Monday, July 10, 2000

The Meaning of Life -- 5:20 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Nope, I'm not going to wax philosophical. A new Software Etc. opened near me so I naturally had to check it out. In the bargain bin they had Monty Python's The Meaning of Life by the former 7th Level for $9.99. If you are a Python fan (especially a fan on the movie The Meaning of Life), this game is worth a pick-up. Having said that, I hear that there are some catastrophic bugs towards the end of the game, which can be avoided by checking out the FAQ at Game FAQs. As with all Python material, this is not for the easily offended or sane.

STV: Elite Force Demo -- 4:37 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I just finished playing through the single-player portion of the Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force demo. It was a lot of fun and played well on my system. I think it would have been even MORE fun if I had ever seen a complete episode of Star Trek: Voyager. My feeling is that if you are a big Voyager fan then you should definitely try the demo. If you aren't a Trekkie (or not a Voyager Trekkie), I think you should download it anyway. If STV:EF is any indication, the future is VERY bright for Q3A-engine games.

KISS Demo Plans -- 12:44 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Third Law Interactive's Jonathan Wright updated his .plan with word that there will be a KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child (what's up with these mile-long game names?) demo before the product hits shelves. I must admit that I am interested to find out how the new LithTech runs on my system.

Jason Hall Interview -- 12:39 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Junk Extreme has an interview with Monolith CEO, Jason Hall. Most interesting is his lengthy diatribe on the problems in Blood 2 and why they weren't fixed (summary: blame GT Interactive). That, of course, doesn't explain why they never bothered to fix Shogo which was their baby in every respect. Thanks Blue.

No, I don't know what "Junk Extreme" is either.

Sunday, July 9, 2000

KISS: Psycho Circus gold -- 10:29 pm CST, Update by The Master

This totally surprises me-Third Law, the folks who escaped Ion and John Romero's Diakatana have released their first game, KISS: Psycho Circus. Amazing, a new startup, with a completely different game engine than they were used to, have cranked out a game from ground up in a fourth the time Romero has. I am stunned :-)

8M Palm Problem? Blame Micron. -- 7:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

According to this ZDNet-Asia article the company behind the bad 8M DRAM chips on PalmOS-based computers is *drum roll* Micron!

Palm informed users of the availability of the test and patch last week when component supplier Micron Technology Inc. reported faulty 8MB DRAM controllers on the Palm IIIc, IIIxe and Palm Vx models shipped between October 1999 and May 2000.

According to messages I've read on Usenet, the problem isn't with one lot of the chips, it's a fundamental design flaw. I've also read that people have successfully convinced Palm and Handspring to replace their devices. I'm going to wait and see the effects of the patch (apparently it just involves forcing the DRAM to use a different kind of refresh cycle when the device is off). If the patch adversely affects performance or battery life, Handspring's going to get a call from me.

NVIDIA .94 Linux Drivers -- 5:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

NVIDIA has released tarballs of their new .94 XFree86 4 Linux drivers through their support IRC channel. Expect RPMs to show up on their site tomorrow. Here's a list of the changes:

• Add support for XFree86 4.0.1
• Fix modesetting problem
• Add AGPGART support (nvagpgart v. 0.5-5)
• Add GeForce2 MX support
• fixed various hangs
• Added FSAA support
• fixed problem where an opengl app dying during a console switch would kill the X Server

You can get the GLX driver for XFree86 4.0.0 here, the GLX driver for XFree86 4.0.1 here, and the kernel module here. Personally, I'm going to wait for the RPMs. Thanks Linux Games.

Past Two Days' News

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