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 Æstats 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:

• There's a new version of WCPUID. Thanks BetaNews.
• Extreme Hardware's 3dfx T-Buffer Interview is up talking to 3dfx' Brian Burke about their newly announced technology.
• Update 1 for version 4.5 of BeOS is on the BeOS Software Updates page (as of a few days ago). Thanks Jason Boles.
• There's a 3D Top update on 3DFiles with a new version of this enhanced desktop dealie.
• Glide Underground reviews the Ultra Thin Exhauster.
• Tweak3D's 3DCool Super Duper Slot Fan review.

There's a new Slave Zero screenshot on ActionXtreme.com. There are some new Age Of Empires II Screenshots at Gamers Depot. There are some WarTorn Shots on The Technocracy.

• Matrix Quake is a project on the Clan Gargoyle page that adds an OpenGL proxy to create a nauseous Matrix (the movie) effect on all the surfaces in any Quake II map (it uses the proxy instead of a pak file to make the textures move)...
• Dukeworld interviews Eurocom Entertainment talking about the upcoming Duke console game, Duke Nukem: Zero Hour for the N64...
• Speaking of Duke, planetNUKEM's Features That Made Duke 3D an Instant Classic talk of the classic features of the most recent installment in the Duke series...
• And speaking of the N64, there's a Quake II Secrets FAQ on GameFAQs with the secrets from the N64 version of Quake II. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme...

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.