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Mailbag
July 6,1999 -- Previous Mailbag

Letters are edited for spelling errors only, and may contain profanity. Commentary by Jason "loonyboi" Bergman.

Prey.

From: Blake Cole
Subject: Top 10 Games You'll Never See

kabal points out that the number one game you'll never see (as voted by GameCenter's readers)...is none other than John Romero's Daikatana.

Actually, the #1 game that will never be seen will be PREY.
Blake Cole a.k.a. Killer_B
"All killer, No filler!"

Anyone else remember when Unreal was considered vaporware as well? :)

Rock me Amidala?

From: Ozymandias
Subject: Mailbag comments

Oz would have thought that the main question about the virtual Notre Dame Cathedral would be, where is Esmeralda and the Hunchback? And does she really look like Salma Hayek?

No, not the Hunchback!

And also, TK-421 gets the ozian vote for Star Wars reference, as the one in Boogie Nights (a bit forced, but cool to have had one!) was merely a SW reference itself. Speaking of Star Wars references, if you listen to After the Fire's version of Der Kommisar, listen for the part where he says:

Don't turn around, uh oh

The Kommissar's in town uh oh

Immediately after this part, you can clearly hear him sing "Jar Jar", a fact previously missed, but not by one George Lucas. Oz will check for any other remakes of Falco songs that may contain the future clues for the SW trilogies.

DOH!

Rock Me Amidala!

Amidala amidala, amidala amidala....

Yer humble King of Kings,
Oz

He knew about it before it was cool.

From: Mark I. Ross
Subject: Drakan?

Hey Blue/Loony!
Hope all is well with you two! Just was reading the dilly on GA-Source about the new 3D third-person shooters coming out, and noticed that once again no reference was made to the original Drakan that Psygnosis made so long ago. What's up with that? Hasn't anyone heard of it? It must have had some following for Psygnosis to use the name again.........weird.........anywho just found it odd that in all the places talking about Order of the Flame it seems that the orig never gets a peep.....

L8r on dudes, have a good one,
rossman ;)

If you're talking Psygnosis, it begins and ends with Shadow of the Beast as far as i'm concerned. Then maybe Wipeout XL. :)

Quake 3 ain't got no class.

From: Brad Diermann
Subject: Quake 3 not containing Player classes

Funny how id says that it isn't workable in a deathmatch environment. That's funny, last time I checked it works pretty freekin good in Team Fortress Classic Half Life. Quake 3 already seems most un-impressive. More and more this is looking like Rocky 2, Rocky 3, IV, V and ETC........Just a rehash of the old movie with different actors..(the actors being a different or improved gaming engine...)

I am so impressed by Half Life TFC that I can't wait to see Team Fortress 2.

Should be quite the game.
Sinistar

Darth Models.

From: Jeramy Cooke
Subject: The player model community

Hi, I just wanted to say that it was really odd that you would choose to post a link to the Darth Maul model on Q2PMP when you so rarely (if ever) post news on PPMs.

I have been part of the PPM scene for a while and in general have assumed that "blue doesn't post news on ppms". That's cool... there are a lot of them and they generally aren't good enough to be worth the time on a major news page. So why on earth would you post a story about a really really BAD ppm? It even says in the first impressions of all three reviewers that it's a poor model.

It doesn't make our community of incredibly talented modelers, texture artists and animators look very great when our only publicity is some lame Star Wars E1 model.

Cheers,
Jeramy Cooke

Just when I thought I was a geek...

From:David J Ruzicka
Subject: AMD interview at CPUReview.com

Hey, did you guys get a chance to read the interview with Drew Payne at CPU Review? (http://www.cpureview.com/iv_amd_990701_a.html) I mean, why even bother posting it; There's no new information. Here's a C++ loop that simlulates the interview:

for ( int counter = 0; counter >16; counter++)
{
cout << "CPU Review:" << question[counter] << "\n";
cout << "AMD: No Comment.\n";
cout << "Editor:" << wild_speculation[counter] << "\n";
cout << "\n";
}

My C++ is really rusty (and probably wrong), so here's the idea:

Interviewer asks a question, AMD has no comment, Editor gives some wild speculation about unannounced products.

See ya,
David Ruzicka

G***** f***** b****-*** s****...er, Kingpin.

From: Randy
Subject: Kingpin

There's a CD key. Wow... maybe the copy that I bought will work now. What's the CD key number you got?

Call me at (202) 452-1600, and I'll be more than happy to give it to you. Just be sure you tell me your full name and address.


From: Thomas Quarles
Subject: The buggiest game since SiN?

Blue,

As my wife and I attempt for the, uh, tenth time to get Kingpin to run, I begin to consider taking it back to Electronic Boutique tomorrow.

This is obviously another example of a game that was rushed, as the install (much like SiN's horrible install) crashes with each and every attempt.

Why, oh why do people do this?

It killed SiN, it will kill Kingpin.

I have no patience with this nonsense.

Thomas Quarles

Tilde.

From: Oliver Rautenberg
Subject: Tilde

Hi !

Where´s the "tilde" key on the American keyboard? And what do i have to press to get it? Please send any answer to bright1@pironet.de

Thanks
Oliver

The tilde, or "~" key, is located just to the left of the "1" key on your keyboard. Just press it. The "anykey" on the other hand, is a whole other can of worms.

Responses to last weeks mail.

From: Boles, Jason
Subject: Reply to Todays Mailbag

I read the mailbag, here would have been my responses. (short, don't worry)

>>Um...check your sources.

3500, can't wait to hook up that flat panel? Is there a point to even releasing a 3500 ?

>>Regarding BIOS advertising.

What's new about this story? The EPA has been flying their "Energy" logo on BIOS's for years now...

>>One for the techies.

I agree, but CPUs will not be able to become ultra-fast until steps are taken to reduce the amount of heat. CPU's only get hot because of all of the bits that change from a 1 to a 0 between transistors. This energy is dissipated (in the most part) in heat. Yeah, so, how do you prevent this? Simple, build a better transistor. And it has been done, a 6-pin transistor design (current ones have 3, NPN or PNP type) was successfully created in the late 60's. What the extra pins do is allow the recycling of bits, so that you get the same functionality without the heat loss. And with new glass bubble insulation, heat will no longer be a speed issue. (Don't tell those overclocking maniacs with fridges in their rooms).

>>Someone just had to ask this question.

I've always wanted to model some of my University buildings. Now that Q3 has curved surfaces, nothings stopping me from rendering the Cathedral of Learning. (www.pitt.edu)

>>Ahhh...semantics

So does that mean Q3 will be released in Q3 ?? Q3AQ3yeah!

>>Regarding the TNT3 "preview" piece

So how did ranting ever hurt anyone ?

>>Gotta love us anal movie buffs.

When I first saw that screenshot, I thought it was just a screen capture from a machine with one of those SGI flat panel displays, which do 1600*1200. I guess those displays would be great for watching movies...

>>Weird

That's why DOS and winDOS are just one patch after another. Start Fresh. Try BeOS. The only true OO OS.

>>Regarding that wacky iToster thing

As long as they don't start making iCondoms.

>>Small world, eh?

Speaking of scary movies, did you ever see "Event Horizon" ?

>>All I ever needed to learn in life...

All I ever needed to learn in life...I found a link to on Blue's News.
>>Ah, philosophy

63% of college students hit by busses were philosophy majors.
-brought to you by MadeUpStatistics.com

>>That firkin' blue dog

You should sue 'dem feckin' fecks n'at.

>>Still more on the Teeny PrintTM

Ever print a very large document in 4 point font on a 1200 dpi printer? That 1900 letter word is a chemically incorrect way of stating the name of a polymer.

Anyone want PI to 50,000 decimal places ? (it's printed on my cubical wall, ~20 pages).

later
-Jason <{CM}-Spawnflagger> Boles
"besmirch upon thy vittles be."

Okie dokie...if you get to respond to my comments, I guess it's only fair that I do the same (in a quick, easy-to-skim format):

The Voodoo 3 3500 adds TV and radio in and out support...the EPA is a government sponsored organization, AOL is certainly not...that whole chip discussion is way over my head...someone needs to make a virtual Manhattan - I'd love to deathmatch in that....Q3 will be released in Q3 or Q4, with Quake 4 being released in Q5...six people are killed annually by ranting - it's true, just ask Dennis Miller...SGI displays are nice indeed, but movies are better on a 16x9 HDTV...Be rules, but sucks for games (you can only play ADOM and Abuse for so long, you know)...I have no comment on the iCondom...I've never seen Event Horizon, but I'll agree with Randy in Scream 2 - Showgirls is one of the scariest films ever made...everything you need to know in life can be found on Blue's News - trust me...one in three Philosophy majors is employed within a year of graduation...farg off...you have way too much time (and printer toner, for that matter) on your hands. :)

Whew! Okay, that's out of my system now. :)

Yahoo, Geocities and all that legal crap.

From: Lambert, Iain
Subject: RE: Yahoo/Geocities Boycott

Blue,

The Geocities Terms Of Service are indeed scary - "...license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute,..." - So what happens when you combine this with the license agreements from people such as the infamous id EULA?

Do people now need to remember to start placing big warnings such as "Feel free to mirror my new mod, unless its on geocities" unless they want to give up all shareware rights?

Sounds nasty - bye bye all geocities based mod sites for a start...

iainl

From: Harry Conover
Subject: Yahoo/Geocities Content License

Re: Yahoo/Geocities ToS Protest

This is laughable yet outrageous attempt to co-op original 'works' . The Yahoo/GeoCities ToS, with this amendment, would be voided by most courts under currently standing law and legal tests that I can think of. Now we know the answer to the question: where did all the CompuServe lawyers go after the big layoff ?

Resistance is futile?

From: Drew Macphee
Subject: mp3s

Dear Mailbag,

Ever wonder why companies even bothering to try to replace mp3s with a copyright protected audio format??? I mean first off if people want to download songs from there favorite bands why wouldn't they be able to get an mp3 of it after this new format comes out?? They'll just head to any of the 1000s of mp3 channels on IRC and get whatever song they crave. As for encryption od cd, yeah that will last about a week before some guy comes around and cracks it. Plus how about people with cd players will they have to upgrade, it just ain't going to work.

-- Drew "BeeRkEG" MacPhee

Decaff. It's a lifestyle choice.

From: Michael Hoffman
Subject: Computer Games Online Bites Big Time

This is partially inspired by the post on bluesnews, Computer Games Online has posted an article titled "The Wonderful Wizards of id." I think this website is designed to torture people who don't want insipid stupid add laden websites. I ESPECIALLY love the way that when I do the classic "right click and open frame in new window" that it loads the whole lame website again. Thank You God !!! I think I'll have to just rip the whole website to rid of the nasty nasty frames that are in there. Really cool to have 3/4 or more for links and the rest for text and actual news. Really really nice. These are the same insipid people who had me signed up for 10 different spam lists with no requesting (as far as I know). For example: cgo-war-request@lyris.cdmag.com, cgo-strategy-request@blehblehbleh, cgo-sports, cgo-simulation, cgo-hardware, cgo-online, cgo-industry, cgo-classic, cgo-adventure, cgo-action. These people bit big time ... you know... at least verify that someone wants to be on your ten mailing lists before you spam them ok ? And why should I have to "click here" to unlist myself from something I never requested. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !

(This letter was printed exactly as received to retain the overall effect.)

How we do it.

From: Stockemer
Subject: Who's reading this?

Personally, I'm wondering how this whole mailbag thing works.....if the commentary is by loonyboi, does that mean he gets to read your mail directly or what? Do you just forward him stuff that you think would be cool to post in the mailbag?I mean, what if for some reason, I REALLY has a problem with loonyboi, say I wanted to complain about those pictures of cross-dressing chimpanzees making out that he put right at the top of the page?

I'm thinking he COULD do something like that. I just see him thinking:"Bahahaha, I'll post this picture for only 30 seconds, but with the page's mega-hits, lots of people will see it, and blue will never know!"In and of itself, I guess I'm asking how this whole mailing thing works out, especially stuff mailed to blue@bluesnews.com.

And one last note: For that guy that didn't like "in and of itself", maybe you could use the word intrinsicly? I think it means the same thing.

-stock

Here's how it works: all e-mails to blue@bluesnews.com are considered to be for publication unless otherwise stated, but that doesn't mean I actually read them as they come in. His Blueness forwards whatever letters are relevant to the mailbag on a weekly basis.

Oh, and I stopped with the naked Chimp shots months ago. It's all about the Sea Monkeys now. :)

Good god, more on the Teeny Print™

From: Le Misanthrope
Subject: teeny print™

You can feel free to add these two useless facts into the Teeny Print" if you'd like.

A duck's quack does not echo.

Texas is the only state in the nation that may raise it's flag to an equal level as the US's flag.

truth till death,
Ethan

I already used that Duck one, actually. If anyone has any stupid facts to submit to me, feel free to send them to me personally. I'm always looking for new ones.


From: Paul Walker
Subject: long words in mailbag

I missed the begging of the thread in the mail bag about long words, so plz forgive me if it was already mentioned, but what about "supercalofradulisticexpeallidocious" from the beloved "Marry Popins"

- wc|feminazi

P.S. please forgive any spelling errors bc well u gotta admit that word is a
bitch

Not only is it a bitch, it's not a real word. :)

From: LwoodPDowd
Subject: The very very long word in the mailbag

Even if you included medical and scientific words, the chemical name (methionyl.......arginylserine) given by Ryan Eibling (Diragor) in last week's Mailbag would still not be the longest.

The word is just a listing of the amino acids in a protein. By converting the amino acid names into their one letter abbreviations, and then entering this sequence into the Baylor College of Medicine's General Protein Sequence/Pattern Search site, you will find that, along with a few understandable typos, this is almost the entire sequence of the e. coli tryptophan synthase alpha subunit.

By including the missing amino acids this would increase the size of this word by at least 100 letters (at a minimum of five letters per amino acid, but a more realistic estimate would be between 7 and 8). Furthermore, this is not even the largest known single chain protein. That distinction goes (in my outdated Biochemistry book) to Apolipoprotein B (human). This protein is made up of 4,563 amino acids. This would translate to at least 22,815 letters. The real total would probably be ~30,000 letters.

I'll spare you the actual sequence. But if you're curious, And I know you are ;) Click here.

LwoodPDowd

Okie dokie then. :)

A little out of date, but...

From: Mueller, Dave
Subject: Alien VS Predator

"IN SPACE, NO ONE WILL LET YOU SAVE"

Out of date, but clever. :)

Another one of those wacky letters we get...

From: ********@aol.com
Subject: NEW GAME TO HIT

HELLO MY NAME IS DALE HOLGATE I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE YOU AN ADVANCE TIP ON A NEW GAME COMING OUT FROM A SMALL PUBLISHER NAMED COOBEN INTERACTIVE. THE GAME IS CALLED KINNAN AND THE WILD CAKES AND IT WILL HAVE A REVOLUTIONARY GRAPHICS SYSTEM UTILIZING VOODOO3 TECHNOLOGY AND WILL BE OPTIMIZED FOR PENTIUM 3 SYSTEMS. THIS GAME WILL BE HIGH QUALITY AND EXCELLENT SO PLEASE POST THIS TO GIVE YOUR READERS AN ADVANCE TIP ON THE GAME (AND NOT TO BE INCLUDED: SOME ADVERTISING FOR MY GAME) I WILL CONTINUE TO UPDATE YOU ALL ON
THE STATUS OF THE GAME AND WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN ITS DONE AND WHERE YOU CAN GET IT. THATS ALL ILL KEEP IN TOUCH

I wish I had something to say here...but I just don't.