The first level was E4M3 was won by Clan HOPw 123 to 29 vs Clan HoP^x.  CrazeNDhead.HOPw 49 frags (319 ping), Knowfear.HOPw 32 frags (113 ping), Wormburner.HOPw 30 frags (274 ping), and Madaxe.HOPw 12 frags (298 ping).  HoP^x.NevyN 18 frags (199 ping), HoP^x.SJ 10 frags (130 ping), HoP^x.Taboo 1 frag (284 ping), and HoP^x.Prophet 0 frags (216 ping).

The second level DM3 was won by us Clan HOPw 103 to Clan HoP^x 48.  Jizz.HOPw 39 frags (216 ping), CrazeNDhead.HOPw 31 frags (288 ping), Killjoy.HOPw 17 frags (216 ping) and Proteus.HOPw 16 frags (336 ping). HoP^x.NevyN 21 frags (212 ping), HoP^x.SJ 11 frags (116 ping), HoP^x.Taboo 8 frags (326 ping), and HoP^x.TaRan 8 frags (195 ping).   Here is my demo attempt.

Bummer.. HOPw servers are now down either tell things cool down or permanently.  Thanks Muad'Dib for running them for us and the work you put into it.  Muad'Dib wrote: "Notice to all HOPw's/Quakers:  FotR/HOPw server is now officially down. It seems that the server was generating enough traffic to make not just the building net admin, but the big guys on campus (Took Notice) also. So until that clears up, there is no chance of it being up. Sorry about all this, but it was going to happen sooner or later. Thanks to all of you for your support!"

We started with DM2 at Dogs of War server 209.137.75.185:27000.  We won 74 to 59.   Knowfear was supposed to play but has a "MAC" computer and couldn't get onto a non 27500 port.  The match was very competitive and Dogs of War were a class act in patience and not bitching.  Excellent clan to play against if you want an enjoyable stress filled night.  Clan Dogs of War were up 19 to 18 with 5 minutes into the game.   But HOPw's fought there way to a lead and with 10 minutes left in the game we were leading 29 to 25.  I was supposed to play quad side of the map but I didn't make it there the first 15 minutes.  I tried but died too many times so camped at 100 health and read armor and racked up about 5 frags.  Finally when I was full health I headed to quad and made it with little resistance and actually got the QUAD!   Now you know Quad is dangerous in my hands and my first Quad with only 2 minutes left in the game I racked up 5 frags on one Quad!  Not bad with my ping and aim, hehe.  Here is a picture of end of the game scores for each player.  HOPw's won with 74 frags, Jizz.HOPw 36 frags (188 ping), Killjoy.HOPw 15 frags (187 ping), Wormburner.HOPw 13 frags (269 ping), and Bad13Jim.HOPw 10 frags (211 ping) to Dog's of War 59.  DW.Sarge 18 frags (101 ping), DW.Death 18 frags (311 ping), DW.Charvel 13 frags (252 ping), and DW.Fragbait 10 frags (171 ping).  Here is the demo for dm2.

We started E4M3 at HOPw server 146.6.118.28:27500 and it started out excellent for HOPw's!   Dogs of War had a few players drop.  They started with DW.Sarge (157 ping), DW.Lightnin (336 ping), DW.Half-0 (265 ping) and DW.Coach-K (263 ping) but Coach-K dropped and DW.Death (279 ping) joined the game.  5 minutes into the came HOPws were leading 29 to 8.  They did start making a comeback. At one point in the game I was laughing my ass off.  I was spectating over the grenade launcher and a DW comes through the red armor teleport at quad and starting shooting, a DW comes from the rocket launcher at hump with quad and a DW comes from graveyard with quad.  All were shooting down the halls.  But the only problem the halls were empty of HOPw's.  Three Dogs of War all loaded up with quad shooting randomly with quad rockets.  I couldn't believe how close some of their rockets missed each other.  I believe all three quads ran out before they got a frag with them.  Probably luckier for them then us, hehe.   But with 10 minutes or so left in the match and HOPw's leading 48 to 17 Dogs of War, the HOpw server crashed!  Bummer for us!  Check out the demo here.

Well we all went to 209.137.75.185 but got Dogs of War to change the port to 27500 so Knowfear could play.  It started a mess for Dogs of War with two of there players dropping.  We were up a whooping 1 frag with 2 minutes into the match! Knowfear was kicking ass, only problem he kicked DW ass then he kicked HOPw ass.  He got a DW frag then a HOPw frag then a DW frag then a HOPw frag and finally when he stopped killing HOPw's he had 1 frag left.  Once DW lost some players some of there lower ping players jumped in and that was a big help for them.  They went out to a nice lead.  But HOPw's were starting to make a nice comeback.  Then DForce went 999 ping and I gave him a minute or two and his ping didn't correct itself.  He got fragged about 5 times and I told him to drop! He left with 8 frags.   Well I was gonna jump in the last few minutes and tried, damn did my stress level go UP!  I was so pissed!  It wanted a password!!!! I did the lower and upper case password that I was given and nothing worked.  Finally after 5minutes of trying I refreshed gamespy to see that Jizz.HOPw had jumped in.  Well that helped, I hope.  DW.Death 27 frags (287 ping), DW.Sarge 22 frags (118 ping), DW.Lightnin 13 frags (276 ping), UNKNOWN.DW 12 frags (from dropped DW players) and DW.Fragbait 6 frags (159 ping).  Knowfear.HOPw 26 frags (152 ping), Bad13Jim.HOPw 11 frags (235 ping), DForce.HOPw 8 frags (ping), Hatriq.HOPw 7 frags (275 ping) and Jizz.HOPw 4 frags (189 ping). Here is the individual score's at end of game that shows the score 56 to 48 but DForce had 8 frags making it 56 for us and But we still lost the level 68 to 56.   Check out the real e4m3 demo here.

Overall an excellent night of fraggin.  We squeaked out a overall victory.  It could have been a win on both levels but a lot net games depend on the server and each players connections to the net.   With DForce hurting bad at their server it really hurt our chances on e4m3.   Good Job to everyone on dealing with the the drops everyone was good sports from both teams!  Good job!  Thanks Clan Dogs of War.

Practice went pretty well last night.  With even a better turnout.  Knowfear, Bear, Proteus, Flesh, Bobo, MadAxe, Hatriq, and DForce all made their appearances.  Ren, Corrupt Jack.AC helped out with the fighting  We did figure out that our initial plan of DM2 wouldn't hold up and revised it a bit.  Thanks for coming to practice guys.

Bear.HOPw has decided to retire.  He owe's his wife more quality time and doesn't feel he is putting in enough time helping out the HOPw's. But once a HOPw always a HOPw and he is welcome to play whenever he has time to pop in and visit us.  Bobo has also semi-retired.  He also is welcome to play when he is available. 

Ooops guess I was wrong, seems Bobo hasn't semi-retired he quit HOPw.  I'm very disappointed that someone has quit HOPw.   Any future members of HOPw will need to play with us for some time to make sure they truly want to be HOPw's.  Just because your days of Quake may be over doesn't mean you have to quit HOPw.  We have many members who are HOPw's but no longer play quake or don't have the time.  Everyone of them are welcome to jump in a game when ever they do have time. 

Wednesday practice was more or less getting the feel for a team strategy on DM2, we have never played the level in team fights.   Hopefully we can get it down so we can have a respectable showing.  It was a pretty good turnout.  Flesh, Knowfear, DForce, MadAxe, Killjoy and Hatriq all showed up.  Thanks guys.  And if you want some strategy on DM2 check out this article.

Quakeworld practice tonight at 930pm Central time at 146.6.118.28:27500.  We need to practice DM2! Please show up if you plan to  play in Sunday's Match.

Microsoft security bulletin has some new patches!  Here is MSDun1.3 for Windows95, here  is for windows98 MSDun4.0.   Also there is a jscript security issue.  Here is the windows95 update and for windows98 users go to the windows98 update page. Here is a Cnet article talking about the Windows 98 update and what is included in it.

DirectXControl 2.0 is out!

Hmmm Cheating... My thoughts... I don't and will never cheat at Quake for any amount of money.   Online quake is by far never a fair game.  Connections and computer hardware can help one person have an advantage over another.  How or when do we determine when something is considered cheating?  Some people could make the argument that GlQuake is cheating?  I use GlQuake, I use it because it makes the game look so much better and the vis'd maps makes it look so much better.  If you see clear water then of course we should see what is under the water.  GlQuake does give an advantage to shooting players under the water, however it also punishes the player when fighting a player with the ring of invisibility.  In GlQuake it is much harder to see a person using 'eyes' then normal quake.   Using GlQuake will also drop my speed slightly so that is a hit.  To me that equals out.  Common sense for all of us on cheating would be using bots, map hacks and player hacks.  What about taking out the smoke trails in grenades and rockets? To me that isn't cheating.  The increase in performance is speed related.  And that is the main thing about online gaming ping and lag is different for us all.  So things we can do to increase our performance relating to lag and ping shouldn't be considered cheating and probably aren't.  There are differing degrees of cheating, for example if someone using GlQuake uses a hack so they see the person better using 'eyes'.  Is that ok? On a non vis'd map to me I really don't care, but I wouldn't use it.  I can understand why someone would, but it still is a form of cheating. Maybe not to a great extent and  during day to day gaming and throw together matches I could care less.  However playing in clan wars and tournaments all players should be as equal as possible.  Should we shut off vis? Probably yes, do I? No, the server itself prevents using GlQuake vising.  So if a match is accepted on a certain server that is an acceptance of using vis'd maps and it is available to players from both sides who have 3dfx cards.  We all have a choice to use GlQuake or not to use, either we get the benefit of the vis'd maps or we  choose the increase in performance using regular quake with a smaller picture.  Those are preferences we could all choose assuming we have 3dfx video cards.  Using BOTS, MAP HACKS and PLAYER HACKS is unacceptable at anytime in online gaming.  This includes playing in throw together games and free for all matches.  The game is for all of us and it isn't fair for any person to take away the fun of the game by totally dominating the rest of us on a map unless that person has earned it by gaining the skill fairly.   We all have a choice to find another server if our pings are unbalanced, we choose to stay to improve and use strategy to stay alive vs a lpb.  To all online players... do the right thing... take it upon yourselves to play fair, don't cheat, make the game fun for yourself and the rest of the players out there. Here is a good article on cheating in quake.

Jerry Springer Journalism - excellent article written by Prophet.

I wonder if I should get into the Clinton debate?  Ok I will.  Leave it alone, no more media coverage let him do his job, let congress get back to important matters like running the country instead of wasting taxpayers dollars.  Let the courts take care of Clinton if there are any charges.  Politicians stay out of it unless the legal system tells you to get involved.   Wouldn't most people when backed into a corner blurt out a lie?   Think of the pressure Clinton is under, put yourself in his shoes, IF you had an affair (which is far worse then the lying aspect) wouldn't you try to hide it from millions of people?  Why should personal relationships become available for the public?  Look at history haven't other Presidents made poor family choices and had affairs? But did they have to go through the media scrutiny?  Who gives a dang about the lie, it's understandable in terms of the pressure involved.  Yes it would of been great if he wouldn't have wasted the amount of time that it took to come clean.   The choice was a very poor one and the affair is far worse then the lie, heck what politician doesn't lie? Should that be used in the same sentence?  People in general when scared are going to blurt out something they might wish they could take back.   Heck kids do it all the time, adults do it all the time when stopped by the police, wives, husbands do it all the time when they are scared or want to avoid a fight.  At one time or another we all probably have told a lie.  The best policy is to always tell the truth, is that reality?  I doubt it, but we can all do our part and try every day of our lives with everyone involved in our lives.  How would you do if asked to tell the world something embarrassing to yourself?  I vote turn off the TV and play quake.  Maybe when we respawn the Clinton coverage will be over?

I found out I didn't actually have a virus, the new update to my  anti-virus software falsely triggered  the notice.  

I, not having that great of income, wouldn't shop at home if I could get a cheaper deal elsewhere. It also depended on what the product was, and how much more it would cost "at home".  When I could, I would shop at home.   However, I was doing my own shopping and not taking bids.  As community leaders if they use the phrase they need to back it all the time and not selectively choose when to apply it and when not to apply it.  I recall one incident that got me riled.   The local courthouse was receiving a bid on a few computers and a firm out of a larger city further away had cheaper prices.  But they chose to go with a "friends" price that they knew, "not local' but   closer to the city (200 miles away) but the price difference was pretty significant like over $1000 or so higher! They chose not to accept the lower bid.  Here our friend Madaxe.HOPw was on the other end of the stick and he was very local, same town.  Read his quotes, that I suggested he keep to himself, since he is in business in the small town in question.

Madaxe.HOPw wrote -

"O.k. Here is the deal. Straight talk. I won't even try to get any jabs in:

The school board recently asked for bids to supply the local school district with 50 new computers. The sent out letters explaining what the specification were to be. So I bid. I lost. By 92 bucks a computer. So I am sitting here thinking about this and it makes me a LITTLE upset because of all the talk about shopping at home and keeping the local dollars in the community and thinking of the help I give for next to nuthin' and sometimes for nuthin'. I realize that they want to save money, I mean, who doesn't want to save money. But I am fighting with myself on this inside. On one hand, I want to help them in anyway they need, but not with the new systems cuz that would void their warranty. But on the other hand, I just want to say "They made their bed, now they can sleep in it". What would you do? I have heard people tell me what a raw deal I got and I should write a letter to the editor of the newspaper and some have said they would write a letter to the paper, and so on. But this is a small town and it does not take much to stir up trouble. I was politely told today that maybe I should keep my remarks to myself, so as not to make anyone mad and hurt my business. By the way this person is the first one to tell me this, but I am not upset with him for saying that. He is just looking out for my best interests. There is most of it in a nutshell. There were some other things like, asking a 17 year old high school student to come up and help with putting the computers in. And not even asking if I could come down on the bid so they would buy from me. (which I more than likely would have) But it has been a disappointing, and it has been hard to "Not take it personally". I mean, I buy stuff in this town and pay taxes here and put my kids in the very same school that just bought 50 computers from from a place in California who in-turn hired a college student from the neighboring town to set them up, who in-turn ask a 17 year old to help out with it. But again, I ask. "What would you do?"

If you play unreal you might not want to upgrade to glide3.0.  Ren was the only person who had upgraded at momcon and when they started to play the game he had an error.  He uninstalled glide3.0 and reinstalled glide2.43 and was able to play the game.

Microsoft Outlook has new security patches for outlook express and outlook 98 again.

I found a cool link to help you keep up on all your drivers for all your hardware.  I linked an excellent page called 3d-drivers on my main links page and also linked Drivers Headquarters.  These two pages should help you keep up to date on every driver for your computer.  Also check out my Tweak page for an additional link that may help you tweak your modem.

Netscape Communicator 4.06 came out yesterday.

If your quake is too dark on your monitor check out idgamm95.

Bummer, I downloaded the newest version of Iomega disk tools called W95_551.exe off the Iomega site.  Well I transferred it from work to home.  When I got home I found that my PC-illin found a virus in that executable file.  I did not execute the file and deleted it.   PC-illin detected Romeo_Juliet virus.  It wasn't able to clean it.  I don't believe I was infected since I didn't execute the file.  I sent a email to Iomega and PC-illin.  Hopefully PC-illin will come back with a fix for it shortly, so I can download the new release again.  Well that is the first time I have ever received a virus over the internet!

Beware of Lama server.  I have played about three times at this server.  Each time it was a throw together 2on2, 3on3 or 4on4 game.  We had been anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes into a match and the LAMA server admin started booting players at random, or reset the match.  Last night the LAMA actually reset the match with 6 people playing and started a 1on1.  Hehe who knows if I will get to play there again (not that I want to), but 5 seconds before there 1on1 level started I jumped in the game and hurt him and killed his opponent!.  I'm not sure who the lama was but Generik.ego and QS.Abumc were the two players.  So take your chances at pacificnets port 26002!   207.171.0.68:26002.  It is not a player friendly server.  

Glide 3.0 is out.  This is not an upgrade but an actual new release.  Here is an article What is Glide3.x.   That might answer some questions on why you might want to get it.  Here is where you can get glide 3.0 page.  The glide page is a little confusing.  There are three files on that page.  I believe the first file is all you need Glide 3.x SDK (2.89mb).  But if you want the glide 2.x 3.x diagnostics (4.89mb) that is the second file.  And the last file is the documentation (1.22mb).  Which includes a Glide 3.0 programming guide, a glide 3.0 reference manual and glide 3.0 reference notes.

If you tried out the DirectXControl program I listed on August 4th.  There have been two updates to that program fixing bugs.  Go here to get the fixes. Hopefully it fixes my error13 I keep getting on startup, hehe.  I've been too lazy to go try to find info on why it was happening.

Madaxe.HOPw has updated his Marion Computers page (broken link) and put a animated slide show that displays 3 pictures of the inside of his store.

Tigerlilly wants you all to READ the Rules.  This might also help keep HOPw's playing longer, or at least in good health.

I didn't play this game but it is a popular game.  Simcity3000 is coming out and here is a review.

You window 98 users should be watching for August 18th to arrive that is when Microsoft will release it's BUG FIXER.  But if you don't agree with my naming of their release here is the news article on the controversy.  Optimization tips from Beta News - for winbeta98 (broken link) version of windows98 and here are the ones for 0EM/Retail windows 98. (broken link)

If you have had problems installing Direct X6 check out my August 4th news for two more files to help fix the problem.   Or go to Beta News and scan their August 9th news for Netscape users fix, or further down for their internet explorer fix.

Clan 9 vs Clan Deathrow didn't go well for USA's Clan DR losing 8 of 10 matches.  Planetquake has excellent coverage on each match check them out if your interested.  Here is one of the smartest quotes I have heard and it backs up my philosophy also.  This is from Clan 9's Spice "tells us ... in Scandinavia we discharge alot. It's a good way to get packs and disturb the other clan's tactics.. Really ! Chicks love it".  This quote was a laugh from match 9 "Reptile : How the HELL did I get discharged ? I WAS IN THE FUCKING ROCKET ROOM !"

The only rules in a teamplay game should be NO CHEATING.  Tactics like discharging in water and "camping" are not valid bitches.  They are players responses to dying because of their own mistakes.  It is a way for a player to place the blame for his/her mistake on the other player.  There are effective ways to prevent water deaths, don't go in the water, or use the columns as safety nets.  You can't die by elec if your on the other side of a column.

Clan Jalapeno goes 600 mhz!, hehe check the new speed of the CJ's here.

Also Killjoy.HOPw is also Killjoy.CJ (unless he using Ben Dover), hehe.  Anyway, what are my thoughts.... Well al HOPws are free to do what they want.  I understand we all get tired of losing, especially by a large margin.  But that is what comes from not practicing.  I know most of us don't play that much and can't make practices.  Killjoy plays alot as well as I.  Heck I have even thought about joining another clan to win.  But I like the idea of an elite HOPw squad that would be required to practice or else they would fall to the regular squad.  Anyway, I prefer HOPw's to stay in only one clan and use one name.  But as long as everyone is happy, has a good time and are proud to be apart of our clan that is more important.  HOPw is about being friends, about having the coolest name, and about not requiring practices since we all have lives and quake is recreational.  So if you remember that the losses shouldn't be taken so hard since basically it is a throw together match with whoever shows up.  Take care HOPw's and be proud.

HOPw Quake2 server is now running!  Here is what Nep has to say, "I have put up a new q2 server at 208.16.185.18 port 27910 Right now I am running q2ctf but have a few other mods as well that I plan to try out. Just FYI... I am working with some player stats log parsers too but the server hasn't had enough action to really test the them thoroughly. Feel free to jump on it - I need some action in my log files.
Nephilim"

This might help Muad'Dib or anyone else wanting to setup a Linux Quake Server. (broken link)

Some of you might remember the old tits.exe program (linked on my humor page)   that I sent around (thanks to Ledfoot) on February 6th.  Well I renamed it blah!men.exe and sent to two people and here are there responses.  Cali-Girl "SHOCK!! lol :)",  and Tigerlilly "OMG!!!....I thought I died!!...for a second there!!...Yikes!!!  Funny!"  I also uploaded the gift.exe that Killjoy sent out.

Well the USA's clan representative Clan DeathRow isn't fairing to well vs. Sweden's Clan 9.  Clan 9 has beaten DR 4 to 1.   They played 3 DM3 and 2 E1M4 levels in quake.  Friday night they will play 5 more levels in QuakeWorld.  Most of the four wins by Clan 9 were blowouts!  Clan DR did have a nice blowout on their 1 win.  There are in-depth write-ups on planetquake's pages.  Scary's page also links to some demo's.

Here is a link to an old game I used to play which is coming out again with improvements.  Lode Runner 2 demo.   Another game I play currently in single player is Civilization 2.  It is coming out now online, actually there is a partial online way to play, but I haven't checked into it.  In the next few weeks this online strategy game is coming out. Here is a review and here is Activision's Civilization 2-Call to Power who licensed the game from Microprose.  Here is a review of programmer Sid Meier.  The original game came out at Microprose and they will be coming out with Gold Edition Civilization Multiplayer and Civilization a Test of Time. There are several sites that provide many maps, patches and information on these two upcoming games and the current single player game.  Here are the links The Apolyton Civilization Site.   Another multiplayer game by Sid Meier comes out in November is Alpha Centauri and here is a review.

Well I guess that is enough news for today.  Check with Killjoy on a possible scrimmage with BC on Sunday.  Also I believe Ledfoot is going to follow up on the quake 2 challenge.  You Q2 guys are going to have to get organized and start communicating on a practice day and determine if you have the people to play quake 2 as a team.

DirectX 6.0 is out!! Make sure you get the right version for your system.  Internet explorer users put his DirectX Control Panel (broken link) applet in your windows/system directory and/or  Netscape users put execute this self extracting (broken link) DirectX Control Panel.   It may prevent trouble installing Here is the link for Windows 95 users.  And here is the link for Windows 98 users.  If you want a DirectX utility here is DirectXControl version 1.0.44.   And if you have problems and want to go back to an older version here is a DirectX Uninstaller.

If you have internet explorer 4.0 you should now notice some different effects upon entering and leaving my pages.

DM3 HOPw 49 to Clan ESM 46.  Proteus.HOPw 19 frags (269 ping), CrazNDhead.HOPw 13 frags (322 ping), Killjoy.HOPw 13 frags (247 ping), and Thorny.HOPw 4 frags (344 ping).   Valhalla.ESM 19 frags (358 ping), Cac+usjack.ESM 10 frags (335 ping), Auntbetty.ESM 9 frags (335 ping) and Tigerlilly.ESM 8 frags (224 ping). CountFloyd.ESM 3 frags (361 ping).

E4M3 HOPw 73 to Clan ESM 43.   Wormburner.HOPw 26 frags (303 ping), Killjoy.HOPw 19 frags (171 ping), Zork.HOPw 16 frags (381 ping) and Knowfear.HOPw 12 frags (229 ping).  C4c+usjack.ESM 12 frags (234 ping), Cochese.ESM 11 frags (314 ping), Auntbetty.ESM 9 frags (305 ping) and Valhalla.ESM 8 frags (327 ping), Tigerlilly.ESM 3 frags (227 ping).

Here is a demo from Craz's perspective for DM3.

Well DirectX 6.0 should be out within the next week or so would be my guess.  If your interested on what is in this API check out this link.  GAGames DirectX News.   Or if you want to place an order for the cd here is Microsoft's page to order it.

If your interested on Intel Chips and the difference between each chip and what is coming out.  Tom's Hardware has an excellent roadmap of all the chips. Check it out!

We have a Quake match vs. Clan ESM on Sunday August 2nd at 9pm Central time.  This will be e4m3 and dm3 4 on 4 matches.   We will meet at 146.6.118.28:26666.  The match is only HPB.  I'm not sure what the cut off ping will be but will appreciate any 100-200 pingers to show up and practice.

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