3 posts tagged “games”

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Plagiarized Assets From Doom 3 and Half-Life 2?

I can see lawsuits and a round of people getting fired for this. It seems as if 7 years of development wasn't enough time to make a few extra textures, so someone working at GSC decided to borrow a few textures from Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 for the newly released S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl game.

Quake III: Team Arena Coming to Xbox 360?

Quake III Arena is a game so pure in concept and design, it just refuses to die even after 8 long years since it was first released for the PC and later the Sega Dreamcast. It's still a popular hit among fans and it's engine released by Id Software under a GPL license has still proven to be quite versatile. Versatile enough to be re-released for the Xbox 360? It sure looks that way. I wonder if there will be any updated assets and the ability to use a keyboard and mouse (I can't shoot straight with joysticks).

Xbox 360 QWERTY Keyboard Controller?

A little while from now, scrawny Xbox 360 nerds will have HUGE thumb muscles and will be able to knock out school yard bullies with a single flick. I hated the original old-school Xbox controllers that were both large and heavy. This seems like a step back in the wrong direction... unless you're a puny 360 nerd.

Installing Quake III Arena on a 64-bit Linux box isn't that bad actually. I couldn't find instructions anywhere on how to do this, so after figuring it out I'm writing them down here.

You will need:

• Linux x86_64 with updated video drivers
  
• Quake III Arena install CD (Windows)
  
• Linux Q3A Point Release 1.32b
• Q3A Point Release 1.32c

Download the two point releases somewhere handy. I just downloaded them to my Desktop (/home/obsidian/Desktop)

Installation:

1. Open up a Terminal session and create a new directory to install everything (usually /usr/local/games/).
• sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/games/quake3/baseq3
  
2. Insert Q3A CD in your drive and copy the pak0.pk3 file to your baseq3 directory (can take a while).
• sudo cp /media/cdrom/Quake3/baseq3/pak0.pk3 /usr/local/games/quake3/baseq3
  
3. Quake 3 is a 32-bit application, so you will run into a known issue. You can get around this by installing a couple of packages that will allow you to emulate 32-bit programs in your 64-bit environment.
• sudo apt-get install ia32-libs linux32
  
4. We can now invoke the Quake 3 install script to work. Note that your directory may be different than below. Then follow the on-screen instructions, they should be pretty self explanatory.
• sudo linux32 sh /home/obsidian/Desktop/linuxq3apoint-1.32b-3.x86.run
  
5. Extract the 3 files in the "linux" directory of quake3-1.32c.zip to your desktop (or where ever else) and copy them over to your Quake 3 install directory.
• sudo cp /home/obsidian/Desktop/1.32c/* /usr/local/games/quake3

Notes:

• Most distros use su instead of sudo.
  
• x86_32 users can follow the same process, but omit step 3, and do sudo sh /home/obsidian/Desktop/linuxq3apoint-1.32b-3.x86.run on the last step instead.

Have yourself a little fragfest.

Question of yesterday, I think... better late than never, I suppose. I have a tendancy to miss all the qotd's that I want to contribute to.

Anyway, video games have been a pretty big part of my life, though I never really popped that many quarters into the arcade machines. I started off getting hooked on video games mostly on the PC (IBM XT) and some of the early consoles (Atari, NES and Sega Genesis). But here's a quick random list just for fun...

Early Games on the IBM XT:

• Arkanoid
• Hero's Quest (so, you want to be a hero)
• California Games
• Xenon II
• Prince of Persia (the first sidescroller one)

Early Consoles:

• Duck Hunt
• Pac Man
• Tetris
• Star Fox
• Super Star Wars
• Mario (I suck, my timing's always off)
  

Arcade:

• Time Crisis
• Street Fighter
• Mortal Kombat
• Virtual-On (awesome)

Favourites of All Time*:

• Quake III Arena/Team Arena (deserves special recognition)
  
• Quake (I, II and 4)
  
• Doom (I, II and 3)
• American McGee's Alice
• StarCraft
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
  
• Star Wars: Dark Forces, Jedi Outcast , Jedi Academy
• Half-Life and all sequels
  

Worthy Mentions:

• Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Medal of Honor series
• Call of Duty I and II
• Aliens Versus Predator I and II
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
• Myst/Riven etc.
• Heavy Metal: FAKK 2
• Chronicles of Riddick
  

Worst Games I Own:

• Gore (total waste of money)
• Unreal Tournament 2003, because right after I bought it, they released UT2004 which was nothing more than a glorified patch that solved all the problems that annoyed me in 2003.

Games I'm Waiting For/Haven't Played Yet:

• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Oooo... can't wait *froth at mouth*)
• Final Fantasy VII (I feel like I missed out on a big part of pop culture)
  

* I just noticed that except for two (maybe 3 depending on definition, all of these games are powered by id Software game engines. Huh.