Wednesday, November 29, 2000

Laser Arena Demo -- 3:33 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

FilePlanet got their hands on a demo for Laser Arena, the budget Q1-engine non-violent shooter from ValuSoft. The demo is a modest 6.2M. The required specs are modest too, requiring only a P166 and 16M RAM. I'm going to download it and check it out. Thanks Blue.

UPDATE! I just installed it and played the demo level. I'm sure your sstandard Q3A/UT hardcore folks won't care for it, but for what it is intended to be (a non-violent, affordable shooter) it does quite well. And boy, does it run faaaaast on my system.

LucasArts Interview, Pt. II -- 3:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamecenter has posted the second part of their interview with Simon Jeffery, the president of LucasArts. This part of the interview deals mainly with Star Wars Galaxies, their forthcoming MMORPG being developed by Verant. The third part of this interview will be posted tomorrow, which will discuss BioWare's Star Wars RPG.

Star Wars Galaxies -- 10:37 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

LucasArts has announced the official name of their massively multiplayer game being developed by Verant (makers of EverQuest). It will be Star Wars Galaxies. Tomorrow, the official Star Wars Galaxies website will go live with a FAQ and other game information. Don't start getting TOO excited yet, the game is still a long way off. It's not supposed to enter "the first round of testing" (beta? alpha?) until the end of 2001.

Personally, I'm more interested in the Star Wars RPG that BioWare (makers of Baldur's Gate) are making. I have this allergic reaction to paying monthly just for the privilege of playing a game I already purchased.

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

LucasArts Interview -- 8:44 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamecenter posted part one of their interview with Simon Jeffery, the president of LucasArts. It covers where the company is, where it is going, and what the heck happened with Obi-Wan. Part two will be posted tomorrow. This is one of the best articles I've ever seen on Gamecenter. There's a lot there on only two pages (That's right! No two paragraph-per-page to really push the ads hits here!) Thanks Blue.

Q3:TA Server Browser Problem -- 4:57 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I tried to play the Quake III: Team Arena demo online today, but the in-game server browser kept saying that it found -1 servers. id's Christian Antkow replied to my post on the Quake 3 World forums about it, saying that it is a known issue and they are looking into it. I hope it starts working again, I'd really like to bash some :)

UPDATE! I just tried it again and everything is working fine. Go figure.

UPDATE #2! id CEO Todd Hollenshead added his two cents to the thread:

We believe that this specific "-1 Servers" thing is indeed a master server issue and have confirmed it as a known problem. It's an intermittent thing, however, and just appears to randomly come and go. There one minute and fine 5 minutes later. If you get this problem, you can still connect to any server in your "saved" list, you just will get "-1" servers if you try and get a new list. You can still just connect through entering the IP directly, of course. And you can always just try again in a few moments.

Not bad, three id employees responded to this thread!

UPDATE #3! Apparently Graeme Devine broke it.

Hun-Speak: Election Catharsis -- 1:55 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I promised I wouldn't say anything else about the election here in the U.S., but I just can't take it anymore. To releasee the pressure before I blow up, I decided to write a Hun-Speak column entitled Election Catharsis. As the end of my article indicates, I do indeed feel better now.

M$: Naked PCs = Illegal? -- 11:05 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Register managed to save some pages on the Microsoft website before they were (coincidentally, no doubt) removed as their court case is heating up again. Basically it was a thinly veiled threat against PC manufacturers selling "naked" (with no operating system) PCs to customers. This passage troubles me no end, but sadly doesn't surprise me:

Warn customers that acquiring the PC "naked" and subsequently pirating the software is never a good option. Explain the risks: technical troubles, upgrade problems, viruses and the law. Politely decline to expose your buyers or their businesses to such troubles.

Point out the benefits of a legally licensed, preinstalled operating system. Customers have the original CD so they can reload the software. They also have a manual for everyday troubleshooting, and a Certificate of Authenticity that proves the software is legal. In short, protect your customer and your good name. Sell your PCs fully equipped with legally licensed operating systems preinstalled. Otherwise, who knows what you're leaving your customers - and yourself - open to?

So basically, if your customer wants to buy a computer without an OS, they are automatically going to pirate M$'s OS. They wouldn't run Linux or anything, would they? The last paragraph includes a blatant lie because most OEMs don't give out CDs due to M$'s "restructuring" of the way their OEM OSs are distributed (once again, because you are all a bunch of pirates). The threat at the end is particularly disturbing. Aren't they basically hinting that selling PCs naked could result in M$ suing them? Thanks Linux Today.

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