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magazines:pc_gamer_issue_034_september_1996_uk [2011/12/07 18:14] – Spirit | magazines:pc_gamer_issue_034_september_1996_uk [2012/02/03 12:34] (current) – first trans Spirit | ||
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Two columns, shareware secrets guide, two page granny pie ad. | Two columns, shareware secrets guide, two page granny pie ad. | ||
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+ | ==== Transcription ==== | ||
+ | === Diversions: The Spy === | ||
+ | //" | ||
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+ | " | ||
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+ | I stifled a laugh. Chuckling isn't very secret agent... and the gag wasn't so funny anyway. Had I been called back from my assignment in the Caribbean because my controller was looking for a career on the stage? No. He tapped a button and a painting slid out of its frame on the wall with a reassuring snick. The screen behind played back a tape. A game I was already familiar with. Sure, who in the world isn't familiar with Quake? | ||
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+ | Except something wasn't quite right. The lighting effects were pokier than I was used to. The level maps were new. A couple of bad guys I'd only ever seen in id's screenshots were appearing here and there. What had been going on while I'd been living it up in Haiti? Control took up the story. "Three days ago a game, claiming to be the full version of Quake, was posted on the Internet. Our chaps managed to download the game before it disappeared off into the ether. We want you to find out what happened. The source of the leak. The limitations of the game that was posted on-line. The whole works." | ||
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+ | My first stop was the testing room, where I got to understand just what control meant by his attempt at humour. Anyone downloading this version of the game - codenamed Beta 3 - was certain to be disappointed. This simply wasn't a finished game. You could understand the motivation for loading up and running this early version. Impatient gamers just couldn' | ||
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+ | Next up, a sniff around the Internet. All the best Quake sites were eerily quiet on the issue of the leaked beta. I couldn' | ||
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+ | Apparently it was one of those social disease things. id's John Romero passed the game on to a play-tester. The play-tester passed a copy onto a pal. Who passed a copy on to another pal. Who passed a copy on to... and so on until it landed in the slippery, warty hands of a software pirate who thought nothing of posting the game on-line. | ||
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+ | So, what had people been playing - thinking they were all smart and getting the game before anyone else? The beta version was in fact three months old - by now make that five months. On the enemies side, players got to see new monsters, but their artificial intelligence wasn't nearly as hot as expected in the finished version. A better lighting model is being implemented for the finished game, which will change the way the characters are illuminated. | ||
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+ | Another major change expected in the final version is redbook audio - that's to say real CD music which streams from disc while playing._The shareware version does this already, but what you really want is some Nine Inch Nails to really get into the spirit, seeing as they' | ||
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+ | As for the story line, the shareware version' | ||
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+ | All this just left the question why? Why bother rushing Quake and turning it into the PC games player equivalent of premature ejaculation? |