Sunday, April 23, 2000

Daikatana Tip -- 3:36 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Under "Video" set Brightness to 100% and Intensity to around 5. That will make the game bright enough so you can see things. Season to taste. :)

PKZip Creator, Dead at 37 -- 12:01 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Philip Katz, the "PK" in PKZip, died in a motel room on April 14. He was 37. His death was a result of apparent chronic alcoholism. What a senseless waste.

I remember when PKZip first came out and how much better it was that all the other (ARC, ARJ, LZH, etc.) compression programs out there--which is a HUGE thing when you are using 2400 baud modems.

J.t.Qbe comments: Other than MS-DOS, I don't think I used any other software more than PK(un)Zip throughout the late '80s/early '90s. It was a great time saver when I had the old 1200 and 2400 baud modems.

I remember one summer day in '92 or '93, driving the back roads from Mequon to Grafton. I came up behind a sporty red car (Corvette maybe?) with a vanity plate which said "PKWARE". . .

Romero .plan Update -- 11:51 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

His hirsuteness, John Romero, the man behind Daikatana, updated his .plan with some help for people havign difficulty with the Daikatana demo. Since it's going to be a slow day, I'll Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V the whole thing.

There have been a few technical issues with the demo that you can fix or workaround with the following information:

(Q1) Multiplayer is laggy or extremely choppy.

(A1) The server should have its CONNECT RATE turned up to T1/LAN (in the Multiplayer Menu). Make sure your client connect rate is turned up as well.

(Q2) Daikatana doesn't work with a Voodoo2.

(A2) There are two fixes for this: (1) edit your config file (in the DATA subdirectory) and change "opengl32" to "3dfxgl" or "3dfxvgl", (2) download and install the miniGL driver from http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?PAGE=V2drivers

(Q3) Running the DKDEMO.EXE on Windows 2000 gives you an error (Insert Disk 1)

(A3) Use WINZIP to extract the DKDEMO.EXE file, then run the SETUP.EXE program to install the demo

(Q4) The game pauses for a long time when you're playing multiplayer (seems like a lockup)

(A4) This is a bug in the demo only that occurs when you are attempting to connect to the Catacomb level (Greek time period). Just wait 20 seconds and you'll connect.

(Q5) The game is too dark

(A5) Check out the README.TXT file, it has some useful tips.

So far, these cover 99% of the problems that people are having. I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has been emailing me their raves and congrats -- thanks a lot, you guys make it all worth it.

Telefragged Daikatana Demo Review -- 12:00 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Telefragged has slapped up a review of the Daikatana demo. This review is far more generous than Evil Avatar's was, but the author still has his justifiable complaints. Here's a smidge:

When you start off in the demo, you're in a swap/marsh area running around trying to find a way into a fortress. The level takes place in the future. How do I know? Well, there are mechanical animals that attack you. Apparently, in the future, people will create mechanical animals that attack people on sight. They won't even be big animals. They'll be little mosquitos (that oddly sound like the flies from Quake II) and little poisonous frogs. The fact that you have to fight stupid, annoying animals (that don't even scare you, like the headcrabs in Half-Life) made me hate the game right from the start. In the other levels, there aren't annoying little monsters like the frogs or mosquitos except a spider here or there. I'll be pretty mad if in the retail version, you're forced to fight crappy little monsters 90% of the time.

I made it through the first level (haven't had much of a chance to play today). Let's just say I was VERY eager for that level to be over. Thanks VoodooExtreme.

Saturday, April 22, 2000

Evil Avatar Reviews the Daikatana Demo -- 10:17 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Evil Avatar beat most everyone to the punch with a full review of the Daikatana Demo. To put it mildly, he is not pleased. At all. Here's a snip from the beginning of his review:

"We waited four years for this?"

After a somewhat tumultuous beginning the demo version of Daikatana is finally available and gamers get their first real taste of John Romero's pet project. From their less than humble beginnings with "John Romero Will Make You His Bitch" to the total humiliation of having almost the entire Daikatana team walk out on him, it has been a long hard road.

Sadly, the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be the headlamp of an oncoming train.

I haven't had an opportunity to play all the way through the demo. I've played the first part of the first level and, to be honest, I really have very little impetus to finish the demo. I'm kind of forcing myself to have fun.

When I downloaded the Soldier of Fortune demo, I wanted to keep playing to see what was coming next. With Daikatana (where the first level is very dark, very green, and you are attack by, um, robot frogs and dragonflys/mosquitos/something) I really don't have that urge. But I will give it a fair shake and probably try to play online before I pass final judgment. Stay tuned.

Past Two Days' News

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