News

It’s true. You’ve all been noticing updates around the site. We can outline some motivations behind a few of them. Let me give you the rundown: Mirroring a lot of our files from our archives to the Internet Archive has been an uphill battle at times.

Very often a video or misc file trips their detection scheme and kills the entire page - and this time it has hit the files for Grand Theft Auto IV. We usually get them re-instated, but we can’t keep track of when that happens if we keep scaling the archive so we’re hardening things a bit.

We’re guessing it’s music used in one of the official trailers or something. Anyway we had to mirror those files, and started work on our own file dump to at least provide one mirror.

Took the opportunity to remedy some missing file sections. They will get proper pages on the Internet Archive page eventually. The new mirrors will work over both HTTP and HTTPS. We will hotlink them directly. We will not put up wait-timers or anything like that. Enjoy it while we’re around!

These pages received updates: Jedi Knight II, Heretic, NoX, ETQW, RtCW, Soldier of Fortune, Doom III, Hexen II and its Addon, Doom, Doom II, Wolf: ET, Duke 3D, Starsiege, Red Alert, Tiberian Dawn, Tiberian Sun, Quake II, Hidden & Dangerous, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2, Command & Conquer Renegade, Unreal II, Rise of the Triad, Midnight Guns and Turok II.

You may have spotted some new game pages in there too. Enjoy a new trove of files. Some of them were easy to find and identify (as official/endorsed files), others of course were not. More is coming from your friends at Frag-Net!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Yes it’s true. The mod that got a bunch of teenage Aussies in the industry, the mod that stomped all competition, the mod that changed how we look at team based multiplayer, is now 30 freaking years old.

Inspired by a DOOM level by Ben Fletcher and ThreeWave CTF, Team Fortress brought with it a class based roster to choose from and gave level designers a way to implement any gamemode they wanted. This meant that no longer did a mod have to be CTF or DM, but rather the level itself! Plus who could forget that legendary intro by Damian Scott, brings nostalgic tears down our faces. Mr. Scott is still making machinimas to this day, check out his YouTube!

The mod quickly grew becoming one of the most played Quake mods even to this very day. Soon after, the team was hired by Valve, some went there separate ways while others are still employed there today.

Almost immediately Valve begun production on Team Fortress 2, killing the team’s original TF2 based on Quake II. TF2 was supposed to come out sometime in 1999/2000, but when things began to look uncertain, Valve threw the community a bone and released “Team Fortress Classic” onto the world. Despite it being an “example of the power of the HLSDK”, the code was never released for it… Regardless, TFC went on to be just as, if not more popular than the Quake mod, addressing a number of cheats and exploits, while also creating some new ones. Not to mention, it just looked visually great compared to the janky old mod. While only meant to hold us players off for a little bit, that time grew and grew into nearly a decade. At least that little gift gave us countless servers, clans, memories, and of course some of the most inventive levels you’ve ever seen. Of course other game communities tried replicating the success of Team Fortress, with ports being made for literally every multiplayer game under the sun. Few made a dent, because competition with mods like Counter-Strike was fierce.

Years went by, and the jokes started pilling on. Team Fortress joined the leagues of franchises like Duke Nukem, becoming officially vaporware. Valve of course was working on different iterations, and had released some big hits, but everyone still wondered if Team Fortress would come to this fancy new engine of Valve’s.

Well, just like with Black Mesa, the community figured “hey, we can do this!” and so work began on Fortress Forever, the best adaption of Team Fortress Classic hands down.

But finally, one fateful day in 2006, Valve released a trailer that would quite literally change many lives forever (including mine). That ticking clock sound still lives rent free in my head. Yes, it was finally happening, it was Team Fortress 2 at long last.

While there was much hubbub about grenades and the artstyle, it didn’t matter in the end, we all know the rest of the story from here. Team Fortress is now a household name in the game world, perhaps an elder one, but one respected and loved to this very day.

And when I say it changed many lives, I mean it! I’ve known people who met their current (or former) spouses on TF, it was the start of people’s careers in the entertainment industry, it (TF2) was game I showed to my first love and got her into PC gaming, and it was even one of the first mods any of us even played especially online!

Similar to DOOM, Quake + TF really changed everything.

So, happy birthday Team Fortress. It’s been an incredible journey.

Why not play some TF with bots on the arcade? Or perhaps load up Fortress One and see the modern take by the community. Fortress Forever is on Steam and even runs on Linux now (thanks mv!), or perhaps you’d like to join Team Fortress 2 Classified’s celebration? There’s plenty of Fortress to go around.

Here’s to another 30 years, and remember:

There’s no I in TEAM FORTRESS!

Fresh off the heels of our QuakeCon visit, we had the chance to meet and hangout with the brilliant minds behind BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER 3, the hot new Quake game that has shaken up the industry (no really!).

Joeveno, the creator and NoQuarter Software, the publisher, talked with us over the course of the event, even letting us pick at their brain for an interview. One thing we discussed with them was the idea of putting BDD3’s demo on Frag-Net so people could try it out with ease. They liked the idea so much they even entered the Matrix to talk and help us get it running.

We will be posting that interview soon, but for the meantime, BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER 3 is now on Frag-Net and you can play it on our Arcade RIGHT NOW! What are you waiting for? That portal to hell’s not going to close itself!

Also, if you enjoy the game please give them some bucks and get a copy off Steam, [Itch.io](https://joeveno.itch.io/aviozinho-do-trfico-3abri-um-portal-pro-inferno-na-favela-tentando-reviver-tim-m], or even a DRM-Free Physical CDROM. We got one, it’s a must buy.

In addition, we have some more exciting Aracde updates to share later this month, Get Psyched!

Greetings to those we met at QuakeCon!

Last weekend was one of the greatest times we here at Frag-Net ever had. Meeting people from around the world who all had a shared passion for gaming and of course, Quake. It truly was an experience like no other. We even got to meet and talk to the elder gods of id Software themselves and met many developers from within the Quake community. Now those were our people!

We have so much to share, but it’s gonna take some time. To give you just a taste: we interviewed a handful of people from various parts of the scene, took hundreds of photos along with hours of video, watched a game being ported to DOS in real time, and of course, played Quake. We’ll put up a gallery and definitely some articles w/ interviews. Be sure to check back here and keep an eye on our YouTube.

It really was a blast, thank you everyone we met and fragged with down there, we can’t wait to see you all again. And if you didn’t go, you can meet us and tons of great people next year. We heard a rumor that even the founders would like to return too. We’ll see.

See you next year! Or hang with us in the Chat.

Yesterday Quake became the big 3 - 0. To celebrate, go play the Quake 30th Anniversary Limits Jam on whatever damn engine you want! And when you’ve still got more in you, check out the 30th Anniversary Jam which requires a modern engine.

John Romero hosted a little livestream and got other gifts from something unrelated. Today sure is like Christmas isn’t it!

Next month on the 22nd of July we’ll most likely have a proper birthday celebration in the form of some fragfest. Stay tuned in the Chat for that. We’ll also be most likely at QuakeCon in August.

See you there!