Blackroom, a new FPS by John Romero and Adrian Carmack

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Yep… He’s back in action, but this time he has Adrian Carmack at his side. Two of the former ID Software clan are building a new game called Blackroom, which is supposed to be a throwback to classic FPS gaming but with the epic awesomeness of Unreal Engine 4, and hopefully won’t secretly be Daikatana 2.

John Romero and Adrian Carmack, two of id Software’s founders, have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new FPS, Blackroom. They are asking for $700,000.

The campaign page describes Blackroom as “a visceral, varied and violent shooter that harkens back to classic FPS play with a mixture of exploration, speed, and intense, weaponized combat,” and promises “unique multiplayer maps and robust modding support for the community to make diabolical creations of their own design.”

 

Sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun, John Romero even released a new DOOM wad to give people an idea of what’s going on. I’m hoping with Adrian on board all the funding won’t go to John Romero’s fabulous hair. But in all seriousness, it’s nice to see people revisiting their roots in the gaming world. The new Carmageadon is great, the new Descent is still in it’s early stages but is looking really nice, and Obduction isn’t out yet so I can’t really say much about it. If anything I hope Blackroom has less drama than certain other kickstarters, and old Daikatana itself.

Quake Live to become exclusive to Windows

Originally posted here.

Quake Live is a browser version of Quake 3 Arena. It’s Free To Play, but if you want to play extra maps and get to extra content you have to pay up. Which if you’re like me, just paying for Quake 3 Arena gives you more than enough. Still, quite a few people play Quake Live. Although with the latest transition planned by ID Software to take it out of the browser and make it a standalone, it may cause some issues. The reason? It will be Windows only.

Will there be Mac/Linux support?
We will be unable to support Mac and Linux clients with this transition. While we have reports from our testers that the game works through emulation or virtualization software, we are unable to support native Mac and Linux versions. If you’re using Mac and Linux and have a paid subscription, you will only be able to access the game using emulation or virtualization software.

The company who used to make Quake and Doom ports for all kinds of platforms is now restricting Quake Live to Windows. This leaves people like me asking why go this route? Seriously. iD used to be more open minded than this. They used to bring people together on all platforms, really? I mean I don’t play Quake Live, but everything leading up to Quake 4 had support on Windows, Linux and Mac. Then Rage came along which basically became John Carmack’s Daikatana in the eyes of hardcore PC Gamers. For being a revolutionary team back in the 90’s this just seems backwards.

But enough of that. You can still play Quake 3 on all platforms. Or if you want a more up to date version you can check out OpenArena, an Open Source alternative which is just as fun.