id Software's Robert Duffy updated his .plan with word that he's released a new version of the Quake III Arena tools. Here's the scoop:

I have placed a new install for the tools on the ftp site. Our ftp gets hammered but it should show up mirrored pretty quick as well.

ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake3/tools/Q3ToolSetup_Dec221999.exe

There are quite a few changes, see the readme for a list.

This release contains new content or updates for the following:

-Q3Radiant, this is named 'Q3Radiant_181.exe'. This will allow you to revert to the older version in case there are unforeseen problems.
-Q3Map, some fixes.
-Q3Data, see the Modeling manual which was put together by Paul Steed and Paul Jaquays.
-Model_manual_ps.doc, the above mentioned model manual.
-bspc - see the included text file for changes.
-Museum.map, Museum.shader - A map done by Kenneth Scott to illustrate a wide variety of shader effects. Cool stuff.
-MapMedia.pk3 - additional content required by the museum

The museum takes quite a while to light when running Q3Map on it. Be patient :-)

European players of the Opposing Force expansion pack to Half-Life can now upgrade their version to 1.0.0.1 as well, for Sierra has released German, French and Italian patches for download (685 KB each).

Eidos has released the version 1.1 patch for Tomb Raider: the Last Revelation (426 KB), fixing the same issues for the English edition of the game as the German patch that was released the other day (story). The complete list is available in this text file.

3DNews.net has posted a Q&A with Russell Ritchie, managing director at Promethean Designs, talking about their upcoming game of art thievery, Picassio, a virtually violence free adventure, that forces you to think about how to disable your enemies instead of killing them.

Dynamix' Tim Gift updated his .plan with reflections on the first anniversary of the completion of Starsiege TRIBES, as well as a very lengthy update on the current state of TRIBES 2 development, which I've trimmed a good bit from for space reasons (read the whole .plan for the whole deal, which includes a lot of programming stuff):

Doesn't seem that long ago... Last Friday was the 1 year anniversary of Tribes. We received final Sierra certification for duplication Thursday 12/17/98 at 7:46 PM. By the following Monday the warezers were online, and by the middle of the week there were players who had actually purchased copies!

These days it's all Tribes 2 programming & game design. My role on the project has changed quite a bit over the past few years :) (a long story) Now I'm mostly coding all the "game" part of the Tribes 2 engine.

<snip>

Player class
Been spending a lot of time on this one recently. I had the basic player running around a while ago, but then went off to work on other things. I just finished cleaning up and finalizing all the player movement code, stepping (over things), sliding off corners and along creases, etc. Tribes 1 had a few problems in this area which I never got around to fixing. Tribes 2 is much smoother. The new approach is cleaner, uses less code, and works better :) The player is now almost done, bunch of misc. stuff (including death and celebration animations), but the only big thing left is client side movement prediction, which I should start on this afternoon. He currently moves on other clients, but doesn't interpolate or predict (this is handled differently than your own player).

After player client prediction, some projectile code, then the code I expect to have some fun with: vehicles.

I guess that brings me up to date. Hope I haven't bored anyone... (kind of a long post)

id's John Carmack made a post over at Slashdot clarifying some issues with the GPL license under which the Quake 1 source code has been released (story) and perhaps raising a few as well:

We are the copyright holder of all works, and we can release any part of it under any license we choose.

Completely aside from that, I think it is still unclear exactly where the GPL wants the separation of code and content. Few would argue that every document read by a GPL word processor would be covered by the GPL, and most would place maps entered by Quake into that catagory, but things can quickly get murky.

Quake game mods are written in QC, but turned into data to be processed by the main code. I think the spirit of the GPL would want that code to be released, but it is only a small step from there to saying that every program loaded by a GPL operating system must be GPL, which is clearly not the case.

Hey, it's a slow news day, so here's a new edition of our Mail Bag. In today's action-packed installment: some thoughts on the Quake source code release, questions about id's nicknames, a banner ad review (?) and the secret of Blue's day job revealed! Go check it out.

PC.IGN.com has posted an interview with Rage Software lead programmer Scott Johnson, talking about Incoming Forces. This sequel to Incoming will incorporate a strategy element to the action, even more visual extravaganza (as we are accustomed to with Rage's games), and improved multiplayer capabilities:

There are going to be three different rule-sets. There is going to be Team Play, Body Count -- which is basically deathmatch, and finally one player playing as the aliens and one player playing the humans, with both setting up bases and trying to destroy each other. It's going to be LAN and Internet compatible. We are gonna do a four-way split as well on the PC screen -- that is only the arcade game. On the technical game, we are gonna do a two-way split.

There is a new developer profile on the official Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force site, introducing readers to Raven's lead artist Les Dorscheid, who is responsible for the completion of the game's art and managing the other artists, as well as working as a modeler and artist on the project himself (where does he find the time? :-)

It's been a while, but the latest version 0.3 of ZDoomGL has now been released, bringing the OpenGL port in sync with version 1.22 of ZDoom, adding support for floor mirrors, and fixing several bugs.

GameSpot UK has posted a preview of Evolva, the colorful looking action strategy game by Computer Artworks. While the article is very brief, it does appear to include a couple of new screenshots.

Daily Radar has posted an interview with project leader Garry Gaber on Star Wars: Force Commander, the upcoming 3D real-time strategy game by LucasArts. The talk covers the storyline, the 3D interface, the missions and units in the game (yes, you can play as an AT-AT), and more.

Version 0.5.1 of Q3A-Total Control is now available from Borderfield Software, offering a couple of major bug fixes to this front-end for Quake III Arena that includes such handy doodads as a server starter, an integrated server browser, a config editor, a key binder, a FunName editor, and a dial-up optimizer.

GameFan interviews Mike Leatham, lead texture and concept artist for Digital Extremes, talking with the texture artist from Unreal and Unreal Tournament about his work on those games and about the game industry in general.

• Reverend's The Pulpit has links to a new version 4.06 of the WickedGL super-driver for Voodoo accelerators that fixes the "lost railings" bug in OpFor, the Quake III Arena retail version fan texture bug, and adds support for Windows Millennium. Thanks MajestY.
• A new version 1.0.41 of the WinTune 98 benchmark is now available, offering ways to speed test your CPU, Video, OpenGL, Direct3D, Memory and Disk. Thanks DemoNews.
• 3Dlabs sells $7.5 mln 5-year note to investor Intel. Thanks Haakon Larsen.
• Sharky's Private Eye Volume 6 offers their top ten gifts for last minute shoppers, ABIT & Coppermine Issues, an X-Box update, an interview 3dfx' Scott Sellers, new year's predictions, and more.
• GXS reviews the Diamond Viper II Z200.
• An 800-MHz Match-Up on PC Magazine First Looks offers AMD vs. Intel benchmarks, pitting a Coppermine-based Dell Dimension XPS B800r and a pre-release Athlon 800 MHz Falcon Northwest Mach V.
• There's a Coppermine & Slocket2 Review on HardOCP.
• iXBT reviews the Chaintech 6WEX2 motherboard.

There's a new version 4.1 of the NOP log parser available on the NOP page, offering a whole slew of fixes for bugs in version 4.0. Its authors call NOP the "ultimate logfile parser and stats generating tool," NOP can crunch the numbers in the game logs from Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, and Half-Life (including Counterstrike, TFC & Jailbreak) servers.

Polycount has the debut release of NPherno's MD3 Compiler, a utility that can import md2, md3 and 3DS formatted files and export to Quake III Arena's md3 format. There are plans to offer support for the program there in the future, including a future messageboard.

On the heels of the release of the source code for Quake (story), comes the opening of a SourceForge Quake Project Info page as a way to track revisions, submit bugs and suggestions, and get involved in a team development of the source (thanks prototype). Similarly, the Quake Standards Group, is open, likewise dedicated to sharing information about hacking on the Quake Engine. Obviously there is very little content on either site yet.

Verant Interactive sends word that Tanarus, their massively multiplayer online game featuring futuristic tank combat, will be free to non-subscribers for a week in honor of the holidays. The free week will start this Wednesday at 3:00 PM EST, and run through Monday January 3.

There's a new Battlecruiser Millennium Flash Promo Movie, the first in a planned series of such web cinema presentations to gear up for the release of the game's full demo, slated to be available later next year.

• ACT Labs Gun System on 3D Spotlight.
• Close Combat IV: Battle of the Bulge on Games Domain Review and Gamecenter.
• Crusaders of Might and Magic on GamesFirst.
• Descent 3 (Mac) on MacGamer.
• Dirt Track Racing on Gamecenter.
• Flanker 2.0 on GamesFirst.
• Gabriel Knight 3 on GamesMania.
• Half-Life: Opposing Force on Gamers Point.
• Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine on GameZilla.
• Interstate '82 on GamePower.
• Panzer Elite on GameProWorld.
• Quake III Arena on 3D Rage, Game Revolution, and Women Gamers.
• Rollercoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies on Game Revolution.
• Railroad Tycoon II: Gold Edition on EuroGamer.
• Rayman 2 on GamesFirst, Gamecenter, and Adrenaline Vault.
• Septerra Core on PC Fan, and PC Gameworld.
• Spec Ops II: Green Berets on Computer Games Online.
• Star Trek: Hidden Evil on GA-Source.
• SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle on GamesFirst and Game Forces.
• Tomb Raider: the Last Revelation on Game Over.
• Urban Chaos on Speedy 3D.
• Wheel of Time on Gamers Depot.
• X: Beyond the Frontier on Computer Games Online.

• The 1999 loonygames Awards are now online, offering the loony staff's selections for the best adventure, action, deathmatch, and strategy games of the year, as well as their favorite console games, and their pick for game of the year...
• A report on GamePen says work on the oft-discussed, but so far un-produced Tomb Raider movie may be gearing up, as it's possible that Simon West (Con-Air and General's Daughter) will sign on to direct, though the report on The Adrenaline Vault also says the film's script may be a stumbling block before starting production...
• There are some new Atriarch Screenshots showing off some characters shots from this massively multiplayer, persistent sci-fi rpg and strategy hybrid game currently in development by World Fusion...
• Exxtreme3D.Com interviews Martin Walfisz CEO of Massive Entertainment, talking about Ground Control, their upcoming strategy/tactics game...
• The 42nd Diablo II Screenshot of the Week is mirrored on The Labyrinth. Only ten weeks 'til the screenshot of the year...

As noted on the 3D Realms Entertainment Web Site, yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the debut of Rise of the Triad, their seminal first-person shooter that introduced several features to the genre. The page gives a rundown on just a few of the new wrinkles introduced in ROTT, which are so numerous that when constructing trivia questions asking where given features were first offered, the first thing we need to do is figure out whether or not it is another that was introduced in ROTT (and more than once, features that we thought were not from ROTT turned out to have been first introduced there after all). If this has just whetted your appetite for more on the history of gaming, a post by 3D Realms' Scott Miller to a thread called Duke Nukem History on the 3D Realms Bulletin Board gives a brief history of where Duke got his start, including who came up with his name, which in my opinion, is one of the great all-time game character monikers. Turns out it was yesterday that Mahir was on the Daily Show, DNapalm says dance clubs were on the agenda (and they didn't call me!). Should be at least a couple of repeats today.

Link of the Day: The Online Pregnancy Test. That was a load off my mind! Thanks Steve Strickland.
Image of the Day: Santa Heavy Gear. Apparently a date-related Easter egg (or is that Christmas egg?). Thanks Heavy Gear News Network.

GameSpot has posted their massive guide to Unreal Tournament. The guide, which is available free online, or as a paid download, covers every individual game type, as well as each weapon, power-up, and map.

id Software's John Carmack updated his .plan with word that the Quake III game source code has been pushed back slightly (as well as word that the Quake 1 source has been released - see next story):

The Q3 game source code is getting pushed back a bit because we had to do some rearranging in the current codebase to facilitate the release, and we don't want to release in-progress code before the official binary point release.

We still have a Christmas present for the coders, though:

http://www.idsoftware.com/q1source/

Happy holidays!

id Software's lead programmer John Carmack has released the full source code of Quake, including the WinQuake, GLQuake, QuakeWorld, and GLQuakeWorld versions. The archive can be downloaded from id's FTP site (which is always pretty busy) and its primary mirror at Walnut Creek (3.2 MB), as well as 3D Action Gamers. The code has been placed under the GNU Public License right from the start (this happened with the DOOM source only much later), and the accompanying text file can be downloaded separately. Here are the initial paragraphs:

This is the complete source code for winquake, glquake, quakeworld, and glquakeworld.

The projects have been tested with visual C++ 6.0, but masm is also required to build the assembly language files. It is possible to change a #define and build with only C code, but the software rendering versions lose almost half its speed. The OpenGL versions will not be effected very much. The gas2masm tool was created to allow us to use the same source for the dos, linux, and windows versions, but I don't really recommend anyone mess with the asm code.

The original dos version of Quake should also be buildable from these sources, but we didn't bother trying.

The code is all licensed under the terms of the GPL (gnu public license). You should read the entire license, but the gist of it is that you can do anything you want with the code, including sell your new version. The catch is that if you distribute new binary versions, you are required to make the entire source code available rce code available for free to everyone.

InsideMacGames has posted the version 1.3.1 patch for Descent 3 for the Mac, which fixes various crashes, controller and modem problems, and allows Mac gamers to play against the PC version on PXO. The patch is available as a full 4.3 MB download or as separate components.

Dynamix has released the first pair of TRIBES 2 skins, showing off the Blood Eagle Light armor in male and female forms with a high-quality image and a description. More of these skins are promised for the next few weeks.

The latest Delta Force 2 patch is available through the auto-update feature in the game, or via direct downloads here and here (4.4 MB). This brings the version number to 1.04.14 (thanks DF2-Base.de for this bit), and the changes include additional Voice-Over-Net features and "some animatics for the fixed gun emplacements, however you still cannot use the emplacements" (thanks Maagic for that one). This accounts for the patch being about 1 MB larger than the previous version.

The unofficial System Shock 2 FAQ has been updated, providing more tips and tactics for the acclaimed action RPG by Irrational and Looking Glass. This FAQ focuses on gameplay, but if it's technical help you need, try the official FAQ.

Spanish games site oneZone has posted a writeup of a presentation that Shiny's Dave Perry gave in Madrid recently, where he demonstrated their uber-secret title Sacrifice, on a p450 with a GeForce 256 card. There are several shots, although only the blurry ones taken with a digital camera are new. As always, shove a BabelFish in your ear to translate.

The Insomnia Software page has been updated with word that their upcoming first person action title Decay will be published by Interplay, as well as eight new screenshots (which, it would appear will be the last ones for some time, as they're instituting a media blackout). Thanks Voodoo Extreme for the tip.

GameFan has posted an interview with Mike Leatham, lead texture artist at Digital Extremes on Unreal Tournament. The brief interview has Mike discussing the world of texture design, from his prediction for the future of the medium to specifics about his design process.

id's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with the details he promised earlier on the Quake III Arena point release. Here's the scoop:

Here's the cliffnotes version of most of the bugs we're looking at. I'll make the actual feature database available as HTML at somepoint soon so everyone can take a look as to what issues we're addressing.

- New scoreboard.
- New team scoreboard
- Voting can change the gametype if the new map doesn’t support the current gametype
- Misc icon fixes
- Team overlay tidied up
- Spectators can go through doors
- Late player start on screen score display fixed
- Re-add mouselook
- Callvote nextmap
- Extra/different pakfile disconnect bug fixed
- Packetloss on the scoreboard
- Delay deferred loading of players until after death
- Server browser remembers “show full”/’show empty” status
- Server browser will not refresh on stopped lists
- Show IP address in server browser
- Compressed sound support
- JPEG from disk support
- Cache filefind results so we do not requery the filesystem every load
- Make 10.x.x.x and other public addresses not use auth server
- Protect CD key into a different file
- Improve overall error reporting to user
- Make sure everyone can command the bots
- Load/Save config re-added
- Bots don't start kill, hitnokill, or hitnodeath chats when there are nearby enemies
- Awaiting snapshot/gamestate issues resolved

Dynamix has released new "balanced" missions for Starsiege: TRIBES, which are available for download on TRIBES Players. These new maps were created for the OGL and other online competitive leagues, and are fully created and supported by Dynamix.

Incite Games has posted a brief preview of Rune, HumanHead's Unreal engine game of grog, mutton and really big axes. While there are several shots posted, only one of them is new.

A new version of Q2Java, the add-on for Quake II that allows mod authors to code in Java has been released. As this is the first release since the summer, there are a number of changes, including some general cleanup to make things run better.

Legend level designer Matthias Worch has released his combination deathmatch/domination map Memento Mori for Unreal Tournament. The map features textures created for UT that have never been used before (included with Epic's permission) and is available for download on his homepage.

id software Designer Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word on duplicatable problems in the upcoming full version of Mac Q3A that he's fixed, resulting in a new release candidate, and a mention of some unduplicatable problems with the demo that he's still uncertain about, resulting in some confusion. The update also briefly mentions a planned Q3A point release:

While I've been out with the rest of the world trying to get a Barbie Cash Register for my daughter, I have actually been doing a bit of work!

Activision's release QA process found two bugs in the Mac build that I felt important enough to fix. One bug was in the client, and the other in the installer.

I fixed them both last night and Activision has a new master candidate.

I've heard sporadic reports that the Mac demo has problems, but I've yet to be able to repeat that issue here.

I'll update my plan file today with the [long] list of things we're addressing for the point release (yes, we've fixed the scoreboard).

With only one chat log, two previews, an interview, and three sets of screenshots all related to Soldier of Fortune posted already today, your appetite has just been whetted for more SoF skinny, right? Just in time, this SOF Center interview with Eric Biessman talks with the Raven designer even more about this upcoming shooter. So with all this talk about the game, when can we expect it? This Q&A attempts to get to the bottom of that one:

Q: How's Soldier of Fortune coming along, still on track for a January/February release?

A: We are still on track for an early release in ’00. Of course I can’t say a date, something we have been trying to keep clear of, since we are really trying to just make this the best game possible. It’s coming along great, and it should definitely be worth the small wait!

There's a Soldier of Fortune preview on GameSpot UK with another hands-on preview of the game (again, presumably from the Razor mouse OEM version of the game). In addition to some commentary on gameplay, the piece offers up 16 new screenshots (and a couple we've seen already).

Easy Unreal has the release of beta 0.2 of UtMap, the Unreal Tournament version of UMap, which can rename maps that are downloaded while connected a server and save them to your map folder, can build maplists for DM; CTF; Domination; Assault; and LMS training sessions and servers, gives the ability to play DM or LMS on any CTF; Assault; or Domination map (or even play CTF on a dm map), view the map author's text for any custom-made map, or write your own map-text.

There is a hands-on preview of Soldier of Fortune on Daily Radar, based on "a special build of the game" which, according to Rick Johnson's warning (story), is just the Razer OEM version of the game. Notwithstanding that, the article does include a set of new, hi-res screenshots.

Interplay has posted three new screenshots of Star Trek: New Worlds, and a bunch more over the past month that we haven't mentioned yet. Star Trek: New Worlds is a 3D real-time strategy game that allows you to play missions as the Federation, Klingons or Romulans.

A playable demo of Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun (~43 MB) is now available in this Westwood FTP directory. The file is also mirrored on 3DFiles.Com. Word from Westwood is "The demo features two brand new levels of Tiberian Sun. The first mission is a tutorial about how to play T-Sun. The second mission gives you a heavy dose of C&C action." There are two files in the directory: tsdemo is for North America and tsdemoe is for Europe. Both versions are identical except for the ordering phone numbers.

There's an edited Raven Chat Log on Voodoo Extreme giving the rundown of the IRC session with the Raven crew discussing progress on Star Trek Voyager--Elite Force, and Soldier of Fortune, as well as discussion of other, more general gaming topics.

Speaking of Raven, 3D-Unlimited interviews Jake "MrGumby" Simpson talking with the Raven Software programmer about progress on Soldier of Fortune, their upcoming Quake II-engine mercenary shooter, and in particular SoF CTF, which Jake is currently working on. To cap off the Q&A, they've posted the first two screenshots of SoF CTF.

Inside Mac Games Newsbriefs is reporting that Brent Pease is no longer at Bungie Software. Brent was the project leader on Oni, Bungie's upcoming anime-inspired third-person combat game. Interestingly, Onicore dot com has more on this, posting the official press release that they say they copied from IMG (though I can't find it there at all). Here's what that has to say about this:

With the completion of the core components of the Oni game engine, Lead Programmer Brent Pease is leaving the project. Completion of the game design remains in the capable hands of the team, with engineering being managed by Senior Programmer Michael Evans, one of the founding members of the team. Oni development continues unabated, and new features for this unique action game will be on display at the Macworld Expo in January. The parting was amicable, and everyone at Bungie wishes Brent well in his future endeavors

• Dagoth Moor Zoological Gardens demo download on 3DFiles can let you check out this demo designed to show off the horsepower of GeForce 256-based cards. The demo is a 42 MB download.
• Sharky Extreme reviews the AMD Athlon 800MHz CPU.
• GameSpot reviews the AMD 750MHz Athlon CPU.
• CPU Review's Athlon performance on scientific code benchmarks AMD's latest CPU's on scientific code.
• Dan's Data reviews the AOpen AX6BC Pro II Millennium Edition motherboard.

Devilishone's Q3a Allbots Page has a simple mod for download that will allow Quake III Arena to initialize all of its bots for gameplay. The plan is to update the file to include future user-created bots in the mix as well.

Subtitans.net interviews Raaj Menon talking with the director of Ellipse Studios about Submarine Titans, an upcoming underwater RTS. There is a Submarine Titans Beta Testing application form up to select some beta testers for the game, and some of the Q&A deals with details about the upcoming beta test.

S3 Moves to Consolidate IBM Business with Pending Acquisition of Number Nine's Assets is a press release announcing a move by S3 designed to "strengthen the competitive position of its Multimedia Division..."

In what seems to be a fairly safe promise of the last new releases before the new year, the SpoonBot page has a new version 0.5h of the SpoonBot for Starsiege TRIBES, as well as the release of version 3.0 of TribesRacer. The new SpoonBot, which adds AI teammates and enemies to TRIBES, offers bug fixes, including one so that the medic works again. The new TribesRacer is simply said to make "gameplay even faster and more fun!"

• Age of Wonders on Game Downloads Online.
• Asheron's Call on PC Arena.
• Bleem! on PC Arena.
• Delta Force 2 on Game Revolution.
• Devil's Island Pinball on Game Over.
• Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine on GamePower.
• MechWarrior 3: Pirate's Moon on 3DGaming.net.
• Pharaoh on Gamers Central.
• Quake III Arena on Computer Games Online and Games Weekly.
• Sid Meier's Antietam! on GameProWorld.
• Slave Zero on Thresh's FiringSquad.
• Unreal Tournament on GamesMania, Gaming Age, and Game Addict.
• Tactical Shooters face-off on GameProWorld.

• DiabloII.Net Visit Blizzard North recounts a trip to Blizzard North's offices in San Mateo. The report includes all manner of photos (even one of the kitchen cupboard). As if that weren't enough, a future update is planned to talk about Diablo II gameplay and stuff...
• The Citadel interviews Tim Rance director of technology at Lionhead Studios, talking briefly about progress on Black & White, their upcoming strategy game...
• Stomped's 1999 Best of Games offers opinions from various webmasters and game developers about their favorite games of the year, and what they are most looking forward to next year...
• SOF Center interviews Robert 'Razerguy' Krakoff of Kärna LLC about their new Razer BoomSlang gaming mice...
• MSN Gaming Zone's Fighter Ace zone is online, offering a free month's gameplay with sign-up...

There's an interesting article on the realism of the Sopranos on Mr Showbiz News (thanks Jeff Magill). Speaking of the Sopranos, here's a VCR alert: I've started seeing promos on HBO for a week-long marathon of the first season of The Sopranos, which will run two episodes per night starting December 26. Details are on HBO's The Sopranos site where they also have a countdown calendar ticking off the days until the second season starts on January 16, as well as a local copy of the new season promo and word on where to order the soundtrack CD... "Woke up this morning..."

Link of the Day: The Satanic Hampster Dance. Thanks Will Lawler.
Story of the Day: Cyber-Celeb Mahir Tours U.S.. I kiss you! Thanks Cyrus.
Bonus Story: Why Is Bill Gates Mad at John Vanderslice? Thanks Steve Strickland.