Over the past ten years, QuakeCon has grown to be a gigantic event. At this year’s 10th annual QuakeCon, there were over 6,000 gamers from 52 countries! QuakeCon is free to attend, thanks to many large sponsors like Intel, nVidia, Alienware, Creative, Linksys, and more. All these sponsors not only pay for the LAN infrastructure, but also offer the use of their hardware as well. The sponsors are present in the exhibition hall where they showcase their latest products and offer visitors tons of freebies from promotional t-shirts all the way to expensive computer parts via raffles. The sponsors’ of QuakeCon also donate a large amount of money ($150,000) to support the major gaming tournaments. Some of the individual cash prizes go as high as $50,000 for the 1st place.

QuakeCon 2005 took place in Grapevine, TX at the plush Gaylord Texan Hotel. The event lasted from August 11th through August 14th. One of the most unique aspects of every QuakeCon is the BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) area. Essentially, every interested gamer is welcome to bring their own machine and connect it to the world’s largest local gaming area network. This year there were 3,500 computers in the BYOC area. While walking down the endless aisles, one can see all types of computers from generic beige boxes all the way to some insane looking case models such was the “Hellraiser mannequin” and the “Elvish” case. Across the BYOC, all kinds of games are being played every minute during the event. Among the id Software favorites, countless other games are played as well. This year there was even a custom made arcade machine present that ran thousands of MAME ROM’s.

Outside the BYOC area, there was a lavish exhibitor section where some of the latest gaming hardware and software was shown. Among the most unique gaming wares was the physics card from Ageia. Imagine a fully reactive game environment with crumpling buildings where pieces collide off one another and tanks explode into thousands of pieces. Ageia’s physX processor, the world’s first dedicated physics processing unit, and supporting SDK software, deliver the processing horsepower to calculate real-time interactive worlds. Add-in PCI boards and games that take advantage of Ageia’s physics technology will be available this holiday season. nVidia showcased its new 7800 GT card as well as a number of demos of the upcoming games including Serious Sam 2, Fable: The Lost Chapters, Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory, and many more.

One of the most exciting developments took place at Creative’s booth in which there was the first public unveiling of the new SoundBlaster X-Fi family of sound cards. With its 51 million transistors and 64 MB of dedicated on-board memory, the new audio processor from Creative delivers 24-bit crystal clear sound that is also supported by an unprecedented surround sound system that can even be experienced via headphones.

As far as the gaming peripherals go, all eyes were focused on Razer and their new line up of super high precision mice. Razer’s Copperhead mouse has a 2000 DPI laser engine as well as 32 KB of on-board memory in which one can save many gaming controller profiles.

As far as the video games arena goes, this year’s QuakeCon was the only place to see and play the latest Quake game – Quake 4. The playable demo of the highly anticipated Quake 4 consisted of several multiplayer maps that reflected lightning fast action pumped through the insanely beautiful visuals of the Doom 3 engine. id Software is working on Quake 4 with Raven Software which, if the demo is any indication, will result in a very powerful and fun game. Both development teams are also working on the Xbox 360 version of the same game and are hoping for a simultaneous platform launch of Quake 4.

With an October 21st release of the Doom movie, QuakeCon attendees were treated to a panel discussion focusing on Universal Pictures film adaptation of the Doom video games, starring The Rock and Karl Urban. The panel consisted of John Rosengrant, Creative Effects Supervisor at Stan Winston Studios; Jeremy Steckler, Co-Executive Producer; and Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. As part of the overall presentation, attendees were also shown a sneak peek of a portion of the film.

One of the most anticipated events was the keynote address from John Carmack, Founder, Co-Owner and Technical Director of id Software. His presentation focused mainly around the current state of the gaming industry as well as an overview of what the current hot development is in the latest 3d engines. John Carmack also announced that the legendary Quake 3 engine code will be released for public use under the GNU license.

In the official tournament section of this year’s QuakeCon, for the first time we had the “Miss QuakeCon” tournament in which a number of ladies fought each other in Quake 3 Arena for $30,000 in prize money. The tournament drew many spectators as the female warriors impressed many people with their fighting skills.

Aside from the non-stop gaming related action, there was also a few non-gaming fun events. Mr. Sinus, an insanely funny group of comedians from Austin, Texas, bombarded the QuakeCon crowd with hilarious comments during the movie theatre like showing of the old Patrick Swayze classic movie – Red Dawn. This is Mr. Sinus’ second attendance at QuakeCon and they have quite a following. More information about their shows can be obtained from their website at http://www.mrsinus.com.

QuakeCon 2005 also hosted a special Hard OCP show with Kyle Bennett where gaming industry leaders showcased their latest gizmos and received a realistic reviews and (or) comments from the show’s host and Hard OCP owner Kyle Bennett. During this show, over 150 products were given through a raffle prize giveaway. Prizes ranged from the latest mice and keyboards, all the way to the top notch video cards and CPUs. Needless to say, this event was attended by most of the QuakeCon visitors.

QuakeCon ended with a rock concert by the band Dismantled. There was free beer for all of the gamers old enough to enjoy it, and the entire event went without a hitch. The next QuakeCon will take place again between the 11th and 14th of August, 2006 and I highly urge all of you to make plans to attend it. Many people say that QuakeCon is more fun than even E3. Either way it is a very unique gaming festival that has something for everyone.