Not a sad bunch, oh no :)

In attendance were Fluffy (our lead artist) RR2DO2 (our Lead Coder) and Wils (our Lead Level Designer). Wils being the only one I’d met before in real life. Fluffy had brought along this months PC Zone, in which Q3F had received a review rating of 79%! Not bad for a Beta mod eh?

We decided the night before to stay up the night, under the mistaken impression that we’d sleep for the whole flight and thereby avoid jetlag - if only this were true :)

We set off fairly early, and in truth the flight was fairly uneventful, bar a quick jaunt outside at Cleveland airport (where we had a connecting flight) for a cigarette - it was at this point we realised how hot it was - at 104.9, it was about 104 degrees higher than the country we’d just left :)

After a short flight by American standards (3 f*ck#ng hours!) from Cleveland to Dallas Fort Worth, we jumped in a Taxi (thank god for air conditioning) and were at the Hampton Inn and Suites by 7:30pm. The very first thing you notice in Texas is just how friendly Texan’s are - and though the phrase "you’re not from around here are you boy?" would start to wear a bit thin nearer the end of our week - being the centre of attention as a group of people from Europe was a pleasant experience and one I’d recommend to anyone trying to find somewhere in the states to go for a trip.

The view from my hotel window

We were informed at reception that I had a full suite (while the others had twin rooms) so we all nipped upstairs to check out my accommodation - it was fantastic! In fact as a point of reference, my suite alone was bigger than the last house I had! It came with two televisions, a fridge, dishwasher, bathroom, walk in vanity suite, small kitchen, lounge, bedroom, hallway and dining area. RR2DO2 (not surprisingly) elected to share with me, while Fluffy and Wils both had a twin room to themselves - both I suspect believing they might get lucky with a sexy Texan girl :)

The vanity suite attached to my bathroom proved conclusively that mine was bigger :)

Once I’d finished winding the others up about how much bigger my room was, we headed off downstairs for registration and it was at this point we realised just how big QuakeCon 2000 is. I can’t begin to explain how big an impression the size of the main hall had on us. With seating for around 2000 people, and an adjoining exhibition centre - it was simply unbelievable.

We arrived downstairs just in time to catch the executive director who made gaining Exhibitors Passes a fairly painless experience - armed with these we were now able to go pretty much anywhere we liked - a blessing since everyone else was busy forming queues in their hundreds.

Our next stop was the Exhibition Hall, where id Software had kindly installed 10 PCs for us to share with the Urban Terror mod team. After a quick welcome from Robert Duffy of id Software (quite possibly the friendliest and most helpful guy I’ve ever met) we installed Q3F on the machines and set some demos running. After noting how late it was getting, we then decided to bugger off out for something to eat.

Cro of BarrysWorld

After tracking down Cro (from Barrysworld) we headed off across a field to a large restaurant called The Trail Dust - this was exactly how you’d imagine a large eatery in Texas, huge, wooden, full of cheery waitresses in jeans and cowboy hats, a live band playing country and western music and a big dance floor where families bounced around. If you ever happen to visit the Trail Dust in Mesquite, Texas, note that the fried Jalapenos, stuffed with cheddar are out of this world. Wils went for the "All you can eat" steak - and only ate one! :) We chatted loads to a Californian girl too, who was kind enough to tell us about her body piercings, and recommend a local Tattoo parlour should we need one and even wrote out directions for us - we decided against a visit :)

Upon our return to the Hotel, I took the opportunity to point out how much bigger my Bathroom was than anyone else’s - now you may find that Wils and Fluffy argue this case, but I swear it’s true - my bathroom was bigger, and since I’m the only one with a photograph - neither of them can prove otherwise :)

We also renamed Cro to Tom ‘No your wrong’ Gordon - on account of him knowing EVERYTHING about the gaming industry and proving all of us wrong on just about any subject we brought up :)