In case it hasn't been made clear enough, this is the man behind the Quake Expo hosting this year - behind Tastyspleen.net itself. Yup. That's our wonderful superheroic Quadz. Huzzah.
Some of you may be wondering what the hell Tastyspleen.net is anyway. The short answer is a Quake II community, richly blessed by this man's server space and services. The long answer is that it's a continuation of the xquake servers back in the day (some of you may remember it), and it's been a movement that's been growing in portent since then.
As you can see, however, this growth has had a decidedly relaxed attitude. And I think quadz wouldn't be too offended if I said that he's the type who could take over the world while napping on the couch. Tastyspleen.net is just that cool.

If you would like to relate your experiences with this year's Quake Expo, in a form that can be looked back upon and remembered, then REGISTER at the Tastyspleen.net forums, and POST in the Quake Expo 2008 Memoirs thread to share the joy!

Don't wuss out, as forum registration takes less than half a minute.

Let's head right on over to the spacial aspect - maps. We've had plenty of speedmapping events, and I haven't even been able to check out everything everybody in negke's circle has put out in the last few weeks. Some of those Dreamscape maps are especially mouth-watering. Or tentacle-watering. Whatever. Point is, we've seen a lot of old hats come and display their talent, as well as a fresh crop who are just learning what the sharp end of a brush feels like.



Meandering over to the Pineapple Sanctuary you'll notice that Lardarse has delved into mapping headfirst, packaged along with a brand new mod, written from scratch (I know this because he was bemoaning the difficulties of it the whole happy way). To the untrained eye, it looks like e1m1rmx, but I'll leave the gameplay surprises to him to tell you. Either way, it's a great example of how mods should be done - with maps to go along with them. Ideally, one person wouldn't have to do it all himself. But what can I say? Lardarse is one bad mutha.



If you're travelling these new halls, but aren't quite happy with the old weapons, then Dr_Shadowborg has a little treat for you. It's a modification of the IKSPQ weapon pack, with a few new goodies in store. Grab it HERE.

You know what rules? Quake rules. And that's Quake with a capital Q. You know why? Because it's not a one-trick wonder. Mods are cool. So are maps. But does it end there? Not by a long shot. I can (and frequently do) complain about how segregated the community can get, but when you take a step back and take a wide look at everything, it really is rather impressive. Here at Quake Expo, we've attempted to help make that a little more clear. During this last day of festivities, we don't want to leave you high and dry with nothing to look forward to. Even though the Expo may end for the year, everybody who contributed is still going to be working on their projects - whatever they may be. So here's a slice of what some people have gotten in for the last day:

The Director's Chair (Amon's booth) is something that's made me especially proud. It's not every day we get to mingle with machinima artists, especially ones as talented as Amon. I'd like to extend my personal gratitude towards him for making an appearance at the Expo, as it's added some wonderful diversity.
According to his booth, he's working on the next episode of Quake III TV (Think Robot Chicken in Quake), and promises to release it soon. Keep an eye out for some well-orchestrated laughs.
While we're the subject of diversity, I'd also like to give thanks to the :Lvl: guys for making a booth here. It's been under the radar, simply because he just came, made an awesome booth, and didn't really have to add much to the perfection. It's simply one of the most well-designed sites for Q3 map submissions, and a great encouragement to mappers.

Heading over to the nuts-and-bolts side of things, the persistent Motorsep has brought us an article detailing how to get models from Blender into the Quake engine. I've been getting more into Blender myself lately, and it's certainitly a blessing to us prospective modellers who have more talent then cash (unless you're willing to pirate Maya). This way, there are no licenses to worry about, so model away! I'd also like to thank Motorsep once again for being such an enthusiastic part of the Expo - and more importantly one that got me off my ass. Congratulations on your U.S. Citizenship!

To everybody who's been salivating over tantalizing screenshots and demo reels this Expo, I'm proud to say that your time has come. At about this time, I'd suggest cancelling all of your activities this weekend so you can have the appropriate time to download and play everything that's become available. My fingers are itchy myself, so let's dive right in:

FERAL
Yeah. It's here. It's really actually here. My axe is throbbing for the first release of daemon's script-heavy quake rpg. With my last mention of Feral, I think I embarrassed him a little by speaking so highly of the project's aspirations. With this release, however, the time is ripe to play the hell out of it and give him as much feedback as possible (maybe even give him a hand), and spur this thing on to perfection.
I think I can be totally satisfied swinging my axe around, playing with my inventory, and chopping dogs to bits. Err... or is the correct term "Harvesting"? Enough talk - go DOWNLOAD it!



ARCADE QUAKE
What Contra lacked in blood, Arcade Quake more than makes up for. If you've been under a rock all Expo, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like - side-scrolling rocketry action. Plus a snazzy hud.
What more can I say? DOWNLOAD it, jump into a single player game (or hop on a server), and be ready for some insane gibtastic twitch gaming. I wonder if there's a spread shot?






Drake/Dragons
I just love it when old mods are retooled and get a facelift. The result is usually very satisfying, polished, and just plain wonderful. What's more, it gives those who have missed the mod the first time around a chance to enjoy some really great work. Drake (formerly Dragons) looks to be no exception.
The creators kept a place for it in their hearts long after it's heyday had passed, and it looks like there's major headway being made towards giving it another shot. While there's no shortage of throw-everything-at-the-wall mods, this one looks like it brings some really unique items and flavor to the game. While the new fine-tuned version is still in the works, a little preview of the old Dragons mod is up for DOWNLOAD, so go check it out and keep an eye open for the new version.



Exceed Haven
Speaking of polish, Exceed Haven's creator blessed the Expo with a special update, just for us! In the spirit of balls-to-the-wall chaos, this is... well, from the sound of it, imagine if the DoomGuy from the comic made a Quake mod. That's how over the top this is. Fortunately, he also promises a stable and clean experience, with a minimal amount of bugs and weird behaviours.
So if you don't like fountains of gibs for the sake of shits and giggles, don't like guns that shoot ludicrous projectiles, hell, if you don't like Quake mods that CHANGE the game, then by all means step aside. The rest of us, well, we're gonna go PLAY

MauveBib bounces a corpse our way, and clutched within its cold dead grasp is a barely scratched disc containing Sagdoll 1.3. What is Sagdoll you may ask? It is what brought you the disc! Sagdoll is MauveBib's take on ragdolls using arcane magic and QuakeC trickery! To the left you can see a video of Sagdoll being implemented on a player.mdl.

This new version brings some vast improvements to the original Sagdoll, namely a nicely sagging player.mdl, implemented with Frikbot support, and QuakeMatt's dizzying gyro physics! For those unfamiliar with Sagdoll, though its not as physically accurate as ragdolls, its lack of a skeleton enables for dismembering which makes for a much more memorable deathmatch session! Remember kids, Frikbots are included.








MauveBib even has a few recommendations on how to play it in the readme, such as:

Interested? Go check out MauveBib's booth and give it a download! You can also find another video in there showing off the great Nigel Massacre, largely in slow motion. Not interested? Get a sense of fun and head over to the booth!

We're getting down to the final stretches of the Expo, and we're starting to see some of the previously mentioned projects coming close to completion. Naturally, not all of them are going to make the deadline, but that's the point where I'd hope that people will venture out and stay in contact with the things they've seen here. We've certainly done our best to ensure that a wide variety of communities come into contact for the Expo, and on that note I'm particularly proud. It's up to you guys to carry that on afterwards, however. I have full faith in this however, because so many of these projects are simply too cool to pass up!

Though it hasn't been mentioned yet, OpenFortress really really excites me. In case the title is obscure to some, the project aims to combine the assests of Enemy Territory Fortress with the open ioQuake3 engine. The end result is a badass Team Fortress game that's totally standalone and free! These projects are usually plagued by a lack of content talent - but avirox actually got permission from the ETF modellers to use their assets, so it already looks awesome. This doesn't mean that the project is near the finish line, however, and he's put out a valiant call for help. If you've got the hankering to add something good to the world, this is definitely a good place to start.


Heading over to GoldenBoy's booth, the linux mappers out there have a good reason to stimulate their saliva glands - the ever-so-useful AguirRe q1bsp compiling tools have all been ported to linux! Binaries are available for download, as is metaphoric cake. Us linux-philes are used to having to do all the hard work ourselves, so when someone steps in and does something really handy for us, it always elicits a goofy smile. Thanks GoldenBoy!

Speaking of mapping, the Nexuiz Ninjas booth has a fresh and tasty link to a new map based on the Halo map Wizard. From my brief and ungratifying encounter with Halo, I remember that map as being rather decent for dueling - and it looks like the added speed of Nexuiz will make it even moreso. Head on over to their booth for the forum link and download.

With all of this rocket-filled bounty, how can one not smile at what the community is still doing? And the best part is, there is no end in sight. Frag on.

negke has released his towering vertical single player map. Clocking in at significantly taller than you, it features a very prominent z-axis, multiple routes including a choice as to whether you want to face puzzles, or traps, monsters galore in a Quothian style, and some rather interesting texture decisions.

Though not the largest Quake map (counting one rather insane exception), it is uniquely tall and mixes textures excellently, creating at a glance both a tech base and a medieval castle feel, while still finding space to use some blue brick, runic symbols, and mossy e1m3 stylings. Never mind the interesting 'rafter' designs, and the simple but great use of single sided door panels, even if the gameplay isn't to your taste, the map is a visual treat!

Head over to his booth and give it a download now!

Some photoshop monkeys really missed out, because the GlobalGamers photoshop event is over - and the contestants really get to reap in the wealth! Even with a relative lack of submissions, there's still some amusing Quake toonage going on - and now the tooners get to play with some easy money (ThinkGeek money that is). Go check out the submissions, and the winners!

The Expo is still going strong, and there's a veritable torrent (water kind, not protocol kind) of new stuff flooding in just about every day. Grab a surfboard and come with me...

Speedmodding and Speedmapping events are still plugging away, and this means a good stream of new and quirky toys to play with in your Quake sandbox. The Melee speedmod event is still underway, and contestants still have a few hours left in which to get in their submissions. This time around, expect to be slapped around with all manner of spiked, plumed, and rocket-encrusted blunt objects. Sajt makes a mark in his booth with a few screenies from his Wrasslin (think Rocky with a good dose of hallucinogens) mod - and it's already up for download!



The Warsow booth is up and running now, and sporting some slick arty projects from fans of the Quake 2-based pro-centric vector-fest. I'm especially curious about the player model in the banner, which I can't find reference to anywhere else... it's certainly one of the better models I've seen in a while (or maybe I just really like the way that the Q2 grunt is proportioned...) Anywho, check out the booth and check out the servers - especially if you're into some unique trickjumping. One last note - it's interesting how Warsow allows both Q2-style strafejumping and QWPK movement as well, in a cvar no less. This allows for different movement styles among players in the same server. Groovy.

MegaTF Coop is making a push to bring back some good old fashioned relaxing coop - with a few bags of crack-encrusted Sweet Tarts thrown in. It seems they are going for the throw-everything-at-it-and-bollocks-to-sanity attitude. At least that's what the screenshot of the baseball bat lends me to believe. Later tonight I'll have had the chance to have a more in-depth look. At any rate, jump in the servers and be there when I get there, because I do love some company.



On the interview side of things, we've got a couple new ones up - one with the duo behind Arcade Quake, and another with the Travail team. Go check them out!

This weekend sees three more events happening. The first is the Thunderwalker Smackdown Extravaganza III which is happening tonight at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern/4am Central Europe. Join the players there for the countdown of the top ten maps of the last month, as voted for by the regulars at twctf.org. Go to the TW Revival booth or the announcement thread for more details.

The other two events both focus on time-limited creativity. This weekend's speedmodding theme is melee, and the speedmapping theme is tilted. Both of them have deadlines on Monday (though at different times, check the pages for details). If you're taking part in any of these events this weekend, then make sure to go hand over fist, and don't fall over...

The long-awaited Remix Pack for Quake has finally been released. 5 maps for Quake each derived from a map that was originally included with the game. Witness e2m1, e3m4, e3m5, e4m1, and e4m7 like you've never seen them before, as interpreted by Spirit, Willem, Speedy, RickyT23, and Zwiffle.

RickyT23 and Zwiffle also feature in the latest batch of interviews that Spirit has posted at Quaddicted. With potentially more interviews to come in the next two weeks, who knows who else he will interview. Maybe he will even interview himself...

I am currently standing (well, sitting) in awe at the Quake community at large. It's easy to let ourselves box ourselves in to a specific forum or server farm and start thinking that there isn't much significant going on beyond those virtual walls. If Quake Expo is anything (and I'll bet my fiancee's lingerie that it is!), it's a place to look past and even tear down those walls.

Just from looking at today's booth updates, I'm seeing a huge variety of projects that take the same technology and apply it to exceedingly varied projects.

First of all, I want to call attention to The Director's Chair, run by Amon, who has been doing some Quake 3 machinima. Personally, I've wanted to do a Quake 2 machinima comedy for some time, and it's nice seeing somebody has similar ideas. Everybody, check out the Quake 3 TV video for some rocket-flavored laughs! I'll for sure be checking in on this booth constantly, looking for some more awesome work. I'd like to point out that the raw camerawork that he's been doing is superior to that found in many frag videos I've seen lately :P

On a completely different paradigm, UFO Alien Invasion brings some turn-based tactical stylings to the expo. So far past a Quake 2 mod, this ambitious project uses the GPL'd source to use the engine to it's fullest - all to revive an old favorite, no less! I really gotta hand it to developers these days when they can manage to get a healthy team together, complete with artists. If you've got a hankering for a God's-eye-view and some global alien warfare, check out their current release!


I'm sure that there are a whole lot of people eagerly awaiting the release of Arcade Quake, including me. For those who have been sitting in an empty server for the past week, Arcade Quake promises to bring deathmatch to "2d" in the slickest, fastest, and bloodiest way possible! The bad news is that I still have to wait a little longer more, but the good thing is that a release is promised in the very near future! The hud is looking slicker, the maps more Escher-esque, and the meat... meatier! Whatever praise I can garnish it with will be inadequate with simply looking at the project itself, so go check it out!

That's not even all that's going on, so hop on the Booth Updates page and fill your head and hard drive with the bountiful treasures within. The really neat thing is that the booths are still going up, and there's no real sign of the torrential flood slowing down! Either Shub is on that time of the month, or the Quake community just plain rules.


I'm really in favor of it being the latter.

Speedmapping event number 2 has finished with 5 singleplayer maps from lurker, negke, Omus, text_fish and zwiffle! The theme was "City in a forest" and most of the contestants seemed to go for the LOTR-style "Lothlorien" setting, with the city actually in the trees. Find out more and download the maps at the speedmapping booth.
 
Something else I found interesting, especially after we just had the little Roguelike discussion, is the D & D done Quake project which tries getting Quake content into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. So you can play a space marine and battle it out with the monsters using your d20 and character sheet in that classic role playing game. It's just another interesting link which goes from Quake via D & D to Lovecraft and Lord of the Rings, ie classic fantasy. Wazat is open to suggestions and contributions.

If you've been starving for some QExpo community fragfests, this is going to be the week for you! GlobalGamers is heading up a couple mini-tournaments in both Action Quake 2 and Paintball 2, which are both totally awesome Quake 2 mods.
You can find all the details at the GlobalGamers booth, but here are some of the basics:

Action Quake 2- Wednesday the 27th at 9pm Eastern on (65.110.41.130:27910). Your goal will be to simply to kill ButtaKnife more than anybody else - all for the sake of a iD Steam Pack!

PaintBall 2- 4v4 tournament (register) kicking off this weekend (more details to follow soon. So in the meantime, sign up and warm up your balls!

Also, GlobalGamers is looking to offer some Quake Live beta invites over in their #quakeexpo channel on their network. Simply head over to their booth - their in-booth irc client will take your straight there!

Tune in tonight (around 11-12ish est) to the Tastyspleen TastyCast on your preferred musical apparatus to enjoy a Radio Interview with the Brazen team - yup, all three of them! The interview will encompass the focus of the project, the turmoils of online collaboration, and cheese.
If you would like to hop into the Teamspeak server, just connect to jehar.homeip.net. I can't promise that it'll be the greatest server in the world, but time makes villians of us all.
After tonight's broadcast, the recorded interview will be available for stream\download on jehar.tastyspleen.net shortly after I\we fix some of the voice balance issues.

The first speedmodding session has ended, with two mods for Quake by daemon and Patrick Martin, and a mod for Quake 2 by Peewee. See the speedmodding page for more information, and to download them.

Matthias Worch, famous in the Quake community for Beyond Belief, a single player episode that received 10,000 downloads in the first week and ended up getting him a foot in the door in the games industry, is making a new map. So far, he's only released one screenshot at his booth, and he's not sure when it's going to be finished, but it's still awesome news. Spirit has also released another batch of interviews, which includes Matthias, and takes his total to 16 now.

The first screenshots for Open Fortress have been released. XavioR does admit that it's still very similar to its origins, but he and his team are working on things. And they're still looking for help.

And finally for now, Superstitious has released a new version of his Midair mod for QuakeWorld, which has some new stat-related features. I think I might just try it after I finish writing this...

QExpo just got another Nexuiz booth when Nexuiz Ninjaz pitched their virtual tent (in 3D!) full of Nexuiz related goodies and started showing off their skills. They have a dedicated training server among other things, so there should be nothing stopping you from downloading the game and getting your frag suits on.
 
CSQC coder Urre has his first tutorial up: Clientside Rockets. Happy hacking.
 
Vertical mapper negke put together an alternative top [insert number here] list of Quake 1 maps that might be lesser known, but still in need of a sawed-off shotgun toting slipgate warrior hero to clean out the hordes of Shub-Niggurath's chaotic minions. Make it so!
 
Finally, I feel a strong urge to get rid of this pack of fishy models because I think it's starting to smell. To whom it might concern.
 
... and remember, you only killed one of the thousand young. *cue mad laughter*

Lardarse just announced the first speedmodding event of QExpo '08! The theme is FISH and the deadline is 12 PM PDT aka 9 PM CET on SUNDAY! The event covers all three original Quake games, ie. Quake, Quake 2, and Quake 3!
 
Lardarse said there might be two more events of this kind, and he is taking suggestions for future themes. Find the details here or on the Events page.
 
On a different note, there was some talk on IRC last night about a variety of cool stuff. One topic was ijed's Space Hulk 256 brush map for Quoth/Q1, which you can and should get here, in case you haven't. The pic to the left is the prize he won...
 
The other topic was roguelike games, which coincidentally was also something mentioned by Jehar in his booth spotlight on Feral. It turned out that those games are surprisingly popular in this community, which probably proves that we are high-level nerds. Since some of you might not know about roguelikes, I'll drop a few links: Dungeon Crawl, Nethack, ADOM.
 
You can find us on IRC at irc.anynet.org in the channel #qexpo.
 
And again: This QExpo will last four weeks, unlike previous ones.

I'd like to take the opportunity to announce that QExpo 2008 now has over 50 booths and it's still growing. Most of you are probably still digesting the huge amount of new maps, mods, engines, interviews, tutorials, previews, reviews, music, poetry and eyecandy.
 
Wait, poetry? Sure. Just take a look at Madfox's new booth. Poetry in words and pictures. I won't spoil everything, so head over there. Two other mappers also set up shop, Tronyn, who's got previews of his upcoming projects as well as the top 10 Elder World maps list, and ijed, who talks a bit about the Quake 1 remake project and gives a sneak peek at his maps in progress.
 
One thing everybody forgot to mention so far: There is a Quake 2 mapping contest hosted by the Quake 2 Cafe. The theme is deathmatch maps, and the deadline so far is Septemper 12th. Reliable sources say QExpo has some more events coming up, so stay tuned.
 
We have a release to announce today: Error has uploaded his Darkplaces minimod called "Bounce", which is up for grabs here. See if you can beat Error's own score of 280,000!
 
For the intellectuals among us (I'm taking suggestions...) there is new stuff to read: Havoc continues remaking "Basement" for Nexuiz; Urre has an introduction to Client Side Quake C, which is a pretty interesting read; the MegaTFCoop guys put up a comprehensive(?) changelog, which is also interesting to look at.
 
In other news, Berserker promised to fix the broken download link "very soon"; Eltrollo posted new screenies of Q2KAOS, and gb upped a Q1 wallpaper for you.

Quake and MMO's have had an interesting and often bumpy history. Originally intended to be the first true persistent 3d game world, Quake's focus has obviously shifted since the infamous advertisement in Commander Keen. Now, with the source code and the powers within the community, the potential to realize the original intent of Quake is now very real. Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want Quake to be any other way - unless it was a totally bad-ass mod. Feral (previously Feral Flesh), in development by daemon, steps up to this challenge admirably. In the past, I erroneously said that all Quake is is a Roguelike in realtime. A bit of a shallow statement, I know, but there are still certain similarities between these two spheres that the mod hopes to bring gracefully together.

For one thing, both games emphasize the fact that you're alone in an alien environment... and your imminent death is a very real possibility. Quake has always acted in kind; I have no doubt that we all remember our first run-in with a Shambler (or worse for me in some ways- a tight room and a Demon). There's also the sheer variety of foes; ascii lends itself well to randomized on-the-fly monsters. I believe daemon may have a few of similar surprises in store in that department. Then there's loot of course - I think the pleasure gained from finding the +8 Flaming Sickle is at least comparable to that which is gained from grabbing the Lightning Gun. Now, in Feral, we see the possibility of... perhaps a Lightning Sickle?

Keep in mind that none of these things are promised in the current version, or even are expected to appear for some time. Alphas and Betas are the perfect times to dream, and that's all I'm doing at the moment.
For now, you'll have to suffice with swinging around some equipment and cutting dogs into little yummy pieces.
At any rate, I like axes, I like loot, and I like Quake. Look to Feral to provide plenty of all of the above.

While you're waiting for the hoped-for download of the mod, sate yourself with this juicy interview, conducted by motorsep!

If anyone could get them to stand still for a moment... taking this group photo would be SO much easier! Well! News have been picking up a bit slowly, but it's finally here: The big cohesive news update everybody has been waiting for ... I hope. I'll do my very best to give you an impression of just what all these people are building in there.
 
Let's start with the events we've got running!
 
Global Gamers is hosting a Photoshop contest, an Action Quake 2 challenge, and a Paintball2 tournament. So far, you can win gift certificates and an id Super Pack with all id games! Speaking of Paintball 2, happy 10th birthday to you!
 
The registration to the Alien Arena Aliens for Animals 1 on 1 tournament is still open. The prize pot is apparently $500 heavy.
 
The next Quake 1 speedmapping event is running; the theme is "City in a forest". The deadline is August 25th.
 
Next up, some people are looking for help with their projects:
 
Spirit of Quaddicted is still looking for some long-lost maps; check your harddrives everybody! Open Fortress is looking for qualified coders, mappers, testers and artists - take a look if it's the right job for you. Speaking of Quaddicted, they have some interviews with several mappers for your reading pleasure. Spirit also has some coop servers running.
 
More reading food for you:
 
An interview with motorsep of the Prophecy project here at QExpo's interviews page; some top ten lists of Quake 1 maps in the various themes at Underworldfan's, kindly done by Tronyn; and erc has a log with comments on all the Quake maps he played over the years.
 
Dr. Shadowborg has two QuakeC tutorials for you, while st3ady has one about getting models from 3DSMax into Quake.
 
We have some enhanced Quake 2 engines for your railing pleasure:
 
Quake2xp looks like the more civil one (civil, in this context, is relative) while Berserker Q2 seems to go all out with the graphics. Screenies galore for all your eyecandy needs - don't forget to blink. I know I left out some other candidates here, I hope to see some more of Quake2World and Q2KAOS. - Don't forget you can play Q2 online with the demo and the latest patch.
 
If you're more interested in playing Quakeworld online, check those out:
 
Thunderwalker CTF is alive and kicking with weekly scheduled games; get the details at their booth. Mega TF Coop is a mod that allows coop play using the TF classes in Quake 1 singleplayer maps. Finally, Superstitious' QW Midair has a server waiting for you. - Don't have Quakeworld? Head over to Nquake.
 
In other news, multipurpose artist distrans released two music tracks dedicated to, umm, well-known Quake personalities. Check them out at his booth. I'd also like to say hi to the Nexuiz booth - now in 3D :-) And while we're there, Havoc has an interesting article about remaking Nexuiz maps.
 
Finally, Error of the Realms of Quake booth has announced the release of a minimod he's working on.
 
I know I've not covered everything; look for any missing links in the weekly roundup.

Once upon a time in the Dimension of the Doomed, Quake's most dedicated followers decided to hold a contest. The principal rule was that the maps should fit into a square of only 768x768 Quake units. So far, so uninteresting.
 
Now if you know these guys, there had to be a catch. They said nothing about the vertical limit...
 
So, I won't spell it all out for you. Let's just say that towers got really, really popular. But as we all know, there is always someone who likes to go to extremes! And for a while, it looked as if negke's coming map would be the tallest Quake map ever.
 
Until necros tossed his hat in the ring. Let's just hope it will have lifts - slipgates are ruled out...

Hey! I'm another one of these poor news rookies who didn't run fast enough. Anyway! How many times have we heard that Quake is dead? Too many times! I hope that a whopping 24 new Quake 1 maps are enough to make anyone think twice about that.
 
With 13 maps, the biggest chunk comes from Abyss of Pandemonium: The Final Mission 2.0. Two single player episodes tall, this classic almost-missionpack has been polished up and rerendered in enough ways to make it run well, play well, and look well! Thanks to John Xmas' relentless pestering, this lost gem - that almost became Quake Mission Pack number 3 - was recovered and carefully bugfixed, improved, and even relit (!) to bring it up to spec. It runs in any modern Quake engine and features a pile of new monsters, weapons and gadgets. Best of all, it's free (as in beer)! Welcome back, Abyss of Pandemonium!
 
The second largest chunk is Tronyn's half-legendary opus magnum, Soul of Evil: Indian Summer, which took several years to finish! The pack contains five epic maps which will only run in the bolder engines out there, like Bengt Jardrup's enhanced GLQuake. (Did I just pimp it?) Tronyn doesn't have a booth yet *tap tap tap*, so you'll need to head over to the thread at func_msgboard to take in the screenies and grab the goodies! Sneaky guy!
 
Next up, (I'm not finished yet), equally legendary mapper and Quoth co-author Necros brings us two superb Quake 1 single player maps. One of which is a gargantuan underground castle-city dressed in Undule's RTGnosis textures (the same set that Glassman used for his masterpiece Day of The Lords) and crawling with the notorious Quoth monsters, by the name of The Living End. The other being intended as a coop map (Quoth allows for coop-specific gameplay tweaks) and coming in the shape of a rather impressive evil-filled Elder World Waystation, an outpost on the road to chaos. These maps are really great, don't miss them or you'll miss out on something. Necros' booth is this way.
 
Four more Quake 1 single player maps popped into existence when QExpo 08's first speedmapping event finished. The theme was "dreamscape", and the relentless brush-slinging was done this time by negke, rudl, text_fish and zwiffle. Grab the pack at the speedmapping booth.
 
To be duly noted: If you're asking yourself, "which of the bazillion Quake engines should I use to play this map?", fear not, it is easy. Most maps run well in Fitzquake, while the more extreme ones require the above mentioned enhanced GLQuake or Darkplaces. If you're on a Linux or Unix system, try Darkplaces or TyrQuake. MacOSX users should grab Darkplaces or the Fruitz of Dojo engine.
 
The popular Quoth mod, which recently saw an update to version 2.1, is HERE.
 
Any more questions? None? Good. Grab the stuff.

Jehar informed me this morning that I was granted the honor of having posting access to QExpo08, so with the tiny tiny snippet of free time I have at this moment, I will do what I can to help out, and I will do such with individual posts highlighting a specific booth.
This first highlight goes to the Razorwind Games booth which features Quake Arcade, and Q3Map2.

Quake Arcade is exactly as it sounds (deathmatch video to the left, higher resolutions available via avi within the booth as downloads), and looks quite nifty. The action seems just as fast as Quake's, with a great visual depth, yet still functionally two dimensional. Using the DarkPlaces engine, the use of particles are quite nice, the lighting is smooth, and architecture politely and smoothly fades out of the way of your camera so as to circumvent the question of function versus form.

Two things are of interest in this video to me, and that is the directional aiming and the use of explosions. It appears you can only fire in eight directions, which makes me wonder if this is a limitation of frames, or a design choice to bring it back to more old school sidescrollers, versus the fluid aiming system we saw with Crack Dot Com's Abuse game. The difference would be quite significant as it appears in the video, a vital part of your strategy is to get far enough away from your opponent to line them up with the diagonal shot (and thus single axis rushing is a strong defense, particularly from explosives and lightning). I'm not sure how one could solve the animation problem, but I would imagine a floating cursor perhaps done in CSQC which acts as an entity that the player controlled bot always fires towards could work out - of course, like in Abuse, would you be able to fire backwards while running forwards?

The other element is one which reminds me of many Q3A battles, explosive damage clipping through brushes. I don't know if this is a method in the explosion code, or the way the brushes are constructed or some other arcane magic, but it certainly makes sure the rocket launcher is just as much a force to be reckoned with in Arcade Quake as it is in Quake.

Q3Map2 is a less visually exciting addition to the booth, but holds great potential as its main goal is to make q3bsps more usable for engines which support q3bsp such as DarkPlaces. You can read a whole slew of features it boasts in the booth, and also check out the high quality movies of Arcade Quake, along with some screenshots previewing the single player action here!

I want to play Feral.. and I want to play the new MegaMan Q2 build... and I want to play negke's new map... BUT I GOTTA LISTEN TO YOU GUYS ALL DAY! :P Just kidding. I'm loving every moment of this, even when it gets a little overwhelming. I'm barely keeping up with all the new booths, new events, interview requests, coverage... the list just goes on and on.
But this is a good thing - it means that this year is already kicking ass and is promising to shove the foot up either farther in the days to come. In the meantime, you'd better get ready for the slew of events that are coming up, and I look forward to the PhotoShop contest contendees - those are some sweet prizes that have been offered by GlobalGamers.

Small update - if you'll kindly look over to the bar, you'll notice that there is a new Booth Updates feature - this'll aid you in pouncing on new stuff as soon as possible!

Oh yeah, Willis still rules!

What better way to celebrate the opening of Quake Expo then to get married? Or is it the other way around? Anyway, scar3crow tied the ever-proverbial knot yesterday in a beautiful rose garden, with their equally beautiful families present. So I hope that adequately explains my absence yesterday.
Anywho, things have kicked off to a quick start for the first day- so quick, I haven't had any proper time to check out the booths! So I'm going to go do that shortly, but I think you'd all appreciate it more if I spend more time in making sure something like a... PAINTBALL 2 TOURNEY goes off! That's something that'll probably be announced in the next day or two... or did I just announce it now?
More is coming! Oh, by the way, I thought I'd make this explicit: Quake Expo will continue for FOUR WEEKS. Just so yall know. (pic is Jehar, scar3crow, and LordHavoc at scar3crow's wedding. I know I look like a dork.)

Let's not forget to thank Quadz of Tastyspleen for making all of this possible!

Against all odds and speculation, QUAKE EXPO IS HERE!
As you can see, there are a couple of events currently up for grabs, and there are plans for many more to come in the following days. If some of you were waiting for the right time to get excited, you'd better start now. Browse the booths, contact people, jump in irc, jump on a Q2W server, jump on the numerous TastySpleen servers (don't miss the q3 and qw ones too).
Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on, and explode.
There will be more and more booths made public during the event, so check back often - and don't forget that you're still encouraged to make a booth if you haven't yet!

There's good cause to be excited. Since the site has gone up, we've been recieving all sorts of kindness and offerings from the most unlikely of sources! This means that those of you who have gone forth and proclaimed the name of Quake Expo have something to feel proud of, because I really have no idea where some of these people have come from.


Even before booth registration had begun, plenty of people were coming in and setting up early! Now, with 6 whole days of registration left to go, there are TWENTY-TWO booths up already.

For anyone reading this who doesn't have a booth yet, there's *no* reason why you shouldn't! Any inkling of an idea, a contribution, an event, an anything, go ahead and *do* it. You'll receive the appreciation of everyone here. Hell, you might have to do all this yourself next time. Oops, didn't mean to scare anyone off. Speaking of contributions, look forward to Buggles' coverage of the Expo, as well as some exciting prospects from Global Gamers for perhaps some gaming tournaments and/or prize donations!

We're looking for help in publisizing Quake Expo! Take the announcement post and throw it just about everywhere you can! After all this trouble, we sure want this year to be a big one. Also, if you'd like to host an event, make cupcakes, or whatever, feel free to let us know - we're *always* on (even when we don't want to be) irc, so hit the link to your left to come bug me!
We're looking to pump up the mapping contests, deathmatch tourneys, speedmodding, speedmopping, speedbaking, and Sexy Shambler Photoshop competitions!
By the way, we've got about a dozen people fiddling around with their booths already! There's plenty of time to get yours in, so make something juicy :D

Anybody who is currently working on a booth before this friday, you are implicitly agreeing to be my beta testers. Any problems with uploads, formatting, etc, drop me a line in irc or whatnot and let me know. Also, make sure that all booths are kept private until the 15th. Thanks everyone!

The site is live and running at qexpo.tastyspleen.net - news posts and old booths have been cleared, logins work, making new booths work, etc. There are still a lot of tiny niggles to sort out, but I'd say that the site is at 95% operation.
Regarding Echon - even if he is now available and willing to help, I think it'd be best for everyone and a whole lot less stressful if we kept the hosting that tastyspleen (railwolf and quadz) have so graciously provided. They have truely saved our asses this year, and it'd be good if everyone recognizes that. Many people have jumped in during the final hours and have pulled off their own heroics, and the site is now working in the state it is because of these people. I'll provide more detail on these individuals when I can pay more attention to it and not accidentally skip anybody.
So, on with the Plans:

August 8th - BOOTH REGISTRATION STARTS!
You're still allowed to futz around and put your booth in now, but be willing to encounter the odd bug every once in a while.

August 15th - QUAKE EXPO BEGINS!!
This will be the OFFICIAL opening date of all the booths - keep them private until then.

For the intervening week, we want to see lots of people talking about quake expo, getting people on with their booths, and spreading the word as much as possible. This year has been one of unfortunate absences, miscommunications, and some genuinely bad luck. But we're here. Hopefully you are too.