Saturday, December 16, 2000

Q3:TA Troubleshooting -- 7:47 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Christian Antkow updated his .plan with a brief FAQ for people having trouble installing or playing Quake III: Team Arena.

Carmack and Sweeney on 3dfx -- 2:42 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Some websites have gotten in touch with the premier 3D engine architects on the demise of 3dfx. VoodooExtreme got a hold of id's John Carmack who seems to indicate that 3dfx didn't listen to their advisors well enough (or quickly enough). Evil Avatar contacted Epic's Tim Sweeney who used the opportunity to warn other tech companies that the quickest way to bankruptcy is to rest on your laurels.

Brian Burke Interviews -- 11:21 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

NVIDIA's (and formely 3dfx's) PR manager, Brian Burke, has been interviewed by Firing Squad and by Gamers Depot about NVIDIA's purchase of some of 3dfx's assets (story) that was announced yesterday. It sounds like if you own a Voodoo product, you are basically up a creek as of 3dfx's dissolution since NVIDIA is not buying their current product line. Thanks Blue's News.

Non-MMX Q3A -- 11:01 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Robert Duffy updated his .plan with the news of a non-MMX version of Quake III Arena for folks with CPUs that don't support those instructions:

Quake 3 Non-MMX

ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake3/win32/quake3nommx_127g.zip

For the Pentium Pro crowd, just run quake3nommx.exe instead of quake3.exe and you should be good to go.

NFL Week #16 Picks -- 10:58 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gotta get these in early since there are two games today! Here we go: Steelers, Raiders, Jets, Broncos, Panthers, Saints, Bills, Jaguars, Titans, Vikings, 49ers, Dolphins, Ravens, Giants, Bucs.

The Master comments: Eeyore's picks for this week are: Steelers, Raiders, Bills, Broncos, Jaguars, Titans, Vikings, Saints, Jets, Panthers, 49ers, Dolphins, Ravens, Giants, Bucs

A.T. Hun comments: Copycat, copycat! :)

The Master comments: Oh, man are you asking for trouble

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.

Past Two Days' News

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