go to www.shugashack.com for up to date news.
| Saturday, January 30 |
More on N64 Emulator [10:45 am]
If you havent checked out the Nintendo64 Emulator
yet you are missing out on something incredible. The IGN64 guys have finally gotten official word from Nintendo on the
matter. Guess what, they dont approve. Emails to me asking for rom's will be ignored.
Carmack Talk & Translation [8:15 am]
John Carmack made a lengthy
.plan update talking about all kinds of stuff and Quake3. I'll translate it for some
of you guys in a bit. Here's the whole thing for now:
The issue of the 8192 unit map dimension limit had been nagging at me for a long time now. The reason for the limit is that coordinates are communicated over the network in 16 bit shorts divided as a sign bit, twelve unit bits, and three fractional bits. There was also another side to the representation problem, but it was rarely visible: if you timescale down, you can actually tell the fractional bit granularity in position and velocity.
The rest of the system (rendering and gameplay) has never had any issues with larger maps, even in quake 1. There are some single precision floating point issues that begin to creep in if things get really huge, but maps should be able to cover many times the current limit without any other changes.
<snip>
I finally moved to a bit-level stream encoding to save some more bandwidth and give me some more representational flexibility, and this got me thinking about the characteristics of the data that bother us.
<snip>
So, the bottom line is that the bandwidth won't move much (it might even go down if I cut the integral bits below 15), the maps become unbounded in size to the point of single precision roundoff, and the client doesn't have to care about position jittering (which was visible in Q3 code that will be released).
Translation performed by certified linguist Steve Gibson:
"Dude, I was hax0ring with this Quake3 code and stuff and I made it so maps can be totally bigger dude, CRAZY! Then I was looking at these rockets things, and I thought, hey.. I can go buck wild and make the network code cooler for this! Let me try a few things. Nope, that didnt work.. Oh maybe this will though. OMG! I like it!"
KingPin Shots [8:45 am]
After the little KingPin party that was held a couple
of days ago, the Xatrix PR monkeys went to work and sent out 19 new screenshots of
KingPin. I snagged 4 of them from VE who has
them all, I'll have the rest indexed this afternoon. Check a few of them out for now:
Bitch, Please! [8:45 am]
CDMag has published a fun little article
on GameSpy that includes some commentary from GameSpy founder, or "Biz Guy,"
Mark Surfas. He talks about the development of the program, their involvement in the
development of other games, and even a little on GameSpy's competition, including this
lovely quote:
Our real competition is the online gaming services that are attempting to buy exclusives and elbow us out of the market. HEAT.NET recently did that with Sin — they paid the money necessary so that only HEAT.NET would be bundled with Sin. Does Activision really believe that anyone is going to play Sin exclusively through HEAT? Bitch, Please!
Ion Gate [8:45 am]
The never ending Ion Gate escepade. Next-Generation has posted their own article on
all the goings on in the leaning green tower of Dallas.
It's a fascinating story as old as greed itself. Our players fit their roles so well that they could have been lifted from history or fiction. Todd Porter is the bete noir of the story. Surely he has a handlebar mustache that he twirls as he berates his employees. He drives hired talent before him as if he were Jesus herding swine over the edge of a cliff and he treats them with as much respect. He is livid that he must live in Romero's shadow when the photographers show up to take his picture. O'Flaherty comes off as Porter's sniveling toady, sharply characterized by his "fucking rat-faced bitch" email about (but not to) Wilson.
While you are checking out stuff like this, you might enjoy what GrandMasterB has to say about RBR.
Views [8:45 am]
Tech [8:45 am]
werd
I ordered a flilet of fish a little while ago for some
breakfast action but asked for no tartar sauce. Of course those punks didnt listen though
and had that crap all over my filet. I was going to peel his cap, but decided it wasnt
worth serving time.
Banana yogurt is disgusting. I wont even say what it reminds me of.
Work has begun on an internal .plan tracker for Shack, and some progress has already been made. Hope you monkeys like it! Here is what Sander has to say about the work so far
| Friday, January 29 |
More on RBR [11:45 am]
Well it looks like EA has
rights to all the work that the RBR guys did
for Prax War. (As expected, EA financed them) Here is the incredibly short reply I got to
3 questions I sent. :)
Electronic Arts will consider future projects with RBR and still has rights to the software.
So... that means EA can license out the engine technology to other developers. Any buyers?
Extreme Annihilation [11:35 am]
The next Cyberathlete event has been announced. Here ya go:
Our next computer gaming event, Extreme Annihilation has been scheduled for March 12, 1999 and will take place in Dallas, Texas at the Westin Park Central Hotel. In addition to the official CPL Tournament with over $25,000 in cash, hardware and software prizes, EA will host several conferences, workshops, exhibitions and unofficial competitions.
Dell Computers becomes a sponsor of the CPL Dell Computer Corporation, the leading direct computer systems company in the world, has become a sponsor of the CPL and will provide Dell Dimension PCs with Pentium III processors for the official CPL tournament.
Quake3 Weaponswitch? [10:45 am]
A huge issue of debate on the Q3 messageboard
is id Software's choice to go with a 600ms switch time between weapons. tiGGr went through the trouble of making this nifty little
page which will show you first hand just how fast that is with a great interactive
"demo"
Reason To Live? [12:55 pm]
You were thinking about ending it all again over the
weekend? No way! How could you even consider it when we have all these reasons to live!
Prax War [6:15 am]
Yup. News had leaked out a couple of days ago but I finally
got confirmation late yesterday from EA. Prax War has been cancelled. I sent in a couple
more questions so hopefully we'll have some more information today on just whats going
down. You can check out the .plan update from
Randy Pitchford, as well as this confirmation I got:
Me: ... I've heard from several people that Prax War from Rebel Boat Rocker has been cancelled. Can you give me confirmation on this?
EA: Steve, EA has cancelled Prax War. For further information feel free to email me specific questions.
Don't forget to check out Scott Miller's .plan update as well. Scott likes RBR :) I've collected a few in game screenshots of Prax War just so you guys can see what we all missed out on. Total bummer.
Half-Life MP Pack [6:15 am]
This is carried over from late last night. Gabe Newell sent
out a new multiplayer pack for Half-Life including several new DM models and a new DM map
for you guys to choose from. Here's the list. You can grab the file from
PlanetHalflife.
1) G-Man multiplayer model - the infamous guy with a briefcase. Ted Backman, modeler.
2) Recon grunt multiplayer model - the human military commander. Ted Backman, modeler.
3) Cannibal multiplayer model - a humorous comic book character from Chuck Jones' twisted childhood.
4) Skeleton multiplayer model - low visibility, low contrast model. Hard to play against. Steve Theodore/Chuck Jones, modeler.
5) New decals - collection of multiplayer decals including flags, political parties, barnyard animals and other images from, yes, you guessed it, Chuck Jones' twisted childhood.
6) Team9.bsp - a new team map intended for 4 on 4 competition. Developed by Doug Wood, who did the Bounce map.
TRIBES & OpenGL [6:15 am]
The RivaZone guys
sent word more news on the OpenGL acceleration hopes for TRIBES. Here is a .plan update
from a nVidia muffin:
Dave Moore posted something in his .plan about how Tribes is totally ready to go, except it's really slow on uploading textures on TNT. I've gotten a bunch of email from people asking when we're going to do something about it. We're working with the guys developing Tribes to get a copy of the OpenGL patch in house so we can see why it's so slow. If we find it's something we can fix in the drivers, we'll fix it, or we'll help the Tribes folks optimize their code. Our OpenGL driver should be able to handle the case Dave describes for how his app behaves, but of course, until I can actually see what's wrong, I'm really only guessing. Anyhow, we're working on it, so please just be patient.
You can also check out PlanetStarSiege which has a short Q&A about the patch with Tim Gift.
Sanity From Monolith [6:15 am]
Monolith has announced a new project. Sanity. Here is a bit
of the desctiption and the full press
release:
Sanity. This explosive action game will be the next Monolith title created using the LithTech 3D Engine, the company's acclaimed 3D game engine that has already created waves via Monolith's 1998 hit Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Sanity takes Monolith's proprietary technology in an entirely new direction by utilizing an isometric, third-person view and a revolutionary new interface. The game is schedule to release in North American this Christmas, 1999
IonGate [6:15 am]
Still wondering what is up with IonGate? Netcombat has posted an interview
with John Romero that even includes some new screenshots from Daikatana
Messageboard [9:15 am]
Amazingly, the Quake3 messageboard has been stable for over 48 hours. Sorry for those
of you who were having problems earlier. You may resume flaming. :)
Views [6:25 am]
Tech [6:25 am]
werd
So I'm sitting here with my plastic bag and a lighter, and
I'm thinking to myself... those Canadians are never gonna invade the USA... Taunt us and
beat us up in hockey is about it. No invasions though. So anyone want a plastic bag?
(Slightly used)
Sorry about the lack of a demo yesterday. Next week will be a double helping ok?
| Thursday, January 28 |
Prax War Cancellation [LATE]
Randy Pitchford of RBR updated his
.plan with some more details on the cancellation of Prax War and the future of all the
employees there:
Prax War has, in fact, been cancelled.
<snip>
While I am ashamed that Prax War was cancelled because RBR "missed their technology window" and because "things were not progressing as quickly as they would have liked" (as reported) I am very proud to say that the RBR content team never missed a milestone and always delivered high quality and respected work. No one who has seen Prax War's content has left thinking anything but that a lot of work and talent went into its creation. My hats off to the entire RBR content team who continued to put up with my undaunted optimism and produced the best looking work I have ever seen in a 3d game.
<snip>
All of the Prax War *content* developers will be leaving RBR. If you're a developer interested in grabbing some of the most experienced, hard working and talented designers, artists and animators I've had the pleasure of working with, you can find their e-mail addresses on www.rebelboatrocker.com 'TEAM' page. If you have difficulty contacting any of them, I have direct contact.
Some of the content team may be working with EA in the future. We all respect their ability to manage and their vast resources and business sense. But, naturally, we are in the business of passion. If you are a developer, don't hesitate to let any RBR developer know what sort of project you're looking to add talent to.
<snip>
But, alas, "our game is but a dream
Prax War Cancelled [9:55 pm]
Rumors began floating around last night that RBR's Prax War project had been cancelled. Thus
the motivation for unnamed sources from within RBR to "leak" screenshots to the
net. Well it looks like those rumors are true. Here is the email I sent to an EA contact:
Hey Tracy, I've heard from several people that Prax War from Rebel Boat Rocker has been cancelled. Can you give me confirmation on this?
Steve, EA has cancelled Prax War. For further information feel free to email me specific questions.
Also Gamers Alliance had this to say:
EA's reasons were that they missed their technology window on this product and that things were not progressing as quickly as they would have liked.
Unreal 221? [8:25 am]
Oh yeah, you remember Unreal? Yeah we're all still waiting
on that shareware version. The Unreal Technology
page has been updated yet again with news that they are merging all kinds of crazy code
with the Legend guys. Here is part of what Sweeney had to say:
I'm working on Unreal's OpenGL support, and will soon get a version of the code to the 3D hardware makers who have some driver issues to work out. The Riva TNT is currently the fastest and most stable card, with the ATI Rage 128 looking very promising, especially in 24-bit color.
I'm also extending the Unreal installer which shipped with the 220 patch, turning it into a full-blown installation program for future patches, shareware versions, and retail versions. I'm also contemplating extending it to support Unreal mods, which could then be distributed in a self-contained format (.uzip?) which Unreal automatically knows how to install. This would put cool mods just 3-4 mouse clicks away from users who are browsing mod sites like Unreal Resources, a great improvement over the current process of "download a file, run PkZip, extract the .utx files to the Unreal\Textures directory, extract the .unr files to the Unreal\Maps directory, run Unreal, then try to figure out how to launch the mod". This has the potential to bring mods to a much wider audience.
Redline [8:25 am]
GA-Source has scored another cool interview. They
have gotten a hold of Steve Ackrich of Accolade working on the Redline project. Here's
a quote for you guys:
Q: How would you compare this game to the upcoming Quake3:Arena? What ingredients does Redline have to make it compete against a title such as this since they share a similar genre?
A: Like everyone else, we can't wait to get our hands on Quake3:Arena. Redline does not attempt to compete directly with Quake or with any other existing game. Redline is based on a completely unique 3D engine called Daedlus. This engine has been in development for over 2.5 years and was designed from the beginning for on-foot and in-car combat. The on-foot combat feels very much like a full featured action shooter. The in-car combat is similar to successful car combat games. The combination is a logical evolution for both genres, Redline.
LithTech 2 [8:25 am]
Mike Dussalt of Monolith talks at great lengths with the
PlanetShogo guys about the new LithTech 2 technology that Monolith is hammering away
on right now. Here are a few of the details:
Our main focus for LT2 is outdoor areas. Think VistaPro or Bryce. Roads, rivers, mountains, etc. The most likely implementation is going to be a view-dependent progressive mesh which will provide high detail up front and low detail in back. The landscape will be planar mapped with huge textures (1024x1024 and larger). The terrain will most likely be from a height map, editable in realtime in DEdit. Part of the implementation of large outdoor areas will include caching. The engine will cache in new geometry and textures in a background thread as you move around on the terrain to avoid loading delays. Indoor areas will be mixed right in with the terrain.
The other major focus will be in adjacent servers. Servers will be able to hook onto the sides of eachother so clients can run from server to server while they're online. I wrote a plan update a while back talking about this: http://finger.planetquake.com/plan.asp?userid=dussault
New PingTool [8:25 am]
Yup, another new version of PingTool has been released. More wacky features have
been added as always. This time we have theme support going as well as
support for that Battlefield Communicator deal.
Prax War Shot [2:45 am]
Just because I like being on the bandwagon, Chump McRunfast sent me this new Prax War screenshot. It's a
jungle and stuff. I recommend checking out the new shots on Boatrocker.com though. Those things are the bizomb.
Views [8:25 am]
Tech [8:25 am]
For the Banshee:
http://www.soundblaster.com/graphics/3db-banshee/drivers.html
...and for the Voodoo2:
http://www.soundblaster.com/graphics/voodoo2/drivers.html
werd
Hey, I'm getting flown out to Sweden in April! Check out www.challenge-au.com or methos.barrysworld.com for info on the tournament
I'm going to take part in. In case you're wondering yes I did tell them I dont even play
1on1 anymore, and there are several American players who would better represent the USA.
The tournament organizers still felt I was the best choice though. I'll start practicing
1on1 in about a month :)
| Wednesday, January 27 |
Prax War Shots [9:45 pm]
Wow, you should head over to www.boatrocker.com and check out 3 new screenshots of
Prax War from Rebel Boat Rocker which is looking pretty damn good. You should also check
out Redwood's page who scored a shot of his own.
Hey I even got my own screenshot sent out by "Chump McRunfast" I'll post
tomorrow.
Paul Jaquays [9:45 pm]
PlanetQuake has put together a new interview with Paul Jaquays,
level designer on that little Quake3 project you might have heard of coming from id
Software.
Drakan [9:45 pm]
The boys over at Gamer's
Depot have posted a Drakan
Preview. They even have 7 new screenshots for you to take a gander at as well. Hot
stuff.
Anachronox Shots [8:35 am]
The Ion Storm page has
posted these full size Anachronox screenshots you guys should take a look at. They show
off just what Tom Hall's team has been up to with this Q2 engine based baby. The shots
were originally featured in this Games.net preview however
these images are much higher res. Here is a zip of all the
shots, and I've grabbed my favorites for you guys to check out here:
My Quake3 Follow-up [11:35 am]
Nothing incredibly mind blowing, underwhelming even, but my Quake3 follow-up article has been posted
a little early answering most of the questions that you guys kept hammering me with in
e-mail. It sure felt like more in my in-box but only came out to be a couple of pages. If
there is a question you think I should add to the list just lemme know and I'll update the article on the
fly for the next couple of days.
More TRIBES & GL [9:05 am]
Tim Gift made another .plan
update concerning OpenGL and TRIBES in the future. Thanks GamePlex
...the OpenGL patch seems to be coming along pretty well. Just down to the final optimizations, though it is annoying having to tweak the game for each OpenGL card out there, it's all a part of the normal process. Dave's installed the G200 and is testing that today. As we hear back from NVidia, we'll continue working with them on getting all the performance we can out of their card. Soon as it runs reasonably, we'll release a beta version to get some feedback.
Ass-Wack Linkage [8:35 am]
Always the most enlightening day of my week, check out the new list of links and
come to understand why the internet is so great.
Beneath [5:15 am]
The GA-Source guys have done up a new preview
of Beneath which should be getting some more attention. Take Tomb Raider (1, 2, 3 etc,
your choice) and add an actual game behind the boobs. It's a lengthy interview also
focusing on the game company behind the project.
...It's a 3rd person action adventure game where you control a character (Jack) who has discovered an underground civilization dwelling 'Beneath' the Arctic. As he descends through the various levels, he encounters numerous monsters and creatures that inhabit the world. Along with the basic running, jumping and shooting, Jack has a repelling rope that allows him attach himself to 'hookups' for climbing and swinging.
Voodoo3 & Intel Etc. [5:15 am]
If you checked out the Voodoo3 info that Sharky Extreme posted the other day, then you might
have been thinking "Damn it 3dfx will only work with Intel stuff" well that isnt
the case. Here is an email that AMDZone got from
Brian Bruning of 3dfx to clarify:
'Yes, Alex took our strong Intel partnering a bit too far. Voodoo 3 4000 will certainly be timed and executed with Intel's upcoming AGP4x chipset and next-gen CPUs but it by NO means requires it. In fact, we've designed the entire Voodoo 3 product family to scale very, very well even on Celeron and the entire range of AMD processors. AGP is so closely associated with the latest from Intel that the message of support for AMD and lower end Intel CPUs sometimes get lost. But the hearts and minds of those gamers don't get lost with us.
System Shock2 [5:15 am]
If those System Shock2 screenshots and interview
posted late yesterday got you excited, then you might wanna check out the System Shock2
chat that will be going down on the 31st of January.
On Sunday, January 31st, 9:00pm Eastern Standard Time, Ken Levine, System Shock 2 Lead Designer, will be in the #system`shock`2 IRC channel. Don't miss it! ... log on to server polaris.starchat.net and join #System`Shock`2. This Channel is hosted by the The StarChat Network
Soldier of Fortune [5:15 am]
Kenn Hoekstra, of Raven Software (Soldier of Fortune),
was interviewed regarding Raven
Technology and their new game. While based on the Quake2 engine, they will be making heavy
modifications, including a new modelling system, a new AI system, as well as other
improvements (better lighting, reflections, etc.).
Tribes & OpenGL [5:15 am]
Blue posted this bit on a
.plan
update from the project director on TRIBES concerning OpenGL acceleration. Currently
you can only use a 3dfx based card to get hardware acceleration.
I'll talk about OpenGL since that seems to always be on people's mind. Dave Moore is the one working on our OpenGL driver. We are using the TNT card as our testbed and basically have it running, but we are running into some serious performance issues with their OpenGL driver. The main problem is the rate at which the OpenGL driver downloads textures to the card. When playing indoors, TRIBES has a small texture set, and the driver and card run flawlessly, but as soon as you go outdoors, we start to encounter some bad pauses. When outdoors, TRIBES generates a large number of composite textures to cover the lower detail terrain poly's in the distance.
Quake3 Article Q&A [5:15 am]
With the problems the Quake3 messageboard had over the past few days I came up short on some
of the questions people had about Quake3 after reading my article. I hate to do this but if you have any more
questions just email them to me and I'll try to
include as many as I can before the article goes online at 3pm today.
Views [6:05 am]
Tech Updates [6:05 am]
werd
Who's the big winner tonight? YOU ARE!
Almost got my sleep schedule fixed so you can count on some actual regular daytime updates. :)
| Tuesday, January 26 |
Drakan [11:15 pm]
The Flamelands
guys have posted another interview
with members of Surreal Software about Drakan. This time they talk with Stuart Denman
and Shaun Leach about the technology behind the game and get a bit technical.
Q: You've said in other interviews that the Drakan models are all dynamically lit based on nearby light sources, a la Unreal. Will the Riot engine have levels of detail for the models to prevent the came from slowing to a crawl calculating appearances for monsters half a mile a way?
Stuart Denman
-- Absolutely. The Riot Engine scales down the number of polygons based on how far a model or character is from the camera. This is what allows us to render the world from so high above the landscape where you may see 20+ 3D enemies at once.
System Shock2 Shots [4:25 pm]
The GameCenter.com monkeys have gotten a hold of a few new screenshots of System Shock2
that are worth checking out.
N64 Quake2 Shots [8:45 am]
Wondering what the N64 port of Quake2 is looking like? The N64.IGN.COM guys have gotten a hold of a few shots that
should answer the question for ya.
Wisdom [10:15 am]
Many people have made comparisons of me to Yoda in my infinite experience and wisdom. I dont
feel that is a fair comparison. Yoda gets his kicks out of training young boys to become
fighters. I on the other hand enjoy "training" 18yr old girls. Who's the wise
one now huh? Jedi master... feh
Max Payne [6:05 am]
The official Max Payne
website has been updated by the Remedy guys giving the low down on whats up over there.
Here's part of it. The game is looking supafly.
Code: MAX-FX is coming together. The level editor, MaxED has been developed into a versatile and powerful tool, and the progress is awesome. We now have all the other tools in place as well (ParticleFX and ActorFX are done) and we can concentrate on the game content. We also have solid D3D support, and virtually all the accelerators work without a glitch. In addition to the normal Pentium/Pentium II/Celeron support, we're optimizing the tech for AMD 3DNow! (man, we're getting great performance out of the AMD processors as well :)
Unreal Tournament [6:05 am]
Wondering what Unreal Tournament will be like? Have a look
at the PCGames preview of
Epic's new baby.
Unreal Tournament could change that. In the levels PC Games saw, the new types of gameplay and a new assortment of weapons add up to a totally different game. The new environments look great. Team combat on ancient Spanish galleons, WWII beach heads, and orbital space stations-count me in. There’s also new types of gameplay, from traditional CTF and deathmatch to Domination (basically capture and hold from Tribes and other mods), and the novel Assault-defend and destroy with a story line.
Turok2 Release Date [6:05 am]
Saw over at AGN3D that the Acclaim website has posted the release date for Turok2.
I'll just quote Steve: "The game is scheduled to be released on Februaury 9,
1999. I own the Nintendo 64 version and am on the second level currently. The
extra 4MB Expansion Pack improves the N64's resolution to 640x480 giving it even more eye
candy. You can get more info about the game here.
Wheel of Time [6:05 am]
It's that time again, the Legend Entertainment guys have updated their website with some
development info. This time around they have posted 3 new images for you to check out
although they arent very high res so you have to put your face really close to the
monitor. Here's a quote:
Unfortunately, the incredible detail of these scenes is completely lost in these thumbnails. Imagine each as a fractal image; the closer you get, the more the image fills in the detail. That's what these textures are like--just freakin' amazing. As I've repeatedly said, we've got some of the best artists around, and they prove it every day
Messiah [6:05 am]
VFXPro has posted
a new article discussing the development process behind the Shiny
Entertainment Messiah project. Pretty
interesting and halfway technical stuff.
"The characters have between 80,000 and 480,000 polygons apiece but the engine just remembers the shape of the character and not the number of polygons. It checks the hardware and sees how many polygons your PC can draw for that frame. It then goes about distributing those in the most economical fashion to recreate the shape of each object on screen. Polygon counts for characters are constantly changing from frame to frame. As hardware improves, 'Messiah' will keep getting better and better looking."
Views [6:05 am]
Tech [6:05 am]
werd
She's not my special lady I'm just helping her conceive man!
*cough* Sander is really kinda sure that the Quake3 messageboard is fixed for good now. Your postings should show up within a minute or so etc now. I'm working on some news now but got kinda sidetracked playing with Windows desktop themes.. You know how it is.
| Monday, January 25 |
Voodoo3 4000 [11:55 pm]
The homeboys at SharkyExtreme
have returned from a field trip and bring gifts! Sharky got the low down on the
Voodoo3 4000 from 3dfx CEO Greg Ballard. The 3dfx guys
are talking about 4X AGP compatibility and utilizing the yet to be released Intel Camino
chipset.
3Dfx revealed to us a bit of early info on the Voodoo3 -4000. Could this be it? Well, what little we do know about the board is that it will require the use of an (as yet unreleased) Intel Camino chipset. It will also be specifically designed and optimized for Camino in order to take full advantage of AGP 4X texturing just in time to compete head to head with nVidia's .25micron TNT2.
Official TeamFortress Website [6:44 pm]
The Sierra Studios website has
opened up fot the TF2 project based on Half-Life. Here are a couple of the screenshots
that are on the page as well as a clip from the description:
Team Fortress 2 is destined to change the way online games are played. With Team Fortress 2, you'll experience the thrill of battle while performing as part of a team or battle squadron. This unique approach more closely approximates real-life battle and enables new and experienced players to play together in a way that challenges each individual and enhances the overall experience.
When you first log on for a game, you'll be recruited immediately by a team and cast in one of nine roles, or character classes, such as Medic, Spy, or even the "machine-gun toting Heavy Infantryman." Once you join a team and pick a class, you'll function in that class as part of the team, working together to complete any number of map-specific objectives. The success of your team depends not just on the skill levels of each individual, but on your squad's cohesiveness and teamplay.
Intel CPU ID's [6:44 pm]
I guess Intel's plans on giving CPU'd ID numbers upset a lot
of people. There was even a boycott
FAQ online. Intel
actually reacted to the public though and has announced they no longer plan on the
original ID method. They are now going for easily readable serial numbers.
An Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) spokesman said that in response to a potential boycott by privacy groups, the company has decided to change the electronic ID feature of the Pentium III chip. Intel planned to ship the chips with the ID feature turned on, but instead will change it so the trackable serial number can only be read if the user opts to turn it on. Details to follow.
KingPin [6:14 am]
The new Xatrix Quake2 engine based game is looking hot, check out the new preview that
the Dual Fusion guys have posted. -VE
Approximately seven episodes are planned, including Skid Row, with its On The Waterfront, Dead End and Midtown levels; RotoDyne with Perimeter, Steal a Plan and Dr. Z's Lab levels; and Penthouse with Goons and Robots, OmniVac2000 and Final Confrontation. These locales are inhabited by a host of characters, some sinister and some just quirky, but each with specific behavious which add to the local colour, and can either help or hinder the player as he tries stealthily to move up in the burned-out turf of the Kingpin
Weekly Updates [9:15 am]
Got a pair of updates for ya, the suckage has been posted as promised,
and the hardware page has been
updated as well with a list of the best prices you can find on the net to assemble your
gaming rig. Huntsman was out of the house all weekend so we're a day late. :) I fixed a
couple of issues with the Q3 messageboard
btw.
Speaking of hardware, I've been engrossed in "other negotiations" lately so the shack hardware discounts thing has been put on the back burner. We'll see if we can get that one squared away this week though. I'm pretty sure I can score you guys some deals on a few things.
Dominion Contest Winner! [6:15 am]
We have a winner! Wilka has dug up an astounding 10 Dominion
fan pages! Total vindication for Porter and Romero! Or, well.. maybe.. you guys have got
to check out these pages. You'll just die. :) My favorite is prolly this one. Check em all out!
page1 page2 page3 page4 page5 page6 page7 page8 page9 page10
Congratulations to Wilka for all his hard work! I'll have a list of all the runner ups posted tomorrow. Once again, I must apologize for the humor impaired.
Rage128 Available? [6:14 am]
Wha? yeah according to 3DGaming.com
you might just be able to find one of these cards. As it stands now this card would be
your best bet for playing Quake3, even over a TNT. Of course Don't go hopping around to
buy one just yet since the nVidia guys have some new GL drivers in the works which might
change things a bit. Here's the quote:
ATI has not sent me the Rage Fury "Janurary" Drivers yet, but umm... a friend of mine says he purchased a 16mb Rage128 OEM today with CD-R for drivers from the computer show. Normally I would dismiss this as false rumors, but he is a friend and the facts seem to match. It sounds like an OEM Xpert128 as far as I can tell, and I've asked my friend to send me the drivers for a closer examination. The retailer had it running Rage Dawning... I'm going to look into this a bit closer to see what I can find out. Perhaps you can buy a Rage128 today... Oh, and the cost? $120.
Views [6:14apm]
Tech [6:14apm]
werd
Workin on the follow up Q3A article this afternoon.
Hopefully any remaining question you have about Q3 will be answered as best I can then.
Let's shoot for Wednesday shall we?
| Sunday, January 24 |
Yo! [8:45 pm]
Ok the weekend relaxation is about over. Gotta hit some IHOP
action and bust out with the late night news for you guys. Go look for some Dominion fan
pages or something or something. First Porter, now look at Romero's quote:
John Romero: Actually Dominion has done pretty well. Sell-through numbers have climbed steadily each month and there's a bunch of fan sites popping up on the Internet.
How about admitting the game didnt sell very well, and saying something like "we learned a lot from mistakes" blah blah? At least that is more believable.
Today = Yawn [7:15 am]
What, you were expecting something exciting? Quake3 Messageboard
broke a couple of times but I'm kinda sorta sure everything is worked out. Huntsman should
be updating the hardware page today.
Maybe he'll even change the "last update" date while he's at it? :)
Ion Gate [7:45 am]
Hey, another interview with John Romero about Ion Storm. PC Gamer actually asks some real
questions for Romero. Worth checking out if you're still following Ion Gate.
It's our understanding that for Daikatana to turn a profit, it must sell 2.5 million copies. Given that Doom (in all its incarnations) is the only game to sell that many copies, do you realistically expect Daikatana to match those figures? If even the mighty Half-Life, which is one of the best FPS of all-time, will not reach that sales plateau, what makes you think Daikatana will?
The actual case is that we have three games in development right now and we aren't depending on just Daikatana to pay back all our advances. If it did, that would be excellent. After all, the money that we have spent so far has been to develop three games (our fourth game, Dominion, has already paid for itself) and to build-out our game company. Starting up a company this size takes some real cash and dedication to paying that cash back by producing great games. Also, there are many other revenue streams that all companies take advantage of, like ports to console systems, OEM sales, etc.
werd
What it is money? I was thinking one of the coolest things
in the world that can happen is you reboot one day and all of a sudden both your USB ports
and keyboard die. I'm left with a PS2 mouse and copy/paste of letters to point out paths
to device manager to my drivers. Talk about fun!
| 3DNews.net | News Archives | copyright Steve Gibson 1998 |
