Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.
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New
Half Life Screenshots
There are 20 new screenshots from Half-Life up on Fragile Mortality, that are said to be of a
recent build, and the look it, doing a good job of conveying the feel of the game I came
away with from my recent visit to Valve (<tease> more on that soon </tease>).
Reaper
II Correction
According to a report on the Quake Devels
page (a really cool site for Quake II mod info, etc., BTW), a Quake II version of the
Reaper Bot, called the Reaper II is underway (thanks Prophet).
Though, as I mentioned earlier, I've seen it reported that original Reaper author Steven
Polge (hard at work on Epic's upcoming Unreal), has given his blessings to the project, I
received the following from Steven:
First I heard of it was reading about it on your page today. It does NOT have my blessings
Flamebot
Beta Release
The first beta of the FlameBot has been released on the FlameBot page. The FlameBot is another Quake
II bot (in addition to the recent Eraser) that uses waypoints to navigate the maps (while
I'm at it, there are discussions on the MikeBot page the Eraser Bot page, and the OakBot
II page on waypoint versus dynamic mapping by bots). As for the FlameBot, it is warned to
expect bugs as this is "only a beta release of a single component of a beta
release." Reinforcing this is one of the most minuscule version numbers I have ever
seen, Version 0.00251 - Beta.
Zoid's
Linux II Makefile
Zoid has released the
makefile for Linux Quake II (1 KB). Thanks Redwood.
Unreal
at Respawn!
Process passes along the big news that Epic Megagames will be attending Respawn '98 to demonstrate Unreal! Attendees will be
able to try out Unreal in single player and (hopefully) deathmatch. The Unreal team will
also will be asking for feedback and suggestions. Pretty exciting stuff. Respawn '98 will
be February 5-8, 1998 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
New
Hexen II CTF
Version 2 of Hexen II CTF has been released on HexDev.
The new version adds a lot of new features and kills off some bugs, and is described as
"much more stable" than version 1 (Version 2 is not compatible with Version 1).
New
Vanilla CTF
Version 0.3 Beta of Vanilla CTF, a capture the flag mod for Quake II, has been released on
the Vanilla CTF page.
New
S3 Quake Wrapper
There is an updated version of the S3Quake wrapper on the S3 ViRGE support pages that loses
bilinear filtering, but gains "a lot more speed!" (thanks Manpreet Jagpal),
though I can't imagine how much speed that is, if you've read reports on its performance
like the one on Zanshin's GLDojo (though
Zanshin is impressed with its visual quality, and its ability to run on other D3D cards).
Quake II
TCP/IP
Disruptor made another
.plan update about those pesky TCP/IP inconsistencies. Those still suffering with
problems running Quake II over the net (or getting ADDRNOTAVAIL errors), should check it
out.
Movement
KrAy-ZeE's Modeling Guide has moved to www.planetquake.com/modeling/.
Departments
You can't always predict the stories that generate feedback. Today in the MailBag, a couple of reactions to the de-camper patch,
one from the Aide-de-Camp himself, and one from a camper (or ex-camper). Are campers
llamas, or "Thresh's in training"? On the LAN Parties front, the DC-Con folks are putting out a distress call for
hubs (switching hubs preferable, but any are welcome). They are short hubs since a sponsor
backed out on them. Please contact Siren if you
can help.
etc.
The Voodoo 2 FAQ
has been updated, clarifying some info on 3Dfx's eagerly
anticipated next-generation 3D Accelerator. Thanks Wicked from Voodoo Extreme ... SteQve has posted his _opinion
on the subject of standards for mod authors_ on SteQve's No Frills Mod
Standardization Page ... After a bit of a vacation, Quake the Universe and Everything (QUE), is
rolling again, accepting submissions of creative Quake content (Haiku, Limericks,
etc.) ...
Out of
the Blue
A new spot for news about the site... easily identified so you can skip it if you don't
care. Just wanted to comment on what's been quite a disorganized week here at the old Blue
Tower. I've been having problems with my net connection, my old computer, my new computer,
and I've been a bit under the weather to boot. This is not meant as complaining (sounds
it, though) I mention all this in case you were wondering why updates seem a bit off
schedule. I hope to get back up to speed over the weekend (but I sense Murphy's Law
lurking around every corner). -- Blue.
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Quake
II 3D Benchmarks
As promised, the HTML
version of Brian Hook's Quake II 3D Accelerator Benchmarks have been posted, as
mentioned in Brian's recent
.plan update.
Linux Quake II Workarounds
Zoid updated
his .plan with an extensive list of issues and workarounds for the Linux Quake II
release:
Quake
II Linux Makefile
Peter Andreasen of OpenQuake sent along a makefile (1.5 KB) for Linux Quake II.
This is a makefile for use with the quake-2 source released by id (q2source_12_11.zip). It makes it possible to compile the source into "gamei386.so", which is the Linux equivalent of gamex86.dll.
In the makefile is also instructions on how to do a couple of tiny changes in the source to get everything working under Quake-2 v. 3.10 for Linux, as released by Zoid recently.
And for good measure Jet sent along similar news:
I've ported the Windows gamex86.dll source to Linux to create gamei386.so files.
new source tree
ftp://louise.net.eu.org/pub/q2-src-linux.tgzfile describing changes to source
ftp://louise.net.eu.org/pub/q2-src-linux.txt
New PowerBall for Quake II
PowerBall for Quake II version 1.0 has been released on the newly
redesigned PowerBall page.
Sin
Ad -- Messageboard
I saw a copy of a cool looking print ad for Sin over on HardCorps Sin News, which
is a new uber-Sin site being run by Phoebus at Activision. They have also opened up a Sin Messageboard to post all
your Sin questions and comments (on a related topic, the Quake II messageboards at Scoot's Quake2 Zone have been revamped).
New
PowerVR GL Drivers
Apparently new versions of the PowerVR OpenGL driver for Quake II and
PowerVR OpenGL driver for Quake and Hexen II have been released on the Apocalypse 3D Software page. There
are also new Version 4.1 Windows drivers for the Apocalypse 3D there. Thanks Frans P. de Vries of 3D Action Gamers'.
New
H3D GL Drivers
A new (dated 1/7/97) patch for GLQuake on H3D eyewear has been posted on
the H3D site. Thanks Visual Thoy ++.
Prey
Designer's Journal
GameCenter has posted part II of
the Prey
Designer's Journal, by Prey Project Leader Paul Schuytema. This edition is called
"A Texture is Worth a Thousand Words." Thanks Prophet.
RIOT Goodies
There is a screenshot featuring colored lighting up on the Riot: Mobile armor page as well as a new .mp3 audio file.
Thanks Revolt
Aussie
QW Master
Maree passes along word that
there's anew Australian QuakeWorld Master Server at:
203.55.240.100:27000
Prophet's
News!
You can find a link on Games.Net for
Prophet's News, where our industrious newshound will be keeping tabs on the gaming world.
Brian Hook made a .plan update responding to OneThumb's contention that FOV is cheating. FWIW, I have always agreed with Brian's rule of thumb (but obviously not the rule of OneThumb) on this: any command available to everyone from the console is not cheating. OneThumb updated his .plan in response.
Competitions
ClanBlast is a
single elimination clan tournament on Heat.Net using
their Da Bomb modification. The winning clan gets $2,000 (US).
Departments
New on the LAN Parties page:
an event in Columbia, MD; someone gauging interest in Las Vegas, NV
etc.
The results of the ClanBerries
Demographic survey have been posted, I don't know if the survey was scientific, but it
is interesting ... BANGG Quake 2 DM Level
Reviews has the daunting goal of reviewing every
deathmatch level on cdrom.com ... CTFNews
has opened for business, and on that subject, the version of
the day for Loki's
Minion's CTF is Beta 1.23 on The
Clan Page, fixing some bugs ... Millenium has released the source for his colored skins collection on his editing page ... For devotee's of QGraph, though it's misfiring on the new version of
Quake II, an updated QGraph that works with the latest
version of Quake II is expected shortly ... Finally, Happy
Birthday to Embrionic Pete ...
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Articles/Essays
A few articles of interest on tap:
Quake/Quake II Releases
More
Jedi Knight Hints
The LucasArts Jedi Knight
hints and secrets page has been updated to cover the rest of the levels of the game.
Thanks Prophet.
Quake II Female Colored Skins
Not to be sexist, RITUALISTIC's
Millennium has concocted the female
version (140 KB) of his oh-so-colorful skin pack. take a look:
Poll
The new PQ Poll is up, with
some interesting new questions (at least for those of us who run websites. Also, the results of last week's Poll are up,
featuring the responses to John Carmack's query about our opinion of the rapid succession
of Quake II patch releases, with over 70% of the responses saying that they preferred the
rapid patch releases versus a slower approach.
Department
In the Mailbag (AKA the
"Beating a dead horse section") is a little more on yesterday's "Worst of
1997" controversy. I'm sorry that these things drag on, but, being proud of Blue's
News' history of being responsible about following up on stories, I would rather post one
too many pieces of feedback on a controversial subject than give the impression that
issues are being ducked.
etc.
The ION Storm website
has been revamped, and seems to have moved to VRGN's
fast connection. The January edition of Eye on the Storm is also up. Thanks to the Daikatana Bushido for that one ... The GLQuake2 Primary LZ is devoted to helping
you get the most out of your GL quake II experience ... Here is an updated page showing how to set
up a Quake II modem-to-modem game ... Tolkien
points out that since its down under ISP went under, the Australian QuakeWorld master
server is no more (he issues an impassioned plea for someone to put up a new one) ... Bruce Lewis sent along version 0.81 of his WinDoom port (209 KB), pointing out that if you
"have the zip with the OpenGL screen shot in it, it isn't the latest version"
...
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Quake II for Linux
Zoid has released Linux Quake II
3.10 (856 KB) on id's FTP Site.
All you Linux power users get busy. Here's Zoid's .plan
update:
Quake2 for Linux has been released. You can grab it at .../quake2-3.10-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz
It has the same requirements as Q2Test, other than the fact you need to own a released Quake2 CD. It's based on the 3.10 Win32 version, so it's up to date with all released patches.I hope everyone enjoys this release and we'll see a lot more Quake2 servers on the net running under Linux.
I'll probably release a Makefile in a couple of days that shows how to compile the gamex86.so source (Linux's version of Win32's gamex86.dll). The game source released in q2source_12_11.zip will compile under Linux unchanged (the wonders of portable C code). User created addons must be recompiled under Linux to work--a good arguement for mod authors to release source and write portable C code.
As usual, the Linux port is an unsupported product. You can email me at zoid@idsoftware.com, but I can not guarentee a reply (I'm very busy with Q2 CTF at the moment). But I'll help out where I can.
New
MESA Compatible WinGlide
Gerhard Pfeiffer sent along a new version of WinGlide, originally by Justin Frankel of Nullsoft.
WinGlide is a replacement for glide2x.dll that, when placed in your Quake II directory
(don't replace the one in your \windows\system\ directory), allows you to play Quake II in
a Window using a Voodoo Graphics card. even supporting 400x300 and 320x200 resolutions.
Here's what's different in Gerhrd's version:
I could not get wglide to work with some full OpenGL ports, so I tried to modify the library, so that it emulates a VOODOO RUSH chipset (was easy because Justin did all the hard work with the dib copy)
- now the wglide library tries to emulate the voodoo rush chipset in window mode. (it overwrites the chiptype)
- window handling (resizing) is implemented (should work with mesa)
- a 800x600 windowmode including z-Buffer is implemented, but hangs the system within few seconds.
Advantages
- works with the 3dfx alpha full OpenGL library in window mode
- works with 3dfx mesa OpenGL clone in window mode (tried it with some mesa-samples and the Breeze Designer)
- should work with most other glide apps that support window rendering.
Disadvantage
- doesn't work with the new OpenGL miniport in quake2 and glquake but I tried it with an old miniport, dated 21.5.97 and it worked. (Seems that the voodoo glide library doesn't work with some "voodoo rush" enhancements in the new miniport, maybe the libraries are not as compatible as they should be -)
MailBag
I seem to have gotten under PCME's skin
again with the story I wrote
about their Worst of 1997 awards. I meant no harm and am certainly not going to
participate in their flamewar, but I did get a couple of responses from readers about the
semantics of my story, so I thought I 'd hash it out in the MailBag.
Complete
3D Card FAQ
I saw over on Voodoo Extreme
that Next Generation has posted the entirety of their 3D Card FAQ.
Quake
II GL Tweak Guide
3 Fingers sent along a new version of
his Quake II GL Tweak guide (23 KB), which includes a batch and .cfg file said to
improve framerates 25-50% (though John Carmack's comments about some Q2 problems being
caused by overclocking should be remembered if you run into trouble with this).
terraFORMA
Rocket Arena Pack
The terraFORMA
editing team, newly relocated to www.planetquake.com/terraforma/,
has released a 9-level Rocket Arena map pack (1.3
MB), described as differing "in style and playability from the 'official' RA maps.
Additionally, the team is currently accepting applications, if you are interested in
signing on.
Colorful
Quake II Skins
As has been noted, the Quake II skins do not make for easy recognition of
teammates in clan matches and such (especially if you are color deficient like me--ask
Robs about the time we played as a team and I kept shooting him). Now Millennium over at Ritualistic.com has released a seven skin Quake II skinpack (140 KB) that is so
colorful, even I have no excuse. Check them out:
Automatic Quake Server Booking
Quakebook is a cool
sounding program for Linux Quake servers that allows clans to book a public server
(running the mod, of course) up to two weeks in advance, receiving their own RCon
password. A Quake II version is promised soon after the Linux Quake II server is
available. There is word there that they are willing to let someone port this to Windows,
which sounds like a worthy project, since this program sounds so helpful.
New
QHost Beta
Version 5.00.3000 (beta) of QHost has been released on the QHost homepage. The new version allows for
remote control of Quake II servers on Windows NT, and now Windows '95 (using Quake II v.
3.10 or better). There are also a few bug fixes from the previous version.
Amiga
Quake
clickBOOM.com has news about
an official Quake Amiga port in the works, with an opportunity to pre-order the game
before it hits retail.
More
JK Mailing Lists
A couple more Jedi Knight mailing lists have been added to those already
run by JPG - Jedi Knight Projects Group.
Here's the deal:
jktech - This list is meant to talk about and maybe help solve technical issues concerning Jedi Knight. To subscribe send a mail to Majordomo@stargame.dyn.ml.org with subscribe jktech as body of the email.
jkplan - This list should be can be used to publish .plans for JK related projects of any editing group / any person as well as (of course) getting more information about the projects. All JK editing teams and / or editors are welcomed to use it. To subscribe send a mail to Majordomo@stargame.dyn.ml.org with subscribe jkplan as body of the email.
Quake II -- Worst of the Year?
PCME has an article up called the Worst of 1997, which
focuses a lot of its attention on Quake II, in spite of repeated comments that it's a
great game. Thanks Darkhand Smacktiyabitchity.
Interviews
PReview
Departments
Lots of updates to the LAN Parties
page: first off, here's another page devoted to LAN
Parties on the newly re-opened Gibbed.Com. On to
the events: and a weekly game in Walker, LA; an event in Amsterdam.
etc
There's an article on Yahoo
describing plans for a 3Dfx specific print magazine,
said to be hitting newsstands in March. Thanks Paul
Steffens ... More Digital
Quake II trading cards are up on the CO2
page, collect the entire set and trade with your friends! ... Here is a page devoted to keeping
tabs on Linux Doom ports for the Amiga, thanks nitrobit, and on a similar front, there is an OS2 native Doom as one of the last programs listed
on this page. Thanks Frans P. de Vries ... A new site dedicated to female gaming interests is the Females' Gaming Guild ...
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Quake II
for DEC Alpha 3.11
Brian Hook made another
.plan update announcing a version 3.11 DEC Alpha patch (899 KB), and the
permanence of the id Alpha server (alpha2.idsoftware.com).
The DEC Alpha server we have here will continue to run. I think its DNS is alpha2.idsoftware.com, so stick that in your addressbooks.
Okay, the new DEC Alpha AXP patch is up. Once again, this is only for machines with a DEC Alpha AXP processor, and it's only been tested on a 21164.
While this is patch 3.11, there is NO patch 3.11 for x86!!!! So please don't ask about it. The two code bases will be unified whenever patch 3.12 comes out (and don't ask, since we don't know).
The file is Q2-311-AXP.ZIP located on the FTP server in the idstuff/quake2/axp directory.
Internet
Troubleshooting
Disruptor updated
his .plan with word on a utility to possibly help sort out Internet connection
problems:
If you are experiencing various connection problems, I've tracked it down to inconsistencies with Microsoft's TCP/IP drivers (ie: You've installed update patches, and for whatever reason, some older version of the driver were not updated. eg: VIP.386 or VTCP.386 in your \windows\system directory)
Microsoft has a utility called qfechkup.exeQfecheck which reports the status or your drivers and which ones are out of date or are causing you problems. Please download this utility if you are experiencing problems connecting under Windows 95, and if it reports that your TCP/IP drivers are giving you problems, please e-mail me directly with the filenames that it's complaining about. I'll try to have more information available on this within the next 24 hours as I'm still trying to find a solution for this and working with people that have been e-mailing me about this.
It would be *VERY* helpful, if QFECHECK reports problems with your TCP/IP subsystem, take a screen capture of the QFECHECK screen, and attach it in an e-mail to me.
3Dfx
Quake II Color Glitches
Brian Hook's .plan has a fix if your getting "weird
colors" with 3Dfx in Quake II 3.09, to adjust the brightness slider.
Linux
Quake II Progress
Zoid made a .plan
update detailing progress on Linux Quake II, which he says is due Real Soon Now(tm).
1997
in Review
The Quake Women's Forum
have posted the results of their 1997 Quake Year in Review.
Thanks to all that voted for Blue's News (winner for Best News Site), and congratulations
to all.
New
QuArK(s)
Version 4.07 of the QuArK level editor has been released on the QuArK homepage featuring what's described as
full Quake II support. There is also an updated QuArK for 3Dfx 0.4 (QuArK 4.06+ required)
that fixes a few bugs. Thanks DeadPool2 of Ethereal Team
Fortress for the QuArK news, and Minus0 for a
correction on the version numbers.
Unreal Vaporware?
Wired Online has an article in
their technology news that I missed a few days back called Unreal Describes It,
that throws the dreaded label "vaporware"
on the game because of delays. Thanks Clawz.
Quake II DEC
Alpha Support
Brian Hook updated
his .plan announcing the availability of a patch (899 KB) to provide allow DEC
Alpha machiines to run Quake II 3.10, though he warns that it is "far from
cooked" (alpha Alpha support, perhaps?). His update also covers the latest with the
V�rit� 2100 GL problems, which are not all solved with the latest release:
DEC Alpha support was incorporated into the 3.10 patch. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS PATCH UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO RUN QUAKE2 ON A DEC ALPHA MICROPROCESSOR!!!!
The patch is far from cooked -- we only have one DEC Alpha that is reliable and works with our OpenGL accelerator. The 3DLabs Permedia2 drivers we have on hand are REAL flaky with Quake2 -- they generate an exception after about 5 or 10 minutes inside 3DOGLDRV due to a floating point invalid operation, and there are numerous visual screwups -- incorrect textures, no support for glTexSubImage2D, etc.
Patch 3.10 does not solve ALL the VERITEGL problems. Particles and other transparent things (including water) are screwed up. I can't do anything about this until Rendition gets back from vacation. Hopefully a new VERITEGL will solve the problem instead of requiring a new patch.
The file is Q2-310-AXP.ZIP located on the FTP server in the idstuff/quake2/axp directory.
Quake II Releases
A couple of releases that look to be of interest to the editing community
and a new assortment for server operators:
Quake Releases
And a couple of releases for "classic" Quake:
Updated to be compatible with version 1.00 of the All-Star maps. Specifically, this means expctf2 has been added to the end of the Xeno episode, and xeno5 has been renamed to expctf1. If you are using the All-Star maps, be sure to apply the patch to upgrade to v1.00 before installing this version of CRCTF.
OpenGL Doodads
A pair of new releases for OpenGL Quake II and Quake, respectively:
Single
Player Quake II Heaven
Picking up where his terrific Single Player Quake Heaven left off, Single Player Quake II Heaven is now underway,
providing quality reviews of Quake II levels.
Number
One with a Bullet
I keep forgetting to mention that Sonic
Mayhem has hit #1 on the CDDB Server Page top 100
list of most popular disc titles for the last 30 days with the Quake II soundtrack.
Congratulations!
etc.
There are a six (and counting) of Quake II
editing tutorials posted on the newly opened Rust ... Here's a Win32 version of Doom (253KB) ported from the Linux
Source by Bruce Lewis that he says is "not
quite finished, but it works and there isn't much left to do to get it back to the level of the original Doom". He's eager
for feedback (here's a GLDoom Screenshot from the
.zip) ... Thanks to rOt for word that Quake Weenie Website is gearing
up for Quake II, send in those tips to the Exalted Weenie
...
|
| Today's Headlines |
| Quake II 3.10 MMBoard Down New WinGlide CyberAthleres .plans Departments Interview PReview Competitions Movements etc. |
| Yesterday |
Quake II 3.1
Version 3.1 of Quake II
(1.1 MB) has been released on id's FTP site. Here's John
Carmack's .plan update:
Version 3.10 patch is now out.
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/q2-310.exe
A few more minor fixes since yesterday:
- qhost support
- made qport more random
- fixed map reconnecting
- removed s_sounddir
- print out primary / secondary sound buffer status on init
- abort game after a single net error if not dedicated
- fixed sound loss when changing sound compatability
- removed redundant reliable overflow print on servers
- gl_lockpvs for map development checking
- made s_primary 0 the default
Christian will be updating the bug page tomorrow. So hold of on all reporting for 24 hours, then check the page to make sure the bug is not already known. http://www.idsoftware.com/cgi-win/bugs.exe
All bug reports should go to Christian: xian@idsoftware.com.
I have had several cases of people with lockup problems and decompression overreads having their problems fixed after they mentioned that they were overclocking either their CPU, their system bus (to 75mhz), or their 3DFX.
It doesn't matter if "it works for everything else", it still may be the source of the problem.
I know that some people are still having problems with vanilla systems, though. I have tried everything I can think of remotely, but if someone from the Dallas area wants to bring a system by our office, I can try some more serious investigations.
Something that has shown to help with some 3dfx problems is to set "cl_maxfps 31", which will keep the console between level changes from rendering too fast, which has caused some cards to hang the system.
And here's Christian's:
Just a quick note because I've received e-mails about this already, but the 3.10 patch is incompatible with 3.09 servers over the net. If you want to play with 3.10, the server you are connecting to needs to run 3.10 as well.
Unreal
MMBoard Down
Sho from Unreal Nation passed
along word that had reported the planned closing of the Unreal MegaMessage Board, by
Epic Megagames (the board's maintainers) due to a number of abusive, and now,
pornographic, posts. Though this story is also being reported on Unreal.Org, it looks like the shutdown may actually be
only temporary, as in the wee hours this morning (Eastern time, at least) the board was
replaced with a notice simply stating "These boards are temporarily being re-designed
and should be back up soon. Sorry for any inconvenience." The MMBoard has long been
one of the premiere sources of information on Epic's upcoming Unreal, with frequent posts
by the game's developers.
New
WinGlide
Version 0.4 of WinGlide (29 KB)
has been released by author Justin Frankel of Nullsoft. Justin includes the source, adding
"Hopefully people will spend the time and make it better." WinGlide is a
replacement for glide2x.dll that, when placed in your Quake II directory (it's a bad idea
to replace the one in your \windows\system\ directory), allows you to play Quake II in a
Window using a Voodoo Graphic card, which "normally" doesn't support windowed
operation. There is a performance hit versus full-screen, but the newer versions of this
.dll even support 400x300 and 320x200 resolutions (the lowest the Voodoo normally supports
is 512x384), and the lower resolutions, as you might expect, are faster.
CyberAthletes
As mentioned yesterday, Brian Hook
made a .plan update on the subject of the CyberAthletes, which inspired a
.plan response from CyberAthletic Director Mike "Giggler" Wardwell. Brian
made a later update based on some feedback, and finally, speaking of
feedback, in response to some public statements, organizer Angel Munoz has posted a Cyberathlete Organization Update.
Departments
In the MailBag an entry for the
"you can't make this stuff up" department, someone asking for feedback from the
Quake Community on what to name his upcoming baby. A LAN Party in Lakewood CO now has a firm date, and someone is gauging
interest in the Milford, MI area.
Interview
There is a short interview with
BlackHorse of the Navy Seals Quake TC on The
Spank Sentinel where he talks of forming a team to work on Navy Seals for Quake II, in
spite of his recent statement to the contrary on the Navy Seals page.
PReview
Here is a review of the Alpha of
Ridah's Eraser Bot. Thanks MR.BAD.
etc.
The results of GameStats
Poll are in asking John Carmack's question about Quake
II patch release frequency (GameStats
comes up fine now, apparently previous troubles were the foibles of the Internet). 77% of
those responding favored frequent patches, 18% less frequent, and 5% of the responses were
non-committal or incoherent ... Here's DosDoom
version 0.301 (750 KB) Chi's DOS port of the Linux Doom source, featuring
hi-color and hi-rez support, which is now also available on its new official homepage, also, Andrew Stine of Functional Entropy sends word of another version of DOSDoom on Phill's Doom Page that adds a bunch of
new stuff like flying and a Quad Damage ... Wicked from Voodoo Extreme sent along RIVA Tweak version 2.1 (71 KB) which features a properties tab and a control panel applet to tweak the settings on
RIVA 128 cards ... Speaking of V.E. they are one of a whole bunch of 3Dfx sites that are getting behind an undertaking
called 3DFX Brotherhood. They're
just getting underway, but they look to be taking a community minded approach ... TF Config is a program to allow TeamFortress players to easily create TF-oriented config files
... A tip for H3D owners using the GLQuake patch passed
along by H3D beta tester Christopher Spencer, is
that you should disable any "tweaks" to the cards configuration you've made, and
that your monitor should be set to 60 Hz at 640*480 in the video settings ... Image of the Day has got to be this candid shot of sCary in his new
job that was posted on Ritualistic.com.
Special thanks to Dick for that ...
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New
H3D GLQuake Drivers (Updated)
The new drivers to enable stereoscopic GLQuake that were released earlier
on the H3D page (thanks Visual Thoy ++) have been pulled (thanks Rohn), and have been replaced with the drivers that
were posted last week. I spoke to Wireless from
H3D and found out that the patch was to address an issue with Voodoo RUSH cards, but a bug
that caused crashes in a few test machines was discovered shortly after they were
released, hence they were pulled. An updated version of the GLQuake drivers are expected
by Monday or Tuesday, if not sooner, and word on the Quake II driver is "soon."
Also, word on the site is that drivers for WinQuake are coming soon as well.
The HALQUAKE
Saga
There is an interesting story on HALQUAKE,
a Quake II server's webpage. They've posted a threatening email apparently sent to them
which they say is currently being investigated by the FBI. It appears the
server/site's maintainers feel this is connected with their decision to shut it down their
Quake II server in protest of the server crashing incidents. Though their original protest
says "...I believe that id Software is not taking this situation to heart!",
after receiving a response from id CEO Todd Hollenshead they seemed more appeased, saying
"this is my opinion and id Software does care about the industry in which they are so
deeply involved in." Thanks PsychoNews.
New QHost
with Quake II Support
QHost 5.0 has been released on the QHost homepage. This is good news for the many
Quake II server operators that were previously accustomed to using QHost to remotely
administrate Quake servers. QHost now supports Quake (WinQuake.exe and WinDed.exe but not
Quake.exe), QuakeWorld (QWSV.exe), Hexen II, and Quake II (Windows NT only) servers.
JK
GameSpy Support (Updated)
morbid from TeamGameSpy sent me along a correction to JediKnight.Net's report that a new version of GameSpy, featuring Jedi Knight support may be released
as soon as this weekend. Word is that Tim will have the code in the codebase this weekend,
but a release will probably not come for a few weeks.
Sin
Screenshots
Ritualistic.com has a some Sin
screenshots they found on a Japanese site called Gaminator
that are apparently from a print article.
Updated
Blast Packaramathon
Avatar has released an updated version of his Blast Packaramathon (681 KB), a formerly ten,
and now eight level Quake II deathmatch pack. Here's the reason for the update, taken from
Avatar's page:
New important information for AvPakers: Due to problems with NT, problems with dedicated server mode with the DLL, problems with +set game, etc., I've rereleased the Pack as avblast.zip. SpinCity and SpinOut are not included because they lag net play too much. Also, the new gamex86.dll is not included because of all the problems it was causing. This means DM start pads will now be present in Strange and Wheel, which bites, but its better than everything not working. If you want to play Spincity or Spinout and Strange and Wheel without the dm pads, get http://avatar.telefragged.com/avpak.zip. To get the new avblast.zip, click on the "Blast Packaramathon" picture at the top of this page.
Due to Quake2's map difference checking, you'll probably have to re-download the pack to play with other people, but its under 700k, so big deal. Grab it.
Malice
DM Maps
A couple of the maps that were made for the now-discontinued Malice
deathmatch pack have been released on the Team
Epohalypse page. Here are Isle (380 KB) and Test (400 KB).
QTracker
Update
Version 1.42 of
QTracker (3.8 MB) has been released on the QTracker
page, fixing a few bugs.
RIOT News
The RIOT: Mobile Armor page has
been updated with tons of info about this upcoming game from Monolith. Thanks revolt.
crash
Landing
crash sends along the good news that he's re-opening crash's SPQ, always one of the
finest level review sites going. The site has been redesigned, and will soon feature Quake
II map reviews. crash says he's gonna kick the whole deal off with a Quake II review soon.
etc.
The RivaZone is now online,
dedicated to the latest on the RIVA 128 ...
Canopus sent out a Pure3D review (newsletter) that included an announcement about that
their plans for a Voodoo 2 card, which may take a while, as they are planning on being
king: "Our goal is to offer the best Voodoo 2 board in speed, quality and features.
It will not be a low-priced priced product, but it will be the
king of Voodoo 2." ... Here's
a page and here's another where you can vote for the best Quake mods of 1997 ... I
commented recently that skin sites were seeming to become
more and more popular (speaking of which, here's a link to DuDe's Q2 Skinpage), now I'm told
that the Quake Skins Artists
Webring now has over 40 members ... Image of the Day
is this
wireframe-into-gunner that Jawed Karim
sent along word on. The image is by Greg Pape, using jawMD2 ...
| Quake and the
stylized "Q" are trademarks of id Software, used with
their kind permission All rights reserved. Copyright � 1998 by Stephen Heaslip |
