Just to be offtopic for a sec (and join the growing crowd)...about 30,000-40,000 people die on US highways a year. Ten times more than 9/11. But nobody gets all teary about that, do they? Because the media doesn't shove it down people's throats.

Get over it.

Let's just get back to bitching about VU/Valve/Steam/DNF/Bush already, shall we?

Speaking of, today's Penny Arcade seemed especially appropriate for this entire HL2 fiasco.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20041015l.jpg .

Wishing Blues News had a moderation system at times like this,
Piloter

Specs: http://tinyurl.com/4myeb ... and with this and surround sound, I'll be playing X-Com and Commander Keen...

What exactly are they trying to protect?

Specs: http://tinyurl.com/4myeb ... and with this and surround sound, I'll be playing X-Com and Commander Keen...

I am interested to see the history of everyone's video card upgrades.

What the hell.

VGA board for the ITT XT
S3 Virge
S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 (8Mb)
TNT
Geforce 1, briefly, until I realized that the power-drop-until-reboot was: 1) Normal 2) Not going away
TNT2 Ultra
GeForce 2 MX
GeForce 3 Ti 200
Radeon 9700 Pro
Radeon x800 Pro

Good times.

Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

Likewise on the analog outs and the Sony receiver with inputs. (STR-DE575). The sub is a JBL PSW-115D (15 inches, 600 watts, powered) and it works fine during games.

Go to your Creative controls, speaker settings. Speaker selection: 5.1. Bass management tab, sub volume to high, make sure bass redirection is enabled. If you need more help, drop me a line at ICQ 7130565, I'll be happy to try and walk you through getting everything thumping properly.

Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

...this choice quote.

Another question I have had multiple emails about, yes the game is capped at 60fps for normal game play. For render demos, like what was used for the HARD OCP stuff, we run those at full tilt which is why you will see > 60fps.

So when you add in the physics, AI, sound, etc, we're not going to be seeing these ginormous framerates anyway. Personally, I'll be quite happy to have D3 stay above 30ish, 1024*768, with temporal AA and some AF for kicks.

Of course, I can't wait until somebody posts benches of this at low detail on a 3dFX 6500 or whatever they got up to. =) Didn't those have 64Mb of memory?

Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

Elfman didn't do the music in Doom. Bobby Prince did

Good god, do I feel stupid now. Um...Imps ate my brains. Yeah. Too much jDoom to remember anything more than keycards, that's the ticket.

But about that CD, dotCommie, any linkage to where it'd be purchasable?

Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

Now if this were a limited edition 12" with orchestral versions of the Elfman music from Doom 1...

That'd be a real collector's item.

Of course, taking this merchandising thing too far would be a little harder to do than Nintendo's done with Mario, Sega's done with Sonic, et al.

I mean, can you imagine Doom 3 bedsheets for kiddies? If you bought those, you'd have to buy Doom 3 diapers for them when they inevitably woke up screaming in terror, and lots of Doom 3 toilet paper for the aftermath cleanup.

...actually, that might go pretty well together. If iD were a little more ballsy, I could see 'em doing a limited tin edition with a bonus Doom 3 "for when you crap yourself" diaper. Just like Undying should've come with a coupon for $10 off some brown khaki pants or something.



Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)
This comment was edited on Jul 23, 18:18.

Go for the Koolance Exos or PC2C. Relatively cheap, relatively easy, good customer support, keeps things nice and chilly with no real advance knowledge needed. A very excellent entry point, speaking as somebody who used to run one.

My 3200+, stock HSF, running Seti@Home all day every day, keeps steady at around 120F, and everything seems to be perfectly stable...

Wishing the 70C load temps on my video card were lower and that Artic Cooling had the Rev4 of the VGA Silencer out NOW instead of in two months,
Piloter

Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

Basically, this is just jDoom (available from http://www.doomsdayhq.com ) with added (illegal to redistribute) WADs and perhaps some of the optional added-detail model packs. That said...off to download.

Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

386 processor operating at a minimum of 33MHz or any Pentium® /Athlon® processors
Windows 95/98/ME/ 2000 operating system
8 MB RAM
20MB of uncompressed hard disk space
100MB of free hard drive space for the Windows swap file (in addition to install space)

What? I call BS. That's not the original DooM, that's the W95 re-port. Let's talk original specs for the DOS version, shall we?

*Digs out his original 1993-vintage install disks, becomes pleasantly surprised that they still work, and pores over the giant official DooM FAQ that was installed with the game*

OK, taken straight from the official DooM FAQ 1.666:

*7-1*: What is REQUIRED to run DOOM?
====================================
DOOM requires a 386sx IBM compatible computer running MS-DOS v3.3 or higher, VGA (320x200x256) graphics, and 4mb of RAM. The shareware version of DOOM needs about 4.8mb of hard drive space. The mail-order version needs
about 12mb of hard drive space. DOOM II requires a 486 with at least 17mb of hard drive space. I have seen it RUN on a 386, but it runs too slow.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play jDoom with the newly-created Doom install on my memory stick. (Hey, the only FAT filesystem available...)

Thinking that the day before Doom 3 went gold was actually the perfect time to order an X800 from a local store's midwest distributor, and that there aren't any more there NOW,

Piloter

Specs: http://snipurl.com/7w00 |160 Gb SATA Barracuda|Home Theater surround sound|Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

8:00 AM: Package left duplicating plant.

8:50 AM: Package arrived at nameless thug's home.
9:00 AM: Package scanned by nameless thug.

10:00 AM: Digital copy of package arrived on IRC.
12:30 PM: Original package arrived in garbage sorting facility.

Frivolity aside, this quote:

"From what we know so far the gold master was on its was back from the duplication plant"

seems to indicate it was on its way BACK from the duping plant. IE, the duping plant was done with it, meaning that there's no reason to delay the production just because the dev team is all paranoid about getting their little master back and the plant's already going full-tilt ahead with copying the disc?

Or does one send a master to a plant, get it back, and only at some nebulous point after this does the copying begin, if you send the disc again?

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

Elusiveness = something that they don't want to admit. Tis always the way of things. Ah well...the way they've ignored their PC best-loved franchises and whored themselves out to consoles, can't say I'm terribly sad to see this day. Nostalgic for their old glory days, yes, but not for the company-that-is.

Hoping to see Freespace 3 and Descent 4 instead of Red Faction 3,
Piloter

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

"Jonric: In terms of being able to play and enjoy Deadly Shadows, what will the system requirements and recommendations be?

Warren Spector: You know, I'm embarrassed to admit I don't actually know what the final system requirements are on the PC - I can assure you they're high. We don't make games for low-end machines. At risk of losing some credibility, some fans and maybe some sales, this seems like a reasonable time to point out that you can buy an Xbox, complete with several games, for substantially less than it would cost to upgrade your video card. Okay, send hate mail to..."

Did anybody want canonical proof that Mr. Spector was in MS's pockets? Or did the need for that pass a while ago?

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)
This comment was edited on May 25, 11:18.

Well, there's NOLF, NOLF 2, and Contract Jack (like it or hate it, it's set in the NOLF universe.) Do three games count as a franchise?

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

Yes, it sometimes breaks shit.

Here's a tip.

Quicksave with console.

Don't immediately quickload when you're on the wrong end of a firefight--let yourself die.

Back at the menu, it'll show your quickload game as the most recent. You'll know it because it doesn't have a pretty little picture beside it. Load it as you would a checkpoint.

Hey presto, everything works, and quicksave no longer 'breaks shit'.


Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)
This comment was edited on Apr 29, 13:15.

Odium 2 and 3...awesome.

But for the love of god, Diabolique: License To Sin had better not be based on "Danger: Diabolik", of MST3K final-episode fame. Or if they do, we'd better at least get a bot cameo in a cutscene or something...

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

#16, if you develop and market this game, you've got a guaranteed sale already. =)

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

Hopefully they'll fix the AI so it doesn't rubberband. Does that create a more exciting edge-of-your-seat race? Yes. Does it also make you wonder just where in the holy hell the AI cars pulled this speed boost out of? Yes. I should be able to drive well, drive faster, and thus be able to maintain a several-second lead, not 'magically' see the cars I just passed while they were going flat-out somehow get even faster than NOS and start riding up on my bumper again. It's really irritating.

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)

...combating software piracy is in the interests of the gaming community because it will get us better games. Simply put: more money = better games. A company that has more money can afford to pay highly-skilled and creative workers. It can also afford to invest in potentially rewarding but risky game designs.

And what, exactly, makes you think that given the choice between:

1) Taking a risk / paying more money to deserving dev teams (Black Isle, anyone?)
2) Pumping out the same old schlock marketed to the lowest common (hardware or population) denominator, and thereby increasing profit margins

any mainstream company is going to pick #1?

Read this. http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105062&cid=8942533

Naivite simply CANNOT apply to today's capitalist society. Question motivations a little more, pal, before the idealism overwhelms your common sense.


Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)
This comment was edited on Apr 22, 18:34.

You mean like, say, being able to flash a new BIOS that will alter/fix the way your motherboard/graphics card works? =)

Athlon64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo/1 GB DDR-400 Corsair TwinX LL-PT/Radeon 9700 Pro/160 Gb SATA Seagate Barracuda/Playing X-Com and Commander Keen =)