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Archived News:
The Burpfish Network (the Burpfish
lives?) has posted a new screenshot from Daikatana
that was obtained during tonight's chat. The shot's from a level by
Stevie "KillCreek" Case, and here's the quickie description I got
from ION Storm's Bobby Pavlock:
That's a scene from the loading bay of E1M4 - the crematorium, I believe.
The monsters you see hovering are the DeathSpheres, the robot is the RageMaster,
and the fat guy and skinny guy are 2 worker NPCs.
AllGames gal Bobbi sends along word of a new
LAN party/online competition being put together by the CPL,
HEAT.NET, and AllGames.
It's an all Female Quake 2 tournament called the Female Frag Fest, and the whole thing starts as an online tournament, but the finals are being held at a LAN party here in NYC. Go get the scoop from the press
release.
The PGL finals have been announced (see press
release) along with the finalists in both the Quake 2 and Starcraft categories. The
finals will be held on May 21 - 22 at XS
New York, right here in sunny Manhattan. Profiles
of all the winners can be found on the PGL's site as well.
chUmbaLum sOft (jeez, and I thought
my caps were weird) has released v1.0 of their Open GL Half-Life Model Viewer,
along with its corresponding source code, which according to the developer is
ready to port to X11.
Computer Gaming Review (newly spun off from Warzone) has posted a short Q&A with id's Graeme
Devine about Q3A. So short in fact, that Apache fired the whole thing off in his mail, so
with thanks to CGR, here's the poop:
CGR: How will Quake3 Arena's bots raise the bar in terms of AI and
performance over exisiting bots?
Graeme Devine: Our bots don't follow set paths or "waypoints", they have
the luxury of being able to work with the level designer's map data directly to preprocess
their data, something existing bots cannot, and that gives us a database which has
superior information.
CGR: How are the physics going to be different in Quake3 Arena compared to Quake
and Quake 2?
Graeme Devine: Obviously being the same brand name as Quake and Quake 2 we've not
messed with the physics too much. We've added jump pads and acceleration pads to speed up
navigation around the levels and that makes the biggest difference to gameplay physics. A
jump pad replaces all ladders in the game by blasting you off the ground and into the air,
while an acceleration pad accelerates you in the direction it faces.
An update to the Starsiege
TRIBES Status Page by Mitch "Skeet" Shaw gives the skinny on what to expect
from the tools that will be released with the upcoming TRIBES 1.4 patch (now in Q/A).
Thanks Datumplane::Starsiege.
Welcome back to Skeet's Update Corner (the acronym says it all). By now, you
probably all know that the 1.3.12 patch is finished and distributed, and now we're getting
busy working on 1.4. The tools package is in QA right now, and we should be edging ever
closer to giving that bundle over to you folks. I've heard some concern over what might or
might not be in this tools release, so here's a quick rundown: MakeSkin -- the utility we
released a couple of months ago to process your custom skins (just in case you didn't grab
it the first time)
Matilda -- this creates DMLs, which ZED and other utilities use.
MaxShapes -- contains the 3DStudio Max plugins to export DTS shapes, along with a heaping
helping of the MAX files and bitmaps we used in TRIBES.
Missionlighting -- the executable and script file needed to relight missions. These were
also in the 1.3.12 patch, but in case you didn't get that patch, here they are again.
PicaNew -- an advanced utility that allows you to process 24-bit textures into 8-bit
textures, create palettes or remap textures according to an existing palette.
VolumeTools -- utilities for manipulating .VOL files. Includes VT (create volume or add
file to volume), VMerge (add the contents of one volume to another), VTList (list contents
of a volume), and Extract (I think you can guess what this one does).
ZEDTools -- the set of programs that allow you to create interiors (buildings, rocks, etc)
and process them for use. Includes ZED (actual interior editor), ZEDbuild (interior
processor), ZEDlight and ZEDshape (two programs called internally by ZEDbuild), some
example shapes, and a nifty HTML manual cooked up by Diamondback himself. Consider
yourself warned.
MiscTools -- all the stuff that didn't get lumped in somewhere else. Includes Mipmake
(create mipped versions of bitmaps), TexTable (generates a DML and lookup table for
terrains), and a HTML manual for the mission editor.
For the 3D strategy fans out there, WON.net is looking for a few beta testers
for Homeworld. Here's the details:
We're looking for a few good space soldiers to shake out the Homeworld
Vessels and the new WON.net multiplayer system in a live environment. Beta testers
are expected to play a lot of Homeworld on-line over the next two weeks and
report bugs, discuss issues on the WON.net message board dedicated to Homeworld
and tell us what you think.
If that's up your alley, head over to their sign-up
page and apply.
Mod Central's Guide to Team
Fortress Classic to help get you going in the right direction in Valve/Team Fortress
Software's just-released add-on for Half-Life.
There's a Drakan
Order of the Flame Preview on GameSpot UK and
an Oni Preview on PC Paradox,
looking ahead at these two third-person action games. Thanks Billy.
According to The Adrenaline Vault News, recent rumors of a delay in system Shock 2 are not true (thanks
again Billy). Here's the poop from AVault:
First Electronic Arts announced that the 3D action-adventure System Shock 2
had been delayed until the fall. When we contacted them to obtain a comment regarding the
reasons, we were directed to TSI, the game's public relations agency, which today told us
"The game will be shipping this summer." Now that is a release date confirmation
we can smile about.
The loonster has definitely come up with a handy way to compartmentalize some of the day's doings in the world of hardware by combining a few bits into an afternoon byte (don't spoil your dinner): First, there's a Voodoo3 Overclocking Guide & 3500 Info article on Sharky Extreme
discussing planned availability of 3dfx's top-of-the-line V3 accelerator, as well as the first info on how to overclock a V3 for the true performance freak. Similarly, the front page of Hot Hardware has some info on their experiments in overclocking a pre-production TNT2 they've gotten their hot hands on, showing results after pushing the memory clock up to 180 MHz. Finally, Matrox G400
Screenshots with Environment Mapped Bump Mapping is a piece on GA-Source showing off the Matrox G400's environmental bump-mapping feature with screenshots of Descent 3, Slave Zero and Speed Busters.
There are eight brand-new Hired Guns
screenshots on GA-Source showing off this upcoming Unreal-engine game from Psygnosis and Devil’s
Thumb Entertainment that follows up on the old Amiga game of the same name. This action/strategy/RPG hybrid that divides your screen into four first-person views (to allow you to act as any of the four members of your team), is expected to be released sometime this Spring.
According to FGN Online, Unreal version
224 is on its way Real Soon Now, and Unreal Tournament will not ship before
E3. Here's the skinny:
The release of the 224 version of Unreal in nearing. In addition, despite
a tentative March or April release expected for the obviously excellent Unreal
Tournament, Epic has confirmed that the game will not ship before E3. Mark Rein,
vice president of the developer, has given details as to a demo release, as
well as the emergence of the latest version of Unreal. "There will be a demo
of Unreal Tournament sometime prior to it's retail release," he confirmed. "I
don't know if we'll do a public beta or not. We'll be releasing the 224 update
for Unreal sometime soon and it's got a lot of the same underlying code as the
current build of Unreal Tournament, so it should serve as a pretty good test
for shaking any engine-related bugs out of Unreal Tournament. We'll certainly
be watching for bugs with much enthusiasm.
According to an interview with the Daily
Dementia with Oddworld head Lorne
Lanning, the next title from the company will no longer be using the Unreal
engine (thanks FGNOnline). Here's a quote:
The problem with licensing game engines in general, is they're very
highly and specifically designed to specific performances, and the reason Unreal
shined well in its day, was because it was very hard-wired into a specific way
of utilizing its own world and the hardware specifics of that time...but when
you want to extrapolate and make more complex worlds, and really break a lot
of the rules that have existed, then those tools don't seem to have as great
of an impact as you hoped they would, because they're kind of embedded in a
history...in the final analysis, it looks today as though we will not be using
Unreal.
If you're one of those people who's planning on upgrading from a Voodoo 1 to
one of those newfangled Voodoo 3 cards, take note of this bit sent along by
Mark Muller of Volition:
I added a few Voodoo 3s to our stable here today and when upgrading
from voodoo 1 to the 3, I encountered problems if *all* voodoo 1 driver files
were not removed before installing the new card. This includes, but is not limited
to the following: glide.dll, glide2x.dll, glide2x.ovl, sstinit.dll, dd3dfx.drv,
dd3dfx16.dll, dd3dfx32.dll, and fxmemmap.vxd. If these files aren't removed,
chances are the machine will lock on running any 3d accelerated game. Upgrades
from Voodoo2 went smoothly with no extra steps needed.
I'd suggest doing a HD search for these files before you install that new card, as Voodoo 1 uninstall programs have been known to leave these lingering around.
Presto sends along word that version 0.93 of the Presto Pack for Starsiege:
TRIBES is available, adding a new feature (a client-side muting menu) and fixing
enough bugs that anyone who's got an earlier version will want to upgrade as
soon as humanly possible. Snag that over at the Presto
Pack Page (try saying that six times fast).
There's a big Quake III
Arena feature on PC Zone offering a look at
id's upcoming shooter ( note: since this story was posted, they've
added a registration form, so you have to submit info enter the site now). The piece
has a Q&A sidebar with John Carmack that includes some subjects like John's favorite
games, and his one fight in high-school (a victory no less), as well as a load of answers
from members of the id crew to various questions about the game. Also included are several
screenshots of action from Q3A. Here is a quote from John Carmack about the state of
progress in Quake III Arena in the war against 'net lag:
Carmack: "Jerkiness is the characteristic of Net play that has been most
improved. Almost all visual effects are either cued for local running, or presented in a
parametric or other extrapolatable form, so that when packets fail to arrive on time, most
of the world continues as expected without a visible hitch. Of course, if your Net
connection really craps out and you don't receive any new packets for several hundred
milliseconds, the action will reach the reasonable limits of its predictability. Perceived
lag has been decreased by allowing more actions to be handled completely on the client
side, without having to make a round trip to the server. Weapon cycling, falling/stepping/
walking view feedback, and weapon muzzle flash/sound feedback are all done locally now.
The actual effects of your actions on the world and other players still requires a round
trip to the server, so lag isn't gone, but it is improved over all previous
efforts
You read that right. A public grudge match has broken out, thanks to LamingInsider,
id Software's Paul Steed, and Ritual's
Murphy Michaels. The challenge? To create the best sub-1000 polygon female model in an, "interesting pose." The first round is to create the model, the second, to create an original skin and 90 second animation. The stakes as set by Paul Steed are:
If I don't win then I'll convert, animate and deliver the winner's model as a Q3:A md3 before the game ships. Note, this model will be game-ready but not ship with the game.
Entries for the first round must be received by May 1, so get cracking. The winners will be determined by the public, but the artist's names will be withheld until the contest is over (so no stuffing the ballot for Steed, ladies). If you're wondering how this whole thing started, read up on the history, it's definitely entertaining.
Very hot on the heels of the release of the Half-Life SDK come a pair of Half-Life editing
stories: First, Wavelength,
the Half-Life editing site, has posted a pair of new tutorials on creating Half-Life mods,
one on getting started, and the other on creating a three bolt crossbow. Second, the Rust editing site, has begun the Gamedesign.net
Half-Life Forum where mod makers can exchange ideas and such on Half-Life programming.
Dr. Uwe Girlich updated his Demo Specs
page with new versions of a couple of his comprehensive demo utilities:
Dr. G also passed along the following about duplicating his prodigious efforts at doping out the innards of demo recording in the future for Quake III Arena (this is a reference to how the data provided by his work can possibly be used by those looking to
exploit the game code):
I would like to use the opportunity to make clear that I wont publish any
information on the upcoming Quake 3: Arena demo format without an (at least half-)
official approval of id software. This may harm the movie community but whoever heard the
(leaked) interview with John Carmack (2nd file, last 15 minutes) knows about the problem.
I wont risk any legal consequences.
Tonight at 8:00 PM CDT (9:00 PM EDT), Planet
Daikatana will be hosting the April edition of the monthly Cabana Chat with the
Daikatana team members to discuss Daikatana's status and more. The chat is in IRC at
'www.ionstorm.com' #ion, or you can connect through the online button on the Ion Storm website.
There's a gl editor screenshot on the 4D Rulers page showing off the 24-bit color OpenGL editor they are using to create their upcoming first-person shooter, Gore.
Frans from 3D Action Gamers sends word
they've posted the German/French/Italian/Spanish Half-Life v1.0.0.9 patches with Team
Fortress Classic to the 3D
Action Gamers' Archive Half-Life page. Frans says these files are also on ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/.
The Song Of Death Homepage has version 1.2 of the Song
of Death teamplay mod for Quake/QuakeWorld. SoD offers Capture the flag with six different
player classes, 19 new weapons, and new Song of Death maps.
Sloshy Software Inc. has the new version
2.38 of their Quick Start - Eraser Bot Wizard, their front-end for the Eraser bot for Quake II.
- In print: Several readers have written in to point out John Carmack and his fabulous Ferraris are featured in the May issue of Car & Driver magazine.
Also, Jeff sends word that the "Readings" section in April Harper's Monthly
(pp 30-31) includes several bios from the PGL page in an article titled "She Got Game." Included are Kornelia, Pookie, Mystique, and Jasp...
- GameCenter's 3D Graphics
Chip Scorecard has been updated...
- Blizzard Chat Session 7
April 1999 transcript is online with all the Diablo II discussion...
- Just Coolin
Around is an article on HardOCP's recent success
overclocking a 300 MHz Celeron to 600 MHz, now offering benchmarks...
- The Glide Underground has news of their
tangles with 3dfx that has resulted in the removal of all their Glide wrapper emulators...
BlueTracker is only partially fixed -- the .plan files no longer generate an error when
there's a database problem, but rather display the last .plan posted by that author. But
it is still messing up the new .plan entries, so I'm hoping we can fix that today. The new
LAN Parties page is shaping up quickly, I think that will be up soon too. Phoebus passes
along word that once you make one of those IE5 icons for a site, it doesn't change even if
you switch the file, so I don't know how to update it to the transparent version for those
who already have it (oh well). Someone wrote in saying it was 'ironic" that I used an
IE5-only icon with my "any browser" stance. That's that cheesy form of Alanis
Morrisette kind of irony: The site has images, but supports text-only browsers too
(yeesh). By the way, I changed the link on this page, but I want folks to be aware that if
they send in news and they want both loony and myself to receive it, please use the news@bluesnews.com email, rather than the blue@...
one. Thanks!
Link of the Day: Anvil
Firing. It's been a while since we've had dangerous experimentation on the LoD.
Today's edition is a bit more low tech than the usual fare here, but still fun. Thanks
Rich LaPorte.
If you're having trouble installing or connecting using the new 1.0.0.9 Half-Life/TeamFortress Classic releases, perhaps one of the following pair of tips sent along buy readers will help. Here the first one from ExsMediocre:
A lot of people are having problems connecting to 1009 FinalTFC. The 1009 TFC
LAN patch installed a client.dll under tfc/cl_dlls dir. this file is not used or
overwritten with the 1009 Final patch. If this file is still in your TFC dir you get an
error about conflicting client.dlls and it will not allow the connection. The simple fix
is just to delete this dll. Everyone including server operators need to remove this dll.
Even uninstalling HL first and then reinstalling does not fix this unless you delete the
HL dir before reinstalling.
And there's this, from JB:
Problem : Error in setup, incorrect language settings when installing the
1.0.0.8->1.0.0.9 patch with Lan Party TFC patch already installed.
Fix : Change the ShortTitle entry in the sierra.inf file from "HALFLIFELAN" to
"HALFLIFE"
GuruTech has posted the answer to a one
question Q&A with 3D Realms' George Broussard talking about the new Sven Technologies'
Multi-Resolution Geometry technology that they just announced would be included in Duke
Nukem Forever ( story). Here's the reply (kinda hard not to gank the whole thing):
George Broussard: We've had the stuff in for something like 5-6
months. It dropped it in initially in a couple of days. We tweaked things over
a couple of weeks and have had no problems. The game will benefit from drawing less
polys than it needs to. DNF is a test bed for the technology for us, but I see no
reason not to consider it for future games. It saves you from re-inventing the
wheel.
[TF] The Cleanser sent along a GameSpy tab so that users of this server browser can easily find servers running the newly released
Team Fortress Classic for Half-Life. Here's a local copy of the teeny tab (300 bytes), along with mirrors.
WinHEC this week means lots of hardware news... NVIDIA issued a couple of press releases today, first announcing their support for TeraLogic's DTVPC system (allowing HDTV to be viewed on your PC) and second announcing their plans to integrate "transform and lighting" processes into their products. What the heck does that mean? Here's an excerpt:
By moving T&L calculations from the CPU to the graphics processor, there are more cycles available for modeling physics, artificial intelligence, character behavior and game play; areas that are severely lacking in modern applications. The benefit is two-fold, a world that both looks and behaves realistically.
In non-NVIDIA news, new reference drivers are available on Rendition's downloads page for Verite V2x00 based cards. These are Windows 98 native, and fully DirectX 6 compliant. Thanks Assassin. Finally, there's an interview with Dan Wood on GA-Source talking with Matrox' Senior product manager about the recently-announced additions to their upcoming G400 line.
Kali-guy Brian Hayes sends word that a new version of the server browsing Kali95
has been released. This version adds support for Delta Force, Red Baron 3D,
Team Fortress Classic, Railroad Tycoon 2, South Park, Demon Star, Starcraft
and Brood War V1.05 and Wages of Sin. Phew! Snag that over at the Kali
homepage.
Ritualistic has posted an interview
with RiEvEr, the author of the ReDeMpTiOn bot for Sin, entitled, "Walk
forward. Stop. Fire." (Thanks Hexagon).
ShadowFactor Software has released a new version 1.2 Beta 4 of their BattleComm (formerly known as "BattleField Communicator") client software, along with version 0.90 Beta 5 of the server. This program allows real-time voice communication in multiplayer games, even for modem users,
and the new release fixes some bugs, extends the beta expiration date, and adds support that allows the activation of BattleComm through ICQ.
PlanetUnreal has posted a few more new screenshots from Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament, these showing off two more weapons, "the Enforcer," and "the Translocator." They also have posted an extensive preview of RealCTF, an upcoming free CTF mod for Unreal.
Just when you thought it was safe to install NT... News.com
is reporting that
Microsoft has another DOS based operating system in the works, to be released
sometime in the year 2000. This is contrary to previous reports that their next
consumer OS would be based around an NT kernel, and not DOS based. Regarding
whether it'll be a new version of Win98 or something entirely different seems
to be in dispute, as the article has conflicting reports:
Microsoft, in fact, seems to be debating the issue itself. While Ballmer
called the OS a "new version" of Windows 98, a Windows product manager placed
it in a "new generation" category.
"Don't think of it as a new version of Windows 98," said Mike Nichols, a Windows
product manager. The upcoming OS will be based on the same code, but will contain
a number of new features, he said.
'StepUp' Windows
98 release on tap is a ZDNN story that says:
"Users who were distressed at the thought of paying Microsoft Corp. $89 for a minor
upgrade to Windows 98, take heart," as it follows up on the announcement reported
yesterday ( story) that the Win98 StepUp program to fixes bugs, etc. would be
fee-based, with word that "Microsoft has multiple -- not just one -- upgrades to
Win98 up its sleeve." Thanks Maverick. Here's a quote:
But the company also is readying a CD-only, non-retail upgrade for existing
Windows 98 customers at a substantially reduced price. Like the full edition, the upgrade
will include fixes plus new features. Microsoft plans to sell the CD direct only, as its
low cost will prohibit it from being a product of interest to resellers, says Windows
product manager Mike Nichols. Nichols said the company has not decided on pricing.
There's a Kingpin: Life of Crime interview on 3D Spotlight talking with Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin from Xatrix Entertainment about Kingpin, the upcoming Quake II-engine game that puts you smack dab in the heart of the underworld, with the goal of clawing your way to the top of the mob. The piece also offers a handful of screenshots.
Beyond 3D has posted some new screenshots showing
off Activision's upcoming Heavy Gear II running on a TNT at 1024x768 resolution, using
32-bit color.
Version 0.5 of the Unofficial MDK2 FAQ
is online, with a preliminary set of Q&A about the upcoming sequel to MDK.
Eidos Interactive Announces Tomb Raider II Gold. Word is a playable demo of the new reworking or TR2 will be available on GameCenter on April 22. TRII Gold will be free to those who already own TRII.
Sharky Extreme's Weekly CPU Prices update offers some early skinny on AMD's upcoming K7 CPUs, discussing details gleaned from off-the-record discussions with two of the firms that currently possess Alpha K7 systems, discussing indications that the K7 is more on a par with the PIII, rather than its clear superior.
As planned, Team Fortress Classic for Half-Life has been released, which will update your Half-Life executable to a new version 1.0.0.9. You can get the patch via the Half-Life auto-update feature, or here are pages with local copies and mirrors of all four new releases. Here is the 1.0.0.5 to 1.0.0.9 update (20.5 MB), here is the 1.0.0.8 to 1.0.0.9 update (19.0 MB), here is the Standard Half-Life SDK (13.5 MB), and the Standard SDK
source code (713 KB).
3dfx sends along a couple of press releases, this one to announce Voodoo3 accelerators would be on the motherboard of the next line of Packard Bell computers, and this one announcing that the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 are in stores as of today, the 143 MHz V3-2000 accompanied by an Eidos game sampler, and the TV-out equipped 166 MHz Voodoo3 3000 offering a bundle of Need
for Speed III, Descent 3 Sol Ascent (a five level version of the game), and Unreal, along with a coupon for Unreal tournament, when it is available. The release also outlines US and European availability and pricing for the cards. Here's some info they've included
about some benchmarks they commissioned:
According to ZDTag test results released today, the blistering real-world
performance of the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 handily outpaces the non-3dfx based competition's
most powerful shipping products the nVidia TNT-based Diamond Viper V550, the S3
Savage3D-based Hercules Terminator Beast, and the ATI Rage 128-based Rage Fury.
In Quake II time demo testing*, ZDTag found the Voodoo3 3000 scored an astounding 95.7
percent faster than its nearest competitor, the ATI Rage Fury. The tests, conducted at a
resolution of 1,024 by 768, also found the Voodoo3 2000 is 68.8 percent faster than the
ATI card. Complete test results are available today at http://www.3dfx.com/.
The Enternet Global Network page has the 621 alpha version of EGN2, their program that combines a server browser with an ICQ-type chat client. From the page: "This build was mainly released to get in the new Tribes
server support. GameScan and other gaming features are being worked on at the current time."
Computer
Games Online previews the TNT2 (thanks Billy).
Also, Hot Hardware has posted a preview of the Leadtek Winfast
S320 II after a hands-on look at a pre-production version of this upcoming TNT2-based
accelerator. The board in the Hot Hardware article has a 150 MHz. core speed and a 170
MHz. Memory Speed, but the clock speeds for the TNT2 are not hard and fast, as this quote
from the CGO article explains:
The actual speed of the cards will vary widely, depending on what the hardware
manufacturers want to make. The least expensive TNT 2 cards will probably have the core
processor at a clock rate of 125MHz and the memory clocked higher. This will deliver a
fill rate of 250 megatexels per second, quite a bit more than the 180 delivered by current
TNT cards. NVIDIA is recommending that high-end TNT 2 cards be clocked at 150MHz with a
183MHz memory speed, but there are already plans by hardware manufacturers to go higher.
At least one brand of TNT 2 card will be sold at with a 175MHz core and 200MHz memory
clock speed. This translates into an impressive 350 megatexles fill rate—nearly twice
the current TNT. Some users may remember that NVIDIA's claims for the speed of the
original TNT couldn't be met. The company is being more conservative this time around, and
already have parts in-house running faster than the 175/200 speed that some high-end cards
may use.
Here is a new TeamFortress Classic
Server List on Evildead.com. Server operators
interested in being added to the list should go
here.
A Netscape compatible version of WarZone's
Robin Walker interview is now online for those who had problems with the MSIE-only
version that was posted yesterday.
PlanetStarSiege has posted an updated cowboy
HUD for TRIBES, which, when used with Presto's
Tribes Presto Pak allows you to keep tabs on the last enemy that killed you. Also, the
technical FAQ at
Planet-Tribes has been updated, and now even includes illustrations. Finally, there is also
a tip on PlanetStarSiege from Tribesplayers.com on how to ping
and refresh TRIBES servers faster if you have a fast Internet connection by editing your
ClientPrefs.cs. Here's the scoop:
Edit your ClientPrefs.cs file and find the lines that say
'$pref::maxConcurrentPings = "10";' and '$pref::maxConcurrentRequests =
"6";'. You can increase these values to get faster refreshes of the server list.
But be warned, this is recommended only for people with cable modems or faster
connections. Mark "GotMilk?" Frohnmayer suggests that 64 is the practical upper
limit on these values.
Quake'N Down Under News has a new release
of the Duel mod for QuakeWorld, offering a newer and more stable version of this
competition mod.
Version 0.6 of the Grissly front-end for Half-Life is now available from CrazyPete´s Toolbox, offering a fix for the "Developer Mod Bug," Half-Life 1.0.0.9 support, TeamFortress Classic support, and dedicated server support.
The Want Ads are the next feature in line after the LAN Parties to get automated (which should go online very soon), but in the meantime, I got a request to post some spots for a programmer at Bethesda Softworks that seemed worth passing along here:
We're looking for programmers with a wide range of skills: Tools programmers,
lead programmers, and programmers with a history of design. But mainly we're looking for
the ability to code in Windows, C++, Open GL and DirectX like nobody's business -- we're
talking kick-ass skills combined with enough self-confidence to help us shape the future
of gaming. Previous game programming experience is desired, but if you've got a killer
demo reel you've cooked up yourself we're willing to talk. Works well within a
well-managed team environment and has the motivation to push the boundaries. Please send
resumes via e-mail, snail-mail or FAX to: Todd Vaughn Director of New Business Development
Bethesda Softworks 1370 Piccard Dr. Suite 120 Rockville, MD 20850 (301) 926-8300 Ext. 362
Fax: (301) 926-8010 ICQ# 28848359
Engbat Tourney is a tournament for
Engineers in TeamFortress for Quake that says it's offering $1,000 in cash and prizes.
Well, it seems like whatever went out of control on the hard drive on the server yesterday is under control, but it has left the BlueTracker in a state of disrepair. I'm looking into the problem, but until it's straightened out, the .plan updates output an error
(along with a note to contact me, but I'm aware already). Hopefully we'll get this straightened out soon enough (darned technology). More on the little Blue smiley icon for IE5 (only, unfortunately) users: I want to thank Morbid for making a version of the blue smiley with a transparent background, which I may use, but I also want to acknowledge 6|Red-Death, who originally sent along word on this trick a while back, along with an icon of his own (I didn't see the included icon at the time--doh!). I've changed the icon for
his, which is perhaps easier to make out, though it may take a while to show up (I don't know what the deal is on caching with these icons is, but it seems awfully persistent).
Finally, I do not know why it does not work on the index1 that offers headlines, but unless a solution offers itself, headline aficionados will have to suffer iconless (I've always been an iconoclast).
An apology: I confused a Brainiac reference with a Bizarro reference yesterday. Don't
know what me was thinking... me am sorry (I pulled the reference in embarrassment once a
couple of readers spotted it with their X-Ray vision).
Link of the Day: Seattle Weekly's
April Fool. You would not believe the number of emails I got from frightened readers
who bit on this one.
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