Friday, December 15, 2000

Serious Sam Multiplayer Demo released -- 10:03 pm CST, Update by The Master

Croteam has released the Serious Sam Multiplayer Demo via FilePlanet. The demo is a 71.8 mb download, so pack that lunch thingie.

3fdx Assets Sold to NVIDIA -- 5:00 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

3dfx has issued a press release saying that they are in the process of selling most of the company's assets, including the names "3dfx" and "Voodoo", to NVIDIA for $112 million ($70 million in cash and a million shares of NVIDIA stock). As of the end of the third quarter of this year, 3dfx has lost nearly $300 million. Their stock is currently at $1.78 per share. The Master and I figured that something like this was inevitable (story #1 and story #2), but it is still a shock that the company that really put 3D graphics on the proverbial map no longer exists. Here's a quote from the press release:

"After aggressively pursuing a wide range of options that take into consideration the interests of our creditors, our shareholders, our employees and our customers," said Alex Leupp, president and CEO, 3dfx Interactive Inc., "we strongly believe that to reduce expenses, sell our assets and dissolve the company provides the highest return to our creditors, shareholders, and employees."

"We expect that the combined technologies of 3dfx and NVIDIA will continue the legacy that 3dfx began in 1994, " Leupp continued. "NVIDIA is the number one supplier of graphics technology to the OEM market. With the addition of 3dfx's high-quality technology that leads the retail market, we believe the combination of the two will result in even greater PC graphics leadership."

The really scary thing is that, by acquiring 3dfx and therefore also Gigapixel, NVIDIA now will have every major 3D graphics patent known to man. Since ATi and Matrox haven't exactly proven that they can remain competitive, I wonder what will happen now with no one to push NVIDIA and keep them honest. Thanks sCary for the surprising news.

UPDATE! VoodooExtreme also got their hands on a farewell letter from 3dfx founder and CTO, Scott Sellers. They also linked to a FAQ on NVIDIA's site, explaining why they are buying 3dfx' assets.

This transaction includes, but is not limited to, all the patents, pending patent applications, trademarks, brand names and chip inventory related to the graphics processor business of 3dfx. Additionally, upon closing, the lawsuits between the two companies will be dropped.

The patents and the dropped lawsuits are more than worth $112 million.

Q3:TA Info -- 3:52 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

PlanetQuake posted a huge guide to Quake III: Team Arena as well as an interview with id's Paul Jaquays on the new terrain maps in Q3:TA. Now that it's out in stores I really want to rush out and get it. I have to hold off though, since Santa might have it for me next week.

I saw in the guide that the "Fritzkrieg" model that Paul Steed showed off many moons ago is included in Q3:TA. Guess what model I'll be using :)

RAMBUS-BitBoys Merger -- 11:51 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

RAMBUS and BitBoys have announced their merger which they feel will help them continue to deliver whatever it is that they do. And, naturally, since I saw this on Something Awful, you know it HAS to be true!

Ask Hook -- 10:20 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

VoodooExtreme updated their Ask (Brian) Hook column with user's questions about breaking into the industry (stop me if you've heard that one before) and online cheating (in games, not on your spouse).

Updated Q3A Mods -- 10:10 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

As I expected, a number of teams have released updated versions of their mods that are compatible with the recently-released Quake III Arena 1.27g patch. Here's the mods and any other changes that were made other than 1.27g compatibility:

• Rocket Arena 1.4 beta contains several bug fixes and a built-in IRC client.
• Requiem 1.0 fixes bugs, adds server-side options, and includes an optional experience mode.
• QPong 1.5 adds configuration options and, naturally, fixes a bunch of bugs.
  
  
• Riot Beta 4 adds new models and some server-side cvars. Riot is a mod started by our very own Wraith, which hopes to bring Shogo-esque gameplay to Q3A.

Thanks Blue for the first three.

ToddH .plan Update -- 9:57 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Todd Hollenshead updated his .plan with news on the Quake III: Team Arena release and a Commander Keen teaser:

To pile on the Keen renaissance (with a nod to 3DR, Blues, etc.): look for upcoming *new* Keen news in the not too distant future. That's all I will say for now.

Also, TA should be on shelves today! W00t! We're going to be running a bunch of servers at id and I already put up a Terrain server last night. Have fun.

Thursday, December 14, 2000

A Look Back at Commander Keen -- 11:59 pm CST, Update by The Master

3dRealms put up an article on the making of the Commander Keen series entitled "A Look Back at Commander Keen". This is a great article, giving an interesting look back at id's first games.

In addition, today was the 10th anniversary of the release of Commander Keen as shareware.

Duffy on the Q3:TA Code -- 11:34 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Robert Duffy updated his .plan with the status of the Quake III Arena and Quake III: Team Arena source code and the impending release of the new tools.

Q3A 1.27 Patch Tonight! -- 4:11 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Updated 7:52 P.M. The patch is OUT! Check the end of this post for download locations!
Updated 5:30 P.M. It looks like I was right! id's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word that the 1.27 patch for Quake III Arena will be out tonight (for Win32, anyway)! Here's the scoop:

We're planning on releasing the final version of the 1.27 point release today. Barring any last minute problems it should be out early this evening. This release is 100% compatible with Team Arena, and addresses the great feedback we had from the 1.25 beta releases and Team Arena testing. The physics in the point release (and Team Arena) are exactly the same as 1.17. More details will be forthcoming, we just wanted you all to have a headsup to be prepared!

I released a test version of the Macintosh build of the Team Arena demo to a few volunteer testers last night, and will continue to work with them on getting both the point release and Team Arena finalized. I'll probably seed another test version out there tonight based on the first round of feedback I got today. The first respones on this test version have been extremely positive.

Loki has been busy working on the Linux build, and this is also up and running. We can expect to see binaries posted from this "shortly".

Naturally, we will provide links to the patch as soon as they are announced.

• Blues: FTP 17.8 MB
• id Software: FTP
• 3dGamers: HTTP
• 3dDownloads: HTTP
• Q3Arena: HTTP

The End Is Near -- 2:47 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

OK, maybe that's a little melodramatic, but it's close. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has unanimously approved the merger of AOL and Time-Warner. I don't think you have to be Nostradamus to realize that this is a decision that the FTC will rue one day. Thanks Slashdot.

New Winamp 2.71 -- 12:16 pm CST, Update by The Master

Nullsoft has put a new version of Winamp online, this one being 2.71. There's a whole slew of bug fixes and some AVS improvements for those that like the visualization stuff in Winamp.

A.T. Hun comments: This one GPFs on me as soon as I try to play an MP3, just like 2.70 did. Guess it's back to 2.64 (again).

Past Two Days' News

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