Team Fortress Classic | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Valve |
Publisher(s) |
|
Designer(s) |
|
Engine | GoldSrc |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux |
Release | April 7, 1999
|
Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Team Fortress Classic is a first-person shooter game developed by Valve and published by Sierra Studios. It was originally released in April 1999 for Windows, and is based on Team Fortress, a mod for the 1996 game Quake . The game puts two teams against each other in online multiplayer matches; each member plays as one of nine classes, each with different skills. The scenarios include capture the flag, territorial control, and escorting a "VIP" player.
Valve hired the developers of the Team Fortress mod to develop Team Fortress Classic using its GoldSrc engine (used in their 1998 game Half-Life ) to promote the Half-Life software development kit. [1] In 2007, Valve released Team Fortress 2.
Matches in Team Fortress Classic typically feature two teams, one red and one blue, and nine playable character classes. Each character class has a set of weapons and abilities unique to that specific class. This differentiation between classes makes for rock-paper-scissors-esque gameplay that requires teammates to work together in order to effectively achieve the objective. [2] The class-system also encourages players to vary their selection of classes and utilize certain classes in conjunction with one another to gain the advantage.
In Team Fortress Classic, a server can hold up to 32 players simultaneously, and matches can be played in a number of game modes, each featuring different objectives. [3]
In Team Fortress Classic, the player can choose to play as one of nine classes: the Scout, Sniper, Soldier, Demoman, Medic, Heavy Weapons Guy, Pyro, Spy, or Engineer. Each class comes equipped with at least one weapon unique to that class, and often a secondary weapon which may be common across multiple classes (typically a shotgun or nailgun). Additionally, each class gets a melee weapon (all classes, with the exception of the Medic, Spy, and Engineer, wield a crowbar, an homage to Valve's game Half-Life ). Finally, each player carries grenades; the effects of grenades vary, depending on the player's class. [4]
In Escort game modes, a player may also choose to play as the Civilian class, which is armed only with an umbrella, no armor, and very little health. Civilians are typically escorted and protected by the rest of the team. [5]
Team Fortress was originally a modification for Quake (1996), [14] and then later for QuakeWorld , developed by TF Software Pty. Ltd. Its developers were working on a standalone version, Team Fortress 2, when they were hired by Valve to write a port of Team Fortress as a mod for Valve's game Half-Life. [15] After several delays from the original release date of March 26, 1999, the mod was released on April 7, 1999. [16] [17]
On June 9, 2000, Team Fortress version 1.5 was released as a part of Half-Life's 1.1 update. [15] It was the first standalone version of Team Fortress. [18] The update added "new sounds and weapons, enhanced graphics, new models for classes and weapons, new maps from popular mapmakers, an updated user interface that makes finding and joining games easy and intuitive, and a new in-game Command Menu Interface". [19] It also included a new in-game interface and the networking code for Valve's then-upcoming Team Fortress 2. [20] There were three new maps with the update: Dustbowl, Warpath, and Epicenter. [21] Additionally, the new Command Menu Interface was an in-game menu that allowed players to execute commands to change teams, call for a medic and change classes while in a match. [19]
Valve significantly updated the game over time, tweaking the game's networking code, and adding new maps and game modes. In 2003, Team Fortress Classic was released on Valve's Steam system. Versions for OS X and Linux were released in 2013. [22]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
GameRankings | 85% [23] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
PC Gamer (UK) | 85% [24] |
PC Gaming World | 9.8/10 [25] |
Team Fortress Classic received positive reviews, garnering a rating of 85% on the video game review aggregator site GameRankings. [23] There were some criticisms, however, like Graham Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun who criticized the game for being "like Counter Strike only messy and gruff" [26] PC Gamer US named Team Fortress Classic the best multiplayer game of 1999, and wrote that it was "more fun and more addictive than any other multiplayer-only title released in 1999, and didn't cost owners of Half-Life a single penny." [27] PC Gamer UK praised the game for its multiple character classes, "sophisticated game-tactics", and drive to work together with your team, but also noted the game's "clunky" inter-team communication and mediocre graphics. [24] In 2010, the game was included as one of the games in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die . [28]
Following the success of Team Fortress as a Quake modification, Team Fortress Software began development of a sequel. Interested in the project's potential, Valve hired the team to develop Team Fortress 2 on the modified Quake engine used by Half-Life . [29] The partnership was announced in 1998, developed in parallel to Team Fortress Classic. However, the game was not shown publicly until a year later at E3 1999. Introduced as Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms, the game showcased multiple unprecedented technologies for its time and won several awards including "Best Online Game" and "Best Action Game". [30] In June 2000, Valve announced that Team Fortress 2 had been delayed further, attributing this to their rebuilding of the game on a new, proprietary in-house engine that is today known as the Source engine. [31]
Following this delay, little mention of the game was made by Valve for a period of six years. Running up to Half-Life 2's release in 2004, Valve's Doug Lombardi claimed that Team Fortress 2 was still being developed and news of its release would come after that of Half-Life 2. [32] However, Lombardi's claim would not come to fruition until Electronic Arts' 2006 Summer Showcase. For the first time in more than half a decade, the game was shown publicly, with an art style that notably contrasted its revisions prior. [33] In 2007, Team Fortress 2 was released to critical acclaim as part of The Orange Box . [34]
The plot and characters of Team Fortress 2 were expanded upon outside of the game in the form of short videos or comics. In April 2014, the Team Fortress comic series reintroduced the Team Fortress Classic classes (excluding their respective Medic) as a rival cast of characters to the Team Fortress 2 team. [35] A catch-up comic released on the TF2 website released for free comic book day described Team Fortress Classic as being set in an alternate 1930, and that the game takes place during the Gravel Wars era of the timeline, along with the fact that the Classic engineer is the father of the engineer in Team Fortress 2.
A fan-made total conversion mod for Half-Life 2 titled Fortress Forever was created, aiming to replicate the gameplay of Team Fortress Classic while using the more modern Source engine. [36] Fans have also made a similar mod of Team Fortress 2 titled Team Fortress 2 Classic , which seeks to marry gameplay elements and concepts from both entries alongside scrapped ideas from the sequel's development cycle and several entirely original additions.
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was initially developed and released as a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess Cliffe in 1999, before Le and Cliffe were hired and the game's intellectual property acquired. Counter-Strike was released by Valve for Microsoft Windows in November 2000, and is the first installment in the Counter-Strike series. Several remakes and ports were released on Xbox, as well as OS X and Linux.
Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the Half-Life series. The player assumes the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is invaded by aliens following a disastrous scientific experiment. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration and puzzles.
Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the game franchises Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota.
Half-Life 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam. Like the original Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2 combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and adds new features such as vehicles and physics-based gameplay. The player controls Gordon Freeman, who joins a resistance to liberate Earth from the alien Combine empire.
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve. It debuted as the successor to GoldSrc in 2004 with the releases of Half-Life: Source, Counter-Strike: Source, and Half-Life 2. It is most well-known for its usage by Valve, but the engine has been used both by small teams and individuals to create modifications of Valve games, and other studios creating distinct games, notably Troika Games title Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Valve continued to create incremental updates to the Source engine after its 2004 release, most of which coincided with games created by Valve. In the late 2010s, Valve created the Source 2 engine to replace Source, with it publicly debuting alongside Half-Life: Alyx. The Source engine is most well-known for its advancements in physics, AI, and graphics.
Minh Le, also known by his online nickname Gooseman, is a Vietnamese Canadian video game programmer who co-created the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike with Jess Cliffe in 1999 and started the Counter-Strike series. He was later employed by Valve, the developers of Half-Life, and worked for 8 years in Korea on the multiplayer first-person shooter Tactical Intervention. He is a contractor on the multiplayer survival first-person shooter Rust. In the small-team games that he has worked on, Le has been a programmer, modeler, and designer.
In shooter games, rocket jumping is the technique of using the knockback of an explosive weapon, most often a rocket launcher, to launch the shooter into the air. The aim of this technique is to reach heights and distances that standard character movement cannot achieve. Although the origin of rocket jumping is unclear, its usage was popularized by Quake.
Day of Defeat: Source is a team-based online first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve. Set in World War II, the game is a remake of Day of Defeat. It was updated from the GoldSrc engine used by its predecessor to the Source engine, and a remake of the game models. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on September 26, 2005, distributed through Valve's online content delivery service Steam. Retail distribution of the game was handled by Electronic Arts.
Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake, Team Fortress Classic. The game was released in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box for Windows and the Xbox 360, and ported to the PlayStation 3 in December 2007. It was released as a standalone game for Windows in April 2008, and updated to support Mac OS X in June 2010 and Linux in February 2013. It is distributed online through Valve's digital retailer Steam, with Electronic Arts managing retail and console editions.
Planet Half-Life was a gaming website owned by IGN and its subsidiary GameSpy. Maintained by a voluntary team of contributors, the site was dedicated to providing news and information about Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and related modifications and other Valve titles. It was founded by Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen and was at one point the largest of an array of GameSpy-run gaming websites known as the Planet Network. Following GameSpy's closure, the Planet Half-Life website still remains accessible, but seems to have ceased updating.
Half-Life is a series of first-person shooter (FPS) games created by Valve. The games combine shooting combat, puzzles and storytelling.
The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing five games developed and published by Valve. Two of the games included, Half-Life 2 and its first stand-alone expansion, Episode One; had previously been released as separate products. Three new games were also included in the compilation: the second stand-alone expansion, Half-Life 2: Episode Two; the puzzle game Portal; and Team Fortress 2, the multiplayer game sequel to Team Fortress Classic. Valve also released a soundtrack containing music from the games within the compilation. A separate product entitled The Black Box was planned, which would have included only the new games, but was later canceled.
GoldSrc, sometimes called the Half-LifeEngine, is a proprietary game engine developed by Valve. At its core, GoldSrc is a heavily modified version of id Software's Quake engine. It made its debut in 1998 with Half-Life and powered future games developed by or with oversight from Valve, including Half-Life's expansions, Day of Defeat and games in the Counter-Strike series.
Dino D-Day is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter video game developed and published by American studios 800 North and Digital Ranch. It was released for Microsoft Windows on April 8, 2011.
Robin Walker is an Australian video game designer best known for co-developing Quake Team Fortress, Team Fortress Classic, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life: Alyx.
Half-Life is a series of first-person shooter games created and published by Valve. Since the release of the original Half-Life for Windows in 1998, several ports, expansion packs and sequels have been canceled, including projects developed by other studios.
Team Fortress 2 Classic is a free mod of the 2007 game Team Fortress 2, developed by Eminoma and utilizing the Source engine. Building on a 2012 leak of the game's source code, with the code itself dating back to some point in 2008, the mod features not just community-made content, but also reworked content that was cut from the original game's development, and content based on Team Fortress Classic. This includes new weapons, game modes, and two new teams used in some game modes in addition to the base game's RED and BLU teams. Additions to the mod also notably include the Civilian, a scrapped character from Team Fortress 2.