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Top stories of 3/16/2001: |
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| Warbirds III Beta For Mac Released: |
| Earlier this week we had a news post that Warbirds III (online flight sim) was due to be released in open beta form very soon. A reader notes it's out now:
"
Hi, Mike -
WarBirds just came out with the open beta of WarBirds III, which is 3-D
only on PC and Mac. It has fairly high hardware requirements (essentially
you can only use a Radeon or a BTO GeForce) but it is stunning. Even as a
beta, it blows X-Plane, for example, right out of the water.
You really ought to take a look at it:
www.iencentral.com/warbirds/frame.cgi?url=wb3.html
Laurie Nyveen"
That URL has links to the download files and notes on installation. If any readers try it out - let me know what you think.
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| Latest BTO Radeon Graphics Cards in G4 Towers Have Fans? |
| My G4/500 DP system's Radeon card has no fan (see the photos in this review of it). All the retail Radeon cards have fans (both AGP and PCI models) but in the past only the Cube BTO Radeon card had a fan. Recently two readers have reported that their new G4 towers had Radeon cards with a fan. One owner didn't like the added noise. My fanned ATI cards seem pretty quiet, but like the main case fan, some may be louder than others. (For a guide to how I quieted my G4/DP main case fan, see this article.) There have been some forum posts here from owners that tried to replace the Radeon's fan/heatsink with a passive one with at least one (as I remember) saying he damaged the card trying to get the heatsink off. One reader noted using a diode to lower the fan speed and another disconnected it (not recommended with the tiny heatsink under the fan).
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| More Reader Comments on Norton Personal Firewall and OS 9.1: |
| A post in yesterday's news noted a reader had problems with Norton Personal Firewall after upgrading from OS 9.0x to OS 9.1. Several readers suggested removing it (including prefs) and then reinstalling it after the OS 9.1 upgrade.
Another reader noted it ran fine when installed on a system that already had OS 9.1 installed.
"
Dear Mike,
In response to: Luigi Cusano of iBookZone.com's Personal Firewall issue. I
have had NPF for over a month now and have no such problems. I did install
it on an existing 9.1 and, with the exception of changing the internet
settings panel to get the Norton Update app to get through, it works
perfectly. And I have extensions out the wazoo.
I did find that my B/W G3 on a cable modem was already blocking access
before installation (NPF gives a report of past attempts at access) so I
don't know how important it is to have NPF. I also noticed that AT&T @home
scans me 6 times a day to see if there is a news server on my system ...
what's up with that?
It's interesting to see the amount of hits I get to enter the system from
all over the world. Especially Trojan horses targeted toward the PC.
Yours,
Steve Mitchell
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| More Comments on Omnigroup OS X Game Ports: |
| In a follow-up to yesterday's post on OS X game ports, Ben writes:
"
As for the Omni ports, Andrew Abernathy from Omni has posted this to the mac-games-dev list:
"
Actually, we can mention Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. In fact, we
showed off a running build at the expo in January. (We don't yet know specifics on making the port available.)"
All the best,
ben"
Another reader wrote:
"
Hey Mike,
The one game i know for sure omni is porting is Star Trek: Elite
Forces, besides hearing so from several sources, i saw a build of it
(encrypted file) show up on their ftp site last week. It dissapeared
roughly 5 minutes later. I have also heard that FAKK 2 and even Alice
were possibilities for Omni to port, but these may have just been
assumptions due to Omni's experience with the Quake 2/3 engine.
BlackFly" |
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| CPU Upgrades Owner Ratings Database Updated: |
| The Rate Your CPU Upgrade database has been updated with 15 new reports (total to date: 5,410). [Entries from after midnight EST will be added the following day.]
- Newer Tech G3/500 in 7600/132 (rated 10)
- OWC G3/333 ZIF in B&W G3 (rated 9)
- Powerlogix G3/350 in 8500/180 (rated 9)
- Powerlogix G3/450 in Beige G3 (rated 8)
- Powerlogix Zforce w/OWC G3/300 ZIF in Umax S900 (rated 9)
- Powerlogix Zforce w/Newer Tech G4/400 ZIF in Umax S900 (rated 8)
(updated report with comments on heatsink)
- Powerlogix G3/500 in PowerBase 180 (rated 10)
- Sonnet G3/400 in 7200/90 (rated 8)
- Sonnet G4/400 in Umax J700 (rated 10)
- Sonnet G4/400 in Beige G3 (rated 9)
[noted VPC 4 problems - see our March 9th news page for a tip from a previous Sonnet G4/Beige G3 owner.]
- Sonnet G4/450 in 8500/150 (rated 10)
- Sonnet G3/500 in 8500/120 (rated 9)
- Beige G3 with OEM G3/400 ZIF (rated 5)
(listed under "other brand")
- Beige G3 OOC report
- B&W G3 OC reports
You can find these full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)
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| CDRW/CD/DVD/HD Compatibility Database Updates: |
The Drive Compatibility searchable database had 15 new entries added this morning including Combo CDRW/DVD drives, CDRWs, and Hard Drives. (Current total 3,268 reports). Entries from after midnight are added the following day. [BTW - the drive database is not a place to post questions, it's for reports on drives you've used. For guides to drive installs, see the IDE, SCI or Firewire articles linked above and/or the FAQ. Thanks.]
You can find full owner reports by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches).
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database.
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| Video Card/System Benchmark Performance Database Updated: |
| Updates to the Mac Game/Video Card Performance database included:
- Throughput results from G4/667 w/Geforce2MX
- Cinebench 2000 results from G4/667 w/Geforce2MX
- Quake3 (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768) results from B&W G3/400 w/Radeon PCI card
- UT Wicked400 (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768) results from B&W G3/400 w/Radeon PCI card
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Total entries in the database to date: 2,606. If you haven't already, enter your results with any of the game titles or benchmarks listed on the entry page (details on how to test are there). If you're curious how a CPU upgrade or new Video card would help game performance, the search page options can help you find similar system/configurations to get an idea before you buy.
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