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Logo contest information

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Friday, August 8, 1997
PlanetQuake's mailbag
11:56 AM EDT
Almost didn't see this, but a lot of the mail sent in to the PlanetQuake mailbag this week is about Quake 2... go check it out. Several people have made good points and expressed their opinions about various aspects of the editability of Quake 2 and the systems requirements. Slipgate

.plan Land
11:23 AM EDT
Todd Hollenshead and Paul Jaquays of id both updated their .plan files. Todd's .plan update was a "congratulations" for the recent acquisition of Raven Software by Activision........ as Todd puts it, he sees this as being a win-win situation (not his exact words, but his basic idea).

Paul Jaquays made a .plan update reflecting on GENCON, the Star Wars TC rename, and a tidbit on Quake 2 that I'll quote here regarding the story:

QUAKE 2
Nothing really new I can share on my level work ... although the communication center that I'm building is fighting back just as hard NOT to be built. R_Speeds are doing OK, but I haven't merged it into my level yet (which is already a tad too large). Looks really neat though.

Kevin Cloud has given thumbs up to the longer version of the backstory. It's onto the "Reader's Digest" verison now for the instruction manual.

Sounds like Quake 2 will have a cool story. And congratulations to Raven and Activision! Slipgate

Logo contest going well
11:06 AM EDT
So far, we've gotten LOTS of submissions..... this is great. Thanks to all the biggie news guys for mentioning it when I asked. Keep those submissions coming! On a subject of importance, we've decided that one person can make multiple logo submissions. At first we weren't sure of our position on this, but now we have decided. If you make multiple submissions, name the following ones with a number after them, like slipgate.jpg, slipgate2.jpg, slipgate3.jpg, etc. But, please still include a similarly named text file with your FULL mailing address and real name in it again, even though it is repeating already uploaded info. The logo contest page has been updated about this information. Slipgate

BootNet preview
11:05 AM EDT
BootNet has a Quake 2 preview up here, thanks to Prophet for letting me know about it. Slipgate

Thursday, August 7, 1997
Logo contest misunderstanding
10:05 PM EDT
Due to one submission improperly made, I must emphasize that your submissions for the logo contest MUST have your nickname as the filename of both the text file with your mailing address, and the logo itself. This is so we know WHO sent which logo so that the winner can claim the prize of Quake 2. Also, when we say FULL mailing address, we do NOT mean your e-mail address, we cannot ship a product to your e-mail address. We mean your actual address, where you live. You can call it "snail mail". Please, if you submitted your entry incorrectly, resubmit it, because incorrectly submitted entries cannot be considered when we judge who won. I have now emphasized on the linked logo contest information page that it must be your actual, not e-mail, address. Also, recently someone's submission suddenly disappeared, luckily I notified them and they will reupload their submission. If you have made a submission, please check to make sure it is still there or if it was claimed in that recent freak accident... if its not there reupload it. Thank you. Slipgate

Illuminati Quake 2 TC
9:34 PM EDT
Quake2.com is proud to announce that it is now host to Illuminati, a Quake 2 TC in development that will knock your socks off :). They have of course also been added to the hosted sites page. Go check it out! Slipgate

Disruptor .plan update
6:54 PM EDT
Christian "Disruptor" Antkow updated his .plan with the following information:

In a recent interview I gave for http://times.quake2.com, I reported that John Carmack had increased the worldgrid to 8000x8000x8000. I just wanted to state, that in retrospect, I misunderstood something. The worldgrid has always been 8000x8000x8000. Nothing has changed with the worldgrid size in Quake II. It's just that we're making alot more use of that real estate in our Quake II maps.

Apologies if I had confused anyone.


He also had this cool animated GIF in the .plan file:



Now that is one COOL green skull. Slipgate

Entermedia Ritual chat
6:48 PM EDT
Thought I'd mention this since it is related to my buddy Nite's 3Dx... here is an official Entermedia release regarding a cool upcoming event:

ENTERMEDIA WELCOMES RITUAL ENTERTAINMENT TO THE THEATER

On August 13th @ 7:00 PM CST, members of the SiN development team of Ritual Entertainment will be on stage at the EnterMedia iChat Theater for a special 1 hour chat session and public interview, along with an unveiling of all-new screen shots of the game! The event is sponsored by EnterMedia and 3Dx ("http://www.3dx.org"). Details will be posted on EnterMedia's Web site ("http://www.entermedia.net") over the next few days, and all questions should be sent to "theCrew@entermedia.net".

Cheers!

Martin Kozicki
Executive Content Manager
martin@entermedia.net
iPage ID: MartinK
ICQ ID: MartinK - 2273543

THE ENTERMEDIA NETWORK
212 Valley Ridge Road * Franklin, TN 37064 USA
phone: +1 615 790 1216 * phax: +1 615 831 1399
http://www.entermedia.net

Wow... cool news. Slipgate

Quake 2 preview repeat
6:47 PM EDT
I reported this before, but since Prophet reported it again, thought I may as well have this link up to this OGR preview again. Slipgate

Steve's week off
6:43 PM EDT
Steve Silva won't be able to update his Quake 2 and Duke Nukem Forever page for about a week, as he'll be offline and unable to update. Slipgate

Into the Nebula
6:39 PM EDT
Baron of MeccaWorld Quake 2 has left that site behind, and is now joining forces with Jonathan Ruff of The Nebula to bring you Quake 2 news. Thanks to Baron, Jonathan Ruff, and Prophet for informing me :). Here's the official scoop:

Baron has left Meccaworld quake2 to join me at The Nebula, he'll be doing updates and some sub-pages of interest. He would like to let everyone know he has no hard feelings toward meccaworld and was glad to be a member of their team if only for such a short time."

3 cheers for the Nebula's continued success! Slipgate

Page move
6:37 PM EDT
The Quake 2 Realm has changed URL slightly. It's still on Warzone, but now the URL is http://nailed.warzone.com/quake2/. Thanks to Jest of the Quake 2 Realm for telling me. Slipgate

Logo contest!
3:31 PM EDT
Quake2.com would like to announce a logo contest. It isn't that we hate the logo Tin made for us or anything, we love it. Let's see if you can beat it though! Here are the rules of the contest:

  • JPG or GIF file format (we don't want to have to convert it for web usage)
  • No more than 430 pixels wide and 125 pixels high (maximum X of 430 and maximum Y of 125).
  • "Quake2.com" must be prominent on the graphic somewhere.
  • The logo will not be an animated GIF (it can be a GIF, but no animation please).
  • Submissions are uploaded to ftp.quake2.com/incoming/, with two files: your logo submission, and an ASCII text file with your real name and FULL mailing address, both files with your nickname for a filename (e.g. slipgate.txt and slipgate.gif or slipgate.jpg). This is so that the person who made a logo is the one who gets credit for it, and also so that the prize can be delivered.
  • We folks on Quake2.com aren't eligible for this contest ourselves (damn!) :). This includes people we are hosting too, unfortunately, but it is open to the entire public.
  • The contest runs between today and September 25. Get your submission in by then or you are out in the cold.
  • The submissions will be judged on September 25 by 3 people, myself, Spam, and Blitz from Quake2.com.

    If you cannot figure out how to upload your submission, feel free to mail us and ask, we'll explain it to you. But don't mail us your submission, they must be uploaded to the ftp site.

    The prize for this logo contest (besides Quake2.com using your logo) is a free copy of Quake 2. It will be shipped to the full mailing address you specify in the text file with your submission. The prize won't be delivered till the game is out, of course, but I can promise you it will be delivered, completely free of charge to you (not even shipping and handling). We'd like to thank Entermedia and Activision for both sponsoring this contest. Slipgate

    To hitter #100,000
    3:29 PM EDT
    As we said before, we'd really like whoever hits 100,000 on our counter to send us a screenshot of it. Slipgate

    Pre-ordering Quake 2 redux
    12:31 PM EDT
    Alan sent me the following letter on the subject of pre ordering Quake 2, many thanks to him for giving me a ring.

    If Activision is the distributor then it is possible to order direct from them. When the mission packs came out, Activision was taking orders a couple of weeks before release. However those orders were a "back order" and would not be filled for 6 to 8 weeks. All of the first copies were for stores. It may be possible to contact Activision and get some info that way.

    Alan

    Thanks again to Alan for the info. Slipgate

    The Quake 2 Battle grounds
    12:27 PM EDT
    Check out the Quake 2 Battle Ground, a site by Douglas A. Boneparth for the game we know and love. :) Slipgate

    The Pandemonium
    12:26 PM EDT
    A good site dedicated to Quake, future upcoming games, and games already out is The Pandemonium by Garebear. Go check it out. Slipgate

    DUN 1.2
    12:22 PM EDT
    Thanks to Sharkbait for pointing out to me that there is also Dial-Up Networking version 1.2 (see news from yesterday about getting 1.1) that you can upgrade to. Included is a newer version of winsock that helps with the latency a little bit. Slipgate

    I apologize
    12:19 PM EDT
    Based on the mail I've been getting, I need to address this. I am once again sorry for two nights ago when I wrote about my day break as if I was some sort of diety. I'm sorry also for my ocassional posts that can look like a really snobby attitude. In reality I hold no snobby attitude, I just need to watch how I write things closer. To anyone at all who was offended, ever, by anything I write on this page, I extend my apology. I make a promise now to be really careful of what I say. Slipgate

    PC Gamer stuff
    12:15 AM EDT
    Well, it would be August 6 still..... anyways, earlier on August 6 (a few hours ago really) I saw the Quake 2 feature in PC Gamer magazine that sCary reported on The Shuga Shack earlier "yesterday". However, sCary wasn't entirely correct about one thing, it doesn't feature new screenshots. It's in this month's PC Gamer, go check it out, a brief (one column) mention type thing including stuff like "Pitfalls" etc. Not really new info though. I forgot to mention this earlier. Slipgate

    Wednesday, August 6, 1997
    News for commercial Quake 2 addons
    11:46 PM EDT
    I e-mailed Disruptor, mainly because I was interested in how mission packs and commercial TCs (and other commercial addons) would manage with Quake 2, given that there is CD protection. Would it be able to first require the Quake 2 CD and then give you a message "switch CDs now if you want?" or anything similar? When I e-mailed Disruptor, he told me that you just need the Quake 2 CD in the drive to start the game. After the game is started, you can change CDs, but doing so is entirely up to you. Not the elegant scenario I had in mind, but it works. Maybe the elegant scenario I have in mind can be coded into the DLL though. Slipgate

    Quake 2 pre-order info
    11:27 PM EDT
    In response to the previous update about pre-ordering Quake 2 like was done with Quake, I e-mailed Disruptor, and he told me that you'll have to pre-order AT your local computer store (in other words, reserve a copy), but beyond that, no pre-ordering mechanism like Quake has been set in place. Also, I found out letters to Paul Steed and John Carmack sent now will take a while to be replied to, as they are both heavily tied up with work. Thanks Disruptor for all the info. Slipgate

    John Cash .plan update
    11:15 PM EDT
    John Cash updated his plan, talking about ISP stuff and BRJ (barrel rocket jumping). Here it is quoted:

    We're in the process of changing ISPs right now. We will be getting a DS3 (up to 45mbps) once the fiber can get pulled in. Until then we're ruuning with two T1 lines. We're currently experiencing the new line blues. Ping times to our servers have been very bad for the past day. We are working on it and they should already be getting better. Please bear with us while we get the problems worked out.

    I've had fun with a new "feature" in Quake2 recently. Let me just say that if you like rocket jumping, you're going to love barrel rocket jumping. It's basically just a RJ off of an exploding barrel (kind of like the slime cans in Doom), but man oh man can you catch some air! The level designers are already trying to figure out good ways to reward people crazy enough to launch an explosive while standing on another one. You obviously won't be able to do this as often as you can RJ (unless we let you carry barrels around), but it sure is a cool ride when you do it. Heh. Carrying explosive barrels; can you say "shoot me"?

    Quake2 status in a nutshell: on schedule and looking great. NO, I am NOT going to name any dates.

    Current German stuff: bier! I found a local place that has 60 different German beers; a fair number of them on tap. 30 hell (light), 30 dunkel (dark)... I'm working my way down the list.


    Anyone for 45 hell? Slipgate

    Advance orders?
    10:57 PM EDT
    Steve Hextell asked me if advance orders of Quake 2 are possible, like how it was with Quake where we got it before the stores did. I'm not sure, I'll have to ask Disruptor or someone else at id. Or they might just see this page update and send me an answer, which would rule :). In either case, I plan on finding out about this and reporting on it. Thanks for the question, bud. Slipgate

    Quake 2 modem-modem
    10:56 PM EDT
    Play Quake 2 over modem by using the following steps: Go to Microsoft.com, choose "Free Software", and then get "ISDN Accelerator Pack". It includes Dial-Up Networking version 1.1 and "Dial-Up Server" which lets you pull off the same trick you can normally only do with the Microsoft Plus! pack, and will allow modem to modem play over Quake 2. Thanks Smeagol for the info. Slipgate

    Sorry!
    10:49 PM EDT
    Two things I'd like to apologize over... first, my comment last night about taking today off could be notably misinterpreted as a very snobby attitude. Secondly, I'm sorry I misspelled Ozzy Osbourne. In fact, I'm not sure if even that is the correct spelling. Slipgate

    Correction
    10:47 PM EDT
    Saw on Blue's that the first item of the bulleted list of things Carmack said at SIGGRAPH is incorrect. Instead of Quake 2 having LOD, Quake 2 will most likely NOT have LOD. Slipgate

    Quake 2 Times premiere
    10:43 PM EDT
    Quake 2 Times is a new site now premiered on Quake2.com. I think you'll like it :). For its first feature, it has an interview with Christian "Disruptor" Antkow. Check it out. In the words of the site maintainer of the Quake 2 Times:

    The site will be made up of articles, submitted by visitors. It will give people a chance to air their views to lots of people on Quake 2 / Quake related subjects. We also hope to bring you some interesting articles and interviews.

    The Quake 2 Times has of course been added to the hosted sites page. Slipgate

    Quake 2 preview
    10:57 AM EDT
    Thanks to Prophet for letting me know about this Quake 2 preview. For those of you that ask, yup, I'm doing all this on my day off from Quake2.com :). Slipgate

    Quake 2 FAQ update
    10:55 AM EDT
    After yesterday's premiere of the new FAQ version, I sat down and spell-checked it, correcting errors, and also read over it and updated information, edited the disclaimer, and made the language more clear in places. I present to you version 0.2b of the Quake 2 FAQ. Slipgate

    Info from John Carmack
    10:42 AM EDT
    Saw the following tidbits of info from John Carmack on Redwood's Quake page, and found them interesting enough to print:

  • Quake2 will have level of detail (LOD) implemented using intricate models that are simplified by removing some vertices and curve-fitting those that remain. This produces a loss of detail when the object is seen from a distance. The process will save approximately 200 polys per object. The difficulties involve determining which verticies can be removed so as to leave a still-recognizable model intact.

  • Trinity will probably use skeletal modelling. Ideas thrown around included "skeletons inside nurb-type surfaces" and implementing a continuous skin through the use of meshes.

  • Wolfenstein3D took 6 months to finish. Doom took 12. Quake took 18. John stated that he has no intention of letting Trinity take 2 years of development time. Hence, he is reconsidering his tradition of starting each engine from scratch with no code carried over from earlier games. However, he still finds the "fresh start" approach very attractive in that it frees him from having to live with past choices that may no longer be appropriate in the current game (i.e. the poor file access methods in Doom were trashed in favor of making the highly flexible ones in Quake....the result being a much more end-user-configurable game.) We'll just have to sit back and see what happens. ;)

  • John reaffirmed his interest in continuing id's current release cycle pattern. Thus, Trinity will be a high tech, bleeding-edge game that shows off the new engine and attracts would-be licenseees. Elements such as storyline, goals, etc. will be marginalized....along the lines of Quake (although probably not as severe). Then, about a year and a half later, the game will be tweaked and released as Trinity2....a full-blooded idsoftware masterwork..:)...along with all the Trinity-derivatives.

  • Where will we be in 10 years? John envisions worlds that simply aren't possible yet, due to the immaturity of our software tech. He can see games where you're flying in the air over these majestic mountains when you spot an ancient castle perched on high. You enter the castle....walk around in it....take in its detailed architecture...then accidentally fall off a balcony and into the moat below. :)


    • Good things come to those who wait :).     Slipgate

    Conspiracy revealed
    10:29 AM EDT
    A while back when I explained there is no Quake 2 test at ALL, Jeff Miller, who is apparently an ocassional contributor to the site Quakeweek sent me a hilarious story saying "You must obviously be hiding it" etc. etc. I was rolling laughing. He had included a note to forward it to Quakeweek, and I was going to print it at the time but I decided to first send it to Quakeweek to see if they print it, and if they don't then I would. Here is a direct link, go check it out. Slipgate

    Tuesday, August 5, 1997
    Day off
    11:20 PM EDT
    Tomorrow, I, Slipgate, am going to be away from working on Quake2.com for one full day. This break won't kill anyone, I'll just be gone a day. I'm just warning you in advance that any updates on this page tomorrow won't be written by me. Slipgate

    Quake 2 FAQ news
    11:17 PM EDT
    The Quake 2 FAQ, which hadn't been updated since June 17 (eek), and was horribly obsolete, is now updated. Basically, I got permission to take over it from Nite, and I finished a completely NEW version, 0.2, which is now stored locally here on Quake2.com. To read it, click here or on the Quake 2 FAQ link on the left frame. The FAQ has totally changed, I suggest a complete read is best for you. This FAQ will be regularly updated by me now. Thanks to Nite and the rest of the FAQ maintainers for saving this project from total doom. Slipgate

    3d action!!
    11:13 PM EDT
    The following information I got from Prophet (congrats on the Game-Wire thing buddy!), who got it from hexagon:

    "PC Gaming World, the British sister mag of Computer Gaming World, is running a huge 11 page feature on all the upcoming 3D shooters -- Quake II, Daikatana, Unreal, Half-Life, Jedi Knight, Hexen II and, of course SiN , plus pieces on Prey, Max Payne, Duke Nukem Forever, Wheel of Time, Star Trek: First Contact, Klingon Honour Guard and Blood II. It will hit the shops on August 28th in the UK."


    Since I'm not in the UK, I can't go read it! :( Slipgate

    Banners corrected
    7:19 PM EDT
    The banners have been corrected now. I'll be making a "users" directory with information about the requirements (and advantages) of Quake2.com hosting now, though I'm not sure when that will be ready, as I'm also working on the FAQ and some other things, getting them updated, and setting up some new sites we are hosting. All in all, very cool stuff upcoming. By the way, saw Air Force One yesterday, two words: see it. Slipgate

    Hosted sites
    4:33 PM EDT
    Due to the differing sizes of the banners on the Hosted Sites page, we've decided to require 400 pixels wide 60 pixels high banners. That note will be permanently affixed to the hosted sites page. Slipgate

    Wampey's Census
    4:31 PM EDT
    Wampey's Census has been updated with new questions, some of which concern Quake 2 and one of which was submitted by Disruptor. Thanks Digital Savior. Slipgate

    The first Quake 2 bug
    3:39 PM EDT
    Found out on 3Dx that my buddy Nite asked Brian Hook whether or not rocket explosions would be seen through walls (as in Quake 1) or if that would get fixed. According to Brian, it won't get fixed. Oh well. Slipgate

    DirectX 5
    3:20 PM EDT
    Put DirectX 5 on The Essential Files page. It's not a local link, it's a link to ogr.com. Just so you know :). Slipgate

    Hosted sites, old news, messageboard
    3:10 PM EDT
    I have fixed issues with the old news and the search engine, go check it all out now! :) I've also finally gotten the hosted sites page up. We have 3 sites hosted right now but we are in the process of setting up more. I still haven't finished the links page update/redesign, and some other issues, but for now we are doing really good again. Keep checking back, you'll be blown off your feet by some stuff coming in no time. As for the messageboard, it really is the best UNIX board out there for all its features and the fact that if you subscribe (hit the members button on the button and fill the info in) you get e-mailed when the board has a new post made on it, along with a quote of the post. We won't be changing boards, but if you really have some good suggestions and you can help us modify the source to get the board to follow your suggestions, that would be great. I have to apologize for Blitz, after all it was Monday yesterday and he wasn't in a good mood. Slipgate

    Gamespot stuff
    3:00 PM EDT
    I think I may have already reported this, but there's a massive Quake 2 preview up at this page. Thanks to the man Prophet. Slipgate

    OGR stuff
    2:52 PM EDT
    OGR has added the Quake 2 screenshots that came out this weekend to this page. The final (I hope) version of DirectX 5 (5.5 MB) has been released here. I will be getting it, but as for downloads, I won't be putting it up local anymore, I'll find it and put a link up to it... I don't want to slow down the server too much from downloads. Thanks for those news bits go to Prophet. However, another Quake 2 preview, which was mentioned to me by Nite of 3Dx and Witzbold of Time2Quake, is here. That preview includes two new screenshots, available for consumption below. I'll add them to the screenshots area when I get a chance in a few hours.



    Thanks to all the above mentioned for getting me on the ball about everything. Slipgate

    Ozzie!
    2:50 PM EDT
    Prophet let me know about this GameCenter news bit about Quake 2 supporting 200 people in multiplayer and Ozzie Ozbourne doing some tracks for the soundtrack. Slipgate

    Dyno's page back in action
    2:47 PM EDT
    Dyno is back from "an unwanted 15 day leave" so Dyno's Quake 2 News should be getting updated again. Slipgate

    OK! I goofed!
    2:42 PM EDT
    Yes, I did actually write "Sunday, August 4, 1997" yesterday when it was in fact Monday. Monday has been put in the old news archive at this point, but I did correct the error. Thanks to the following people for all pointing this out: Da Figmeister, Philip T. Pi, John Gibbs, and Steve Silva. Your letters of correction are all appreciated! :) Slipgate

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