Clutching signed (free!) copies of FAKK II, we left Friday's that night with our image of Ritual forever changed. Until then we'd only played Sin, now we actually felt like we knew someone that worked there - two people in fact, and both very personable. Somehow RR2DO2 managed to get FAKK II working on our laptop that night and we were immediately blown away. This was the first game to be released on the Quake 3 engine, and it looked SO different.

Soon after QuakeCon we heard that AlphaWolf had been hired by Ritual, and soon after that our very own BoBotheseal got a job there, so while it's entirely possible that nobody else at Ritual had ever heard of us, we certainly felt an affinity with them.

As it turns out, Mark and Ron left Ritual to form MumboJumbo, and as I understand it, they still have an office across the hall from Ritual and attend the parties etc.

But on a couple of occasions throughout this year's QuakeCon, BoBo had invited us over to meet Ritual today, so we had accepted the invitation with great enthusiasm.

I kicked off this diary talking about last year's QuakeCon and how getting out of the UK had taken almost military precision, and how lucky we'd been to not have anywhere near that trouble this time right? Boy, what a mistake I'd made. Ever tried getting 5 guys and their luggage in to a normal car? :)

Still the journey in to central Dallas only lasted about 45 minutes and before we knew we were free of the suffocating luggage that had kept us blind for most of the journey, and parked up outside Ritual's offices.

Now I use the term office in a loose sense. You see the owners of Ritual obviously had their planning caps on when they chose the location for such wonders as Sin and FAKK II, above a bar! In fact they even refer to their office as 'The Cave', which is probably not an unreasonable description.

The offices of Ritual Entertainment. Oh... that's a Cowasaur... apparently.

It's fantastic - you actually walk through the bar to get to their elevator too. I can't think of a better location for a games company. It's obviously why they create such fantastic games - want a production meeting? Meeting room full? Anywhere else you'd need to rent a serviced office suite at upwards of £75.00/hour - not so at Ritual - they just go for a beer downstairs! Superb.

Ok from that description it also sounds a little tacky, but that's really not the case. We were there during the day time, but this was clearly Dallas's party square - at least 3 bars surround the courtyard, one of which is Planet Hollywood, and if you think these guys don't make good use of their location, check out.

Ritual having a party.

Soon enough we were walking through the doors of Ritual Entertainment, moody ambience abound, the big logo on the glass saying a lot more about the kind of work this company does than perhaps the bar downstairs.

This is a company that seems (at least to an outsider) to work exactly the way they want to. Perhaps they haven't been truly independent for a year or two, but they don't look as if conformity has ever been a watchword.

I guess our main reason for being there was just to say thanks. FAKK II especially has been a big influence on us, with some of the features having inspired our own work - especially in relation to Spirit; our particle engine.

We obviously can't talk about what Ritual showed us, but we were pleased to be able to present Q3F Beta 2 to them, BirdDawg proving to be an excellent presentation partner yet again. It was certainly tougher showing our mod to a group of veteran games developers than QuakeCon, but we still left feeling that Ritual were still able to appreciate the kind of effort it takes to produce any project of our size across the Internet.

Tom Mustaine and Robert Atkins were especially friendly and demonstrated a keen interest without seeming condescending. I know the Ritual website shows a really human touch as an image (reporting on parties and such like), but it was great to find this was true in real life too. It was a little humbling too. When you realise how far you still have to go before you're near the level of a developer like Ritual.

Lavagod Rules! Shot in front of Ritual's HUGE TV, where if you look closely, you'll see we've set q3f.com as the default home page :).

One thing we did do while there was to ensure we made up for missing Lavagod. Checkout the photo :)

Outside Ritual's office in downtown Dallas (I wore that shirt just for them! They felt honoured... really!!).

Within an hour or two we were back our on the street, blinking in the daylight and wondering what to do with our last couple of hours in Dallas. That's when we remembered! Relaxer and SoftScoop! Yep the ones with the stupid aliases!

Before that though, I should note that it was at this point we parted company with BirdDawg and Shuriken, who facing an 11 hour drive, couldn't face yet another visit to Fridays (big girls blouses!).

Actually talking of big girls, Fluffy had demanded that we go to Hooters for lunch, as he'd been asking all week but BoBo felt it'd be too busy and Fridays would be better. BoBo's married by the way :). My wife would have killed me too :).

Relaxer and SoftScoop both work for NOW (Network of the World), who (as I mentioned earlier) are a fully converged broadcast network based in London, England, but with tentacles everywhere.

Earlier this year the company I worked for (Barrysworld) went bust, and as they were providing various computer game related services (predominantly FPS based) to NOW, I stepped in and offered to run with the ball (that's a business phrase by the way, I've learned others too - outside the box, pushing the envelope, revenue streams, vertical markets :). Anyway, these days RR2DO2 works with me as well and we focus almost exclusively on the production of content and development of technology, to further improve the quality of their show, avoiding wherever possible having to do meetings with the sort of people that use business phrases. As if that wasn't a strong enough tie, one of our level designers, Wils, also works at NOW full time.

It's because of all this that meeting them for lunch was such a good opportunity to catch up on the week. In any given period in London, we'd see or speak to each other on every day, yet while in Texas, at a time where you might supposed we'd be out drinking beer with each other every night, for some reason Relaxer and SoftScoop buckled down and actually worked - worked! In Texas! Unheard of :).

BoBo was free for lunch too, and so Vorrik, RR2DO2, Bobo, Relaxer, SoftScoop and I all ended up in Fridays for one last beer (coffee in my case) and a spot of lunch.

As it turned out, Relaxer had a decent week out there too, and SoftScoop, while still trying to maintain his outward show of reservation, had to admit that even he had had a fairly decent time, so reunited for the last time this year, our whole party downed one last beer and went our separate ways.

The ride out to Dallas Fort Worth was uneventful, except perhaps one slight difference - I did the entire thing holding on for my dear life at 70 miles an hour in the back of Vorrik's open top pickup truck!

Fluffy was with me too and I must say it's an experience, both good and bad. It's true that I spent most of the time petrified, concerned not only about the fact that any kind of accident would almost certainly be a fatality, but also that the slightest chipping raised from the road by another car's tyre, could easily take an eye out. Even with all that to worry about, I couldn't help but enjoy the experience. The highway out to Dallas Fort Worth is full of things to look at; large sky scrapers, massive parks, beautiful views, and strangest of all, as if telepathically I was once again commutating with my fellow man, Fluffy and I broke in to a very loud rendition of the Dallas theme - da da da, do do do do do doooo, da da da da do daaaaaa!

Within about 30 minutes we were at the airport and I started to feel a sense of excitement again. As much as I'd loved being at QuakeCon, I couldn't wait to get home to see my wife Francisca. Even though I'd spoken to her almost every night, it was no consolation for being in different countries - something we promise each other we'll never do again, every time.

I can't thank Vorrik enough for being such an excellent Dallas host, driver, tour-guide and ultimately a new friend. It's always great to meet people with similar interests, but rarely do you meet one who also makes you laugh so much. I really think Vorrik knows how to enjoy life. I look forward to the day when we get to be his hosts here in London.

It's weird because when I started writing this diary, thinking about the experiences we've had both this year and last, with them being so fresh in my mind, I hadn't thought that this trip had been the best, but writing this diary has sure changed that. Perhaps it takes a diary of 12,500+ words to remind you of all the good things, because it's certainly worked with me.

QuakeCon 2000? Pah! It's not even close to what QuakeCon 2001 was. For me, for my team, and I suspect for everyone present.

Long live the Quake series, long live Q3F and may there be a QuakeCon for our children :).

Paul 'Locki' Wedgwood
Project Leader
The Q3F Team