The Rangers

Completely Machinima History with Ben Grussi: Quake I Machinima

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 24, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Ben reminds us where the story of machinima originated in those early Quake movies which have become classic game-based films.  He talks us through the most notable contributions by the pioneers using the Quake 1 engine.  Tune in next month when Ben concludes the history of Quake with reviews of notables in Quake 2 and 3.  You can find links to the films on our blog and some in our YouTube playlist for History of Machinima.



YouTube Version of Episode

Show Notes & Links

Ben reviews classic Quake 1 films from the machinima archives –

0.48 Diary of a Camper by The Rangers, released 26 October 1996

2.00 Torn Apart series by The Rangers, first released 6 November 1996

2.28 Apartment Huntin’ by The ILL Clan, released 17 May 1998

3.23 Eschaton: Darkness Twilight by Strange Company, released 20 January 1998 (by Walking Wounded)

Hugh Hancock, Strange Company

4.30 Blahbalicious by Avatar & Wendigo, released 9 December 1997

5.40 Devil’s Covenant by Clan Phantasm, released 2 August 1998

6.59 Operation Bayshield by Clan Undead, released 24 January 1997

8.02 Zerstorer by Nihilism Unlimited, released 27 September 1997

9.06 Seal of Nehahra by Nehahra Team, released 6 August 2000

9.46 Scourge Done Slick by Quake Done Quick Team, released 25 July 1998

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)