Photos
Quakecon 2005
August 11-14, 2005, Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, Grapevine, Texas, USA
Thanks
Click on the thumbnails to view the photos
We signed up within 2 minutes of registration opening but, as you can see, there were a few people ahead of us.
To beat the high prices at the hotel, we stocked up and brought our own drinks.
Traveling light!
We got to the Gaylord Texas at about 3:30 PM … This is a HUGE place!
The staff is willing and eager to help … for a price.
The Gaylord Texas … Born May 7, 2004.
This is the lobby as you first walk in the door.
The stars above the arches are a nice touch.
If you didn't come to the Gaylord Texan for Quakecon, there is still plenty to do.
Riding the elevator up … Weeeeeeeeee!
This is a view from the balcony of our room.
Room view … Panorama 1.
Room view … Panorama 2.
Room view … Panorama 3. Yup, our room is behind the oil derrick.
Room view … Panorama 4.
Room view … Panorama 5.
Gawd damned smokers!
Another balcony view of the atrium.
The room itself.
The bathroom.
The tub (it is a very nice shower, by the way).
Izmu, Alien, and Banshee
OMG! The giant Grapevine Football!
There were a number of exhibits in the atrium … Model trains …
… Complete with a little train station
Coming 'round the bend.
There is a caboose.
Another model train crossing a bridge.
Almost across.
A model windmill, well, and waterhouse.
NASA also had an exhibit with models of the shuttle and photos.
Bloodwolf gets pwned by the door.
Ryly is all smiles while waiting to get into the BYOC.
Alien reviews results from previous tournaments.
At this point, Izmu has been up for about 23 hours.
The registration desk … Not quite ready to open.
These people started lining up at 6:00 PM.
Remember those green nVidia chairs from last year … They're baaaaack!
More people waiting to get into the BYOC Wednesday night.
The Information Desk is full of useful information and suggestions.
The line finally started moving at about 4:00 AM. We were all a little tired by then.
We've made the final turn and are heading for the registration desk.
Finally! Set up in the BYOC at 5:00 AM.
Let's frag! On second thought, I think I'm going to sleep.
Some quick shots of the BYOC … The NOC under the Quakecon banner.
If I can't see the banner, it can't see me! :)
More PCs, the banner, and the vendor area way in the back.
This is the tournament area. It was against the far wall, separated from the BYOC by the vendor area … A much better arrangement.
Fatal1ty was at Quakecon 2005, playing randomly selected challengers in the Creative booth.
Everyone commented on how terrible the water tasted. I thought it was interesting the pipe was labeled … Hmmmm.
Black checks Alien's computer for hacks.
Black and Alien share a moment.
The lighting in the BYOC was much better this year. Four sets of uplights gave an eerie appearance from the distance.
The Senior Gaming League was back with their BYOC tourney … Only old guys (over 30) could enter.
This video game is actually a PC running MAME and could play tons of old video games.
OK, as bad as the chair looks, this was an acceptable use.
Make a case mod out of it!
Friday morning and a few people were still registering to get into the BYOC.
Ah, motherhood!
The RtCW contingent.
Banshee and MsMoody
Alien and Hack ran a number of BYOC tournaments.
nVidia had a large booth in the vendor area. This is the entrance.
They had laptops setup to demonstrate their video chips.
They also had desktops setup to demonstrate their video boards running the latest games.
They also had a small LAN setup for gaming.
The nVidia booth with a booth babe.
The nVidia lounge area complete with green chairs. :P
The Intel booth was as large or larger then nVidia's. Here is the front.
Intel had about 20 machines setup for gaming. Many were running Doom 3 and Quake 4.
More Intel gaming machines …
Good grief, even more Intel gaming machines!
The Intel lounge area with Quake 3 frag videos running in the background.
Fatal1ty was at the Creative booth.
This was the deal … Just beat him and win $500 of merchandise. Most people scored -1 or 0.
Activision had a large booth too.
The primary attraction was a 10 player Quake 4 Free For All.
Another shot of the Quake 4 FFA area. It was first come, first serve, play as long as you wanted.
Razer was showing off their new Copperhead mouse.
The Linksys booth. Ask a question, get a T-shirt!
Ageia was passing out information on their new physics co-processor cards. Hopefully Q4 will support them.
You could learn everything you ever wanted to know about memory at the Kingston booth.
Enermax was displaying cases and power supplies.
Even the Guildhall had a booth in the vendor area!
The Blue Gears booth. They had some neat system monitoring accessories for cases.
The front of the Alienware booth.
The Z-board booth.
A Bawls Slurpee really hits the spot on a hot August afternoon!
The clothier was tucked away quietly in the back of the vendor area.
Chillin' at the Linksys booth.
Ryly entered the Ms Quakecon tournament again this year. The first round was an elimination FFA. She did well. :)
Ms.X went undefeated through the winners bracket.
Missy emerged at the top of the losers bracket.
Ryly finished tied for 7th! W00t!
What an excellent idea!
Alien shows 'em how to play Quake 4.
Duck!
Hack celebrated his birthday on Friday night.
… And a good time was had by all.
Alien and Bloodwolf face off in Air Hockey.
Alien put up a valient effort …
… But Bloodwolf won the game 6 - 4.
Somebody was busy Friday night!
Nice liquid-cooled rig.
This is Project Lament … the Hellraiser PC.
This is a nice way to keep both your CPU and your Bawls cool.
This mod began as a toolbox from Home Depot.
This mod pays homage to the Ford F40.
It features dual exhausts, emergency blinkers (if the LAN fails), a 108db horn, and genuine Ford logos from a Texas dealership.
This case has a nice wood finish with metal accents.
Another shot of the same case.
Obviously, the guy is a Parrothead.
I just liked the wallpaper.
How … Floral!
This 100% walnut case took about 3 months to build.
A commercial micro-tower case.
Nice looking alien face for the side window.
This mod was tucked away in the back of the BYOC. The PC is installed inside the mannequin.
Unfortunately, it looks like it has a virtual memory error, disk controller error, virus, or memory problem. :(
Another shot, up close.
The caseless wonder.
Not really a case mod, but I like model rockets too.
This rig not only looked nice but scored 15,827 in the Alienware benchmarks. Not bad!
This is one of two machines Hack brought. He ran 4 tournament servers on each one and they were smoooooth.
A commercial inverted ATX case, the PC-V2100 by Lian Li.
A nice diamond-plate case mod.
This miniature version of the Donkey Kong arcade game actually works.
After waiting 8 hours to get into the BYOC on Wednesday night, this little unit suddenly makes a lot of sense.
Another commercial inverted ATX case, the PC-V1000B, also by Lian Li.
This huge case has plenty of room for storage.
… And it looks kewl in the dark!
Another mod using the same case.
Ellis's Plexiglas case.
Another double-wide case. Note the Aerocool Gatewatch panel taking up 2 5.25" slots.
A modded Mac Cube.
I think these DDR DIMMs are pretty slick.
This unassuming PC scored 16,319 in the Alienware benchmarks.
Another diamond-plate case mod.
This cooling tower resembles Dallas City Hall.
A closer look at the innards of the cooling tower.
The fish tank PC. The mother board is submerged in mineral oil!
Saturday afternoon and there are plenty of seats in the BYOC.
More empty seats.
Not having a confirmed BYOC spot is not an excuse …
... There are plenty of empty seats!
The Bawls chugging contest.
More chugging.
A female chugger!
MC Hammer's white cousin finished his bottle in 15.6 seconds. Weak!
The winner (not this guy) chugged a bottle of Bawls in 3.4 seconds!
The Quake 2 Tourney finals featured PURRI from Sweden, coming from the winners bracket …
… vs Doze from the United States, coming from the losers bracket.
PURRI won the first game, the championship, and $10,000.
The Ms. Quakecon Tourney finals (Q3A) featured Ms.X, coming from the winners bracket …
… vs Missy, coming from the losers bracket.
Missy dominated both games and picked up $15,000. Girlz of Destruction finished 1, 2, 3 in the tourney.
The Doom3 finals featured RocketBoy from China, coming from the winners bracket …
… vs fnatic\\gopher from the U.K., coming from the losers bracket.
gopher won both games, including a thrilling come-from behind in the second game to take home the $25,000 first prize.
This is how you take a fish tank PC home at the end of Quakecon.
Compared to my DSL connection, the LAN connection is just freaking sweet!
… And it seemed to have a positive effect on my game. :)
We literally played till dawn. When we got back to the room, this was waiting under the door. Ouch!