Wednesday, April 12, 2000

Gone Gold on Daikatana -- 9:45 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gone Gold has dug up the following bit of information from Eidos on the release date for Daikatana:

Right now they're going over the game, fixing little things here and there and basically polishing the game. The US version is not gold, contrary to some reports, but close to it. They are sticking to the plan of getting all localized versions done and having an almost simultaneous release.

And when would that be?

They hope to have it out just before E3 (May 11-13th). I mentioned that EBWorld is holding steady at 04/30/00 and was told it's not going to happen. Since this is the case, I'll give it a date of 5/10/00 and we'll all hope for the best.

My question remains: how could they have ever dreamed that this game could have been done in December?

Counterstrike to be part of HL upgrade -- 4:47 pm CST, Update by The Master

The next Half-Life upgrade is going to include version 1.0 of the popular Counterstrike mod. Here's the press release (courtesy of Stomped).

I've played around with CS a bit-it looks very cool. We also run a Counterstrike mod on our game server.

CliffyB Interview -- 10:51 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Epic's own Cliff Bleszinski has been interviewed by none other than Jeff K.! It is not only the first interview I've ever wet myself whilst reading (spilled coffee on my lap), but it also includes several never-before-seen pictures of the Cliffster himself!

Blah -- 10:05 am CST, Update by The Master

Here's my daily history update :-)

• 1861: The American Civil War begins with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumpter, South Carolina.
• 1945: Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies at age 63.
• 1955: The Salk vaccine for Polio is declared safe and effective.
• 1961: Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first man to fly into space, making one orbit of the planet Earth.
• 1981: Space Shuttle Columbia, the first of 5 US Space Shuttles is launched.

IBM's new MRAM -- 9:59 am CST, Update by The Master

Wired has posted an article entitled "Instant Access Memory", which discusses Stuart Parkin's research into "MRAM", which is a new nonvolatile memory based on magnetic rather than electronic switching technology. Interesting ramifications for the future if it can be made cheap, fast, and in large MB sizes :-). Thanks "The Gift" for the tip.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

Fear and Loathing on the Internet -- 10:12 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Last week Wraith was kind enough to write up a Force Commander review as well as a commentary on game exploits for us. This week, he's become a full-fledged Haus staff member with the official beginning of his column "Fear and Loathing on the Internet" (with the obvious tip of the hat to Hunter S. Thompson). Today's exciting episode is entitled Just 'Cause You're Not Paranoid . . . dealing with encryption and the recent EverQuest fiasco (story). Welcome aboard, Wraith!

BitBoys? Not Until 2001 -- 2:23 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Voodoo Extreme got the news that BitBoys is pushing the release of their graphics chip back to 2001. The reason for the delay? They want to add a transform and lighting engine. OK, who in the world is feeding them the capital to do all this? They've promised the moon and haven't delivered a thing! Ever! I recommend that any future investors take their money and flush it directly down the toilet instead.

Update! Something Awful brings this report from a press conference with the BitBoys CEO! Check it out!

Q3A Jailbreak Beta Review -- 1:58 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Hey kids! More content from your friends at The Haus! I wrote a review of the recently released beta Jailbreak mod for Quake III Arena. The mod is a lot of fun, but some of the maps could use some work. You can find this and all our reviews on our reviews page.

Todd Hollenshead .plan update -- 12:47 pm CST, Update by The Master

Todd Hollenshead of id updated his .plan with a comment on the New York Times article (story):

From April 8, 2000 New York Times article "Rampage Killers: A Statistical Portrait" by Ford Fessenden:

They [the killers] are not racists or Satanists or addicited to violent video games, movies or music.

It's amazing how the tides of media coverage can turn so quickly when they quit focusing on the hype and hysteria and instead scrutinize the facts.

My question is: why should the media care about facts? Heck-they can publish almost anything and be legally protected because of their "reasonable effort to inform the public." Yeah, sure.

Blah -- 8:45 am CST, Update by The Master

Okay, since I'm a history buff, and I think this stuff is interesting, here's some "highlights" for today in history:

• 1814: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates as emporor of France, and is banished to Elba.
• 1945: American soldiers liberate Buchenwald, one of the most notorious concentration camps in Germany.
• 1970: Apollo 13 blasts off on it's ill-fated mission to the moon.

Help for Aspiring Map Editors -- 8:41 am CST, Update by The Master

Paul Jaquays updated his .plan with some information for aspiring map editors and other game artists playing with the Q3A tools and engine:

...I know there's a lot of people who must be downloading our editing tools and then getting frustrated because they can't get them to work right. Not surprising. A day rarely goes by in which a newcomer to the forum needs to have a basic question or two answered. If you're just getting started in Quake III map making or you're finding that the on-line tutorials aren't providing the specific answers that you need to know, drop in to Editing Forum. Questions get answered and there's usually a lot of great discussion about map making. Sometimes questions are answered by the last mapper who asked the same question. But there are some serious experts in the science and art of mapping, shader programming, texture creation and tool making who hang out on the forum too.
...
Quake3World Level Editing Forum

While I'm at it, I should mention that the Q3Radiant editing tools are also available from Quake3World, as are several versions of the Q3Radiant manual, Eutectic's .def file for Q3Radiant entities, the missing textures files and the clean shaders files for the original id shader scripts and lots of links to level editing resources.

S3 Sells Video to Via -- 8:31 am CST, Update by The Master

According to Yahoo! Finance, S3 sells graphics chip business to Taiwan's Via Tech for approximately $323 million. Wow. Via is trying very hard to become the next Intel. You go :-)

Past Two Days' News

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