Sharp-eyed Chris over at VE spotted that the 3dfx Interactive Voodoo3 2000-3000 Windows 9x Retail Drivers page has an updated set of drivers for Voodoo3 2000 & 3000 accelerators marked version 1.02.13. This is, in fact a new archive, in spite of the July 22 date, as the drivers released on that date were marked version 1.02.11 (story). Chris says they're not new drivers but a new combination of previously available display drivers and OpenGL drivers.

Next-Generation Online has posted a new preview of Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, complete with ten new screenshots from the title. The preview is a hands on one, and it's quite glowing - they praise the game as being the best adventure game since Grim Fandango.

Xtreme Design has posted two tutorials for editing using Kingpin: one on using the editor, since setting it up can be intimidating for the first-time user, and one on basic lighting techniques.

It looks like AVault has gone ahead and released Digitalo Studios' Virtual Reality Notre Dame demo today instead of its intended date of tomorrow (story). You can download the demo from AVault's mirror now, and look for it to appear on the official site soon.

TacticalPlanet has posted a short interview with Sierra's Rod Fung about SWAT 3 - Close Quarters Battle, Sierra's upcoming game of tactical police operations. Among other things, the Q&A catches up on the progress on multiplayer play, asks about the demo, and learns that the sliding feet animation seen in a gameplay movie is a problem that's been fixed in more recent builds of the game.

NVIDIA Introduces Industry's First GPU at Intel Developers Forum is a Business Wire story outlining the schedule for the conference tomorrow at the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) in Palm Springs where it looks like they will be making their announcement they say will cause "the world will change" (story). Thanks Redwood. Here's what they've revealed so far:

Integrating key features with the world's most powerful PC graphics rendering engine, this new GPU will deliver more complex, lifelike images, enhanced artificial intelligence and increased physics than ever before possible on a PC. As part of this event, NVIDIA will also announce a series of partners and OEMs who plan to support this new, highly-anticipated product with their own individual product offerings.

Turns out the reason the download link on the Virtual Reality Notre Dame Cathedral Project mentioned earlier (story) isn't happening is that it seems the intended release date is tomorrow, as the link actually says "demo to be available on aug 31." Apparently the currently-broken demo link has been placed their in advance to avoid that mad rush of last minute HTMLing upon tomorrow's release. Sorry for any confusion we caused. Thanks Flood.

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted a story that sums up some recent rumor-mongering on the subject of a possible sequel to Wolfenstein 3D to be done by a licensee outside of id Software. Thanks Frans. The article mentions attempts to follow-up with the two other companies most commonly associated with the rumor, Raven and Xatrix, reporting that Raven's Brian Raffel out-and-out denied Raven's involvement in the project, while requests for comment to Xatrix went unanswered. Incidentally, this is the exact same pair of responses we received from each of those companies when we contacted them about these rumors ourselves. The AVault did dig up some thing tangible on this, a quote from id CEO Todd Hollenshead that mentions that id has been putting out feelers for such a project:

"I find the prospect exciting and have been attempting to put the elements in place. If and when this becomes a reality, we will have an announcement."

Word on the Insomniax TRIBES Mod page is that a new version 0.9 of InsomniaX TRIBES is now available. InsomniaX adds countless changes to TRIBES gameplay, that change the nature of gameplay significantly (the fill list of features is on the page). The new release is updated through the latest releases, so that TRIBES 1.7 or later is required for an InsomniaX server, and other new features include "re-deployable" deployables, Vengeance Missile System Pre-Sets, Station Ejection, and more. There is also now an Insomniax TRIBES Mod Message Board for discussion of the project.

ZDNN Analysis IE5 flaw makes PCs vulnerable describes an ActiveX exploit (ActiveXploit?) called a "treacherous design flaw in Internet Explorer 5.0 -- is perhaps the most serious ever. It allows anyone with a Web page to take over your computer system via a few simple lines of text within the HTML code that comprises the page. If you so much as visit the page, your system may be subject to the exploit." There is word there on how to plug the potential holes until a better fix is available. Sorry on the lateness in posting news of this potentially dangerous exploit, this was posted a few days ago, and I meant to post this when I saw mention of it the other day on Sharky Extreme, and obviously failed to do so. Sorry about that. Thanks Paul Baucom for the reminder.

Greg Stelmack's worklog on the Rogue Spear page has been updated with the Rogue Spear core engineer's rundown on the weapons and armament in the upcoming sequel to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. Thanks again Frans at 3D Action Gamers. The lowdown discusses weapons from the 9mm Beretta to the SPAS-12 auto-shotgun, and ammo choices ranging from the hit man's favorite, Jacketed Hollow Point ammo, to private Gomer Pyle's loadout of choice, the 7.65mm Full... Metal... Jacket....

The demo for the Virtual Reality Notre Dame Cathedral Project, has been released. This odd, but very cool project, is an accurate representation of the Notre Dame Cathedral rendered entirely using the Unreal engine - and yes, it's multiplayer. Here's a features list for those of you not familiar with the project, which does not require Unreal:

• Explore the cathedral in full detail, for as long as you like.
• Take photo-snapshots of anything inside the cathedral and save them.
• Take a guided tour by a genuine virtual friar tour guide.
• Learn about the history and heritage of Notre-Dame de Paris.
• Engage in interesting conversations with real historians and architects.
• Chat with other visitors, make new friends.

I can't seem to get the download link to work on my end, but it might be my problem or a temporary glitch.

This update to the Mortyr Site follows up on the report from earlier about the state of this back-to-the-future World War II first-person shooter (story). Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers. Here's the update, which talks of the game being available in Poland, talk of pirated versions, and, like the other update, talks of finding an International publisher, albeit with a bit less certainty than the earlier report. There's also word that a second demo is indeed available for magazine CDs:

August 30, 1999
A last! Today, which is August 30, 1999, we started selling Mortyr in Poland.
We are talking with abroad companies about selling Mortyr in the West, and it seems that possibly soon Mortyr will hit the world's shelves.
Soon more detailed, official informations.
In the meanwhile I'd like to inform that in spite of the great subtitles on our Eastern brothers' versions claiming that their Mortyr, although unauthorised, is "full", "final", "complete" - this is not true. The old code, unoptimised levels, logical errors - playing that is a mess. I know what I'm talking about, for I collect pirated versions of the game, I've been taking big part with.
Next news: Mortyr Cover Demo is ready. Like the full, released version, it has all the bugs of Internet Demo fixed (thanks to all the folks who wrote us e-mails. You helped us a lot!). There are three levels in the demo - each of them is compiled of several ingame levels, with different textures, lights, weather and enemies. This gives you some cool stuff to play, while not duplicating the game.
If you are interested in including our demo on you magazine's CD, please contact us at mortyr@mirage.com.pl.
There are some new levels in Mortyr itself, so the screens, section has been enriched.

3DFiles Tirtanium page has a new version of the Tirtanium OpenGL/Direct3D benchmark that one suspects got its name because the author forgot to use his spell checker on his first press release.

Epic's Brandon "Greenmarine" Reinhart updated his .plan with a question for all those Linux gurus out there, as well as the current status on the Linux Unreal port (and even a goofy link in the spirit of my own from this morning). Here's the scoop on the Linux port:

Question for Linux Gurus out there:

If I create a new joinable thread (pthread_create) off of my main process, should the results show up in ps as two entries or three? I'm only creating one additional thread to handle sound mixing, but I'm seeing three "UnrealTournament" entries in the process list. Its weirding me out. I'm pretty damn sure I'm only creating one process, so I wanted to make sure the ps results were correct. (I would have expected two entries.) Chalk this one up to my newbiedom in the Linux world.

Anyway, the Linux port is doing very well. Sound code is done except for interpolating panning (right now panning is absolute and therefore very abrupt if the player is spinning quickly) and a crash that I'm having a hell of a time tracking down. I just need to take a step back and dive back in with a fresh perspective.

Looks like you've still got time to send in your maps and skins for possible inclusion in the upcoming Starsiege: TRIBES Extreme. The following was just posted to TRIBESPlayers:

We've been getting more and more maps and skins in the last few days. The deadline will be pushed back so that those just now finishing up can take the extra time to polish everything. The amount that we have coming in right now really shows that many are taking every bit of time to make their entries the best they can be. I wouldn't want to lose any or have someone slight their work because of some stupid date... So the Open call Date will be extended to Sept 17th!

If you're interested in entering, swing by the contest page for full details.

PlanetDaikatana's ports page has posted an in-game movie showing off the Nintendo 64 port of the still in development Quake II-engine game Daikatana, as well as some screenshots.

NVIDIA has updated their site with the following text: "In 18 hours, the world will change..." Take this as you will. Presumably it's the NV10 announcement The Register claimed would be coming tomorrow (story), but hey...you never know. They could have nuclear capabilities. Remember to stockpile lots of canned food just in case.

Mortyr.net has posted seven new screenshots from the soon-to-be-released second Mortyr demo (said to be coming soon to a magazine CD near you). They've also gotten a tip (from an unnamed source) that Mortyr does indeed have an American publisher (who will be announced soon) and it should be on store shelves in about a month (thanks Frans).

GASource has posted a handful of new screenshots from Russian developer New Media Generation's Hired Team, showing off their proprietary Shine 3D engine. In addition, they've also posted a trailer that shows off the engine's features.

• Here's the official Press Release on that S3 Savage 2000 announcement (story).
• AOpen AX6BC motherboard BIOS download page has a new BIOS for its AX6BC motherboard. Thanks BetaNews.
• Also, Abit's FTP site has a new BIOS for Abit's BX6-2 (direct link). Thanks Flip Cody.
• Speaking of motherboards, Motherboard Monitor 4.10 is now available, adding support for a boatload of motherboards to this monitoring utility.

HumanHead has released details about the game's plot and central character Ragnar, as laid out in this press release. Screenshots are available on HumanHead's site if you're curious as to what the game actually looks like. Here's an excerpt with some background info on Ragnar:

Players take on the role of Ragnar, a young Viking warrior on the brink of a sacred ritual into manhood. With his physical prowess, intelligence and cunning skills, Ragnar shows great promise at becoming a prominent warrior. He desires to prove his worth to his village and take his rightful place beside his father, a great elder warrior who trained Ragnar in the way of war and to respect the power of the Aesir, the gods of Norse legend. Ragnar is a follower of Odin, the father of Asgard (the Viking heaven) and Thor, the god of thunder.

Ragnar strives to use his warrior skills to protect his village, and champion all that is right and just. Just before the ceremony begins, Ragnar and his village learn that another Viking group, the Dark Vikings, led by the brutal chief Conrack are pillaging and plundering their way through the lands, destroying all creatures in their path. Hoping to prove his skills and powers, Ragnar follows his father and other village warriors to defeat the enemy. However, as they sail off to fight their enemies, a raging storm breaks onto the scene, causing swelling waves and gushing winds. The ship is suddenly sucked into a whirlpool and into the Norse underworld.

GASource has posted an interview with Scott McCabe, a 3D Realms alumnus who's currently working at Alternate State Entertainment on Second Genesis, a new role playing game that's powered by the LithTech 1.5 engine.

Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford updated his .plan with word that they're looking to hire a level designer intern to help finish up their official Half-Life mission pack Opposing Force. Here's an excerpt from the large update:

We're looking for someone to hammer at the game during our completion phase to help make sure Half-Life: Opposing Force is the best it can be. This is a little more than a testing position because development tools will be used, but less than a developer position because very little new, creative work will be possible at this stage. This could turn into a full time developer position at Gearbox, depending on the successful applicant.

Learn what's involved in shipping a top title from the inside as you work with our experienced staff of level designers to fine tune Half-Life: Opposing Force. This is a unique opportunity to get involved in the game making process on one of the most anticipated titles of the year - even if you have little or no experience

Here's an interesting tidbit for you on this slow morning that I found over at Comics 2 Film about a movie based on Acclaim's comic/game character Shadowman:

Takoma's next big project is Shadowman based on the Acclaim Comics character. Rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube (The Players Club, Anaconda) is set to start in the title role and co-produce as well. Michael Henry Brown (Dead Presidents) and Paul Aaron (In Too Deep) have developed as script which is close to the most recent incarnation of the character but is different from any of the comic versions. The movie is now set to go into pre-production this October or November, with filming set for January 2000.

Legend's Scott Dalton updated his .plan the other day with a new image from the Wheel of Time editor, which he released after seeing a really old one in CNet's preview from last week (thanks devilbunny). The shot is definitely big, but impressive (and hey...he's got great taste in web sites, don't you think?).

The DoomBot Homepage has a new version 3.0 of the DoomBot, a CTF playing AI deathmatch opponent (and teammate) for Doom. The new release offers a new node system, and teamplay with three deathmatch modes: deathmatch 1,2 and 3. Thanks Bot Epidemic.

3DsoundSurge's Slave Zero Interview takes their usual sound approach to a conversation, asking questions of W. Scott Snyder, Sound Designer for Accolade about his work on Accolade's giant robot game, Slave Zero.

Thresh's FiringSquad's Savage2000 (GX4) Preview offers more about S3's newly announced Savage2000, passing along word that they've got a comparison up "to the Voodoo 3, TNT2, and Bitboy's Glaze3D," though they do not provide any head-to-head benchmarks of the Savage2000 press release versus the Glaze3D press release.

Jago's Map Portfolio has posted a tutorial for creating curved surfaces using UnrealED (thanks Billy by way of Rust). It should, of course, be pointed out that they aren't curved surfaces in the same way that Quake 3 does them, but rather a clever manipulation of architecture. Still, it's pretty cool stuff.

BXBoards has interviewed David Cook, lead programmer on the WickedGL driver team at Metabyte. The interview focuses on the drivers, which have been known to improve performance in high resolutions on Voodoo 2 cards in Quake 3.

GASource has posted two new screenshots from Take Two Interactive's third person action title Codename: Eagle, showing off the newly redesigned interface.

• GameForces reviews the Monster Sound MX300.
• Overclockin.com reviews the FIC VB601-Z motherboard.
• StorageReview reviews the Western Digital Enterprise WDE18310 hard drive.
• According to The Register, NVIDIA will make an announcement on Tuesday regarding the NV10 chipset, which will deliver "PSX2 performance a whole year earlier than Sony" according to an unnamed source (thanks AnandTech for those last two).

• GamesDomain reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• 3DGamers reviews Tiberian Sun.
• Gaming Entertainment Monthly reviews Hidden & Dangerous (thanks Frans for those).

I tell ya, some mornings are so slow that even crickets aren't enough. So, in the interest of pleasing our readers (and well, since I have nothing remotely interesting to say at the moment), I've decided to devote this edition of "Fruit of the loon" exclusively to the link(s) of the day. Because of this special edition, I've chosen five sites which truly prove that people have way too much time on their hands. Choose from one of the following options, but be warned...these are pretty scary:

Link of the Day (a): SimShatner: The William Shatner Acting Simulator. Because it's just too funny.
Link of the Day (b): Stare Down Sally. Because it's just plain weird.
Link of the Day (c): Duct Tape on the Web. Because from time to time I think my hobbies are silly.
Link of the Day (d): Just Toast. Oh my.
Link of the Day (e): The North Carolina Poop Counter. Because it's just plain sick.

Following up on S3's Savage 2000 chipset (see below) comes Sharky Extreme's full look at the Savage 2000 and its beefier older brother the Savage 2000+. They've also got an S3 roadmap that outlines their plans for releasing the Savage 2K, complete with hints dropped to "Project X" S3's chipset following the Savage 2K (or a really bad Matthew Broderick movie...your call).

Savage Daily News has posted a press release from S3 announcing the Savage 2000, as well as news that Diamond Multimedia will be making the first card to utilize it, which will be priced at under $250. The next-generation chipset has a fillrate of 700 Mega Texels per second, which dwarfs the Voodoo 3 3500 (and Voodoo 2 SLI) by over 300. It's not actually going to be announced until tomorrow here in the US, but SDN is on UK time, where it's already tomorrow. Here's a list of the chip's features, shamelessly yoinked from the site:

• 128-bit memory support (up to 200MHz).
• Up to 200MHz engine clock.
• Up to 64MB of memory - allowing resolutions up to 1600x1200 triple buffered with 32-bit per pixel color depth and a 32 bit Z-buffer, with 32MB left for textures, and also full-scene anti-aliasing at higher resolutions.
• 350MHz RAMDAC.
• DVI-compliant digital flat panel technology.
• TV-out support.
• AGP 4X technology.
• Sustained fill rate of 700+ MegaTexels/second.
• QuadTexture engine.
• S3TL Transform and lighting engine.
• S3TC.
• DTV/DVD Playback.
• Motion Compensation Engine.
• Fully Compliant VIP 2.0 Bus.
• Priced at $29 (USD) each in quantity of 10,000 units.

There's a new MDK2.com Development Update giving designer Greg Zeschuk's development diary describing showing MDK2 off to the European press. MDK2, is, of course, the sequel to the first/third-person single player action game MDK, which, as everyone should know, stands for Mild Detergent Kleanser.

A couple of programs loads of readers of this site use:

• ICQ 99b 3.18 #2568 is now available from the ICQ site. Thanks Desktop Watch.
• The BulletProof FTP site has a new version 1.14 if this resumable download utility. You can read more about the new version here. Thanks BetaNews.

The once-canceled Webdog has returned with a new version 2.0 that has a whole boatload of changes, including a swanky new interface, an auto-updating system, a cool new ICQ-like "tiny mode", and tons more. Swing by the site and grab it now.

Build 53 of RealCTF, a CTF mod for Unreal has been released, and is available for download over on its homepage (thanks Killjoy). This version fixes a "dim message text" bug, tweaks the charge costs, and has other changes as well.

Spawn sends word on a way to add 1024x768 resolution to Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. Interested? Just add this to your sun.ini file:

[Video]
ScreenWidth=1024
ScreenHeight=768
StretchMovies=no

Fact is 1600x1200 resolution is possible with this method. Thanks Spawn. If you're curious about the difference, TSNation has posted a screenshot showing off the difference between 800x600 (the game's max resolution without this method) and 1024x768.

Desslock's RPG News has posted an interview with Irrational Games' Ken Levine, talking about their incredibly addicting (and well-made) first person RPG System Shock 2.

A few things of interest to those who like to get under the hood and tinker with the guts of the games:

• Half-Life Editing Resource Center has posted a revised version 1.3 of Zoner's Compile Tools, you can see what's changed in Zoner's Halflife Tools Revision History. On the subject of H-L editing, ERC also points out that Handy Vandal's Almanac has links to about every resource on the subject on the Internet.
• Maniac's Tutorial's offer a pair of utilities so you can play Buffalo Bob and convert some skins for your own diabolical uses: How to convert your Quake 2 male skins for use in Half-Life and How to convert Action Quake 2 SAS skins for use in Action Half-Life. Thanks Planet Half-Life.
• chUmbaLum sOft has posted a new MilkShape 3D Beta 2.1. The latest beta of this modeling program is vaguely expected to expire "around Oct. 17." New to this release is a preview mode for animations, Quake II MD2 export, Genesis3D ACT export (no animations yet), and more, including some bug fixes. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

The finals in that $50,000 Descent 3 Tournament took place last night in Las Vegas, NV. Descent3.net has posted the results, which has Fatal, described as "one of the 1st and long lasting Descent3 pilots from all the way back to Demo1.1 days" winning the big prize. Thanks LLAMA. There's also lots more coverage there of everything that led up to the finals. Congrats Fatal, how about a loan?

This article by Jonathan Clark, formerly of Crack dot Com, goes into how those lucky enough to be on a fast Internet connection can take advantage of it for gaming, even if stuck behind the dreaded Firewall.. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski.

• The RIVA Station (that's the English version of the original German page), has posted a photo of an ELSA ERAZOR III Pro along with some info they found in a German magazine they make sound like NDA stuff, describing an upcoming 0.22 Micron 143/166 MHz "TNT2/Pro" chip.
• Review Zone's Athlon Vs. Pentium III is a 15 pages article comparing the two CPUs on the technical side as well as the performance side. Loads of benchmarks on four Athlons, several Pentium IIIs, going so far as to overclock an engineering sample of a Pentium III 600 to attempt to replicate Pentium III 650 performance to compare to the Athlon 650.
• And last, but not least, Intel preparing megahertz megablitz is a ZDNN article (seen on on AnandTech , albeit minus the link) describing the roadmap for the big I's upcoming CPU announcements, currently (and we know how these things can change) planned to kick off with the i820 chipset and some accompanying new P3's on September 27. Here's a chunk from the article:

The 820 chip set will debut, along with two new Pentium III processors, a 533MHz Pentium III and a 600MHz Pentium III chip, on Sept. 27, sources said. The chips, which support the 133MHz bus, will be based on the current .25 micron Pentium III design.

Intel is planning to follow those Pentium IIIs quickly with the Oct. 25 launch of six new desktop Pentium III processors, based on its Coppermine technology. Coppermine is the code-name for Pentium III chips manufactured on Intel's 0.18 micron process. The new manufacturing process will help Intel reduce the Coppermine Pentium III's voltage consumption and heat production, versus current .25 micron Pentium IIIs. It will also lead to smaller die-size, allowing the integration of 256KB of integrated cache with desktop Pentium III chips. Mobile Pentium II chips already offer this feature.

Chip confusion coming? Of the six new Coppermine-based desktop Pentium III chips, all are designed for use with the 820 chip set, and three, including a 500MHz, 550MHz and 600MHz, will be for use with a 100MHz bus, sources said.

Three more, a 600MHz, a 650MHz and a 667MHz, will support either a 100MHz or 133MHz bus, sources said. Intel may release a 700MHz in place of the 667MHz, sources said, however this was unclear at press time.

The Parsec Homepage has been updated with a new OpenGL screenshot showing "an entirely new spacecraft, background nebula, and planet" from this upcoming action-oriented Internet multiplayer cross-platform space combat game. They've also added a new "Events" section in the news to cover previous happenings, staring it off with photos of their booth at LinuxTag and the conference talks we have given in the past. The "Work in Progress" section (also in the news) has also been updated with the latest development happenings.

id lead programmer John Carmack has warmed the hearts of a bunch of us looking for some news to post this morning by updating his .plan with his latest Quake III programming worklog. He also probably warmed the hearts of many high-ping players since it offers news that he's cooked up a new option for servers called sv_maxRate that will be able to help level the playing field across pings when utilized. Here's the full list:

* spinning machinegun barrel
* changed q3data -origin option to -offset, defaulted to 0 0 24 for all player grabs
* removed second parm from -lod in q3data
* fixed 0 ping on last player killed before fraglimit
* better ping calculation right after transitions
* add time back to scoreboard
* sv_maxRate option to force all clients to play with a max rate. This can be used to limit the advantage of LPB, or to cap bandwidth utilization for a server. Note that rate is ignored for clients that are on the same LAN.
* fixed bad name vs name in tourney after first player left
* added hitch warning messages to server console
* new time clamping rules for net play
* avoid sending usercmds during connection
* send explicit heartbeats to the master server when a server transitions to or from empty or full
* shaders that aren't found will return index 0, but still keep the allocated slot to prevent rescanning if registered again
* use nextSnap for player prediction when available
* removed teleport dest invisible objects
* reduced client to server bandwidth by 35%
* changed logging for chats to guarantee parsing properly with names that conflict with commands:
from: G_LogPrintf( "%s say: %s
"
to: G_LogPrintf( "say: %s: %s
"

• Overclockers' WorkBench has word of new BIOS updates for Abit BE6, LM6 and ZH6 motherboards.
• Thresh's FiringSquad's Upgrade Price Guide has been updated.
• 3d Wars examines the Slipstream Enhancer War.

Nihilistic's Rob "Innerloop" Huebner made an update to his .plan talking about his upcoming presentation at next month's Game Developer's mini-conference, and the portion quoted below giving the latest on their upcoming game, Vampire: The Masquerade--Redemption, talking, among other things, about improving upon mother nature (don't stand near Rob when the lightning starts):

We've been pretty much putting our heads down and cranking out a lot of gameplay elements in the last few week, which is pretty exciting stuff, actually. I've been having some fun with networking and AI, and we're getting tons of new art, models, and interface screens in every day. One of these days we need to snap some shots specifically of the UI -- its gorgeous. And the new skies for the modern day levels will floor you, trust me. We were driving to go see "The 13th Warrior" tonight, and when I saw the full moon out, I couldn't help thinking, "Ours looks better than that"...

IGN64.Com previews Daikatana on the N64, offering this cynical headline: "Kemco Japan does what Ionstorm couldn’t and delivers a playable version of Daikatana on time." Thanks Oedipus. They had a chance to sit down with a "50% complete" Nintendo 64 version of the game earlier this week at Nintendo’s Spaceworld show in Japan, saying they are "very with what we’ve seen thus far." Looks like a copyediting mistake omitted an adjective in there, but they do sound positive (I'm guessing they were "impressed," I guess it's a user-participation preview). There are also three images, but don't get your hopes up to see what N64 Daikatana looks like, they are just the rendered backgrounds from the menus in the Daikatana Mplayer demo.

Perhaps particularly interesting reading in light of the recent Ottawa Sun article that rankled so many, is E! Online - The Hot Spot - Stars on Violence quoting several Hollywood types on the subject of media and violence, including James Wood (on this page), who understands the silliness of pointing the finger at violent movies like his most recent "The General's Daughter," when the real problem is "gratuitous violence, like in those video games that are just training manuals for psychotic kids." Sigh. Thanks KnyteStorme.

• The FireArms mod for Half-Life has posted a couple of new screenshots of weapons in the upcoming mod...
• There are also new screenshots on the G-Sector Media page showing off this upcoming game that uses the Genesis3D engine that will offer a combo extreme sports-type hoverboard game/third-person shooter, from Hap at Freeform Interactive and Ingava...
• Feeling too good about your PC? Head over to Sharky Extreme's Fastest Gaming PC Featuring the Athlon 650 MHz. That'll bring you back down to earth...
• The TFC Launcher site has a new version 2.02 of this TeamFortress Classic server launching program. Thanks Voodoo Extreme...
• There's a Dungeon Keeper2 Tweak Utility on TeleFragged. Thanks again VE...
• F i G C is up, dedicated to the Finnish Gamers Community...

A little pop culture on Friday, quoting Ray Walston as Mr.. Hand from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. testoclese (a word I actually remember Tony "Heh, he said" Wood inventing at Camp Trexler in the '70s--that's not you, is it Tony?) sends along the consummate Jeff Spicolli reply: "That was my skull!" Click here (opens another browser window) for the appropriate sound effect to read the next portion (thanks Whisp). Wow, yesterday was quite a draggy news day, and this morning is certainly no better. The last few weekends have been so unusually busy, I almost forgot what a "normal" Saturday was like. Oh well, it gave me the chance to do some site housekeeping.

Link of the Day: Global Monetary. Makers of a subcutaneous e-commerce chip in your hand read by a sensor in your mouse. Thanks Jim Dosé. If they were serious that $250 might pay to get me to read about having such a chip implanted in my hand, but that's about it (besides, they don't say if it supports USB).
Actual News Story of the Day: ZDTV Virtual Vector reports Scientists target an online chat room as ground zero of an outbreak of syphilis. Thanks Thunderbutt. I guess that's the 90's version of catching an STD from the "toilet seat."