Back in 1997, I had followed all the hype that PC Gamer had been building up for Quake 2. I knew that my Pentium 133 would struggle so I bought a 3dfx card a couple of days before the game came out. I bought this exclusively for Q2. I then bought Quake 2 the day it came out in December 1997 and played the single player game. It was pretty good but to be honest I only played the first couple of levels before leaving it a few weeks, only to return and complete it later. After that I left Quake alone for months, never giving it a second thought, playing Unreal, Total Annihilation, Conflict Freespace, Age of Empires, Forsaken and other great games instead.

The first deathmatch experience I had was in July 1998 with Unreal, playing the brilliantly intelligent bots offline. I played this a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it and it made me envious of people who were playing online for real. In August 1998, the Quake 2 Eraser bot was given away on a PC Gamer coverdisk. This was part of their then new online section that I thank (blame) for finally getting me interested in and giving me the full facts about the cost of online gaming. With Eraser, I got to try a "real" deathmatch in Quake 2 (the bots didn't seem so dim back then) and I was gripped by it. I preferred the feel of Q2 deathmatch to that of Unreal and it was playing Eraser that finally made me get a modem so that I could try it for real. In September, after some delays through accidentally buying a crappy winmodem and suffering 16Kbit dial-up, I was online with a shiny Pace 56K Internal, but I already had reasonable skills through my offline practice and previous games experience. Because of this I never had to "discover" mouselook or anything. I'd used it offline since playing the original Quake. I'd say I went straight in as an experienced newbie.

I had picked Lineone as my ISP, and so I got into using their servers. It was a great scene and I made a lot of friends there. Because Lineone provided a range of servers that weren't advertised to the outside world, only the regulars would play. This meant you knew everyone and could always be sure of meeting friends on there. Names that stick in my mind still are Archangel, Icedude and his brother Spirit, Zak, Raptor, Weasy, Jaguar, Smoke, Buffy, Ninja, Mayo and my old m8 Uzi, all friends back then.

I remember duelling a lot and practising jumps together outside near the water of Q2DM1, and I remember being the first of the group to discover the strafe jump to the megahealth which I learnt after Archangel had shown me the light fitting route :).

Just a couple of months after going online, in November 1998, I joined my first clan, Deadly Force, founded by Malevolent - who'd been a part of the Lineone scene since Q2 came out, and before I think :). This was a new clan primarily for Lineone account holders. It took time to learn the basics of teamplay because Deathmatch teaches you to be selfish but with guidance I learned to become a good team-oriented player. It was great fun back then because everything was new - I had never played a single Team DM before. I got into writing binds and wrote some really complicated sets to try to improve our teamplay in CTF and DM.

DF as it was known was formed by a group of friends, in the best tradition of clans. Names from my memory include Archangel, Zak (later of =Mr=), Ninja, Eldritch, Milamber, Storm, Hudson, and of course Malevolent the clan leader and founder. Deadly Force made some progress in the OGL (a European league) but we were severely limited playing against all the LPB Scandinavian players (we were all HPB) and generally suffered agonisingly bad lag on the distant servers. Joining the UKCCL meant a long, long wait on a waiting list, just to get in the bottom of many divisions so while we waited, we joined the UKQ2A - at the time a new league - in the new year 1999. We played brilliantly in the first season and earned ourselves a place in the first division, of which we were very proud.

Now it is a well-known fact amongst Quake players that clans come and go. Some clans disband after their first loss, not realising that it takes a lot of practice to function as a team, others fall apart as former friends fall out. Deadly Force was a decent clan but some internal tensions and the departure of two original and highly valued members (namely Ninja and Zak) lead to the clan being put to rest. For me at least the decline started when Zak, in particular, left. He, like many of us, was frustrated by the results we were getting, the lack of strategy and, perhaps worse, the lack of any desire to improve on the strategy and work on new ideas. At this point I too was close to leaving but I felt a strong loyalty to the clan, and to Malevolent, so I stayed to form a new clan.

From the ashes of Deadly Force, a new clan emerged. This clan was Satanic Inferno (I came up with that), [Si]. Since all the members were former DF players, with the addition of a very talented HPB, Icedude, we could continue with our division 1 UKQ2A position, which was nice. The essence of this transformation was that several players were removed and we were a leaner clan with a solid core of just six members. We all changed our nicks and the fact that we were the former DF was kept secret from the Lineone scene of which we were an important part. The squad was: Revilla (I was Phantom before this), Requiem (Archangel), Icedude, Nemesis (Uzi) and Silver (Malevolent). It didn't take long for people to guess who we were though :) - but it was never made official. Bit childish I suppose, but then it is a game!

As a member of Si I played my first ever season in the UKCCL - the premier UK Q2 league. All new clans had to start at the bottom, of course, so we entered in division 5H. We started to make good progress, winning 2 out of 3 games (With the highest single match frag count in the division). Life in the top division of the UKQ2A proved somewhat more difficult however, with us playing first-class clans like SS and CFH and not really being tough enough for them, though we always put up a sportsmanlike and un-whinging performance.

At the beginning of July 1999, Satanic Inferno folded and so withdrew from the UKQ2A and UKCCL. The clan split up mainly due to a lack of commitment amongst central members, Malevolent no longer had time to run a clan effectively and some bad results which were very demoralising (including one memorable night playing a praccy with FED, who, whilst admittedly all LPB, caned us so utterly on The Frag Pipe that we knew how far behind we were). We tried to recruit some extra players, Annorax, Lycan and Mouseman but it unfortunately didn't help. The main problem was that the issues that had lead to the decline of DF had not been sorted out. Players were still not all that dedicated, all the work was still being left to Malevolent to sort out, who, to be frank had grown tired of running a clan and had made several futile attempts to offload work which fell on deaf ears :). Back then, I wanted no part in clan organisation, I just wanted to play. I remember early on when me and Zak were made so-called Eldars, which meant we were to organise matches. We talked about it and neither the one of us actually wanted to do it :)). So that was that.

Those Lineone days are definitely some of my best memories of being online. Yeah, once I was a member of some more serious clans we used to hang out in irc, I played some class matches, and there was a great team spirit, but on Lineone we'd hang out on a server rather than in irc. They were innocent times in a way and the Lineone community was very insular. Few clans actually ventured out and played in leagues like the UKCCL so players and clans were judged by Lineone standards. I left the Lineone scene when Satanic Inferno folded and moved out into the big wide world of the net.

I spent a couple of weeks clanless, cruising the DM servers (mainly Minos) and getting a bit of rest :). Eventually I was spotted by HooD's newest recruit, Railden, who offered me a trial with <HooD>, which I passed, and I became a proud member of this well-known clan. He was aliasing as R&R and just told me to come to #hood. I'd never even used irc properly but fortunately did have it installed. I was, of course, apprehensive about this and didn't think I'd have a chance, but I performed well under very stressful conditions, playing against the entire squad in a friendly, but I managed it and got the job :). This was probably my best "achievement" in Quake in some ways. I'm not a great player but the credibility it gives you having played for a legendary clan like HooD is amazing (however unfair). I've also always felt that players themselves look better when playing in a good clan because you get more chance to play a good game and learn skills of those around you. The sum of the parts is greater than the individual pieces. Or something :). Anyway, people were literally scrabbling to become members and the busy irc channel was always full of hopefuls, so I am proud that I got in :). Active HooD members when I joined were Ads, Stormkeep, Soulthief, Railden, Nimrod, SHAFT!, Toasty, Requiem, Zero and Kajun - an amazing squad. When I joined, HooD was just finishing Division 3 of the UKCCL, having come third after an amazing match with SPKs which we lost by a narrow margin. However, SPKs withdrew from Deathmatch play, the reasons for which I still do not know, because they were a top clan and they did continue with CTF. This meant that we were promoted to Division 2 with DS in spite of our third place spot.

About the same time several HooD players got into RA2 in a big way, myself included. Stormkeep in particular was very dedicated to this mod, even going so far as to give up deathmatch in its favour. The Barrysworld RA2 server gave you such a good game and because the standard of play was so much higher players were far more friendly and imo non-l33t in attitude. Playing RA2 with HooD in league games was brilliant and HooD proved themselves a massive force in RA2. We were runners-up in the second and third seasons of the UKRA2L. Season 2 was actually our first so this was a great result. Season 3 was very close. HooD and RGS won all their matches right through the season right up to the final deciding game, which RGS won by a single round. It was very entertaining and made all the better for the good humour and mutual respect between our clans.

Division 2 of the UKCCL was the best season I was ever involved in. We started out pretty confident but knowing that it would be tough. Our first match against DS was as close as they get - we won by one frag on Frag Pipe. The second match was also close but after that we seemed to find some amazing form and won the next four matches quite easily. Winning all six meant that we had an automatic promotion to Division 1, which was a very satisfying achievement. However, to be fair I didn't play in some of those matches. I was a dedicated player and played in every practice but was never really a first team regular.

Quake 3 coming out in mid-December brought with it big changes for HooD. Many players decided to give up Quake 2 and simply wouldn't play, so we were having trouble fielding teams for the UKCCL Cup. To be a bit cutting for a second, HooD was partially an irc clan. We rarely practised DM, and we had no tactics. When we practised with tactic-heavy clans like FED we were generally shown up. It was individual playing skill that gave us our success. The clan was more about friendship, which was good, but it meant there was a culture of not actually doing anything :). There was also no real clan leader to push people to play and this was getting increasingly frustrating for SHAFT!, the captain of the DM squad. At the same time, the old-school players from the Wireplay days (B-Boy, CK, Mist, Z, and Nimrod who had left to join Rv) were holding private talks between themselves and decided to return to the clan for Quake 3. Their plans offended every single active member so we all left en-masse. Essentially the impression we got was that they wanted to purge the clan of the newer members and return to the membership of several months before when HooD was an exclusively Wireplay clan. Obviously this was a kick in the teeth, especially for players like Stormkeep and Soulthief who'd been members for many, many months and achieved so much with HooD both in the UKCCL and in RA2. Ads was one of the original members who would have been "allowed" to stay but he was loyal to the friends he'd made in the new HooD and left with us. I was out on the night it all kicked off so I missed it all. I came into irc the next night to see Z, on his own, in the #hood channel. So it was a sudden and sad end to a happy period of Quaking.

The majority of us formed T2C (The Second Coming) which was a new clan for Quake 3. HooD was effectively withdrawn from all the Quake 2 leagues and ceased to be a Quake 2 clan, so I never got a chance to play in Division 1 of the UKCCL with them, which is a big shame. The players who took over the clan denied there was any such intention, but we did see some proof. The Second Coming only existed for about a month, because a severe lack of commitment amongst several players lead to SHAFT, the effective leader, quiting, which in one fell swoop brought to clan to an end. We'd wrongly assumed that a fresh start might stir people into action, but it didn't. Looking back now, with hindsight, it's clear that there may have been other reasons for the clan's demise. One day after the clan folding three members returned to HooD, another followed shortly after. You can draw your own conlusions about that, as I have :). But, to be fair, I don't suppose you can really blame them for wanting to return to a great clan like HooD and abandon a clan that wasn't really going anywhere, so I have no grudges :). So, right on the eve of the leagues commencing T2C folded in February 2000.

I spent the next couple of months playing Quake 3 FFA, taking part in the BW Mega Games and the Q3 FFA league. Eventually though I hankered for a bit of old style team play. I was offered a place in XC-, a legendary QW clan, by Warhog, which I accepted. This was a bad choice as it turned out. I'd known they were a former QW clan, but what I hadn't realised is that they were still obsessed by that old game. No one could be bothered playing Q3 so in the end I unceremoniously left the clan out of frustration. I don't really regard myself as having joined really, because I was never welcomed to the clan, or added to their mailing list or website, so I was hardly a member at all!

I had also been checking out Q2 again. I hadn't played it for three months straight, which is a long time in Quake terms, but when I returned I realised what a top game Q2 is, and modemers do stand a fair chance, so I started playing again. I could play Quake 3 on a modem, but that game really does favour a better connection and could be very frustrating.

I got several offers when I returned to the servers, probably just off the fact that people knew I was an ex-HooD :), but in the end I joined MKC, a top clan with a great attitude. MKC was in Division 2 when I joined and several old school players had gone inactive or could no longer play. Eventually MKC's leader left, and since no one else wanted the job I took over and was captain of the Quake 2 squad for two seasons in Division 1 of the UKCCL. It was tough going and we didn't win many matches but it was enjoyable. It also gave me a taste of the hard work involved at the mucky end of being in a clan. When you just turn up to readily prepared matches you don't really appreciate the effort that's gone in behind the scenes.

MKC also had an Unreal Tournament squad, which I joined and played a couple of seasons with. It was great fun and it's a top class game. Unfortunately clan interest began to wane in both UT and, at the same time, Quake 2. I finally got ISDN in November 2000 and, with Toadkilla at university, we no longer had any active HPB's so we were forced to withdraw from the Mixed League. Results in the Quake 2 Free League seemed to be getting worse, not better, and despite stepping up practices, we were no match for some of the teams in Division 1. This was demoralising and more and more players went inactive to the point where we decided to call it a day and leave the UKCCL while we were still in Division 1.

MKC was bigger than any one game though and many of us were already playing Quake 3. Abandoning Quake 2 meant people had to get into it straight away. We attempted Team-DM briefly but no one seemed to be properly prepared for the kind of competition we would face and so RA3 was the better option, a game we all had more experience of. We got in right at the start of the Savage and Barrysworld leagues, one of the founder clans if you like. It's this early entry that's helped us attain a high position in both leagues. Competition was fierce and we took the quantum leap of using voice comms, which brings a whole new dimension to the game.

I really loved playing for MKC. The team spirit was excellent and RA3 was a joy to play on ISDN. As a team we got some good results and some kickings off teams like Exclamation, but the MKC spirit was always in evidence. Sadly I had to leave MKC very quickly in late 2001. I was moving house and knew I wouldn't have a connection, or at least only a modem connection so I went inactive. I'd also had it in mind that Quake was consuming my life a bit. I was going online almost every night, I spent weekends downloading demos and maintaining this and the clan sites and I generally felt it was a bit unhealthy for me. Because of this I didn't even attempt to get back into the scene once I got my modem connection sorted at the new place. However, whilst I wasn't playing, I still visited the scene sites from time to time, but missed the XTC era of 2002 :).

Quake 2 gave me thousands of hours of gaming pleasure. It's the kind of game that always offers more because you can always improve and it rewards dedication. The team spirit and excitement involved in playing together with a bunch of friends in clanwar cannot be compared to playing games by yourself. There were always new things to learn, skills to improve upon, and the dream of a perfect result that kept you going. I am sure that the 30 pounds I spent on Quake 2 is the best 30 pounds I will ever spend in my life in terms of value for money. I'll always look back with fondness on my time online. I have no regrets about it being squandered time. Playing with both MKC and HooD, and joining my first clan in the Lineone scene. Playing in Division 1 of the UKCCL, playing RA2, RA3 and UT. Being a clan leader, learning to circle jump, beating servers full of LPB's on my modem, railing, making some great friends, going to my first LAN, these are all great memories I will keep with me forever....

Quake 2 continues today with a dedicated bunch of players in Clanbase and UK Central's own new league, but new games are coming and online gaming will only get bigger and bigger with the latest generation of consoles introducing a new generation of players to the joys on online gaming. I expect to return eventually in some game or other, but will any game ever capture the enjoyment I got from Quake 2? I doubt it. See you on the servers!

Last Updated: 26 May 2003