The machinima genre wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for a few dedicated Quake fans…
In 2003, I had a bit of a problem on my hands.
Its more like theyre in the game playing, but theyre also playing characters that they play.
Does that make sense?
Naturally, it did not.
Except, as it turns out, that wasnt quite the case.
What there is a record of, however, is thedemoscene.
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Yet the demoscenes influence on machinima and gaming is not entirely intangible.
Over time, it would eventually lead to developers incorporating more traditional film capturing techniques into their games.
One of the earliest examples of this comes from the 1992 Disney Interactive gameStunt Island.
Perhaps it was just too obscure and specific to really capture the imagination of its users.
Its a good thing they did, too, because things were about to get very interesting from there.
This combination made the act of recording and sharing particularly intenseQuakedeathmatches presented with a certain cinematic flair quite popular.
Among them was the group known as the Rangers.
If youre watching that video now and thinking, Oh boy, thats pretty rough, youre not alone.
But that doesnt matter.
That last part is the real kicker.
Soon afterDiary of a Camperreleased, otherQuakefans began to produce similar works of their own.
Even that would pale in comparison to the ambition of such machinima projects asSeal ofNehahra.
UnlikeCitizenKane, it contains a healthy dose of racism and a semi-nude man with a rocket launcher.
However, there may be no piece ofQuakemachinima more important in the long-term than theQuake Done Quickseries.
In short, between 1996 and 1999 theQuakemachinima movement was everywhere.
Instead,Quake IIIwould signal the end of the franchises role as the premier source of machinima.
What this meant is that the software fueling this newQuakewent from being fairly open sourced to very restricted.
Some had reverted back to filming inQuakeII,but more had simply moved on.
From that point, machinima would somehow just keep growing.
Every timeWolfensteins anniversary rolls around, we sing its praises for essentially creating the first person shooter genre.
EveryDOOManniversary, we are treated to a flood of memories regarding the games mod scene and other noteworthy innovations.
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Matthew Byrd is a freelance contributor.
