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Between two Quads… with Mindf!3ldzX
Hosted by: Planetnine
Hosted by: Planetnine
Q: Greetings Mindf!3ldzX and thank you for being a part of this interview segment. Do you mind if I get your first name and use it throughout the interview?
A: Christopher, or Chris for short. I'm one of the many Chris's running around Quake. I like to be on a first name basis with the players.
Q: It seems like half or more of the community agrees with this, yet we are all still using aliases while playing Quake. What is the reasoning for this? Should we all just switch to our first names with the community being so small and us knowing each other for so long?
A: Our quake names are much of our identities...truth be told, I started using the name Mindfields back in 1997 when Prodigy released Fat of the Land. I think there is usually mistaken identity, like the other day Spike sent me a PM pertaining to awesome Net Quake/Quake World relating subjects, and I remember being like HOLY FN WOW, then I realized that Spike gave me way more credit than I deserved, so I helped relay the message to someone who actually understood on a technical level, that being r00k, his Inbox was full that day.
Q: It must be an honor to be one of the original members of the long standing quake one community? How did you find out about it when it first started and what was your relationship with Solecord, and Baker?
A: Some days it’s extremely awesome, other days it’s the biggest pain. Baker has always been a hero of mine, someone who is always looking for ways to better our community. I met Solecord through Baker, they originally frequented the RuneQuake scene and I was always frequenting the IHOC mod (both was rune mods with their own differences) , one day some Rune player talked shit about IHOC players was all cheats (clan competitive environment!) , Needless to say I went on a 16 year old / 17 year old word-filled rampage about how IHOC players are leet and definitely not cheats, just more colorful language I’m sure.
Q: Speaking of an honor, I really appreciate you giving me your time and allowing me to interview you. When I told my team that we snagged an interview with Mindf!3ldzx they were very pleasantly surprised.
A: Pleasure is all mine and I think I was more surprised than they were.
Q: Let’s take this back to the beginning where it all started. When did you start playing quake and how did you hear about it or find out about it?
A: I had seen Quake on a display PC in a Wal-Mart and had to have it. I had the demo until Christmas of 1996, when I received the full blown copy at the age of 16.
Q: Was Quake love at first site or just something to kill the time and it eventually grew on you?
A: At first it was a single player addiction. Prepare to Nelson me, "HA HA!". I didn't finish beating Quake until I got the internet in 1997/1998. I had to cheat and 'insert old search engine' excite, AltaVista ,etc.
Q: Do you have a "Golden Era" memory you would like to share with us? One of those moments of pure joy you had playing the game, maybe back in your hayday of quake?
A: The very first day I played Quake with a broadband connection. The International House of Cheese server's was almost always West Coast / Central and I spent what seemed like an eternity playing with 140-200 ping.... The first person I got to play against with my newly found 43 ping was the 'Commander in Cheese' Yugo2hecK. I recall nearly verbatim what he told me as well, it was too the effect of "You realize that you're going to have to ping up for anyone to have a chance or enjoy the game" , It was like going from a Chevette to a Chevelle or a Corvette, night and day difference.
Q: I think you have mentioned your age before Chris but to confirm you are 31 correct? In my opinion that puts you right on the edge of the computer gamers vs. the console gamers. Where do you fall in those categories? Do you use both? And if so which is your favorite? What is your take on the console gaming industry and it's resurgence in the last decade? Do you worry about the failing pc gaming industry? Any comments on one of the top gaming studios decision to concentrate more on the console than the PC version for all of its future releases? (Id Software)
A: I was a console gamer the heaviest during the 16-bit console war. The last console I owned as a PS2....
AMD has locked down the hardware to be used in both the new Sony Orbis and the Xbox Durango (PS4/720). What this translates to? NATIVE PORTS to and from Console or PC. They really are getting their act together this time. Which in the end should cost the game developers LESS, since they are developing for essentially the same platform, just in 3 flavors. PC,PC-in-disguise PlayStation, and a PC-in-disguise Xbox!
All 3 will benefit from each other, and the gamers will benefit the most.
Id Software, I gave up on them when Quake2 came out...
Q: I had the chance to talk to one of your friends for this interview as well. So you and Phenom go back a long ways right? Do you guys know each other in real life or just a quake friendship that has spanned over a decade? He said that you guys met on the IHOC servers way back in the day. Any good memories you would care to share with us about that? He also said to say hi "Tiffany" and that you would know what that meant. Sounds like a casual jab to me. What is the significance behind that?
All kidding aside though, I would like to read a passage Phenom said about you.
When asked what really stands out about you and why you guys are good friends, he had this to say:
“Some of the qualities I admire about Mindz is his inability to sit idly by and take any shit. Even the smallest of will power exerted by Mindz tends to raise eyebrows. He's a mini-book-of-Quake-knowledge and I constantly am asking him for Quake related help, he's a good guy with a big gun in the fight, a good teammate (when he's not AFK hah!) and constantly goes out of his way to help others."
C: I would have to agree with Phenom. You have always had a strong presence in the community and have always defended it vehemently.
A: HaHa, Tiffany. One day I was probably under the influence of greenery and I told him I shall call him Sir Pimps from here on out, he retorted probably also under the greenery influence [i] I shall call you from here on out, Tiffany! It was an inside joke from there on out, years and years still active. Yes we met at the IHOC servers back in the day, along with SmokeJ, we 3 amigo's would account for the last of the original IHOC Quakers that still play to this day. Phenom and I have had more arguments and "Tiff's" (Tiffany Pun) than I can count on two hands worth of fingers, but that’s just testimony to how long we've been Quake comrades. My most fond IHOC memory is when I first connected and seen heavy clan warfare / clan matches. This is what anchored me into the Quake1 universe, competitive team oriented gameplay.
Q: Can you expand on the IHOC servers a bit? I might be the rare case here but I never played IHOC and don’t really know much about those servers? What type of mod did they run and where was the server(s) located? What years were they really popular?
A: I believe IHOC's hey-day was from 1998 - 2003. IHOC mod, International House of Cheese originally your average FFA, featuring a belly hook that had some really weird but awesome physics about it, nothing like you find in RuneQuake or 3Wave now days. It also featured the Jet, basically you always had a rocket pack attached to your ass/feet , and it acted like a VTOL thrust system like found on a Harrier or F/22 Raptor. Using +jet and looking down would rocket your forward, looking straight forward and using the +jet you'd rocket straight up, and if you looked up and +jet you'd rocket backwards. The key technique I used back in the days of IHOC was get some elevation with jet or hook, and target an enemy by hooking either them or at their feet, and the moment you get inside their vicinity you could turn on the +jet afterburner and set people on fire with it, it was a beast that needed taming with finessing the use of it, holding it down would dump your ammo really fast. IHOC also had the most interesting feature, rotating power-ups. I found out how to find any power I was seeking through heavy playing and paying attention, I found out that, let’s say you only take two power-ups, the yellow armor, and the Quad. The rotating power-up system would cause a Yellow armor and Quad to change spawn locations, based purely on the fact that if you wanted Quad, and instead of Quad you find a Yellow Armor @ the Quad's spawn location, you could do to the Yellow Armor and either you would find the Quad or a DIFFERENT power-up, and if you found say, Red Armor instead of the Quad, run to the Red Armor and you'll find the Quad. In small games this tactic proved unstoppable but in larger games, it became extremely difficult to keep track of all the spawn locations of the power-ups, due to people grabbing the power-ups faster than I could keep track of them and almost ALWAYS someone would stumble on the Quad once it was heavily rotated away from its original spawn location.
Q: Speaking of defending the community, do you still look out for Kimp and ban on site when possible? I know you were one of the leaders in the fight to have him removed from the community entirely. In recent years he has obviously quieted down and caused less trouble but does that mean anything to you at this point?
A: This guy still exists in our community, he still acts weird as f?ck. Sorry for the colorful language. I for the most part do everything I can to just avoid him, he sticks to the TDM community and they have largely accepted him (and his shenanigans depending on what they are). Shoot my own foot for saying this again, he pretty much sticks to himself and those who would acknowledge him, and I’m not one of those people. He enables me to throw courtesy and kindness out the door and say very derogatory things about him, and that’s not enjoyable. Having a post every other week about how Kimp crashed the server after being banned, or Kimp did this, or Kimp did that. The more administration thrown at the problem, the more incidents would occur with other community members and eventually it was just chaos. From 2009-2011 I was head strong and refused to relinquish my bans on Kimp @ every corner I turned. From 2012-present, I realized I was chasing my tail.
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