After a false alarm earlier (story), PC.IGN.COM now has the playable demo of StarFleet Command for download, offering the opportunity to command starships in strategic combat.

According to this ZDNet article, Bell Labs researchers (who must be working overtime lately, after this story earlier today) have discovered a snafu on the road to ever-increasing chip speeds and sizes (thanks Håkon Ringberg). The problem is that as chips get faster and faster, the individual components have to get smaller and smaller. According to the article, by 2012, we'll have hit the limit with current materials. The story is also available in a more technical format on Bell Labs' site.

PlanetUnreal has posted two Q&As of note: first, they've had an e-mail exchange with NetGamesUSA regarding their ngWorldStats system mentioned in Cliff Bleszinski's recent .plan update. There have been some issues raised regarding specific rules, to which a NetGames representative responded, "I would like to state that before UT ships, we will have ALL the rules posted on the web page so people know what rules they are operating under before they begin." Also, PlanetUnreal has posted a Q&A with Epic's Tim Sweeney about the IRC client that will be built into Unreal Tournament.

Extreme Audio Reality has released a new version of their IAS patch for Quake 2. New additions to this patch, which aims to enhance the aural Quake 2 experience, include a fixed save game function, more configurable options, and movable PAK definitions for mod authors.

Tactical Planet has conducted an interview with Wes Eckhart, Producer of Delta Force 2, talking about his background, and some of the new features in DF2, including the ability to climb and scale.

• Creative Labs has released new drivers for their 3D Blaster Riva TNT 2 Ultra board (thanks Redwood).
• As promised earlier, Beyond 3D has posted more screenshots from Quake 3 running on a Power VR Neon 250 board with the framerate counter turned on.
• Is 1.6 Trillion bits per second enough bandwidth for you? According to Bell Labs, it's possible using a prototype long-distance optical-transmission system (thanks Håkon Ringberg).
• Tweak3D has posted a 16 versus 32 bit rendering, using Q3Test and Need for Speed: High Stakes to demonstrate the differences.
• PCFan reviews the Diamond V770 TNT 2 Ultra card.

Monolith's Mike Dussault updated his .plan yesterday with word that S3TC technology had been incorporated into the LithTech engine. Following up on this, AVault has posted two screenshots, showing a "before and after" style comparision, and illustrating the difference in texture quality.

GASource has published a development update on MDK 2 from Bioware president and CEO Greg Zeschuk giving the latest on the status of the PC and Dreamcast sequel to MDK (which as everyone knows stands for "Max, Dr. Hawkins, and Kurt"). Also of note are three new screenshots from the title (they're the ones labelled "new screenshots" of course).

No, that's not a typo, KAC Hardware has posted a preview of the NVIDIA TNT3, or NV10 as it's being code-named. This chip supposedly will have a whopping 15,000,000 transistors (the same as Intel's Merced processor) and will allow for "photo-realistic graphics."

PCZone UK has conducted an interview with Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption producer Chris Hewish, talking in detail about the game and its inspirations. Like previous PCZone links, ordinarily registration would be required, but we've been provided with a link to bypass it.

Beyond3D has posted some more screenshots of Quake 3: Arena running on a pre-release Power VR based Neon 250 board. There are two shots showing off the portal, and they say they'll be posting more shots showing off the framerate counter soon for all you framerate junkies out there.

PC Expo is still keeping these waters churning:

• Turns out there are also new 3dfx Interactive Voodoo Graphics Windows 95-98 Reference Drivers in addition to the new V2 drivers (story), or at least the page says that there are new drivers, the links seem broken, at least at the moment. Thanks Ben Ruppel. The new version number is 3.01.00 (release candidate), and the page says the driver kit includes Glide 2.48, Glide 3.04, Direct3D (DirectX) and the Voodoo Graphics Control Panel.
• ZDNN Cool chip breaks 1-GHz barrier reports: "The speed war has been won. At least at PC Expo 1999. The people at Alpha Processor Inc. have demonstrated a new chip that runs at the speed of 1 gigahertz (or 1,000MHz). That's nearly twice the speed of today's fastest Intel Pentium chip."
• More from the show floor can be found in Ars Technica's Report from PC Expo '99, Part II, which includes more skinny on Quake III and the BeOS, among other things. Word there is the Quake III BeOS port is being done by id Software, not Be, according to the person working the BeOS game booth.
• A new version version 1.0.39 of WinTune 98 is out, which will allow you to benchmark your CPU, Video Speed, OpenGL speed, Direct3D speed, Memory Speed and Disk Speed. The new release properly detects and reports Windows 2000. Thanks DemoNews.
• iXBT Hardware has a report on faked Matrox G400 cards coming in from Taiwan. Thanks |6iX|Dire Wolf via the Matrox Users' Resource Centre.

Get out a stick and try shaking it at all of these:

• RIVA Extreme reviews the Elsa Erazor III (TNT2).
• Diamond Viper V770 Ultra Review-- Extreme Hardware.
• Online CEX PC Hardware reviews the ASUS V3800 Deluxe.
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews the Abit BP6 motherboard.
• P3D reviews the TennMax TnT Detonator Cooler & the Viva TF P2 Cooler.

SystemLogic has posted a handful of screenshots of Quake 3 running on a pre-release Permedia 3 board from 3DLabs. The shots are all in 32-bit color with all the settings cranked up to 11.

Private Wars News gives word of a bunch of new screenshots from this upcoming game of tactical combat (thanks Billy "Privates" Wilson), with word of a gameplay AVI to come. Also, there are New Arena AD Screenshots on GA-Source with a look ahead at this 3D combat game "based on a gladiatorial theme."

According to this New York Times story, Microsoft is developing a piece of software to be available on their website and included with the next Windows release that allows for the blocking of violent games (thanks Well-Rounded News, by way of Chris Morris). In order for the software to work, the games would have to have the ratings embedded into them, and no publisher has agreed to do this as of yet. The article also points out that a large portion of the games industry is made up by console titles, which naturally will remain uneffected by this software.

PC.IGN.COM has word they will be posting a playable demo of the StarFleet Command space strategy game at 6:15 PM today. This is an update, the original story posted here linked to PC Gameworld saying the demo was out already. Word is the download will be available in both large (49 MB) and small (21 MB, no sound) varieties.

Mac Gamer's Ledge has posted an interview with Lorraine Reyes, Art Director and Creative Director of Marketing for Bungie, talking about her background in anime and comics (thanks Billy "tetsuo" Wilson).

Next-Generation Online reports Quake II for N64 Ships Next Week, saying the Nintendo 64 port of id's Quake II "looks almost PC-perfect," and will hit retail on June 28 in more than 10,000 stores in the United States and Canada. Thanks Killjoy's.

RabidGaming interviews Susan Boshkoff of EIDOS Interactive talking about Revenant, their upcoming action/RPG. Included with the piece is a page with 11 screenshots from the game.

BZ2.COM has posted their new weekly screenshot from Activision/Pandemic Studio's upcoming Battlezone II that looks like a close up of one of the ships in one of the shots in the AVault preview mentioned earlier (story).

3dfx Interactive Voodoo2 Windows 95-98 Reference Drivers page has been updated with new version 3.03.00 release candidate drivers for Voodoo2 boards. The new reference drivers include Glide 2.56, Glide 3.03, Direct3D, DirectX 6.x, support for AMD 3DNow! and the Voodoo2 Control Panel, and is described as "the minimum set of drivers that you'll need to run your Voodoo2 board." Thanks JRS, who also points out that the "Quake3 compatible drivers and the 'regular' reference drives now appear to be the same."

The Prospect Vector website has a new version 1.1 of the Tread level editor. The new release now offers complete internal support for Half-Life, though some entities will not work due to a script that's yet to be completed, but word is users can easily add the missing entities themselves. Kingpin is another game that has complete internal support, but an incomplete script, and word on that is "Anyone who buys Tread v1.1 will get KingPin updates for no cost whatso-ever."

There's a pretty lengthy interview with Patrick Moynihan on 3DRage.com talking with the co-owner of WXP (described as not quite an acronym for "The Whole Experience"), about Experience, their upcoming first-person shooter.

There's a short (three question) Q&A on Unreal Universe talking with Epic Programmer Tim Sweeney asking about the status of Unreal Tournament, the next Unreal patch, and Tim's 'vette.

PlanetUnreal has posted a two question Q&A with "Pancho, a.k.a. XceptOne" of Epic games talking about support for decals in Unreal Tournament, saying "as of right now bulletholes are in."

Now this is fun: BlackMail is a newly opened site that digs up the early work of prominent level designers and other game developers (even stooping to webmasters!) to show off their efforts, presumably before all their current skills (or restraint) took form. Among the first entries are early works from crash, headshot, and the Levelord.

• SysOp's Guide on removing the PIII Heatsink shows how to strip a Pentium III CPU to prepare for one of those psycho uber-cooling tricks.
• MaximumHardware.com's 3D Gaming Benchmarks Center has launched a Final Reality Benchmark List where users can submit scores and compare whose is bigger.

Frank`s Game Gear interviews Omni Development, talking with Tim Wood, director of development at Omni, the folks who ported both Quake II and Q3ATest for Mac OS X server.

The Adrenaline Vault previews Battlezone II with a look ahead to this upcoming sequel to the first-person action/strategy homage to the arcade classic. Thanks Omnigon.

Beta Bites' Disfigured interview talks with Bryn Bennett, lead programmer at Xyla Development, about Disfigured, a third-person action game currently under construction. The interview discusses the game's Caffeine engine (cool!), and is illustrated with five new screenshots. Here's a description of Disfigured from the intro:

In Disfigured, the player assumes the role of an inorganic lifeform that was once the toy of a small child. The player is given missions to infiltrate the lairs of other toy tribes and complete some type of mission. As the player progresses, his/her character grows stronger and gains special deadly powers. The player must defeat 16 well trained and lethal opponents while always keeping his/her mission objectives in mind.

Computer Gaming Review interviews 3dfx's Keith Galocy talking about the accelerator biz, the Voodoo3, and what's next, in a pretty lengthy conversation with this ex-AMD employee who is now 3dfx' liaison with game developers.

The Eudora Pro Email v4.2 Updaters page has the version 4.2 updaters for Eudora Pro for both Windows and Macintosh. I'm sure the new version has even more devilish ways to lose my mail. Thanks Redwood.

• The prizes in Clan World Networks' Summer Olympics, a Half-Life competition, have been announced.
• The DragonWarZ page has details on preparations for DW5, a TeamFortress clan competition.
• If you haven't already, don't forget to Test Your Game Knowledge in our fifth weekly trivia quiz. Whee!

• ComputingPros.COM reviews Elsa's ERAZOR III (TNT2).
• GA-Source reviews ActionLink, promising a review of Diamond's home networking kit in a day or so.
• The Sanctum reviews the GlobalWin FA420 Cooling Solution.

• The DEMISE website has a new "Patch 2" for this OpenGL dungeon-adventuring RPG. Thanks 3DFiles...
• Gamers.Com's Aliens versus Predator guide offers a guide for each class as well as a Predator walk-through...
• Also, Gamers.Com's TRIBES guide has been updated with a Desert of Death map guide...
• Game Development in a Virtual Office: A Beginner's Guide by Jason McIntosh, President & CEO of Ward Six...
• Smart versus dumb how clever are our games? asks an article on Artificial Intelligence in the Electronic Telegraph. Thanks Andy Blender via Slashdot.org...

Last night was the rare occasion when both loony and I had plans (this is as much to do with both of our lack of social lives as any careful planning), and as I walked around on the island of Manhattan, no small place (as I imagine you've heard), who should I run into, but loonyboi! Damn freaky that was I tell you... not John Lithgow/William Shatner "there's a gremlin on the wing of the plane" kind of Twilight Zone freaky, but definitely odd nonetheless.

Happy belated birthday to the fine feathered folks at Raven Software, who we learn from Brian Raffel's .plan celebrated their ninth anniversary yesterday.

Link of the Day: The Jar-Jargonizer a Jar-Jar Binks meta-filter, brought to you by Bad Movie Night (thanks Andy Crum). Fascinatingly (or frighteningly), though the site has never been mentioned here, Blue's News is listed as #5 (as of this writing) on The 10 Most Frequently Jar-Jargonized Web Pages list.

Datumplane::Starsiege is helping keep the recent string of Q&A's with members of the TRIBES development team going by posting a short Q&A with Mark Frohnmayer, lead programmer on Tribes and TRIBES 2 with more detail on changes to TRIBES OpenGL support.

VideoLogic announces Neon 250 pricing and shipping date is the announcement about the long awaited PowerVRSG technology, giving an estimated street price of £106 (excluding VAT. UK) / $175 (US), and gives this word on availability: "Customers worldwide will be able to purchase Neon 250 from retailers and mail order companies as well as direct from VideoLogic online at www.videologic.com from mid–August 1999. Thanks Beyond 3D.

GA-Source's MDK2 Screenshots is a collection of no less than nine new shots from Bioware's upcoming MDK2.

New Hercules TNT/TNT2 drivers among this evening's offerings:

• The Hercules Dynamite TNT Drivers page has new Version 1.69.0188 Windows 95/98 drivers and utilities for their Dynamite TNT, TNT2, and TNT2/Ultra. Thanks Mike Brewer. "This release corrects a fatal exception on restart on systems with SoundBlaster Live! cards installed."
• Tom's Hardware Guide's Preview of Intel's Upcoming 'Camino'-Chipset is up, looking at the upcoming i820 chipset, discussing the associated RDRAM "controversy." Thanks Redwood.
• SystemLogic has word on some changes to the way the AOpen TNT2 will ship, including new default clock settings of a 125MHz/core, 160MHz/memory clock, and their Ultra card defaulting to a 150MHz/core and 190MHz/memory. More details are on their site.
• RIVA 3D has download locations for the new NVIDIA 1.91 reference drivers.
• There's also an S3-Diamond Merger Editorial on RIVA 3D that asks "is NVIDA being left out?"

There's a Ken Levine Interview on Through the Looking Glass briefly talking to the lead designer on System Shock 2 about the game, mostly eliciting "no-comment" type answers.

The Ninja Quake site has a new release of this TC that adds ninja combat to classic Quake called the Ninja Quake Special Edition. what's so special? A new special fire for the shuriken, a change to the the quad, some new levels, new sounds, and more.

Dynamix' Nels Bruckner updated his .plan with more on TRIBES OpenGL support, talking about OGL performance improvements and solutions for some recently discovered exploits that will go into an upcoming version 1.6:

Yes, as many of you already know we have decided to take the plunge and do some significant work on our OpenGL code for Tribes 1. Waiting for driver writers to support our needs was getting pretty rediculous so for the last few weeks we've been doing things the hard way and writing around the limitations of the current drivers. It is definetly not the optimal way to approach the problem... but we are seeing some nice performance increases. Hopefully we will shortly have a version 1.6 of Tribes that (finally) runs acceptably in OpenGL on most cards We will also be addressing a couple of recently revealed exploits.

Beyond3D has posted four screenshots of Quake 3 running at 1152x864 with all the trimmings on the PowerVR250 based Neon 250 board. The massive screenshots are also available in their original TGA file format for people with nice Internet connections that want the full experience.

SShock2.com has posted a ton of new info about System Shock 2 that comes to them by way of team members' posts to their forums. Topics include the lack of a Mac OS port, the way mouselook functions, captioning, co-op play, and lots more.

GameSpot has posted a news story where they are reporting that Alienware has no plans to import and sell the Canopus Spectra 5400 TNT 2 card (thanks Redwood). They cite costs, saying that, "Canopus is simply asking too much for the 5400. To break even, we'd have to sell the cards for around US$330."

GASource has posted a Q&A with Victor DeLeon, the project lead on the Virtual Reality Notre Dame Project, an attempt to make a fully accurate 3D model of the Notre Dame Cathedral using the Unreal engine. Here's a better description from the article, which also has two new screenshots:

The VRND project is an experiential, educational tool unlike any other to date. It's a piece of real-time art that people can aimlessly wander within while absorbing information in a very subconscious, inspirational kind of way- very much like what the original architects of the cathedral tried to invoke. It's so realistic- you can really get a feel of the place after you've been walking around in it a few minutes. Initially, the VRND Project was conceived to generate cultural awareness and promote historical preservation of the 900+ year-old French cathedral. Since it's original concept last year, it has evolved to become so much more.

Just a day after their announcement that they're in the process of being acquired (by S3), Diamond Multimedia has announced that they are spinning off their music division into a wholly owned-subsidiary. According to Wired News, this new company will develop a new version of the Rio MP3 player, and directly tie their RioPort website into an Internet music hub for legally downloadable music.

PlanetStarSiege has posted part two of their interview with Tim "Slacker" Gift from Dynamix. This segment of their Q&A focuses on OpenGL issues, video-game violence, and other general topics. They're not done with this one yet, as they promise even more with Tim in a final installment next month (not tomorrow, as I originally wrote).

Here's an announcement from Valve about the release of the new dedicated Half-Life server (I ganked this from Stomped since I can't find my copy--my Eudora has been relentlessly eating mail again lately):

We've completed our testing of the latest version of our Win32 server and it is now posted on WON.net.

This new server is backward-compatible with the existing Half-Life client codebase, so players will be able to connect and play on your server immediately after you upgrade.

In this new version:
- All known cheats/exploits are fixed.
- Running hlds + from the command line will heartbeat to the WON master server.

There are two files on the WON server:

1) Hlserver.exe (~80 MB) -- This is the full download of the latest version of the Win32 server. This includes all the files necessary to run a Team Fortress Classic or Half-Life server.
http://www.won.net/scripts/download.pl?url=http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/hlserver.EXE

2) Hlserver10101012.exe (~500k) -- This is the update to the Primary Server Package that will upgrade you from the previous update from WON (hlserver10011002.exe).
http://www.won.net/scripts/download.pl?url=http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/hlserver10101012.EXE

Broadband gets closer to the home reports ZDNet on the approval of the G-Lite modem standard, which they say could slice DSL deployment times by a third (which could mean loony's DSL line could be in before the turn of the century).

Gamecenter's Star Trek Deep Space Nine The Fallen sneak peek is up showing off this upcoming action/adventure in the Star Trek universe that uses the Unreal engine with a bunch of "game grabs" (screenshots here on earth). Thanks Apache.

A report on Maximum PC from PC Expo talks of a showing of Quake III Arena running on a BeOS system on the show floor on Tuesday using a dual Pentium III box with a Voodoo3. Thanks Salty_Dawg. According to the report, "BeOS officials weren't sure when the port would be released but believed it would be released soon after the other versions are released. Quake III is due out the second half of this year." Additionally, the article reports that plans are in the works for Be ports of SimCity 3000, Quake II, and Civilization. The report describes "visual artifacts" as still present on the BeQ3 demo, and offers a photo of the monitor running the game, but that just shows the main menu.

The bleem! website has a new demo version of this PlayStation emulator for the PC. The new demo, which is based on the latest bleem beta, fixes the bug that caused GT to stop at NOTICE screen on Win95, adds speed limiter adjustments, and Final Fantasy 8 Compatibility. The demo still includes Colored MDEC but not Memory Cards, Sound, or Direct3D Acceleration. Thanks Billy "Bleem" Wilson.

There are three new shots showing off Venom, an upcoming first-person shooter on Killjoy's. Also, Billy has two more screenshots from The Whole Experience's upcoming shooter, Experience, on Voodoo Extreme.

The newly opened 3DGameGeek interviews Billy Zelsnack, talking to the one-time 3D Realms and Rebel Boat Rocker programmer about what he's up to since the dissolution of RBR, since he is one of the few ex-RBR members to not make the transition to Gearbox software (currently working on the Half-Life OpFor add-on). It's an interesting read, which talks frankly about Billy's feelings about what Gearbox is currently up to. Here's a small quote with a bit on what caused EA to pull the plug on Prax War, the project RBR was working on when the end came:

So when quake3 became available, they had an engine for their internal projects and cut their losses with praxwar. The lack of mainstream press made it easy for them to cancel quietly, in fact Praxwar never even was on the ea page. Something I always found odd considering that the game seemed to have had quite a large community presence.

• AMD warns of 2Q loss reports CNNfn, talking of losses more than triple Wall Street's expectations. Thanks Dakota.
• The Tech Zone reviews the Alpha P125 CPU Cooler.
• The Spectra Software Download Page has new SPECTRA 2500 BIOS version 1.06.05 for both PAL and NTSC systems. Thanks J.Costello.
• SystemLogic's Windows 98 SE article and CPU Review's Windows 98 SE: Episode 1 each examine whether the Win98 "second edition" is worth buying.

The BattleCruiser website has a new Version 2.08 Beta 6 Win32 binary for BattleCruiser 3000 AD. The patch requires the DOS BC3K v2.08 Beta 6, and while the beta runs in windowed mode (said to be easier to debug) the final version will be full screen. Word on the page is that Derek plans on releasing the BC3KAD source code "sometime in the future." Also new on the site is an open letter responding to a recent negative review on CGO (story).

As George Carlin used to say "check his calendar," I managed to mess up a pretty simple thing, the calendar, in commenting on the Athlon Press Release yesterday (story) saying that the promised third quarter availability of systems meant they wouldn't be available right away, when Conan Ford writes in quite correctly pointing out that Q3 begins at the beginning of July, less than a week away (I was carelessly thinking of seasons, and how far off Fall is). Sorry about any confusion that caused.

• The I-War - Independence War demo downloads page offers an opportunity to win a Voodoo3 accelerator (you don't even need to download the demo). Thanks GA-Source.
• Gauging the early returns, loony says this week's game trivia contest is shaping up as our toughest yet, which means correct answers are that much more likely to win the grand prize (so why don't you head on over and take a crack at it when the chance arises).

• GameSpot reviews Descent 3.
• GameSpot UK reviews Mechwarrior 3 Review (for the second time). Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
• FullOn3D Games reviews Aliens vs. Predator.
• Well Rounded Entertainment reviews Aliens vs. Predator.
• Computer Games Online reviews the Matrox Millenium G400.
• SystemLogic reviews the AOpen PA3010 TNT2.

• The 'Doom' of an entire generation is a USA Today article on game violence that seems pretty balanced. Thanks Necro. This is another article I find echoing things I have said myself, like the conclusion, which quotes educator Jeffrey Goldstein saying "Video games may be no more than today's cowboys-and-Indians game...We tend to whitewash backyard culture in order to criticize the violent imagery of video games. In fact, it has existed throughout American history."...
• A couple of helpful guides: PCGamePro's TFC Strategy Guide (thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers), and GameSpot's Descent 3 Game Guide (thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme)...
• There's a petition on FPS3D.COM trying to stop Phoenix Technologies from selling banner ads in their BIOS (story)...
• Strange Company, dedicated to making in-game motion pictures, has posted an essay on "Cinematic differences between film, 2D animation and Machinima"...
• This USA Today article disturbingly predicts Net taxes are inevitable. Thanks Balisar.

More follow-up on that MetaSpy dealie mentioned the other day, I've received a few similar links, one of the few that it's easy to verify is legit is the Excite Search Voyeur, which requires Java, and provides a scrolling ticker showing search queries entered into Excite (eXcite?) more-or-less in real time. Thanks Cadred. Sure enough, it turns out that the real entries are just as frightening than the made up ones, if not more so.

Link of the Day: Denteco Tongue Cleaner. As Cuban, who sent the link along, points out, "You can't make this stuff up."