Team Fortress is a team and class based online multiplayer computer game modification based on id Software's Quake. Team Fortress was designed and written by Robin Walker, John Cook, and Ian Caughley in 1996. Online gaming redirects here. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... For other uses, see Mod. ... id Software (IPA: officially, though originally ) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. ... This article is about the original video game. ... 1996 1996 in games 1995 in video gaming 1997 in video gaming Notable events of 1996 in video gaming. ...

History

The original Team Fortress released as freeware on August 24, 1996. The first release for QuakeWorld (v2.0) came on December 22, 1996. It was sufficiently successful that Walker, Cook and Caughley formed Team Fortress Software to develop Team Fortress 2 as a commercial mod for Quake II. Team Fortress 2 for Quake II was never fully developed and released. Walker and Cook later joined game developer Valve Software and released a port for Valve's Half-Life engine (Goldsrc) called Team Fortress Classic, which closely followed the gameplay, classes, and maps of the original. In 2007, a completely revised Team Fortress 2 was released as a stand-alone retail game for Valve's Source engine. The term Freeware refers to gratis proprietary software with closed source. ... is the 236th day of the year (237th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... QuakeWorld logo. ... is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Quake II, released on December 6, 1997, is a first person shooter computer game developed by id Software and distributed by Activision. ... Valve Software is a Bellevue, Washington-based video game developer made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released in November 1998. ... A demonstration level created by Valve showcasing the GoldSrc engine. ... Team Fortress Classic (TFC or TF 1. ... Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer, team-based, first-person shooter, developed by Valve Corporation as part of the game compilation The Orange Box. ...

Since its inception, and the subsequent release of the source code, Team Fortress has become an ever-expanding community project, with various server side modifications including , OZTF (Australia), MegaTF and CustomTF (USA) and TF2003 (Russia). Other, lesser-known modifications proliferated and typically made minor changes such as making small adjustments to the class strengths and altering grenade behavior.

Community

Community servers

Servers were quickly created all over the world, and were commonly listed and accessed via a browser utility for Quake-based games known as QuakeSpy, which later became GameSpy. Team Fortress became very popular, as players could find many servers without much difficulty. Upon joining the game, the player would be assigned to a team and would then select a character class. Active servers are still in existence today. The majority of games are now organized through IRC, these include clan matches, pugs (pick up games) typically comprised of 8v8, and quads (attack vs defence games) of 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4. GameSpy, also known as GameSpy Industries, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game Web sites and provides online video game-related services and software. ... Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. ...

Servers

Used as online battlegrounds where other people can meet and join teams to battle it out online.

Clans

Many users desired more organized games, and "Clans" popped up everywhere. Clans often started from a group of friends, and grew from there. Players that wanted to join the clan were either personally invited, or had to go through a tryout to join. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Clans competed against each other on a regular basis. Games would be scheduled before hand with a set time and a map. It was up to the Clan to decide who would be best for the game, and those members would meet prior to the game and prepare to play.

IRC community

IRC proved to be the primary form of organization and communication for Team Fortress Clans. There were many memorable community oriented channels, but the most prolific were the individual clan channels.

There are still surviving QuakeWorld Team Fortress IRC channels in existence today. This is where pick up games and clan matches are traditionally organized. A list of active QWTF IRC channels are listed below:

Evolution

Team Fortress has evolved into an entire genre as fans of the original modification have created a multitude of slightly different versions for various games:

• Fortress Evolution for Quake III Arena was intended to create a very close replica of the original QWTF, but was canceled and last released as an alpha build. It has recently returned as a standalone mod built upon Evolution Q3, but as a completely different project.
• A mod titled Q3F, for Quake III Fortress, was developed for Quake III Arena, and while liked by some, it never saw a huge following. This mod was further developed into the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory mod Enemy Territory Fortress, or ETF, in 2005; it had a notable initial following and many servers still operate, though it has since receded considerably in popularity.
• Unreal Fortress (abbreviated as UnF) existed for Unreal Tournament.
• Unreal Fortress: Evolution first started out as UnF 2003 for Unreal Tournament 2003, but has been made into a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 when Epic released the newer version of the game. It has never left the beta stage.
• Another evolution of TF is the multi-games mod Weapons Factory that has several considerable modifications to TF classes which results in different gameplay, resulting in many servers having to put limits on specialists (non-soldier classes).
• There is also a large Custom TF community presently active. Custom TF by Bill Kerney (aka Shaka[UVM]) has the normal classes of TF but also includes a "custom" option, where players have a set amount of money with which to buy weapons, armour, and skills.
• MegaTF was another popular Team Fortress mod which featured new enhancements to each class like proximity mines, laser drones, and airMirvs. The community slimmed after the popular East Coast and West Coast Biscuit servers were shut down for unknown reasons. There is a MegaTF mod currently in development for the Amnesia server called "MegaTF United" being developed by XavioR and other Team Fortress modders.
• Finally, the latest mods currently under construction are Fortress Forever (Released in September 2007) for Half-Life 2 and Quake 4 Fortress for Quake 4 (production on Q4F has ceased, however there is a Q4F modification in development by XavioR (aka avirox) called Quake 4 Fortress XT which addresses several of the incomplete factors of Q4F).

Robin Walker gave another Australian permission to continue his work and improve the original Team Fortress.[1] The result of this was Oz Team Fortress, or OZTF, which contains many updates and bugfixes. MegaTF, CustomTF, OZTF, the original TF, and many more mods with enhanced graphics are available as a free download from FileFront. Quake III Arena or Quake 3, abbreviated as Q3A or Q3, is a multiplayer first-person shooter computer and video game released on December 2, 1999. ... Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (ET) is a freeware first-person shooter (FPS) computer game, and a standalone sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, created by Splash Damage. ... Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (ET) is a freeware first-person shooter (FPS) computer game, and a standalone sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, created by Splash Damage. ... Unreal Tournament, abbreviated UT, (sometimes referred to as UT99, UT Classic, UT1, or UT:GOTY to differentiate from Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Unreal Tournament 3) is a popular first-person shooter video game. ... Unreal Tournament 2003 or UT2003 is a first-person shooter video game designed mainly for multiplayer gaming although the game had a built in single-player mode that mimics multiplayer gaming by featuring AI-bots. ... Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2004 or UT2K4, is a futuristic first-person shooter computer game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. ... Weapons Factory logo The Weapons Factory (also abbreviated as WF) is a series of video game capture the flag class-based mods, originally created for Quake II by brothers Tom Tumorhead Reno and Gregg Headache Reno. ... Half-Life 2 (commonly abbreviated to HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ... Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake FPS computer games. ...

The original Team Fortress was one of the first popular class-based first person shooter games and still maintains an active playerbase and modding community, with CustomTF servers being the primary source of Team Fortress play and development today (2008) according to quakeservers.net [2].

See also

• Team Fortress Classic
• Fortress Forever
• Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress Classic (TFC or TF 1. ... Fortress Forever is a Half-Life 2 mod that uses the games Source Engine. ... Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer, team-based, first-person shooter, developed by Valve Corporation as part of the game compilation The Orange Box. ...

External links

• MeanFortress
• Team Fortress Home
• CustomTF Forums

News

• PlanetFortress
• Teamfortress (pl) (Polish)
• TFPortal (bilingual - English/German)
• Team-Fortress .ES (Spanish)
• TeamFortressXtreme

Software

• Oz Team Fortress at the Internet Archive at archive.org
• Custom TF (server mod based on Team Fortress)
• Weapons Factory Arena (mod for Quake III Arena)
• Enemy Territory Fortress (mod for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)
• Team Elite (mod for Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force)
• Fortress Forever (mod for Half-Life 2)