May 2001

Tuesday, May 29, 2001

 Linux Port For Hexen
 Posted by at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Over at TUCOWS Linux in the action games section. You can download the linux port for Hexen. Heres a short description from the site:
This is a port of Raven Software's popular "Hexen" 3D shooter game, designed to port to Linux.
For a direct link click here. Sadly there is still no offical or unoffical Linux version of HeXen II. Hopefully this might get the ball rolling.


Thursday, May 24, 2001

 Jedi Resurrection - 1st JK2 Fan Site!
 Posted by William 'Phoebus' Mull at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Mindless Games' newest fine, high-quality hosted site, Jedi Resurrection has posted a JK2 movie from E3 showing actual gameplay. It's really impressive stuff coming from the Raven boy-toys, so you'll definitely want to head to the Jedi Resurrection part of the Mindless Games Files Section and check that out!


Sunday, May 20, 2001

 New Heretic II SDK With Amiga/GNU Support
 Posted by Démølìšhër at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Jax has released a new Standard Developer's Kit for Heretic II for the Amiga. Modders will now be able to code new mods for the Amiga version of Heretic II. You can get it here on our files section!


Saturday, May 19, 2001

 NewHexen Goes Public!
 Posted by at 7:00 PM
Category: General

NewHexen v1.13, the initial release of Jacques 'Korax' Kriges' Hexen II source port enhancement, has just been uploaded for the public! Here are Korax's comments, before he disappears for a short while, as he's currently moving and will be offline until he gets re-connected:
Ive added the MIDI playback again (ravenhurst). Also, I noticed when one loads a level that doesnt have a MIDI file to play the engine still moans. "couldn't load midi file: midis/.mid"
So I fixed that, it will only complain if a MIDI is specified but cant be found.
Then, added a new feature. Choosing Texture Modes!!!
Just check the Options menu ;) By default the engine loads the lowest mode so players will investigate this cool feature.
I added a new skyshader for demo reasons. For the level designers I built 4 new level (the screenies) where I show how I did all these cool stuff.
I included the source files of the levels so they can look at it. Unfortunately thats in QuArK (Quake Army Knife) format, so they need to get QuArK for that.
I wont code anything more for the engine until I'm sure the current stuff is stable.
Head to the NewHexen site for more info, and to our Files Section to download that puppy!


Thursday, May 17, 2001

 New Skin Section At The Review Center!
 Posted by Patrick 'Grimlock' Farrell at 7:00 PM
Category: General

New at the Raven-Games Review Center:

We've completely redesigned the way the skins are displayed. Please take a look. Now you get a table of thumbnails for the skins. You can even select how many you want to view per page (up to 100 for you high bandwidth people). Clicking on the thumbnail will show you a full sized image, and clicking on the name will take you straight to the review entry where you can add comments, rate the skin, and yes download it :)

Female skins will be coming in the next week or so. There's over 600 skins total and that means a wide variety to choose from. Lets spice up the servers a bit!


Wednesday, May 16, 2001

 Jedi Knight II Forum Opened
 Posted by at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Following the LucasArts/Activision announcement regarding the current production of the original Jedi Knight's sequel, we've now opened a Jedi Knight II section in our forums, so you can exchange about the upcoming game of one of the most successfull gaming studio in the industry, Raven Software (that was hard to guess eh?)

Feel free to post any of your thoughts regarding the game, your joys, your frustrations or just a little something that could spice up the discussions. Have fun, and May. the force be with you!

Click here for the Jedi Knight II Forum.


Tuesday, May 15, 2001

 Raven Software Producer Of Jedi Knight II
 Posted by at 7:00 PM
Category: General

LucasArts today has announced Star Wars, Jedi Outcast, Jedi Knight II. It's being developed by, you've guessed it! our friends over Raven Software on a modified Quake III engine, just like his fellow Soldier of Fortune II, currently in production. It's expected to be released in Q1 2002.


Friday, May 11, 2001

 NewHexen Arrives!
 Posted by William 'Phoebus' Mull at 7:00 PM
Category: General

NewHexen is an engine source port for Hexen II by Jacques 'Korax' Krige. It fixes many of the things left from the original that the HexenWorld community has requested, while adding many next generation features that gamers everywhere today really require. As such, software rendering is (finally) gone for good. Head to the NewHexen site, there's already much information and screenshots galore.


Tuesday, May 8, 2001

 Gaming For Life
 Posted by William 'Phoebus' Mull at 7:00 PM
Category: General

There's an article on Accessmagazine.com talking about online gaming, that features comments from some familiar names, including Raven's Kenn Hoekstra. Here a quote:
Kenn Hoekstra, who designs games, says he knows why Wendel and others like him are so obsessed with the games they play.

"Gaming is more open-ended and interactive than movies and television, so it's easier for people to get drawn into the game worlds where they get to make all the decisions," says Hoekstra, a developer for Raven Software.
Be sure to check out the rest of the article.


 New Beta DooM Legacy Now Supports Heretic
 Posted by at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Pablo Dictter sends word that the new beta version of DooM Legacy has support for Heretic. Here's some of the news article:
Yes, it's there, and it's a major new full release! DooM Legacy v1.32 beta 1 is now available for DOS, Linux, Win32, OS/2 and MacOS/X environments.
Gameplay
- Added 3D-Floors
- Added volumetric fog, 3D translucent water and 3D lights in software mode
- Added FraggleScript support
- Added Heretic support
- When solidecorpse is true you can smash it and turn it to giblets
- Joystick can be used for free look using joystickfreelook cvar
For more info and where to download DooM Legacy check out their website.


 Vavoom v1.7 Released!
 Posted by William 'Phoebus' Mull at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Janis has just released Vavoom version 1.7. Here's the info:
Well, here's final version 1.7. As I promised I worked on optimizing software rendering. It is faster and, what's more important, it's more balanced, this means that speed improvement in simple scenes is less than speed improvement in complex scenes. I also implemented a new algorythm in glVIS, it's more precise, but it works slower. Also in fast mode it will perform some rough tests, and not just a empty lump. Note: there's no reason why you should rebuild already compiled vis data.
Head to the Vavoom part of our Files Section for all the files, including the Windows binaries.


 We're Talking Classic, Raven
 Posted by William 'Phoebus' Mull at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Raven's Pat Lipo got in a reminiscent mode over on EvilAvatar's forums, chatting about those glory days:
I just happened to install Necrodome last weekend and realized how much we've learned over the years...

However, Evil, you're forgetting the finest cinematic experience in the universe (and also my first full game), CyClones! That game had, hands down, the absolute worst acting of any game ever, Raven or otherwise. And no, we had nothing to do with its production.

In fact, yeah, that is my challenge, I will pit any other game's cinematics out there against Cyclones. If someone has a contender they'd like to put up as a challenge, I'll put some AVI's out on the net and you can decide yourself!

I want someone to challenge me! Let's see if anyone can come up with cinematics that are worse...

System Shock was built off the Ultima Underworld stuff. Shadowcaster used an id engine that was halfway between Wolfenstein and Doom, actually. An odd mix, because it was tile-based like Wolf, but had floors and ceiling tiles, lighting, and even sloped floors (yeah, even Doom didn't have that). The reason we got in tight with them so early on is that for a short period id Software was right here in Madison, Wisconsin. I've heard some story of Carmack (or was it Romero?) trudging through the snow to pick up their first NeXT machine (their development/design platform for Doom) from the University here...
Sounds like it May. be turning into a macho thing gone awry (Oh yeah? Well, my cinematic's cheesier than yours, wimp!) so you might want to just keep an eye over there, in case things really get out of control ;)


 QOOLE Source Released!
 Posted by at 7:00 PM
Category: General

The Qoole99 Source Repository has the release of the source code for QOOLE, one of the best & easiest to learn & use Quake engine game level editors around. QOOLE supports both Hexen II and Heretic II.


 Walk Like An Egyptian
 Posted by William 'Phoebus' Mull at 7:00 PM
Category: General

Ah yes, the memories. Indeed, the influence of the Egyptian Hub in Hexen II is still being felt in games today (checked out Serious Sam yet?). And those historically accurate names, really summed up the feel of those levels: Names of ancient figures and locations, such as Thysis, Horus, Nefertum, Naos, Anubis........ etc. etc. Don't remember? Check out our latest edition of the revamped Hexen II Walkthrough, we've got the entire Thysis hub up there for you now. The rest of the walkthrough, including Portal of Prævus is on its way.

Go in peace... and you will surely die.