Sadly I was busy playing chauffeur for a Dutch guy during the QuakeCon keynote address and missed it entirely. Carmack was not chatting this year. :( However quite a few other folks did catch it and have already written up some of the more interesting things mentioned during the show. I'll list off a few of the hot ones and you can check out some more at HomeLAN

- Movement on the proposed Doom movie is still going forward, according to Hollenshead and he said he was more optimistic that a good movie based on Doom will be made.
- Multiplayer modes in Doom III will consist of deathmatch, team deathmatch, last man standing and tournament, according to Willits.
- Hollenshead said he was not worried about other highly anticipated games like Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 taking away some of Doom III’s thunder, saying, "We don’t need other games to suck for ours to be good."

There wasnt anything mentioned about Quake4 really of note outside of the fact that there apparently will be vehicles in the game, or at least planned. Also Quake4 @ QuakeCon2004 sounds hot!

Because Kyle's our buddy and this includes free hardware, HardOCP is doing another workshop at QuakeCon this year which generally features a few newfangled pieces of hardware getting shown off and some pretty good insight into what the future of PC hardware looks like. Anand from AnandTech will also be there. It's August 16th at 1PM at the event center.

Cool news for the people planning to attend QuakeCon (August 14 - 17 Dallas, TX), as id Software will be showing off DOOM 3 multiplayer there. A 4 player deathmatch level, co-developed by id Software and Splash Damage, will be on display for people to play. Splash Damage, the company behind Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, is also co-developing other DOOM 3 multiplayer levels.

"What better way to celebrate QuakeCon than to unveil to our fans a preview of DOOM 3 multiplayer," said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. "While everyone knows that DOOM 3 is the most terrifying and scary single player experience ever created, multiplayer delivers the intense competitive action that our fans can count on. It's a natural to debut the DOOM 3 multiplayer experience at QuakeCon, the world's preeminent fan-based multiplayer gaming event."

id Software's PR people sent out this press release, announcing that id Software is looking for speakers for this year's QuakeCon event. If you think you have what it takes to host a workshop, you will need to send a 300 word article describing your session/workshop, a biography and contact information to Wendy Zaas.

Registration for this year's QuakeCon event will kick off at 8PM CST, make sure you register fast if you want a BYOC spot. This year's event will be in the Dallas Adam's Mark Hotel from August 14 to 17.

The 2003 QuakeCon event's registration date and tournaments have been announced. Registration starts June 9, and there will be four events: Return to Castle Wolfenstein team tournament, Quake 3 1 vs 1 tournament, Quake 3 CTF tournament and a Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory open tournament.

This year's QuakeCon has been announced, and will happen August 14-17. The action is moving though, as the event will now take place at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Dallas instead of the Hampton Inn in Mesquite. No tournaments have been announced yet.

I'm posting this because he's Tapper and he's the bomb, our favorite local linux admin who has spent a few too many hours in the colo room with me working on the Shack boxes is also organizing QuakeCon! Check out his interview, dont mess it up Brian!

Firing Squad's QuakeCon coverage includes their own chat with id Software. Once again, Tim Willits and Fred Nilsson answer questions about DOOM 3. Thanks HomeLAN Fed.

Steve is still MIA but several sites have already reported on what John Carmack had to say at QuakeCon and what id Software showed from DOOM 3. You can read articles on GameSpy (and here), GameSpot, HomeLAN Fed and Dingbat's Domain. Probably the most surprising part is John Carmack expressing hope that the game would be out before next year's E3 (in May), so sooner, rather than later in 2003. The limited multiplayer options are that, limited. Four players maximum most likely and no option to join matches that are in progress. Also mentioned was the length of the game. DOOM 3 won't be as short as some recent FPS games, but hardcore fanatics will probably finish it in a weekend.

Doom III won't have objectives as simple as the original Doom game, which featured repeated quests for colored keycards, but there will be door puzzles. The computer consoles that control various parts of the base are actually quite sophisticated. As the player approaches a console, the weapon drops out of view and a cursor pops up on the console screen that can be controlled with the mouse. The animated console interface looks much like a Web page and an id developer mentioned that putting together the interface content is like working in Web HTML. There's a mission interface that pops up in the upper right part of the screen to show objectives that players have yet to accomplish

So the whole QuakeCon event is fully up and running, here's some reports on what's happening. Day 1 coverage on VIA Hardware and GameSpy, a few random impressions on HomeLAN Fed, photos on PlanetQuake and HomeLAN Fed. If you're interested in the tournaments you can check out ShackES. As for game coverage

- Star Trek Elite Force 2 on HomeLAN Fed.
- DOOM 3 on GameSpy.
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory on HomeLAN Fed, GameSpy.

Later today people attending QuakeCon will get a brand new look at DOOM 3 and Carmack will have his annual talk (starting at 3PM central). You can (try) listen to that talk through TSN Central's Shoutcast server, as they will broadcast it.

For those of you showing up at QuakeCon in the morning, the reserved Shacker area in the BYOC is to your left at the end. The tables are marked and there is room for about 40 people. If you emailed me the other day asking for a spot or multiple spots, you're in.

As I mentioned the other day I fired off some interviews to the major QuakeCon sponsors to see if anything was happening with these guys as usually they've got something brewing if they are sponsoring a major event. Here's the first response we got from VIA Technologies. VIA is launching a new chipset, the KT400. What is also interesting is this:

[snip] Our S3 Graphics Joint Venture recently released a new graphics chip called the SavageXP targeted at the entry level desktop market, and is currently working on a new high performance design codenamed Columbia. More details about this product should be available towards the end of the year.

It's kind of funny to see VIA, AMD, and ATI all as the major sponsors of QuakeCon.. All three of these companies in the past battled to gain recognition and have had histories of less than perfect stability. AMD was probably the first to break free of that stigma as their Athlon line has proven solid, and we're seeing some serious efforts and money being put up on the table by VIA and ATI now. Gamers are a hard market to please for sure.

Got several emails today mentioning that id Software will be showing off DOOM 3 at the upcoming QuakeCon event. The E3 mini theatre will be used, which seats about 20 people per showing. People attending QuakeCon won't just see what the people at E3 already saw though, as GameSpot mentions that an additional level will be shown.

Wanted to post a reminder that QuakeCon registration starts tonight at 9PM CST. I'm told tournament and BYOC registration filled up within 30 minutes last year, so be sure to hit the site on time to get a chance to sign up. QuakeCon 2002 will be held Aug. 15-18 in Mesquite, TX.

EvilJohn slipped me some $20s to remind you all that registration for the Return to Castle Wolfenstein tournament at QuakeCon has begun. There will be online qualifying games for this tourney. Registration for the Quake3 tournament as well general attendance will start in a few days.

The QuakeCon guys finally released some more info on this year's event on the official website. ATI is a big sponsor now, providing no less than $100,000 in prize money. The team that wins the Return to Castle Wolfenstein will walk away with a $25,000 grand prize, the winner of the Quake3 tournament will get a cool $20,000. Registration starts June 10 for the RTCW tournament, general admittance and Quake 3 tournament registration starts June 14. The news announcement also includes word that attendees will get to see ATI's next-gen card.

update Steve: Last year id was showing off DOOM3 stuff, so if you've got an itch to see how DOOM3 is looking, I would suspect another showing of DOOM3 this year is a pretty safe bet.

The official QuakeCon site has word that they are looking for volunteers to help at this year's event. QuakeCon 2002 will be held August 15 - 18 this year. Thanks Erik.

Though we've known for a while now that this year's QuakeCon would be held August 15 - 18, the event has now officially been announced. According to the press release, this year will see two main tournaments. True to the name of the event, there will be a Quake 3 DM tournament. But new this year is a Return to Castle Wolfenstein tournament for teams and clans.

Prepare for the annual pilgrimage to the holiest spot in interactive entertainment, Mesquite, Texas, as id Software has announced the dates of QuakeCon 2K2. Set for Aug. 15 -18, QuakeCon will be more intense than ever, as thousands of gamers descend on the Mesquite Convention Center and Exhibit Hall at the Hampton Inn, in Mesquite, Texas, to wage virtual war against 1,250 of their closest friends in the 35,000 square foot bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN party, or compete in nerve-defying QuakeCon tournaments.

As promised, the map models submitted for the QuakeCon 2001 Map Model Contest have been released over at Polycount. You can use these in your maps.