GTA Oz Release Date <3:00 PM CST - schu>
GTA Oz, previously known as GTA Aus, has a release date!  Byron is reporting that GTA Oz will be out on March 6th (Australian time).  Not only that but Byron sent in a screenshot of the map and some of the cars.  The map is slightly blurred to keep people from copying anything, but you can still get the general idea.

Aqutiv's GTA2 Mission Pack <6:30 PM CST - schu>
Aqutiv has released his new mission pack for GTA2.  Its available on his site, BUSTED!.  Here's the latest from Aqutiv on his mission pack and a screenshot:

"A new mission pack is made, it replaces the 2 green Mafia phones and all the Zaibatsu missions. Actually, the original idea was to replace all the third level missions together with Exc0r5, but this never worked out, also because now the map editor is available, and we both want to start making real mods. Also added to the mission pack, is the source for the second Russian mission, so it can be case studied...  more info about the missions is in the readme file.
 
It can be downloaded from my page, or with this url: busted.niteshade.net/Files/AquExc-pack.zip
 
Also you might want to know that there is now an expanded GTA2 Editing section on BUSTED! with a GTA2 Map Editing FAQ. (small at the minute, but will expand as soon as I get some questions from users) and a GTA2 Scripting Guide is, supposedly, coming soon!"

  
The LingSter's Anniversary & New Car Reviews <6:30 PM CST - schu>
The LingSter will be celebrating his one year GTA anniversary come March 10th with some new changes to his site and the re-release of his second car.  Along with his announcement he also sent in this nifty shot of the re-released car.  Here is the announcement he sent in:

"March 10th I celebrate my 1 year anniversary.  I celebrate this with 2 things.  One, an anniversary car... err. um.. TRUCK.  A remake of my second ever GTA car made, the Snowplow.  The second thing I celebrate is the opening of a new cars site.  Yes, for a year, I have not showcased anyone else's cars but my own.  Now, I have changed this.   I, like GTAzz, will be doing reviews of the cars that are sent in, and giving awards out to those that are the best for that week. If you could send any cars that you make to gtacars@rochester.rr.com along with your regular sites that you send to.  But please, follow this simple rule:    All cars must be in a zip file, with a gif of the car, and a readme.txt file explaining what the car is."

 
GTA Community Radio <6:30 PM CST - schu>
Acid2000 is planning on organizing a GTA/GTA2 weekly radio program that anyone can take part in, check the announcement from Acid2000 and get more on this over at The GTA2 Attack Shack.

Since the GTA and GTA 2 community seems to be in a slump I have had a cunning plan to restore that good old community spirit. The first ever... drum role please...GTA and GTA 2 Community Internet Radio or GTA Net Radio. 
What will it have?

• A weekly news update
• The latest editors, car and maps
• GTA oddities
• Interviews
• Tutorials and more

The idea is to produce a weekly Internet radio show focused on the GTA community. You will be able to hear this through your computer only if you have Real Player. However I can't do this single handed and if I did it wouldn't be community would it. First of all vote in the poll at the site if you think this is a good idea. When the results are known I will start working, if that's what people want. What I need from the community will be people who feel that they would be able to contribute something to GTA Net Radio i.e. Presenters, editors, writers etc. etc... Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

  
Announcements <6:30 PM CST - schu>

• Congrats to Tiffany on her 70,000 visitor mark, check out her update in Community News.
• Graham, creator of GTA Hawaii, is putting together a GTA website.  If you have a banner that you'd like Graham to post on his site, you can send it to him at gta_hawaii@hotmail.com.  The only stipulations are that the banners contain no swearing and be kept to a reasonable size.  Expect Graham's site to go live in about a week or two.
• Devil is hard at work testing the new fix for GTA2 Mainframe which should be posted on Gamer's Army shortly.  Devil mentioned that the remote cfg should alert GTA2 Mainframe users about the update and point them to the download location.  The new fix will also allow Teknics and Devil to set a message that will give details on the latest updates and will be displayed when a user browses the update page.
• GTAPL has been reworked a bit with new fonts, optimized graphics for faster load times and a new flash intro.  GTAPL also has about a million urls currently, check em out at www.gta.w.pl or www.gtapl.w.pl or www.gtapl.z.pl or private.psi.com.pl.gtapl.
• MicSoft InterActive Design is thinking about putting together a GTA2 site and would like some input on what you'd like to see.  If you have any good ideas you can send em to webmaster@micsoft.findhere.org.  You can also check out the GTA2 flash animation on the MicSoft site in the News section.

Project News <6:30 PM CST - schu>

• GTA Aus Within Sight
  Well Byron never got anyone to help out with the mission.ini part of the project so he gave up and decided to teach himself how to edit the ini.  Luckily it seems to be going well and with Respray's help with the cars, GTA Aus is nearing completion.  Here are two updates from Byron, one from Friday when I was gone and one today:

  2/25
  "I've been working on GTA AUS (or GTA OZ, as it's now called) all week. I'm waiting for Respray to return some cars which he's going to delta up, and that'll  *almost* wrap it up... =) (yes, the entire project) There's still the slight problem with the missions, and as of yet I've received NO emails from volunteers after the plea has appeared on G! and AGGTA... So, everything will be TOTALLY finished except the missions, which aren't even started. Great, huh? So, it looks like I'll have to write them myself, and I have *0* experience in mission.ini... Can you spell delay? Goddamnit this f*cking sucks !!!!!"

  2/28
  "Got some really good news... I've been playing around with mission.ini today, and it's quite easy to edit once you understand it. I'm going to copy across missions from the original GTA and GTA LONDON and edit them (change co-ords, text, and some other bits).

  So, if everything goes well (which it hasn't, for a lot of the time), I might have the missions done by next Sunday... (including deathmatch missions)

  Other than the missions, just about everything is done. I'm awaiting a car which is being delta-ed up by Respray, I've got to make some final tidying up on the map, and... that's it!

  I've got the police setup, and OMFG it's so funny... I've got one car set to every 1 or 2 blocks, so you have about double the police after you compared to the original GTA ! HEHEHE..."

 
Community News <6:30 PM CST - schu>

• Tiffany's Unofficial GTA Shrine
  "I just wanna thank all the visitors to my GTA Shrine. My 70,000th visitor was there February 26th. =-)"
   
• PSX GTA
  "I have updated my entire Playstation GTA Web Site, home of the GTA Guides.  There are new better looking graphics and easier navigation. I have codes, vehicle lists, and mission and secret guides for GTA, GTA: London 1969, and GTA 2 (Industrial Sector incomplete)."
   
• GTACS3
  "Ive decided to open the GTACS:3 just for news at the moment,it will be updated every day (I promise) and I will add new sections when I build them.

  Go to gtacs.hypermart.net, I assure you,you won't be disappointed

  I am Also looking for a couple of newsies so send me an e-mail if you want a job, no slackers though,I want people who will update about once every 3 days!"

• EGP4
  "Hiyall out there (about 70 persons) this is just a news flash, the page EGP is NOT down, if you thought so, even if there has been like a week or two since the last update, I'll be working with EGP 4 more soon. Maybe I'll put it down later cause me and my friend is working on a music page, I think the phenomenon music will last longer than the GTA 2 scene, anyone wanna bet? ;))
   
  But, until then, I'll be working with EGP 4 too!"

  
Site Updates <6:30 PM CST - schu>
Well I'm back...  As you can see I didn't get much news on Friday morning so I didn't post an update.  The trip went pretty well and The Kids in the Hall live show kicked ass.  If you've never seen the show you should really try and check it out sometime.  They stopped making new shows awhile back but the reruns are shown on Comedy Central twice a day and you can probably pick em up on vid elsewhere.  Minneapolis was actually a little larger than I pictured it and had some pretty cool things to do, although I avoided The Mall of America like the plague.  Considering I can't stand the stupidity of most people in a regular sized mall I don't think I could handle a jumbo mall.  I did find some pretty cool used record stores and stuff though not too far from the hotel :).

"As you may know from reading the GTA 2 Mainframe readme.txt I am a Mainframe programmer (Teknics is the lead programmer + producer). Well I was contacted by Teknics to mainly help him with handling the Internet communications protocols code, which Mainframe uses to download the remote settings file. Well I have a bit of a confession to make, you see currently Mainframe has a serious bug in it which makes it impossible to run Mainframe without a Internet connection (unless it has already got the remote settings previously that day). Well I have been working very hard to try and fix this problem because it really spoils Mainframe as it was developed to be used off-line as well as online. I am glad to be able to report that Mainframe is nearly fixed and that I should be uploading the fixed exe soon. As some people may know Mainframe has a autoupdate feature which will make it alert the user to the availability of new versions and bug fixes. Although this feature was not used for the first update (I Teknics forgot about it) I am planning on using it for the second update. Also I am currently writing a special CGI which Mainframe will use for the (currently disabled) broken link reporting function. As for the update it may be packaged as is (i.e just the exe) or the installer may be recompiled using the fixed program, I will have to talk to Teknics about that. Last but not least I'd like to apologize for not noticing the off-line bug with Mainframe before it's official release and I hope that it did not spoil anyone's enjoyment of this." 

  
Site Updates <7:30 PM CST - schu>
I'll try and post an update for Friday, assuming something comes in.  If there isn't and update by 8am CST there won't be one because I'll be on the road by then.

• No Fear sent word that GTA2 More Extreme has a new maps section, check it out over at gtaextreme.niteshade.net.
• Byron is planning on posting a web page for GTA Aus, but it mainly depends on how the redevelopment process goes.  As far as I know Byron is still looking for help with the mission.ini end of the GTA Aus project.  If you have any skill in this area please contact Byron and help finish GTA Aus.

Project News <4:00 PM CST - schu>

• GTA - Shut Up and Shoot!
  Johan Brodd sent in a update on his GTA clone, along with three screen shots (1, 2, 3):

  The story so far:
  You're a cop. You've been sent to prison unjustly, and been there the last 15 years.  While you were in prison the underworld ran rampant around the city, making it a nest for terror and hatred.

  Freed from prison you've just got one goal: Be the boss of the streets.  You start up with a car, a wallet with $500 and unarmed. You need first of all lay your hands upon a jolly good gun.

  Cityscape / Styles:
  I've decided to cut down on graphics due to the heavy size (11 Mb), I'm plotting the graphics my self to save memory.

  Can I add my own cities?
  You can add your own cities, yes. But you're gonna need The Games Factory 1.04 to do this.

  
Community News <4:00 PM CST - schu>

• Tiffany's Unofficial GTA Shrine
  Rusty send some new miscellaneous & W.I.L.D.C.A.T.S. mugshots, I've added some new cars, and updated the GTA FAQ!

  
Site Updates <4:00 PM CST - schu>
I may or may not be doing an update on Friday.  If I do an update it will probably appear early in the morning (1 or 2am).  I'm going to Minneapolis, MN to see The Kids In The Hall, live performance and I'll be leaving around 9am on Friday which doesn't leave much time for an update.  But if I have something to post I'll do it early Friday or late Thursday.  Anyone know anything fun to do in Minneapolis?  Lemme know...

GTA2 Mainframe <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Gamer's Army has released their Swiss Army Knife of a GTA2 util.  It opens up to an interface with buttons leading to a web browser, html editor, ftp util, search engine, plans manager, SEQ editor, MMP editor, access to GTA2 toolkit, etc.  It also has plans to support an MP3 player and an email client in the future.  Check out Teknics' official announcement below for more details:

"Hey everyone the long delayed GTA2 Mainframe is finally here! After several last minute bug squashings it has finally been uploaded all 2.9Megs. It contains Browser, HTML Editor, FTP Access, MMP and SEQ Editors, a .plan's manager, and a special GTA2 Dynamic Links feature. Be sure to read the readme for more information on all the wonderful features. Some special notes on this program are necessary. First this program is legally and fully copyrighted by the good folks at Night Shade Entertainment. More on that is in the readme. Also very important note on installation. The installing program (used by iD software as it is a professional installer) installs a special file called FTP.OCX into the folder you choose GTA2 Mainframe to be installed to. If you want the FTP to work you *MUST* copy and paste this file into your "Windows\System" Folder. (generally C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM).  Without doing that the program will not run correctly. Also you must have an active Internet connection to run this program.

Run on over to www.niteshade.net to view the full update or type in this to your browser to download - ftp://niteshade.net/favorites/Setup.exe
 

Cotton Town <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Piraat (website) has been working on a GTA map entitled Cotton Town for awhile now and he has decided to release a beta version.  Judging from a quick peek with J25 and Cotton Town's list of features it looks pretty extensive.  The download is a scant 93k and includes the map, an FXT file, a mission.ini file, and a great readme file.  Great readme file?  YES, finally someone whose map has decent documentation :).  The following is from Priaat's email and a list of features mercilessly ripped from the great readme file:

COTTON TOWN is my great project. It took a lot of time but now I am so far that I can release CT's beta version (2.00). This map was  created from scratch and is copyrighted to Piraat (DO NOT modify).  NB! The name of my great project may change but the name of the map will always be Cotton Town.

FEATURES

• 4 well-working trains
• cops, fire dept. , ambulance
• some unique buildings (V.I.P. building, mini-pyramid)
• respray-buildings and bombshop
• some wide freeways, many garages (only 1 active garage in this beta)
• some secret places (well, not SO secret but...)
• many parked cars (including squad car,fire trucks and ambulance-cars)
• 4 missions (incl. 1 training mission)

DOWNLOAD

• cotton2.zip (93k) - gouranga.com
• cotton2.zip (93k) - grandtheftauto.com
• cotton2.zip (93k) - Alternate
  

Announcements <11:59 PM CST - schu>

• Christ...  YAKUZA looked good before but it looks even better now, if you can believe that.  I can honestly say that this site makes me wish I spoke Polish.  Oh, almost forgot, its at a new URL as well, you can find YAKUZA at www.gta2.pl.  Don't speak polish?  Who cares, take a look anyway...
• A few new GTA sites are out there, give em a click, see what you think...
    
  
  • GTA Elite just opened today and is looking sweet
  • GTA2 Warped has actually been going for two months and looks quite good as well
  • God of GTA is mostly up and running using lots of Flash
  • The GTA Crew is sort of there, I'm pretty sure its still under construction.

  
Project News <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Two rather similar updates in Project News today because two GTA projects are coming back from the dead, check it out..

• GTA Aus - Back From The Dead, But Needs Your Help
  Byron, king of all that is X-Com, has decided to break out his shovel and dig up the remains of GTA Aus from his backyard.  Hopefully with some work we will see it this year :).  He mentioned that the map is just about done with only traffic lights left to add and a few places that need to be smoothed out.  Other than that he still has to add a few cars, do sound effects, and deal with some other stuff.  Byron is still looking for people to help out on this project, it pretty much died last time because everyone who was working on the project disappeared.  If you have any GTA mission.ini editing skills, please read his announcement below:

'Hi everyone ! I'm resurrecting GTA AUS ! (Gta Australia) I'm going to finish off this project, and get it off my mind (yes, it's been irritating me that I haven't finished it). Please, if you have mission.ini experience, and I mean GOOD experience, AND you're not planning on deserting any time, like say, ugh, the LAST mission.ini programmer... PLEASE contact me. I'm redoing parts of the project, and I want the missions redone from scratch.  So, if you have experience, please contact me. This project will be the BEST GTA TC released, if we can get it done. And, of course, you'll be credited... So, gimme a yell if you're interested !'

• DJ Slam & Slam City - Out of Limbo
  If you've been around the GTA scene for awhile you might remember a project called Slam City, a creation of DJ Slam.  Well DJ Slam is back, albeit now known as Davie Slam, and he is pulling the toe tag off of Slam City.  The map's construction was started over a year ago and, armed with new GTA editing techniques, Davie Slam is in the process of making new tiles for it.  Hopefully I'll have some more updates from Davie in the near future.

New GTA Sites <11:59 PM CST - schu>

• GTA Elite
• GTA2 Warped
• God of GTA
• GTA Crew

  
Site Updates <11:59 PM CST - schu>
This update is sooooo late its not even funny...  Actually this went out early Tuesday, but I'm willing screw with the laws of time and space to get it posted by 11:59pm Monday :).  After all, its still Monday on the Pacific coast.

Project News <8:10 PM CST - schu>

• The Latest On Wild Wild West
  X-Mail brings us the latest news on his project, Wild Wild West:
  

  
  News:

  1. I'm still working on WWW, but I don't know what I'll do when it's done. I can't send big files. I hope it works with ICQ...
  2. I made a new Building-Skin, you can see it on some of the screenshots. You can also watch a few new cars (3 old ones are left)
  3. I made a new Flamethrower, I hope you'll like it..



Files:

• 7 Screenshots
  ( 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 -7 )
  
  

  
Info:


Wild Wild West is not an add-on (new missions etc.)! It's a patch which transforms San Andreas into a wild west.

  
Community News <8:10 PM CST - schu>

• Tiffany's Unofficial GTA Shrine - New Cars & Updates
  I've added about 70 new cars to the Car Depot (54 courtesy of Fan Anf), and I've updated the Links, GTA FAQ and Submit Stuff pages! Also, if anyone has a list of the car names for GTA2, it would really help me update the site. 
   
• AGGTA - Updating Once Again
  At last, after months of cursing over lost files and a broken hard disk, aggta.co.uk has been released.  AGGTA being alt.games.grand-theft-auto, and aggta.co.uk being it's home page.
  
  Point of this site?  To have the latest news, first with loads of bits 'n bobs, and all the details you could ever want on the GTA scene.  We are hoping it will be the most popular GTA site on the net, second only to Gouranga :o)
  
  So, if you want to kinda.. erm.... plug it for us, that would be kinda cool :o)
   
• Hughesies Hut - Back On The Scene
  Hughesies Hut (HH) is finally coming back to the GTA scene after a couple of months absence.  The new site will be up on Sunday night (UK Time) at the latest but I am aiming for a Saturday release.  A couple of people have asked my what I have been doing, and well I told them all the same - College and a part time job - Us College students really have it hard !! :o)
   
  I have now finally had time to finish off the HH Revamp and re-release it.  The cars sections will be continually updated by Da Cop (when his Internet connection works) and almost daily news.
   
  This is the fourth incarnation of the site, and I hope you would agree that it looks the best yet.  It's taken me bloody ages so you had better agree :o )
   
  If people want to help on the site, then I still have a few areas that need some work.  I need  someone to help on the GTa2 section and a projects manager is also needed.  To take up these roles, please fill in the form at: hughesieshut.niteshade.net/joinhh.html - More newsupdaters are also welcome if they wish to become part of the HH team (Currently comprising of 5 members)
   
  If anybody has any problems, they can E-Mail me at mikehughes@hughesieshut.freeserve.co.uk or I can be contacted on ICQ.  My number is:
   
  44572542 
   
  So, if you want to check out the new HH, go to the usual URL this weekend and see the new site in all it's splendour :o ) 
   
  
• GTA ThinkTank - Technical Difficulties
  Hello again guys its me spacemonkey from GTA Thinktank the site is currently not being updated because the news login script has crashed :( .  On that subject I am getting Stig to investigate.  Also we are looking for news updaters, etc at gtathinktank please email me if your interested (spacemonkey@ecosse.net).  Also the IRC channel the Gamers Army and GTA Thinktank partnership is looking for more channel operators if your interested again please email me (spacemonkey@ecosse.net).  However the channel is always dead!  No one ever comes to #thegta on Random Dalnet.  
  
  Also please DO NOT email me regarding warez of GTA, I received an email asking me how to fix some guys warez version of GTA2  (PLEASE NOTE: the GTA community does not like warez) if you do contact me regarding any warez I will ignore you and if you continue to contact me about it I may report you to your ISP/email provider.  Well folks that's my news or crap over with until next time. (I hope schu gets this email cause flaming Winblows 98 (damn u bill gates) is going weird and crashing and stuff ,so is outlook exploder well see ya's <<DA sPaCeMoNkEy>>

Check back tomorrow for Community and Project news and hopefully something else assuming I can turn something up by then...

Supporting The Cause <10:30 PM CST - schu>
WaterRat 's GTA site, Supporting The Cause, is online with an interesting twist.  It features your standard issue news, files, links, and cars sections, but here is where the twist comes in.  Water Rat has also incorporated two rather interesting sections called, "Your Part" and "Challenge."  The "Your Part" section is exactly what it sounds like, its a section where you can take part, mainly in the form of car reviews, car awards, and that type of thing.  The "Challenge" section opens fan participation to a wider audience including three challenges currently, a new one coming soon, and if you're not satisfied with the challenges presented, suggest your own.  So far it looks quite good, get over to get.to/stc_gta and check it out.

Site Updates <10:30 PM CST - schu>
Not much going down today, its been a pretty slow week so far and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

Mugwum Returning? <8:00 PM CST - schu>
If you've been over to Nice-One lately you probably noticed that its not there.  The Nice-One.com url went dead awhile back but you could still get to it from its original address, www.3dactionplanet.com/gta/.  Anyway, Mugwum has posted a "coming soon" message of sorts.

Speed Up Your Favorite Web Sites <8:00 PM CST - schu>
Since news is rather slow I thought I'd post an email a friend of mine sent me.  He did not write it, and I'm not sure where he got it, but the original author's name has been left intact.  Anyway, this isn't some bs program that edits your registry entries to make web pages load faster, its just a simple notepad edit that can be used with Win 95/98, WinNT, or Linux.  It definitely works and if you have a few sites you visit on a daily basis it will help you the most.  Read through it, then read my notes on it below that should make the process a little faster.

Speed It UP!

  
One thing they didn't mention in the file is that if you ping a web address that you know is valid and it doesn't get any data back they have probably just configured their server so you can't ping it.  The IP address will still be listed on the first line and should work regardless if the ping was successful or not.  

One other trick you can use while pinging your favorite sites is to COPY the address out of the command prompt window rather than type it, but you have to enable QUICK EDIT in the window for it to work.  To do this you just click on the MSDOS icon in the upper left of the command prompt window and choose PROPERTIES.  Next, click on the MISC tab, and then put a check mark in the QuickEdit box and then click OK.  After you do this you can highlight the IP address with your mouse and then click the COPY button on the toolbar which will allow you to paste it directly in your HOSTS.SAM file without having to type it by hand (use CTRL+V to paste quicker - CTRL+C normally works for copying, but not in the command prompt window).

If you didn't understand a word I said, read the Speed It Up! file <above> and it should clear things up.

Azz'z GTA Car Wallpaper <10:30 PM CST - schu>
Azz has posted some wallpaper in his files section.  Its basically a large selection of the cars he has created, plus it includes some of his never before seen cars.  Take a look at the readme that comes with the wallpaper for further information.  Oh yeah, and you can get this wallpaper on Azz'z site, in his files section.  It looks quite nice centered on a black background :).

Project Updates <10:30 PM CST - schu>
Johan Brodd sent in the following update on the GTA: Shut Up & Shoot project:

The game is quite heavy, so don't ask me for a download right now... even the 256 color version takes up 11.5 Mb installed, with a setup 5.2 Mb. 

Terrains. I've planned to use all the graphics from GTA and GTA London.

User styles ... Well it depends on you out there. send a message to me completed with a link to your user style...

When will it be finnished. I don't know for the moment, but if the request is out, I'll speed it up.

  
Community News <10:30 PM CST - schu>

• GTA City Center
  GTA City Center has been open for 3 weeks now. We are a GTA Site geared to offer all GTA'ers a great place to go and communicate with other GTA'ers. Here is some of what wev'e got to offer:
      
  
  • Quality Daily News updates
  • GTA Forums UBB
  • The GTA Top 25
  • Top 3 sections
  • GTA .Plans (great for Tc Teams)
  • Affiliate Program
  • Weekly Interviews
  • GTA Car Storage

So hop on down To gta.niteshade.net (GTA City Center) today and check out all our features!

• Tiffany's Unofficial GTA Shrine
  I've added new cars to the Car Depot, and I've updated the Links and GTA FAQ! Guess what? Friday night, my boyfriend gave me my first taste of GTA2... aiee... it's so awesome! He's gonna help me upgrade my system soon so I can finally play GTA2 on my PC! So, now I've started adding GTA2 stuff to my site! Got stuff? Send it in!

   
New GTA Sites <10:30 PM CST - schu>

• GTA Home.DE

Announcements <9:30 PM CST - schu>

GTA2Mods is looking for news on editing and such, why not bop over there and see if you have something to send their way, it would be ashamed to see such a great site go by the wayside...

Community News <9:30 PM CST - schu>

• Grand Tuckman Association
  Grand Tuckman Association on a break.
  Hi! It's TheTuckman here. I'm taking a, hopefully, short leave of the GTA scene.  Since I'm graduating this year, or at least try to, school work has got a hold of most of my spare time. Also, because of serious Hard Disk problems, my computer's become a bitch as well. I hope both matters will resolve soon.  Thenx to Azz, Schu, Raphael, Tiffany and the guys at Burgernews for posting my news every once and a while; I'll be back!
   
• GTA2World & Gamers Army
  GTA2 Community Map
   
  What's it all about?
  

It's probably the best idea in ages. It's a map which is made by loads of people. Anyone can do a building, big or small. Basically what we do is put the building you've made into a 'master map' - which will be the community map.

Buildings? Is that it?

No. We are looking for cars, lorries, boats, trains, planes, etc... it goes on and on. Bigger idea's are welcome, like weather (like snow from snowball city by ILLSPIRIT).

When will it be available?

Quite soon at the rate we are receiving them. If you have a building, send it in ASAP, or would like to reserve some space, send in a temporary block which is the size of the space you need/want.

Are there any restrictions?

There are some. These are:
 
1.) Buildings which are to big, or not good enough, will not be used. I will notify the maker, so improvements/changes can be made.
 
2.) You must use bil.sty for the textures, if you need more tiles, contact me with information.
 
3.) You must use bil.std for the sounds, if you need more sounds, contact me with information.
 
4.) You need to send all maps in a zip file, by e-mail, to thenetguy@niteshade.net with your name and a text file saying whether or not you want your e-mail address included in the credits(see 'What do I get out of it?')

Is there anything I need to do?

If your making a building, please make it as realistic is possible. Include such things as electrical wires -  we will be making a power station, with a network of power cables :)
 
If your making a car, please send the images(in the correct palette), not the bil.sty file.
 
What do I get out of it?
 
Your name in the credits, a text file called credits.txt attached to communitymap.zip, and of course your building to show off to everyone :).
 
How do I contact you?
 
You can contact me(TheNetGuy) here: thenetguy@niteshade.net

Cars

Police Car: Download (11k)
SWAT Van: Download (16k)
Limo: Download (18k)

Movies

Movie1 'intro': Download (817k)
Movie2 'intro3d': Download (1.39MB)

  
Site Updates <9:30 PM CST - schu>
A rather anticlimactic end to a rather busy week in GTA news, oh well, it seems that Fridays are the new slow day, with Thursdays running a close second.

Azz'z Take on GTA3D & the Editor <7:40 PM CST - schu>
It seems that DMA isn't as tight lipped on the future of GTA as Rockstar is.  If you want to hear what DMA has to say about it, check out Azz's site.  While you're there check out his earlier update (2/8/00) on GTA3D and GTA: Online.  Azz also mentions the type of machines that DMA used to make GTA2 which might explain why the editor isn't as stable on lower end machines.  I'm currently running it on a Celeron 300a overclocked to 450Mhz and it runs fine in 1152x864 in 32bit color, I'm sure my TNT2 Ultra's 32MBs help things a bit as does 128MB of RAM.

Dreamcast GTA2 Shots <7:40 PM CST - schu>
Gamespot UK has posted six new Dreamcast GTA2 screenshots and they are reporting that it will be out on  March 28th.

Dazfish County & The Roland Dilemma <7:40 PM CST - schu>
Dazfish released v0.5 of his GTA map, Dazfish County (15k).  On a side note, Dazfish wanted to reply to Tiffany's comments about Roland.  Personally I can see things both ways, if Roland is just lacking in net etiquette then I don't think people should come down on him so hard, however if its something more malicious then I can see where Tiffany is coming from.  Personally I got all of those emails and I just didn't understand why he didn't remove the people who complained from his list.  I really didn't mind getting it too much because I run a news site and I'm used to it, but not everyone wants that sort of thing in their inbox.  Anyway, here are Dazfish's comments on the situation:     

"ROLAND AINT THAT BAD - IS HE?"

"I don't see what the problem is with Ronald's Cars. He does get annoying but his cars are great especially his dutchraider. I want to stick up for him. He  is perfectly fine he just didn't understand the 'unwritten rules' about how to behave in the gta community. But he is normal now so that's that cleared  up."

  
Site Updates <7:40 PM CST - schu>
The Sims is an evil game.. That's all I have to say... I went to sleep at 10am, this morning because of that damn game, luckily I had the day off so it didn't really matter, but 10am, damn...

Project Updates <10:30 PM CST - schu>

• The GTA2 Toolkit - New Version
  Dave, the GTA Jedi, sent in this update about his GTA2 Toolkit, available at his site, GTA: Section 487.
  

  "The GTA2 Toolkit Version2 is out!  The toolkit is a program which implements all the debug modifications to GTA2 at a single double click from the menu.  These debug options range from Cheats such as keep weapons after death, and no cops, to debug commands like an in game debugging mode.  The program is written to the set of debug commands that I released after GTA2 arrived and this is the first program IMHO that full exploits them.  Go get this now, but first a word from the developer Devil:

  The toolkit also no longer needs the cmndlg32.ocx because it uses the windows API instead and the program has been rewritten from the ground up, included in the install are all the files you need (specifically the VB6 runtime files) (quoted from ICQ logs)."

• GTA - Shut Up And Shoot
  Johan Brodd is working on a GTA clone and sent in the specs of his latest project.  His utils have been put on hold for the moment while he works on this project:

  "A neat GTA clone, made with The Games Factory. No 3D effects or so but it is a neat game in it self:

  You've been freed from prison, with just one goal in front of you: Be the boss of the streets.  All you have is $5000 and a car, you can select between 10 different cars from GTA.

  The goal is that you have to arm your car, get back out on the streets and chase enemy cars and take 'em out with your powerful guns. There are just the mines created right now but there will be more, lots more !!!"

  • Roof mounted shotgun
  • Roof mounted Chaingun
  • Rocket launcher
  • Mines
  • Grenades
  • Roof mounted silenced shotgun
  • Roof mounted silenced chain gun.
  • Hidden mines
  • Box mines

• Wild Wild West
  X-Mail is still hard at work on Wild Wild West, here he is with the latest update:

  News:

  1. The new Update is done, but I can't send it with GMX. The Maximum is 5MB.
  2. Many Cars are finished. The Cars I still have to make are:
  • The Superbike
  • The Tank
  • The Bus (Jesus)
  3. I made a new Water-Skin, I don't really know if it looks good, but I think it looks like usual water in the sun.
  4. I deleted the Exe-File I wanted to release, because I won't release new Updates (Files) anymore. The next (and last) file which I will release, is the full WWW-Patch.

     
     Thanks to:
     
     Will Smith - Song     ;-)
     Rob Melsom - 2 Cars
     Johan - Music
     Wez Green - Program Help
     schu - Program Links (Help)
     GRAHAM - Weapons
     DMA & BMG - The Game

  
  Info:
  
  The new Readme file is in English and German.

  
Community News <10:30 PM CST - schu>

• Dark Side Auto
  

  "To celebrate the merger of Dark Side Auto & Tiffany's GTA Shrine, I've created the Volkswagen Beetle JBE (Jelly Bean Edition). I saw this plastic car full of jellybeans, and since Tiff liked it so much, I put it in GTA for her. It's nothing spectacular, but it's different. :) Sincerely, the Dark Forsaken"

I think I discovered something, and I assume no one believes me.  In the map file format document it says blocks at level 0 are automatically water and supposedly there's no way to make water above level 0.  Well I made a map that has water on level 1 and solid ground on level 0.  Not only that, but I made the level 0 ground using non-animated water tiles that you can walk/drive on,  which are slippery, and cars leave small wakes behind them...  So basically, if you animate the water, you drown; if you don't animate, its solid.  This contradicts the map format doc.  To supplement that weirdness, I also discovered that different tiles have different footstep sounds associated with them.... and I never did anything in the map editor to make them happen.  These things lead me to believe that there are tile properties other than the bullet/bullet+wall ones that DMA isn't telling us about. And that there may be a way to edit them. Maybe even make ice, sticky floors, bouncy floors, etc..  So far, everyone I've told has either talked to me like I was crazy, stupid, or they just straight up ignored me... and I have a map online which proves, or at least opens up the possibility that my theory has weight. members.aol.com/illspirit2/test123.zip  if you get a second, try it out.... its a bil.gmp and a bil.scr that replaces the industrial district (go to Northwest corner of map) and its only @16 kb zipped. I guess if no one else thinks this is anything important, I'll just have to use this knowledge and make a swamp tc for GTA2.

  
GTA2-Berlin <7:40 PM CST - schu>
Nothing official yet, but K@in at www.GTA-2.de is saying that more recent rumors indicate that GTA2-Berlin is already dead, mainly because it wouldn't be popular the world over.  Hopefully this means that some sort of GTA2 add-on is in the works to replace it.

Map Editor Guide <7:40 PM CST - schu>
K@in at www.GTA-2.de also mentioned a map editing guide/tutorial he is working on in cooperation with GTA Zone.  Currently three sections of the guide are online but they are German.  After the German version of the guide is completed an English version will follow.  If you want to see what's been done so far, just go to www.GTA-2.de and click on GAME on the top menu bar. 

The State of GTA2 Editing <7:40 PM CST - schu>
ErIX put together this great piece in his last newsletter.  If you want to subscribe to his newsletter you can sign up at his excellent GTA2 site,
GTA2 - EGP4, in the newsletter section.  Be sure to check out everything else that EGP4 has to offer while you're there.  You can grab all of these utilities from the EGP4 files section:

Editing status February 2000

In newsletter #2, late December 1999, I collected an "editing status", what things in GTA 2 could be edited, and what couldn't? The list has changed, here is the latest version:

• Tiles (roads, walls...): YES, can be edited in STYed 1.1 from Gain Software
• Car body: YES, can be edited in STYed 1.1 from Gain Software
• Car Deltas (crash marks, door opens): YES, in STYed 1.1 from Gain Software
• Car Properties (mass, speed...): YES, with The GTA Car Stats editor
• In-game text: YES, can be edited in GXTed from Gain Software
• Menu graphics: YES, can be edited with any pro-image editing program
• Missions: YES, can be edited and compiled with tools from DMA
• Maps: YES, can be edited in the DMA map editor!
   

Site Updates <7:40 PM CST - schu>
If you ever watched the Super Friends when you were a kid then you should check this out, its a 4mb Quicktime file and its damn funny.

GTA2 Car Editors Rejoice <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Gavin Rudd has released STYed 1.1 over at Gain Software.  Version 1.1 supports "full delta exporting and importing" which should eliminate any weird looking crash marks.  Thanks to Gavin Rudd aka Ringo for the news.

Code Hoax <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Turns out that the new code on Gamer's Army is indeed a Valentines Prank :) and is not real, as many of you with the German version discovered.  It was done by teleporting to the top of a building and standing on a transparent tile.  Thanks also to Gleb (GTA Zone) and K@in (GTA-2.DE) for writing in about this.

GTA Think Tank Resurrected / GTA IRC <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Space Monkey has resurrected the GTA Think Tank at thinktank.niteshade.net.  He also sent in news about a new GTA IRC channel.  Here is the update he sent in:

"GTA THINK TANK" is uploaded and ready to go its based on the original made by Zod.  It is of course hosted by Gamers Army AKA Niteshade.  I am still looking for staff for the site if your interested please email me.

Just another new thing to tell you all about.  teknics and I are running a GTA IRC Channel now the Gamers Army Channel.  It can be found on Dalnet on #thegta.  It will be online between 9am and 5pm every Sunday unless posted here.  We can extend these hours if we can get more channel operators (no previous experience required) if you are interested please email me for details.

  
Big Bang Competition Results <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Kan sent in the results from the Big Bang competition he held on his site, Yakuza:

Here You have the entries following to the best and most original
screenshots

1st place - Most Original Explosion:

Click the shot for a larger version

1st place - Simply the Best Explosion:

Click the shot for a larger version

  
The Roland Dilemma <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Apparently Roland has been pissing a number of people off, so much so that Tiffany decided to remove all of his cars from her site and she asked that I post the following comment:

"I've deleted 21 of Roland's cars and added 4 new cars to the Car Depot! I'd like to address the issue of Roland. Everybody who's anybody in the GTA scene knows this guy as the one who sends pointless e-mails to everyone in the GTA scene.  His cars are usually stolen, or are poor quality. He ticked me off, yes me, Tiffany, and caused me to take all his cars off my site because he kept e-mailing me.  He kept asking me a question that was in my GTA FAQ, then when I said, "Look, I won't copy it & paste it to an e-mail 4 ya" and he then copied it, and pasted it to an e-mail for me (don't ask why 'cause I have no idea) and I said "Well, I was right" and he said "your dumb". My dumb what? Well, anyways, his cars are gone now, so now the site looks much cleaner. After I deleted all his cars, he kept harassing me, acting like nothing happened. Hoo boy... Anyways, you may notice the Gifts section was taken down... I dunno where it went, seriously! I re-uploaded 2 weeks ago, and it wasn't even there! Sorry."

  
Announcements <11:59 PM CST - schu>

• pid is looking for new GTA2 maps and mods to post on his site.  If you have anything you might want to send him an email or check out his site, GTA2 Wipeout.  Hell, send me an email while you're at it, Id imagine just about every GTA news site is looking for GTA2 maps and mods :).
• The GTA News Network is back up and running with a new design and a new poll.  You can find the site at gtann.niteshade.net.
• ERiX (EGP4) sent in the results from his latest poll that asked, "Were your expectations about GTA2 fulfilled when it game out?"  Here are the results:

• Oh Yes! (52 responses) - 55%
• Not Exactly (30 responses) - 32%
• No (7 responses) - 7%
• It Stinks (6 responses) - 6%


Total Votes: 95
 

Community News <11:59 PM CST - schu>

• Tiffany's Unofficial GTA Shrine & Dark Side Auto
  Tiffany:
  I've re-merged with Dark Forsaken! You can now find Dark Side Auto integrated with my GTA Shrine!

Dark Forsaken:
The duo has reunited as Dark Side Auto is now a part of Tiffany's Unofficial Grand Theft Auto Shrine. She wanted to showcase my stuff on her site again, and since I don't update as much as I used to, I thought sure, why not. :)

Anyways, the new URL is www.hippietiff.com/DarkSide/ but you can
always get to Dark Side Auto through travel.to/darksideauto

• Skid Marks / Unofficial GTA2 FAQ
  With the success I've had lately of providing "new" news about GTA2, you probably already know about this  =)

  I've updated the Unofficial GTA2 FAQ for the first time this millennium year, adding little tidbits of information which I feel are important. I've finally added links in the Table of Contents, so navigating the FAQ should be much easier by clicking on the links instead of scrolling through the page.
   
  In other news, Tristan Beard, Maxime Bargiel and myself are currently creating a Mission Guide for GTA2. It's taking us longer than we originally thought, but don't fret, it "should" be available in the next few weeks or so.
   
  All this, plus more, at Skid Marks, home of the two files mentioned above.

• GTA2 Player's Helpsite
  GTA2 PH is closing down for few weeks because of new design and other stuff...

  My new site'll be online after two weeks or so and it's named Maximum GTA2 by J. Sun... 

  Anyone who has some ideas or suggestions for my new site can submit them to j.sun@gta2players.cjb.net.  Those who just are interested, can view the state and progress of my editing at my old and well known site gta2players.cjb.net.  Thanks to everyone who visited my site!!!

 
Site Updates <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Sorry for the extremely late update but today was pretty busy and I got in rather late.
 
   

Get It NOW! (DMA - UK) (1.48MB)
Get It NOW! (G! - USA) (1.48MB)

Here are a few screen shots of the church where you first start in GTA2:

3D View Day (245k)
3D View Night (206k)
Top Down Day (401k)
 

Here are a few tips if you are a first timer and want a little help getting started:

• Each map has a corresponding style or texture file
• Maps have a GMP extension and style files have an STY extension
• The maps and the style files are both found in the GTA2\DATA directory
• When you first start the editor you will be asked to choose a style file, try choosing WIL.STY (in the GTA2\DATA directory), then when the editor starts up, click on the open file icon on the tool bar (or File -> Open) and choose the WIL.GMP map (in the GTA2\DATA directory).  This should open the downtown sector map, the first map you play in GTA2.  You should then be able to scroll around the map using the arrow keys, or hold down the right mouse button and move your mouse around to rotate and flip the map view.
• If you later open another map that uses a different STYLE file the map will probably look screwed up with the wrong textures everywhere.  This just means that you have to choose the correct style file for the map.  You can do this in the Tools -> Settings menu.  Just choose what style file you want and you can also set the default directory where the maps can be found (GTA2\DATA).
• If you aren't sure what maps go with what style files then you might want to try opening the TEST1.SEQ file, also found in the GTA2\DATA directory.  You can open this file using the Windows Notepad program.  This will list some of the maps and their corresponding style files, just don't edit an save the TEST1.SEQ file or GTA2 might not work correctly.  The first entry in the SEQ file should look like this

  MainOrBonus = MAIN
  GMPFile = wil.gmp
  STYFile = wil.sty
  SCRFile = wil.scr
  Description = City 1 Map

You can see that the WIL.GMP file corresponds to the WIL.STY file.  The main maps all pretty much make sense like this, WIL.GMP goes with WIL.STY, BIL.GMP goes will BIL.STY, and STE.GMP goes with STE.STY, but the bonus and multiplayer levels aren't as self explanatory (IE MIKE2E.GMP goes with BIL.STY).  Even if you load the wrong style file its no big deal, just try a different one until it looks right, you should be able to tell almost immediately if you got it right.  If you want to get into actually creating your own maps you will have to mess around with it and get used to the editor, I imagine it won't be too long before someone posts a guide on using it.  You might also want to check the ongoing discussions over at BBZilla or Azz' message board.

GTA2 Patch Released <8:30 PM CST - schu>
If I hadn't seen this on No Fear's site I wouldn't even know it existed, so lots of thanks to No Fear for bringing this to light.  Take2 has released a patch for GTA2 bringing it up to version 1.03.  The patch is said to speed up both single and multiplayer games of GTA2.  For a full review of the patch and what it does, check out No Fear's review section over at GTA2 More Extreme and I also saw a pretty good update on some patch tests over at Gamer's Army.

GTA2 Patch - v1.03 (3.82MB)

Community News <8:30 PM CST - schu>

• GTA2 More Extreme
  Lots Of Updates
  GTA2 More Extreme has now got its own Cars section, will keep up with the latest cars for GTA2 and I need your help, if you have made a car or you have found a car that isn't on the section yet, send it to me. 

  I have also done a GTA2 Patch v1.03 Review, so you can read what the patch does when you've installed it. And a GTA2 Map Editor First Look Review. There you will read what I experienced when I installed the editor, its still a first look so a proper review will come when I've used it some more. 
   
  The daily updates are going great again, and it would be great if you people could keep sending in GTA2 news so people will be up to date with the latest GTA2 news. If you've dropped by GTA2 More Extreme, thank you for your visit, and if your planning to visit, the same ;-)

• GTA Traffic Jam
  Taking A Break
  I'm taking a break at this moment. I'm in my last year of school now (exams!). So I'm very busy. The exams are in may and if I get my diploma I' going to study Multimedia design.
   
  Maybe You'll see an update now and then but it won't be much.
   
  I'm not leaving the gta-scene. But I just need some more time for school.
   
  You still may mail me everything, but I won't update all cars (maybe a couple beauties once in a while).
   
  Greets Olle Lammers, 
   
  I WILL be back!!!!
   
• GTA2 Wipeout / GTA-Loaded
  pid's New Site
  Ok, firstly the site will be called gta-loaded

  I was to open it up the today or tomorrow, but, then, once I uploaded it, I realized how inefficient javascript I wrote for it was, and really, it needs to be changed. It is hosted under my current domain. 

  The content...

  OK, there is no point making another site, considering I already have one, so it is to focus on the audio and graphics side of GTA2. By this I mean, MP3 tracks, and movie clips (filmed w/ a replica UZI  :) ) all up for download (sorry 56k users - like me) anyway don't get too frustrated, all be open soon.

  Any mail you want to send, send it to:  webmaster@gta2wipeout.com.

• GTA2 ND
  New URL / New Look
  GTA 2 ND is moving to nukez.com!  It will be redesigned and more content added by March 2000!  It is up right now, but no content, just a cool welcoming page:)!

I've made a simple tool for GTA2: the GTA2 Sequence Editor (8k).
 
It edits the test1.seq file, so I recommend backing it up *before* using the program.  This is a one-time release so I will probably won't improve it in the future.  Be sure to check the readme file for more information about it.

For more on the GTA2 Sequence Editor and the sequence file in general, check out Aqutiv's site, BUSTED! at busted.niteshade.net
 

New GTA Sites <7:50 PM CST - schu>

• GTA2: Russian Mafia

• GTA2 Zone

• Tubz GTA2 Total

Announcements <9:30 PM CST - schu>

• HinGTA has redesigned his already excellent site, GTA2: Seek & Destroy.  The new design is functional as well as appealing; what else could you ask for?  Check it out at gta2sad.gtaxtreme.net.
• Aqutiv's site, BUSTED! has moved to its new home at busted.niteshade.net.  You can still use the old URL if you like, it will redirect to the new location.  BUSTED! is the home of Aqutiv's project, the GTA2-Workshop.
• pid is going to open a new GTA/GTA2 site in a few days and he says it will be "something different."  More on this when pid sends in the URL :).  pid currently runs GTA2 Wipeout

Tiny Town's Hidden Surprise Leads To Faceoff <7:30 PM CST - schu>
pid (GTA2 Wipeout) has added to the file he sent in yesterday.  Not only can you play the multiplayer level Tiny Town, but now you can also play the Hidden Surprise and Faceoff levels as well.  The file works the exact same way as the one he released yesterday, just copy this new TEST1.SEQ file to the
GTA2\DATA directory overwriting the original, BUT MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP THE ORIGINAL FIRST!  After replacing the file you simply choose level 1 for Tiny Town, level 2 for Hidden Surprise, or level 3 for Face Off.  If for some reason you haven't unlocked the other two levels through playing the game you can do so using a cheat from the Tips & Cheats section.  In case you are wondering, the SEQ file is just a TXT file that tells GTA2 what level to load when you make your selection (1, 2, 3, etc).  pid just edited it to load the multiplayer maps instead of the single player maps.  I should also thank Rogier, he sent in an identical file just after pid sent in his.

Download It Now (917 bytes)

And don't forget to visit pid's site GTA2 Wipeout at www.gta2wipeout.com

New GTA Sites <7:30 PM CST - schu>

• The World of GTA2!