First, a short bit of Planet Fortress history. PF originated as a section on Planet Quake entitled "The Team Fortress Newswire." It was basically the creation of Spaceman Spif, The Hal, and a few other faces you've seen here on Planet Fortress. Eventually, TFNewswire outgrew its boundaries on Planet Quake, and became an independent GameSpy Network site on July 23, 1998. Since then, a few more staffers have come aboard, a few more have left, and we've seen some of the best TF sites hosted behind these doors.

With the release of Team Fortress Classic for Half-Life, and Team Fortress II on the way, Planet Fortress is sure to continue to thrive. On behalf of the Planet Fortress staff, I want to thank each and every one of our friends in the community. Our readers, our hosted sites, and the guys over at PQ and GameSpy. Each and every one of you have given us access to a medium in which we can inform you, enlighten you, and humor you. Thanks once again! Here's to one year down, and many more to go!

Without further rambling, I present to you, the top forty Planet Fortress news stories, 23 July 1998 - 23 July 1999. This is organized with the older news at the top, newer news appears as you go towards the bottom. I hope this brings back memories from the past to many of you. It sure did for me while I was creating it. I spent five and a half hours working on this, documenting the happier times, the sadder times, and realized that TF truely has a community of its own. See you on the field.

Luke "SpudBoy" Bogues, 23 July 1999

We've come a long way baby! And we want you to come with us. To accomplish this not so insignificant task, we present Planet Fortress! The source for all your TF and TF II news. The Team Fortress Newswire was proud to be one of your top TF news sources. We are now evolving to the next level to try to serve you better. With the imminent release of TF II for HalfLife, the race was on to give you the best and most up to date news site available. With the help of Planet Quake we are going to do just that. Stay a while and browse the site. Visit the newly added features as well as the carry overs from TFN. Also Make sure you visit all the hosted sites as they are full of the content you, the readers, deserve. We hope you enjoy all the hard work and effort put out by the TFN staff and Planet Quake to bring you Planet Fortress, the new Planet Quake network site! wOOf!!

Exhumist sent in some news to let everyone know that the Team Fortress World Domination Tournament starts this Tuesday! This may be a tournament to watch. It is a Risk style tournament where clans hold world regions and attack other clans for their regions with the ultimate goal of taking over the world.. Head on over and check it out!

As I have seen on a lot of newspages, people spread the word that July 24th was TeamFortress's second birthday. WRONG! Actually, The real date is August 24th, which is just under a month away. PlanetQuake sends news that this week, TeamFortress is going to be their "Mod of the Week", due to the fact that it is one of the most popular and successful mods to be released for Quake, Not to mention it is one of the oldest, going on it's second birthday! Head on over to PlanetQuake to get the full scoop on it! You will also see something about it in the "Message of the Day" window when GameSpy 3D loads up!

w000! A new, really leet looking map is out! Got this email from Endiku >X<:

Finally a new type of map that eveyone can play without fear of overcomplexety, the same old or just plain crapyness. Some new maps are well suited to certain people but Tater is a map for EVERYONE. Its a new map with a new twist and yet its basically the same thing we all know how to play. The objective GET THE FLAG. But wait!!! Whats this??? There is only ONE flag and it starts OUTSIDE?!? And how can this be... you DONT cap the flag!?!?!?!

Yes its all true. Tater is a map thats all about teamplay and fun times. Your team is still a TEAM. This aint no DM or CTF. Your objective is hunt down that flag, cause the team that owns it will score every 30 seconds. Thats right, just grab that flag and hold on cuz once you get it the ENTIRE enemy team is gonna be after you. No more sittin in dreary old basements waiting for enemies, no more charging death after death into a flag hall. Now your tartget is a MAN (or hot bodacious babe, we know your out there) and he aint just gonna sit still like some flag in a basement! When you play tater thers never a booring second.Chase the flag! Hunt down the carrier! When you get the flag for your side then Protect your man! Stop the enemy advancement! Theres never a dull moment in tater!

Visit the Tater Site for more details at http://www.exiles.org/tater/
Tater by Endiku >X<

Ecclesiastes-J- let me know in ICQ tonight that the School of TeamFortress Homepage has recently launched! Classes start August 9th, so reserve a spot if you want to know about anything from rocketjumping, grenjumping, grentiming, shaftjumping, scout, sniper, soldier, demolitions man, medic, heavy weapons guy, pyro, spy, engineer, and MUCH MUCH more!!!! You can sign up to be either a teacher if you consider yourself advanced in some area as a certain class, or you may sign up as a Student! They are what it's all about! If you want to know ANYTHING related to TF gameplay, this is the place to go! They will try to answer any and all questions you have! Head on over and sign up for something! http://www.planetfortress.com/sotf!!

Tonight Justice sent along word that the TF>Junction has opened it's doors here at PlanetFortress! Instead of trying to put everything in his words into mine, let me just post the email that he sent (i'm lazy):

The TF>Junction is proud to announce that we're opening our doors at PlanetFortress. The Junction has been in existance since the beginning of the summer and has since become very involoved in the TF Community. Centered around the values of "The Spirit" and originality, the Junction runs workshops and tutorials, holds tournaments (Spirit Tournament, Dynamic Duo) and has created several subsidiary programs: School of Team Fortress,The Hal Project REBIRTH and the Midnight Madness League.

You can find TF>Junction members everyday in public servers wearing a "J" on their name - they are willing answer any questions you have about TF or we're about . If you are interested in making our TF community a better place, want to learn from the best or are itching for some great matches, this is the place to be!

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns at [email protected]

Thanks for your time,
-Justice[GT], TF>Junction Director

P.S. We're in #junction on gamesnet

Normally we do not do clan news but this deserves mention I think. read on...

Greetings Hal:

I thought I would pass this along. On August 9th,1998 at 8 PM CST, the Clan Taken held their 50th IGL match against the Clan Null. It was a challenge match by Null who paid to play on 2tech4. At the end of the match, with no caps obtained, Null won 233 - 173. Congratulations NULL and a very warm happy 50th to Taken.

ToadKiller[TKN]

The final version of Quake World has been released. Better get it because this is what the servers are going to be using. Thanks, -Lizardo

Billings has a list of all the mirrors at CF TF and he will continue to update it with other sites as he finds them. Thanks, Billings! You can also find them here at the Planet Fortress mirrors: Client install - 817K, Server Zip - 217K

This is Zoid's .plan update:

QuakeWorld 2.30 Release -----------------------

The long awaited Quakeworld version 2.30 has been released. Head over to http://www.quakeworld.net/ for download information. The main archive for QuakeWorld can be found at ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quakeworld/

2.30 doesn't introduce a lot of new features over 2.29 (the most notable is the packet loss meter on the scoreboard), but mostly consists of "behind the scenes" fixes from the 2.29 BETA.

All servers should upgrade to 2.30. This will end the current situation of 2.1, 2.21 and 2.29 server differences. The 2.30 version covers all the bases and offers all the functionality of the previous versions.

Assuming that no major bugs show up in this 2.30 release (one can only hope murphy doesn't rear his ugly head), this will probably be the last QuakeWorld release. QuakeWorld has been an amazing project from John Carmack's early origins, to over a year of tweaking at Jack 'morbid' Mathews and my hands. It is one of the most complete and best first person internet gaming experience available today. It's been a pleasure working on it and keeping in contact and participating with the thousands of players. Thanks to all for your feedback and requests in helping me build a great product.

/// Zoid.

>V< Someone let us know today that he has finished up his newest creation, Sewer. Here's the scoop!

    I've done it! I've finally finished my map. And it really hits it off well. It's all the map making skills i've learned previously in all my maps. All my other maps were made just for this map, so, you have the climax of all, Sewer. You can download it from http://www.planetfortress.com/someone/files/sewer1.zip and then play it (on a vote map) on quake.cybersand.com:27500 I had a 16 player game going on for a long while there (all friggin day :) Enjoy the map! I know I have :) - >V< Someone

TF Times has closed shop. There seems to have been an attempt to stay open but for what ever reason, this will not be the case at this time. It is sad that a successful site like this had to close it's doors. Maybe things will work out after all and we will soon see them back.

Yes, you heard correctly! TF 2.9 is out! This is a server side upgrade only. Head on over to The TF homepage and grab the goodies and get some info!

It's already up on the -=[Planet Fortress]=- servers if you want to give it a try!

It is not every day when we loose what was one of the best TF sites out there, but it is official. Keeg.com has been taken offline for various reasons. Read up on the reasoning behind the exodus take in a warm goodbye at keeg.com. Gibkeeg, Eloh, Beta... Thanks for the great site and inspiration, you will be missed.

Heya everyone! Half-Life has gone gold! Here is the scoop I got from Contaminated.Net, which was informed by Gabe Newell:

Half-Life has gone gold, and is in manufacturing. I'd like to say how extraordinarily grateful all of us here at Valve are for the support and enthusiasm you have shown Half-Life over the last two years. We are very proud of the product, and hope it lives up to your expectations. Sierra will be sending out a media alert tomorrow giving more details on the street date.

The second most anticipated day in TF history has arrived...Half-Life is available for purchase. I hold a copy in my hand, purchased from the local Electronics Boutique in Novi, Michigan. I haven't even installed it yet, I just had to let everyone know that the day has come. I'm sure there are many reviews to follow!

Our newest site here at PF is locked, cocked, and ready to rock! Head on over to Stronger Then All, a TF capping league designed for newbie and experienced clans alike. There is a unique set up to STA that fits all clans. If you are interested in partaking in this new tourney, double time it over and get your clan signed up!

After a few months of hiatus, Thrymm and Krunch have decided enough was enough and opened the wide doors of TF Times for all to see. Here is the official press release.

Where do I begin. What has happened in the past two months? A major TF news site shut it doors. TF 2.9 came out. Half-Life was released. A few well known clans have broken up, or have shut down till TF2. A league or two have closed down. With a few good things that have happened in the past two months, im happy to say that another good thing will happen.

I wont beat around the bush anymore, but the TF Times will be re-opened

Either Saturday Nov. 28th or Sunday Nov. 29th. Krunch and myself are heading it once again, and plan to add a few more people in on the fun, so that everyone has more time on their hands. I know there are people out there who could care less, or would rather the TF Times stay closed, but I think the majority welcome the idea. The main change will be that Match News will not be a part of TF Times. That we suggest Zygote's fine site of TF Clans. TF Times will have the beloved Front Page suff, not just about TF, but also other mods like TF, possibly Action Quake2, Weapons Factory, and the Unreal mod which isnt released but looks damn good Skaarj Corps. The imfamous TF Times editorials will be back in force, with the controversial Krunch not taking shit from no one(hehe). Although we hope to open this weekend. It will take some time to get everything the way it should be, ie: the links have to be revamped, possible new page layouts, etc. So we hope the readers come back, and help the TF Times grow strong again. Thanks to the readers who showed their support and demanded that the Times come back.:) Thrymm (co-founder) TF Times

For as long as I have been playing Team fortress, I can remember The Grassy Knoll. I can't believe it has been two years! We at PF would like to wish a happy anniversary to Cableless, and look forward to many more.

I have heard several rumors about cows running rabid, taking over various popular TF sites. Rest assured... The PlanetFortress patrols have been increased by thirty percent, with additional suicide squads gaurding Hals rogaine stockpiles and special traps set up to prevent bovine infestation. Feat not... 1999 will NOT be the year of the COW!

In related news, ManGoBoom sends the following:

All the staff of Planet Fortress is invited to attend a dinner party for the new staff of Cow Fortress. More information and menu is available at Ciscos Place.

Please bring a side dish.

[CPF]ManGoBoom

Zygote sent news that TFSN and TFClans have merged to form TFCNN, which you can still find at the URL of http://www.planetfortress.com/tfclannews. The main point in this change is to bring in more staff as well as to focus more on the match aspect of clans, with analysis' and reports being brought to you by Zygote, MrPotatoHead and Elim, among others. Check it out!

Woah Nellie!!! A bit of big news here preeks! Just in the e-mail, I happen to have it on a 2 minute refresh! From Robin Walker at Valve Software.

Just wanted to give you an early heads up on some news we'll be releasing publicly very shortly. While we were working on the Half-Life SDK, we hit upon an interesting idea. The best way for us to test our SDK was to write a mod for it... and what better mod to test out the strength of an SDK than the original Team Fortress? So we made Team Fortress Classic, a port of TF to Half-Life. While we were careful to leave the gameplay intact, we took advantage of the Half-Life engine to do a bunch of new effects and cut down on net traffic. The Press Release I've attached has some more details.

On a side note, there's been a lot of discussion lately about Valve and what we're doing with TF. The bottom line is simply that Valve's focused on creating the best games and figuring out the best way to deliver them. Occasionally, we may change our plans... but only if we think we've come up with a better way of creating or delivering great games. We're stoked that the Half-Life SDK made it possible for us to give you Team Fortress Classic so quickly. We're now moving into heads down mode on TF2, doing our best to make it live up to your expectations as a worthy successor of TF. We'll be telling you more about that in the months to come.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy Team Fortress Classic! Try to be nice to all the newbies ;)

Sounds like fun and I am going there as soon as I am done updating. Scatterblak sent news of a new site by eV.Pon+iff called The TF Bar and Grill. Actually, to be more precise, Scats news mentioned the chat channel on gamesnet, #TFBarandGrill. Before I wandered on over to Scats place, I stumbled on the site url that Guido Jones, (The other pest at CF TF) posted, ripped from Scats. Now is that clear? Crystal......

This is for all you Spaz cadets out there who are always Spazing out!

If anyone has ever heard of }V{ Speedentaor's TFO or TFO2 and enjoyed it, then you will enjoy this. On April 4th of 1999, I will be hosting a Day of Spaz event, each team will play from 10-12 games throughout the whole day. The Team size should be 6 maximum and that is not a very hard thing to do, so if you are interested in this event, go ahead and sign up for it. It will be great fun, head on down to http://www.gibbed.com/natfl/spaz for more information. Signups will end March 1st, so sign up now!

I don't want to hear any anti segregation crap either. I would say 99% of the TF clans out there are all 100% male. So this is a good thing and I hope they do kick ass like they promise! Here's more info...

The first female TF clan has been created (that we know of). Clan SHEDEVILS is looking for new recruits. http://www.davalkyries.com/shedevils/ is the page. We're looking for dedicated femme members, so we can soon get into the swing of things and start kicking ass. We've got an IRC channel, the homepage, and right now we're working on getting our own server set up. Come check us out.

--Siren

Got this sad news in the mail, our hearts here go out to the family and friends of Strogg, as well as the NTFL in these sad times.

I don't know if you guys have gotten the news yet, but it comes around... Strogg (head honcho of the NTFL) died last night (2/22). He was hit by a car and suffered neck and back injuries. If you want a quote from me, here it is...

"Strogg of the NTFL has left us at the age of 17. May he continue fragging wherever he is." - Voltron-J-

Stronger Than All Mega TeamFortress League is looking for some more clans to join, matches are supposed to start in 2 weeks. The league is set up almost wrestling style with clans who have good records going up against each other for title shots. I have spoken with a few MTF clan leaders who say this should be a fun/fair league to be in. If that's something you wanna get in on go to www.planetfortress.com/sta/mega

Clan Erinyes was the first clan ever to play a TF1 match, only befitting they should participate in the first TFC hodown! here is the press release as seen on the CPL website.

First Team Fortress Classic Tournament at Extreme Annihilation For Immediate Release

Kirkland, WA - March 9, 1999 -- Valve L.L.C and Sierra Studios today announced that they will be hosting the first Team Fortress Classic tournament at the Extreme Annihilation gaming event being held in Dallas, Texas March 12-14. Valve and Sierra also announced that they will be flying Clan Erinyes (CE) to the event to showcase Team Fortress Classic. CE is one of the oldest and most respected clans in the Team Fortress community. CE played in the first Team Fortress match and now will play in the first Team Fortress Classic match at the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Extreme Annihilation event.

The highly anticipated Team Fortress Classic is a free add-on for Half-Life. Team Fortress Classic is a direct port of the original Team Fortress developed for id Software's Quake. Its innovative gameplay, character classes, and mission variety contributed to its enormous popularity. The maps included with the Team Fortress Classic update are optimized for the new team play mode.

Founded in 1996, Valve develops games software. Based in Kirkland, Washington, the company consists of more than 25 leading artists, game designers and programmers. TF Software PTY Ltd., the developers of Team Fortress, was an Australian developer of games software acquired by Valve in 1997. More information about Valve is available through the company's web site at www.valvesoftware.com.

Sierra, Inc. is one of the original developers and publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software for personal computers. Sierra has garnered numerous industry awards and has been a recognized innovator in the computer software field for nearly 20 years.

Yep, that's right. I checked my email this morning and sure enough, I found the info I needed to download the newsie pre-release. I'm downloading it as we speak. If I'm lucky, I won't even be late for work. But if I am, well... I'll just be late :)

Expect a lot of reviews on every newspage you see by tomorrow!

There are going to be a bunch of these out soon. PlagueBearer sent word of the very first TFC map, swamp4b_tfc. As you may know, Plague just recently did a TF swamp4 map and though I haven't seen the TFC version, I am assuming it is similar in design. (With a few extras!) Head on over to Scatterblaks for more info...

Tresmer, the TFC Coordinator for the Stronger Than All Team Fortress league sent in this announcement concerning the newly created TFC division for the Stronger Than All...

Barring any further delay from Valve/TFS the public version of TFC will be released Friday April 2nd. The STA (Stronger than All) Team fortress League would like to announce the opening of their Team Fortress Classic League. All clan leaders that want their clans to join the TFC branch of STA need to email me or visit our web page http://games.tca.net/sta-tfc/ ASAP.

Depending on the number of participants we will decide if we have enough to have Gold, Silver, and Bronze. If there is only a small amount at first then we will just have one big division. The matches will be played on Monday night at 8:30 pm CST. The schedule will be posted after the initial application deadline of April 5th, the first round of matches will be scheduled for the following Monday, April 12th. After the initial applicants are in the line-up we will accept new clans and work them into the schedule the following week after they are accepted.

Thanks again!
-Tresmer

Jenni Gant sent word of another delay with the public release of TF Classic. It seems a few unsightly bugs have appeared with the additional play testing of the news sites who have received the pre release. The new release schedule is tentatively as follows...

The release of Team Fortress Classic (which is part of our Half-Life v. 1.0.0.9 update) to the general public, originally scheduled for tomorrow (Friday, Mar. 26), has been delayed a week (to Friday, Apr. 2) so that we can fix a few bugs and have time to test the fixes.

- The LAN Party release, originally scheduled for Wednesday of this week, should go out tomorrow afternoon (Friday, Mar. 26).

- We plan to release the server software to a variety of game sites (for download) mid-next week so that those of you hosting dedicated servers can download it and get your servers up and running before the general release on Friday. (We'll send out a list of participating game sites next week.)

Jenni Gant
Valve

I am sorry to have to bring you this news. TFC will be delayed yet again for a bit. As TFC will be released simultaneously in all languages, they have to do QA check on that, and it has not been completed. As soon as that is done, then they are going to do a 24 hour final testing on it and then it will be released. They will let us know when the 24 hour clock starts, and we will certainly pass that on to you. I am as disappointed as you all are sure to be. Please don't send hate mail to us. It will go right in the trash, I don't need to hear any more Valve bashing.

In related news on TFC, Jenni Gant tells us a new map called Push will be included with the Public release. Also she sent along this report on the news clip about TFC from the USA today newspaper:

The Team Fortress Classic review in today's issue of 'USA Today' gives Team Fortress Classic 4 out of 4 stars, calling it "incredible" and "spectacular", and saying it "rocks"! Remember, Team Fortress Classic will be the BEST FREE GAME you've ever played.

As a kickoff to our newest section here at PF, we would like throw Spudboy a party of phenomenal proportions.. but alas, that takes more money then we can scrounge up. So the next best thing... A Letter from a special person:

Following post-Spuditorials depression, the Team Fortress community has apparently broken out into a riotous rage of violence, raping, murdering, stealing, and even -- loitering. Feeling the demand placed upon him by the readers of The Spuditorials, SpudBoy[KiN] has unveiled a new plan to help curve the serious metal problems that many Team Fortress players appear to have.

Launched today, SpudBoy's Complete Waste of Time is a new Planet Fortress section dedicated to spicing up the lives of far too many mentally ill online gamers. Plans for the site include humor, wit, zany comedy, and even -- drumroll please -- serious news reporting laced with the personal insight of SpudBoy himself.

In the latest issue covered by Spud, he makes a worthless attempt to make the reader feel interested in his personal life. When contacted for a comment, SpudBoy simply said, "The next one will be better, I promise. Pinky swear?"

Good luck once again, SpudBoy in this feeble attempt to become famous...

Love,
Mom

It's finally here, what you've all been waiting for, Hal's Hairpiece!

Wait that's not it, oh yeah, the other thing, TFC!

[Editors Note: Download sites cut from this repost.]

The download is 19+ megs, so if you're on a modem, order delivery or rent a movie. We'll post other mirrors as they come online. If you see a mirror that isn't listed above, or a mirror has succomed to the overwhelming demand of all the TF fans out there and died, drop us a note!

Here it is right from one of the CE's themselves:

I'd just like to announce that Clan Erinyes (CE) and Ministry of Pain (MP) are going to be duking it out tonight in what we're calling the first ever TFC match. It will be loads of fun, and it will be a great way to kick off the release of this new chapter in TeamFortress history. Here are the details:

First Ever TFC Match
Date: Wednesday, April 7th
Time: 8:00 pm PDT
Place: CE West Coast and MidWest servers
Maps: well and 2forts
# of Players: 8 on 8


There's the nitty gritties, as of right now we're not planning on allowing spectators because of lag issues, I'll let you know if this changes. And of course, we all know which clan you guys should be rooting for :).

-Tom (Ares-[CE])
Leader, Clan Erinyes
The Happiest Clan Around

I am sure most of you have been to Planethalflife, and a good cut of you have been to Raduim looking for maps reviews. If you haven't, frankly, you have been under a friggin rock! :)

It is our great pleasure to bring to you our newest site here at Planetfortress, RADIUM TF!

To kick things off, Radium has gathered up a slew of maps and put them under the microscope including all the Valve maps (with the exception of Push), Civilain Sawmill, square 1, Square 1 TFC, Sniper War and Crayola.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2000:

Play TF.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, getting an OC-3 fiber optic connect to your gaming rig would be it. The long-term benefits of fiber optic speed have been proved by LPBs everywhere, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own lag filled experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and speed of your computer. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and speed of your computer until you've tried to play Quake on a 486-50. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at screenshots of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how much you really Pwned. You are not as bad as Phat Dragon.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to greande jump from the basement of 2fort5 with 20% health. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the 50% packetloss that blindside you at 9 p.m. on some IGL Thursday.

Do one thing every day that scares your clanmates.

Spam.

Don't mind the flames from other clan. Don't put up with clans that do.

Play all D.

Don't waste your time on ping envy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The match is long and, in the end, it's the team with the most flags AND frags that wins.

Forget all the times you threw the pin and not the grenade. Remember the good air frags. If you have too many air frags to remember, tell me how.

Keep your old demos. Throw away your old Voodoo1.

Respawn camp.

Don't feel guilty if you end up in the enemy's spawn room and spam to keep alive. The good TFers are able to camp my spawn room, hours at a time. Some of the best TFers I know still haven't left.

Get plenty of armor. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're shot off.

Maybe you're l33t, maybe you aren't. Maybe you'll win Dragon Warz, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40 because your wife thinks you play too many video games, maybe you'll both be playing Everquest on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't take losing too seriously, or winning either. Your defense was probably be half assed. So was your offense.

Enjoy your rocket launcher. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid to rocket jump with it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest weapon you'll ever own.

Learn to snipe. Even if you have to shoot your own clanmates playing TP11.

Avoid a Kaizen sniper, even if you have to swim the whole match.

Do not read the Top Ten Clans list. It will only make your clan feel like shit.

Get to know your Engineer. You never know when your dispenser will be gone for good. Be nice to your Piper. They're your last line of defense and the people most likely kill the flag runners.

Understand that clans come and go, but only a respectable few live on in memory. Work hard to bridge the gaps between TF and TFC, because the older it gets, the more you'll miss the people who fragged with you when you were young.

Play in Iron Glove once, but leave before it makes you hard. Play CanalZone Golf once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Circle-Strafe.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Pings will drop. Clans will cheat. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, pings sucked, Clans were noble and respected their leaders.

Respect your leaders.

Don't expect anyone heal you. Maybe you have a good Medic. Maybe you'll have a kick ass scout. But you never know when either one might run out and conc you off the bridge.

Don't mess too much with your binds or by the time you're done you will overflow everytime you connect to a server.

Be suspicious about the rectangular box in the middle of the ramproom, but be patient with those who disarm it. Discarding packs are a form of territorial pissing. Picking up packs off a dead guy is a way of fishing ammo from the disposal, wiping off the blood, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the OC-3 fiber optic connect.

Rae =AR=

Jenni Gant sends along the following message about the new Half-Life Game of the Year Edition, pretty cool since it comes with TFC and all the patches:

SIERRA STUDIOS[tm] AND VALVE[tm] ANNOUNCE HALF-LIFE[tm] GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION, INCLUDING TEAM FORTRESS CLASSIC
New Packaging Reflects Industry Accolades

BELLEVUE, WA (June 25, 1999) -- Sierra Studios and Valve Software announced today that the Half-Life Game of the Year Edition[tm] will ship to retailers beginning June 30. Since its release in November of 1998, Half-Life has won more than 40 Game of the Year honors and has sold through more than one million units worldwide. The new Half-Life Game of the Year Edition will be backed by major retail promotions in North America and around the world.

The special packaging highlights the Game of the Year honors Half-Life has won from top tier gaming publications, including PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, and CNET's Gamecenter. In addition to Half-Life, the Game of the Year Edition includes new multiplayer content, as well as the hugely popular team-based multiplayer game, Team Fortress Classic (TFC), which runs on top of the Half-Life engine technology.

"Half-Life became a phenomenon because of its unique blend of intense action and provocative storytelling," said Dave Grenewetzki, president of Sierra On-Line. "Rarely has the gaming community and gaming press rallied so strongly around a single title. Our goal with this special Game of the Year Edition is to help spread the word about Half-Life's critical success to a much broader audience."

"The Internet gaming community has been a big supporter of Half-Life and TFC from the beginning," said Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve. "We're very grateful for their support, and hope that by including TFC in the Game of the Year edition of Half-Life, we'll be bringing even more gamers into that community."

"We love the new Game of the Year packaging," said Bob McKenzie, divisional merchandizing manager for national software chain Babbage's, Etc. "Half-Life has already been a huge success for us. With the new box and continued great word-of-mouth, we expect Half-Life to stay at the top of the charts throughout 1999."

Founded in 1996, Valve develops game software. Half-Life, released in November, 1998, is Valve's debut title. Team Fortress Classic is a team-based action game, previously released over the Internet, that runs on top of the Half-Life technology. Valve's upcoming title, Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms recently won the E3 Game Critics' Award for Best Action Game and Best Online Game. More information about Valve is available through the company's web site at Valvesoftware.com.

Sierra On-Line, Inc. is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra, a division of Havas Interactive, is comprised of a family of brands: Sierra Attractions[tm], SierraHome[tm], Sierra Sports[tm], Sierra Studios[tm], and Dynamix[tm], a Sierra Company. Havas Interactive holdings also include Knowledge Adventure�, Blizzard Entertainment� and WON.net[tm].

[LoL-C] Gun Man informed us about the passing of SK-Imaginos, who recently lost a battle with cancer. TF simulates a war-like situation, but nothing can compare with the RealLife struggle against a devastating affliction like cancer. Their server (207.88.6.17:27540) will for the next month be named 'In Memory of Imaginos" and will only run maps created by him. PlanetFortress would like to offer our symphathy to the friends and family of Imaginos.. and our prayers are with them as well.

For many months, a lone person toiled in his basement dungeon to complete his masterpiece, or so it was in his mind, seeing the light of day only for brief moments. Soon, he discovered that he had done enough for others to see, a select few were chosen to view the work, give feedback and leave their mark. They came and saw and had much to say, giving praise, which the person hoped it was the truth and not just something said to make him feel good. What seemed like years had passed, but in reality it was only months, and the lone person was satisfied and began the hunt for a place that would accept his work and provide a home, he turned to a wise sage, one that went by the name of Scatterblak. With his help, the person found a home for his work and all was well. More time passed, and the work was coming done to a close, and the person was spending more and more time in the light, away from the work that had taken ahold of his soul for so long. Not knowing when his work would be shown to the world had made him worry about the works appeal loosing in the time it takes to get things done in the real world. So, deciding to move things ahead, and on the council of those that were around him, the person decides to reveal his work, let the world peak in and see. The person of course is hoping for the best, but whatever the outcome, he can soon rest, after the months of work, not really caring what the outside world things of his work. Knowing that it is probably his best to date, the person will enjoy it and that's all that matters.EtherealTF His masterpiece open for the world to see - not just yet, but tonight the curtains will be lifted and the world will have it's eyes peer in on the Oldest Unofficial TeamFortress Site's newest and hopefully only look for a long time to come.

Planet Fortress, a leader in providing Team Fortress, Team Fortress Classic for Half-Life, and Team Fortress II related news will celebrate our first birthday tomorrow, July 23rd. In honor of the celebration, SpudBoy, a reporter for PF, will be posting a special report, "One Year of Planet Fortress," that documents many of the more-important headlines that have come across the PF newswire.

Look for "One Year of PF," and just drop by to wish us another successful year tomorrow afternoon. Cake and ice cream is available at your local store for a small charge.