Another PQ newbie this week, Shadowdane. Looks like this guy has made a load of maps ranging from good old Duke3D to Quake 2.

I got email from RaYGunn about a new site that along with Guf they've just put up called Black Mail. Since I'm a lazy ass heres a cut and paste from the email I got about the site :
"This site is about firstborns, dirty laundry, scandal, and the like... in other words, early level design work from names you know and love (or at the very least recognize). We got dirt on old skool DM mappers, famed freelance designers, industry professionals, and even a prominent webmaster or two. All in all, it should be a fascinating peek at first releases and in some cases, even unreleased work.

We have opened with maps from Levelord, Headshot, and Crash! With more to come soon!

I also got an email from someone called Bario. He asked very kindly if I would link his site to some news that he'd mentioned, to explain better heres the email...
I've released the source code of my previous work, The Production Complex, a Q2 singleplayer mission pack.

My work is on http://www.multiplayer.it/bario, if you want to link it, i will be glad.
So everyone go there now.

John Carmack has finally updated his .plan file with a monster of an update. He goes on about lighting (very technical and I don't understand a word of what he is saying) but of interest to me was this.
* blood trails behind gibs
Sounds good to me =).

By the way, the reason I put Euro's on the Shambler flyer was because they are particularly worthless. Hahahaha. *ahem*. Sorry.

Final thing. Mr Shambler... I was was fully aware that you had gone on holiday, so big =P to you.

Excessus has released a new map called Exdm4 - The Furnace.(473Kb). Its the first map I've seen to use King Pin textures and it looks brilliant. Excessus has once again produced another top map. As always Skorpion has produced a route file for it which you can get here. He has also created a route for Mayhem by Gibbie, which I reviewed last weekend, and a route file for Chao$ Theory.(291Kb) by Hot Cakes.

I fixed the email addresses in the reviews Frib did at the weekend, since originally I'd screwed them up.

Okay Dokay. You Quake 2 people can now send in your maps for review! So pop over to the Submit Levels page and do so. Please read the instructions on that page! It makes our life a lot easier when it comes to doing the review. I cannot believe how many people just give website addresses and say get it from here or give the incoming dir on cdrom.com. These are useless!!!

More site movements. Bal is now on the BatttleShip Quake along with Michael Daugherty better known as the map author formally known as Jerkoff. Another new site at PQ is Pandemonium. I've seen this site before and it has some excellent artwork there. Now I have to update all the damn download links for the maps. Mumble, mumble, %$^k, R$.f3...

I got a couple of interesting maps in this week which I have been asked to review but I don't think I will because playing then gave me a pretty bad headache. Not to deprive you of them though (hehe), here they are. Moonlight.(348Kb) and The Limbo of Broken Ecstasies.(56Kb). As you may have guessed these maps are really really weird. Below are screenshots of both maps in Quark with the lighting effects turned off so its all in full bright mode (click on them for larger images, full size is 985x738).

YOINK! Screenies removed....

The reason I've taken these pictures is because in Moolight I just got totally lost (Its very dark in and everything looks the same) and for Ecstasies its just because it has some very odd textures in.  If you're feeling adventurous and have some headache tablets with you then go check out the authors website which has the completely sane name of PSYCHO-JOURNEY through Quake 1.

Wanna see some more grade A awful maps? You do! Go here then for a batch of Quake 2 nasties. Whats the grading system about? Seems a tad odd to me.

Now I'm not usually one for pimpage of SP maps for Quake but when you play a map of such a high quality you will understand why. Damaul has recently released Damaul6 - Bestial Devastation (922Kb). If you don't have the Zestorer patch then you will also need to download this file as well (1959Kb). This map is absolutely superb. Heres a couple of screenies of it.

YOINK! Screenies removed....

Due to this map I went and re-downloaded Zestorer. What an excellent mod that is. I remember the levels as if I played them yesterday so they are not much of a challenge as they originally were, but its cool to just trek through it all again. If you're interested go here to download it (thats a UK link).

Theres been a uproar on the conversions of Quake 2 maps to Quake 3 Arena. Most of these conversions have been without the original map authors authorisation and a storm has gone off (rightly so) on sCary's Gigaboard. ztn, escher and frib join in the proceedings basically telling these dum f**ks to stop what they're doing. I'm totally on their side with this. If the author doesn't want his/her work converted then don't do it. I've played some of these conversions and have to say they are just complete turd. Since they are originally Quake 2 maps the scale is completely out of whack and some of tricks used to make the maps work are awful. One prime example is in Aerowalk. The map has a slanted ramp in the main atrium. Well when you walk from the bottom up you are teleported to the top of it. Stupid!

Gibbie has told me to plug the Frogbot. So heres a plug for it, go get Frogbot. Frib and Escher apparently use it, but I'm not very impressed by it. Alot of messing about is required to get the thing going and it certainly will not be replacing the Obots.

Ninja has recently started a new feature on his site called 'Authors'. The idea behind it is to have info on each author (d.o.b, site address etc.) and also to provide a jump point to everyone's websites. So go see how many old gits mappers there are =).

Peej has posted an article on 1-on-1 tips. Well worth a read.

There is a pretty good interview with John Carmack up on Voodoo Extreme. Continuing the id theme the latest issue of Edge has an 8 page article on id. Its about Quake 3 Arena and it has a few details I've not seen anywhere else.

There is a news article up the Arenaline Vault about possible trouble surrounding the completion of a game called Mortyr. I'd read a couple of features on it and it looks pretty cool. Its a 3D shooter set in Germany in World War II. According to the article the game is in a real mess.

King Pin has gone gold! Wahoo! Saw that on Blues and Scary's. Its funny but I no longer visit Redwoods. The page takes too long to load and when I get there the news isn't updated regularly enough. Anyway, Ridah (Ryan Feltrin) updated his .plan file with news about a DM game included in King Pin called Bag Man. Heres what Ridah had to say on it:
If you've been looking for something new to play on-line lately, let me introduce you to "Bag Man". It might sound odd, but it's actually very addictive, and intense. Take CTF, mix it with Mobsters. Stir.

The result, is a game revolving around cash. Both teams have a safe. Somewhere in the center of the map exists a Cash spawning location (counterfitting machine outlet, if you must..). The object being, to collect as much cash as possible, then return to your base and lock it in the safe.

But, as the game progresses, it becomes highly rewarding to steal from the enemy safe, hence the term "Bag Man". Anyone that has stolen from the enemy safe, has a big sack over their shoulder, and can be carrying up to $200 in the sack, plus whatever cash they've put in their pockets (picked up along the way). This makes them prime targets for the enemy, and highly valuable friends.

At the end of the game, the team with the most Cash wins. Simple as that.
As soon as I see King Pin in the shops I'm gonna nab myself a copy.

Second Update
ProdigyXL has finally released XL1DM4 - XL Game Over.(220Kb). Initial impressions. Disappointed. I just can't stand the texture set used. Its like the one used in Bless to Kill by Headshot. Its just yuck. After a little playing though I found that it plays really well (4 in FFA) and has some extremely cool architecture.

The Fat Controller is now here at PQ with a brand new spanking cool look. Shambler should like it, it has a subtle injection of purple. Stecki has also put his site back up. I was browsing through his site and found something about a car he has called the Doom Car. Interesting I thought. What I particularly like is the way the oil guage bounces to the bass line of whatever is playing on the radio. Kaiser has once again redone his site. I quite liked the old look, all green and everything. Apparently though Kaiser didn't, so now we have a more stream lined look.

Excessus has added a new section to his site called the bin. This is basically a page full of screenies of maps which will never be finished =(. He got the idea from Prod who originally did this on his own site.

First Update
Here are 2 new Featured Author Interviews. Thats not all the Featured Author Interview though, they'll be another 2 next week.

Some good news for all you Quake 2 authors. We will *soon* (read : S-O-O-N, not now but later in a few days, just NOT NOW. OK!) be accepting Quake 2 maps again. Now heres the deal. We still have a backlog but I've decided to scrap it for a few reasons.

• First is half of the download links for the maps are crap.
• Second, I'm sick of the shit from people complaining. Some of the emails though were very amusing =). SH4MBLER!!!
• Third there are too many duplicated requests, some people think spamming us with their maps will get them reviewed quicker. The answer to that is no, its more likely to get binned. Also on a few occasions maps got reviewed twice. (I'm only human! I do make mistakes).
• Fourth if you really want your map reviewing then you'll resubmit it.

I checked the Generations site yesterday to see how things were going and I find out the damn thing has been canceled! Ouch. When they started the project they asked id over a year ago whether what they were doing was legit. Due to some confusion on both sides, work went ahead on it. The project continued until a week or so ago when id got in touch saying what they doing was in violation of licensing agreements etc. The guys had two choices. Convert it to the guidelines id had set (basically remove all legally binding references and so turn it to crap) or stop. They made what I think is the correct decision given the circumstances and stopped work on the it. Kinda sad really. For the full low down check out their site. Good luck to whatever the Generations team works on next.

ProdigyXL is going to be releasing XL1DM4 sometime today. All I can say is about fugging time! Speaking of Prod his website has turned into a regular news site. You bored or something? j/k.

My favourite net util, Getright, has just been updated. Currently its only a beta (v4.0) but I'll be checking it out anyway.

Paradies released a Quake 2 map yesterday called Degeneration.(306Kb). Pretty cool map decked out in a mix of jail and space textures.

Just to keep you guys going the Inspection site will be opened within the next two weeks =P. Now that is specific. Hehehe. Oh and I don't need anymore peeps for the site, I've now got enough people.

Another site has dropped in here at PQ. Its Wiebo's Quake Stuff which funnily enough is run by Wiebo de Wit. Hes a Quake 2 mapper so if that your thing go pop by and take a look at the 7 or maps hes made.

The qboard has now been upgraded into its second incarnation. Seems more streamlined now and Headshot has done an excellent job on improving it.

ztn is interviewed over at the Quake 3 Centre... sorry Center. Daft american spelling. Color. Whack. Colour. Favor. Crunch. Favour. Zee. ZED! Ick!

This is a little message to ProdigyXL. I did email you but you didn't reply. First off I'm not pissed off with you anymore, I was at the time of the post. When I saw it I was annoyed, what you were saying just seemed very daft and completely over the top. Now though, I'm not. Secondly I will review XL1DM4. You've tried your best to keep me away from the thing so I'm expecting something special when it finally arrives.

Now about yesterdays Quake map review. Just to clear things up.
1. The map is real and it is Preacher's first map.
2. The review is intended as a joke! Just read it and look at the daft screen shots.
3. You can't get it anywhere. Its not downloadable at all!!! The download link is to a text file Mr Shambler wrote.
4. PLEASE DON'T PESTER PREACHER FOR IT!

More site movement! Aardappel,.Mr Clean and Ninja are now here at PQ. I also noticed Vondur sneaked in as well. The little monkey kept that quiet. Also The Fat Controller looks like he'll be moving as well. He gives a very good explanation on the qboard as to his situation:
OK, let's come clean here. I WILL move to PQ (nice people to ask) once Swamp is finished and released, and I've got the New Look down.

Now SHUT UP.
Straight to the point =). So I'll get back to updating the links page... Also have you noticed that I've actually updated everyday this week. Ick!

Now since Mr Pingu mentioned Inspection I suppose I should as well. Inspection is indeed similar to Ramshackle in that it focusses on Quake and Quake 2 (and Quake 3 Arena) maps which we think are the best out. Currently the situation stands like this. I'm awaiting a reply from tech support at PQ regarding hosting. The reviewers are almost in place (just need a Quake 2 reviewer). I'm ironing out things in HTML so it works perfectly in Nutscroat, erm... Nutscrape... Netscape.

I have a read of the Dear Mynx column every so often and it just so happened that this week its done by John Romero. Its extremely funny this week and even if some of the emails just have to me made up (I'm sorry but some of them are too stupid to be real) its still worth a look!

Also Excessus and Renegade have now moved to PlanetQuake. Wrath now has his site sorted. Thats 7 sites moving over to PQ so far this week. Mr Aardappel is also in the process of setting his site up here. Will there be anymore? Yes, but I can't tell you yet =P.

First Update
I have a request. I'm in the process of starting up a new website which is dedicated to creating indepth reviews with a twist for Quake, Quake 2 and eventually Quake 3 Arena. Now I *need* another reviewer for the site. Ideally someone that likes Quake 2. If you're interested please email me so we can discuss things further.

Kaiser has just released a new Quake map called The Sweetest Way To Die (221Kb). Very cool, it looks familiar but has some nice twists.

The global domination for PQ is now entering its final stages. Cheshire and Damaul has just moved aboard and the list for others is pretty big as well. Wrath, Tyrann, Renegade (maybe) as well as others.

A quick look on Frib's site revealed Biggus has just released a new Quake map, Rest in Pieces (256Kb).

Some new TNT have been released. Apparently they cause the q3test to crash now, can't say I've had that problem. If you haven't updated to the new v1.88 Detonator drivers then pop here to get them.

Ever wondered what Bruce Lewis the programmer behind the now defunct GLDoom is up to now? No, oh well bloody sod you then. Anyway, he has now opened up his own site which contains some interesting pieces of code. Worth a look if like that sort of thing.

Quote of the day
<Shambler> okay time to go: need p00, sh0wer, b00k, sleep, in that order

I was thinking about starting a regular feature called Quake 2 idiot of the week, but for obvious reasons decided against it. I had a really good one lined up as well, but my sensible side kicked in and said not to go ahead with. I think it was when I thought the site might end up on Geocities or Xoom I changed my mind.

Two updates a week leaves me with little news to go on about. John Carmack has stopped updating his .plan file and checking his email for a while because someone mail bombed him. He was probably bombed because of his last .plan update which included this line:
* 250 msec minimum time between landing and jumping again I hate having players bouncing around all the time...
I for one am glad he did this. I absololutely hate those people who hop up and down like raving mad luntics. The only skill it shows is that the must have very limp wrists to keep hitting the space bar so much, if you see what I mean.

I got an email from a nice bloke called Yogi. Since I'm a lazy ass I'll cut and paste part of the email I got from him to best explain things.
We go by the name of Fresh Team and we make deathmatch maps for quake 2 and we try to keep our standards high. <snip> We also have a few good mappers on board ( De Raven, hot cakes ) who both got high marks on your site.
I had a peek and they've got some extremely cool maps up there. So go visit the Fresh Team =).

There are times when people astound as to how stupid they are. As regular visitors to the site know, and people I talk in #terrrafusion will know I've been get a trickle of Quake 2 emails in much to my annoyance. Most of them understand as to what is going on after one email, but others do not and the bare face cheek to tell me to remove all references to Quake 2 from the site because we aren't talking in new reviews! Not to mention any names, *cough* Gordon White *cough*, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO! HUH? WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN THE SITE? ITS NOT LIKE I HAVEN'T DESCRIBED THE SITUATION SEVERAL FLIPPING TIMES IN PLENTY OF DETAIL! I MEAN WHAT THE CHUFFING ELSE I AM MEANT TO DO! PIN A NOTICE TO YOUR HEAD WITH A NAILGUN? WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO DO THAT!

Anyway, on the Submit Levels page I've added a page which explains the problem... again! (I did have some swearing in that above bit, but as not to cause problems, I changed it).

Some interesting news in the last couple of days. id has been cracking down on those add-on pak files. It was only a matter of time though till they did because the license agreement for the q3test is pretty strict. Also Brian Hook has left id to work elsewhere. Its meant to be a good job and we'll find out what it is later on this week, There has been alot of speculation on the messageboard at the 'Shack as to what it may be.

I tried all my Playstation games with bleem! and got some interesting results. Some games ran extremely fast (almost too fast, even with the limit game speed option on) whilst others ran very very slow. Graphically its a mixed bag, sprites seemed knacked in all games. I looked at the help docs and all the solutions they have don't seem to work =(.