Next-Generation Online Microsoft's Secret Console Revealed is a "world exclusive" scoop on Microsoft's entry in the console gaming race taken from an upcoming edition of their print magazine. Here's a bit on the decidedly PC-oriented hardware in the story, as well as Microsoft's dismissal of the rumor, which Next-Gen still seems certain is a reality:

While a Microsoft spokesperson quoted in the article called the story "wishful thinking," several independent sources have confirmed that X-Box has been in development for several months. Contacted today, a Microsoft spokesperson repeatedly stated, "This is a rumor. It is Microsoft's policy not to comment on rumors."

According to the story, X-Box will feature a 500 MHz processor by Intel (note: according to a follow up story in the forthcoming November issue of Next Generation Magazine, an AMD Athlon powered version is also planned), nVidia's NV-10 graphics technology (recently renamed GeForce), and a modified version of the WinCE operating system. According to the story, this will make X-Box capable of PlayStation 2-level performance.

id Software's John Carmack updated his .plan with his thoughts on the newly announced NVIDIA GeForce 256 (formerly the NV10, or as he calls it, "Nvidia's new geometry accelerated card with the funny name," which could stick), and Apple's new G4 systems. Here's the lowdown:

I have been getting a lot of requests for commentary on two subjects lately:

Nvidia's new geometry accelerated card with the funny name.

It is fast. Very, very fast. It has the highest fill rate of any card we have ever tested, has improved image quality over TNT2, and it gives timedemo scores 40% faster than the next closest score with extremely raw beta drivers.

The throughput will definately improve even more as their drivers mature.

For max framerates in OpenGL games, this card is going to be very hard to beat.

Q3's target of about 10,000 triangles a frame doesn't stress this card at all. If you want more polygons out of Q3, you can do:

r_lodBias -2 // don't use lower detail models
r_subdivisions 1 // lots more triangles in curves
r_lodCurveError 10000 // don't drop curve rows for a long time

I haven't looked at the stencil shadow stuff in a long time, but it gives the largest increase in triangle use (and a lot of fill rate as well):

cg_shadows 2 // turn on stencil shadows
// (if you have a stencil buffer)


Apple's new G4 systems.

The initial systems are just G4 processors in basically the same systems as the current G3. There will be some speedup in the normal C code from the faster floating point unit, and the Apple OpenGL has AltiVec optimizations, so framerates will improve somewhat. The limiting factor is going to be the fill rate on the rage128 and the bandwidth of the 66mhz pci bus and processor to main memory writes.

The later G4 systems with the new memory controller and AGP will have better performance, but probably still limited by the new 3D card.

After Apple gets all their driver tuning done, it will be interesting to try running timedemos at low resolution to factor the fill rate out. Apple has a shot at having the best non-geometry accelerated throughput, but it will still be tough to overcome a K7 with an extra hundred or so mhz.

On a purely technical note, AltiVec is more flexible for computation than intel or AMD's extensions (trinary ops), but intel style write combining is better for filling command buffers than the G4's memory streaming operations.

Apache sends word that he's posted twelve new high res Wheel of Time screenshots on GameFan Online, taken with TNT2 in Direct 3D mode, showing off this Unreal engine title.

GameSpot has posted a brief preview of Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation, with nine screenshots from the sequel to Tomb Raider 3 (which of course was the sequel to the sequel of Tomb Raider).

ZDTV interviews John Carmack talking with the lead programmer at id Software in a 45 minute interview shot during QuakeCon '99. The Q&A has been broken into seven chunks, discussing ION Storm, his favorite Q3A weapon, and Quake III Arena strategies, and Before Wolfenstein 3-D, on Half-Life, Quake III Arena design philosophy, and what's next for id. RealPlayer, or Equivalent, required.

The Unrealty - VSMM'99 Demo has been released (thanks Preacher at the unrelated Unreality). This is a demo of the program that will use the Unreal engine to give virtual reality walkthroughs of buildings for architects and realtors to be able to show off ideas and properties more easily.

Planet Daikatana has posted three new screenshots of the N64 version of Daikatana.

Speaking of games going gold, as we have a few times today, the gold-diggers at Gone Gold send word that Legacy of Kain- Soul Reaver has gone gold, set to bring its horror action to stores soon.

EA sends along this new concept sketch from American McGee's Alice, a hybrid third person/first person action game currently in development. Tomorrow a new gallery section is due to be unveiled at the official Alice site, complete with lots more concept art. Look for it around 5:00 PM PDT. In the meantime, enjoy this truly demented piece of concept art (the thumbnail is a close-up):

Dynamix' Rick Overman updated his .plan talking about ports to the "new engine" talking about his early success with a Mac port, and his hopes to duplicate his Mac successes on a Linux port. Since it wasn't 100% clear what the "new engine" part referred to, we contacted Rick and got a clarification that he is talking about TRIBES2. Here's the update:

I'm finally full time on the new engine, ahhh... and just to liven things up I decided to port the platform dependant layer of the engine over to the Macintosh and see how things looked before we made too much more progress. We were all pleasantly surprised when I had the engine testbed app up and running after just 2 weeks time. (did I mention this is the first time I've ever worked on a Mac?) I spent a few minutes today testing OpenGL compatibility with Mesa OpenGL for the Mac and experienced no problems (MacG3 with Voodoo3-2000 and Mesa OpenGL). I'm hoping the ease at which the platform dependant layer ported to the Mac is an indication of how simple the Linux port will be.

A new GameSpot's Designer Diary for Nocturne has just been posted, talking quite a bit about the flexibility the editor provides in creating the worlds in this upcoming spooky adventure game, as well the game's "richer, more lavish universe" talking about elements of dialog and back-story falling into place. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Word on Planet Half-Life is that the Ministry Of Development has posted a new Opposing Force Screenshot. And yes, the screenshots posted yesterday to make up for the set that preceded them weren't new either, they were from Thresh's FiringSquad's Opposing Force interview, in case you are keeping score at home.

Planet RIVA sends word they've posted still more shots of the Dagoth Moor Zoological Gardens demo being developed for the GeForce 256 by WXP site.

Eidos' FTP site has posted a 17.8 MB movie on the making of Omikron (here's a local copy). The movie is almost six minutes long with high production values (read: closing credits), a lot of game footage, some pre-rendered stuff, and the obligatory quotes from the developers about how cool their game is going to be (thanks Frans).

The Shugashack has posted word that ION Storm Designer Stevie "KillCreek" Case, currently working on Daikatana, will be appearing nude in a future issue of Playboy in a piece "based around her being a female gamer and developer." What can you do in a situation like this, but post the story, and watch our news messageboard (as well as sCary's) with fascination.

The official Freespace 2 page has been updated with two new ships in their ship gallery, as well as another MP3 from the soundtrack (thanks Descent Chronicles).

RedStorm has posted a roster page for Rogue Spear, with details on the six new playable characters that are in the game (in addition to the twenty in Rainbow Six). There's also a little teaser up on the RS downloads page, that says the demo is coming soon (thanks Frans at 3DGamers for the scoop).

On the heels of the update sent along by Dynamix (story), comes another TRIBES Extreme update in Designer Scott "Captain America" Rudi's .plan. The update covers a lot of bases, so I'll excerpt the part about progress on the game:

Tribes Extreme is going well. We've got a ton of new missions in the works for new gameplay online, and the campaign is really starting to shape up. Jesse R. is kicking some ass getting the scoring and mission to mission issues working. Mitch is also doing great with the training missions. They should be really informative and pretty fun - the best thing about them is they'll cut down the number of "How do I repair myself?" questions newbies ask in online games. Blah.

It seems our correction (story) to our report (story) that Sinistar: Unleashed is gold was incorrect. Yes, I guess I'm trying to be difficult there, in other words, Sinistar Unleashed really is gold, and our source can be officially declared reliable again. Here's the lowdown from S:U project manager Rachel Silverstein:

I am the product manager on Sinistar Unleashed and I can promise you that it is, indeed, gold. In fact, I messengered off the gold to manufacture myself. (<deleted> is definitely a very reliable source).

Apparently, there was some confusion at the developer's and they wound up sending you an old form e-mail. I really apologize for the conflicting information, but we really, truly are Gold. Barring a huge natural disaster, Sinistar Unleashed is on schedule to ship Sept. 15.

Move over Lara Croft...Duke Nukem's getting endorsement deals too. MonsterCable and 3DRealms will be announcing that Duke will be endorsing the Monster line of high end cabling. Here's the press release that will be going out to wire services tomorrow:

Monster Cable Products, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of high-end, audio, video, computer, gaming cables, and accessories, proudly announces that world-renowned alien ass-kicker Duke Nukem is lending his name to their prestigious line-up of Famous Monsters. In the past, Monster Cable has relied on a very select group of top musicians and entertainment industry professionals who use and endorse Monster Cable to complete the Famous Monsters roster. Today, Monster Cable adds a man so elite, that he is in a field of one. As a many time world-saver, highly successful entrepreneur, best-selling author (Why I'm So Great, ISBN: 0-7821-1869-0) and famed babe-magnet, Nukem is clearly one of the most famous men on the planet-and is pleased to team with Monster Cable.

"Hey--they asked. I'm the best. They're the best. Good fit," noted Nukem. When pressed for more, Nukem rearranged the cigar in his teeth, adding, "I got a call from Noel Lee, the boss over there, he actually goes by the name 'The Head Monster,' clearly this guy knows what he likes-in addition to making the best cables on the planet." Nukem grinned, "I can respect that."

Not only is Monster Cable supplying their superlative cabling for Duke's computer systems and home theaters, including full wiring for his new Las Vegas casino, The LadyKiller, they're also wiring his award winning game studio, 3D Realms Entertainment. 3D Realms is currently developing Nukem's much awaited PC game, Duke Nukem Forever.

When asked for final words, Nukem snarled, "Monster Cable. Come Get Some."

Dynamix sent along this TRIBES Extreme Update, with the latest word on the special edition of Starsiege: TRIBES currently in development. The update has quotes from Dynamix folk, including Scott Rudi, the lead designer, Lincoln Hutton, lead programmer, and Jesse Russell, a mission scripter on the title. It's cool stuff, so check it out.

Designer Graeme Devine at id Software updated his .plan addressing the rumor of the day, saying that id is not doing a Matrix game (which, if movie adaptation history serves as an indicator, will be some crappy side-scrolling console game and port produced in 72 hours that will sell a million units anyway). Here's the update:

I see a lot of people are playing with nude reptiles!

We are not doing a Matrix game. When we finish Q3A we'll start on the next project. We will try and fit the words "welcome to my underground lair" into the next game, mostly because we think Steed would be good at making fembots.

Okay, that's more of a suggestion than a truth. We'll probably do something completely different based on stories of the Quake 3 Bus and the Nevada desert.

The first release of Pinger is now available on The Mod Shop. Described as a simplified console game server browser for Linux, Pinger asks you which game and mod you want to play, and goes out and finds the servers you are looking for, and can (of course) join the server you select. Pinger currently only supports Quake II, but more games will be added in the future.

GameStrategy.Com's Star Trek Voyager Elite Force preview offers some hands-on impressions about the progress on Star Trek Voyager - Elite Force after a recent visit to Raven's offices to check it out. In addition to a paragraph-per-page preview of the upcoming Quake III- engine Star Trek shooter, the piece also offers a bunch of screenshots that look like they're new to me. Saw that on AGN3D.

Tomb Raider The Last Revelation interview on GA-Source talks with Adrian Smith and Mike Schmitt of CORE Design about their work on the upcoming fourth installment of the third-person, two-breasted, single-player only Tomb Raider adventures: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation.

The seemingly inevitable follow-up on an early gold report has occurred, as my "formerly"-reliable () source has been proven somewhat off the mark on the report that Sinistar: Unleashed is gold (story). I received the following note from the development team, apparently unrelated to our previous report, that makes it obvious that the game isn't actually gold:

I'm pleased to be able to inform you that Sinistar: Unleashed has gone beta. Over the next few weeks, we'll be rushing around putting the last few bugs to rest, and generally undergoing "Crunch Week."

The Nocturne Home has been updated with new screenshots and information about this upcoming horror adventure from TRI and Gathering of Developers. Nocturne is also being shown off at ECTS, just getting set to unfold in London, and will also be on display at Ground ZERO in New York City the following weekend (story), though as Mike Wilson's .plan update mentions, the report about what's being shown at G.Z. is not completely accurate:

Just to clarify the info being posted on The Gathering's presence at the upcoming Ground Zero event in NYC... we'll have a couple of guys there giving demos and letting visitors play Nocturne and Darkstone. The other games we'll be showing will be shown only on video... new, cool ECTS videos for the most part. That includes Age of Wonders, KISS Psycho Circus:The Nightmare Child, Heavy Metal:FAKK2, RUNE, and Max Payne.

Playable demos off all these games will be given by the developers at ECTS... except Max Payne. The 3DRealms/Remedy boys continue to sit out trade shows to try to make uninterrupted progress on getting Duke Forever and Max Payne to the level that they want them for 2000. I don't think you'll see live demos of either of those games until E3 2000, but on 3DRealms knows for sure.

MapZone's Q3Tourney guide offers another strategy guide to the third Q3Test map. Q3Tourney, discussing proper one-on-one tactics for the map in tongue-in-cheek style.

The Adrenaline Vault Patch Downloads now has a new patch to update Spec Ops: Ranger Team Bravo. The patch increases the spawning distance in multiplayer games, reworks how satchels operate, and more.

Frans at 3D Action Gamers sends word that Sierra has quietly posted a new version 1004 patch for Starsiege on their FTP site (direct link), that looks to update the OEM version of the game from 1002 to 1004, which is the latest version of the retail game. Frans has also mirrored the file on 3D Action Gamers' Starsiege page.

New Game Consoles Blow Away PCs is the name of a new article on ZDNet that talks about the next-generation of consoles, including the Dreamcast and Playstation 2. The article fails to mention the coming generation of PC graphics cards, but does point out the production costs of Final Fantasy VIII, which at $30 million were more than six times that of an expensive PC title. But, they do quote John Carmack, who brings the piece back down to earth:

"The impression that the PlayStation 2 will be light years ahead of the PC is really incorrect," says John Carmack, the top programmer at "Quake" developer Id Software Inc. in Mesquite, Texas. "We're going to continue with the PC because it will move ahead of the consoles and it gives us complete freedom to make the kind of games we want."

Stomped has posted an e-mail they received from id's Paul Steed regarding the possibility of skeletal animation being added to Quake III: Arena this late in the engine's development (as Carmack mentioned it recently in his .plan), so you can head on over an see what id's animator thinks of the prospect.

The official Messiah page has been updated with some new character images, showing off a number of different (and strange looking) creatures from this third person action title that's a mere 10 weeks from shipping (if you believe their release date of November 15th). Thanks VE.

Also on VE, is the latest installment in their Experience Development report, with The Whole Experience's Patrick Moynihan giving you the latest on their two projects: the Dagoth Moor Zoological Gardens demo for the GeForce 256 and their 3D game Experience.

Saw on Stomped that the GameSpy folks have come up with a workaround for the missing Q3Test servers (story), and Redwood says GameSpy now shows well over 400 servers available again. Okay, just this once I suppose it's appropriate to say it: ROCK! Graeme Devine's .plan says this is fixed in the next release of Q3Test.

The busy night owls at The Adrenaline Vault have posted a few bits of computer role-playing games: EON Designer Diary is the "first designer diary about the upcoming epic fantasy CRPG, EON." Also, I see there that The Official Wizardry 8 Website has been revamped with "all-new screenshots, a completely revised FAQ, new sections on classes, combat and monsters, and a new design." Finally, Computer Games Online Might and Magic VII tips are online (saw that last one on VE).

The Adrenaline Vault Previews Earth 2150 Escape from the Blue Planet looking at this futuristic upcoming 3D accelerated RTS. In other strategy game news, the AVault is also reporting: Warlords 4 Announced saying the sequel is "scheduled to ship Quarter 3 2000."

Some bits, including the possibility that Athlon 700's are on the way soon. Did you know AM Tech Bits are part of a balanced breakfast?

• On the heels of reports that 700 MHz Pentium IIIs may appear in October (story), Sharky Extreme's Weekly CPU Prices citing "several sources close to AMD" says "October is the target launch month for the next version of the Athlon CPU, a 700MHz model running on the current version's PC-100 SDRAM-based system bus."
• Also in the shark tank is Sharky Extreme's Glaze 3D - Bitboys Oy interview asking about the upcoming 3D accelerator that sounds like such a killer on paper.
• What's the frequency Kenneth? You can find out by visiting this page, where there's a new version 2.6c of WCPUID, the CPUID & frequency check program. Thanks KC4EBR.
• Graphics Board Maker Hercules Folds reports PC World News saying "the video graphics card maker filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection last week..." Thanks Sean Segel.
• GameWire's A Somewhat "Laymen’s" Brief on the GeForce 256.

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted five new screenshots from Spellbinder, an upcoming first-person shooter/ RPG from Mythic Entertainment that has just entered closed beta testing. Spellbinder is an online game based on the pen and paper game Rolemaster (Iron Crown Enterprises) that will feature four character classes and will allow "thousands of participants to compete alongside and against each other in an arena-based system."

GamePen's new "interviewer-at-large" RadPipe (who knew?) kicks off his interviewing stint over there with a Q&A with Jake Simpson of Raven Software talking about "life, death and everything Star Trek: Voyager." Star Trek Voyager, is Raven's upcoming Trekkie first-person shooter that uses the Quake III engine.

Word comes from a reliable source that Sinistar: Unleashed, the 3D Space Action title from THQ went gold yesterday, and will be in stores later this month.

Some may consider New York City godless, but they won't be able to say that during the Ground ZERO event, as the Gathering of Developers has been added to the exhibitor page on the Ground ZERO site, with word that they will be showing off a full slate of their titles, including those currently available, as well as those in development. Here's the list: Darkstone, F.A.K.K.2, Fly!, Nocturne, KISS Psycho Circus, Max Payne, Rune, and Age of Wonders.

PC.IGN.COM previews Spec Ops II giving a look ahead at the upcoming sequel to Zombie's tactical shooter, saying they can't wait for its release.

Thanks again Frans at 3D Action Gamers:

• GameFan reviews System Shock 2.
• GamePen reviews Fly!.
• GamePower reviews Outcast.
• Gamers Central reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• GameOver reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• Electric Games reviews Dungeon Keeper 2.
• CTNews reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• CTNews reviews the Everglide Large Attack Pad.
• GameSpot reviews the 3dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV.
• GameSpot reviews the Guillemot Xentor 32.
• 3D Gaming reviews the Matrox Millennium G400.

• Nintendo Announces Game Boy 2 on Next-Generation Online: "In addition to sporting a powerful 32-bit CPU, and 20 hours of battery life, Game Boy Advance will be able to connect to a cellular phone to access the Internet... (and) is slated for an August 2000 release in Japan and is tentatively set to release before the end of 2000 in the US."...
• The BattleComm news page has word of a price reduction on this real-time voice communication software, as well as an apology for spotty responsiveness during their transition to Microsoft ownership...
• The Adrenaline Vault News is reporting that "Verant Interactive has announced that its online combat game Tanarus will be opened to non-subscribers at no charge during the Labor Day celebration"...
• The Habitat has an interview with TheFatal, author of the Half-Life Jumbot (linked on their sidebar)...
• News of the death of legendary Thrustmaster programmer and founder of the Thrustmaster User's group, William (Cowboy) Wilson can be found on SimHQ (thanks Aslan the Furry), along with a message board where sympathies can be expressed...

Huzzah and kudos to crezzy Tom Hall for surviving long enough to celebrate his 35th birthday! Happy birthday Tom, welcome to the realm of the ancients. In a special ceremony, Tom will be awarded the badge of his advancing age by the Levelord (the badge being a pair of tweezers for ear hair).

Link of the Day: Flatulence Filter. Thanks Ant. They have their own domain for goodness' sake..

NVIDIA is throwing a $10,000 contest and all you have to do is fill out this form. Well, you also have to win the drawing, but at least there's no physical labor involved. In other NVIDIA news, the GeForce 256 bidding on eBay has skyrocketed to $20,100. So I'd suggest entering the contest before making a bid (the bidding on the Excite and Yahoo auctions are still within a reasonable range, however).

GameSpot has posted a preview of Odium, a third person, turn based RPG currently in development by Metropolis (and set to be published this October by Monolith). The preview features seven new screenshots that give a good feel for the game's interface.

ClanFHA has posted a preview of TeamFortress 2, based on the author's recent trip to Valve's offices (thanks VE). The preview contains a Q&As with Robin Walker and Gabe Newell, as well as a downloadable movie of game footage and an exclusive screenshot.

Tactical Planet has posted the version 1.2 patch for Hidden and Dangerous. Here's the scoop on this 3.7MB patch:

• Full configurable controllers. Status: included full configuration of mouse and joystick. Support for first joystick attached to computer.
• Crashes when leaving static guns. Status: FIXED.
• Mouse lag. Status: A new checkbox 'Vertical sync' added to hardware configuration utility. If you encounter problems with mouse response, please check this.
• Quick game load. Status: a new menu item appears in the in-game menu (after pressing ESC).
• Boats - death of on-board soldiers. Status: FIXED.
• Static guns: possibility to use in crawl mode. Status: OK
• When walking or running, auto-centering disallows aiming up or down. Status: Auto-centering is now a bit smarter.

The Adrenaline Vault Downloads Patch page has a new version 1.8 of the patch for the full German version of X-Beyond the Frontier (not the English version of the demo as I originally wrote). No word on what the patch addresses.

CNET Gamecenter's System Shock 2 guide promises to help you Show Up SHODAN. Of course in a game like SS2, the whole point is to figure out stuff for yourself, but it sure beats giving up on the game if you're stuck (I avoid spoilers my self, but Billy peeked and says it's a good concise guide).

The Microsoft Age of Empires II Age of Kings page has posted the AoE II box art though you have to work for it, by solving a "Microsoft's Pandora's Box" puzzle, described as the next generation puzzle game by Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. There are also some new Dark Reign 2 screenshots on Gamer's Alliance Strategy. There are also some exclusive Metal Fatigue screenshots on Planet RIVA.

BetaNews has word of new ASUS P2B BIOS' on the ASUS German FTP site. There seems to be a new beta BIOS there to work on any P2B board.

Also on BetaNews is word that yet another new ICQ beta is available, as ICQ v3.19 Build 2569 is on the ICQ website.

Mail has been rolling in to the Blue Tower trying to figure out what's going on with the Master Servers over at id Software. Hearing the call, id Software Designer Graeme "Zaphod" Devine updated his .plan with word that the Master Server hasn't blown a master cylinder, but there is a problem seeing empty servers (which of course makes it hard for them to stop being that way to show up). This is going to be addressed in the next release. Here's the update, which also includes word of some new id servers, and the story of the mad mapper:

Some of you have commented on the master server being a bit odd right now. It's actually running just fine, it's just responding to queries for protocol 41, which is not entirely compatible with protocol 40. Only servers with people on there will actually show up. You can force showing the empty servers with the keyword "empty", but this isn't so useful since in 1.08 you can't combine that with game types (e.g. you can't say "empty tourney"). For completeness's sake, you can also say "full". But heck, if you type in "nude reptiles", you can scan that too and get exactly zip.

All of this is of course fixed in the new test and browsing gametypes, keywords, and so forth is easier than ever. You'll swoon. Trust me.

For those of you, and there's a bunch of you, who believe that our previous efforts had better network support than 1.08, we've set up servers here for you to get side to side experiences. Go try them and let me know.

Q3test 1.05 - 192.246.40.68:27961
Q3test 1.08 - 192.246.40.68:27960
Quake 2 version 3.20 - 192.246.40.68
QuakeWorld version 2.30 - 192.246.40.68
Quake version 1.09 - 192.246.40.68

We're pretty confident you'll be seeing things our way pdq.

Eric, our in house live human, bet Tim that he couldn't make a fun map in under an hour. Tim, being Tim, took him up (the exact nature of what was bet remains somewhat fuzzy, but it may have involved lunch). Forty-five minutes later we had "fun", which has remained interestingly addictive throughout the last week to the entire company (of course, listening to Tim tell this story, it's down to thirty-five minutes while he had no power, and the mouse was disconnected from his machine).

The lesson from all this is either that Tim really values something fuzzy to do with lunch, or that Quake 3 is so darn cool you can toss together maps in less than an hour. Okay, maybe knowing what Tim knows helps, so we're going to dissect his brain for science and get him working as our own personal AI (John swears it's possible) churning out 24 levels a day 24/7 until some odd Y2K bug causes him to make every telephone in the world ring at once. Oh wait, that was Lawnmower Man.

Dynamix' Mitch Shaw updated his .plan with an update on TRIBES Extreme. Here's what he had to say:

I'm hip-deep in mission scripting for TRIBES Extreme now. Jesse Russell did the scripting for two of the training missions before moving on to campaign scripting, and I'm doing the others. I think it's going pretty well so far, I have about 80% of them in a good "first pass" state, and Scott "Cap'n America" Rudi is providing feedback and tweaking the text. The training missions for Extreme look like they're going to be much more comprehensive and "event-based" than the original TRIBES ones -- Greg had very little time to put those missions together, and I think he did an amazing job with them when you consider just how little time he had.

As a consequence of the head-down, full-on assault on the training mission scripting, Freeze has been put on hold for now. There are still several problems with it, and I would dearly love to get it finished and released, but it's strictly a "free time" project. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it before too long. My apologies to anyone who's been waiting for a Freeze release (if there is anyone).

I would like to encourage everyone who hasn't done so recently to visit the TRIBES Extreme area of the website (http://www.tribesplayers.com/tribesplayers/extreme-index.html) and give a look at what we've been working at so hard lately. There's information about the game, screenshots, witty bon mots, and more stuff on the way. It's more fun than you can shake a barrel of monkeys at, or something like that.

Happy Puppy has posted a preview of Sierra's SWAT 3 (thanks Frans). It's a hands-off preview, but it does feature what would appear to be two new screenshots (although admittedly I can't be 100% sure) from this Rainbow Six style tactical game.

According to Darkstone News, the English version of the Darkstone demo released earlier today (story) will be an exclusive download from PC.IGN, and will be released at 9:30 Pacific Time (thanks VE).

With this morning's announcement that TEN has been renamed to Pogo.com (story), and dropped much of the gaming content they were originally known for, and the coincidental fact that currently the official PGL site is currently offline, coupled with the fact that their next season has been cancelled, many people have been leaping to the conclusion that the PGL is closing down. I spoke with a PGL representative who assured me that this is not the case. The PGL will have to find a new online partner to host the online portion of each season (since it used to be hosted by TEN) but this shouldn't affect their future. In fact, the StarCraft division was hosted by Battle.net last season - not TEN. Rest assured that we'll keep you up to date as new information is released.

GAStrategy has posted a brief Q&A with 10six producer Al Rivera, as well as three new screenshots from SegaSoft's morbidly massively multiplayer strategy game that's currently entering its beta testing phase.

Raven's Rick Johnson updated his .plan with a clarification of a misprint in the current issue of PCGamer:

There's an article in the October 1999 issue of PC Gamer about SoF with a very bad typo: "Vertex compression allows us to use more animations and model variety and still run on a machine with 32MB of RAM. Also, since the compression is high quality, there's 'swimming' visible on the models, even when very close."

That should read "Also, since the compression is high quality, there's NO 'swimming' visible on the models, even when very close."

IMG Magazine has posted a preview of Bungie's third person game of anime action, Oni, which is based on the author's experience with an early Alpha build of the game. They've also posted an interview with Alex Okita and Chris Hughes (two artists on the game) as well as Brent Pease, Oni's project leader at Bungie West.

Since only one of the shots they posted yesterday was actually new (story), GASource has posted two new screenshots from Half-Life: Opposing Force, Gearbox Software's official add-on for Half-Life.

Team Abuse's Q3Tourney guide gives maps specific strategies to the third level in Q3Test, Q3Tourney. Thanks Matthew Rorie and Redwood.

• MSNBC reports Intel ships samples of Merced calling it "a major milestone in the development of its next generation processor." Thanks Phil "Cain" Hall.
• Sharky Extreme's GeForce 256 Steps Out in Style article offers an interesting unconfirmed deduction about the clock speed on the newly-announced GeForce 256, saying "it's easy to do the maths- simply divide the 480Mpixels by four and you get the general picture- 120MHz." Maths? Hey Sharky, you're in America now, learn to speak the language.
• Coppermine To Come Sooner, Run Faster describes 700 MHz PIIIs this fall. Thanks Redwood (someone also sent me a ZDNet link to this, but I had trouble with the URL).
• SystemLogic's Building A Dual Celeron System Part 1 is online.
• Part one of Ars Technica's NT Pagefile optimization is online.
• From USB Workshop: Iomega offers a new ultra-slim USB Zip 250MB drive with dual USB-PCMCIA interface.

There's a Quake III Bus Tour Feature on Extreme Hardware with another perspective on the tour that's currently winding its way around the Southwest US showing off the game to eager sun-baked masses. More on the tour can be found on id's official Quake 3 Arena Road Tour Page, our Quake Arena Road Tour message board, and in loony's Quake III Tour Diaries.

Borderfield productions has posted a new version of their Q3A - Total Control utility for Q3Test, which they describe as "the ultimate Q3A tool." It contains a FunName editor, a Key Binder, a Dialup Optimizer (they say it "can reduce lag with up to 30%"), a Server launcher, and a Config Editor that you can use to tweak your graphics, RailGun settings, HUD and much more. This is an updated version to a release that was not mentioned here because it violated the EULA, since the original version had a pak explorer, which was removed when they learned it was a problem.

RedStorm need 50 beta testers for their upcoming strategy/RPG game ShadowWatch. Interested? Here are the details (thanks BetaBites):

In Red Storm's new strategy RPG, Shadow Watch, you will lead a crack team of operatives to uncover a nefarious plot to stop humanity's advancement to the stars. Use your operatives to launch covert missions to rescue hostages, plant surveillance devices, raze buildings, and assault enemy strongholds. You'll have to use your wits on and off the battlefield to win. This isn't a battle to save the world; it's a battle to save every world.

Sign up for the Beta Test is Sept. 3. 1999 starting at 12:00pm EDT. NOTE: Any duplicate names and incomplete information will automatically be disqualified.

Shadow Watch Beta Testing will begin on Sept. 22, 1999 through Oct. 18, 1999. Minimum Requirements to become a Beta Tester are:

- Windows 95 or 98 Operating System
- 166 MHz Pentium
- 32 MB RAM
- 16 bit Color SVGA video
- 2 MB Video Ram
- Sound Blaster 16 or compatible
- 600 MB free (required)

If Selected a Beta Tester must:

* Sign and submit a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) to Red Storm Entertainment Inc. before receiving Beta CD.
* NDA must be received at Red Storm Entertainment by Sept. 15, 1999
* Complete Each of the 18 Mission Maps and send results for each via E-mail.
* Submit comments and bugs via E-mail using Solo bug
* After completion of all of the above the tester will receive a copy of the game.

Selected Beta testers will be notified by email on Sept. 7, 1999. If you are interested in registering to be a Shadow Watch Beta Tester, sign up at http://obiwan.redstorm.com/cgi-bin/betatest/application.cgi on Friday, September 3. (The page will not be live until Friday!)

Here's an interesting story: according to this story on ZDNet, GT Interactive (publishers of Doom 2, Quake, and Unreal, amongst other games) is being sued by developer StarPlay of publishing their game Alley 19 Bowling under a different name via their German publisher GT Value (thanks to everyone who sent this in). GT had no publishing agreement at all for Alley 19, and therefore the term "piracy" is applicable. StarPlay is asking for $110,000 in direct damages and an extra $5 million in punitive damages.

Wantree Games World has released a patch for the popular recamed version of Quake Done Quick 2 by Zarathustra Studios that fixes a bug where the VWEP doesn't work. The patch is available in both Linux and Windows versions.

It's a Wednesday, which means it's time for this week's Mail Bag (no really, this time we're sticking with the schedule). In this week's incredibly exciting edition: beating on LPBs, that Ottawa Sun article, cute furry animals, Jolt, and of course, a whole bunch more. Head over and take a read.

The Adrenaline Vault Downloads has a new demo for Delphine's Diablo-esque action/fantasy game DarkStone. The demo is a 26 MB download, and is apparently in French.

The Iron Strategy Demo on The Adrenaline Vault is a non-playable demo of the giant robot combo action and strategy game announced the yesterday (story), where you can be either a general or a pilot. The download is about 23 MB. Interestingly, there's no word of the demo available on the Iron Strategy site other than it's available by special request. The demo is also available on 3DFiles.Com.

Matrox Graphics Millennium G400 Latest Windows 9x Drivers page has new version 5.21 Millennium G400 Windows 9x display driver. From the notes, word is this driver can not be used with the Rainbow Runner G-series, you should uninstall any previous Matrox drivers using this procedure before installing the 5.21 drivers, and come time to uninstall the 5.21 drivers you will need their uninstaller utility. Finally, the 5.21 drivers are 32-bit, QuickTime 16 will not work properly with these drivers without this work-around.

A new version of GLSetup, the program that detects your hardware and automatically installs the OpenGL drivers you need has been released. This version (Public Beta v1.0.0.107) is dated August 31st (although curiously it's dated August 30th in the readme file) and is available as an ActiveSetup download (which only downloads the drivers you need) or a monolithic 43MB version that contains every single driver (this is great for networks, by the way). Thanks Kurt Hoffmann.

Ritual's Robert Atkins sent along two more images from Heavy Metal: FAKK 2. These shots show off really nicely the cool special effects they can do thanks to their custom FX engine, which they've dubbed Ghost (not to be confused with Ghoul, Raven's modelling system on Soldier of Fortune). Enjoy!

   

In a strange turn of events, the online service formerly known as TEN has become - Pogo.com (thanks AGN3D). This new site focuses entirely on the more mainstream games that TEN offered, including card games, and "classic arcade games". It would appear that games that are available at retail with TEN's software are no longer supported. I attempted to find Miz Beaver, Porky Pine, Howland Owl, Churchy La Femme and of course Pogo on the site, but it would appear that they too, are no longer welcome.

The Intel Developers Forum is currently underway, and there are a number of products being shown, as laid out in this ZDNet article (thanks OmegaFoRCe). At the top of the list is news that the first sample Merced processors have been handed off to PC manufacturers, and were demonstrated running 64 bit versions of both Linux and Windows. Also demonstrated was Intel's 800MHz Coppermine processor, as well as something being called the "Ottoman PC". A computer shaped like an Ottoman, complete with a leopard skin cusion.

GT Interactive sends word that the Eurocom developed Duke Nukem: Zero Hour for the N64 has shipped to stores and should be available right now. Zero Hour is an original game (not a port from the PSX or PC titles), and is played from a third person perspective.

id Software Lead Programmer John Carmack updated his .plan discussing memory usage in Q3A, his forays into PERL, and a new worklog. Here are a couple of excerpts, in the first he mulls the possibility of implementing a skeletal animation system at this late stage of game development:

Loading a large map with full resolution, 32 bit textures and mipmaps consumes almost 40 megs of texture space. The default of picmip 1 and 16 bit textures reduces that to six or seven (not all images observe picmip) in theory, but some OpenGL implementations keep a 32 bit version of the texture around even if the card only uses 16 bit (I consider this inapropriate), so it may still be twelve or more megs just for the images.

I have been able to save a couple megs off of the true capacity requirements by not rolling through some larger buffers when not needed (not smp and not dedicated server), and several megs more of one-time data mostly by moving a lot of static tables to dynamic allocation.

I can probably save another meg of true capacity and I think three or four megs of initialization data. The big thing that I might be forced to do is go to a skeletal animation system. I would hate to do that at this late a point in the project, but it would save about two megs per player model in the game.

In the process of chasing down the static memory hogs, I finally got around to starting something I have needed to do for years: learn perl.

The update goes on to describe John's experiments with PERL, and give his latest worklog mentioning tweaks to lightning damage and machine gun ammo in teamplay. Here's the worklog:

* save 2.5 megs by reworking shader allocation
* save 1 meg by not double buffering backend if not smp
* convert all tr. arrays into pointers
* don't allocate as many snapshotentities when non dedicated
* new shader option: deformvertex move
* stackable deformvertex
* reduced lightning damage by 10%
* light emit from two sided surfaces
* reduced starting machinegun ammo in teamplay to 50 from 100

Busy Frans at 3D Action Gamers sends word that an updated version of the Mortyr Internet Demo has been quietly slipped into circulation. The original is on the very poor connection that made the first demo so hard to nab, but Frans has it mirrored on this page on 3D Action Gamers. The new demo is a bit smaller than the original, and is version 1.06 as opposed to the original 1.02, the new release addresses some bugs. Frans also mentions that the new demo will not break your old saved games.

There's a TRIBES2 screenshot on Penny Arcade Cartoons. Not a goof or a drawing, a real screenshot of a landscape described as the never-before-seen Swamp World in Dynamix' upcoming sequel to Starsiege TRIBES.

• There's a Chat log of last night's GeForce 256-inspired IRC session on Tweak3d.net which includes the participation of NVIDIA's Nick Triantos, Christopher Donahue, and Kenneth Hurley and the WXP gang.
• Sharky Extreme's NVIDIA GeForce 256 Steps Out in Style.
• Computer Games Online previews the Savage 2000.
• CPU Review's Athlon/Pentium3 Price Comparison v4.
• 3d Wars' Gary Peterson Interview talks with the author of the "infamous" Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 overclocking utilities who now works for 3dfx.

Saw a note on MacGamer's Ledge revealing that the clamor for the Quake III Arena hats and mousepads that are being handed out on the Bus Tour has been heard, and these items will soon be for sale. Here's the scoop from the id Quake 3 Arena page:

A bit of cheerie news for all of you who have been e-mailing about the Quake III Arena t-shirts, hats and mousepads. Your voices have been heard. I've received news that we will soon be making them available for purchase via 1-800-id-games. I'll make an update on these items once they become available.

Frans at 3D Action Gamers sends word that Activision has posted a movie showing their updated Space Invaders in AVI format (about 3.6 MB).

A thread called Software mode on the 3D Realms Bulletin Board has a post from 3DRealms' George Broussard (thanks Brian) talking about the hassles of software rendering in a world where hardware acceleration is becoming the standard, saying that software mode might just end up not being included in Duke Nukem Forever when it's released.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Software go away in DNF. It's a real hassle to add things that look cool in hardware then have to deal with the software version ramifications of that. We had decided to go hardware only way back in the early days with Prey, so it woulnd't be outside the realm of possibility that we go hardware with Duke.

The bottom line is that is software looks "ok" and won't cost us weeks of extra development time to keep it current with the hardware version, it can stay. But as of right now, we've all but abandonned software mode and have the attitude that hardware is the priority.

The reality is that no system ships now without a 3D accelerator. Added to that will be a flood of Voodoo 2 level cards on the market as new hardware ships. And once everyone can have 3D acceleration for under $100, it becomes the same issue as a sound card. Just go buy one.

George Broussard

I saw on RainbowSix.Net that R6 Trigger Happy has posted a mod for Rainbow Six that attempts to duplicate the planned weapons in Rogue Spear, the upcoming sequel to Rainbow Six, if you have an itchy trigger finger (sorry, couldn't resist).

A post on Tweak3D.net (thanks Game Forces) clarifies the deal with those auctions mentioned yesterday (story), and it seems my skepticism was unfounded, and that this eBay auction, this Yahoo auction, and this Excite Auction (as of this writing, neither of the last two seem to be active yet) are all legit. Apparently the GeForce cards are being auctioned for charity by NVIDIA, and the cards being auctioned will actually be autographed of all things.

As usual, thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers for the assist with these:

• Beyond Tron reviews Hidden and Dangerous.
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• GameRush reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• Gamecenter reviews Shadow Man, written by one-time Prey designer Paul Schuytema.
• Happy Puppy's Pawprint Press reviews System Shock 2. Woof.
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews Hidden & Dangerous.
• GameSpot UK's X Beyond The Frontier Review.

In the initial post about the 10SIX beta sign-ups yesterday (story) we referred to the requirement that applicants be HEAT.net "Premiere" members, which I'd say implies paying, but it turns out that you must, in fact, be a "Perimeter" member, which is a free membership. Sorry for the confusion, thanks Al Rivera the producer of 10SIX for the clarification.

• A pair of free Half-Life projects are playing show-and-tell, as The Skynet Project has posted some new screenshots of their Terminator-inspired modification, while the Redemption for Half-Life project, an upcoming free project that's a collaboration between Maverick Developments and PC Zone magazine...
• The HotMail beach has cooled, but Swede Says Microsoft Took 10 Hours To Repair E-Mail Breach. Thanks Robert Kee...
• A new Diablo II Screenshot of the Week is up. Thanks Voodoo Extreme...
• This Enter the Game IRC update is basically a plea to stop hacking their network, as they are in danger of being bounced by their ISP...

Yesterday was not the first time we've seen some event or another brown out our little gaming corner of the Internet, but it was the first such time I remember when the cause was a hardware announcement, rather than a demo/shareware/software release of some sort. NVIDIA certainly did a fine job of creating a fuss... I don't know if it changed the world, but it certainly almost broke the 'net, with the announcement bringing a few hardware sites, including NVIDIA's, down or to their figurative knees for a good part of the day. It is certainly the first time I can recall needing to mirror a press release because so many people were having a hard time accessing it.

Link of the Day: Crack Aficionado Online. Thanks the Pon+iff. Please skip if you don't like crack jokes, but damn did that "crack" me up, even if they do mock my beloved, if eminently mockable, LT.