Hi again

Sorry, took me some time to answer, but I was really busy with
university last weeks.


>system specs
B.t.w. some time ago there had been a news on the system requirements
on slashdot with a link to some gaming page.

http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/07/20/141236.shtml?tid=112

Todd Hollenshead, id's chief executive, said Doom 3 will require:
• A 1.5-gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500.
• 384 megabytes of memory.
• Two gigabytes of hard drive space.
• An nVidia GeForce 3 graphics card or better; or an ATI Technologies
8500 or better.

Well, sounds fair to me. I already match/overmatch 'em with my 3.5
year old box. (Athlon XP 1.8+ (->1533MHz), Gef3 64M, 512 M SD CL2, HDD
fine, W98 for playing (the only Windows I can arrange myself with) and
a SuSE GNU/Linux (v9) distribution when they release the Linux binaries.
Maybe I get a 2.6.x kernel into it for better performance.

Well, I don't know about the Vodoo 4 but I think I heard that they're
good at OpenGL. So don't throw it away that easily. The Vodoo was the
leading 3d card series for a whole game generation.


>With FPS the focus is returning on gameplay, and away from
>multiplayer deathmatch, thanks in part to Half-Life.
I hope so. Not that a deathmatch ain't fine, but with no DSL or
flatrate it's just ugly. Oh, of course, and there are always those
cheaters around and playing against them is no fun.
And I'm an old fashion keyboarder. I always need 2 hours to get into
the feeling of mouse steering.


> There is a new Duke Nukem side scroller called Duke Nukem: Manhattan
> Project.
Yes, I saw it on a friend's PC and it was quite nice. Some fun into
it. It should be available in a cheap re-release box or something like
this now.


>GameBoy Advanced
Huh. Never really got into console and handheld stuff. Don't like the
small screens and consoles... well. They had some nice features years
ago (when PC was 386 mainly). And I liked SuperMario. But today I'm
sometimes looking for emulated stuff, but XWING was the thing that
drove to to my first own PC. And I have been sticking to it. PC ist
just WAY more universal in use, and you can make SAVEGAMES. :)
I always HATED to restart the whole game when my extra lives went 0 in
8-3 when playing Super Mario bros.

> The Dopefish is assured to be in DOOM 3
Good. Maybe someone should do him a favour and make him a real enemy
as in Keen. Not just the joke object everyone only laughs about.

>George B. has called off all Dopefish references since they
>have to pay royalties.
WTF? Royalties? For the fish? For the fu*king fish? Uh, that must be
the capitalistic american way of life. Charge for every shit and make
software patents on OK buttons to kill the other competitors.
Can't believe that!


> It's interesting to see Linux fly up on here all of the sudden.
Anyone here using BSD or the Hurd? (Just as a question.)

I think that's a matter of µ$'s software bugginess and µ$'s behaviour
towards... everyone (firms, end user). Inventing digital RESTRICTION
management, TCPA and other crap. Nobody I know of likes even the idea
of that. On my own hardware I'm the king. And when I purchase/license
a software it my right do do whatever I want with it. And spying on
users ist just one more point in a long list... (alexa, WMP). And if
you want the functionality of A you always have to install crap B and
C with it.

> I remember back a few years ago in classic gaming discussion it was
> "linuck wha?"
Yeah. I think one major problem is (and was quite a time for me) that
games didn't run with free OSs. "Linux? Oh yes, heard about it. Shall
be far more stable than windows crap. Can I play xyz with it fine? No?
Uh. Sad."
But things are going to change.
Linux has developed incredibly. (And so have I ;-) ) There's DOSBOX,
Wine(X)(Cedega), and multiboot via GRUB (or other). I think Linux
(regardless of this insane patent shit) is going to be a fine
alternative to windows. Ok it is still missing some apps in multimedia
and the games (but that's not Linux' fault) and some things here and
there, but it's ready for desktop. It's just a problem of OEM,
popularity and FUD that's still there.
Well, and I think esp. advanced user have a harder time to switch,
since they're used to key shortcuts and behaviour of the system they
have been using since. But on the other hand Linux is extremely
configurable. I think I'll need some time to work myself in, but then
I should be at the same level of productivity. Just with the
difference that I have a better feeling generally, I'm using free
software, and I have way more options.



> I feel the love now, in a world with out fences who needs Gates?
Yes.

> Rise of the Triad also had a source code release but I've heard of
no Linux
> portation, but there just HAS to be one.
I think it should be somewhere at Icculus.


> Be sure and buy Blu-Ray and not HD DVD when that battle comes around,
> because Microsoft backs HD DVD. :D
Oh yes. I hate all this format change, since there's still DVD+ and -
(and I still don't have any DVD burner). But I'll keep my eyes wide
open and will support the open standards.
But that's a problem: whenever there's a standard, Mickeysoft comes
around, takes it, mangles it and when it is turned top to toe and will
only work in their crap they release it as "the standard" and tell
everyone that it would be the only one. And show noone any specs.
But there's good hope since all the rest of industry is tired of this
behaviour and most of them have realized that open standards are the
better way and offer more operability and flexibility. And allow
everyone to take part in the race.


Well, that's it for now.
have a nice weekend