Archived News:
That's right, version 1.06 of the Win32 Q3Test has been released. The Mac and
Linux versions are still to come. The 31 meg download has a slew of new fixes,
and adds a new 1 on 1 DM map, as well as the Tournament and Spectator modes.
I'm in the process of getting a local copy up for download, but until then here's
a mirrors list (updated throughout the night). For more details, mirrors, and some servers, visit the official Q3Test site. Enough talk. Let's frag.
It's official, or at least close to official, anyway. Christian Ankow updated
his .plan with the latest on tonight's Win32 only Q3Test release: To
expand some more on Graeme's .plan update, I've just sent out the release build
to the mirror sites and asked them to beat on it for a while on their LANs.
We don't forsee any problems with the release, but want to play it safe by getting
them to beat on it for a few hours.
Tonight, we plan on releasing a Win32 version only. The Mac and Linux versions
are not ready to go yet.
If all goes well with testing, I'll be giving the mirrors the go-ahead to publicly
post the file on their sites around 10pm CST.
id's Graeme Devine updated his
.plan with word that the next Win32 version of Q3Test is on its way Real
Soon Now™: A new build of q3test (win32) has been constructed in
your workshop.
That's a little DK2 joke there...
We're hacking on it a bit before it's public, but it's looking good to go! I'll
update my plan file once it's out and fill you all in on what's new.
As promised earlier, GameSpot
has released the patch to open up the Naboo Fighter in Rogue Squadron. This
patch also fixes issues with Voodoo 3 and Banshee based cards.
Monolith sends along these
high resolution versions of the No One Lives Forever screenshots currently
appearing in PC Gamer's Top 10 Games of
2000 piece. They also point out that NOLF is now officially just a working title,
and that they will be changing the name in the near future.
The Road to QuakeCon section
of the official QuakeCon '99 site has
been updated, with this installment throwing RadPipe into a room with the always
entertaining Levelord. Previous installments have featured Raven's Jake
Simpson, id Software's Paul
Steed, and good lord...even me.
Scott Hackett sends word of a new ActiveX control he's written for model authors,
a web viewer. Essentially what it allows you to do, is embed a MD2 file into
your web page for all to see. Pretty cool stuff, and it's available for download
now. It currently supports both Quake II and Half-Life, with MD3 support promised
once Quake III: Arena is released as well. Swing
over to his page and check it out.
I've posted six
new screenshots from HumanSoft's upcoming title SEED for your viewing enjoyment.
Look for a demo later this month, but until then take
a look at these shots to give you an idea of what to expect.
GT's official Unreal Tournament
Site has undergone its weekly update with this week's level
of the week. This week's level is DM-liandri, and is illustrated with several
screenshots.
The official Nihilistic website has
been updated with a new Online
Introduction to their game Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption (thanks
GASource). It's essentially a FAQ, containing
a list of previews of the game (both on and offline), engine information, as
well as a full introduction to the Vampire license that the game is based on,
in addition to a slew of other info.
PCParadox
has posted an interview with Volition's Jim Boone, producer on Freespace 2,
talking about their upcoming space sim sequel.
TacticalPlanet has posted some new prerendered images of the vehicles in Zombie's
SpecOps 2 on their SO2 page.
Both are of high quality, and show off well the attention being paid to detail
in the game.
Xatrix' Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin updated his
.plan with this bit of news for Linux Kingpin server admins, as well as
word that the Kingpin patch has entered final testing: UPDATE: Server
ops, the below binaries will not be compatible with current win32 clients. So
best wait until the patch has been released (which will be simultaneous win32/linux)
before upgrading your binaries.
The patch is undergoing final testing, and should be out soon.
The binaries
in question are the Linux Kingpin clients released earlier today.
An update to the official Quake 3
Arena site gives voice to a hot rumor that's been floating about: It sounds like a new version of the Win32 Q3ATest is on the way, though it really just says "in anticipation of a new release" and nothing about how soon it will be (thanks Daniel).
Here's the update Christian posted:
In anticipation of a new release of the Win32 version of Q3Test, I've moved the current release to the old directory on the FTP server. So if you were trying to download Q3Test, and couldn't find it, that's why =) Stay tuned...
UGN3D interviews Kenn Hoekstra talking in a Q&A with Raven Software’s project administrator about the progress on Raven's upcoming Soldier of Fortune, Raven's Q2-engine game where you live the peaceful reflective life of a mercenary.
The
Adrenaline Vault previews Omikron The Nomad Soul looking at this upcoming action title
from Quantic Dream in a detailed two-page
preview along with a bunch of
screenshots (I'm not sure if any of them are new, but at least none of them have that
creepy green David Bowie head--which is cool enough, I just couldn't handle that at this
hour).
A new modification for Half-Life has been added to the Valve modification server. OZ deathmatch is about a 7 MB install, and you can access it within Half-Life by selecting the "Custom Game" menu choice, refreshing the list, selecting the OZ DM mod, and choosing the install option. Thanks Max.
Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin updated his .plan with the announcement of the release of a full Linux
client for Kingpin: Life of Crime. Here's the word on the release, which requires a 3D accelerator:
A full Linux client port of Kingpin is now available.
I have not tested this extensively, so please don't treat this as a full-blown release. If there are major bugs, I'd like to hear about it. I will try and fix any problems in what little time I have outside normal work.
I am very much behind the linux cause. Although for many it can be a love-hate relationship at times, when it does work, it's a dream to use. I've only been using it now for about a week, in which time I've developed a strong desire to see this platform succeed. Thus, I have devoted a lot of effort towards getting this client working.
At this time, it is limited to Linux glibc, and REQUIRES A 3D ACCELERATOR, which is compatible with Linux (most 3DFX and TNT/2 cards).
Please sure to read the README file before attempting to contact me.
Linux
Kingpin v1.09beta - RPM Installation (recommended).
(use 'rpm -i --nodeps kingpin-1.09beta_glibc-1.i386.rpm' to install with TNT/2 cards)
Linux
Kingpin v1.09beta - TAR Archive.
Note: some non-Linux browsers are known to corrupt downloads of these files. Best use your
Linux browser, and do a shift-click.
Rewriting the sixth commandment, GameCenter has posted their Ten
Deathmatch Commandments, and oddly enough not one of which happens to be
"thou shalt not kill" or even "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
TNT card". For those who are slightly beyond the stage of simple rules,
they've also posted some Advanced Deathmatch Tips to keep you occupied.
GameSages has posted
details on how to use Quake 2 maps in Kingpin (thanks Billy " Not
in the face! Not in the face!" Wilson). Here's the scoop:
- Download a Quake II editor like quark or qped.
- Load it up and open the pak1.pak in your baseq2 directory.
- Open the maps folder and right click on the ones you want.
- Choose export file and save the bsp in you kingpin/main/maps folder.
- If you don't have that folder make one, make sure you export the folder
textures and place them in the kp texture directory.
Descent3D has
posted a full list of cheat codes for Descent 3, so check 'em out if you're stuck and tired of flying in circles until you pass out.
The latest installment of the always insane Daily
Dementia features the honorary loon TC chattin' it up with Joe Siegler of
3D Realms. Amongst the topics covered are Duke Forever, Balls of Steel, and
the scary fact that Duke 3D has been downloaded over 17,864,000 times (scary
because who the heck is keeping count of these things?).
UGN3D has posted
an interview with Mark Jamieson of Creative Labs, talking about a whole slew
of hardware issues.
At around 7:00 PM Eastern, GameSpot will
have the patch for Rogue Squadron that will enable the Naboo Fighter to be played.
The PC patch (the console version simply has a code that can be entered) will
also fix issues with 3dfx Voodoo 3 and Banshee cards. They've already posted
some
screenshots of the ship, so you can satisfy your curiosity without downloading
the patch.
You know, I think my influence here is starting to show...the other day, as Blue and I were leaving Manhattan, we took a sidestep into a store, and the Smurf bought himself a Playstation. Woo hoo! Being the avid console fan that I am (I'm a collector, I'm afraid...I practically have a console museum in my apartment) this would be good news. Now if I could only get him to give Pokemon a chance...
Other good news on the console front: I've been playing quite a bit of the Nintendo 64 port of Quake 2, and while it's certainly not as visually stunning as the PC version (especially on a TNT2 or Voodoo 3 equipped PC) it's pretty dang cool. The level design's good, the weapons feel right, and although the controller's a bit funky, any fan of Turok or Goldeneye knows it can work just fine in a FPS if you give it some time. It's also the first N64 game that has prompted me to invest in the N64 expansion pack, which adds 4 meg of ram to the system. While it doesn't increase the game's resolution like it does in some other titles, it does significantly improve the framerate and overall polish of the experience. I strongly recommend picking one up if you're going to give Quake 2 - 64 a whirl (along with a couple of extra controllers for that true deathmatch experience).
On a completely different note, today is the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch that would prompt the moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Those of us that are too young to have experienced it first hand tend to forget, but this is indeed one of, if not the most important moments of the century.
Link of the Day: NASA's Apollo 11 30th Anniversary Site
Computer Gaming
Review has posted an interview with Harvey Smith, lead level designer on
ION Storm's upcoming first person RPG, Deus Ex. The interview covers his background
in the industry (there's that daily theme again), and even a good bunch of questions
related to the game itself.
The Mechwarior 3 version 1.1 patch is now available over at the
official Mechwarrior page, complete with a slew of mirror sites (thanks
Jeff McClain). According to the Mechwarrior
3 forums, this 2.6 MB patch addresses multiplayer problems, "legging",
weapon balance issues, and more.
SpecForce.net has posted two new screenshots
from Zombie's upcoming SpecOps 2 (thanks Billy " extra
special" Wilson). It's worth pointing out that one shows off the new
footprints in the snow, while the other shows off bullet holes in vehicles
as well as the new night vision view mode.
Captured.com has posted
an interview with Epic Games' Cliff Beszinski, talking about the version of
CTF that will be prominently featured in Unreal Tournament.
Andrea from Matrox sends along a patch to fix Aliens versus Predator 1.03 on Matrox G400 series cards.
To work, the 1.03 patch must first be installed ( local copy). Here's the poop:
Attached is a new g400 patch for the Fox Interactive Game Alien Versus Predator.
To use this patch, you must download the Game Patch 1 that has been released by Fox
Interactive (http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/patch_demos/patches.htm). The
attached file (g400_avp_fix.zip) is a Millennium G400 Series game patch.
The install process for these two files is as follows:
These two screenshots have been added to
the Q3Test Status Update2 @
Shugashack.com posted earlier showing off Disruptor's one-on-one map.
3DActionPlanet
has posted an interview with BioWare's Greg Zeschuk, talking about his background
in the industry (what is this, a daily theme?), as well as his current project,
MDK 2. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for Men Don't Knit.
UGN3D has posted
an interview with Monolith's Jason Hall, talking about his history, the industry
in general, and a whole bunch of other topics.
Hal9000 ("daisy, daisy, give me your answer do") sends word that
the official Descent 3 level editor has been released, and is available for
download over at Outrage's site.
This version is beta 0.9, and there's a disclaimer that says that, "additional
features and bugs fixes will be implemented with future releases."
John Romero's going to be doing a deathmatch of a different kind this Friday: He's participating in an Age of Empires II battle against AoE creator Bruce Shelley and fellow former id Software employee Sandy Petersen on Microsoft's Gaming Zone. A chat with Shelley will precede the event, and digital photographs and screenshots will be available on The Zone during the match. No word as to whether or not the loser will have to consume months-old milk, but I wouldn't rule it out.
3D-Unlimited has
posted an interview with Rogue Entertainment's Robert Selitto, talking about
his background in the industry, level design, and dodging questions about their
current project (with the required "it’s a Rogue product so you know
it’s going to be awesome" quote being all he can say).
According to AVault,
Mortyr is set to go gold within the "next several days" and that a
demo will be released around the same time. As for a publisher, they are reporting
that "Ubi Soft completed all the paper shuffling with Interactive Magic
in early July," and that everything will be settled by the end of the month.
The 4D Rulers Gore Page has news of a
playable demo of Gore that they plan on releasing this summer to show off gameplay from
their upcoming 3D gory shooter. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
An update to Core Engineer
Greg Stelmack's developer diary on the Rogue Spear site gives a big old update on the
new weapons that will be available in Rogue Spear and their characteristics, offering
statistics and descriptions that should help decide what loadout to take on your missions.
Thanks again Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
Another developer update is a Drakan Development
Update & Shot on Voodoo Extreme giving progress on Surreal Studios' upcoming
third-person dragon riding game from Surreal's Stuart Denman including a screenshot
showing off how you select your player's (and dragon's) skins in deathmatch.
There's a Q3Test Status Update2 @
Shugashack giving some of sCary's hands-on impressions of the next version of the
Q3ATest, which he points out is planned for release sometime this week. There is a
description of the new one-on-one map, and also a mention of plans by ATI to announce a
new Rage 128 Pro during QuakeCon.
MGON Interviews Gabe Newell
talking to the Valve Software Managing Director catching up on the latest doings over at
Valve, discussing the influences behind Half-Life.
The Adrenaline Vault Downloads has an English-language version of the new "Shamazaar" Outcast demo that was recently released as a German version ( story, and follow-up). Thanks Omnigon. Now English-speaking gamers can play this demo level from Appeal & Infogrames' action game that puts you in the role of Cutter Slade, US Navy SEAL Commander, without using a phrasebook.
I.Am-KingPin has posted a new Kingpin deathmatch
guide (or in there parlance of the game, a gang-bang guide) giving hints on how to come
out on top in a gang-bang (I'm just going to leave that be). Also for your banging
pleasure, they've posted a new DM map for Kingpin, called Sick City by Cole Porter (and
you thought he only composed musicals).
- AMD
Posts Big Loss, President Resigns gives word of the announcement of some earning
losses reported by AMD, which was expected, along with the surprise announcement that
company President S. Atiq Raza is resigning. Thanks Whoopass and Tahldain.
- Speaking of AMD, Raven's Kenn Hoekstra's .plan has word that they've received an AMD Athlon
system, and that SoF and Voyager will be optimized for the K7.
- Sharky Extreme
examines the NVIDIA TNT-TNT2 in Depth "provides an architectural overview of
NVIDIA's TNT/TNT2 graphics processors, followed by a performance evaluation of TNT.
Lastly, some shortcomings of TNT are addressed."
- 3Dimensional
128's 3D Sound Primer gives an introduction to 3D sound terminology and technology.
- While discussing sound, Wired News reports SDMI
Spec Restricts CD Copying describes the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), a new
standard that aims to wipe out digital music piracy, saying it "amounts to a list of
choke holds that electronics manufacturers must build into portable stereo systems."
Thanks Grifter1.
The Wheel of Time has posted their formerly
weekly update (referred to now as "a randomly timed, out-of-the-blue update,"
but I won't bust out my team of trademark lawyers). Thanks Infiniti. The post gives a
status report on the game (as well as Glenn's impending marriage--congrats!!) and posts a
whole bunch of new screenshots.
Sharky Extreme
has posted their pair of Slave Zero Shots from this week. There are a million (okay,
23) new high resolution screenshots from Submarine Titans up on Before It's Done. Also,
there are a bunch of new screenshots on gamers.de
(a German site) including 17 new screenshots of Septerra Core and nine new screenshots of
Odium, as well as three new screenshots of Submarine Titans.
The Xtreme Tribes page has a new player model for TRIBES they've concocted as a test of the TRIBES tools. Also, Planet Tribes has posted a Q&A with Optimizer of the Xtreme Tribes team discussing the reasons behind their split from Dynamix' TRIBES Extreme project.
This guide to Quake 3
Optimization offers tips on improving your ping and framerate in Q3ATest. The author
claims his ping went from 280 to 190 ms as a result of these tips. Also on tap are all
sorts of guides looking to provide tips for all manner of shooters, as Gamecenter's Ten Deathmatch
Commandments offer ten rules they feel everyone should follow, plus specific advice
for: Aliens vs. Predator, Descent 3, Half-Life, Quake II/Quake III, Sin, and Unreal. Quake 3 Source's Guide
offers tips specific to Q3ATest, and this Death Matching Strategy
guide is a general guide for all FPS game, though not terribly complete (or polished).
The QWare Software Homepage has a new beta 8 of QBind, an advanced binding/script/config editor (they describe their goals to be "the Visual Studio of Quake config editors") that supports all Quake versions known to man. The new release offers full drag 'n' drop support for bind creation, bug fixes and enhancements, and more.
The Rock, Paper, Scissors Homepage has
another one of those modifications for those who think they've heard it all: A Quake II
modification based on the classic children's boredom-invoking boredom preventer, Rock,
Scissors, Paper. Version 1.0 of the mod is now available, offering three teams
competition, with "cubes" that bring what's described as a "CTF flavor to
the game."
As noted in
Phoebus' plan, there is a new version 0.7 of GLHeretic up on Kokak's Heretic Page with the
latest release of Kokak's OpenGL port of the source code of Heretic.
Looks at stuff in production:
Looks at the stuff that is out already:
When the database conversion project took place here, one of the goals was to allow readers to customize their news preferences, though we've kept that part of the project on the back burner for the most part. I've been playing around with how that stuff works for
the past couple of days, and I'm shocked to see it really doesn't look like that feature is going to require much tweaking before it's ready to go live (Furn is the man), so don't
be surprised when we roll that out pretty soon (at least it seems imminent enough that I'm
finally willing to mention it). At this point the big hold-up is making sure the server
won't blow a tire when customizations cause CGI script usage to soar. More on this soon.
There comes a time when the baby birds must leave the nest, but in this case, rather
than being an analogy for human behavior, it means just what it says: yesterday morning
MrsBlue and I discovered that the fledgling Mourning Doves nesting outside our window that
I mentioned recently have flown the coop (so to speak). Still no Prozac, but I'm keeping
Dr. Melfi's number handy just in case. From my small newfound understanding of this
breed's behavior, the same couple may be back again raising another small brood this
summer.
Link of the Day: ChildCare Action Project Media
Analysis Report on Tarzan. Thanks Eric. They don't find it as evil as South Park, but
considering it's Disney...
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