 ___________________
( T H E   S K I N  )
 
"jd25", a skin for the "male" Quake2 model.

 _____________________
( T H E   S T O R Y  )
 
	"Only a little bit to go," I muttered to myself through labored
breaths of the cold December air as I rounded the final corner of my
morning jog.  "Hmmm, that's odd, buses don't usually come down this
road," I thought as I noticed the white and orange CATA bus idling in
the little alley in front of my dorm.  That being by no means the
strangest thing I had seen at Penn State, I shrugged and began my
final sprint to the steps of Hartranft Hall.
	As I passed the bus, two rather built men in uniforms suddenly
descended the steps and roughly grabbed me by the shoulders.
	"I'm sorry we don't have much time to explain," the taller one
said.  "This would have been easier had you been in your room, but we
just got the word from Washington this morning.  Get on the bus."
	"What are you talking about?  Who are you people?"  I
stammered, trying to regain my breath not only from running but also
from the perplexity of the situation.  The first response I got was a
forceful shove onto the bus.  As the two men threw me into a seat 
several rows back I noticed that the bus was filled with people my age. 
	"I am Sergeant First Class Montgomery Willis, United States
Marine Corps recruiter.  The second wave of the invasion is leaving
today and you've been drafted, soldier."
	My mind raced as I realized how my high scores during the
mandatory post-high school basic training made me a prime candidate for
the war on Stroggos.  What baffled me is that I was under the 
impression that the first attack had all but demolished the Strogg
military.  Now I realized the gravity of the Sergeant's words.
	"Can't I gather some belongings or at least change out of these
sweat pants, this football jersey, and these running sneakers?"
	"We haven't time.  The C-9 jet leaves from University Park
airport in ten minutes and will take you fresh recruits directly to
Cape Canaveral.  You will receive a 3-hour refresher session in combat
and then a shuttle will take you up to the battlecruiser in orbit.
From there it's just a six and a half hours before you marines will
assault Stroggos in your landing pods.  Any questions?"
	"Sir, no, sir!"  I belted out as the remembrance of the
Stroggs' atrocities made my blood boil and filled me with vengeance.
Finally:  a chance to contribute to the security of the human race from
those abominable, flesh-eating bastards.

                               *    *    *

	As I listened to the jarring hum of the C-9's huge engines
reaching liftoff speed and buckled myself into my seat, I perused the
small pile of equipment that another marine had scrounged up for me.  
It consisted of an armored vest, thigh plating, and knee pads -- all
in green and brown camouflage.
	"What the heck," I thought to myself.  "This flight'll be an
hour or two.  Might as well paint my armor to match my apparel." 
Besides, when I school those Stroggs I want them to realize
they're messing with a Nittany Lion.
	This morning I was running for exercise.  Tonight I'll be
running in battle on Stroggos for the sake of mankind.
  
 _______________________
( S K I N   S P E C S  )
 
Zip File:	jd25.zip
Author:		Jim Dunlop
Contents:	jd25.pcx, jd25_i.pcx, jd25rdme.txt, jd25scrn.jpg,
		isu5.bmp 
Created:	12/10/99 - 12/16/99
Tools:		Paint Shop Pro 6, SkinView
Time:		About 6 days, many hours a day (please don't laugh -- I
		have a certain degree of perfectionism)
New sounds:	None; it's just a male skin
Gratitude:	id of course for making flexible, modifiable 3D games
		that give all of us kiddies hours of entertainment,
		Slaine's skin tutorial (on telefragged.com -> skins ->
		FAQ -> Skins Tutorials, everyone who makes great mods,
		models, skins, etc. and shares them with us.

 ___________________________
( I N S T A L L A T I O N  )
 
Just unzip/extract into your quake2 folder, making sure directories are
kept intact.

 _____________________________________
( F I L E   D E S C R I P T I O N S  )
 
jd25.pcx	The skin.
jd25_i.pcx	The little icon that appears on the scoreboard.
jd25rdme.txt	The file you are reading right now!
jd25scrn.jpg	A screenshot of the skin, front and back.
isu5.bmp	A scanned photo of me for comparison with the
		skin (an uncanny resemblance :) ).

 ___________________________________
( S K I N   D E S C R I P T I O N  )
 
This is the skin I wear when playing Quake2 over the net.  Read the
short story above for a detailed description.  Actually, the skin
features came first, one at a time as I thought of them, and the story
kind of evolved around the skin.  The armor was mostly taken from the
"Pointman" skin included with the game, and I used patches of camo and
those little armor latches to create a new stomach plate and kneepads.
The neck, back of the head, and arms are the same as those of Pointman
except lightened a bit. 
	
 _______________________________________
( F A C E   S K I N N I N G   T I P S  )
 
I had to take down the gamma correction on my scanned-in photo first,
then apply a gray pallette followed by a brown one (I think you can get
a palette pak from Slaine's Skin Tutorial). I also had to re-emphasize
my glasses and facial hair as well as stretch the sides of my face --
any of you who have tried a self-portrait skin will know what I mean.  Where the sideburn
areas mate with the earlobe areas can be a real pain in the butt; I
think the only effective way to do this is trial and error and I mean
LOTS of it.  Note:  In earlier versions of JD (that I never submitted)
I tried to simply load the Quake 2 palette onto my scanned-in photo.
This doesn't work too well (at least for my skin color) because there
is simply not a varied enough "pinkish" gradient in the Quake 2 
palette.  Shades of brown look much better, and in bright lights the
flesh takes on a rosy color.

 _____________________
( C O P Y R I G H T  )
 
Not really.  Go ahead and use it; steal my shoes, whatever. Imitation
is the finest form of flattery.  I want people to have the skin so they
can see what I look like when we play.  Please don't do things like
draw devil horns, vulgarities, etc. on it though.  That's just
tastless.

 _________________
( C O N T A C T  )
 
Send questions/comments/flames to:	cxk322@psu.edu
You can also use ICQ:			30165246
although I'm not on it often.

_______________________________________________________________________

1	In my first skin (jd22) readme file (jd22rdme.txt) I
	incorrectly stated that it was made during 12/18/99 and
	12/19/99 (these days haven't happened as of when I'm writing
	this!).  I believe the correct dates are 12/8/99 and 12/9/99.