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Eighteenth Highest Shelf Vittles: 6.26.00-11.15.00

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Wednesday 11/15/00

Puzzle On This
     rant_2 wrote to let me know that the rant Outlaw posse site now has some fun new Java games: there's a puzzle slider game where you slide tiles to unscamble a picture from Outlaws (I stink at this one) and a Memory one where you race the clock to match pairs of Outlaws textures, pictures and colors. That one's a lot of fun and since I finished two levels I now feel like a genius. Oh and the Outlaws wordsearch game now has some new boards (searching for Outlaws level names and the like) and there's now a history section on the quiz section of the week—these quizzes are really in-depth. Anyway, lots of fun and should tide you over until Outlaws 2 comes out ('round about the time the Voodoo 5 6000 comes out... ;).

Voodoo 5 6000 Canned, 3dfx Retreats
     Whoa. Some not-so-great news for fans of Glide-only games. :P On Monday came the announcement that the ridiculously powerful and expensive Voodoo 5 6000 graphics card was being effectively canned by handing the technology license to Quantum 3d; looks like the 5000 is the end of the line for the V5. Then today came the announcement that 3dfx is shutting down its production plant and going back to pure chipset design, and will let card manufacturers make the actual retail graphics cards (like nVidia does now, for instance). Thanks to salmoides for being the first tipster (he also mentioned a petition you can sign to encourage 3dfx to release the 6000).
     Sigh. Well I was savin' up fer that darn V5 6000 for a long time now. Ach. Now I guess I can finally get a new system and just stick a V5 5000 in it. Then again, I need a new car too. Car or computer? Hmmm... hrrmmm... err... maybe I'll just turn to a life of crime.
     Oh back on topic, its a little hard to say where 3dfx is going from here. There are still rumors about their next-gen "Rampage" chipset but the company itself is actually talking more about designing chips for non-PC stuff like set-top boxes, handhelds, etc. Are they pretty much ditching the PC biz? Will we all have to find Voodoo2s to keep playing Outlaws in the future world of non-3dfx graphics cards? Bah!

Wanted: Good Stuff
     Kid Macoo pointed me to this Gamespy article covering "Wanted!", the western mod for Half-Life (not to be confused with the Outlaws mod for Half-Life or the western mod for Quake 3). Talks about what's in the mod, its distribution (will be in upcoming releases of Half-Life Game of the Millenium Edition boxes or whatever) and so forth. There's also a link to the Wanted! home page which has been updated with snazzy new screenshots, etc.

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Sunday 11/12/00

Coast to Coast Maps
     Yesh I made it back safe and sound after quite a time in Boston, though Pete and I are pretty sure that "Sun Country Airlines" used to be ValuJet. They don't like to advertise that, for some reason... :P I'm also still a little woozy after taking a 7:00 am cross-country flight on two hours of sleep yesterday (we were up late in a 5-person Diablo II LAN game ;) so I hope you'll bear with any slipshod work on my part today. On with the new maps!
     USMarshal's Guild House (shot) by Alex: Small and fairly basic DM map with a square building, a cliff ledge behind it and a cave underneath the cliff. Textures are a bit garish but framerates are high and object placement is okay.
     Purgatory (shot) by Krummwaffe: The author didn't put his name in the text file for this map as "all" he did was take buildings from the 2nd single-player level and arrange them in a Sanc-like double row. Well actually he did much more than just arrange them, you'll find all kinds of nifty touches that greatly improve their flow make them easier to navigate. It's also a minor miracle how he managed to keep the framerate pretty playable with all these buildings concentrated in one area.
     fir (shot) by Prowler: Odd first map from this author which exploits the LawMaker bug (I think that's what it is, anyway) where floors turn see-through. So this is a small low-ceilinged room with a "glass" floor through which you can see a panning brick texture. Very odd. Also the four powerups (including a badge) seem to be hidden inside a wall, though you can still pick them up by brushing the wall. Very strange. Thanks to D.A.D. for sending this one in.
     FF (shot) by Prowler: Big, flat and dim map designed for CTF. You'll pretty much be in for lots of rifle battles here and it will be really tough to get across the huge empty spaces without getting riddled with bullets. Thanks again to D.A.D. for sending it.
     WPT Arena (shot) by HardknoX_3: Lack of shading makes this multilevel rectangular canyon map a bit hard on the eyes, though the layout is decent. Judging by the target range and ledges chock-full of different weapons and ammo this was built more as a training map than a normal DM affair.
     BiO (shot) by InFeCtiON: CTF map with two forts, which appear to have been adopted from JTMason's "AR Fort," facing each other across a very long valley with a bridge above a hill in between and a large tunnel running underneath. Missing ground problem (not intentional here, I think) on the central hill. Framerate gets a bit low at the ends, but playable. Overall the construction is a little "big-boned" but decent, and the view from the central bridge is impressive.
     Rogue Cheddar, the First of the Cheese Westerns (shot) by Krummwaffe: Inspired by a Monty Python bit, this two-building town in a roughly circular valley features Krummwaffe's usual brilliant texturing and attention to unexpected detail. Twin Sanchez-pistols replace the sawed-off shotgun and these devastating weapons are fun to shoot and feature a custom sound from the "Fistful" trilogy, as does the rifle. Lovely medium-sized, slightly off-kilter DM map.
     Winner's Circle (Shootout Version) (shot) by Blackyolero and Picante: Redesign of their teamplay "Winner's Circle" map takes out the waiting areas (which are pretty neat if you haven't tried that map) to concentrate on down and dirty DM play in the central area, which has had a few curves and a tunnel added to its gorgeous layout. I noticed slight slowdowns in a couple of the corners... well actually they aren't really corners because the rock walls in this map are very organic and curvy—and the curves can probably be blamed for the slightly lower than expected fps. Still it plays very well and should be plenty fast enough to keep your finger glued to your trigger button. Blacky had some interesting notes about the redesign which I've added to the text file.
     Temple CTF (shot) by Shotgun Joe and OLM_Lankman: Interesting layout for a CTF map: there's a wall with a few firing slits separating the two bases so you have to run though a twisty "W" shaped side tunnel to get the flag. There are also bunkers set in the cliffs that look down right into the enemy's base. This is gonna be a nasty one—not too many places to hide! Lack of shading and repeating textures take away your depth perception in a few spots. Framerates are high.

Half-Life Outlaws Mod Shots
     One of the authors (there are two) of the Outlaws mod for Half-Life which I posted about in my last update has been kind enough to send me more screenshots to show. He also mentioned that they estimate that they are about 65% of the way to beta and that he's had some responses since I made the first post and they have all been nice and supportive.
     The textures in these shots are taken from OL, the HUD is from Half-Life but the maps and models have been done from scratch and though they are lookin' pretty good even now, keep in mind this is still very much a work in-progress. Check 'em: character selection, Pattern Repair 1, 2 and 3, Dry Gulch 1 and 2.
     Again, send yer feedback to [removed].

Hooter's High-Visibility Sights
     Hooter sent in two custom crosshairs. Both are pretty sharp and in easy-to-see yellow, though on a Voodoo card they'll blur unless you're running at 640x480. Get the outline sight and square sight.

Other Sites

	Planet Outlaws Lots of Java, not Netscape-friendly. If you have IE you'll find pics of Outlaws players, a bulletin board and a few files for download, amongst other interactive stuff.
	The Wild Bunch Framed pages are graphically inconsistent but easy to navigate. Lots of info on this posse's members, some history of the gang and several informative ramblings by the members.
	Shotgun Joe's Outlaws Page Shotgun J dishes out his opinions on many aspects of Outlaws multiplayer including characters, favorite maps, weapons and other players. Also tips on map making and sound files to download. The individual pages all have different backgrounds and only the first page has a menu, which makes getting around a little tougher than it could be, but everything is illustrated with screenshots and written in an informative manner.

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Thursday 11/1/00

I'm Your Huckleberry
     Huckleberry's Revenge by HardknoX_3: Big name for a remake of (was it Marshal's?) "Sniper," keeping the modified rifle, has an auto-reloading high-ammo pistol and probably some changes to the level layout that I just can't really tell about because I don't remember the original level all that well. Seeing as how much Sniper gets downloaded from my ftp site there are a lot of folks who seem to like that modified rifle, so here's more of it.

Out-Life? Half-Law?
     There's an Outlaws mod for Half-Life in the works. Hey, you all right there? You looked a little faint. Not much to tell at this point, the author is just trying to get as much of Outlaws into the Half-Life system as he can. Not a half-bad idear. He feels his biggest challenge will be the character models: how to get the fairly wild 2d Outlaws characters converted into fully fleshed-out 3d polygons. Well from the looks of things so far I think he'll do just fine. He's been sending me screenshots for the past month or so... I deleted the first batch (didn't think he'd ever agree to let me post 'em) so I'll hafta get those from him again, but here's a lil' gat's-eye view of Orleans fer you ta check out. The map doesn't have lightmapping in there yet, the shots with lightmaps that he sent me of Hargrove's Pattern Repair were pretty darn spiffy. Hopefully I'll have some more shots when I get back from my trip. He's interested in player's thoughts on this so shoot him an email at [removed] an' let him know what'cha think.
     Speakin' of western mods, Martone has a link to a sharp-looking western mod for Quake 3 over at OGB Headquarters. If you're in a modding mood, of course. Not every game can get things right the first time. ;)

Space Cruiser Yamoto
     So that's all th' news fer now. I'm sailin' off to the east coast (the "right coast" I guess since a friend of mine from New Jersey calls the west the "left coast") Friday morning and will be back Saturday the 11th if all goes as planned. Catch y'all in a bit.

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Monday 10/30/00

So Many Maps It's Almost Scary
     My emails came through... and how! You know how usually on Halloween you fill up on candy until you feel like barfing (at least, in America we do this because we're pretty stupid)? Well this year you can do the same with Outlaws maps. How many can you fit down the hatch at once? Chug! Chug! Chug!
     Hostages (shot) by Gas: It's not often these days when I load up a new map and say "Sweet!" It's even less often when I am moved proclaim "Holy sh--!" Now I know this is something of a "family" site so I apologize to my tender readers for that last sentence but I literally couldn't help it. First of all, you're in a CTF map set on three fantastically perilous islands in the middle of a boundless ocean. These are arranged in a row, the end isles being quaint little army camps and the middle being a wooden palisade which blocks the view from camp to camp. That's the "sweet" part. Then you find that there are twisty tunnels under each island shaped to channel you in various winding ways... then you come to the entrance of one and discover that it flings you across the gap (there's also a bridge for pedestrians) to the next island over. That's the "holy" part. This map picked me up and threw me, and I went back for more. Looks great too, fps a bit low at either end but playable.
     ZoneML (shot) by D.A.D.: Dedicated to Zone players who like to pass on the trimmings, this flat map is shaped sorta like a squished hourglass, with two wide triangular sides meeting at their points in the middle. There are canteens around but not much else. What's the point (haha)? To shoot and be shot, I should think. High fps, needless to say.
     DadZone (shot) by D.A.D.: It's the previous map with the trimmings, including barricades bolstering the defense of either side and various powerups like vanishing cream, etc. Still done in the same grey pseudo-sci-fi style.
     RayTown (shot) by Kid Macoo: A nicely-done town on a large flat plateau cut by a railroad. Kid Mac wanted to make it look open instead of surrounded by cliffs so three sides just sort of end in a blank wall of sky, which feels a little odd but doesn't really look bad, though he tells me that without a Voodoo card you'll see mountains popping up if you stand on a rooftop. I like the layout of the town except for the large hotel, which is kind of rambling and maze-like, and the fact that there are several AIs wandering around which will add to lag. Framerates are impressive for what he put in there.
     Cripes (shot) by Meany: An impressive debut map by this author (I think? although the email address is familiar... hmm), Cripes reminds me of the ground level of Thud Tower with its two layers of simple mazeworks, though here they're in a light wood rather than a heavy brick tone. But the layout is more focused here than in Thud and the framerate is fantastic especially given how many archways you can see through at once. Also a sharp and consistent use of shadow here really puts a nice clear edge on things. Very well done arena-style map.
     Ebony (shot) by TenTacos: This may be the darkest map I've ever seen. It isn't completely dark mind you: it has just enough light bits to make the rest of it seem that much darker. You're tomcatting through the windows and manholes of a bayside city street on a dark and cloudy night, with very feeble illumination from the public street lighting. This will be one very difficult map to play. Tempting but probably not the best idea to turn on your lantern 'cause you'll stand out like a Christmas tree. Then again fps is kinda low looking down the whole street so you might get a couple feet before snipers hiding in the darkness fill you full of lead.
     Patriotwar (shot) by Warwolf: Smooth green hills. Oh baby, are these a sight for (literally) sore eyes. This's a classic hard-core open field CTF map in the lines of "NoMans" but without the underground tunnels and the field between the solid earthwork bases is comprised of gently rolling grassy hills. Simple and very polished with gorgeous texture selection. Hmm... three of the last four maps on my "must play" list (which is really long these days) are now CTF maps. I don't even like CTF. What the heck is going on? :P
     Mini Repair (shot) by Excalibur: Edit of LEC's "Hargrove's Pattern Repair" brings in the fence almost right up to touching the small building. Cuts down on the advantage of the rifle in the normally large field. I like what's been done with the sky here... actually when I first run the map on my Voodoo3 the sky is this groovy green shade, then it turns red after a few seconds. I'm not sure what's up with that, the green is pretty cool though.
     Did you really eat all that? :P Then again, on a "more than you wanted to know" note, I generally didn't OD on Halloween candy back when I could get away with Trick'r'Treatin'. Because my parents were pretty strict "health food" disciplinarians, Halloween was the one major infusion of sugar and corn syrup that Slack-Jawed Pete and I could get away with each year. So I rationed my candy out to last me as long as possible. I still remember the year I got a bag of Red Hots (this was back when people who gave out unwrapped candy weren't immediately locked up on charges of attempted poisoning) and eventually got down to allowing myself one Red Hot a night. Sure they got kinda sticky and hard but Halloween lasted 'til nearly Christmas that year!
     On another light note, Raf (he has some other nick these days, but I forget what it is) pointed out that the "Brain Transplanation" web site indicated in that spam mail I posted in the last update may be some sort of front for a group also trying to make their living at commercial web design. Their design site is here. I love it... the logo (from the "ABC's of Graphic Design" school) reads "web desing studio." Man, this stuff's too weird to make up...
     Pete and I are headed to Boston to visit Big Nose Kate for a week starting this Friday. I think I'll get in another update before then, but ya never know. We're flying on an airline I'd never heard of before a search for cheap tickets turned them up: Sun Country Airlines. Should be quite an adventure.

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Thursday 10/26/00

Send That Mail Again
My email finally came back online, I was notified of this by two spam mails plunking down in my inbox. I've never been so happy to see spam. Just for that I'm going to post my favorite-ever spam mail (that I actually received). But what I'm really making this update for is to say that if you sent me an email since 7am PST on Tuesday, you'll have to re-send it because I didn't receive it. Pretty cool eh? ;P Okay here's that spam:

Subject: BRAIN TRANSPLANTATION - Be Young Again !
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 21:20:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: brain_trans@yahoo.com
To: [removed] [My old address still gets spam, how nice :]

Have you ever dreamed to be young again?
    To relieve memory of your childhood. Or may be you just want to have strong, beautiful body. It is all becoming possible right now with a latest advancement in microsurgery. Thanks to the procedure called: Brain Transplantation. When you car is too old to fix it - you will buy new car. Your body is that car, and you just a passenger. Get new body - keep your IDENTITY !

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT www.ny-best.com
    Human always dreamed to live forever. Now when it is became possible our responsibility is to make it in ordered way. Unfortunately brain transplantation involves a lot of complexity. Especially in finding appropriate host body. As a result waiting for operations can take up to two years. To be considered for nearest brain transplantation we suggest you to join our waiting list. We will keep you posted about latest news in Brain Transplantation, you will be receiving semimonthly issues of Identity Advancements Today magazine free of charge. As soon as your term will closing in you will be notified by our staff.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT www.ny-best.com

legislation for commercial email (s. 1618 - section 301). " persuant to section 301, paragraph (a) )(2) (c) of s. 1618, further transmissions to you by the sender of this email may be stopped at no cost to you by submitting a request via email SUBJECT = "REMOVE".
     Further, this message cannot be considered spam as long as we include sender contact information.

I love it! And oh man it just got better—when I got that mail the web URL didn't work so I figured oh well, that was kinda funny. But there's an actual web site for it now! For only $499,000.00 you can get a brain transplant into a fresh young body. Best of all, if you sign up for the waiting list now you get a 10% discount! Now how about that. So what I want to know is, where do they get these healthy young bodies that they'll transplant you into? Do they grow them in vats? Oh hang on they say that too: "Most of the bodies comes from Eastern Europe. Age bracket from 13 to 30 years old." Hmm... that's kinda goulish... Oh and: "Because of the ethical aspects we do not discuss how and were we getting new human bodies for brain transplantation." Darn those pesky ethical aspects! Gee it is just so tempting to fill out their waiting list form so I can see what this great magazine has in it... probably some great ads... ;)
Don't forget to re-send your mail!

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Wednesday 10/25/00

Gah Part 2
     Gah. Not only have I heard diddly and squat about the dedicated IP addresses I ordered from Qwest, now my incoming mailserver is not responding and my DSL is slower than drivers on the morning commute. So this update won't have anything that was sent to me today... which is doubly frustrating because I know there was a reminder I sent myself from work that now I can't get—and I can't remember what it was. :P
     Hmm now that I look at it the last email that got through to me came at 7:30 am Tuesday morning. :PP Great.

Not Quite Maps
     LawMaker .inf Template by SnotENoze: A set of templates that mapmakers can use for making doors in single-player levels. Sounds pretty useful ta me (but not for me since I don't know word one about making maps :).
     graybo (shot) by outlawtrain55: Uh. Never a good sign when the .zip and .lab file together hold over a score of duplicate files that I have to weed out. If you like items and textures jumbled into a small level with a shooting poodle, this one's all you.
     Gurdon (shot) by outlawtrain55: Gee this one only had about three files to delete and a few to rename, so things are looking up already. But the map name is spelled different than the filename. That's usually not a good sign. At least this doesn't have stuff thrown all over the place but three vanishing creams in a two-room level seems a bit much. Maybe ghosts are in for Halloween.
     shot by outlawtrain55: Let's see a few files to delete... oh and have to put the .lab file together for the author who was apparently in such a hurry to get this two-room, no-item map out that he couldn't be bothered. I'm not even going to post this. Don't click link above, it won't work. I'm just leaving it there because I can't be bothered. This map will be taken out and... :P
     test3 (shot) by outlawtrain55: Hmm delete those duplicate files... check the .lab oh yeah those shouldn't be there... and hey now it runs. This is actually the best of the batch, which really isn't saying anything. Really.
     WarsTown (shot) by WarWolf: Well well an honest-to-goodness map here. Sort of a big-boned charm to this large town square. Probably could have done without that finely-detailed well in the middle though as framerates are a mite spartan. Definitely not ML. Still, this is the rousing success of the evening. And no, my email being down doesn't make me grumpy. Not at all.

A Blast of Sax From the Past
     I'm still not too sure about that title but oh well... Saxster, the first big-gun on the Outlaws web-range back in "the day," is now heavily involved in Counter-Strike and goes by the name "Foehammer" on sites like www.xiles.org and www.foehammer.net. Good to see he's still in the web game... game. So anyhow if you run into FH in a Counter-Strike game, be sure to embarrass him in front of all his pals by talkin' "countrified" to him in familiar tones about the old days. I'm sure he'll love it. :)

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Sunday 10/22/00

Nothin' But Maps
     Loads of new maps today. Swiped the first two from Outlaws Gang Busters:
     Rowdy2.0 (shot) by Pittbullet: I was pretty happy with this little canyon map with high fps in a nice open canyon floor and some small buildings around the edges until I noticed the little nook with the badge and then also the back tunnel with spiders (AIs take up bandwidth) and smaller nooks that are hard to get into. Well made, I just don't like the item choices.
     YeS (shot) by ?: Nicely laid-out little town with open horizons and very nifty tunnel system below-ground. It's a darn shame it feels unfinished, with unstitched textures and pretty low framerates. The telegraph poles are a neat idea though they may be contributing to the low fps.
     Casper (shot) by Outlawtrain55: First map from this author so far as I know definitely has that first map feel anyway: big and flat, with willy-nilly item placement.
     Hooter's (shot) by Hooter: Revisit of his small (3 sectors!) "Hooterville" map, this time starting you out with your character's normal weapons. No pickup items at all, this is about as pure a DM as you can get!
     LMAO (shot) by Tater: Medium-sized canyon DM with pretty nice layout that keeps moving around and through. Lots of permeable walls (which tend to annoy me) and also mod'ed rifles, I think they do more damage. Clint says "Groovy" when you pick them up and they have that "Sharps" rifle sound whose origin I can't recall just now.
     Deserted (shot) by D1andOnly with help from TheRock: Well-designed CTF map with a fort at both ends of a V-shaped canyon. Double-bunker at the bend will control the map, if you can hold it, but watch out for the tunnels cutting underneath and the cliff-face bunkers that guard either base. Not the best-looking map but they kept framerates nice and high, even while viewing both bases at once.
     CrazyCTF (shot) by SoL_Kil_ler: Two bases in square canyons with a lot of bunkers around for cover fire, connected by a short L-shaped channel and a long straight tunnel that goes right into the heart of either base. Nice trick with the sky (one fort is night, other is day) pulled off almost flawlessly—talk about your long day's journey into night. Framerates good, layout a bit squarish and item placement a bit clumpy but this is a solid map with some nice touches.
     Liltown2 by Blink: Very minor modification to MikeDaKid's original "Liltown2" map, taking out the waterfall primarily, which improves framerate some. A few other minor changes but still pretty much the same nice small packed DM map.

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Wednesday 10/18/00

Map This
     Wolf Pack Tribe subHQ by Morilec: Simply weird little level with four rooms of different shape separated by long narrow tunnels. Low gravity zones and glowing textures abound. Sorta reminds me of the old days when there weren't that many good maps out. ;)
     Hmm I had two other maps but they didn't seem to work, had to send 'em back for retoolin'. Doh.

Return of GoJo
     Didja know he's named after a household cleaner? Anyhoo, GoJo is back online after switching ISPs and has move his web site, new address is here: GoJo's House. As it has always been, a valuable page with tips, tactics and a LawMaker school section.

Revenge of SWE
     Fimpen sent me the URL to the new SWE site (though the old one is still up if you want to wander in):

Team SWE
Ultra-stylish, slightly high bandwidth (but very carefully budgeted) design by Fimpen, this Swedish posse's site features a bit of posse news, info on the members and (soon) a choice selection of maps to download.

Gettin' Desperate
Fit ta be tied fer more Old West action? Well it isn't a shooter and it isn't 3D and it isn't by Lucasarts but the upcoming adventure game "Desperados" looks fairly high-quality. Check the preview on Gamespot. Thanks to far-roving salmoides for the link.

LawMaker Help for Flopur
Floper is encountering some odd issues with one of his maps. Read on ta see if you kin help:

It's been a while since I've sent ya new maps, but this email is about an old map of mine. Flopur's Fortress (flopfort.zip). When I released the map, I did not find any bugs in it. However, I have noticed the last few times I played the map that whenever it is CTF, a flag seems to disappear and then the game would freeze. This is a warning to all the people out there to not play my map until the bug has been resolved. Meanwhile, can you post a message on your website to all the mapmakers out there that I need help with this map. I've checked my map in Lawmaker and did not find any errors. Maybe someone else will have better luck. The problem is with CTF gameplay. More info, all the games that have done this, Garbotalk from mIRC was hosting. I dont know if that is the problem, but she is a good host with all the other many maps I've played so I think it is my map. Thanks.

     You kin email Flopur at [removed].

Status Report
     Actually not much to report because I don't know what the heck is going on with my DSL. Haven't seen hide nor hair of the dedicated IP addresses I ordered. Looks like I'll hafta find a time ta call Qwest and see what the heck kind of business they think they're running. Bah. Also, probably one or two of ya noticed I missed an update this weekend. Made the mistake of thinking it wouldn't take long to modify a CGI script to my liking. Haha. At least now I know more Perl than I ever wanted to.
     Oh okay I gotta share this too. Now some of ya may have heard of a fairly popular mod for that fairly popular game Half-Life, called "Counterstrike." It's a team-based multiplayer first-person-shooter where you kind of play cops and robbers but of course this is the 2000's so it's terrorists and counter-terrorists. The main twist is that when you die, you're out for the rest of the match. BUT you can drift around in free camera mode and watch what's going on.
     So of course if you bite it but say your buddy you're playing with is still in the game you can ghost around and watch his back for him, provided you have a means of communication (the in-game chat doesn't allow deadies to talk to the un-dead). So after hours two of my co-workers who share an office were playing and if one died the other became near omniscient as thanks to the help of his friendly ghost he now got instantaneous reports as to the enemy's whereabouts: "He's in the monitor room. He's turning back to the door—don't open it! Wait... he's moving away again... He's at the monitors... He's looking at the security monitors! Go! Go!" At which point he busts in the door and shoots the poor sucker (who is scanning for him through the level's security cameras) in the back. Well, they do say it pays to have friends close-by... never thought that included dead friends though. ;)

* * *

Wednesday 10/11/00

New Rifle Sounds From Aaron
     Aaron Sawyer has new rifle sounds at his web site, the new ones are the "Slim Beta Pack" with a playful variety of lighter rifle sounds and "Henry's Revenge," another version of his Henry rifle sound. He's been working to refine the timing, since Outlaws plays the sound at a specific time in relation to firing the actual gun. He'd like me to mention that if you're in to these things, his site also has X-Wing, Tie Fighter and Jedi Knight sections.

ExK Site Move, Redesign
     Trooper seems to get itchy all over if he doesn't come up with a new web design at least once a week. He's redesigned the ExK posse site, they've also moved to exk.50megs.com.

DSL Issues
     Still haven't heard about my dedicated IPs... that's not what I'm postin' here about though. Janitor also has QWest DSL and he's found that even with just one computer hooked in, under the new PPP mode they made everyone switch to he can't join any Outlaws games at all. Doh! Their tech support says that most DSL hosts are going this way. Well... this bites. If you're trying to decide between cable and DSL right now, I'd say you're probably better off with cable. Dunno 'bout where you are but in Seattle it's faster and cheaper than DSL, and you get a real dedicated IP address.
     Well that's all for t'night, got late on me while Slack-Jawed Pete was over here tryin' ta get me ta design a new logo for his engineering company. I hate designing logos. :P He showed me shots of Vince Carter jumping and dunking over a seven-foot tall French player though, that was kind of impressive. I didn't watch any Olympics at all this time around so I guess I missed one or two highlights like that. :P

* * *

Saturday 10/7/00

Help Unreal Get Outlawed
     soulstripper, a map-maker for Unreal: Outlawed, a Western Unreal mod, passed me a note ta say that they're lookin' fer a few experienced cowpokes ta help out. So if you got mad h@x0r skillz or somethin' like that (obviously, I don't), go check them out and see if there's something you can do.

Hmm uhh...
     Gee, slow news these past few days. I'll just have to fill in with some pointless blather. Let's see...
     I downloaded and played the "small" (35MB) version of the new "Escape from Monkey Island" demo. This version didn't have voices, I would'a had to download the 80MB one for those, and ~120MB to get the intro movie. Jeez. Anyhoo, it seemed to have that old Monkey Island flavor to it and man, I suck at these things. Just don't have the patience at all. I mean, the problem is that you have to go through tons and tons of conversation options to maybe possibly unearth the one right one... unless you're clever and figger these things out. Well I'm too impatient for the first, too dumb for the second. So I finally gave up and followed the walkthrough. Yay! Then I uninstalled the demo. :)
     Been kinda sick this whole past week and am finally feeling better today... sleeping for 10 hours probably helped. I am so bad at getting to bed at a reasonable hour these days but I forced myself to bed down early last night for my own good. So cranked the heat up, slept in, had French toast and have been drinking Tang with extra vitamin C put in it all day long. Woohoo! It don't get much better'n that.
     Mmm what else. Oh yeah, my dedicated IPs are "supposed" to come along on Monday. What exactly that means, the guy at USWest ("Now QWest!") couldn't tell me. Guess we'll see what happens Monday... I won't be surprised if my internet connection goes down. :P

* * *

Wednesday 10/4/00

Official Strategic Stuff
     Truffle pointed out that Amazon.com is selling Outlaws: The Official Strategy Guide. I think this is the same Prima guide that's been around for a while but hey, this link is new to me so whatever!

Look What You Stepped In
     oopupado (shot) by D.A.D. The author's first CTF map has an unusual organic shape. Err. Anyhow, the tricky layouts with high cliffs and sniping ledges mean it will take a lot of strategy to conquer this map. Hint: get to the room with the gat, cream and badge. :P High framerates, nice lighting effects, textures not really my favorite but do the job for the most part.
     WPT_HQ (shot) by Warwolf: Named after the author's "Wolf Pack Tribe" posse this is a visually impressive level with generally solid construction. There are a few points, namely hinged doors and the framerate at several locations in front of the large barnlike building, that hold it back a bit but still you should be able to get a good game on in it, so long as you don't mind a few sawed-offs and gats thrown in the mix. Nice use of wells, water towers and underground waterways.

Sitings

	Outlaws Planet Mista's "Guide to OL" site has a very attractive, fast layout with unique news, a poll, gameplay tips, some interesting files, a selection of favorite maps, a bit of info on his posse buddies, his takes on the OL characters (sassy!) and info on playing Outlaws through mIRC. That all adds up to a whole lot of Outlaws web goodness. Page may not load correctly in old browsers.
	Extreme Killers The ExK's site is another fine design by Trooper. Not a whole lot of stuff on this new posse site but hey, he's still workin' on it.

     Truffle has a mailing list based from his olhideout.net site. If you go there and sign up you'll be treated to regular batches of goodies from him including a run-down of recent OL-world events, OL-related stories and miscellaneous humor that he likes to share. Nothin' wrong with that now is there? Hmm actually lemme just post the whole darn September issue as a sampler, check it out right here.
     Emerson has a new URL for his "Emerson and the Outlaws" site, www.outlaws.cc. Along with the kind of neat Real Audio stuff (interviews with Eastwood about Fistful of Dollars, and Ennio Morricone music... I think a little Dirty Harry thrown in there too) that plays in the background while you browse, he's added a bunch more biographies of famous outlaws, includin' Pat Garrett and Ned Kelly. Good reads.
     The Zone in an attempt to do something festive has a list of Top 10 scary games. Actually... there's only nine on the list. But Outlaws is one of 'em, go figger. Weird marketing gimmick no doubt but hey, anywhere Outlaws pops up has something going for it. Thanks to Bad_Aim for the tip.
     siNJin wants to add that, in light of recent bitter experience, should you ever have to make a contentious call to some web vendor that ripped you off, record the darn phone call. Probably sound advice.

Getting Committed
     Well I ordered up some dedicated IPs for my DSL network here, they're supposed to go in effect early next week. Hopefully this'll allow me to get my lil' hosted Outlaws game back online. It kind of costs way more than it should... maybe once the monthly punch to my wallet starts to smart I'll ditch it for a cable modem hookup. Right now I just want to get it workin'.
     Had a scary moment today where I caught myself thinking "Gee, it would be cool to have a t-shirt that said 'Born Again Redneck'." Yikes. I'd better stop reading the Jeff Foxworthy day calendar that someone left at the office.

* * *

Saturday 9/30/00

Return of the Outlaws Hideout
Truffle's new college class isn't as tough as he feared it might be so he's got time to bring back his olhideout.net site. Not a whole lot up there yet but hey, hold yer horses.

The Outlaws Hideout
Fast tabled layout, some goodies like email services (yourname@olhideout.net), a few files, a bit of news, etc.

Watch Where You Buy
     Well I don't usually handle consumer-protection type stuff but hey, couldn't hurt. siNjin says his buddie EasyTarget recently got ripped off buying computer stuff from the online retailer "Dynasty Express." There's a site that collects buyer feedback on online hardware vendors, ResellerRatings.com. Check their score on Dynasty. Ooo, not good.
     Actually I'm kind of glad to know about this site myself. As soon as 3dfx decides they feel like selling their mythical V5 6000 I'll be going in for a new system. Probably a Thunderbird system, I guess. Anyhow, so I have to find a good place to shop for computer stuff too. I was leaning toward Accubyte because of their fantastic prices and the fact that they stock stuff most places don't have, like 512 MB PC133 RAM sticks, for instance. But they got really bad ratings at ResellerRatings. Hmm...

Dedicated Pale's Place
     So I continued my new favorite past time, calling USWEst ("Now QWest!") tech support about my DSL. Apparently the only thing I can really do to get my computers workin' both on LAN and online is to lease dedicated IP addresses. Well hokay I guess I can do that, what's money after all? :P But there's some kind of crazy catch, they only sell them if you sign up for their small business program or something like that. Very confusing. Anyway I have to call them, of course they're only open until 5 M-F and I forgot to call on Friday. Sigh.

* * *

Wednesday 9/26/00

Ugh
     Well my DSL in the new "improved" PPP mode is a dismal failure. It would be all fine and dandy if I only had one PC that I wanted to use on the internet, but adding more gets troublesome because in PPP mode they all need to share a single IP address. You can try to juggle ports around but applications like Outlaws, which appear to require use of a specific port, just won't work.
     So I'm gonna hafta do something. First plan is to call up my ISP and see if I can go back to good ol' bridging mode, where every computer that plugs in to my hub gets its own honest-to-god real IP address. If they won't let me do that, maybe I can buy some static IP addresses. If that won't work, I'll see if I can get cable modem service... AT&T's @Home is $10/month cheaper than my DSL, faster, and offers additional static IP addresses at just $5/month.
     This is really irritating...

Maps, New and Sorta New
     Rope's End - CTF by Runaway Jim: Reworking of his great (and big) "Rope's End" map with special attention paid to CTF, including streamlining the flow a bit and ensuring that you can't lose the flag in the river. If you liked "Rope's End" and you dig on CTF, you'll like this.
     ItsWindy (shot) by Spikerama (with technical help from Nowhere Man: Maybe you could see this coming from the title—it's really windy, and the wind is pushing you through the canyon. You can see refuge behind a house wall, in trenches or side tunnels. The map isn't amazingly beautiful (is it just me or does the automap look like a... nah!) but the bushes and trees (and other things) blowing in the wind are cool. Definitely an idea that has not been done before. Take Anderson—he's skinny and probably has less wind resistence.
     Junction 2 (second version) by Slack: Okay, this is going to confuse people even more than it did the first time. Slack's original "Junction 2" map was a reworking of Shifty's classic "Junction" map (whose last version was version 2.0s, hence some of the confusion). Now this new "Junction 2" is a reworking of the earlier "Junction 2," if that makes any sense. Phew. Slack says he's opened it up a bit and redone the bridge so it looks a bit more solid. Still hasn't textured the crates correctly but oh well, can't have everything.

Webbin's

The Official Home of Voodoo
As witnessed by their two old an long-untouched web sites, the Voodoo posse sort of went away a while back. Slack aims to resurrect the gang, starting with his slick-as-heck web site. Not a whole lot there yet but he's still working on gettin' the Voodoos to crawl forth from their mouldy graves...

SOL: Sh-t Outta Luck
It may not be the most original, tasteful or logical posse name ever but confound it, it's an Outlaws gang and this is their web site. Pacolero runs the joint and the handsome woodsy design kinda makes it feel homey. Info on the gang, info on the game, new maps to download, CTF maps (SOL's specialty) to download, utilities, links and so forth. If they can keep it up to date, well, aside from some rough-n-tumble spots there ain't much bad you kin say about it.

Slack also wanted to say this regarding the rekindling of the Voodoo posse: "Im gonna start having tryouts on the zone, need new members. So if you think that you got what it takes to become a VooDoo member, just challenge me in a tryout. Cya on the zone."
BTJustice has revamped his High Speed Pursuit site, good place to go for learning' how to use IRC and Outlaws. Loads a lot faster now too. He also wants to remind people that the relatively new GameSpyArcade game-finder supports Outlaws, BT says it looks cool and games run pretty smoothly.

* * *

Sunday 9/24/00

Tale of Four Cavarly Towns
     Hooter and I knocked our heads together and figured out that there have actually been two versions of Cavarly Town, "cvtwn10s.zip," online all this time. His summary was: "The one posted at OGB has all the 3dfx errors and it has all the doors. The one you sent me [from my map archive] still has 1 3dfx error and 5 doors in it. In the last version [of "Xerox"] I sent you, I removed all the doors and fixed the remaining error."
     So. I checked the file dates and OGB's version is dated 8/12/97, mine 8/13/97. The 8/13 readme has notes about fixes for 3dfx problems. I was thinking of renaming my version "cvtwn11s.zip" but judging by the name the author, Walker, chose, and the severe nature of the 3dfx problems in the 8/12 version, I think he intended to obliterate that version entirely by not even acknowledging its existence. ;) This means that while there were in fact two Cavarly Towns and two Xeroxes, I'll just pretend there was only one of each. Yay!

Wilderness Goes Canadian
     Canaderness (shot) by Oze: Sent in by DonMaximo who contributed some ideas, this map gives LEC's "Wilderness" the Canadian treatment... probably the drunk Canadian treatment, really. You've now got Canadian and US bases, the Canadian is snowed in. Each is festooned with custom graphics and billboards (apparently one has a certain Outlaw's real-life phone number on it, sans area code). There are also some wacky props thrown in and Mary has boxing gloves. Does it make sense? No. Did anyone involved in making it care if it made sense? I doubt it. :)

The End of Pale's Place?
     Well, October's almost here so that means I have to switch my DSL from bridging to PPP mode, after having put it off for several months. The main difference appears to be that under PPP mode, computers connected to the digital model/router will not have real internet IP addresses, just local ones. So I'm not sure but this may make some things problematic, like running my Pale's Place hosted Outlaws game. We'll just have to see. I'm hoping I can still get email... :P

* * *

Thursday 9/21/00

Xerox Again
     Hooter released an updated version of his map Xerox, which fixes a few things in Walker's classic map Cavarly Town though I never saw horrible 3dfx problems in it (in fact going back to the readme for my version of Cav Town it says "All known 3dfx bugs have been fixed" so I guess there must be at least two versions of the original Cav Town). This version of Xerox gets rid of the framerate-killing doors... which never existed in my version of Cav Town. Hmm.

Use That Mouse Wheel
     Gojo found out how to bind his mouse wheel to Outlaws functions with the latest Intellipoint drivers. Check out his page fer th' scoop and a screenshot showing what the setup looks like in Regedit. Seems he also has a joystick rigged up as a foot pedal for Run, pretty crazy stuff!
     Actually, there's a deficiency in my own OL controls setup that has been nagging at me lately: I can't jump forward and to the right very easily, 'cause I have jump on E and use WASD for the movement keys. Originally I used SPACE for jump, but marathon sessions of OL started to give my tendons some trouble about that. I'd love to put jump on a mouse button but I need those for Fire, Alt-Fire and Reload. Dang. I need my mouse to grow another button.

Western Mod for Rogue Spear: Urban Ops
     It seems that many of you are interested not only in Outlaws, but in any other Western-themed game. At least, many of you send me non-Outlaws news on that assumption. :P BTJustice called in to mention the "Wild Wild West" mod for Rogue Spear: Urban Ops. The mod's home page is here and here's a shot BT took from the mod.

The Life of Paco
     It's been a really weird news week. Paco sent in a little story about his experience playing Outlaws. It's pretty gruesome, with a slow buildup, action-packed middle and finale and a twist ending. Uh well here goes:

     The adrenaline had not subsided yet; the idea of a disgraceful ending had become visible on the mental horizon. The heavy broiler plate which once seemed near was now, sadly, separated indefinitely, by my nemesis WM_Dysleixiamaximus. Was it true, have my ammo deposits gone painfully low? As I crouched behind the bullet -stricken barrel, gun shots ripped across my torso, further reducing my life force to only a mere life token. Without a single med bag in site my hopes for survival were fleeting.
     How could I lose this game? This game?! This harsh reality I call life was no game.
     The mocking words of WM_Dyslexiamaximus were burning into my soul, destroying the pride that I held on to still in these very last moments of struggle. Again I could hear shooting, this time the shots were close at hand, I could hear the shotgun that foretold my death, fearless, merciless, and mad. As my pummeled body was at last separated into pieces of lifeless flesh by the brutal force of the twelve gauge, my lifeless torso collapsed on the floor. I was utterly destroyed, utterly broken. And then I respawned.

Well I guess we can all relate to that, eh? And that's "boiler plate" kids... can't blame that one on Dyslexiamaximus.

rant Site Update
Mike Rega aka rant_2 wrote to let me know he's updated the rant Outlaw Posse site in a big way. There are fun puzzle games to play there now :) as well as maps to download and more info about the gang members. My favorite part of the new update is from the brief history: "Somewhere along the line we lost the distinction between a joke and starting the posse seriously..."

* * *

Saturday 9/16/00

Let Me Draw You Some Maps
     1875 (shot) by Kid Macoo: Made in tribute to Turok's "1872" map (by the way people if you're in doubt as to who made a map, try using my site's search function, mmmkay? :), 1875 is one of those maps that plays a lot bigger than it's size due to the use of weird angles, narrow corridors and constricted fields of view. In short, you're lost much of the time. ;) This can be good or bad, depending on your mood. Mostly short range fighting in this well-built map.
     Indian Creek (shot) by Kid Macoo: Most maps that try running a river across end up taking a big hit in the framerates. Kid Mac has avoided this pitfall, while adding a few of the physical, painful variety. ;) Made with Two-Feather's in mind, this map gives the big chief lots of opportunity to show off his ability to fall long distances without taking damage and to use that nasty knife of his in water. Watch out for riflers at the ends of the canyon, however. Odd entrance to the creek at one end: you walk into the side of the water! Otherwise again very solid construction from the Kid.
     Xerox by Hooter: New version of Walker's "Cavarly Town" with fixes to the 3dfx rendering glitches. Actually, I had to look hard to find these in the original but if you really play it a lot I suppose they might have started to get irritating. Hooter adds in a few doors but they have that problem where the framerate chunks terribly as they open. Doh.
     Grape Shot (shot) by sshep: Cool theme for a map, a Civil War battlefield where giant artillery rounds have smashed things up. Brilliant touch with the spent rounds resting in little craters (see screenshot). Very nice looking map with a lot of variety, particularly nice use of vertical movement. Unfortunately there are a few really slow spots, especially one up by the bridge seen in the shot.

SOD me
     Whoops, I had the old SOD link up for uh well at least over a year after they stopped updating it at that address. So if you wanna catch up on SOD stuff, check out the current SOD posse site. Thanks to Moose for setting me straight.

Shoot Henry the Third
     What's this? A cry to assassinate the founder of Microsoft or a medieval English monarch? C'mon, you know I'm strictly a peaceful rabble-rouser. ;) No, "Henry 3" is the third version of Aaron Sawyer's great custom rifle sound for Outlaws which you'll find at his site along with all of his other great custom weapon sounds. This latest version (actually version 3.1 but that doesn't make for as catchy a headline) still packs all the whallop of the previous one but he's cleaned up the sound so that it blasts through louder and clearer than ever before. Top notch.

* * *

Wednesday 9/13/00

Outnet Author Out of Net
     lindow, author of the very handy Outnet mIRC script which makes hosting and joining an Outlaws game through that chat program a matter of a couple mouse clicks, passes on the regrettable news that he has found his new college dorm has no internet access. Not sure what sort of stone-age college he's been exiled to, poor soul (they also won't let him install mIRC on the lab computers), but it looks as if Outnet version 3.0 will be delayed, at least until he can get network access piped into his dorm room. Doh!

Feudin', Killin', Lovin', Hurtin'
     LetsKill (shot) by Spikerama: CTF/DM version of his "LetsFeud" teamplay map, set in a jagged canyon with serrated clifftops on either side for lots of rifle action. Nice looking, large map for strategic play.
     Spikerama also adds that Gojo pointed out you can get your own time-trials in Spike's KFCtest map by running Outlaws twice on your computer—see the "Shoot Yourself" tip under registry editing on the tips and tricks page for how to do that (you can't normally run your own time-trials because the KFC timer won't start until someone else joins the game).
     Love Hurts (shot) by Brother Love: Had to snag this one from OGB. At first this little corral town in a wide canyon looks overly simplistic but after touring the level you realize that the buildings were kept simple to keep the framerate high even when viewing the entire town from far away in the desert distance. And the buildings, though simple, are quite well laid out, giving the small town a real solid feeling and allowing access to the rooftops, with a little effort. Sniperoos may lurk out in the desert but then again they'll have to come in to town from time to time for supplies, not to mention fending off foes from getting their mitts on one of several gatling guns. Well done, fast and comprehensive DM map.

Reply from LEC on Win98 Join Problem
     I got a few replies from LEC tech support about the problem joining Outlaws games while running under Windows 98 (you all went to their E-mail LucasArts Tech Support page and did the same, right?).
     In the first reply, the support guy, Jason, ran through the standard troubleshooting stuff—it contained references to Win95 and IPX networks so was obviously a bit outdated and cut-n-pasted. At the end it suggested going to the Zone and trying to play. So I mailed back and said yes this is a problem in the Zone too, if you go there I'm sure you can get plenty of immediate feedback on the problem. ;)
     So Jason went and did a little checking around (I hope) and replied back with this:

I spoke with one of our senior reps and he informed me that Windows 98 is indeed the culprit and a fix is not obtainable. We apologize for the inconvenience. At this time, no plans have been announced for a revised patch for this problem.

     Now, this sounds disheartening though in a way it is at least the first step in getting a fix: they admit there is a problem. Thing is they understandably don't want to spend the resources putting together, testing and releasing a patch this late in the game's cycle. The short reply above is rather interesting in that it sort of contradicts itself: first he says "a fix is not obtainable," which seems to imply either 1) they can't fix it because it's a Windows bug or 2) they can't fix it because they don't have the resources, but then he ends with "no plans have been announced for a revised patch" which seems to imply that a fix would be obtainable, if they were to make plans for it.
     Sounds like they just need some convincing. =] If you haven't already, please E-mail LucasArts Tech Support and tell them you would really like a fix for the problem of joining Outlaws games using Windows 98. Get on, now!

Site Updates
     Toad aka "Desert Z" aka "Mental" passed a note to tell me the BmF Homepage has been filling out with lots more detail on the gang, game tips, a message board and so on. Real nice design work by Chucky (aka "Simon" and according to a post on their board he'll be changing his name again soon ;), go check out the updated site.
     Truffle is pretty happy with the new bulletin board system they're sporting over at the LawMaker's Team site these days. It's got private messaging features and groovy stuff like that, once you register. Of course, the LMT site has other attactions such as details on the team's upcoming Outlaws maps, well worth a visit.

Die Gatling Gun Die
     Peter Jensen plays Sanchez and like me knows the pain of being mown down by a gatling gun burst from a camping enemy (this does not stop me from using them at every opportunity as I play very cheap these days but *cough* I digress ;) so in the interests of Sanchez players everywhere who face these mechanized terrors daily, he wants to publicize his strategy: throw a stick of TNT right at them. That is, don't lob it at their feet like you normally would but throw it straight into their line of fire so that their volley hits it and blows it up in their face. This may take a little luck but, if done correctly, means you don't have to wait for the fuse to burn down while dodging bullets. Of course if you do it wrong it will blow up in your face, or miss completely, but that certain mix of chance, timing and high explosives is exactly the fun of using dynamite, honey child!

* * *

Sunday 9/10/00

Dogs Not Hogs
     In my doddering old age I'm starting to get my mammals mixed up. The map "Law Dawgs" posted in my last update is about prairie dogs, not ground hogs as I stated. Gah! The embarrassment.

Unreal: Outlawed
     There's a Western mod in th' makin's for Unreal Tournament. Big Sexy pointed me to the mod's home page and Silverwire was kind enough to send me a large screenshot of one of the maps. Looks like all they really have so far are maps but it looks as if they're planning new character models and weapons. Well... good for them!

Tell LEC About Windows98 Join Problem
     Well Raptor recently dropped me a line to say that he and others still experience problems joining games with Windows 98. One of the reasons I've stuck with 95 myself. He points out the LEC may just not realize this is a real problem. Now at this point another patch is pretty unlikely but maybe if everyone who has experienced this problem in some form or other were to tell their tech support about it, something might get done. Worth a shot, anyhow.
     Go to the E-mail LucasArts Tech Support page and tell 'em all about it in thorough detail. Even if you don't have '98 you've probably tried playing with those who do and had trouble getting in a game together. So get on the horn and let's make sure LEC knows about this issue. Make sure to point out that yes, you have all the patches and they did not fix the problem (LEC likes to pretend the 2.01 patch did the trick).

* * *

Wednesday 9/6/00

Dawggone
     Law Dawgs (shot) by Runaway Jim: Are ground hogs taking over the world? We have here the second ground-hog-based map in... uh... well a very short time anyway. This time you go even more in-depth, if you will, gettin' right down into th' critters lil' homes and bedrooms. And wait a sec, why's th' house aboveground so big? Like giants lived here unless... uh-oh! You're a groundhog yourself, and so is everyone else! Very cute to see everyone waddling around on their two hind paws wearing nothin' but fur, a gun belt and a big cowboy hat. Great looking map with lots of subterranean twists, clever little custom textures and sound clips and a great change of scale. Go to ground for the winter with this one. Warning: big fat 768k download.

Small Voodoo5 6000 Preview
     salmoides pointed me to a brief Voodoo5 6000 preview over at Eurogamer, based on the behind-closed-doors showing 3dfx made at the recent ECTS show in London. Not a whole lot new here except rough speed estimates ("fast"), a few shots of the foot-long beast (the video card, darnit) and a rough shelf date (before the end of October). Grr I want one now, I have a feeling that I'll feel pretty silly plunking down that much cash on this card in two months. Ah well, get it out of me while I'm young I suppose.

Shots from the Simon Jeffery Chat
     The chat with new LEC president Simon Jeffrey went down this Tuesday evening. Outlaws fans were represented and made themselves heard though from what I understand the response to questions about a sequel was slightly underwhelming. Kohna asked a very carefully phrased question and got a pretty stock response. Here's a shot he took of it, and another taken by James Emerson. Well, I can't say I'm surprised there wasn't a more positive reply, unfortunately, but still ya never know. In fact, if you look on the bright side he didn't say "heck no we're never sinking money into such an offbeat project again." ;) :P

Henry 2: The Next Big Bang
     Now this baby has some KICK. Aaron Sawyer has made a sequel to his previous "Henry" rifle sound called of course "Henry 2." This sucker nearly knocked me out of my chair when I played it the first time. I'm serious: I had my volume up a tad as I had been listening to a new CD (Portishead Roseland NYC Live :) and the massive blast of base this sucker unleashed freaked the heck out of me. Go pick it up at Aaron's site—you stick it in your Outlaws directory to replace the normal rifle sound. He's also got a ton of other custom OL gun sounds of course, like his "John Wayne."

Newbie Update
     Newbie wanted me to say that his personal HQ site has been updated with some news, preview of a new TOC site design, and so forth. Well okay... even if he did list my site as "Paleface's optional Outlaws site" I guess I'll overlook it just this once. ;)

New mIRC
     There's a new mIRC, king of the IRC chat clients. Why care? 'Cause plenty of rough-n-tumble Outlaws types meet in the #outlaws_players channel on Undernet IRC, silly. Anyhow, go to www.mirc.com to get 5.8, the latest version.

Desperados Previews
     Desperate fer more digital Western action? Well, RAF pointed me to previews for the game "Desperados" being made by Spellbound, a German company, and published by Infogrames. There's a preview on Gamespot and on Gamespot UK (coincidence? I _think_ not). So it ain't a 3d action game, still ya gotta admit those backdrops are real purty.

* * *

Sat'day 9/2/00

Chat Tuesday with LEC Pres. Simon Jeffery
salmoides, DrDeath2 and Kohna all pointed out that the latest LEC email newsletter mentions a chat session with relatively new Lucasarts President Simon Jeffery. In case you didn't get the newsletter (dunno what I did with mine hehe) here's the notice:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LUCASARTS.COM SPECIAL EVENT - Chat with LEC President, Simon Jeffery
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Join us on September 5th at 7pm (PST) to spend some time with LucasArts President, Simon Jeffery. Simon will be on hand to answer your questions and bring you up-to-date on current and future activities here at LucasArts. Pass the word and get your questions ready!
http://www.lucasarts.com/exclusive/chat

     That link is doubly important since you have to register first to get in, so if you're interested in attending the chat session, probably oughta register now so you'll be good and ready. I'll be at work when this goes down so somebody be sure to log the chat and send me any good OL-related tid-bits! Kohna wants to turn the event into something of a "Outlaws II Rally" as he posted on his Outlaws Tournament on the Undernet site.
     Remember folks you'll have the most impact if you're polite, supportive and enthusiastic and heck throwing out some compliments to butter him up couldn't hurt either. Also remember that this won't be (if past chats are any indication) a formal press release type of thing so even if LEC does have any kind of Outlaws plans, Mr. Jeffery will still have to be fairly non-commital in his replies. That's just how it goes. :P

Link That!
     Surf's up, baby. Hang 10 at the following new links:

	Axe56's Place Small site with this LawMaker's levels for download, a little info on the author and a handful of custom textures in Outlaws format.
	NBK: Natural Born Killers Guess what? Yet another NBK posse site by MistaMan. Let's hope this one lasts longer than the past three or four. Nice graphics, a selection of maps and a brief summary of NBK's turbulent history, which includes such twists as "It was going good for about 45 mins."
	WAC Underground Large site by Notolero with news, list of WAC members, handy files and a few maps for download and tons and tons of very detailed playing strategies and tips all in a zippy interface. Very nice.
	The Outlaw D.A.D. Unusual through stylish radioactive green design highlights D.A.D.'s fairly quirky site. All kinds of things here from various filez to Outlaw photos, strange "news" and D.A.D.'s resume. Offbeat to say the least.

Just Deserts
Deserts o' Death (shot) by BillyKid: CTF map with raised ledges overlooking a very large squarish valley that slopes down toward a large central pit. The central pit is a low-gravity zone and there's also a hidden low-grav zone allowing quick access to each base. The huge open central valley will mean a field day for snipers posted at either base, though they will be somewhat exposed themselves. Weird raining cow skulls in the central pit and a dozen chickens wandering the valley floor won't help lag, however. Good framerates.

BANG!
Aaron Sawyer has cooked up another excellent custom rifle sound for use in Outlaws. It's called "Henry" and you can get it over at his site. This one has a real punch to it, if you have your sound turned up you can almost feel the shock hit you and roll off. Great stuff!

* * *

Thursday 8/31/00

Bunches of Maps
     Whoa! Bunch of new maps and links rolled in over the past few days, let's see how many I can get through tonight.
     Prairie Dog Town (shot) by Axe56: [note: If this map doesn't work quite right, it's because it was missing a .rcm file and I hacked one in. Uh... hope it works.] Quite a different little map this, take a circular plot of prairie grassland, enclose in fence, sprinkle with man-sized round holes, connect holes with tunnels, ladel in weapons and ammo, then bake. Mmmm... tasty! It's going to be funny to see Outlaws popping in and out of lil' burrows to shoot each other. Framerate flags a bit if you stand on the outside of the field and look across but most of the action will happen underground.
     Danger Zone (shot) by Oze: An interesting expansion of the normal dueling-forts-across-bridge CTF design, with long one-way tunnels in the cliffs on either side affording nice fields of fire over the central bridge, as well as side-routes along the cliff bases and a well that, by shattering all laws of hydro-whatsit, allows access to the bottom of the ravine. Framerate low across middle, bases look a little simplistic but CTF gameplay should prove meaty for a good number of players.
     dEniAl (shot) by Creek: Loosely designed level with squarish buildings scattered about the floor of a very large, long twilit canyon. Bunker-style buildings and long open spaces of ground make this a rifle map, no question. Clumpy item placement, sometimes ugly texturing and lack of lighting effects don't really endear this one to your eye and framerate can be low due to the open building designs.
     deserted village (shot) by tater: Small rural town in an oval canyon. Somewhat garish texture mix pokes you in the eye a bit but the architecture is solid, if slightly sluggish in a few spots. Building layout lacks a real plan but on the other hand I guess you could say things remain a bit unexpected.
     Bridges (shot) by ShiftyTuco: Strict square geometry rules this small arena-style canyon map, with criss-crossed bridges forming an upper level. Not too sexy but it gets the job done, solid construction with very high framerates.

Did You Know
     Way more people use AOL than you might expect. Frightening, isn't it?
     Oh dear it went and got late on me. Have some new web links for you in the next update.

* * *

Sunday 8/27/00

Sequel Petition Cracks 2000
I've finally updated the Outlaws sequel petition which is now at a total of 2061 signatures! Signature 2000 was (if I can count right) made by Chris Hibbard who on the 10th of last month penned the immortal words "please make the sequel for your fans!!!!" *sniff* Brings a tear doesn't it? I'll go ahead and mail LEC a little update on the status of the petition. There's always hope... and there are most definitely plenty of fans. I'll be honest with ya, when I started it I thought that maybe I'd be lucky if I could get 500 signatures. Well it's far exceeded my most optimistic expectations. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to sign the petition!

Two Links in One
The following is kinda two sites in one, but if you went to either branch first you'd uhh ah heck I dunno.

Emerson and the Outlaws
Starts out with a very large (and listenable) rendition of "Ghost Rider in the Sky" by the band Outlaws. This'll probably slow things down quite a bit for those on modems... Anyhow, then you've got a very large personal site by Emerson with neat Old West biographies, artwork and info in himself and his buddies. Then there's a completely separate site by him for his posse, the Hotrod Cowboys (HRC), which has quite a bit of info on the gang. Both sites have lots of info in an easy to browse format.

A Fussin' and a Feudin'
LetsFeud (shot) by Spikerama: Spikerama just can't be satisfied by ordinary Outlaws gameplay, he's always gotta be inventing his own new game! He even insists that he hates mapmaking but he just has to get his ideas out, and invites others to take his ideas and run with them. Well, I gotta say that this map shows perfectly solid mapmaking skills and definitely a wagonload of inspiration that you aren't likely to find in many other maps. In this one you can only play in teams, you start at the same spot and divide up to opposite sides of a canyon. Spike says it's based on the histority feud between the Redfield's and McBlue's. ;) Anyhow, it comes down to a big rifle fight between two teams on roughly (emphasis on rough—lots of places to crouch and hide, etc) equal ground. A good place for an old fashioned family showdown.

* * *

Thursday 8/24/00

Hotlinks and Bacon
New sites bloom even this late in summer:

rant Outlaw Posse
Mostly a one-pager with short descriptions of the members of this "first numerical posse." Unique naming scheme, certainly. Also a page of links to Western movie trailers.

GRS: Ghost Riders of the South
The beautiful, seemingly airbrushed GRS site comes in two flavors: Light is an efficient, quick browse through the guts of the site while Enhanced takes you on a tour of Sanctuary where each building you enter is a different page. Places to visit include maps to download, extensive details on GRS posse members, an edutainment "Newbie Jeopardy" Javascript show that is actually kind of fun, and promises of more stuff to come. A lot more fun than your average site, an' better lookin', too.

Map May I?
     Updated KrummWaffe's just-released Team Fortress, he found a bug which somehow snuck past LawMaker's consistency checks, where a couple flag points were out of their sectors. Since this is strictly a bug fix update I've overwritten the previous version.
     Flaggers (shot) by BillyKid: Simple and sorta original CTF scheme here, narrow enclosed course of small number of rooms in a row, end rooms are bases. The ceiling is split into light and dark sides... not that it matches the bases but it's kind of interesting. Hidden straight tunnels down the sides, exceedingly high framerates but no pickup weapons or ammo at all. A chicken wanders around to confuse chicken-snatchers in KFC. Wandering chickens add to lag but just one won't be too bad, kind of a unique idea for spicing up your KFC a bit.
     KACarena (shot) by BillyKid: Looks like a pretty tortuous small DM map. Only three pickup items, a double-barreled shotgun, a rifle and a sawed-off spaced around a wide roughly-circular arena with raised embankments at two opposite sides, the embankments can only be climbed from opposite ends. Solid in a simple way, the red and black repeating texture is a little hard on the eyes though; where's that darn Visene...

And
     Nintendo revealed their next-gen console in Japan today, dubbed the "Game Cube." Maybe this will give MS's "X-Box" a run for its square-sided money in the next-gen field rounded out (haha... oooh) by Sony's Playstation 2. Actually I hope they swap names, then we'd have "Game Box" and "X-Cube." Those sound a lot sharper, don't you think?

* * *

Sunday 8/20/00

Oops, Try This Newbie
Guess the link I posted on Thursday was to his old site... this is the kind of embarrassment I get caught in when people don't include their URL in their mail. :p Okay, so try Newbie's new site here.

Another BMF
Does the Outlaws world need another BMF gang? Well looks like we got no choice, Desert_Z announced that he's started up another posse by that name. Here's their new site:

BmF Homepage
Entertainingly terrible grammar makes the short stories of the BmF members that much more entertaining. Other than those you'll also find a handful of maps for download, and the tidy black brick design promises more stuff to come.

Map Extravaganza
     Wow, I feel like a used car dealer with that headline. Whelp, we just got us a truckload of shiny new maps here fellers, dig in. Whoops, well one less than I thought, one turned out to be a return-to-sender. :P
     Broken Treaty (shot) by Truffle: How do you get some real cowboys and indians action? Take an old map of Sleepy's, put in a lot of custom items and stuff by GoJo, whip together some teepees and voila! CTF setup between a Native American camp and a western fort, the indians have bows and arrows and good stuff like that. The bow is fun to shoot, check the screenshot. The fort is decent if a little strangely shaped, teepees are nice though.
     OL Town 2 - The Battle Continues (shot) by Truffle: The sequel to his first map from way back when, OLTown2 sprawls a bunch of buildings, some definitely reminiscent of buildings from LEC levels, around some irregular canyons. Designed for 3 on 3 CTF the item layout is definitely of the clumpy variety. Some nice use of roof accesses to spread the action up and down, though parts of the map feel a bit disjointed.
     Cannonball Run (shot) by KrummWaffe: A shamelessly modified weapons map sporting a deadly Buffalo Gun, a portable gatling gun (yee-haw!) and a Semi-Portable Cannon (see screenshot) in something of a quadruple fort layout—but the good stuff is in the center. Got th' guts ta go fer it? Ouch! All this and good looks too...
     Team Fortress (shot) by KrummWaffe: Based on one of his favorite Team Fortress (Half-Life mod) maps (hey, I even recognize that one) complete with custom heavy-metal theme, team insignia and a rather familiar, and painful, crowbar... should be an excellent CTF map in a non-Western way, don'tcha know?
     Down & Dirty (shot) by KrummWaffe: Ye olde No Mans Land map. D'ya love barbed wire? How about barbed wire and mud? How about crawling around in mud while stuck with barbed wire? Then this here's your map! Straight shot across to either base to keep yer head in the trenches. Very solid design work among the bunkers.
     War 2 (shot) by Warwolf: Kinda confusing layout in a grey canyon under a dark red sky with weird angles everywhere. There's no place like home, there's no place like him... click click. Darn shoes... Uh, anyhow this is an odd DM map, try not to get lost. Very high framerates in pretty close quarters.
     KFCTest (shot) by Spikerama: Another new game from Spikerama! This one is based on the ingenious idea that, in the KFC game, you've got a built-in stopwatch... so why not have a race? In KFCTest you grab the chicken at the start point, then race through one of three trails, completing difficult jumps and maybe even a test of weapon skill on the way. When you get to the end you jump into the central "Death Pit" where you drop the chicken and stop the clock. Then the next player takes the chicken and gives it a whirl. Best time wins!

Odds and Ends
     In addition to the two new maps, Truffle has a new poll at the SBD site, this one asking who's in favor of his proposed "LTW" ("Law of the West") rules which would allow sawed-off shotguns while banning cream and badge (as opposed to ML which generally bans all three).
     RAF read an article in PCGamerUK about gamediscovery.com, a site to which you can submit game ideas—not so much with the idea that a developer will use your idea, but that they will be able to see the types of games people are interested in playing. What surprised me more than anything about the game ideas on the site was how lacking in originality most of them were—in fact most are along the lines of "this would be like Quake but with [strange feature]." But you know, that's what people want...
     Nothin' like squishin' bugs with yer own two hands. I'd been noticing a few fruit flies here and there in the apartment this weekend but when I went to take out the trash this evening—ay carumba! They sallied forth to protect their rotten fruit hive. My hackles raised and lacking a flyswatter, I went for them barehanded. Fruit flies got gooshed by the dozens! My palms are still tingling...
     I thought I'd got all but about four and was prepared to let those go (they seemed a little bit smarter than the others, and refused to fly down into my hands) but when I went to wash up and turned on the hot water, the steam flushed more out of the woodwork. Ack, they're everywhere! Take that, and that, and a little of this! Eck. Phew. Seem to have taken the fight out of 'em, though a few hardy survivors have been taking flyby's as I'm tied down the keyboard here. Now my legs are itchy... I swear these things are bloodsuckers, a few that I smashed bled red. Yeck! Ahh summer.

* * *

Thursday 8/17/00

Tourney Brackets By Newbie
     Newbie has the brackets from the recent #O_P tourney on his site. C'mon, you know you love a good bracketing.

Stronghold and SaveMe
     Stronghold (shot) by Squigglebox: Mary in a cage. A high bridge crossing a perilous river canyon, transfixed with sniping positions from all sides. One-way ladders. Signs. Narrow tunnels through grey stone. Two fortress-like cliff bases. All this goes into Stronghold, a CTF map from Squigglebox. Texturing and lighting could be better but he more than makes up for them with sheer creativity. Get ready for some pretty fierce cliff-dwellin' CTF action here. Oh, and don't fall in the river...
     SaveMe (shot) by Spikerama: Slightly easier version of Spikerama's "RescueMe" survival game where you have to fight off foes as you navigate perilous paths to rescue a maiden fair. A little more forgiving this time around but it is still crazy stuff, give it a whirl if you haven't already.

* * *

Sunday 8/13/00

News From Truffle
     Truffle has been a busy dude lately, here's some new stuff he's got:
     The Law Makers Team site has a new bulletin board. In their news section they've also announced that that old semi-retired lawmakin' hand DrDeath2 is back in action working on a LMT project. Yay Doc!
     There's a new poll on the Silent But Deadly Clan site asking whether or not you think the sawed-off "should be taken out of ML." Now back when I used ta care, when people declared a match "ML" (Marshall Law) that meant you couldn't use badge, cream and sawed-off. Nowadays maps are either made for ML or not so there's no question of rules so I kinda lost track of how things are done, but it seems there's some confusion. Anyhow, go head on over and throw your weight in on the poll.

Outlaws Take New Orleans
     The OL Bash 2000 in New Orleans seems to have been quite a party and Beignet has updated her webzine with the pics to prove it. Yes, this means pictures of drunken Outlaws players! Ohhh baby! Judging by the smiles on their faces and the empty glasses blocking the camera view they had a good ol' time down in the Big Easy. :)

Taunts from MasterTimbo
     MasterTimbo sent in a pack of taunts taken from movies (779k, in my temporary directory). A large helping of Monty Python in there as well as Bond, Bogie, Austin Powers and more. Oh and come on, you know you love Flash. Anyhow, good general deathmatch taunt material, check the readme for all the details.

A New Link
     Point and clickety-click:

Redeyed Pete's
A quick, simple and somewhat nebulous layout hosts a huge map collection, a photo page of real Outlaws players (send in your own) and a few handy links. Sounds like a fine site to me.

WildGun By HardknoX_3
Wildgun (shot) by Hardknox_3 (and Gambit): Simply-made building-in-a-canyon map with ledges and caves in the canyon walls for sniping. This one's made for rifle battles, no doubt about it. Texturing and lighting didn't get a whole lot of attention and object placement is clumpy but the general layout is solid enough and framerates are decent.

* * *

Thursday 8/10/00

Maps!
     Well last update didn't have any new maps, now you can rest easy with these new babies:
     River Rat (shot) by Savior: Based partly on work by Grifter, this CTF map has the standard two-bases-separated-by-river layout with two differences from the norm. First, the bases are similar in function but fairly different in actual design. Second, the flags are not in the forts proper but in narrow defiles tucked up in the cliffs behind them with only one way in, which will make for quite a fight to grab one. Oh eheh and okay there's a third, the antigravity elevators marked out by the black rectangles in the screenshot. Zzzzzzip!
     Creeks (shot) by Creek(?): Not sure about the author's nick. This is a very long CTF type level, you'll be pretty tuckered out when you finally make it to the enemy base, not to mention running straight back to your own. There's also an even longer secret tunnel route along the side. Lighting and texturing have some rough spots, overall not a bad looking level but for one slightly odd looking 3dfx error in the larger base. Despite the size framerate is very high just about everywhere. Also sports a custom machine pistol, uhh I think we've seen this elsewhere before but I'm not sure where so I'll just gloss over it like so (and there's no readme provided).
     RescueMe (shot) by Spikerama: Based on his "1v1CTF" map, RescueMe has players all joining the same CTF team (the map supports only CTF) and racing to rescue a girl by picking her up (she's the blue flag) and carrying her back through a grueling and very long series of obstacles to their horse (the red base). Well I cheated like crazy and still only made it about halfway through the course before plummeting to my death. Ouch. Imagine what it would be like with yer buddies trying to shoot you down. You could probably cut glass with this map, it is really hard!

Rifles Galore and More
     So you've got enough new maps but you still want to download some Outlaws goodie? Then head on over to Aaron Sawyer's site. Aaron, the "Blackhawk3d" who brought you the cool new rifle sound a few weeks back, now has another new rifle sound, "Roofer," available from his site. In fact I see he's got a big .zip file weighing in at over a meg of more than a dozen rifle, pistol, fist and other sounds, plus a custom graphic for Bob's rifle: check it out in this shot. Cool stuff, well worth a download.

* * *

Sunday 8/6/00

BDO Site Moved, Redone
     The Rock tipped me off ta th' fact that his BDO: Best Dang Outlaws Homepage site has changed addresses and in fact has been completely redone. Mostly only of interest if yer lookin' fer info on th' BDO posse but there's lots of stuff ta dig around in.

Oh Yeah, That's How It Works...
     Based on something Krummwaffe said when he sent me his last map I got to wonderin' how it was that LawMakers were finally able to edit the "Handful of Missions" add-on maps. He reminded me that it's all thanks to a converter utility made by Raptor which you'll find hosted over at the official LawMaker site, code-alliance.com. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else had forgotten about it besides me. :)

Wanted! Half-Life Site Updated
     Several folks, Anthony Lacey being the first, pointed out that the Wanted! For Half-Life site has been updated recently with new screenshots and a note on progress. Wanted!HL is a Western-themed mod for Half-Life (there's also been a Wanted! for Quake). Since some folks seem interested in it I thought I'd mention it. The screenshots look decent though the hand-held weapons still look kinda funny. Wanted!HL is, I believe, going to be both single and multiplayer and from the look of the screenshots will have quite a variety of Western stuff to mess with.

Kinda New Wire Up
     lifewontwait passed on word that he's got a new issue of The Wire posted. It's actually the issue that Blackthorn never finished so the mails and responses aren't in fact brand new but Outlaws being timeless and such it doesn't really matter all that much now does it? You know you've been pining away for a new Wire all these months, here it is!

Site From Spain
     Curro Jimenez was kind enough to pass along his Outlaws site address:

Curro Jimenez's Outlaws Page
A fun, bright site by this Spanish Outlaw features a beautifully organized map download page and a gallery with pictures of Clint Eastwood in various Old West roles.

LMT Site Up
Having recently lost it's home when Truffle's olhideout.com went down, The LawMaking Team is back online thanks to the efforts of Bare and Truffle himself:

The LMT and #LMT on Undernet
Nice easy layout makes the LawMaking Team's site a breeze to navigate. You'll find LMT-related news, past and current projects, info on their Undernet IRC channel and more.

* * *

Thursday 8/3/00

Map News From Truffle
     Truffle, though he recently shut down his OLHideout site, has some map making news to report. First up you'll find shots of work in progress by The Lawmakers Team here, here and here. Truffle himself is working on a sequel to his map "OL Town." [Note] If the above screenshot links come up with a weird page when you click them, do this: right-click the link, select "copy link location" or whatever, then open a new browser window and paste the screenshot address into the address bar.

OLBash News at Beignet's
     Beignet has updated her Webzine with a detailed itinerary of the imminent Outlaws Bash 2000 (not the latest update, but the one before—I can't keep up with her these days). Activities will include a streetcar ride, a wedding, an Irish pub, an oyster bar, karaoke, Cajun Zydeco music and dancing (I have no idea what that is but I'll bet those who are going will find out!), a casino, various activities involving *cough* beads and much more.

KrummWaffe's "Skull Valley"
     Skull Valley (shot) by KrummeWaffe: KW continues to consolidate his lead as one of the foremost current LawMakers with this large CTF map shaped, in his words, "like a Mercedes symbol" with three bases at the end of voluptuous canyons joined at a central hub. The convoluted rockwork of the canyons is amazing especially combined as it is with brilliant texture work. But the real kicker is that all three bases are unique maps in their own right; there's a sawmill, a southern-style mission and a timber stockade. Makes me wish Outlaws supported 3-team play. :)
     The readme also hints that he's going to be releasing a new map named "Cannonball Run" sometime later this month.

* * *

Sunday 7/30/00

Rifle Sound Gets Its Own Site

Aaron Sawyer's Game Website
Aaron Sawyer, aka BlackHawk3d, he of the cool "Lorde" custom rifle sound, now has his own web site. Not much here besides that sound but man, is it a good sound. Go get.

     The sound has graduated up to version 4, gettin' better an' better. Aaron adds "I got these sounds from a great western movie called "Covenant Rider" from Willie George Ministries."

Two New Maps
     Fisher Town (shot) by DrDeath2: Neat fishing village with an interesting undertow effect should you venture out into the bay. Looks nice, good framerate, rather linear layout will lend itself to team play.
     GrimBunx (shot) by Warrior: Not a whole lot of visual variety in this small all-indoor level, but it has a decent circular arena type layout.

Western Web News
     In addition to sending a new level, DrDeath2 beat a lot of folks to the punch be lettin' me know that Lucasarts has some stuff on their site of possible interest to Outlaws fans, namely a thingy where you could ask questions of LEC developers and also a poll for your favorite game music. Uhh I may be a bit late with this news, I went to the site and couldn't find 'em. Then again I didn't look too hard, 'cause Big Nose Kate is in town and playing DiabloII, which is somewhat distracting. ;)
     DrD2 also had this to report: "I just got an e-mail from Maverick. The company that is doing the Old West add-on pack for Half-Life WANTED. They informed me they will have many multiplayer modes including a mode they call "CAPTURE THE CHICKEN". Anyways it should be out this Septemeber!! I'm excited."

LMT News
     Lots of developments concerning Truffle's "LawMakers Team." First off, they have registered the channel #LMT on Undernet IRC for chattin' about LawMakin' stuff of all flavors. I think Bare is runnin' this now and may be doing a new LMT site soon, 'cause Truffle is shuttin' down his olhideout.net site, which was their web presence. No real word on why but on the upside, LMT will still be around in some form.

More Sites

	Jerky's Outlaws Hideout Lots of wood texture, some ramblin' midi, Jerky's favorite levels, friends lists, etc.
	BDO Outlaws NEW Website Fairly plain site, still incomplete. A litte BDO posse info and a few game character descriptions.

Outlaws IRC News from Garbotalk
Garbotalk, current queen of the Outlaws IRC world (I'm basing that on the sheer volume of levels dedicated to her :) has a whole lotta news about all the goings on in that particular neck of th' woods:

     I just wanted to let your audiences know about upcoming events in MIRC! The next few weeks, we will have a variety of tournaments to participate in, all to be held on Sundays, 2pm cst, sign up after 1.
July 30th: All Two Feathers, 1 on 1 DM Tourney
August 6th: CTF, 2 on 2 Tourney
August 13th: Mirc Ladder Position, 1 on 1 DM Tourney
August 20th: Teams, 2 on 2 Tourney
August 27th: Regular, 1 on 1 DM Tourney
     All tourney winners will be eligible to participate in the Winter Champs tourney and compete for gifts or cash prizes! The summer Champs tourney was won by Goliath`, (Wac_Golyolero for you zoners) who received $300.00 for his efforts! Way to go! Second prize went to King_Noto (King_Notorious), and third prize to Sol_Jabap (Sol_Jabappy). We basically alternate tourneys between dm and either ctf or teams as follows....dm, ctf, dm, teams, dm...etc.
     BIG NEWS! We will now begin accepting sign ups for our MIRC, 1 on 1 DM LADDER! This will be open to anyone who has participated in a Sunday tourney in 2000. If you haven't participated yet, and would like to, come on by! :) For the next few weeks, all those who want to sign up may email and let us know http://www.ol.hispeed.com . Following sign ups, a ladder tourney will be held on August 13th for position setting. After that time, any new entrants must start at the bottom and work their way up. If this ladder is successful, I may expand to a ctf and teams ladder as well. Check it out!

I noticed that Kohna has a big update on Voodoo5 cards, even among all the other goodies on the Outlaws Tournament on the Undernet site.

* * *

Sunday 7/23/00

Invisible TNT Trick?
     Now mind you I haven't been able to do this but Trucka tells me that you can get "invisible" dynamite with the following procedure: "first you get a stick of dynamite, then you light it, wait about 5 seconds then switch to you pistol, then swich back to the dynamite, then throw it, then run like hell. walk towards it... see nothing? walk one more step then boom, landmines like veitnam! haha, well thats how you do the trick." He further explained that "It takes some practice but when you change quickly two will appear, and one of them you cannot see." Hmm. Well I dunno try it, mebbe you'll have better luck than me (I just blew myself up a few times).

Maps Schnapps
     The Runaround (shot) by Duster: Small deathmatch level with architecture intentionally kept simple in favor of framerate. Nice looking area with a house next to a mining tunnel. Good indoor-outdoor variety in this small map with the exception of lighting—it's kinda dim everywhere. But then again so am I so who am I to complain? Also like the starry starry night above.
     CTF Creek (shot) by Warrior: Another roughly linear level with simple architecture but brightly illuminated everywhere (don't think there's a single shady spot, even indoors) and very much bigger. A creek divides a canyon into ends with curiously unbalanced forts—well, one side has two stairways, a tunnel and a bridge that access their area from the creek, whereas the other side has only the bridge and a tunnel. Then again you have to go back AND forth to capture a flag so perhaps, in the end, things balance out and the apparent mismatch just makes things more interesting. Textures could use some aligning but framerate is good even at the ends of the map.

Gah
     Well my DSL has been out all evening and I've done all th' updates I can do without an internet connection. I'll probably get this bit uploaded Monday evening, hafta see if I can get a proper update in sometime later this week.

* * *

Thursday 7/20/00

OL2 By Email?
Molo2000 is into Outlaws, and RPGs, an' figgers some other like-minded folks out there might be interested in a "Play By E-Mail Game (RPG game played by e-mail) with old-west setting, where the player could be playing as a Lawman, Outlaw, Gunman for Hire, and maybe a couple more old west standard society classes." Well, it sounds like an interesting idea, if it sounds innerestin' to ya why don't ya get involved by emailing him at [removed]?

The Wire Returns
Blackthorn's popular email rag-sheet The Wire is comin' back to town, this time with lifewontwait at the helm. Here's what he's got ta say:

That's right, Wire is re-opening, and under authority of Blackthorn I am the new webmaster. Even though I will pretty much explain everything you really need to know in this email, you can also check out The Wire site for the official update news and... whatnot.
     First off, The Wire will be keeping the same URL (members.home.net/ricco1/thewire.htm) under request by from Blackthorn. There may be a shorter redirect URL later, but for now the URL is the same. The only real change regarding stuff like that is the e-mail. The new one is [removed].
     Second, of course the guest editors. Although, obvious I will be accepting and making a brand new list of guest editors, the old one is still valid. And I would like all the guest editors already lined up to know that they are still the firsts in line and they have not been forgotten. Also, it would save me a lot of trouble if all the former guest editors would drop an email my way so I could at least know how to get in touch with them when their time comes. Oh, and while I am thinking about it, while all emails meant to be posted in The Wire need to be sent to [removed], my personal email address is [removed]. It would be preferable for the guest editors to email me there. Oh and, if they need to see the list to see where they are, if they can't find the link it is members.home.net/ricco1/gstedit.htm.
     I asked Blackthorn to guest edit the first issue but he declined. There is most likely going to be some kind of interview with him posted pretty soon on The Wire though. Also, he did say he would chime in here and there whenever he feels the need.
     Everybody needs to be sending those emails in so I can get the first issue up as soon as possible. Oh and there is also another issue of The Wire that Blackie did and never posted before he called it quits. He didn't put his commentary up yet or anything, so as soon as I get a hold of the guest editor and find out whether they would rather guest the last unposted issue Blackie did or the new one it will be up.

     Well there ya have it, good news for OL fans who enjoy a good read and mebbe a good public flaming now an' then. Keep checkin' th' site for th' new issue...

The Cartel Will Rock
     Two new maps today:
     Rock It (shot) by Mad_Anthrax_: A nice badlands type jumbled rock battleground with several clever hidden item caches. Should make for a fun, unpredictable small deathmatch. Framerates are high, use of shading is good though that brown rock texture could use some relief. Then again, when you die everything kind of turns different colors...
     Cartel (shot) by Hagen: How many Outlaws maps have a South American drug cartel theme? Uhh... well there's this one and... this one. Watch out though it may catch on faster than Angel Dust (man that was a tasteless joke) 'cause this one comes sporting fully custom weapons, sounds and probably a texture or few. Looks like there's something of a raid on at the local kingpin's villa and you, your double six-shooters, heavy rifle and hand grenades (modified from weapons by Raptor and Slater's Dog) have special invitations for some good hard partying, gansta style. Who can resist?
     By the way, I know the level page hasn't been updated in quite some time. I've got hmm almost 30 levels noted down here that I want to playtest for inclusion in the list but haven't had time for quite some time. Hopefully that will end soon.

Video Drivers Require IE
     If you downloaded and installed the latest Voodoo3 drivers from 3dfx you may have noticed that installing them requires that you have Internet Explorer 4+ installed on your system. Seeing as how I have no intention of slogging my poor ol' Win95 system down with a browser I don't need, this kinda ticked me off. What's the rationale for needing a specific web browser to run video drivers? Well you know me I have to ask questions so I mailed 3dfx support in a bit of a huff. They got back right away and said "It is actually the Windows Installer 1.1 that the new driver requires, it is because Microsoft will not certify drivers unless you use there [sic] updated installer."
     Well. Always nice to see Microsoft finding new ways to leverage their monopoly. Of course if they ever actually make that X-Box thing they'll have a hardware monopoly to go along with the software one. Then we'll see some fun, won't we? Dunno how many people know this but you have to jump through a ton of hoops as a software developer, not to mention shelling out some $$$ (I think, not 100% sure on that), just for the privilege of developing software for their "next gen" console.

Outlaws 3?
     DrDeath2 hasn't been heard from in a while, well, he announced his own retirement a while back but he wrote to tell me he's updated his web site with a page suggesting that LEC, rather than doing a full-fledged sequel, simply release an "enhancement" pack for our dearly beloved game. His suggestions for what to enhance range from the graphics engine to an in-game ping display. I dunno if this is any more likely to happen than a full sequel but hey, it's a thought. He's also left the list open to additions so check it out and send him any idears you come up with.

* * *

Sunday 7/16/00

The Return of HSS
Well, the web site, anyway. Red Dragon passed me his posse's new URL:

High Speed Steel
Somewhat uneven framed design for the ol' HSS posse's new site. A little info on the gang (member lists), some gang news and a few game tech tips.

Top 10 Signs That...
SlimShady24 sent me "The Top 10 Signs You Have Been Playing Outlaws For Too Long!" Mind you, some of these may be slightly off-color but I'm rather punchy from working until 10am this morning so I'm just posting everying in my inbox.

10. When your boss asks: ?Why are you late for work?? you reply ?Cause my horse had to stop and pee?
9. Due to their incredible resemblance, you accidentally call Sanchez: Yosemite Sam.
8. You have signed the outlaws sequel petition actually thinking George Lucas is going to read it and care what you think.
7. Your career goal is to become a sysop just so you can get back at all that have beaten you in the past (and a few that haven?t)
6. You play sanctuary so much that you go and tell your friends that you bought a 2nd piece of land, cause in your mind, Sanc is your second home (away from home).
5. You imagine and write an Outlaws movie in your head, starring John Wayne as James Anderson.
4. When someone pulled a gun on you, you pulled your mouse on them (no, not that mouse sicko).
3. You see a man that resembles Bob Graham and ask him for his autograph (the man, confused, obliges).
2. You walk around in public dressed like James Anderson (this does not apply to all from Memphis Tennessee and the state of Texas whom already dress that way).
1. Bloody Mary is starting to look sexy, and you had an impure thought about her in the last game you saw her (if this applies to any ladies than ewwww).

Updated New Rifle Sound
BlackHawk3d sent me another version of his new rifle sound, lorde2.zip (107kb). This version is recorded at 22KHz and works great in A3D mode and should work on even very old and crusty sound cards. Check the readme fer more details. I was just running around in a map firing the rifle with the new sound and I really kinda started diggin' it. Okay so mebbe I'm a little sleep deprived but darn it, it rocks. So I added it to the rifle page.

Simon's Ladders
It seems like Simon aka Trooper is nearly always working on some OL web scheme or other... here's his latest which is looking very, very nice:

AR_Simon's Outlaws Cups
Ladder site with very nice design by Simon (aka Trooper) and a large array of ladders for just about every play type you could want.

Janitor Bored, Jumps Out Window
Remember what I said about just posting everything right now? Here's more, interesting and really way too in-depth Hargrove strategy by Janitor:

I saw your thing about Flopur being bored one day and I decided to add this to the pot: I was also bored one day and was trying to figure out better ways to whip up in the Hargrove's Pattern Repair map in one on one games. I found out that if you ease out the window in the upper level and jump, you will land on the roof. I did this ages ago, but just recently I got really fast at it. If you look to the right or left, you can tell exactly when to jump, even running. This makes a great escape if you need it, or you might just surprise someone from behind who was looking for plates, dyno, or some ammo on the roof. At the least, you will confuse the heck out of someone as to where you came from and where you are going (like I am doing to you now heh) Well, some people might say, I already knew that. Well check this out; the other day I figured out that you can jump off the roof and land back inside. For those guys that like to hole up inside with the shotgun- they have a rude awakening coming. It is hard to describe exactly where to jump from, but I will tell you that once you know the spot and have done it over and over, it becomes easier. The trick is to jump out towards the field, and then when you are in the air, you manuever yourself so that you fall back towards the window. I am a firm believer that in a one on one game if you know where the opponent is consistantly, confuse them, and get the first shot off, then you will usually win.

5 Maps All In A Row
     Row, column, post, what's the difference. Let's get to it:
     Mars Arena (shot) by KrummWaffe: Dang. If you remember my review of "Space Cowboys" you know I am pretty much a sucker for well-done Marvin the Martian type stuff. Well hitch me up and call me Bessie, this map is awesome. Arena-style low-gravity octagonal basin with a UFO in the middle, Martians straight out of Loony Tunes all over the place, launch tubes that, if timed just right, can propel you in a single bound from the side of the arena to the top of the UFO and of course Marvin himself presiding over the action from the control deck, perhaps preparing an Earth-shattering KA-BOOM. Simple. Brilliant.
     The Bender (shot) by Mad_Anthrax_: The author's first map features spectacular a spectacular crescent canyonscape with CTF bases at either end. Sneaky guys on the rocks in the middle of the bend can command the map, though base snipers may have something to say about that... Original layout that will work with CTF or any other play mode, very well executed with lovely texturing.
     Monroe (shot) by TenTacos: Largish, barracks-like assortment of buildings and earthworks in a long canyon. Lots of buildings, some areas lack detail and get rather boxy but there are nice touches as well (dig those stairways). Long CTF layout, framerate dips a bit at the ends.
     CTF Caverns (shot) by Truffle: Three narrow bridges cross treacherous ravines between two cave-bases. Actually the ravines aren't treacherous at all as the author has blocked them off, to prevent losing flags I would think. Neat design should make getting that flag back to base a very tough battle indeed, especially as there are little elevated nooks just right for snipers along the route. Surprisingly high framerate even when looking across all the ravines.
     Cabin Fever (shot) by KrummWaffe: Based on his parent's summertime retreat in Arizona, this map conveys an amazing sense of a real-life outdoor area... perhaps more than I had previously imagined was possible with the Outlaws engine. A cabin of comfortable proportions sits on a hill with gullies around the sides, not to mention some very nice looking 3d pines. The framerate gets fairly low in a number of places (the author has thoughtfully placed cow skulls to identify slow spots) but in the case of amazing craftsmanship like this I am more than willing to make that trade. This is the rare kind of map that makes you really want to upgrade. When are those darn Voodoo5 6000's coming out?

* * *

Tuesday 7/11/00

A Couple Sites from Sal
     Web browsing fiend salmoides, who was amazingly resourceful in getting gaming sites to post news about the sequel petition back when it needed a lot of attention, came up with two links for your point-and-clicking pleasure. There's an article on Gamecenter called How to be a Low-Ping Bastard which covers the various flavors of high-bandwidth internet available in many areas and, if DSL happens to catch your eye as the way to go, there's a DSL Lookup Service that will try to find a DSL provider in your area. This thing found 132 DSL plans available for me and even drew up a map of the closest DSL signal station, which is basically right around the corner from me. I knew it was there and the map drew it pretty accurately so altogether I'd say I'm impressed, try it out!

COP This Link
     Hmm, I think I used that title last week. Ah well, can't beat the classics. :P CowboyDeath told me that he and Stadel redid the COP Posse site with a kinda stylish Matrix theme and relocated it here, so check 'er out.
     Speakin' of moved links, Boothill Bob was gettin' too much traffic to his site ta suit Xoom so he moved it to Geocities here.

Santa Rita High
     Bad Aim sent me a new map with a funky name.
     Santa Rita High (shot) by Bad Aim: Gets its name from a Supersuckers song that was stuck in the author's head at the time. It's based on an old unfinished LEC map... you'll notice the layout bears a striking resemblance to a really old ugly map whose name escapes me... but this one looks downright gorgeous. Check out the shot and then consider that I probably could'a got five more just as pretty shots of entirely different areas. Lots of places to move around, good flow, nice wide corridors, excellent indoor-outdoor movement and lovely texture work. Dang. And I really dig the way the shore, instead of being a solid invisible boundary, actually sorta flings you back if you try to getcher feet wet. Neat.

FLoPuR Was Bored
     So naturally he started looking for things to shoot, and came up with an amusing little sport:

Have you ever tried to throw a unlighted tnt as far as you can, switch to rifle, and take out the tnt before it hits the ground? Well, I stumbled onto this very interesting trick while I was bored... was watching TV... saw a commercial where some guy shoots a TV in midair and BOOM! I got an actual idea!. Outlaws -- Western Game... Shooting TVs in midair... Outlaws has dynamite... hmmm.... you can shoot an unlighted dynamite and it'll blow up...Well, what an idea I came up with... Soo.. I decided to try this little stunt... amazingly, after about 30 tnts, I SHOT A TNT IN THE AIR! WITH A RIFLE! ONE SHOT! I was pretty amazed so I started practicing.. Right now, the best I can do is 3 out of 5 shots.. Well, I just decided to share this little tidbit of Outlaws stunts info with the whole Outlaws community and I thought, "What better place to display news than to send it to Pale's site..." *hint* *hint* :) Oh well, Try it, It is really fun!

     I hafta say 3 outta 5 sounds pretty darn impressive, I sure don't think I could manage that these days. How many can you get?

Le Bash Update
     Beignet has updated her Webzine with more details on the upcoming second annual Outlaws "Bash" party. Of course you already knew it was in her home town of New Orleans but did you also know that 40 diehard Outlaws players are scheduled to attend and that the festivities will feature such idyllic entertainments as a riverboat ride on Old Muddy (that's the Mississippi :P)? The show shebang is August 4th and 5th so if yer innerested, better let her know like uh now!

The LawMakers Team
     Truffle has got together a bunch of notoriously skilled map-makers into a gang known as LMT: The LawMakers Team. Members so far include Newbie, GoJo, Snot_E_Noze, Lindow and or course Truffle hisself. They're lookin' fer some high-flyin' ideas they kin put their talented selves to work on (Outlaws map ideas, that is :P) so shoot on over to Truffle's olhideout.net, click the "LMT" link and see what's shakin'.

Off Their Feed
     Always an event when this fella sends in a new map:
     Grain Storm (shot) by Runaway Jim: The coolest thing about this map is the atmosphere, and I mean that quite literally. You're in a storm, no question, with big peals of thunder and lightning flashes that illuminate the whole sky brighter than day and remind you just how insignificant you are out on the prairie. Fortunately there's this big grain facilite in which to seek shelter and maybe even some nice weapons... if you aren't afraid to risk a sprained ankle or two. Yes, what would a Jim map be without really, really tough jumps? Lump that in with the aforementioned atmospherics and some pretty strategic layouts and you've got yourself a dandy of a map. Framerate drops a bit in a few spots outside... but what are you doin' out in a field in a thunderstorm?

New Rifle Sound
     BlackHawk3d sent in a new rifle sound (213K, on my temp directory so get it now). This sounds distinctly like the sharp sounds of rifles from certain Spaghetti Western movies. The readme says to open up your olweap.lab and edit the .itm file to get it running but really all ya hafta do is extract the "lorde.wav" file to your OL directory, then rename it to "rifle.wav."
     It sounds very cool and makes a nice alternative to ye olde rifle sound. However, because it was recorded at 44KHz, 16-bit stereo, it may not play correctly on certain sound cards. For instance on my MX300 it wouldn't play when sound was set to A3D, but when I put the sound on DirectSound in the ol cfg program it played just fine. Well, give it a shot (or 2000), it's definitely worth a try.

* * *

Thursday 7/6/00

Sequel Petition Near 2000
     Finally got around to updating the Outlaws Sequel Petition and whew, we're nearly at the big 2000: 1985 total signatures to date, to be exact. That's a lotta big-time internet OL fans! A comment from a fella named Tabias caught my eye: "I don't like shooters, but i LOVE outlaws." I'd say that speaks volumes for the game's wide appeal.

Interview with LEC President
     "The International House of Mojo" recently posted an Interview with Simon Jeffrey, newly appointed president of LucasArts Entertainment. Now, it may interest you to know that it just so happens Mr. Jeffrey was the fella who received the Outlaws Sequel Petition when I sent it in after we reached 1000 votes and he had very supportive things to say at the time. That was when he was just a Producer, now he's President of the whole show at LEC. *sniff* They grow up so fast...
     This interview (and thanks to Blue's News for posting the link, and salmoides fer remindin' me) doesn't mention Outlaws specifically but Mr. Jeffrey talks quite a bit about LEC's future plans and how they aim to cut back on the Star Wars titles and go for more original stuff. He says they'll be working on more open communication with the gaming community (they've traditionally been rather close-mouthed). Here's my favorite single quote:

We have now come full circle in many respects, and our primary concern now is making games that we think our customers and followers will enjoy. We're building games that we, the people at LucasArts want to play. Just like the good ol' days...

Now I know that many of th' original OL team who are still at LEC would like to do a sequel and since according to the article Mr. Jeffrey came aboard in 1998, ie Outlaws' heyday... well, what could he mean by "the good ol' days?" Hmm? Maybe the good OL days? In any case I'd say things are definitely looking up for fans of LEC's original games and perhaps for OL fans as well. Go check out the rest of the interview, I think you'll find it a very good read.

* * *

Tuesday 7/4/00

The Last Big Push
     Okay, it may take most of a national holiday but darned if I'm not gonna finally catch up with news today. How the heck did I get this far behind, I can't even remember...
     errr (shot) by tater: Distinctive CTF level with forts in natural caves of grey rock. Feels like a very strong map, fast and solid.
     Bandits (shot) by sshep: Cool off with a nighttime fight in this cozy little snowbound CTF/DM map. Check out that full moon. Faboo!
     Río Del Peligro (shot) by Sonic55: The name means "Danger River" in Spanish. Sort of a small fort and a big fort, the big fort is over water and there's a river crossed by a narrow broken bridge between. The river has a nasty current which will basically drown you in a flash. Glub glub... nasty way to go. The buildings are simple but I like the layout and texture scheme of the large fort which has a multilayered central house surrounded by a moat and the outer walls. The basement with rows of weapons, ammo and items rather spoils balance I think.
     1v1CTF (shot) by Spikerama: Like yesterday's "Obstacle" this is another unique, tough CTF map from Spikerama (who with the two maps today announces his retirement from Lawmaking!). The idea here is to play 1 on 1 CTF. To help you out, or rather hinder you, there are a swarm of badguys stationed along the considerable distance between the flags. You will likely need some assistance from the other player to get through... but at some point will have to turn on them to actually make the capture. Strange stuff, and with all the AIs here lag will be a factor in many cases. Kind of an anti-co-op map. Spikerama also mentions that it didn't always load on his system but it did on his tester's (who has Voodoo while Spikerama does not) so he's not sure what to make of it.
     Festus (shot) by Spikerama: Basically 1v1CTF without the AIs. There is however a large area of ground that doesn't show up on a Voodoo card.
     Garbo Island (shot) by Flopur: An island covered with maze-like rock arrangements in the middle of the ocean. Item placement and indeed the rock formations seem a little scattershot, on this round island it's hard to find a landmark to tell where you are. Of course, that could be the point. Close fighting, good framerates.

Getcher Logo Here
     smac1979 tells me that due to their recent success making logos for sites such as the Outlaws Tournament on the Undernet, the CBO site is now offering a logo-making service for Outlaw sites. Do ya got a nice site but no image-editing skills by which to craft a catchy logo? CBO just might be able ta help you out.

Comancheros Remembered
     Blood wrote to tell me that the old Comancheros Clan ("CC") is still around though they're into Quake 3 these days. Blood still gets into an Outlaws game now and then to keep from gettin' too rusty, however. Anyhow to see what they're up to check out their current site (mostly in German).

"GameSpy Arcade" Released with Outlaws Support
     GameSpy has finally released their GameSpy Arcade software which connects gamers in peer-to-peer internet games, Outlaws included. I can't tell for sure from the web site but I'd guess it supports Outlaws through DirectPlay rather than the more efficient Winsock TCP/IP. So anyhow it's nice they have Outlaws support and it seems to have a slick interface but I can't see it being better than Outnet for mIRC or even the Zone... not that I've tried it yet.

Another V5 Shot
     Macoo sent me yet another shot of Outlaws running on his V5 5500. This shot is in Buckshotville with 2x anti-aliasing. He wanted to point out that he installed a K6-3 450 and it gets 30 more fps here than his old K6-2 500. Just goes to show you that the K6-2 blows chunks in 3D games. Actually so does the K6-3: my P2 333 with Voodoo 3 2000 gets 182 fps there vs his 167 though of course the V3 isn't doing antialiasing. But here's my shot so you can compare the image quality; disregard the difference in brightness, I just didn't want to bother trying to match the gamma. Since these are very low-compression jpegs and take up a lot of space they're in my temp directory and won't be up for very long.

Desperados Developer
     IAmTheLaw sent me the URL for the development house making Infogrames' "Desperados": the developer is the German company Spellbound and their site is www.spellbound.de. Not really a whole lot there, you can see they were using the name "Death Valley" until Infogrames picked up the title and that they refer to it as a strategy game and IAmTheLaw says it will play similar to "Commandos."

Getcher Stintch Here
     Dirtybreath sent in the URL for his new site:

Dirtybreath's Stintch
I'm not quite sure what "Stintch" is but Dirtybreath serves up quite a bit of regular news along with some Outlaws playing advice in a nice, somewhat familiar layout with sometimes curious turns of phrase.

New Voodoo3 2000/3000 Drivers
3dfx has finally released new non-beta drivers for the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000. I haven't tried 'em yet, from the readme they don't look a whole lot different. I've also heard that there are "leaked" drivers that enable a lot of features found in the Voodoo5 drivers and I've also heard from one person who was using Voodoo5 drivers with their V3 which they claimed improved the performance! Well I haven't been as brave to muck about with my drivers as all that, interesting though...

From Bridging to PPP
USWest.net mailed me a flyer announcing that they're switching my DSL service from Bridging to PPP mode. They try to dress it up as an "upgrade" but as far as I can see what it comes down to is that since Bridging mode gives each computer you connect to your DSL line its own IP address (I've got two, and am planning on bringing a third online this summer) they were probably starting to run low on IPs. So they're gonna make everyone switch to PPP mode where only your modem gets an IP address, all computers hooked in to it just get a local address. They warn that some Internet applications may require special commands sent to the modem before they will work. This is all rather disturbing to me so you can bet I'll be putting off switching over right up until the eve of the October 1st deadline.

* * *

Monday 7/3/00

Just Blondie
Elcobra1 sent along his daughter's Outlaws site address along with those maps I posted in my last update. Yah so I forgot to post it last time, better late than never:

Blondie007 ~ Outlaws
I confess there really isn't much here at all. However, if you were as cute as Blondie and put a picture of yourself on a web page, you'd probably get a decent review from me as well. Just try it.

GoJo Returns
     GoJo, never satisfied with the brilliant fruits on his own labor, has revised three of his maps of old. These babies were slimmed down and sped up for use in the recent IRC championship tourney. All of these maps also use modified weapon pickups that respawn more quickly and come with more ammo, so GoJo didn't have to "clutter" his maps by scattering ammo all over the place.
     Sun Ka Creek 2 (shot) by GoJo: Prettier and much faster than I remember the first version being. Very nice looking and more fluid thanks to a rocky path around the back. Neat-o.
     RedPup (shot) by GoJo: Update of his first map, RedDog. He's simplified it down to two-slung buildings in a canyon separated by a butte, with an elevated ledge running round the whole thing. More straight CTF style now and he's left the architecture on the simple and blocky side for speed. Very solid map.
     Pearl Manor (shot) by GoJo: Slimmed-down version of his "Pearl River Plantation," Manor cuts out the road, slave quarters, river and farm to focus strictly on the mansion itself which was always my favorite part of the map. It's a great house and now you can play CTF between the front and back yards.

And More Maps
     And the maps kept rolling in...
     Obstacle (shot) by Spikerama: A marathon of a map. The idea in this CTF map is that you have a donut-shaped canyon, the inner and outer cliffs making two loops. The lower canyon is also divided into two loops. The inner cliff/canyon loop and outer cliff/canyon loop meet at just one spot. However, each is for the most part visible from the other loop. So in CTF each team starts at the end of one loop and to capture the flag you have to run through your side's loop, then through the other side's loop and of course back to your flag. Whew! All this while under rifle fire (the long distances pretty much rule out anything else) with little health/ammo. Oh and did I mention the loops feature treacherous jumps over deadly ravines? This map is going to eat you for breakfast, pilgrim!
     PoKéMoN Grass Stadium (shot) by Flaming Rat: Gotta kill 'em all! No there are no Pokémon in this map, thank goodness. It's a straightforward arena map with two kinda goal thingies and a badge in the middle, with paths around the sides. Solidly built though the nice-looking central lines cut framerate down a tad.
     HeavyMetal (shot) by Krummwaffe: It's amazing what a few bucketloads of textures can do. Krummwaffe rolls out the metal textures to create a torus-style, three deck space station complete with an airlock. Yes you can voyage out into the vacuum and see just how long you last (hint: not long). An amazingly effective change of pace and actually reminds me somewhat of Dark Forces. Here's a bonus shot from outer space.
     Sunrise (shot) by TheRock and D1_and_Only: Interesting use of lighting gradations, you kinda go from dusk to dawn as you run through the map. Not a whole lot of circular flow to it though I do like the little forts in the main canyon and th' kinda cool underground area.
     Showdown at Five Points (shot) by Bad Aim: Wow. Once in a long while a new map comes along and kicks everything else in the bum. This is such a map. Two gorgeous forts dwell in separate small canyons with a church-like structure between. Each fort has an inner building with a large portcullis-type door. The church structure happens to house two keys, each of which will open either door. If you kill someone who has a key you can pick it up and use it yourself. And am I holding two pistols at once in that screenshot? Why yes, I am. ;)
     Hooterville (shot) by Hooter: Do you like playin' with six-shooters? Do you find that all other weapons, except maybe fists, get in the way of playing with six-shooters? Do you basically want a map where you can't move without steppin' on a shiny new pistol? Well here you go. Pistols and fists only in Hooterville. The layout is very small and simple, in fact he's just pasted window and door textures on blocks to give the idea of buildings. Texturing isn't all that attractive but it kinda works. Probably a Mary, Doc or Sanchez kinda map, dontcha know.
     Uh-oh, sleep time.

* * *

Thursday 6/29/00

More Maps For You
     Hey it's the third update in four days—this site hasn't seen that much action in quite some time. ;) Still not gonna get anywhere near caught-up but at least I'm kind of holding even... I think.
     Garboland (shot) by MikeDaKid: It's spring! With cute little flowers and pretty grass and rustic little cottages. Storing a shotgun or two, of course. Solid little map in a cozy canyon with bright custom flowers... maybe a few too many as the framerate isn't all that high. Also wish I could get up on the rim around the top—seems like you should be able to jump from the top steps but there's a block, doh.
     FF (shot) by HampeK: FF stands for "Forest Fire" and yeah this is a box level with foresty textures and little fires wandering around. Those probably don't help lag much but really the limited shape (box) and severe 3dfx troubles hold back this map a good deal.
     Losyaya (shot) by ElCobra: After all the recent small maps the roomy canyon floor and cliffway corridors of Losyaya bring a welcome sense of space. Texturing isn't the greatest and the single large building is very simple but navigation around the large canyon is a breeze. Rifles will be handy here, may be a bit heavy on gats. Secret tunnels abound but I admire the way the author has NOT used secret entrances to hide his sniping spots. Don't think I heard running sounds.
     Heaven (shot) by HampeK: Haha! Okay, another box level by this author. But "box" doesn't have to mean "bad" you know. In fact this level is good—very very good... angelic I guess would be the word. Well anyway it's cute. Covered completely by a single pretty sky texture and lined with silvery bell footstep sounds this map will make you think pure thoughts. And of course this being the ethereal realm, gravity has lost quite a bit of it's usual force, allowing you to soar free... until you bonk into the ceiling. Charmant.
     Reload (shot) by Kid Macoo: Straight-out two-bases-facing-each-other CTF map without even the usual secret tunnel or two going around a back way. Yer gonna hafta get good at dodgin' ta bring home the bacon in this baby. Solid, nice sunlight, high framerates. As well done as it is I am going to use it to point out two pet peeves of mine (these are really the only downsides I saw): 1) don't put plant sprites near water, the alphamasking on them looks really bad when they're in front of water and 2) align your textures on top of crates correctly—I dunno how many maps have wacky crate tops. ;) Anyhow those quibbles aside this is a nice map.
     Dad3 (shot) by Kid Macoo: Has a rather slapdash feel to it ("quick and dirty" is how the .txt puts it) which also lends it a certain sense of freedom and rough charm. Not PC and definitely not ML... just a kinda funky jumbly DM canyon with a weird pond in the corner.

D1 & Only Again
     D1 & Only seems to think I need even more aimless, cranky ramblings on my page—besides mine, I mean. Well maybe after his you'll appreciate mine more... or not. This time the ramble concerns the drawbacks of overclocking:

- - Ok, I finally got around ta buyin' me a VooDoo card. VooDoo3 2000. Installed it myself and she runs swell. Better FPS , that's for sure, only 1 problem... not enough FPS ta be spendin $100 over! Before I got VooDoo, I was up 'round 50 FPS most of tha time... Now WITH VooDoo I'm only gettin 100 - 120. You might say this is a signifigant boost to FPS or not. Just depends on yer viewpoint on frame rates and where u stand on tha scale. I was kinda happy ta be gettin over 100 FPS but not too pleased cause I was LOSIN' $100!!!! Money's scarce fer me! When ya live out in that boonies with no allowance, and there's no cattle rustlers ta bring in fer prize money, funds can run pretty dry. Now, I got $40 to my name. So I don't plan on buyin' anything just to bump up fps fer a LONG TIME! So I am told about overclocking... sounds nice. So I whip on over to the liks and get it... overclock to about 170Mhz cause I don't wanna over heat an lock up (like MGL locks up!) Now, I get about anywhere from 60 fps - 300 fps dependin on where I'm lookin'! Guess this has to do with the sectors that's showin' up on my screen... Anyhow, I am told about the VooDoo3 Tweaker. It's free. Gotta get it! So I get that.. play around and adjust alot of settin's... and when I go test a map, I bout had a coronary when I looked at my fps!...... 450!!!! I was ready ta start smearin ppl, Particularly BDO_TheRock, as we've been havin our differences lately... So I get in a little skirmish with a few guys, (The Rock was there too) And I was doin pretty dang good till it happened... Over heated!!! It seems my little fan I got ain't blowin' enuf hot air off! Well, buy you another fan and overclock that bad boy some more, you say... well fan's ain't exactly free, ya know... I did some browsing on that web and found a good fan for my Pentium II to be about $35 - $40!!! That would leave me $20!!! I still got ta get me a truck, ya know!!! So it looks like the only solution here is not to overclock the blasted thing so dang much... so, I drop her down ta 150 Mhz. Well, I wasn't suprized to see my fps dangling around 200. So I said, ahh, that'll do me fer now... so here I go, plungin into a bloodbath with 200 fps. I can still hold my own luckily, good ol Sanchez pulls me through again. As I get toward the end of a 100 kill DM, it strikes yet again... I'm dead... cant respawn... cant alt + tab my way outta this one... LOCKED UP AGAIN!!! So, I'm off to the reset button... ScanDisc... Finally back at my desktop of good ol' Win 98. I figure, hey! I got it! I just took that ol tweaker off. Got rid of it.. uninstall. That's got it! So now I just overclock to 167 Mhz as opposed to my 1st lock up of 175 Mhz...250Fps... not too shabby. Well this works for me and no lock ups so I guess I'm stuck with anywhere from 250 - 325 FPS. Unless some gracious person out there can come up with SOME WAY to keep your computer temp low an them FPS high... I'm stuck with about 275 FPS... I can work with this... maybe tinker with the Overclocker a lil' bit an................... *BOOM*

What? You folks don't disable that irritating Scan Disk thing? Sheesh. :P

Wanted! HL in September
Dude tells me that a Half-Life version of the Western Quake mod "Wanted!" will be out around September, I guess this could come in handy when you're at your friend's house and forgot to bring your OL CDs over.

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Wednesday 6/28/00

Wild Sites
Yep I skipped out of work a bit early again today to catch up on news. Another new site:

Wild Robocat's Page
Very scattershot design with gratuitous animations, Java, etc. However webmaster Robond promises interviews as he did before at the TOC site so we can be optimistic about that. Also a fairly regular news area.

     Not a new site but Truffle switched his big olhideout.com to OLHideout.net. He's got a nice new design and still offers lots of news, URL redirection (like yourname.olhideout.net and stuff) and web-based email so definitely go check it out.

Little Miss Mappet
     Wow, that was a really lame title. :)
     oldtown (shot) by tater: Solid map with a town arranged in a circle in a *gasp* circular canyon leaving a large town square (town circle?) in the middle. The buildings are either two stories or have ways to get up on the rooftops. Texturing is a little loose in spots but framerates are high. Looks like a pretty good deathmatch town.
     Croix de Guerre (shot) by Snot_E_Noze: Very nice texturing and terraforming highlight this 4-base map, arranged in spokes with a branching canyon at the middle. Multilevel in that you can get up on top of the some of the cliffs. Primarily designed for CTF—and if OL would support 4 teams instead of just 2, this would really rock. As it is the four exactly identical layouts get a little repetitive.
     Gold Rush (shot) by sshep: Severe vertical emphasis of this map can make it seem cramped and disorienting in spots but the lighting and texturing are highly attractive the the stretched height makes for some tricky jumps of which the author makes great use. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Help! Cousin Billy's stuck in the mine!

Desperados? Mais Oui!
     Tony (okay so this guy needs a nick ;) kept pestering Infogrames with emails until they cried Uncle and spilled th' beans about that Western game they were rumored to be producing for late this year. Check out the Desperados development page and get your bellyful of rather nice screenshots and a little poorly translated info about what appears to be a Western isometric RPG being developed by Spellbound for release in the first quarter of 2001. Nice pics.
     Speakin' of Desperados, Stryker sent me some scans of either the box or manual or something from the Valusoft "Desperados" cheapo game which I posted about back at the end of March (check the site; Warning: very cheesy screenshots). Umm so well I guess I'll put these scans in my temp section, get 'em while they're hot: scan1 and scan2.

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Monday 6/26/00

Did I Get Your Email?
     YES! I got it! Please don't mail me again asking if I got it! :P
     Well seriously I can understand people wondering why their news isn't being posted in decent time... basically I'm just way backlogged. There's been an explosion of Outlaws goodness lately and what with me working all day every day on the game-project-of-doom I've got a bit behind in my news updates. For those keeping score, my inbox currently has 32 mails tagged for posting. I skipped out of work "early" this evening (11pm) so let's see how many of those I can get through...

No More Voodoo5 Shots!
     Okay, I've got plenty of Voodoo5 shots. Thanks to all who sent in, I don't think I'll be needing anymore for a while. ;)
     People tend to minimally-compress anti-aliased shots so we can see how beautiful they are; because of this the following shots are rather large and thus go in the "temp" section of my ftp site so check 'em out now before I get around to removing them, whenever that may be.
     Hmm... actually it looks like all the shots came from Kid Macoo, he just did the work of three men. ;) Kid Mac has a "K62 500" and a new V5 5500. Says fps goes up to 300, averages around 200-240 and the lowest it drops is 100 at 640x480 with "fastest performance" (ie no anti-aliasing, I think). He says the image is sharper than his Voodoo3 2000 and he can see more detail. 4x is a big performance hit, fps drops as low as 60 in some spots. As a comparison, he says that "standing in front of the gatt looking at the steel sliding door at buckshotville" with the V3 he got 100fps, with the v5 he gets 133 at the fastest setting, negligible drop set to x2, drops to 100 set at x4.
     Now, is that worth the extra dough? Basically on his processor he gets the same performance as a V3 but with anti-aliasing and overall better image quality. I think if he had a faster processor he'd find the benefit even greater but that's a guess. Anyhow, mebbe you'll have an answer when you look at these shots... personally, I find the 4x anti-aliasing shots quite stunning and all I can say is my $ is set aside for that V5 6000, whenever the heck they're going to come out...
     V5, no FSAA: shot1, shot2, shot3, shot4
     V5, 4x FSAA: shot1, shot2, shot3, shot4
     Framerate comparison: Fastest, 2x FSAA, 4x FSAA
     Note how the 4x FSAA blends out ugly patterning in ground textures and banishes those sparkly pixels along vertex edges, leaving you with a perfectly smooth, lovely unbroken image. Wooo! 2x doesn't look quite as nice but it's way better than no anti-aliasing, and the best thing about it is that on Macoo's machine at least there's hardly any performance hit. :)

Cop These Links
     CowboyDeath (sounds like a friendly feller) sent the URL for his new posse site. Then Newbie sent one, then MentalBob. And more people did too, I just haven't got to 'em yet okay?!?

	COP: Crazy Outlaws Posse Big type, relatively consistent design to this posse site with a list of members, small news section.
	Newbie's Homestead Not very compatible with older browsers but the bubbly news section is kind of fun. A fancy interactive menubar and "Map of the Week" being two other noteworthy attractions.
	MentalBob He plays Bob. And he's crazy. That's really all you need to know though the site has a nice layout and look with news, lots of maps, player descriptions, etc. Well done—now if only he didn't carry a double-barrel shotgun you might actually take a liking to him.

3rd Button is Back!
Okay I confess that though I thought I was going to get in an update late yesterday evening I became obsessed with trying to get the middle button on my trusty old Logitech MouseMan workin' again—after all, how can ya play OL without at least three buttons on yer sidearm? After struggling all night and reinstalling all the versions of MouseWare I could find, then getting a little sleep and getting up in the morning to give in and call their tech support (which didn't help but they tried) then swiping my MouseMan from work to bring home to see if it would work then getting home and uninstalling everything I could and disabling all unnecessary devices and wiping everything I didn't need out of the registry etc (which got my P2 333 w/ 128MB to 94% resources free in Win95, pretty neat actually) and comparing settings with the MouseMan at work and then changing the device to "Logitech-compatible mouse PS/2 (2-11-2000)" which seems weird because the latest MouseWare is more recent than that and the mouse is a Logitech mouse, not just a Logitech-compatible mouse, my third button works again! Whew!
For those who have a Logitech mouse (and they're darn fine mice, well the old MouseMan design anyhow) I recommend the latest MouseWare (9.0). I was a bit behind in my drivers and was pleasantly suprised to find that this latest version of MouseWare, which is freely downloadable from logitech.com, lets you set your PS/2 port update rate just like that otherwise handy "PS/2 Rate" utility on my useful files page.

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Stuff on th' shelves.