News and Waffle

Foobarred some links ^

by Paul - Tuesday 23 February 1999 @ 07:44

DOH! The links for Munyul Verminard's Quake 2 map VerM 06 were a little incorrect. Oops. Well they've now been fixed and you can now grab the level.

Just found this out on Blue's News that some new footage of Quake 3 Arena (3.9Mb) has been released. I'm downloading it now so I don't actually know what its like or about.

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Netscape peeps can now see! ^

by Paul - Sunday 21 February 1999 @ 07:43

Non-IE users will instantly notice the difference! Earlier on in the week at Uni I loaded up the site in Netscape. The res was 800x600 and I was horrified to see how messy it was. So after bugging Kable for a while we've come up with a much better looking version of the site for non-IE users. Actually it looks very similiar to the IE version of site. If you're using IE and want to see the other version click

It doesn't scale as well as the IE version but its certainly an improvement! I'd like comments from people who use that particular version of the site and tell me whether or not it is an improvement.

I got a book a couple of weeks ago on websites. Its Web Design in a Nutshell published by O'Reilly. Good book actually. One of the many tips in there was to try loading your site in a browser called Opera. So I grabbed a copy of it. This particular browser accepts no mistakes in HTML files. If there are any, pages will appear screwed up. Well, I've tried it out with site and it seems to work fine =P.

Couple of other things. Monsto does not want anymore review requests at the moment. He is currently working his way through the backlog that he has. He will notify me as to when he is ready to accept more review requests. Secondly please don't get round this by sending Quake 2 maps to me. I don't review Quake 2 maps. Its very simple. I review Quake maps, Monsto reviews Quake 2 maps.

After that blasting I've got some good news. I've ordered a new PC. Heres rundown of the spec:

• Pentium II 450MHz
• 128MB Ram
• 13Gig HDD
• 17" Trinitron monitor
• 16MB RIVA TNT (can't remember the make)
• 12MB Voodoo2
• SB 64 with surround sound setup

So its a pretty mean machine. I've got two weeks until I can get my hands on it =).

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Ive been busy ^

by Paul - Saturday 20 February 1999 @ 07:43

No reviews yet. I've just got two more assignments to finish and then I'll get back to reviewing. You can look forward to a bumper pack of Quake reviews next week.

All you Blood 2 monkeys will probably be interested to know the long awaited Mutliplayer patch (12.3Mb) has been released. I've seen Kable playing it. Seems alot smoother. A load of Blood maps have been converted over, which look damn cool. Also CTF is included. (Nabbed that from Caleb's Crypt).

I can't believe I've not mentioned this site yet. (Funny really, considering I'd put in on the links page ages ago). Anyway its The Betatesting Facility which is run by Gom Jabbar. Basically you submit the details of your map. People who are interested email you asking for the password to be able to get hold your map.

The Great Green Heron and Xori have both moved to Terrafusion. The GGH has changed slightly. It runs through pictures of the maps which are running on the servers there. Also good luck to Xori in whatever he does next.

Continuing the Terrafusion theme. Something I hadn't noticed but the new look Terrafusion isn't the look which was originally designed. It came to me when I visited Peek's site, I thought I'd seen this look before. I read the news update and saw why. Him and Peej had designed this really cool look for the new Terrafusion, but Idoru went off and did his own thing. Peek however decided to use the look for his site. Which I like over the Terrafusion one. Oh well!

Would you like to read the longest ever map review? You would! Take a look at this review of Dario Casali's (mapper at Valve) latest Half-Life map Double Cross. I can't believe someone can write so much on a map! Its also the highest rating map ever on Radium.

Speaking of Radium. That brings on to the subject of the archives here. Since nobody came forward to help on a better system for archiving maps, I've decided to do it myself. Its going to be similiar to that of Radium's archives. Each map with have its own page and a big index will be link them. Which should hopefully be sortable by the various titles (author, map name etc.). So for the moment archiving maps is on hold until I sort out this new system.

I've also made an addition to the page.

I visited Rust for the first time this week. I know Monsto keeps plugging the place so I decided to go there. If there was ever a site to help mappers out there, this is it.

QuArK 5.6 was released this week. Which was then followed by a beta of version 5.7.

Found an interesting Quake 2 utility. Its MapSpy. This little program is an editing diagnostic utility which finds problems in Quake 2 map files. Heres a link to the site its on.

Something I've not gotten around to installing (and probably won't) is mIRC. Version 5.51 was released this week. Another program I won't be installing is Quake 2. Two reasons. First off is that I don't have the disk space. I seem to have filled it up with other things. Second reason is that I didn't play it much when I had it installed previously.

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Ugh, thank you Winblows ^

by Paul - Monday 15 February 1999 @ 07:42

Monsto has rumbled off reviews. They should have been up on Thursday but due to Windows going arse over tit on my machine, I've not had net access since Thursday. I've had to reformat my HDD since it made a real mess. I haven't lost anything so no need to re-email me stuff =P.

I may do some reviews for this coming weekend depending on how things go. If not then, I will *DEFINATELY* have some done the week after.

News from a reliable source tells me you can expect the UKPak team to release the final version of their map pack soon. Those of you that played the betas will know how good they are! You can also, hopefully, expect a review of all the maps here.

The KT-imPAKt site has moved to Planetquake. If you've not been there yet its basically a DM map pack for Quake 2. Theres some top quality maps in there so go take a peek.

Gonzo has updated with some news, reviews and pictures of his lastest map. A Quake map with Quake 2 textures, kind of like Killjoys KJDM12.

Spotted a new site that has opened on Quakeintosh. Its Deathmaps and its run by dohnut. The idea is to list the best Quake maps.

Sad news. A World of Quake 2 has closed. Can't say I'm all that surprised. The amount of reviews that appeared there was slowly declining. Also at one point Paul (he runs the site) said he was leaving but then reappeared. Anyway, its now officially closed. Heres Paul's last update.

2-4-99

After over two years of great levels and reviews for Quake and Quake 2, I have decided to move on to other endeavors in my life and leave the reviewing scene altogether. This site will stay up as long as my host will let it but it will no longer be maintained. If any of the links do not work then... so be it! Please do not ask me where levels are or how to play them. A big thanks go to all the level authors that contributed to this site. Without them we wouldn't have been able to enjoy Quake 2 for as long as we did. Also, a big thanks goes to Mosquito, Stupak, and Sniv for your contributions to this site and to everyone else who have made an impact on this site.Oh yeah... thanks Crash, Matt, Gene, and Eric for all your support and help too. Farewell to all...

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Qboard moved ^

by Paul - Monday 08 February 1999 @ 07:41

Dammit. I was hoping not to do anything on the site until this weekend, but as some of you have noticed the Qboard has moved. So I've updated all the links according. I'll probably have to change them again since these are just temporary.

Other news, Headshot has released his lastest map, Hidden Agenda (211Kb). Haven't played it yet since I'm downloading it now, but the piccys on Ramshackle look damn cool.

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Please excuse me. ^

by Paul - Sunday 07 February 1999 @ 07:40

Ok, this is a bad news update. Due to personal reasons I need to take a break from the site. It will probably be for a couple of weeks (ish). I'll still have time to put up Monsto's reviews and do a small news update, but I don't have enough time to do the reviews. Apologies to all the people expecting reviews. There are 4 of you as of this update. (2 of which gave damn incoming dirs on cdrom.com).

Anyway on with the news...

Finally got around to setting up my own account details here at MPQ. I'd been using Smash's account up until last Wednesday. (So if you'd wanted to get into the site you could of Smash =P). I mentioned this because the people who sorted it out were so quick. These people do a great job running and hosting all the wonderful sites you see on the PQ network.

Speaking of sites. I've been told I can finally mention the fact that Kable and Inferno's site, Caleb's Crypt, has now got hosting on PlanetBlood. Go take a peek at his and Inferno's mad ramblings (That is if you're a Blood 2 fan).

UKPak team released a set of beta (Quake) maps this week. This is truely amazing stuff. They look superb. Haven't had chance to play them yet, just have a look around. So you can download the beta from either here or here (3.2MB). These guys want feedback on them so once you've played them go email them what you think.

XLProdigy has moved his site to Terrafusion (His site appears to be down at the moment though). To celebrate this he has released a Quake 2 map, XLDM6 - XL Speed Junky (254Kb).

Escher has released a map(241Kb). Its a Quake 2 conversion of the Quake map Ultraviolent. The conversion is done extremely well. The lighting is very moody. I personally would like to see a conversion of De Bello Quakero or Razzi Amari.

Gamespyder was launched earlier this week. To explain what it is I did a cut and paste from their site:

GameSpyder is a complete categorized and searchable index of gaming web sites -- just what you're looking for. Built from the remains of the late great "SlipGate Central," we think you'll dig the new system.

Well I sort of dig it... I've added MPQ there. Tried a search for it, came up with 456 matches. It could take awhile to get too. Oh well.

The Adrenaline Vault has had a re-design. Its miles better than the previous look, which took ages to load.

Just read this on sCary's. AMD losing money. Thats funny. Go read this CNN article on it.

Got hold of Simcity 3000 and F-Zero X earlier this week. SC3000 is damn cool. I think I'll end up playing alot it of. Same goes for F-Zero X. It may lack trackside detail but its one fun game!!!

Finally played more Zelda. I'm now in the Forest Temple. Will this game ever end?

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#terrafusion, open to the plebs ^

by Paul - Tuesday 02 February 1999 @ 07:40

I mentioned yesterday irc.bOrk.co.uk, well you should also check out planetquake.3dnet.net #terrafusion (That should make Peej happy =P. I was going to mention it but just *had* to go the pub). Actually seems something in my review of Strafin5 triggered Peej to write an article on dead ends in maps. Interesting reading.

I've updated the "How they map article" since the thread on QBoard had more stuff in it.

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Review of Peejs latest ^

by Paul - Monday 01 February 1999 @ 07:39

New month, new map. Here is as promised is a review of Peej's latest map, Infinite Skill. So go read it!

Xori creamed himself earlier today when it found a server running his lovely Quake 2 map, Mortal Comeback (lt_dm1). So pop over to the Hairball Hell q2 server which is at 216.160.8.113:27910.

For all you IRC jockeys out there you'll probably wanna check out this place. Its irc.bOrk.co.uk #mappers.uk. Loads of people go here ranging from the UKPAK peeps to Peej and co.

Uploaded the new improved Took me awhile but it was I think it was worth it. If you find any mistakes in there email me.

Also archived last months news.

Programming. What fun. I hate it when I spend a good couple of hours fixing a bug, writing loads of code, deleting when it doesn't work. Then suddenly realising I should remove "- 1" from a big calculation and the bug is fixed. Dammit!

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Fix0ring stuff ^

by Paul - Sunday 31 January 1999 @ 07:37

Nothing new to the site. Just fixing some links. (Thanks Bal).

Also added a logo to the page. Monsto has come up with some good suggestions for that page. We also pick our favourite id maps as well. I'll get that sorted out soon.

I checked the counter stats early today. Seems some of you are Mac users (eck!), so I've scouted about for Mac Quake links. Here what I came up with:
JVOX's Boomstick
Quakeintosh
(Reorganising the site at the moment, but you can visit the old version still)
Scott's MacQuake Utilities
These places have links to loads of other MacQuake related sites so I'll stop there.

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Lots of reviews ^

by Paul - Saturday 30 January 1999 @ 07:37

Heres some and reviews. 4 Quake 2 maps and 5 Quake maps. Enjoy!

Due to a error on my part (ie I can't count properly) I have now done over 100 reviews. It would appear my 100th review was Pingu's dayDream. Speaking of which the download link for dayDream was broken. Its now fixed. Thank you everyone for telling me *COUGH* bollocks *COUGH*.

On Monday Peej releases his latest map in the Strafin series, Infinite Skill. As soon as Peej gives the go ahead a review will appear here. (Just gotta write a review first =))

Jvox has released a new map, GrayLiotta (243kb). Looks superb and plays just as good. I love the concept behind this map. The idea is that deathmatch is made into a commerical game and companies build special arenas to play in. Go read the Ramshackle review of it. Its also been added to the section since I like it that much.

Added a new rant. Its not actually a rant at all. Its copy of a thread from the QBoard. The article is about how authors go about making their maps. Well worth a look.

Another map I want to mention is Slopy (123k). Its made by Aardappel (who has a map reviewed here this week). All the surfaces in this map are sloped. Its hard to explain. You should just download it and be amazed by how much fun it is to play.

I've sorted out the links page and added a shed load of links. Also updated some existing ones as well. New or updated links are marked with  *

I've put up the section I promised. Also the changes to the archives are coming along. Its takes awhile since its all HTML pages. It would be good to have some kind of script like Radium does. Can anyone help me with this? (Probably mean restructing the archives, again. DOH!).

Mother %^$$#@* computer. My programming PC has been a real bitch this week. Just when I *really* need to use it, it won't bloody work. I'd turn it on and nothing would happen. The light on the monitor came on but the machine did nothing. I took it to pieces. Took out a new caddi drive I'd only just installed a week ago, a Voodoo card and a soundcard. Practically everything. Would it work... no. So I left it after punching it and bending the frame. Came back and it booted. I thought "Good, I'll get my work done now". But no, Windows would hang. I then gave up and left the computer for a day. Tried again and it worked fine. Theres some wierd stuff happening with that computer.

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