An email from the observant (and lemony-fresh) Toilet Duck, points out an interesting quote in the John Carmack interview posted earlier, a reference to 3Dfx's plans to announce a part that supports 32-bit color. Here's how T.D. put it:

In the Mat interview, it's very interesting bit in the second file (about 8 minutes in), where Carmack is talking about 32 bit color. He says that "When they finally announced that they would have this 32 part, Tiwirly was like, 'And this should make John Happy', but I feel that the 3dfx situation is really unfortunate."

The name of the 3dfx guy isn't clear (It sounds like too-early), but you might want to check out the interview at timestamp 8:10.

AFAIK, 3dfx hasn't announced ANY 32 bit parts (external, 3d, etc.), so this would be new, non-public tech.

Action Xtreme interviews Wesley Davis, Project Leader and Designer for Digital Platoon, eliciting some details about their upcoming Unreal-engine Project V1. Included in the interview are three exclusive screenshots with three more to be posted tomorrow with part two of the interview.

The Enternet Global Network site has a new alpha 593 version of the EGN2 server-browser/chat software. Thanks BetaNews.

PCGamer's Interactive Interview with Marc Laidlaw is online offering the answers to reader-submitted questions for the man who wrote the story for Half-Life. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Rust, the game editing design site, offers an interview with Ward Six's Dawn of Darkness team talking about this upcoming Dawn of Darkness Quake II add-on, and tossing in a half-dozen screenshots along the way.

The Qizmo page has a new version of the Qizmo QuakeWorld proxy that fixes a bug in 2.60 that was causing random exits under Windows '95. Thanks X-M4N. Qizmo is a full-featured proxy program for QuakeWorld.

The Rendition software download page has posted version: 3.0 beta3a reference drivers for their v2x00 series of accelerators (they're dated February 16). Thanks ]kaMpFsaU[. These drivers are Windows 98 native and support DirectX 6, but are still Windows 95 compatible, and offer built in OpenGL ICD support. A note on the page specifically mentions that "these drivers are NOT supported by Rendition. Use at your own risk."

A follow-up on the id interview stuff posted yesterday in Mat 'The Lurker' Bettinson's cunning .plan comes today in the form of a two part audio interview with John Carmack in .mp3 format. Here's part one of the John Carmack Interview (5.6 MB) and part two of the John Carmack Interview (10.3 MB), local copies, as always, thanks to Walnut Creek CDROM. Part one is a half-hour conversation about Quake III Arena in general, and part two is about an hour, and is more technical in nature, talking about graphics cards and networking, etc. Thanks Midiguy. Word is that transcribed versions will appear in a Gamespot UK article next week.

Version 1.01 of the Official Duke Nukem Forever FAQ is online at Dukeworld with new Q&A on the chances of a parental lock, the likelihood of a simultaneous Mac release, supported sound and video APIs, and more. Also, while digging on Dukiness, Duke Nukem's Ascent to World Domination is a new article at D.W. that, in the vein of the recent posting of all the games in the Duke series on the 3D Realms website, looks at the series from Duke 1 to Duke 3D, and ahead to Duke Nukem Forever and the rest of the upcoming Duke line, as well as the products spawned by series.

Threshold, Behavior pact for vidgame pix is an article on Variety that describes a pact between Threshold Entertainment and Behaviour Worldwide to finance and distribute eight movies based on computer games including Duke Nukem, and Zork. Thanks Spacklebeast. The article describes the Duke project as being on the fast track, and the Zork movie "a darker and more romantic pic..."

Layoffs Continue at Sierra is a GameCenter article that describes a layoff of 30 employees at Dynamix, something to which Tim Gift's .plan alluded. Thanks Lorien at GA-Source. Earlier this week Dynamix' parent Sierra announced that it was closing four development studios (here's another GameCenter article on that), including Yosemite Entertainment. According to the article on the new round of cuts, the 30 employees represent about 15 percent of Dynamix's staff.

FiringSquad's "Stepsister" SLI Preview gives a hands-on look at this new hardware setup from Metabyte that allows parallel use of any graphics chipset. The article even delves into the origination of the products icky name (no offense to any stepsisters out there).

The Zero Division page has posted a bunch of screenshots from Tank Fury, currently in beta. As the name implies this is a tank combat game, and they describe it as a blend of Quake-style deathmatch in Animé-style assault tanks with realistic racing physics and some pretty powerful weapons.

Making it in the game industry is a CNN article that talks with Interactive Digital Software Assn. President Douglas Lowenstein about the "unprecedented growth in the video game industry" and how it presents difficult challenges for developers and hardware manufacturers. Thanks dethkultur.

Word on Sniper.Net is Saturday March 13 they will be holding a Teamplay Boot Camp in Vancouver for Starsiege TRIBES and (if available) TeamFortress Classic.

• Here's an FCC ISP FAQ with a string of TLAs on the new ruling that should ease your mind. Thanks broken...
• The final release of the UKPAK level pack is out, offering eight four-on-four teamplay maps for Quake (1) done by a group of UK mappers...
• A new version 1.04 of the Powertweak program that promises to optimize your processor and chipset to work together is out. Thanks Tweak3D...

Off to GamesCon in Toronto mid-morning, just spending these last few hours alternating between filling the BlueJet and myself with anti-freeze (just kidding, you shouldn't drink and fly). I should be able to check in and update in the early afternoon. I was channel flipping yesterday and saw the portion of E.R. where they play Doom against another hospital ("shoot him with the BFG-9000!") pretty wild stuff.

Sad news, Culture News from Wired News reports the end of MST3K. Thanks Randy Perry. "If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts (la-la-la), Just repeat to yourself, 'It's just a show, I should really just relax...' for Mystery Science Theater 3000!"