Archived News:
Also new from Valve are two new deathmatch maps, one called DoubleCross by
Dario Casali: and the other called RustMill by Valve's John Guthrie and Dave Riller. Again, the
mirror of Blue's News FTP courtesy of Walnut Creek CDROM.
Full descriptions accompany each map.
Gabe from Valve sent along a shot of the classes in Valve's upcoming TeamFortress Classic, along
with the names of each underneath to tell which is which. Here's your TFC enemy (and
friend) recognition chart:
The GT Web FTP Archives
has the multiplayer patch for Blood2, AKA the Point Release. Here's a local copy on Blue's
News FTP as well as our Walnut Creek CDROM mirror.
There's also a list of mirrors on PlanetBlood.
I received some info and images giving word on the upcoming release of a life-action short
film based on Half-Life Uplink by UK marketing agency Cruise Control. Here are the shots,
followed by a bunch from the press release:
  
"Half-Life : Uplink" : Live Action Film To Be Released On-Line!
Half-Life combines state of the art gameplay with all the suspense of a Hitchcock
movie. The game sets you inside a secret government research facility where a horrific
accident leaves you stranded deep underground and fighting for your life against marauding
aliens and marines.
Half-Life : Uplink follows a journalist who hears about ‘the accident’and
manages to break in to the Black Mesa base to see what’s going on….
The film was commissioned by Lisa Humphries, product manager for Half-Life at Cendant
Software. “This long awaited title has met all our expectations and more. The film
has been designed for two reasons, one to draw in new gamers and let them experience
Half-Life, and two, to supply the gaming fraternity with a different angle on the game.
Something to share and something to say thank you”.
Filming took place inside an underground military facility at a recently decommissioned
USAF base in Bedfordshire, UK. “The location was perfect and must have been exactly
how Valve imagined the Black Mesa base to look” said Chris Birch, producer of the
film. “We tried to stay as true the game as possible. With a perfect location we had
to get the right sound effects and thanks to Sierra we were able to draw on the entire
sound library from Half-Life itself”.
“Half-Life has such a strong following. The aim was to support and build upon that
as well as draw in new players whose interest will have been sparked by seeing the
film” said Chris Birch. Fans will even be able to download two different endings with
possibly a third to come. The second ending will be available two weeks after the release
of the film.
The Half-Life film will be available in a variety of formats on-line at www.cruisecontrol.uk.com from Monday 22nd
February. Please note that this website will not be active until Saturday 20th
February.
Quake II Coming to BeOS is a story on BeNews that offers Voodoo2 screenshots of
OpenGL Quake II on a Pentium III running BeOS R4.1 (currently undergoing beta testing and
expected to be available by the end of Q1 1999). The article goes on to say: "No
public date has been set for release of Quake II, however it is expected to be available
as a free download for purchasers of the original Windows CD shortly after the release of
BeOS R4.1."
PlanetStarSiege has posted some new
screenshots from the TRIBES OpenGL beta.
There are a bunch of Blood
2: The Nightmare Levels screenshots on The Adrenaline
Vault showing off action from Monolith's upcoming official Blood2 add-on, as well as a page of shots of
weapon and enemy models.
Fresh 3d interviews Martin Barlow, lead programmer for
the Kick Engine.
2015's Tom Kudirka sends word that Wages of Sin, their official Sin Mission Pack, has gone
gold, and is off to manufacture. Tom says the pack should be on store shelves next week sometime.
Gangland.Org has a post from Xatrix' Greg Goodich
that mentions plans for a full demo prior to the non-interactive demo release. Here's the lowdown:
It looks like we will most likely release the demo prior to the release of the non-interactive movie.
Let me explain why...
The demo is in its final stages now and will be ready for release very shortly. It will include the entire first episode and will most likely be quite large.
Non-interactive movie trailers in gaming serve a few purposes. The first is to generate excitement about the product (in the fan base) before an interactive demo is ready and the second is for retailers to play on the video monitors in
selected outlets. Unfortunately for us, the movie trailer we want to show you folks is much different (content wise) then what would be allowed to show in
retail outlets. Also, Sony/Columbia will not allow us to "give away" an entire song for free.
The result of all of this is that we have decided to get the demo out first in its "raw" and "un-censored" way and then follow it up with the movie which has been edited for viewing in the retail outlets.
Pel Interactive has posted an interview
with g.o.d.'s Mike Wilson. Talking about qtest, Quake, people, shareware, and many
more things.
Silicon Graphics Releases OpenGL Windowing
Code to Open Source Community Via World Wide Web is the announcement that's said to "Release Further Extends Proliferation of OpenGL Across All
Operating Systems." Thanks ShieldWolf.
Version 1.0 of the Starseige Tribes: Skynet Mod is out offering
new weapons, turrets, deployables, and kits. All original items and weapons are intact with a few exceptions described later.
Thanks PlanetStarSiege.
The Lone Gunman's TRIBES sniping guide has been updated with more tips as well as word from Dynamix's tim gift on custom reticle problems.
The newly opened Drakan.Net has an exclusive new
screenshot showing off their namesake game, Surreal's upcoming Drakan: Order of the Flame.
The monthly Eye on
Storm Newsletter is online, among its new features offering an interview with
Daikatana Producer Kelly Hoerner. Thanks CiDcO at StormTroopers.
This page has instructions on how users of
the registered Half-Life can combine the files from the Uplink demo with the normal
Half-Life installation to save space and make the Uplink demo act like a Half-Life add-on.
Also, Morpheus has cooked up a way for owners of the registered
Half-Life to install a variant on the demo after a small four-something MB download. I
wanted to make sure this second shortcut was okay with Valve before passing it along, and
they just wanted it known there are a few bugs with it (titles don't work, there's some
overlapping dialog, that will cause problems that aren't in the demo proper).
Dominik "BiTBUSTER" Volmer, one time unofficial
German translator for Blue's News, sends along a beta version 0.12 of his Volumer TRIBES
Volume extraction program, here's
a link to a local copy (189 KB), as well as a mirror thanks to the fine nuts over at Walnut Creek CDROM. This program can help those
interested in editing TRIBES to extract all the resources within the game's volume files.
As promised, The Coven Disposable Heroes
Downloads page now has the Linux port of version 3.0 of their M.A.D. mod for Quake II,
which makes for a full set of Linux and Solaris ports for all three Quake II mods
featured in the Disposable Heroes pack for Quake and Quake II.
QPL.ORG is holding a PaintBall QW league to play
Thursday nights with a cash prize of $20.
After originally posting the id Site Cracked story yesterday, I made a couple of corrections based
on responses: one to change the word hacked to cracked (something I've messed up on
before, but I think I'll get it right in the future), and another to correct the mention
of Kevin Mitnick being jailed for computer crimes.
Mr. Mitnick has been detained for just shy of four years now, but has never been convicted
of anything. Also, {EvEm]_Xtro admits it's a bit pedantic to point out, but in this
Starsiege Screenshot story yesterday, I used the word "mech," a MechWarrior
term, where it should be "herc."
Off in the wee wee hours in the BlueJet to the wilds of Dallas to check out the Voodoo3. I
head out at about 5:00 AM and hope to grab a chance to update around midday when I arrive,
and perhaps again in the afternoon, but there's a worst case scenario that I won't be back
online until pretty late this evening (I think the midday update should work out). More on
discussions of holidays and occasions, I've been chided (hey, get a calendar!) for failing
to note both the start of Mardi Gras, and the Vietnamese holiday of Tet. Today is Ash
Wednesday, as well. That's a mouthful, but I'm sure I've still forgotten something =]
Link of the day: Crow's
Rutherford B. Hayes speech (thanks Schwab), in honor of President's day.
The GameSpy 3D page has version 2.08 of the
shareware GameSpy shareware which offers support for Starsiege TRIBES and Accolade's Redline.
PlanetBlood has posted a Q&A with Monolith's
Jay "Shade" Wilson on the upcoming Blood II add-on, talking about the story line,
weapons, monsters, and more, as well as word the Blood II patch (AKA the "point
release"), would be out this week sometime (we have a guarantee backed by Shade's
Mazda).
Saw on Voodoo Extreme that GameSpot's Tomb Raider III Demo
download page has an updated version of the Tomb Raider III demo that offers part of
the South Pacific level for your vacationing enjoyment, be there, aloha.
There are six new exclusive screenshots of Shiny's upcoming Messiah on Messiah Press. They are high resolution shots,
each weighing in at over 100 KB.
There's an Anachronox
development update on The Adrenaline Vault that give a status report on the game from
ION's Tom Hall. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
New beta version 1.02 Diamond
Monster Sound MX300 drivers have been posted, they're dated the 11th, but they're new.
Thanks David T. Dao.
Frag Fortune interviews' Chia Chin Lee,
sound designer for Raven software about Raven's upcoming Quake II-engine game of mercenary
action, Soldier of Fortune, talking about gameplay as well as sound issues.
ZDNNews News
Bursts and Rootshell each have
stories up about the cracking of the id Software Website
this morning. Thanks Conan Ford. For some time the site contained a message in support
of Kevin Mitnick, currently serving jail time awaiting trial for computer crimes.
Another screenshot from
the Starsiege beta has surfaced, this one on PlanetStarSiege
showing a mech's eye view of a convoy trotting along.
A Turok 2: Seeds of
Evil Multiplayer Server has been posted on Turok
Dot Com for ISP's and others who would like to run a Turok2 dedicated Rtime
multi-player server. The server archive is a 13 MB download containing four flavors of
dedicated server for WIN32 (Win 95/98/NT), Linux, Sun, and SGI.
There's a new Starsiege screenshot on Bad Karma showing off a mecha from
this upcoming prequel to TRIBES walking on the Moon (one small step for mecha, one giant
leap for mecha-kind). Thanks Datumplane::Starsiege.
Interplay's Kingpin Website
has posted some sample music
performed by Cypress Hill from the soundtrack
of the upcoming Quake II-engine gangsta extravaganza, Kingpin: Life of Crime.
Virgin and Interplay sign agreement is
the announcement that these two companies will be working together to combine efforts on
future distribution deals capitalizing on Virgin's establishment in the European market
and Interplay's in the US.
Version 0.6a of the Insomniax Mod for TRIBES is
now available, offering a new item, the cloaking pack, as well as several options that
affect administration of the server. Thanks PlanetStarSiege.
tAng at PlanetStarSiege sends word of an
updated version of TRIBES Axis commander (I've already made a Rommel reference on this
one, haven't I?). Here's the word:
Tribes Axis Commander(TAC) version 1.2 has been released for TRIBES. This is a
handy program that helps with configuring a players controller. It is available for download here.
The GameGirlz Course In Level Design is now
accepting sign-ups for these IRC classes that will be conducted by Dolomite of the D-Team. Here's the
skinny:
Run as an online course, people who sign up will be asked to take part in IRC
classes and forum discussions. Even if you know nothing about creating levels, by the end
of olomite's course... you will! This editing course will include topics such as: Getting
Started, Planning, Grids, Geometry, Textures, Light Entities, Speed, Advanced Geometry,
Geometric Abuse, Working with Mods and Their Authors, Teamwork, Online Presence,
Dispositions, and Hard Stuff.
Billy has posted six new screenshots (five of them are similar-like frames in a sequence),
showing off Activision's upcoming Heavy Gear II on Voodoo
Extreme.
There's a new Intel CPU
Roadmap for 1999 on Sharky Extreme giving
the latest intelligence on what the Big I has planned for the coming year gleaned from
"several conversations and meetings with key sources close to Intel."
A new walkthrough of chapter one of Blood2 is now up on PlanetBlood, covering the first 11 levels of the
game.
PlanetBlood has posted two new screenshots as
well as a sample of some of the music from Revelations, the upcoming
official Blood2 add-on from Tequila software.
The current issue of loonygames (great cover this
week, BTW) is off and running. Here are your crib notes on what will be posted all through
the week, there will be a test:
Yeah, it's issue twenty five...who knew? Creeping you out this week:
- The Unreal Cliffy B!: Jason "loonyboi" Bergman sits down with the guy behind
Unreal and Jazz Jackrabbit 2 to try and figure out how the heck he did both games
simultaneously! [Tuesday]
- From the Mouth of Madness: The ten most underrated games of all time! [Tuesday]
- Penny Arcade: A very special Penny Arcade! Trust us, you WON'T want to miss this one. :)
[Wednesday]
- PLUS: Fargloads of User Friendly [DAILY], Penny Arcade does TNT [Friday], our look at
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 first in Pixel Obscura [Wednesday], and then in The Bargain Bin
[Thursday], Code on the Cob returns, along with a new Graphic Content [Wednesday] and
more! And then some more, because we don't sleep. Got that?
- NOTE: loonygames is starting the week a day late in honor of President's Day, the day
that celebrates a bunch of presidents who didn't have affairs with their interns, but did
own slaves, grow hemp, and abused their wives. Actually, it's really because of
Valentine's Day. In order for us to update on Monday, our editor-in-chief would have had
to work on Valentine's Day...and that just wasn't happening. :)
The Faith CTF page has a new mod for Quake II
called Psyclass which allows the server-op total control over classes included in the game
with up to ten classes and over 50 variables for each class, hundreds of variations are
possible making each server unique.
There's a problem with the current release of BattleCruiser
3000AD with corrupted screens when going into the configure screen in the Glide
version, so there is an interim patch on the BC downloads page that addresses this until
version 2.05 is released.
Happy Chinese New Year. Day three of the beta test of the news database here, and it's
tough to continue to consider it a beta, since I can't seem to find any bugs in the
system. It is still uncertain how much of the old news can be added to the database how
quickly, but there are hopeful signs, so I've got my fingers crossed.
I received a correction on my explanation of President's Day here in the US saying it's
really just for George Washington, and a contradictory explanation that the holiday is
meant to honor all US Presidents not just Lincoln and Washington. I believe the latter is
the correct explanation, and it appeals to me, since it made my Warren G. Harding tribute
more appropriate (an anonymous writer queried: "How could you forget to honor Millard
Filmore? Traitor!").
Link of the day: This SANYO USA
Bread-Slicer. In spite of the designation BS-1, this is apparently not BS, but check
out the selling point in the logo in the lower right. Thanks esses.
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