Thursday, November 4, 1999

GameShopper -- 10:13 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

CNet has started a new service similar to their popular Shopper.com called GameShopper.com. You can search for any title on any system and find out who has the lowest price on the web. It is a very cool and very convenient way to find games on the cheap. Highly recommended.

Daikatana Chat Tonight -- 5:33 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I saw this blurb on Voodoo Extreme:

Don't forget to join us this evening at 8 PM (CST) for the latest in a special Daikatana chat series. Tonight, we'll be focusing on Daikatana's programmers. Lead Coder Shawn Green, AI Ninja Noel Stephens and others from the team will be on-hand to answer your questions.

To join in the fun, simply enter the ION Chat Lobby or point your IRC browser to www.ionstorm.com, room #ion. See you there.

If Daikatana lives up to the hype, it should be rather cool (with relatively modest system requirements to boot!).

New Q3 Screenshots -- 2:31 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

sCary has posted four new Quake III Arena screenshots he obtained from a German magazine (they are screenshots though, not scans of magazine pages). Here are the links: shot 1, shot 2, shot 3, and shot 4. Of particular interest (to me anyway) is shot 2, which shows off a new model, I believe called "Tank Jr." or something. I also like the "skating chick's" jump animation. Pretty slick.

New Tips and Tricks -- 11:22 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I added a couple of new Tips and Tricks today. They are: Turn on "Hidden" Options (VSync, etc.) with NVIDIA Drivers, and Overclocking with the NVIDIA 3.53 Drivers.

We're going to be using the Tips and Tricks section as a repository of cool, yet difficult to find, information we have gleaned from the web. Right now, all of it focuses on NVIDIA driver issues. It's not that we hate 3dfx or S3 or anything, it's just that The Master and I both have TNTs, so this is the information we need!

In the coming days I will also be adding some cool tips that I've found and used for Unreal Tournament and Q3Test. Stay tuned!

Wednesday, November 3, 1999

DVD Cracked -- 11:59 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Slashdot also pointed me to this article in Wired telling how some folks were able to crack the supposedly uncrackable DVD encryption format. Here's a hit:

Essentially, the two European hackers who developed the DeCSS utility that copies a DVD movie disc were able to break the code because one of the product's licensees inadvertently neglected to encrypt the decryption key.

Can you say, "Oops"? I knew you could! I do not condone pirating movies, but I have to say that I love nothing more that watching the billionaire entertainment moguls sweat. The you-know-what is REALLY going to hit the fan over this one.

The Master comments: And it's REALLY stupid to claim anything is un-(word here). Examples? The UNSINKABLE Titanic (tho the builders never said that-the press did) the UNBREAKABLE RC5 encryption. UNCRACKABLE NT servers (Hell, how about SECURE NT servers? ;-). Etc. Un-anything only stands until somebody works hard enough to drop it in it's tracks :-)

Packard Bell RIP? -- 11:53 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I saw on Slashdot that Packard Bell USA will be laying off 80% of its workforce. They cite this CNet article which also added:

Packard Bell PCs will continue to be marketed under that brand in Europe, "but you will be hard pressed to find a Packard Bell PC in the U.S." next year, he [Ron Fuchs, Packard Bell spokesman] said.

I don't like the idea of people losing their jobs. But as far as Packard Bell computers go: Goodbye to bad rubbish.

The Master comments: I second those sentiments :-)

Slave Zero -- 9:52 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Blue is reporting that Accolade's third-person big ol' robot game, Slave Zero, has gone gold. I may have to check this one out, since I liked the giant mecha trudging through town aspect of Shogo so much.

NHL2000 update -- 8:30 am CST, Update by The Master

According to Blue, EA has posted an NHL2000 update in their FTP site. I'm sure A.T. will let everyone know what's in it after he downloads it :-)

A.T. Adds: Yep, I'm downloading it now. The patch is basically the same as the previous patch, except that it also fixes the crowd chants for Calgary and Carolina and fixes a bug that caused the player and goalie boost sliders to reset to the global settings in the season, tournament, or playoff modes.

Unfortunately they didn't make a smaller patch for those who downloaded the first patch. You have to download the whole thing over again. Fortunately it is only about four megs. If you can't get through to EA, you can also download the patch from NHL 2000 Online.

John Carmack .plan update -- 8:26 am CST, Update by The Master

Yet another .plan update from the mighty and powerful John Carmack :-). That damn CD check is back. Suck. Otherwise, more polish. I like the spawn time changes. Make those spawn campers work for it :-)

• cd check in single player
• removed drop shadow on console input line
• swapped mynx pain sounds
• fixed cleared music buffer on track loop again
• force skins on spectators in team games to prevent having a default waste memory
• only defer to a model with same team skin
• fixed grenade-disappearing-at-floor bug when about to explode
• draw reward medals during gameplay
• added "humiliation" feedback for gauntlet kills
• spread respawn times to prevent pattern running:

  #define RESPAWN_ARMOR 25
  #define RESPAWN_TEAM_WEAPON 30
  #define RESPAWN_HEALTH 35
  #define RESPAWN_AMMO 40
  #define RESPAWN_HOLDABLE 60
  #define RESPAWN_MEGAHEALTH 120
  #define RESPAWN_POWERUP 120

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