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Clan of the Implementors | |
In the beginning... there was QTEST.
Well, perhaps that wasn't really the beginning. Arguably, the whole PC gaming first-person-shooter (FPS) genre really took off with the inception of games like Wolfenstein 3D and the Doom series. The ancestors of those now-classic games go back even farther.
I was still an engineering student when the first bits of Quake code were just starting to come together. A goodly portion of the computing center staff along with myself anxiously tracked every bit of information about the upcoming game, and when the demo was released, we pounced. Internet backbone routers screamed in agony the day QTEST was released.
Only to endure the agonizing wait until the release date...
Late June 1996, the game shipped, and by about the same time October I'd constructed my first Quake server out of spare parts. But Quake had also brought two important "firsts" along with it - the idea of the gaming "clan", and QuakeC.
Like mushrooms, Quake clans sprouted out across the Web. Avid Quake players, eager to show off their gaming prowess, attempted to attract other like-minded individuals. Clans focusing on anything from the obscene, to the grotesque, to the syrupy cute plied their wares across the Internet, using anything from ill-mannered machismo to professionally designed Web sites and graphics. Some clans became successful, as a result of good planning and the hard work of the members. A lot were crap.
It occurred to me that it really didn't take much more to start a clan than to just hang out a shingle. Why not beat the llamas at their own game?
In the process of designing the Web site, I decided to try and make something more of it, or rather, make something of Quake. The introduction of QuakeC was something new, you could implement new features, make a new game. And so, the Clan of the Implementors (in homage to the Implementors of now-defunct Infocom) was born. The Clan was billed as "The first and only Quake Engineering clan" and focused on Quake-related projects. People started signing up. Interest grew in the Clan's primary project, Quaker Server Modifications.
Since that time, the focus of the Clan of the Implementors' focus expanded to include two other projects, the QuakeC Reference Manual and QstatList. The Web site has expanded to offer a pretty well-rounded collection of practical Quake references and links, as well as one of the more comprehensive Quake server listings. The Clan also maintained the quake.gue-tech.org server.
The Clan of the Implementors is a Title IX clan, and does not discriminate on the basis of color or creed. Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities (i.e. keyboarders) are encouraged to apply.
However, Clan members, when identifying themselves as part of the clan, should prefix their names with "CI-" as a means of identification, in keeping with the current Clan conventions.
The Clan of the Implementors was the first and only engineering clan, and is intended as a way for engineers interested in the game to meet and exchange ideas, as well as to have some fun. Clan activities focus exclusively on the development of Quake-related projects and services.
Clan activities included the development and distribution of Quaker Server Modifications, QstatList, and the QuakeC Reference Manual. The Clan also provides and maintains the Quake Server List and the quake.gue-tech.org server.
Picture of The Implementors from the Zork Zero manual, by Infocom,
Inc.
Copyright © 2000, Dark
Grue.