| Monday, December 28th, 1998 |
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New PlayStation Owner? Did you get PlayStation for Christmas? Feel lost or confused? Well don't worry, because IGNPSX has put together "PlayStation For Dummies", a one-stop resource guide for new PSX owners. This guides covers hooking the sytem up, understanding those icons on the back of game boxes, and some suggestions for cool hardware such as the Dual-Shock controller and the DexDrive. Check it out! New For '99 If you look closely at the sidebar (left), you'll notice a few key changes. Stay tuned, because several important sections will be in place to ring in the new year and the rapidly approaching release of Quake II on PlayStation. Keep an eye out... |
| Friday, December 25th, 1998 - |
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Merry Christmas!!!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a healthy and happy holiday season. Enjoy whatever holiday you're celebrating and make safety your top priority. I gotta get to bed, I think Santa just landed on my roof! Peace out! - DBS |
| Wednesday, December 23rd, 1998 |
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Quake 2 in PS Extreme Quake II has a two page spread in the latest issue of PS Extreme. It includes several new screenshots, including a two-player deathmatch split-screen screen shot. Everything mentioned about the game in the article appeared to positive, which is a great sign since the game is nearing completion. Big up to -Water Rat- for the news tip. Top Peripherals of 1998 IGNPSX has compiled a list of the "Top Peripheral of 1998". The list inlcuded the highly acclaimed DexDrive, the Intersor vibrating chair, Sony's Dual-Shock controller, and the Cool Stand, which is a cooling fan for PlayStations with that infamous heating problem. To get the full story, click here. |
| Saturday, December 19th, 1998 |
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Quake II Around The Corner? According to Electronics Boutique, it is. While Christmas shopping on Thursday I stopped by EB and checked out the release date list. According to this list, Quake II is suppossed to be coming out on 01/05/99 for the PlayStation! This is a full month and a half ahead of the projected release date of 02/19/99. This date seems a bit off for a few reasons:
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| Tuesday, December 15th, 1998 |
DexDrive Giveaway
Can't wait for Christmas to get a DexDrive? Than you'll be happy to hear that
IGNPSX is giving away five (5) DexDrives
to celebrate the holidays. All you have to do send an e-mail to editors_psx@ign.com,
and include the following items: Your full name, phone number, mail address, and a 50 word or
less paragraph on why you want a DexDrive. At the end of this week, the five lucky winners'
names and paragraphs will be posted on IGNPSX. After
you win your DexDrive, rembember to come back here for some Quake 2 game saves!
Quake 2 Action Figures There was a small blurb in the most recent issue of Game Pro on the upcoming Quake II Action Figures. Here's the juice:
Resauraus' Quake II figures have been progressing nicely since our sneak peak at the sketches. Prototypes have been completed, painted, and approved by id; expect to see figures for both male and female marines, the Iron Maiden, the Barracuda Shark, and others on store shelves in January 1999. |
| Wednesday, December 9th, 1998 - Happy Birthday Quake II!!!!! |
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Happy Birthday Quake II!!!!! That's right. Exactly one year ago today, on 12/09/97, Quake II was released for the PC. In a year this game has spawned numerous mods, levels, TC's, commercial products (like my nifty mouse pad :) and ofcourse, a console version for the Sony PlayStation. It's hard to believe that it's already been a year. Well, you know what they say: "Time flies when your having fun!" :) More PSX2 Details 
Word from PSXIGN (article)
is that there have been PlayStation 2 info leaks from several reliable sources: the top game
developers for the new system. Here's juice:
Fall 2000. That's when a majority of the publishers quizzed believe the machine will arrive on US shores. Capcom Entertainment President Bill Gardner offered his opinion on when we should see the new machine: "I would think that the PlayStation 2 should be announced at Toy Fair [Tokyo Game Show] in February 2000 and ship that fall." Some, like Bing Gordon, Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer for Electronic Arts, were a good deal more specific. "The next system should be released Sept. 1, 2000." Of course, the responses reflect a matter of personal opinion on the part of these companies, but they nevertheless provide keen insider insight into the overall opinion of the PlayStation publishing community one that evidently believes that PS2 will indeed stand for "PlayStation 2000." |
| Wednesday, December 2nd, 1998 |
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PSXQ2 Magazine Feature The latest issue of "PlayStation Pro" magazine has (PlayStation) Quake II as it's cover feature. There is a large feature that includes information, screenshots, and pictures of the development team that was interviewed last week at PSXIGN. Definately worth checking out... Thanks to "Otaku" for the news tip. |
| Monday, November 30th, 1998 |
Top 100 Game Sites
This site has been selected as on of InteractX's
World Top 100 Video Game Sites. All I ask is that you guys click on this image on the index page
once a day (or more if you want :) when you visit. I beleive that this site will rank high on list
if all of you guys click on it just once a day. To get started, you can click on the image to the
right. Thanks.
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| Thursday, November 26th, 1998 - Happy Thanksgiving! |
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Hammerhead Interview There is in an in-depth interview with Hammerhead Interactive, the company responsible for porting Quake II to the PlayStation, up at IGNPSX. The interview covers a variety of topics, including a brief history of the company, the deveopment of Quake II for the PlayStation, and what the company thinks is left for everyone's favorite system, PlayStation. The article can be read here. Thanks to "Millenium" for the news tip. |
| Wednesday, November 25th, 1998 |
5,000 HITS!!!!!
That was the scene on the index page a
little while ago. I'd like to thank Quake2.com for
their excellent job in hosting this site. I'd also like to thank Blue's News and
PlanetQuake for mentioning the news articles
I sent to them which hooked me up with some serious hits. Last but not least, I'd
like to thank the people who visit this site and continue to visit from time to time. Here's
to another 5000!
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| Monday, November 23rd, 1998 |
Duke World Holiday Contest
Duke World, the number one source for
Duke Nukem related information, is right in the middle of their Holiday Giveaway '98.
What can you win? Well, besides the many computer products that will be given away, one
of the highlighted prizes is a Sony PlayStation Dual-Shock system with the new PSX Duke Nukem game,
Duke Nukem: Time To Kill. To find how you can win this great prize, click here.
Preview in PSM 
The previews are starting to roll in. The latest in the new issue of PSM Magazine.
The preview had the same screenshots as the Game Pro preview I reported on earlier, and it
had just about the same positive remarks as well. The preview mentioned how fast the game was,
the quality of the graphics, and the new features in this version of the game. They applauded the
decision made by developers to change the levels in order to work with the PlayStation's
strengths and weaknesses. Once again, things are looking very good. As always, if you
know of a print (not from an online source) preview or article that I haven't mentioned yet,
please send me an E-Mail. You will receive the proper credit
if I use your info for the news.
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| Thursday, November 19th, 1998 |
Dual-Shock: The Best?????
In the most recent issue of Game Pro,
there is a special feature titled "Control This: A Game Controller Round Up".
They include a list of ten controllers which will be hot buys for the Christmas
shopping/gift giving season. Topping the list: Sony's
own Dual-Shock controller (pictured to the right). It was noted as having
the best force feedback, excellent button response, and great durability. This
is no big surprise as controllers designed by the manufacturers of the system tend
to be of a higher quality. The Dual-Shock was also the only controller on the
list to survive three (3) durability tests: Being slapshot of a wall with a
hockey stick, a cord rip test, and how well it can stand up to spilled soda.
The Dual-Shock passed all three tests with flying colors, making it the controller
of choice for your Christmas list. Many people will be looking forward to fragging with this
thing...
DexDrive One of the most interesting products coming out for the PlayStation this season is without a doubt the DexDrive by InterAct (the same company responsible for the GameShark). The DexDrive is a device that allows PlayStation gamers to put Memory Card saves onto their computer for backup. More importantly, however, is the fact that people can transfer their game saves over the internet to each other via e-mail or as a standard download on a web site. One of the best things about this product is that it brings one of PC gaming's biggest draws, the transfer of files over the internet, while obviously maintaining the control and organization of console gaming by developing a standard file name for all PlayStation game saves. You can get the whole story here or by checking out the articles section. In the meantime, here are the available screenshots: 
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| Friday, November 13th, 1998 |
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Preview in Game Pro If you turn to pg. 72 of the latest edition of Game Pro, you'll realize something very cool: a full page preview of Quake II! That's right, the console versions of Quake II are finnally starting to penetrate U.S. magazines. The preview featured some brand new screenshots, and some very postitive remarks:
First and foremost, these console games are fast. Wickedly fast. Which is the first thing Activision got right in porting Quake II onto consoles: Everybody knows that slo-mo rockets just ain't fun. And recognizing that a controller can't keep up with a keyboard/mouse combo, Activision has refined the levels to eliminate potentially frustrating situations for the controller-based console crowd, such as getting stuck in narrow corridors or battling enemies at multiple altitudes. Plus, while the single-player levels remain true to the PC version, both console versions deliver net two- and four- player split-screen deathmatches, keeping intact the multiplayer mayhem that was instrumental to the success of the original.
As far as features go, all the same weapons and enemies of the PC original will be there for gamers, which means grenade lanuchers, hyperblasters, chain guns, and more. Visually, both versions sport fast, clean, well-detailed levels along with enemies that already look awesome. Barring a last-minute stumble, Quake II is shaping up into the same kind of thrilling first-person bloodbath that made it such as huge PC hit. PlayStation 2000
Another news gem from PSXIGN: Word
on the street is that the name of Sony's next home game console will be "PlayStation 2000".
It seems like this will be the name for quite a few reasons:
With anticipation of a late November release of details surrounding the elusive super-console building to crescendo, SCEE has registered two Internet domain names that will undoubtedly get the speculative juices flowing: playstation2.com and playstation2000.com. While the former lacks the zing we'd associate with a market-dominating, cutting-edge piece of hardware, the latter certainly appears a likely possibility. After all, Sony is known for establishing solid branding with its products (Walkman, anyone?) and would be out of character to ditch such a well-known moniker as PlayStation. That said, the only logical course of action would be to tack a suffix on, and 2000 sounds just as good, if not better, than many we've heard bantered about. With this we open up another likelihood: if PlayStation 2000 is indeed the name Sony decides on, it would only make sense that the system will arrive in the year 2000. From all indications we've received, that is exactly the timeframe Sony is aiming for in all territories. Playing the role of skeptic, it can be argued that Sony might have done this for the purpose of saving itself a legal hassle, should someone acquire the domains and attempt to dispute the reverting of them to the copyright holder (Sony). It's a thought. Either way, it's intriguing. Personally, our chips are on PlayStation 2000. With the coming millennial fever in mind, and knowing Sony's keen marketing, "game machine of the new millennium" doesn't sound like such a bad tagline, now does it? |
| Tuesday, November 10th, 1998 |
PlayStation 2
According to an article
on IGNPSX, Sony has released it's
plans for the upcoming "PlayStation 2" system. It appears that it will be hiring
Toshiba to make the chipset. Here's the whole story:
The most recent edition of Japan's Nikkei Electronics Wire reports that Sony Computer Entertainment and Toshiba are jointly developing a custom chipset for use in the PlayStation 2. Comprised of a custom high-performance DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processor, this chipset will evidently provide the immense math-crunching prowess required to compute but not display the system's reported 12 million NURB (Non-uniform Rationalized B-Spline) polygons per second. According to this report, the DSP will run at 250MHz and provide the essential floating-point calculations required for math-intensive 3D graphics. It will also evidently boast hardware MPEG-2 decoding functionality, thus opening the door for DVD-Video playback. Also running at 250MHz, the RISC processor will be based on MIPS architecture not unlike that of the current PlayStation's R3000 CPU. Nikkei Electronics Wire also indicates that Sony is preparing to unveil a system based around this chipset next November, and that it may hit stores world-wide a matter of weeks later. Missing from this equation is the 3D-specific hardware that will be required to render the aforementioned mass of processing-intensive NURB polygons. While the DSP would likely be able to compute them all, it certainly isn't the square of silicon that will eventually slap them on the screen. That's where a dedicated 3D processor would come in. And it ain't here. Also nowhere to be found is the dedicated sound processor that any current-day console wouldn't be caught without. Keep in mind that Sony is known to be developing a set-top box which will utilize its own proprietary operating system and feature Internet functionality plus the ability to play DVD video discs. What we're seeing here could simply be the chipset intended for this device, and not the closely-guarded PlayStation successor. Nevertheless, this is an intriguing report. Let's just hope that what we're seeing is a sneak preview of PlayStation 2's top secret innards and not some form of glorified WebTV box. |
| Saturday, November 7th, 1998 |
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PlanetQuake Article A new article at PlanetQuake titled "The Life of Riley", discusses a very interesting topic: Why do PC programmers rely on new hardware when console programmers can improve the performance of existing systems that are 3-4 years old? This article gives some very good explanations as to why this problem exists, and also provides some very sensible solutions. A definate must read. Chat Room Up QuakeStation's newest feature: The Chat Room. This was added so visitors to this site can get an opportunity to interact with each other beyond message board posts. Everyone is welcome to try it out. And as always, comments are welcome via E-Mail. Once things are smoothed out, I will begin to schedule chats for users of the site to participate in. Keep an eye out! Winter Jam Pack The PlayStation Underground Jam Pack Winter '98 edition was just released yesterday. As always, this disc includes movies, interviews, playable demos, a codes archive, and memory card downloads. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything available on Quake II, but chances are there will be in future editions of the Jam Pack. |
| Sunday, November 1st, 1998 |
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Release Date Info According to the releases section at PSX.IGN.COM, the PlayStation version of Quake II is set to be released on 02/17/99. This date is a few months back from the original release date of 12/09/98, which is the one-year anniversary of the release of Quake II for the PC. Site Facelift If you can't already tell, the site has undergone a slight facelift. The most prominent changes are the new logo and the new look for this section, the news. Any questions, comments, suggestions, death threats, etc. are welcome. You can send them to me by E-Mail or make your thoughts public by posting them on the Message Board. In order to keep all future news updates relevant, any and all information regarding the facelift can be found in my .plan. |