October
09, 2001
Last fall
I decided to "retire" indefinitely from
computer gaming for a variety of reasons and thus the
long hiatus until recently. The fact that I had left some
of the main features of the website (like the FAQ) go
unfinished had been bothering me, so over the last month
or so I came back and tried to complete those sections of
the site that could realistically be finished to an
acceptable level without getting too deep into all this
again. As of today, I think I've generally accomplished
what I set out to do, with a few exceptions. Often when
people move on (or back) to other things, their websites
unfortunately disappear, but in this case I figured it
would be wrong to let this site disappear or just sit
unfinished after spending so much researching the subject
at hand. With many of the MW2/Netmech sites having long
since disappeared or changed content since the release of
Mechwarrior 3 in 1999, this site does continue to serve a
purpose even if it is no longer actively updated, so
MechWarrior 2 3D will go on quietly providing MW2 series
information and keeping the game's memory alive.
October
08, 2001
Just added
a quicklink index to the FAQ page along with some
additional FAQ entries.
October
01, 2001

September
10, 2001
I added
the FAQ
page (also added a FAQ button on the menu) and
Titanium screenshots to the Netmech pages that I meant to
add over a year ago. These offer a good comparision with
the other versions (and they also make you wonder what
the hell some at Activision were thinking with their
constant re-use of that damned green blurred ground
texture).
September
8, 2001
** Any Macintosh
PowerMac/PowerPC/TechWorks Power3D users (or former
users) out there that can help finish the RAVE Section
information and/or provide some nice screenshots? **
I added a
link to the FRAPS framerate utility and some made some
changes in the Netmech Area (which now includes the
mission information).
I'll add a these to a
FAQ-ish page sometime in the future, but until then:
August 30, 2001
I really
didn't expect to update this page much anymore, but some
interesting info came my way and well.....what the hell,
eh?
1) First of One sent me an email with an
intersting link, regarding the Geforce 3's apparent
ability to run the 3Dfx Glide API. Dracman has a webpage focusing on
running Tomb Raider 3Dfx and 3Dfx Jane's F15 on the
GF3. You can read more about it here. I don't
have a GF3 (nor even MW2, for that matter...) to be able
to test MW2 3Dfx out on, but I'll see what I can find
out.
2) Demolishun annouced a very intersting development for MW2
Mercenaries over at the Bad Karma forums. He has more
information and tools available for download at his
website. You can
also read the threads at the Bad Karma forums:
Post 1: http://www.badkarma.net/dcforum/DCForumID25/135.html
Post 2 : http://www.badkarma.net/dcforum/DCForumID25/139.html#
I added some more links to
the Links Section as well.
Also, Kali v2.3 was
recently released. You can get it here.
May
30, 2001
Must...try...to.....remember....how.....to
write in......HTML.....Must.....think.....
Well, a
few things to note:
- The [former]
Dejanews archive going back to 1995 is back up
via Google....
- The Rendition news
server appears to have finally been disconnected.
- An unopened
Titanium Trilogy went for ~$60 on eBay recently
(no comment)...
- ATI's drivers and support continue
to suck beyond belief, but you probably already
knew that...
- Oh yeah, 3Dfx died. Yes they did
it to themselves starting with the Voodoo Rush,
but it is a shame, really. They really started 3D
accelerated PC gaming with a big bang a few years
back. *A moment of silence for the fallen.*
- Nvidia needs to improve it's damn
2D and Matrox needs to wake the hell up.....
- And ironically, 3Dfx's old rival
PowerVR is back bigtime, check out a review of
the Kyro II....
- I fixed some broken links and
marked some others as broken.
- Finally, please don't email me
about wanting to buy MW2 stuff, because I don't
have *anything* to sell. Just go to eBay and do a
search. All this stuff shows up sooner or
later....
- Sorry Mac people, I never got any
RAVE screenshots. What can I say? I tried!
November 15,
2000
Added
minimum system requirements for each version. Almost done
with this &%$#@ website!
November
11, 2000
Added
cheat codes page (links are on each version's page under
the cheats header). Quick link here: Cheat codes
November
4, 2000
Added a
section for Bugs and Cheats under each version. Nothing
big, because they use the same cheats as the
Win95/Pentium versions. Only a few bugs listed at
present.
November
2, 2000
Added 3/3
PowerVR Netmech screens into the FFA/Team Netmech pages
for comparison. Revised the intro a little bit and
revised and added a whole bunch of links.
October
30, 2000:
Added
Win95/Pentium Netmech screenshots to the Netmech section
for direct comparison. Added Netmech maps in Netmech
section (click on each planet). I'm unsure where these maps are
from and would like to give proper credit to whoever made
them. If you know, please email me with the info. I put most of the text on the web pages into
tables, so they are not so far on the left of the screen
for those viewing this at high resolution. Updated the
3Dfx Voodoo section to deal with questions about the
Banshee and V3 and revised the S3 ViRGE section,
resolution and compatibility areas. Added 10 new ViRGE
screens w/o the HUD so the images load faster (removed
old ones w/ the HUD).
October
23, 2000:
Divided
the PowerVR gallery into two sections, PCX1 & PCX2. I
hope to have a couple of PCX1 screenshots soon, so I can
show what the PowerVR edition looked like w/o bilinear
filtering. Also added a link to Activision's patch
directory on the links page. I made the link into the file
directory rather so you can download older patch versions
(i.e. the Mercs v1.08 beta 3Dfx patch) that are no longer
listed or linked on Activision's main page.
October
18, 2000:
Added a
Support Site category on each version's page, so if you
are having problems running your Voodoo, ATI, etc. card,
you have a quick link to a site or sites that may be able
to help you out. Added the cover shot of the S3 ViRGE
version you were able to buy from Activision. I really
would like to get some RAVE shots and finish this page,
but the gods of Mac hardware are cruel.
October
3, 2000:
Added two
Mystique and two ViRGE screens to the galleries. I also
added a correction to the Mystique resolution on it's
info page.
October
1, 2000:
I have
opened the Mystique Gallery (quick link here). It is the most individual
looking of all the versions, but that is not necessarily
a good thing. More details in the Mystique area.
Also, I
finally tested the S3 ViRGE edition on a Diamond Stealth
4000 AGP Turbo 4mb ViRGE GX2 card, supposedly the fastest
ViRGE chipset in 3D. Unfortunately, even on a PIII 500,
256mb of RAM, 640x480 is still slow! I would guess it was
chugging along at around 12fps and even 512x384 still did
not seem super smooth. I tried it with several driver
variations, overclocking the card using Powerstrip
Performance Tuner, and dropping the relevant old Velocity
3D drivers into the Mech2 directory and still had no
luck.
I also
went through the site and compressed many of the images
further, hopefully helping speed up page loading times
for those without DSL, cable, etc.
September
19, 2000:
Added CD/booklet images in the 3Dfx area for the Orchid
Righteous 3D and another 3Dfx version (possibly from a HP
desktop system).
September
15, 2000:
Just a small update.... I added information about desktop
systems including the ATI, PowerVR, & Virge versions
in their software bundles (under each editions respective
area). I have 30 PowerVR NetMech screenshots, but I
really don't have the space left for them at present.
Plus, I want to [eventually] take some Mystique and RAVE
screens and put them up as well. I think it's getting
near the time to do a Kerensky and move this thing to a
real server...
September
10, 2000:
I got a hold of a TechWorks Power3D card and MW2 and put
the cd pictures up on the RAVE page. No RAVE
screens...yet. I also updated the release dates for the
RAVE versions and corrected the labeling section for the
RAVE and 3Dfx editions. Added a NetMech category under
the 3Dfx, PowerVR and RAVE sections.
August
31, 2000:
Added
scans of the ATI 3D Rage booklets (color versions) and
accompanying CDs. Now that this site is restructured, I
can take a break away from it for a while :P
August
30, 2000:
Added two
new URL's on the Mechwarrior 2 soundtrack and it's
composer. These articles aren't brand new, but I figured
some people might have missed them, especially the S.O.S.
article on Jeehun Hwang.
August
28, 2000:
I just
added the Netmech section! BTW, all the NetMech screens
are from the 3Dfx edition (using Snap3Dfx ver 1.2). It is
a real pain to take screens in it, because alt + tab is
not suppported with early glide. You're left with ctrl +
alt + del and one shot per drop (if you're lucky).
August
27, 2000:
Updated
the 3Dfx page, compatibility section (info on using the
V3).
August
25, 2000:
Revised site, changed to
frames format. I felt the main page took too long to
load. While checking my links, I unfortunately found out
that the S3 Planet site is gone with all the S3 ViRGE
series info.
Note: I'm kind of running low on time right now, so I
don't know when I'll get to it, but I want to try to get
2-3 screenshots from each of the NetMech worlds in the
future. I also want to compile a page on the bugs these
versions had. When I used to play the 3Dfx version on
Kali, we did some tests that seemed to show that damage
distribution was different than on the Win95/Pentium
version. Also, some or all of these versions did not give
you a full 180 degree radius of torso twist. I'll see
what elese I can find out....
August
17, 2000:
Revised the Mac RAVE info under the performance,
compatibility, & notes sections.
Does
anybody know what hardware this edition of MW2
Mercenaries 1.1 was bundled with?
UPDATE: It appears this thing was
bundled w/ the ELSA Victory 3Dx (ViRGE DX).

July
17, 2000:
Changed format to several pages to speed up loading time.
I decided to look into including info on the RAVE
version.
June
27, 2000:
Site reconditioned and reopened with new simpler
Geocities address (old long ass URL's really sucked!)
after sitting dormant for a while. I did a bit more
researching and eliminated a bunch of cards that were
incorrectly included (Jazz Adrenaline Rush, Matrox 220,
etc.)
Note: If you're wondering why most of the screenshots
and scanned images on this site are quite large for just
a screenshot, well I wanted to preserve the image quality
as much as possible and maintain the feel and look of the
sim. The mistake I made with my first screenshots was to
include the HUD in the images, because it gets really
fuzzy if I lower the quality even a little below 100%
quality during the TGA to JPEG conversion in ACDSee.
Screenshots rarely do a sim justice and low grade ones
aren't even worth posting IMHO, so I went with them.
**
Most 1998-1999 news was deleted by mistake! **
October
18, 1999:
The site is terribly disorganzed, but I just filled it
with lots of new info and screenshots for the 3Dfx,
PowerVR and S3 versions.
April
21, 1999:
Basic MW2 3D info site first opens and demonstrates the
fact that I'm very rusty in HTML work.
January
2, 1999:
The GDL
has imploded and as XXX~Kanajana, I was General for a day :P
The Crescent Hawks unit has just formed from
ex-members of the M3L units House Kurita and the Gray Death Legion.
November
1998:
I recently
joined the Gray
Death Legion in the Mech3League (Kali Server #252). If you
haven't done so yet, get Kali now! It's a great place to
hang.
September
1998
Old
screenshot archive started with several 3Dfx Voodoo
edition screenshots.
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