"Nerf ArenaBlast" is a "first person shooter" computer game with a difference - players do not shoot "real" guns, as with the more adult-oriented Unreal Tournament and Quake III, but "nerf" weapons... "paintball", if you like. So, we play for points, not kills, and there is no blood, which makes "NAB" suitable for younger players, as well as people who prefer the less sinister approach. The Atari/Mattel Interactive computer game is widely available and played in America and Europe; it comes with a number of "arenas" to play in, but gamers themselves have made a lot of extra arenas (some original, some remixed from "UT") which can be easily downloaded and added to your map files. The online NAB community is not large, but it is friendly, so why not come and join us! A two-arena "demo" of the game can be downloaded - click the "Demo" button to try it.
Friday 9th July 2004:
There have been a number of maps released since our last update - quite a few of the old favourites have been remixed to run on Ace's CTF mod, for a start, and the best way to check on those is to run over to Sahib's Place and look at the list he's running on his dedicated CTF server, 29 I make it! A number of these were done for the first version of CTF, as opposed to the improved 2.0 version, and you may find that characters spawn at the wrong ends sometimes, but it all adds to the fun. Both versions of the mod are here.
So, the NAB Community does continue - if you don't already visit, do drop by the main Nerf Arena Forums to see what we are all up to. The number of NAB servers online is much improved over how it used to be, thanks to Sahib and one or two others, so if you've not checked out the online situation for a while, you may be surprised. If nobody is online when you look, well, Sahib's servers do have bots to play against, so play them for a while and, with any luck, other players will see and join you!
Saturday 14th June 2003:
Well, there have been a few new NAB maps since our last update, as followers of the Forums will be aware - Chris has given us such goodies as Desert Storm, Foam Factory, Lava Center, Railroad, and, now, Fortress - some nice work there! And Sahib is providing two servers for our on-line playing pleasure, so visit his site for details of the maps you need to have if you are going to play there...as usual, almost all the map downloads you need are on the Tmon & Tux site; they've recently added the above-mentioned maps by Chris, which is good! You can normally find download links on our own review pages as well, though on older maps, the links may no longer be active, in which case, head for Tmon & Tux.
But the main news today is that Ace has released his CTF mod for NAB, along with one map to start us off, CTF-Hall of Giants Remix! This is the link you need, so what are you waiting for? "Capture the Flag" is a very popular game in Unreal Tournament and other fps games - and now at last we have it on NAB too! The bots don't, at the moment, seem to get the idea of how to play it, but online it should be great multiplayer fun. Capture the enemy team's flag, by taking it to your home base, and score 2500 points! Other maps should follow very soon - SLAM had a number desgned and ready, he'll just need to insert Ace's code and they'll be ready for release...so keep checking here, or on the Nerf ArenaBlast Forum, okay?
Tuesday 5th November, 2002:
We have posted reviews of Tiggy's recent two maps now, Ascension and Ciguatera - and we welcome a new mapmaker, whose Manato's Nerf Page has been added to our links on this page. He's no Tiggy or SLAM yet, but our reviews and screenshots are now up, for Castle Run, The Run, Fun, Long John, and Fun 2 - though the last of those seems to run on the NAB demo rather than the 1.2 full version, at least for me!
Tuesday 2nd July, 2002:
Not one, but two excellent new maps set inside pyramids have been released recently; there's Khufu by Tiggy, closely followed by 1-on-1 walking amongst us by Curt. There's more "eye candy" in Curt's map, and the "boingiest" bouncer you could hope to jump off, but they both look like must-haves, and they both first became available to people who keep up with the NAB Forums. Our reviews and screenshots are up, now - just clicking on the names should take you there, where you'll also find "download now" buttons.
Revised or new reviews are now up for Charlotte, CrashSite Beta 2, Crypt, Tiggy's work-in-progress Lonely Isle, SLAM's Ruination, and Trip in the Head - so check them out! GWynn's Crypt suffers from over-use of UT sound and texture files, so while the map itself is a small download, you could be looking at adding 20MB of files to your NAB installation, which would be bad news. If you've already got them, fine, add another 1.5 to the RR! What with those files and the ones that Charlotte demanded (ones I must have had on my old computer, and would need to run some other NAB maps, so I am glad to have them!), I had a lot of "can't open package" messages trying to start NAB that day... Lonely Isle by Tiggy is still at the "demo" stage, just a nice place to chill out with no weapons; Charlotte and Trip in the Head by Tracer are finished versions of previously-previewed maps, to mark his return to NAB. The second beta of CrashSite from Icedude is certainly worth your time, much advanced on the previous version, and complete with some "civilian" (non-fighting) Bots. And of course the SLAM map, Ruination, looks great, plays excellently, and even has some hidden goodies, so you need it, okay?
There's a new website from jt487 to add to our links, and also a general gaming site Curt is involved with, BroadbandGO - so check them out, okay?
Saturday 15th June, 2002:
Well, SLAM is back from Basic Training now, and has already made and released a fine new map: Ruination is the name, and as usual a click on it will take you to our screenshot and review page. The screenshot is there, though I need the chance to actually play the map before I can review it fully! There is also a link to SLAM's site there, so that you can actually download the map. If you have already downloaded it earlier today, you may need to do so again, as SLAM has made a couple of minor changes to it, apparently...
My opportunity to play this map should come on Sunday evening - well, soon after 10:00pm in the United Kingdom, 5:00pm EST, and so on, as we have one of our "NAB REUNION" events scheduled for then. Be there, or be elsewhere! (Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right...oh well...)
