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Twenty-Second Highest Shelf Vittles: 10.20.02-3.14.04

Back to Stale Vittles
 
Sunday 3/14/04
 
Fluffy Godzilla
     First an update about Molycoat's "Goldcanyon" that I covered in the last update--Moly tells me that the explosive barrels do in fact respawn, they just have long respawn times so as not to make the map too explosive. Paleface.net apologizes for the error!
     Godzilla! CTKMD (shot) by Shifty Tuco and Molycoat: You've played a 128-bit gunslinger for quite some time now--how about moving up to a 200-foot city-wrecker? Awesome mod job here to transform Outlaws into a modern city complete with little (relative to your formidable size) tanker trucks, helicopters, suspension bridge, boats, artillery, helpless civilians, Godzilla and, of course, skyscrapers. You can even climb up to the top of the tallest skyscraper with some careful jumping and poke your head through the sky--now that's high up, man! All the normal OL pickups have been transformed into appropriate objects (the shotgun is an artillery piece, for instance) that you snap up as you stomp around the city--a little confusing at first, but I'm sure even GZ had awkward moments in his early days.
     Fluffy's Meadow CKMD (shot) by Shifty Tuco: Like something right out of an old Bugs Bunny cartoon complete with blue skies, butterflies, giant carrots in a field, a big puffy tree, and lots of rabbit holes. All players even look like different colors of what Shifty calls "badly drawn rabbits," but I think they're rather cute. The multi-layered burrows beneath the meadow are a bit confusing (in contrast with the meadow itself, which is a single circular area), but don't you just want to play with those cute little bunnies? It is rumored that the squirrel is a double-barrel shotgun.
     X_Villa CTKMD (shot) by Xaviar: Swiped this one from Mr. Bone's HQ. One of those high-concept maps, in the shape of a big X, with forts at the end of the legs and in the middle. It's an interesting configuration for team play, and although the buildings are on the plain and simple side, the texture work is nice. Molycoat helped out on this one (the dude is everywhere!)--you'll spot his explosive barrels standing around, for instance.
 
Other Western Games
     Lanky pointed me to Polish developer Teleplan's page for Gun Warrior, a multi-angle Western shooter in which, in their own words, "The major Player's activity is eliminating hundreds enemies passing through mission-based bloody journey as well as during the duels." Elsewhere on their site they show their actual development schedule, a rather unusual thing to show to the public and which inclines me to think that they're still shopping for a publishing partner.
     It seems the once-derailed Western console title "Red Dead Revolver" is back on track and picking up steam now that the developer, Angel Studios, has been bought by Rockstar. Apparently you get to play third-person as a bunch of different characters with different play styles, and you even get to ride bison, if you have a PS2 or Xbox of course.
 
Truffle 2.0
     Truffle is working on Gunslinger 2.0, an upgraded version of his all-in-one Outlaws utility program. According to his preview page 2.0 will have lots of nice GUI tweaks, additional functions such as tokenizing maps, and can even take custom skins.
 
Legends of Pale

    Her hair was falling loose and now seemed to rise on her head, above her ashen-pale face, like Medusa's serpent-coils.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 3/7/04
 
Gold in Them Thar Canyons
     Gold Canyon TKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Adoptation of part of the ice caves Historical Mission thing, except now in bright daylight. The canyon texture got a little blown out in the time-of-day switch, but the water looks nifty. Other custom graphical touches abound, including plentiful whisky bottle canteens, explosive 3D powderkegs (these don't respawn, darn) and even what Moly says is a 3D model for the gatling gun that he dug out of the game resources. It looks kind of like an alien spacecraft eheh. Oh and the rope ladder, that's neat. The level layout is kind of long and linear with lots of little dead-ends, but exploring it should be fun.
 
Out|@Wz i|\| 7i|\|Ux OMG!!
     I ought to apologize for that headline, but really I get a kick out of writing like that. Anyway, Truffle has been experimenting in ways likely not approved of by the DirectX compatibility verification team at Microsoft, and sent me the following interesting missive:
I was able to get Outlaws to run in linux (mandrake 9.1) I used a DirectX emulator called WineX which is based off the popular Windows Emulator WINE. Anyway, surprisingly the game ran as fast as it does in Windows. Direct3D didnt work. Im guessing this is because Linux didnt install any 3D drivers for my video card, it told me i had to download them from nvidia's website. The only problem i had with it was the same problems that we all get in Windows XP. The backspace key didnt work.
    Now if that ain't fascinating, I don't know what is. I really should try to figure out that Lin00x thing one of these days.
 
Impassively Pale
    But, astute as she was in reading the minds of those whose secrets she wished to discover, this time she found her victim so impassive that her scrutiny revealed nothing. The officer was about twenty-five, pale, and with light-blue, rather deep-set eyes. His mouth was sensitive and well-formed, his jaw determined, his forehead the high forehead of poets and visionaries, his hair close-cropped and, like his beard and moustache, chestnut-coloured.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 2/15/04
 
Which Way to Go
     4 Way CTKMD (shot) by GravEs: A neat little geometric level of four houses in tiny box canyons branching off from a similar central canyon, with some secret passages and bunkers in the canyon walls. Textures could use a little tweaking and item placement is clumpy in a few spots, but otherwise this is a very solid DM map so long as you don't get lost between the similar-looking canyons.
     Note: I've renamed the map to "4way_graves.zip" because there's already a "4way.zip" map.
 
Deathly Cheeky
     'Fiend!' she shrieked. 'You've played a vile trick on me and you know my secret! You shall die!'
     She ran over to her dressing-table, half naked as she was, and with trembling hands opened a marquetry jewel-case, took out a little gold-hilted dagger with a thin, pointed blade and with one bound was back at d'Artagnan's side.
     Brave as he was the young man flinched and shrank back at the sight of her. Her face was transformed. The pupils of her eyes were horribly dilated, her cheeks deathly pale, her teeth bared in a snarl. He backed away from her as far as the alcove, eyeing her warily like a wild beast, and when his hand, damp with sweat, accidentally touched his sword he clutched hold of it and drew it from its scabbard.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 2/8/04
 
Maps That Are Out There
     Spacewar D (shot) by Molycoat: The master of map customization outdoes himself again by converting the dusty old trails and six-guns of Outlaws into the glistening laser-riddled spaceways of the far future. It's essentially a low-grav circular arena with mod weapons and character sprites, not to mention brilliant space sounds (love the thruster when you run-- er, jet forward). The space feel is very vivid (as is the nebulous background) and man, the whole affair is quite impressive. The composite screenshot comes from Moly, who wanted to make sure you could get a preview of some of the ship/player sprites. Here's a bonus one for you.
     Mt.Mod CTKMD (shot) by GravEs: A long CTF-ish trench valley map with a number of crafty bunkers, and ledges around the top. Good framerate, sorta shaky construction on the ramps and side bunkers, wish it had footstep sounds.
     TheRing CKMD (shot) by GravEs: Lots of massive rendering glitches in 3dfx mode make it a bit hard to evaluate this large-ish map of several rambling buildings in a wide flat area. The buildings are rather plain and blocky, although the boxing ring is a nice idea, unfortunately plagued by some of the aforementioned rendering glitches. Also missing running sounds.
 
"Wild West Goldhunter" Released
     Spikerama, aka "Larry," maker of many creative OL maps in days of yore, has turned his creative game ideas in a new direction and gone and made his own entire game! Called "Wild West Goldhunter," it's a Western-based first-person-shooter with a heavy emphasis on solving mind-bending riddles, as well as prospecting for gold. The official web site for the game is right over here, and good ol' Spikerama is selling the fruits of his labor for less than what it costs to get in to a movie these days. He was kind enough to send me an early beta version some months ago and although it didn't run well on my machine (my old box is about at his minimum spec in processor speed, so no wonder), I sure ran into some head-banging puzzles! There are a few crafty riddles/hints on the web site, as well as some representative screenshots, so go check it out.
 
TKM's New Digs
     Those Killing MachinE rascals seem to be modifying their name somewhat and moving over to this address, and it's actually an entirely new site, though somewhat reminiscent of the now-obsolete one that I just posted a few weeks ago.
 
Wild and Pale
     'I've got that ring, dear heart. You see it was I who was here on Thursday night . . . not de Wardes!'
     The rash young fellow expected nothing more from his mistress than surprise and mortification, a petulant storm which would resolve itself in tears. But he was very much mistaken and was soon to discover his mistake.
     Milady started up wild and pale. She forced d'Artagnan away with all her strength and sprang out of bed.
     It was now almost daylight.
     D'Artagnan caught hold of her flimsy crèpe-de-Chine nightdress and held her back, meaning to coax her into forgiving him. As she tried to jerk herself free the cambric of the dress tore, leaving her beautiful white shoulders bare. And on her left shoulder d'Artagnan saw to his horror the fleur-de-lis, the mark of the criminal. Milady was branded!
     The young man let go of her nightdress and lay there motionless, paralyzed with fear.
     'God in Heaven!' he whispered.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 2/1/04
 
Wild Down Under
     Spikerama sent me this link to an Australian site showing what they say is a Western real-time strategy game called "Tombstone: Wild West 1882." Let's hope it's Y2K-compatible! Haha. Er, sorry. It isn't clear if you can actually buy the game directly through their site, in fact it kind of looks like they deal with selling in bulk to retailers, but I could be wrong.
 
Dead Men Have Good Poker Faces
     Continuing the theme of 'games that want to be cool like Outlaws,' Pancho Villa pointed me over to the official site for Human Head Software's new western FPS, "Dead Man's Hand," due out at the beginning of March for PC and Xbox. Looks pretty neat from the screenshots, and Pancho says that he's heard it will have multiplayer. The official site has links to a lot of previews and such which, one would hope, have even more screenshots and stuff.
 
Excuses for Paleness
     Having reached the man he had two courses open to him: either to search him on the spot or to carry him back, making a shield of his body, and search him in the trench. D'Artagnan chose the second course. He had just lifted the man on to his back when the enemy opened fire. D'Artagnan felt the man's body jolt against his shoulder, heard him scream and give a final shudder of agony. The man had achieved the very opposite of what he had intended; he had shielded his victim and instead of killing him had saved his life. D'Artagnan jumped back into the trench and threw the corpse down beside the wounded man, who was almost as pale as his dead comrade.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 1/25/04
 
Curses!
     I stumbled across a preview of an upcoming PS2/Xbox game called "Darkwatch: Curse of the West." I mention it because it is self-described as "A cinematic FPS with explosive action and great gameplay variety framed by a story and visual design that delivers a frightening re-imagination of the Wild West." The whole horror/western combination seems a little overdone to me (I mean that it seems nearly every Western game announced has to have some kind of dark Gothic side to it for some reason) but you never know, it could turn out all right. The preview, with screenshots and so forth, can be found here.
 
Side-Scrollin' Outlaws-Style
     Truffle is working on a PC game he calls "Dr. Death's Shootout." It's a 2D side-scroller in which you, playing as Dr. Death, jump over crates and gun down varmits with a variety of weapons. It looks almost exactly like Outlaws, only fully 2D, which is pretty impressive. He's still working away at it but if you visit his page on the game you can see screenshots and even download a rough but quite playable version of the game. I found it really challenging, but the shotgun makes a nice little equalizer. Overall it's an impressive testament to Truffle's abilities with a computer and it will be fun to play the finished version when he's got it all done.
 
TKM Site Goes Live
 
TKM's HomeBase
The "Team Killing Machines'" site by TheClown sports details on each member of the posse, a few pertinent links, some handy utilities for OL players, info on the gang and a few screenshots, all in a large, fast, flaming goth style (those offended by an animated burning cross had best avoid).
 

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Sunday 1/11/04
 
What's GoJo Cooking?
     GoJo is whipping up a new map and you can watch him do it! Well, in screenshots, at least. Check GoJo's Current Project page for the goodies.
 
Snipers Have More Fun
     Clown sent me some info on his Snipers posse. Look, they've got a web site!
Snipers HeadQuarters
Fast site of the Snipers posse has info on the members, how to join, a few handy links, and so forth.
 
What's So Happy About It, Anyway?
     Hope everyone survived the holidays more or less intact! I had a nice long break but the last two vacations I've taken now I've ended up with a cold, so maybe I shouldn't take time off anymore—seems to be bad for my health. Too bad this place wasn't open New Year's Eve... Who says Seattle doesn't have cowboys? Hm, tryouts today—looks like this is my chance to live my old dream of being a cattle-rustlin' cocktail waitress.
     'Impossible,' said Milady. 'No gentleman would write a woman a letter like that.'
     Then she suddenly cried out:
     'Good God! Could he have seen . . .?'
     She stopped. Her teeth were chattering, her face ashen pale. She now turned and tried to walk over to the window to get air, but could only raise her arms; her legs gave way under her and she collapsed into an armchair.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 12/21/03
 
We Three Maps
     Deerhunt CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Lovely dry brushland/pine-forest with a gently curving road running through the middle and plentiful wildlife, including the titular deer who have some very impressive animations and even (in one case) the sound of hooves matching their progress. A really gorgeous job of blending what appear to be custom textures here, the autumnal palette and sprites making up the open woodland are just smashing. The whole area has a natural, organic feel to it, helped of course by Molycoat's customary attention to intricate wildlife details. You'll probably get lost at first in the rambling wooded paths but just sit back and enjoy the scenery for a while and you'll soon get your bearings. I can still hear that crow cawing somewhere in the distance. Should make for a nice big stealthy kind of match.
     The Ponderosa CTKMD (shot) by Vin_Egar: Impressive re-creation of the Cartright's house and barn from Bonanza—well, I never caught the show, but I'm told it's a recreation, and even I can see that it's impressive. Custom textures captured from photos were used (I'm told) to recreate the interiors with the closest possible fidelity, and they certainly look detailed and distinct. The map was finished up by Molycoat, and I think maybe I see some of his custom touches here and there, like the unique breakable windows. My favorite aspect is the generous scale of the interiors--you really feel like you've got room to stand up and stretch in this big, bright house. Framerate dips very slightly in just a few spots due to all the detail included, but those running any kind of halfway decent machine won't notice a thing.
     Snowtown CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Moly gets in the holiday spirit and you know it's going to be something special. Santa has scattered a generous number of wrapped presents throughout this small snowed-in enclave. What did they ask for for Christmas? Well, shotguns, apparently, and TNT, pistols... you get the picture, perhaps. The custom sounds when picking up items --er, I mean unwrapping presents, are particularly nice. It's quite the festive little DM level, and if you're feeling a bit under the weather, why, have a spicy egg-nog! This time Moly put his obsession with detail in to the animating Xmas decorations, with colorful lights strung up everywhere and just check out the lovely star on top of the big tree. And maybe do some sniping while you're up there.
 
OL Mod for Half-Life Wants YOU!
     Well, Chet figured that maybe some folks who haven't been there before would like to know about The Outlaws Mod for Half-Life, which is just what the name says. It's been around for a while now and has got a good deal of polish, and Chet mentions that there are openings for modelers, skinners, mappers, and of course crazy players such as yourselves! Also, coincidentally enough you'll find a few nice-lookin' screenshots of a map Chet's made for 'em on the front page of the site.
 
Golf Season Ends for GoJo
     It's that time of year when GoJo gets the urge to bust new ground with LawMaker, and I don't know if he wanted me to post this in particular but I figure he knows by now that I pretty much post everything that won't obviously get me in trouble, so if you travel to this thread on TheOutlawDad's message board, you'll find GoJo gathering the pieces of a map he's drawing up, so far the plan as I know it is for two small towns separated by a ridge, with some of the buildings in the towns to be named by or after certain OL players.
     That GoJo... always stirrin' up trouble!
 
It's No Good Questioning Pale People
     The shutter swung back again slowly on its hinges and the old man's head and shoulders appeared in the opening; he was very pale and seemed panic-stricken. He stood in silence in the window while d'Artagnan explained to him what he had come for, what he had discovered and what he suspected. The old man listened attentively, nodding his head from time to time to corroborate certain details in d'Artagnan's narrative. when the young man had finished his tale the old man remained standing in the window, saying nothing but shaking his head lugubriously.
     'Why are you shaking your head like that?' cried d'Artagnan. 'For Heaven's sake speak! Tell me what's been happening here!'
     'Don't question me, Sir, please,' answered the old man. 'If I told you what I'd seen no good would come of it.'
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 12/14/03
 
A Slue of New Maps
     The holidays are in full swing and you're probably wondering to yourself "Good gravy, how'm I gonna pass the time 'til Christmas?" Well fret ye no longer, little sprite, for today you have nine, count 'em nine, new maps with which to play.
     Foto CMD (shot) by Hooter: Readme says it's a reworking of his map "OKC," which means a small ranch/town in a valley with some good buildings and rooftop accesses and things, and now sporting custom textures that he captured from some of his favorite movies (thus the title). Framerate is good, there are no obvious glitches and the town for the most part has a nice open layout.
     TexasCajun TKMD (shot) by The 3 Amigos: Collaborative effort by Hooter, Dog_Holliday and Molycoat puts you in a mid-size desert town with some impressive two-story buildings at the main crossroads--really impressive considering the framerate even with all these buildings in view. Molycoat-esque custom touches abound to delight the senses, and the interiors do full justice to the impressive exteriors, and feel like real unique places--check the tool shop in the screenshot. The town, though, is not as big as it seems at first, as a nasty case of Invisible Wall Syndrome confines you to a square section in the center of town--the boundary is indicated by a slight change in shading on the ground, but still, it distracts from the otherwise immersive feel of the highly detailed playable area.
     Slue CKMD (shot) by M_A_R_S: Mirrored CTF-style map with two identical houses faced off across a bit of water with a high embankment in the middle, all enclosed in a narrow box canyon. There are a couple very minor Glide artifacts but otherwise the map looks quite nice, with the two houses thoughtfully textured differently to help you remember which side if yours. You can only really get into the houses from the front of the ground floor, and there are no side routes (unless I missed 'em, which is entirely possible) so the action is going to be pretty hot and heavy in a straight line between the two bases.
     Town Bar CKMD (shot) by GravEs: When GravEs sent me this big bunch of maps he warned that some may not be very good. This would be one of those, I suppose--pretty nasty 3dfx glitches, a clearly visible untextured pillar standing a little way outside of the four-building "town," and nothing really worth mentioning going on inside the block buildings, except maybe for the civilian bartender who will help lag up low-bandwidth users.
     Blood Thirsty CTKMD (shot) by GravEs: Small and nasty little deathmatch map where you spawn in little "legs" around a small circular clearing, "Spider" style, and with an underground boxing ring thrown in for the heck of it.
     CTFTown2 CKMD (shot) by GravEs: Woo, this small canyon map has a big 3dfx-glitch-surrounded hole in it, and if you happen to stumble through it you get stranded out in limbo. The three bartenders and mobs of seemingly endlessly respawning stacked bottles probably won't help network performance, and the sky sometimes looks like a wood plank, but you'll have plenty of time to ponder the deep meaning of these portents while wandering around in a groundless limbo.
     Stars Room KMD (shot) by GravEs: Float across a huge empty low gravity square canyon or wander through the interminable tunnels underneath it while marvelling at the repeating alien face texture. And yes, some visual glitches when you jump too high and poke your head through the sky, or something. But that's, like, your opinion, man.
     Warmup TKMD (shot) by GravEs: Rather neat arena-style layout here with two bunkered armories facing off across a no-man's-land obstacle course of crates in a big wood panelled room. Odd that it doesn't support CTF, since it seems designed for it.
     Xmas CTKMD (shot) by GravEs: The obligatory seasonal map with snowmen, Christmas trees and a casual Santa next to the chimney in a CTF-style cavern with several low wall obstacles between the bases and very large and plain passages running around the back and sides. How does it snow in a cave, anyway?
 
Wassail, and all that!
 
Truffle's Toolbar
     Truffle has a customized Outlaws Hideout IE Toolbar available for download at his "Outlaws Hideout" site, right here. You download it and it installs as a custom menu bar in Internet Explorer, I gather. You'll also find information on how to offer a donation for his efforts if you are in the giving mood ('tis the season!).
 
Climbing the Ladder
     DonMaximo sent me an update to let me know that the BaD Ladder Outlaws competition now has over 30 players duking it out for fun, glory, bragging rights, and free beer (BYOB). Okay so I just made up that last item. Remember, you go the ladder board over at the BaD Ass Mofos message board nexus to sign up for the action.
 
MaD Page
 
Team MaD
Sort of a visual patchwork but fast and sporting consistent navigation, the MaD posse site offers posse news, a message board, member list, info on joining the team, downloads of member-made maps and some handy links and files. I'm not sure why there's a big banner/logo link to my site at the top of the page layouts, but I guess I'm not one to complain.
 
Paling People for Fun and Profit
     The answer was indeed a shattering one. Anne of Austria imagined that the King knew everything and that the Cardinal had persuaded him to feign ignorance during the past week, in order to lull her into a false sense of security. This was one of his favourite tricks. She went very pale, leant her lovely hand, now waxen-coloured, against a little table to support herself, and stood staring at the King, speechless with terror.
     'I hope you heard what I said, Ma'am,' repeated the King.
     He stood watching the Queen, thoroughly enjoying her discomfiture, without, of course, guessing the reason for it.
     'Yes, Sire, I heard you,' stammered the Queen.
     'You'll come to the ball?'
     'Yes.'
     'Wearing the diamonds?'
     'Yes.'
     Her Majesty was now so deathly white that she appeared about to faint. The King noticed her perturbation and rejoiced at it. There was a streak of cruelty deep down in him, which sometimes came uppermost.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 12/7/03
 
When a BaD Ladder is a Good Ladder
     DonMaximo wrote to tell me about his BaD posse's new Outlaws ladder which, for those of you that haven't seen one before, is kind of an open, ongoing series of one-on-one duels, like you have a lot of the time in OL anyway, except that they track wins and losses and you can see your rank along with everyone else's. Interested? If so, then you'll want to check the following sites:
 
BaD Ass Mofos
Feisty message boards run by the BaD posse, including a board for sign ups and challenges in their Outlaws Ladder.
BaD Ladder
Standings in the ladder run by the BaD posse. See their "BaD Ass Mofos" posse site for sign-ups.
 
Queen Pale
     Anne of Austria backed away in horror. Her face was deathly pale and she was trembling so much that she had to rest her left arm against a table to support herself. With her right hand she took the letter out of her dress and handed it to the Keeper of the Seals.
     'Here's your letter, Sir!' she cried, her voice harsh with rage. 'Take it and remove your odious presence from my sight.'
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 11/30/03
 
New Gunfighter Shots
     Mr.Ferstat sent me news that 3D Gamers has some new screenshots right here of Gunfighter, a Western action game from Polish development house Nawar. You can also find the shots (very dark and moody) on Nawar's Gunfighter page, as well as a lot of details about the game, with heavy emphasis placed on the claim that it will have "maximal level of realism." They say the game is coming to Xbox, PS2 and mobile phones (hm) as well as PC, and I don't see a date other than a "playable demo" being due "first quarter 2004." Also no mention of a North American publisher.
 
After Scarlet
It is almost impossible to describe the effect produced on Louis XIII by the Cardinal's words. First he flushed scarlet, then he went very pale, and the Cardinal saw at a glance that with one stroke he had regained all the territory he had lost.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

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Sunday 11/23/03
 
The Redneck Hoots at Midnight
     Redneck CMD (shot) by Hooter: Another re-release by Hooter, this time of one of his own maps, Redneck. He removed the evil robots and poodle, laggers that they are, and "fixed some textures and added a few things." This version replaces the old one, so get it if you want to stay up with the latest.
 
In-Game Editor Guide
     Hooter fell to reflecting that the average Outlaws player probably has no idea of the existence of the in-game level-editing tools hidden just under their fingertips. To bring them to light and empower the citizenry, he's written up this In-Game Editor Guide for your perusal. It's in MS Word .doc format, and I don't really have a place here for LawMaker tutorials (since I don't know a thing about it and couldn't tell a good tutorial from a bad one) but I'll have it on the ol' ftp site for the time being. If you're interested in giving it a real proper home, you might just mention it to Hooter if you happen to run into him.
 
Bountiful Banners
     A couple more banners arrived this week and you'll see 'em at the top of pages as you browse around the site. Heck, you might see one of 'em up there right NOW, since it's random. You could also just sit there refreshing this page over and over until you've seen them all—I got enough bandwidth, so go right ahead. And of course if you have your own OL site and would like a banner link, all you gotta do is trot on over here to see how to go about it.
 
Even Paler Than Before
    Aramis, seeing that Monsieur de Tréville was calming down and wishing to put in a plea for his friend, said: 'Please, Sir, don't let it get around that Athos has been wounded. It would break his heart if the King got to hear of it. And his wound's really very serious; he was run through the shoulder and the point of the blade went into his chest. We're afraid...'
     At that moment the curtain of the door was drawn aside and a man appeared. He was strikingly handsome but desperately pale.
     'Athos!' cried the two musketeers in chorus.
     'Athos!' echoed Monsieur de Tréville.
     'You sent for me, Sir,' said Athos to his officer in a calm but rather weak voice. 'The fellows outside told me you wanted me. So I've come to report. At your service, Sir, now as always!'
     With these words the musketeer stepped smartly into the room. He was, as usual, faultlessly turned out and showed no sign of having been in the wars. Monsieur de Tréville, moved by this soldierly display of courage, rushed towards him.
     'I was just telling these gentlemen,' said he, 'that I won't have my musketeers risking their lives unnecessarily. The King rates courage very high and he knows his musketeers are the bravest fellows in the world. Athos, give me your hand!'
     And before Athos had time to reply to this affectionate welcome Monsieur de Tréville took hold of his right hand and gripped it hard, not noticing the pain he was causing the young man, who, for all his self-control, winced a little and grew, if possible, even paler than before.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

8-8-8

 
Sunday 11/16/03
 
Support Your Local Gunslinger
     Truffle has a new handy-dandy utility for nearly all of your Outlaws needs: Gunslinger. What's it do? Well let's see now: lets you set up your multiplayer settings, gives you a central location for launching OL, LawMaker, and a bunch of the most popular OL utilities, plus it has built-in links to Truffle's selection of top OL sites and message boards. How's that for service? And it all comes in a lovely little automatic install program.
     Gunslinger supports custom "skins" and Truffle says he'll be working up some for release on his Outlaws Hideout site in the next few weeks.
     Win9x users may get a "comdlg32.ocx" message when running the program. Not to worry, if you follow the instructions in this zip file Truff put together, you should be up and running in just a click or two with an updated version of that system file. Note: this modifies a system file (replacing it with a newer version, in most cases), so I'd advise that you only do this if you know how to fix things in the very unlikely event that something goes awry.
 
Doctor Banner
     You'll notice that the first link banners are now up and running, thanks to GraveZ DawG and Ch@llenger for being the first to contribute! As I discussed last week I'll be more than happy to host your own Outlaws-related link banner, go here for the details.
 
Head and Shoulders
Only this lady's head and shoulders were visible through the coach window. She was between twenty and twenty-two years old. We have already stated d'Artagnan's capacity to take in at a glance every detail of a person's appearance. He therefore noticed at once that the woman was young and beautiful. And her looks struck him more forcibly because they were of a kind entirely foreign to the southern provinces where he was born and bred. The lady was fair and pale, with long, golden ringlets which fell to her shoulders, large, blue, languishing eyes, rose-red lips and hands as white as alabaster. She was talking eagerly to the stranger.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

& & &

 
Sunday 11/9/03
 
I Need Banners
     So... while messing around with my various email accounts in a drive to reduce spam, I came across an unforwarded mail from my banner hosts, ValueClick, which they'd sent me a few months ago, in which they declared, basically, that they're going upscale and dropping me like the cheap tart I am. So that explains why the banners had stopped showing up and why their tech support only sent me meaningless auto-replies. Although I can still log in to the secure section of their site. Oh well.
     Now what's a site without banners, I ask you? I was perplexed. But then I remembered something I'd wanted to do way back when, and realized that I now know enough Perl tricks to make it happen, more or less. I mean, of course, replacing those boring old commercial banners with banners for other OL sites! YAY!
     Of course, I can't do this by myself—I'm not going to make those banners, after all: you are! That's right, you, Mr. Lurking-Outlaws-Webmaster-Person you! So if you're at all interested in having your OL site linked in a banner "ad" at the top of my site pages (which banner appears on a given page is random, mind you), check out the details (linked from the main "link" page, for future reference) and break out those mad .gif editing skillz!
     While updating all the pages with the new banner stuff I figured I might as well do some tidying up of a few non-standard layout things, so let me know if you find anything newly-broken.
 
Every Map Old is New Again
     Moantana MD (shot) by Hooter: A remake of Metallica's "Montana," I don't really remember the original much but it's a house in a valley with a pretty waterfall. There are some snipery-type ledges and things, all in all a nice little DM level. Oh, I think he took out the original's "NUKE" modified TNT, but I'm not certain of that.
     X Sanctuary CKTMD (shot) by GoJo: Fresh off the links and back on the anti-hack warpath, GoJo arrives with his latest, more powerful anti-hack technology. He calls this map "sort of a BETA" and he'd really appreciate it if those who know about OL hacking could see if they can break it, and let him know how it goes. The main difference for players now is that you don't have to switch characters in the lobby, yay! You start out with no weapons, and the weapons are given to you after you take a step from the spawn point (but they aren't automatically armed, so you have to select one to switch from fists). Sounds pretty good to me.
 
All For Pale
But d'Artagnan decided first to take stock of this insolent stranger's appearance. He looked at him haughtily and observed that he was a man of forty to forty-five, with shrewd dark eyes, a pale skin, a pronounced nose and a well-trimmed, black moustache, and that he wore a violet doublet and hose with auguillettes of the same colour, with no trimmings except the usual slashes through which his shirt appeared. The doublet and hose, though new, appeared creased, like travelling clothes which had long been carried about in a valise. D'Artagnan took in all these details with the speed of an acute observer, and his instincts told him that the stranger was destined to play a big part in his life.
 
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
translated by Lord Sudley

* * *

 
Sunday 11/2/03
 
Bushels of Maps
     Dementia CTKMD (shot) by Dog_Holliday: Perhaps the trippiest setting for a OL map ever: an upside-down house inside a whiskey bottle. Tha's right. Quite literally disorienting inside as you try navigate a house where all the lamps are on the floor, the furniture is on the ceiling, and you have to jump through doorways--clever, but it really *is* disorienting, a little light variation might have helped. Don't forget to use the low gravity to jump up the chimney. I really like the outside, with the cacti dangling down above you, whiskey around your ankles, the bottle making bottle sounds when you hit it, and the massive room beyond the glass.
     Juarez2 CTKMD (shot) by Dog_Holliday: Re-release of the nifty night-time town centered on a colorful Spanish Mission. Dog took out the scripted lights that he thinks may have been causing some lag and lowered the jail's roof to make for better jumping.
     Oldmine CMD (shot) by Hooter: Re-release of the multiplayer map based on the single-player mine level from the main game, this version overwrites the old one and replaces the brown rock texture with a grey one so as not to give Anderson undue camouflage. The grey texture isn't as easy on the eyes maybe, and may give Doc a little camouflage, but darn those malevolent Andersons.
     Ricochet TKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Dynamite Dick's Dry Gulch saloon gets the Molymedia treatment with lots of custom props and sounds. Some good roomy areas for fighting, and some cramped ones too. I don't like hitting the forcefield beyond the gate (just close the gate!) but the view is nice. The nifty custom windows, I'm told, look funny in D3D until broken--as if outlaws needed any more incentive to break the windows out of a place.
 
More Arms
No! Know the gallant monarch is in arms,
And like an eagle o'er his aery tow'rs,
To souse annoyance that comes near his nest;
And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb
Of your dear mother England, blush for shame;
For your own ladies and pale-visag'd maids
Like Amazons come tripping after drums,
Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change,
Their needl's to lances, and their gentle hearts
To fierce and bloody inclination.
 
William Shakespeare, King John
from "The Riverside Shakespeare"

* * *

 
Sunday 10/26/03
 
Maps I've Been Saving
     Well thank goodness for the end of Daylight Savings Time, I finally get an hour to sit down and update the site.
     Crevasse CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Icy but unslippery maze-like level. Good framerate, lots of little hiding nooks, should be good for an old fashioned chaotic deathmatch. Uses a sound file from Cap'n Sawyer's, hopefully since I haven't heard anyone complaining yet, Sawyer is okay with it. Generally though it's a big burr in my bonnet when folks include files that haven't been publicly declared free for re-use by their authors, so for my sake, do try to avoid that kind of thing.
     CTFTown CTKMD (shot) by Graves: Very tiny, squarish town map. Doors may open funny in laggy games, etc. High framerate, naturally. Graves credits Moly with lots of help.
     Underground CTKMD (shot) by Graves: Sorta tiny valley map except you can sneak off down some tiny side-branches into some funky house things with elevator-accessed bombshelter things. Another side-credit to Moly on this one. NOTE: I renamed the file from "underground.zip" as there's already a map by that name.
     Under Ground 2 CKMD (shot) by Graves: The bomb-shelters now have bigger brickey basements.
     MaD Town CTKMD (shot) by Graves: Tiny town (and when I say town, I mean two little cottages and an outhouse or something) in a squarish valley with a tunnel and an elevator in the tunnel. The houses are a bit on the plain and blocky side, but framerates are quite high.
 
Classic High Noon
     Dirty O'Lero tells me that Microsoft has moved Outlaws' "High Noon" matchmaking page into their "Classics" section, which starts here. Hopefully you can find it from there--I don't have one of their .NET Passport things, so I can't take you any further.
 
Web Stuffs
 
Gravez Domain
Gravez' maps and info on the MaD posse. Shocking color scheme but loads quickly and has consistent navigation. Also links to a forum.

     The "New Outlaws Message Board" has been redubbed The 2003 Outlaws Message Board. Which I guess gives it a little over two months to live? It looks like there's chat goin' on in the camo-draped interface, but you have to register before you can even see the post listing.
     Dont Know found a Western FPS entitled "Western Outlaw" at Groove Games and shortly thereafter found it wasn't worth bothering about, with "bad interface," and short play length, not to mention no multiplayer. Thanks for taking one for the team, DK!
     RAF sent me a link to the Lawdogs site, where you can find out all about this upcoming Western mod for Unreal Tournament 2003, currently in some kind of open beta. Some of the screenshots look fairly promising—nice mood in a couple of them. The web site is pretty too, go take a gander.
 
Shorely
Upon this cheek lay I this zealous kiss
As seal to this indenture of my love:
That to my home I will no more return
Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France,
Together with that pale, that white-fac'd shore,
Whose foot spurs back the ocean's roaring tides
And coops from other lands her islanders,
Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure
And confident from foreign purposes,
Even till that utmost corner of the west
Salute thee for her king; till then, fair boy,
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
 
William Shakespeare, King John
from "The Riverside Shakespeare"

* * *

 
Sunday 10/05/03
 
El Loco Molycoato
     Nacho Loco CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Stylish little cantina complete with mariachi band. Little custom graphics, combined with the band's music, give it the flavor of a real location, and darn me if that lighting isn't just brilliant. He even put correct shadows on the cacti for goodness' sake. Gor blimey.
 
The Rectory Strikes Back
     Dog_Holliday went through several releases of his new "Devil's Rectory" map this past week, raising the light level so that it's easier to see where you're going and tweaking various technical things in his perfectionist way. So here is the latest version, which he promises is the last—but I won't hold him to it.
 
It's Me Noggin
Kuz'ma pale and dishevelled had his feet firmly planted on the ground, and being deprived of the use of his arms, butted at his adversaries with his large head.
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

* * *

 
Sunday 9/28/03
 
Sacrilicious
     Devil's Rectory CTKMD (shot) by BuffaloFred and Dog_Holliday: A rather striking bolt of lighting welcomes you to the haunted precinct of Devil's Rectory, a church that seems to have gone way downhill of late. The general theme and layout remind me a lot of Zeurdoos' "RIP." Good flow and an excellently creepy setting with very spiff sounds and visual effects, not to mention super texturing--that burned-out outbuilding is a masterpiece of Lawmakering.
 
Outlaws Hideout Back, Evil
     Truffle's The Outlaws Hideout site is back online, but with a twist: not satisfied with the humdrum march of regular OL news like the rest of us, Truff has turned to the dark side: makin' stuff up! Happily, like the best yellow journalism it at least makes for an amusing read.
     Regarding the current headlines, all I can say is that he's got me all wrong: I came here to steal your women.
 
Recipe for Overnight Paleness
The perplexing and ambiguous situation in which they found themselves in a strange house in which a corpse was lying, the uncertainty as to when they could get away, and the damp melancholy weather had driven the gipsies, both men and women, into such a state of distress that in one night they had become thin and pale.
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

¥ ¥ ¥

 
Sunday 9/21/03
 
Father Outlaw
     TheOutlawDad sent me a bunch of screenshots from that goth/horror/western Korean MMORPG, "Priest," which is heading Stateside one of these days (see post in my last update). Seems to be a lot of voodoo weirdness going on in the badlands. Here are some of the more interesting ones: shot 1, shot 2, shot 3, shot 4, shot 5, shot 6, shot 7. Ka-ray-zy, eh?
 
From Purple to Pale
It was Pëtr Egorych Urbenin, the Count's former bailiff and Olga's husband. At first the company heard heavy footsteps and the cracking of brushwood. . . . It seemed as if a bear was making his way from the forest to the clearing. Then the heavy form of the unfortunate Pëtr Egorych came in sight. When he came out of the forest and saw the company assembled on the clearing, he stepped back and stopped as if her were rooted to the ground. For some while he remained silent and motionless, and in this way gave people time to examine him properly. He had his usual grey jacket on and trousers that were already well worn. He was without a hat, and his matted hair stuck to his sweaty brown and temples. . . . His face, which was usually purple and often almost blue, was now quite pale. . . . His eyes looked around senselessly, staring wildly. . . . His hands and lips trembled. . . .
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

~ ~ ~

 
Sunday 9/14/03
 
Yah Mule!
     Horses4 CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Moly continues to almost singlehandedly keep me in business with another just-add-horses map, this time Hooter's "Hooter's" gets the honor. He's also reduced the weapons to gats and TNT, and the dynamite is a clever custom model.
     E.C. KMD (shot) by Master_X11: Swiped this one from TheOutlawDad, it's a rather unique map (though many games have similar puzzle platform rooms) in a square canyon, where sections of the floor continually rise and fall in offset patterns, so one moment you could be on a high spot and the next thing you know you're surrounded by 30-foot high ledges. I can't speak for how well this might work in laggy internet conditions (I suspect that it may be possible for players to get out of sync regarding what they see as the current state of the platforms) but it's definitely a startling and dizzying effect on its own. Some technical issues remain (a couple periodically-floating pickup items, and the way the side textures don't move with the platforms, so they seem to "grow" and shrink rather than moving) but it's worth a look for the novelty of the effect--not that moving platforms is new, but I don't recall them being thrown together in this way in an OL map before.
 
The Father of All Games
     RAF pointed me over to the official site for Priest, some kind of comic-based Western/horror action MMORPG that's being brought over from Korea. The screenshots and movies on the English site seem to be broken, unfortunately, but if you click the "Korean" link at the top you can see that things are certainly hopping overseas, where it appears to have been online for some time now.
 
Vinegar: The Cure for Unsightly Paleness
It goes without saying that I found the Count with entirely shattered nerves. This puny and flabby man looked thinner and more dejected than ever. . . . He was pale, and his lips trembled as if with ague. His head was tied up in a white pocket-handkerchief, which exhaled a strong odour of vinegar that filled the whole room. When I entered the room he jumped up from the sofa, on which he was lying, and rushed towards me wrapped up in the folds of his dressing-gown.
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

* * *

 
Sunday 9/7/03
 
Molycoat Goes to the Movies
     Eyehop KMD (shot) by Molycoat: Movie theater-based maps have been done before but with an actual movie showing? Nah. So in this sorta oddly textured building you can sneak away from the noise and bustle of the firefight and grab a front-row seat to a little animated feature. Of course the animation probably makes the map file a bit bigger than normal (along with Moly's typical array of startlingly unique textures, and an animal or two) but it's cute. I'm not so hot on the rest of the level, simply because the textures used in the house don't really go together in a visually pleasing way, and although the custom windows are neat and you can bust them and jump up to the awning over the porch and then to the rooftop, the framerate outside the house is pretty low.
 
Paleful Sleep
"How sweetly and tranquilly he sleeps! When one gazes on this pale, tired face, on this childishly innocent smile, and listens to this regular breathing, one might think that it is not a magistrate who is lying here, but the personification of a quiet conscience! One might think that Count Karnéev had not yet arrived, that there had been neither drunkenness nor gipsies, nor trips on the lake. . . . Get up, you wretched man! You don't deserve such a blessing as peaceful sleep! Get up!"
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

* * *

 
Monday 9/1/03
 
The Sounds of Sawyer
     Captain Sawyer has put up his latest custom Outlaws weapon sound pack, "Lorde 7." It's been a while since his last one and with the upgraded tools he has now he's able to make the rifle and double-barrel shotgun sound even more Spaghetti-Western-like than ever. You can almost hear the smoke curling out of the barrel.
 
Not Eastern Outlaw
     Doc points out a page for a new Western PC game: Western Outlaw, from "Groove Publishing." The tiny screenshots look decent and heck, even my old rig almost meets the recommended system specs. I get that "budget game" feel from the presentation but hey, you never know. No specific release date, unfortunately.
 

* * *

 
Sunday 8/24/03
 
Leveling Off
     Bonetown CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: A one-room arena-style map with lots of objects (particularly health items) and platform jumping. I'm not sure how fun having a stick of TNT whose explosive radius covers the entire level is going to be, but at least it makes it easy to break the chandelier.
     Old Mine CMD (shot) by Hooter: A cut of the old mine level from single-player that makes for a pretty twisty tunnel map with very nice framerate. The frequent dead-ends and branching corridors may make for something of a slower game than you'll find in most DM maps, and ambushes could be a viable strategy.
     Paradigm CKMD (shot) by Dog_Holliday: Hah! Great twist, literally, by Dog_Holliday as he's found a way to make hallways between buildings that pretty much don't exist outside--so you can have a hallway that crosses a street, and the people in the street are none the wiser! I can see this leading to some very odd maps. I like the look of the little town here, though the all-of-a-level rooftops may seem a bit odd, and even though the framerate is pretty good it somehow feels a bit choppy to me on the roofs. Maybe I'm just gettin' too old to handle space warps.
     Picksburgh CKMD (shot) by Captain Picky: I like the nice roomy feel of the streets and high ceilings in this little sandy town, and the high sniping window in the barn that slews across one end of the main street is a neat construction. Framerate is a bit low in spots and parts of the map have a sort of grid-like robotic feel, in a small way. But more maps with ceilings like these would be most welcome.
     WMDHEEVE CKMD (shot) by Vin_Egar: Two-mirrored-house CTF-style thing in a largish canyon. The interiors are a bit big and bare, and the doors, though attractively textured, may behave unpredictably in laggy games. I like all the windows to smash though. ;) You'll notice the extensive use of custom textures right off the bat: a little overly bold in their juxtaposition, some might say, but you definitely won't be confusing this map with one that uses the regular old boring textures.
 
Board to the Bone
     Not one to be found lagging behind the Tom, Dick and Joneses, Mr. Bone now has a swanky new message board on his OL site, Mr. Bone's Headquarters.
 
Swedish Guns
     Big Nose Kate and RAF pointed me over to Wanted Guns, an Old West game in the works by Swedish developers Iridon. The graphic design looks a bit plain, the gameplay sounds like a bit of a hodge-podge ("Combining third person action, horse-riding and sneak’em up assassination with a cinematography inspired rail shooter FPS mode") and the writing is dubious:
One eye short, Reverend Devlin was not exactly what you’d expect from your regular kind of preacher. The years had not been his friend; wrinkles creased his scarred face and cracked his pale skin alongside his hard grey eyes. Most people would have mistaken him for the devil himself, were it not for the white priest collar encompassing his neck while adding credibility to his appearance.
    Wait, now just how many hard grey eyes does a one-eyed man have?
    Anyway, the site is kind of nice looking and you can see some screenshots. Maybe they'll have a demo or something one of these days.
 
Pale Rambles
Tina stands there, pale as death, but proud and determined; she has pressed her lips tightly together so as not to betray by a single sound the fear she feels. We fly ever higher and higher, and. . . I can't remember how it ended. Then there follows a walk with Tina in a distant avenue of the park, with green vaults above that protect it from the sun. A poetical twilight, black tresses, luscious lips, whispers. . . . Then the little contralto is walking beside me, a fair-haired girl with a sharp little nose, childlike eyes and a small waist. I walk about with her until Tina, having followed us, makes a scene. . . . The gipsy is pale and furious. . . . She calls me 'accursed', and, much offended, prepares to return to town. The Count, also pale and with trembling hands, runs along beside us, and, as usual, can't find the proper words to persuade Tina to remain. . . . In the end she boxes my ears. . . . Strange!
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

* * *

 
Sunday 8/10/03
 
Farming for Bones
     Mr. Bone's Farm CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Mr. Bone, having given me the updated URL to his fine OL site, Mr. Bone's Headquarters, unwittingly tipped me off to a new map from Moly that Bone started hosting earlier in the week. It's a much smaller file size than we usually see from Moly, and indeed the map doesn't overwhelm you with custom sights and sounds as many of his previous ones have. The view around the top of the lowered ranch is just lovely, however, and in addition to Moly's natural touch with wildlife scenes and layout, we have GoJo to thank for some truly gorgeous autumn woods textures. In fact the view around the ranch is so nice that I took an extra screenshot just to brighten your day. And Moly slipped in some spiffy effects in the form of custom smokey window glass and a shattering door. The map itself is on the small side, with the buildings taking up a good deal of the space in the little open yard--good pickin's for a dynamite chucker. The flow in moving around the map isn't quite as effortless as could be, and the framerate overall is lower than you'd want to run on your old, say, 60mHz machine ;), but it's a charming little farm complete with intimidating portrait of Mr. Bone.
 
El Yooars
 
Outlaws real Msg Board
Well-trafficked board run Mista featuring all the usual bells and whistles of modern mass-hosted message boards, plus discussions about weird OL stuff. I couldn't find any actual MSG, however.

     Being as how it's right next door, I might as well slip in a mention that TheRock wanted me to point out that he isn't the only guy running the show at The New Outlaws Message Board, you also have BearTracker and AuStIn to blame for whatever sort of message boarding mayhem goes on there.
     Speaking of hitting the boards, old-timer RAF pointed me over to Carrion City, a pleasant-sounding western mod in the works for UT2003, although you'll have to do some digging through their message boarding interface to find screenshots and things of what looks like may be a promising mod.
     Big Nose Kate sent me a link for a western game in the works but I foolishly left the email at the office, so I'll have to look that up and get it in the next update.
 
Paleness as a Sign of Non-Cowardice
    'Consequently, you will not honour me with your conversation?' I continued to worry him as I emptied another glass and laughed.
    'Do you know my real reason for coming here?' the Count broke in, desirous of changing the conversation. 'I haven't told you as yet? In Petersburg I went to the doctor who has always treated me, to consult him about my health. He listened to my chest, knocked and pressed me everywhere, and said: "You're not a coward!" Well, you know, though I'm no coward, I grew pale. "I'm not a coward," I replied.'
     'Cut it short, brother. . . . This is tiresome.'
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

* * *

 
Sunday 7/27/03
 
Horsies!
     Taos Ruin CKMD (shot) by Green_Horn_Slim: Clever CTF mirrored-layout map with a three-story pueblo building in a small canyon, with two small fort houses at either end connected by tunnels running around the sides. You can't jump up from the canyon floor to the ledge of the forts so to get up there you either have to find your way up a ramp in the little maze of side tunnels or jump off from the first level of the pueblo building, and you only get up there by means of two tiny staircases tucked away inside the small rooms, getting to which probably involves crawling through little holes at the base of the walls. Whew! Attractive texturing and good framerate despite the complicated building in the middle and the smooth curved path running around the canyon.
     Horses CTKMD (shot) by Molycoat: Moly embraces his animalish leanings by planting the player on horseback complete with added velocity, clopping hooves and snorting horse breath! Then you go rampage around this rocky valley and jump around the ledges. Sports Molycoat's calling card of little wildlife touches everywhere. Good framerate and I like the jumps and paths around the rocks, although some of the item placement doesn't feel quite natural.
     Horses2 KMD (shot) by Molycoat: The author takes his equine show on the road to JZombie's "JZ's Dynamite Shack." I'd have thought that it was too steep for horses but that just goes to show how little I know about such things.
     Horses3 TCKMD (shot) by Molycoat: The riders strike at Hooter's "Chasm" along with the usual Molycoat gaggle of animal life. Moly pointed out after sending this that if you go for "the medbag in a crack in the rock you get crushed" which wasn't intended, and that he made the map a little too dark. I love jumping in the deep pool in all the versions of this map that I've played and as I was jumping my horsie back out onto the path, I somehow shot several hundred feet straight up the cliff face! And of course fell back down to my death, but it was cool. I couldn't get it to happen again though, I guess my horse got discouraged.
 
Meanwhile, Back in 2172...
     Molycoat was certainly a busy feller this week and wasn't done yet even after all that horsing around. He sent me a fix for 2172 (2172 being his grand sci-fi single-player adventure) which consists of a little batch file that will allow those who have a modified LOCAL.MSG file in their OL directory (some maps come with them--they let the LawMaker modify the text messages you get in the game) to launch 2172 and still see Molycoat's proper custom text in the level, or something technical like that.
 
Getting the Message
 
The New Outlaws Message Board
Various message boards in the past have held the quasi-official-sounding title of "The Outlaws Message Board." This new one from TheRock seems to work well enough (registration required) and has some additional specialty boards such as a Troubleshooting board and a Tips and Tricks board.
 
A Moustache is Very Becoming
He was dressed in the same many-coloured dressing-gown in which I had seen him two years before, and he wore a straw hat. His face had a troubled, concentrated expression, and it was very wrinkled, so that a man not acquianted with him might have imagined he was troubled at that moment by some serious thought or anxiety.... The Count had not changed at all in appearance during the two years since last we met. He had the same small thin body, as frail and wizened as the body of a corncrake. He had the same narrow, consumptive shoulders, surmounted by a small red-haired head. His small nose was as red as formerly, and his cheeks were flabby and hanging like rags, as they had been two years before. On his face there was nothing of boldness, strength or manliness.... All was weak, apathetic and languid. The only imposing thing about him was his long, drooping moustache. Somebody had told my friend that a long moustache was very becoming to him. He believed it, and every morning since then he had measured how much longer the growth on his pale lips had become. With this moustache he reminded you of a moustached but very young and puny kitten.
 
Anton Chekhov, The Shooting Party
translated by A. E. Chamot

* * *

 
Sunday 7/20/03
 
Let's Do Some Maps
     CTF Factory CKMD (shot) by Captain Picky and The Crow: The official release from Picky, this one has the readme in it. It also isn't compatible with the one released early by The Crow, and note that it doesn't overwrite the files from that release as those were spelled "ctffacs" without the second "t."
     Mexican Villa 3 CKMD (shot) by Warrior: New map inspired by Sticky's "Mexican Villa 2," which was in turn inspired by Taco's "Mexican Villa." Don't you people know that you're not supposed to sequelize someone else's map? Oh well, I guess Taco is free to show up and complain. This one has the single-floor villa, the wall around it, the weird dead tree stump, the mine/cave bit and the pool, as well as a bunch of little outlying tower things. But no high-dive? Rats, that was my favorite part.
     Small Town CKMD (shot) by Warrior: A little town in a valley where the buildings have their backs against the cliff walls. A little river runs along a crevass through the middle of town (don't go stumbling around drunk at night in this town, brother) and there's a cave bit too. Good framerate, decent setting, might have benefitted from being able to get up on the roofs more or something but I guess this way you can't hide as much.
     Spider CKMD (shot) by Kat and Dusty_Old_Cop: Arena-style cave map shaped sorta like a really squat, fat spider, where the players spawn in the "legs" and then fight for powerups around collections of crates in the central "body" cave. Good framerate of course what with there being just one real room, and good, if simple, texturing and lighting.
     Station Pit CKMD (shot) by Warrior: Combine a subterranean train station with a pit and you've got Station Pit! Yessir. Real linear layout seems intended for CTF with one team (I presume) starting in the tunnel and one at the top of the pit. The underground part could use a little spot lighting to liven it up, and I don't like the invisible wall blocking off the far end of the train tunnel, but it's a solid map with high framerate and an unusual layout.
 
Be Brave, Young |3370R
     Phil Marsh, in his musical guise of "Flip Martian," found Sergio Morricone's western soundtracks inspiring a soundtrack of his own. Be Brave, Young Soldier introduces the hero, sends him off to battle and wraps things up, a whole imaginary movie soundtrack in just over five minutes of top notch synthesized Spaghetti-Western-style tunes. Impressively done and well worth a listen if you like the style of the music in Outlaws.
 
To the Death!
     DrDeath2 has his good ol' site back on the interweb at a new URL. He didn't really add anything new to it after all these years and some of the file links are now defunct but you should go visit it anyway.
     Ooh hey it looks like Outlaw and the gang have DeathRiders.org back online, with some interesting news about an upcoming message board and a new map based on a song with a weird name.
 
When is a Pudding Not a Pudding
     I had a fun couple of weeks careening around insanely tiny back roads in Scotland and Ireland. The driving and shifting on the left thing isn't so bad, you get used to it after a day or so, but man I dunno how those folks in southern Ireland in particular nerve themselves up to drive around every day on two-way roads that are narrower than most American cars. Maybe with a pint of Guinness. It's particularly cheering how each county or shire or whatever posts a big sign with the number of local vehicular fatalities in the last four years (Cork was leading the pack as far as we saw...). They have good breakfasts though, even without pancakes, and each farmer has an ancient prehistoric Standing Stone or two which he definitely did not stand up himself a couple years ago to attract tourists.
Help, hold his brows, he'll sound! Why look you pale? Sea-sick I think, coming from Muscovy.
 
William Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost
from "The Riverside Shakespeare"

* * *

 
Sunday 6/22/03
 
Sequel Petition Updated
     Finally got off my buns and updated the Outlaws Sequel Petition, adding nearly 300 new signatures to bring us up to over 2600 signatures in all. Have there been any rumblings of sequel possibilities from LEC lately? Nope. But we do what we can and hope for the best; who knows what could happen?
 
Frothy Summer Fun
     This may be my last update 'til mid-July as I'll be takin' a lil' trip overseas for fun and "relaxation," though from the looks of things it's going to involve a lot of walking and driving and carrying and sleeping in strange beds, so I'm not counting on that second part. I'll be taking the Pale's Place game down while I'm gone since I like to unplug all electrical things when I go away for an extended trip, just to make it that much more difficult for the gremlins to have their parties while I'm out.
You may have your wish: my will is even this,
That presently you hie you home to bed.
Thou subtile, perjur'd, false, disloyal man,
Think'st thou that I am so shallow, so conceitless,
To be seduced by thy flattery,
That has deceiv'd so many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make thy love amends.
For me (by this pale queen of night I swear),
I am so far from granting thy request,
That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit,
And by and by intend to chide myself
Even for this time I spend in talking to thee.
 
William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
from "The Riverside Shakespeare"

* * *

 
Sunday 6/15/03
 
I, Molycoat
     Robots TMD (shot) by Molycoat: All-mod weapon futuristic map based on his single-player adventure 2172. You're a robot so you clank around and drink motor oil and shoot lasers and good stuff like that. I love the sound effects--it sounds like a good pinball game (he's replaced just about every sound effect in the game with zippy futuristic zapping sounds). The map has a rather unique layout of jagged ledges and rocky outcroppings around a sort of starburst center ledge, so it's all one big arena. This lowers the framerate a bit but it also means that you can see (and throw photon sticks, nasty) all the way across the map. It's a bit dark and some areas are a little murky on my monitor, I could have done with a bit of spot lighting but I suppose it's extra-creepy this way. Watch you don't fall in the lava, poof!
 
Linkz
 
Santa Monica Airlines
Nothing much Outlaws-specific on this multi-game posse site by NotUsCopeUs but at least it's got some nice flash and the Beach Boys to keep you entertained.
Quiet Killers HQ
Another style-over-substance posse site design by NotUsCopeUs, but it's SUPAH STYLISH 2 TEH MAXXX! Yep.

     Outlaw wants folks to know that although the deathriders.org site is currently down due to a dead power supply, it'll be back up as soon as they get the machine fixed so don't delete your bookmark just yet.
     A big thanks to R_E_LEE for wading through my links page and letting me know about some deceased sites.
 
A Bad pSector... I Suspected As Much
     Huh, I went to check my little Outlaws hosted game and found that Outlaws had crashed while running the level "Last Stand." Not something that happens very often there. And more interestingly still, well okay at least for me, is that it asserted with some debug info! Ready? Here it is:
Assertion failed!
 
Program: D:\OUTLAWS\OLWIN.EXE
File: C:\proj\db\src\actor.c
Line: 1241
 
Expression: (((INT)(pSector) & 0xffff) + 0x0002000) == ((pSector)->address)
     WOW! Uh okay not really but hey. Curious that the local file was in a project directory called "db"—that's not really an Outlaws-ish name.
 
The Last One(gin)
No—every minute to see you;
follow you everywhere;
the smile of your lips, movement of your eyes,
to try to capture with enamored eyes;
to hearken long to you, to comprehend
all your perfection with one's soul;
to melt in agonies before you,
grow pale and waste away... that's bliss!
 
Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
translated by Vladimir Nabokov

* * *

 
Sunday 6/8/03
 
Didn't You Bring a Map?
     Longhorn Palace CTKMD (shot) by Dog_Holliday: Amazing use of custom sounds and graphics bring this old bawdy house to life, complete with horses galloping away outside, upstairs casino, Can-Can dancer, a rowdy crowd (from the sound of it), and an ornate colonnaded staircase which may qualify as the single most stunning piece of architecture ever pulled off with the Outlaws engine. And it goes without saying that the map has great flow, effortless weapon placement and high framerates. A real keeper.
     CTF Factory CKMD (shot) by Captain Picky and The Crow: Reworking of the Captain's "TNT Factory" map, taking out the TNT-launching cannons, putting in some water, and tightening up the layout a bit as near as I can remember. Still doesn't have running sounds and the framerate still drops a good deal in certain spots outside, but that bombed-out building still looks keen. Here's the shot of TNT Factory for comparison purposes.
     HalfPint's Revenge CKMD (shot) by Outlaw and MikeDaKid: Night-time canyon map with a tall house. The layout has a nice looping aspect to it, particularly around the house, and the bright house interiors contrast well with the dark blues outside. A couple cave areas are on the dark and dead-endish side but I suppose that's pretty much what a cave is like now isn't it. Turns out that "The Chicken" is the name of HalfPint's kitten, so watch out for that bouncing bundle of joy in KFC mode, and then there's something about finding her coloring book in CTF. That kitty is a cutey.
 
Web Doin's
 
Mr. Bone's Headquarters
Active site with spiffy buttons and news, a great map collection, a cool "featured map" page, and more yet to come by the resurgent Mr. Bone.

     Vin_Egar has a preview of Molycoat's upcoming map "Robots" on his Outlaws Game Players site. Looks like a swanky futuristic affair along the line's of Moly's epic 2172 single-player map, complete with laser guns, photon bombs, and suchlike.
 

& & &

 
Sunday 6/1/03
 
The Truth About Zombies
 
Master_X11's Outlaws Page
Simple, highly-readable and fast-loading page from this LawMaker with downloads of his maps, a choice selection of a few other maps, and a couple map-related linkies. Special bonus: don't miss the Outlaws-unrelated "Zombie Threat Analysis."
 
As the Crow Lags
     The Crow sent me an interesting screenshot showing some crazy lag-induced special fx, or so I gather. When I start to see four left-hands is when I call it a day.
 
Sure Proof That Paleness Leads to Phthisis
She does not notice him,
no matter how he strives—even to death;
receives him freely at her house;
elsewhere two or three words with him exchanges;
sometimes welcomes with a mere bow,
sometimes does not take any notice:
there's not a drop of coquetry in her,
the high world does not tolerate it.
Onegin is beginning to grow pale;
she does not see or does not care;
Onegin droops—and almost,
in fact, is phthisical.
All send Onegin to physicians;
in chorus these send him to spas.
 
Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
translated by Vladimir Nabokov

* * *

 
Sunday 5/25/03
 
An Old Eastern
     This is kind of a thin lead, but it's a slow news week so what the heck. Oldfighter pointed me to this thread on a Serious Sam fan site forum, in which a fella going by the name "Damjam" says he is from Croatia and has a dev team starting a Western first-person shooter. Oh and he's asking for a good name for the game.
 
To Serve or Not to Serve
     Vin_Egar has a new web site (see below) and is contemplating hosting two Outlaws game "servers" kind of like my little Pale's Place game. I think he'd be happy to get feedback about the interest level in this enterprise, so if you're interested why don't you check his site and give him a buzz.
 
Outlaws Game Players
Page by Vin_Egar which may become the home base for two regular Outlaws game "servers." He's currently investigating network setup and interest level.
 
Death Rides Again
     DR posse member Mike Da Kid wrote to tell me that the Death Riders' web site is back online, after being down for about a year following what appears to have been a nasty hard drive failure on the old server. Hurrah!
 
Darn That Monde
Tatiana wishes to make out
the colloquies, the general conversation;
but there engages everybody in the drawing room
such incoherent, banal rot;
all about them is so pale, neutral;
they even slander dully.
In this sterile aridity of speeches,
interrogations, talebearing, and news,
not once does thought flash forth in a whole day and night,
even by chance, even at random;
the languid mind won't smile,
the heart won't start even in jest,
and even some droll foolishness
in you one will not meet with, hollow monde!
 
Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
translated by Vladimir Nabokov

* * *

 
Sunday 5/18/03
 
One Map Forward, Two Maps Back
     Sin City CKMD (shot) by Kat Eyes & Dusty Old Cop: Rambling sort of layout makes this map seem rather small at first but then you come to realize that it's made up of at least three sorta separate sections with all kinds of passages and things in between. Nice use of spot sound effects. You may be a bit confused by the layout at first but once you get into the sorta circular flow of things it's nice and solid, with some good roof jumps and floating cow skulls. Thanks to overseer GoJo for sendin' it my way (twice, darn inbox eheh).
     Lilhouse KMD (shot) by Molycoat: Re-release by Moly, removing the birds an' other critters to minimize lag. Aw, I'll miss those lil' guys. *sniff* But it remains a mighty-fine map, and you can still see some animals in my old screenshot. ;)
     Sandbar KMD (shot) by Molycoat: Ditto the above, another animal-removing re-release. You know if you run out to the pirate ship you find that you've also grown to about 50 feet tall, wow!
 
A Pale for All Seasons
Her walks last longer.
At present, here a hillock, there a brook,
cannot help stopping
Tatiana with their charm.
She, as with ancient friends,
with her groves, meadows,
still hastens to converse.
But the fast summer flies.
The golden autumn has arrived.
Nature, tremulous, pale,
is like a victim sumptuously decked....
Now, driving clouds along, the North
has blown, has howled, and now herself
Winter the sorceress comes.
 
Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
translated by Vladimir Nabokov

* * *

 
Sunday 5/11/03
 
Anna's Mix
     Neil D. dropped me a mail to point me to Anna's Theme (Midnight Mix), a remix of the "Anna's Theme" from the OL soundtrack by Bart Klepka, giving the Morricone orchestral stuff an infusion of moody drum and bass, as well as sound samples from the game. It works pretty well as far as these things go, I suppose, in fact I've just been listening to it looping while writing this whole update, kind of soothing. Of course, if you like the OL music the best thing you can do is go pick up some of Ennio Morricone's old spaghetti western soundtracks.
 
BT's High Speed News
     B. T. Justice has been quite the busy fellow of late. He quite rightly pointed out that the alt.games.outlaws OL newsgroup is still running, which is a pretty |337 way of spreadin' news related to the game (and reading a little spam to liven up your day).
     Now see, if you'd been followin' the newsgroup, you'd have already seen this feature list of BT's custom OL version of mIRC which he posted there, and of course the program itself is available from his very own High Speed Pursuit web site. Without more ado, BT's custom mIRC feature list!
  • Automatically connects to Undernet and goes to #outlaws_players.
  • Automatically opens WinZip, if you already have it installed, after receiving .ZIP files such as Outlaws Maps.
  • Has BT's mIRC MEDIA PLAYER so you can play .WAVS, .MP3s, .MIDs, & .WMAs within mIRC.
  • Has lindow's OUTNET which helps you easily join any hosted games using WINSOCKETS. OUTNET will support DIRECTPLAY soon!
  • Has Vesuvio's CHANNEL MODE POPUP which lets you see currently available games, post new games to topic, and remove games you posted.
  • Has a script I made which tells how long your computer has been on, how long you have been on mIRC, how long you have been on an IRC server and what the server's name is, and what your current IP address is.
  • Has a few more Undernet servers than the default mIRC has so hopefully there is one that is closer & faster for you to use.
  • All you have to do is open the file with WinZip and extract all the files directly to your C:\ drive. It will make a folder called "C:\mIRC". mIRC runs from this folder so there is nothing installed onto your computer hence there are no hidden files or folders or registry entries.
 
Common Symptoms of Pale Face
     Thanks to BT and Molycoat for pointing out a few goofs made in the frenzy of the news fallout last week! I dedicate the following quote to them (I'm such an old softy!).
Alas, Tatiana fades away,
grows pale, is wasting, and is silent!
Nothing interests her
or stirs her soul.
Shaking gravely their heads,
among themselves the neighbors whisper:
Time, time she married!...
But that will do. I must make haste
to cheer up the imagination
with the picture of happy love.
Involuntarily, my dears,
pity constrains me;
forgive me: I do love so much
my dear Tatiana!
 
Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
translated by Vladimir Nabokov

* * *

 
Sunday 5/4/03
 
High Noon Rides Again
     Many people wrote in with these tidings but The Crow beat you all to it. Here's the email he forwarded me:
Greetings Zone.com Member,
 
Thank you for contacting MSN Games by Zone.com.
 
Based on the feedback from players like you and the responses from the game lobbies, we have decided to create an Outlaws lobby in our directplay area. Here is where you can find the lobby:
 
URL: http://zone.msn.com/directplay
Lobby: Outlaws - High Noon
 
This lobby is not a standard DPlay lobby, but is a recreation of the lobby that existed on the Outlaws game page so it will support the game the same as before.
 
Thank you for your feedback and playing on the Zone. Have a good day and we hope you enjoy the Outlaws lobby.
 
Regards,
 
ZoneMaster
     So thanks to all the old-timers who bitched ;), High Noon is back in the saddle. Kind of in a little hidden backwoods now (witness the screenshot from Crow; I'm not sure how you'd get there from the Zone's front page) but I suppose now that they've got it tucked away, the Zone folks won't much care if it stays there 'til Doomsday. So, cheers to the new High Noon--may your shadow never grow long!
     Hmm, and now I get to eat crow (metaphorically speaking, of course :d) and go change my Zone info back again, whoops!
 
New Maps
     dark twins single-player (shot) by ElBrando: Just my kind of mission: shoot everyone in site, then go find more baddies to shoot, and shoot them. Don't go thinkin' this is gonna be easy though, this canyon complex is packed to bursting with all kinds of bad guys, some of them custom jobs. All the twists and turns of the canyons provide quite a few fun shootouts. There are a few technical issues, such as missing footstep sounds and a canyon wall that seems to like to disappear if you get too close to it, but there's quite a bit of single-player fun to be had here.
     Juarez CTKMD (shot) by Dog_Holliday: Darned fine little twilight town here, I love the custom touches in the church. Super use of lighting effects and nice texture selection--the whole place just sparkles in the warm torchlight. The free layout of the town coupled with the many multi-level areas should keep things hopping all through the wee hours. And check out how the author handles the map border--the city wall makes for a realistic and unobtrusive, yet effective, barrier, and the way you can see out into the plains beyond just gives the level a real sense of belonging in a larger world. Great stuff.
 
While High Noon Slept
     A lot of stuff happened before High Noon unexpectedly returned. It's good to see that there are so many options out there for playing Outlaws multiplayer. To take them in order:
     Garbotalk, moderator at the #Outlaws_Players Undernet IRC channel, hinted that tournaments may be returning to the channel, that many new faces have been appearing lately, and that they now shoot for having both a Winsock and a DirectPlay game hosted (since DirectPlay is sometimes a necessity for folks playing over a home LAN).
     Buford T. Justice announced the happy re-appearance of his High Speed Pursuit site featuring some very handy Outlaws links and info and his very own modified version of the mIRC chat client, with special scripts and stuff to make Outlaws gaming on IRC all that much more fun and powerful.
     BT also passed along word that Kali.net is back in action, with, as always, support of Outlaws over their unique internet LAN simulation thingymabob, as well as hundreds of other games. Kali is a pretty cool program, and although it is shareware you can pretty much do everything you need to with the free unregistered version.
     Long-time Lawmaker Cutter set up a very nice-looking Outlaws-themed message board that he's dubbed High Noon II. Not that he expects it to replace the Zone as a place to set up games, but a well-run message board is a valuable thing.
     HighWater and Newbie reminded me that Outlaws can be played through GameSpy Arcade, along with bunches of other games. Newbie pointed out that the interface allows you to watch the Outlaws channel while you're doing other gaming, and pop in if you see any old guns log on, which is pretty slick. GameSpy Arcade is ad-supported shareware, which means that you can register and use it for free, with ads (like the Zone and hey, my site! :p), or you can pay a small monthly fee to get the full service ad-free.
 
Pale in the Shade
But the day lapsed, and no reply.
Another came up; nothing yet.
Pale as a shade, since morning dressed,
Tatiana waits: when is it coming, the reply?
Olga's adorer drove up.
"Tell me, where's your companion?"
was the chatelaine's question to him;
"He seems to have forgotten us entirely."
Tatiana, flushing, quivered.
"He promised he would be today,"
Lenski replied to the old dame,
"but evidently the mail has detained him."
Tatiana dropped her gaze
as if hearing an unkind rebuke.
 
Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
translated by Vladimir Nabokov

* * *

 
Sunday 4/26/03
 
High Noon for High Noon
     What was not so long ago mere rumor has apparently become fact, as many people emailed to say that Zone.com is shutting down their "High Noon" Outlaws game hosting and chat forum. Dirtyolero sent me the following screen capture of the message which announced the closure:
Outlaws is no longer listed even under the Zone's "All Games" link, and according to James Emerson all remaining Outlaws service will end on the 29th of this month.
     Well, that's a shame. Although playing OL through the Zone had its own stability and latency issues, it has been far and away the most populated place for meeting folks to shoot it out with. The Microsoft folks running the Zone really deserve a hand for hosting the service for all these years.
     Some folks have asked me, in effect, is this the end of OL on the Internet? Well I sure hope not. There's always the free hills of IRC, and what with the handy mIRC scripts that OL fans have come up with over the years, there's no reason that hosting and joining OL games should be any more difficult in the future than it has been in the past.
     Now, I know there are OLers out there who know IRC like the back of their hand. I am not one of these people, at least not these days. What is needed is for one or more of these brave souls to come forward and undertake the responsibility of hosting an IRC chat channel for Outlaws games.
     From what I understand, hosting a channel isn't all that complicated if you know what you're doing (managing player egos, now, that's the tricky part :p). As a reminder for those who may be a bit rusty, the old and once quite mighty #Outlaws_Players site still has instructions for installing and using lindow's Outnet OL match-making utility in mIRC.
     Those of you who are interested in or perhaps already doing this, I'll be more than happy to spread the word about your OL channel in my semi-regular news updates. And of