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Test Your Game Knowledge 5:
The Answers Revealed

Boy oh boy were you people stumped by these questions. Let's see how you did, shall we?

Question #1: There have been several games to do so over the years, but what was the first FPS game to ship with a playable female character? And what was the first id engine game to do so?

Answer: The first FPS game to ship with a female character was Rise of the Triad. The first id engine game to do so was Hexen II.

Question #2: References to the now infamous Dopefish have appeared in seven games over the years. Name them.

Answer: Rise of the Triad, Commander Keen: Goodby, Galaxy!, Wacky Wheels, Quake I, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake II and Jazz Jackrabbit 2. I have since been informed that Dopefish references can be found in Team Evolve's Battlezone add-on, The Red Odyssey, as well as the recently released Descent 3.

Question #3: What was the first product developed by Monolith that was played from a first person perspective, and who published it?

Answer: Before working on Blood, Monolith developed the "lobby" program used in Microsoft's Game Sampler CD's. It used a Doom-like engine, and had the user walking around a virtual environment launching game demos.

Because of how few right answers we recieved (these were the only two correct ones), we've decided to split the prize between the two correct entrants. So instead of one person getting two games, we've changed the rules (read the Tiny Print™) and each person will get one.

And the winners are...Lloyd Cogliandro and Kristopher Gilbert!

Congrats! E-mail us the name of the games you guys want, and we'll get those off to you.

And now...the wacky entries you all love so much (there were a lot more than normal, since we originally said we'd randomly choose from the wrong answers if there were no right answers...unfortunately two people had to go and get them right):

Question #1: This was a trick question, and a lot of people fell for it. A common misconception is that Rise of the Triad used the Wolf3D engine made by id. It did not. If it did, then both parts of the questions would be answered by ROTT. In fact, ROTT used an original engine. The project started with the Wolf3D engine (it was supposed to be a sequel to the game) but they soon scrapped it and started over from scratch.

Other common answers were Ultima Underworld (which isn't a FPS, although it was played from a first person perspective) , and Quake II. Also common was the original Hexen, which didn't feature a female character - only its sequel did.

"I would have to go with Revenge of the Triad on this one, from Appogee. Id may of also programmed that too, but definetly Quake 2 was the first noticible with a female character player."
-- STriker RedWolf

"I really wanted to win something."
-- Sixxo

"Virtual Valerie's Dungeon Crawl. It had a female character you could play with...oh, you meant play AS? First id engine game was the not-so-succesful prequel to Quake that involved a morbidly obese Lovecraftian babe's attempt to find something to eat in the middle of the night: "Quake-ing Shub, The Fridge Raider."
-- devilbunny

"The first ID engine game with a female character? Is this a trick question? I can't think of a single one that actually *does* have a playable female character in it, unless you start counting mods, which don't count... maybe I'm just inferior and can't remember.. :)"
-- Scott Ames

"Rise of the Triad.. though Doom was _planned_ to have a female character originally, if that means anything."
-- SailorScout

"1a) Lara Croft 3: Bordello
1b) hmm, on a semi-serious guess... Quake II?"
-- NegativeZero

"Sorry...i have no idea about the answers to your trivia...i just enjoy reading The Official looking tiny print."
-- Tarl Cabot

"I think I have all the answers, except... by FPS in question one do you mean Front Page Sports, or First Person....."
-- Mark Taylor

Question #2: Pretty much everyone got this one right...you just had to go to the official Dopefish website to grab a list.

"Quake, Quake2, Rise of the Triad, Commander Keen, Duke Nukem I and II, Wolf3d -- and there is an 8th: 'A Picture of Nectar' enhanced CD, one of the many albums by Phish, which featured not the dopefish, but some Dope Phish. Yes indeed."
-- Pongo Twistleton

"Commander Keen I, II, and III, Quake, ... Uh, I don't know any more. Man that's a sucky question!"
-- Phil Hall

Question #3: This was the question that separated the men from the fanboys. Only a handful of people actually managed to get this one right (and of those only two managed to get the others right as well). The most common answer (about 90% of them, in fact) was Blood, which would have been correct if the question was worded differently - but you'll note the word "game" never appears in the question wording...it just says "played from a first person perspective."

Because it was such a total trick question, there weren't many amusing entries...people were sure it was Blood, so they didn't get witty. But this one I thought was priceless:

I broke down and asked Jason Hall myself:
"Hmm... Well we've done some other first person products, but the first game
was Blood...
Jace"
-- Ryan "Joltox" Greene

It's all in the wording, kids...all in the wording. Had Ryan here phrased his question differently, he could have gotten it right...doh!

There you go, everyone...hope you all had fun...and hey! Lookit! It's another contest! Enter away!

Official looking tiny print^TM: All decisions are final, so don't even think about questioning them. Blue's News holds the right to change the rules as we see fit. You people need to research your answers a bit more. Yeah, you heard me...hit the library, punk. Anyway, here's some stupid facts to keep you going until next week: in the state of Georgia, it is illegal to use profanity in front of a dead body which lies in a funeral home or in a coroners office. Think that's odd? In Jonesboro, GA, it's illegal to say "Oh, Boy". In Marietta, though it is illegal to spit from a car or bus, citizens may spit from a truck. I can't make this stuff up. Well, I guess I could, but this is far more fun. A chip of silicon a quarter-inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied a city block. Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures.Natural gas has no smell. The odor is artificially added so that people will be able to identify leaks and take measures to stop them. Some Chinese typewriters have 5,700 characters. The keyboard is almost 3 feet wide on some models, and the fastest one can type on these machines is 11 words per minute. At the outbreak of World War I the American air force consisted of only fifty men. A dog was killed by a meteorite at Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911. The unlucky canine is the only creature known to have been killed by a meteorite. A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile. During the American revolution, more inhabitants of the American colonies fought for the British than for the Continental Army.According to scientists, gold exists on Mars, Mercury, and Venus. The shortest verse in the Bible consists of two words: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself."
- Mark Twain. Since the start of these Tiny Print™ facts, almost 50 individual sources have been used, not including manual research. Kramer made his "entrance" into Jerry Seinfeld's apartment 284 times. Camel's-hair brushes are not made of camel's hair. They were invented by a man named Mr. Camel. Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady," was written about Vince Neil of Motley Crue. Satisfied? Good. That'll keep you happy for another week, don't you think?