Random Madness: Deviated Septum

It’s not uncommon for two or even several games, and even games and movies to share sound effects.

One of the first times I came across this sort of thing was back in the 1990’s. It was Duke Nukem 3D, and one of the more infamous enemies in the game caught my attention – the pig cop. Literally mutated police officers of the LAPD (or LARD in-game), they looked quite comical in their stocky build, but you wouldn’t mess with them all the same. They packed shotguns that could rip you a new one with a single blast up close.

They also made grunting noises one would almost certainly expect from pigs. The most telling sound effect was when a pig cop actually sighted you and let out a roar that has since been proven to belong to a cougar or something similar. I know this from hearing the same sound when watching documentaries and the animal channels on DSTV.

How coincidental it was then to play Quake, released later the same year, and see (or more accurately, hear) that the same sound effect was used – this time when one of the ogres with a chainsaw and a grenade launcher saw you. He too grunted and made a noise that made it easy to tell when he was around.

So imagine the horror I experienced as a young boy when I lived at home with my eldest brother. He also grunted a lot and made noises that reminded me so much of these two videogame characters. Especially when he was in the shower – he would roar and clear his throat loudly. I even had dreams that I was living with one of those ogres from Quake. One of those dreams involved going into the kitchen and being confronted by this ogre who then chopped me up into pieces with his chainsaw and served my head up on a plate with peas and carrots. I’m sure I’ve written about that before in the Keen Dreams ® series though…

*goes off to check*

Nope, hasn’t been published as far as I can tell, but I could have sworn I wrote about it. Anyway.

In any case, I think I know the common problem that these characters all share. It’s a deviated septum. My brother has it and makes all these grunting and throat clearing noises to this day that are most annoying, to be honest. He refuses to have surgery to have it fixed. Luckily it’s rather easy to get rid of the irritating grunting and carrying on with the pig cop and the ogre – just blow them to bits with a rocket launcher.

This has been yet another instalment in the weird and wacky series known as Random Madness ®. It didn’t make sense to you, and it wasn’t supposed to either. If you read it and shook your head – that’s good. That was the ultimate goal.

Random Madness: Deviated Septum

2011: Full of Video Game Anniversaries

In the latest issue of NAG magazine, I had a rare read of Miktar’s column. In addition to being a columnist and overseas correspondent (East coast of the USA), he is also a former moderator on the NAG Online forum – although was shunted out of the job, probably because he was a massive troll, according to some. It was bad for business.

But he brought up an interesting conversation piece. 2011 is chock full of anniversaries relating to video games. Landmark, revolutionary titles that paved the way for all the games you play today.

Let’s have a look at those he listed:

30th Anniversary: Ultima, Castle Wolfenstein, Frogger, Ms. Pacman

25th Anniversary: The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castelvania

20th Anniversary: Street Fighter II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Civilization

15th Anniversary: Resident Evil, Pokémon, Diablo, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot

10th Anniversary: Grand Theft Auto III, Halo, Devil May Cry

The ones I care about most here are probably Castle Wolfenstein (without it we wouldn’t have had Wolf 3D, RTCW, and every other game that followed in that series); Frogger (played it a hell of a lot as a child); Street Fighter II (hailed as one of the best fighting games of all time – the measuring stick to which all other fighters to this day are compared); Sonic the Hedgehog (come on…); Resident Evil (made survival horror the popular genre that it is – or was, anyway); Tomb Raider (without it, you probably wouldn’t have Uncharted, maybe even Assassin’s Creed either); Crash Bandicoot (played this a lot as a kid, too); Grand Theft Auto III (one of the best games ever).

But suspiciously there were a few left off the list at some point. I think most of the games he mentioned were released in November or December (I know because I looked them up). So there was some sort of trend he was adhering to.

I’d add in Duke Nukem 3D. It’s the last truly great game in that series, which even DNF failed to topple this year. Released at a time when people still used the term “Doom Clone”, it proved that it wasn’t just another rip-off title – it was THE rip-off title; the undisputed king of rip-offs, taking “inspiration” from several films and other games, as well as pop culture. But it had enough going for it to make it pound for pound the best FPS I’ve played to date, honestly.

Quake wasn’t brought up either. Major oversight there. Also released in 1996 like DN3D, it was the first fully 3D FPS, and debuted the Quake engine. Without this engine, we might not have had every other id Tech engine released to date, and probably every other id game released to date, either. Every Doom, Quake, and even Wolfenstein title to follow used a version of the id Tech engine. Many, many games from other developers to date have used id Tech engines as well. You wouldn’t even have Call of Duty, seeing as all CoD games to date have used snippets of id Tech code in the engines that power them.

Final Doom. All right, so it was a glorified double expansion pack for Doom II: Hell on Earth – but what expansion packs at that!

The Plutonia Experiment was particularly challenging. Created by the Casali brothers, it made Doom and Doom II seem like child’s play for the most part. TNT: Evilution wasn’t that spectacular, but it did see one of the most beloved guys at id get hired – and that man is Tim Willits, who still serves as creative director at id today. He started off as just a mapper, and fan of the original games.

If anything, Final Doom showed that fans could make a decent game, filled with challenging maps and maybe tad innovation that impressed developers so much that they hired them and put them on the payroll. This trend has continued to this day, with modders and mappers being picked from the modding community and given jobs. You often see this with companies such as Valve – Valve is predominantly made of former modders.

So anyway, 2011: what a year – for new games and old!

2011: Full of Video Game Anniversaries

The Web’s Worthy Downloads #2 [Guide to Goodness]

This is a new feature that I’ve decided to put on the blog. Here every now and again, I will put down all the stuff on the web that’s been released lately (and sometimes not) which is worth downloading. It could be games; music; programs – you name it.

I might do this weekly, biweekly, or even monthly. I’ll see how it goes. But one things for sure – everything you read about here is free, and therefore, very likely legal to download and play or use.

This is issue #2 of this new feature on AAA.

What do we have for this instalment then? This time it’s not as varied as before – it’s mainly all about first person shooters, most of which are multiplayer, and inspired by the likes of classics such as Quake III Arena.

The first is called Alien Arena 2011. It’s described by the developers as a retro-themed shooter, with a dose of sci-fi and aliens – we need more of this in games. It’s supposedly like a cross between Quake and Fallout 3, or some such, just by looking at the screenshot on the right. The latest version of it is 7.51, and it weighs in at just under 300 MB.

Then there’s Red Eclipse, also a free multiplayer game which once again draws inspiration from the likes of Quake III Arena – but it doesn’t use the Quake III Arena, or id Tech 3 engine. It’s a TC for the Cube Engine 2, just so you know. That’s all there is to say, it seems, apart from the fact that version 1.0 weighs in at decidedly more than AA 2011: it’s 428 MB.

There is however something else; a break from the multiplayer madness. It’s a demo of Torchlight. Now I’ve heard a little bit about this in the past – it’s an RPG title developed by some of the people who brought you Diablo, operating under the name Runic Games. This is a free time-limited, or rolling, demo which lasts 2 hours. After that you won’t be able to play it anymore, and you’ll have to buy a key (serial number) to unlock the game so you can continue playing. This one is also quite heavy, coming in at over 400 MB. But just think about this: you’re essentially getting the full game, just with restrictions.

Something else I found just recently is a mod for C&C: Generals – Zero Hour: Enhanced. I know – Zero Hour is ancient. It was released about eight years ago as an expansion to C&C: Generals – a spinoff of the main C&C universe. And no, this mod I’m talking about is not The Forgotten, which is a mod for C&C 3. This mod for Zero Hour, made by the [FM] Enhanced Mod Team, introduces players to improved graphics, textures, units, maps, and AI. There’s a whole bunch of other changes that have been made too, and you can check them all out over at the official ModDB page. There’s two downloads to be had. The one is 131 MB, and is the beta version of the mod. The second one, released a few days later, is an update, coming in at less than half that: 60 MB.

Some of these downloads are quite hefty, but in the likely case that you won’t have the time or data to handle getting them yourselves, I have suggested all of these for the latest NAG cover DVD. Whether they’ll appear on there is another story. But more often than not, they often do. Note that NAG, to my knowledge, is only available for the most part in South Africa, as well as some limited bordering countries. Of course you might be able to smuggle one in to the USA or wherever you live.

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[DVD] May DVD suggestion thread

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Alien Arena 2011 v7.51 Full Game [294 MB] Website

Red Eclipse 1.0 (Free Full Game) [428 MB] website

Torchlight v1.15 Demo [410.94MB]

C&C: Generals – Zero Hour Mod: Enhanced [131 MB] official page on Mod DB

Zero Hour: Enhanced - Enhanced Graphical Content 0.6.2 [60 MB]

The Web’s Worthy Downloads #2 [Guide to Goodness]

Trent Reznor not Working on Doom 4

It’s a long way off until Doom 4 will ever see the light of day, seeing as Rage – the title that id is currently working on – will only arrive next year as it is.

Still, there were those who probably wondered whether Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame would be working on Doom 4 as far as sound and music goes.

The answer it turns out, is “No”. Apparently he said that he doesn’t have the time to work on the game.

"I haven't been contacted by them and find it unlikely that I would have time at this point."

Trent previously worked on the music in Quake, and also did some work on Doom 3 that didn’t even make it into the final version of the game.

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Source: Trent Reznor Unlikely to be Involved with Doom 4 [1UP]

Trent Reznor not Working on Doom 4

Where are the Stars: Ranger

What about me? What about Ranger?

Ranger is the protagonist from Quake.

Ranger is another creation of the id stable, and originally appeared in Quake, the hit game from 1996, which introduced the gaming world to true 3D. His task was to explore military bases and travel to distant dimensions, and find magical runes which would open up the doorway to the ultimate enemy, Shrub-Niggurath.

“Imagine a big ugly plant-looking thing.” He claims.

He also starred in two mission packs for Quake, titled Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity.

Ranger was shocked when he learned that there would not be a sequel to the game in terms of continuity.

“Quake II my @ss! They took the name and put it to a completely different series of games! Heck, Quake II even got a sequel!”

Ranger hates Bitterman, the guy from Quake II, with a passion.

“He stole my job! He took over the “Quake” series in Quake II, and that should have been ME! I tell you, every time Bitterman got fragged in Quake III… it was me. I owned you, b1tch!”

Ranger made an appearance in Quake III Arena along with all the “other id puppets”.

“What happened to single-player games?”

For the first time, in Quake III Arena, he met Wrack, a fellow slipgate explorer.

“Where the hell was he when I needed him? I was there all alone the whole time, and you mean to tell me that there were others?! Not that I was glad to see him anyway- he was an arrogant old man who kept going on about the good old days. He’s such a faker though, because I was the one who did all the work.”

Ranger now spends his days trapped in one of the gothic medieval dimensions that he was tasked with exploring, bitter and alone, besides the other vicious creatures that inhabit the place with him.

Where are the Stars: Ranger

Video Game Character Lookalikes: Strogg from Quake 4 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Who remembers the Strogg? Those grotesque looking abominations from Quake II, Quake 4, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars? Well, I for one do, and while watching that movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, recently, I couldn’t help but think that Cobra Commander, once known as Rex and The Doctor, in the film at least, looked a lot like one of those Stroggs.

I would have liked to have gotten a better picture of The Doctor, preferably when he was bald, later on in the film, but I couldn't find one. The hair is fake anyway. Still, don’t you think the mask looks similar? And instead of the red/orange eye-piece on the right eye, Doc has a bluish eye-piece on the left eye .

Video Game Character Lookalikes: Strogg from Quake 4 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

Original Gordon Freeman Model Unveiled

New Year’s Eve

I read this on Digg originally. Have a look at this character:

                              That’s one ugly son of a monkey!

Apparently this was the original model for Gordon Freeman in Half-Life. You can just see here that the game truly did use the Quake engine (yes, with elements of Quake II, yada yada). As you can see, the HEV suit is yellow with “Research” printed on the back. Of course in the final release of Half-Life the HEV suit was orange. Most of the design is the same though.

I don’t know whether they would actually hire someone with a beard like that. I’m sure this guy would be mistaken for the lab specimens all the time.

Comparisons have been made to other characters, including Beast from X-Men, a typical lumberjack, a Viking, and Zangief from Street Fighter.

Gordon Freeman as we now know him may be mute, but at least he’s a little good looking, besides having glasses.

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So Easy a Gordon Freeman Could Do It (Original Game Model)

Original Gordon Freeman Model Unveiled

News: ZeniMax Media Has The Rights to Rage

Day of Reconciliation (SA)

Although that headline may seem as though their planning some horrible sort of revenge on the world (which they might be), it’s actually related to the game Rage, by id Software, currently still in development.

Previously, EA was going to publish the game, but ZeniMax Media recently acquired the publishing rights to the title, and has said that Bethesda Softworks will publish the title when it’s released, hopefully next year.

Earlier this year, ZeniMax bought id Software to add to their stable which includes Fallout 3 developer Bethesda. This was a move that shocked most of the world, or at least the gaming population, seeing as id, up until then, had remained independent for 17 years.

As regards the publishing rights being shifted to Bethesda Softworks, some people have claimed that EA got shafted on the whole deal, and that it was coming for months, but EA claims there are no hard feelings, and wishes them all the best. It’s nothing personal; it’s business.

As Loot Ninja wrote though, why should ZeniMax pay EA, an outside, third party company to publish the title, when they can do it themselves? Initially after the buyout earlier this year, id’s next shooter, Doom 4, was going to be the first game by id published by BethSoft, but now that’s going to change, and Rage will be the first. It will also be the title to debut the id Tech 5 engine. That should mean it will be called the “Rage engine” for some time, and not something else, like the Doom, Quake, Quake II, Quake III, or Doom 3 engine. Damn, that’s also a first.

ZeniMax is going to handle all sales and marketing as regards Rage, and issued a press release with all this information, among it, saying that Rage’s development will be unaffected by this issue.

The game should be out in 2010 on PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PS3.

News: ZeniMax Media Has The Rights to Rage

Apocalypse Then: Doom

So, November was certainly Valve Month, it seems as though December is id month, seeing as Quake III Arena and Quake II were both released in this month years ago. Another game that was released this month was Doom, on the 10th of December, 1993. The shareware version was available for free download on this day and featured the first episode of nine levels. The full version was available via mail order, as a retail version only became available in 1995 in The Ultimate Doom.

The first time I played Doom was when I got my first real computer back in 1996. The shareware versions of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, two of id’s most legendary progenitors in their respective series, were installed along with all the other software and such that was part of the setup cost.

Doom is one of id Software’s most successful franchises and even though it wasn’t the first First-person shooter (the term hadn’t even been invented then), it paved the way for the genre we know by this name today, and for years afterwards, games of the same nature were referred to as “doom clones”.

Doom was no doubt controversial, featuring a lot of violence and satanic imagery in its plot involving a demonic invasion of various locations surrounding Mars, and eventually featuring a trip to hell, which seems somewhat tame when compared to Doom 3, another game in the franchise that would be released more then ten years later. It also popularized multiplayer and deathmatch, a term coined by the game’s designer and co-founder of id, John Romero. Another thing that Doom introduced to the world was the infamous BFG 9000, which has appeared in other id games. Tim Willits recently said that some classic weapons from past id games would feature in Rage, their new IP (somewhat similar to Fallout 3 or Borderlands, at least in setting), and many are likely holding thumbs that the BFG makes an appearance.

Recently the man who made the Doom box art, Don Ivan Punchatz, passed away. His son, Gregor Punchatz, did some of the modelling for Doom and Doom II, especially the monsters.

Doom was followed by Doom II: Hell on Earth, The Ultimate Doom (essentially Doom but the retail version with a fourth episode), as well as Master Levels for Doom II and Final Doom. There was also Doom 64, not considered a true part of the series by some, and Doom was ported to many systems and not to mention its received thousands of mods, TCs, and such over the years.

Doom 3 came out in 2004 and many people were too chicken to play it, and there was an expansion for this in Resurrection of Evil. Doom 3 inspired the Doom movie with The Rock (now calls himself Dwayne Johnson), which was…quite terrible really.

Doom 4 is currently in development at id Software, and will be published by its parent company, ZeniMax Media, which bought id this year.

Apocalypse Then: Doom

Apocalypse Then: Quake II

The other day we all celebrated the 10th anniversary of Quake III Arena. Today is the 12th anniversary of its prequel, Quake II. On this day in gaming, on December 9, 1997, Quake II was released.

The first time I played this game was when I got the demo off of a CD from a friend in 1998, and I later got the full version in 1999, nearly two years after its initial release. It was the one Quake game I’ve likely played the most over the years. I would go to the computer academy at school and instead of working, we would fire up a LAN game of Quake II. This was a trend that continued in high school. It’s funny how schools always seemed to have Quake II on hand, and rarely Quake III Arena.

I still have the CD and I’ve got it on my PC right now, playing it with Quake2Max, a source port, although I’m thinking of switching to another one, and downloading the HRP some time.

Quake II is an FPS title developed by id Software, originally published by Activision, and released on many different platforms over the years. The game used the id Tech 2 engine, which used to be known popularly as the Quake II engine. This engine has been used for many other titles and mods over the years.

Quake II, although a sequel in name to Quake, did not continue the story of the original. Quake II was meant to be the first game in a new series, but due to id not being able to secure a new name for the title, they went back to using their working title: Quake II.  .

The story of Quake II sees you take the role of a space marine who starts off in Texas, USA, on earth (in the manual), and makes his way onto a massive starship codenamed “Mother Goose” (in the opening cutscene) which is accompanied by “The Adrianator”, some sort of scout ship. The mission is to fire drop pods from the main ship and land troops on the surface of Stroggos, home of the Strogg, an alien enemy who has committed atrocities against the human race in the past. This is the invasion of their planet, Operation Alien Overlord.

Once the player, known as Bitterman (who later appears in Quake III Arena), is launched in his pod, he is clipped by another marine, and his control over the pod is lost. He misses the LZ, and ends up crashing. Most if not all of the other pods, although supposedly invisible to detection by Strogg defences, were shot down by EMP blasts, and therefore, most of the other marines you encounter in the game are either dead, captured and tortured, or processed to make more Strogg soldiers at the factories.

The gameplay was similar to most FPSs, although slower than Quake, and introduced some new weapons, like the Railgun, Hyperblaster, and a bigger, badder version of the BFG, the BFG 10k. The enemies you’ll use the weapons against are remorseless, relentless killing machines; cyborgs made of human parts and metal and machine.

Quake II’s soundtrack was mainly composed by Sonic Mayhem, but with tracks also contributed by Bill Brown. This soundtrack was praised by some and hated by others. One thing is for sure, they don’t make video game soundtracks like this anymore.

Quake II has received a number of expansions, both official and unofficial, over the years, was succeeded by Quake III Arena in which Bitterman, the main protagonist from Q2, was a playable character (he was horribly mutated from undergoing Strogg experiments), the story of Quake II was continued in Quake 4, and a prequel took place in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which told the story of how the Strogg initially invaded Earth.

There have been rumours of a some more Quake games coming in the future, and this is certain to take place seeing as it is one of id’s greatest franchises next to Doom. One thing seems certain: that it may well continue the story started by Quake II, and perhaps not Quake.

You can pick up Quake II here if you want to play a classic.

Apocalypse Then: Quake II

How to Install Quake 2 on Windows XP

Since it’s the 12th anniversary of id’s Quake II, I thought I would install this classic on my system, along with all my other 90s games. The first time I tried, the installer has some message about not being able to run on my OS. I’m currently running Windows XP SP 3 (I still haven’t switched to Windows 7). Now I remember a few years ago I installed Quake II on XP, but I was using SP 1. That seems to make a big difference.

Then I came across a site after using good old Google where I found some easy to follow steps in order to install Quake II on XP manually, without using the installer, but instead the command prompt.

I’m going to reproduce it here, with a few amendments, but I can say that it does work as long as you follow it to the letter:

1) Click on START / Run / and type “CMD” and press enter.

2) In the DOS Session type the following:

cd\ (press the Enter key)
md quake2 (press the Enter key)
cd\quake2 (press the Enter key)
xcopy d:\install\data\*.* /s/e/v (press the Enter key) (if you’re using another drive like I did, the E: drive, then it would be xcopy e:\install\data\*.* /s/e/v, etc.)

3) After it's done copying the files, type "Exit" and then press the Enter key. You should now be back in Windows.

4) Now Double-click on the My Computer icon, then your C: drive and then the "Quake2" folder.

5) Right-click on the file called: Quake2.exe from the menu that pops up, choose "Copy" (or “Create Shortcut”).

6) Now close all the windows and right-click on the Desktop of Windows and select "Paste Shortcut" (or drag the shortcut to the desktop).

10) To run Quake 2, double-click on the "Shortcut to Quake2" icon.

thanks in part go to wireplay.com/.

Another step that I did on my own was copying and pasting the quake2 folder to another destination. You don’t have to worry about it not working, because it still does afterwards. I like having all my classic games in one folder, under separate folders for each game, of course.

Right, now you can either run the game vanilla style, or you can try out some of the many ports and HRPs for Quake II, to give it some flavour. See here for some of them. At the moment I’m running it with Quake2Max, but it’s an outdated version, and I’m looking at downloading a later one as well as some High Resolution packs with updated textures or something.

I’m not sure if you’d be able to use the above method of manual installation for Windows Vista or Windows 7, but you can use Google, or maybe if I find out, I’ll put some links here.

How to Install Quake 2 on Windows XP

Apocalypse Then: Quake III Arena

10 Years of Quake III Arena

On this day, 2 December, 1999, Quake III Arena was released for Microsoft Windows on the PC. Developed by id Software and published originally by Activision, Quake III rose to become one of the biggest multiplayer FPS games of all time, alongside its competitor, Unreal Tournament and its sequels. It was later released on multiple other platforms, like Linux, IRIX, Mac OS, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, as well as Xbox Live Arcade and Steam.

The game is still alive and well today, and was once a favourite competitive play mainstay.

Unlike previous Quake games, and more like UT, this game’s singleplayer only really had one purpose: To introduce you to the gameplay, familiarize you with the maps, and to prepare you for the multiplayer, as you battled against bots. Bots can be scaled on five different levels of difficulty, and in the SP campaign you go through 7 tiers or levels, each with four maps except the last one where you face off against Xaero, the top bot.

There is a basic story behind the game, and that is that gods known as the Vadrigar had assembled all the greatest warriors in the universe to compete for their entertainment. There was a little continuity from previous titles with characters and weapons from previous games making an appearance. Notable characters included Doomguy (Doom series), Ranger (Quake), Bitterman (Quake II) and Grunt (multiplayer skin and NPC from Quake II). The only games in id’s back catalogue that seemed to get left out were the Commander Keen series, and Wolfenstein 3D.

The only real new weapon was the gauntlet which one could use for humiliation kills. Apart from that, most of the weapons made a return from Quake and Doom games before it, although most had some new design and functionality, like the BFG. Powerups like Quad damage along with its traditional sound effects from previous Quake titles also made an appearance.

There were several different modes of play like deathmatch, team deathmatch, tournament, and CTF, a few modes less than UT.

Quake 3 also introduced the id Tech 3 engine (otherwise known as the Quake 3 engine), which has been used by many other games, including some of those developed by studios who have worked on id games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Other notable games that used the engine are Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Call of Duty. All of these were FPS titles set in WW II. RTCW was the least different from Quake 3. It still had a very Q3 feel to it. Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix also used the engine.

Quake 3 featured music from Sonic Mayhem, a one-man team who also worked on Quake II’s soundtrack, . Front Line Assembly also featured on the soundtrack. Unlike Quake II, I found that the music in Q3 was less loud foreground, and more background, sometimes even more atmospheric type stuff.

I remember getting Quake 3 back in 2000, and my friends and I would usually just play against bots or LAN against each other occasionally. I haven’t played the game in a while now seeing as years ago it was such an effort to install all the map packs and point release patches, and usually after all that I didn’t even feel like playing. I also didn’t like the fact that there is no real singleplayer campaign like other games. Some friends of mine preferred Quake or Quake II to Quake III seeing as it was too colourful, although the game was meant to be a bridge between the two games in other areas like weapon balance and player speed.

And of course there was the argument over which game was better: Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament.

Quake III Arena received an expansion pack in Team Arena, and the two of these were eventually bundled together in the Quake III: Gold pack. The source code to the game was released a few years ago, and since then the free OpenArena was released. Also numerous mods and TCs have been made for the game, and even a few movies made with it. I remember seeing one years ago, I think called Escape from the Bastille.

Quake 4 came out in 2005, and was more in line with Quake II as far as storyline, but never succeeded Quake III Arena in popularity, especially in multiplayer.

Quake Zero which became known as Quake Live is essentially an updated version of Quake III Arena, and is free to download and browser-based. Recently, IS (Internet Solutions) launched a local server for South African Quake Live players, who felt that there was too much lag playing internationally.

You can pick up Quake III Arena here if you want to play a classic

Quake III Arena at Amazon

Apocalypse Then: Quake III Arena

Commander Keen Remake Happening, Not by id Though

A lot of classic id games have gotten tons of attention over the years in some way or another, whether it's sequels or source ports and HRPs attended to by massive fan communities, Wolf 3D, Doom, and Quake have had it all.

But you may be surprised to know, as I was years ago, that id made another series years before all these titles: Commander Keen.

Well, this series of games has its followers, and in some forum called NZCGI (New Zealand Computer-Generated Imagery), a guy named Laz is going to lengths to make his own remake or "tribute" in his words, to this great series of games starring B.J. Blazkowicz' grandson. He's doing this project on his own, using Unity with Java/C Sharp code. The screen caps that he's posted there so far look pretty damn good.

It's a shame though that this is likely without id's consent, and they have shut down projects in the past, like UDoom, which I've talked about before, where id issued a C&D (cease& desist) order to the makers of a mod for Unreal Tournament which aimed to remake levels from Doom for multiplayer use.

So, like Kotaku said, this project might not ever be released, and it's a shame.

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NZCGI
Kotaku

Commander Keen Remake Happening, Not by id Though

Id Software’s Rage to Have Classic id Game Weaponry

Tim Willits of id Software told Total PC Gaming that when Rage comes out next year, it will not only have some brand new toys to play with as far as guns go, but will also feature some classic id weapons too.

"Rage will feature many of the classic id Software weapons of the past, along with some new and unique Rage weapons as well. We are focusing not only on great weapons, but on engineering items that will add to the variety of gameplay. We will also have multiple ammo types available for a number of the weapons."

“We are focusing not only on great weapons, but on items that will add to the variety of gameplay”

"Rage also has an economy where you are allowed to choose how you spend your money earned through combat and racing,"

"You might decide you love the wingstick (a boomerang-cum-shuriken weapon) and stock up on them, or you may feel inclined to purchase parts to build more sentry bots or to keep your armour upgraded and repaired."

One thing I’ve noticed with id games is that one thing they didn’t do that the Unreal series has done all along, is implement alt-fire with their weapons. You might want to put that in there too, Tim.

So anyway, I went and got a list of all of the classic id games’ weapons, from Wolfenstein 3D, the Doom series and the Quake series.

Games that weren’t directly developed by id, like Quake 4 and Wolfenstein, don’t count for the purposes of this list. Remember, classic id weapons.

So here’s the list. Leave your favourites in the comments if you wish. There will also be a poll on your favourite classic id weapon (the best new guns from each game), which you can find at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Axe (Quake)
Berserk (technically not a weapon, but a powerup) - (Doom series)
BFG 9000 or 10K (Doom and Quake series)
Blaster (Quake II)
Chaingun (Pretty much every id game in some form)
Chainsaw (Doom series)
Fists (Doom 3)
Flashlight (Doom 3)
Gauntlet (Quake III)
Grenade (Quake II& Doom 3)
Grenade launcher (Quake series)
Hyperblaster (Quake II)
Knife (Wolf3D)
Knuckledusters (Doom and Doom II)
Lightning gun (Quake I and III)
Luger (from Wolf 3D)
Machinegun (Quake II, III and Doom 3)
MP 40 sub machinegun (from Wolf 3D)
Nailgun (Quake)
Pistol (Doom)
Plasma gun (Doom series and Quake III)
Railgun (Quake II and III)
Rocket launcher (Doom and Quake series, used by boss enemies in Wolf3D)
Shotgun (every id game except Wolf 3D)
Soul Cube (Doom III)
Super Nailgun (Quake)
Super or Double Barreled Shotgun (Doom and Quake series)

I would personally like to see the super shotgun and of course the BFG in some form. To leave these out would be folly, as well as the chainsaw perhaps, and the Chaingun… and the Railgun. Damn, just put them all in there! Borderlands did! Well, their weapons were mainly randomly generated, but still.

By the way: is it just me, or does that guy with the hat remind you John Romero, just a little, around the eyes? I guess the classic weapons aren't the only thing making a return.

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http://www.thatvideogameblog.com
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1802/xxx

Id Software’s Rage to Have Classic id Game Weaponry

It’s Your Birthday: John Romero

On this day, back in 1967, Alfonso John Romero was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He turns 42 today.

John Romero is a designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry, and is one of the original co-founders of id Software. He’s worked on a number of their games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, Doom, Doom II and Quake. He also worked as Executive Producer and Game Designer on Heretic and HeXen.

Other than id Software, he worked at or co-founded companies like inCider, Capital Ideas Software, Origin Systems, Inside Out Software, Ideas From The Deep, Softdisk, Ion Storm, Monkeystone Games, Midway Games, Gazillion Entertainment and Slipgate Ironworks. Slipgate Ironworks recently experienced some layoffs. Slipgate Ironworks is owned by Gazillion Entertainment, of which John is the Executive Vice-President and Creative Director. He’s also the Chairman of the CPL Advisory Board.

Interesting facts about John Romero:

• He’s lived in Colorado, Arizona, California, and England.
• John started programming games when he was 11 or so.
• He is credited with coining the term "deathmatch", and is thought of as the “father of deathmatch competitions”.
• John likes to make sound effects and taunt people while he plays games. There’s a song in Doom II, called “Waiting for Romero to Play”, because he was so electrifying and entertaining.
• The pose of the space marine on the cover of the Doom box was taken from a photo of John Romero.
• Daikatana is labeled as one of the worst games of all time.
• John Romero was once killed but came back to life.
• John is a big fan of wikis.
• He refers to himself as “The Romero”.
• John almost worked at Blue Sky Productions, eventually renamed Looking Glass Technologies. Looking Glass Technologies made System Shock, which was technologically superior to Doom and Doom II, but was overlooked despite this.
• He once put his Ferrari up for auction on eBay. He seems to love them as much as John Carmack does.
• He’s been married about three times, including his current wife, and has three children. 
• His son works at Slipgate Ironworks.
• He’s named after his father, Alfonso. His mother is Virginia, and he has a brother named Ralph.
• John is often said to have the best hair in the industry.
• John was the final boss, The Icon of Sin, in Doom II. He was presented as a head on a stick.
• John likes listening to heavy metal music. This is why most of the music in Doom is inspired by metal bands, although the MIDI tracks were composed by Bobby Prince.
• John likes being in the spotlight. John Carmack said so.
• There’s a 95 % chance that John Romero will read this.

Quotes by John Romero

"I completely love playing and designing games and always will. I am so into games that I listen to game music all day. That may sound strange, but you can guarantee I'm a hardcore gamer and would never let you down by designing a crappy title." – Daikatana

"If you walk into CompUSA or Babbage's and see the vast array of game titles on the shelf, chances are that 95% of those titles are not worth playing." – Daikatana

"Daikatana will be the greatest game of all time"

It’s Your Birthday: John Romero

The Wish Granter: A sequel to Quake I

I know that the likelihood of this ever happening is virtually zero percent, but this is my blog, and I can dream if I want. Do you remember the first Quake and how utterly weird it was and yet so cool at the same time?

After that Quake II came out and the series direction completely changed. In fact, Quake II was originally just a working title, and id Software wanted to go with other names but couldn’t secure any of them and so they stuck with Quake II for that reason and another: it was an established brand.

So what we now know as the Quake series of games: Quake II, Quake 4, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, might have been known by another name entirely if things has worked out the way they wanted.

Now what I want is a sequel to the original game, Quake: Part II, even though that possibility was denied years ago. It’s been over ten years since then and people can change their minds. I found the weird and wacky worlds of Quake to be so fear-provoking and awesome that I want to go back.

Yes, we had the expansions, but the game is in need of a sequel or at least a remake of sorts.
It's a game universe that has so much potential and yet it's just fallen by the wayside.

The Wish Granter: A sequel to Quake I

Trent Reznor’s Birthday

On this day in 1965, Michael Trent Reznor was born. He turns 44 today.

He is mostly known for founding Nine Inch Nails. Most of the music he's done in the studio is done alone except for drums. When he does live shows, he hires musicians.

He's also been apart of other bands in the past, and on top of that, has worked with id Software on games like Quake and Doom 3, although the sound work he did wasn't included in the final release. It is available in Enhanced Doom 3, a mod for the game.

For more, check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Reznor

Trent Reznor’s Birthday

Id Software finally moving away from Doom and Quake?

I loved all the Doom and Quake games, seriously, but I couldn’t help but agree when someone stated on moddb.com that ‘at last id is starting a new franchise’. Of course he was referring to Rage, their upcoming title.

If you think about it, id Software started off with Commander Keen, then Wolfenstein-which wasn’t focused on that much, but has made a slight comeback in recent years with a new game in the series set to come out soon. After Wolfenstein 3D, there was Doom and Quake, two series that revolutionized FPS games and further established id Software as a household name. They have reigned supreme for about the last sixteen years, and they don’t show any signs of stopping either, with a Doom 4, Quake 5 and possibly a Quake Arena 2, all promised by John Carmack himself.

I just wonder what this Rage will be like and whether it will garner as much long-term attention as the other two. I suppose it will naturally use the new idTech 5 engine, which Doom 4 and Quake 5 will use afterwards.

So the answer to the post's question, as to whether id will move away from Doom and Quake, is probably a "no".

Id Software finally moving away from Doom and Quake?