March 1997

• Lon's Prey Page is 1 year old!

Yes, it all started one year ago, today. With no sites on the web having to do with Prey, I decided to create my own. It has come quite a long way, with this being the third major version of the page. With Prey being around a year away, it looks like this site will be around for some time to come!

The future. A few months from now, I am planning on moving this page to Elite Games.com. I am currently running the Shadow Warrior page at EG, and will continue with a Prey page. So, look for it "When it's done." :)

A word on The Prey FAQ. I am waiting on someone to add a little part to my FAQ, then I will proof read it and send it out. Looks like it might be another week until we have version 0.18.

• Scott Miller talks about Talon Brave

This message was posted on Preystation's message board explaining the name, Talon Brave:

Posted by Scott Miller on March 28, 1997 at 12:49:46:
In Reply to: Talon Brave..hmmmmmmmmmm posted by Brick on March 28, 1997 at 11:22:14:

: Nope ....dont like it....no sir...dont like it.

These are the first negative responses for the
name we've heard. :)

Here's why we chose the name:

[1] It's very unique and original. Just like
Duke Nukem, who you can refer to as just Duke or
just Nukem, you still know who you're talking about.
You can't do this with a name like John
Hunter.

[2] The word "talon" is a claw on a bird of
prey. Get the connection? ;)

[3] The word brave refers to the character's
native american heritage, plus it has the double
meaning of courage. Also, the name Brave is
actually a shortened version of his real
native american name which won't be revealed
until the game's release.

There are other reasons for choosing this name,
too, but I don't want to bore anyone. :)

Scott Miller
President
Apogee Software, Ltd.

• More on Prey

Take a look at Atz's Prey Page! Atz had the chance of visiting Apogee Software and see Prey for himself. He talks about his visit on his page.

It looks like Carl Gibson will be doing an interview with Scott Miller and George Broussard from Apogee Software, look for it soon.

Just a few more days until this page is one year old...

• The name of the main character in Prey

Carl Gibson, from Blackhand's Prey Page(now gone), received an e-mail message from Scott Miller, President of Apogee, today containing the name of the main character in Prey. This has been confirmed by George Broussard. Also note that the name of the character could always change, so don't think it is final. Remember, you saw it here a close second (by 1 minute) :)

Talon Brave

• Rendition Chipset Support

Saw on Preystation that Prey is now supporting it's second major 3D Chipset called, Rendition. For more on Rendition, check out their website.

• Prey Level Designer wanted

To expand the current Prey Team, 3D Realms will be hiring a new level designer to work full time on Prey. 3D Realms is asking for Quake levels (Since they are true 3D) to be sent in for people serious in this job possibility. For details, visit the Apogee Job page.

• Prey Team updates

Allen Dilling has been officially added to the Prey team as the 3D Modeler for all actors in Prey. I finally have the Prey team members sorted out and everything will be updated in the next edition of The Prey FAQ. Also take a look at this log of George Broussard on IRC that I made today of me asking George about the Prey Team.

• Two more screenshots!

Run on over to Preystation, because Lithium received two exclusive screenshots! This brings the total up to 9 screenshots of the new engine. These screenshots also show off the color effects in Prey.

• Exclusive Prey Screenshots!

As promised, here is the big surprise! Here are two never seen before screenshots of Prey in action. They came out of the same batch has the shots released yesterday. Click on each screenshot for a 640x480 version. Enjoy!

Special Thanks to Paul Schuytema.

• Four new Prey Screenshots

Yes, that's right, 3D Realms has released four new screenshots of Prey today. Mainly to show off the colored lighting effects. These effects look great, see for yourself, they seem to give a wider variety of level designs. Looking closer on the temporary status bar in Prey, I could see that there is a kind of heart beat monitor, along with the good 'ol life percentage. Check back here tomorrow, I'm going to have a surprise!

| Screenshot #1 | Screenshot #2 | Screenshot #3 | Screenshots #4 |

• Prey is reborn

Today, we have got our first look at Prey in over nine months. This is significant because Prey had a major engine rewrite since then and the whole team has started over on Prey from scratch. 3D Realms' updated it's Prey page today. We have some more hints of the story. In Prey we will battle "three major alien species." There are "Trocara and their mysterious Keepers." But, these things will probably change before Prey is finished. George Broussard says "story schmory" about the storyline. I'm writing this update while George is talking on IRC right now, if you can't tell :) A new Prey logo (the 3rd) is now shown on 3D Realms' page along with a new motto, "Be Brave!."

The Prey Development Page is officially back! The last update was July '96, and now after a long wait Paul Schuytema, is going to be updating it on a regular basis(hopefully). The highlight of the development page was, of course, the screenshot! It showed off the new engine and some colored lighting. It even shows a temporary status bar in the corner of the screenshot. Here it is!

• Other 3D Artist announced

Allen Dilling, announced last night, is the other new 3D Artist working for 3D Realms. It is unknown what team he will join, but it will most likely be the Prey team doing the 3D Model animations for the actors.

• New Preditor Screenshot

In a column by Paul Schuytema (Project leader for Prey), Paul talks about Mechwarrior 3 and Prey. Along with this, a NEW Preditor screenshot was released. It shows the editor with textures used in it. Click on the picture for the full view. Thanks to Horse Pucky for the find!

• Prey preview in CGW Coming

George Broussard informed me that Computer Gaming World was at 3D Realms this week and looked at Prey and it's editor. Expect a preview from them soon!

• Log archive updates

I added 16 new IRC logs of IRC chats with 3D Realms employees. They range from Late January to Early March. If you missed a log, look there. (In downloads under Docs/Text) George Broussard also showed on #Duke3D yesterday, here are some highlights:

<NukeDukem> I hear you isolate your Swarrior buys away from the Prey guys <G> Superiority by isolation?

<GeorgB3DR> Nuke: We group the teams by project, not job type. Best environment is a bunch of guys in a big room (all on same project.)

<GeorgB3DR> Nuke: Getting 25 or so in Prey now, but Will and tom are optimizing the texture caching stuff (3Dfx only has 2 megs onboard). expect 30-35 fps in a few days.

<GeorgB3DR> Prey will use 3d cards like 3dfx heavily, so speed should be ok.