QuakeCon 2024 Part 4: QuakeCon Days 1 and 2

At last QuakeCon was here! We got an early start so that we could get the free breakfast at the hotel before heading to the Gaylord. We also wanted to get our LAN rigs put together while the lights were still on as well as have plenty of time before the scheduled events, plus I had two friends arriving this day as well and wanted to make sure I was available to meet them. We got into the BYOC around 9:45AM and got to work.

It only took us about ten minutes to get everything set up and arranged neatly. Really the hardest part was just routing ethernet cables because there was about eight seats (20-ish feet) between us and the network switch. Before we left for Texas I came across some 3D printed some cable spools online and decided to experiment with them. I can definitely vouch for how painless they make both cable winding for packing as well as keeping things tidy in the BYOC. Seriously, if you’ve sworn off flat cables because of the hassle of repacking them after a LAN, print one of these or get a friend to print one for you. I printed extras and some extra large ones and just sold them at cost. Definitely doing this again for my fellow LANers next year.

Around 11AM we heard a voice echo throughout the BYOC. “Attentionnnnn QuakeConnnnnnn. Who thinks it’s time to turn off the lights?” The affirmative response probably shifted a few tables with the vibrations. A slow clap countdown began and then only the blacklights remained. If QuakeCon wasn’t in full swing before, it certainly was now. WARNING: QUAKECON 2024 ACTIVATED.

I warmed up with some Quake Live while my daughter got lost in Horizon Zero Dawn. 3PM was when the Welcome to QuakeCon 2024 presentation was scheduled at the main stage so once 2PM hit my wife and I decided to get up and take a walk around the main stage area and the Gaylord atrium. Hotel staff were handing out hats for DOOM: The Dark Ages which we happily accepted and there were a few rows of arcade games at the back of the area. We decided to come back later for the arcade. We also discovered on the way back to the BYOC that the intrusive Chili’s banners had been replaced with the rightful QuakeCon ones.

When we got back to the BYOC we saw the the main stage seating was mostly full, but we didn’t mind standing on our feet for what was scheduled to be a 30-minute presentation. We collected our daughter and found a good spot off to the side for the show. With the departure of Pete Hines from Bethesda late last year (screw you, Microsoft!) I missed his presence on stage with his super casual demeanor and humor. Now with there being only two hosts of the original four (Tim Willits left id Software after QuakeCon 2019) the keynote was shortened to just thirty minutes. I love Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin to death and they have every reason to be on stage, but the show just feels incomplete without the other two at this point. Nevertheless, the show was still good. Each year a new QuakeCon branded weapon skin is released for Quake Champions and this year’s was the tri-bolt. I never use the weapon in the game but I still applaud the effort for the visual design. Then Marty and Hugo did their big reveal: DOOM I and II were being re-released after getting the Nightdive treatment like Quake II did last year. So just like Quake II, this meant updated graphics support, new multiplayer backend and server browser, and a launcher interface for game selection and community mod support. In addition to all this, one of two big treats was that composer Andrew Hulshult, who did covers of a lot of the original DOOM soundtracks and later worked on Quake Champions and the DOOM Eternal DLCs, finished a complete remaster of both game soundtracks and they were made available in the game as an audio menu option. As an avid player of Project Brutality, this tickled my inner DOOM child in so many ways. The second big treat was that the map packs No Rest for the Living, SIGIL, and Legacy of Rust were included. Yeah, I’m definitely going to be doing a LOT of playthroughs in the coming months.

Once the welcome keynote was over we decided to hit the QuakeCon ArQade (powered by Psychic Drive) since it was right behind us. We enjoyed some retro gameplay for a good forty five minutes before heading back into the BYOC.

I settled in with some DOOM and let the super satisfying jams by Andrew Hulshult soothe my soul while destroying countless demons. While I couldn’t listen to the soundtrack in Project Brutality, I knew it would only be a matter of days, if that, before someone released the tracks as a WAD or PK3 to use with it. I also checked out some of the community map packs and a few levels of SIGIL. Sadly I forgot to get screenshots.

A few hours later my wife and I decided to get up and make sure our feet still worked so we did a slow stroll up and down the center of the BYOC and snapped some pics of the animated Q hanging over the NOC (Network Operations Center) and a few custom computer cases that caught our attention. I took a few videos of the Q but unfortunately my current website CDN only permits images. If I find a host or upload them to YouTube I’ll update this post.

We gamed for a few more hours and then decided we better grab food from the food trucks before they either ran out of food or closed up for the night. We chose Taste Budz.

Hunger satisfied we resumed gaming. I played a few Quake Live matches with my friends Sneakr and Meltingwax (plus others from the BYOC) as well as some Quake Champions. This went on until about 1:30AM before we all ran out of steam. I was fine with calling Day 1 complete since I had a few big items on my list for the next day and they were pretty well spread out over the afternoon and evening. There’s a very short list of downsides to staying off-site but one of the minor ones is you can’t just run up to your hotel room and grab a power nap if you need one. Factor in transportation and you can eat up two hours or more easily for just an hour break. So my small pro-tip there is whether it’s scheduled events, community tournaments, gatherings, or parties, if you have the option of planning ahead, do so. So with that in mind we slept in the next morning.

Friday’s agenda included the id Software Meet and Greet at 1PM, Quake Live Megamatch at 2PM, Welcome to QuakeCon - Day 2 and Slayers Club Live at 3PM (both were at the main stage), Werewolf at 9PM in the Tabletop Lounge, and Master Pancake at 10PM. Knowing we’d miss the free breakfast at the hotel, we made breakfast in the room before heading to the Gaylord. We arrived around 11AM and opted to check out the Bethesda merch store and snag anything of interest while it was still in stock. We usually order t-shirts and hoodies online and we did that again this year, but they also had a t-shirt and hoodie that were only available at the con, so we grabbed those, pins, stickers, and, because I couldn’t resist, I picked up the DOOM Slayer jogging pants.

The Meet and Greet with the id Software team was a new experience. Back in 2019 they had an autograph signing in the expo hall but this time they actually let us talk with the devs and artists. The line was the slowest I’ve ever seen though. Not unexpected, but a little annoying because I knew from my experiences at Otakon back in 2006 and 2007 how slow things move if you let people tell their entire life story without time moderation. I have a feeling next year they’ll either change the format of this or scrap it entirely. At least I had the forethought to leave my bag and everything back in the BYOC. Standing in line for over ninety minutes weighed down with that thing would have been torture. Ranting aside, it was still worth it. They gave us mini posters of DOOM: The Dark Ages to collect signatures and they even gave me a spare for a very close friend of mine that lived locally but had to cancel at the last minute due to illness.

I learned a lot about the devs’ professional histories and backgrounds which extended far beyond game design, art, programming, etc. One of them worked on the movie Independence Day as a practical effects expert for example. Life is a journey and your professional life is a big part of it which is why I often find it worth reading about or listening to someone’s story about how they got to where they are. It’s not just about inspiration, but I love hearing about background diversity when it comes to creating something. Just knowing that a team of dedicated people from different professional backgrounds and personal histories has worked together to successfully create a well-crafted and well-received work is itself inspiring to me.

Sadly I missed out on the Quake Live Megamatch because of the Meet and Greet, but I have absolutely no regrets. I also missed Welcome to QuakeCon 2024 - Day 2, but given that I had just spent around 2.5 hours on my feet without moving, I was ready to just sit in my chair and relax for a bit. My wife took a peek at the show while I was gone and apparently I didn’t miss anything, vital or otherwise. Fine by me. Time for some more Quake!

Around 5:30PM since the ladies had been gaming for much longer than I was, they needed to get up and move around. This time we ventured past the main stage into the expo hall where Dallas Pets Alive was situated along with the vendor booths. There were also photo booths with DOOM: TDA props, community art, and a public poll board where a red sticker voted for which was favored more: Bawls or Pecos Pete’s. I rarely drink anything caffeinated, and I don’t drink energy drinks or carbonated drinks at all, so naturally I voted for Pecos Pete’s.

Since nobody was in the photo booths we stopped there first.

Right as we moved to The Dark Ages booth The Slayer showed up so he offered to take a pic with me. :)

What really surprised my wife and I was after the photos he challenged me to a duel … with lightsabers. o_O

There is also video of this which I’ll upload when I get the CDN thing figured out. We dueled twice but sadly there are no pics or video of that, which sucks because that was the better duel, especially with our Ancient Gods Part 2 re-enactment. :P

To answer the question of why lightsabers were present, the answer was simple: there was a vendor for them. >:d

Bloodthirst sated, we ventured around the room for a little while longer. V1Tech always has an impressive amount of artwork to sell in various forms from posters to mousemats. We got mats from them last year but nothing screamed “I NEED THIS!” this year. Chances are we’ll grab something from them next time. On the way back to the BYOC we stopped and perused the community artwork submissions.

Creations like this prove just how many people care about the QuakeCon community and the culture surrounding it. QuakeCon really is as much about the people as it is a show put on by Bethesda.

Master Pancake Theater was all that was left on our to-do list and we most definitely were not going to miss out since this year’s movie was Friday the 13th and my wife is a huge fan of the horror genre. Since we had about 2.5 hours to kill, we went to dinner early so we could pay close attention to when people started lining up. No way were we going to miss out on getting actual seats. Standing on concrete for thirty minutes the previous day was fine, but Master Pancake usually runs over three hours and we most definitely were not going to risk that happening. For dinner we joined a few friends from previous QuakeCons and went an Indian restaurant in town called Herbs Indian Cuisine. The conversation flowed so well we didn’t get a single picture, not even food porn. My bad.

MPT was scheduled for 10PM but like last year we saw people lining up thirty minutes in advance, so we followed suit and headed over to the main stage before taking our seats when the space opened up.

I somewhat neglected to explain Master Pancake Theater in my post about last year’s QuakeCon, so a brief description is it’s a live stage version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with an intermission skit that usually involves a few audience members, plus an audience-voted drinking phrase based on a recurring aspect of the movie being riffed. Drinking is of course optional, but everyone at least shouts the phrase.

The lead host is John Erler, who has been doing Master Pancake since its original incarnation over twenty years ago under the name Mister Sinus Theater 3000. He was accompanied this year by comedians Raphie Hardesty, Mac Blake, and Joe Parsons. Whacky and wild would be an accurate but understated way to describe the dynamic of this group. Side note: back in 2018 Mary Jo Pehl from MST3K, the inspiration for Master Pancake, joined them and as I understand it original MST3K cast have joined them for other shows as well. Seeing Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff up on stage would be an item on my bucket list.

After introductions were complete John Erler went into the audience to select volunteers for the intermission skit. During this time he was emphasizing his wardrobe malfunction due to lack of a belt for his jeans. A curious donation from the audience fixed that and of course he not only put the belt on in full view of everyone, but the cameras made sure to zoom in extra close.

Volunteers chosen and wardrobe malfunction addressed, it was time to pick a drinking phrase. This year’s movie choice was the original Friday the 13th and the cue for the drinking phrase was the recurring “ch-ch-ch-ch-ch ha-ha-ha-ha-ha” sound effect that played whenever someone was in danger. As usual, several candidates for the drinking phrase were suggested with the audience voting based on noise levels. The winner was “Voorhees’ nuts!”. And with that the movie started.

I refrained from taking pictures during the movie, as any respectable person would, and besides the MPT commentary is just audio, so there wasn’t anything beyond the movie to capture in a still photo. I don’t recall how many times “Voorhees’ nuts!” was shouted, but it was at least a few times. I can’t recall specific riffs at this point, but as always they were hilarious. At 11:20PM, roughly halfway through, the movie was paused for the intermission skit. The skits are always based on the movie being riffed and as I mentioned before a few audience members are selected to participate. However before any of this began, John Erler shocked the entire audience with a very credible cosplay of Steve Christy from the movie. As you might predict, we were all in stitches when he revealed his outfit … if you could call it that.

John next invited the volunteers to come up on stage for the skit. The hosts decided to do the first two talents and then save the third for after the skit. The first volunteer was double jointed and demonstrated this by crossing her arms behind her back. Sadly I didn’t manage to capture a good picture of this because I couldn’t take a picture fast enough. My bad. The second volunteer could do a super loud and long snorting noise. He wasn’t lying, lol. I wish I got video of it but at least I got a pic. Note to self: next year, more pics and video if possible.

The skit format was something of a last man standing talent show where each of the volunteers had to consume a chocolate truffle (at least they looked like that) and say the phrase “Help, Mom, I’m being murdered!”. Whomever could no longer at least semi-clearly say the phrase would be eliminated. I forget the exact count but I think the last person was able to handle around five chocolates.

When this concluded the third volunteer promised to do a front flip off the stage for his talent. John was a bit reluctant to let this happen but conceded and the crowd gave him a very vocal encouragement (I didn’t because I vividly remember the TwitchCon incident involving a foam pit and a broken back). My one pic is blurry but you can clearly see the flip. However he landed squarely on his tailbone on hard floor. He got right up and walked away to the jaw-dropping astonishment of everyone, including me!

In writing this someone managed to snag video of this which can be viewed here. Reports from the following days say he seemed alright by all counts, but I do hope that nothing came of that and that he sought medical attention as needed.

The final part of the intermission saw Ralphie Hardesty wearing a white knitted sweater and a blonde wig playing as Pamela Voorhees and (I believe) Joe Parsons wearing a hockey mask as Jason (despite the fact that Jason doesn’t appear in Friday the 13th). Once again I wish I captured video because after some scripted mother-son moments a song started up and Jason started fake-killing everyone in sight with a chef knife.

With the intermission over the movie and riffing resumed with a plethora of “Voorhees nuts!” moments. Once the movie concluded John, Ralphie, Mac, and Joe got up on stage, took their bows, and bid everyone goodnight. I thought about trying to get a group selfie with them but with the crowd gathering in front of me to probably do the same thing, I didn’t feel much like waiting around, especially after earlier in the day at the Meet and Greet. Maybe next year. Doubly so if a MST3K cast member joins them on stage.

My wife and daughter decided to call it a night and grabbed the hotel shuttle while they still could, but I stayed at the BYOC for a few more hours since I had some energy. If the timestamp of the picture below is any indication, I think I grabbed an Uber sometime around 3:30AM.

I was out as soon as I hit the pillow. QuakeCon was officially halfway over but there was still more events and memories to be had, all of which will be detailed in the next post. Stay tuned!