This week I'd thought I'd share some memoriable quake moments I've had, although unfortunately I don't have any screenies - I've found that during the best games your under pressure and don't have time for screenies. But first I'll wrap up with some replies I've had with the hardware article from last week.

The first to write back to me was the irrepressable Muzzman. As usual, his reply was well thought out, eloquent and well.. I can't really argue with it. Muzz pointed out that my discription of "crippling" the engine wasn't quite accurate, in that preventing the engine from drawing unneccesary frames, the exta oomph in these huge processors goes to other things such inputs and providing faster reaction times. I hadn't thought about that - you heard it here first, there is MORE to quake than your FPS! Anyway, here's a small snippet from his reply ( I would post the whole thing but hey, the hardware thing was last week).

"It's probably true up to a point, but holding a machine that's capable of 90fps back to 30fps isn't really crippling it, it's probably even improving it's performance all round by stopping it from doing unnecessary frames. What seems to happen then is all the extra power goes to keeping it at 30fps by worrying about loads and such. eg a 200mmx going in software has a frame rate that jumps all over the place trying to keep up with players, projectiles and particles: the same computer with a V2 12mb capped at 30fps doesn't have nearly the same problems, it can do 70fps if it really wants to. I imagine with absurd SLI systems that have most of the game cached on the cards it gets even smoother and, more importantly, even faster reaction times.

I've had huge arguments with people who've never played in software about the difference graphics accelerators make in Q2. But when you've got a card that's running the graphics, taking that load from the CPU then the computer and the game can react faster to inputs. And slow folk like myself will tell you that you feel the lag whenever an accelerated so and so even looks at you, they shoot first in almost every instance.

(snip)

It's not fps or res detail or even ping so much, it's over all power."

After thinking about, this does make sense to me. I started my quake "career" with a Cyrix 200. When I first started DM I avoided using the railgun. I decided to get a Voodoo2 to fix the lousy 3d (I was getting 11 fps then, according to demo1.dm2) and although after getting it my FPS was only 15 at 800x600, I did notice that I found it easier to rail people. I put it down to the higher resolution, but I had no idea what I was really doing then (which explains the Cyrix processor :p)

My second reply was from JB, of clan MOGH fame. JB pointed out that SSE hadn't been coded into Q3:A yet, and that SSE and 3dNow! made more impact in the OpenGL implementation. These are good points, but I think I should refer to my point about the TNT2, and how 3dNow! support was lacking, and SSE wasn't. My overall point was that your going to have to wait till the next ice age for 3dNow! support from anybody, (except AMD) period. That was the point I was really trying to make, but I do tend to be a little unclear about these things sometimes. JB also pointed out to me that Hard Core gamers are LAN freaks anyway, so my point about lowering FPS ("crippling") for net play is well... invalid! Thanks for pointing that out guys, let us remember however that I "retain my God-given right to be wrong". I'm sure I'll excercise that right again in the future.

Now for some memoriable Quaking moments. Of mine. I have one for each major mod, and let me say just off the bat that these aren't stories of me kicking ass. Well okay, only two of them aren't of me kicking ass. Any other EvEm member will tell you it's a pretty rare occurance, even I like to gloat every once in a while.....

QuakeWorld:

This one is too hard for me to explain, so I'll keep it short. I fragged a guy who had a rocket launcher and 100 rockets. Big deal, I hear you say. Well, I did it with only the axe. I'm not exactly sure how I did it, but I was using a very sinister Ronald McDonald skin at the time. I guess the guy was shit scared of clowns.

Quake2 DM:

This would have been probably my first game. It wasn't really DM, it was that mod "it", but because quake2 was so new at the time it took everyone a while to figure out what the hell was going on - no one could kill anybody, and there was a guy that glowed yellow. (The yellow guy was it, and only he could frag anybody, but we could frag him and become it instead.) I ran around the corner one time to find everyone BUT the guy who was it standing in a circle taunting, saluting and waving to each other. So I joined in, and then the guy who was "it" came.... with his BFG. Bastard must have thought it was christmas, but still thats what you get if you stand around scratching your balls.....

Q2CTF:

If CTF has a G spot, this would have to be it; railing the enemy flag carrier a micron from reaching his own flag. SWEET.

Another interesting CTF moment was when two of us were escorting the flag carrier back to base. I was bringing up the rear, when an enemy blue came up behind packin' heat. The other defender (who was in front) turned around and railed him.... through me. I thought the "hehe" that followed was well earned. It's the only time I've been railed and still have 100 health.

RA2:

Single handedly dispatching the enemy team in a "fuck it I'm going to go out with a bang" attitude, enemy including Sir Oinksalot who by himself is a pain in the ass. I took on all three simultaneously in an open room. I actually fragged two of them with the same rocket, Oinks gave me more of a workout but I prevailed. (He normally wipes the floor with my ass.) I was understandably very cocky after that.

AQ2:

Beautiful double head shot with duel MK23s to a sniper perched on the building in front of me, just before he lined me up in his sites. The map was urban, and the effect was that his body was floating just below the ceiling (of the map, which you can't see). I should play AQ more, moments like that just make it all worth while.

In case your wondering, yes I have drawn a blank since my Assmosis article, that was probably my best to date. As soon as I think of something worth reading I'll put it up, I promise!

Meantime if you want to help me along with the creative process drop me a line.