Getting all hot and excited here! Machine is on ICQ mercilessly teasing me with thoughts of Awings and AT-ATs dancing thru my head.

In his words: "Compiled the first build of SW last night... and man... OMG is it sweet :D"

Stupid politicians.

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 12 — A federal judge has ruled that a city ordinance banning minors from playing violent and sexually explicit video games without parental permission can take effect immediately. The city will begin enforcing the ban on Friday.

They must all now be killed. Check out this message forum link on Planet Crap. Some interesting stuff in there. I've already stated MY opinion on this stuff. (Thanks Rune)

Hey. If they have games with sexually explicit content, why don't I have copies yet? DAMN IT!

In related news, MSNBC has an interview with Peter Molyneux, one of my personal gaming gods. They've posted some buff screenshots, as well as the interview of course. Check it out HERE!

Oh god I'm tired. Dman and I were out until 3:00am on a service call. I'm too old for this shit. Used to be I could wire networks until dawn, get up at 7:00 and run to work in twenty feet of snow... Uphill both ways. I'm just not up to those type of mad shenanigans anymore.

Dman and a few other people were scolding me for not posting a news update yesterday. Hey, only so much I can do...... You all remember Team S3 from Tribes? It's now been over a year since they've updated their web site. Man, these guys are worse than I am. Check out the giggles HERE.

So, without further ado... Here's today's ramblings: (Much Tribes goodness is contained herein, so you hardcore quake guys may want to look away, lest your eyes be burned from your head by the heathen writings. :)

Still working on the interview with Machine. Pretty much complete, just waiting for his R33T screenshots and zee work she be complete. I'll post it up as soon as I get the pics from him. Heh. He just confirmed there's a damned AT-AT as part of the scenery. WOOHOO!

Some good stuff over at Daily Gadar. Yes. From the depths of gaming hell occasionally arise some small but tasty bits of gaming goodness. First off, they have a write-up on Neverwinter Nights, a very sweet looking upcoming RPG. They've also posted THIS movie, a 16 meg 1 minute clip from the game. They've also posted some screenshots and a quick article on the new Dune game coming up. I don't know about you guys, but I LOVED Dune 2. Played that game for a very long time. Hopefully Westwood has finally gotten their heads outta their asses and made a good RTS. Very disappointed in Tiberium Sun. (And by "sun" I'm meaning "outdated crap") Has anyone else noticed that anything Daily Radar does is: A) Too damned short and B) Sounds like an ad for the company doing whatever product it is their blathering about? Time to get cranky guys, and find a game you DON'T like. Do an "Upcoming garbage!" post or something. Far to polite for their own goods.

Tuki, that wacky and fun guy from Crazy Goat Tribes posted me an e-mail just to let me know he's back, and his site has been updated and revamped. Now, I don't know about you guys, but any Tribes player with the name "Goat" in his name has my respect. Go check his site out, it's a great resource. Lots of great tips, strategies, maps etc.

YAY! DOX is back baby! New SITE for my favorite Tribes mapping guy. If you've never heard of DOX, you need to be shot. The new site is looking very buff, much more professional than the old one. Go there young man. It is your destiny.

Speaking of great Tribes site, I've mentioned z0dd a few times. All the scripts I use are written buy this guy. They're useful and much faster than the Presto Pack. (Which sucks btw. I'm glad Hormone has finally seen the light and come over to the side of good, rather than evil.) Link to him HERE, and let the downloading begin.

I've posted a few articles in the past that I found pretty damned funny from Geistmag, so there's a link to their main site. Check it out, and make sure you read the "Silly Rabbit" bit.

Ever wonder why the hell you can't make your mousewheel in Tribes do weapon up and down? Yeah. Me too. Rune however, in his wanderings on Tribalwar came across this:

bindCommand(mouse0, zaxis0, TO, "nextWeapon();");

bindCommand(mouse0, zaxis1, TO, "prevWeapon();");

Those two commands, when inserted into your autoexec.cs will work the mentioned magic, and your wheel will come alive! Woohoo!

Thanks to Praetorian, a.ka. "The Invisible Editor" we have THIS, a link onto Gameloft for gaming music! Very cool, I've been listening to Warcraft and Arkanoid remixes all morning.

Amazon.com is accepting pre-orders for Tribes 2. For that matter so am I, lemme know if you want a copy.

Jmuff, one of the great guys we met at FRAGtopia 2000 has just put up his own little site, THE OVEN. Take a look. (Actually, it's down for a revamp right now I just noticed... Ummm.. Check it out later. ;)

Welp, I think that's quite enough from me for today. Cyah all tomorrow, same Fragtime, same Fragchannel.

Marauder out.

Hoooo boy. Darksiege found THIS in our bookbin at work. Kinda scares me. Idiots... Computers.... Tools.. Hammers.... Electricity.... Get the camera there's gonna be a light show!

I now have PROOF that Macs are evil incarnate. I have felt their evil power. Rune (May his name be cursed for a thousand generations) left an.... an.. iMac tshirt (shudder) at my place a few weeks ago. Got up this morning, and there was nothing else clean to wear. I thought to myself... "hey" (I thought) "How bad can it be? It's only a Tshirt." Little did I know the emotional scarring that I would suffer. First, I noticed that I was starting to think in colors... But not normal colors... Noooooo..... I was seeing NEW colors! Colors like Slate... Tangarine..... Grape.... Colors with flavor! Next, I started feeling an uncontrolable urge to buy a piece of shit computer because it was "pretty"...... This is when I knew that something was horribly, horribly wrong. I saw an add for a Volkswagen beetle and just had to have it. I couldn't bring myself to kill someone in Tribes because they were wearing such nice red armor..... The horror!!!!!! Luckily I managed to wrest off this demonic garment and burn it before it could escape upon an unwitting world.

*shudder*

A close call.

Hopefully I'm going to be left in peace today, and nothing will go wrong. My goal for toal (And lo, a noble and worthy goal 'tis!) is to sit at my computer, unshaven, preferably in my boxers, and play Tribes. That's it, that's all I ask of life today. I'll likely be hanging on the FRAGtopia Just 4 Fun server (209.135.104.57:28001) all damned day. Come by and beat up on me if you care to. :) Sigh. Missing Mrs. Marauder, who is away for the day. Someone come talk to me, please!

Oh, and as a side note, for you Tribes guys.. +NC+ is coming back. :) Woot!

Still laughing over that Halo demo. :) Download it from the link below if you haven't already.

Just a few little things. First off, check the FRAGtopia party news page. We have a date for FRAGtopia 2001. June 2/3 2001. Woot! :) A weekend o' fun for all! Book it off, quit your job and leave your wife! We got a LAN party going on baby!

Machine from the Star Wars TC for Tribes has consented to an email interview. If you can think of any questions to ask this guy, lemme know. I keep mentioning this little project because it's so amazingly tasty. Even more tasy than say.... Oh I dunno..... Killcreek.

News from Rune. He can't post news because his Rogers cable is completely and utterly Daikatana. (FUBARd in other words)

Rune: JeffK of course strikes again. MORE Halloween shananagins and hijinks. Again, as with all things JeffK, It is good.

Rune: Cool little movie for all you Unreal Tourney fans. Check it out HERE. The "Dominating" bit was especially gigilicious.

I'm not even sure where I got THIS (I think it was from Hormone) but take a look! Ninja Burger. You WILL experiance the difference. :) Just another little bit of proof that people on the web have WAY too much time on their hands. (See, I'm not the only one!)

I've been screwing around, and have made two cartoons for submission to The Bench. Hopefully they get accepted. Check out VAV1 and VAV2. (If you are a Tribes player you'll get the reference. If not, you are a godless heathen anyhows. :)

Checking out Orion Faction's site today. Very nice! Reminds me alot of House Jurai. A big ass clan covering many, many different games. Take a look, worth the read, nice page.

Watched those Quake III Thresh vs. Machaveli on the Nightmarecast. Wow that looks like crap. Worth taking a look tho. When PC gaming goes horribly, horribly wrong. :) Ahh well. At least it's gotta be better than Daikatana on the Gameboy. (*shivers* So much evil in one small area.)

Anyhows, I'm going to bed. :) Latez

Marauder out.

First FRAGtopia meeting did indeed take place last night. Check the new link above to News from the big party planning sessions. We'll be posting all the news updates and information about the planning sessions, thoughts, ideas etc there, rather than cluttering up the normal news. Take a boo. If you have an suggestions, lets here 'em! It's your party, so lets hear what you'd like to see done.

Oh my god. The traitors. Thresh vs. Machaveli on the.. the... DREAMCAST! QUAKE III ON A CONSOLE. Yuckiedoodles. can't believe it, but check it out HERE. Apparently. if any of you Quake guys want to, you can download the low-polly, really crappy looking DC games to your PC so you can play with DC owners.... Woohoo. Just what the world needs, console gamers loose on the net. Yikes.

Does that little START button piss you off? Yeah me too. You just never know what they're up to.... er.... Anyhows, HERE's the instructions on how to change it to whatever you want, just for giggles. :) Thanks Iceman.

Meeting will be broadcast on MS Netmeeting. (Hey, we can then hear each other!) IP: 209.135.105.30. Password is: fragin.

Be there or be something or other!

The Maraudercam is up, see what's happening at the store today, if you're really bored. :)

TeamShun has come over to the dark side. I thought their web server was pretty slow, so they're hosting here now. Check their SITE out if you haven't yet. nice flash work, and many mentions of.. well... ME! :) And could there be anything better I ask yah?

Got Raid level 0 working on my D drives! :) I now have 2 drives operating as one (Almost x2 the speed) in software. 60 gig hdd baby! Woohoo! I'll post more on this in a bit.

Notice the little guys in the corners up above? I'm the BSDi devil, Rune is Seymour, the Sinfest nutcase angel guy. Assuming we don't get sued or anything, I think I'll leave them up there. :) I think you'll all agree tho, Rune needs a better angel. That Seymour guy's sucha wimp.

Our servers SEEM to be back to operating normally. Was pinging fine this AM to the game server, with no PL. Hopefully the issues are solved. *sigh*

I mentioned that Champu did the animation for the Kell Hounds web site. I've mentioned a few other things he's done in the past 'cause I just find the guy so bloody funny. He was nice and sent me back his personal web site. So HERE it is. Check it out, pretty buff. :)

Argh! Back to work, will post more news shortly. :)

First off, I just finished writing up a little rant on classic games, and why we should just let me them die where they did. Read it HERE. This little write up was inspired by THIS link sent in DaFez. Thanks bud. As a follow up to the little page on the ten worse games of all time, Game Centre also posted a write up on games that deserved better. Needless to say, System Shock get's honorable mention. Check it OUT! It's a good read.

Hehe. Now, a veritable mountain stream of Counter Strike related news, sparking with healthy goodness from Dopper, who apparently has FAR too much time on his hands today.

Firstly: Did you know someone is playing with making a CS movie? He's got lots of toys and props if you've got the plot and maybe a script for him. Check it HERE.

Secondly: the Kell Hounds CS team have a very cool web site, with a sweet intro movie done by a man we're already spent some time laughing at... Champu!!!! View the SWEETNESS here.

Thirdly: There is apparently a serious security hole in the server end of Counter-Strike. Read up on IT. Not good, not good atall.

Dopper's been getting lots of nice emails from folks enjoying his Classic Counterstrike pack. If you haven't checked it out yet, take a LOOK.

That's it for news from Dopp. Watch for "Dopper: A boy and his computer" coming soon to a theatre near you.

In other breaking news, (Ouch, just sounds painfull, doesn't it?) THIS cartoon kinda sums up the entire gaming computer thing. :) Read it, and see yourself with a Rhino.

Grrrrrr. I really hate little punk bitches that make viruses. They should be drawn, quartered and shot. Someone finally got around to making a virus for your Palm Pilot! Yay!

Finally, I'm getting excited. No, not because of the ass wiggle in FAKK2. (Tho..... well. never mind THAT.) Just got an email from Machine telling me that the Star Wars TC for Tribes is almost ready to be Beta tested! WOOT! I've mentioned this little project before in the news, and I think it's looking really cool. These guys have put one hellova lotta work into this, and deserve kudos. Go take a look.

*Sigh*

Not sure what's happening at our ISP. At night, our servers, most noticably our Tribes server, are laggy beyond belief. Packet loss out the wazzoo. It all started after Shaw Fibrelink had their stupid router issues a few days ago. Pings went thru the roof. The pings are fixed but now most players are getting wicked PL. Hopefully it'll all get sorted out soon, as I just can't take it anymore. Getting owned by newbies sucks. :(

For those of you who play Tribes on the Teamplay.net ladders, I've set up a little server reservation page. Take a look and use it. www.fragtopia.com/tpservers.htm

Marauder out.

Allrighty, I'm kind of impressed. Just got an ICQ from Imp who lives in a country called "England", which is apparently across the great waters, where the mighty white fathers come from. He's reading FRAGtopia. That's just kinda cool. :) And the really creepy thing?

He's reading the news 3 hours before I post it...... There's just something evil about that. Yes. Evil black magic indeed.

He's tried to offer me some beads for the web server. While the coloured beads are very shiny and tempting indeed, I'm holding out for some firewater AND some beads. :)

It's approaching All Hallow's Eve..And so, in the spirit of the season, I shall be using the word "Evil" and other related words (Such as "Romero") as frequently as possible in the news. Enjoy.

Since I'm stealing the BSD Devil for my Halloween banner, (Pretty Evil, eh!??!) We'd better give them a plug. Check out their Incredibly clever "Wind blows" advert. (YOINK!) I don't know if the "Windblows" thing was deliberate, but I'm snickering about it.:)

I'm so happy. So simply overjoyed I'm giddy. Lots of helpful people have been sending me SPAM (And by spam I mean evil spirited vile emails that will no doubt result in the sender having an accident. An accident such as us "accidentally" mail bombing them.) about Viagra. Apparently this wonderfull drug is avaliable online now! Joy oh joy. I personally would rather hear that the Tribes 2 beta is avaliable online now.

Oh, as well, I've been getting spammed with offers to spam others with my spam. Undirected spam lists seems to be the newest hotest thing! They're bragging about 70 reponses per 1,000 emails sent out. Yesh. So you are deliberately antagonizing 930 people to get 70 sales. That's alot of pitchforks and torches.

Anyhows, a slow evil day so just a few small things to post about:

Worried about security on your internet connection?Who wouldn't be, with evil r337 hax0rs like JeffK loose on the web? Shields Up will take a look at your machine, and report back any problems it finds, including open ports and other security risks. Check it out, you may be suprised at what dark secrets and holes in your security are revealed.

Did you click on the JeffK link above? NO? Do it. It's funny. As are all things JeffK.

Semi-Evil Sierra has finally released the mutliplayer patch for SWAT 3! SWEET! Regretably, it's been so long since I've NOT been able to play SWAT3 multiplayer that I've somehow lost both the will to play it, and the damned disks. Du'oh. Evil rumors abounded that Sierra was going to be selling the patch... Oh pardon me. I mean, "Releasing a multiplayer addon" but I'm glad to see this rumor was unfounded. That would just have been sooooo Microsoft of them.

Speaking of the Evil Empire (tm), they've just posted the Top Ten Reasons to upgrade to Windows ME. (Heh.. Upgrade is still called "Mini Me" in my mind. :) Read the BS HERE.

Personally I can't think of anything you can do under ME that you can't already do under 98. And they've hidden my precious Command Prompt Only option in the start up. Idiots. It's still there ironically enough, but perhaps they weren't getting enough service calls or something, cause they're trying to pretend it's gone forever. Yesh. Evil. Evil I tell you!

Been talking a wee bit with the lads from Team Shun. (Tribes) They've got a sweet web page, check it OUT.

In other (Tho unrelated to TeamShun) Tribes news, was poking around Etherlife and found THIS comic. I almost wet myself. How did they know I run around in a bucket on the weekends? :)

In completely unrelated to anything gaming news, Relic, Brutal and someone else (Can't remeber who.. Cygnus?!) started a litte company.. And man. Do they do nice work. Their SITE alone is worth taking a look at. Not much evil here, so come back in November. :)

Just posted a quick rant on Stupid Humans. It's a little write up I did quick for no apparent reason a week or so ago. Has nothing to do with gaming, or even computers. But I'm posting it anyhows. :) So there.

FRAGtopia 2001 staffers meeting has been moved to Sunday afternoon, 3:00pm. (I think) Trying to schedule it so that everyone who wants to come can make it. We'll be holding it at VAM Computers in Orangeville. Let me know if another time would be better.

I also need all staffers to post me a quick writeup/bio on themselves for the page. Right now I'm the only one who's done it, so get the spotlight. Get off your asses and write something up!

Just after posting my hopeful and happy message yesterday, my soul was crushed by the computer gods when Windows 2000, naturally JUST as I was fetching some disks to do my restore disk..... (Probably struck down for my hubris... Sigh.)

*sob*

gave me an error along the lines of "Sorry you are now completely screwed." Oh... No actually it was "C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 NOT FOUND, HAH HAHHA SUCKER." After I forced my hand to move slowly away from the hammer, I spent the evening restoring all that is right and holy. (Ex. My data.) Grrrrrr....

Anyhows, not much for today. Just a small note from a few days ago (I've been stacking up news for the last few days, not having the time to post them.. Or the bloody computer to do it either. Again...... Grrrrrr.)

Check out THIS tasty link from our good friends (Well, they don't actually know me, but it sound better than "Those guys I don't know over at.....") over at Planet Halflife.... Modexpo! WOOT! :) Counter-Strike we all know and love like our childhood pet dog rover, but check out The Opera and a few others. (Firearms is looking really sweet.)

It's really sweet that the Valve guys are recognizing a known fact... It's the user created mods that give your game life far FAR beyond it's normal grave. Just look at CS. I wouldn't still be playing and selling Half-Life almost 2 years after it's release if it weren't for CS, TFC and other mods. Nice to see the Valve guys recognizing the work that the mod creators put in, and giving them a boost. Harah for Valve!

Anyhows, time for bed. More news will be posted tomorrow, and much rejoicing will ensue.

WOOT! I look out the windows today, and it's a lovely day. Rainy, dark and overcast.... BUT WHO CARES! I've got my Fear Factory tune cranked, and best of all, I'm getting my Photoshop on! Woot woot! :) Life is good, and it's good to be so easily amused.

And hey, our servers all back up and running at speed! (Yay!) I'm so happy I could dance. In fact. I think I will. /me does Snoopy joy dance.

Dopper's Classic Counter-Strike got mentioned on Planet Halflife yesterday, so he's been getting lots of hits. He's working on a site revamp right now to make it prettier. His web design skillz are beyond the meer text based site he's got going on right now. :) Just wait!

Sorry for the speed on the site tonight guys, looks like our ISPs ISP is having some issues. And so, we all suffer. Tribes & Roger Wilco servers are lagged out as well. Du'oh...... No where to play so I can chainwhore guys with more skill than myself. :)

Got a great quote today that you'll be seeing alot of in the news... Ready for this one:

"And remember children. Fire makes a good servant, whether it's roasting smores or raining down on charlie!"

HAH!

Looks like Unreal Universe is back online at Stomped. It's nice to see them back up as they are one of the best sites for Unreal and UT maps and news IMHO. They along with many other hosted sites such as Voodooextreme were kicked off of the Gamefan network a couple of weeks ago after Gamefan decided to massively scale down their web hosting service and with very little notice to the hosted websites they yanked the plugs on their servers.

Wanna see how the upcoming low-cost CPUs from AMD and Intel stack up? Check out THIS review on Review Zone that compares the latest Duron and Celeron chips. I love competition, finally some more bang for your CPU buck. The Durons look great for a little overclocking action. Supposably they keep up quite well to their Athlon brothers too!

Remember kids, if you want to have cool twitchy reflexes in games like the Runemeister just load up on coffee (or espresso) and then load up THIS page. Oh and if you have seizures or convulsions just blame Daily radar or something... ;-)

Why Marauder, you silly duck. It appears you've gotten the date wrong again! Look up here /\. (Rune has since been good enough to fix this for poor photoshop-depraved Marauder)

No. I didn't get it wrong actually. It is actually Sunday, Oct 15th and I'm aware of it. I'm just recycling. It's good for the enviroment, and you won't go to hell either.

Actually the truth is much harsher than myself getting a social concience. (Hhyah.And next I'll be down at Starbucks having a Cafe Late and talking about things I don't have the balls to actually do anything about!)

Sadly, Windows 2000 decided it just couldn't take life anymore and jumped off a digital cliff on Friday night. So. Untill I get around to driving to get my damned Photoshop CD, I'm doomed... Like the SeaCaptain, forced to wander without his image editing software forever... You know, The Lost Dutchwebdesignguy. Classic tale, surpised you've never read it. *sigh* Todays education system is sooooo lacking.

Got back alive and rather bruised from paintball yesterday. The usual suspects showed up..Me, Kingping and Goshwin. Had a new guy, Corey along as well. Good time had by all.

Anyhows! A few new things. First off, Rune must die. :) No news do I see, his training he apparently did not complete. SO! This is dedicated to RUNE. (Rune is the guy in the Tshirt btw. :)

(Rune's note: I have to profess complete and total innocence on this. My ISP was down yesterday :-( So for this Marauder is the guy in the yellow T-shirt on the RIGHT.)

DaLurker's been lurking around the early '90s I guess. Check THIS powerhouse gaming machine out! Booyah baby! WOOT! WOOT! :)

Hey, speaking of all this nostalga I've been going thru lately.. Does anyone other than myself remember hours at friend's places playing Yar's Revenge on the old Atari systems? Check out REVENGE OF YAR'S REVENGE! :) Now we can do with Java what used to take a entire gaming console. Wow.

While we're speaking of evil things, I have come across what may possibly be the most vile.. Most revolting.. Most... Downright evil site I've ever seen on the internet. THIS is a site so horrifying it might even put a Microsoft/AOL/RIAA/User Friendly conglomerate to shame..... Yes... That's right... it's a piece of software that works it's way (like a plague of locusts) through corporate networks....

**** DELETING GAMES ****

What kind of sick bastard does it take to think up something like this... I mean..... *shiver* My god man...... I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it... Soo.. Soooo... EVIL! Even the name just oozes foul smelling liquid satanism, even more so than a Microsoft product launch party!

Tribes 2. Apparently the beta testers should be getting their new game Nov 7th. Public demo should be out shortly after than. (Hmmm............. Demo GOOOOOD!) New Tribes 2 movie is out.. and WOW! Grab it HERE and you might want to lock your door. :) You wouldn't want anyone walking in on you while you're watching it, if you know what I mean. Just caught THIS interview with Dave G a few days ago as well. Fills in some questions, but it does answer one that I didn't want an answer to. Rumors were stating that I'd be able to use my sniper rifle to kill people with one shot..... Nope. Well damn. I was really looking forward to one shot kills. :( Ahhh well.. Still does 90% damage. Good enough. Can't have everything on your Xmas wish list, I guess.

Dopper has been putting together a really cool package that includes all the older and removed Counter-Strike maps. Prepare yourself for Counter-Strike Classic! He's set up a basic page, tho it is being worked on. Pretty slick little installer for the package, go check it out, and let's get our Classic CS On, baby! :) So many of the maps that have been deleted from the CS download package are just so damned kick ass... Good work Dop!

HEY! Some of the Tribes screenshots I've submitted got posted on Tribes-Universe! Check em out. :)

Just checking out the Wizards & Warriors site. Looking like a pretty cool RPG game. Graphics ACTUALLY look like something out of this century as well, which is something seldom seen these days in a first person RPG. Maybe we finally have a worthy successor to Stonekeep! :) Take a BOO.

September's news has been archived. It really does amaze me how much you can post in a month when you put your tiny little mind to it!

Good morning FRAGtopia!!!!!!!

Heh. Always wanted to say that. (Ahhh.. Crossing #5 off your "to do" list... Priceless. For everything else there's Bastardcard!)

Just moved my little rant from yesterday over to the rants page, fleshed it out a little more. It is now complete, as only a ham sandwich with mayo can be complete.

Smashed the hell out of my Palm pilot yesterday, in what the press is calling a tragic "Dropped the frickin' thing" incident.

Called Palm. To replace a cracked screen (Which is actually ON their menu of buttons to press, I guess it's pretty common.) is $150+shipping. My unit is worth around $250. Sigh.

Alas poor Palm, I knew him well.

Now I'm going to use those mad killing skillz I've picked up playing Tribes, and I'm going to blow the bejezus out of the thing with a rifle. I'll post the pictures. The article's title? "The Palm IIIe... Really as bulletproof as 3Com claims?" :)) News at 11.

First off, if you've never heard a song called "Saltwater" by Chicane, go dig yourself up a copy and check it out. Very, very nice song. (If you're into trance/mellow dance stuff.)

From the Wonderful World Of Kingpin (WWOK [tm]) comes THIS link. Not sure if this is a good write up or not. Personally I wish my LANing was limited to only one a week. :) Generally we're limited to once a month (*cough*wives*cough*) which just isn't enough sweet LAN lovin' to go around as far as I'm concerned. Naturally most of the article, which started out on such a promising note, is dedicated to the "violent" side of video gaming. Of course, I do see their point. Lord only knows how many gun and knife fights we've had to break up at our LAN Parties. And those cries of "Die sucker, die." Man. (I think, "Suck it down, bitch! is more common actually, but I digress)

To quote Monty Python: "Come see the violence inherent in the system!"

Ah whatever. :)

Speaking of which, had an interesting argument a little while ago with a guy. He was arguing that video games somehow make you a killer..... After I pointed out a few hundred times that if that were true the world would have been destroyed many times over by tens of millions of homicidal gamers, and this town would have had 80-90 guys destroy it last May (We didn't btw, we just sat around and played many, many games.) He finally came down to video games making you a more efficient killer.

Found it hard to argue with this one, (Assuming of course that the game player goes out and kills someone.. which is sooooo very unlikely) since I do believe that games increase your hand/eye co-ordination. Of course, I don't see how you can think that increasing a person's hand/eye co-ordination or manual dexterity is a bad thing. In fact, if it's true it should be promoted to parents and encouraged. (The video games, not the running around shooting folks.) Naturally, playing alot of "Operation", Golf or tennis would likely have the same effect.

Personally I think it's kinda sad that people honestly somehow believe that playing games will cause you to somehow lose your mind and go on a killing spree. A few years ago it was violent TV, before that it was violent comic books & cartoons. Before that it was Dungeons and Dragons. The first time a caveman ever beat someone over the head, he probably blamed it on violent hunts.

Interestingly enough, about 15 years ago some idiot in our local town here killed a few kids and claimed it was because he was playing DND, and he was just role playing out his fantasy world for real. DND (Or any role playing game for that matter) was immediately "banned" in our school system, despite the fact that millions play every day and don't kill anyone, other than on paper. I was quite pissed off when they broke up our DND club. (I was in grade... Hmmmmm.. 7 at the time I believe) I remember how horrified my parents were when I said I was interested in playing with some friends after school when I was a little older. I remember cathing hell from one of the school librarians when they "caught" me drawing up some DND maps. (Yesh. You'd think they'd caught me drawing up campagn posters for Mike Harris or thinking independantly or something horrible like that. :)

I honestly think that people need to smarten up a little bit, stop listening to those idiot "Experts" on TV and think for themselves. Just ask yourself... "Do I really believe that if I sat down and played video games (Ex. Quake III) that I would turn into a raging, homicidal manic and start killing people?"

The answer of course will be something like "Well no... duh." Reminds me of that Dilbert cartoon where the cat is advising the boss to treat his employees like crap to increase production. Boss' voice bubble reads "So despite the fact that ill treatment and being demeaned wouldn't work on me, it will work on everyone else?"

The VAST majority of people, regardless of age, when playing a videogame, or watching a movie, or reading a comic book are smart enough and sensible enough to realise that..... This is not real. (Again, well DUH.) If someone's grasp on reality is so tenous that a video game, TV, a movie or a cartoon pushes them off the deep end... Well, I think that person needs proffessional help, and maybe to be locked up in a small dark room somewhere far away from other people. Hamilton maybe, or Siberia. Of course, it could be ANYTHING that sets a person like that off. Seeing something, reading something...Someone saying something like "Deliver that mail faster mister.".... Things like that.... Anything.....

Despite the fact that I've been playing "Violent" (And yes damn it, I just LOVE when you gib someone really good in Quake III and the body explodes. It's just cool for some reason.) video games for years, (In fact, my mother banned me from the computer many moons ago when she caught me playing a game on the C64 that involved running people down in a car... Kinda like Prehistoric Carmagedon, without the gore or 3D graphics.) you won't be seeing me, or any of my gaming buddies up on any bell towers or grassy knolls with our sniper rifles. If I really wanna do something like that, you'll find me on a hill somewhere in Tribes picking off flag carriers.

THIS Penny-Arcade cartoon says alot. :) (Note: I couldn't find the cartoon damn it... It WAS really funny tho.) It's a funny little comment on it, but that seems to be how some of these media guys look at gamers. And if that US army twit is right about games turning you into a super human killing machine, he'd better get down to the next Quake Con and start recruiting. Why, if you could just get Fatality in your military you could get rid of everyone else! Think of the savings. Just as long as the Russians or Chinese don't have any gamers as good, they win the next war. Woot! :)

Someone, sooner or later is going to call me insensitive or something silly like that for this rant. "But what about the victims?!?" They'll sob into their designer coffee. (I occasionally get messages like that, haranging me about my lack of feelings.)

Frankly, what about them? It's tragic when some idiot goes out and kills folks, and I DO feel badly about it.....but it has nothing to do with this conversation... we're talking about video game violence here...... Not the results of some nutcase's real life issues.

Well, this rant just ran outta steam. :) Cyah on the battlefield.

Oh, yeah! Creative Labs just bought AUREAL. (Thanks Prae)

Well, long weekends suck. You say to yourself: "Why, Marauder" (You say) "Why do long weekends suck?"

Because you have to go back to work on Tuesday, that's why!

Ahhh well. Better than having to work Monday I guess. :)

Anyhows, if anyone happens to be interested, I just revamped my personal site. It's HERE in all it's creamy semi goodness. Check it out, I rather like the way it turned out. :)

Still waiting eagerly for the Tribes 2 beta to ship so I can weedle some of the beta testers into letting me look over their shoulders while they play. Apparently the guys at Dynamix have hearts made of the only thing in the known universe harder than stone..... Yes... Lithuanian midget wrestlers. The truth must be known! My heartfelt pleas fell on deaf ears. OK, so I cried like a little girl and begged like a broke crack addict pleading with his pusher. Is that really so wrong? WOULD ANY OF YOU DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?! I think not. So there.

My gaming bud Hormone sent me the link to the Team VANGUARD web site. Check it out. Very, very well done flash work. These guys have someone who really knows what he's doing. Getting a little sick of that particular format (I think it was IE that started it.) But still impressive.

Another good friend, Shiloh sent over THIS link. It's about that stupid email hoax that's been going around for many moons about how the US Gov't is planning to tax email somehow. :) Hah. Good reading.

I'm getting a quite sick of Shaw cable. For 2 months now I've been getting disconnected in the evenings a few times an hour. It's incredibly annoying. I've called them a few times about it. The conversations go something like this:

Marauder: "Hi! I have a problem. I'm getting cut off a few times an hour and am getting frustrated with your service."

moron@home: "Yes sir. We've been having that problem for a few months now. It's a known issue."

Marauder: "A known issue? Do you have an ETA on fixing it? It's been a few months and all."

idiot@home: "No sir. Apparently we're waaaaay too fucking stupid to fix a recurring problem with only a few months to work on it. May take us years. Maybe decades! Thanks for your money sucker! WHAHHAHAHWHAHAH!!!!!"

Marauder: "As soon as I take over the world, your deaths will be slow and painful."

I then hung up on them and started polishing up my laser rifle. Oh. I'll make em pay. I'll make em ALL pay. Oh yeah. :)) Last time it was a bloody router issue. Likely is this time as well. Just too expensive to fix.

So I guess we'll be getting quite a few months free this time. I'll see to it.

Talking to Rune & DaLurker today, and they're having wierd lag issues. Brutal is as well. Maybe the whole cable system in North America is just screwed.

Happy to report that Windows 2000 is still running just nifty shiny wonderfull on the new Tbird system. (You may recall it seems to blow everyones Athlon systems up real good.) Doing Web/Graphics design work? Can't recomend W2K enough. Some games and drivers seem to have issues running on it, but that'll change soon enough.

In fact, my machine hasn't crashed once in the two weeks since I've installed W2K. Woot! Such a nice change from 2-3x/day reboots with W98.

Just for our American friends, I got sent this rather amusing image from a Mr. Williams. CHECK OUT Al Gore, Mr. Wisdom himself! Would you vote for this man, or take him on a hunting trip? Or vote to take him on a hunting trip?

Finally found out what the sweet song from the VIP2 demo I posted a few weeks ago is called. It's "Ressurection" from Fear Factory. Such an amazing track.

The war on spammers continues. Just sent out another dozen messages to ISP asking them to kick the crap out of spammers for me. I doubt they will, but it doesn't hurt.

Nolman had a run in with the infamous "NoFix" on the 5150 Tribes server the other day. Id anyone happens to know who this son-of-a-bitch is, please send me his information. It'd be a shame if that got submitted to America's Most Wanted by accident wouldn't it?

Anyhows, quite enough babeling from me. :) I'm going to bed.

:) Welcome to the long weekend all Canadians. To you Americans who are working today... HAH! Sucks to be you!

Due to family obligations, I really haven't had the time to post much news. I did however pull my standard patented "Time Warp" manuver, if you look at the date tags. (GRRRRRRRRRRRR) Today however IS indeed the 9th. Not yesterday. Don't set your clock by me. :)

The pictures link just to the left of this now works. That was one of the sections of the site I'd not had time to convert over when I did the new design... And frankly I just finally forgot about it. Kingpin however, being too damned lazy to type a few extra characters kept bothing me about it.. So there. It's fixed. :) Enjoy.

We need help! (Yes.. Yes... The doctor did finally let us out, so not THAT kind of help.) Bascially we're still looking for people to do news, rants, reviews... That sort of good stuff. Right now it's just Rune and myself, as Praetorian has been doing his invisible man impersonation for the last 6 months or so. If you'd like to help out, lemme know.

Finally got the mail server up and running. :) Doesn't really matter to you guys, but it's shiny having @fragtopia.com mail addys. :) We are now r33t. Just another of those things I had to get around to doing. AH! Another of those things is real FTP access without using the screwed up NT way of doing things (A port for each FTP??!?) Those of you who have sites hosted with us (Except you d0zer... I've lost your contact info... ICQ me.) have been contacted with the new info. Enjoy. :)

Speaking about hosting..... Have a cool gaming site you'd like to create? Looking for a place for your clan's website? We do hosting. And it's free. Free is good. Therefore free hosting is good. :) If you want to get hooked up, just let me know and we'll arrange it for you. :)

Plotting begins for FRAGtopia 2001. We're going to be looking for Sponsors & Volunteers. Again, contact me if interested. We'll be posting all the info, and minutes from the meetings/progress reports etc when we do 'em. :)

Off to do more favmily crap, then back to work tomorrow. Cyah all then.

THIS is the funniest thing that I've seen in a while...

3DChipset has gone ahold of yet more new leaked Detonator drivers! GeForce owners rejoice! This brings the them up to version 6.34. Of course these are unofficial so use at your own risk, may be hazardous to your health, do not insert into water .... blah blah blah...etc... Grab 'em here.

Well it looks like those new ATI Radeon cards are selling pretty well. ATI's new card has apparently been a very strong seller despite the fact the ATI has been in a bit of a sales slump lately. Rage 3D reports that ATI is set to release quite a few followups to this card. Check the details:

RADEON MAXX - 128MB, to be released in late October\early November.

RADEON II - 2 times faster than RADEON, full DX8 part, programmable TCL engine, to be announced during Comdex Fall 2000 (Nov. 13 - 17) and will be available in December.

RADEON II MAXX - Dual RADEON II setup based on ATI's AFR technology, to be released in Spring 2001, 3 months after RADEON II release.

RADEON PRO - 4 times faster than RADEON, 400mhz core, 0.15m, enhanced rendering architecture, will be available in the summer of 2001.

mobile RADEON - to be announced in the next couple of months, will be shipping in early 2001.

RV100 - value priced Radeon, to be announced this month, shipping in November.

This should makes things quite interesting in the upcoming 3D hardware scene (and stop cackling Weinerboy! :-) ). Other new cards said to be coming up soon include the Nvidia NV20, the Matrox G800, and 3dfx's Rampage. Say.. you don't really need both kidneys to live do you? Maybe it's time to sell a few non-essential body parts. :-)

BTW, if you like the whole idea of making Windows look like a different operating system or at least look a little more l33t, check out WindowBlinds. This will let you customize the look of Windows to the point where you can hardly even recognize it. You can even download skin themes (also called 'personalities') off of their website or at Skinz.org. The best part is that you don't need to replace your OS shell to do it either...

Allrighty! I've just afuckingbout had it! You've all seen them.....

"Reply now for fabulous savings!"

"Your computer could be making you money!"

"Reply to this email and we'll send you information on how to make money shaving poodles!"

"Forward this to every god damned person in your address book, and you too can be a spamming little bitch like me!"

"Collect rat saliva for fun and profit! Ask me how!"

"If you don't send this to 50 of your friends within the next 30 seconds, your dog will die, your computer will combust, and it's quite possible you'll never again be able to concieve children! Just ask Manuel Noriega! He didn't reply to this message, and look what happened?!? JFK? Didn't forward it. Neither did the Elvis! EH!? YOU WANNA DIE OR SOMETHING?!?!?!?! BETTER FORWARD THIS NOW BEFORE THE RUSSIANS RAPE YOUR GRANDMOTHER!!!!!!!"

ARGH!..... ARGH! I say.

I've had my ICQ number for quite a few years, and I've had my current email addy for.....Hmmmmmm. Lemme see here....About 3 years now. I now recieve more spam mail than normal mail. And I'm starting to get TONS of ICQ spams. I'm really pissed off. I mean REALLY pissed. Not my normal cheery self at all. Something must be done to stop this shit. People finally started complaining to the post office (Here anyhows, dunno about our Stripey/Stary friends to the south.) and you can now request that they do NOT give you junk mail. Well! Spam is the same damned thing as getting a wack of junk mail everyday. At least it's easy to sort out the junk mail. I just throw it out. Not to say I can't just delete the spam I get. I do. Then I email the company doing it. And their ISP. And I phone and fax if they've left those on the email. I just sent a pissed off email to Postmaster Direct yesterday telling them to remove my addys from any and all mailing lists those SOBs spam out for people. Needless to say, I don't think I'll get a reply but I'll post it if I do get one. I've been getting one lately with titles like "Hey! It's me!" and "Hey man! Remember me?"

Needless to say, "Sarah and her young slut friends" are not good friends of mine, and no I don't remember those great times we had together. Mind you, I may have been playing Duke Nukem or Quake I at the time and it's just slipped my mind. ARGH!

Something's go to be done. Maybe mandatory shootings for everyone who sends out shit emails. For the moment I just call, email, & fax the bastards back and tell them to drop dead. My current fav is:

"Spam sucks. Therefore.. YOU suck. Please remove me from all your mailing lists. NOW. Have a great day. Oh, and if any large vehicles happen to be headed for you, please don't bother stepping out of the way."

Anyone got any good suggestions? Large calibre weapons? (Preferably something in the 1-2 kiloton range.)

Anyhows, on to more pleasant subjects:

Still playing the new evil unleashed upon the earth by Microsoft. No, no. Not "Mini-Gates".... I mean Crimson Skies. The time wasting, work missing evil. Very good evil. but evil none-the-less. :) Thanks to all the guys who've been shooting me down. Including Dopper, who I think was just toying with me two days ago. Smoked me last night. Nice game Dopp.

Speaking of memories!! (Well.. Actually we weren't but it's a good lead in.)

I've been running around the net lately, hitting sites that remind me of the old days.. You know, the good old days of gaming. When 64K was often enough, but hours of sitting in front of your computer staring at pir8 loaders was not. :) I found the sites of one of my favorite old scene groups.. Fairlight. And they even have a java intro of their old famous loader! Check IT out. Pretty sweet and brings back alot of great memories from my mispent youth. They still maintain a C64 page as well. Woot! :) I've posted a copy of their THEME song in MP3 format. Anyone else remember this bad boy? Ahhhhhhhhhh.... It's funny (Not to sound like one of those old pompous, suspender wearing Unix guru guys) but I really don't think people who've only gotten into gaming and computers in the last few years really appreciate where it's come from and what it is. Old school baby! :)

Dman sends a pretty neat little URL. It's a shell replacement for your boring old Windows desktop... Makes it look alot like that of a linux box. Naturally you could simply install Linux, but then your most loved apps wouldn't work. Which would, as I like to put it, "suck" (tm) Also from Dman comes a nifty little page his buddy from from HOME. Lots of skins, info and links for Linux.

Horm was nice enough to send me a few screenshots from a Tribes server the gang was on the other day. You just know you're playing with really great players when you get scores like THIS and THIS without any flag caps. :) Ouchies.

Think you're a pretty hot hand at Counter-Strike? CSAF is reforming! Red & Dop are having a try out tonight. ICQ Red for details. #: 9113753.

Welp, that's about it this morning. Enought typing for Marauder. Now I'm off to work. Cyah all later.

Kingpin (ICQ #: 7100288)

Ok... It's time my LAN party friends.... yes it's time! Time for what Kingpin you ask. Time to plan the next FRAGtopia! that's what time it is!

The first order of business will be to elect a new staff. (Elect you say?!?) Yes elect! That's right if you feel that you could help out or run an event or something else that would help, WE WANT YOU! All positions are up for election and nominations will be held at the first meeting. (SAT. OCT. 21, 2000, starting at 6:30 PM)

We will be looking for the following official nonpaying positions...

Think this is all we need?!? Boy are you sadly mistaken' We need all the help we can get to make this years FRAGtopia Bigger and Better the ever. Several positions will be created this year for the first time so even if none of the above interest you there might be something that you would be great at!

After the new staff is elected the plotting for global domination (I mean FRAGtopia) will begin!

So if you can help please come out to the meeting on the 21th and if you can't make it but still want to help please feel free to e-mail Marauder or Myself.

Keep checking back for an update after the meeting!

Marauder (ICQ #: 12419781)

Allrighty. I'm busy howling with laughter. Hate those morons who walk around talking on Cell phones? Hate those inconsiderate pricks who yack in theatres? Think those phones should be smashed into little tiny pieces, and their owners humiliated? Yeah. Me Too. THESE guys share our enlightened view of mobile phone ownership. Giant Cell Phones unite for destruction! Check 'em out, funny as hell. They have ANOTHER site as well, with a cute video along the same lines. Thanks to Madcat & Dopper for the link.

Playing Crimson Skies last night with some buddies last night WELL past my bed time. Man. That's a great game single player, and it's adictive as hell multiplayer... the bloody Zep vs. Zep battles are just wild man.... And the cries of "Shazbot! Our flag is not in the base!" were pretty funny during an air battle. :) Get this game, and lets get it on. No dedicated server tho, which pisses me off but you can't have everything. Oh, and there are no central servers listing games... You still have to use that Retarded "Zone" thingy unless you know the IP. Yech. Thanks to Horm, Dop, Mr. E, and The Blue Baron (Heh. I should play as Snoopy, for some revenge. :) for the great games!

As much as it hurts me very much, right down in my soul to admit this. Microsoft is actually turning out to be a good game publisher. The software they write is crappy.... But.... the software they publish.....Hmmm... Lemme see here. AOE I & II. Motocross Madness 1 & 2. Midtown Madness. Mechwarrior 3 (With some reservations. Re: Shit mutliplayer) MS Combat Fight Sim, now this.... They're on a bit of a streak... Now they posses Bungie, blessed makers of the Holy Game (tm) Halo. Well, Tribes 2 is the Holy Game. But Halo is a close second in my line up of gaming deties whose visits in the night I eagerly anticipate. Perhaps the burning hatred for them that I clutch close to my heart to keep me warm during cold, lonely blue screen sessions may start to fade somewhat if they keep this up..........

Well, maybe not. Pretty close call tho. :)

Kingpin got himself a sweet, sweet new laptop he's all proud of... Waiting eagerly for it's arival.. In fact, it's almost like another kid is on it's way..... But it's a kid you can play with right off! And if it soils itself.... Well..... Actually it won't. Heh. :) Woot!

In actual FRAGtopia news, I've been getting quite a few ICQ's and emails asking when the next big party is going to be.. And the answer is.... Sometime. :)

Yes, we are definately having another party. The Staffers should be getting together sometime next week to start the ploting and the scheming. I'll start posting updates and progress reports. For the moment, if you were at the last one, EMAIL me with your views, and opinions. We want to make each party better than the one before, but we need your feedback. What was good? What was bad? What would YOU have done different? Hook us up with your opinions. I'll be bringing copies of everyone's points to the meetings for review.

Crimson skies is a sweet game. Very much alot of fun and excitment. :) Microsoft however, charges too damned much for their game. I ended up paying $65 CDN for my copy...... And that kiddies, is the WHOLESALE price. ARGH!

More news later. Very busy at work right now. :(

Evening 'yall. Due to the fact that it's 1:00am and I don't feel like writing a whole lotta news, this'll be a short one.

First off, my good buddy Hormone sent me THIS sweet link. Lost faith in this old world? Watch the movie, and feel the holy power of goodness flood back into your tired, sad soul!

Kingpin found a link to a GUY who's had real computer problems.... Think you've had nightmares? This poor sap is the KING of bad luck with computers. Man. Reading his site makes me feel alot better about any problems I've had!

I finally, after some tinkering got Windows 2K installed and running perfectly on my machine.. And guess what? Mechwarrior 4 demo runs GREAT!!!!!!!! Stupid Win9x shit. Stupid fucking Microshit.

Played thru the Crimson Skies demo. Wow. That's one hell of a game. Must now go out and buy. :) I don't like flight sims... This is more of a fun flying sim. Pretty sweet. Check it out!

Logitech has a new series of mice out called iTouch. Now, other than the fact that the name sounds like a new Apple porn movie, check the site out and insert own joke here. Hey, last night I was out with my _______ and I got one of those new mice! I used it for _______. :))

Downloaded the newest Detonator drivers for my GeFORCE today