NEWS

There's a new site you might like to check out here.

AHEM

I haven't lost the old skills. Eschaton:DT will in fact be released in January- on Saturday, in other words.

NOw all I need to do is get the date wrong...

AN UPDATE!

No, you are not seeing things. I am updating, to tell you, in brief, what is going on in regards to NFTF at the moment.

It should by now be fairly obvious that between Eschaton, RL and my Secret Project, I can no longer update NFTF on my own. However, a number of people have volunteered to help, and so we are having a meeting next week to organise a restructuring and division of responsibilities for NFTF. I will still be running the site, but I will have others to help, and once this is set up NFTF will be even bigger and better than it was in the heydays of July and August.

My apologies for the inconvenience I know I have caused, which I hope will be resolved shortly. For one reason for aforementioned inconvenience, see the next item...

ESCHATON: DARKENING TWILIGHT RELEASE

Yes, it is finished. Well, nearly.

Eschaton: Darkening Twilight will be released at 8:00pm GMT on Saturday 17th August. There will be a release party and showing at Reality-X in Edinburgh, and an on-line party in 3Dnet #eschaton. PLease, come along and join us, either in the flesh or on IRC.

IRREGULARITIES (II)

Sorry, we did warn you...

Anyway, Merry Christmas from all the NFTF team, and especially from DMS, whose cheery Christmas message I managed to delete on my last update. Sorry about that.

CHRISTMAS PAK

Rorshach sends the following along...

"I've made a new Xmas pak file: it includes a new map suited to about 8 to 16 players and it uses all new textures, 2 new player skins a male and female xmassy ballsy type, complete redo of the hud from the powerup icons thru to the players face, new gibbed head and altered skins on all the weapons and to top it off a few new sounds like a ' SHIITT' comment after discharging int eh water or 'come get some' when firing the RL' and 'HO HO HO' when collecting Quad.

Its available to download from my website and can be used with Quake or QW.

Oh and lest i forget, Merry Xmas and all that jazz!"

This could be Rors' last public release ever (aside from Eschaton: Darkening Twilight), so don't miss it!

ESCHATON RELEASE DATE FIXED

Eschaton: Darkening Twilight, the groundbreaking Quake Movie that evolved from the UK Movie Project, will be released on the 17th of January.

The Eschaton team are already looking for new members to work on the second part of the series, Eschaton: Nightfall. If you're interested, email me.

FREE FRONTEND!

Jools Chester emails me some very good news for anyone running out of Quakespace:

"Just a little note to say that I have released the new version of Quakelaunch freeware build 23.12.97 and it is available at www.quakelaunch.base.org.

This is one of the oldest Quake frontends (over a year old), although not much has been done with it recently. It has now had a complete overhaul to support Quake 2 (and a few other juicy things as well).

A few highlights:

+Full freeware version, with no need to register
+All maps and patches are stored in ZIP files to save space
+Multiplayer and Internet support
+Categories for storing the maps and patches in
+Full support for QuakeWorld and Quake 2, now all versions of Quake can be launched
+Quakelaunch name maker, so you too can have all those fancy names you see on Quake servers, very easy to use
+Can be run through Qspy/Gamespy to launch QW servers, Quakelaunch now handles all the configuration
+Quick launch buttons (10 of them) to store a complete setup in, just click to start in any configuration you like
+Lots more options added for choosing skins, etc.
+Support for launching Quake 2 as well, not all options are
implemented but most will work
+Many more things as well, go and download it!"

WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD SERVERS GONE?

You may well have heard of the plague that has struck Quake II servers recently. Well, Minos have managed to get and keep a server up. Waldorf:

"We will be endeavouring to keep the server up over the Xmas holidays (finally we can remote admin!) so expect to find a Q2 server up on:

195.153.47.8:27999

until at least next Monday...

If the server disappears for any reason, be sure to check back here for updates. Remeber, the web page at www.minos.co.uk also keeps track of the server."

Please remember not to post this IP to any QuakeII Server lists, unless you want it to vanish again...

CLAN NEWS

- TRElvis has resigned from his position as leader of the Dark Preachers. The new leader is [DP] Smac.

IRREGULARITIES

Sadly, NFTF will be updated irregularly over the Christmas period, as both DMS and The Nomad are away for holidays of varying length. Expect updates every two or three days on average.

Don't you have homes to go to, families to see? Now might be a good time...

-The Nomad

CLANRING NEWS

The following comes from LonerVamp, a member of the international Clanring staff (for newcomers, the Clanring is the closest thing in existance to an "official" Clan organisation):

"Clanring is now unveiling plans for a Clan Council, to decide matters such as those above, and much more. With the advent of 'professional' leagues, prizes, live play and the rise of online gaming, Clanring is looking to the general Quake community to say what it wants and where it wants this to go. For the present, the role of the Clan Council will be to put down a set of rules for playing such events and to uphold them in the matches. Fair rule making in a must for any Clan Council nominations.

Do you want more CTF playing? Do you think Deathmatch play is the way to go? How willing would you all be to start a massive CTF league, or tournament, or DeathMatch tournament?? What about the willingness of CTF teams to move from QW to NQ?? Would you like to be paid to play in them? Prizes? What about interest in regional live events? Would people be willing and ready to form regional teams and compete at regional LIVE events for prizes?? What about internationally? Should there be some organization hosting an international competition with 'official' country teams? If nothing else, give me personal feedback on these issues.

No matter what you think, get someone nominated to the new clan council. Someone you trust and want to represent you as a Quake player. Someone who will take charge, define what will happen, and the rules for events. Advise Clanring on what the community wants and what should be done. Email myself or ignatu@mpog.com for information and view the web pages for even more information about Clanring and the Clan Council.

One last request: forward this message to your clan members, or to other Quake players or clans that may be interested in this. And lastly, if there is interest, Clanring will very soon be organizing a small (16 team?) CTF tournament, hopefully to represent the best Quake has to offer in CTF and to act as a starting block to Clanring involvement in CTF play.

Clan Council temporary homepage:

http://www.mpog.com/clanring/clancouncil

Clanring:

http://www.mpog.com/clanring. "

CLAN NEWS

- The Quake Lords have moved to a new address: www.quakelords.co.uk.

- The TriggerBunnies are looking for " ready, willing and able LPBs with a sense of humour", as well as a provider for a Clan server. If you can help them out, email AngelBrain.

FREE WEB SPACE FOR QUAKE2 CLANS!

Whoever said nothing was free?  This sounds like a wonderful deal, so thanx Coerj for passing on the details.

"Here is the message I would like to spread around for the Quake 2 UK community.  Quakes n Ladders is a dedicated UK Player and Clan website run by OpsMan who is the MD of ThrustWorld and loves Quake2.  Firstly good people are needed to help on the site.  I have two people from Thrust willing to help, but it needs to be an enthusiast who will update everyday. The guys or gals helping will be given a free Thrustworld account for as long as they work on the site.  Now for the interesting freebies for Quake2 Clans and specialist people.  Can you spread the word to all UK Quake2 clans that the offer is as follows:

1./         5 meg of webspace http://clans.quake2.co.uk/clanname
2./         ftp download for their clan
3./         Email address for team to be team@quake2.co.uk  this will include forwarding to their members
4./         If 10 or more people from the clan join Thrust World they will get use of the clan servers.

Also for specialised quake2 sites ie TC's etc even big info or tips sites editing that kind of thing will be:

1./        Hosted free of charge
2./        With a mailing list for each run by the individuals.
3./        ftp area for up and download
4./        Web address to be http://sites.quake2.co.uk
5./        cgi bin and Frontpage 98 access
6./        No limits as to size of site within reason it will max out at 20 meg but for more they just need to ask."

Well what are you waiting for?  Here is the contact e-mail.

TV APPEARANCES FOR THE BEST QUAKE PLAYERS?

The following should be of interest to you all, and is signed with love from Crystaltips.

"Channel 4 and BMG Interactive are teaming up to whap up a fragfest, with some nice fat prizes and a wee bit of teevee coverage. They want up to six teams of up to three players, and then it seems there will be a big bloodbath on a couple of levels to find out which (representative) team of a clan is the best. They're looking for members of the top six British Quake Clans.....heh, fight it out amongst yourselves about who that is, if you're interested in having a go.   Thrustworld are offering a server, and it looks like BMG are going to chuck in a customised, collectors-item playstation, 12 or so games and 12 or so runners up prizes. There'll be beer. There'll be a televised edition (probably in the new year, early though) of who finally is the best UK Quake Clan. (hahahahahah).   My job is to organise this thing and find out who'd be interested. I already know that DC_Orlith and DC_MNK have signed up for this to represent DC - any takers?  Last thing - over 18 only please (eek), and mail me direct if you can."

ANOTHER WEB SITE TO BOOKMARK

Mayhem wanted you all to know that his web site is now up here.  Although I couldn't find it there myself...

SERVER HACKED- FIND THE FOOL

We got this unfortunate piece of news from Pinhead, and I'm hoping that someone out there can help.  I'm not going to state what the slogan was because I have a special sense of disgust reserved against bigots and racists.   However, it was identical to the slogan pasted over the Iomega site when that was hacked a while back- a linkage perhaps?

"The BFG Clan server was hacked during the weekend - Must have got Rcon password somehow.....   The Server name was changed to [racist slogan] and a login password was set preventing BFG admins to gain access remotely.  This was done by someone who knew what they were doing and wanted to stop players using an open server. We have found out the Player's IP and Name:

204.32.198.88 - Username loser99

If anyone knows anything about this or can offer any help please contact either QL.[PiNHEAD] or BFG.Frags"

TRADITIONALLY A DAY OF REST

All quiet on NFTF.

OBVIOUSLY NOT ENOUGH QUAKE LEAGUES

Seriously though, as anticipated the first Quake2 league has been announced, and details can be found here.  Quake2 itself will need a fair bit of addressing before net games are possible though.

CATCH UP ON THE MCW CUP

Sujoy reminds us that the MCW cup was played last weekend, and you might all want to catch up on the details here.  (The trick to finding it is clicking on "events").  Oh, and well done to DC for taking the cup!

MOOSE GOES TO PRINT

I'm told by a couple of people that Moose2000 has written an article for Demon Dispatches.  This is the magazine sent to all Demon Internet users, you'll find it here.  (Thanx to whoever passed that on to me over irc).

Q2 SERVER UP TONIGHT- FIRST OF MANY WE HOPE

Kick mails to tell us that he should have a Quake2 server up as of 19:00 tonight.  The address will be 129.234.202.90.  Hopefully it'll be a powerful one so that everyone with a copy of Quake2 can join and have a massive welcoming game!

-Oh, I've realised it's only 17:55 so I've got the unqle server up as a Quake2 server for you.  IP is 163.1.157.150 Enjoy!

- thats the most important news for tonight, the rest will go up later on.  A lab drinking session has priority unfortunately ;-)   Hopefully I'll see some of you on that server in the early hours though.  With all the alcohol in the blood quake2 networking will appear much better...

IMPULSE 1 OPENED AGAIN

Apparently the last few weeks have been a warm up for Impulse 1, and you're again invited to check out the site.  They tell us, "Over the coming months we're planning lots of cool stuff, including reviews/previews of hardware and software, as well as interviews with people in the community and at softco's (check out our interview with Christian Antkow of id software)"

Quake 2- Fact & Fiction

With the release of Quake2 imminent, why not send in comments about what you think of it.  Are you disappointed?  Are you concerned of bugs?  Do you prefer Vanillia Quake?  What would you have made Quake2?  Are we allowed to criticise anything coming from the Doom/Quake stable?   Are other games out there going to clean the floor (Unreal etc)?  Please send general banter here, I'll write a general update this weekend if there was enough interest.

40,000

No not a mention of any Gamesworkshop products (those were the days), but Granny wanted a mention for being the 40,000th visitor.   Typical, we go to all this trouble to maintain a site and people want credit for viewing it <chuckle>.  Anyway, keep sending in news, and we'll keep this the UK premier Quake news site.

FANCY A CHANGE OF SCENE?

Peej tells us, "If you didn't know, ReTinaL has been re-making his excellent map RTLDM2  for the DMP, it is now finished and available from the DMP."

SERVERS GOING DOWN

Avenger informs us that the Cambridge powers that be are chasing after servers.  Avenger's server (131.111.224.15) is expected to be forced to close, and mention was also made that other's may follow.  Losing University servers will certainly be a great loss to the server base.  Currently we're spoilt for choice, and I hope we don't have to rely on commercial servers at any point (warning of impending £££ traps). 

BEFORE YOU ASK

The old news has been moved to the archive section.

YOU DO REALISE THAT I COULD BE SLEEPING

But I know many of you will be up this minute dreaming of playing Quake2 (I'd hate to imagine what else creep's into people's head this late) and some of you will be delighted to hear that the first Quake2 proxy has been completed.  This should be of great aid to those of you without direct connections to the net.  For more information look no further than here.  Linux, sunos, solaris, and win32 versions alike were all brought to you by Arathranar.

QUAKE2 RELEASE PARTIES

-Nomad passes on news that there is to be a Quake 2 release party (Friday 12th), details of which can be found here.  If the prospect of Quake2 isn't enough to excite you then the news that Nomad will be previewing Eschaton should get you going!   The organisers appear to be getting copies of Quake2 from Activision in advance so for most of us it'll be the first chance to see it!  (Ok, so DMS saw it at ECTS, and someone else probably dreamed about it ;-).

-Apparently there is another party on Thursday (11th) at SNS (Shoot 'N' Surf).  They're obviously well ahead of the game!   Also, pictures taken at SNS over the weekend are available here.

ESCHATON TRAILER RELEASED!!!

This is the first chance to see the Nomad's quake movie project!  There is a 667k real audio version available, with a mpeg version (larger and better quality) also available.  Check out the site for details.

THE OMNICRON BOT IS AFTER YOU

Can't say I've had the chance to try out the bot which a lot of people are proclaiming as a great advancement over the past favourite, but for those of you having trouble getting it from the original site, do try here.  That is brought to you courtesy of DMP.

UKCL REPORT

A rather extensive report about the UKCL season has been sent in by Chemical, due to its size, and the perpetual enlargement of the NFTF page, we've put it here.

ANOTHER CLAN LAID TO REST

RTW has closed down. Yes, after all these  years of allowing anyone to join and playing anyone for the fu of it, we have  finished. This is because of the fact that some of our players were not  committed, others left to join local clans and what we were left with was a clan  going nowhere. However, I have set up a new clan (clan MIB) with my local cyber  cafe so if anyone wants to join, email me for a trial. 

EVERYONE REMEMBER QUAKECON?

Kernow (Cornish for Cornwall) QuakeCon '97 is taking place this weekend, 6th & 7th December. With no major backing for the event, prizes have been limited and hard to come by, but Activision have promised some
copies of Quake II, so it's not just for pride! With the sad demise of Fragstock, all and any players are welcome to
trek down to Cornwall to participate, including free tickets to Cornwall's premier night-club on the Saturday night, attached to the QuakeCon Function rooms. The night will include the Ibiza Foam Party, a must for a party goers (bring a change of clothes!), and consumption of ridiculous amounts of beer and spirits. Those bringing machines BE EARLY, fragging starts at 10am and we need to get organised. Quake winners get lots of cheap drinks (ermmmm!)

TERM'S OUT

Well the Oxford term is over and the troops are heading home, but DMS will still be with you for a couple of weeks yet so keep your eyes open for the quake news, and naturally everything about quake2!  Oh, and with the end of term party being last night, DMS was slightly preoccupied- even the dedicated temporally lapse back into life.

UKCL FINAL FURTHER DETAILS

Precious little accurate detail could be extracted from the mad banter of spaming and slandering which was taking over #quake.uk for some time after the ill fortuned final.  In the interest of all the quake players out there who weren't present, or who didn't get caught up in the crossfire, here's the essence from a chat DMS had with Coerj, and from what sense could be made from irc.   Apologies if any of the following is deemed not to be a true representation of anything which occurred, but its hard to get people to confirm a story at 05:07.

The first game appeared to run smoothly, with DC winning by a handful of frags, even though they had been losing through the early stages of the game.  The pressure seemed too much for the players though and when the second game ran into problems, tempers began to flare.  The major contentions seemed to be: the DC use of a proxy to connect; a DC player being a LPB from Germany, as opposed to a HPB as the ping suggested; QPD players having great trouble connecting to a server and forcing a restart, before dropping occasionally from the second round- which was eventually annulled.  There seemed to be some "debate" over whether proxies were banned from the UKCL, as DC members claimed that there had been conflicting statements over whether this was the case or not.

As there are no prizes for winning the UKCL it can only be a wounded pride which causes such an important event to disintegrate.  It's displays such as this which make it easy to understand why people turn their back on the quake community!  [Oh, and I hope that we're entitled to our opinion just as much as every other biped].

UKCL FINAL ROUND ONE PLAYED BUT SECOND ENDS IN CHAOS

Apologies, but real work prevents DMS bringing you an immediate update (other than to say...).  The little offering at the moment is that DC won the first leg 218 to 211.  The second round ended in bitter dispute, more news in the early hours... don't touch that dial!

AGE LIMITED DROPPED FOR SHOOT 'N' SURF GATHERING

This one comes straight from Kelbv.   "Having spoken to Orlith, he tells me to let under 18's in. I had decided to go with whatever he said before he told me. He told me that, 'they are part of the quake community.'  Ok, there it is, under 18's feel free to mail and tell me if you are coming.  Sorry for any offence caused ;)"

MCW CUP

Spirit sends us some very simple news, "See you all this Weekend [for the MCW CUP]."

FRAGSTOCK MAY BE NO MORE, BUT LONG LIVE SHOOT 'N' SURF (SNS)

Well, SNS might well be a replacement for the first 30-40 people that e-mail kelbv (18+ only please).  The event would be from Saturday 6th 17:00 to Sunday 7th 12:00, and rumours abound of Quake2 T-shirts being on offer... For more details mail kelbv or check the ukquake mailing list.

FRAGSTOCK: MONEY UP IN SMOKE?

The official word from keblv is that Fragstock is off, as previously posted.  The event cannot go ahead at the original location unless £4,000 appears to make ends meet- something which we assume will not happen.  The request is for everyone to spread the word to ensure no one turns up to a non event!  For those wondering about what will happen to cheques posted as payment, well, they will be burnt unless you mail and request otherwise.  That sad event almost sounds like an excuse for a party itself...

UKQFFL WINNER DECIDED (STILL)

Shadow admin of the UKQFFL (UK Quake Four by Four League) invites you to visit the site to find details of the season's results.  DOM walked off with the title (which we reported a few days ago) and apparently a demo of the match is available.

SHORT AND SWEET

No, that's a comment about the length of this news item... anyway, Leann tells us that the Quake Women's Forum Skin Pac 3 is available for download.

KILLJOY BOWS OUT

UKCL admining obviously demands a great deal, and sadly we see Killjoy stepping down from this post.  In his own words:

"It is with great regret that I must say goodbye and step down from running the UKCL. I have got other more important things at the moment to deal with and so cant devote the time I need to, to deal with things. So therefore I hand over the mantle to my good buddies Spirit and Toonarmy, who will sort the final out for me. (very kind of them)."

ITS NEVER BEEN BETTER FOR THE CLANLESS

This time the request for clan members comes from ACME.  PED is after anybody who fancies joining in either a straight DM (mail for a trial) or CTF (strictly for fun) capacity.  Why not check out the team site for more details?

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE UNQLES?

Remember those?  The UK Quake awards which YOU can vote for at the Unqle site?   Well, Unqle Radio was going to be doing a show at Fragstock (sniff) and were going to announce the awards there, but this is no longer a viable option.  Thus we'll either announce them at the next major Clan Meet or on the date Fragstock would have happened, if no suitable event is about.  So just a reminder to VOTE now, to ensure everyone has a chance to express their opinion!

TRAGIC NEWS: FRAGSTOCK IS OFF!

It appears as if the "yes or no" game with Fragstock is finally over.  For reasons best growled at, Fragstock is off.  As soon as the news was announced on #quake.uk there was an emotional outburst from the quake community.  Everyone expressed their disappointment and frustration, with special sympathy muttered for the organisers.  "Fragstock was my Christmas" one especially disappointed soul was heard to cry. 

The explanation for the cancellation seems heavily rested on the venue's side:

"In effect the cost of the power distribution components has doubled from £2,500 to £5,000 and the labour element is in the region of £1,500. This estimate was drawn up on Friday evening and as yet 1 do not have- a detailed breakdown of components and costs."  (Thanks to Stuart for that).

As the breakeven line seems to have been doubled, we're looking for a minor miracle here, but lets hope the organisers can pull a joker.   Mumors have already been made that a Clanmeet III should be held to get all the Quake players together, and we'll keep you posted.

QUAKE II ?

There's no point us mirroring Blues, but you've no doubt heard that the day that we get our hands on Quake II is nearing.  There seems to be a lot of talk of missing features and future updates.  This may well strike some as a little peculiar.   It might also be a little unwelcome to those who remember swapping quake net protocols too many times!

KEEP IT FLOODING IN

Don't forget to make NFTF the first place you tip off your news!  We're assume the lull is due to the minor depression caused my Fragstock being no more.

NFTF IN A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE?

Not anymore.  As no one commented, we have to assume that you're beyond petty criticism ;-)

News From The Front and all written material therin is copyright 1997 The Nomad This page has had visitors since 26th May 1997 Report News to nomad@easynet.co.uk