QuakeCon 2004 - Today is the big day

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Well,

After months of waiting impatiently and dreaming of this day, it is finally here. Today, at around 3ish or so, I will begin my 4-5 hour trek to Dallas, TX for QuakeCon 2004 (or, as it's ben dubbed, GeekFest 2004).

To say that I'm excited about this trip and event is a huge understatement. In all honesty, though, I got so much GOOD sleep last night that I was VERY surprised to hear the alarm wake me up this morning (considering my issues with sleep and/or the lack thereof, I mean).

Anyway, I fully intend on making posts from there with pictures so that you guys (and gals) can get an idea of the scope of this thing (last estimate, up to 6000 players....sheesh!). If nothing else, I will do my reporting in Word format and will post everything when I get home.

So, to sum up, I'll be gone until Sunday at which time I will return and tell you all what great fun I had.

I'll miss you guys (and gals)!!!

LaTech

(PS - in the attached pic, the [H] is for Hard OCP...I tried to draw a LA_MERC symbol, but it looked more like a rabid monkey than anything...so...)

[[uGa] Saint]

so i guess instead of beer and women it will be bawls and silicone (and not the kind your thinkin of redneck)...hope you have fun Scott!!

[LA_MERC_Drifter]

have a safe trip!!!

[Suntrails]

have a safe trip!!!

Ditto.

[}{y|3ri|)]

shoulda made the [H]'s like this [}{] !!

w00t and a fun safe tripe, and i WILL hear from you when you get back about how much fun you had!

[eNdOfBeGinNinG]

sweet man, good luck and HAVE FUN FOR ALL OF US! enjoy bro

[IamTylerDurden]

YOUR GOIN!???? YOU DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY MAN!!! HOW I ENVY YOU!!!!!

If you get a chance to meet carmack would you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get him to sign something for me?????? (YES IM SERIOUS!!! HE'S MY GAMING GOD!)

You can have him sign it to either tyler durden OR Josh Hamrick! either is ok!!!

Have fun! I hate you!

josh

[[uGa] Saint]

if ya got a chance before you leave, could ya give me a rundown on what goes on there, or what you specifically are gonna be doing?? Just curious...

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

www.quakecon.org - There you go SAINT! Oh, and TD, it's my GOAL to meet John Carmack...I WILL meet him!!!

[eNdOfBeGinNinG]

wow this is cool
"Some more big news for you today. Tweaker, the band behind for Doom 3's theme song and much of its sound design, will be performing live at QuakeCon!

The concert will be Saturday night and is only for QuakeCon attendees. Seating will be limited and passes will be handed out throughout the event.
"

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Yes...Tweaker, John Carmack, Kyle from Hard OCP...lots of workshops and talks to go to. Plus, there is a large group of us that are going to see AVP at midnight! w00t!

[Handamer]

Sweet Bro have fun and don't do anything i would do remember what happened last time u tried somthing I did and u became someone's bubbah.....oh wait was that suppose to be a secret?

[aCiD]

why make the H like }{ when that looks like a butterfly? jp, lub j00 }{! :d:

[IamTylerDurden]

Yea... you gotta get Carmack to sign something for me then! PLEASE! and Tweaker should be a cool show! Chris learned a lot from Trent Reznor and knows what he's doing!

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

Sweet Bro have fun and don't do anything i would do remember what happened last time u tried somthing I did and u became someone's bubbah.....oh wait was that suppose to be a secret?


ahhh!!!
:owned:

[Silent_Killer]

lol........hav fun scott, talk to u when u return.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

http://www.nolaff.com/modules.php?name=Pictures&file=pics-QuakeCon_2004 has some pics up already.

Official departure time: 23 min (2pm CST)

w00000t!

[eNdOfBeGinNinG]

man I can not wait!!! lol your makin me wanna go so bad. It was like leaving for ARMA2 counting down the mins.. man I need another roadtrip.. SOUTH CAROLINA HERE WE COME!

[IamTylerDurden]

w00t!

[}{y|3ri|)]

why make the H like }{ when that looks like a butterfly? jp, lub j00 }{! :d:

|)00|) |3uTT3|2f|i35 r 1337!!!11

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Well, wouldn't you know it? I get 1 hour out of town and my truck breaks down. Transmission died or something.




HAHAHAHAHA! Yeah right...I would be walking my happy butt here! I just wanted to let everyone know I made it here safe and sound. I'm presently in a hotel room that I got spur of the moment (so that I could sleep tonight!) that has FREE INTERNET in the rooms. Well, it's not FREE....this room alone cost $168 a night, but hey...it's for a good cause.

Anyway, I went by the Gaylord Texan...that place is HUGE and it's well organized (they told me to go away after I told them I was there to help...bastages).

The drive here, except for the 1/2 hour of rain that I couldn't see past the end of my truck, was quick. I saw someone moving an F-14 (without the wings) on a semi-truck...that was awesome.

The pics are of the hotel room I'm in right now. Yes, that is my computer with the flat panel I stole (borrowed!!!) from work.

[LA_MERC_T4rg3T]

Nice Tech, can't wait for the other pictures to come... err.. nevermind, I might not have internet for a while after today

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

GL T...and try to have fun, man.

[}{y|3ri|)]

ok thats wrong about the truck man, heather and i both where like

"awwe damnit that sucks for him"

then we where like

"man im going to slap him!"

[Suntrails]

And I slap hard! :slp


the flat panel I stole (borrowed!!!) from work.

I was told that if you take something that isn't nailed down it's called "winning."

[[uGa] Saint]

lmao @ sun!!

[IamTylerDurden]

LOL!!! Nice sun!...

Tech, what background are you running???

You got my Carmack auto yet???

-josh

[}{y|3ri|)]

I was told that if you take something that isn't nailed down it's called "winning."

So you do listen to what i say!!!!

:)

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Ok, I haven't seen Carmack or anything yet...but I promise I'll do the best I can.

There are SO many people here...it's unreal. Jay, I don't know if you'll ever read this, but I gotta tell you, while Armageddon 2 was MUCH smaller, we ran a much more "on schedule" thing than they have here so far. "Gates" were supposed to open at 9 (I, of course, thought it was 6 and showed up at 2:30 am) but I didn't get in here until after 10:30. Sore feet...tired, and damn hungry!

Anyway, on with the show! This room is huge. Imagine about 2-3 football fields FULL of computer geeks and their babies. Pictures! 004 is of 3 guys I met here that are pretty cool. One of them I will be rooming with for the remaining evenings. We were testing out M#oft Flight 2004. 005 is not much of a line, but it's beginning to start. This was at about 6:30 this morning. 007-009 are a panoramic picture of 1/2 of the area that we're in. OMG, it's such a big room. The rest of the pictures are the vendors that surround the walls on one part of the room...I'm telling you, there are a BUNCH of people here!!!

Anyway, I can't get on IRC, nor can I get on any chat programs...so, you'll have to send me PMs if you want me to get anythingfor ya!

LaTech

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

other pics

[IamTylerDurden]

Tech.... you make me so hor..... happy!

me loves you!

[[sG] Dutchman]

MAN you soooo lucky you can go to those place all I can go is to my room

[[uGa] Saint]

i agree with dutch... that looks like a lot of fun... boo to wisconsin!!

[LA_MERC_T4rg3T]

Wow, took you 10 post to get banned... Good thing I was at lunch or I would have banned you after the 3rd stupid post you made but what can you expect from a 26 year old idiot from Milwaukee.

[IamTylerDurden]

LOL! Toby, you rock! I stalled waiting for someone to take notice! LOL!

[[uGa] Saint]

lol, no, the picture is of my roomate, lol...

iatd is my hero, lmao!!


mannnnnnnn... now my beloved beer city has a bad rep, crap... sorry guys for being the first to instigate this guy.

[IamTylerDurden]

LOL!!!

Thank you Saint!

[}{y|3ri|)]

Cleaned out all the crap in this thread... lets keep in mind this is where scott is informing us of all the fun he is having without us.. hehe.. far as im concerned angelkiller never exsisted and i dont wana hear any more about it.

[Benny_B]

']lol, no, the picture is of my roomate, lol...



It should be known, that this is not a pic of me, but rather our other roomate. I just dont want anyone thinkin i look like that.

[LA_MERC_Onji]

Tech, try http://go.icq.com !!

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Don't know what happened...so I guess it was a good thing that our internet went down for a bit.

Anyway...on to cooler things from cooler people.

}{ (tm), I took the first picture here JUST FOR YOU! I was standing in line to get a free NVidia shirt with DOOM3 on it, and I looked over at demo games that they had running...hehehe

2nd picture is a Zalman heatsink and fan. Now, it doesn't look like much, but that's a 120mm fan...so now can you understand why I took that pic?!

3rd pic: This case is bad to the bone. It's about the size of the Antec cases, but is all aluminum, has the capabilities of hiding almost all the cables in the case (yeah, even those that connect TO the motherboard!) and has 2 120mm fans and a 90mm fan. It was awesome!

4th pic: This case by Aero Cool looks SAWEET!!! I don't exactly know what that control panel thing on the top was, but it looked really cool anyway! I'm guessing it had something to do with temps and stuff

5th pic: I took this pic for Andy and Jay...it's the power stuff for just 1/6th of this building...or, that's what it looks like anyway. youch!

Also, I got to meet and talk to Fatality (or fatal1ty). Anyway, the guy is a really cool guy and is really down to Earth. He signed a poster for me after I asked if he would sign this piece of paper that I had. he's really cool. I signed up to play Doom3 multiplayer against him (not many people were doing so because they were afraid of being humiliated...I'm humiliated ALL the time, so I'm used to it). If I frag him once, I get some cool free stuff. If I win the match...I win a new computer. Now, I told him, "While I've played Doom3 and had fun with it, I've not played multiplayer at all." He said, "Don't worry about it Scott...I'll show you the ropes and give you pointers. Games are all about learning." w00t. I'm hoping for atleast 1 kill.

All for now...

LaTech...signing off.

[LA_MERC_goose]

DARN YOU TO HECK AND BACK! Damn luck boon! Kewl

[}{y|3ri|)]

its city of heros!! w00t w00t! musta been a plaync demo booth!

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Tyler,

Just left an informative thing with the people from id, nVidia etc. John isn't going to be here because his wife is having a baby tomorrow (Ryan Carmack...you can send well-wishes to [email protected] supposedly). So, I won't be able to get his sig for you...sorry.

nVidia just released the 6600 video card. It's based on the 6800 cards (same technology and architecture) and will be PCI-E. Should be hitting the market next month. SLI will be hitting the market LATE next month. This is the news from nVidia anyway.

LaTech

[IamTylerDurden]

OOOOH YEA! I forgot about that, Although I though he had about a month to go still, but I guess some time has passed since then.

Well thanks anyway man! I just appreciate you being willing to do that!

Good luck with the fata1ity match by the way! FRAG HIM BABY!

P.s. I'd settle for some other kind of swag since the auto is out of the question! =) LOL!

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Ok, I took some pictures last night of the atrium at this hotel (resort...whatever). This place is amazing. There is a waterfall or two and this fountain that shoots water about 30 feet in the air to music that is playing through Bose speakers that are located about every 10 feet or so throughout the atrium. I went for a walk on the exercise path this morning, might go to the gym (on site) later on today...who knows.

I left all of my stuff out here by my comptuer last night just to see how everyone was going to treat my stuff. Nothing was moved at all. Nothing. There are security people ALL over the place, and I have myself placed right behind the information desk just for the added security.

Stuff IS expensive, though. There is a place to eat on site that is a buffet. $25 a person. Ouch... I bought a 12 oz bottle of water yesterday for $.75 and have been refilling it at the water fountain all day long. Why pay for water? That's insane!

Let me try to explain the scope of this place. The ceiling is about 30' above my head and is all industrial looking (it is a convention hall, but is made more for functionality than looks...bear in mind, this is the ONLY room that is like this here, everythign else is expensive looking...they spared no expense). The wall to my left is about 150 yards away, and the wall to my right is about 300 yards away. To my front is approximately 250 computers that are set up for the Doom3 tourney and a wall. Beyond the wall is the vendor/sponsor area that is as big as a football field alone. Behind me about 500 yards away or so is the back wall. Now, the area from the left wall to the right wall all the way back to the back wall is the BYOC area. Yes, that's right...it's that big. They keep the lights turned off here at all times, so it's really cool when you're playing Doom3 with headphones and someone comes behind you and spooks you (Well, it was fun to spook that guy, anyway. lol). It's noisy here. Not so much that my ears ring when I try to go asleep...but imagine 4-5000 of your closest friends playing games, yelling, goofing off...and then there are announcements form time to time that nobody can understand because of so much echo.

Some of the vendors: Geekwarez (clothing for geeks, I guess...I didn't see anything that I couldn't live without), pcToys (I walked up to his booth, and the guy gave me a mousepad...), GearGrip (monitor and computer carrying harnesses), nVidia (several HUGE booths...they have Doom3 shirts if you fill out this thing...so far, I've only done it twice...lol), Activision (they have a tent with about 15 computers in it so you can play the new expansion pack for Call of Duty), id (they have a room with 5 computers in it so you can play Doom3...they close the door and turn out the lights when you go in...muhahah!), Creative Labs (new digital sound card and speaker demo), ABit (they brought fatal1ty and are showcaseing his new line of motherboards, video cards etc), Bawls (Sugar Free Bawls, anyone?)...there are a ton of others, but these are the only ones that I can see right now (vendor area is closed).

Reporter LaTech, on site at QuakeCon 2004, signing off...for now.

[Seductive]

Wow that place is beautiful! You are a lucky, lucky man. How is it that eob didnt try to sucker me into letting him go? weird.

[}{y|3ri|)]

supah sweet!!

[IamTylerDurden]

Awesome!

[[uGa] Saint]

omg, im so mad im not there right now... how long does it last for??

[Suntrails]

Wow, you weren't kidding. It *is* swanky.

Cocktails by the pool anyone?

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

It lasts till Sunday, SAINT.

More pics! Ok, some booth babes (there are other pics of booth babes, but they aren't really wearing enough clothing to be posted here...doh!), some weird dancing game that looks like more work that it's worth, nVidia's mini-tourney...you win, you get a video card, system designed by fatal1ty, and Alienware showed up today..

[Suntrails]

Hmmm, booth babe. Get paid to stand around all day in a luxury hotel, whilst being oggled by geeks...

I think I've found my calling!

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Another PG rated booth babe.

Also, just to prove who all was here....this is fatal1ty and some idiot guy with a Tech shirt on...

[IamTylerDurden]

Hey, that idiot looks a lot like... wait a minute!

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

heheh, pwned!

[Handamer]

U looking alittle close there to him what u trying to do give him the reach around?...looks like you having fun man keep sending more pics....

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

No, he was grabbling my butt, or trying to pick my pocket, I don't know which.

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

who is that guy Scott? Fatal1ty?

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Yeah, the guy on the left is fatal1ty...

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

sorry I guess nub question, but who is Fatal1ty?

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

people who are killed in various events are usually called a Fatality

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

Call him a Haxing Nub then challenge him to a match!

actually, ask him if he's going to drive that custom ford focus to the premeir of AVP movie. (he won a customized ford focus with retail value of $40k for winning the first AVP2 tourny at the CPL a couple years ago. it's paint, interior, etc. are done to themes of AVP2 the game)

[Handamer]

hehe a 40k ford focus...U figure they would get a better car and dump 40k into it /shrug

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

fatal1ty is...well...go here and read: https://secure.convergence.net/fatal1ty/

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

can you get some specs on that fatality motherboard from abit? anandtech posted about it recently but didn't have any specs. what kind of special features does it have that other boards supposedly dont?

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Well, from what the lady said, it's been streamlined down. All the crap that gamers don't need isn't in there. Now, what does that men? I really have no clue. Gonna go see if I can find more info though...

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Ok, here's the deal, Kyle from Hard OCP will be doing a live review of this motherboard etc tomorrow. So, they won't release any information on the stuff until then. I do have a pamphlet, however, that talked about his line of cases and stuff. To be honest, it looks like a normal case that has been covered with that Rhino stuff that people put in their trucks. Then again, what do I know?

I'd almost like to say that things here are winding down, but that wouldn't be true in the least. They just opened up DC++ (direct connect ++), and leaching has gone through the roof. lol I mean, we're talking several TB of games, music...and anything else you could want.

The QuakeCon girls just showed up. I'm not overly impressed, to be honest. Then again, I am not like a lot of the guys here (when they announced that they had arrived, half of the guys here ran to where they were at and have been following them around like lost puppies). I went to get Bawls for my neighbor, and they had the whole area blocked off. I had to wait for them and their groopies to leave!

LaTech

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Tyler,

It's not John Carmack, but I tracked down Todd Holenstead (President and CEO of id) and got him to sign Disk 1 of Doom3 (actual legit disk). Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, John will be at the id meeting that I'm going to try to get into tomorrow. My fingers are crossed...and if I get in, I'll be looking for you know who.

LaTech

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

LMAO Scott, as if you would ask him to sign a generic CD-R that you burned a copy of Doom3 onto. I'd love to see his face if you did though.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

hehehe....I can try that tomorrow if you want. Well, actually, I'll wait till LATE tomorrow so that if they kick me out, I will have spent enough time here to make the trip worth while!

[LA_MERC_RiverRat]

Dont forget to hand out the Lan Horizon business cards to all the potential sponsors...

J/K unless you really are doing that :P

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

I didn't know I was supposed to bring any. Tell you what, print out a bunch and bring them here. Yeah...ok? ;-)

[LA_MERC_RiverRat]

/me slaps a big bucket of Tofu in front of Scotts monitor!

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Wrong Scott, Jay!

Ok, we're now into day 3 of QCon. We've got more of the same planned for today and stuff. Still enjoying myself and stuff. Today, Kyle from Hard OCP is giving a talk, and id is giving another talk. I'm interested in hearing both of them.

We have a group of people going to Hooters for lunch (just like we do for our lans). This should prove interesting if a bunch of people go. lmao

Anyway, I'll be heading home early tomorrow morning probably. I'll see what information I can come up with about the fatal1ty stuff, and whatever else gets released.

Also, forgot to mention this, but it is old news now. id is working on their next project already. It's not going to be like anything they have already done (no Doom, Quake or Wolf). Right now, they are working on whatever this new game is (built on Doom3 engine), an update for Doom3 and Doom3 for console (XBox I think).

LaTech

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

ok...whew...today has been a long day.

One of the guys I am rooming with here and I decided to go to Mecca (Frys) to get him a new 21" monitor (he had a flat panel, but the thing was ghosting and stuff and he decided to sell it here for $400, which he did).

Now, we looked up online how to find both Frys and Hooters...neither one were that far away from here. We left at 10:30 so that we would have plent time to get back in time for the Hard OCP show that was to be at 1. You can see where this is going, no doubt.

We got to Frys within 10 minutes of leaving Gaylord Texan Resort. My goodness, is that place Mecca for any electronics junkie or what?! I mean, anythign that plugs into the wall, or has to do with computers even remotely can be found there. I went through the DVD area on acci-purpose and ended up buying Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2. (Onji, I watched 2 just a bit ago...it rocks!) (sorry, some hot chick just walked by and I lost my train of thought...oh yeah!) Ok, so we were at Frys for a grand total of 15 minutes or so. Then, we asked one last time where Hooters was to make sure where we were going. Yep, we knew.

So, we left there and began to head toward Hooters. So, we followed the directions that were given to us...and ended up almost in Dallas (we were going to the Hooters in Grapevine). We turned around, and went back to the hotel because we had directions from there to the Hooters too. Ok, so...we tried again to go to Hooters...and got turned around/lost again! The whole time, we're like "Dude, the airport is right there...so long as we know where it is, we can't get lost!" Well, we got turned around. So, we were trying to get back to the roads that we knew, and took another wrong turn. FINALLY, we stopped and I went in this gas station to ask for directions. It was a Magic Mikes filling station (I say this so everyone will go there when/if they ever see one). I went in and asked for directions. This guy looked at me and smiled (I could tell he frequented the place) and he gave me directions again.

So, we left that gas station and followed the directions that he had given us. Within 5 minutes, we were pulling up to Hooters....5 freakin minutes! We had driven all over Grapevine and parts of other areas...only to find that we were 5 minutes from the hotel! AAAAH!!!! Anyway, we were there for a while (please note, about 45 minutes had passed since we left Frys). I have another new favorite beer: Shiner Bock. Apparently it's made really close to here or something and was pretty good.

So, we came back here to find that the Hard OCP thing had already happened. Figures. So, we hung out and surfed through 25 Terabytes of data that people had shared. That's a lot of programs and music...and stuff.

Things are beginning to wrap up here at QuakeCon 2004. This will be my last report as to the happenings here as I'll be packing up my system early in the morning and heading home shortly after that so I can rest. It's been a blast here, I can tell you that for sure. Next year, I WILL be coming back and hope to have just as much fun as I had this year.

LaTech

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

COOL... Latech,, Good job keeping everyone up with the trip, it was good reading...only wish I had the money and time to make a trip like that :)

[[uGa] Saint]

im with yellowdog, it was fun reading your experience at quakecon, hope i might be able to make it at some point...

[IamTylerDurden]

Tyler,

It's not John Carmack, but I tracked down Todd Holenstead (President and CEO of id) and got him to sign Disk 1 of Doom3 (actual legit disk). Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, John will be at the id meeting that I'm going to try to get into tomorrow. My fingers are crossed...and if I get in, I'll be looking for you know who.

LaTech

SAWEET!!!

You did well man! It was great having someone there to post for us and what not!

Glad you had fun!!!

[Suntrails]

So glad you had fun!

[LA_MERC_Heater]

Glad you had fun man...