SConfig's Q3Test screenshots page has a Quicktime movie showing off all the various weapons in high, medium, and low bandwidth versions. If you don't have access to a Mac, this may be the closest you'll get until it's released for other platforms. The site also mentions a second movie, showing off some Internet gameplay that will be released soon.

Zephyr over at WON.net sends word that a new version of WON Swap, their Half-Life downloading utility has been released. Here's what's new in this version:

• We now support Half-Life maps with multiple files.
• Fixes International install and US install problems
• Fixes the HUGE model bug that made users unable to download half of the
  Half-Life models (I wanted to say quarter of them for a second).
• Multiple maps and spray paints can be put into a download
• We now serve ads better, which means no more waiting for the ad to show before the download starts if the ad server is down.
• Lots more bug fixes!!!

Those crazy kids at Legend have updated the official Wheel of Time page with the latest on their Unreal-engine title (thanks "Big bad" Billy Wilson). In this week's thrilling episode, there's some details on what they'll be showing at E3 this year, as well as some scans from the WoT ads that are running in this month's Computer Gaming World.

Just when you thought Macs were only good for Q3Test, MacLedge is reporting that Interplay has signed a deal with Graphic Simulations Corporation to port Baldur's Gate, Descent 3, and an undisclosed third title. Descent is scheduled for a June release, with Baldur's Gate coming in September (thanks Scandalon).

Chris O'Brian of the A-Team sends along word that Halflife.org has posted four screenshots from the upcoming Half-Life mod, Action Half-life This is, you may recall, the HL version of Action Quake, the popular Quake 2 mod.

John Carmack made yet another .plan update (makes me all nostalgic. *sniff*) with information on how to interpret that funky lagometer in Q3Test, as well as some tips for optimizing your connection.

Buy, today really is heavy on the interviews, here are another pair: The Hive interviews Rogue's Jim Molinets, kicking off with the non-sequitorial question "Give us a bio of who you are and what you do at Stomped" (Stomped?). Also, the second BeerF*ck interview of the day is online, as there's an interview with Levelord on U-Games with more Q&A with his Lo'ness.

Ritualistic has broken the news that Ritual's upcoming FAKK2 will be using the Quake III engine, according to a revelation on page 109 of the June issue of Computer Gaming World magazine (I received a report of this a couple of days ago, but have been unable to find an early edition of the mag for a confirmation). According to the blurb, the CGW piece also includes a small screenshot.

The Unofficial Tribes FAQ on Planet-Tribes has been updated. Thanks Planet Starsiege. Also seen on Planet-Tribes, there are four new maps on Dopplegangers.com Tribes Archive (only server operators need to run custom maps, clients just connect as usual) as well as news there on how snipers can use SnipeHud to achieve a 400x zoom (seems like 20X usually strains the limits of line-of-sight anyway).

Beta Release 0.13r009 of the Crystal Space Free 3D Engine is now available (thanks Billy "Crystal" Wilson). Here's the lowdown from the site on what this engine does:

Crystal Space is a free (LGPL) and portable 3D engine written in C++. It supports true 6DOF, colored lights, mipmapping, portals, mirrors, alpha transparency, reflecting surfaces, 3D sprites, scripting, 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit display support, Direct3D hardware acceleration on Windows, Glide and OpenGL hardware acceleration on Windows and Linux, ... See the extensive list of features for more details.

The interviews keep rolling in today: QuakeCity Gaming Network interviews Levelord talking to the man also affectionately known as BeerF*ck about life after Sin (not that I have any doubts about his lo'ness failing to sin even after the game's completion), which includes his work on Ritual's next project, FAKK2 (or F.A.K.K.2), based on the upcoming Heavy Metal movie of the same name.

Voices From The Hellmouth is the name of an article on Slashdot.org that chronicles the backlash against gamers and geeks alike since the shootings in Colorado (see this week's mailbag for some reader comments on the issue). Here's one eye-opening comment from a fellow-gamer:

"It was horrible, definitely," e-mailed Bandy from New York City. "I'm a Quake freak, I play it day and night. I'm really into it. I play Doom a lot too, though not so much anymore. I'm up till 3 a.m. every night. I really love it. But after Colorado, things got horrible. People were actually talking to me like I could come in and kill them. It wasn't like they were really afraid of me - they just seemed to think it was okay to hate me even more? People asked me if I had guns at home. This is a whole new level of exclusion, another excuse for the preppies of the universe to put down and isolate people like me."

Here's a pair of updates regarding Eidos Interactive's Omikron: The Nomad Soul for you this afternoon: first up are three screenshots we've posted, and next comes word by way of GASource that none other than David Bowie may be writing the soundtrack to this third-person title. Even cooler is the rumor that he may show up at Eidos' party at E3...now there's a place to be.

Yep...it's a Monday, so I'm breaking my neck getting you a new issue of loonygames. Here's the dirt on what to expect this week:

Hey! Get offa that! That's an issue of loonygames you're sleeping on!
Startling you this week:

• Waking Graeme Devine: Jason "loonyboi" Bergman chats with Graeme Devine,
  the "new guy" over at id Software, about Quake 3: Arena, 7th Guest...and
  Pole Position? [Monday]
• Pixel Obscura: Josh Vasquez checks out Blade Runner! [Tuesday]
• Penny Arcade: The kids vent their Mac-fuled anger. [Wednesday]
• Painting on Polygons: Rick Grossenbacher delivers part two of his "Making
  a Space Scene" tutorial! [Wednesday]
• PLUS: Another Penny Arcade [Friday], a new edition of Thinking Outside the
  Box [Tuesday], Dark Vengence reviewed [Thursday] and lots more! And then
  some more, because we don't sleep...we rock.

GamePen interviews Kenn Hoekstra, Brian Raffel, and Brian Pelletier in a Q&A where Geoff Keighley talks to the trio of Ravens about their upcoming projects, focusing specifically on Soldier of Fortune.

GameSpot UK has kicked off their Quake 3: Arena week with a quick overview of the expected Q3 single player game, and a new interview with John Carmack. The interview focuses on the single player gameplay, rather than more technology type questions, making it actually readable for those of us who can't program our way out of a cardboard box (a rare thing in a Carmack interview). Thanks Apache.

id Designer Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word on known bugs in the MacQ3ATest release and the Win32 server (that have been reported more than once). If you're having difficulties you can see if your problem is on the list, and there are instructions on reporting unlisted bugs.

ATI Technologies Beta Drivers page has a new version 6.11.1 CD15 of their OpenGL Installable Client Driver for the Rage 128 for Windows 95/98 systems. The pre-release beta drivers are offered "without warranty of any kind," for testing purposes, and ATI does "not recommend installing beta software in systems used for productivity of any kind." Thanks Michael Pappas.

There's a Blood 2 Revelations Update on GA-Source with word from Tequila Software about the status of their upcoming Blood mission pack: Revelations. Word is the levels are about 75% complete, and the update offers a screenshot of the Revelations launcher front-end they've cooked up for the add-on.

The QuakeFinder page home of the Mac server browsers QuakeFinder and UnrealFinder has launched Q3Finder, their Quake III Arena server browser which allows Mac users to find servers playing the Q3ATest. The release is described as "freeware and unsupported."

Ooops, this almost fell between the cracks here, the Blade Screenshots page has some new shots of this upcoming game from Rebel Act Studios that they say they'll be showing off at this year's E3. Thanks Sharky for the news, and WiseFox for the reminder.

No, these are not MacQ3ATest shots, but rather a brand new pair of exclusive shots and a character sheet sent along by Paul Steed showing off an external view of a new female character he's just finished up. The shots are from the third-person (as Paul put it "Note the pimped out 3rd person view John threw in,"), and the accompanying toy character sheet give a great view of what the model looks like from many angles (I do believe those are ice-skates on her feet).

"this is a character I just finished up. Skin is courtesy Kenneth Scott. The level is Q3Test2 by Brandon James with art by those wacky owner artists, Kevin and Adrian. Note the pimped out 3rd person view John threw in. The reference sheet is something I did up for all the characters for the toy company to use as a model sheet."

Also, The Q2PMP has posted a bunch of shots of the Visor model that is included in the test release shot with an OpenGL compatible model viewer they will release when the PC Q3ATest is available, and there are a load of MacQ3ATest shots on Screenshots.net.

Old-timers will recall the original .plan file (well, after help@idsoftware.com) was John Carmack's .plan-based worklog, which detailed his todo list for Quake programming. Now, Mr. C's latest .plan update offers the return of his work log, giving the lowdown on what he's working on for Quake III Arena. Here's the update (I took the liberty of replacing the asterisks with bullets for ease of reading):

• converted cvar allocation to indexes to allow range checking
• cgame converted over to use vmCvar_t instead of cvar_t needed for interpreted cgame
• fixed server crashing string bug
• adjusted scoreboard for 8 players
• show hostname on connection screen
• fixed null model warning on startup
• more space for hostname on local servers screen
• fixed mac Open Transport memory buffer bug
  this was causing most of the mac crashes
• made Info_ValueForKey() case insensitive
• sv_privateClients, sv_privatePassword
  this allows you to reserve slots on a
  public server for password access while
  allowing most to be freely available
• "server is full" message on connect screen
• archive handicap in config file
• cheat protect r_nocurves
• byte order independent zip checksum
• removed cl_stereo, use glConfig.stereoEnabled

The House of Payne is reporting that Max Payne, one of my favorite games from last year's E3, will not be demonstrated at this year's show (contrary to a recent report that it would be one of the games shown off there by the Gathering of Developers). Remedy's decision is similar to the one that 3DRealms recently announced about not showing Duke Nukem Forever and Prey at E3, talking of concentrating on the game's development instead. Word is that there will still be some Payne to check out at the show, in the form of a movie showing off gameplay.

• Sharky Extreme News points out today marks the official launch date of Intel's new 466 MHz Celeron processor, as well as their new 810 chipset. More info in the big I's release plans are in Sharky's Intel Roadmap 1999.
• AMD tries life by its own devices is an article dug up by the diggers at The Register describing possible new moves at the top of the CPU manufacturer. Thanks AMD Zone.
• 3DsoundSurge's Gamer's Guide to Direct Sound 3D and A3D offers some sound advice for gamers.
• More sound thinking: UltraQ Review looks at this hardware device that can fake stereo from mono output, among other things.

10 Questions With SamHell interviews Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin about his work as a programmer at Xatrix on Kingpin: Life of Crime, his Eraser bot for Quake II, as well as issues of the day.

Computer Games Online previews Shadow Man looking ahead at Acclaim's planned third-person action game based on the Voodoo-powered comic hero, which they say "offers up psychosexual pathology with a Cajun twist."

A new version 6.06 of the Weapons of Destruction for Quake II mod is now available offering mostly gameplay tweaks and changes, as well as improved ZBot detection. Thanks Old man from scene 24.

The Clan World League has announced new leagues for Jedi Knight Sabers, Star Craft, Rainbow 6, Quake 2, Half Life, and Starsiege: TRIBES consisting of 12 week seasons plus play-offs.

Game Post reviews Starsiege.

• Lots of folks have been writing in concerned that Frag.Com has gone the way of the dodo, but never fear, the shutdown message they're displaying is in error (it's the note posted when Processed.Net shutdown), and once the problems they're having clear up, normal operations should resume. In the meantime, while their hosted domains are accessible, their hosted sites without their own domains remain temporarily unavailable...
• Dawn of Darkness The Demo, a Hint Guide is online...
• Yesterday's User Friendly Comic plays with the possible torture that could occur from the convergence of a certain game test release with the opening day of a certain movie...

Mail about the Colorado shootings continues to pour in, yesterday's MailBag even had my mom check in on the subject. I'm told last night's 60 Minutes focused on violence in games and movies and their effects on children (apparently one segment even featured Quake, thanks kill-9). I'm curious enough that I want to order the transcript of the show to see how that was handled.

I think I found the odd glitch that was causing the page to reload for some. Since it wasn't occurring on my system, I'd appreciate hearing from folks who experienced the problem in the past to find out if it's fixed now.

Link of the Day: Almost-live images to drive any geek wild! That's right, geek-porn. Thanks Ant. Just make sure you wear your pocket protector!

As someone who owns the full, registered version of ARDI, a Mac OS emulator, I was pretty surprised when rumors started popping up that this was able to run the recently released Mac Q3Test. To clarify: it will not run! ARDI doesn't emulate a PowerPC, which is required for the file to run (this includes the recently released ARDI 2.0.) Coincidentally, the ARDI page was recently updated to clarify this:

An incorrect rumor on the net listed Executor as running Q3Test, the test-version of Quake 3 that was made available for the Macintosh before Linux and Windows. Our site has been swamped as people try to download our demo to test this. Q3Test requires a PowerPC, and Executor does not currently run any Mac applications that require a PowerPC.

In what seems to be a reaction to feedback about his recent .plan update about Macintoshes, John Carmack made another large update to his .plan on the Mac, discussing the source of the performance figures he mentioned, and clarifying what he meant about the Mac OS. Here's a chunk of the large update:

...So, clearly, hand tuned asm code can make either platform pull ahead. It also shows that the two platforms are at least fairly close in performance. I never said macs were SLOW, just not quite as fast as the best intel systems.

Quake3 doesn't software rasterize, so there isn't any great place for lots of asm code (the great place is in the OpenGL driver). The code is essentially identical on all platforms.

Q3 is definitely faster on a wintel system than a macos system. When the wintel version is released, everyone will be independantly repeating that measurement.

Even this measurement isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison, because the OpenGL driver and 3D card are still a significant variance. The two can be broken out farther: Q3 can be run without 3D output to test just the identical compiled code. Wintel is still faster, although somewhat less so...

<snip>

"Sucks" is a subjective description that can be dismissed as opinion. Note that I have NEVER said that the hardware sucks, or the user interface sucks, just that the mac OPERATING SYSTEM sucks.

"Faster", when qualified with testing conditions, is objective, and all the wishing in the world doesn't change it.

Objectivity and quantification are the paths to improvement.

I will be very happy if Apple can produce a desktop system that is faster than anything else you can get. I respect good engineering from any source. Altivec should be better than the PIII extensions (trinary ops -- yeah!). The upcoming system architectures look good. They have a shot at it, but they won't make it if they complacently think "oh, we are already faster than any pc system".

My twin turbo F50 can still be outrun at the dragstrip by much cheaper race cars. Many ferrari owners would not dare set foot at a drag strip, because they fear objective measurements that may not show their important possession in the best light. I would rather have the facts, so I can base future decisions on logical grounds.

It's a Sunday, so it's time for our weekly round up of commentary from our readers. In this week's bag are letters about the Mac-only release of Q3Test, and a whole lot more about the Colorado shootings, including one from MamaBlue, and one from someone close to one of the victims. It makes for a great read, so head on over there.

• Sharky Extreme News is reporting that Leadtek is now shipping its S320 II TNT2 accelerators, making them the first TNT2's on the streets. If you are looking for more dope on this chipset, GA-Source reviews the Maxi Gamer Xentor, Guillemot's TNT2 offering.
• H-Oda!'s software downloads page has new versions of about all of their PC tweaking/overclocking utilities, including new versions of the SoftFSB Windows front-side bus overclocker, WCPUID, WCPUL2 (adjusts L2 cache latency), CPUCLK (real-time clock speed checker), WPCREDIT (edits PCI configuration register), and WPCRSET (changes the PCI configuration register). These programs are for experienced users only. Thanks Tweak3D.
• Here's the correct URL for the Mesa 3D Graphics Library, required for the Voodoo MacQ3ATest tip posted earlier (story). Thanks John.
• FPS3D.COM reviews the 3DfxCool VoodooCooler.

The Aliens vs Predator FAQ on the Aliens vs Predator Network has been updated with new info on the upcoming first-person shooter from Fox Interactive that pits aliens, predators, and space marines in combat against each other. The FAQ contains info classified as spoilers for those of you in need of refrigeration, and there are some spiffy new screenshots showing off action from the game as well. Thanks Apache.

A new version 1.01 of the SiN ReDeMpTiOn bot is now available. Thanks Ritualistic.

GA-Source interviews Jack Mamais talking to the director of Heavy Gear 2 about Activision's upcoming game of giant robot combat.

Make Your Voodoo Card Work With Q3Test is an article on how Mac G3 owners with Voodoo cards can get the MacQ3ATest running (the only cards with out-of-the-"box" support are the ATI Rage line).

A couple of readers have written in to point out that though Windows users cannot play a client with the just-released Win32 server (story), since the .pak files are now in .zip format (as was mentioned in a few .plan updates long ago), it is now easy for curious Windows users to take a peek at the art assets in the Q3ATest. Thanks Spork and datahead.

The unofficial Half-Life FAQ housed on this page has been updated to version 4.24.

The AirQuake II site has a new version 0.8 of this amazing modification for Quake II that puts you behind the joystick of your own jet aircraft (among other things). The new release offers new toys to choose from like five new fighters, four new bombers, and three new helicopters, as well as a new tank, and goodies like jammers and stealth modes.

The Quake 3 Arena page has been updated with word of a Quake III Test Server List to list and locate Q3ATest servers. Thanks Q3Arena.net. Here's the lowdown:

We've whipped up a quick webpage that will show you a list of Q3Test servers reporting to our master server. It's really ugly at the moment (read: It's functional) and we'll tidy it up tommorow.

Remember, if you are running a Q3Test server, and would like for it to report to our master server, make sure you start the server with +set dedicated 2

http://underworld.idsoftware.com/cgi-win/q3aservers.exe/

The Quake 3 Arena site has the Win32 server release of the Quake III Arena test release, which will allow you to run a server (only). Here's a local copy and mirrors of the 21 MB Q3ATest Win32 server. Here's the lowdown:

This version of the test allows you to run Win32 dedicated servers only. It does not let you play the test locally on the Win32 machine. We highly recommend Windows NT as a good stable environment for dedicated servers. Windows 95/98 will run, but will be prone to more problems.

This Quake 3 on Macintosh site has a few tips for running Q3ATest on a Mac, as well as screenshots of MacQ3ATest. There are also some more shots on this page and on Q3Arena.net.

The new installment of the always entertaining PyroPimps Show features a conversation with Adam Pletcher and Dave Baranec from Volition about the upcoming just-announced Descent FreeSpace 2, as well as "too much other nonsense" (their words). RealPlayer required.

• A new version of the GLQuake Commando scripting program for GL Quake (1) is out...
• iXBT ASUS AGP-V3800 Review (TNT2). Thanks Tweak3D, where they have posted some TNT2 overclocking results of their own.
• Hot Hardware has overclocked a Voodoo3 to 200 MHz.
• The German RIVA pages ASUS AGP-V3800TVR preview.
• Intel Xeon 500MHz Processors Review on the Review Zone.
• Speedy 3D reviews the Card Cooler.
• AMD K7 500 trounces Pentium III-500 is a speculative TheRegister article based on some leaked info. Thanks AMD Zone.

There's an Xtom 3D demo for download at 3DFiles.Com, a demo of a game they describe as a "typical 3D arcade shooter."

Enternet Global Network page has a new 646 Alpha build of the EGN server-browser/ICQ-esque chat client. Thanks BetaNews.

Next-Generation Online's Anachronox Preview is up, one of those short 3dfx game of the week dealies. Thanks Apache.

Sharky Extreme's First Glimpse at Homeworld looks at this upcoming action/strategy hybrid from Relic Entertainment.

The Æstats Page has a new version of this log file analyzer for 3D Shooters that offers stats/ranking output in HTML. The new version features support for Half-Life 1.0.0.9.

A report on Thresh's FiringSquad gives the outcome of a challenge placed against them by the bold souls at 3DGN, all the way to the point in the second match where they used nothing but hand grenades.

• Game Development Search Engine offers yahoo style listings of related links...
• The PQ Skins Tutorial has been updated with an editorial article titled "Here Come the Bastards" which "discusses the dangers of being recruited by start-up game companies over the internet who may be out to take advantage of your inexperience"...
• There's an X-Wing Alliance strategy guide on MakeItSimple.Com...

Wow, an awful lot of you wanted to know if I was serious or not about buying a Mac yesterday, including OzNet who wrote in: "traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! traitor!!! =)" I presume the smiley was sincere, and he was kidding (but you never know). Anyway, I was kidding myself, even if he wasn't. I guess if the Win32 release is to follow soon enough I can wait for that to come out...probably .

Link of the Day: The Uncanny MacOS Page. I've been waiting for the perfect time to use that one.