Tuesday, May 23, 2000

ToddH Interview -- 11:07 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

AllGames.com has posted a RealVideo interview with id Software CEO, Todd Hollenshead. They also have some in-game footage from the upcoming Quake III: Team Arena expansion pack. Here are the links:

• Toddh Interview: [low bandwidth] [high bandwidth]
• Q3:TA Gameplay: [low bandwidth] [high bandwidth]
• Q3:TA Kamikaze powerup: [low bandwidth] [high bandwidth]

Thanks Blue. I know this was posted on Blue's quite a while ago, but I wanted to see them before I posted about them. Either my 56K has been flaky or AllGames servers are flaky (or both). Either way, I don't think modem users will get much out of the Q3:TA Gameplay clip. The window is so small and so filled with compression artifacts it makes it very difficult to tell what is going on.

5.22 Detonator Benchmarks -- 6:14 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Harvey Meeker at Evil Avatar's site ran some Q3A benchmarks with the recently leaked 5.22 drivers on his GeForce DDR. The drivers are faster in general plus they provide a 10-15% boost in OpenGL with full scene antialiasing. Pretty cool. I may try these out on my TNT and see how it goes.

RA3: Code Complete -- 2:24 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

crt announced on the Rocket Arena 3 website that the code for the Quake III Arena mod has gone code-complete, meaning that all the features are implemented. Bug fixes are all that are left. The content (maps, music) still has to be finished, but it is close to going beta. I can't wait for this mod. Judging from how much I liked TOW Arena for Shogo and the brief bit I got to play Rocket Arena for Unreal Tournament, I should REALLY like the Q3A version. Thanks Shugashack.

Start Prayin' . . . -- 10:20 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Daikatana is scheduled to show up in stores tomorrow. The end is near!

UPDATE! Redwood is saying that the game could be in stores today! Wait a minute. Is that the moon turning to blood?

UPDATE #2! (Please, make it stop!) None other than Blue was able to pick up a copy of the game today. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

3dfx Cranks Up the Propaganda Machine -- 10:15 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In a desperate attempt to hit the fact that their Voodoo5 cards are over half a year late and are only now getting 32 bit color, 3dfx Gamers has posted an article called T&L: Technology for Today or Tomorrow? I find it rather ironic that 3dfx seems incapable of promoting its own product so it must instead tear down NVIDIA's (not that NVIDIA hasn't been guilty of this either). The simple facts are these: benchmarks are proving the GeForce2 GTS is faster with TODAY's games than the V5-5500. The V5-6000 is still a ways off and will cost twice as much as a GeForce2. Since the V5s don't have T&L, you are buying a card that will be obsolete even faster. Some of us can't afford to spend $300 every six months on a new video card.

A note to 3dfx and NVIDIA marketing monkeys: the mudslinging and name-calling isn't impressing anyone. I am sick to death of hearing grown men who are supposed to be promoting their products acting like a bunch of juvenile delinquents everytime someone mentions the competitors products. Promote your product, then shut up. Thank you.

Thanks Shugashack.

History today -- 12:23 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1430: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians, who sell her to the English.
• 1701: Captain William Kidd is hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and murder.
• 1788: South Carolina ratified the US constitution (the 8th state to do so).
• 1915: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
• 1934: Bank Robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot to death in a police ambush.
• 1937: John D. Rockefeller dies.
• 1945: Heinrich Himmler commits suicide while imprisoned in Luneburg, Germany.
• 1960: Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

Monday, May 22, 2000

3dfx Ships V5-5500s -- 9:33 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Believe it or don't, according to this press release, 3dfx has begun shipment of their new Voodoo5-5500 for the expected release date of May 26 (this Friday for the calendarically challenged). Most of the press release is quotes from gaming or hardware webmasters with made-up titles. Too bad they didn't ask me. I could call myself A.T. Hun, Vice-Pope and Patron Saint of The Haus. It would have been great.

J.t.Qbe comments: No one would have believed it. Everyone knows that the Vice-Pope's name is Eric.

OpFor CTF Screenies -- 7:54 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Jeh from XtremeNetwork emailed to tell us that they have posted some screenshots from Opposing Force CTF which will be released with the next Half-Life patch. CTF is good, check it out.

UT 420 Patch Released -- 6:36 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Epic has released the 420 patch for Unreal Tournament. Here's a list of the fixes/changes/whatever:

Version 420 is completely network compatible with all previous public releases of UT (versions 400, 402, 405b, and 413).

Bug fixes
- fixed actorlinecheck() crash
- fixed findrandomdest()
- fixed D3D driver - combined best performance with widest compatibility of previous iterations, improved Voodoo 4 D3D support
- fixed installer problem with certain directory structures
- fixed security holes with ServerRestartGame() SwitchLevel() and SwitchCoopLevel()
- removed ability to use bad skins
- fixed ADDINI for editing .ini files for patch and umod installation

New features (thanks to Legend)
- New editor! - note that the editor is still called unrealed.exe
- various other under the covers features and fixes merged in by Mark Poesch of Legend

You can snag the patch (Win32 only, 6.1M) from Stomped, Blue's News, Shugashack, or the mirrors that are FilePlanet.

PHP 4.0 Final Released -- 3:05 pm CST, Update by The Master

Zeev Suraski of Zend has announced the release of PHP 4.0. Check it:

After over one and a half years of development, PHP 4.0.0 has finally been released. The amount of improvements is so huge that there's no chance I'll even remember a fragment of them. Suffice to say that it's definitely worth the upgrade!

http://www.php.net/

How Much SoF is Q2? -- 12:36 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Keith Fuller, Raven Software programmer, answers the musical question how much of the Quake II engine remains in Soldier of Fortune? It's an interesting read if you want to get "behind" the game a little bit. Thanks Blue.

5.22 Detonators -- 9:08 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

OK, so I wanted to post this about two days ago. Oh well. The latest NVIDIA Win9x Detonator drivers (v5.22) have been leaked to the Net. You can get them from 3D Chipset or, as always, Reactor Critical. The big feature of these new drivers is that they enable full-scene antialiasing in Direct3D if you have a GeForce--but with a HUGE framerate hit.

History today -- 8:28 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1761: First US life insurance policy issued.
• 1819: The first steam powered transatlantic crossing to be attempted was begun by the Savannah, out of Savannah, GA. She made the crossing to Liverpool, England, in 29 days.
• 1868: "The Great Train Robbery," $96,000 was stolen by the Reno Gang.
• 1900: The Associated Press was incorporated in New York, as a non-profit news cooperative.
• 1939: Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign the "Pact of Steel", committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance.
• 1947: The Truman Doctrine was enacted by Congress to supply military/economic aid for Greece and Turkey.
• 1969: Apollo 10's Lunar Module flew to within 10 miles of the moon's surface in a rehersal run for Apollo 11's landing.
• 1972: Ceylon, a British colony, becomes the independent republic of Sri Lanka.
• 1990: North and South Yemen merge to become the Republic of Yemen.
• 1992: Johnny Carson retires from NBC's "The Tonight Show", after 30 years. Ed Note: I still miss Carson-I used to watch him all the time.

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