Thursday, June 1, 2000

Developers Respond to DOOM News -- 7:30 pm CST, Update by The Master

Stomped has a whole bunch of interviews with the game developer community responding to John Carmack's announcement of id's new DOOM project (story). Interesting read-highly recommended.

A.T. Hun comments: Did anyone beside me find it rather bizarre that they were asking other gaming companies what they thought of Carmack's announcement? "Nevermind your product, what do you think of id's?"

Sony aquires Verant -- 2:56 pm CST, Update by The Master

According to Well-Rounded Entertainment, Sony has aquired Verant, maker of the online RPG Everquest, and upcoming title Star Wars Online (yummy). And another one bites the dust . . .

OK, Another Daikatana Review -- 11:07 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I know, I promised no more Daikatana reviews. I'm so weak. Anyway, I read Gamecenter's review and found it to be entertaining. They give the game a 3 (out of 10) but that's not the reason I mention it. Some of the comments are priceless. Regarding the opening story:

For whatever reason, they [ninja assassins, naturally] spare your life, and you, of course, seek revenge for the death of a man you've known for five minutes. Or something.

Right after that one, there's also an obligatory Rocky Horror Picture Show quote. Of course, now I'm going to have that song going through my head all day.

id is making DOOM! Steed Fired! -- 8:20 am CST, Update by The Master

Big news today in John Carmack's .plan update including word that their next game will be a DOOM remake, and that Paul Steed was fired as a result of company figting over whether DOOM was the next game or not. Read the .plan for the full scoop, it's huge.

It wasn't planned to announce this soon, but here it is: We are working on a new DOOM game, focusing on the single player game experience, and using brand new technology in almost every aspect of it. That is all we are prepared to say about the game for quite some time, so don't push for interviews. We will talk about it when things are actually built, to avoid giving misleading comments.

It went smoother than expected, but the other shoe dropped yesterday.

Kevin and Adrian fired Paul Steed in retaliation, over my opposition.

Paul has certainly done things in the past that could be grounds for dismissal, but this was retaliatory for him being among the "conspirators".

Update: There's a comment on Slashdot from David "Zoid" Kirsch on the Doom announcement. Good read, with comments on what is needed to make a new DOOM fly, and some sorrow at missing out on the fun and on Steed's firing.

A.T. Hun comments: I don't think I'll be guilty of too much hyperbole if I say that this is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, gaming story of 2000. Sounds like things aren't very happy in id-land. A Doom remake is something that most every fps fan has been looking forward too. I sure hope they can pull it off.

History today -- 8:18 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1792: Kentucky became the 15th state in the Union.
• 1796: Tennessee became the 16th state in the Union.
• 1880: The first US public telephone box went into service. It was installed by the Connecticut Telephone Co. in their office at Yale Bank Building in New Haven.
• 1941: British forces were withdrawn from Crete with heavy losses. Almost 3,000 Australians were also lost in the evacuation.
• 1943: A civilian flight from Lisbon to London was shot down by the Germans during World War II, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.
• 1958: Charles de Gaulle became Premier of France.
• 1980: CNN made its debut.
• 1996: Ukraine became a nuclear weapons-free nation with the transfer of the last of its warheads to Russia.

Wednesday, May 31, 2000

NVIDIA Detonator 2 Drivers -- 9:09 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Believe it or not, NVIDIA has actually posted new reference drivers on their site! Dubbed the Detonator 2, these drivers are supposed to improve OpenGL and D3D performance, enable anti-aliasing, and fully support the new GeForce 2 GTS. These drivers are for NVIDIA's full range of products (except the Riva 128) from the TNT through the aforementioned GeForce 2 on Win9x, WinNT, and Win2K. The version number is 5.22 so they may be the same as the recently leaked drivers of the same number.

UPDATE! I checked the archive and the only difference between these drivers and the leaked 5.22s (at least as far as I can tell from file size and date stamp) is that the Nvagp.inf file is about 10K smaller. Not sure what difference that would make. I'll probably install them because I enjoy causing myself pain.

New ICQ -- 6:39 pm CST, Update by The Master

There's a new ICQ 2000a Beta v.4.31 build #3143 available for download. According to the latest updates summary, this version features better communications and more firewall options. Heh-whatever that means.

Evil Avatar Daikatana Review -- 12:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Well folks, I promised myself I wouldn't post all kinds of Daikatana reviews since most of them are either simply beating a dead horse or appear to have been written by Mrs. Johnson's third-grade English class. Nonetheless, I present you (drum roll please) the only Daikatana review to which I will link, Evil Avatar's. He had the intestinal fortitude to make it through the whole game, for which I salute him. Check out his review so he'll at least make some money from ad banner hits while he recovers at the Shady Acres Psychiatric Hospital.

Ask Sweeney -- 9:45 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

More Q&A goodness with Epic's Tim Sweeney at Voodoo Extreme! As always, the topics are rather technical for the most part. This isn't the article for you if all you read on the 'Net are articles about the booth babes at E3.

J.t.Qbe comments: Why can't we have both: technical topics and booth babes? Can't we all just get along?

The Master comments: Wow. Excellent read for those interested in the technical side of game programming. Must read. Now I'll scrape my brain up quick-that first answer blew it to ribbons.

History today -- 9:06 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1819: Walt Whitman is born in West Hill, NY.
• 1859: Big Ben, at the Houses of Parliament in London, began telling the time.
• 1889: Over 2,000 perish when a dam breaks in Johnstown, PA.
• 1910: The Union of South Africa is founded.
• 1911: The White Star liner Titanic, the largest passenger vessel at that time, was launched. It sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912.
• 1913: The 17th Ammendment to the US Constitution, which provides for the popular election of Senators, is declared in effect.
• 1961: South Africa becomes an independent Republic.
• 1962: Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel for his role in the Holocaust.
• 1970: Tens of thousands die in Peru earthquake.
• 1977: The Trans-Alaska oil pipeline is completed.
• 1994: The United States announces it was no longer aiming ICBMs at targets in the former Soviet Union (it would take about 3 minutes to rectify this, so this is a moot point in reality-but politically it's a big deal(tm)).

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