Congratulations to Fly, for winning the trivia contest for December 14th and receiving Trine.

Yesterday's trivia question:
When 3dfx was trying to bring video cards to the consumer market, what game did they specifically write their driver for so it could take advantage of hardware acceleration?

Haven't heard of this brand before.

Answer: Quake by id Software.

Quake came out in 1996 and was id Software's next big game series after Doom. Quake is credited with popularizing "free look" in 3D games, although it wasn't the first game to have it.

Two months after Quake was released, id Software held the first QuakeCon. QuakeCon continues to be a yearly event and is now the largest LAN Party in North America and the largest free LAN Party in the world.

The game engine from Quake has been modified and turned into other game engines which have been modified and turned into even more game engines. This results in a large family tree of game engines that can all be traced back to the original Quake engine, including Valve's Source engine.

Here's a graphic of the Quake Engine Family Tree.

Here's a Quake gameplay video.


Sales:

Games for Windows has Mahjong Wisdom on sale for $2.49 (75% off).

Direct 2 Drive is having EA Games week. Right now SimCity 4 is $4.95 (75% off).

Steam Treasure Hunt:
Bob Came in Pieces is $2.50 (75% off)
Zombie Driver is $2.50 (75% off)
Civilization V is $37.49 (25% off)

Check out my review of Zombie Driver and Zombie Driver: Blood Race (the free DLC that is included).


The new DLC for Civilization 5 containing Spain and the Incas has been released on Steam.


The pre-order beta for Monday Night Combat is now out.


Steam released patch notes for the update to Call of Duty: Black Ops on PC. This patch will allegedly improve the game's performance.


BIG NEWS!!! Demolition Company is now available on the Mac.


Section 8: Prejudice is going to be released early next year on Steam and GFWL.

They have a beta sign-up on their site, that started back in October.


Lord of the Rings Online plans to remove radiance checks from the game next year. Also, Moria and Mirkwood Epic quests are becoming available to free players, and level caps on them will be removed as well, meaning a free player can reach the max level. They're also looking at adding non-combat pets for all classes.


Bioware says that Mass Effect 3 is being developed natively for the PS3, and that it will be the best version of their game. We discuss how this will effect fans of the games.


Episode 1 of Telltale Games' Back to the Future will be released on Dec. 22nd. If you pre-order, you get Puzzle Agent for free. If you buy the game direct from Telltale, they will send you an exclusive collector's DVD at the conclusion of the season, if you pay S&H on it. Read about it on Telltale's blog to learn more, and find links to wallpapers.

There's still time to register to receive the first episode free.

Send your daily trivia contest entries to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes on December 17th at 6pm PT, 2am GMT.