GCC Newsletter

First, let me do a quick explanation about last months disk release. I'm sure by now many of you are aware that there were some potential problems with last months disk release. I tried to make a robust disk release, only to have gremlins pop up at the meeting, keeping me from making additional copies of the release. Apparently, some of the copies of the release had disk errors, and I forgot and left my master at home. I was using one of the copies to try and make more backups, and it had disk errors on it. At first I thought we were having problems with the disk duplicator, but Mike took it with him, and after some diagnostic testing, realized that the disk just had some errors on it. To alleviate this occurrence from happening again, I'm now burning my master, then doing a verify on it to confirm that the master is intact. Then I'm running the copies with verify on as well. Hopefully in the future, I won't have issues like this crop up again. Also, if you received a cd release from last month, Disk # 72 – Utilities, and it is not working, please return the disk and I'll be happy to replace it with a fully working copy that I've made since that time. Hopefully, we didn't have very many going out that were not working, but hopefully we can fix this problem with a disk swap out.

Now for a new month, with a brand new disk release, we have Disk #73, Game Utilities. Over the last few months, I've released many useful tools, hopefully filling a need that many of you have expressed to me from previous meetings. I tried to get the most updated virus/spyware/adware programs, and found many hidden treasures that were either shareware, or primarily freeware or open-source. This month I thought I'd try a different release, that may be focused on a specific group within our club, the gamer. I've been collecting game demos to release over the last several months to release for future releases and have several disks worth collected, but I thought if people had some utilities that would help them with current games that they or their families are playing, people may get a lot more mileage out of the disk release. These programs are not specific to a given game, but are to help with the setup of games, streamlining of computer system setup to be more compliant to running games, setting up of network connections, giving the ability to talk over the Internet interactively while playing games, as well as cheaters/code collections/walkthroughs/patch programs. I've also included the latest Nvidia and ATI drivers, just in case those needed as well. I like to think of this as a gamer swiss army knife. Here's a brief synopsis of the utilities I've included:

DLH – Dirty Little Helper – this is an extensive database of cheats/walkthru's/patches/addons for virtually any pc game produced since the late 90's. I've downloaded the complete pc updates. They'll need to be loaded into the system after its been installed. This is actually a general cheat/game database as well, though I've only provided the pc files. You can actually download 20 or so other databases for systems like Nintendo, nintendo64, playstation, xbox, Amiga, commodore 64, apple II, etc. I've personally used this while playing Diablo and Diablo II, and it's been a great resource. They release new updates every quarter, and you can find new updated info on their web site, www.dlh.net, on a daily basis.

GameHike sets the standard for PC optimizing software. GameHike increases overall speed and squeezes out every last bit of performance your computer is capable of. Very easy to use, fully compliant with all versions of Microsoft Windows and adjusts itself to your computer specifications.

Bring your gaming to an all new level.

Playa!TraX - allows the running of alternative music selections while running the game of your choice - running idle in the system tray. You launch a full screen game, Half-Life 2 for example, Playa!TraX on its own will start playing your Half-Life 2 playlists and load a configuration that allows you to control the music (through any input device) without having to see the player. Playa!TraX also has a in game on screen display and optional voice control.

Game Accelerator was designed with the end-user in mind. It eliminates system bugs and performance issues, optimizing your PC’s hardware to provide the fastest, most stable gaming experience possible.

This optimization is accomplished via easy to navigate one-click menu options that allow you to tailor your games to run faster based on your systems hardware.

GameWiz32 is a generic cheat tool for games running under Windows 95/98/ME/2000 and inside a Windows Dos-Box. Most games store their values for money, energy, lives etc. in memory while they are running. And that is where GameWiz32 approaches. It gives you the power to search for memory locations (addresses) of those values. After finding the locations GameWiz32 gives you the possibility to modify the values to whatever you want.

Play Now - Collection of hundreds of games to play on your computer. As new games are included you may update PlayNow with just one click. There's no need to install it again, because the games are automatically downloaded by PlayNow when you click to update it.

CheatBook-DataBase 2005 is a freeware "cheat-code tracker" that makes hints and cheats (for PC, Walkthroughs, Playstation, Playstation 2, Sega, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, DVD, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Super Nintendo) easily accessible from one central location.

Speed Gear is a fantastic tool to speed up games. It can speed up almost all the games. Speed Gear is simple, you press an easily accessible hotkey to speed your games up, down or to the place you feel most comfortable with. It will give you brand new experience while playing games. For example; with this program you can slow down the action games so that you can see the bullet's flight line and avoid it easily.

Quark v6.4.1.a3 - Map-editor for many games: Quake 1, Hexen 2, Quake 2, Heretic 2, Half-Life, Sin, Kingpin, Soldier of Fortune, Quake-3:Arena, Star Trek:Voyager-Elite Force and a few more...

Nodus CD-Key Manager enables the user to send stored CD-Keys to an application efficiently. The user can also export CD-Keys to a text document for organized reference.

Scumm VM - Allows you to play DOS games on WinXP Computers.

Server Watch allows you to monitor and administer many of today's and yesterdays most popular game servers.

XFire v1.39 - See when your friends are online & what game they're playing, See where they're playing and join them with one click and See what games the friends of your friends are playing.

RogerWilco - Real time voice chatting while playing multiplayer based games.

Hopefully these programs will be a help to you with your gaming experience, and alleviate some of the aggravation involved with setting up to play a game, as well as information needed while playing.

Number of Members in attendance last month:
Total Membership Before last month's meeting
Number of Members renewing last meeting
Number Of Members joined last meeting
Number of members dropped
Current Total Membership
Number of Members in Good Standing
Number of Members on Probation

Volume 24	July, 2005	Issue No. 7