(taken from PlanetFortress 3rd Birthday tribute, and repeated here in case the link dies.. this article must live!)

Team Fortress is one of the most popular mods. There is Team Fortress for Quake and Quakeworld, which was easily the most popular mod for those two. Then there is the newer Team Fortress Classic which is popular, and has spectacular graphics. How did Team Fortress evolve from a small mod, to the game that we love today?

[ Download Team Fortress 1.0 Source Code. Note: This is for Quake and will need to be compiled. ]
[ Released 24/8/96 ]
It all started with Team Fortress version 1.0. Team Fortress version 1 included only five classes. These were the Scout, Sniper, Soldier, Demolitions Man, and the Combat Medic. The Scout has probably changed the least, in Version 1 he was a quick weakling, and he still is. However, in this early version he had both shotguns. The sniper rifle was also different. Powerful shots took three seconds to reload, but would kill any player except for a soldier or demoman. The soldier was a true powerhouse. He was slow, had lots of armour, and carried all normal Quake guns except for the grenade launcher. And you thought the soldier in Team Fortress 2.9 was unbalanced! The demoman was also blowing up things from the start, and had his detpaks in this first version. Our old friend the medic was the same back then, minus his ability to infect the enemies with those nasty viruses. The grenades included in this release were the normal explosive, concussion, MIRV, and the famous server lagging nail grenade.

The heavy metal started with version 1.1. The jolly fat man known as HWGuy entered the game. This version also gave us some real map code, along with fixing some funny bugs such as "Gibbed while Reloading" and "Dying while concussed".

Version 1.2 was infected. It was infected with a new weapon, the feared and irritating bio-weapon. It also introduced the random class. Version 1.3 added the pyro and his napalm grenades. In this version we also gained the much more flexible rewritten map code, and the option of lives for each player. You may think Valve had the first trouble with teams in Team Fortress Classic. In Team Fortress, team 4 was not working. This was fixed in Version 1.32.

The world that is Quake, is Quakeworld. Team Fortress 2.0 was the first version to be for Quakeworld. Version 2.1 added everyone's favourite class, the civilian better known as the president.

Version 2.5 Beta A added the spy and the engineer. The sniper also got the advantage of having locational damage. In Beta B, the engineers creations would blow up when he changed class. Too bad, or else you could have built a sentry, changed class, and it would still be there! In Beta C the spy could not be discovered by other spies and scouts. The Assault Cannon also started firing faster. Dispensers also became a defensive weapon, with the added remote detonation feature. In Beta F the Scout got flash grenades, but these did not stay long in Team Fortress. Cheaters would change their graphics so the flashes did not affect them.

[ Download Team Fortress 2.5 Release ]
[ Released 13/6/97 ]
Many betas and bug fixes later, Team Fortress 2.5 final release arrives. The 2.5 betas went to the letter I, plus a final beta. That is what I consider a lot of betas! When Team Fortress 2.5 final came out, Team Fortress had become a lot less bug filled and a lot more cheat proof. However, nothing is perfect, and more revisions would come out.

Team Fortress version 2.6 final beta added the option for the engineer to rotate his sentry with his spanner and added some clan features such as prematch mode and the full team score.

[ Download Team Fortress 2.8 Release ]
[ Released 24/5/98 ]
An awful lot of bug fixes and features later, Team Fortress version 2.8 is released. This version added more detailed death messages. The most radically changed thing in this release were the grenades. The Scout no longer carried the cheatable flash grenade, but he carried caltrops. The concussion grenade effect was also boosted to help against cheaters. The spy lost out on the deal however, and the amount of distortions his grenade produces was reduced.

[ Download Team Fortress 2.9 Server Release ]
[ Released 23/10/98 ]
Team Fortress 2.9 was then released. This would be, and still is, the final official version of Team Fortress for Quakeworld. Team Fortress 2.9 was a server only release for Quakeworld only, the Quake version stayed at 2.8. The two classes that liked 2.9 were the heavy and the spy. The spy had a better knife and more armour, and the heavy had a better cannon.

There have been some modifications to the released Team Fortress source code. The main one was Mega TF, which added a lot of features. It can be argued if this was good or bad, but a lot of people liked it and some disliked it. The most interesting release in my opinion was Shaka's TF. In it you got cash in the beginning, and could build your own class and choose your weapons. It was rather interesting, and a lot of fun.

Now we have Team Fortress Classic. It is Team Fortress, but with better graphics. The graphics are definitely some of the best, since it is the Half-Life engine. Team Fortress Classic does feel a bit different than the original, even the levels have a whole different feel since the engine is different. A lot of classes have also received an increase in balance, specially the pyro and heavy.

Looking back at the whole deal you realize something. Out of a Quake mod, a whole community has developed. A special community, that keeps together a lot better than a lot of other game communities. As long as computers can run some form of Team Fortress, there will always be a group of people that play it and are dedicated to it.

There probably will never be a new official version of Team Fortress for Quakeworld, but you can count on Team Fortress 2 and Team Fortress Classic keeping the game alive!