News Archives from January 1st to April 30th, 1998

Click here for news prior to January 1, 1998

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I'll Sue!! - Blizzard Ent. Sued Over Eavesdropping
For approx. 2 weeks, Blizzard Entertainment (a company you connect with to play StarCraft on-line) is being sued for illegally taking information from the registry of everybody that connected with them. (shame, shame) Here's a brief out-take from the press release:

Blizzard Entertainment is facing a lawsuit as a result of its brief fling with copying information such as e-mail addresses from some users' computers running its Starcraft video game. Albany attorney Donald P. Driscoll has sued the Irvine company and its corporate parent, Cendant Corp., under California's unlawful business practice laws, and charges that the company violated laws that prohibit the introduction of a ''contaminant'' designed to transmit information from a user's computer without the user's permission. Blizzard says it only collected information to resolve technical issues, did not keep the information, and no longer collects such information.

Site Stuff

• Finally received and finished next months interview. It will be posted to the Methos Interviews Page on Friday (May 1st).
• Added another demo to the demos page.
• Changed the Quake Demos Page so that the demos are now listed by a) Level and b) POV Player's name. (I wish I would've done it this way from the start, it took me ages to do it today)
• Finally got my connection problem with the Llamanet server straightened out.
• Updated Methos .plan file a couple of times.

New id Mega Map Server
Paul Jaquay from id Software mentioned that id's Quake II server  (IP 192.246.40.253 Port 27910) will run the mega maps with the CTF Techs & Grapple. The mega maps are the 3 HUGE 64 player maps that were created by id Software. The maps can be downloaded here (7.0 MB).

Site Stuff

• Updated Quake's Best Players page
• Created and updated Methos .plan page (twice)
• Added a few demos to the Quake Demos page

Birthday Wishes
Oops, almost forgot, I wanted to wish a belated Happy Birthday to my old buddy John Cash from id Software. Well known for his outstanding programming and being one of the truly nice guys in the gaming industry. I wish John all the best for the coming year.

Quake 2 Patch and QuakeWorld Coming Soon!
Zoid has been a very busy boy lately. Zoid mentioned in his .plan today that he has a few cool things in the works. First, he's working on an update for Quake 2 (currently at v3.15) which has a "lot of new features" in it. Second (finally), he's also working on a new QuakeWorld which will support Quake 2. Woop! Last but not least, he's also working on a new version of Q2CTF. No release date has been set for any of the programs but according to Zoid, "I'm getting close to release on all of them".

Llamas Are On The Loose!
My host site Llamanet is now open for business. Take a visit and see what they have to offer including links to the many Quake sites they host. Good job by all the admin guys to get everything running so smoothly.

Slow, Slow, Slow!
Quake news has been very slow lately. Unless you want to hear about tons of drivers for VooDoo 2 cards and the influx of motherboards for the PII-400 Intel CPU's.

Next Months Interview Delayed
Although I REALLY appreciate all the great people who have been kind enough to do to interviews for my site, there are always problems doing them. Most of these problems are due to time constraints on my behalf or delays by the person being interviewed in getting the questions answered and returned.

Fusion Ends With A Bang :)
After getting through some server problems and other little concerns, Fusion turned out to be a blast for most people involved.

Some of the winners were as follows…

• Clan DC beat Clan SAS to win the UKCL Cup
• QPD beat DC to win the Fusion Clan Tournament
• QPD-Timber defeated DC_NightWing to win the Fusion 1on1 Quake Tournament.

The demo from Timber and NightWing is available on my Quake Demos Page. It is an amazing demo to watch. Please download it and see it. (QW Demo)

For more scores, results and demos, be sure to visit the Fusion 98 Home Page.

John Romero Goes Public!
Ever wonder what's on John Romero's mind? Now you can find out for yourself. Tonight John will open his own web site at www.johnromero.com.

You'll be able to find all kinds of information regarding all of the 3D games that John has been a part of during the past decade. The site isn't finished yet but, it sure has some cool graphics on it. Drop by and take a look.

What's In A Quake Name?
Id Software has purchased the rights to the "Quake3.com" domain name. Not that id wants to use the name but they didn't want to see it being used by the previous owners. The problem was that the quake3.com domain name was being used as a porn site and id Software felt this was a bit too much. I guess it's okay to have blood, gore and death but flesh is a no-no. :)

Windows 98 Release Date Set
MicroSoft and ABC News has confirmed the release date for Windows 98 will be June 25^th, 1998. What does this have to do with Quake you ask? It means that OpenGL will now be directly ported into the new operating system. Thus eliminating many extra drivers and ports in the design code of most new 3D games. 3D Interactive has confirmed it will be releasing new patches after the release date.

Ouch, That Hurts! :)
A Quake player from the United Kingdom named Coerj has decided to post some "less than raving" comments about my Methos Quake site on his site.

The first two comments he made only reflected opinions on a couple of the demos on my demos page. No big deal here, just the way things were worded. The quality of play in any Quake demo are individual opinions. You can certainly download them and form your own opinion.

Here are the other comments Coerj wrote in regards to my Quake's Best Players page and the demos in general.

Coerj: This stuff just sucks and is a downright insult to the players, there's lots more there about certain players who he is writing off after watching one demo of them play. As said before, he is actually trying to comment on something that is so large you cannot possibly hope to actually know enough about all the players and make a decent informed decision about. All it seems to be at the moment is demos and decisions on best players because they have a higher profile, and they happen to make sure he sees the demos that make them look good. Sorry Methos but your site is just a vehicle for certain players and it really bears no resemblance to the actual players and abilities out there.

One of the things that Coerj says is true. Obviously, the players with higher profiles will get noticed a bit more than some others. Assuming they are good, they will also tend to get more praise than others just as talented, who never make demos. This isn't being biased, it's just the way things are.

Now, on to the other comments.

"This stuff just sucks"
This comment isn't true. Anytime that a player can be seen or heard about by people that normally wouldn't hear about them is a good thing. Good examples are Timber, Carnage & Cenobite. Most people outside of the UK usually aren't aware of these fine players. If my demos page helps to let a few more people view their talents, all the better. Conversely, how about Reptile from DeathRow. Until I made the Reptile / Paradox demo available for people in the UK to download, "most" people in the UK didn't realize just how good he was.

"is a downright insult to the players"
I can't agree with this bold statement. How can talking about & posting demos of some good / great Quake players be insulting?

"you cannot possibly hope to actually know enough about all the players and make a decent informed decision about"
Agreed, I can't know everything about every player. However, I am allowed to state my opinion on players that are considered by many to be great players. If there was a huge 1on1 tourney in the UK and Cenobite happened to win it, I would probably go out on a limb and say that he was the best player that day. Same as if it were Timber, Sujoy or any other player that won.

"Sorry Methos but your site is just a vehicle for certain players"
Have to disagree with you here, Coerj. Although any site is limited to the scope of players that could be available, you can only go with the information you have seen, been told or the masses agree on. It is NOT a vehicle for any player. Yes, I get sent demos from all over the world every day of week but most of them will never see the light of day. Either because they're crappy demos or the players involved request that they aren't posted on the demos page.

"it really bears no resemblance to the actual players and abilities out there"
That's why we have demos Coerj. That way people can view them and decide for themselves about the "actual players and abilities out there".

Whether or not you agree or disagree with myself or Coerj, he and I are allowed to state our opinions. Coerj seems like a nice guy and I respect what he has to say. I don't have to agree with it, the same way he doesn't have to agree with mine. You can always send me comments regarding this or any other topic but please don't flame Coerj regarding this topic. Though I'm sure that he would appreciate any constructive feedback.

Fusion Has Begun!
The UK's biggest Lan party (as advertised) begins today. Fusion 98 is a massive two day Quake, Quake 2 and Rocket Arena tourney being held in London.

Rocket Arena 2 Released
Rocket Areana 2 Client version (12.6 MB) and Server version (677 KB) are both up on the Rocket Arena page. You can also get the View Weapons Mod (1.7 MB) which is a very cool add-on for Quake 2. For people running the server version, the client is also required.

Bots, Bots and More Bots!
You want bots? We got bots! After being deluged with requests for Quake 2 bots, I've finally found a site that has them all. Appropriately titled Quake 2 Bot Epidemic, it's the most comprehensive Quake 2 bot site that I have seen. Have fun storming the castle!

Quake 3 Moving Ahead
In his latest .plan, John Carmack talks a bit about Quake 3 and some of the things we can expect from it. Just click on the QuakeFinger link on the left page to view it.

Demo Page Updated
I have added a bunch more demos to the Demos Page. Also, it was starting to get a bit big so I also changed the font and made it a bit smaller. Let me know what you think.

No News Is Good News?
Went searching for Quake news today but couldn't really find anything significant to post. I'm sure there'll be some soon.

Llamanet Server Woes
The Llamanet ftp server was down for about 6 hours last night so none of the demos on my Quake Demos Page were accessible. Turns out that one of the admin people at Llamanet forgot to give people access to the pub directories. The admin dude has been severely flogged and the demos are available once again. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Methos Quake  News Returns
It's been a long time since my last update. The new site is finally in place and working well (fingers crossed). You'll see quite a few updates in the next few days while I catch up on news from around the Quake world.

Quake 2 v3.13 Patch Released
Another update has been released for Quake 2. id Software has released a patch to update from v3.12 to v3.13 (535kb). If you haven't downloaded the point release yet, you can get the full v3.13 Point Release (9.0MB) here.

Point Release Gets Mixed Reviews
Okay, I've finally had a chance to look extensively at the Quake 2 Point Release v3.13 (9.0 MB) that was released today. My feelings on the release are mixed. Many other people have expressed similar opinions with the Q2 update.

The Good:

• The levels themselves are nicely done. Nice lighting, textures & design.
• All levels seem to be good for 6 to 24 players.
• The network code seems quite a bit smoother than before.
• Teamplay has been added for "proper" clan matches.
• CTF play capabilities (for those who play it)

The Bad:

• The read me file doesn't list any of the numerous bugs that were fixed.
• All of the levels seem to be "free for all" levels. I was hard pressed to find one level that would be suitable for clan matches. Q2DM1 and Q2DM8 seem to have possibilities.
• The lack of any 1on1 levels. This one in particular bothers me.
• No "new" features were incorporated into the point release.

The Ugly:

• Server code. Even after a couple of months worth of bug fixes, there are still problems with server crashes. Another fix is to be released soon.
• An obvious bug in the teamplay mode where you get -1 for a legit frag. (nice testing)

ID Releases New 64 Player Quake 2 DM Levels
Oops, missed this yesterday. id Software has released 3 new (huge) 64 player deathmatch levels (7.0MB) for Quake 2. These levels will be used on the id Quake 2 server (IP 192.246.40.37 port 27913). Disruptor mentioned that you should have at least 32 megs of ram before thinking about using these levels and that servers running them should use "all the ram you can get your hands on".

Quake ][ Point Release Finally Out!
Approximately 15 minutes ago, id Software (actually it was Activision) finally released the Quake 2 v3.12 Point Release. It can be downloaded from id software or BluesNews (9.0 MB).

According to id Software,  the point release consists of numerous bug fixes, 8 new deathmatch maps and teamplay. I haven't looked at it yet but I sure hope there's more to it than that. I'll post a review of the whole update after I have time to try it out.

Quake's Best Players Needs Your Help!
The Quake's Best Players Page is becoming a bit aged. Eight of the 32 winners and runner ups don't even play Quake anymore. Sadly, players like Danold, Ettu, Fragga & Xris aren't seen on Quake servers anymore. Now, you may think it's easy to just pick another player to replace the existing ones. It's not that easy, in fact, it's very hard.

Let's take DM4 as an example. The current winner and runner up are DC_Sujoy and QL_Ettu. Sujoy is still a great player but doesn't destroy everybody on dm4 anymore and Ettu has retired from Quake. Okay, lots of other great dm4 players around, let's pick one of them. Easier said than done. Who stands above the rest? Let's look at some of the contenders...

Timber from England - Very aggressive player. Beat MasterKillah, lost to Randemarr & Cenobite
Masterkillah from Norway (I think) - Another great player, beat Randemarr, lost to Timber.
Sniket from Sweden - Very good player, has beaten people like TB-DOOMer & Okkun
Randemarr from Germany - Some days the best in the world, other days... Beat Timber and lost to Masterkillah.
Cenobite from Scotland - Great all around player. Deserves consideration
Reptile from USA - Beat Thresh on dm4 but not a real dm4 contender.

Okay, how do I pick from these? Unfortunately, no players remain undefeated these days. Thresh is the only player that rarely loses. Deciding the best on any level is hard to do. I want your opinions on the Best Quake players. Take a look at the page and send me feedback. I want to know who is the best and second best in most categories listed. Some categories aren't in question (best player, best clan, best female etc...) but all others have room for improvement.

Will Quake 2 Ever Be Finished?
The only question you hear these days regarding Quake 2 is "Where the hell is the point release". Lets go over the "official" chronology of events.

December 2nd - id President Todd Hollenshead announces December 9th as the release date for Quake 2. John Carmack announces Quake 2 demo (not Q2Test) and point release to be available within 2-3 weeks of Quake 2 release.
December 9th to December 12th - Quake 2 released worldwide.
December 14th to January 5th - Numerous bug fixes bringing us to v3.10
January 25th - John Carmack announces point release to be ready in "less than 2 weeks".
January 30th - id Software's Paul Steed announces point release has been finished and has been sent to Activision for final testing.
February 13th - id Software's Christian Antkow (Disrupter) laments people saying that the point release will be available soon stating "It will be out when it's done".

I can't speak for anybody else but I am very tired of this. Why are we still waiting for id Software to finish a program more than 2 months after it's release?

Activision announced last week that "nothing in the point release would have been included in the original Dec. 9th Quake 2 release" and "the rumors that Quake 2 was released to early is completely false". What kind of crap is this? Are we to believe that id Software wanted to release Quake 2 without any deathmatch maps or teamplay included? I don't think so.

The Postman Delivers Last Frag
As the founder of Clan Postal and the only player to beat Thresh in a Quake 1on1 tournament. Reptile has delivered his last frag for the well respected bunch of mailmen. Jim (Reptile) decided to turn himself into the Quake authorities and has been sent to serve his time with Thresh and the other inmates on DeathRow. In my opinion, DeathRow's talent level has increased dramatically. For the true inside story, check out Jarlaxle's Page. Also from Clan Postal (now Clan Forsaken), Jarlaxle relates his thoughts about what it is like to see his good friend Reptile leave the clan.

On a related note, LittleDragon (formerly from Clan XP) has also joined DeathRow. Long known for his awesome play in Quake and named in 2 categories on my Quake's Best Players page. The rich seem to get richer and the addition of LittleDragon and Reptile will make DeathRow even stronger than they already are.

Sujoy Wants You!
Sujoy Roy from the UK Clan Demonic Core and (more importantly :) a two category winner on my Quake's Best Players page, has opened sujoy.com. Sujoy has lots of opinions and shares most of them on this unique site. The horizontal scrolling is different to say the least. It also features Quake tips, tricks & strategies. If you're going to learn how to play Quake, you may as well learn from one of the best 1on1 players around. No word on whether it will include Quake 2 strategies.

Thresh Finally Loses (sort of)
Shock of all shocks, for the first time since his Doom II days, the person considered by many as the best Quake player in the world, Thresh of Clan DeathRow and formally of Clan Legends, lost a tournament Quake match. Last Saturday Thresh, along with his clan DeathRow, lost to Unforgiven in the first match of the T3 Quake Clan Tournament finals. DeathRow bounced back to win the next two games and the T3 championship. However, Thresh, who regularly gets 50+ frags in nearly every clan match was held to a mere 14 frags in the first game. Surely an off game for Thresh.

As the news was still rumbling through the Quake world about the first loss, even more stunning news was on it's way. Less than a week later, Reptile from Clan Postal defeated Thresh 10-7 on dm4 during the PGL single player tournament. Not only did Thresh lose twice in one week but the second loss was in a 1on1 match. While neither player is an expert on level dm4, it was a very well played match by both players and Reptile was deserving of the win.

Thresh, who is always a gentleman, has been on top for a long time and has lots of players lining up for matches against him. He is hunted like the fastest gun in the west with a lot of sharpshooters trying to be "the new kid in town". Players just wanted to say that they played / fragged / got beat by the best. Now they'll have dreams of beating him too. Just as Thresh rebounded to beat Reptile twice (including dm6 where Reptile is god) in the finals to win the PGL Championship, he'll rebound from this and continue his reign as the best Quake player in the world.

DeathRow Wins T3 Finals
DeathRow has defeated Unforgiven (U4) in the finals of the (seemingly never ending) Mpog T3 Tournament. DeathRow won two out of three matches by scores of 46-82, 92-53, and 147-29. Demos are available at this ftp site. It's a busy site but well worth the wait as they even have some 1st person pov demos there including 2 Thresh demos. My pal Jarlaxle, who was at SlamSite in L.A. to watch the finals live, should have a huge update on his page in the next day or two. Meanwhile, you can read all the coverage and interviews on The Cyber Sports Network, and PlanetQuake as well. Congrats to DeathRow and Unforgiven (great clan name) on the way both played and the sportsmanship shown.

QPD Upsets DC To Win UKCL Championship
Quake Police Department upset (from my point of view) Demonic Core to win the United Kingdom Clan League Season 2 Championship. DC won the first leg of the UKCL finals by a score of 218-211 and QPD took the second leg 214-108 to win by aggregate scores. Congrats to Cenobite, Timber and the rest of QPD on the victory.

I don't make excuses for any Quake clan but, DC were missing their four best players in the match. Any clan that plays a championship match without truly great players like Sujoy, Danold, Carnage and Jibsta would surely be hurt by their absence.

Note: I had a very hard time finding info about the final match. There wasn't any mention of this on the QPD home page, DC home page, News From The Front or BluesNews Quake news sites regarding this. Strange indeed.

id Software Announces Q2 Point Release
John Carmack (head honcho at id Software) announced Friday that the long awaited Quake 2 point release should be available in less than two weeks. It will include many of the things that should have been included with the original product. (don't get me started on this) The point release will fix many bugs, support team play and include deathmatch levels. (It's about damn time!)

New Quake Done Quick Lite Released
The Quake Done Quick guys have done it again. Known for their outstanding nightmare speed runs of Quake, this release is Quake Done Quick Lite. Finishing the complete Quake at skill 0 in 14:06. Thus lowering their previous time by 2:29. There is a Movie Version (1.92 MB) and a Regular Version (1.21 MB). If you download the movie version, you can get this Regular Version Upgrade (1.04 MB) and use their nice menu system to view both. I recommend getting the movie version and the upgrade. They have a good story in the movie version along the lines of the movie "Jingle All The Way". The little girl's name in the QDQ movie is "Casie Steves" which of course is a take-off on Killcreek's real name "Stevie Case". :)

Who's The Best Quake Clan?
Unfortunately, we may never know. Jarlaxle is making some bold statements on his page regarding the T3 Finals on Jan. 24th. The two clans in the T3 final will be Unforgiven (U4) against DeathRow. Jarl's comments were that the winner would be "simply the best". Pretty strong words, runt! (stolen from Back to The Future III) There are a few people that might have something to say about that comment. Most notably, myself and a couple of clans from the UK. You see, January 24th is also the day that the United Kingdom Clan League (UKCL) finals are to be held. The two clans in the UKCL finals are Demonic Core and Quake Police Department. Both DC and QPD boast all-star line-ups that can crush most others.

Wouldn't it be nice if somebody could hold a tournament that invited the best clans in the world and not just from the USA. Perhaps the UKCL champs could be flown to New York or L.A. to have a competition. Better yet, have the T3 winners flown to London and let them see what it's like to play Quake after drinking "real" beer. :)

Quake II DM Conversions
Seems as though people can't get enough of the original deathmatch maps from Quake. Never having too much of a good thing, you can visit the DeathMatch Classics Home Page. A nice site filled with lots of Quake DM maps that have been converted to Quake 2 DM maps. They even have screenshots and reviews for each level.

Quake II Mission Pack Coming Soon
Todd Hollingshead (President of id Software) announced yesterday that id Software will be releasing Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning. The mission pack will be developed by Xatrix Entertainment and published by id Software. The pack will include new levels, new weapons (we still haven't mastered the Q2 weapons) and new enemies. It will also include some specially designed 32 player deathmatch levels. Scheduled release date is March, 1998.

Quake II v3.1 Patch Released
id Software has released Quake 2 v3.10 Patch (1.14 MB) on their ftp site. This version fixes quite a few bugs since the previous bug fix version a few days ago. (gee, you'd think they would have them all fixed by now) Two words of caution here, you can't load saved games from previous Quake 2 releases and you can't connect to a server unless they're running the same version you are.

Season's Greetings
I hope everybody had a safe and happy holiday season.

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