id Software

S5 E150 Dead on Cue: Fake Science

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes October 4, 2024 Leave a reply

This week, we take a deep dive into a film from one of the original machinima creator studios, Dead on Cue. This comprised the duo Mike Holochwost and Brian Mayberry. The film, Fake Science, had a couple more iterations, including one that allowed it to be played in the game itself, which was Half Life. It was released some 3 years before YouTube, and is another great example of how games could be used to produce artworks. Its wide recognition led to careers in games dev and production for both Mike and Brian, the former working on RoosterTeeth’s RWBY series and the latter on cinematics for games like the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic and Defiance. Brian is still active in the games dev industry and is working on his first game, called Gone Camping. Check out the discussion and memories we share.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Dead on Cue, made in Half Life, was released on 13 Sept 2002 – the original versions can be found on the Internet Archive here.

BuddyDoQ (Brian Mayberry) has posted a YouTube version of the film here –

Completely Machinima History with Ben Grussi: Quake III Machinima

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 28, 2022 Leave a reply

By Quake III, id Software’s attitude to machinima and modding had changed and consequently few films were made in this engine. Of those that were, Ben highlights the notables from those early years in this episode.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

1.11 Quad God by Tritin Films (Quake III), parts 1-4

screencap: Quad God

5.52 In the Waiting Line by Zero 7 in collaboration with Fountainhead Entertainment (Quake III)

screencap: In the Waiting Line

7.55 Anna by Fountainhead Entertainment’s Anna Kang (Quake III)

screencap: Anna

Completely Machinima History with Ben Grussi (December)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 23, 2021 Leave a reply

In this episode of the podcast, Ben recalls some more of the great all time classics that got this whole movement rolling, events all taking place in December (1993 to 2005 inclusive).



Show notes and links –

Ranger Gone Bad 2: Assault on Gloom Keep (1996) https://archive.org/details/ranger-gone-bad-ii-assault-on-gloom-keep

Torn Apart 2: Ranger Down! one of the first Quake (1996) movies with voiced dialog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX75VLzin2I

Walking Wounded/Strange Company releases trailer for Eschaton: Darkness Twilight in Quake (1997) 

Blahbalicious by Avatar and Wendigo (1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yC7o5pt-lA

screencap: Blahbalicious

Fountainhead Entertainment’s Katherine Anna Kang announces Sidrial.  Slated to be the first Machinima film to be put on the big-screen as a commercial venture https://archive.org/details/sidrial_promo even made a total conversion mod for Quake 3 Arena (2000)

Bender ‘n Stein by Ken ‘3dfilmmaker’ Thain https://archive.org/details/bender_stein and Bender Strikes Back Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQCcVfwpChM (2001)

Anthony Bailey releases a patch for integration into Quake 1 engine code bases to enable capture of AVIs (audio/video, any resolution, frame rate and codec) on Win32 GL platforms http://quakecapture.sourceforge.net/ (2002)

Teaser for Stardate: Night Time by Dr Nemesis (Leo Lucien-Bay) https://archive.org/details/stardate-night-time-teaser (2002)

The Final Chapter (6) to the Killer Robot Saga by Nanoflix (Peter Rasmussen)  https://archive.org/details/killer-robot-machinima (2003)

Shadows of Auraxis Chapter 1 by Malvision in Planetscape https://archive.org/details/soa-e-1 (2003)

Remedy and Rockstar Games official Max Payne 2 Mod contest ‘Non-Interactive Movie’ winner Payne to the Max https://archive.org/details/payne-2-the-max (2003)

Canadian live-action/animated kids TV series ‘Zixx Level One’ is the first show for broadcast to contain animation created by a game engine, made using the Lithtech engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwhiFHOPQs (2003)

10th Anniversary of id Software’s Doom, Doomworld complied an extensive article about the early forms of demo recording featuring Uwe Girich https://www.doomworld.com/10years/demos/demos01.php (2003)

Epic Games revealed the winners of Phase 4 Real-Time Non-Interactive Movie contest (2004)

  • 1st Place: Bot (Eggman)
  • 2nd Place: Journey (Fitz)
  • 3rd Place: Infiltrators
  • 4th Place: Sparked Memory (CSWAT)
  • 5th Place: The Editor Has You (Angel_Mapper)

ATI and Crytek, creators of Far Cry, made a real-time interactive CGI movie called The Project, that harnessed the capabilities of the ATI RADEON® X800 XT and PLATINUM EDITION for Hollywood style machinima, demonstrating photorealistic cinematic computing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Uxc5rqbBI (2004)

Screencap: The Project

Just a Game by Mu Productions, a live action/machinima hybrid https://archive.org/details/Mu-just-a-game (2005)

SSPH Pre-Episode Part 2 The Healers by Amanda ‘AmandaJ3162’ Stanley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHZfJG0CgMU, I Got My Gmail https://archive.org/details/IGotMyGmail-MV and SSPH Pre-Episode 1 The Draftee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzAbyxe2mj4 were all selected for front page showcase status on Machinima.com – a first in its 5+ year history that three films created by one person are featured (2005)

screencap: Pre-Episode Part 2 The Healers

DigitalPhil and Dr. Nemesis’s  MachinimaLive! Episode 1 released entitled The Evolution of Machinima  https://archive.org/details/mlive12dec05 (2005)

The Machinima Reader book announced by Henry Lowood and Michael Nitsche https://www.amazon.com/Machinima-Reader-MIT-Press/dp/0262015331/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Machinima+Reader&qid=1639549609&sr=8-1 (2005)

Trailer for PG-13 series Adventures in Dating by Decorgal released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykAxPDze0R0 (2005)