Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
QuakeCon AI simulator
(@QuakeCon_simulator)
Hub AI
QuakeCon AI simulator
(@QuakeCon_simulator)
QuakeCon
QuakeCon is a yearly convention held by ZeniMax Media to celebrate and promote the major franchises of id Software and other studios owned by ZeniMax. It includes a large, paid, bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN party event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty.
The event is highly dependent on volunteers to cover many aspects of the organization of the event. QuakeCon has historically had a reputation as the "Woodstock of gaming", and a week of "peace, love, and rockets!".
The 25th QuakeCon event had been planned for August 2020 in Dallas, Texas, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was canceled by Bethesda Softworks and id Software on March 31, citing difficulties in planning with vendors and exhibitors at this stage. An online QuakeCon was announced in June 2020 to replace the live show in August 2020. The 2021 and 2022 events were also held online. The return to a live event took place on August 10–13, 2023 in Grapevine, Texas.
QuakeCon originally grew out of a group of people on the EFnet IRC network, in channel #quake. As various regular visitors to the channel began expressing a desire to meet and game together in person, Jim "H2H" Elson, a gamer from the Dallas area with ties to the local Dallas-area gaming community, and Yossarian "yossman" Holmberg, a computer consultant from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, came up with the idea of assembling at a hotel. The original event name was actually '#quakecon', named after the IRC channel, though this quickly evolved into just 'QuakeCon'. Mr. Elson organized the bulk of the event for the first two years, until the number of people attending each year demanded a more organized approach. Volunteers grouped into teams to assist in the setup, troubleshooting, and tear down of the event's equipment and network.[citation needed]
The first event, in August 1996, was held at a conference room of a La Quinta Inn in Garland, Texas. The 1,250 square foot venue hosted around 40 people. Attendees who had brought their computers along to the event set up a small, impromptu network, in one of the hotel meeting rooms, playing mostly Quake I and Doom, testing deathmatch skills. A small tournament was held, with winners taking home T-shirts as prizes. The highlight of this first gathering came on the eve of the last day, when the entire id Software team showed up at the event in a surprise and most-welcome visit, stopping by to chat with the participants. John Carmack, lead programmer for Doom/Quake, participated in a 30–45 min. group chat with attendees on the porch of the hotel. Some ideas discussed during that chat eventually made it into Quake's future public releases. This "Carmack's Talk" grew into a yearly keynote speech that lasted through 2013.
QuakeCon 1997 brought an estimated 650 attendees to the Holiday Inn in Plano, Texas. It was covered by numerous Internet and broadcast media outlets, and was sponsored in part by id Software and Activision.
QuakeCon 1998 was held in conjunction with the Cyberathlete Professional League at Infomart in Dallas, Texas. Due to poor planning and the lack of people who had helped make the first two events a success, QuakeCon 1998 is regarded by many as being only partially a QuakeCon event. However, it was instrumental in motivating a group of people to start planning QuakeCon 1999 early.[citation needed]
From 1999 to 2002, QuakeCon took place that the Mesquite Convention Center in Texas. The 1999 event was the first event in which id Software played a major role in the organization. Recognizing that major sponsors were needed, David Miller a.k.a. "Wino" & Paul Horoky a.k.a. "devilseye", both original QuakeCon 1996 people, contacted id Software and convinced them to become the main sponsor, and to help out with finding more sponsors. Together with Anna Kang (then id Software employee, now John Carmack's wife) and a team of volunteers, Mr. Miller & Mr. Horoky set out to build QuakeCon 1999, which became the template for later years.[citation needed] A change of venue allowed the convention to grow larger than it had ever been before, and, this time, just down the street from id Software headquarters in Mesquite. id Software employees, including John Carmack, participated in various tournaments with attendees on-site as well. A large number of companies sponsored the event for the first time, including Activision, AMD, Apple Computer, ATI Technologies, Logitech, Linksys, and Lucent Technologies. QuakeCon 1999 was also the first time Quake 3 was used in competition as the game had not yet been released to the public.[citation needed]
QuakeCon
QuakeCon is a yearly convention held by ZeniMax Media to celebrate and promote the major franchises of id Software and other studios owned by ZeniMax. It includes a large, paid, bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN party event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty.
The event is highly dependent on volunteers to cover many aspects of the organization of the event. QuakeCon has historically had a reputation as the "Woodstock of gaming", and a week of "peace, love, and rockets!".
The 25th QuakeCon event had been planned for August 2020 in Dallas, Texas, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was canceled by Bethesda Softworks and id Software on March 31, citing difficulties in planning with vendors and exhibitors at this stage. An online QuakeCon was announced in June 2020 to replace the live show in August 2020. The 2021 and 2022 events were also held online. The return to a live event took place on August 10–13, 2023 in Grapevine, Texas.
QuakeCon originally grew out of a group of people on the EFnet IRC network, in channel #quake. As various regular visitors to the channel began expressing a desire to meet and game together in person, Jim "H2H" Elson, a gamer from the Dallas area with ties to the local Dallas-area gaming community, and Yossarian "yossman" Holmberg, a computer consultant from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, came up with the idea of assembling at a hotel. The original event name was actually '#quakecon', named after the IRC channel, though this quickly evolved into just 'QuakeCon'. Mr. Elson organized the bulk of the event for the first two years, until the number of people attending each year demanded a more organized approach. Volunteers grouped into teams to assist in the setup, troubleshooting, and tear down of the event's equipment and network.[citation needed]
The first event, in August 1996, was held at a conference room of a La Quinta Inn in Garland, Texas. The 1,250 square foot venue hosted around 40 people. Attendees who had brought their computers along to the event set up a small, impromptu network, in one of the hotel meeting rooms, playing mostly Quake I and Doom, testing deathmatch skills. A small tournament was held, with winners taking home T-shirts as prizes. The highlight of this first gathering came on the eve of the last day, when the entire id Software team showed up at the event in a surprise and most-welcome visit, stopping by to chat with the participants. John Carmack, lead programmer for Doom/Quake, participated in a 30–45 min. group chat with attendees on the porch of the hotel. Some ideas discussed during that chat eventually made it into Quake's future public releases. This "Carmack's Talk" grew into a yearly keynote speech that lasted through 2013.
QuakeCon 1997 brought an estimated 650 attendees to the Holiday Inn in Plano, Texas. It was covered by numerous Internet and broadcast media outlets, and was sponsored in part by id Software and Activision.
QuakeCon 1998 was held in conjunction with the Cyberathlete Professional League at Infomart in Dallas, Texas. Due to poor planning and the lack of people who had helped make the first two events a success, QuakeCon 1998 is regarded by many as being only partially a QuakeCon event. However, it was instrumental in motivating a group of people to start planning QuakeCon 1999 early.[citation needed]
From 1999 to 2002, QuakeCon took place that the Mesquite Convention Center in Texas. The 1999 event was the first event in which id Software played a major role in the organization. Recognizing that major sponsors were needed, David Miller a.k.a. "Wino" & Paul Horoky a.k.a. "devilseye", both original QuakeCon 1996 people, contacted id Software and convinced them to become the main sponsor, and to help out with finding more sponsors. Together with Anna Kang (then id Software employee, now John Carmack's wife) and a team of volunteers, Mr. Miller & Mr. Horoky set out to build QuakeCon 1999, which became the template for later years.[citation needed] A change of venue allowed the convention to grow larger than it had ever been before, and, this time, just down the street from id Software headquarters in Mesquite. id Software employees, including John Carmack, participated in various tournaments with attendees on-site as well. A large number of companies sponsored the event for the first time, including Activision, AMD, Apple Computer, ATI Technologies, Logitech, Linksys, and Lucent Technologies. QuakeCon 1999 was also the first time Quake 3 was used in competition as the game had not yet been released to the public.[citation needed]