Semi-realism mod for Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 OS X

Semi-realism mod for Unreal Tournament OS 9 and OS X

An unparalleled giggle collection, from any semi-realism FPS

nongaming: If you're an eBayer, you might have noticed Paypal has been having severe difficulties over the weekend, possibly stemming from a bad software update. eBay reports that as of Monday, things have begun to get better, although not before they received some bad press. On the iPod front, it looks like a lot of players are getting in on the war, including BenQ (as mentioned Oct 5), Olympus, & Virgin, the latter which is testing the interesting 5Gig capacity, which puts it head-to-head with the Mini, so I'm sure we'll see something cute & colorful. Makes me wonder what would happen if Apple licensed its iPod OS for a hefty fee, but of course vendors who own music content (like Virgin & Sony) wouldn't bite... and neither would vendors pushing their own stores or DRM schemes (MS), but everyone else would jump on. Apple would just set the licensing fee gougingly high to keep a nice profit, which would be acceptable this digital music goldrush period, even for vendors testing the waters of multiple product (read: DRM) lines. Ah I'm day dreaming, especially with Apple seeing an incredible 82% market share. In other Tunes-news, the Supreme Court declined to hear a RIAA case, letting stand a decision that the music industry can't force ISPs to name their users who are pirating music-- this is a very significant blow to the RIAA, because this was the first major test of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act).


(Oct 10): Postal 2 Gold: We are finally done with
betatesting under Ryan Gordon, and he has made the last fixes and announced that Postal 2 is now gold. The game has been tested in multiplayer with windows machines (as both servers and clients), although since the game is relatively old on the PC side, the servers are not too populated atm-- upon release I suspect it'll mainly be mac players meeting each other serverside. Of course the real treat here is the single player mode, and as I've said before it's actually quite an incisive commentary on society, including you as the game player. There is no final word on the distribution of Postal 1, but it too has been ported & betatested, so look to see it become available in some form. And yes, that is in fact Gary Coleman seemingly oblivious to the fact that he is on fire. You can read more about Gary at the official Postal 2 site, as well in a UGO interview-- and don't forget to see the hilarious photos of Gary at E3 2004.

nongaming: Apple homepage shift: I don't really use home pages, but I take it a lot of people do, and if you use the default livepage.apple.com, you should know that Apple is soon to promote apple.com/startpage instead. The bottom line is that you'll see less Netscape-sourced information and more Apple related links. Ultrawideband: Just in keeping up the news, you should know that a new wireless standard that absolutely flies at 1 Gbit/sec is being hashed out. How fast is that? Imagine streaming real time HDTV feeds to your plasma screen, or having a wireless firewire/usb2 hard drive. Apparently it's a former military technology, and works at fairly short distances, which means it will work with, rather than against, Wi-Fi and the coming WiMax. Look for the first appearance of the bleeding edge devices in 2006. Read more here. Imagine an airDVD to complement airTunes =D . Whatever it ends up looking like, we know that Apple's version will look a lot nicer that Sony's version, although both companies will try to throw something proprietary into the mix. Talking about airTunes reminds me that if you want to see what instruments & loops are actually included in the new Jam Packs 2 & 3 for Garage Band, iCompositions has them listed. From the other side: I read two very interesting articles recently, and neither was pro-Apple, but I wasn't turned off. The first was a review of Macs & OS X from the proprietor of the diehard PC site anadatech. The article is entitled A Month with a Mac, as is a very lucid and honest try at the power user's view of switching-- it's very thoughtful and thorough (it's at least 10 pages with copious screenshshots), and if you're a Mac-only user you might learn new information. The second is more directly negative and is one side of a debate at Fool, and when you get past all the trolling, there are some interesting points about Apple's stock valuation. The URL to the other defending side is also given at the beggining of the article. On the political newsfront, if you just can't get enough of the US campaigning, the iTMS is again hosting a free download of the latest Presidential debate between Kerry & Bush. This reminds me... if you're a user of Google News (which is still in beta for legal reasons after 3 years), you might have noticed certain biases one way or another for each candidate. It turns out one explanation is that there are lots of sites, and the big ones tend to headline with last names only, whereas smaller sites tend to include the first and last names more often, especially in the case of negative headlines-- and user searches of Google news tend to be of the latter variety, with both first & last name.

(Oct 8): Mac BF1942 Server: Aspyr just released the Battlefield 1942 Dedicated Server for Mac, allowing you to run a multiplayer server with support for more players than through hosting via the retail client app. Download it here. In further Aspyr news, our Aspyr reporter Rogue found that the Mac version of the Call of Duty expansion pack Call of Duty: United Offensive has just gone beta. He writes "The expansion pack offers 13 all-new single-player missions distributed among historical U.S., British and Russian campaigns, an expanded multiplayer experience featuring 11 new maps and three new modes of play, plus new weapons, player abilities and special effects. Featuring three all-new campaigns, the game lets players join the U.S. 101st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge, the British campaign as an airman shooting down German ME-109s from a B-17 bomber, and the Russian frontlines as a conscript in the crucial eight-day Battle of Kursk." Is it just me or has Aspyr been on a full scale release-roll since the summer? Bravo Glenda, keep cracking those whips over at Aspyr. =D

iMac G5 benchmark updates: Robert Morgan of Barefeats has again updated the iMac G5 gaming benchmark results. Apparently this all hinges on Apple's claim that the 17" G4 iMac 1.25 is almost half as slow as the equivalently-configured 20" at the UT2k4 benchmark-- their other comparison machines did indeed compare nicely with Barefeats' machines, so this may be believable-- however, Robert is awaiting his own evaluation G4 Macs. I originally asked him about his bootROM versions, which is how Apple discovered that he had the faster-gaming 20" G4 iMac. If these results are indeed valid, then it's even more stunning with UT2k4's 3323 patch. The original tests were done with what was the latest 3236 (I asked Ryan Gordon, the coder for Epic/Macsoft, and he said he didn't provide Apple with a prerelease 3323, so that fits), and showed a 212% improvement: 3 times the performance when using the G5 iMac 17" 1.8Ghz. However the G5 shows a great improvement in FPS whereas the G4 does not... therefore using 3323, Rob-ART sees a 300% improvement: 4 times the performance! We're still awaiting his G4 iMac 17" measurements, but I won't be totally convinced yet until I see an equally-slow benchmark result from a 17" G4 iMac that didn't come from Apple's Performance Marketing division lab. That said, Rob-ART is also running some Altivec Fractal CPU benchmarks for me using various RAM configurations. It almost seems as if my 2G configuration is marginally slower, but we're not sure if that's a software installation difference, or an actual speed difference possibly due to 1G dimms sometimes running more slowly, according to him. As always: stay tuned!

Color iPods? The big rumor making the rounds today is from ThinkSecret, which claims a holiday release of a 60G ipod within the 4G lineup with a color LCD screen for viewing photos. In other Tunes news, apparently the music industry is bringing copyright lawsuits to music pirates in Europe now. In other Apple litigation news, there is some word that Apple Computer might have a strong case in its legal battle with the Beatles' Apple Corps for the use of "Apple" to distribute music online, based on their 1991 settlement (...and btw it looks like Safari, but not Firefox gets around the news registration page at that URL). Also, the popular Taiwanese company BenQ is about to launch a HDD music player to rival the iPod-- BenQ is known for their high quality and cut-throat prices. I was first acquainted with BenQ when browsing around the Alienware site when shopping for a possible desktop-replacement PC notebook. Yes I admit, the cyborg green alienware notebooks with glowing LED eyes might be the only computer that might rival the iMac G5 if brought to a Starbucks for an eyeball-attracting contest. Did I buy one? No I got the iMac G5 instead silly! Truth is, it was good timing, because I'll be waiting for PCI Express to replace AGP for 1337 graphics in "desktop-replacement/gaming" notebooks on the PC side.

Icculus update: I was reading Ryan Gordon's updated .plan today, and I think his Unreal3 entry is new. He writes: "UnrealEngine3: Work officially begins. Time to get this building under gcc again. Since
we changed up the source tree layout, the Makefiles from UE2 are basically useless. Rather than rewrite them, I'm going to spend some time exploring SCons, which came highly recommended by TTimo, the Doom3/linux guy. First Unreal steals their colored lighting, then their build system! :) Obviously, there's a lot to be done at this point, but best to start now so I'm not scrambling to port a whole engine when UE3 games get closer to shipping. Updates as I have them." Finally as the last line of his .plan, I noticed he plugged a game called Gish. I'll take a look today. From a brief glance, the site graphics looked more intentionally well-done than that of Kingdom of Loathing, an online RPG that is intensely popular among the Linux folks at #icculus.org. I'll make a brief review of some web-based gaming soon for a fuller report on KoL.

(Oct 7): Anomaly Racing (UT2k4 mod): I'm back in the swing of converting mods again, and the latest is the high speed racing shoot-em-up mod Anomaly. The devs were actually requesting the mac community via Macologist forums to do a conversion, isn't that great? We have to positively reinforce that behavior! We'll have a launcher & dmg soon. Meanwhile you can check this thread at Macologist for lots of screenshots that'll give you some idea what fun this mod is, as you develop your vehicle, engine, and weapons as you progress. Partner site: In other mod news, Zweibel and his site Mods4Mac will be the newest partner site with Macologist. He's got a bunch of mods for BF1942 and UT2004 already available, and he's already worked with our other friend, Cannonfodder and his mac mod conversion site macfpsgames, which is where he got his distro of the BF1942 mod Desert Combat. Hopefully he can help us, and he might find our launcher scripts useful (for BF1942 and UT2004) too.

iMac G5 news: Well Barefeats.com is almost done with its work. You can check out his latest game benchmarks here, the results were updated today. The last big piece of the puzzle is the benchmarking of the iMac G4-- after all, if Apple used a slow one, then the benefit of the iMac G5 is all the greater. Barefeats' G4 atm is a 20", which Apple says is much faster than the 17". Go figure, we always thought they were about the same speed in most tasks. He's waiting for confirmation on that, but in the mean time, if you have an iMac G4 1.25 17", please contact me or post your results here. We're also waiting on different RAM comparisons, as well as RAM configurations (i.e. same RAM total, but different-sized dimms composing that total).

(Oct 6): New Reviews at IMG: I was browsing around insidemacgames.com, and saw some new reviews worth taking a look: Republic, The Revolution from Feral Interactive received a 7.75, and last week, SimCity 4: Rush Hour received an 8.0. Republic looks to be a fascinating single player strategy experience as you try to gain popular support to overthrow your government, which is modeled after the former USSR.

Political iTunes: The recent first Bush vs. Kerry debates on 9/30 are a free download at the iTMS here. This is in addition to free downloads from the 2004 Republican and Democratic National Conventions-- both are available in the Audiobooks section of the iTMS.

Apple Commentary, news, history: I've been reading some of Tera Patrick's Mac 360 articles and fictional opinion pieces with great interest, and so should you. Yesterday's piece was on MIcrosoft's plan to defeat iPod, iTMS, and Open Source. Of course Microsoft has such a plan, and here she guesses it may be related to the recent spate of patent wars, although the patent holders don't always win. In cautionary news, I have two items... Podlounge has been keeping tabs on the 4G iPod "Audio Defect" problem-- they describe exactly what the problem is, how to diagnose it, how to tell Apple to repair it, and Apple's current stance on the issue. Also iMac G5 owners are experiencing clicking and humming issues. I'm not sure exactly what the problem(s) are, but there's a long thread at Apple Discussion Forums, as well as thorough and continuing coverage of the issue by MacFixit. There's also an online recording of one user's noise problem. Apparently if you report this problem, the Apple agent will ask you to try tapping F14 and F15 to adjust your brightness to see if the sound volume rises & falls with the brightness. Reminds me of a HD parking noise problem in the G4 LCD iMacs as described in this Apple thread. Somehow it all just got me thinking (as I was with my Sep 26 URLs), about the old days of John Sculley as Apple's CEO, and how different things might have been without his disastrous decisions-- such as allowing Microsoft wiggle room to essentially copy the Mac OS without royalties. It really is as bad as that sounds. =\ If you want to know more, read here or here.

(Oct 5): iMac G5 controversy picked up by Wired: If you've been following along the past few days, you already know about the Barefeats benchmarks of the iMac G5 beginning to refute Apple's claims of 212% performance gain of the G5 iMac when compared to the G4 in UT2004. Rob-ART of Barefeats is reporting approximately 80% at the most in some cases, although he isn't finished yet with all of his G4 measurements. He is also currently closely conferring with Apple's Performance Marketing lab, and hoepfully I can find a G4 iMac 1.25 to test as well. If you have a G4 iMac 1.25, we would LOVE to have your results, using the Santaduck Benchmark on Asbestos at 1024x768 max and min detail, using either UT 3236 or 3321 in OS X 10.3.5. Ideally we are looking for a 1G (512Mx2) configiuration, but I'll take anything. Remember to quit all other applications & close your finder windows and even disable your network before testing. Oh yeah and about Wired... much of what I've been writing about has been picked up by Wired in an article here. Rob-ART told me today that the factual information regarding him is all correct. We are all awaiting the final results, but he's taking great care to compile all the info and get it airtight first.

(Oct 4): Postal 2 (almost) Gold: Icculus issued a "last call" for all Postal 2 beta testers for Mac & Linux, and we should see the news that Postal 2 is Gold momentarily. I must say the game looks great and plays well. Speaking with Icculus, he was saying it was one of his favorite games because, although being saddled with the violence it inherited from Postal 1, it has since transmuted it into a rare sort of incisive social commentary, as well as on showing the inhibitions inherent in you, a member of this society, as the game player. No word yet on whether Postal 1 (a 3/4 top down 2D third person shooter) will be bundled with Postal 2.

FragOps Wallpapers by Ektophase: I'm hosting two wallpapers from Ektophase over at Macologist's album page. You might have to click on the image twice to get the high resolution version-- if it looks pixelated, click on it again. Mac FO: BTW I've finally gotten back into full game testing w/the new iMac having arrived... and now I notice that Frag.Ops is having some odd keyboard issues, specifically the numpad doesn't seem to work, and FO-specific INI files are no longer generated by the mod switch. I'll have to investigate whether this is a UT2k4 3323 issue, or a FO issue.

(Oct 3): osxgamefiles update: The http navigation is still down at Macologist's FTP sistersite osxgamefiles.com, but you can still browse via ftp using ftp://www.osxgamefiles.com. So now you can grab all those mod files for BF1942 like Desert Combat, or the UT2004 mod files, or Tacops for UT99. I'm still lacking upload access, so these will be files from about a month ago at the latest. Also check the MacFPSgames download page for files your are looking for.

iMac G5 benchmark saga: As reported from Oct 1, I'm still assisting Barefeats.com to try to validate Apple's claims of UT2004 performance. We've been mixing various RAM, graphics settings, and versions of UT2004. Apple might be helping him to determine the settings they used; after all they made some very specific number public, with respect to the G5 17" iMac's benefit in UT2004 and Halo over the LCD G4 17" iMac. Curiously (within 3 days of some of Barefeat's original postings) Apple gave a memo to all Apple Retail Stores (ARS) that their policy to deny the use of their machines for in-store benchmarking-- it's purely speculation if there is any relevance between the two matters, but I've heard that a reporter from Wired was asking questions. I hope Apple has realized that with all of the wonderful publicity the iMac has been generating in the press lately that this is definitely not the right time for stonewalling at the risk of a black eye-- even smaller websites such as Barefeats & Macologist could cause a ruckus if it was picked up by the likes of Wired. Thus it seems that Apple will try to be helpful with testing details from its Performance Marketing division. Bravo. (Although apparently the ARS test policy has not been retracted).

So far it seems that they were using DM-Asbestos botmatch, which is a great choice, as results from this benchmark are very consistent from run to run, differing at MOST 0.3 FPS, compared to difference of 4-5 full FPS I've seen using DM-Antalus as the test map. Furthermore, Asbestos is also the official test map for UT2k4 at xlr8yourmac.com's benchmark database and submission page. Apple told us they were using 1G RAM with UT2k4 v3236, which was the latest patch available at the time of the iMac G5's release in Paris. In my testing, there is fairly minimal benefit of using 2G (2x1G dimm) over 1G (1G dimm), which is interesting because matched dimms results in a 128bit path, instead of 68bits, according to this Apple dev page (also see here for architecture notes). However I found two interesting configurations. I've therefore asked Rob-ART to run the CPU benchmark Altivec Fractal 1.2 if possible on various RAM configs. Running the benchmarks at the iMac's native 1440x900 (with minimum detail settings) results in slightly faster FPS than at the smaller 1024x768 mode, which has to drive 40% fewer pixels. Also, specific to version 3323, 1024x768 at maximum detail yields a particularly high FPS figure... but this is odd since I believe Apple was saying they used 3236 (which was the latest version at the time) swat 1024x768 at minimum detail. I've posted my full results at the thread at Macologist .

Even more on iMac G5: MacFixit reports that Apple has a new online Troubleshooting & Support Assistant for the iMac G5. It will walk you through diagnostics & ordering replacement parts if necessary, it sounds like a really great service to have online-- Now I don't have to convince the tech on the other side of the line that I'm not a n00b and I've already tried everything they are about to suggest, and more. Bravo Apple. There are still some holes in Apple's enormous online resources, such as the iMac G5 being missing from the pulldown at the Customer-Installable Parts page.

(Oct 1): Myst IV released: UbiSoft has released the latest incarnation of the venerable graphic adventure game... Look for more puzzles, lavish layouts, and revelations about Atrus, Sirrus, Achenar, and Yessha. The game comes on a combo DVD with modest (700 Mhz G4/Jaguar/Radeon 7500-Geforce 2MX) requirements on the Mac side. The demo is hosted at MGF. MMORPG news: Blizzard released the new World of Warcraft (WoW) "Beta 6 build" patch. The Warlock animation & model has been tweaked, in addition to smaller changes as listed in the changelog. If you're not in the beta, you'll just have to be patient =D In related news, the WoW European beta has started, and the European beta forums are now open, and are in French, German, and English.

iMac news: My 17" G5 iMac has arrived yesterday, and I'm beginning some very in-depth UT2004 beta testing, in conjunction with Rob-ART of Barefeats.com for his ongoing iMac benchmark report here and here. Actually our results look like they might contradict Apple's results (we're not sure yet) and he has even drawn the attention of Apple... Read more at my article at Macologist. I'm currently testing four RAM configurations ranging from 256M to 2G, as well as three versions (3204, 3236, and 3321) of UT2004. Of course the CPU setting is set to "Highest" in the Energy Saver CP. I've typically seen more benefit with better gfx cards at higher detail & resolution settings, and nearly similar results at the lower levels-- we'll see if this pattern holds for the difference in jumping from a G4 to a G5 iMac. Also on slower G4s, I've seen better FPS up to about 1G of RAM, but not above that, but I've heard that benefits in typical apps and games are seen up to 2G from G5 PM owners. It remains to be seen which of these trends will hold in the G4iMac vs G5 iMac comparison, and whether Apple's benchmark result of the pre-release iMac G5's 212% performance of the G4 holds water with the shipping version.

iMac early report: Just a few quick comments, I'm fairly happy with my first day with the iMac G5-- It wasn't apparent from the pictures I'd seen on the internet, but it has just scads of beautiful clear acrylic, reminding me very much of the beauty of the Apple Cube. The hinge is very securely attached, but it may come off easily, I'll post a photo series soon. The RAM is not clearly Samsung, I'll post a pic soon. Finally, the unit is quiet & cool, with the CPU usage set at "automatic" in the Energy Saver CP. However, when it is set to "Highest" (the only other setting is the anemic "Reduced"), the unit quickly begins to ramp up its fans and is soon roaring out the vertical vent in the rear. It is really quite loud, with a high pitched component (that might be the Maxtor 250G drive, but I hadn't heard it earlier from a distance). It is easily as loud as my Compaq P4 laptop when it is overheating, which means I can hear it from 10 feet across the room-- and this is with the OS X desktop sitting idle with no applications running. More on this later... but we already know Apple engineers bumped down the bus speed to 1/3 CPU (instead of 1/2) to cool the unit. One last comment, is that the speakers are serviceably loud enough, and easily louder than most laptops or PBs. The speakers fire directly out the thin bottom of the unit, so if the iMac is sitting on carpet, it sounds distinctly different (muffled) compared to when it is sitting on a hard surface. That's all for now...


(Sep 28): Macologist in Oct 2004 MacAddict: As mentioned by a subscriber earlier, Macologist got some press in MacAddict, my fave Mac magazine over here in the states. Writer Matt Osborn wrote the gaming page on the monthly "Get Info" news series, and we had a blurb, with a screenshot of Galactic Conquest, and our URL in bold. Click for a larger version. BTW MacAddict is my favorite because it treats the user as a potential poweruser, and will take the time to teach you XCode Applescripting, Terminal hacking, undocumented features, the ins and outs of essential freeware and shareware, and in general the writers' intimate knowledge of Apple history and obscure but relevant technical news becomes apparent again and again. This mag is more than just reviews or the tell-me-the-obvious articles. It's smart, treats the reader the same, and has had an impishly mischievous humor streak from its inception. I did see some UK import mac magazines recently that looked very good too, I'll have to go check them out & report back.

UT news: Clan MacAddict has released the [MA] CTF Map Pack for UT2004, and you can find it available for download at the new [MA] mappers page. [MA]'s BJShan writes: "There are 12 maps in this collection, 7 of them are 2k4 remakes of some of the most popular maps that were hosted on our old UT '99 server. " For more info, see the [MA] UT2Kn forums. These guys are great, and the pack will include DocB's Mortal Metal Remixed map I mentioned Sep 26. Also in [MA] is MTM, who was the author of 1 Infinity Loop, which let you travel to Cupertino to a particular technology campus. In other catchup news, we found out at Macologist that some .exe self-extracting archives can actually be handled by Stuffit Expander, if you just change the .exe extension to a .zip. This was in regard to the initial release of the ECE Bonus Pack, but of course, now we have mac .dmg distros of that, but the trick is good to know. BTW yes, this is the same MacAddict as the above magazine-- the forums admin agreed to host a MA-named set of gaming clans (who have no connection with the print magazine business), and I'd been active there, so it's possible there was some cross-pollination there. At any rate, the exposure is wonderful to have!

e-mail musing: Even though the email wars are heating up (Yahoo/Hotmail/Google), it appears that Hotmail is experiencing unexpected (yeah right) delays rolling out its 2M to 250M storage space upgrade for its free users. In fact, these upgrades, promised for late summer or fall, are now targeted to be completed by the end of the year. Now that's a delay! At least MS is attempting to block hotmail spam with a new pay policy on webDAV/Outlook services, but rivals are catching up in market share, like Yahoo (33%), and even Google's GMail which stands at 4%, and it's not even out yet-- it's still in beta, and is rapidly gaining a cachet as the stamp of "cool", and from the blogs & forum posts I read, it's about the interface more than Gmail's 1G storage space. Imagine what would happen if Google's browser rumors were true-- Firefox may no longer be the coolest browser... So for now kiddies, trash your Rio/Sony, close your Hotmail, buy an iPod, and pony up some cash to buy a GMail account invitation on eBay.

iMac update: It looks like my iMac G5 is en route-- looking at FedEx's tracking website, it looks like it started in Shanghai, China, and has now worked its way through a port in the Phillipines. I have heard through Apple Discussion forums that it will soon end up in Anchorage Alaska, before being redirected toward the lower 49 states =). I thought it was coming from Cupertino... who knew.

++
(Sep 27): Griffin previews new iPod Gadgets: Griffin Technologies lists three new products coming soon for the iPod. The most eye-catching one, literally, is the iBeam, a laser-pointer and white LED-flashlight addon coming in October for $19.99. Given street prices for keychain-sized LED lights and lasers, this is a very generous price point! Also offered is the automobile accessory, the PodPod, a $9.99 holder designed for proper cable flow for both full and Mini-sized iPods, as a more befitting alternative if you've been using your ride's cup-holder. And to be available this month is the EarJam, an earbud replacement which is said to improve sound fidelity, bass, comfort, and volume by 10 decibels. Ear pads are provided in several sizes for a customized fit, and perhaps most importantly, they maintain the signature white-cable look of the original earbuds, so everyone can see that you are, indeed, in the iPod club.

(Sep 26): Map testers wanted: DocB (who's really a doctor) from Clan MacAddict, has done his own version of UT2k4 map Mortal Metal REMIXED. If you'd like to betatest it, the download and feedback thread is here at [MA] forums.


UT2004 ECE update: Just a quick note... I spoke with Rogue, who compiled the Macologist version of the ECE installer, for details on what problems were with the Icculus version. He said that it messed with some users' keyboard and keybind settings permanently, so that they couldn't be fixed. I'll get more details later, and drop a note to Icculus later today.

Apple Musing: I'm happy with Apple, yet worried. They're on a roll with ITMS, iPods, the iMac G5, and just straight out being hip with successful design. My college mole Snowgurl reports her entire dorm is running iTunes on XP (and sharing via Mytunes Redux) because everyone owns iPods... and they absolutely sniff at the idea of any other music player. I'm willing to bet the iPod's market penetration in the generation that matters is stratospherically high-- older buyers and flash players obscure the real picture of HD-based music player statistics that I've seen being bantered around. But if the past is any indication, I'm still worried for Apple. I found an opinion piece at Mac360 that was very nicely written, and echoed these sentiments, check it out. Along the same lines, I'm reposting a URL from February of this year, an insightful interview of David Yoffee of Harvard Business School, prognosticating on Apple. Everyone pull a Uri Geller, and think good thoughts so Apple will be OK, and Steve Jobs proves history wrong. Oh, btw, here are more iMac benchmark comparisons, from MacWorld, to compare to the BareFeats article of a few days ago.

(Sep 25): MacMAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) was updated today to version 0.87b, apparently a patch to v0.87, a major update which had been released four days ago. Download 0.87b here (10.5M), and be sure to visit their site for the changelogs. If you don't know what MAME is all about, the MacMAME site lists Retrogames and EmuViews as sites to get more information on compatible games.

UT2004: The Strikeforce 2004 team has released a new experimental test patch, read more at Macologist. Speaking of Macologist, we're restarting the osxgamefiles FTP sister site with special benefits for members. We're also having a 1500 Euro donation drive so we can buy an XServe to host these sites! If you contribute at least 10 Euros (about $12.25), you'll get better FTP access as well as a 10MB web(dav)/ftp/afp account, eventually a Tiger weblog account, and more. Read more here, or donate on the Paypal link on the front page. If you're from the US, don't worry and it'll convert the currencies. OK back to UT. Epic has released a new UT2004 demo (v3334) for Win & Lin, see below for the Mac version. Also the UT2004 Editor's Choice Edition Bonus Pack has been released. Downloads for both are here. Note the ECE pack does not contain the mods, so I'll keep an eye out for news on the retail release, which was said to contain mods. We're still waiting on the results of the MSU (Epic's Make Something Unreal contest) phase 4, and of course the grand finale for mods closes Nov 15.

New UT2004 downloads... here are some new filesFor details of these files, see Icculus' description.

ECE (Editor's Choice Edition) Mac OS X Installer and 3323 patch combined. IMPORTANT UPDATE: I'm getting multiple reports that this ECE installer from Icculus is bad and is causing problems; Macologist is hosting a fixed version available for download at MacFPSgames here. Note that other users report that the Icculus download works fine. What we've heard is that some keys or keybinds are permanently disabled. More on this later as we discover the issues.

UT2004 v3334 free demo (Mac)

Icculus' Experimenat OpenAL now with VoIP & Surround Sound Initial reports indicate that both VoIP and Surround work, but that this build has some bugs that may cause occassional crashes. If you wish to test, please do so, and post results here. Back up your original openal.dylib before using.

And of course: Mac & Linux 3323 Retail Patch

(Sep 24):iMac G5 BTO speedy ship: I ordered a built-to-order iMac G5 17" on Sep 15, and today a scant 9 days later, I received my shipping confirmation! The estimated ship date had been listed at 3-4 weeks, i.e. early October, so this is great news! It appears Apple is doing better at keeping up with orders, especially with the great buzz and anecdotes of unexpectedly high demand for this product. Of course I didn't order extra RAM at Apple, instead opting for (presumably) the same exact OEM Samsung DIMMs at Other World Computing. I'll be sure to post different results of benchmarks with differing configurations of RAM: 256, 1.2 G, and 2G, the latter giving the 128 bit path benefit of matched pairs.

In other Apple news, there's a new 15" Powerbook extended repair program... basically if you have dead white pixels on your 15" G4 titanium & aluminum PB, Apple will repair (including shipping) these units for free, even if you are past warranty, or reimburse you if you have already paid for repairs. Read the link for more details and valid serial number ranges.

(Sep 23): iMac G5 update: With all the confusing benchmarks out there, there's finally one that does it right, with careful, systematic comparisons to other G4s and G5s. The guy that did it right is Rob-ART morgan at BareFeats, so go now & read up his first installment of benchmark comparisons. Yes, he set the energy/CPU settings at "Highest." His next set is to come soon, and will include the Santaduck benchmarks-- like me he is apparently very curious how Apple marketing came up with its numbers on its bargraph. I emailed him a bunch of comments on things he probably already knows, and I'll be waiting with the rest of you on his conclusions. While we wait, you can read even more new reviews. The first is by Café Macs, and the second is the announcement of the iMac G5 as Time Magazine's Gadget of the Week. I must say though, that I take severe umbrage and issue with one passage in the latter review: "The new iMac is the 'desktop replacement' replacement: most of the positive notebook attributes (except, of course, that you wouldn't take it to Starbucks)..." Hey! With or without rumors of upcoming 3rd party carrying cases, OF COURSE I'm taking it to Starbucks, especially for the reaction! (^o^)>* Yes, it lacks batteries, but many coffeehouse-bookstore laptoppers are plugged in via AC anyways. All I need is an 18.5 lb. heave-ho (oof), and a bluetooth keyboard & trackball, and I'm set... Mark my words, After I receive my 17" iMac G5, I'll post pictures... Starbucks Redeye-in-hand (That's 2 espresso shots dropped into a short house coffee), and of course gawkers in the background-- even the unlikely green Alienware notebook with glowing eyes would be overshadowed. =)

(Sep 22): Apple Hot Deals Update: Apple's Hot Deals page has been updated, including becoming the exclusive retailer for the Bose SoundDock for iPod (at right, $299 USD), adding to other iPod offerings such as Harman's JBL OnStage Soundstation ($199), Altec Lansing's battery-powered inMotion Portable Mini Speakers ($129.95) and the iM3 Portable Audio System ($179). Also updated at Apple Hot Deals are many of the 3rd party retailer links, including the ones for AudioMIDI (with new RME Fireface 800 interface at $1449 and the bundled Ableton Live 4 and Evolution X-Session Controller at $399), and O'Reilly Books, which now lists David Pogue's new iLife '04: The Missing Manual. The most interesting to me is the Ramjet update which includes G5 RAM at street prices, about half as much as Apple's BTO (built-to-order) RAM prices, such as 1G DDR for iMac G5 for $222 (Apple BTO being $525/1G and $1125/2G) and 2G DDR kit for Powermac G5 ($449). It's a promising sign to see these links on Apple's site, perhaps this presages lower prices on BTO RAM in the future. Interestingly, not listed is OWC (Other World Computing), who stocks the OEM Samsung DDR 1G dimms (i.e. these should be the same as BTO) for iMac G5 for $239. And finally, MacObserver was more interested to see that Office Depot and Tech Depot were added to the Hot Deals page.

Chip team: IBM & AMD have extended their 2002 cooperative agreement in chip development from an expiration at 2005 three years to 2008. The agreemenet covers joing development of 65-nm, 45nm, and even 32-nm technology. This will be interestesting to watch over the next few years to see how it affects IBM's developmoent of chips for Apple; IBM currently produces Apple's 90nm G5 chips (PowerPC 970), and AMD recently joined the 90 nm club in August.

Console gaming: Sony has redesigned the PS2 into a much slimmer design in time for the holiday shopping season, and has adopted the 54G Blu-ray optical technology for the upcoming PS3. Read more here. And btw, it's probable that the PSP (Play Station Portable) will retail at about $299, although this may change w/Nintendo's recently-announced price of $149 for their DS handheld. Ahh, give me my PuyoPuyo LCD keychain game any day, or at least put it on my cell phone. Speaking of puzzle games, I have to remember to email my old college friend Dave Dobson for an interview-- he's the creator of Snood, which is now also available for PDA and mobile phones, but of course originated as a Mac game. But back to handhelds... Ahh for the days when digital watches (with red LEDs) were brand new, and every little boy wanted a Mattel Handheld Football, which incidentally has been re-released by Mattel in a red-overlay LCD (instead of LED)-- there's nothing like the glowing red cylon-like blip burning like coals in the darkness...

(Sep 21): 3rd party ATI tweak: SilverdemonX, who helped SWF & I prep the launch of Macologist, today told me about a third party ATI overclocker called ATIcellerator II. No I haven't tried it yet, although some reviews especially on higher end cards are great, because one user reviews that it fried his OEM iBook gfx. Maybe I'll get over my fear later and try it. Another interesting review was lamenting the ineffectiveness of the XBench OpenGL benchmark, compared to 'real world' games, and notes correctly that CPU load is a factor in actual game framerates... I'm sure when Apple used the Santaduck benchmark to promote the iMac G5, they used the CPU-intensive botmatch tests which would highlight G5-G4 differences, rather than the flyby, which would depend more heavily on its lackluster 64M gfx card. Anyhow, this reviewer goes on to say that if you don't have a real game, that you can use Chimera's OpenGL Demos. He recommends the "TheGraal" scene demo. Looks pretty. Of course, for pure CPU performance, I've always used the Altivec Fractal Demo, which is often used to measure performance in gigaflops for the recent spate supercomputing clusters.

Feral Interactive has released its demo for Enemy Engaged, a helicopter flight and combat game, download it via MGF. Also, Aspyr has begun shipping Homeworld 2, so expect it on store shelves any day now. And if you didn't see it earlier, .Mac is offering users an exclusive Spider-man 2 demo as a membership benefit through Nov 10; looks like they have to do something to spiff up .Mac with increasing competition such as disk space upgrades from Hotmail, as well as the very impressive G-Mail beta from Google-- imagine using google-powered searches to organize your email-- Go find a friend in the beta and ask for an invitation.

More iMac G5 news: There is a new 5-out-of-5 stars from giant PC World as well as another review with cool internal pics from Computerworld, which incidentally is the second time I've heard the iMac G5 and the super fast WD Raptor 10000rpm 75G HD in one breath (I think I first heard the connection from MacFPSGames owner Cannonfodder--BTW he was nice enough to host Macologist's mod downloads for BF1942 & UT2004 at MacFPSgames' download area, including Desert Combat and Frag.Ops, while we are still fixing osxgamefiles.com. Thank you Cannon! ). There's even already a positively amateurish iMac knockoff from Gateway... and of course it's billed as an "iMac Killer"-- I suppose that's appropriate enough, if it enjoys the same fate as current claimants to the title "iPod Killer."


(Sep 20): ATI updates Mac Radeon ROM & Drivers: ATI today released the ATI Displays Control Panel 4.4 (a revised drivers for both OEM and retail Radeon cards), as well as the September 2004 Firmware Update for retail Radeon cards. These drivers are newer than those included in Apple's recent OS X 10.3.5 update. Owners of OEM cards should now be able to access new control panel settings such as FSAA, anisotropic filtering, and depending on the card, other updated features including Mac2TV (Video Output, Simulscan), Mirror Displays (VERSAVISION display rotation, 3D, 2D, and DVD Acceleration Support). See the release notes below for full details. Retail cards require the ROM (firmware) update before the driver update. The release notes read in part:
"The current version of ATI Displays supports all retail and OEM (Apple Supplied) RADEON cards (including built-in graphics in PowerBook, iBook and eMac products). ATI Displays will work with Rage 128 retail products with limited functionality and will also identify Rage II and older products, but will not provide Mac2TV or other settings. ATI Displays supports significant new features all RADEON cards... The primary feature of interest to most users will be the 3D/Open GL Overrides. This is available for all RADEON products running on any Power Mac..."

ATI Driver & firmware download menu page
release notes: ATI Displays Control Panel 4.4
release notes: ATI RADEON™ Mac Edition Sep 2004 Firmware Update (RADEON Universal)

(Sep 19): Postal 2 IR update: The Postal 2 Mac beta test team has received a new IR (internal release), which is welcome news as we hadn't seen one in a while. Even better, it's now up to the 1409 patch (windows-current). However there is some consideration going on about which installer to implememnt: apparently Apple's Installer is not ideal for many installation issues, and it won't be remedied until Tiger, which is yet at least 6 months away. However, word is that internally at Apple, the installer app has indeed already been updated, although Apple refuses to backport it to Jaguar, which leaves devs in a bit of a bind. Icculus may therefore use Loki (an open source installer from Linux) for the time being unless the situation changes.

Regarding the Loki installer and game dev, Icculus writes:
There is a lot that I don't like about loki_setup, but it's quickly becoming a popular utility for games, mostly because:

1) It's open source
2) It's free for commercial use.
3) It handles multiple CDs (apparently the only other installer that
does costs like 8,000 dollars a year, and if you stop paying, you have
to remove your product from the shelves. So I've been told. This is
explicitly why MacSoft financed loki_setup for UT2003).
4) It allows CD key entry/validation in the installer.
5) It's relatively easy to use to create installers.
6) Big name games are using it, which tends to increase enthusiasm. I
used it for UT2003, then Transgaming started using it for Indiana Jones,
Tron 2.0, etc, and now I'm getting email from other publishers asking
about it. Everyone that's had to build a Mac installer has gotten burned
badly, so they're always on the lookout for better solutions.

loki_setup has its problems, too, though:
1) It's ugly...
2) ...and so is its source code. :/

(Sep 18): iPod distro: word is that iPods are soon to be distributed in Costco, and hPods (HP's Apple iPod) via Walmart. Now that's market penetration. The Costco will be an iPod mini bundle with armband, ac adapter, beltclip, earphones, and 15 iTunes for $269. Curious about the difference about getting an hPod? The bottom line seems to be documentation and service for Windows users, read more here. The French Connection: From my poor French skills reading this and this webpage, it seems like the French ministry of Education is subsidizing the purchase of notebooks for students over 18 at a cost of 1-2 euro per day for 3 years, a savings of 10-15%. There also seems to be something about Apple's marketing in France and its effort to join this promotion, but I can't make it out. The google-transated pages are here and here. Spam bounty: The US Federal Trade Commission seems to be supporting the idea of large ($100-250,000) bounties for high-value information leading to the arrests of spammers; presumably these costs are high enough to supposedly cover the loss of your job if you report your boss... really. For some odd reason, the Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC) (no, I never heard of them either) are against it, and seem to support other measures such as sender ID-- Hey wait, wasn't that a Microsoft initiative? AHA! In fact, isn't that the proprietary solution which was shot down by a promoinent task force very recently? Yup. Even AOL gave Sender ID the big diss. Makes you wonder if the ESPC is like M$'s version of the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth. . . OK I'm being unfair, I didn't read up completely, there's something known as SPF that's not from Microsoft that has nothing to do with going to the beach, and ESPS also supports that. Anyways: BobaFett, go get those spammers.

(Sep 16): iMac news: Initial word from a real live user at Apple Discussion Forums is that with his 20 incher, the graphics card is indeed soldered. No word on the ICs, but it doesn't look promising for upgrading. He also reported that the iMac is incredibly stable and resistant to tipping, and that it is so quiet you can't hear it unless you practically touch your ear to the unit and listen. Also Other World Computing (OWC) claims to have OEM RAM, and I believe them (although I'm still waiting on exact part number confirmation from actual users)... You can see OWC's iMac G5 RAM page here, and save yourself $500 for the same thing if you're loading an iMac with 2 gigs.

UPDATE: The Apple Service Manuals for the iMac G5s have just come online for certified Apple Techs. More on this later if something interesting is described there. Oh, BTW, there's a new Apple Security Update 2004-09-16 available in your Software Update, and it seems to have something to do with iChat, although a description is not yet listed at Apple's Security Update page.

Megatokyo: MT hasn't had gaming humor in a very long time, and finally there is another one, mmorpg related. I added it to the gaming humor section in the second column (at right-->). Again, I'll say if you haven't seen the 1337 LOTR spoof, go take a look, you'll be rolling, and probably embarassed to find it so funny.

(Sep 15): Splinter Cell Gold Master: Aspyr has brought Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell up for a Sep 27 ship date, to hit store shelves in the first days of October. Relatively modest system requirements are listed as: OS X 10.2.8 or later, 867 MHz or faster G4/G5, 256 MB of RAM, 1.7 GB HD space, GFX card with 32 MB of VRAM (ATI Radeon 7500/nVidia GeForce 2 or better), DVD-ROM drive required to install and play.
.
Frag.Ops 2.00 Full Installer (471M .dmg.gz) for Mac OS X is released (finished by th3dunadan), and available at DR2.net (ty, DR2-Matt) and macfpsgame (ty, Cannonfodder). I'll get the URL listed at the Frag-ops main page with Memnon, but you can get it now :) We'll host it at osxgamefiles too when that site is back up. For now get it here:
DR2.net (USA)
MacFPSGames (USA) (quick free registration required)

UT2004 3323 OSX released: Get it at macupdate. Thank you Ryan!

iMac musing is over: I bought one. Despite the uncertainties of the gfx and portability, there simply is no other semiportable Apple machine now in its price range that is its equal at the current moment, and G5 PBs are still a dream, as are rev2 iMacs. For now we can look at one lucky user's photos of his shipped iMac G5 in Japan. I'll post photos as well... in 3-4 weeks. Oh, btw if you have a single processor G5 Powermac, there's a new firmware update from Apple.

UPDATE: iMac G5: The disassembled G5 photos have been moved here, now with additional photos. Macrumors forums has a thread with Cinebench and XBench results from a 20" 1.8Ghz iMac G5, but with only 256M RAM, so it's essentially crippled.

More on the music wars: Should Apple license its DRM (digital rights management) Fairplay? Should the iPod be opened to other music vendors? I found an interesting but slightly alarmist editorial from connectedhomemag, as well as a short Slashdot interview with Real honcho Rob Glaser. Also the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched an investigation into the higher pricing of iTunes Music Store (ITMS) songs at the UK store than at continental European ITMSs. Nothing affects the current cool factor of the iPod, as well as its relatively (compared to its competitors) bug and hassle free integration of store, player, and sync... but Apple did bungle with its GUI OS already over precisely this issue: licensing, so I'd hate to see it happen again-- that would hurt... and is it just me, or are the 3G iPods cooler than the new 4Gs? (I found one guy who agrees, and who doesn't miss those awesome red buttons in the dark as they contrast with the bluish backlighting?). The 4G clickwheel's buttons don't have a nice tactile feedback, especially the center midfi-audio-boombox-like button. I'll admit I like the clickwheel on the Minis. I think it's time for a "Mini your Mini" promotion after the last "iPod your BMW" one...


(Sep 14): Gaming: Aspyr's Homeworld2 has gone gold master, according the Aspyr's project status page. Frag.Ops 2.0 released. Currently the mirrors at the official site list only .exe installers (patch and full versions), although we will soon have a full mac .dmg available hopefully within a week, if not sooner.

Apple news: a new iSight revision (the 3rd, I didn't know we were on the 2nd) is rumored by Powerpage to be in development, 600 G5s were used to restore the Star Wars trilogy for a Sep 21 DVD release, and Firefox & Thunderbird browsers are to be updated today, and rumor has it that Firefox is finally reaching the v1.0 barrier! Read the press release, or go to Mozilla.org. UPDATE: it turns out the finder Get Info version of Firefox list "0.10"-- I guess they just got used to having that leading 0. It's either learned helplessness or Peter Pan syndrome. (The About Mozilla Firefox window shows the correct version number however.) At any rate, I'm happy that my favorite web browser on Mac or PC has finally grown up.


(Sep 13): Apple news: Yahoo news reports that Apple Computer might be settling in their legal wrangle with Beatles' Apple Corp for what will possibly be the largest settlement in legal history (outside of class action suits), in a move that resolves the issue of Apple using "Apple" in the music world (via the iTunes Music Store, and alleged to be forbidden in the 1991 settlement between the two Apples) and may bring Sir Paul McCartney to the board of Apple Computer. It's all speculation for now, but we'll know soon. iMacs: The new G5 iMacs have apparently begun shipping to some customers as Apple opens its doors to its presumed summer stockpile of units. I'm keeping tabs at the Apple Discussion forum's pre-release iMac G5 forum.

Frag Ops 2.0: FO 2.0 is almost ready to be released, and the initial word from Bassman is that it does indeed work in OS X with my same launcher. I'll be working with Bass & th3dunadan to put together an Apple packagemaker .dmg (with integrated installer) as soon as possible. For now, come see Tropic's 76M in-game video from the FO main site.

UPDATE: Expect to see UT2004 3323 for OS X very soon, perhaps this week, and hopefully including the openal.dylib with a fixed VoIP and Surround Sound. If you want to help test the openal.dylib, see this thread at Macologist-- especially we are looking for someone with true surround sound. Also Tiger details continue to leak and leak, as well as interesting details on file systems with regard to Longhorn. Finally: Yes, we're working on the FragOps .dmg.

(Sep 11): I guess we'll all feel something writing this date for a very long time, I almost skipped writing an entry today, but decided not to. It has affected us all and it's one of very few events that we may always remember where we were when we first heard, and it is indelibly associated with the date itself. Please have a moment of silence in your own way.

UT2004 OpenAL alpha build: Icculus was nice enough to give us an alpha experimental build of the first openal.dylib (audio library) build that incorporates VoIP and Surround sound with Apple's OpenAL implementation. It needs to be tested, and we are particularly looking for people with surround sound systems on their macs. The download URL and bug report thread is here (URL corrected) at Macologist. You should be able to use this with mods as well as UT-based games such as Americas Army for testing. In somewhat-related news, OpenGL 2.0 specs have been released.

BF1942's first patch: Aspyr has released the "Public Beta Patch 1" for Mac Battlefield 1942. Download it at extremesims and osxgamefiles. They ask that bugs & feedback be emailed to bfbugs@aspyr.com. I'm pleased to report that they bypassed the CPU speed requirement check during launch, although there's no word on better mod compatibility-- Aspyr was never intending to officially support mods, so it's possible some issues were fixed without being noted in the changelog. Macologist staffer Rogue reports that "early testing still indicates that the majority of mods are still acting freaky leaving only DesertCombat as the only true fully functioning mod to work for Mac BF1942." Check Macologist's bug forums for any updates.

Macologist in MacAddict: User psychokinetic from MacAddict forums notified me that he saw the October 2004 issue of MacAddict magazine mentioned Macologist.org, my webchild with ScvWebFire. They apparently wrote: "MACOLOGIST.ORG: A MODDER'S HEAVEN: Looking for some Mac-compatible mods for Unreal Tournament 2004 or Battlefield 1942? Check out the game gurus at www.macologist.org - they develop apps (called launchers) that convert PC-only mods into Mac-friendly gaming fun. They have Halo tools as well. - MO" I forgot to renew my subscription in time so I think I'll have to go buy this issue at the bookstore. I must say that this is by far my favorite Mac magazine, as it is intelligent, yet irreverent. The magazine assumes you are a poweruser or a potential poweruser, and gives you the information you want to know; I first started doing Applescript and XCode from examples in this mag. This will be some nice exposure for Macologist! I'd been meaning to ask the folks in forums for any connections within the magazine staff, but I guess word got around already. Now if we can convince them to interview Icculus, that would be a fun article!

(Sep 10): UT2004 news: 3323 Linux beta: The beta for the 3323 patch has been released for linux here at Icculus' 0day FTP. (Windows is still at 3321). I'm guessing that this means the OS X version of 3321 won't happen and will be delayed slightly further until it matches the version 322x of the latest Linux build. At any rate, the timeline of VoIP/OpenAL implementation is probably still the limiting factor... He said in IRC today: "And if I could beat Apple's AudioConverter into submission, we'd _have_ VoIP in Apple's OpenAL." Even more intriguingly, he said: "3323 is still beta on all platforms." Interesting. Mods deadline: The MSU deadline is only hours away today, so keep an eye out for new releases for all the major UT2004 mod teams in contention, as well as patches in the coming days to fix or add what couldn't be fit in by the deadline.

UPDATE: overheard Icculus on IRC complaining about Apple's HAL & CoreAudio... then later he said something that might mean we may see 332x for OS X sooner rather than later:
"* icculus-not-here finally got ALC_EXT_capture working with Apple's OpenAL implementation.
icculus-not-here:Surround sound _and_ VoIP in ut2004 is pretty sweet. No one had written code to support the extension, that was what was wrong. :)" GJ!

more iMac musing: reader E.Taylor sent an email reading "Looks like the graphics system is an integrated circuit design (I presume this means soldered onto the mobo).See the Architecture/Graphics section of the developer note, where they start talking about the "Graphics ICs"..." regarding this URL at Apple's Developer Connection. Sigh. Pretty much as expected given the past history of the iMac line in relation to the powermac line. Well, it's not as if the current iBook at the same price point has a 128M gfx option either. All in all, it's still a fantastic deal that is tempting for a semi-portable Apple.

(Sep 9): UT2004 OS X: I saw Ryan Gordon (MacSoft's coder for UT2004) in IRC today and immediately asked him about patches... since he's using his VoIP with Apple's OpenAL, I would guess we may see 3321 in a few weeks, although that may be wishful thinking. I also found out there is no beta team for UT2004 patches... Here's the short conversation (yup, that makes for a news item here):
Santaduck: could you confirm/deny whether UT2004 3321 or 3270 will see the light of day for os x?
icculus_: 3270: no
icculus_: 3321 (or whatever): yes
Santaduck: it's in beta testing with your mac team?
icculus_: I don't have a "mac team".
icculus_: I've got me.
Santaduck: ohhh lol that's why i can't find anyone in the mac gaming world who knows anybody on your mac ut2004 team =x... that explains it
icculus_: I don't think MacSoft has officially tested a build since we went gold.
Santaduck: give it to your postal2 list to test =) we'd be happy to i'm sure
icculus_: I find it's best to hand it out and if something awful shows up, patch it quickly.
icculus_: I _do_ test it a little bit to make sure it's not totally broken (no, really!)
icculus_: I'm hoping 3322 won't be official before I finish adding VoIP to Apple's OpenAL.
icculus_: Er...ALC_EXT_capture, not VoIP
icculus_: same thing, I guess

Apple news: Security Update breaks FTP? Some users are reporting that the 09-07 Security Update breaks FTP serving, but not sFTP serving. Right now, I've seen news of this at the Sep 8 news at xlr8yourmac.com as well as this thread and others at Apple Discussions, Apple's user-based support forums. More on music battle with Real: Apple has begun a new iTunes affiliate program, allowing webmasters to post links to song downloads & earning a 5% commission on any sales. The Register's take on this news is that it's just another salvo in the war with Real and Napster. USAToday cited Apple disputing a Real claim of stealing marketshare with their half-price tunes promotion, which ended recently. See also the July 30 news regarding Real vs. Apple. At the top, Steve Jobs is slowly returning to work after his recent surgery for pancreatic cancer, so I guess that means Wired's mini-me Steve Jobs will be out of work, maybe he'll try out for Duran Duran =)

FO vehicle preview: Lead coder Squirrelzero released the second of 3 vehicle previews from FO 2.0 here. A few hours later (approx 03:40 PST/-7 GMT Sep 9) he reported a big earthquake in California. I don't see anything yet in the news... (update: it was only a 3.4, but seemed large as its epicenter was very closeby).

(Sep 8): Apple released its Security Update 2004-09-07 for OS X yesterday, look for it in your Software Update, and read more about it in exhaustive detail here at Apple's page for security news. BTW Feral's webpage seems to be back up, after being down for days-- I'm still waiting for Feral's Chessmaster 9000, even though the windows version is at 10 already-- its teaching functions look to be very impressive. From Macologist news, I quote from Rogue, who writes about Athena Sword for Rainbow 6: "Aspyr today announced the release of the mission pack for the popular Rainbow Six 3. Scheduled for an October release, the port has once again been done by i5Works who also bought Ghost Recon to the mac. Still built upon the Unreal 2003 engine, Athena Sword expands upon the original by bringing an all new eight-mission campaign in locations such as Italy, Croatia, and Greece, plus eight new Multiplayer levels, five new multiplayer game modes, three “classic” missions, seven additional real-world weapons (bringing a total of 64) and new weapon sound effects. There's no confirmation on whether there will be Mac vs. PC play this time round, so we'll just have to wait until more details emerge." Hopefully we'll see more news from Rogue at Macologist in the future =) I also forgot to mention that Sep 4, the Frag-Ops team (UT2004 mod) released more 2.0 preview screenshots on their front page-- folks, 2.0 will be a big jump including a RTS-like game mode called WAR. Finally, of course we must end on more iMac musing: ScvWebFire, my partner in crime from Macologist notes that because the iMac is so much like the X-Serve, that if he had to guess, the gfx card is probably not soldered onto the logic board, since the whole idea behind the X-Serve architecture is parts-swappability (yes, I made up a word). Hope is not lost for an upgrade of the standard 64M card, and my credit card itches again.

(Sep 6): Santaduck Toopak update: I made a slight tweak to the Benchmark application only, which is now v1.7. The settings are identical to 1.6. I've simply corrected the UT icon in the dock while the benchmark runs, added a quit option, and added the 30" Cinema Display resolution (2560x1600) to the LCD version of the benchmarker. I also corrected the ini file for 1920x1200-minimum (23" Cinema Display), which was wrongly set at 800x600. The other tools have not been updated. In particular, the Dropinstaller still does not install .upl and .ucl files; use a umod distro if you can with DropUModOut instead.

Star Wars: KOTOR Gold: Aspyr's project status page lists SW Knights of the Old Republic as Gold Master and due for a September release. IMG lists some KOTOR preview trailers here. Also listed for September releases from Aspyr are Homeworld 2 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, both listed as "Final Candidates." On another note, Feral's website seems to be down.

Who hired these guys? (yet more on iMacs): Browsing Apple Support's site for "iMac G5" yields some good articles, and some bad. First the good... the RAM support document is clean, and concise, with critical information. Bravo. The Diagnostic LED document is nicely detailed for the Appletech in you. Great. Now, the document on ports seems innocuous enough (though blithely ignoring the lack of gigabit ethernet and FW 800). Fine. Now read "iMac parts you can install yourself" here. Yup, that's really the name of the document, it should be: "Everything but the graphics card". Arg. The author of this document KNOWS we are wondering if the slightly underwhelming 64M graphics card is hard-soldered to the logic board, but nary a word on that-- we'll have to buy one to see. We don't care what's officialy sanctioned-- after all I have an "unupgradeable" Cube with ATI9000pro and 120G HD (and have even seen ATI 9800s and liquid-cooled dual processors). </rant> But the Grand Prize goes to the guy at Apple (hopefully a marketing guy and not an engineer) that authored the article entitled "How to pick up and carry your iMac G5". If this is an Apple Support Document, it must have important information right? Wrong. Here's what it says: "Pick up the iMac G5 by grasping both sides of the computer. Carry it to wherever you wish." Really, that's it, this is the meat of a sparse 3-line post, I'm not joking. Reminds me of Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker's Guide fame), who lampooned instructions printed on toothpick packages, for people who don't know how. To Apple: Fire whoever wrote that document (or at least give a good spanking) ... then at least tell us, tell us please, what we want to know: Does the stand comes off easily, or do we need a screwdriver every time we toss it in a backpack to really carry it somewhere else? That said, I reiterate: I'm probably buying one. . . although I may carry tools with me to Starbucks.

(Sep 5):UT2004 news: Epic's Steve Polge has released a changelog for the v3321 patch (from 3270) here at Atari forums. In short, it looks like a ONS-fixit kit, and if you're not an onslaught player, it probably doesn't do much for you." I'm not sure yet if 3270 is considered an "interim" build-- if so, then we won't see it for Macintosh OS X. I'll see if I can ask Ryan if I find some time to find him in IRC. In other UT news, the Make Something Unreal contest's Phase 4 has opened, and the deadline is Sep 10. This is the last phase before the Grand Finals. Phase 4 only includes the following categories: FPS mod, non-FPS mod, real-time non-interactive movie, Onslaught map, and Assault map, as well as the Educational awards. The grand finales' deadline is Nov 15.

WoW European beta: The World of Warcraft European closed beta is due to begin this month! The selection process of the beta team from the applications phase has now been completed, so if you applied, check your inboxes like kids before Xmas... See more here.

more iMac musing: well a few folks (ScvWebFire and Bassman) have reported back from MacExpo Paris, SWF even wrote me a cheeky IM reading "I'm writing this from an iMac in Paris." Yes I'm jealous (^-^)>* Anyways he basically confirmed that the innards look to be about 60% XServe, if such a number can be put on a judgement like that, but at any rate, it's no proto-powerbook-G5. (In fact, Apple's confirmation of G5 PB delays were repeated at MacExpo). Bassman reports that it's a very quiet machine, if a bit hot, and also had some ambivalent rumors about the real-world gaming performance in UT2004, so we'll have to wait for reviews. I was a bit disappointed to learn (after reading the Apple site a bit more carefully) that the 17 incher is a whopping 18.5 lbs/8.4kg! That's like two and a half heavy laptops. I can certainly still lug it from room to room, and even schlep it outside to another location (Starbucks?), but it won't be done as casually as a laptop. That said, I must say that it still looks juicy, and I'll probably get one. A semi-portable G5 for the price of an iBook is simply irresistible. And here's one more photo of the insides from Apple PR.

(Sep 2):WoW stress test: The World of Warcraft N. American stresstest has been live for a few hours. If you're part of the test, read your email and get in line to start downloading your gargantuan 2.2G file.

iMac innards pics available at MorganB's.Mac MacExpo Journal. The hi res inside pic is the last one at the bottom. Now that I've seen the pic, it looks more like a 'low rent X-Serve' rather than a 'laptop-on-a-stick'. Nice. (TY to Cubist at cubeowner forums for that observation-- although others would say it's a 20th Anniversary Mac Redux). Also in the journal, see a BMW 1 series that was on display-- no word on if it had an iPod in the glovebox. I also noticed that the Apple Store listing for the iMac is a bit redundant as far as bluetooth is concerned: you can buy it "twice", once under the Internal Bluetooth Module pulldown, and the second under the Apple Keyboard and Mouse if you select the wireless keyboard option which includes a Bluetooth module. Boo for an easy $50 mistake.

FragOps news: A big welcome to Bassman from French Clan M4k to the betatest team as my partner on the Mac side of this mod's test team. Bassman did major testing for the Santaduck Toopak, and I expect he'll do a great job for Frag Ops. Félications!

nongaming: Microsoft launched the ITMS competitor, its MSN Music store beta site. Of course they lack the iPod in their equation, and hopefully their overall experience integration isn't as good as with iTunes. However everyone is calling MSN Music the 500 lb. gorilla, especially with the millions of web eyeballs that they traffic through MSN.com. I suspect it'll suffer the same fate as Sony's new mp3 device, wtvr-it's-called (yes, I forgot already, didn't you?).

(Sep 1):More iMac musing: I had been waiting for a G5 laptop, but now I may just get an G5 iMac, b/c it's nearly as portable (given the AC cord & wireless keyboard), and better yet with an iMac I could pay extra to have a sizeable 250G HD, rather than paying extra on a laptop to get a meager 80G laptop drive. In my perfect world, (in addition to the obvious addition of a 128M vid card), Apple would add the iMac to its $200 iPod rebate program, the famous Cram & Jam educational sales promotion. I'll keep checking, but I'm not hopeful-- although it would make a perfect dovetail with the marketing strategy of promoting mac computing hardware with iPods. Apple Marketing, are you listening? Although this is mostly rhetorical, through my (real life) work a few years ago, I actually met former Apple marketing veep Kanwal Sharma through the Apple Masters program, and of course the current iMac marketing folks discovered the Santaduck Toolpak, so who knows... We'll see what ScvWebFire (my copartner in Macologist) gets by chatting up the Apple folks in Paris this week...

(Aug 31):iMac update (Santaduck Benchmark mentioned by Apple!):
1) Check Out the iMac at Apple.com:http://www.apple.com/imac
2) The Santaduck Toolpack was cited by Apple on its iMac page at Apple.com as the game benchmark of choice: here and here. Apple writes: Testing conducted by Apple in August 2004 using preproduction 1.8GHz iMac G5 units; all other systems were shipping units. Apple tested Unreal Tournament 2004 with the Santaduck benchmark... You can download the Santaduck Toolpak for UT2004 here.
3) Analysis: The big question is, how can we compare the iMacto a laptop-on-a-stand? a) G5 processor, and with it, the very quick Front Side Bus speed of half the CPU clock 533 or 600 Mhz, compared to iBook's 133 or Powerbook's 167; b) full-size SATA hard drive c) internal power supply (no ac/dc adapter) d) optical is indeed the more fragile laptop variety e) no battery of course, but I'm almost always plugged in when I use my laptop... f) QUESTION: is the stand removable so you can pack an iMac into a laptop case? The answer is a Maybe-Yes, becasue if you can get a VESA mount for it, then it should come right off with a snap. All in all, a semi-portable G5 for $1299 reflects a very nice price point, and it might make for a difficult decision for those previously in the market for an iBook or even PB. Good for Apple!


Older news from just aftermidnight, about 1/2way through Keynote: AppleStore US and int'l sites now down for updating...

UPDATE: iMac pics mirrors here and here and here and here. Phonecamera pic here. Stream of keynote here.

(Aug 30): Apple Expo update: the keynote begins just after midnight at 12:30 PDT (GMT -7) or 3:30 EST (GMT -4) for you North Americans. I'm trying to find a live IRC of it at krono.net which is home to the macrumors channel, but krono is full.. however you can try us.krono.net or eu.krono.net or as.krono.net if irc.krono.net doesn't work. Worked for me. If all else fails, come to the #macologist or #osx channel at irc.gamesurge.net, and I'll try to copy the keynote text over from krono.. You can also try Mac4ever translated from the french by Google, no need to refresh, it does so automatically.

Apple-Expo Paris begins tomorrow. I'll stay tuned to macrumors for updates & speculation. Expect a G5 iMac (probably 1.8Ghz), and I'm personally hoping for Powerbook and iBook updates, perhaps even the dual-core G4s for one or both... at least let us have the 128M version of the mobility Radeon 9700 with all the PB models, and not just the pricier ones! Anyways, here's macrumors' description of the dual core, which essential brings performance similar to a dual-processor. And I don't know what's up with the stratospheric RAM prices at the apple store? I'd easily go to OWC and save hundreds of dollars on RAM any day-- I've never had quality problems there, and last week a friend got an extra 512M for her brand new PB and saved mucho $$$, and reports it works like a charm. BTW if you already have a 15" PB purchased this year, check here to see if yours might be prone to spontaneously bursting into flames-- Apple is doing a voluntary battery recall based on the lot numbers on the battery, so check yours. Back to Apple-Expo Paris: The keynote will be by veep Phil Schiller, since Steve Jobs is recovering from cancer surgery (see Aug 2 news). Only one more day and we'll know, and you'll probably see updates at apple.com Tuesday, although the update may not be Cupertino's Pacific Standard Time (GMT -7), but rather Paris time (GMT +2), so alll you Californians out there can check out the Apple Store late monday night, just in case.

World of Warcraft Stress Test: Blizzard & Fileplanet are coordinating a N. American 100K-player stresstest for mmorpg WOW. Read more at Yahoo, or read the FAQ here at Fileplanet.

(Aug 27): Frag.Ops 2.0 Tides of War teaser released. See it here (25M WM9). news catchup: Flag Pack 2004 for UT2004 finally released (on Aug 18)! A lot of folks have been waiting for this one. Read more, see screenshots at the official announcement here or download here. Contains CTF-FP-Anfractuous2, CTF-FP-CamperCrossings, CTF-FP-DuelingKeeps, CTF-FP-DyingHonor, CTF-FP-Inamorata, CTF-FP-Skylin, CTF-FP-Sobek, CTF-FP-SpiderCrossings, CTF-FP-Terra, CTF-FP-Tutorial, CTF-FP-UnderGround, DM-FP-Dismemberment, and DM-FP-Nictu. Ahh well, no Niven. At any rate now you can add these maps to the UT Classics Map Pack, the Clan UED Map Pack, and the CTF TIMP ("The International Mappack")... and you can play these new maps with a new mouse: check out IMG's review of the ultra-sensitive 1200dpi (yes 1200dpi!) Razer Viper optical gamers mouse. Supposedly you can move the mouse less for the same amount of movement with no skips. I use a trackball myself for FPSing (the billiard-sized Kensingtons), but the Razer might be welcome news for most gamers.

(Aug 26): UT2004 openal.dylib recompiled: Petterf of Macologist announced two days ago that he did a new recompile of the openal.dylib file which finally corrects stereo sound. Find it on the 11th post of the thread here. Note VOIP is still missing as it's not implemented in Apple's current openal. To install it, simply replace the existing openal.dylib file in the System folder of your Unreal Tournament 2004 .app bundle (control-click UT2004 and select 'Show Package Contents'). In related news, the download sistersite for Macologist, OSXgamefiles, may stay down for a while longer, as the crashes seem to be a result of a general haxx0r attack with a backdoor installation, so we'll have to figure out how to keep it secure; it's not clear which of the 60 sites hosted on the server was the source of the vulnerability. I'll keep you posted.
nongaming: According to macrumors, HP is set to unveil its blue HP-branded iPod either tomorrow, Aug 27, or soon afterwards Sep 5. This will be a 4th gen iPod. Also look for the G5 iMac to be announced Aug 31 at the MacExpo in Paris.

(Aug 24): Macologist.org and OSXgamefiles.com are back online, after some server problems yesterday. ScvWebFire, the owner/admin of the servers had to go into the datacenter yesterday for some herculean efforts, and the good news is that both are back up. We've been doing a lot of moving around (their IPs changed recently as the entire parent network was totally moved), but all should be well. The next step is collecting donations to base Macologist & OSXgamefiles on a G5 XServe, via PayPal to sales@osxgamefiles.com, or just click on the paypal icon at the osxgamefiles.com front page. Even a few euros/dollars will go a long way, so if you can'your weekly salary, at least spare t give us one or two euros/dollars (less than a coffee) just to say you support us. Thank you in advance! We really appreciate it! If you're paying in dollars (like me), note that 5 euros are equivalent to about 6 dollars.

(Aug 23): Regarding Close Combat, below, it seems that a mod based on the same (previously RTS) series, Close Combat Marines, is used by the Marine Corps in its Infantry Cognitive Skills Labs. Read more at Department of Defense Game Developers' Community. Although Close Combat will be a retail product from Atomic, there is much emphasis on its development in close scrutiny by real-life active duty Marines, presumably with permission or even under orders to do so from higher brass. This begs the question: is the game intended as a recruiting tool for the US Marine Corps, similar to the freely-distributed (non-retail) Americas Army (AA) for the US Army (e.g. here and here). I think we'll have to wait and see if the game is largely standalone, or evolves with a series of feature-enhancing (and community-building) patches like AA. I really wonder if any funding from the Marines or DoD went into CC game dev-- if anyone knows for sure, please let me know. On that note in the real world, Heckler & Koch is poised to replace the relatively old but standard-issue M16 with the XM8, a convertible weapon that can serve as a rifle, shorter carbine, grenade launcher, or machine gun. H&K is awaiting congressional funding before building a factory in Columbus, Georgia, that could potentially have the weapon in the hands of soldiers as soon as Summer 2005. It's also designed to have an extended barrel life, and will fire standard 5.56mm. Read more here and here. If you play Frag.Ops, you're already familiar with the in-game XM8 model for the "Special Ops" team, as this game is set in 2007, according to head coder SquirrelZero. I haven't heard if AA devs have put the XM8 in-game, but expect to see it soon if they haven't yet, although you won't see it in Close Combat, since apparently the Marine Corps have opted in favor of the M4A1 instead of the XM8.

(Aug 21): Close Combat: First to Fight trailer released: A realism urban-combat FPS, this one created with close supervision and input from Marines who have served in Iraq & Afghanistan. Take a look here (54M).

(Aug 20): nongaming news: Apple's educational ipod bundle: How would you like a new iPod from Apple for $69? Really. As an educational buyer, you may qualify for a laptop-and-iPod bundle: buy any iBook or Powerbook and you'll qualify for a $200 mail-in rebate on any 4th Gen iPod-- with already-reduced educational prices, that's a 20G for $69, and a 40Gigger for $169. Read more about Apple's "Cram and Jam" promotion. NASA hires Hollywood: On Sep 8, the Genesis Project will return a capsule containing space dust, and fittingly will be recovered mid-air by NASA hired Hollywood stuntmen-and-helicopter teams who have previously worked on films including the Star Trek