Last Update: 18/08/98 19:13 -0600

September 18, 1998 - Alpha release delayed

The alpha has been temporarily delayed, we are working on it but are in need of the following.

If you got what it takes contact Azverkan ehle.3@osu.edu

August 23, 1998 - Gathering the new team

As you all know I am putting together a new team to finish the TC. This week will be spent gathering all the work from the team and compiling it into a Alpha Test. After we see what is completed so far, I am going to need some new people to help with the following areas. We still have a few members from the old team who are staying and ALOT of completed work from those who aren't. We currently need

If you want to join the team and help turn this TC into one helluva afternoon for Quakers everwhere, drop me a line.

Azverkan ehle.3@osu.edu


August 18, 1998 - New team to finish the endeavor

Azverkan, our master of a coder, is going to take over the project from here on. He's pulling together a new team of imps to do his bidding, and Im sure he'll get them quite busy. Since I wont be around here any longer, the website is now his.

Now then, there has been alot of contraversy lately, as per the previous updates. Some responses were good, but of course there are always a few sour oranges. I got this little one today actually:

From: "Told U. So" <ghostsux@yahoo.com>
Subject: Ghost in the Shell

You guys SUCK BALLS!!!!! If you had devoted 25% of the time you
devoted to your shitty websight, this TC would have been done months
ago....

How long have you been working on this TC 3 months? 5 months? 6
months? MORE?...you are lame. You should be barred from ever sucking
up space on the web again. Mindless drivel on a websight does not a
programmer make.

You have been promising files, models, levels for months now and all
we ever get are vague screenshots, that I now doubt you ever made. The
SOURCE CODE? oh, I can't WAIT to see this hunk of shit.

To cap it all off, you are claiming the most cliche` of reasons for
quitting...real life. Give me a break!!!Did you not have a real life
before you started? Are you just now discovering this? Oh, wait, you
have careers forming under you (whatever that means). I think your new
employers would like to see your half finished product (I'm giving you
a LOT of latitude with "half finished") They might be interested to
see what happens when something challenging or different comes along
during a project...you quit and run away like a little girl!!

I see two reasons for the shit can of this project...neither of which
is the reason you are telling us:
1. You can't...you got in WAY over your heads and are capable of
nothing more than designing a websight and downloading QOOLE to build
a half-assed level.

2. Quake2.com wised up and said, "FUCK OFF" which I would have said
many moons ago.

Personnaly, I believe #1, because buffoons like you could not possibly
pull off a TC...hell you couldn't even do a single level.

fuck off and die losers,

Told U. So

how about getting some balls and printing this on your websight along
with some of the positive feedback you claim you also receive? ....i
know you won't, you ain't got the balls
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

I think I might print this one and post it up on my wall. It was just too funny for me to throw away like the other flames I've gotten in the past. Congrats to the fool who sent this to me, you are getting your 15 seconds of desperate fame. Enjoy. ^_^

So, to all who have emailed about finishing the TC, talk to Azverkan about it. And anyone who emails me with flames, dont bother, cuz they'll never get read.

August 10, 1998 - files to be released

Well, happy birthday to me, but lets get on with this TC business. We will be releasing most of our work. Not all, but most. We're going to do a final mix/compile of the dll, and release it with the source code (once it gets cleaned up a little). We'll have the models gathered and thrown into a zip file. That should be done in a few days. So look for it. :)

August 7, 1998 - Life goes on.

This update is not to inform you of any progressions with the TC. Actually, it is to inform you of the disbanding of the project. Many of you have said that we couldn't do it, and some said we could. Most of us have jobs, some have 2 jobs. A few of us have careers forming underneath of us, and we need to grab ahold of it before we lose our chances. We just don't have the time to put into it anymore. Had we more time, we would have continued and completed the project.

During the production of this thing, I have met some of the greatest people. Noome could ask for a better team, or better friends. It has been the greatest honor working with these guys. I salute you, men.

Sooo, what does this mean for the TC? I guess it means that this site will be deleted, and life will go on. Guess thats it.

July 28, 1998 - The earth was made in 1 month, and 2 days...er not quite.

Hey all. HeheHeEHEheheh. Fragapalooza '98 was a blast! There was solid quaking and dogfighting for 4 days and I loved every minute of it. Saw demos of Half-Life (sp00ge), and Baldur's Gate. Oooooh baby. We all got on the news like an hour into the first day, and my clan drank Id say 12L each of Dr Pepper that whole weekend. Well...some of the others deviated from the DP and were punished accordingly. <wide grin>

But, coming back down to GitS TC, we have a few small updates. Player physics are done, and we got weapons model/code on the way to completion. The maps are looking very vivid and we should have some new screenshots up in a couple of days. But damnit, RealLife (tm) SUX!! Argh! Ahem....

June 26, 1998 - Good God...I think?

I know, I know. Unreal has nice graphics, etc but a move over to that engine would just waste everyones time. We were planning a mid-summer release to begin with. Moving to Unreal would set us back at least 3 months.

But, work is progressing quite nicely. The code is getting a nice little facelift, with some nice little features and eye candy emerging. The modelers are somewhat swamped tho. Heheheh. I haven't seen any screenshots of the levels lately, but they are progressing though.

And the countdown is on for Fragapalooza '98 in my home towm, the Chuck (Edmonton Alberta). July 16-19. Thats gonna be a sweet 4 days of fragging. Lots of food, great people to beat on and to be beaten by. All this in a big ass hangar. Aye, tis a grand thing. Hm...I wonder if they'll let me bring my amplifier and 4 speakers. <wide grin> =)

 

June 3, 1998 - We shall Quake at the sound of the cyborgs

I beleive it is save to say that the debate is over. The project has come too far already for us to change engines again, so we will stick with Quake2. Perhaps in the future, we'll do a sequel using the LithTech engine, or Prey, but until then we are sticking with our id. Thanks to everyone who gave us their input. Stay frosty.

 

June 1, 1998 - Unreal Ghosts?

We at Section 0 have had much debate, and we are still debating a move to the Unreal Engine. The move would of course set back our release date a fair ways, however it would come with some advantages. The engine quite possibly has more potential to make us a stunningly real TC with volumetric lighting, dynamic shadows, models that can be properly transparent, etc. Another good quality is the soundtrack. Using the ScreamTracker music format would allow us to have more dynamic music, where you don't need a damn CD to play it from. Oh ya, did I mention it would be more dynamic? There is however a problem. Unreal seems to run slow in software mode on MANY machines, and not everyone has 3Dfx YET. So...lets have quick poll.

What do YOU think? Should we move to the Unreal engine? It'll push our release date back a couple months, but give us a TON of features over Quake2. Or should we stick it out with Quake2 and release it on-time, but with LESS features? Email us and let us know what you think.

 

May 17, 1998 - Screenshots have arrived

Seek, and ye shall find in our screenshots section, 4 new screenshots of our demo level. You guessed right, we arent sitting on our asses...all the time. :-) So, quit sitting on YOUR ass and go look at the screenshots!

 

May 7, 1998 - Ouch, ouch, ouch

Haven't updated in a long time. This could mean a number of things. A) We got foxed?, B) We been extremely busy working on the TC that we overlooked webpage updates, C) We're lazy-ass morons, or D) None of the above. Well, we're NOT foxed, so get that out of your mind. :-) We're only lazy when we're tired, as is EVERYONE in the known world. And of course one of the above was correct, so it must be "B". We have been damn busy modeling, mapping, coding, tweaking, weapon balancing, etc. We're a bunch of loonies! Now that we've established that, lets talk about screenshots. We have been waxing and keeping our whips moist, and we've been keeping our mappers at close reign. Cabal is working on the demo level, sewers, etc. We'll be getting at least a few production screenshots up soon.

 

April 12, 1998 - Bringin' in Easter with two new team members

Alright. Just when we were beginning to think that we would never fill any more possitions, we get 2 very talented sign-ups.

Therefore without further adieu, I'd like to welcome aboard Cabal, our new mapper, and BigUglyPirate, our sound engineer. I don't mean to brag, but I beleive we now have the very best in the TC industry. :-)

"...I put my hand up on yo' hip, when I dip, you dip, we dip. You put yo' hand up on my hip, when you dip, I dip, we dip..." Ahem, sorry for that. Im on a very late-night Dr Pepper rush. Don't break the mood. ^_^

 

March 28, 1998 - Work progresses on the new physics, and world effects

Azverkan has been working overtime on the new physics of the motorcycle and fuchikoma. (Yes, I said motorcycle and fuchikoma. That means...that the player gets to do some driving in the game. :) We also need a mapper (level designer).

Requirements for level designer:

 

March 14, 1998 - We're back and COOKING WITH CRISCO OIL!

Okay, the storyline is done, we got another coder, another mapper, and still waiting for another mapper to answer my email. So this known, we are now in full production mode. But natch, we have some fiery debates about what we can handle coding in, and what we can't. heheh. In fact, as I type this update, Im in the middle of one with ESpectre. <grin> No saying who's winning though. We both have some good points. :P

March 3, 1998 - Coding begun, and soundtrack is in production.

Well, FINALLY they release the DLL source code. NOW we can start coding! Heheheh. Sheesh. Im working on a CTF variant called CyberFlag: 2029. I've also begin working on some TC code, and now have a partial working model of the Therm-Optic camoflage. It's tough working on visual effects when you don't have a 3Dfx card. :( You have to get someone else to make screenshots for you, and sometimes thats no good because you can see the movement or anything. It takes too long to ship it out and whatnot, only to find out that you need to change a half-dozen lined of code. <shrug> But, the CTF is coming along, and the soundtrack is in production. We'll have an update on that later.

And speaking of soundtrack, a new man joins our team! Simon Heath is our music guy! Lemme tell you, the music is damn AWESOME. You'll wanna listen to the CD even without the TC! ( I hope thats a good thing. :)


February 16, 1998 - We need a coder! See below.

Hm, so much for the frequent updates. <shrug>

Anyways, we got a soundtrack in the works, which means that this TC may go commercial(somewhat). Maybe not though. We still have some business to attend to before that happens.

Our modelers are working overtime on the new player models. They are gonna rock!

I am working on a CTF variant for the TC, and as a separate mod. Which reminds me, WE NEED ANOTHER CODER!!


February 7, 1998

Oh my god! Two updates in a row! Thats a first. heheheh

We finally got our team homepage put up. The TEAM link to your left will bring you there. Please note however that a few of the links are still...non-existant. Our Intel officers are still gathering data for our records.


February 6, 1998

The screenshots page has been updated, with 2 new weapons (non-production previews only) and a new layout. Most of us have been awfully busy with Real-Life(tm), and have not had time to put much work into the production of the TC. But, we're still kicking. We're working out some more ideas for multiplayer, but things are still a little sketchy there. For example, we probably wont have a multi-player version of the German tank (crab-tank) until after the TC release. It will end up in a separate mod. There have also been some debate on the anticipated GitS CTF Variant. We'll try to put this into the TC, time permitting.


January 29, 1998

I have taken the JavaScript out due to the many problems MSIE has with it. (MSIE sucks, btw.). Therefore, no more pretty date bar beside the logo. Awww shucks! :)

We have received a FEW complaints about the page updates (or lack of), and the seemingly slow progress of the TC. Well, lets see if we can answer that problem:

  1. The modellers are working hard.
  2. The storyline is being finished.
  3. The mappers are WAITING for the storyline to be finished, and are already planning.
  4. The coder can't do much right now until the point release of Q2.

So, in regards to the above statements, I hereby give unto you, SCREENSHOTS!! These screenshots are renders of guns that our man Pharaoh is working on. Enjoy.


January 21, 1998

Ouch. It must be becoming a habit or something for me not updating this page. Hm. There actually was reason for the delay, but...Im afraid the delay has been in vain. <shrug>

We at Ghost In The Shell, would like to announce our new team name!! We are now known as "Section 0". At the moment, we are building a homepage for our team as a whole, and as soon as thats done, be DAMN sure to check it out.

On another note, there have been some comments from MSIE users that there are JavaScript errors. Im not sure WHAT is causing this, as many of our team members use MSIE without ANY problems here. I have tried it also, with a fresh vanilla install of Explorer. If anyone knows what could be causing this, please let me know. We may have to remove the JavaScript if the problem persists.

Again, sorry for not updating in so long.

- Seggallion


January 11, 1998

Added the advertisement banner, and...not too much else yet. We will have a team name within the week, and a solid storyline also. We will be adding a list of features soon, also. A few more things have to be worked out before we can get too far on that though.

I would personally like to thank everyone for giving us so many possitive comments and feedback. It kinda makes a person feel warm all over knowing that people like what they are doing. (Sheesh, that sounds mushy. Someone slap me before I go too far. :-P )


January 7, 1998

Whew. It's been awhile since I last updated. Im very sorry for that. However, I am proud to announce...our new page design. :-D

Anyways, many new things are happening here. We are currently trying to come up with a name for our team. Also, we are planning some new features for the TC.

We welcome a new member to our team! Lets bring aboard ESpectre as modeler #2!

We have posted a new shot of the wonderful Crab-Tank as seen in the movie. We were gonna do a vrml...but decided to save that one for later. :-P

 

December 31, 1997 - New Years EVE!

From all of us at Ghost In The Shell TC, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Have a great one, and let's go kick ass!


December 30, 1997

It's almost 1998, and naturally, we get to welcome another person to the team. Bifur is now with us! Welcome aboard dude!

Please note however, that we cannot accept any more entries. We have been overwhelmed, and beleive me, it was difficult choosing. We appreciate every one of your inquiries. :) From the crew, thanks for the support!


December 26, 1997

I would like to welcome the following new members:

Mecredis - Texture/Graphic Artist
Tiger - Mapper
WhipPINGpost - Level design, textures, and skins
Pharaoh - Models

Welcome aboard guys! Lets kick some ass! :)