Quivering Coward writes "There has been a marked increase in seismic activity in southern California in the past several days," pointing to this map from Caltech Earthquake Net, including a 5.2 and 3.6 this morning (2004/06/15). "Could this be the big one? Is 'the big one' ever going to happen? NASA is doing their part to predict the future of Earthquakes."

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing the problems of online console gaming without dedicated servers. The author points out: "Let's consider the top upcoming shooters on both the PS2 and the Xbox: Killzone and Halo 2... the cold, hard fact is that these games will only offer a maximum of 12- and 16-player online multiplayer, respectively. In other words, if you can find a good nearby server, you'll be playing a game that isn't fundamentally different than what we've been playing for about eight years on the PC in Quake 1." He continues by contrasting this to the PC experience: "EA has promised that the upcoming Battlefield 2, currently scheduled to ship in the first part of 2005, will have more than 100 simultaneous players", before suggesting: "The bottom line is that console games need dedicated servers. As it stands today, only individual Xboxes are serving matches while simultaneously allowing the host to play. You simply cannot run a 24- or 32-player game with just a 733MHz processor and 64MB of system RAM available, hooked up to a potentially flaky cable or DSL line."

Ozh writes "Did you ever wonder what you could do with a cluster of 20 AMD XP 1800s? Some German students and videogame fans did, and their answer has been what they call 'ray-tracing egoshooters', an entirely raytraced game engine which 'runs about 20 fps@36 GHz in 512x512 with 4xFSAA'. The first game to get this treatment is Quake 3 Arena : the screenshots look slightly better than the original 3D engine but the video (56 Mb, 3'19) is quite dramatic."

Thanks to CNN Money for its discussion of the games industry's drive to woo the most committed videogame players, as the article explains: "Hardcore gamers only make up between 20-25 percent of the industry's annual software sales, but the buzz enthusiasts create can turn a moderate hit into a monster." The piece discusses "mecca for the hardcore" QuakeCon, but reveals that "This year, most fans were hoping to get their first glimpse of 'Quake 4,' which is being developed (under id's supervision) by Raven Software. Unfortunately, they're going to have to keep waiting. id CEO Todd Hollenshead said there are no plans to show the game at this year's QuakeCon." According to Hollenshead: "We've been happy with what [Raven has] done, but it's too early to show... When we show the game, we want it to be something that's really impressive for the people who have been waiting for it."

Ozh writes "QuakeWorld players will want to try this interesting light Penguin-powered 'live distro' : QWCD provides a ready-to-frag nothing-to-install QuakeWorld installation, playable from the bootable CD. It includes popular Quake clients FuhQuake and MWQCL, comes with an up-to-date Kernel, and every piece of software a player should need (ATI and nVidia drivers, internet connexion and browser, IRC client...). Has Quaking at the office ever been easier?"

David Horn writes "PocketGamer is carrying a story on the successful emulation of Windows 95 and Windows 98SE on the Pocket PC. This was made possible by a Pocket PC port of Bochs, a DOS emulator. If you're keen to try this yourself, you'll need a minimum of a 256MB memory card (or stream the image over a wireless network) and you'll need a program like Nyditot Virtual Display to increase your screen resolution. Oh, yes, and you'll also need the emulator. You can find more information and a selection of screenshots here. Following the porting of a full speed Playstation emulator and Pocket Quake, this really raises the bar for what the Pocket PC is capable of."

Thanks to the Gaming-Age forum regulars for discussing "notable games not actually shown at this week's E3 show", despite the insane flood of new titles, with particularly noticeable no-shows including Raven-developed PC FPS Quake IV, Sony's "oft-rumored [PlayStation 2?] sequel to ICO", Nico, as well as Microsoft/Level 5's "massively multiplayer Xbox RPG" title True Fantasy Live Online, in addition to Sony's PSX hardware, with the PS2/DVR combo now heavily rumored to have had its U.S. release canceled. Is there any other hardware/software you've been disappointed not to hear about, besides the obvious?

Thanks to C+VG for its interview with Chris Gray of Headfirst Productions regarding PC/Xbox first-person action title Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, as "based on the Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG and works of author H.P Lovecraft." Gray notes of the long-in-development title: "we've got a completely new engine... [featuring] vertex and pixel shaders", and elaborates: "It wouldn't be a Lovecraft game without some big monsters; these include a Shoggoth, Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, Flying Polyps and a few other surprises." Elsewhere, Yog-Sothoth points out the new publishing of the 6th Edition of Chaosium's Call Of Cthulhu tabletop RPG rules, as originally penned by Quake level designer Sandy Petersen.

lidocaineus asks: "I work at a small company with about 30 workstations. Two of us run Linux and three use Mac OS X, so on one of the servers, we installed Teg (both the server daemon and client). It works well since as a turn based game, the five of us are not beholden to it every second of the day, and can turn to it when we have a few free moments (and group chat all in one place other than through Jabber). Recently, some of the Windows folks have become interested in joining. Other than by using cygwin (these are serious computer-challenged types), are there any cross platform turn-based type game clients that work on Windows, preferably using the Linux server as a, well, server? Obviously we're not looking for a quake fest."

crhylove writes "A guy called Lewey Geselowitz has hacked the GPL Quake II code to display a real time full motion stereogram SIRD 3D environment. Warning, though, it's very hard to play if you aren't excellent at focusing on SIRDS already. He has a download page on his personal site with more information." The page notes: "You finally saw the yacht in the seemingly random bunch of dots! Now use your skills to free yourself from your evil extra-dimensional zombie oppressors! Welcome to Quake II as it was never meant to be."

ILL Clinton writes "Animation World Magazine's website has a nice article about the current state of machinima, which is the process of making movies using real-time game technology. The article features a Quicktime movie from what is probably the most beautiful machinima movie so far, 'Anna' (created using Quake 3) by Fountainhead Entertainment. Also featured are quotes and mentions of other Machinima movie-makers and their latest works, including a new piece to be broadcast on Scottish TV by Strange Company, and the latest live performances by The ILL Clan animator/improvisers. (As my name suggests, I'm one of them.) Interestingly, the article focuses on machinima makers who create their own 3D assets, as opposed to re-using those that come with whatever game is being used to make the movie."

Thanks to GameSpy for its coverage of id co-founder John Carmack's keynote speech at Game Developer's Conference. Ideas discussed include the now-dismissed concept to do a 'Quake 2 remix' - "to rebuild the game using all-new assets and technology", as Carmack pointed out: "...even the idea of just reskinning an old game brings with it the problems that as we have newer graphics technology, media creation demands get worse and worse." Of follow-ups to DOOM 3, Carmack also mentioned that "they were hoping to re-use some of the assets created for DOOM 3 to help speed up development of whatever they do next, but even that would have a tradeoff."

Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing whether some recent videogames, such as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, look "too sterile and perfect" . The author explains: "The animation is fine but the world Snake runs through is too sharp edged. There's no dirt and grime in the graphics because they're perfect versions of what was seen in the original game. Somehow, these better graphics have detracted somewhat from my opinion of the newer game." He continues: "DOOM 3, for as great as it looks, suffers from a lack of grit in still shots. I'm hoping the final game will not have the plastic look of the current pictures. Even the highly polished Quake III Arena didn't come across as being plastic to me." Do other gamers share this perception of graphical sterility in some recent games?

viperstyx writes "'Pack the car, buy the airline ticket, or get a new pair of walking shoes - just do whatever it takes to be at QuakeCon 2004. The 9th annual QuakeCon video game festival and tournament storms into town August 12-15 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.' Thats right, it's official [and yes, its called Gaylord]. Registration for this year's 3000 persion BYOC (bring your own computer) LAN party (1000 people bigger than last year) opens April 14 at 9pm EST! I wonder if they'll need two BFGs this year?" Also worth noting is the fact that the Raven-developed Quake IV may be showcased this year, according to hints from id's Todd Hollenshead at last year's QuakeCon.

Ant writes "According to this interview with the Xbox developers Vicarious Visions over at GamePro, only the Xbox port of id's Doom 3 will have co-operative play, and the PC version will not have co-op, unlike the original Doom games. There are also two recent interviews with id themselves on the GamePro site." Co-op was one of the parts of Doom (and Quake) that really got me into the genre, but after I got good enough fighting alongside my friends, I found it was more fun to fight against them, since they were more challenging than anything the computer could come up with then.

PrinceBrightstar writes "Both the Metroid Prime pure speed run and the Metroid II 100% completion speed record have been shattered by Zoidi and Brightstar (myself) respectively. The Metroid Prime (GameCube) pure speed record is now 1hr 17mins, and the Metroid II (GameBoy) 100% is now set at 1hr 12mins, with further decreases planned - these records were recorded into video form and no emulators were used." We've previously covered Metroid Prime 'speed runs', which are an extension of classic Quake speed runs.

TheNomad writes "Made in Fountainhead Entertainment's Quake III-based tool, Machinimation, 'Anna' is a real-time generated machinima showing the story of a single flower's life, from birth to - well, I won't spoil it for you. There's a showcase of the film over at Machinima.com, and they also have a download page, as well as a FilePlanet mirror." We've recently run an interview with Katherine Anna Kang, Fountainhead boss and ex-id software employee, and also discussed the 2003 Machinima Film Festival Awards, in which 'Anna' won several awards.

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing how important it is to release a playable demo of your games before the game debuts. Although he points out: "If your demo does not go over well with the public, it may end up being detrimental to the retail product", the writer notes: "My observations have consistently indicated that a demo's impact can be far more significant if it is released before, rather than after, a game. Look at Doom and Quake. Look at Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Battlefield 1942. The demos made these games." He even suggests games deserve delaying to get a representative demo released: "Given that resources are limited, should a game be delayed just so a demo can be released? ...I'm going to say the answer is yes."

Sacrusha writes "The developers of UFO: Alien Invasion finally released a technical demo for both Windows and Linux, using a modified Quake 2 engine to feature turn-based tactical combat against alien forces on three different maps, in both single and multiplayer modes! UFO: AI is going to be a totally free, fan-made game and is heavily inspired by Microprose's X-Com series - the developers are looking for your input on the product."

An anonymous reader writes "Quake master Johnathan Wendel, better known as Fatal1ty, talks about his life and the professional gaming scene over at ZDNet. Asked how he keeps his reflexes sharp, he said: 'I use the same tactics in 'Quake' that I used in tennis. It's all about mind games, knowing what your opponent's thinking, knowing where a shots going to go. Anything in a computer game, I can relate it to something in sports I've played. The rail gun (the heaviest weapon in 'Quake') -- that's like going for the overhead slam in tennis. You set 'em up and then you drive it home with your hardest shot. It's like all the shots in tennis are, back and forth, trying to get them off balance. And when you do, you slam it down their throat. Same as gaming.'"