Beyond Belief 2008

In the last two weeks I’ve been working on a little side project, purely for the fun of it. And fun it has been! Straight-forward, old-fashioned Quake. An expected audience of 27. Maybe 28. But that’s the cool part, I don’t have to live up to any expectations that come with modern, professional 3D games. I just get to this for myself, doodle in 3D and remember old times (I’ve always done a lot of level design work while watching the Olympics).

I’m using BSP for this, which I started using back in 1997 after finishing the original Beyond Belief. It’s great to still see the editor maintained, it works in Vista without a hitch. Running Quake in a floating window for easy map checks certainly is an improvement over the old DOS days

I’m not sure when the level will be released, but I’m determined to finish it. I’ll post more information later.

Up To Speed

The latest episode of the IRL’s official Up To Speed show is using a bunch of the footage that I shot at Infineon Raceway last week.  Kinda cool, and glad to see my footage find new uses Here’s the Youtube version.

One of the things that I like about the Indy Racing League is that it’s really embracing new media to promote their series. Some of that might come out of necessity – TV coverage and promotion is lacking a bit right now and the league is looking for additional ways to bring coverage to the fans. But in general they are going in the right direction – weekly update shows, streaming qualifying and races, lots of interaction opportunities on the webpage. Other racing leagues are a bit behind this, or overly driven by corporate and outside interests (NASCAR contracts out its own webpage to Turner, for example).

IndyCar Test Session

The Indy Racing League allowed teams another test session at Infineon Raceway yesterday and today, in preparation for next weekend’s race. I had the day off, so I headed down the racetrack to shoot the press conference and some b-roll. Here’s the video I quickly edited together tonight.

Beyond Belief in EZQuake

I have added video of two Beyond Belief levels to the Quake page. I played the game using EZQuake and the high-res textures, which is pretty damn neat. Much updated graphics! Particle trails, coronas, distance fog, water effects… gives the game a whole new dimension. Check out these 1600×1200 screenshots, and head over to the Quake page to watch the video!

There’s a few definite problems with EZQuake, most stemming from the fact that it’s mostly designed to be a modern QuakeWorld client with multiplayer capabilities. Getting a single-player game going is a bit of a pain in the ass, especially for the uninitiated player. And a few items don’t seem to behave the way they did in regular Quake. The first BBelief map has an elevator that lowers the first Nailgun that the player gets, plus a monster, and this event is completely broken. The gun hovers in the air – it’s impossible to reach it, and the monster is nowhere to be found.

Those are definite annoyances, but checking out a bunch of maps is still a lot of fun!

Now Playing: Etrian Odyssey

The Gamestop in Petaluma is a weird little shop: when I couldn’t find Etrian Odyssey a year ago because it had sold out everywhere, I found that the Petaluma shop had several copies in stock. Now that Etrian Odyssey 2 is out,  I once again couldn’t find the game anywhere – until I went to the Petaluma Gamestop. The curious thing is that now that I own Etrian Odyssey 2, I’m playing the first part again, while saving the new one for an undetermined upcoming vacation.

I was hooked on Etrian Odyssey last year. Played it night and day, ignoring the big consoles and all books I’d been reading at the time. After many years, I was addicted to an oldschool RPG again. I mapped out dungeons, I killed monsters, I leveled up. Etrian Odyssey’s gameplay is a tried and true formula that appeals to our basic need to explore – something that Clint Hocking explained much more eloquently than I ever could in his 2007 GDC talk.

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Futurama DVD Movies

Somebody explain this to me: how can the 1st Futurama movie be so bad when the 2nd one is so good?

The 1st movie feels like way too many ideas strung together with no coherent structure. It’s all over the place, every major character from the TV series is getting crammed in, and a flimsy time traveling gimmick is trying to hold everything together (but fails). And for some reasons most jokes misfire! The ending is kinda neat, but comes way too late to redeem the movie.

The 2nd movie, on the other hand, is very entertaining. I was just going to watch the beginning late one night, and ended up watching the entire movie all in one sitting. It still feels like a long TV episode with several small plots, but it’s entertaining throughout and never feels drawn out. And the jokes work!

I’m hoping that the 3rd and 4th movies are going to be good. As of now, there’s a 50% chance

Speed Beyond Belief Lite – The Movie

As I’m verifying the links to all of my old Quake and Doom files, I keep finding cool stuff. The Beyond Belief speedruns were great back in the day. What I didn’t know is that the QDQ team had also recorded video versions of the speedruns, which make it so much easier to watch. Here’s the SBB2 Lite Run:

Video currently offline.


This is my own Flash version of the movie. It’s kind of crappy compared to the real deal. If you would like to see the run in 640×480 with less compression artifacts, go to the official SBB Page and download their .avi file. You can also snatch a second version of the run in first person view.

I’m still getting acquainted with the Flash movie player, and with hosting these movies on my own server. I’ll have to see how much bandwidth the streaming of these files is taking, and if the servers are fast enough. Please let me know how well this is working out for you!

NHRA Promo Trailer

Another promo trailer for the local racetrack. This one is really quick and dirty, did it in 3 hours or so. But I think it works well enough.

Why I Don’t Love The New GoW2 Trailer

Epic and Microsoft have released a new trailer for Gears of War 2, “Rendezvous”. Buying GoW2 is a foregone conclusion – this game is going to kick ass! But there’s something that’s bugging me about the trailer. Something that leaves a bit of an empty feeling in my stomach. It’s not what’s in the trailer. It’s what is missing from it.

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Infineon Raceway Timelapse

Testing a WordPress video player. This is a timelapse I recorded at Infineon Raceway when NASCAR was in town last June. The team haulers are lined up on the drag strip, waiting to park in the garage area. This took ~45 minutes in realtime.