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Your Letters
By Ruffin Bailey
Published: 3/6/99
Yes, it's been a while. But here they are as promised: your letters!
GAMES HOME NEWS REVIEWS EDITORIALS 3D GAMING
My iMac's CD-ROM drive had a piece escape recently like the proverbial bat out of hell, so I've had to step away from playing EA Sport's NCAA '99 football on my Mac via Connectix's Virtual Game Station. So instead of going out and hunting down a life, I decide to fire up BBEdit Lite (my text editor of choice) and finally post some of your letters!
Not Westlake but Lion, you dunce!
Great tutorial you created, but the one thing I noticed is the fact that Quake was worked on by Lion Entertainment (one of their last products before they folded), of whom Mark Adams (President of Westlake Interactive) was a member. Bruce Bruckhalter was the main programmer, but Mark did help some. Westlake Interactive was later hired by MacSoft to fix the remaining bugs in Quake and do QuakeWorld.
Anyway, the important thing is that we have QW!
Ciao!
A.J.
You know what AJ, I think you're right. What, are you some kind of private detective? Wait a minute, you don't have a brother named Rick, do you? Actually, though the info in my Quake CD jacket won't confirm or deny your report, I think you're correct. Thanks for keeping me honest.
Whoa, man... you still haven't told us how to use a Quake server!
When do you plan on updating your game page? I'm specifically looking for info on how to set up a quakeworld server. If plan on posting this info soon, or know of where I could find this info, please let me know.
Thank you,
Andy Jensen
Andy,
I'm not planning on doing the Server How-To for another two weeks or so, but there are several places you can check online. PlanetQuake is always a good place to go for Quake info, though there's so much info that it makes finding exactly what you want a daunting chore. LanParty.com is another good place to check, though it's geared towards so-called "PC's". So if you just can't wait three weeks (Three? I thought you said two?!!!), I'll have to turn to another xlr8 reader for help: (note: This still doesn't answer your specific question about using a QuakeWorld server, but I did want you to know that you might not need one as badly as you thought)
Ruffin-
Great series on Quake... I'm very into the game and host my own LAN parties (it helps working for the mothership and being able to wrangle up 10 macs in short notice)... A couple of thoughts....
First off, you do *not* need a dedicated QuakeWorld Server running to get team fortress up. Anyway, I simply did a -game fortress when I ran mine and it worked fine. To get all of the extended options (such as spy invisibility) you do need the QW server. Fortress is such a wonderful mod - I'm so glad you pointed it out in the first article (that's when I went and investigated it).. You might mention that there is a petition for teamfortress 2.0 that your readers should go sign to get it ported to Quake on the mac....It's on quakeintosh in the TF area. [This site is really worth a look, and not just for the petition! -Ruffin]
The reason I know that you don't need a dedicated server is that I have been UNABLE to get QuakeWorld server running (I keep getting an obscure error in my .OUT file when I try to get it to do fortress)... So I anxiously await your information regarding setup of QuakeWorld... The more verbose and picture-laden the better!
Take care,
Joe
Verbose and picture-laden? Is there any other way? ;^) Again, stay tuned. I'm hosting a Mac-served, cross-platform QuakeLAN the 20th of March to make sure I get all the important details. I'll give all of y'all the rest of the skinny then! (More news on TF2: Mike Dixon at Mac Gamers' Ledge tells me that two companies are vying for the rights to publish a Mac versions of Half-Life, the game whose engine is being used by the Team Fortress folk to build the PC version of TF2. So there's hope!)
A Quick Quake Clarification
If you raise the "rate" variable too high, it'll cause you to have more lost packets/lag as you play. If I'm not mistaken, 4000+ is recommended for cable modems and LAN play while 2000-3000 is recommended for normal modem play. So if someone uses "rate 9999" to speed their map/mdl/wav downloads while playing with their modem, they should reset it to something lower for actual play, or so it seems.
Check out:
http://www.quakeworld.net/main-quakeworld.html#rate_and_r_netgraph
Matt
Matt is a PC gaming expert who has played more Quake 2 than, well, three crazy Quake 2 addicted PC users. In my Quake tutorial, I mention upping your RATE when downloading from a QuakeWorld server. Thanks for the clarification Matt.
My Virtual Game Station review is FLAWED!!!
Ruffin,
I just read your review of the CVGS, and I agree that it's most definitely not a perfect soution. However, there is one aspect that, for me anyways, cast off all doubts and shortcomings.
I have a console already, and I also have 3 computers. Among these computers, and this is key, is my Powerbook G3. Dwell on that for a moment. Yes, this is the sole reason I bought CVGS. I now have a complete computing and entertainment solution that PC weenies can only dream about. Imagine you are on a business trip. With one simple box and a few discs you can have 1.) a computer and internet machine 2.) a dvd movie player 3.) a cd player (via audio-cd or mp3) and 4.) a portable playstation. That is simply the most incredible mix. Nothing can top that, even if there are a few little flaws here and there. I can't wait for the first time I am playing Crash Bandicoot or Gran Turismo and some PC guy looks at my screen, scrunches his eyebrows in confusion, then drops that jaw to the floor. Priceless.
I should mention that out of the 10 games I own right now (I don't waste my money on junk, only the top titles for me) 9 work very well. There are a few glitches here and there, but nothing that would stop a little video game session while your on the plane or in waiting for a meeting to start.
That right there is worth $50.
-Paul Carpenter
BTW, anyone who cares will end up buying a Playstation 2 next year. 20 million fully textured polygons per sec!? Voodoo 3 can only manage 9. In the meantime though, CVGS on a Powerbook is pretty darn cool.
And Paul wasn't the only one to write in about my unforgivable omission of the Powerbook. Maybe I'm still bitter over the fact that my old Powerbook 150 now serves as a very expensive paperweight on the floor beside my desk, but when it was working, there was nothing better than enjoying a game of Civilization or Star Wars: The Arcade Game. Paul, your point is well taken. I've played enough games on my Sega Nomad to know that a small screen is no hinderance to the coolness factor of playing your favorite console game on the road.
Now that you mention it, a G3 Powerbook, if I could afford one, would make those long trips to the in-laws MUCH shorter. One cigarette lighter adapter, and I'm playing NCAA on the road... literally. Btw, if you haven't checked out my VGS review, you should. My picture of Metal Gear Solid kicks butt, if I do say so myself. It's from actual game-play, not a cut-scene. Heck, can't I brag on myself just a little?!!?
Well folks, that's all for now. Tune in next time on "Ruffin writes reams regarding readers' randomly ranging ramblings".
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