Wednesday, May 24, 2000

Daikatana Patching -- 8:50 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

ION Storm took the muzzle off Noel Stephens who updated his .plan with news of ION's plans to patch Daikatana. No timetable was given. There haven't been many reviews of the full game posted yet, so I don't know what problems users might be experiencing.

I checked when I was at Best Buy today (no affiliation, yadda yadda, I was just buying a Handspring Visor PDA) to see if they had Daikatana yet. No such luck. They'd have to have it awfully cheap (and I'd have to read some awfully good reviews) before I'd plunk down some cash for it.

3dfx V5-5500 AGP Delays -- 8:39 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

3dfx has announced that they are delaying the release of their Voodoo5-5500 AGP video cards. There isn't a specific reason given other than "field failure rates at very low levels in certain configurations." Sounds like they may be experiencing some of the same problems that NVIDIA has with the GeForce. They hope to keep the delay to 7-14 days. Thanks Blue's News.

Zappy's Mod for Q3A -- 10:28 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I tend to prefer mods that are simple and straightforward. Zappy's is just that. It's a Quake III Arena rocket and railgun instagib mod with a twist. The rockets automatically lock on to their target, but can be shot down. If you get an "excellent" you get magnetic grenades which are an absolute riot. If you are playing rocket instagib, the railgun transports your target. If you are playing railgun instagib, the rockets transport your target. Very simple, very cool. Check out Zappy's mod page then download the mod! You need to have the 1.17 patch installed to play.

History today -- 8:45 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1830: First passenger railroad service in US opens between Baltimore and Elliot's Mills, MD.
• 1844: Samual Morse transmits the message "What hath God wrought!", opening America's first telegraph line, which was ran from Washington to Baltimore.
• 1881: Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sinks near London, Ontario, taking 200 passengers to their deaths.
• 1883: The Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic.
• 1935: The first Major League Baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinatti's Crosley Field. The Reds beat the Phillies 2-1.
• 1941: The British Battlecruiser Hood is blown up by the German battleship Bismarck.
• 1962: Astronaut Scott Carpenter becomes the second American to orbit the Earth aboard the Aurora 7.
• 1976: Britain and France open transatlantic Concorde service to New York.
• 1980: Iran rejects a call by the World Court to release the American Embassy hostages.

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.

Past Two Days' News

The Haus is powered by:

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).