Quake II Patch Released
A bugfix patch for Quake II v3.09 (1.2 MB) has been released on id's FTP site. This fixes the "serious" bugs in Quake 2. John Carmack gives a brief note on the patch.

This is an interim release that fixes the most serious problems with the initial release of Quake 2. This release doesn't fix all known problems. We intend to have another release in a few weeks.

Don't expect too much from this release. It doesn't add any major features. Also, you can't load saved games from previous versions of Quake 2.

Amazing isn't it, Quake 2 has been out for three weeks and we're on our 6th version of Quake 2 with another coming soon. Then of course, we'll have all the addon releases after that. I'm one of the masses that "thought" Quake 2 was released far too soon. I guess this clarifies any misunderstanding in that regard. id Software should've stuck by their morals and dealt with the Quake 2 release the same way they did with their previous products.

New GameSpy Released
The latest version of GameSpy v1.52 (1.0 MB) has been released. This time limited versions features Quake II support.

QuakeOn v1.10 Released
QuakeOn v1.10 has been released on the new QuakeOn Home Page. This nice Quake front end now supports Quake 2.

New Quake 2 DM Levels from ION Storm
Noticed on BluesNews today that five people from ION Storm have made Quake 2 DM levels. Although these are not "official" ION Storm releases, the levels were very well done. Go to BluesNews if you'd like to download them.                                 

Update on German Quake 2 Woes
After seeing the comments on this page from last week. These interesting words from a "very good source" regarding the problems with the release and support of Quake 2 in Germany certainly raised my eyebrows a bit.

Well, let's just say that Activision "didn't want to take the risk". They already knew that Quake 2 would probably be banned in Germany. They decided NOT to write a necessary comments on Quake 2 to defend their right to distribute Quake 2, nor did they try to rectify the situation to the point that people can see if Quake 2 is available for them. At this time you can get Quake if you can find it but it has been banned in at least one German state (Bayern). Don't look for this situation to improve much.

Seems to me that this situation will only promote the pirating of the software. Why Activision can't deal with this through proper legal channels is beyond me.

Quake DM Level Conversions to Q2
As expected, with no deathmatch levels included in the release of Quake 2, people have been making "new" versions of the dm levels from Quake. Here are some converted Quake levels. You can download them from these links.. DM1 Conversion (235kb), DM3 Conversion (501kb), DM4 Conversion (223kb), another DM4 Conversion (195kb) and a DM6 Conversion (248kb).

Quake & Quake 2 3DFX Patch
New 3DFX miniport drivers have been released. Here is the 3DFX Driver for Quake 2 (137kb) and the 3DFX Driver for Quake and QuakeWorld. (137kb)

Gl Quake and QuakeWorld Setup Page
I saw a very nice page for GL Quake setup at the Ultimate Set-Up Guide for GL Quake and Quake World. It is the most comprehensive GL setup that I have seen and is well put together. If you use a GL carrd, you should check this page. It has many tips and hints for Voodoo users.

Doom Celebrates A Birthday
I forgot to mention this a few days ago. On December 10th, Doom celebrated it's 4th birthday. Doom is one of my favorite games of all time. I remember being one of the few that used a Gravis UltraSound card which played the proper Doom music in stereo and all the sounds were true 3D. Knowing a monster was right behind you was an eerie feeling. I remember jumping out of my chair a few times after walking around a corner into a Spectre (the invisible guy). Happy Birthday Doom.

Helpful Quake ][ Pages
A couple of useful Quake 2 pages went up recently. One is Blue's Quake II Bugs, Hints & Tips from BluesNews. This page seems to be a good source for workarounds, utils, hints etc. The other is from id Software and is the "official" Quake II Bug List page hosted by Christian Antkow (Disruptor) who warns at the bottom of the page "If you send in a bug report that is already on this page, we will hurt you!".

Quake ][ Commands Made Easy
Need to know all those silly commands in Quake 2? John Cash (Hellrot) of id Software tells us that if you type "cmdlist" and "cvarlist" at the console after starting the game, it will print all the commands available in the loaded .dll files.

No Quake ][ in Germany?
Although sales of Quake 2 are doing very well around the world, Germany may be in jeopardy of never seeing the game. Id Software made us aware of what was happening with Q2 in Germany.

An institution in Germany called BPS, which controls what people consider to be a "bad influence" on German youth, has received a complaint about Quake 2. The BPS will check into the complaint (ie:plays the game, reads the book, watches the movie etc.) and decides if it will put the game on their list. If that happens the publication can't be advertised, can't be displayed publicly and can't be sold or shown to anyone under eighteen years of age.

German authorities have taken these steps with all id Software products since Wolfenstein. Keep in mind that Wolfenstein was completely banned from Germany because of it's Nazi references.

The only people that will be hurt by the actions of the BPS are the retail stores. Many people think that Germans will get the product if they want it. Either through mail order or by visiting a neiboring country such as Austria. Id Software and Activision are trying to resolve this.

Quake ][ Hot Topic On The Internet
Since Quake 2 was "officially" released in North America and a few other countries on December 9th and will be available to the rest of the world by December 12th, it seems to be the hot topic of discussion on the Internet. There are Quake 2 servers popping up everywhere at an alarming rate. For the latest list, go to PlanetQuake's Quake 2 Server List. You see mention of it on nearly every major Internet site. I'm sure this is the main reason that id Software licensed Activision to handle all the distribution, sales & massive hype for Q2, which is sure to be one of the biggest selling games in computer history.

My personal take on Quake 2 is that I'm having a hard time getting a true feel for the game. I don't get the same "tingle" I received the first time I played Wolfenstein, Spear of Destiny, Doom (scared the hell out of me), Doom 2 or Quake. Maybe id Software has done too much to the game? With all the new weapons, monsters, levels and other features, it has become more than just a Quake sequel. As much as I love Quake, it'll take me a while to get the same warm fuzzy feeling for Quake 2. I do think it will be a great game once all the addons, maps, network code and bug fixes are done. Hmm, wasn't it John Romero (founder of id Software and now CEO of ION Storm) who once said "it'll be released when it's finished"? Perhaps the nice folks still at id Software should take this advice.

Quake ][ Warez On The Internet
In the last few days, I have also become aware of just how many people use the warez channels on the Internet to pirate software. It's amazing to me just how many people already had Quake 2 before it was released. In the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other countries where the game won't be released until Friday, there are thousands of people who already have it. Of course, they all say that they'll purchase the game soon. I hope they're true to their word and they do go out and buy the game. The people who worked so hard on this game deserve our support.

Do I agree with the pirating of software? Certainly not, but I can see why people do it. There are two main reasons for this. One is that some people can't or don't want to pay xx amount of money to buy a game they can get for free. The other is that people want to try the product before buying it. I was given the game Riven (sequel to Myst) a while back and after playing it for about 30 minutes, I'm glad I didn't pay a penny for it. Although the graphics were nice, I thought the game was very lame and I would have been mad if I would've paid anything for it. Now, Quake 2 doesn't fall into this category as everybody knows what kind of game Quake 2 is. So, the "try before you buy" idea goes out the window. I hope that at least half the people who are using a pirated copy from the Internet actually keep to their word and purchase the game.

UKCL Finals Ends in Bitter Dispute
The UKCL Season 2 Finals were held last Thursday evening between Demonic Core and Quake Police Department. There was some confusion in the first match as DC were told not to use proxies when Killjoy (UKCL Admin) arrived on the server. This was not in the UKCL rules. That said, the first leg of the finals went off without a hitch and DC, in a very close match, managed to come from behind to defeat QPD 218-211. The first leg was done on QPD's choice of server with the second of the two legs to be played on DC's server.

Once the second match began, all hell broke lose and the match ended up being canceled and re-scheduled. QPD accused DC of breaking UKCL rules regarding the LPB/HPB ratio. DC-Danman went below the 130 ping limit for hpb's and was forced to drop. At this point, DC-Danold joined with a 230 ping. This bothered QPD for 2 reasons. First is that DaNoLd is a much better player than Danman even with the higher ping and second is that QPD interpreted the HPB rule as being modem players only. (DaNoLd is ISDN) According to UKCL rules, it does not specify that an HPB must be a modemer only that the ping must be 130+. Some of the QPD players were having connection problems with the DC server and this just caused more bitterness. Then the fact that Danold is from France and not the UK brought the whole thing tumbling down. There was lots of arguing, name calling and general bad feelings between the two clans.

I was going to suggest using the UKCL home page for more information but strangely enough, there isn't even a mention of this on their news page. I'm sure there's more in-depth information on each clans home page. I also noticed a bit on News From The Front which is a UK Quake news site.

The second leg of the finals has been tentatively scheduled for January 18th, 8 p.m. UK time. Hopefully, we'll get a true winner and we can all move on to Quake 2.

The Times They Are A Changin'
id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead and Activision President Kevin Kraff made the big announcement today. Quake 2 will hit retail stores in North America on December 9th with the worldwide release will follow shortly after that.

John Carmack from id also announced that there will be an update as well as the "official" demo released soon after the retail version. The update is not a bug fix but is an addon for features that were not complete before Quake 2 was sent for pressing. Unlike John Romero's strategy of "it will be out when it's done", John Carmack seems to like the thought of having the program (in mostly finished form) in the stores before Christmas.

Doom Conversion for Quake
I'm not a big fan of Quake TC's (Total Conversions) as most of them belong in the useless category. However, I always thought somebody would've done a Doom conversion for Quake. Now that Quake 2 is just around the corner, Moxill Interactive has released "Your Path Of Destruction" a complete Doom TC. You can download it from their downloads page (13.3 Megs). It's vey cool!

UKCL Finals This Week
Later this week (probably Thursday), the UKCL (United Kingdom Clan League) Season 2 Finals will be held. The two clans remaining are Demonic Core and Quake Police Department. Both sides boast very strong line-ups but I think DC (my favorite clan) with stellar players like Danold, Sujoy & Carnage will prevail and beat Timber, Cenobite and the rest of QPD. Good luck to both clans.

Quake 2 Demo Release Information
Word today from id Software that the "real" Quake 2 demo will be released about 1 week after Quake 2 hits the retail stores. This was done to accommodate the completion of Quake 2. id Software said they would rather concentrate on the getting the game finished and not worry about the demo until after the game is available via retail outlets.

100% Quake Done Quick
The Quake Done Quick gang, known for their speed runs through Nightmare Single player Quake, have come up with another demo. This time they do Quake on Nightmare skill getting 100% kills and find all the secrets. Get the Quake Done 100% Quick Demo here (4.0 MB). This is a 1st person pov and there'll be a "movie" version released in the next couple of weeks. Note: The link is from cdrom.com ftp site so, it might be "quicker" downloading  it from this Bluesnews link instead.

Full Quake-On Released
I forgot to post this a while back so here goes. The final release on Quake-On is now available from the Quake-On Home Page in the files section. Quake-On is a very nice Quake shell/start-up program which is very handy for running any version of Quake with any add-ons. If you use GL-Quake, this program is a "must download".

New GLQuake & Quakeworld
QuakeWorld v2.10 (1.78 Meg) and GLQuake v0.97 (393k) have been released on id Software's ftp site. Note: There is nothing new in the QuakeWorld package except for the fact they are forcing you to use GameSpy with QuakeWorld. :(

The Frag is Coming Soon
The latest greatest Quake tournament is almost here. The Frag starts next weekend in Plano (Dallas) TX. Most of the best N. American Quake players will be competing in this one. My buddy Walter from Clan 311 will be one of the favorites in the tourney and I wish him much good luck. On a related note, another friend of mine Hayw00d (Dork!) will now be known as Hayw00d.311 since he has now been accepted in the clan. Good job Hayw00d!

Quake ][ Test Released!
It's here!!! The long awaited Quake II Demo (10.8 MB) which contains three single player levels was just released by id Software. Please be sure to view the read me file first. Note: this is not the final beta, it's only a 3 level test to see how it runs on peoples systems. When id Software gets all the results back, they will fix any major bugs before the final release.

GL-Quake Rocks!
Last week, I finally went out and purchased a 3DFX card. All the game makers are saying that you'll need one if you want to play all the new games coming out soon. I ended up buying the Diamond Monster 3D card because it was the most compatible card available. The graphics in GL-Quake are awesome and the frame rate has more than doubled from regular Quake at the lowest resolution.

DEMOlition Back On-Line
After what seems like ages, Ponnu has sent word that his DEMOlition Quake Site is now back on-line, at least in a limit fashion. Demolition is one of the best Internet resources for getting Quake demos. The site looks great and there are quite a few new demos on-line including the awesome Reptile-Post/Paradox Demo. Please check it out, it's worth the trip.

Quake Done Quicker!
From the makers of Quake Done Quick, Yonatan and the gang are back with Quake Done Quicker. For those who don't know, QDQ demos finish every level of Quake as fast as they can in nightmare skill level starting each level with only 50 health. The original QDQ finished the entire 4 episodes in 19 minutes 49 seconds. This time around, they amaze us again and finish everything in 16 minutes 35 seconds (Wow!). The tricks they show in this demo are simply amazing. You can download either the Movie version (2.8 Megs) or the Player version (1.8 Megs). Enjoy these as they won't be making anymore of them.

Rocket Arena Add-on
The extremely popular new Rocket Arena Pack (1.2 MB) was released on the Rocket Arena homepage. This deathmatch add-on is simple but very well designed. You play against an opponent in a one-on-one arena. The loser becomes an observer and the next player (in order) automatically gets thrown into the arena against the winner. Both players then start the match with the same armor, health and ammo. There is also a new Team RA Pack available.

All Female Quake Tourney Ends
The finals of the All Female Tournament (AFT) were played over the weekend. Kornelia from Clan 311 won over Killcreek in the final match. More details are available on Jarl's Jabbering Page as our man on the scene Jarlaxle was there for all the action. Check it out along with the other cool news he reported from this weekend.

Hexen II Demo Released Woohoo!
The HEXEN II Demo (11.6 Megs) has been released. It uses the Quake engine and is available on the Activision's Hexen II Page. DirectX 3.x or greater required.

New QuakeSpy
Th new supposedly bug free QuakeSpy v5.32 (391 KB) has been released on the QuakeSpy Home Page.

New GLQuake, GLQuakeWorld, QW Client & Server
Well, it's finally here. The long awaited full QuakeWorld 2.0 Client install (1.40 MB) which INCLUDES QuakeSpy 5.3 & the GL QuakeWorld client. The new GLQuake (269 KB), which, like the GLQW client, uses 8 bit textures for greatly enhanced performance. Plus the new QuakeWorld 2.0 Server (222 KB). Note: Only v2.0 clients can connect to v2.0 servers, but the new client can still connect to older servers..

Learn Quake from Thresh
Thresh's Deathmatch Bible has been put on-line. If you need to learn Quake, the least you can do is learn from the best. (Note: for some reason, every so often, this site doesn't work. Just re-click it and try again.)

Quake 2 Music
This note from American McGee of id Software regarding the music in Quake 2:

The majority of the music in Quake 2 is being done by Sascha Dikiciyan and his partner. These are the two guys who did the "Methods of Destruction" CD for Quake.

Sony records is doing a compilation CD for Quake 2. Most of the songs on this CD would be previously released material from bands on Sony labels. There will be one track on this CD done especially for Quake 2. Basically this product would have no connection to id aside from the Quake 2 logo and an id "stamp of approval".

The guy most likely to record the special Quake 2 track is Ozzy Ozbourne. He has shown interest in this project and might also do the player sounds (death, pain, etc...) Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails may be doing some music for Quake 2 as he did for Quake.

Quake Demo Launcher
Quake Demo Launcher has been released. QDL is a browser plug-in to allow you to launch and view Quake demos from anywhere in Windows 95 and NT. This new version associates DEM and QWD files. This is a very cool program.

QuakeWorld 32 Player Maps
QuakeWorld has released their 32 Player maps available here, featuring new levels designed with enough elbow room for 32 players.

GLQuake Optimizer
There's a utility to tweak your GLQuake settings for performance, promising up to a 100% performance increase, available at this site.

QuakeCon Finished
QuakeCon 97 is now over. RiX from Impulse 9 Clan was the winner of the Micron Super Computer and lots more prizes. On a personal note, my buddy Walter from Clan 311 came in 5th out of about 300 players. Congrats to Walter (you rock man) and the rest of the winners.

First Update
Well here it is, the first Quake update on my site (Woop!). Yeah, I know, big hairy deal :)

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