Quake2.com logo by Walter |2| Costinak


Friday, December 12, 1997
Inside 3D tutorial
Inside 3D has posted the reputed first Quake 2 coding tutorial. The tutorial requires using MSVC++ and makes rockets fired from the rocket launcher split into two rockets. Thanks Drywall (who sends along note that he'll try and make tutorials more accessible to people by having instructions for more accessible, less expensive IDEs).

Bug reporting
Before e-mailing Disruptor any bug reports, be sure to check his list of already known bugs (linked underneath the finger pulldown here).

Blue's Quake 2 area
Blue has christened Blue's Quake II Bugs, Hints, Tips, etc..

He warns its still unpolished.

Tim Willits .plan update
I'll let the fantastic level editor speak for himself:

Now that Quake 2 is finished I thought I would update my .plan again. I first want to thank John Romero for the great compliments he has given us on Quake 2. It really means a lot to me. John has always been my design hero in a way. When I first got to id I shared an office with John and tried my hardest to design like him. The style and design techniques that you see in Quake 2 were heavily influenced by the things I learned from him. There are two things I want to clarify from his .plan update. The first one is that Paul Jaquays was the designer on the base secret level "train", not Brandon. That was Paul's first real level he built for Quake 2 and as a first time level it's simply amazing with its vertical scale and complexity. Second, I would also like to add that Brandon did a ton of clean-up and monster placement work for the Waste unit and the Mine unit. At id no one person does all the work on any given map. Because the design of Quake 2 was so large and complex a team effort was needed to get everything finished. When you look at a list of names and maps you can't really understand everything that went into creating them. For example, the "security" map was originally started by me, it was later passed on to Christian to finish. After I realized that I needed to add a connection to "mintro" from it, I took it back to add an end. When I was done with that it returned to Christian to add a basement area. Then the last day before we shipped I changed the top area again. As you can see I built its foundation, but Christian also added a ton of stuff to it. "Security" isn't the only map with such a long history - power1, mintro, hangar1 (especially), and hangar2 all have similar stories. The list of maps and names in Romero's .plan reflects the person who built the level's foundation but does not reflect all the clean-up and tweaking done by the others. If anyone has a question about a map feel free to ask any designer, chances are they did some work on it and can answer your question.

I want to publicly thank and congratulate all the designers here that worked so hard to make such an awesome game. No one person could have done what the team did. We have become so strong as a team and I believe we work so wonderfully together that I can not wait until we get started on the mission pack.

-Tim
Editors/Quake 2
Must not forget to mention that BSPHQ has info on using BSP to make Quake 2 levels now that the utils are out. Also, our staff member Satanic wrote up a quickie on using Worldcraft with Quake 2, available here now.

Quake 2 icon
Bear sent along a Quake 2 icon through Jason Boehle.

First skin?
Paco of our hosted site The Quake 2 Mirror has put up a "first Quake 2 skin."

Bug workarounds
Two fixes have been reported to us on how to solve the "netpack" error when connecting to servers. One is apparently going into 640x480 or higher resolution prior to connecting, and then going to what you normally use once connected. The other is to type cl_nodelta 1 at the console (thanks Ragin for that one).

Also, Spire sent us the info that typing +set gl_mode 2 at the command line will keep Quake 2 booting in 512x384 resolution in GL for those people who were reporting that it wouldn't boot in 512x384 for them.

Game secrets
  • Vasquez of the QuakeMarines sent us this screen shot of a secret area "on top of the black hole generator" that you get to by rocket jumping.
  • Apparently there is an entrance to a secret level on hangar1.bsp, these three screenshots were provided to help people find it:
    One
    Two
    Three
  • Couple of people mailed us about this secret "id room", Lagos in particular designed a website explaining how to find it along with screenshots, click here to see.

    Strategy Article Submissions
    Doom's Quake 2 Pit is accepting Quake 2 strategy article submissions.

    IRC reminder
    Remember that tonight on Undernet #quake2 at 7:00 EST is the Quake 2 release party we mentioned earlier. Check the
    website for full info on the party. A cool piece of info that isn't on the web site is that there will be a 32 player server available, and some other special guests are going to try to grace us with their presence. I just want to extend a thank you to Blue, Redwood, and anyone else who printed the news of this party. Remember, everyone is invited, including you folks! :)

    Gamespy Quake 2 support
    GameSpy 1.5 beta has been released. This supports the current release of Quake 2. There are bugs, so be sure to read the included readme as to what they are already aware of. This is only available as a patch to registered users currently, and a newer 1.5 release will be made available to registered and unregistered users later. Also, 2.0 plans support for Jedi Knight.

    Quake 2 sales
    Todd Hollenshead's .plan indicates Quake 2 is selling well, and he mentions the Germany situation, saying that Germany still seems upset at id because of Wolfenstien 3-D and they will do their best to get it distributed in Germany. It's censored to people under 18, by the way, not banned... but it is also not permitted to be advertised or shelved, you must go up to the counter and request it.

    More Quake 2 reviews
  • Redwood has posted his Quake 2 review.
  • Saw on Redwood's also that GamesMania have written a review as well.
  • Saw on Blue's that Games Online posted a review...
  • and OGR...
  • and the CyberTimes review.
  • John Romero updated his .plan with a review of Quake 2, as well as a note about DOOM's fourth birthday (2 days ago) and a list of the authors of the various quake2 maps (thanks ZERO for notifying us of this also).

    Intellimouse support
    Until the problem with Quake 2 and the wheel on the Intellimouse is fixed, you can find a fix at BuzzKill's Quake Page. Thanks Blue.

    Quake2 Source revisited
    I was searching through this source zip, and it is incredible.... QE4, the level compiling utils, TexPaint (that utility John Carmack wrote to allow skins to be painted right onto a model) and more! :)

    Slipgate

    Quake2 Source
    Disruptor has uploaded the Quake2 Source code (the part we get to play with) up on the idsoftware ftp. You can grab it
    here. Thanks to _Quin of OpenQuake and nut for mailing that in.

    Blitz

    Thursday, December 11, 1997
    Ye Olden News
    Our resident news hound Q11 was on the ball tonight, and searched all over the web to provide us with news we have missed before :) here it is:

  • Time Magazine has a nice little article on Quake2, in which the game recieved rave reviews (of course!).
  • C02, a group of guys who do Quake related logos, art, and web design, has moved thier site here. These guys really clean up, go check them out.

    Thanks again Q11, you rawk :)

    Jobe

    Gamespy Quake 2 support (updated)
    Gamespy will make a new release with Quake 2 support at 1 am EST tonight! The new version number is 1.5. Unfortunately, I found that the unregistered 1.5 version won't be out tonight, just the registered. Once they work bugs out of the registered they'll make a new registered and unregistered release. Jedi Knight support is in store for version 2.0. Registration is 20 dollars. Thanks Fargo.

    .plan-Land
    Paul Steed has revived his .plan again, and Barrett Alexander updated his .plan with his impressions of the LA release party and this cool blurb:

    Had an outstanding trip to California (I always enjoy going out there). Left Wednesday to C/NET in San Francisco to film a piece about Quake II, which should be aired on Dec. 20th (still haven't quite figured out where it can be seen, but when I do I'll let everyone know).
    You let us know soon now, you hear? :P

    It's beginning to look a lot like Easter...
    A number of easter eggs have turned up in the PAK file for Quake 2. As reported previously, there are the CFGs of the players and beta testers. Also, it turns out that there are hidden, unused models for the nuke, mine, flare gun, and disintegrator (all of these weapons were dropped from the final game). There appears to be no way to play with them. Thanks
    Kami0. Also, it seems as though 2 unused sound files are in the sound directory of the PAK file, one named xianbeats.wav. I'll let you find those and listen to them yourself :). Thanks Q11.

    Slipgate

    All That and a Bag of Chips
    There's a new site called Quake II: Everything You Want. The guy running it is trying to provide the Quake II players with patches, server lists, and more to kind of pick up the slack till the other "big sites" catch up :-). Go check it out.

    Q2 In Germany
    Decided to post an e-mail that really got me thinking. It is yet another explanation of the Germany situation. Do we really realize how far censorship has gone in the world? Read up:

    Hiya,

    I know you must have gotten a lot of mails trying to explain thisbut I'd still like to share my too cents.

    * The institution is called BPS (not USK) (Bundespruefstelle fuer jugendgefaerdende Schriften) I can't really translate that, just for those who care...

    * ANYONE can submit what's called a 'complaint' to the BPS if this person thinks that a certain publication has a bad influence on the young=under 18

    * the BPS then checks into this (=plays the game, reads the bood, watches the movie etc.) and decides if it puts the games on the booboo list

    * If that happens the publications
    - cannot be advertised
    - cannot be desplayed publically (=on shelves etc. that are open to the public)
    - cannot be sold or shown to anyone under eighteen

    The idea might was obviously ok, but what peaple have made of itreally sucks:

    * Magazines are afraid to review those games because they fear that a positive review can be judged as an ad (duh)

    * A lot of stores won't sell the game because they don't want the trouble of selling something they can't display and having to check the customers age. (Some just don't get it and think it's forbidden or sumthin or they fear bad publicity)

    * Internet sites actually have pulled(!) the whole directory that contained levels etc.

    * Asswhipes like certain laywers have decided its their sole duty to file complaints to the BPS (as in most cases of id's games)

    If Activision decides not to publish Quake 2 in Germany its their choice.They could (under the restrictions mentioned above).

    I personnally think it's time to get people going against this. We needa rating system as it is common everywhere else. You can see whatrestrictive policies lead to.

    Karsten Jennissen

    BTW: Wolf3D actually was banned (not indexed by the BPS) because of Nazi symbols, Nazi pictures and other things. Selling is forbidden. People had it anyway.

    I'll let you come to your own conclusion...

    Jobe

    Where in the world have we been?
    Sorry about the lack of speed recently in posting news here... Unlike Redwood, it wasn't playing Quake 2 that kept us so busy :). Final exams hit several of us hard, plus some internal changes. Also, I've been working pretty hard with the folks from Undernet #quake2 for the party tomorrow night (referring website). We are back now as the site we were, I'll personally see to that.

    Complaints?
    QuakeMarines.com has posted a "Why Quake 2 sucks". Thanks Avenger.

    Ensoniq fix
    Traxx has sent in this cfg which fixes the sound problem on Ensoniq cards.

    Another review
    Another Quake 2 review to whet your appetites has been posted... got several mails about this one.

    Websites
  • Doom's Quake 2 Pit has moved to the URL now linked for it.
  • Stalz.com/Quake2/ has been updated with 2 new competitions.

    Next demo/next version
    Redwood corresponded with John Carmack, and the gist of the e-mail (which is up on Redwood's site) is that the next release (the point release) and the previously described mission pack are one and the same thing (the upgrade will be free of course). CTF and coop, as well as bug fixes, will be implemented. Also, the second demo will apparently not come out till after the point release.

    Interviews
  • Impulse 1 has a Christian Antkow (Disruptor) interview.
  • Paul Steed is interviewed on WarCouncil... thanks Blue and Prophet.

    Quake 2 bugs page
    Disruptor updated his .plan about his new Quake 2 bugs page, which lists known bugs so that you can see first if a bug you have has already been reported before you go reporting it.

    Also, Disruptor's .plan (as well as Brian Hook's) are worth checking out...

    Turn off prediction
    Saw on Blue's that the console command "cl_predict 0" lets you turn off prediction if your not comfortable with QuakeWorld style play.

    Resources
  • Trey Harrison of Crack dot Com (what a spiffy name) wrote a Quake 2 model viewer, available on his website... remember, viewer, not editor.
  • BSP 0.87a has been released, with Quake 2 support (but it won't help much until the compiling tools are out). Check out BSPHQ.
  • Birdman's Lair has a SpaceOrb config for Quake 2.
  • Two desktop themes were sent Blue's way: this one and this one.
  • Quake DeveLs is "DLL news for Quake 2 developers."
  • Quake 2 proxy here, with Linux, Win32, Sun and Solaris versions, for folks who can't access the internet directly.
  • FPGaming has an Assassin 3D config for Quake 2 up (thanks Blue).
  • PingTool and QStat have both released new Quake 2 supporting versions.

    Server lists
    A lot of these now:

  • WhiteFang's Quake 2 server list
  • Frag.com's server list
  • Telefragged
  • E-munch's
  • GameAholic
  • PlanetQuake

    Don't forget our own server, stroggos.quake2.com.

    Quake 2 reviews summed up
    All of the following sites have reviews of Quake 2 posted, even though some have been reported before I'm summing them all up here in one update.

  • AVault
  • UGP Online
  • Next Generation
  • Gamespot

    Slipgate

    OhMyCron!
    There's a review of the Omicron Bot over at PlanetQuake, the bot that has claimed to have "human intellegence". Go check it out. (Bah, give me a good old cheating reaper bot any day).

    Jobe

    Wednesday, December 10, 1997 - DOOMsday
    CFG Files Hidden in PAK0.PAK?
    The Elric of Melnibone sent us this list of CFG files he says he found in pak0.pak:
    amnet.cfg
    bear.cfg
    biggun.cfg
    boss.cfg
    bwh.cfg
    city.cfg
    factory.cfg
    hanger.cfg
    jail.cfg
    johnc.cfg
    killme.cfg
    mine.cfg
    paulj.cfg
    power.cfg
    redwood.cfg
    steed.cfg
    thresh.cfg
    tim.cfg
    todd.cfg
    warehouse.cfg
    xian.cfg
    Now, I don't see a zoid.cfg... Conspiracy! :)

    Next-Generation Quake2 Review
    Next-Generation has a Quake2 review online. Thankee, Kal Mog. :)

    impulse 1
    Here's a bit of mail that I cut up which contains some info about impulse 1:
    impulse 1 has been redesigned, reorganised, and reopened. go check it out at
    http://www.impulse1.com/.

    over the coming months we're planning lots of cool stuff, including
    reviews/previews of hardware and software, as well as interviews with people
    in the community and at softco's (check out our interview with Christian
    Antkow of id software at:
    http://www.impulse1.com/features/interview/christianantkow.html
    Creative Labs 3D Blaster drivers & BIOS
    I was at Blue's, and I noticed that there's new drivers and a new BIOS for the Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI on Creative's FTP.

    Nigel

    Quake II Commands
    Saw on Blue's that "cmdlist" and "cvarlist" help you with the commands and variables in Quake II. You do, however, have to have a game running at the time.

    Hook's .plan
    Brian Hook updated his .plan again, just saying that he will test the Canopus Pure3D. I guess he must have really gotten flamed about that one!

    Disruptor's .plan
    Disruptor updated his .plan with a bit more information about bugs in Quake II. Here is part of the update:
    Some updated issues that I've come accross;

    - "Connection Refused" does not necessarily mean that the server is fullas I previously stated. Looks like there is an issue with servers not properlyclearing out clients who have disconnected. I'll get the lowdown on thislater on today (ie: you get a "connection refused" when there are 4/12 people on a server)
    - MouseWheel issues. MWHEELUP/DOWN don't seem to work very well. Will bouncethis off Brian
    - Servers sending you data even though you've disconnected from the server
    - NT Users getting lagged sound. Try setting "s_mixahead" to 0.5 or something.(I use 0.2 on my NT system) This is a known issue with the way NT handles WAVs
    - "NET_SendPacket ERROR: WSAEWOULDBLOCK" trying to connect to a server? Fails to connect
    - Tweaking TCP/IP packet size in the Windows registry + Quake II == BAD. Will bouncethis off John
    BloodShot

    id Facelift
    id software just re-designed their website to pay homage to Quake II. Go check it out.

    NOTE: Please excuse our lack of updates recently, we've had internal problems, but we are back on the ball. Expect a slew of updates soon.

    Jobe

    DLL Forum
    Our very own hosted DLL programming site has a new forum up for people to discuss programming in Quake II. Check it out!

    Quake II Does Europe
    We got some email saying that Quake II is out in Switzerland, which of course means that the rest of Europe should have it (don't take my word for it though, I live near Seattle, WA, USA, so I don't have a clue ;). But of course, we already knew about Denmark...

    Quake II Map Editor
    Filth sent over some info that on BSPHQ, the latest version of BSP has Quake II support (limited, that is). You can get that copy from here. There aren't any compiling utilities out yet, so you can make the maps, just not run them. ;)

    Brian Hook's Benchmarks
    Brian Hook updated his .plan (thanks ZERO for the info...) with info about some benchmark tests he did. Here is the full update:
    December 10, 1997 (early AM)
    ------------------

    I ran the first set of benchmark tests tonight. The test system is an Intel Pentium 2 AGP system w/ 64MB of RAM. The operating systems are Win95 OSR 2.1 and WinNT 4.0 SP3. The boards that I'm testing are:

    - 3Dfx Voodoo2 SLI PCI (3Dfx Voodoo2, dual TMU, SLI)
    - Quantum3D Obsidian XS-100 4440 (3Dfx Voodoo, dual TMU, SLI)
    - 3Dfx Voodoo2 PCI (3Dfx Voodoo2, dual TMU)
    - 3Dfx Voodoo PCI (3Dfx Voodoo, dual TMU)
    - Diamond Monster3D (3Dfx Voodoo)
    - STB Velocity 128 PCI (NVidia RIVA128)
    - Diamond Viper 330 AGP (NVidia RIVA128)
    - ATI Rage Pro 3D AGP (ATI Rage Pro)
    - 3DLabs Permedia 2 AGP (3DLabs Permedia2)
    - PowerVR PCX2 PCI (PCX2)
    - Rendition V2200 PCI (Rendition V2200)
    - Diamond Stealth 3D PCI (Rendition V2100)
    - Intergraph Realizm PCI
    - Voodoo Rush PCI (Voodoo Rush w/ 6MB)

    Boards notably absent, and likely not to be tested because of prior poor performance:

    - Pyramid3D-based boards
    - Number Nine Imagine128

    I'm also going to pass on testing the Canopus, since it likely won't have significantly better measurable performance

    Yes, I'm well aware that the test system we have is a little on the high-end side, but I simply don't have time to run all these benchmarks in all these iterations on multiple systems. I'm going to be testing performance at 16bpp resolution, 24bpp when available, in gl_modes 2, 3, and 4 (512, 640, and 800, respectively). When possible I will disable/enable VSYNC, and I run all the tests in fullscreen. The tests are also going to be run using DEMO1 distributed with Quake2.

    Right now we're waiting on new drivers from several vendors. Today I managed to test the NVidia PCI & AGP w/ their MCD, a regular 4MB Voodoo, the Quantum3D Obsidian board, the Voodoo Rush, the Permedia2 using their ICD, the PCX2, and the Realizm (in a Pentium Pro 200 w/ 128MB of RAM). Tomorrow I hope to test the NVidia PCI & AGP w/ their ICD, the Voodoo2 SLI, the Voodoo2 non-SLI, and the Rendition stuff. By the end of the week I hope to test the dual-TMU Voodoo.

    This should be interesting stuff...I can't give out any REAL big info, but I will say that the slowest so far has been 10.8fps and the fastest is over 30fps -- quite a spread! I'm fairly certain that the slowest board has been tested already, and that the fastest board has not.

    Will keep you folks posted.
    BloodShot

    Stroggos.Quake2.com
    wOOp! Just got my copy of Quake2! Those of you in Brooklyn N.Y. can go toKings Plaza if you like and grab one. Software Etc had a ton of them onthe shelf (as of this morning). Seeing as I just can not wait for the Linuxport, I have decided to setup a Win server for now. You can connect toStroggos.Quake2.com or 207.239.42.40 and kick my butt if you like.

    Blitz

    The Big Bug
    Just got word that apparently there's a new version of the quake2.exe file out on id's ftp site, version 3.06. This file is for the people who run multiplayer servers. It's a fix for a bug that ping floods a machine at id software (which isn't even a multiplayer server!) when you run a multiplayer server, because id forgot to take out some QuakeWorld code before they released the Gold Master. If you run a server, it is VERY important that you download this fix!

    NET_SendPack Error in Quake2
    We have recieved a lot of mail over the NET_SendPack error in Quake2. Unfortunately, we havn't been able to respond to this issue because we havn't experienced it first hand. Luckily, though, we recieved this mail:
    December 9, 1997

    Go into Video Options, and change your resolution from 320x240 (or whatever you have it at) to 640x480or above.

    Then try to connect to a server (in the console typeconnect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) and once your in the game youmay reset the resolution back to normal.

    Hope this helps, and happy fragging!

    -pSyko
    Hope this some of you guys out there in Quake-Land.

    Jobe

    Tuesday, December 9, 1997 - Quake II is here.
    Quake Domain Server List
    There's a Quake Domain Quake2 Server Listing up which has some rux0rous options. You can submit servers here and you can even get your own copy of the list with a black background and generic design here. Thanks [deicide].

    .Plan-Land
    KillMe updated his .plan with another server notice:
    December 9, 1997

    There is another Quake2 server running at the offices at:

    jukebox.idsoftware.com

    16 player limit.
    15 minute time limit.
    No frag limit.

    Woo!
    How about a server with NO time-limit for those of us who have problems changing maps? :) Hook updated also with the following:
    December 9, 1997
    ------------------

    To answer some questions:

    - you can't compare GLQuake TIMEDEMO scores with Quake2 TIMEDEMO scores --
    they're different demos, different technologies. Yes, in general Quake2 is
    going to be slower than Quake1, which makes sense given that Quake2 has more
    complex levels, more complex monsters, and performance intensive effects such
    as translucency.

    - if you see messages like "EXT_multitexture not found" or something like that,
    IT'S NOT A BUG. These are information messages, not errors, letting you know
    what OpenGL extensions have been found on the current driver.

    For you IHVs testing stuff, go to a simple location and do a "cl_testlights 1",
    "cl_testparticles 1", or "cl_testentities 1" and use "r_speeds 1" to see
    performance analysis. This will allow you to tweak your drivers in a very
    focused fashion when trying to increase texture management, pointparameters,
    and Alias model rendering (respectively).

    SOMEONE (I won't name names) sent me mail complaining that lately my plans
    have been less technical and more anecdotal mumblings. Yes, they have. That's
    because WE SHIPPED! WOO-HOO! When you're done you don't have nearly as much
    to talk about as when you're actually running around fixing bugs and
    implementing new stuff.

    So just assume that for the next three months or so that there will be a ratio
    of at least 5:1 of "irrelevant crap" to "something vaguely technical".

    I'm currently tentatively looking at speaking at the University of Florida on
    January 21st. I think they're anticipating a turn out of about 35 people, if
    there are going to be more people going, PLEASE let me know -- i.e. if you're
    going to drive down from a neighboring town or something. The topic is going
    to be non-technical stuff having to do with getting into the computer industry,
    how to succeed, what makes a good programmer, etc.

    Okay, I'm off to fix a multitexture bug and to run some benchmarks.
    He also had a second update today, but we won't print that, due to it being an anecdotal mumbling and all. <G>

    Nigel

    After The Fall...you get up?
    After The Fall, a Quake1 TC, was just released! You can snag it here. Wow...you don't know how long I've waited to specify when a TC is for Quake or Quake2 .

    Quake2 Servers for Dummies!
    There's a tutorial up at PlanetQuake forsetting help people get thier Quake II servers online. And once you've set your server up, you can see it up in all its "textual glory" on their Server List! Thanks Fargo.

    .plan update
    Christian Antkow updated his .plan with this:

    We're trying to debug an issue with dedicated servers in Quake II. I'm
    running a server under the debugger here on my PC at;

    underworld.idsoftware.com (192.246.40.169)

    If a bunch of you could hop on and play there as well, we'd all
    appreciate it. Please note: This is *NOT* a permanant server.

    Well?! What are you waiting for!

    The Germany Controversy (cont.)
    Out of the pile of mail we have recieved over this issue , this one makes the most sense (as I have consulted a German foreign exchange student, who also told me about "indexed software":)

    Hi! Here in germany Activision will not distribute Quake2, cause it was indexed, before it was released. Its a law to protect the youth. (Hey, here in Germany you canbuy beer aged 16 yrs. confusing, eh !) If a game (or book....) is indexed, it can be sold, but thedealer is not allowed to display or to offer it. Evenif Q2 is in the stores, it's not in the shelves, okay !

    No adds will appear anywhere. Even magazines will not beallowed to test and comment Quake2. So almost nobodygets to know Q2 is out and Activision germany would only sell to the ppl, who read www.quake2.com or other sites.Not that much. Maybe 10% of all QuakeUsers here.So they refused.

    My dealer said me to import Q2 himself and so the USversion might be available before the German one inhis shop. But what's the difference? Who cares !

    Wolf3d, Doom(][), Quake, ROTT... they are all indexedhere, but they got indexed some weeks or at least daysafter the german release, so ppl knew the games.

    Strange story. When Quake was releases here, the Shareware was already indexed, but not the full release, that included the SW. They suck over here sometimes!

    -kan-
    There. I hope that puts an end to this...

    Satanic Goes Postal
    Satanic updated the mailbag, after a long absense. Go check it out by clicking on the "mailbag" link on the left frame.

    Quake2 Benchmarks
    All I can say is "about time us little guys get a benchmark review!" Thanks to this guy and his buddy, we now have a list of benchmarks on 'average' machines (which is cool, cause my system is...well...lacking). Here's the mail (kinda long):

    Well using the timedemo things I read off your page my friend and I ran some fps checks on our systems... I know the standard now is PII 266 with 64 megs EDO RAM and w/o sound but maybe your readers would like a more realistic reading of Q2's speed on normal/average computers with sound.

    System 1 is a K9 200 MMX with 64 megs of SD Ram running a Millenium 2MB video card (crap yes I know) and a Sound Blaster 32 pnp
    - It recieved 9.1 fps at 640x480 with low quality sound
    - It recieved 16.5 fps at 320x480 with low quality sound
    - It recieved 9.0 fps at 640x480 with high quality sound

    I must point out that although 9 fps may seem low and bad Quake2 is so much smoother than the original that I can play with these frame rates with little or no problems. In fact Q2 looks better and runs much more smoothly than Q1 at the same resolutions. One possible reason for this is that K6 processors love win95 applications and quake2 has no DOS components that would slow the processor down like quake1had.

    System 2 is (weird) a Pentium 120 overclocked to 137 mhz with 42 megs of non parity ram running a Millenium 2MB video card (crap again) and a Sound Blaster 64 value
    - It recieved 9.7 fps at 320x480 with high quality sound

    System 3 is a K6 233 with 64 megs of SD Ram running a MilleniumII 4MB video card (okay card) and a Sound Blaster 64 value
    - It recieved 10.1 fps at 640x480 with low quality sound
    - It recieved 20.2 fps at 320x480 with low quality sound
    - It recieved 9.8 fps at 640x480 with high quality sound
    - It recieved 12.5 fps at 512x324 with high quality sound
    - It recieved 19.6 fps at 320x240 with high quality sound

    We attribute the difference in fps for System 1 and System 3 to be because of the video card and possibly audio card. The K6 200 and K6 233 have the same bus speed (66mhz) so the 233 cannot transfer data to the video card and sound card any faster than the 200 can. (Again this is all unproven but just our ideas)

    Again this is using: "timedemo 1" "map demo1.dm2" at the console...
    Thanks again guys. Score one for the low end users =-) . (note: we may have more benchmarks coming...)

    Quake2 Secret (Updated)
    Ok guys, this link will take you to a text file containing a Quake II secret reminiscent of the "Shootable Romero-Head". I really recommend you think about it before you click on this link. I myself havn't even read it, I wan't to find it (whatever it is) for myself. But I do realize there are guys who are into game spoilers, so here it is. Don't say I never did nuthin' for ya The All-Mighty 'G'. Thanks Will.

    Update: Will's ICQ number and E-Mail address were removed by request. You can some sample pics of this "secret place" by clicking here, which are now in .JPG format for easier viewing.

    Jobe

    Quake2 Server Listings
    You probably know a lot of these, and I think we've mentioned them before, but here they are in a nice and easy to read list.
  • http://q2serv.home.ml.org
  • http://www.aphrodisiac.net/quake2/
    (Mentioned below, also)

    Quake2 Cheats
    Someone ALREADY has figured out how to ruin a great game: cheat codes. There's a list here that was submitted to us by Kuhas from the Quake Marines.

    Quake2 DLL Site Updated
    John, from the Quake2 DLL Site has informed us that a new tutorial has been added to his site.

    Nigel

    New Quake 2 screensaver
    Saw on Blue's that Tim Hitchings of Visual FX Software has made a Quake 2 screensaver that makes use of the pictures of the enemies from the Quake 2 Online Manual.

    Quake 2 review
    Adrenaline Vault has a full Quake 2 review. Interesting how fast they review these things :).

    Hoaxes
    Thanks zero for sending in the URL of this GameCenter story. Apparently on a newsgroup someone pretended to be Activision and said the game would be delayed till after Christmas. This is an obvious hoax since the game is out, I might add.

    Some servers
    Quake2.com hasn't yet put up a Quake 2 server since we run on Linux and need a Linux port or at least a Linux server executable, etc. etc. BUT here are some servers that
    Gimp0 sent in:

    140.160.193.102 All Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    24.48.3.186 All Cable Modem 16 Vorlon New Jersey
    ddi.net(good server) All T1 20 Trit0n Chicago
    130.207.219.87 All T1 Unknown Unknown Georgia
    129.82.139.185 All T1 16 Skyburn Colorado
    134.121.246.26 All Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    quake.blowingsmoke.com All T3 Unknown Unknown Unknown
    206.75.85.254 All 155mbp/s 60 sector Edmonton, CA

    Also, check out E-munch's Quake 2 server listing and this server listing and miniFAQ we mentioned yesterday.

    George Broussard .plan update
    George Broussard updated his .plan about the Quake 2 code dump they got for use with Duke Nukem Forever, and other things as well. Check it out here.

    Australian release party story again
    The Tormented Souls page has a recap and photos from the Australian Quake 2 release party that happened recently.

    Quake 2 hits Wall Street Journal (Updated from below)
    Saw on Blue's that Quake 2's release made news in the Wall Street Journal today. Cool ;).

    Hosted sites info
  • Quake 2 DLLs, our hosted site, have put up a new tutorial on string handling.

    More poems
    Relating to the poems post from yesterday, another variation on the poem has been created and can be checked out here.

    Releases
    Yep, Quake 2 is out.... you don't need to mail us about that :). EBWorld has it for 40, somewhere else for 50, etc. etc. Price seems to be ranging between 40 and 60 dollars, US. Remember UK folks: Dec. 12...

    Germany/Quake 2 info
    We've gotten quite a bit of mail about this since yesterday, and it seems as though all 3d shooters are not sold in Germany, DOOM, DOOM 2, Wolfenstien 3-D, Jedi Knight, Blood, you name it. And neither will Quake 2. Apparently you can still get it if its imported, but Germany itself won't distribute it, AND finally, you must be 18 or older to get it, even IF you import it. Censorship's quite a fun topic, no?

    Secret Weapon a hoax
    The screenshot mentioned below was just all the items stuck together in one place (use the " key to drop each item all in the same place).

    Slipgate

    Secret Weapon?
    There's a new weapon screenshot (or at least one I havn't seen before) out
    here that is claiming to be a de-atomizer gun. Has id sneaked in a little secret? I dunno...go buy the game and see for yourself!

    Jobe

    Quake2 Releases
    Quake2 should officially hit all major stores sometime today. Go run out and buy it! SPOOGE!

    Nigel

    Archives

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