Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and so forth. The name DirectX was coined as shorthand term for all of these APIs (the X standing in for the particular API names) and soon became the name of the collection.
Later on with the development of the Xbox, the X was used in the consoles name to indicate that it was based on DirectX technology.

In the golden days of DOS, programmers had direct access to the hardware they were developing on. With complete access to interrupts, sound cards, input devices, and the VGA controller, the developers could usually make the hardware do anything they could dream up. But with the more increasing popularity of the PC, hardware competition developed, giving rise to hundreds of different possible PC configurations which turned out to be a nightmare for developers. It soon became apparent that a interface between multimedia applications and hardware was needed so on September 30, 1995 DirectX 1.0 was launched. Originally, the runtimes were only installed by games or explicitly by the user. Windows 95 did not launch with DirectX, but DirectX was included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 both shipped with DirectX, as has every version of Windows released since.

Direct3D (the 3D graphics API within DirectX) is widely used in the development of video games for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Xbox, and Microsoft Xbox 360. Direct3D is also used by other software applications for visualization and graphics tasks such as CAD/CAM engineering. As Direct3D is the most widely publicized component of DirectX, it is common to see the names “DirectX” and “Direct3D” used interchangeably.

Below you can see a table with all the DirectX versions, their release dates, operating systems that support them, video cards that support them and what graphics acceleration operations they introduced.

If you don’t like browser based games but you like free games please check this older post with free mmorpgs here.

Runescape

Runescape is a pretty popular game and it’s around for quite a few years  (it was released in 2001). It’s a 3d java based MMORPG set in the fantasy world named Gielinor . The controls are the classic point and click and the view is isometric. Many say this is the best browser based MMO out there and I don’t blame them, the numbers speak for themselves; over 10 million active accounts. It is recognize by the Guinness World Records as the most popular free MMORPG.     

Play Now !

Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms

If you played Heroes of Might and Magic, especially the 5th installment the game will feel very familiar. It is a browser based (go figure it out ), turned based strategy. The game features 4 town types : Heaven, Academy, Necropolis and Inferno with their specific unit types (from Heroes 5), resources and schools of magic.
The goal of the game is to get into alliances with other players and with your powers combined to obtain Tears of Asha, which will allow the building of tear structures. There are 3 ways to obtain a Tear of Asha.
1. The Domination path: Explore the map to find the obelisk that provides the location

2. Wealth path: Build an oven that melts a lot of resources to create the Tear.

3. Honor path: Fight the NPC’s with army restrictions on yourself .

Play Now !

Ikariam

I’m actually playing this game and I’m enjoying it a lot. It reminds me of the Civilization series . You start with one city on your little island, your citizens are sun bathing, you’re under the protection of the Gods, so everything is nice and dandy, but we can’t let it like this, can we? Well you can but it will be very boring . The goal is to expand your cities, build your armies and make other players life miserable and why not, take over the world.

Play Now !

Travian

Who hasn’t heard of Travian ? This is one of the biggest and most popular strategy BBG. The game was developed by the German software company Travian games. It was translated into over 40 languages, and has about 5 million players on over 300 servers, so it’s big. The players can chose between 3 factions: the Romans, the Gauls and the Teutons each with their own characteristics. When you enter for the first time in the world of Travian you start as the leader of a small village with a population of 2 people. I guess they have a lot of “work” to do for populating your village . This game actually has an end game, which happens every 300 days. The ultimate goal is to build and upgrade a Wonder of the World to level 100.

Play Now !

Lords online

This game stands out of the crowd with its high quality graphics. It is a strategic game based on the AD&D rules. Being a strategy game it involves war of course, because things tend to get boring without some action. The gameplay is based around the hero, which is a little different from most bbs strategy games. The player will construct buildings, train troupes, recruit heroes and gather resources. The troupes are led in combat by the hero who appears on the adventure map. If you played Evony online the game will seem familiar. Put in the equation, the hero based gameplay from Gaya and you have Lords online. You should try the game. it really has potential.

Play Now !

OGame

OGame is a strategy game set in space, where no man has gone before. The Sci Fi setting is not very popular like the medieval fantasy one so the few games set in the future have their loyal players. The game began in the year 2000 and has about 2 million accounts by now. The new players start with one planet at a random location. The players can expand up to 9 planets from where they can launch missions, build constructions or make researches. The planets are gathered in 499 systems which form a galaxy. All universes in the game have 9 galaxies. I almost forgot, one system consists of 15 planets.

Play Now !

The West

If you miss the old western movies, you should try The West, but that’s not the only reason . The game has clean nice graphics, very good interface which is friendly with new players. This game takes a different approach from the classic recipe: build a town, recruit your army and kick someone’s ass, it give you control of just one character, which you evolve, and then you can kick some ass . The town plays a central role in the game, it’s like your alliance. All players can contribute to build buildings which give everybody bonuses. You can get items, jobs , or can duel other players in towns. Although you can’t customize the appearance of your character you can customize the skills and attribute points. With all this and a unique combat system this is a nice game and you won’t feel like you waste your time playing it.

Play Now !

The game will be out on PC and XBox 360 on 13 April (US) and 16 April (Eu).  I can’t wait to play it, too bad it has the new Ubisoft DRM   . You can see the system requirements bellow.

Recommended specs:

- Supported OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Core2 Duo or 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 64
- RAM: 1.5 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista, Windows 7
- Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c–compliant video card (512 MB recommended) (see supported list*)
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c–compliant sound card
- DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
- DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM drive
- Hard Drive Space: 10 GB
- Peripherals Supported: Mouse, keyboard, headset, 12-button gamepads with analog sticks
- Internet Connection: Broadband Internet connection

- Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

-  NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / 7900 / 8 / 9 / GTX series
- ATI RADEON X1800 / X1900 / HD 2000 / HD 3000 / HD 4000 / HD 5000 series
- Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.

Note: A permanent high speed internet connection and creation of a Ubisoft account are required to play this video game at all times and to unlock exclusive content. Such content may only be unlocked one single time with a unique key. You must be at least 13 to create a Ubisoft account.

Tomorrow 3rd  March will begin the biggest Quake Live event until now, The World Championship.

The event will take place in Hannover,  Germany, and the big finale will be on 6th March.

You can see the streams: ESL TV and Quake Live TV

Participants:

Group A	Group B
Cooller stermy av3k rapha Chance Fan Zhibo	DaHang fox strenx cypher dkt griffin

SCHEDULE:

Wednesday, March 3rd
11:30 CET (5:30 AM EST) Group A
12:10 CET Group A
13:30 CET Group A
14:10 CET Group A
14:50 CET Group A

Thursday, March 4th
10:00 CET Group B
10:40 CET Group B
12:25 CET Group B
13:05 CET Group B
14:00 CET Group B

Friday, March 5th
15:00 CET Quarter Final
16:00 CET Quarter Final

Saturday, March 6th
10:00 CET Semi-Final #1
11:10 CET Semi-Final #2
12:10 CET Game For 3rd Place
13:40 CET Grand Final

TOURNAMENT FORMAT:

- Twelve players participate, six in each group
- Group stage will be played in Best-of-3
- Playoffs will be played in Best-of-5 and Single Elimination
- First player of each group directly advance to playoffs
- Second and third play a relegation, winners advance to playoffs
- Mappool: qzdm6, qzdm13, qztourney7, qztourney9 & ztntourney1

PRIZE MONEY:

1st: $10,000
2nd: $4,000
3rd: $1,600
4th: $800
5-6th: $600
7-12th: $400

So kids, it’s time to take your rocket launcher and start practicing for next year because that prize money is pretty sweet.

You can read more on Q L  forum

EDIT: Congratulations to Shane ‘Rapha’ Hendrixon for being the winner of the Quake Live World Championship !

Napoleon: Total War is out since yesterday 23.02.2010 and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Below you can see the minimum and recommended system requirements.

Minimum Spec:

Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core, or AMD equivalent (with SSE2)
Memory: 1 GB System RAM (XP) / 2 GB System RAM (Vista / 7)
Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compliant video card with 256 MB RAM (Shader Model 2b)
Sound: DirectX Compatible
Hard Drive: 21 GB free space

Recommended Spec:

Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core, or greater, or AMD equivalent
Memory: 2 GB System RAM (XP) / 3 GB System RAM (Vista / 7)
Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB RAM (Shader Model 3)
Sound: DirectX Compatible
Hard Drive: 21 GB free space

You can find the specs on Sega’s site

This are the minimum system requirements for Starcraft II beta:

Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024×768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection

*Note* the final requirements for Starcraft II have not yet been determined. Due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time. During this phase a Mac version will NOT be available, please check back.

You can see the full post here

StarCraft II beta keys have been sent out.

Be careful, a lot of people got scamed. In order to be sure that you will not share that fate, just follow these simple steps:

- If you received an email saying that you have been invited to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, do not open any link in that e-mail

- Typing battle.net in your browser will take you to the secure site appropriate for your region

- Enter account Information

- Go to Manage My Games, choose Add or Upgrade a Game

- Enter the Beta Key you received in the e-mail

- Press Add Game

If you were able to add the game to your library, then you received a real beta invite.

If the email tells you to go someplace else for the beta key or the key provided did not work, then you received a phishing email.

Realy….I’m serious !

On the 10th of this month at a company earnings call, Activision Blizzard president Mike Morhaime announced that the beta for the highly-anticipated RTS game will begin this month.

The close beta will take place in North America, Europe, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and, of course, South Korea.

Morhaime said the beta would be accessible to thousands of players and will be used to gather feedback for the upcoming game and generate excitement, of course.

The first instalment, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is expected to launch in mid 2010.

“Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; ability to save game, earn achievements, receive title updates and online play requires log-in to Games for Windows LIVE; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Games for Windows LIVE client, Games for Windows LIVE Client Patch, Sony DADC SecuROM, Microsoft DirectX.”

Minimum system requirements:

• OS: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better
• Memory: 2GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better
• DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 11GB
• Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound

Recommended system requirements:

• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core 2.60Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core 2.13Ghz
• Memory: 3GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon HD4830 512MB graphics card or better

BlizzCon, the place where Blizzard makes it’s biggest announcements. We have Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, but I’m not here to talk about them. Blizzard’s flagship is in my focus here… World of Warcraft, the MMORPG that brings Blizzard over $100 million a month.  The long speculated expansion was finally announced and what can I say….WoW!!! . Here’s the list with the most important features.

Game Features:

Two new playable races
-Worgen : Alliance … I like what I see. It looks like a good opportunity for me to change sides.
-Goblins: Horde

Level Cap Increased to 85
New talents, new abilities, better characters.

Classic Zones Remade
Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like you never saw them before.

New High-Level Zones
Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj’ir beneath the sea.

More Raid Content than Ever Before
More high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.

New Race and Class Combinations
Never-before-available race and class combinations.

Guild Advancement
Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.

New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds
Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.

Archaeology
Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.

Flying Mounts in Azeroth
Finally, flying mounts in Azeroth

Read more here and enjoy the trailer bellow.