Archived News:
The official Quake 3 Arena site has the Quake
III Arena test release for G3 Macs for download. There was a brief false-start earlier
when a version was briefly posted and pulled, but that's been cleared up. Here's a local copy, with mirrors
of the 21.4 MB file, and here's the word on the release:
Before Downloading, READ THIS:
This is the Mac version of the test
Linux and Win32 version will be released as soon as possible
Q3TEST is for TESTING new tech and multiplayer code.
Q3TEST is NOT the game "Quake 3 Arena".
Q3TEST is ADDICTIVE. Be sure to get some sleep.
Known Mac Issues
- Sometimes the Mac build crashes in low memory conditions, we're looking for help in
tracking this.
- The sound latency can be improved.
- Currently the game will only run on the main screen in a multi-monitor setup.
- The overbright bits we use to change the way lightmaps work in the PC build is not
currently in the Mac build.
We are running servers at;
- 192.246.40.37:27960 -- q3test1
- 192.246.40.37:27961 -- q3test1
- 192.246.40.37:27962 -- q3test1
- 192.246.40.37:27963 -- q3test2
Xian updated his .plan again with word the Quake III Arena messageboard test
( story)
was a failure, but that more experiments may ensue over the weekend.
THE 3D ZONE (German-language 3D gaming
news) has posted ten new screenshots of Skout, the upcoming first-person shooter from Soft Enterprises.
Things are hopping, id's Christian "Disruptor" Antkow updated his .plan with word on the official moderated Quake III Arena messageboard
(temporary location.). Here's the poop:
I've written a message board for use in discussing the impending Q3Test
releases. It's primary function will be a central place for you to post bugs so that we
can quickly peruse the boards and see what some of the main problems are. It's still in
development, there are a few problems that I still need to iron out, but it's mostly
functional.
I'm interested in seeing how it performs under a high load. I originally used MS Access
MDB format, but became frustrated with file locking issues with a minimal load of
activity, so I spent most of the afternoon today installing MS SQL Server 7 and adjusting
the code to work with it. Coming from a database background (Oracle at my previous job), I
was quite impressed with SQL Server 7. Really easy to set up, and the performance seems
very good.
Anyway, if you want to beat on it, it's temporarily located at;
http://underworld.idsoftware.com/cgi-win/webcon.exe
If any of you would like to use that as a discussion forum, and generate some data for the
database, I'd appreciate it. If you find any serious bugs or get any error messages,
please post in the "Q3Test: Bugs" forum.
The board will be moderated by id staff to retain it's focus. For general Quake 3
discussion, I highly recommend the Quake 3 messageboard at
sCary's Shack
id's John Carmack updated his .plan with a very lengthy discussion of the factors involved in the decision to release the Mac version of the Q3ATest prior to the PC version (next story). Here is an excerpt from the quite lengthy update that talks about the bottom line here:
We hope it will be done soon, but there are factors out of our direct control involved.
Don't be spiteful. This is just the beginning of the testing and release process.
One conspiracy theory suggests that Apple is somehow getting us to do this.
What we have "gotten" from Apple is a few development machines. No cash payoff. No bundling deal. No marketing contract.
I am looking at this long term. I want to see OS X become a top notch platform for graphics development. I think highly of the NEXTSTEP heritage and I might move my development from NT if it turns out well. There is a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid with apple for this to happen, and my working on the mac right now is part of that. Plus a lot of complaining to various apple engineers and executives. :-)
To be clear:
At this time, there is no mac that is as fast for gaming (or just about anything, actually) as a pentium III with a top of the line 3D card. Period. I have been misquoted by some mac evangelists as saying otherwise.
The update concludes with this:
Gaming is not a reason to buy a mac, but Apple is taking steps so that it may not be a reason to avoid a mac if you have other reasons for wanting one.
MacOS still sucks.
id software's Graeme "Zaphod" Devine updated his .plan with word that, in a surprising bout of
cross-platform-ness, the Mac version of the Quake III Arena test will be the first version
released, perhaps as early as this weekend:
The test is not coming out tonight, but we do have a Macintosh candidate ready
to go. If all goes well tonight, it will be out over the weekend. The Linux/Win32 builds
are not yet ready.
The test version of Quake 3 Arena is just that, a test, and as such we here at id software
need to have some controls over it as we start to test it out publicly. Without these
controls we cannot actively track and improve the product in a manageable manner.
We wanted, and are eager to be completely "out there" on all platforms, but the
OpenGL drivers the product needs for all the platforms are not yet finalized. By launching
on the Mac first it gives the various 3D board manufacturers some time to get their Win32
OpenGL 3D drivers certified with Microsoft. We're using, and depend on, the latest and
greatest drivers and want to be able to distribute those drivers for the Win32 platform.
The Macintosh market is smaller than the Win32 market, and has less configuration options
than the Linux market. There is only a single OpenGL driver, and the hardware is
essentially always the same. This is an ideal "controlled" environment for the
initial testing. Basically, if there is a huge issue with the initial release we're
exposing a smaller audience to it. This turns out to be a good thing.
The plan is to release the Macintosh version first, followed by the Linux version,
followed by the Win32 version. We will release on the other platforms as soon as possible.
We will rev the other platforms as we make new releases.
I hope you understand and agree with this decision/process. It is a good step towards a
timely release of the full demo and retail product.
Dawn of Darkness: The Demo, a
demo version of Dawn of Darkness, which
describes itself as the "ultimate total conversion for Quake II," is now
available. The playable demo of Ward Six Entertainment's
soon-to-be-gold TC is about 11 MB, and contains one of the commercial product's 15 levels.
The Qtracker Homepage has the version 2.3 beta 3 release of the Qtracker server-browser program. The new release offers a major new feature: Automated HTML server list generation, updated every minute, which can be FTPed
automatically to your web server or just stored on a local drive.
The busy bees over at The
Hive have posted another interview, this one with Monolith CEO Jason Hall.
Gamehut's Mortyr gallery has a
half-dozen exclusive new images from Interactive Magic's upcoming World War II game.
Version 1.02 of the GameCam
chasecam mod for Quake II has been released. There are now four different variants, Win32,
Linux (glibc), Linux (libc5), and Solaris (Sparc), of this plug-in mod that can be added
to any other Quake II mod.
So much for the Polish lesson yesterday, Jacek Fedoryński writes to point out the
captions on the Polish Mortyr page ( story) were not Polish, but German. Not to worry, here's the promised
lesson nonetheless: In Polish, graphics and music would be "grafika" and
"muzyka," respectively. Thanks again, Jacek.
The Cached Home Page has an interview with
PGL finalist JMaster.
id's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with this update on the status of Q3Test...here's the scoop:
No news is good news they say! We're still working hard to get the test out. If you could refer questions to me (zaphod@idsoftware.com) regarding the test I'd appreciate it, everyone else here is plenty swamped. Obviously if it's just "when?" then that is pretty hard to answer, because "when" will be as soon as it's done!
But watch this space and remember to follow the white rabbit.
FEED magazine has a new issue up entitled, " Brave
New Worlds" that's devoted entirely to videogames (big ol' thanks goes
out to Slashdot.org). Articles of note
include a dialogue with contributions from Valve Software's Marc Laidlaw, an
editorial about violence in games, and a critical piece on game history. If
nothing else, the issue's got a terrific links page, with links to such classic
articles as Marc Laidlaw's " The
Egos at id" piece for Wired Magazine amongst others.
Here's a pair of reasonably sized demos for your Friday enjoyment: GameSpot
UK has posted a demo of "The Golden Mask," that new free add-on
for Tomb Raider II (yes, II, not III). This one-level demo does not require
Tomb Raider II, and is all of 10 meg. For those space shooter fans out there,
3DFiles has an 11 meg demo
of Storm, Buka Entertainment's shoot-'em-up game.
PC Zone's Anachronox preview is up, with another big new look ahead at ION Storm's upcoming Quake II-engine action/RPG, offering interviews with the team, as well as some new screenshots. Once again, to avoid the glitches that caused some readers of their Q3A preview to have to log into the site, the URL above has a generic login built-in.
I knew knocking off the AM on this morning's post would provoke a spate of PM bits, it's
just the contrary way of the world:
The official Unreal Tournament site
has gotten its weekly update, and there are two new weapons on display: the
Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher. Regular images, as well as a high-res .zip
file are available for your downloading pleasure.
Yep, Doom,
Quake and Mass Murder is the name of a well-written and researched article
on the whole Colorado shootings/Doom connection over at Salon.
Making this article stand out from the multitude of others is the fact that
this one features quotes from members of the industry, and even has commentary
by our own Papa Smurf. A related article worth checking out at Salon is Kneejerk
Mafia, which documents the Internet hysteria that has sprung up since the
tragedy.
Valhammer, a Polish Mortyr site, has posted some new multiplayer screenshots from Interactive Magic's upcoming time-travelling WWII game as well as some of the game's music in .mp3 format. The shots are under the link
marked "Grafik," while the tunes are filed under "Musik." There you go, a combination news bit and Polish lesson. Thanks Mortyr.Net. For a further Mortyr/Berlitz
combo, Das OnlineMagazin für Video- und Computerspieler
has a German language review of a beta of Mortyr they are checking out because Mortyr will
not be available for sale in Germany (huh?). Remember stick a BabelFish in your
ear courtesy of AltaVista, if you want a rough
translation of either article.
TRI's official Nocturne Site is up with a
smattering of info about this spooky looking upcoming action/adventure. Word is that once
E3 comes, more details and info on the game will become available.
Seumas McNally, lead programmer at Longbow
Digital Arts sent along a brand new 1024x768x32-bit color screen shot of one of the
jumps on a track in Tread Marks. As Seumas puts it, "The tanks have quite a bit of
traction. :)" More info on the game can be found on Longbow Digital Arts' Tread Marks page.
Here's the shot:
According to a report on MacAddict, MacHalf-Life,
as well as future simultaneous Mac/PC releases from Valve have been announced, though if
the report is accurate, it seems odd not to have seen it elsewhere already. What they say
is: "Half-Life marks Sierra's return to the Mac platform in a big way. The company
has committed to making all of its upcoming titles cross-platform, and it's also shooting
for simultaneous PC/Mac release dates. Expect to see Half-Life arrive this fall."
Thanks Seb.
The Adrenaline Vault previews Giants looking at PlanetMoon's upcoming game that believes size matters. From the sound of the following clip, the game, described as an
action/strategy hybrid, is becoming more of an action title as development progresses:
According to artist Bob Stevenson, Giants started as a blend of action and strategy, but has been simplified to concentrate on the action. People inhabit one character at a time and complete mission-oriented maps. As gamers proceed through the 30 levels, they come across timid characters called Smarties, a peaceful race that can create valuable things, such as weapons and bases. Feeding and protecting them earns their appreciation and good will, and the more of them that are found, the more sophisticated the things they create become. For instance, the Smarties can create innovative forms of
transportation, such as the 30-foot tall elephants with mounted gun turrets.
Beta 5.5 of Digital Paint's PaintBall
for Quake II is now available, as a client-side only release. The new version offers
several new features, including new maps, including a couple of Paintball 1 favorites
converted to Digital Paint by Fryth, new gun sounds (higher quality audio), and more.
Version 4.2 of The Weapons Factory for
Quake II is now available. The new version is called a major release, with the new
features centering around server administration and clan match support.
Three of them: The ServerConfigMOD download page
has the source code for this Quake II mod that offers a bunch of configurable options to
set up a multiplayer server. Action!Quake2
Server Launcher is a front-end to set up AQ2 servers meant primarily for LAN
parties. Finally, Infos & Downloads zu
Q-Start & Q2Start has a new version 2.1 of the Q-Start front-end for Quake (1),
which is now freeware instead of shareware.
- PC Gamer Online's Hunted
Contest looks to reward the creators of the best "Hunted" maps for
TeamFortress Classic. First prize will earn $500, while second and third places will each
earn $200.
- One last time for our Icon Contest: Here are the updated (as of
Tuesday) rules to our IE5 Icon Contest: It turns out that the IE5 icon can be 32x32 under
some circumstances (blame loony for making me think my original 32x32 posting was wrong),
so it causes a bit of a change in the rules. We'll award a prize for both the best 16x16
and the best 32x32 .ico format icon. Entries go to contest@bluesnews.com,
and are due by 11:59 PM EDT tonight.
Letters keep coming in about the Colorado shootings, the MailBag yesterday spurred some
interesting further responses, so there will no doubt be some of them in this weekend's
regularly scheduled batch of correspondence. More on the subject can be found at the
shooting-inspired internet campaign against
violence, there's a Public
& The Internet Open Forum thread on Slashdot
(thanks Sigil), and Hooligan[C&M] sends word of the Columbine High School Services and
Information page, with information on how concerned folks can help out.
Had I known it would be so easy to get under Old Man Murray's wrinkly skin with a
simple link, I would have posted one long ago. In honor of the cranky old coots ire, I
hereby declare Old Man Murray Game Reviews the
Blue's News Analinkus charity link of the month. Congrats Murr ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif) . Getting into the swing
of things, loony posted a pop culture reference yesterday with a Big Lebowski quote.
GreenMarine replied with a counter-quote: "Don't worry about it dude. They are
nihilists, they won't hurt you."
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