Thanks to Jim14 who sent in a purplesky mat which you can find in the Skies category of the mat section. Remember, you can send your mats in to. Just follow the submission instructions for sending in mats.

That's right. The first 5 screenshots of Jedi Outcast have been posted at GamesFirst along with another preview. JediKnightII.Net has download the screenshots to their server, which you can check out right here. What are you waiting for? Go check these awesome screenshots out!

No, sadly I have not been named as one of the lucky group members to be working on Raven's new game. But, I did get an email from JediKnightII.net with a list of the current members. Click here to check it out - Jedi Outcast Team.

From the creators of JediKnight.net comes JediKnightII.net. Be sure to stop by for news, information, forums, etc. If the new site is as good for JK2 as JK.net was for JK, then it will rock!

Al MacDonald has posted the 77th and 78th installments of his Diary of a Crazed Mimbanite series. Go check them out.

The Massassi Temple Review Site has just posted a new review of Light Jedis Training Base. The level was created by Dice Ibegon.

If you're like me, you've gotten a few off-the-wall emails every now and then from people you don't even know, and they're advertising products you don't even care about. Ever wonder how they get your email address in the first place? Allow me to tell for you now a story of deception and intrigue, and unveil your eyes to the evils that lay hidden in shareware.

Here's the typical story: You download a free program, try it out, and either like it and keep it or uninstall it and never think about it again. But did you know that many programs have buddies that they invite along onto your system, whether you leave the original on there or not?

This is called Spyware because it uses installations and/or registry entries into your computer to leave resident applications that send people information about you. Most commonly, it records your email addresses and when you're connected to the internet it sends this to a database where others can draw from to send bogus ads.

I know this situation sounds hopeless, but fear not good citizens! There are those that would stand up and fight against such diabolical underhandedness. One such group is LavaSoft, who makes a program called Ad Aware, which is available free for public use. I installed it on my computer, and found 7, count 'em, 7 Spyware programs in my system. Take into account that I'd only been using my current hard drive for a month, so there's no telling how many hidden utilities there are floating around on older computers.

So, without further delay, get thee to Download.com and rid yourself of this high-tech cancer.

This isn't exactly Jedi Knight related, but it has to do with anyone who owns any version of Windows (95, 98, 2000, NT, ME), so I think you guys will find it helpful. There's a little program called TweakUI (for tweaking the User Interface). It allows you to change numerous settings in Windows. You can disable your Windows startup screen, change the speed that your menus open, and a mess with a whole slew of otherwise untouchable options.

Here's a personal example, I recently uninstalled a program, yet it still remained in my Add/Remove applet in the Control Panel. TweakUI lets you even get rid of problem programs like that. And you'd expect to pay what; $19.95 for an awesome utility such as this? But no folks, this program can be yours for the low-low price of a 110k download. So go grab it now directly from Microsoft's TweakUI Page. After you guys use it, tell Brian Lozier how much you like it, as he's still using an outdated version.

Hebedee has joined the ranks of former staff members. This happens shortly after both Archimedes and Juztyn decided to part ways. You may be wondering... What's going on in there to cause so many staff members to up and quit? Well here's the story, straight from the horse's mouth. I've been cracking down on 'inactive' staff members and encouraging those that don't contribute much (or anything) to move on. It's not that we dislike eachother - it's that I'm tired of having inactive staff members that enjoy the benefits of being on the staff (massassi.net email address, ops in the chat room, 'Administrator' status on the forums, reading all the entertaining staff@massassi.net email, etc.) without shouldering any of the responsibilities.

While they all contributed immensly during their active periods (and I, as well as all the readers of this site, appreciate this fact), I just felt that we needed to clean things up a bit around here.

So... That brings the number of active staff members @ Massassi to a grand total of... 3! That would be Kedri (who has been bogged down in finals and work the past couple of weeks, but has also contributed some amazing stuff for release in the near future - more on that later), Brandon, who takes care of the mats and 3dos, as well as some general news, and myself. blujay is still around, but taking a much-deserved break. No word yet on whether he'll rejoin the ranks of the active or fade into the shadows of inactivity.

So this begs the question... Will we be hiring any new staff members? That is a most certain yes, but perhaps not immediately. I have a few people in mind from the chat room that I will be approaching soon, but the fact is that we have a HUGE project going on here behind-the-scenes that should rear it's beautiful face in the near future (within a month, I'd say). At that point is when we'll most likely make final decisions on staff members and whatnot.

Note: there will be no 'open application' process for getting these new staff members - that's something that simply hasn't worked well in the past. Frankly, I can't tell whether someone would make a good staff member through a few emails. I will personally be picking the staff members from the people that have consistently contributed to the JK community over the past months and years.

Just wanted to publicly thank David McHale, the guy who has been updating the screenshot of the day lately. It's a thankless job, since nobody really knows who's actually posting it. David is a regular over on the Command Chamber forums - the idea is to get some recognition to the folks and their work over there, as well as on the Massassi Showcase.

If you're interested in seeing what some of the original artwork for this site looked like, visit this thread on the discussion forum.

I've just completed programming a simple news search for this site. It will allow you to search through all the news that is in our news database (everything from June 4, 2000 forward). If you have any problems, please let me know.

ZeroXcape sends word that Ryan Fulton, the man that brought us the E3 Jedi Outcast movie, has been stopping by JediKnight.net's JK2 Forum. He's been explaining what he was able to see of Jedi Outcast at E3. It's pretty cool, especially this:

Another force power that I got to see included the ability to throw the light saber. I was impressed with the fact that in one scene there were multiple entrances to a room. The light saber was thrown and even though it went around a corner when I ran into the next room it appeared through another entrance and returned to my hand. Very cool effect!

Check it out!

Remember New Legends? It's the martial arts game from developer Infinite Machine - formed by ex-Lucasarts guru Justin Chin (worked on DF and JK). New Legends was originally a PC title based on the Unreal engine, but disappointingly moved to be an x-box exclusive title. While browsing for some Red Faction clips, I came across this video footage of New Legends. Although I don't like their decision to create an x-box exclusive title, the game does look pretty interesting, so if you've been following the development of the game, or if you're just interested in seeing what ex-JK team members are up to, be sure to check it out.

Raynar at hosted site Rbots has updated the site with a report on the rewrite of Rbots. He says that the update is going smoothly and that the v.30 release date should be sometime soon. Get the full report at Rbots.

[Edit: I had the incorrect e-mail posted for Raynar. If anyone used the e-mail address above to send him an e-mail, use the one currently up there. Sorry for any inconvenience.]

I noticed on Jedi Nights that Action Vault has posted some info about Jedi Knight II taken from the various postings of the Raven developers. These postings are from JediKnight.net's message board and from the Massassi Temple's own Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II forum.

File: Stealth Ninjas
Author: X_Patch_M/Shadow_Of_SN
Screenshots: Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2
Description: This is a total conversion of the game. It is like 'Ninja Kage' and is based upon it. I have used many of ShadowX's cogs and added my own, as well as some new skins. The Saber fighting is almost unchanged from JK's original fighting but is more powerful. There is also an added 'Stealth Camo Toggle' which is very cool.

The Massassi Temple Review Site has just posted a new review of Castle Battle. The level was created by Brent Slocum.

Voodoo Extreme has posted their E3 wrap up which includes a short paragraph on Jedi Outcast and a short paragraph on another upcoming LucasArts game, Knights of the Old Republic.

You can now find all the information we have about Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II on our JK2 info page. This includes a very long list of mirrors for the JK2 gameplay movie. On that note, I am no longer posting new mirrors, so don't bother sending any in (we have a ton!). Thanks to all webmasters and others that helped us out by submitting mirrors. If you decide to take your mirror down, please email me so I can remove the link.

Download: hancarb.zip
Author: fleepz
View: Screenshot
Description: Han Solo in carbonite.

LucasArts has posted a transcript of the Star Wars Gaming Chat that took place Wednesday the 23rd. There are some comments about Jedi Outcast and this:

ZeroXcape: What's your relation with Fan sites like jediknight.net, massassi.net, and mixnmojo.com? Do you ever give them insider information?

Haden Blackman: Personally, I visit those sites every day, as do many people at LucasArts. :) As a company, we're trying to involve the fan sites more and more. At the same time, we don't want to "scoop" our official sites, like LucasArts.com or StarWarsGalaxies.com.

Thanks to Gelynx for the heads up.

File: Zelda & Link Skins
Author: Gsusnme
Screenshots: Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2
Description: I originally made these skins for a Zelda TC; unfortunately it went under, so I'm just releasing them as lone skins...

File: Saiyan Warrior
Author: Tom Slater
Screenshots: Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2
Description: Transforms default Kyle model into a Saiyan warrior. Basically, Yun multiplayer model with Dark Kyle's beard pasted on and a Saiyan combat suit drawn on. Yes, this is my first skin (and yes, I know it shows...).

File: Sith Domination
Author: BladeSinger
Screenshots: Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2
Description: A three-level pack of "Domination" arenas for Mysteries of the Sith. The levels are suitable for two to six players. The screenshots are from the Storage Facility and Space Arena, the other level, Dark Temple is to remain a surprise until you download it ;)