Friday, June 16, 2000

Bleh -- 11:27 pm CST, Update by The Master

Well, I'll be away from the machine tomorrow, since I get to spend the morning, and possibly the afternoon, upgrading our database server at work. We're adding a half-gig of memory and a bunch of 9gb SCSI RAID1'ed drives to spruce that bad-boy up, along with a UnixWare 7.1 upgrade.

You know, it's amazing. When I work on personal PCs I think of 128mb of memory and 16gb of HD as plenty. When I'm at work I wanna max that machine right to it's theoretical limit. Course, there I have to listen to people complain that the reports aren't running fast enough . . .

J.t.Qbe comments: Heh, you get those complaints too? Gotta love 'em. You thought they were late today, just wait'll tomorrow!

Microsoft Buying Spree? -- 11:21 pm CST, Update by The Master

According to Gamespy, Bungie is to be aquired by Microsoft, with most of Bungie's properties going to Take Two, and the upcoming Halo left to Bungie & MS. The other rumor is that Microsoft is looking to buy Midway to solidify their XBOX plans.

Must be nice to be Microsoft. Want to follow a new strategic direction? Buy an a$$104d of companies and force it to happen. Man.

Thanks Blue.

Exile III for Linux Demo! -- 10:33 pm CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

Since everyone's hawking demos, I'd better fall in line. Spiderweb Software has released the Linux demo of Exile III, the third (duh) in its amazingly popular Exile series of RPGs. Exile is the most popular RPG series for Macs. I played Exile II for Windows and it was a lot of fun. No, it doesn't have flashy 3D graphics or real-time strateqrap action. Instead it has an actual plot, open-ended action, a living and changing world, and lots of classic RPG action. And at a whopping 4.5 megs, you can actually download it within your lifetime. Get the demo here. For all you Windows weasels, get the Win95 demo here.

This is quality stuff. If you like plot and complexity blended with a lot of fun, Spiderweb makes the games for you.

StarLancer Demo Out! -- 10:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Daily Radar posted their exclusive demo of Digital Anvil's StarLancer, the space sim from the folks who brought you the Wing Commander series. It weighs in at 74M so you'll probably need a case or two of Twinkies to tide you over.

The Master comments: Nahhh, you only need one Twinkie. According to Eeyore they last all year...

J.t.Qbe comments: Naah, skip the Twinkies and go for a case of A.T.'s barleywine. You won't CARE how long the download's taking. . .

Deus Ex Demo! -- 8:52 pm CST, Update by The Master

The highly anticipated Deus Ex Demo has been released over on Gamecenter. According to GC, the demo weighs in at an astronomical 139mb, so pack a lunch, dinner, several snacks, and a half-barrel, it's gonna be a LONG download folks.

Mirrors: 3D Action Gamers | Telefragged | FileLeech | Stomped | OneBigVillage

System Recommendation:
Minimum: 300-MHz Pentium II, 64MB of RAM, and a DirectX 7.0a-compliant 3D card.
Recommended: Athlon or Pentium III-based system with 128MB RAM.

Levelord Denies FAKK2 II -- 1:12 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ritual's Levelord updated his .plan to deny the recent rumor that they are already designing a follow-up to Heavy Metal: FAKK2. Here's the whole thing:

...not sure if this is due to internet grapevine gossip, a true misunderstanding, or just a reporter trying to "make" news, ...but we are NOT "already designing the sequel" to FAKK! Stop sending emails! I think we'll see if the first FAKK is worthy of a sequel first, yes? ... ;)

Interview with Rantz Hoseley -- 12:59 pm CST, Update by The Master

Updated: There's a "preview" of Master of Orion 3 over on SciFi Gaming. There isn't a WHOLE lot of new info, but what the heck :-)

In addition, there's an interview with Rantz Hoseley, Art Directory of Quicksilver Software.

Quicksilver is the production house working on Master of Orion 3. If you are interested in MOO3, be sure to check it these articles out.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 11:23 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Congratulations go out to my favorite current Red Wings player, Stevie Yzerman, who won the Selke trophy last night for being the NHL's best defensive forward. It's nice to see Stevie, a great center who has always lived in the shadow of two of the league's all-time greatest players (a couple fellows named Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky), finally getting his due as one of the premier players in NHL history.

Congratulations also go to Detroit's Brendan Shanahan and Nick Lindstrom who joined Yzerman on the NHL's first-team post-season All Star team. Sadly Nick was robbed again of both the Norris (best defensemen) and Lady Byng (gentlemanly play) trophies. Next year . . .

Q3:TA First Look -- 10:23 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The folks at id went to see the folks at Gamespy. The result is this first look at Quake 3: Team Arena. There's nothing really in this article that we haven't heard before, but it does give a nice summary of everything to expect. You'd also think that the editor at Gamespy would know that "I and Hellchick" is a no-no but, hey. Thanks Blue.

New Q3A Requiem Beta pb2 Released -- 9:16 am CST, Update by The Master

There's a new Public Beta #2 of Q3A Requiem over on the Requiem page. Most of the changes are bug fixes, which is a nice indication of an upcoming final release:

• Requiem would sometimes think you'd shot the max # of freezebombs when you hadn't.
• Weapon pickup sound and autoswitch in weaponstay mode weren't reliably working
• You used to be able to spawn a hologram of yourself while spectating others
• The forced-spectator mode and associated joining/spectating others wasn't reliably working.
• Tournament mode wasn't working at all.
• 0.7 didn't work AT ALL on a Macintosh (qvm compilation errors). I have a workaround for this in the code, but am working with ID on a real solution.
• After max freezebombs have been fired, you'll autoswitch weapons as if you were out of ammo.

History today -- 12:15 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland.
• 1858: In a speech in Springfield, Ill., Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
• 1897, The U.S. signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
• 1903: Ford Motor Company was incorporated.
• 1933: The National Industrial Recovery Act became law. (It was later struck down by the Supreme Court.)
• 1955: Pope Pius XII excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron - a ban that was lifted eight years later.
• 1958: Imre Nagy, a former Hungarian premier and symbol of the nation’s 1956 uprising against Soviet rule, was hanged for treason by his country’s Communist authorities.
• 1960: Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" opened in New York.
• 1961: Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris.
• 1963: The world's first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6.
• 1977: Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party since 1964, was elected president of the Supreme Soviet, thereby becoming both head of state and head of government
• 1978: President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.

Thursday, June 15, 2000

Mini GeForce? -- 9:55 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

According to Well-Rounded Entertainment, NIVIDIA is about to release a mainstream version of their GeForce chip. Here's a snip:

nVidia's about to roll out another card. The company, already a favorite of hardcore games with its GeForce and GeForce 2 cards, will court a more mainstream audience later this month. On Wednesday, June 28th, nVidia will introduce a new GPU, with which it hopes to capture a broader user base.

I dunno if it will be like the Vanta or the TNT2 M64, but in general a cheaper card with near-GeForce2 speed would be a Very Good Thing (tMS). Thanks Shugashack.

Big Brother (Mattel) Is Watching You! -- 10:31 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

This Salon article details how a Broderbund/Mattel kids' program, Arthur's Reading Race, also installed a little program without the author's knowledge or consent that runs in the background and sends information to Mattel. The program ran silently and used PGP encryption to scramble its messages back and forth. Mattel claims that its purpose was innocuous but who wants it? And why didn't the installer mention it was installing this program? Slashdot has put out a call for the hackers among us to fire up their debuggers and figure out what information this little program is sending.

To see if you have this little "gem" running in the background, look for a program called DSSAgent . . .

Mozilla M16 Out! -- 10:16 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Mozilla has released Milestone 16 of their open-source browser. You can snag it from their FTP site (there is also a list of mirrors on Mozilla's site). Whilst you are downloading, you may care to peruse the release notes. I'll download this bad boy and give you a update later. Thanks Slashdot.

UPDATE! 11:35 A.M. So far everything seems to be going very nicely with M16. It's been stable so far and seems quite a bit quicker. I'll keep using it over the course of the next few days to see what happens. Definitely worth a download.

Starlancer Demo Tomorrow -- 9:38 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In the "it's about bloody well time" category, Daily Radar is reporting that they will be posting a demo of Starlancer tomorrow night. It's an exclusive to Daily Radar, which means it will be impossible to get until a few mirror sites are set up. I wonder how much the Radar had to pay to get the demo exclusively? I don't understand why developers see fit to do that. Thanks Blue.

History today -- 7:30 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1215: King John put his seal to Magna Carta ("the Great Charter") at Runnymede, England, granting his barons more liberty.
• 1520: Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther unless he recanted his religious beliefs.
• 1752: Benjamin Franklin carried out his famous experiment using a kite to prove that lightning was electricity.
• 1775: The Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington head of the Continental Army.
• 1804: The Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, providing for the electoral college to elect the president and vice-president on separate ballots; it was designed to prevent another instance like the election of 1800 when Thomas Jefferson and his running-mate tied, almost denying Jefferson the presidency.
• 1836: Arkansas became the 25th state.
• 1846: The U.S.-Canadian Border is established.
• 1864: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed an order establishing a military burial ground, which became Arlington National Cemetery. The Battle of Petersburg begins with the Union Army under U.S. Grant attacking Petersburg.
• 1877: Henry Flipper becomes the first African-American graduate of West Point.
• 1904: More than 1,000 people died when fire erupted aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York's East River.
• 1944: American forces began their successful invasion of Saipan during World War II. B-29 Superfortresses made their first raids on Japan.
• 1960: South Korean government promulgated a new constitution introducing a parliamentary system of government.
• 1978: King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby, who became Queen Noor.
• 1992: Pro-Iranian kidnappers freed two German aid workers in Beirut after 1,127 days in captivity, ending a decade-long hostage saga.
• 1994: Israel and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations.

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