As a mere Grenade Spammer, I did not understand that Quake 2 map creation is a living thing. Even right now, in late March 2015, Q2 Cafe is beginning judging on their 10th Mapping Contest. As a player who was active back in the 1999 – 2001 era, and then took a long break until 2012, I did not appreciate all the changes to the game until I started reading old forum posts. A lot of the Quake 2 CTF maps we play are a lot newer than I thought! (This post is dedicated to waggz, who in so many words, told me to write this for 2 hours instead of playing deathmatch.)
All that being said, I am no historian. Treat this first post as a rough draft, and please feel free to edit / add to the timeline:
Part 1………….. 1998 😮
In the Beginning (late 1997)… Game comes out without any good multiplayer (rushed for holiday season 1997.) There was no Edge, no CTF, and the physics were Bad. Id released a patch.
Earlier 1998
First patch includes q2dm1 The Edge by Tim Willits (it’s been said that only 2 of the 50 special jumps in the Edge were created intentionally) through q2dm8 Warehouse.
There are over 40 CTF mods released for Quake 2 in 1998. Also released in 1998 are Weapons Factory, Action Quake 2, and Rocket Arena 2.
Threewave CTF introduces the grapple hook and techs. Maps are credited to Christian Antkow, Dave ‘Zoid’ Kirsch, Tim Willits, Jim Molinets, and Mike ‘Casey’ Goodhead-
q2ctf1 – McKinley Revival
q2ctf2 – Stronghold Opposition
q2ctf3 – The Smelter
q2ctf4 – Outlands (q2ctf4)
q2ctf5 – Capture Showdown (q2ctf5)
And a few months later-
q2ctf6 – Borders Canyon
q2ctf7 – Boxed In
q2ctf8 – The Hangar Scenario
And then-
q2ctf4a – special release of a more balanced version of what was originally the most popular map.
LMCTF released by Loki’s Minions Development Team (Dan “Batstone” Markham, Der Kommissar, Mr. White, and Keith “Vampire” Mercer and others) makes a name for themselves on strength of their maps-
lmctf01 – Meltdown by Vampire
lmctf02 – Temple of Terror by Mr. White
lmctf03 – Meanstreets by DHeise
lmctf04 – Bloodbath by Vampire
lmctf05 – Shoot the Rapids by Mr. White
lmctf06 – Kave of Kaos by Mr. White
lmctf07 – TSM: Dermish by Der Kommissar
lmctf08 – Frozen Waste by Suicide20
lmctf09 – Twin Generators by Shmitz
lmctf10 – Toxin Refinery by Shmitz
This would be a good place to stop and say that in the beginning, most map paks were tied to the release of new game modes. Later on, for example, LMCTF maps would be adapted to run on an L-Fire CTF server like ACMECTF, but back in the day custom maps were the killer apps that brought players to a specific mode of play.
L-Fire CTF (June 1998) (L-Fire II Beta releases were 1999.)
L-Fire CTF released by Matt “WhiteFang” Ayres, Kai “L-Fire” Kenner and team. Level start and end countdown features were introduced, enabling clan matches. Weapons banning, a highscore feature, team balancing, and many more features for each map were added.
The L-Fire development team worked to release a group of maps that could be used for 4v4 clan matches, all the way up to 32 player public server games-
lfctf1 – Neurotica by geezer
lfctf2 – A Farewell to Kings by TomiKazi
lfctf3 – Counterparts by geezer
lfctf4 – Send in the Clones by Hafhead
lfctf5 – Samurai Castles by g1zm0
lfctf6 – Mines of Hell by HellF1re
lfctf7 – McShminley Base by Hafhead
lfctf8 – Dakyne4CTF by g1zm0
lfctf9 – Slippery When Wet by Hafhead
lfctf10 – Twin Temples Lush by Hafhead
One of my favorite all time posts is from 2011, Hafhead comes into the AcmeCTF forum asking us why Twin Temples Lush and Slippery When Wet are still getting so much play after so many years.
Allstar2 – (1998)
Allstar2 brought together professional level designers from Ritual Entertainment and some of the most respected level designers in the Quake 2 community to create a collection of professional-quality levels for tournament play, plus the integration of several different versions of capture the flag-
as2m1 – Lil’ CTF by Mattias Worch a level designer at Ritual Entertainment.
as2m2 – Warzone updated by John “Tattoo” Schultz.
as2m3 – Fort Lingrin by Charlie “Wieder” Wiederhold is a veteran level designer at Ritual Entertainment.
as2m4 – Not-So-Forgotten Mines by Martin “Entity” Labelle, a Quake 2 remake of Brian Wight’s Quake 1 classic: Forgotten Mines.
as2m5 – The Strongbox Remix by Neil “[DC]RiFTeR” Shaw, a remake of Brent “[Drizzt]” McLeod’s CTF8 – The Strongbox.
as2m6 – Reservoir by Pete “Dolomite” Slack of Dteam 3d Design Guild.
as2m7 – Cacophony by Rich “Publius” Tollerton and Charles “Myrkul” Kendrick, from Team Expert.
as2m8 – Mine war by Dale “Midiguy” Bertheola.
Here is another interesting read: This is an old school website by Charles Kendrick, half of the team that created the greatest Q2CTF map of all time, Cacophony. Here you can read Charles’ high school essays, including details of a near death experience. Myrkul’s website begins with a quote from Thomas Henry Huxley, prominent defender of evolution…
“Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.”
Here we have another quote, by Sir Abraham Lincoln.
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and spawn pad, to every living heart and mouse pad, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of Q2CTF, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better hax of our nature.”
It gets hazy…. no less important, but hard to pin down….. sometime in the smoke rings of 2000……. 🙄
Spazctf created by Targe+ and his brother Gunner / Mr Dan. Also known as Ugly CTF. Also known as, “WTF giant wall of water?!” Rusty”’, the only golden retriever to ever play Quake 2 at an elite level, called it, “Probably the greatest awful map ever made.”
2003 / 2004 – AcmeCTF server and forum created by kind-hearted, ruthlessly intelligent, ruggedly handsome WORM, yowza and wormbot.
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