Slashdot Mirror

I really dig this, man. It's a good cause and it helps your family realise that they have choices, lots of them. Noticing that alot of people are recommending office productivity suites (which is cool, but you can only recommend Open Office/AbiWord/Gimp so many times =P) or server/high-end programs (very commendable, but...very time-consuming if anything like what I had to do to teach my parents), I wanted to include a list of games I figured might brighten their day.

First off, glTron. GPLed and very very addicting. Great to show off the fact that 3D Gaming and Linux are not mutually exclusive. (I would mention TuxRacer here, but it has been said before)

Secondly I want to go old-school with Nethack. I mean, it's Nethack. If someone in your family thinks they are cool because they can survive a Zerg-rush, let them play this and see how tough they are. ;)

Thirdly I would mention anything old by Id. They have a ton of free mods and maps for Quake or Quake II and with the new Tenebrae mod it's not your Mom's old Quake. Plus if you compile it for their PC on their PC, it might get them interested in Programming.

Which brings me to my last addition, Dev-C++. For the Casual Programmer (i.e. takes a few courses, kinda C-curious) This is the perfect IDE. Based on GCC it has a good-looking front-end, great support, and takes up ALOT less space than Visual Studio. I know at least one teacher that recommends the students run this, and rightly so. It really puts the brain-strain on the appropriate part of programming, the actual program.

Slightly OT, but this reminds me of "Happy Fun Quake," one of the funniest of Quake 1 SP conversions. I still remember playing this, got a big kick out of it. See here to read about it.

This is old technology and IIRC (without looking it up), Doom III uses volumetric shadows. Stencil shadows are those that Quake II uses and are not very realistic (NOTE: There are modifications to the QII source, such as those in the DPGE engine, that improve the stencil shadows in the original QII engine, removing the overlapping effects, shadows from light entities, etc.). They use the stencil buffer in order to "paste" a shadow onto a surface that approximates a shadow from an object.

Volumetric shadows use a projected volume (in simplified terms) to "cast" a shadow onto any object and surface as a real shadow would, including casting the shadow onto curves, surfaces at angles, self shadowing, and shadowing multiple objects/surfaces. Another name for this type is "shadow volumes". Both methods can employ the use of the stencil buffer.

Since I can't actually see any of the screenshots on the referenced web page, and at times can't even get to the page, I can't decide which method is actually in use.

Stencil shadows in the Quake I engine would be nice. Volumetric shadows would be an achievement.

PGA

It's too bad Zerstorer doesn't work with Tenebrae. Maybe if someone could hack it to work, then you'd have a good reason to try it.

Zerstorer is easilly the greatest single player Quake episode ever. Better than Beyond Belief, better than Rubicon, better than Prenumbra of Destruction, and better than Prodigy:Special Edition.

(link: http://www.planetquake.com/retroquake/zer.htm )

"It takes a small amount of skill to know the right plays and count the cards..."

Modes are an amazing thing. I've played Bid for Power which is a mod for quake II. This game blew my mind away as to what they did with just mods. If anyone remembers the article Making Games Live Longer With Mods posted on slashdot it goes to show that Mods are powerfull things.

For a hobbyist modding would be great because like you said it's free. Hell even Team Fortress is making money off being a mod. They get to use the Quake engine without paying any fees :)

You do have a point; you can't just let people commit crimes. However, at times certain crimes do take priority. If there's someone mowing down people with a street sweeper a hundred meters down the street and a cop is trying to write you a ticket, then that's ridiculous. I guess it all depends on the person's outlook as to when the "criminal" should be let go in the pursuit of "bigger fish". Of course, I may be mistaken.

I can't believe no-one has mentioned the port of Doom for the Atari 2600 yet!

I highly recommend watching Quake Done Quicker. These guys beat Quake 1 in 12 minutes.. and there are plenty of trick moves to keep the audience entertained... definitely not boring.

http://www.planetquake.com/qdq
http://www.machinima.com/qdqfilms

But yes, a 3D gaming engine can be used for scripted animation, though I don't know of any specific examples where it's been used as such.

Err, done all the time, I have watched ~20 minute films in Quake. :-D

Quake Movies

He didn't say that. Instead, he wrote:

I am now committed to supporting an OpenGL 2.0 renderer for Doom through all the spec evolutions.

http://www.planetquake.com/code3arena/ has some good tutorials for getting started in modding quake 3, a lot of the information can also be applied to other games that use the Quake 3 engine: Jedi Knight 2, Medal of Honor, Soldier of Fortune 2, Wolfenstein etc.

Quake had the best mods, ever. Hands down. Threewave CTF absorbed much of my time i should have spent studying and can be directly attributed to my poor ACT scores (I spent the entire night prior engaged in a ferocious clan battle against a german clan. We won, but the price paid was evident on my ACT scores...which I'll refrain from disclosing ;)).

And what about Quake Rally ? Jesus, those were some memories there. Really innovative control scheme that's just now catching on in other games. It did some really fantastic stuff with the Quake engine, but it just didn't seem as off the wall as.... Target Quake !!! God. A side scroller built on the Quake engine.. fucking _golden_ stuff there. Brilliant idea.. kinda reminded me of Abuse but in 3D.. :)

Oh hell, and what about the movies available for Quake? Remember Blahbalicious ? How about Operation Bay Shield ? Apartment Huntin ? Hell, the massive 4 hour Nehahra ?

Seriously, I haven't uninstalled Quake since 1996, i just keep transfering it over to my new hard drives whenever I upgrade. How the hell could I risk losing the ability to play Zerstorer or Scourge of Armagon ?


hehehe, i bet you thought i was going to forget the Quake Done Quick movies, didn't you? ;)

Quake had the best mods, ever. Hands down. Threewave CTF absorbed much of my time i should have spent studying and can be directly attributed to my poor ACT scores (I spent the entire night prior engaged in a ferocious clan battle against a german clan. We won, but the price paid was evident on my ACT scores...which I'll refrain from disclosing ;)).

And what about Quake Rally ? Jesus, those were some memories there. Really innovative control scheme that's just now catching on in other games. It did some really fantastic stuff with the Quake engine, but it just didn't seem as off the wall as.... Target Quake !!! God. A side scroller built on the Quake engine.. fucking _golden_ stuff there. Brilliant idea.. kinda reminded me of Abuse but in 3D.. :)

Oh hell, and what about the movies available for Quake? Remember Blahbalicious ? How about Operation Bay Shield ? Apartment Huntin ? Hell, the massive 4 hour Nehahra ?

Seriously, I haven't uninstalled Quake since 1996, i just keep transfering it over to my new hard drives whenever I upgrade. How the hell could I risk losing the ability to play Zerstorer or Scourge of Armagon ?


hehehe, i bet you thought i was going to forget the Quake Done Quick movies, didn't you? ;)

Quake had the best mods, ever. Hands down. Threewave CTF absorbed much of my time i should have spent studying and can be directly attributed to my poor ACT scores (I spent the entire night prior engaged in a ferocious clan battle against a german clan. We won, but the price paid was evident on my ACT scores...which I'll refrain from disclosing ;)).

And what about Quake Rally ? Jesus, those were some memories there. Really innovative control scheme that's just now catching on in other games. It did some really fantastic stuff with the Quake engine, but it just didn't seem as off the wall as.... Target Quake !!! God. A side scroller built on the Quake engine.. fucking _golden_ stuff there. Brilliant idea.. kinda reminded me of Abuse but in 3D.. :)

Oh hell, and what about the movies available for Quake? Remember Blahbalicious ? How about Operation Bay Shield ? Apartment Huntin ? Hell, the massive 4 hour Nehahra ?

Seriously, I haven't uninstalled Quake since 1996, i just keep transfering it over to my new hard drives whenever I upgrade. How the hell could I risk losing the ability to play Zerstorer or Scourge of Armagon ?


hehehe, i bet you thought i was going to forget the Quake Done Quick movies, didn't you? ;)

Quake had the best mods, ever. Hands down. Threewave CTF absorbed much of my time i should have spent studying and can be directly attributed to my poor ACT scores (I spent the entire night prior engaged in a ferocious clan battle against a german clan. We won, but the price paid was evident on my ACT scores...which I'll refrain from disclosing ;)).

And what about Quake Rally ? Jesus, those were some memories there. Really innovative control scheme that's just now catching on in other games. It did some really fantastic stuff with the Quake engine, but it just didn't seem as off the wall as.... Target Quake !!! God. A side scroller built on the Quake engine.. fucking _golden_ stuff there. Brilliant idea.. kinda reminded me of Abuse but in 3D.. :)

Oh hell, and what about the movies available for Quake? Remember Blahbalicious ? How about Operation Bay Shield ? Apartment Huntin ? Hell, the massive 4 hour Nehahra ?

Seriously, I haven't uninstalled Quake since 1996, i just keep transfering it over to my new hard drives whenever I upgrade. How the hell could I risk losing the ability to play Zerstorer or Scourge of Armagon ?


hehehe, i bet you thought i was going to forget the Quake Done Quick movies, didn't you? ;)

I want the old Planetquake back

Part of the old Planetquake still lives and is doing quite well. Speed Demos Archive.

Though we've also been subjected to gamespy's crappy new policies, where else could we get 1 GB of disk space for free?

Point taken. Id's past is not exactly the rosiest. I agree that between the rumor of Mr. Steed having lost a third of the Q3 levels, Activision insisting on a release date for Quake 2 (resulting in it not having multiplayer levels or even a stable executable), and the whole non-delivery of what the original Quake was supposed to be, this makes a VERY plausible argument, and one that has no counterpoint, that despite Id's best efforts, they might still only deliver yet another great engine with tired gameplay.

However, I must politely disagree with the concept that few played (and still play) the original Quake, Quake 2, and/or Quake 3. I, and most friends of mine, did not get into mods, with the counter-exception of Q2 CTF, until the Quake 3 era. I obsessed over Q1 Deathmatch for nearly a year. I do agree that Quake 1 single player was severely lacking, but it made up for this in amazingly fun multiplayer deathmatch. Quake 2 held a similar position for me, The only "mod" I played was CTF, which came packaged with Quake 2, and I did not know it was even a mod. Hell, I didn't know what a mod was back then. Quake 3 changed a lot for me in this regard. Not only did I start playing Weapons Factory Arena, but I eventually joined Wirehead Studios (The mod team responsible for Generations arena). Even after this, I still play a lot of vanilla Q3. I don't have any further numbers to prove my point. But, I also assume you have not actually asked a room full of FPS players the very question you suggested. I would think with all the Deathmatch servers that All Seeing Eye polls, somebody has to be playing baseq3. Why else would anybody put up servers?

I also think labeling anything "the best" is highly subjective and not reinforceable. What one person could describe as amazing, another could describe as horrifying (in a bad way) beyond belief. Although I don't believe this, I could say that Half Life is merely a plotless and mindless game of survival, and that the original Doom is an epic tale consumed with the irony of a player saving the human race at the cost of his own humanity, which he loses by killing countless enemies. Don't get me wrong, I love Half Life. It is, and will continue to be, a great game. But this analogy does point out that different opinions on a subject do not necessarily imply right and wrong, especially when such arbitrary things as gameplay and aesthetics are debated.

I am just saying once again that Doom III has a lot of potential to escape the so-called "curse" of Id releasing an amazing game engine with lackluster gameplay. This potential is realized by Id hiring people who are specialists in their field. Yes this includes Fred Nilsson (the animator from Shrek), Trent Reznor for sound, as well as a designer (Graeme Devine) and writer (Matthew Costello) from the 7th Guest. I have a feeling that Id REALLY wants this to be done right without all of the mistakes they've made in the past. Does this mean that Doom 3 will be "the best" when it comes out? Saying yes to that question is just as bigoted as claiming anything else being "the best." However anybody claiming it WILL follow the same routine that all the other Id games have followed in the past is just as bigoted a decision in my humble opinion.

Even if you think MS can't do anything else right, you have to respect their hardware. The MS Explorer 3.0 is the best mouse I have ever used, period (and I have used a lot of mice [mouses], believe me). The 6000 shots/sec completely eliminates the "optical mouse spaz" so oft seen as the bane of optical mice (mouses).

Buy one, it's worth the $60 (though I can't guarantee it will make you have a good time playing that weak game. Try a real man's game, I dare you).

Quake III:

http://www.planetquake.com/eyeball/month/may02.htm l

This thing is called "Machinima". Here is a link to a page dedicated to this stuff.

I used to be quite into the whole thing back when Quake2 was new. There were some weird films out there (especially for quake1) and even a talkshow.

So if you still have the old quakes lying around somewhere you might want to check out some in engine entertainment.

IIRC there was a problem with doing films in Quake3, because the specs to the demo format werent published. The author of a video editing program for Quake1 and Quake2 said that doing a version for 3 is not possible. I do suppose that a lot has changed since then, though.

This thing is called "Machinima". Here is a link to a page dedicated to this stuff.

I used to be quite into the whole thing back when Quake2 was new. There were some weird films out there (especially for quake1) and even a talkshow.

So if you still have the old quakes lying around somewhere you might want to check out some in engine entertainment.

IIRC there was a problem with doing films in Quake3, because the specs to the demo format werent published. The author of a video editing program for Quake1 and Quake2 said that doing a version for 3 is not possible. I do suppose that a lot has changed since then, though.

This thing is called "Machinima". Here is a link to a page dedicated to this stuff.

I used to be quite into the whole thing back when Quake2 was new. There were some weird films out there (especially for quake1) and even a talkshow.

So if you still have the old quakes lying around somewhere you might want to check out some in engine entertainment.

IIRC there was a problem with doing films in Quake3, because the specs to the demo format werent published. The author of a video editing program for Quake1 and Quake2 said that doing a version for 3 is not possible. I do suppose that a lot has changed since then, though.

There is a new version of xquake that allows you to set a variable fastquit. a simple config like:

fastquit 1
bind F12 "quit"

and you're golden. the screen goes back into windows very quick, and no trace of the game is left. It works, trust me :)

If you really want to get into how loose and broad this law is, I can honestly say that half the internet would be banned from anything but .prn.

Sites such as fanfiction.net, a good deal of the planet sites(like planetquake), this website in itself,(for the foul language and ocassional mention of anything that might harm those poor minor's little heads) any search engine that provides results for other countries and/or websites under the .prn name...

You have to remember. Everything can be harmful to a minor. Anything from pencils to stories to videogames to power rangers. If something can harm a kid, it falls under the jurisdiction of this law, and is relegated to .prn.

If this law passes over the heads of anyone in our governmental system, I swear to god, I'm either going to revolt or flee the country - I don't think anyone wants to be ruled over by people this dense.

Used to be that Galaxians, Pacman and Worm were getting a reworking on the Amiga in the form of Deluxe Galaga, Deluxe Pacman and Megaworm... now it's the Amiga shareware's turn for the remix. Hooray!

We've even seen Populous get a rebirth with Lionhead's Black & White, and Quake with Half-Life's Deathmatch Classic. I wouldn't be surprised in five years time to see a reworking of GTA or Baldur's Gate 2. (Takers, anyone?) :D

Of note was this article (actually this .pdf) that benchmarks several Java JIT environments, a Java native compiler, Visual C++ and Intel's C++ compiler. The optimized hardware accelerated OpenGL benchmark was nearly identical to the C++ version. Don't forget to read the errata which addresses his Java bias and other issues.

Regarding your Quake comment, I'll point out that Java was implemented for mod development for Quake 2. Definately not the game itself, but still it exists as a another example of how Java can be used in game development.

Yeah, that's my baby: Q2Java - the main thing to note though it that it's just the game logic that's implemented in Java, nothing with the rendering or networking (not to say that that wouldn't be possible given how fast machines are nowdays).

Blender is very nice. I have both 3DS MAX and Blender 2.0. I prefer Blender - it's faster, far more stable, runs on Linux, has a game engine, makes AVI's, and I was planning upon using it for my game engine, DPGE ( Main web site and CVS repository). Though I can still use it, it's a drag that there will no longer be support or improvements to it. :(

- Rohan

The Quake Done Quick folks play all of Quake I in well under an hour. If a computer were 7000 times faster than the PCs they used, then it could do two hours (7200 seconds) worth of something in about 1 second. The demos for the QdQ games would run in a over half a second.

A better way of putting it is that each of its 8000 nodes could render 30 frames (a half second at 60fps) worth of the whole quake demo simultaneously.

We are going to have some great computer generated video some day...

Of course, you can't be Quake II's crackwhore model. I will definately have to give that a try when I get home this evening. :)

Colin
leet translations served with a smile

You might want to check out this site. Quintuple-head anyone?

I also wonder how many times Daikatana "started over"

Well, an excellent account of the history of Daikatana is on the "news" site The Smoking Gun.

Hey, it's on the internet, it must be true, huh?

The Article

Plus lte me show yuo why i am nto gay. Poeple say i am gay becuase i make a game called "hyperspace delivary boysth" but i am nto gay becuase i have teh riceburner and teh hottee. Whta do you have huh? Did yuo write Quaek? I did.

Click -Steevee is hot

Taht's why I rule. To apprecaite how much i rule yuo haev to see teh before pictures to. This is what moeny will do for yuo if yuo have teh skills nad storyline.

This si teh before: teh proto-hottee

If yuo haev teh money and teh fast cares like me yuo can maek any scragg into a hottee in picteurs. Probably most of these poeople who takl the trash abuot me wuold haev to find a real hottee to taek pictures of and maek a killer webseit that showes how cool yuo aer like Stevee's. But i haev teh cares and teh money and teh chicks and teh PALM PILATE APPES. So kepe taklin yuor trash.

Hwo cna trashtlakers sya steevee is not teh super game developer? Look at thoes pictuers! That si what I maed. See why i am eliet and yuo aer lamers? Wehn i go to town, poeple know me. They say look it si that guy with teh bleachie with teh groteskly (what deos that maen) large brests who always wants to show yuo teh game he has ni his pocket.

Have soem respect fro steevee, she si a roll model for female develapers everywere.

TEH ROMERO

Be teh boy

This is an easy question. I just hosted another LAN party, and have thought this through a couple times. There are some places on the net to get info about how to have a LAN party, but I want to preface my comments so that you understand where I'm coming from. We had 11 people in attendance, though I was hoping for 15, so that will give you an idea of where I'm coming from, and we did it from noon till almost 10 pm last Saturday. (Hey, some of use are old guys bringing our teenagers these days. )

Some comments about the mechanics are in order because it goes directly to the issue of the fun factor. If you're going to play a game that can have a dedicated server, do it. I was lucky to be hosting this LAN party in a big conference room at my work, and had a "spare" quad Xeon with 2 GB RAM and 4 36 GB Ultra3 160 drives striped together as a server. It hosted all of the game servers I talk about below, and never even knew it was working. However, it took me most of a day to get all the configurations tweaked just right. On the other hand, no one person could take down the game because his computer crashed. We pulled a 24-port switch from a wiring closet that gave us less than 10 msec ping times. So, though setting up dedicated servers will be more work, it's more stable, and though switches are a little more expensive than hubs, they give great performance. One more thing, the point of a LAN party is to interact. Get everyone in the same room if at all possible. I've done it both ways (with people in individual offices so that we wouldn't have to move computers). Pack 'em in; it's much more fun. With On to the games...

We played UT DM FFA with the bonus pack relics to get everyone up and running, then we had a (small) UT one-on-one tournament. Again, the server hosted the FFA room and 4 tourney rooms all setup exactly the same way. UT - as of the latest patch - doesn't require a CD. However, it does require you to use a CD to load the latest patch. After that, you're good to go. You can even copy the CD to the server along with all the patches and bonus packs, and everyone should be able to get to them. I say "should" because Windows domain issues bit us in the behind and made browsing the server problematic. If you don't know what I'm saying, just make a bunch of CD copies for your friends to get up and running. I don't know if this sort of use of UT is legit, but based on the fact that Epic consciously took the CD requirement out of the game as of the 4.36 patch, I assume that they had this in mind.

After the UT stuff, I had everyone warm up to the Quake 3 engine in an Excessive Overkill DM FFA. If you haven't seen this, it's really neat. It'll wear you out, though, so don't plan to spend all day with it. Although it's available for UT as well as Q3, I like the Q3 engine slightly better, and that's what I went with. We only played it for about an hour before moving onto Threewave CTF, and that's what I really want to talk about. Threewave was the hit of the day. (I must point out that Threewave has been available for Q1 and Q2 as well, and though I have no experience with the Q1 version, I like the Q2 version just as well.) Once again, the dedicated server hosted both of these games as well. Once again, you can serve up the CD and the patches for your friends, or make copies of the disc. id Software made the game such that you can just ignore entering the CD key, and unless you want to play on a public internet server, you're fine. It was designed to play on a LAN like this.

I must change course here and talk about administrating the games: Q3 wins over UT. Although I have thought for a long time that UT was better, I got my opinion changed at this LAN party. Yes, UT has a web browser interface for administrating the server, but that - for me - means going somewhere else to do it. I don't want to tempt Windows 98 fate by Alt-Tab'ing over to a browser to make changes. (Hey, I had everything setup to play under Linux, but my hard drive ate it that morning. Besides, you can't Alt-Tab at all under Linux anyway.) So I wound up walking over to the server to get rid of the bots under UT FFA when everyone got up and running. On the other hand, changing something on the server with Q3 is easy with rcon. Yes, you have to know the command you want, which takes some learning, but you can just get a console in-game, do your thing, and get on with life.

On a related note, with UT you can use the in-game setup to configure your server and then launch in dedicated mode. On my particular server, with no 3D video card, I couldn't do that with Q3. However, setting up a config file for a dedicated Q3 server actually paled in diffculty compared to getting the command line correct for launching a UT server without the aid of the game engine. (I didn't realize till later that the UT engine tells you what command line it's using to start the game in the console. Grrr.) So, even though UT looks easier to setup and admin on paper, Q3 wins on both in actual usability in my book. And being able to change things on the fly for the group is a huge win. (For example: although Threewave allows you to call votes on lots of things in-game, most people aren't die-hard gamers like you and I, and don't understand how to respond to vote requests. Being able to hit "~", type "rcon capturelimit 7", and move on is really great.)

Some people say Counter-Strike is great, and I would agree on principle, except that I couldn't get it to work with a single CD-key. I tried this on a previous LAN party, and we seemed to be limited to 4 people on it. It was goofy for me, and I gave up trying to make it work. I didn't have time to set it up this time around, but I had planned on trying Strike Force, which is a Counter Strike-like mod for UT. It seems to have a few bugs, but being that it's based on UT, you wouldn't need CD's or keys for it at all.

We also have a sub-group that likes to play Rogue Spear. While I'm not a huge fan, I appreciate that we need to play it so that everyone gets to have some time on their favorite engine. However, this is one is definitely not LAN-party friendly. You have to either make copies of the disk or use a crack. Of course, we all had legal copies of the disc, and so were just fine playing this game. ;-) One bad thing about RS is that there is no dedicated server for the game. And it's the flakiest game I've discussed here. So, when the person hosting goes down, everyone stops. Get the person with the fastest, most-stable machine to host.

Lastly, we have some goofballs that like to play Starcraft, but play it at its fastest setting. To me, that takes all the strategy out of it, and I won't play it that way. YMMV. To me, using a strategy game like this in a LAN party is ridiculous becuase you have to sit out so long between rounds. Counter Strike or Rogue Spear are bad enough, but when a game can last for 30 or 45 minutes, that's just boring, except for the last two guys in the game.

We don't play it, because I really dominate in it, but I still love Quake 2 Lithium. You can tweak it to your hearts content, and I still think it's the best DM ever. Really fast-paced like Excessive Overkill, but not so senses-numbing. If you can get away with it, try it. You'll love it. And no CD's or keys, either.

dk

If these don't help you, drop me a line at terabaap@yumpee.org and I'll see if I can dig out the files ...

Y.

Last think about ATI cards in Carmack's .plan is about "Quake3 name checking in ATI's recent drivers".
I checked if JC has write somthing about the Radeon 8500, like the 6/1/00 update but there isn't nothing.
May be in the next update?

Last think about ATI cards in Carmack's .plan is about "Quake3 name checking in ATI's recent drivers".
I checked if JC has write somthing about the Radeon 8500, like the 6/1/00 update but there isn't nothing.
May be in the next update?

• You sometimes, but rarely, notice that you get shot when you think you're hidden
  
• You sometimes, but even more rarely, notice that the person who shot you isn't currently aiming at you (this also happens with no lag compensation, but to a lesser extent)
  
• HPB's sometimes, and still rarely, seem to make impossible shots - like they seem to rail you right after you hit a bouncepad
  

• HPB's can line up a rail shot perfectly and miss
  
• Game balance is skewed by the fact that four of the weapons are nearly useless to anyone pinging over 100
  

• You sometimes, but rarely, notice that you get shot when you think you're hidden
  
• You sometimes, but even more rarely, notice that the person who shot you isn't currently aiming at you (this also happens with no lag compensation, but to a lesser extent)
  
• HPB's sometimes, and still rarely, seem to make impossible shots - like they seem to rail you right after you hit a bouncepad
  

• HPB's can line up a rail shot perfectly and miss
  
• Game balance is skewed by the fact that four of the weapons are nearly useless to anyone pinging over 100
  

That said, Packet Loss is far worse than a high ping, and high pings don't mean as much in slower paced games like RTS games.

-Ted

That said, Packet Loss is far worse than a high ping, and high pings don't mean as much in slower paced games like RTS games.

-Ted

In similar spirit, there's also Atari 2600 Doom

I can't wait to see a PC in an art gallery running Quake Done Quick in a loop.

There is an very well written article at Planetquake, which influenced my opinion towards this topic that much that I better just link it instead of quoting it thru my post.

The new mod_xray Episdode II Teaser - Download It now!

There is an very well written article at Planetquake, which influenced my opinion towards this topic that much that I better just link it instead of quoting it thru my post.

The new mod_xray Episdode II Teaser - Download It now!

Then these guys are in trouble...

(Why'd you post anonymously? This is good info! Someone mod the parent up!)

I have no knowledge of the modding system, an account or otherwise. I *do* have to find some time to play quake 30+ hours / week. :) Besides this is all horribly offtopic by now.

[...] Scourge Done Slick; how about that rocket jump rebound off the floating exploding thing?).

Vore jumps are damn amazing. I must say... I'm glad I'm a DMer and not a speed runner. I just do not have the timing, intrinsic sense of velocity augmentation and monster manip that these mofos have. I do wish speed running was a bigger movement. It certainly is damn fun to watch. My best attempt at a speed run was 25seconds on e1m3, best is 17. Eh... maybe I shouldn't be so anxious to have the movement bugs back in? ha ha. Naah, I really love to get bitch slapped by hardcore players. Its the only real incentive I have to get better. God knows its lonely work in the Quake Gym doing rep after rep of bunnies and curve jumps with nothing to comfort you except the lovely sound of torch crackle and hallway wind.

I'll have to disagree here.[DM6...]

No problem. I certainly respect the views of someone who has played Quake for years.

On DM6 in Quake{World}, a guy can camp the red armor and hang out for days. [...] and it only takes one solid hit to down a guy.

DM6 is on the short list of my fav maps. Hell yeah, I agree with you. I want to be the mofo with my boots on the red armor (already having 200, waiting for a knick so I can rehog it and control further resequenceing) and at least 30 rockets. Then you *are* one tough mofo to bring down, even with mad skills. First thing to do is to NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. Of course someone is going to get the close respawn and grab it. You have to rush it, early, and deplete their rockets, inflict some damage and get out, pick up some items before 30seconds hits and rerush and acquire it. Keeping the pressure on hard enough with surprise attacks (rocket to bunnies speed rushing works nice from the GL) and several sequential deaths can effectively flush the enemy when his health packs are depleted and his armor isn't up yet. Or you kill him. Yeah its hard. Doing the most damage you can per death, picking up more rockets than him in the "losers cornor" (green armor/superhealth end) and hogging the zapper and ammo will eventually do the deed if your skills are close. The lack of zapper ammo is a problem when you're on the sweet spot, speed in close and zap zap zap. Frags do tend to roll for a long time once the sweet spot is acquired, the key is getting real good at hogging it, and/or minimizing the amount of deaths it takes to reacquire. Hell sometimes If get a big lead, I'll grab the red and then run like a bitch for the rest of the match. That throws them off sometimes, and you can play DM6 real defensive with the fear of telefraggage and grenade teleport mining.

[...] and there's only one place to get them other than from your corpse).

I always like free delivery: be it rockets or pizza. :) Playing against someone who has a lot of twitch skillz is especially especially hard on DM6. Velocity augmentation really helps on this map. Its alarming when someone builds up 500speed and comes flying in with an arcing zapper.

BTW, thanks for the pointer to the FDE (Frags Done Extreme) video. That was amazing.

I really liked it, too. Make sure you get FDE II .avi if you've got the bandwidth. You'll notice that quite a few of those demos *seem like* they used like half of zuggart vertigo gravity. I haven't got an official response from the FDE crew but it seems that way. That lakerman_SC shot on DM6 was godlike. There is no way the SNG can propel you in the air in an arc like that without it.

Sound advice, thank you. But doesn't the precise timing of the tricks change based on network latency?

Well... Yeah. You definately can't be a HPB and pull extreme trickery. If you have a ping of 30 or less it isn't really that bad. Definately takes practice compared to a LAN though.

[Are] tricks different between Quake and QuakeWorld

No real difference actually. The same holes in Q worked in QW as of 2.30, but check my memory...

If I've managed to peak your interest in movement trickery I do have some utilities, demos and webpages to read which can actually help. I know because I learned how to do tricks from here. I'm no speed runner but it definately is a tool in the toolbelt when I need it (you'll definately find lots of reasons, not the least of which it makes you much more unpredictable).

This is the bible of quake movement enhancement (not the origional webpage). I must have read this damn thing 20 times after failed attempts to recreate the early demos (some of the later demos I'm consigned to never reproduce). Study it here and dl all the linked demos and watch them till your eyes bleed. :) The first one I got working was the hop across the sides of the RA room on DM3. I was pulling my hair out until I relaxed enough, did what the tutorial said and finally snagged it.

The real problem with bunnyhopping is that its quite hard (esp in the beginning) to tell how damn fast you're going. Most of my early attempts to do so were working I just couldn't tell, and with no positive feedback loop... you get the picture. So... a speed-o-meter is in order! no joke. Read/download/and get it, here

Finally, where better to practice your bunnies than a linear 100yard dash map so you can time your finishes. As an added bonus this was a Speed Running contest so you can check the multitude of entries to see different styles of old skewl hoppers and compare your skills. Its interesting that even among speed running pros on a super simple map there was a clear winner and placed positions. Download the map, here. Download the race demos here Best I ever got was 12.5 secs. Basically if you really want to learn (no, it isn't easy but if you really practice, the game will feel completely different afterwards- trust me) the tricks of the trade they're all there.

I don't have any words of wisdom on Quizmo nor alternate QW clients. I typically play on a LAN with stock QW clients and servers. Sometimes online, but i'm really prissy about lag (surprise!). Anyways, GL. I wish more people had the motivation and drive to be hardcore dedicated gamers.

I spend nearly all of my gaming hours (30+ / week) playing QuakeWorld and Q3 CPM and I regularly follow the hardcore gaming crowd and tournaments. Perhaps I'm a complete loser (no debate about that) but I find pro quake as interesting as many people find baseball, nascar, whathaveyou. I care about greatly about skillz and strategy and watch pro demos with a passion picking up tricks, level strategy, individual stylisms and more. When someone can pull a trick like shown in FDE II it definately gets my panties moist.

Your Half-Life numbers are a bit disingenuous, as the crushing majority of "Half-Life" servers are actually serving TeamFortress Classic and CounterStrike. There are comparatively few HL servers running straight HL deathmatch [...]

Actually I think you missed the biggest reason that there so many HL servers. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't CounterStrike automatically publish the server when established (and Q does not)?

Irregardless my point still stands that HL (CS obviously)completely dominates the whole quake family by a landslide (2x qualifies as a landslide to me [we are talking about Quake here!], let alone 10x)

As for the rest: Though the technique has been shown to me, I have yet to develop any bunny-hopping skill [...] Don't get me wrong; I've spec'ed rather skilled bunny-hoppers, and it's very impressive when it's done well, but at my current skill level, it's a hopeless distraction.

Don't let yourself think of such a skill as merely "very impressive" GODLIKE is more like it. Don't believe me? Don't let your opinion of bunnies and other dope skillz rest on less than the best.

From CPL4:
fatal1ty vs Harlsom
Czm vs Xoque
QuakeWorld required.

In all actuality the best way to see the best of the best work the movement in Quake for all its worth is to look into speed running. Speed running is the art and science of completing a single player map as fast as possible. You may remember a slashdot article on quake done quick a while back. You may not know that there is quite a community releasing maps to speed run and redoing classic maps with some radical routes. Here, obviously, speed is king. I mention this because most people can't believe this is legit. Check out a speed run demo, here. dzip required, download here.

Whenever I can, I play deathmatch mode 3 (weaponstay). I detest deathmatch mode 1, since it basically turns the whole thing into a game of keep-away (which is about as fun for me as it originally was in the schoolyard).

I completely disagree with this sentiment. Certainly lots of games are based around keeping powerful items and positions away from your enemy. Chess, checkers, scrabble, billiards... Many games involve manipulating the game world to make life a bitch for your opponent. Everyone calls this "level lockdown", "level control, or "denial of items". This is definately not easy to maintain as multiple respawns (w/100 health) certainly can chistle you down to nothing. Hell, this is most of the excitement when I play. Nothing makes me work/think harder than knocking someone off a quad/red armor/rocket ammo loop.

Kwitcher whinin'," I hear you say, "and go develop your 5k1llz." Well, thanks. Just how, in practical terms, do I go about doing that without some advice? Doing it on one's own tends not to yield helpful results: *blam* [...]

Simple. Start watching some pro matches, speed running tutorials, join a clan, practice like a mofo alone on DM maps so that you do the moves you need to when the pressure is on. Learning trickery in the middle of a deathmatch is just dumb. The alternative is this, you will consistatly lose to DM players who are as good as you but employ the tricks. Let alone those who are better DMers AND know the tricks. They'll be wearing your quad, shooting your rockets, and nabbing your superhealths with frustrating consistancy. So yeah... go develop your skillz. :)