News Archives from August, 1998

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Wake Up With Java
I'm sure you've noticed it already. For those that aren't awake, the new Java contents menu was posted last night. For anybody that can't use it, you can always use the navigation bar at the bottom of every page.

I'm positive that once you use it for a while, you'll love how easy it is to navigate to any page on the site. It's been tested with every browser I know of but, if you have any "real" problems with it, please e-mail me and let me know.

Quake Mental Hospital Opens Doors
Oh my! The QMH has opened it's doors for all you sick people. The page is the rantings of UK Quake player and QMH resident, Paul2. Now, here's some stuff you need to know before visiting the page.

• The QMH is authored by UK Quake player Paul2
• The page content is the sole responsibility of Paul2
• If you don't have a sense of humour, don't visit the page
• Take (almost) everything he says with a grain (or more) of salt
• None of the opinions on the page are mine (well, most aren't :)
• There is swearing on the page (lots of it)
• Paul2 insults everybody and he'll insult you soon. Just deal with it
• The E-Mail addy listed on the page actually works (I thought it was fake too)
• If you have any problem with the content on the page, send e-mail to Paul2 and not me

Gee, is that enough of a disclaimer? Anyway, go take a look if you dare. Some of the stuff is pretty funny including his interview with Thresh. For some reason, I get the feeling that it wasn't the real Thresh he was talking to. :p

The Ritual Empire Strikes Back
In my last update, I was lamenting the fact that Ritual were wasting their (and our) time by making patches for the beta demo version of SiN. After that posting I received an e-mail from one of the Ritual guys with some explanation.

He asked that I didn't post the information in the e-mail on the site so I won't do that. The point he wanted to make was that Ritual had a lot of outside help in making (what I called) the "silly" decisions regarding the SiN demo. Oh, did I mention that game is being published by Activision? <cough>

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• Setup and posted the new Java menu
• Setup and posted the new Quake Mental Hospital page (heaven help us)

Latest Unreal Patch
The new patch for Unreal Beta v2.16 has been released. Tim Sweeney gives the low-down on what the patch offers. He says.. "Improved play on low-bandwidth connections (still not the ultimate, but it's a step in the right direction)". Still sounds a bit flaky to me but it's worth a try. You can download it from the Unreal Download Site.

Here's a bit more info on the new version:

The new patch is available for download here, along with a summary of improvements and known problems. While this version contains a lot of fixes and better infrastructure, the low-bandwidth Internet play still isn't where we want it to be. Bandwidth usage is improved by about 20% over version 209.

Levels, gameplay mods, and networking should be nearly 100% compatible between all existing Unreal patches (200 through 216). Server administrators should upgrade to 216 immediately, because it's much more stable than previous versions, uses 1/3rd the memory, and supports the new server querying interface.

SiN Patch for Patch?
Ritual is not the smartest company in the world and their latest moves prove that they could use a dose of reality. Here's the chronology of idiotic events.

• Ritual released a demo of SiN. Perfect, that's all that needs to be done before the official game is released. Good job guys.
• Ritual announced they would be releasing a patch for the demo of SiN. WTF? No, no, no. Don't bother patching demos, just get the info you need to fix it for the final product.
• Ritual releases 11 MB patch for the SiN demo. How stupid is this? It's a huge waste of time and they should be concentrating on the full game.
• Just to top this off, the 11 MB patch doesn't work if you've changed "any" original files. This includes things like the "autoexec.cfg" file. LOL
• Lastly, today Ritual released a patch to enable the install of the previous patch for the beta demo release.

Okay Ritual, that's enough silly stuff, now get back to doing real work. :)

Screwed Up Again
In my last update, I mentioned that "I thought" the IE 4 graphics on the QPD home page were done by Ving. I was wrong. I should've known that they were done by web dude extraordinaire, Spirit. Good job.

Duke Nukem 4 Update
Scott Miller from 3D Realms made the following comments when asked what cool things were going to be included in Duke4Ever.

"If I told you and you printed it, then Valve, id, ION Storm, Epic and Ritual would all realize how hopeless their situation is! Really, though, we have a handful of groundbreaking ideas in DNF that will set the new high bar for future FPSs to jump over. I've played the OEM version of Valve's Half-Life, and it's the only non-3D Realms 3D action game I've seen that even comes close to some of the coolness we're putting into Duke."

Let's hope Duke's bite is better than it's bark.

Vigilance Demo Released
Vigilance, the lastest, greatest 1st person shooter demo has been released. I was going to download it but my modem gagged when it saw that it was 57 Megs. You can download it here.

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• Uploaded 1 demo to the Quake Demos page

QMH Almost Here
Mothers, hide your children! I just received the first update for the Quake Mental Hospital page. Whoa! I guess it goes back to the old line, "Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it".

When I started thinking about adding another page to the site, I thought that I would want somebody who would talk about the Quake world and really speak what's on their mind. Well, I think I've found that person.

In what was just a "rough draft", the writer managed to insult 8 Countries and tons of Quake players and swore more times than I could count. Needless to say, It's definitely an adults only page. Anyway, it should be posted on October 1st. Heaven help us all.

Buy PGL Stuff
The Professional Gamers League has opened up a store where you can buy some cool clothes like shirts, caps and even jockey shorts (I hope they're not pre-worn underwear). If you want to do some shopping, you can do it at this site.

Spookie's Babes
Ever wonder what's on Spookie's mind? Look no further. :) If you thought that I had Quake Babes™, check out "The Spookie Side" as today's update is a babefest. He even has a brush with greatness in this update.

Another Quake 3 Logo
After posting a cool Q3 logo the other day, StresS sent along this cool Q3 logo. Make sure you check it out. I may even use this one as my wallpaper if it stretches okay.

QPD Stuff
In what seems like I'm doing promotion for the UK Quake clan, QPD, here's a few tidbits of information for you.

Ceno Borked?
QPD-Cenobite sent along word that I screwed up when I linked his site the other day. Here's the proper link for "Cenobite's Sanctuary". Sorry about that M8.

QPD Hits The Big Time
UK Quake Clan QPD has been featured as "Clan Of The Month" in the latest edition of the UK version of PC Gamer magazine. You can see the entire article here.

More QPD Stuff
If you use Internet Explorer v4.x, head over and see all the cool graphics on QPD's web site. There's some cool stuff to see there. I'm not sure but, I think the IE compatible graphics were done by Ving. Great job! If you don't run IE 4, you don't need to visit because it's just another rarely updated clan site. :)

Site Stuff

• Spookie updated "The Spookie Side". It's a babefest!
• Started work on the QMH page. It should be ready to go on Oct. 1st.
• I'll do an update for Methos .plan file when I'm more awake

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• Fixed DM3 Jumps demo on the Quake Demos Page
• Sorry, too tired to do a news update aside from all the stuff in the .plan file.

Java Menu A Success
The Java menu test (on this page) seems to be a success. Of the 100+ e-mails I received, only 1 person had an actual problem with any kind of Java error and they were running a browser I've never heard of before. There were about 10 complaints that it didn't look good and the other 90 or so thought it was great. It only loads a 12k applet and reads the data from a 2k text file so the loading is fast. I'll probably change the color before I post it though.

I'll say one thing about it, it makes it 100 times easier to change any page on the site than it does with the contents menu now. Also, you can get to any page on the site immediately. That's pretty cool not having to click on a page to get to another. A good example are the Interview and Archive pages which are shown with a click of the mouse.

New ClanRing Mod Released
Mpog has released the new ClanRing Mod v4.10 available on their ftp site. Long considered the premier Clan mod available, you can download it here.

Medusa On Hold
I've been waiting for ages to see Medusa's new column on OGR as they're always entertaining to read. Her next article was to be about many things including the 9vsDR tourney (ahh, memories) and many other things. However, I was informed by Medusa last night that OGR was sold and that all columns have been put on indefinite hold. :-(

Quake III Logo?
Found a site that had some proposed Q3 logos. Most were pretty lame but, here's the best of the bunch.

Click for larger picture

Half Life OEM Version
A legal version of the Half-Life Preview can be downloaded now. Check it out, it's a very cool game. (it's not Quake though :-)

System Shock 2 Stuff
For those of you that remember the game System Shock, you'll be happy to know that System Shock 2 is on it's way. What started out as just another Doom clone became one of the best games of all time. It was also true to it's name as your system went into shock when it saw the incredible (at the time) system requirements. SS2 promises to be bigger and better and I'm sure it will tax our computers even more than the last one did.

"System Shock 2 utilizes an enhanced version of Looking Glass Studios' proprietary Dark Engine, which is being used in Thief: The Dark Project, to create an immersive role-playing world rendered in 16-bit color with colored and dynamic lighting models. The game will also contain advanced role playing features including character generation and growth, an elegant inventory system, a science fiction world to explore and a unique multiplayer mode."

Quake II Dolls
Just imagine your sweet little 6 year old daughter opening her presents at Christmas and getting the crap scared out of her. From the "let's make more money than we need" category, id Software is releasing Quake 2 action heroes (collectibles) that will be available before the holiday season. Hmm, I hope they don't release the dolls too soon. We all know what happened last year with Quake 2 when it wasn't finished. :-)

Just so you don't have to worry about the environment, id guarantees that they're made from "100 percent recycled Space Marines". LOL

Hoony Set To Return?
Hoony from Challenge.AU contacted me a couple of days ago to let me know how he was doing. He mentioned that he'll be back on-board with us in the future and that he has some cool plans for his site. I guess the sand and surf must be getting too much and he's tired of having a life.

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page
• Uploaded 5 demos to the Quake Demos page
• Removed 1 demo from the Quake Demos page
• Spookie informed me that he will be updating "The Spookie Side" on Friday (uh-huh)
• Finished working on the Java menu (added ugly colors)

Java Menu Test Page
I have put up the test version of the new Java contents menu on this page. Go take a look and let me know what you think. When you send me e-mail, make sure you let me know what browser you're using and what video resolution you use.

Quake Mental Hospital
I've been incredibly busy with Real Life™ lately and the site has been needing a shot in the arm. I've also been lacking in keeping up with the "grass roots" of the UK Quake scene. Spookie does the USA point of view (when he actually updates :p) so, to remedy this, I have enlisted the help of a great Quaker. A true man among men who has his finger on the pulse of the UK Quake scene.

Well, okay, Tyro was busy and the guy I got to help was the only one who agreed to write a page and didn't already have a Quake site. :) Anyway, the "Quake Mental Hospital" page will open around October 1st and I guarantee that it will be entertaining.

Cool Plan Update
Well, after I posted a day in the life of Methos a week ago, I read Scott Miller's .plan update today and his life is much more exciting than mine. He went to London for ECTS and caught a movie with Sean Connery, then to Finland for lots more fun and games. Ah, the life of the rich.

UK WDT Site Opened
Cenobite sent along word that the new "ClanUK" site for the World DeathMatch Tournament (or whatever it will be called) was opened on Friday. If you want to see what kind of team they're building, go take a look. Of course, if you're in the UK and you want to be on the team, there's a place on the site to apply. Hmm, I wonder if they would accept a transplanted llama Quake player?

Methos Wants In The WDT
Speaking of the WDT, I want to get involved with the Canadian entry but, I can't find out who to contact. If anybody knows of a contact list available for the WDT, let me know. Also, if anybody knows how I get on the WDT mailing list, you can send me some e-mail and let me know that too. Thanks in advance.

Another Quake Babe
I wasn't going to post this Quake Babe™ but, I figured I would post it anyway. This is Smoke from Clan Mop. She's from Clearwater Florida. As listed on the clan page, her favorite comment is "You want a piece of me? Coma and get it!" Oh, one more thing, she's only 16 years old. :)

[NF]Proxy v0.4 Released
KeyBuzz sent along word that the latest version of the Nitro Force QuakeWorld proxy has been released. You can download it Here. It seems like a very nice program and (imo) better than the Cheapo proxy and almost as good as Qizmo. It's also Free!

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• Posted the "Test Page" for the site Java menu, check it out
• Word from Spookie that he will update "The Spookie Side" on Tuesday
• The QMH should open on October 1st
• I have a couple of demos to post on the Quake Demos page, I'll post them tomorrow

Another Update At Last
As promised, here's the update that I mentioned yesterday. I noticed Heksen at Clanscene said I had been a bit inactive lately so I had to do something about it. :)

Speaking of Clanscene, why is it that whenever Heksen mentions my site, he never puts a link to it like he does for all other sites? I always thought it was common courtesy to help each other out. I even put some nice words on the .plan page a couple of weeks ago about him and his site. Oh well.

Rainbow 6 Reviews?
At last count, there are approx. 17 million links to Rainbow 6 game reviews on BluesNews. Who said Blue was getting a bit stale these days? :p

New Menu System for Methos?
I've been working on a new contents menu for the site. This one will be a site navigation type menu to replace the one on the left page. The one concern I have is that I'm doing this one in Java which is something I was trying to avoid. I'll post a test page in a few days to see what people think of it.

Brian Hook Gives The Lowdown
After 9 months of people complaining that Quake 2 just doesn't have the same "feel" as Quake, Brian Hook from id Software has finally let people know what the deal is. Brian had this to say on Thresh's Frontline a few days ago.

"The control lag that has been so heavily attacked is not because of the 10Hz sampling rate. The client side prediction effectively nullifies any deleterious effects from the reduced sample rate. When most people feel "control lag" it is due to two things: weapon fire lag and sound lag. Weapon fire is not predicted in Quake II, which means that an average of 50ms elapse before you get any visual feedback that your weapon has fired. Also, sounds are not predicted at all, so there is an average of 50ms lag before a sound is played. Both of these are disconcerting for some, and it is something that is addressed in Q3."

That should put an end to all the Q2 players thinking that all the Quake players were just making excuses for not switching to Quake 2. We may be stubborn but, at least we're not stubborn about this. :)

Barryworld Swallows Llamanet (burp!)
The UK based mega-Quake server hosts Barrysworld has officially announced the buy-out of Llamanet. All the Llamanet sites (including Methos Quake and Sujoy.com) will soon become official members of the Barrysworld empire.

I've known about the take-over of Llamanet from the beginning but I was sworn to secrecy. I'm sure there'll be a few changes but, I'll wait until I get the "official" BW welcome and instructions e-mail on what they are recommending for the old Llamanet sites. Hmm, I wonder if DBs is really a tyrant like everybody says he is? :p

AirQuake Moves
I was going to announce this in my last update but I forgot. The Australian Quake 2 News site called AirQuake has moved to this address. Go there for all your Quake 2 needs.

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page
• Still working on the new "left" Java menu

Lack Of Updates
Sorry about the lack of updates, work has been very busy lately. I'll do a big update after I get home from work Thursday evening.

Bad, Bad News
Some days just suck when it comes to running a Quake news site. This seems like one of those days. I'll only do a small update today as nothing more needs to be added.

Long time German Quaker Randemarr has at least temporarily quit playing Quake. Now, I'm sure you've heard this before about many players but, I can assure you that this is serious personal stuff. Randemarr has always been a classy player and his leaving has nothing to do with Quake. I wish him the best and hope that he's back with us soon.

On to the other "bad" news. People need to read the fine print when they visit Quake sites. I visited Challenge.AU this morning and noticed a small blurb at the end of his Monday posting that surprised me. It said the following.

"I'm also going to take the opportunity to take a break from doing the news at Challenge.AU - I want to play some Quake! This will also give me more time to concentrate on some new plans and ideas. So, see you in a bit. Don't know when or where."

Apparently I was the only one that noticed Hoony saying that he wasn't going to be around for a while. I sent him a message asking "What's going on?". Hoony responded with the following except for a few lovey-dovey parts that were edited out.

"Hi Ray, I'm not surprised that you're the only one who noticed :P

I need to play some Quake. Really, my computer was doing shocking stuff - similar to lagging up except it even did it when I was watching a demo! It meant I was unable to play Quake without getting really frustrated. So last night I trashed the HD, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a break from the daily news.

Also, I'm tired and I need a break from 3 hour updates every night. I've been feeling a bit stale lately, and then there are all those other sites out there that are now covering the European scene. International Quake is no longer "new". I kind of feel like my job is done in introducing it to Australians and in promoting certain ideas. I'm now thinking of totally reinventing myself - maybe to focus on events like the Duel Tourney. And I want to play a lot more Quake.

But who knows? I'll take a break and see. Maybe the urge to comment on something will drag me back to update the page before the week is up. Maybe I'll switch to a weekly format. Right now, however, I can't do much until I get everything set-up again anyway.

But I'm not leaving Quake - far from it. Just deciding what would be the best way to go forward from here."

Hmm, well Richard, you're a good man and a good friend. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon and you'll be flogging your opinions every day, much the way that I do. Go out and find yourself, discover your reasons to live, find your passion for life and love. Err umm, nevermind. Just hurry and get back to posting after you take your break. I'm sure I speak for most of the Quake community when I say that, we'll miss you. Hurry back bud. :)

Ultimate Quake Poll 2?
Hmm, there's been strange rumblings about a second Ultimate Quake Poll being done next month. I'll have to check with my people and get back to you on this. Right now, I can't confirm or deny this rumor. :p

Cheating Revisited
After my posting yesterday in regards to the mail I received from Exi, I received a few more letters. One was from Exi himself saying that I had painted him as a cheater. Just to clarify, I wasn't commenting on Exi, I was commenting on the general attitude of cheaters and the degree with which they cheat.

Regarding the "what kind of drugs are these people on?" comment. Try looking at it this way. If you rob a bank, does it make a difference whether you steal $100 or $1,000,000? It's not as severe a crime but it's still robbery and still illegal.

The comments saying "I do it because everybody else does it", is BS. Our job is to stop the people doing it and not think that it's okay to cheat because the rest of your clan does it.

The bottom line is this. Cheating should be stopped no matter what form it's in or how serious you may consider it. Any modification that gives an advantage to one player is cheating. Let's just stop all the cheating and let the players win games on talent.

Watching Demos
The caliber of demos coming in lately has been minimal. I'm sure there are some "great" demos out there. If you have some, let me know.

I was watching some demos I found on Challenge.AU last week from the 16 player Aussie tournament. The talent of the players is good but, like many tournament matches, that doesn't always translate into a great demo. Also the fact that they played a lot of the matches on non-id levels is a bit of a pain. The levels they used may be common place to a lot of players but, they're certainly not popular maps around the world.

I also watched the DM4 demo with players from Indonesia and Afghanistan. Even though Kane and Timber don't have to start worrying about losing any glory they might have achieved, it's great to see players from these countries involved in Quake. Before Quake, we never would've seen anything like this. Cool stuff.

Quake 2 Proxy?
Does anybody out there know of a Quake 2 proxy used for %1 location commands? The proxy wouldn't be required for connection purposes, just for clan play. I know that there's one included with the CTF add-on but, this one wouldn't be used for CTF. I sent a message to Zoid but he didn't respond. If anybody knows a Q2 proxy, let me know. (thanks)

Oh, and for the record, this isn't for me, it's for a friend who's in a Q2 clan. Also, Q2 still sucks!  :-)

Sujoy Gone Forever?
It pains me to see it but, Sujoy has gone over to the dark side. Being a long time proponent of "natural Quake" (well, actually it's natural QW), Sujoy has sunken to new lows in his transition to using GL plus all the toys. Here is a brief chronology of events that Sujoy has been involved with since taking the plunge.

9/09/98 - Today I've made the switch to GL and fov 120... god save us all!
9/11/98 - Damn! I'm starting to enjoy playing in GL with fov 120. Switching back to fov 90 or software is horrible and I've only been using this setup for a couple of days!
9/12/98 - I've done a complete overhaul on my config to go with my new setup. Gone are the manual weapon changes as I'm opting for the sleek auto choosers. I've got a best weapon bind on my left mouse button but with no lightning gun. Best weapon on the right button but with no rocket launcher. A separate key for grenades, and a snipe mode for long distance shotgunning. Just for good measure I have a underwater fire button too. It's going to take me a little while to get used to it all, but I've already found that not having to think about weapons gives me more room to think about the game.

My god, it's actually worse than I thought it was. Please, we must stop this madness before it's too late. If you see Sujoy and he's coherent enough to understand something other than speech containing "SET SST_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0" or similar, please ask him to return to the Sujoy we all know and love. (err umm, well, you know what I mean) If this keeps up, the next thing you'll see is DaNoLd using crosshairs which would surely be the end of Quake as we know it. Oh, the horror. :p

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page

Quake II v3.19 Released
From the better late than never category. Q2 v3.19 was released a couple of days ago. You can download the Quake II 3.19 patch (2.4 MB) or the full Quake II v3.19 with DM maps (10.6 MB).

Swiss Quake Cheese
elK send along word of of a Lan Tourney in Switzerland called SwissCon 98. You can read all about it on this site.

You can also visit this site for Wireplay Quake News etc.

Sujoy And Cheating
After I posted the article last week regarding what Sujoy had to say about cheating, I received many e-mails in return. This particular e-mail from Exi peaked my interest. Since it's rather long, I have edited out a few parts.

"Sujoy is not educated about Quake models and skins much. By the word "hacked", people usually mean hacked maps or different player models (both not possible in QW 2.2 and later) or significantly changed other models. Bright skins on player model cannot be considered "hacked" stuff, maybe they even are not cheating, because anyone can edit their PCX skins. Well, depends on opinion of each person. And similar, different skins on any models (except player.mdl and eyes.mdl), like rockets, are not very serious kind of cheating, because they change just color of the model, not shape, and therefore cannot be called "hacked models". None of these "tricks" is a real cheat, compared to glowing player model which can be seen around corner, or maps with removed walls, or textureless maps, or big models for weapons, powerups etc.

Well, people should be more educated before writing about "hacking" and again, hacked maps and changed player models are not possible in new QW."

Umm, what kind of drugs are these people on? Cheating is cheating. If it gives you an unfair advantage over your opponent, it's cheating. If you edit anything to make your game better, it's cheating. Are we getting the point yet?

Site Stuff

• Wow, slow news day
• Updated Methos .plan file (happy Aerotus? :)

Cool Daikatana Stuff
John Romero, Un-dead President and Owner of ION Storm  has decided to keep the AI sidekicks for Daikatana implemented into the game. This brings a feature never seen before in a "major" 1st person shooter game. You will now have a friend with you to help you complete the levels / missions in the game.

Coerj Gets The Scoop
UK player Coerj has pissed me off again. Okay maybe it's just jealousy this time. Coerj was able to get a preview of Daikatana and Tomb Raider 3 the other day and has posted his thoughts on his site.

Winamp v2.0 Released
WinAmp v2.0 has been released on the Winamp Homepage so make sure you go get it. For those that don't know, WinAmp is one of the most popular MP3 players around. Oh, and it's also free. :)

BluesNews Isn't Blue
In a remarkable feat for a gaming site and what started as a personal Quake site, BluesNews reached the 20 Million hit mark yesterday. That includes the 12 million visitors in 1998 alone. Methos Quake is close to that total and should surpass it in approx. 100 years. :)

New Site To Visit
Gonzo sent along word that he has opened a new "level review site (DM only) called Gonz-O-Matic. He doesn't mention whether it's Quake 1 or Quake 2 but you can check for yourself when you visit him.

Mail Is Working Again
My buddy Gremlin dragged out his Llamanet "Thwap-O-Matic™" and fixed up the Llamanet mail server. You can now continue spamming me at http://www.methosq.com,

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page
• Answered all the e-mail that was built up on the llamanet server while I couldn't download it.
• Had such a busy day (see .plan page) that I didn't get much done on the site.
• Changed the font (again), this one looks decent while I type this. I hope it looks good when posted. (fingers crossed)

Update Coming Later
Just wanted to leave a note saying my e-mail is down (again). If you want to send me mail, sent it to methos@methosq.com for the time being. The haunchos are aware that it's done but until they do something about it, I can't get my mail. If you sent me mail in the past 24 hours, please resend it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Another Llama Interview
In a moment of weakness, Bigfoot decided to post an interview of Methos. I'm sure he'll return to his sane ways soon but, until then you can read the Methos Interview on Bigfoot's Lair. Considering I was half asleep when it was done, I thought it turned out well.

Quake Vs Q2 - Part II
Thresh has posted the 2nd part of his Quake Vs Q2 thoughts and as always, it's a fun to read. Go take a look and see if you agree with his thoughts on the subject.

Spookie Returns
After what seems like a month, hey wait, it has been a month! Spookie returns to his usual style with an off beat look at the world of Quake. Make sure you read the "Spookie Side" and see his thoughts on Quake 3 as they are umm interesting to say the least. Nice to see you back Spookie.

Aussie Quake Tourney
Make sure you visit Challenge.AU to see Hoony's coverage of the 16 player Lan tourney held this weekend. He even has a couple of demos available including one of Reload who was prominent in the best DM2 player voting on the Ultimate Quake Poll.

Genocide QuakeWorld Tournament
Billed as the "largest Quake Clan tournament ever", the Genocide QuakeWorld tournament starts tomorrow (Monday). For more information, you can check out this site.

Indiana Jones Returns
Being a huge fan of LucasArts adventure games. I was happy to see that LucasArts will be releasing "Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine" in the first quarter of 1999. Unlike previous LucasArts adventure games like the 3 Monkey Island games, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango and the 4 other Indiana Jones games, this will be the first LucasArts game that will "require" 3D acceleration. Project leader Hal Banwood who also worked on "Indiana Jones and the Fate Of Atlantis", had this to say.

"Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is a sharp departure from LucasArts’ previous Indy titles, Indiana Jones defines the very notion of action hero, perfect for a game in the real-time 3D action-adventure genre."

Being nicknamed as "Indy3D", it should be another winner from LucasArts. It will also have internet features so I guess that's what he means by a "real time" 3D adventure game.

Ceno Is Running The Show
Scottish quaker and member of the Quake Police Department Clan, Cenobite has been elected as the UK WDT Team Captain. Surprisingly, Ceno ran uncontested in the election. I thought that it would be one of 3 players from the beginning but, he was the clear favorite.

Sujoy had the following comment on Ceno being posted to the Captain's position:

"Personally I'm sure that he's going to make a good job of it, although I can certainly see some upsetting decisions ahead."

Congrats to Ceno, let's hope the UK team he picks will be the best representation that the UK has to offer.

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page
• Spookie updated his "Spookie Side" and it's a good read.
• Quakefinger server is down right now, it should be fixed soon.
• Moved the Ultimate Quake Poll link to the Quake's Best Players page
• Changed the font back to the original on this page, left the larger font on Methos .plan page.

Cheating and More Cheating
Hmm, last month everybody was talking about 9vsDR and the Ultimate Quake poll. This month, the hottest topic by far is the cheating in QW. Not that cheating is new, it's been there all along. I think people are just getting tired of it and they want it stopped. Since my last posting on cheaters, I've seen lots of postings on other sites and I've received lots of e-mail detailing players and clans that cheat. Now comes the ethical part. Do I say who has been seen cheating or do I just generically mention that these cheaters exist in QW?

What do I consider cheating? Better yet, what do you consider cheating? It's a tough question to answer because there is such a range of of cheating. There are minor cheats which most people tend to accept all the way up to the major cheats like aimbots.

I've said the same thing all along. If an alteration to the game gives a player an unfair advantage over his/her opponents, it's cheating. This basically includes the entire gambit from timers to aimbots.

Now, what to do about this? The WDT will have a tough time with cheating in the regional tourneys. If I saw a person cheating in any way, I would ban that person from competing in the WDT and possibly even ban their clan too.

Is this too harsh? In my opinion, no it isn't. A player has to be responsible for their own actions and if they're caught cheating, they have to pay whatever penalty has been assigned to that particular crime.

Rattling Bones
I was reading what Hoony at Challenge.AU had posted yesterday regarding the Australian leagues allowing the use of the v_kick command. He was reluctantly accepting this rule and made the following comments which made me laugh quite a bit:

"It's like turning the bass off on your stereo so that your bones don't rattle when you turn the volume up. It's like walking round in life wrapped up in a huge cotton-wool bud. v_kick makes the game more realistic and adds depth of feeling to the game."

Now Hoony, think about what you're saying here. Unlike all the young punks in Quake, you and I are old gits and our bones can't take the rattling like they use to. And as far as wearing a "huge cotton-wool bud", self preservation is the only way to go when you get as old as we are. Start acting your age man!  LOL (oops, I think I just got kicked from #quake :p)

Thresh Ponders QII
In Thresh's latest Frontline article, he takes a close look at why he prefers Quake over Quake 2. He basically says all the same things that myself and others have been saying for quite a while but it's a good read. Hmm, and he gets paid to talk about these things? Where did I go wrong?  :-)

Reality Bites
John Cash, who is one of the really nice guys in Quake, was dealt a bad hand last Sunday with the news that his mother (Mrs. Susan Mae Essig Anderson) had passed away at the age of 53. My condolences go out to John and his family during this sad time.

Quake II: Mission Pack 2
The Quake 2 mission pack, Ground Zero went gold today and should be in stores by September 12th. All new bad guys, 14 levels and 10 new deathmatch levels can only help Q2 become better than it already is.

Site Stuff

• Archived the news page and the .plan page for the month of August. These pages should load much quicker now.
• Updated Methos .plan page
• Uploaded 2 clan demos to the Quake Demos Page
• Updated the "Spotlight" demo on the Quake Demos Page

IRC Blues
I had quite a few responses to the IRC Rules posting from yesterday. Most people had a hard time dealing with strict way the #Quake channel is run. The most revealing comment I received was from Ewan who said...

"you forgot to mention that all of .uk is banned, as is Barrysworld.com, and most other European countries have been banned at one time or another :)"

Lady Quake Marines
Since I went to the trouble of posting the pictures of Smile, I should have posted a link to their site. Go and visit the Lady Quake Marines site. If you don't, I'm sure they'll send a squadron out after you.

Quake Cheating
Cheating is the topic of the week on many venues. Sujoy posted an article on his site regarding it and the WDT. Sujoy was very diplomatic on his site but, in the UK mailing list, he spoke his mind and gave all the details we want to hear. Here are a few of the things he mentioned.

• In Denmark I saw SK-Metzgerr's setup and he had *everything* hacked.
• The Dane's had a similar kind of thing.
• In Sweden they even had substitute one-colour maps for all the regularly played levels.

It would be nice if all the servers would use strict checking of all maps, models, weapons and anything else they can find. These cheats wouldn't be so bad if everybody used them but, to get beaten by person using them would make me a bit ticked off.

Impulse 98
Received word from Hillary of Clan SoQ asking me to mention that Impulse 98 web site is now up. Impulse 98 is Australia's "largest and most prestigious PC gaming event". Make sure you go and take a look.

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page
• Slow Quake day today
• I'll archive the news and the .plan file tomorrow for the month of August. God knows the news page is huge after the busy month and certainly one of the best months of Quake that I've seen.

IRC Rules Too Much?
Was browsing around the net and found a site that had the IRC Rules and Regulations for the #Quake channel on what I believe is Effnet (it doesn't say). Anyway, the rules on this server or more specific, by the ops of this channel are amazing. Here are a few of the things that will get you kicked and/or banned:

• Saying "LOL" or "ROTFL" (hmm)
• Saying the same thing 3 times in 3 minutes
• Asking for Quake game server IP's
• Discussing clans and clan activities (wtf?)
• Netcom, AOL and Compuserve IP's are already banned
• Using colors will kick you then ban you the next time
• Joining and parting without saying anything (a few times)
• Using all caps in your alias (not typing in caps)
• Changing your /nick more than once
• Using !seen more than once gets you kicked

These are just some of the rules that I found for this channel. To me, these seem to go quite a bit overboard. What do you think? The complete list of rules can be seen here.

New Quake Babe™
Well, it's time for another Quake Babe™ as it's been a while since I posted the picture of Lava Goddess. This time around, it's Smile from the Lady Quake Marines. You can tell she's a marine by the tattoo on her right bicep. :)

Smile

If you'd like to see more of Smile, you can also look at this picture. As with all Quake Babes™, I have sent out my traditional marriage proposal. Hmm, I wonder why they never accept my sincere offer? :p 

As always, if you have a picture of a female Quaker (sorry Bigfoot), e-mail it to me with a brief description. I'll be happy to post it.

Methos Quake Busy?
The month of August is over and Methos Quake finished with more than twice the hits of any previous month. Two things in particular caused this increase in popularity. The first was the incredible popularity of the 9vsDR matches. The second was the success of the Ultimate Quake Poll.

I'll take this moment to graciously thank all the people that visited Methos Quake over the past few months. The success of any site depends on it's visitors. For the Quake players and Quake fans that have been there from the beginning, Thank You.

What Do You Want To See Today?
Quake and gaming sites have been in question lately. The bottom line is what the visitors want. What do you want to see on a Quake web site? Large sites like Bluesnews have changed quite a bit over the last while. Blues has stepped away from the "grass-roots" of Quake and changed to a shadow of what it was before. Is this good or bad?

sCary has done a similar thing with his site too. When I go to sCary's site, I'm more interested in his rantings, demos, suckage etc. than I am with his game reviews, hardware reviews and general coverage. How do you feel about this?

Opposite to these kind of sites are personal web sites that are Quake based. People don't go to these sites for the latest news or benchmark tests. They visit to see what the person running it has to say. These sites can be good and bad but always seem to be interesting and a good read. As I mentioned the other day, these people seem to be closer to the "grass-roots" of Quake.

Fortunately, we have tons of Quake sites to visit so we can read many points of view and see almost anything we want. However, now comes your part. Why do you visit Quake sites? What do you want to see on Quake sites?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Hardware reviews (benchmarks etc)
• Clan information
• Tournament information
• Game reviews (other than Quake)
• Quake demos
• Interviews
• Gerneral Quake news
• Opinions, ranting, views etc
• Other clan and site links
• Game demos
• Match scores and screenshots / rankings
• Quake player profiles and info

Your mission, should you accept it... Send me e-mail and let me know what you want to see on a Quake site. Everybody will have different preferences but it will be good to get a general idea.

Private to Hoony
I saw the mention on Challenge.AU regarding my sex life. I only have one thing to say to that. Umm, on second thought, nevermind. Keep up the good work Hoony. :)

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