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Archived old news - December 1999:
News: Friday 31/12/99
Millennium.
I don't give a fuck about it. I feel no urge to celebrate an entirely arbitrary date of man's own devising. Man's divisions of time mean nothing to this planet nor to time itself, and this particular
division means nothing to me apart from a cynical distaste for what the future will bring. I feel no joy about the progression into a new thousand year division, I expect it will suck at least as
much as the last thousand years. The only thing that strikes me with any certainty and confidence is that mankind is irrevocably doomed: Individual humans are, and almost certainly always will
be, too stupid, too narrowminded and too selfish to organise their own lives in any satisfactory manner, let alone a rapidly developing and growing civilisation spanning an entire fucking planet.
The only question is when and how mankind will self-destruct - and I'm tempted to think the sooner the better.
Laterz,
The cheerfully malevolent Shambler
News: Wednesday 29/12/99
Bleh.
I've spent most of the last 2 days at this pretty neat site I've found where you can listen to Real Audio samples of tracks and then get your selection put onto CD (or MP3, but since I have no
interest in MP3s, I like this site because I can get what I want on CD). The site's got a large and fairly good jungle / drum'n'bass section, so I've basically been going through that track by track,
noting down any good stuff for later compilation. Unfortunately, the site is really cuntingly *slow* for me (hence no URL, it's bad enough w/out anyone else eating up the bandwith), so it tends to
be a teethgrinding and brainnumbing process of huge lag and RA playback delays =(. But in the end I should be able to order some CDs with *just* proper jungle on instead of the fillers and
bland 2-step that all too many compilations have these days. Anyway since I've been "rather obssessed" with this, no other stuff nor updates done. Maybe by the new year I'll have got through
this damn list of tracks...
Games and stuff:
When I can drag myself away from shitty, lagged RA samples, I've been playing the following: Wheel of Time, almost finished this now, some very nice maps at the end
(and indeed the whole way through), and the enemy get pretty damn challenging too. Unreal maps, as I have some to review for this weekend, the reviews will tell you more.
Q3A, for a very short period of time until I got fed up of the lousy gameplay and hopelessly vague feel - a game that is much better to run around the maps than actually play.
UT, which is really rather cool, as the gameplay is good for botmatch, and it's all wrapped up well with stories behind the characters and the maps, nice little tutorials and other such
touchs which do actually make the botmatch more palatable.
Ummm, yeah I feel like this sometimes:
<ZzJohNzZ> q3a? my god is that a game or an abomination against mankind?
Nice guy, ZzJzZ, he's a hardcore QuakeWorld player, and runs 3AC, which has QW map and trick
related stuff.
Laterz,
Shambler
News: Sunday 26/12/99
Xmas Shambler.
In case anyone cares how my Xmas was spent, you can forget it as I am not revealing any Real Life™ information. But I
will say that I have spent a lot of time on the net (even more than usual), downloading lots of stuff and listening to plenty of top notch jungle / drum'n'bass as well.
LOL!!
Yes, sometimes I can be so fucking st00pid and stubborn =). As mentioned yesterday, the 1st download of Heretic ii Demo disconnected at 17 meg....then the 2nd download gave
a blue screen error at 34 meg....and (yes you can see where this is going) finally the 3rd download timed out at 31 meg. So I *finally* got
Go!Zilla, the download control/resume program that to be honest I should have got ages ago instead of dicking around by relying
on "luck". 121 meg downloaded to get a 39 meg demo, ugh. I've only had a look round the DM maps so far, to try out the controls, which are actually okay for a 3rd person game as they are
clean and responsive and the camera is sensible - unfortunately there is a slight delay pressing keys though. Game looks pretty cool too, I shall play it and see what I think, though to be honest
if it had a 1st person option (which would be really nice and helpful, ya know??), I'd have got it ages ago.
Other game demos.
Yeah I'm on a downloading spree at the moment, dunno why. Maybe to take advantage of the new comp. Anyway, I tried the Blood 2 Demo today, just the first level so far. It's okay,
the control is good, as are some of the effects (skies, liquids, some weapons). But it seems a curiously souless enviroment, doesn't have much visual depth and lacks any atmosphere so far. As
a standard FPS game it seems fine, but it isn't offering anything compared to the better games around.
Future plans:
As always I have some ideas and plans up my sleeve, and as usual I am not revealing any of them :P. Stay tuned...
And finally:
<Lunaran> That pulsing ring is just two frames: the small ring and the big one. The little one morphs out into the big one.
<shambles> mmmm, pulsing ring =))
* Lunaran doesn't want to know what shambler does with his pulsing ring
Laterz,
The quote-meister Shambler
News: Saturday 25/12/99
Errr, yeah, right.
Something about today....ummm....I forget. Anyway, to bring festive cheer into your miserable lives, I've compiled a page of all the silly IRC quotes I've posted here -
I was in stitches at some of the old genital-related quotes - check it out, scroll down past the recent ones as you've probably seen them before. This compilation page is posted on the
IRC chat logs page, and will be updated irregularly. Also, I've posted two normal, silly, IRC chat logs which might provide further
entertainment.
SHOCK! HORROR!! SCANDAL!!!
I bought Quake 3 Arena yesterday. I'll just wait a moment for that to sink in...
...
..
.
Seriously, I went out, purchased Q3A and Unreal Tournament, and installed both last night. So what the FUCKING HELL is Shambler, the scourge of DM/BM only games,
think he's playing at?!?!
Well he's certainly not playing the game :P. There are reasons why I bought it, mostly the fault of a chap called Lurker who's been emailing me recently, and ideas have been
forming in my plague-ridden little mind.... maybe I'll post those thoughts soon, k?? Also, I wanted to see what the maps were like for myself (and you know how interested I am in any sort of
maps even if I'm not going to play them, so I don't have to justify that). I can't be arsed to write any comments on either Q3A nor UT now - in fact from what little I've explored
of the full games, my thoughts on the demos still pretty much apply. There is one thing I'd like to mention about Q3A though:
Wicked3d Voodoo drivers:
These absolutely fucking r0ck. I am not the sort of person who usually gets all horny over speed increases and game tweaks (see: "SCRAD"), but I was so impressed by these...
When I first looked through the Q3A maps, I was shocked at how "anus-sandpaperingly" slow some of them were. At least 6 maps had major sections with piss-poor framerates, we
are talking 10-15 FPS @ 800x600, bilinear filtering, with no players in the map. Like WTF?? That's unplayable in a DM game. So I head
over to Wicked3d and get their drivers as they are meant to work wonders - no shit!! That lowest framerate went from 10-15
FPS @ 800x600,
Bilinear filtering to 35-45 FPS @ 1024x768, trilinear filtering. Pure 0wnage - but I am not at all amused that id expect other companies to do their work and 3D card
optimisation for them, they should have damn well got a contract with Wicked3D and ensured the game ran smoothly out of the box.
Unreal SP stuff:
Well I haven't had any new maps to review for Nali City, but I did finally get round to playing the classic
Shinigami 1 unit, which is rather cool and has some impressively epic ideas and designs in. Thus I have added it to my
recommended Unreal SP maps list -
it's a great pity that the author didn't continue to make the next maps in this planned series, I often see that happen, someone makes a great map and promises even better sequels, but they
never appear.
Ugh.
I *was* downloading the Heretic II demo because I felt like downloading something big, and HII has always been niggling at me to try it, even though I'd rather shave all my
pubes off and make them into a quiche than play in 3rd person :P. Errr, but the download timed out on 17 meg. Nice. I should really get Getright or Gozilla or something... Oh well, time to start
over, nothing better to do today. ... Wh00p, 3 hours later, 29 meg re-d/led - just waiting for the disconnection at 38 meg :P.
For a taste of that quote log:
<shambles> <[OUT]Than> oh yeah frib, I've shagged many hamsters before. they just rip apart though as a human penis is a little bit too large for them
<shambles> lol
<shambles> this quote page is gonna rock
<[Kona]> hehehe
<[Kona]> except i don't think than will think so :P
<Bal> than is proud of his animal sex life, he wont mind
Nice one, Bal =).
Laterz,
Shambler claws :P
News: Wednesday 22/12/99
More information than you ever really wanted to know.
As promised a while back, I have completed the Site information page, which now contains information about the site content, construction, history etc etc, to
explain to people what this site is all about. However, I'm sure the bit you really want to see is the Shambler information section in which I reveal
previously unimaginable personal information - w0w!!
Domination and CTF.
Heh. I never even noticed there was a Domination map in the UTDemo, dunno how I managed to miss it but there you go. Anyway the second time I played the tourney bit, I
continued after the DM section and thus got my first ever taste of teamplay!! Even if it was only with bots... Well, sort of my first taste, I did play a brief 2v2 game on DM3 a while back with
The Otta, which we either drew or just won I think - no thanks to The Otta who claimed he was eating pizza at the same time, leaving me to do the actual work of fragging
and camping the Quad etc etc :P.
Anyway, teamplay-botmatch-Domination-thing. Somehow our team won that despite being handicapped by some idiot who had no idea what team he was on, let alone how to play the game.
Errr, that idiot would be me then =). You have to control certain points on the map in Domination, kinda like normal teamplay except the points are just runic symbol things rather than stuff you
can actually CAMP, haha. The map's not bad, in an Egyptian style which is great for a change, with a nice outdoor bit but somewhat confusing underneath with small corridors and lots of
pillars. Anyway the bots knew what they were doing and "the idiot" even managed to capture a couple of the markers too.
Then it was CTF which was rather interesting. The map is fairly awkward in this one - it's very corridor based, which is fine for that style of gameplay and makes UT weapons even more
useful. However, there are very few distinctive sections (and it looks quite boring), making it often very hard to know where you are going - without landmarks, I was often just guessing which
was the right way to the bases. The actual match was pretty cool - we won 3 captures to 0, with myself capturing all 3 flags =). Quite interesting to consider this in retrospect, and I think an
important factor was that my team was fairly defensive, while the other bot team was more aggressive. This meant that when the other bots got our flag, they wouldn't make it far as there
always seemed to be 1 or 2 of my team lurking around our base. However, when I went for their flag, they would tend to be spread out throughout the map, making it fairly easy to get their
flag away from the base. Then the cumbersome layout would be making it hard for them to all rush to stop me "en masse" and at the same time my team would be moving out to support me,
ensuring I had a fairly easy run back. Tactics, eh?? Well, not deliberate ones on my behalf, but it worked =).
Updated Q2 SP maps list.
After a few slack weeks I have updated my list of recommended Q2 SP maps, this time with Mel Soaring 3 - Tomb of the Makron God, a map which is
a great improvement over the amateur and overrated Mel Soaring, and has an unusual dank tomb theme with a good layout, and challenging gameplay (though noticably flawed with
the health imbalance). Fairly good map for something with a different style. I still have a couple of units still to play and hopefully add to this list... And if you are wondering about my
list of favourite Q1 DM maps, well firstly not that many good maps have been released recently, and secondly I still haven't got round to re-installing some
bots so I can't test them anyway.
The usual stuff...
* Dru_to_and_fro takes off shambles big black helmet
<Dru_to_and_fro> um
<Dru_to_and_fro> actually
<Dru_to_and_fro> that sounds really bad
Errr yes it does Dru, what were you thinking of??
Laterz,
Leave Shambler's "helmet" alone
News: Tuesday 21/12/99
Hmmmm...
I specifically didn't mention my UTDemo vs Q3ADemoTest thing to PQ news nor
PeejnFribs because it was not an important enough article, but they
mentioned it anyway, strange what people are drawn to, eh?? Oh well, it's probably annoyed a few people (so it's a good thing, then!!), including the two bitchweasels who insisted on sending
me lengthy disagreeing emails despite me asking people not to email me about it. Sheesh!! Anyway, they got this (truthful) reply...
I said specifically, "don't bother with feedback for this one".
Which part of that was so hard to understand??
Not only am I not replying, I am deleting your email without reading it.
Laterz,
The sadistic Shambler
News: Monday 20/12/99
Here it is!!
Man it's been a pretty hectic week for doing stuff for this site, and the weekend was no exception: Here's
Shambler's comparison of the UTDemo and the Q3ADemoTest, and as you might expect, it's uncompromising stuff where
my views on gameplay quality are concerned. The reason why I'm only comparing the demos is because I haven't bought either of the full games yet and it might be a while before I do. Also,
the demos, as representations of important games, left quite an impression on me. Anyway, read all about it in the comparison, posted on the at this site.
BTW, don't bother with any feedback for this one, as it wasn't originally intended to be a proper article, and I can't be arsed to reply.
New cow-orientated IRC chat log...
No this has nothing to do with bestiality for a change, in fact no-one expresses any sexual desires whatsoever towards the sacred Q3A cow - well the cow is holy
and impure thoughts towards it would be punished...
Instead, for a bit of light relief, this log discusses modelling and designing a statue of the "sacred cow goddess" in Q3A...ummm =).
That's all for today...
...as I am rather busy otherwise. I shall leave you with this convenient and informative summary:
<shambles> q3a grovels on the ground and begs for the privilege of sucking ut's dick
Laterz,
The ever so "controversial" Shambler
News: Sunday 19/12/99
Mmmm...
Well. I was going to post my thoughts on the UTDemo and the Q3ADemoTest, but as it happens what was intially a few thoughts about various factors has just "grown"
and thus mutated into a fairly sizable article. So instead of trying to squash it into one day and post it in the news, I will go more indepth and post it on the
at this site tomorrow. So if you are interesting in the Shambler approach to such an "exciting" subject (heh), check back then.
Laterz,
Shambler
News: Saturday 18/12/99
"Na Pali Haven" - 0wn3d!!!
Shambler is at the Unreal speedruns again, and this time Na Pali Haven is sliced and diced with two huge shortcuts...
> Skytown: "Na Pali Haven" - Easy skill run in 2:22 ( version 2.25f )
Do not be fooled by the time, yes the run is two minutes and twenty two seconds, but it features two major timesaving shortcuts, using two Krall staff boost jumps - two of everything, eh?!?
Using 2 different Krall staff jumps is pretty hardcore stuff, so make sure you check it out - a rather cunning route in this run.
Unreal speedrun maps list:
Okay, this should be really interesting to those who want to know what other Unreal speedruns are possible, and particularly how feasible a hypothetical
Unreal Done Quick full game run would be: A list of all the maps, detailing their suitability for speedrunning, both as single runs AND as UDQ style
runs with weapons carried over. Overall, there is a lot of potential for worthwhile shortcuts, even if many runs would be fairly long and complex.
As for my own speedrunning, well there is
one more (hard) single map run I have my eye on (can you guess which one?? email me...). Aside from that, there are few vaguely possible
single map runs, but nothing suitable interesting nor exciting. After that, which will be well worthing waiting for if I manage it, it will just be new custom maps that I'll be running.
That's all for now.
I was going to write something vaguely menacing about the UTDemo and Q3ADemoTest (Why not the full versions?? Well I don't have them and probably never will have
Q3A...). But that will have to wait a while because a new Q1 SP level has just popped up so I will be reviewing that as soon as possible for
TEAMShambler Quake Level Reviews so things have got a bit hectic all of a sudden. There I was, looking
forward to a quiet weekend again...
More "Than abuse"
* shambles bitchslaps than right over to the other side of the channel!!
<shambles> *p0w*
* than slowly trundles back over to the side of #terrafusion where the action is
<shambles> sorry
<shambles> no "action" here
<shambles> you want www.bigboys.com
<shambles> i think you have that bookmarked anyway...
Yes #terrafusion feels much more "homely" now Than is back in town...
Laterz,
Speedy Shambler
News: Friday 17/12/99
Feedback and stuff:
Received a very nice email from MonkeyDonut at Lethargy Software, about the Oblivion
Q2 mission pack review. He was grateful that I did it, and liked the review, which is cool. However, the reason I'm mentioning this is because he
discussed some of the points I made, and mentioned that various flaws, especially the bugs, will be fixed and improved for the internet release. He also explained that most of the shortcomings
I pointed out *were* due to being rushed to get it on the PC Gamer cover CD, ah well a pity that. Also, the reason
behind the high quality textures...
"Texture Artist slept through his Valve interview (and thats why our textures are so good :)"
Hehe, you know, I was going to mention that in some outdoor sections, it did feel almost like Half-Life stylistically... I also got some bug reports from people on
#terrafusion: Someone mentioned there were bugs in the space levels which replaced the grenade models with grunt player models!??! Weird. Another person said
it crashed his Voodoo2 with some texture errors partway through (think that's right). Finally, someone said he got various ineffectual error messages when starting maps - I think I might have
seen some of those, but unless it actually affects gameplay, I wouldn't mention it.
Shocking depravity and filth!!
Yes here it is, the IRC chat log in which Shambler finally admits to practising bestiality. It had to happen some day...
Wheel of Time and UT over at Gamespy.
UT won the best game overall. An obvious result given the rather skewed FPS-multiplayer-orientated online pollsters that result will be representing - for what it sets out to do,
DM/BM, it seems to be doing it with a lot of refinement and panache. Though I did think it was a bit "ripe" that the Gamespy criteria pointed out: "it had to offer a lot for both single and
multiplayer". Oh really?? Well, UT offers exactly the same damn stuff for "single" and multiplayer, so it fails on that account. Ah well, the vagaries of people who don't recognise the
difference between botmatch and single player - you'd think Gamespy would know better. But more interestingly for me, Wheel of Time won the best
action game, soundly raping the ever-so-hyped Q3A. Hahahahahaha!! A result I am quite happy with - in fact I was going to vote for W0T, but then I realised I couldn't be arsed as I
don't give a dick about these award things. So why am I blethering on about it?? Okay, okay, I'll stop now...
Something that made me smile...
----- Original Message -----
From: Mail Delivery System MAILER_DAEMON@HotPOP.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 1999 11:43 AM
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
Undeliverable Address: jarh124@hotpop.com
Reason: The email address specified above has been closed for violating rules regarding unsolicited bulk email.
0wned!!
And finally:
<than> ok
<than> although I don't think watching eastenders has made my arse crack any wider
<shambles> it couldn't be much wider than
<shambles> not after the infamous "horse incident"
Laterz,
Shambler is just getting worse...
News: Thursday 16/12/99
And Project "O" is...
...the world's first exclusive review/preview of the new free Quake 2 mission pack "Oblivion". This 45 meg, 20 map
mission pack has been made by
Lethargy Software, and so far has only be released on the cover CD of the Christmas 1999 issue (# 77)
of PC Gamer magazine in the UK. However, it should also be available for public download soon, and is sure to
capture the attention of Quake 2 single players. Will UK players be phoning up for a PC Gamer back issue?? Will the rest of the world be warming up their modems for the net release?? The
only way to find out is to read the review.
Review details:
Just so you know, this review is in the same style as my Zaero Review, which is also posted at this site, i.e. a
comprehensive 2 page review, that covers almost every aspect of the mission pack imaginable, garnished with a healthy selection of screenshots and topped with a convenient summary.
However, I've taken care to not give away some of the cooler aspects, and not to show all of the best architecture in the shots, so players still have a lot to look forward to. The shots have
been chosen to compliment the 6 shots already at the Lethargy site, so take a look at those if you want more
visual stimulation. Finally, given my current icon making addiction, I of course made a nifty icon to go with the pack (it didn't come with one), so you can download mine by clicking on the
image above.
Something rather cool indeed...
This is a quote from the PlanetDaikatana
Forums. It's by TheZealot from
Stormtroopers, so I assume it's accurate:
"Yes, Daikatana has both Co-op and a new form called deathmatch Co-op, where teams try to complete the levels the fastest, fragging monsters and each other along the way."
Wh00p!! Doesn't that sound fantastic?? Coop + teamplay + speedrunning + deathmatch... What a cool, new twist on multiplayer, much respect if Ion pulls that aspect off successfully -
hurry up and get the damn game out already!! Yeah, I know I have spektrum for my Daikatana
stuff, but hell, something that sounds that cool has to be p1mped around =).
Laterz,
Shambler *finally* got Project "O" done and can relax now...
News: Tuesday 14/12/99
W0T...
...is W0T I have been playing recently. And very nice it is too, great graphics, interesting levels and excellent atmosphere so far, it's all very stylish and makes good use of the Unreal
engine - it has a polished feel. Combat is interesting too, with a variety of magical artifacts to use, and tricky enemy which often move a lot faster than you - a surprising aspect that I haven't
found in many FPS games. The story behind it is fairly unadventurous though, it all points to Robert Jordan's books being pretty bland and soppy stuff. However it gets the game into a cool
fantasy enviroment, and I'd definitely recommend it so far.
spektrum...
...is W0T I have been updating recently. I've tweaked the layout and reviews format, and added some more information about the reviews, all to get the site very well prepared for the
Daikatana single player levels I hope will be made.
The Cuban Boys...
...is W0T I have been listening to recently. Well not really, but I'm sure everyone appreciates the upbeat-happy-hamster-yodelling-pop-masterpiece that is "Cogniscenti vs.
Intelligensia" so you will most assuredly want to check out this latest IRC chat log in which I try to convince a heathen (that would
be Than, then) of it's multitudinous musical virtues...
Paintshop Pro...
...can chew my nutz!! Okay, so there I was, just made a cool W0T icon, that worked fine. Then I made this great little industrial themed Half-Life icon, saved it....and then
PSP6 went haywire with a completely unsolvable transparency bug. Basically it set the background to the icon as transparent, and nothing whatsoever could change that. I tried for over an
hour, restarted the computer innumerate times, reinstalled Paintshop, saved at least 50 different versions of the same icon, played around with layers, colours, settings until I was dizzy -
nothing, it simply would not allow the background to be all black. I even resorted to taking snap-shots of my desktop with the icon on a black background, that didn't work - that's one fucking
crazy and determined bug man!! Eventually I deleted it (the icon, not PSP6 - though it was tempting) in disgust. "Pile of arse" I say.
Well...
Amazingly, Captain Fribbles recently complimented me on my site designs, saying they "look good on 21 inch monitors at some stupidly high res :P", quite a surprise as he is usually
the fiercest critic. So I thought this unrelated snippet from an IRC sess would be quite topical as it shows my concern and consideration for people who use low screen resolutions:
<shambles> if you don't have your desktop at 1024, you can take a shot of my site looking all crappy at low res, print it out, roll up the page, and shove it up your japs eye until it
lodges in your bladder
Ummm obviously that won't apply to any girlies but I'm sure they can find somewhere equally appropriate to shove it...
Laterz,
The ever-so-charming Shambler
News: Sunday 12/12/99
What HAVE I been doing??
Here I am, brain the size of a small planet, PC almost as big, games to play, things to rant about, and what am I doing?? Making icons, spending all my time making pretty little 32x32
images to making my desktop look nicer. Hmmmmmm!! Strange how the weirdest little things get you hooked, isn't it?? The reason I started is that for some reason the GLQuake 0.97.exe
comes as a SHITTY QuakeWorld icon that I really don't want embarrassing my desktop, so I had to make an appropriate "Q" symbol one. Then I started playing around with more ideas
and different game icons...
I particularly like the one with the tiny Shambler (finding a Shambler that small was quite tricky...), and the UTDemo / Q3ADemotest ones that use powerup screenshots. I will probably
be doing more when I get good ideas - I prefer to do them for games that have crappy icons, as some don't need improving (like W0T for example). Part of the reason I like doing
this (aside from the obvious reason that it helps me waste time and avoid doing anything that's actually useful like "Project 'O'" or other stuff for this site...bleargh), is because the images
are so small and heavily stylised, it suits my combination of good aesthetics but mediocre graphics skillz - it's easy to mess around with pixels and get away with it at icon size =).
New IRC chat logs...
Finally....I was just moaning the other day that #terrafusion wasn't as silly nor entertaining any more (damn newbies :P). But just this weekend it got more interesting, so I've
posted 3 new logs@ one serious one about review sites, and a couple of
daft ones about general nonsense, usually genital related (you know you love it :P). Go read and then email me to complain they are crude and juvenile!!
No Unreal reviews:
Well UT has been holding the Unreal scene's attention, SP mappers included. So few Unreal SP maps have been released recently, meaning I don't have any to review. I can
live with that, eh =). There are some important projects in the works (including some released maps that are being finished, polished, and re-released), such as: Legacy, Peril86,
ShamuQuest, Shrakitha, and the StrangeWorld pack. Also, some mappers are trying to convert Unreal SP maps to UT, which should be interesting - and quite cool if a SP
game can be kept alive within a DM/BM only game, heh. But at the moment, not much going on which is why you're not seeing any new Shambler reviews at
Nali City.
More Q3A bashing, hehe...
<Mindcrime> I did something shocking yesterday, shambles
<Mindcrime> I bought a game *gasp*
<shambles> you exposed your genitals in front of a crowd of several thousand?
<shambles> oh
<shambles> disappointing...
<Mindcrime> I've now seen Q3
<shambles> so you went out and bought something else instead!!
<shambles> b00m b00m!!!
* shambles bows
Ahhh, ph34r my 1337 wit =).
Laterz,
Shambler on form
News: Friday 10/12/99
Yeah, what??
Like you expect an update full of lots of exciting stuff do you?? Not a hope :P. Various things floating around, but nothing producing much for this site: I've been playing the
Hexen 2 demo... Why am I playing a 3 year old game when I have games like Wheel of Time installed?? Bugger knows, you tell me... Anyway, I just wanted to see
what it's like as I never played it - it's okay, but as I say, I have better things to be getting on with. I've also started working towards "Project 'O'" which should be going ahead if I can
motivate myself. On the subject of motivation, I have been set a rather hard trick move "challenge" by
ZzJohnzZ of 3AC - there's this potential uber-1337 jump in
Efdm9 that he says is impossible and I say is definitely "doable", if penis-grindingly hard. So now the
onus is on me to prove that =(. I'm not really in the mood for spending hours on one arsing jump, so that will have to wait. As will anything I might want to write about UTDemo
or Q3ADemoTest - so many opinions from so many people, if I was going to write anything, I'd want to put a fresh perspective on it at least. We shall see...
Laterz,
Shambler
News: Wednesday 8/12/99
An update that makes sense!!
Well, some would say I've managed fine without, so why start now?? Okay, so I've upgraded my PC, and I'd like to offer my sincerest thanks to the SCRAD, without whom I'd
be totally lost and would never have managed it. We spread the upgrade out over 3 days, one of which was installing all the new hardware and Win98, the other 2 were installing games,
patches, transferring a lot of demos and making sure everything ran smoothly. The only real problem was getting the computer to acknowledge a second hard drive - the old HDD had to
be removed and some jumpers changed to make it a "slave" - that took some effort, guesswork, and internet help. Other than that it was really rather sucessful.
Stats and games:
In case anyone cares:
System: PIII 600 Mhz - 256 meg RAM - 18 GB primary HDD - 3 GB slave HDD - Voodoo3 3000
Games installed: Quake - Quake 2 - Unreal - Half-Life - Wheel of Time - Q3ADemoTest - UT Demo - Messiah Demo
All of those games run very smoothly at 1024x768, apart from Q3A which is occasionally jars and crunches but otherwise runs fine at 800x600, and Messiah which won't go above the
same res.
Stuff that sucks though:
It's not all rosy - for a start, despite quite a beast of a machine, my net connection and modem are still as half-arsed as ever...I can play games a damn sight quicker, but I can't do
anything on the net any quicker =(. In fact my connection seems to be slightly worse, bleargh. Also, the following suckage in Win98 is starting to get on my tits:
1. That gay delay when you move files. Why the fuck Win98 can't do it instantly like Win95, I don't know. I do know if I wanted a gay 1 second delay, I'd like the choice
to turn the "Gay 1 second delay on moving files" setting on or off. Preferably off.
2. Reseting desktop icon fonts. Let's see...I set a font in "Appearance", I save that appearance repeatedly, but when I restart the computer, it's back to some horrid illegible crap.
Did I tick the "Fuck up icon fonts box on restarting" box?? Did I bollocks...
3. Internet connection not connecting automatically. I tick the "Save Password" box, and the "Connect Automatically" box, so why the fuck don't you do it you piece of shit
program?? What is so hard to understand that I've ticked your fucking boxes and I'd like you to do what the boxes say?? Sheesh...
4. IE5 not popping up when I view pages from Homesite. It did it before, I'm sure it's not a Homesite setting, so why the bollocks can't it do it now?? The notification of
the taskbar button flashing is nothing less than an *insult* - I want the page to display like it's supposed, not some blinking dickery on the taskbar. Would that be so hard??
5. St00pid boxes staying on taskbar. I thought when you closed down a program, it's box on the bottom taskbar was supposed to disappear. Oh no, not in Win98 it doesn't.
Webpages often take 30 seconds or more to disappear from the taskbar, and Quake 2 manages to create a plethora of blank boxes just to annoy me - thanks.
Actually if anyone has any ideas how to beat Win98 into shape, emailing me would be nice =).
Shambler wanted by QDQ
Apparently so... Long standing speedrunner and Quake Done Quick team member, Ajare, was impressed
enough by my Quake 2 speedruns, that he emailed me offering me a place on the team as they are short on staff for their next project:
Quake 2 Done Quick 2 - Lite. It's nice to feel wanted =). However, I declined this for a couple of reasons: Firstly, I do not think I'm good enough at producing "perfect" speedruns
suitable for QDQ, because secondly, my talents lie more in finding new routes and tricks - which I don't think there will be much of in Q2DQ2Lite, as I expect Q2DQ2 has covered most of the
quickest routes already. And to be honest, I'm not really interest in spending ages polishing up an established run, it just doesn't excite me at all compared to finding new stuff. But I said I'd be
in touch if I had any ideas... On the subject, thanks to Mineral who gave my runs a mention at
SDA, hopefully they will show other runners the potential that exists away from Id maps...
Ho hum.
A while back I did some exclusive p1mpage for Unreal levels in the Oz Unreal contest, and one of
those levels I mentioned but didn't recommend was Tintagel, which is a lovely looking map, but played very, very slowly on my PII266. After mentioning this slowness on the
site, the author of the map wrote me an email, saying that as I was playing below the recommended specs - PII333, 64 ram, TNT2/Voodoo3 or similar 3D card - I was doing his
level a disservice and should not be complaining about the slowness. At the time I disagreed, and pointed out that those were excessive specs for any Unreal level, but in retrospect, I
think my judgement was a bit hasty. So, in the interests of fairness, I'd like to apologise for my earlier, rash criticism, and make up for it by mentioning how it plays on a PIII600, 256 ram,
Voodoo3:
IT'S STILL EXTREMELY FUCKING SLOW!!!
Yes this level and the author must be taking the piss or something. My machine is *well* above the recommended specs, but in many areas the level runs at a shitty 10 FPS or
less, 5 FPS is very common in more complex areas, and it did reach 3 FPS in one area. It's still a fantastic looking level, but I said it was ridiculously slow before and I was fucking right,
okay??
What next??
Yes this has been me just prattling and not posting anything of lasting worth. But I do have some stuff planned, possibly including my views on the UT Demo and Q3ADemoTest, as well
as a top secret article known only as "Project 'O'". And more other "stuff" too I expect.
Laterz,
Shambler
News: Sunday 5/12/99
5h4m8l3r 15 84ck!!
5h4m8l3r 15 84ck fr0m upgr4d1ng h15 PC, 4nd h45 3v3n m4n4g3d 70 g3t 4n upd473 d0n3!! Unf0r7un473ly, 45 4 7r4g1c s1d3 3ff3c7, 5h4m8l3r'5 c0mpu73r w1ll 0nly d0 H7ML 1n
s0m3 b1z4rr3 num83r-1nf35t3d g088l3-d3-g00k. 8u7 51nc3 5h4m8l3r 15 50 4m4z1ngly 1337, h3 15 qu1t3 h4ppy w1th th15, 4nd pr0b4bly w0n'7 b07h3r 70 ch4ng3 it...
L473rz,
5h4m8l3r
News: Friday 3/12/99
*Sigh*
Quote from Activision's Quake3Arena press release:
"The title offers revolutionary features that will enhance the single player game for the ultimate in 3-D entertainment. Incredibly sophisticated simulated warriors, or ``bots,'' will challenge
players to push their abilities to the limit of human endurance. Each of the game's 32 distinct bot characters fight with a different style and finesse, causing players to adapt and learn new
combat skills. Should gamers survive the single player portion of QUAKE III Arena, the multiplayer experience is bound to demolish even the toughest hardcore gamer."
Let's just get this straight, *once again*: That press release is incorrect and misleading. Quake3Arena does not offer single player. It only offers deathmatch and botmatch which is
simulated deathmatch. No matter what sort of "engrossing" story you frame it in, no matter what sort of "fascinating" personalities you give the bots,
botmatch is NOT single player. To give the press release some credit, at least they say it is "revolutionary" and uses "bots". Unfortunately that falls far short
of anything that could be described as "accuracy" - it does not say that the botmatch gameplay is nothing like single player and everything like deathmatch, nor that the opponents are
nothing like single player enemy, and everything like simulated deathmatch opponents. For offline players who don't know what bots are, this isn't telling them how utterly unlike single player
this revolutionary "single player" actually is. For that matter, botmatch gameplay is not in the slightest bit revolutionary, that particular gameplay has been around since Reaperbots for Quake1.
Sure, Id and Epic might have refined it and added new features, but it's essentially using a well established, 3 year old gameplay aspect.
Furthermore, even the way this press release sets the purpose of botmatch is misleading: it's not there to provide a single player game, it's there to provide practise for deathmatch - the
multiplayer aspect is the whole point of Q3A, the botmatch aspect is merely preparation for that. It's obvious why Activision and Id have chosen this untrue but exciting sounding
"single player" description: they need to convince offline players, who don't already know what deathmatch is like and won't be buying the game on it's own deathmatch virtues, to buy it. So
they offer them something that sounds like what they already know: single player. And then these offline players discover it's something very different to single player - botmatch - hopefully
they'll like that, hopefully they'll enjoy the deathmatch the game is really there for, but at any rate, they will have been deceived about the nature of Q3A.
Of course I'd disappointed that Id chose to make Q3A without any single player, but maybe my reaction is due to a bit of altruism in my cold black heart - after all, I know what Q3A
is really about, and I will be chosing whether to buy it in light of the truth about the game. Perhaps I have some sympathy for offline players who will be wanting single player and getting
something utterly unlike what they wanted?? Maybe....I'm sure there will be plenty of players who will be pleasantly surprised at this strange new (to them) gameplay that is masquerading as
single player... Actually, there a positive aspect to this deception: It shows Id recognises the importance of single player to people, and take that seriously, even to the extent of lying about
their game. Hopefully the importance of FPS single player won't wilt too much in face of these DM/BM games and the increased trendiness of the net. Hopefully when Id have got past this
DM/BM only aberration, they will get back to making a single player *and* deathmatch game (like Quake2, like Quake, like Doom), which they can then accurately promote on it's genuine
virtues.
Quote from Hellhound's review of Unreal Tournament::
"Unreal Tournament Single player is just as fun as online or lan multiplay. It provides hours and hours on end of non stop fun battling your way through each map, with bots of various
skill levels to choose from."
Same applies, that is not single player, that is botmatch. Again, at least they mention bots, and being an internet review, most readers will know it's not actually single player, but still, why
not describe it accurately as: "Unreal Tournament Botmatch is just as fun as online or lan multiplay..."?? To highlight the difference, just consider Unreal for a moment: That had
single player, botmatch, and deathmatch - and the botmatch was very different to the single player, and very similar to deathmatch. UT on the other hand, only has botmatch
and deathmatch. Which, like Q3A, is fair enough, but it shouldn't be described as something it is not. These companies should bite the bullet, be honest, and be *proud* that they are not
including single player and are instead focusing on bringing deathmatch to the masses.
Finally, quote from some bloke at Barrysworld, talking about some screenshots of a Q3A model swimming:
"Notice the cool doggy paddle rather than that mystic walking in water move exhibited by the models in Quake 2"
Errr yeah, nice. Unreal had that a year and a half ago. Different swimming stroke though, it seems.
There you go, that was some genuine ranting and bitching =). Well I thought I'd go out on a high =). Back early next week with a bit of luck.
Laterz,
The ranting Shambler
News: Wednesday 1/12/99
Another c0rking Quake 2 speedrun!!
Oh yes!! Shambler is a God-like genius and few maps can stand up to his creative route-finding!! Entire units wilt before his imaginative use of trick moves!! Even the most complex maps give
up in disgust when faced with his masterful determination!! Or something like that...
> S_laser: "Strogg Particle Laser" - Easy run in
1:08
This really is another great demo, it improves my previous 1:23 run, by using a Gladiator punch jump followed by a Gladiator railgun jump!! Definitely
an essential download to see those tricks, of which the Gladiator railgun jump must be a new one.
Mmmm, so what now??
What now indeed?? What Quake 2 speedruns will I be doing in the future?? Well, there are some obvious and fairly easy runs, on maps from units like
Deadline, Nailbomb, Back at the Front, Belly of the Beast, etc etc. But they don't inspire me that much, even though I'd be the first person to do them. The thing is, hand grenade
jumps and double jumps off monsters are so passé, so 90s, so uncool =). Real tricks for the year 2K are where it's at:
steep slope double jumps, Gunner grenade jumps,
Beserker + rocket jumps....like, unless it's hard and radical maaann, what's the point??
The point being, I'm not inspired to do many Q2 runs unless they are really gnarly and cool. I spent about 4 hours getting the Slas
1:08 as best I could - I could have done some bog standard grenade jump run for another map in 1/10th the time - but that
wouldn't be pushing back the boundaries, that just wouldn't be exciting enough. I keep checking all the custom maps of course, and sometimes go back to try routes I'd considered too hard
(today's run is one of those). But at the moment, there's no runs that I'm likely to be doing in the near future (there is Small Pile of Gibs of course, I have a good route for that, but it's
a bit fucking hard work!!), though I'll keep checking new maps for potential.
I wonder if the Speed Demos Archive will ever start posting custom map Q2 runs, eh??
Alas poor Shambler, I knew him well...
Ummm yeah well I hope it doesn't end up like that. This weekend I am travelling over to meet my guru, the SCRAD, who is helping me upgrade my computer with all sorts of nice
stuff with large numbers attatched. Which means that I won't be able to update for at least the weekend, and it maybe even longer as I will be reinstalling all my software on a new HDD,
including HTML editor and FTP proggie, so anything could go wrong... But I'll try and get an update posted as soon as it's done, just be patient if I seem to disappear for a while =).
And of course...
...the upgrade will allow me to finally check out the Q3ADemoTest in all it's glory:
<shambles>
rush, you can take q3ademo and shove it so far up your ass that your stomach starts digesting it from the wrong direction
Laterz,
The slightly nervous Shambler
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