 |
|
SITE NEWS ARCHIVE |
| June
14, 2003 Well the site redesign is complete. All of the pages now have the new look, and I think I have the links all working again. Let me know if you come across any that don't. Now back to my mapping! |
| June
8, 2003 Whoa! where has the time gone? Well I'm still here afterall. What's more, ISSUES is too. In fact we just started advertising for more mappers this past week (Okay, so we didn't quite make the April 5 date). Lost Time, my contribution to that ISSUES, is also progressing. The 2nd map is now done (I may still tweak it a bit), and I'm now well into the 3rd map. Here's another couple of screenshots . You may have noticed that I've redesigned the site, oh just a little. There will be broken links and other problems for a bit, so bear with me. I finally got around to updating my Links page though. |
| March
17,2003 PQL2 has officially changed it's name to Issues. We now have website, and are rapidly moving towards an official relaunch on April 5. The past month I've mostly been working on one of the hub maps, but I was able to get the problem with LostTime Map 2 ironed out. It seems I was being sabotaged by a grunt, but I eventually flushed him out. Lost Time should be back on schedule and under budget! To celebrate, there are a few new screenshots on the Lost Time page. |
| February
13, 2003 My ISP, AT&T, is discontinuing the "message board" service, so my message board is officially closed. Oh well, it didn't get much use - and I guess noone else's was doing much better. Truthfully, it was a pretty lousy message board. You can still eMail me though, same as always. I've run into a little problem with my second map: it got too large, so I had to split it into two maps. After I did though, the new third map worked fine, but the second map caused Half-Life to crash on loading. I haven't been able to find the cause, so I'm recreating the second map by copying it section by section into a new map. A bit of a setback time-wise, but it won't stop me. |
| February
9, 2003 The past month has been eventful for the PQL2 team. Our leader, THERBCO, has mysteriously vanished and has not been heard from since before Christmas. After much discussion the remaining members of our team decided that they did indeed want to continue this project, and I was asked to become the new leader. For the past couple of weeks we've been busy getting ourselves reorganized, but I think we are now moving forward again. As far as my own maps go, the first map of LostTime is now ready for submission, and the second and third maps are both nearly ready for beta testing. Stay tuned - we may yet get this turkey to fly! |
| January
1, 2003 Beta version 3 of the first map is now available to my beta testers. Beta 2 had a bug that kept it from being played on "easy". One of these days I'll get everything right . . . |
| December
22, 2002 The beta version 2 of the first map is now in beta testing. I got a lot of excellent feedback from the PQL team on version 1, and I think this version is greatly improved. This version also uses Spirit of Half-Life version 1.0. |
| December
5, 2002 W00t!!! The one year aniversary of the website!!! I'm starting to put together a little different look here, let me know what you think. News on - NOW the first map is in beta testing. I got hung up on some special effects that wouldn't work right (blasted env_beams!) and other minor details. I'll let you know what my crack team of testers say. |
| November
12, 2002 I've been working away on LostTime , mostly on the first map special effects and lighting. There's another screenshot to give you a hint of what I've been up to. The first map (segments 1, 2, and 3) is now completely ready for beta. Now it's back to the trenches. |
| October
16, 2002 Two more LostTime screenshots, again from my Black Mesa segment. I've been concentrating on mapping for the past three weeks, slaving away at my computer during every free moment, and I've nearly finished the first map. Also a big thanks to Firewire 280, who has now created two really cool modified grunt models for me, and prepared three other excellent hi-res models. |
| September
20, 2002 Another new LostTime screenshot - this time something a bit higher tech - a part of the Black Mesa segment. |
| September
15, 2002 On the LostTime page I replaced the most recent screenshot with a better one. |
| September
10, 2002 I've continued to make progress on Lost Time, with two more segments under construction. These will complete my first map for PQL2, which is really the second map of the three I intend to submit. There's a new screenshot for you on the LostTime page. |
| August
29, 2002 As promised, I've added a couple of new screenshots to the LostTime page. |
| August
24, 2002 I've updated my progress on LostTime (my PQL2 contribution). I do plan to add some sceenshots to my public section soon. |
| August
9, 2002 I've updated the website with more information about LostTime - unfortunately it's mostly in my developer's section so most of you won't be able to view it. Afterall, I don't want to give away too many secrets too early. |
| July
29, 2002 Well Lost Time, my contribution to PQL2, is coming along - slowly, but it's making progresss. I've introduced a developer's page for secret stuff (sorry, it's password protected). You see, I've got a partner now who's doing some of the model reworking, and hi-res skins (for folks uing the Blue Shift hi-res addon). Anyway, welcome to Firewire 280! |
| July
22, 2002 I've gone and done it now - I've joined PQL2: The Next Project. Hmm, that's probably going to complicate things when it comes time to review it . . . |
| July
10, 2002: Added my review of McBeth. |
| June
27, 2002 Added my review of Project Quantum Leap. |
| June
9, 2002 Just doing a little house-cleaning. Rules for the Novice Mapper has been updated and expanded to reflect things I've learned over the last several months, and I've begun adding some explanations to the experiment results in the Test Chamber. |
| June
6, 2002 Hey Firebinder's Half-Life Pages has hit the big time (sort of anyway). The Handy Vandal has posted links to my tutorials and other resources. I guess I'd better start making progress on the Best Laid Plans so folks might actually believe I know something about this stuff. Oh, the pressures of |
| June
5, 2002 Two more invalid brushes added to the About Invalid Brushes article. Thanks to Delete_Me for his help with the "Big Assed Brush Syndrome". |
| June
3, 2002 Hey, DAV has posted a link to my review of Azure Sheep over on their website! Could this be the start of a climb out of obscurity for Firebinder's Half-Life pages? Okay, maybe not. Still, a big thanks to DAV and Toadman. |
| June
1, 2002 Ooops! this frames stuff is trickier than I thought. I forgot to make a bunch of my outside links break out of my frames. My apologies if this inconvenienced anyone! I have it fixed now (I think). Anyway, I've also posted my review of Azure Sheep, and my new tutorial on creating Custom Sentences in Half-Life. |
| May
31, 2002 Added another invalid brush to the About Invalid Brushes article. |
| May
24, 2002 Introducing Firebinder's own amazing Downloads Page. Okay so there's only one prefab pack on it, but its good - trust me! And more will be coming soon. Anyway, for now you can download my Woodshop Prefab Pack. |
| May
19, 2002 I managed to figure out frames! Well actually I didn't so much figure it out as I reverse engineered it from a certain brother-in-law's page (thanks Steve!). Pretty cool, huh? This should make it MUCH easier to update the page. To help out those without Frames, I've added a Site Map Page. |
| May
14, 2002 Well I finally played the legendary They Hunger trilogy. It was amazing. Simply amazing. Naturally I posted a Review. |
| April
28, 2002 Added my first real tutorial Textures from Plastic Models. And I finally figured out how to do drop-down menus (so THAT's what JAVA's for!). Now if I can figure out frames I might be able to confuse people into thinking I know how to do this web stuff. Anyway, hope you like the new nav-bar. |
| April
21, 2002 Made some changes to the menu bar. I'm thinking about using frames, and I'd also like to make the navigation bar use drop down menus so it's more compact, but I haven't yet learned how to do these things in html. Anyway, I've also launched a new Articles section with About Invalid Brushes. |
| March
26, 2002 Added a review of Hour-Glass. |
| March
19, 2002 I'm still here! I've been making some progress on my first map, although I keep getting distracted by other projects. Anyway, I've added another test on Texture Scale the Test Chamber |
| February
27, 2002 Some notes on building an elevator added to the Project Notebook. |
| February
18, 2002 I've had a cold for a couple of days now, so rather than sit around and watch TV, I played Half-Life. Anyway, I've been able to add two more reviews; Poke646 and Wanted!. I've also added some notes on Creating a Custom Game to my Project Notebook. |
| February
8, 2002 Dave's link to my site has scrolled off his news section, and took with it all the traffic I was getting. Bummer! Ah well, back to obscurity. I completed Dave's ETC II map pack - Pretty good. I've posted a "User Review" over at Pixel, and I've copied it to a new Reviews page here on my own site. I've also added another Experiment to the Test Chamber. |
| February
2, 2002 Hey I'm finally getting some hits! Many thanks to DaveJ of ETC2 fame for including a link to my site on his. In other news I've finally gone a bought a new PC - and I didn't go extra cheap this time. It's a Pentium 4, 1.8Ghz, 512MB RAM, 64MB NVidia GeGorce 2 Video, with a 100GB HardDrive and Windows XP. Time for a rematch with some of those maps that my old PC couldn't handle! |
| January
24, 2002 My Level has a name! The Best Laid Plans added to the Project Notebook. also some notes on .wav file editors. |
| January
9, 2002 More added to the Project Notebook. After many experiments in the Test Chamber, r-speeds were contained. |
| January
3, 2002 Fixed a bad link in the Half-Life navigation bar, made a few other minor improvements. |
| January
1, 2002 More on texture scales and R-speeds added to the Test Chamber. I have got to do less testing and get back to mapping! |
| December
30, 2001 Added a look at EPOLY to the Test Chamber. |
| December
27, 2001 Some additions to the Test Chamber - a look at Func_Wall, and an added look at mitered joints. Also added the Test Chamber Conclusions page. |
| December
26, 2001 I have fixed the broken link to The Test Chamber on this page. Thanks to Zelasny for pointing it out. |
| December
19, 2001 Hey, I'm starting to get the hang of this! I've just completed a total redesign of my pages. Now it should be easier to navigate, and a little more professional looking. I've also added this page - for site news and my personal rants, and streamlined the Half-Life pages. |
| Dec
16, 2001 The Test Chamber added |
| Dec.
14, 2001 New content added to the Project notebook - including a screenshot from my current project. |
| Dec.
8 2001 I figured out how to add some graphics! |
| Dec.
7, 2001 New Content added to the Half-Life Project Notebook. Okay, make that "The Half-Life Project Notebook now actually has some content". |
| December 5, 2001 Page Created! Being a computer technician by profession, one might think I'd have all this html stuff down cold. Not so. My job involves installing and troubleshooting hardware and software - I rarely get to actually play with the programs. Well now it's my turn. This is my first attempt at creating a web page, so bear with me. |
