Archived News:
The Homeworld FAQ on Relic News
has been updated to version 2.2 with more of the "unofficial-semi-official"
skinny on Relic's Space-Sim/Strategy game.
The Counter-Strike page has a
new version 2.1 of this Half-Life mod of counter-terrorist versus terrorist combat. Thanks
Billy at Voodoo Extreme. The new release adds
a new version of cs_assault (compatible w/ hlserver.exe), a new scientist model for
hlserver.exe, fixes telefragging, and more.
The Adrenaline
Vault News has posted more details about that upcoming $50,000 Descent 3 tournament
August 27-28 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Anarchy_Arts news page has word of the
release (last week) of the third, and final set of materials they are distributing from
Legacy of the Fallen, their cancelled add-on for Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Saw that on
PlanetShogo. The way the post is worded, this
sounds to be of more interest to those creating projects, than as a game. They also state
that these materials cannot be "resold or reuse in any commercial product. Use em for
your TC or MOD only."
The Quake 3 Arena Bus Tour page
on id's Quake 3 Arena site has an update from
Anna on the first stop of the tour at a CompUSA in Arlington. The update describes the
festivities, promises photos soon (maybe as soon as tomorrow), and offers a Quake III
Arena t-shirt for the first person that can correctly guess at the upcoming announcement
she's got on tap for tomorrow, so head on over and try and figure out what the deal is.
Q3Center's Q3Tweak page has a new version
1048.3 of this program to optimize Q3Test for visual quality and performance. The new
release adds a "Funky new program logo," support for Voodoo Banshee, and more.
Valve sends word that the next patch for Half-Life (v. 1013) should be released
on Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM PDT. They've already released their Primary
Server Program for both Win32 and Linux (we're working on getting a local copy),
but of course, this large download is useless until the new client is released.
Here's a list of the changes in this new version:
- The mod browser now supports .zip file decompression.
- A new feature for server operators called "TF Stats" which takes
server log files and creates a web page with the results of your TFC match.
- The server now allows banning by WON uniqueid.
- Updated TFC manual with information about running a TFC server.
- Fixed the problem where too many packets were being sent at sign-on.
- Team 4 can now score on 4-player TFC maps.
- Fixed the Soldier's nail grenades in TFC.
- Demo Playback is fixed.
In an interesting alternative to the standard anonymous FTP, Valve has released a username and password to log into their FTP server for those who want to download the Primary Server Program files: ftp: ftp.valvesoftware.com
IP address: 63.75.210.24
login: hlserver
password: hlserver13
Dynamix' Rick Overman updated his
.plan with word that the Starsiege 1.004 patch has been released, and is
available for download on StarsiegePlayers.com.
This patch is available in US and UK formats, and improves the OpenGL performance
amongst other changes.
Extreme3D has posted
an interview with Alex Garden, CEO of Relic, talking about their space shooter
Homeworld, which is currently undergoing beta testing.
Ritual Programmer Mark Dochtermann updated his .plan with a clarification that the new version 1.04-1.06
patch ( story) will also patch versions of Sin updated to the more recent
version 1.05.
PlanetQuake's newbie
guide to Q3Atest and PlanetQuake's
Host your own - the Q3A:test Menace are a pair of new guides for Q3Test, respectively
offering tips for newbies, and would-be server administrators.
Word from the AMD Zone is that this AMD Software Developer's Kit is new
(in spite of the date), and offers support for AMD's new Athlon instructions. Also, there's a 3DNow! presentation from Siggraph
99 on the new video and graphics extensions in the Athlon 3DNow! in PDF format.
We've posted local copies of the Sin
1.01-1.06 patch (11.5 MB) and the
1.04-1.06 Patch (2.2 MB) released earlier ( story).
We've just received word from Blizzard Entertainment letting the world know
that at next month's ECTS show in England,
Blizzard will be announcing their next game. No genre is mentioned, only that
they will be holding a full press conference. Look for more details on September
5th, when they make their announcement.
Berenger "zor" Fish's .plan has word on Spool, his new map in
the new just-released version 1.06 patch for Sin ( story). Here's the skinny, which mentions the map's lack of
Internet-friendliness:
As you may have noticed in the 1.06 patch, that I decided to release "Brain
Pain", or spool.bsp. This was a map that I had fooled around with back.. well let's
see, the .map file for this bit of wackyness is dated December 4th, 1998. It was only a
few hours to make, but I figured why not have it see the light of day. Be forewarned,
spool is probably not very internet friendly. I imagine it would be quite insane with more
then 5 people.
GASource
has posted three new screenshots from MDK 2, showing off their recently announced
dynamic shadows feature. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for Mac Daddy Kids.
Hexagon from Ritualistic sends word of a new
version 1.06 patch for Sin. Here is a
local copy of the 1.04-1.06 patch (2.2 MB), which can also be used to updated version
1.05, and a local copy of the
1.01-1.06 Patch (11.5 MB). Here is Ritualistic's
page for users of version 1.04 patch, and their
page with a patch for users of version 1.01 Here's the deal on the patch, which
includes a new map, as well as text-to-voice synthesis:
Version 1.06 includes:
======================
- New Map "Spool". Spool is a 2-5 player deathmatch map created by Zor.
- 3DNOW! code bugs/crashes have been fixed
- Savegames have been fixed
- a deathmatch-only "auto switch weapons" flag has been added. Turning this flag
off will make it so that players don't automatically switch weapons when running over a
new weapon.
- there is now a new messagemode for talking, messagemode3. This mode can also be accessed
from typing, "say_talk".
say_talk [pitch] text
pitch - is optional, with 1 being normal, 2 being twice as high as normal and 0.5 being
half as normal.
text - What ever you type will be phonetically translated and synthesized.
There's a new Running a
Half-Life server FAQ on PlanetHalfLife with a load of pertinent questions and their
corresponding answers about running a dedicated Half-Life or TeamFortress Classic server.
Thanks ValveWorld.
A new version of the Balance Of Power mod for
Starsiege TRIBES is out (thanks Datumplane::Starsiege).
The new version is TRIBES 1.8 compatible, and has many changes/tweaks including pain
skins. This mod give defenders options besides laying turrets and cameras, and
forces would-be flag stealers and saboteurs to beat stronger defenses.
The ICQ Downloads Page has version
99b Beta v.3.17 Build #2565 of ICQ available for download ( here's the list of changes). Unlike some other
releases mentioned elsewhere recently, this is an official version, not a leaked
alpha. Be warned, it'll change your web browser's home page - be sure
to set it back to you know where. :)
John Carmack updated his
.plan with details on the "dynamic code generator" he implemented
into the Q3 engine to "speed up the game interpreters". If you're
a programmer this will probably make sense to you, as will the rest of this
massive update.
Italian site Games On Line has posted a
sizable interview with Dave Perry in both English
and Italian
languages. The interview is illustrated with several screenshots, including
the first full-frame image from Messiah ever released. You may recall that Shiny
recently announced ( story)
that they were going to be adding a full-frame option for those not fond of
the 16x9 aspect ratio.
3DFiles has posted a
demo from SKOUT, the German first person shooter (described as "the new
first person shooter reference"). The demo is multiplayer only and in German,
so brush up on your Deutsch before downloading.
PlanetUnreal has news of a Steve Polge post to GT's Unreal
Tournament forum with word from the Epic programmer on how field of view (FOV) will be
handled in Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament, as well as a mention of the game's
"awesome air control." PU points out that "the
sniper rifle will still lower the FOV for zooming." Here's the post:
In UT, you can set your FOV to any value greater than or equal to 80 - which
covers the range of reasonable you might want to play in, but doesn't allow zooming
cheats. BTW, we have awesome air control in UT, and you can adjust it in the menus when
setting up a game.
- Steve Polge
Computer
Games Online's Drakan: Quick Take is up, offering first impressions of Psygnosis and
Surreal's upcoming game of dragon riding action, along with some brand new screenshots to
whet your appetite for the game, again, due in stores this Friday. Thanks Drakan.Net.
The third
installment in Computer Games Online's SWAT 3 preview is online, to once again get you
humming the Cops theme while you read, this time about the way physics will be handled in Sierra's
upcoming game of law enforcement. The discussion specifically targets the way ballistics
will work, talking to Rod Fung, the game's producer, about the subject.
Planet Drakan posted a new screenshot
yesterday, and followed it up with another to show off the the Crypt effect from the shot
of the day in better detail. Though Drakan.Net, where
I spotted this, says this may be the last shot posted before the game's release (on August
20), they seem to be kidding, as their post is punctuated with a grin, and the caption on the first Planet Drakan shot
refers to having enough shots in the vault to "last until the 20th."
I.am-KingPin has posted four new Kingpin
deathmatch levels for download, along with reviews of each map, bringing their (his? I's?
my?) Kingpin DM map collection up to 15 new maps.
Sharky Extreme's
Interview with a Vampire talks with Ray Gresko, one of the nihilists from Nihilistic.
The Q&A talks with the president, CEO, designer, project leader, and programmer about
wearing all those hats, and gets the lowdown on progress on Vampire: The Masquerade -
Redemption, their upcoming third-person action game so cool it rates two sub-titles.
Sujoy.com has Sujoy Roy's QuakeCon recap,
giving a UK Quaker's perspective on the event, the tournament, and Texas (though no
nominees for "stud of the show" like the Violent Femmes in the story that
follows).
The Violent Femmes
QuakeCon '99 photos are online offering some shots of the festivities, including a
shot of the maintainers of this here website, as well as a photo homage to Paul Steed, who
they declared "the Stud of QuakeCon '99."
Due to some recent server woes, the deadline on the PlanetStarSiege TRIBES Demo
Contest has been extended through tonight at Midnight PDT (or maybe they mean it when
they say PST). The contest is looking for "the most action-packed, the most
CPU-pounding, the most intense demo of TRIBES that you can make!" The grand
prize will be a coveted spot on the beta testing team for Starsiege TRIBES 2.
I spent some time knocking about the HTML for the top of the news page, and was able to
remove some of the lists that usually fall between the two days of news, made possible by
the loonygames summer hiatus (so no need for the new on loonygames listing for a while).
Turns out I had the font size in my browser whacked, so if you were wondering why
headlines had been wrapping oddly lately, it's because they still looked right to me. A
quick rundown on some other site stuff in the works here: First off, the results of last
week's contest will go up along with the new contest over the next couple of days, it got
lost in the shuffle of QuakeCon, and I want whatever day it gets posted to be the regular
day from now on (we also have hopefully overcome my interference in the prize distribution
that will get any still-unsent prizes out the door). We seem to have gotten the wacky SQL
errors under control that will lead to the unveiling of some other new features, and we
may have our first messageboard online as soon as today, I'll talk a bit about the plan
for messageboards going forward when that happens. Also fairly imminent is the news
customization previously discussed, which would probably have killed the site if we
launched it before the database errors were solved, but now that the errors have abated
we'll probably gear up for a stab at it pretty soon (it is still unknown what impact
soaring CGI use will ultimately have on the webserver so these changes will bring some
anxious moments). Finally (there's more I'm sure, but this is more than enough for
now), the return of the Help Wanted section will come a bit further down the road, and
when the section is revived, it will be fully user-automated (like the LAN parties
listing), but until then the link to the old Want Ads has been removed from the menu.
Link of the Day: The Weekly's list of Good and Bad
Deaths Thanks Bagpuss. Gotta love the prospect of
: "Being the last survivor of your generation, so when researchers come to talk to
you, you just make up a lot of stupid facts and cause all subsequent history books to be
wrong."
GameWinners.com
has posted the cheat codes for System Shock 2, for those of you who want them.
It should be pointed out, however, that using these will take a great deal away
from the overall experience...use them only if you must (and even then, I urge you to reconsider).
Crushbug sends word of BioWare's plans to show off a demo of their upcoming games MDK2 and
Neverwinter Nights on August 21 at Fragapalooza 99.
FP99 is described as Canada's largest and longest running LAN party, and is scheduled from
Thursday, August 19 through Sunday, August 22 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The Matrox User's Resource Centre has
posted a small Windows utility called G400tweak for owners of G400-based accelerators that
offers access to several registry settings to tweak the G400's performance. They also have
word of benchmarks posted on MGA Optimisation
Tools from beta testers of MGATweak which they say "should be out in open beta
soon."
Both of these courtesy of Desktop Watch as
well, where they've posted word of ICQ version 99b 3.17
(I can't find it, but I never can, it probably is out there), as well as word of the final
version 6.4 of the Windows Media Player out of beta on the Media Player Home.
A new version 1.4a of the Bleem (bleem!) PlayStation
emulator for the PC is now available (thanks Desktop
Watch). The new version is called a "Maintenance update," and includes a
workaround for CD-ROM/DVDROM Access (if your drive has problems reading your CD-KEY, try
this version), adds a few enhancements and fixes a few bugs, and updates the Internal
Compatibility Listings database, so fewer games will show up as "untested."
The Q3TStats Home has a
new version 2.0 beta 1 for download offering Q3Test 1.08 support. Word is: "This
version concentrates mainly on the parser and leaves much to be desired with the
output." They expect Beta 2 within a week with "MUCH improved output."
The Ęstats Page has a new version 4.08 of
this log file analyzer for most first-person shooters, including the Quake series, Unreal,
most Quake/Quake II-engine games, and many mods. The program offers stats and ranking
output in HTML. The new version adds a new ranking method, and paves the way for
TeamFortress Quake support.
Saw Doomworld that the source code for version
1.18 of ZDoom has been released, offering a look at
the code behind this enhanced Win32 version of Doom, based on the also-publicly available
source for id Software's classic shooter.
Gaming Age interviews Rod Fung,
talking with the producer of Sierra's upcoming SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle. Also, part
two of Computer
Games Online's SWAT 3 preview is online.
I saw on the Bot Epidemic that version 1.03 of
the CronosBots are now available.
This mod adds AI bots to Quake, and the new release adds Rocket Arena rules to the
bots, and the movement and AI routines have been almost entirely rewritten as well. Also, word on the AI-lovers' homepage is that RiEvEr is seeking beta testers for a new release
of the ReDeMpTiOn Bot for Sin. The
ReDeMpTiOn is currently being ported to the Sin 1.06 CTF code for the Sin Arcade Machine
and word is "it has to be perfect or the machine will crash."
Tribes Universe has a couple of photos up,
along with a brief description of the activities at TRIBESCon, currently underway. Also, Planet Tribes has a new TRIBES mod that makes the
sniper rifle behave more like the TFC version (firing upon release of the trigger, rather
than the pull). Finally, on a semi-related note, Datumplane::Starsiege
has word on a forum
posting detailing a Starsiege Jailbreak server now online.
The DooM Legacy page
has a new version v1.29 beta 4 of this OpenGL port of the Doom source code. Thanks Voodoo Extreme. The new version enhances the FOV
command, and fixes a few bugs (like hidden feet of monsters).
Tim Sweeney made an update to the Unreal Technology
page outlining Epic's plans to implement DirectX 7 support in Unreal Tournament.
Here's the lowdown:
Some people have been asking about our plans for supporting the upcoming
DirectX7. Unreal Tournament will ship with DirectX6 support, and will be compatible
with (but not optimized for) DirectX7. As soon as Microsoft has released DirectX7
and we've had a chance to optimize the code for DX7 and test it across a wide range of
cards, we'll release an Unreal Tournament patch with complete DirectX7 optimizations.
This has been the plan all along.
DirectX7 has lots of cool new features. The ones which Unreal Tournament will
exploit are:
- Improved texture management.
- Hooks to enable 3D card drivers to perform their own texture management to improve
performance.
- Optimized polygon path for significantly faster polygon rates.
- Windows 2000 support.
Exxtreme3D's Fragging While Lagging
is an article that tries to give modem players tips on how to try to overcome their
disadvantage on Internet Q3Test servers against players with lower pings. Thanks Ant.
The first release of the Weapons of
Fury mod for Sin is now available with an update to a mod I recall for Quake, where
you start with a single weapon, and get new a weapon for each frag you get without dying.
The winner is the first player to get a frag with the final weapon (the Quantum
Destabilizer).
The Datumplaners (huh?) over at Datumplane::Starsiege
send word that their Tips section
is up and running, collecting reader-submitted tips on the games they cover: TRIBES,
Starsiege, Cyberstorm2 and Starsiege:Rebellion.
Remember to have your morning coffee before trying to wrap your mind around your morning
technology:
loony's weekly stint at the morning update interrupted the flow of the edition of the pop
culture game I posted Friday. For fans of the quote game, the asterisk and footnote format
will probably be the new way this will go (the quotes won't be labeled like the one on
Friday, but obviously they will stand out more nonetheless). Anyway, Friday's quote was
from The Big Lebowski (thanks LURKER for the correction on the original quote), and the
favorite quote from the film supplied in return was Sean McCann's offering (which I've
corrected myself for accuracy) "You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me.
There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me." Honorable mention
is Stephen Toulouse's and Eric Calkins: "That rug really tied the room together, did
it not?" And I leave you with a thought from Sam Elliot that Moogle (who has to be
one of the very first to send news into this site way back when) sent along: "The
dude abides."
Link of the Day: Business News from Wired
News reports on DUI. Yup, Driving Using Internet. Thanks Ant.
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