Remember Heat.net??

[badaim]

I'm sure a few of us here used to play Quake on Heat.net back in the day, I know I did and I played under JerkFuck. I found some old stuff from back in those days that brought back a lot of memories lol.

The system requirements for back then make me LOL!

The HEAT network will run on PCs that meet the following minimum requirements:

Operating System: Win '95
Processor: Pentium 75 MHz
Modem Speed: 28.8 +
Memory: 16 MB RAM +
CD ROM Drive: 2X Speed
Internet Connection: Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Internet Browser: Java Enabled (Netscape 3.01+ or Internet Explorer 3.0+)
Other: 20 MB free on Hard drive
IMPORTANT NOTE:
At present HEAT WON’T play games through AOL, Compuserve, or Prodigy.


Check this out:
http://transfer.to/klesk

Thats a heat.net demo page from way back. Some links work for DL and some dont, but seeing the names is cool and brings back memories when I played with these guys. By the way.. in the quaker pics section, c5-miracle is Rev haha GG.

I remember a lot of these old players, what about you guys?


and here's some way back when heat was heat stuff.

index

heat2

HEAT

HEAT.NET Internet Game Network

HEAT.NET

HEAT

HEAT.NET

[wicked_lord]

LoL, any reason why heat closed? I played on it a few times. I wonder if something of that same nature was brought back would it be popular again? What would it take and how much would it cost? Those are things ive always wondered.

[badaim]

Heat.net was an online PC gaming system produced by SegaSoft, Sega's PC game division. Heat.net hosted both Sega-published first- and second-party games, as well as popular third-party games of the era, such as Quake I, Quake II or Baldur's Gate. Heat.net was based on a licensed version of the MPlayer Internet multiplayer gaming system which was later bought by GameSpy. The "currency" in the gaming system was "degrees", earned through playing games, game-related or general trivia contests, viewing ads, or other actions (like hosting enough game rooms in a time period). Heat.net had a loyalty program, in which members, known as "Foot Soldiers", received shirts and Heat.net dog tags.

Heat.net was also the home a collegiate gaming league called HeatCIGL (College Internet Game League). Students from 1,100 registered schools would play Quake I, Quake II or Unreal Tournament in teams representing their colleges, with play-offs at the end of the season. The championship team received $5,000. The league also gave away a $5,000 "Excellence in Gaming" College Scholarship and $600 for each player in their All Star Tournament.

Heat.net's degree system would pay players to play, one would receive degrees per hour spent online playing. All players would accumulate degrees however only players who were premium members could spend them and not have their degree count reset at the end of the month. Degrees could be spent online first at a heat.net run store where players had a small selection of games and computer related items to pick from. Later heat.net partnered with a large web site Chips & Bits' online game superstore which allowed players a vast selection of games, hardware and even magazine subscriptions.

In September 2000, it was announced that Heat.net and HeatCIGL would be shutting down on October 31, 2000. This was due in large part to financial difficulties. At the current time the average player had $10 worth of degrees or more in their account, however was only paying $5 a month as premium membership fee.

Abuse of heat.net was rampant near the end as players would leave their computers logged into heat.net all day and night even when not at the computer themselves. Players could easily make $4 or more a day from heat.net to spend online.

Numerous players would set up Quake games where you could see 30 or more players at night, simply logged in and no-one playing.

In an attempt to stop this behavior Heat.net created a "parking police" which would go around looking for such rooms. However players who were smart would go to the lobby which allowed players to play such games as
StarCraft over a fake LAN while still being logged into heat.net. Many players would simply launch the game launcher and let it hang, thus no game was run but no heat.net staff could tell if they were playing or not.

In an attempt to save Heat.net, the value of degrees were cut by 80 percent, however at this point the damage had been irreversible.
Also an issue which saw the end of Heat.net was that new games had their own built-in browsers and no longer were using matchmaking sites like Heat.net, Quake III Arena being one such game at the time.

In June 2008, CNET hailed Heat.Net as one of the greatest defunct websites in history.

The greatest defunct Web sites and dotcom disasters - Crave at CNET.co.uk

[wicked_lord]

Interesting. I played heat and mplayer a few times, i stuck to nq back then.

[bluntz]

Yes I remember the old days when CROW was almost the largest clan on heat.
Sega had the best site for MP no doubt,but some things back in the day were not so great like mobile gaming...hehe.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBLr4wbiR6E]Dead Squirrel: Game Gear vs. Game Boy - YouTube[/ame]

[morrowind]

Yea I played on heat.net back then as well.

I remember a player (comptessa).. used to hang out a bit.
I once entered a game she/he? was in that was being recorded
and pw protected. I joined and blurted out "seriously the pw was god?"

They were a bit upset that I ruined the vid.. well now it's a comedy.

Good times.

By the way, that squirrel video is hilarious.. I still have game gear too.. play it every once in a while.

[wicked_lord]

Game gear was great for its time.. Mines long gone.

[bluntz]

Grandson just returned the purple GB with Black Bass.