InstantAction Blog

TGEA wins Frontline Award

We are very proud to announce that GarageGames' very own Torque Game Engine Advance 1.7.1 has won the Front Line Award for Best Game Engine of 2008!

The editors of Think Services' Game Developer magazine, a sister publication to Gamasutra, have named the winners for the 2008 Front Line Awards, honoring the best tools used to make video games.

Congratulations to GarageGames for creating such an awesome product, and thanks to all of you who use Torque and took the time to vote.  Stay tuned for all the good stuff to come in the new year.   

-Dr Wiley

InstantAction Spotlight!

GamerName: ZhouYu

"I'm 18 and a Londoner born and bred.

I started playing online about 4 years ago, chiefly with diablo2 on open battlenet with haxed characters. A while after that I moved onto Savage and there met my first clan; Dynasty Warriors. With dw I moved from Savage to Tribes: vengeance, I started my own division for it and dw T:v became known as one of the more famous (and one of the least competent) clans in Eu T:V back in the day. I've played t:v since a little while after release, capping all the way, and after dw T:v eventually folded to real life concerns I joined up with Original Crime, who then changed names to Most Wanted. MW is pretty much the premier Eu team, and we still have good games every Sunday in the excellent Asylum league that is currently running.

Back in 2006 or so I became the TWL T:v European admin, largely because noone else wanted the job. I believe that my attempts to keep the Eu community alive during period were always just on the right side of necrophilia. Eu TWL T:v eventually trailed off as comp T:v suffered from a famine of decent players and teams, and I'm now just happy playing rather than organising.

Intermittently I've played other games ofc, enjoying a long stint in the Et:qw closed beta (from February 2007 to Julyish) and becoming a GVF member in the community forums for that game. I also had a short stint with the Et:qw Dignitas team during my open and closed beta time, but left because of RL issues.

In other beta work I spent a good while playing in the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic MP beta and even won a (pretty crappy) motherboard in the TWL competition for that game. I left that scene after release as the community started small and wasn't going anywhere fast and I didn't want to spend another three years of my life watching a favorite game slowly die *cough* T:v *cough*.

Otherwise I have probably played about about ten minutes of T1 and T2 in my life and seem to be none the worse for wear, I'm enjoying the Legions beta, especially the movement and the nutty stuff you can do with OD ^_^.

Zhou"

InstantAction Spotlight

Gamername: Badazz

"Well gaming is something I always enjoyed. I started in my teens, playing pong and simple games as they came out. I played Star Wars and Frogger, I played at all the arcades I came across. My dad liked pinball and video games, so he didn't protect me from this addiction at all. I used to babysit and get griped at by him though for spending all my money at the Bowling Alley! But man, they had Gyrus, and they had Pacman, and they had Defender and Pinball, and so many choices, plus you could get a snack and a pop and all the other game geeks were there, so you could watch them play and learn new tricks! Or just sit there amazed at the scores they wracked up! What was the name of the game with the Ostrich and the Eggs?  Huh man that one was hard! but it was cool to bounce around and fly, right?!!!

When I got the Nintendo I almost ruined my life. Tetris was my friend. I was Tetris friend. Tetris and I did everything together. Puzzle games have always enthralled me. I love to figure things out, my eyes and hands work fast, and I can just think... think while playing Tetris. Or get so high up in levels that you don't get a chance to think anymore! I have enjoyed every style of tetris mod that has come out. I have played a collection of puzzle games and troubleshooting has become a second nature to me.

On to Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog. OMG... That game was so awesome, graphics, action, cool levels, increased speed, wow. Then I was addicted. To my friends Sega. I was a mom by then and couldn't afford that addiction. I had already given my nintendo to my brother and given it up, but now there was Sonic. How do you say no to Sonic? My friend helped when I said, Girl, I can't do this. So we limited my time! and eventually I got away from it.

I finished raising my kids, occasionally taking them to the arcade and playing a little bit. Then the bars got those cool games on the counter. Hmmmm that is fun. Okay Ya, I can do this. And I DID. Then I met Tim, Tim and I were good to go taking turns playing on the counter game!! Then we got a pc, and I crashed it while hosting forums and pissing someone off, who sent me huge files in my small mailbox that my poor little laptop couldn't stomach. Bad... Soooo KickUass, our ISP provider at the time, said sorry kids, it's a goner. He was kind and understanding and helped build us a cheap computer, found a monitor for us from the back room and set us back up. He also took time to educate me about being online and how NOT to let that happen to my PC again Smiley.

During that time, Kick and Tim became friends, and Tim and Kick would work on puters, build, troulbeshoot, antivirus and build. Kick started catching Tim up to the modern day computer set ups and OS and all that jazz. Kick started showing me about web site and graphics design. He didn't teach me, he gave me the tools and said go find the Tutorials. I spent some time dabbling in all this, and figured out how it works, and then got a fulltime job and didn't play with it so much.

Tim and Kick kept on working on PC's and all during the time we were there, he would play Tribes 2 in between tasks. ALL THE TIME. and he would stay after work and do competitions. Eventually he let Tim play, under his account, then he got the game for him! By then I had a good pc that I bought with my income tax return! I spent over a 1000 bucks on that baby.  Kick and Tim custom built it and it was great and when Tim got Tribes 2, he started using my pc at home to play it lol. Well the rest is history.

We all play now, Tim as LoneWolf8, Me As Badazz and My son as ToeTag. We eventually started running our own server and killed a war of clans and started building a whole new way of running a community server and site. The membres of Elite Warriors Online help us make decisions, are part of the every day life and breath of our community development. We help newbies play games, keep their computers clean and up to date online, and provide a friendly place for all gamers to hang out. We are a bunch of nonconformists, but we are also mature gamers for the most part. We believe in fair play, following the rules of the game, and no cheating. We believe in our rights as US citizens to think for ourselves, speak our mind and love getting to know the rest of the world and creating a place where everyone from everywhere is welcome. Elite Warriors Online speaks for itself.

We are now at 1100+ members, have been here for a couple of years and we are hosting more games and the biggest Tribes 2 event ever. Friday Night Fights --Every Friday. We play Base Tribes 2, with 40-70 people in the server, usually more than 50! I am now also involved with RenWerX and their endeavor to create an FPS called Ascension that lives in the genre of FPS +Z.  I am the Lead Recruiter, whip handler, and assist the community person Teratos. As a member of Great Games Experiment from beta til today, I have gotten to know a lot of GG employees and members. Great guys and gals with loads of creativity and ingenuity. I was a moving force in building the GG community and enjoying how well it supported my endeavors as a Community Dev for EWo and Recruiter for Renwerx. Now with Instant Action coming, I am ready to be a part of the scene here in the newest innovation in gaming. 3D in the browser!  With community assets! Bravo!"

Whew, thanks Badazz.

-Dr Wiley

InstantAction Spotlight

It's back!  The InstantAction blog Spotlight.  This week I bring you Guardian_Matrix. Guardian Matrix you ask?  From Reboot?  Duh.  I knew that, I swear.

Gamername: Guardian_Matrix

"The very foundation of my existence was rocked when I was given my first console gaming system, the NES, by my grandparents at three years old. Along with that came Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt. I was immediately hooked on the simplistic yet challenging side-scroller. Of course, I was three years old so I was probably thinking "WEEEEEEE" as I boldly jumped into the same pit over and over again. It didn't take long to get the hang of it, however. Shortly after my Mario days came the first Legend of Zelda game. In all the cartridge's magnificent, golden glory, I was enthralled in Link's adventure to save the princess Zelda. It was at that moment I decided that I wanted to be a person who makes video games. The rest, as they say, "was history."

Yes, I literally said "I want to make that!" while pointing at the screen. Time went by as little by little I learned what was necessary to create video games. To put this in perspective, for years I thought that games were made the same way I played them; through the console. Imagine my surprise when I figured out that they are "programmed" using "computers."

Well it just so happened that we bought our first computer (I'm not counting the windows 3.1 machine with the huge floppy drive) which was to be used by the family AND for my parent's business. While still into console gaming (Goldeneye, Zelda, Nintendo 64 stuff) I got into PC games like the Diablo and Warcraft series. Then my friend introduced me to Tribes 1. My FPS world was changed. This was the first time I ever heard of "open-source" and the ability to nearly create my own weapons, armors, etc. Essentially, Tribes was my entry point into ACTUAL programming. Following closely to that incident was learning how easy it was to create webpages and dabbling in web design on my 56k modem.

High school gave me a boost in programming knowledge as that is where I learned my first coding language, Visual Basic, along with the basics of Java and C++ (No thanks to my horrible teacher). After my first college class programming in Java, however, my love for video games is rivaled by my passion for coding.

So here I am today, continuing my quest to learn how to create a video game by double-majoring in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. I'm currently a Junior attending the University of Nebraska.

If anyone would like to get together/wouldn't mind a novice on board for a game developing project, I would definitely be interested!"

Thanks Mr. Matrix.  Dig the power glove.

Do you want your story on the blog?  Want everyone on InstantAction to read about you and bask in your gaming past?  Get active!  You hate going outside you say?  You don't like moving around?  You don't have to.  Help others out on the community forums, report  bugs via support@instantaction.com (take a look at the known issues list first though), and obviously play games from the comfort of your chair.  Trust me, we notice helpful people!

-Dr Wiley

InstantAction Spotlight

This week we bring you Beggin-Strips. 

I've known Beggin-Strips for a while now, originally from the Great Games Experiment.  Been a great contributor on both sites and I'm glad to see him on InstantAction.

Gamername: Beggin-Strips

"I first started playing video games when my sister and her boyfriend(now her husband) bought me a Sega Genesis, I used to stay up and play until I fell asleep.  I still have the console in my closet somewhere. I can't remember what Christmas they gave it to me, but I do know I was really really young. I then got an SNES played Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, and many other games. Then came the computer...my parents bought it in 1995 or 1996 one of the two, not sure...anyway the first online game I played was Starcraft, which was released in 1998.  I played the hell out of that game. One day I went to EB Games looking for a new online game to play and there it was, Starsiege Tribes, the box art caught my eye, and sure enough I bought it, had to beg my parents to buy it for me.  In 1999 I would have been 10 years old. I installed the game and loved every minute of playing it...except for the fact I had dial up and my computer had a hard time running it on low settings...those were the days. Then 2001 came along I got Tribes 2 for christmas yeah late buying Tribes again, except instead of being a year late, only a few months. I was 12 when I started playing Tribes 2. Playing Tribes 2 on the computer I had wasn't possible , so I had to beg and plead to get a new computer, and unfortunately still had dial-up until about 2003. That made the Tribes games rock even more being able to play it with High graphics on Tribes 1, and low on Tribes 2(yeah T2 was a resource hog lol) with a good ping, and no lag.

I used to play Tribes under the name guy15401 how amazingly unclever that name was, I was then dared I wouldn't change my name to a dog treat, obviously I picked Beggin-Strips, I almost picked the name Kibbles-N-Bits. The name Beggin-Strips just stuck with me. In 2004 I joined The STAR Clan, something that at the time was not a bad thing, but over time I realized I regret being a part of it. However the friends I met in STAR including MrSkunk, TheRaptor, Tiddly-Wink, HBarr, Dewee, Thalagyrt. It also introduced me to the Rebel Dawgs the clan I currently reside in and plan too stay. I met DUN_DUNNA in the STAR server we used to reak havoc on players in the Assault Tank, <=RD=> had set up a friendly scrimage with STAR and thats when I met all of the other <=RD=> folks including Gigawa, Ladydeath, Moose, Mach92, Kraska... so on. STAR started to fall apart at its very foundation, because the leader was controlling to the point where if you played any game STAR automatically had to be the clan that you were in. So when the exodus happened I ran to LadyDeath and requested to be a dawg which I am very glad I did.

I have been following many of GG's Projects wanting to help them with their endeavors, hoping their next project would be a new Tribes, the first project I got to help out GG with was being in the beta for the Great Games Experiment, facebook for gamers. Now I am very happy to be able to help out with InstantAction, and looking forward to beta test Legions!

I started toying with html making websites, so I started majoring in Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University, needless to say its not what I wanted to do.. So I am taking a break for school, and getting more and more interested in game design. I can honestly say that Tribes, is what inspired me to mess with skinning, scripting and all that.

I truly enjoy Tribes, and want everyone who hasn't experienced its greatness to do so, and thats what made me help people get Tribes 1 or Tribes 2 running on their systems as the more difficult it has become to be able to play them with Tribes 1 not having the official master server anymore, the Sierra Updater being broken so on. Thats what made me create my 2 setup guides Tribes 1 Setup and Tribes 2 Setup giving back to a franchise that I love."

Thanks for hopping on board Beggin.  Looking forward to more of the great feedback you've been giving.

-Dr Wiley

InstantAction Spotlight

It's that time again.  That's right, time for the InstantAction blog Spotlight.  This user is probably one of the most active and helpful on InstantAction.  Constantly submitting bugs and helping out other users get up and running.  Mim is one of a kind.

Gamername: Mimelim

"A very long time ago, when I was... much shorter and a lot younger, I came into contact with a Commodore 64 machine. A machine that had a joystick that you could easily invert, simply by turning it 180 degrees. I still remember the huge floppy discs and the endless hours of waiting on tapes with funky coloured screens, it totally rocked my world and kept me busy for days and even years. That was until my uncle made my gaming addiction even worse. The times of playing with Lego was officially over and the Commodore soon found its way to a dusty shelf! My uncle showed me cool stuff like Wolfenstein, Heretic, Doom, Civilization, Settlers, Wing commander and all those golden oldies, you can bet that seeing such a wide range of games piqued my interest for games even more.

In the years following what my uncle showed me, I bought several systems like an Amiga, Nintendo 8bit (duck hunt p0w) and in the end the same sort of  PC system my uncle showed me games on. I basically went from Mario to Starcraft and from Total Annihilation to Duke Nukem. You can say that over the years, I’ve played my fair share of games.

During the years that followed, my online gaming “career” pretty much kicked off. Games like Total Annihilation, Boneyards (multiplayer service which was great btw), and Allegiance followed, a space-sim shooter which featured some awesome gameplay aspects. Luckily for me (well especially my father) we got cable after awhile which opened up the world of online gaming even more. Not much later, THE game came, the game that made Counterstrike look like a wrecked car... that game was Tribes 2. It was new, looked good and was like nothing I’d seen or played before. Not long after I started playing, my Tribes 2 career was the only thing I was interested in. I played a few teams in a competition environment and I still remember the days like it was last week. (shout out to my hindsight/df/et homeboys!)

Besides having games as a point of interest, I’m also an avid fan of watching movies. That combined with hanging around with my friends, appreciating the female form and enjoying a wide range of music basically sums up my idea of fun. After finishing my IT study (probably the reason why I like helping people out on the troubleshooting section ) I changed the course I was heading and switched to a marketing/management study which I am enjoying quite a lot at the moment.

I really believe in the potential that Instant Action has, as a gaming platform. Besides being enthusiastic about Instant Action, there is ofc ourse (you could have guessed) Legions but we will probably have to wait a little longer before the beta kicks off on that one. In the meanwhile if you wish to talk or just hang out, add me on IA (Mimelim) and slap me around in Think Tanks, crush bugs or simply start up some good conversations. (for conversations you could also join #legions on irc.quakenet and talk to me there )

Well, thats basically it! Hope to talk to you all soon!
Cheers,
Mim

(ps. Cats > Dogs)"

We love you Mim!

-Dr Wiley

InstantAction Spotlight

It's time for another round of the InstantAction blog spotlight.  Another extremely active and helpful user in the InstantAction beta. 

Gamername - apcizzle

"Background:

       As a little boy, i've grown up with 2 older sisters, 1 younger sister, and an older half brother. My half brother was the gamer of my family. He showed me atari at first, but i wasn't too interested at the time. But Nintendo, on the other hand, really had me going. Mario Brothers 3 had my life. My brother would show me all the secret whistles in the first 2 worlds and all that good stuff. This started my long gaming career.

       Super Nintendo was next and i would have to say, this may have been my favorite Nintendo out of the series. From Zelda to Super Metriod to Mario Kart, all of these titles just kicked *bumm*. From Super Nintendo came all the sequels, even to this day. I'm a huge Zelda fan, even to this day. Super Metriod was my favorite game on Super Nintendo, but sadly to say, it was the only Metriod i played... damn what a great game.

       When Nintendo 64 came out, i think that was about the time that i started to pick up PC games. Playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time + Majora's Mask And Duke Nukem 64 (probably my favorite 64 game) was part of my gaming life, but so was Wolfenstein, Doom, Commander Keen, Day of the Tentacle... PC gaming kicked *bumm* from day 1. I picked up computer gaming from my Dad and Uncle as they played over our phone line on our VooDoo 2 card, haha. I started to pick up computer games from then on.

       Finally one day, i decided to go out and buy my first computer game. I saw my friend play red alert and it looked fun... So i went to walmart to pick it up. But looking at all the games, there were so many good ones: Half life, Delta Force, etc. Mainly i was looking at either Red Alert or Half Life, until i asked an employee what should i pick. This is where i was first introduced to Tribes. Damn the case looked ugly when he showed it to me, and i had NO intention to buy it either. So I kept thinking which game to get. So what I ended up doing was grabbing Tribes simply because i could not choose between those two games. My mom wouldn't let me buy it because it was "T for Teen", but i got it anyways.

     Tribes took my life away from day one. I would play it when I got home until I went to bed, it was bad. So bad, that it lasted for years, until Tribes 2 was released. I got it when it was released, but my computer couldn't handle it well at all. So after a few months, I got a new computer and played this game. If I wasn't playing in a server, i would be in the in game chat. I was in there all the time, and checked the browser many times daily. This addiction was disgusting to my family, but no one could stop it.

     Slowly, Tribes began to die. Yes, I had games in between like RtcW or CoD... but like us tribes players say "Once you got hooked to Tribes, it ruins your taste for any other game." Which is so true to me... I need a jetpack and skiing now (Legions Legions Legions ).

     College came, Tribes died... gaming went down for me. No I've never owned an Xbox or Playstation, i just don't like controllers and game consoles. I did, in fact, own a Dreamcast... but only because i wanted Crazy Taxi, great game for a week.

       I tried Tribes Vengeance, but that never got me hooked because of the bugs and lack of popularity within the Tribes community. I played Counter Strike and Team fortress 2 competitively and got in the higher ranking leagues, but to this day, I'm pretty much done with competitive gaming.

    So here I am today, reading and posting in forums, playing Call of Duty 4 or some Marble Blast Online occasionally, going to school, and working. It's a simple life, but a good one I'd have to say. And with Instantaction in the future and the hype for Legions, I'm ready for this next phase of gaming in my life.

Interests:

Unlike the above, I'll make the rest of these short and sweet.

Interest's in my life goes as the following:
    Getting wasted with friends, Girls, Video games (PC), Working (at my job), computers, and Meteorology (my major).

Games:

   As stated above, I've played many Nintendo games as a child, but to this day and age, I'm strictly PC gaming only. I played from Counter Strike, Tribes 1 + 2 + T:V, Call of Duty 2,3,4, Day of Defeat, Return to the Castle: Wolfenstein, Half Life 1+2, Team Fortress 2, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft (only a month ), And Battlefield 1942 + 2142. I'm sure there were some others, but that's basically my whole PC gaming life. By far, my favorite would definitely have to be Tribes 2, Tribes 2 Classic to be specific. But i highly doubt anyone to care, nor should I expect anyone to haha.

So Instant Action, it's up to you to make my next step in gaming. DON'T LET ME DOWN  <3."

Thanks apcizzle.  That was quite a read...whew.  Get in the beta, add apcizzle, and beat him down in a game of Marble Blast.

-Dr Wiley

InstantAction Spotlights

We like to pay respects to people that are helping us out.  This is going to take place in many forms, one of those is to spotlight some of the more prominent users in the Private Beta.  By finding and submitting useful bugs, constantly playing games on the beta, and actively participate in the forums, these users go above and beyond to help us make InstantAction a better place for everyone.  So without further ado, here is our first spotlight. 

GamerName - BeeHay

"Growing up as an 8bit gaming child, I have witnessed the evolution of modern gaming.  Clenching onto my 2 button rectangle weapon, everyday thumb blisters were a common item.  The upgrade to 16bit was glorious...contoured controllers and pretty colors, I thought nothing could look better...then there it was, one of the pioneers of FPS gaming.  I couldn't get enough.  All night sessions tweaking the WAD files and ~IDCLIP, I was in FPS heaven.  Seems like since then, games have come at lightning speed, with no end in sight.

My first pc virus is what set me off into tweaking/repairing pc's...at the time, scrolling chat rooms and swapping proggiez is what I was into until one ate away my C:\ drive...Mother wasn't about to pay to have it fixed - "you broke it, you fix it."  So I did, and found I enjoyed it.

After a few years of schooling and getting a degree in CIS, and after working at too many Mom and Pop repair shops, I have finally found a job I enjoy.  I currently am employed as a Tech at a Geological Well Logging company where I do all from repair small circuitry to script equations into a small C based program that I am creating.

All time favorite games would have to be - Burai-Fighter, Mech-warrior, Duke Nukem, and Roadwarrior. Let’s not forget Tribes 2.

Games I've been messing with lately have been - COD4, Crysis, and installing Sins of a Solar Empire as I type this...

Glad to be a part of this evolutionary step in online gaming and cannot wait until we are off and running with Legions!"

Thanks for the help BeeHay and keep the feedback coming everyone.  Once again we really appreciate it.