Quake
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Mesmerizing Quake demake runs on a decades-old oscilloscope
Before Wiis and PlayStations, before you boasted about how many bits your console had, and before Ralph Baer's Odyssey first hit Sears shelves, a bored physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory cobbled together a little digital diversion called Tennis for Two. Those early days of gaming were spent lobbing a lurid green ball back and forth across a tiny oscilloscope screen, so it's only appropriate that you can now tear through Quake's corridors on a similarly screwy screen. Finnish programmer/artist Pekka Väänänen runs through the process of converting an intensely visual game into a series of sounds that an aging Hitachi oscilloscope interprets as the building blocks of a world here. The end result? Well, it's nothing short of mesmerizing, a simultaneously foreign and familiar take on an experience most of us have long since committed to memory. Don't just take our word for it, though: There's video evidence waiting for you after the jump.
Scientists testing an 'acoustic shield' to protect cities from earthquakes
What if you could put a shield around your city to prevent it from being demolished in an earthquake? A group of French scientists think they've created a way to do just that, thanks to refraction (essentially changing the direction of the vibration). In an experiment, the group was able to create the shield using several five-meter-deep boreholes in the ground. When a quake hits, the holes redirect vibrations to a less-populated nearby area so they'll do less damage. The catch is, all that force has to head somewhere. And we're guessing there won't be many towns signing up to have a big city's quake headed their way instead. Image Source: UN Photo/Logan Abassi
Bethesda deploys standalone client for id's Quake Live
The standalone version of online free-to-play shooter Quake Live, announced back in November, is available for download today – just in time for a weekend of relaxing fragging. Existing players will find a conversion launcher available next time they boot up Quake Live, while all new players will be prompted to download the standalone client when they visit the Quake Live website and register. All profile data and stats have transitioned over to the standalone game. Quake Live, first revealed in 2007 as Quake Zero, is a free-to-play version of Quake 3. The game offers optional premium subscriptions yielding additional arenas, clan support and queue and in-game advertisement bypassing. An FAQ has been posted over on the Bethesda Blog to help ease the transition.
Quake Live goes standalone this year
Quake Live, id Software's free-to-play version of its hyper-competitive FPS, will begin the transition from browser-based experience to complete standalone game, available by the end of the year. id Software says that Google Chrome's movement to do away with plugins, as well as Firefox's changes to how it will handle plugins, has fueled its decision to go standalone. Active players will only need install a launcher that will update existing local game files - Mac and Linux will no longer be supported in the standalone version - and all player stats are transferable. Quake Live was first announced in 2007 as Quake Zero, a browser-based version of Quake 3.
Quake now acceptable in Germany
Quake, id Software's 1996 classic, has been removed from Germany's list of indexed titles, a category created by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPjM) which makes games commercially equivalent to porn. A historically significant milestone of technical and game design, Quake's freedom follows in the footsteps of the recently rated DOOM and DOOM 2. Bethesda Softworks, whose parent company acquired id Software in 2009, told us after the DOOM titles passed the BPjM that an appeal of indexing is allowed after 10 years. [Thanks, Timo]
Bethesda tells Mojang to lay down its virtual guns, lawyer up for a trademark battle
Time was, men could settle their disputes with glinting swords at the ready and their honor on the line. Nowadays, only the cosplaying and Comic Con attending folk alike are likely to burnish (elvish) blades, although they're rather inapt to sully them with enemy blood. Well, unsurprisingly, Mojang head Markus "Notch" Persson's modern day offer of a Quake 3 Arena simulated duel -- his proposed method of extralegal recourse -- was shot down by Bethesda, the company suing the Minecraft creator for use of the word "Scrolls" in its unreleased card game. As these are apparently sue-happy times, both parties are headed to court to battle it out, with Mojang facing the terrible repercussion of a forced product name change. From the looks of the defendant's Twitter feed, however, it doesn't appear the impending litigation's breaking this Swede's stride.
Minecraft creator challenges Bethesda to deathmatch for the word 'scrolls'
While Samsung, Apple, HTC and others battle it out in court with lawyers and expansive patent portfolios, one man seems to know how real geeks settle disputes -- with a deathmatch. Markus "Notch" Persson, the man behind Minecraft and head of Mojang, has decided the best way to put the trademark squabble with Bethesda to rest is two rounds of three-on-three Quake 3 Arena action. The Elder Scrolls developer is sticking with the same tactics that have made smartphone companies our new least-favorite corporate citizens, but Notch thinks ownership of the word "scrolls" can best be determined with BFGs and railguns. With any luck this will catch on and, when Steve Jobs and Larry Page lead their forces into battle in Team Fortress, we're gonna have to put on our money on the Mountain View crew.
Team Fortress 2 gets to play with classic QuakeCon weapons
Team Fortress 2 just had a futuristic weapons update with Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators, and now Valve is going old-school. To celebrate QuakeCon 2011, which kicked off yesterday in Dallas, TF2 is getting a bevy of Bethesda and id Software gear as part of the QuakeCon Steam Sale (a different deal each day!). The following items correspond with different daily deals, but are all available through 10 a.m. EDT August 8: "The Original" Quake rocket launcher (Soldier), free with Quake IV purchase The Wingstick, based on a RAGE weapon (Engineer), free with RAGE pre-order The Dragonborn helmet from Skyrim (Heavy), free with Skyrim pre-order The Anger hood from Brink (Sniper), free with Brink purchase/ownership A Fallout Pip-Boy (Engineer), free with Fallout: New Vegas purchase/ownership
Quake turns 15, ready to be ported to a learner's permit
In the ever-changing world of gaming, a 15-year-old title is downright ancient, so there's a lot to be said for the fact that we're still talking about Quake a decade and a half after its release -- and what a packed decade and a half it's been. The game has spawned a still thriving convention and has made an appearance on pretty much every platform, ever, including, recently, Android, webOS, Chumby, BUG, and, of course, a maze for lab mice. So, happy birthday, old man. Now how about playing on something more your age? Like, say, the Jitterbug? Got a favorite Quake moment? Be sure to share it with us in the comments below.
BlackBerry 7 gets an SDK, NFC, AR, other acronyms
BlackBerry 7 OS is coming soon but, to take advantage of all those fancy features like NFC and the digital compass (ok, some of them aren't that fancy), devs are going to need some new APIs -- enter the BlackBerry 7 Java SDK. Creators of BlackBerry apps can go download the beta of the new software development kit at the source link and start whipping up augmented reality browsers and 3D games, thanks to support for OpenGL ES 2.0. There's nothing mind-blowing about RIM's latest update, but we're glad to see the corporate stalwart start to catch up to other smartphone OSes, and it's only a matter of time before Layar and Quake hit the BlackBerry Bold 9900.
Toshiba and Hitachi LCD plants damaged, will shut down for a month
You can't have a 9.0 magnitude earthquake without breaking a few factories, particularly ones that produce fragile liquid crystal screens, and this week Toshiba, Hitachi and Panasonic are each reporting damages that have forced them to close LCD production facilities affected by the tsunami and quake. Panasonic isn't sure when its plant in Chiba prefecture might resume carving up the glass sandwiches, telling Bloomberg that "there has been some damage, though not a fire or a collapse," but both Hitachi and Toshiba will reportedly halt some assembly lines for around a month to deal with damages. It's probably still too soon to talk about panel shortages -- though they seem likely soon -- but we'll let you know how things progress.
Brothers in Arms, Quake collection discounts highlight today's Steam Holiday Sale
Today's Steam deals are a doozy if you're looking to pick something up on the cheap, including Dead Space for $6.80 and the aforementioned discounts on all Brothers in Arms games and The Quake Collection -- the latter being a bundle of all three Quake games along with a bunch of DLC. Or, if you've still got some generosity left in the ol' holiday tank, you could gift somebody a copy of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days for $5 but, honestly, that'd just be a waste of $5. Instead, we suggest you hit the jump for less friendship-questioning gaming deals.
Quake completed in under an hour
Yes, Quake has been around for some time now, but that doesn't make this achievement any less incredible: A team of trained Quake speed-runners have completed the game (while finding 100 percent of its secret areas) on its hardest difficulty in under one of our Earth hours.
Quake Arena Arcade finally arrives on XBLA Dec. 15
We'll forgive you if you've forgotten that Quake Arena Arcade was even coming to Xbox Live Arcade. After all, it was announced in 2007 and "very close" to being done in 2009. Whatever that final development hurdle was, it must've been a whopper, but it's been overcome and the game will arrive ... next week. December 15, to be exact. Bethesda won't be announcing pricing until just before the game's release, but it'll surely cost less than a second-hand Dreamcast, broadband adapter and copy of Quake 3 Arena.%Gallery-67171%
Quake Live 'Premium Pak 4' update adds new maps, new server settings
Browser-based frag-em-up Quake Live keeps chugging along, as id's gone and announced the addition of some new premium content. Through "Premium Pak 4," players can access two new maps (Evolution and Three Story), along with 20 new premium awards and some advanced server mechanics, allowing players to customize matches by setting certain modifiers on or off -- runes, gravity, weapon switch speed and more. Finally, the introductory match against Crash has been removed for new players, who will instead be "placed in an assessment period before skill matching begins to take place." We're sure Crash is most happy about that new feature. If you're lost on all of this talk of "premium," then you likely missed out on the new subscriptions. Read up on that here and be sure to hit the link below if you're looking for the full patch notes. Or just hit up Quake Live if you're looking to shoot some stuff. Don't be embarrassed: we all feel that way every now and again.
Waging WAR: Hands-on with Thanquol's Incursion
This week, Waging WAR brings you Greg's hands-on impressions of the new RvR 24v24 instanced dungeon coming soon to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. With true grit, determination, a staff, sequined robe and his trusty wizard hat, Greg brushes the dust off of his Archmage skills and reviews Thanquol's Incursion. I was able to put together everything needed on Wednesday evening, so setting up for Friday afternoon's scheduled test of Thanquol's Incursion didn't take long at all. I didn't want to get tied up in learning a new career along with testing completely new content, so I decided to stick with what I know best and roll my Archmage on the PTS. Luckily, I tend to go light in the add-on department, so after getting my keybindings ready and scattering my UI all over the screen in my own (olympically) special way, I flew to Praag and found a warband in no time flat. Friday's event started up right on time, and the testing was under way. The warband headed out to one of the various instance gates and we zoned in. Follow along after the break as I discuss my first-time hands-on experience with the new RvR gated 24v24 instanced dungeon: Thanquol's Incursion.
id loves the iPhone, but won't bring Orcs & Elves to App Store
Touch Arcade got to speak with none other than John Carmack himself at QuakeCon last weekend, and he had some disappointing news about getting old school id games on the iPhone. While Carmack said that he's excited about releasing Rage on the iPhone, he admits that id's past titles haven't sold up to snuff on the iPhone. That means that Orcs & Elves, originally created for mobile phones and then later released on the DS, won't be coming to Apple's App Store. That's too bad -- you'd think that since Orcs & Elves was actually designed for mobile platforms, it would be one of the easier titles to bring over. But it sounds like Carmack is more interested in bringing new games to Apple's platform. id Software still has a mobile game division going, but it's just not worth porting the old games over when there's so much work to be done on the new ones. I guess we can live with that.
QuakeCon Steam sale ends with 75 percent discount on ... Quake
How incredibly appropriate! The final day of Steam's QuakeCon 2010 sale has resulted in a 75 percent discount on every Quake game on the platform. Click past the jump to see how little you'll have to pay to grab id Software's classic shooters today. (A pittance, we tell you! A pittance!)
id's Carmack wants to support current franchises, new IPs unlikely
Rage represents a rather large milestone for Carmack's id team. Not only is it the first game to use id Tech 4, it's the first id game to be published by new owner Bethesda. It's also the first new IP from the team in over a decade, since 1996's release of Quake. If a recent interview in the Official PlayStation Magazine (via CVG) is to be believed, it's likely that the new new IP from id will be just as far away. "I doubt we're going to do another IP," Carmack told OPM. "We want to support Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake -- and hopefully we can add Rage onto that. ... Obviously, if Rage is a success then we'll want to do a Rage 2." Considering the lengthy development cycles at id (evidenced by the currently-MIA Doom 4) who knows when the next new IP will bubble out of the company? Especially with that Commander Keen reboot getting in the way, right?
Rage demo'd at 60 fps on iPhone, id games on sale
QuakeCon is going down this weekend in AustinDallas, Texas -- the annual celebration of everything id Software (makers of Quake and Doom, among a few other classic PC titles) features tournaments and panels on some of the hottest PC games around. But there's already been one big Apple announcement: John Carmack has demonstrated id's newest game, Rage, running at a full 60 frames per second on the iPhone. We first heard of this game at QuakeCon a couple of years ago, and Carmack has always said that making sure it ran on the Mac would be a priority, but it looks like he's delivered the goods. The demo was run on an iPhone 4, but Carmack said it worked great on the iPad as well. Carmack said the iPhone version would be out sometime this year, before the full version of Rage arrives on consoles and PC. Oh, and icing on the cake? All of id's iPhone titles are on sale during the show this weekend -- Doom II RPG is down to just 99 cents, along with Wolfenstein 3D. Doom Classic and Doom Resurrection are US $1.99, down from the usual price of $6.99. If you're in AustinDallas, don't forget that QuakeCon is free and open to the public as well. All hail the great id!
