.

Tournament
OZTFLeague, is a new TeamFortress league that already has over half of the Australian TF clans entered.

LAN Parties
LAN Party action: North Carolina Quakers Anonymous now has their own domain (but still no firm date for a party); a new event in Chapel Hill, NC; and another in Brewster, NY (hometown of Anne Marie, for That Girl fans).

Help Wanted

• Paying positions for 3D level designers are available at Cavedog Entertainment. Contact jobs@cavedog.com for more information (or send your resume there).
• Also, qualified individuals who are interested in a lead programmer position that requires 3D Graphic coding and C++ and Assembler experience should contact Mike B.

etc.
WarZone Contest Xtreme is a new site devoted to hosting and reporting on contests ... Here's a page that shows how to set up a dial-up networking connection to play a modem to modem game of Hexen II ...

Half-Life Demo
There's word on Jaspur's Half-Life that Sierra is planning on releasing a playable demo of Valve's Half-Life demo in mid-October.

Quake In Time
Quake is mentioned in the current Time Magazine, apparently finding itself being contrasted with a Dilbert educational game. The apparent conclusion, as drawn by SandHawk, who was the first to pass along this tidbit, is:

...Bottom line, Dilbert teaches you that your computer is your friend while Quake teaches you not to use your grenade launcher in a small room.

PQ Poll
Wampey's Censuses has (have?) become the PQ Polls, and have been updated with a new week's worth of Q&A.

Rush Trade-In
In a bold customer relations step, 3Dfx, having taken a public beating lately about the performance of the Rush chipset as compared to the Voodoo for certain applications (GLQuake in particular), is offering an exchange program that allows Rush owners to acquire a Voodoo card. They make the point that the two cards are designed for different uses, and owners of Rush-based cards who thought the card would be identical to Voodoo can now get the 3D performance they expected (albeit not in a window). Simultaneously, however, Zanshin has posted word on the Dojo that improved Rush performance was still in the works in the form of a new driver soon. Thanks to Saesar for passing along the following statement by Greg Ballard, President and CEO of 3Dfx posted to 3dfx.oem.products.hercules.stingray128-3d by 3Dfx Product Manager Tony Tamasi:

...Despite the award winning quality of the Voodoo Rush based products, 3Dfx recognizes that some users are dissatisfied with their Voodoo Rush based product. These users have expressed some disappointment over Voodoo Rush’s performance when running a small number of games that utilize alpha blending and z-buffering concurrently, the most notable of which is glQuake. We regret that there are any dissatisfied users, particularly if that dissatisfaction is based upon a misunderstanding that Voodoo Rush would run all applications as fast as Voodoo Graphics. Because 3Dfx is committed to customer satisfaction and delivering the best gaming experience, we are offering current Voodoo Rush customers the opportunity to exchange their Voodoo Rush daughtercards from their dual-planar Hercules Stingray 128 3D boards for a 3D-only Voodoo Graphics board. For those that elect to participate in this offer, you will retain the base Hercules board with the Alliance 2D controller, and will receive a Voodoo Graphics based full screen 3D solution.

This offer is available to current owners of Voodoo Rush based products, and is good through October 24, 1997. Simply send your Voodoo Rush based daughtercard to 3Dfx, and 3Dfx will ship you a Voodoo Graphics based board in return, no questions asked. If you would like to participate in this program, please send an email to customer_service@3dfx.com. We are currently working out the logistics and will send details to interested parties by 9/26/97....

Hexen2World Query
In his .plan, Rick Johnson mentions that he's soliciting ideas for simple features to include in Hexen2World that may be missing from QuakeWorld, so break out those wishlists.

Lion Lives?
There's word in this blurb on Next-Generation Online that a new company called WestLake technologies (which includes founding members from the late Lion Software, who did the MacQuake port) is now working on the Macintosh ports of Unreal and Shadow Warrior. Thanks loonyboi.

LavaBall Fix
There is a new progs.dat fixing a couple of small things on the LavaBall  page. Thanks Prophet.

Text Hexen Walkthroughs
The walkthrough of the fifth, and final, hub of Hexen II, as well as walkthroughs of all the Hexen II hubs in text format have been posted on HexenWorld. HTML versions with screenshots, etc., are promised soon.

New Visage
A new version of Visage, the Macintosh Quake pak editor, was posted a few days ago on the Visage page. Thanks Prophet.

Preview/Reviews

• OGR posted a review of Shadow Warrior.
• Gamesmania has posted a Shadow Warrior review as well. Thanks Prophet.
• OGR also updated their Jedi Knight preview again, with more new screenshots.
• GameSpot has posted their review of Hexen II. Thanks Prophet.
• Redox Portal has also posted a review of Hexen II.
• HexenWorld has a Hexen II review by loonyboi, with another by Fargo on the way.

Interviews

• Todd Hollenshead, id Software CEO, is interviewed on p00p + PaK's Quake Interviews Page.
• American McGee, id Software level stud is interviewed on the Pandemonium.
• The CNET TC Profile, from this weekend is available from Brutality as a RealVideo file (Real player required), courtesy of Rumble. This profile mentions the Paradigm TC and X-Men Quake, and discusses licensing issues, etc. There is also a nice plug there for Nakedman's TC page.
• Duke Nukem (you thought he wasn't real, right?) is interviewed on Balls-of-Steel. (B.O.S. is a pinball site, and the interview is in-game audio clips matched to questions... get it?) Thanks Prophet.
• Scott Miller, of Apogee/3D Realms, is interviewed (for real) on Voodoo Extreme.

Movements

• Siege, a Hexen II teamplay mod (described as being in the vein of CTF or TeamFortress) has relocated to www.hexenworld.com/siege/.
• Unholy Cathedral a Hexen II files repository has moved to www.hexenworld.com/bakshra/.
• The Screenshot Archive has relocated to archive.gamesmania.com/.
• The Quake 2 Press has moved to q2press.3dx.org/. Thanks Prophet.

etc.
New Rocket Arena level screenshots are starting to appear on The Pit (the Rocket Arena Strategy Guide) ... The MageSlayer Times has undergone a nice redesign ... There are some new Anachronox non-player character sketches on Anachronews. Thanks Prophet ... Log parser of the day is QLog, now up to version 1.40. Thanks Prophet. ... There's a copy of a cool new Half-Life ad floating around, this copy is a t Jaspur's Half-Life ... Just for fun, Joost Schuur sent along the URL of the True Blue Fan Club (no relation) ... And I finally tracked down an image of an old Quake Cereal box from this site ...

PC Gamer Gallery
PC Gamer updated their screenshot gallery to show four shots from the opening Quake II animation.  There is also a fifth shot of intro animation on this page at the Sentinal.

Sexiest Players
Siren's Pic page is holding a contest where you vote for the sexiest male and female Quake players. Voting runs through October 31.

Another Rumor Mill Update
As reported earlier, as reported on Voodoo Extreme, there is a rumor circulating that PC Gamer (UK) has acquired exclusive rights to distribute the Quake II Demo on their enclosed CD (thanks The Fluffy Bunny of Chaos). I mailed Kevin Cloud about this and he replied that this was not the case:

As for the demo, we have not given PC Gamer UK an exclusive on the Quake II demo. Further, we have no plans to give any publication an exclusive. This is probably a miscommunication that will be cleared up soon.

I then received the following from Jim Flynn, the Editor of PC Gamer (UK) that explains where the two stories may yet mesh:

We've been talking to Activision in the UK about covermounting the Quake II demo when it arrives. We will be the first magazine in the UK to run it (and will also be the first UK mag to review the full game when it's finished). But this is an UK printed material exclusive agreement only - ie it does not affect the net, US or any other territories in any way whatsoever - so Kevin's quite right. I've currently little idea of exactly what form any demo will take, when it will arrive or how our timing will compare to other magazines across the world. I'm just sitting here, waiting for The Day and wondering how the QDQ guys managed their latest effort. Gits.

New Malice Screenshots
Four new screenshots of Malice were posted yesterday on NAWC.

New NoCreate
Version 1.0 of NoCreate (390 KB), the patch that prevents the "Create" cheat in Hexen II listen servers (and, to my knowledge, the only patch available whose name rhymes with "procreate") has been released on the Strategon. The new version also prevent the use of the "Cosmos" cheat, which was inadvertently left enabled in the first NoCreate.

CNET Quake
I keep forgetting to post that to accompany the CNET story on TC's over the weekend (which I hear was very good) there is a CNET Quake partial conversion (772 KB) by Katana Software that, according to the description allows you to kill show hosts Richard Hart and Desmond Crisis. Thanks Brash, the first to write about this.

New AirQuake
AirQuake test 19 (1.5 MB), the truly amazing Aircraft TC, has been released, including a new level, on the AirQuake TC homepage. Thanks Prophet.

New Navy Seals
A version 1.91 (1.6 MB) upgrade for version 1.81 (2.6 MB) of the Navy Seals patch is out on the Navy Seals page (formerly the non-self-explanatory Goosman's Guns). Like Airquake, this is a high quality, highly recommended project.

Fourth Hub Walkthrough
A walkthrough demo of the fourth hub in Hexen II has been posted here on Frag.com.

3D Card Info

• Zanshin updated the Dojo dispelling the rumor that Quantum 3D's upcoming killer 3D card is based on Voodoo2 technology. He says the card will be 3Dfx Obsidian based, but confirms that it will, in fact, double the framerate for GLQuake over Voodoo based cards.
• There are profiles of most of the current crop of 3D video cards up on Combat Simulations 3d Acceleration. It's from a flight sim perspective, but lots of generally helpful information there. Thanks Prophet.

Interview
Myscha The Sled Dog - There is an interview with Epic Megagames T. Elliot Cannon, AKA, Myscha The Sled Dog up on Shadows. Thanks Prophet.

Tournaments

• Signups the European T3 Tournament are underway on the ClanRing page, and will continue through October 3.
• A Japanese Rocket Arena tourney is scheduled for next Saturday (the page is in Japanese).

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties front, an event in Airdrie, N. Lanarkshire, Scotland; one in Los Lunas, NM; one in Perth, Australia; and another in Spring City, PA. Also, Mars, the organizer of the Spring City event, has posted his huge collection of Fray Pictures.

etc.
It's never too early to start worrying about how the next DirectX will screw up your system, so you can peek into the future with bootNet's look at DirectX 6.0/'98, said to be part of the upcoming NT 5.0. Thanks Hanif ... MacQuakeWorld Petition - I'm not huge on petitions, but there is a petition up here to try and convince MacSoft to work out a MacQuakeWorld port that could be worth a try ...

Quake Forever
Quake Forever, a new TC that replaces most of the monsters and weapons in Quake has been released on the Phantom Interactive page.

Fantasy Fix
There is a patch on the Fantasy Quake page that fixes a problem that occurs in co-op games. Thanks Prophet.

LavaBall Update
There is a buglist on the LavaBall page that you should check out before reporting a problem. Also on the LB Page is word on the custom QuakeSpy (GameSpy?) LavaBall Tab. Thanks Prophet.

More Hexen II Console Commands
Another (more comprehensive?) list of Hexen II Console and command prompt commands can be found on The Quake Script Site.

New QBSP
Tree has released a new contender into the crowded QBSP field with his release of TreeQBSP v1.54 (71 KB), which boasts reduced memory requirements, by 40 to 90% over similar programs, while maintaining a complete feature set:

• Transparent water
• Hipnotic rotation
• Most hard-coded limits are gone (MAX_MAP_PLANES, etc.)
• Multi-wad support (WorldCraft style)
• .por file generation a la YWBSP
• New improved .pts files (makes leak detection easier)

Interviews

• Ion Storm's Tom Hall will be revealing the contents of his brain in a public chat session as part of the Microsoft Network's FreeWire Cafe Chat Series. The chat will be held September 24, at 5:00 PM Pacific time.
• Valve Software's Doug Wood is interviewed on the Half-of-It. Thanks Prophet.
• Ion storm's Dr Sleep sent an interview scanned from an English newspaper to Daikatana The Shrine. Thanks Prophet.

Site Seeing
Q-Fever is a new site that reviews patches and total conversions. Under their scrutiny this week is TeamFortress.

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties scene, a planning stages event in Cincinnati, OH; word on Camping Clan Nights, both tonight(?) and a week from tonight (bring your own tent) in Lancaster, CA; Impulse '97, in Melbourne, Australia, has now got a firm date, and is having a map contest, details are here.

etc.
A Matrox Millennium II performance tip can be found here, part of Quake Tech, a cool techie site ... TF Clan News - to help them comprehensively cover the TeamFortress scene, Andremal's Realm is requesting that TF clans mail them reports on matches, demos, etc. (they are also willing to spectate matches) ... Front-End of the day is QUADS (Quake Add-On Starter) which has just gone to version 2.2, available on Johannes Weiman's Quake Page ... Congrats to Doomer, winner of the Swedish Quake Championship for the second year in a row (he's won a computer each time). Read about it (in Swedish) here. Thanks Morran ... Three new Apocalypse TC screenshots have been posted by Steve Funkadooda on the .plan A file. Thanks Prophet ...

LavaBall Released
Jonathan... Jonathan. That's right Public Beta 0.90 of the LavaBall TC has been released (a day earlier than expected, no less) on the LavaBall Home Page. Here's the client pack (1.2 MB) and the server pack (74 KB).

WCU Canceled
The Worldcraft University class scheduled for tomorrow has been canceled. No word yet on a rescheduled date.

HexenWorld Weekly Poll
There is a weekly poll up and running over at HexenWorld.

Duke Nukem Forever Screenshot
The first Duke Nukem Forever screenshot was released by George Broussard during his IRC interview last night showing a really cool looking vehicle. Thanks Prophet.

New HeadHunters
As promised, Version 2.0 of the HeadHunters teamplay patch has been released on Headhunters Central. Here's the client pack (3.1 MB) and the server (100 KB), servers will need both files.

Hexen II Commands
Satanic has made a Commands page for HexenWorld to help keep tabs on all those console and command prompt commands.

New Hexen II Walkthrough
There is a walkthrough of the third Hexen II hub up on Hexen2.com.

History of Clan Play
There is a huge detailed article on the ClanRing site detailing the history of Clan play and the formation and organization of the Ring called Twenty Minutes Later The History of ClanRing. Thanks DuKe.

Worldcraft Patch
There is word on The Worldcraft Website that a patch is in the works to correct problems users of Worldcraft 1.5 have been experiencing with DirectX and Direct3D. Thanks illusion.

Previews & Reviews

• Gamespot has posted their "exclusive" Quake II  Preview. Thanks Ant.
• Next-Generation has posted a review of Hexen II. Thanks Prophet.
• AVault has a preview of the new Future versus Fantasy Quake. Thanks Prophet.
• Really looking forward, Next-Generation Online has a blurb about id's next generation game, Trinity. Thanks Wario64.

What They Said

• Paul Steed updated his .plan with more stuff about his contest.
• George Broussard of Apogee/3D Realms updated his .plan raving about an article in the current Boot magazine that centers on the Shadow Warrior racism controversy, as did Scott Miller, who also mentions some cool sounding Duke Nukem statues.
• Tom Hall updated his crezzy .plan  talking about the Age of Empires release party and mentioning that Anachronox will be out in two weeks (he was joking).
• Raven's Rick Johnson made a .plan update mentioning how impressed he is with the alpha of the Vérité Hexen II port.

Help Wanted
Rebel Boat Rocker is looking to fill positions as a level designer, a modeler/animator and a programmer. Check their website for info on these (paying) jobs.

Tournaments

• The TeamFortress Open gets underway tomorrow (not today as originally reported here). Details on the proceedings will be posted here.
• Internet Quake Coalition is a new clan-oriented non-QuakeWorld CTF league.

LAN Parties
On the LAN Parties front, EG Con '97 has a new webpage, and is rescheduled for the Canadian Thanksgiving (Thanksgibbing) day.

etc.
An avi movie showing real motion capture being converted to character animation for Monolith's upcoming Riot: Mobile Armor has been released in small (1.3 MB) and large (4.3 MB) versions. Thanks Earl ... Front-end of the day is QuakeLauncher now entering widespread beta testing ...