UK Quake Clan: Minos Academy

Introduction to the Minos Academy

The clan system is a world-wide phenomena that unites all truly committed Quake players. A clan is basically a team which plays cooperatively. Clans exist to battle with and defeat other clans. In this respect, the Minos Academy is no different from any other clan. What does set us apart is the fact that we are one of the two oldest Clans in the UK. DC would say 2nd oldest, we might say *the* oldest :)

Clan MINOS Charter

One Quake excellence. Encourage all members to play to the best of their ability and ping time Two No elitism. Though we are not elitist, we are full, so to enter the clan you may have to prove yourself worthy Three Any tactics are valid tactics. People want to camp? Fine. People don’t want to camp? Fine Four Be humble in victory, and gracious in defeat Five Defend your team-mates when playing a team game. Otherwise it’s up to you

Clan Colours and Skin

We play in colours 4 and 1, red and brown. We think this makes us look quite natty. The red stops the blood of our opponents from staining the fabric (the brown you don’t want to know about). In QuakeWorld we wear the our Minos Academy skins, the base version of which is modelled to the right, by the lovely Sharon. And there’s our dinky Quake 2 skin.

Fame at last: A scan of the PCGamer article on us

Update by Phoenix, Wednesday 2nd September 1998



Original scan: https://web.archive.org/web/http://www.minos.co.uk:80/clan/pcgamer.gif

Minos Academy Caption Competition 24/03/98

29th January 1998 : New Clothes ! New Clothes !

5th November 1997 : Nostalgia Is Rife

“MCW and UKCL are over for another season. Well done to everyone in MA who has contributed to the team. There have been some great games and it is certainly the most exciting way to play quake. We have turned in some pretty decent performances, given that from time to time we tend to throw games we really should win! What is important is that we play the game to enjoy it and we don’t get uptight about results, as long as we are playing to the best of our ability and learning as we go. I for one have learnt a lot during this season, about team tactics and personal gameplay, and hope everyone has got as much out as they have put in. But most of all, I am very proud to act as clan leader for MA, and at this point, with several new members joining, some of which may have no idea why I lead the clan given the fact that I am by no means the best player, that perhaps I should just recap on some Minos history : 2 years ago or so, myself and my good friend Andrew (plays as Waldorf) were getting bored of the jobs we had picked up after leaving university. We had known each other since A-levels, after which he went to Oxford and I to Cambridge. Now before this gives anyone an unfair impression about us both, we are not public-school little rich-boy types at all. Though we both attended a private school for our a-levels, prior to that we were both in comprehensive schools, Andy in Lancashire, and myself in Manchester. At the time, Andy was working as a technical author/web designer, whilst I was involved in computer training on a client-server accounting package. We both wanted more zap in our lives and I was wild about playing network doom with the guys in my office. We also knew the rumours about id software’s next huge game, called Quake. So, we looked into ways of setting up a gaming centre that could host quake, and other internet games. One afternoon we put together a crude business plan that seemed to make sense and money. Andy got very excited about and was making plans to quit his job. All we needed was some backing and a place to start it. In August 96, out of the blue, a local internet entrepreneur heard about us and offered us massive bandwidth and a server to start running a quake server as soon as possible. The shareware version was just out and the first servers were already up. But we weren’t far behind, and not long after the shareware release of Quake, we put the first Minos quake server online. It was totally dedicated to quake, it was running linux, it was on an otherwise unused internet connection with more than 2 Meg bandwidth minimum. In short it was very fast, and quickly became the number 1 UK quake server. The quake scene had kicked off in a big way, and teams of players or “clans” were starting to form. We already had plans for our clan, all we needed was to recruit more players than just myself and Waldorf. We talked to players on the Minos server and began to recruit our veterans, like Chunky, Icemandan, Umquat as well as a few players who we have lost over the months, like Nightwing and Sarah. The DC’s were also forming at this time, I met Osiris and his brother, Sujoy and Danold on the Minos server. As the commercial release of Quake hit the shelves, the Minos server had to start paying its way, and so at the start of October 96 we had to turn on the subscription service. It was a rough time, now the free bit of the Minos server was heavily restricted, and we had to encourage people to part with cash in order to feed Andrew who had given up his job by this point. Amongst the many loyal subscribers we had were several recruits to the Clan, including FlameTop and Debug. We also took on another staff member (to whom we still owe back-pay!) which meant Phoenix (aka Simon) became another lucky guy to be paid to play quake! The Minos subscription service ran for 6 months, during which rising internet costs and diminishing interest in the one true internet game we offered forced us to reconsider. Really we were doing Minos a year early, if the range of games in the pipeline now are anything to go by. We switched off the subscription service and returned to a free server hosting, but with tastes in Quake-play advanced a little from the FFA server we started with, and with stiff competition performance-wise from dedicated janet servers like 3secs, we now run a CTF server, but it continues to be one of the most popular in the country. More famously, we also host the QuakeWorld Master server, registering QuakeWorld servers for Qspy and web-based access for the whole of Europe. On a business front, we are trying to bring more games developers into the internet revolution by consulting to both developers and isp’s. But there are astounding prospects available which, if we have the time and energy to take up, will certainly make carry the Minos idea into the next millennium in style. But the Clan remains regardless of the business itself, the clan was here before the business really started and it remains even now though the business has really stopped. As a clan history, I am sure it beats the hell out of any of the other UK clans!As Quake2 draws near, the future of the two leagues is in a little doubt. Who knows what will become of the UKCL and the MCW in the short term. Whatever leagues appear, and be they Quake or Quake2, I would be honoured to lead the Minos Academy into the future.”

Rick Owen

Cantona.MA

Minos Games

“That email made me think. I’m not too sure what it made me think, but….the good old days eh :)”

Chunky.MA

MCW Captain

“Well done MA on a great season – it’s been excellent playing alongside you all! Here’s to the next season… and cheers to Rick for keeping us in line and informed, and to Chunky for his excellent efforts as MCW captain.”

Umquat.MA

“Have fun! ITS WHAT THIS IS ABOUT And now I don’t care if we come middle of a league or bottom of the crappest league because I have enjoyed myself, WE ALL HAVE! And now I am beginning to remember the ol’ days and not give that much of a shit about results.”

ICEMANDAN[MA]

“Aw I was just thinking, I still use them scrappy bits of paper even with Q-spy/Game-spy ;o) Nothing like the old days.”“Sob Sob”

Boldlyson.MA

“Only one other player, some guy called CeeGee was on and he promptly proceeded to bash my buns around the level. After about 10mins of punishment I called a halt and asked what the hell he was doing! Why could I not get a frag?”

FlameTop.MA

(welllll…..I just had to put that in ;)

Cheers all, and thanks for indulging my skin habit :)

ceegee.MA

https://web.archive.org/web/20020213122055/http://www.minos.co.uk:80/clan/clan.htm

Players

Cantona_MA

UKCL Captain

Clan leader, and orator of some note

Waldorf_MA

Minos staff member and official ‘Keeper of the Clan Beard’

Chunky MA

MCW Captain

Not pretending. Is actually insane

Phoenix_MA

Seen pressing space to rise from the ashes quite often

The_Phobocop_MA

The Minos bot. Artificially intelligent hunter-killer. Released only on rare occasions

Umquat_MA

Sounds like a fruit, the kind of fruit that would rip off yer head and poo down your neck

Zebedee MA

Its his magic moustache that makes him the lethal killing machine he is.

Gauss MA

Burns the midnight oil, expect to see him in the early hours…

Ceegee_MA

Neurosurgeons scream for more, at paranoia’s poison door. Apparently.

FlameTop_MA

Maple, Mahogany & Steel.

Andy_MA

Ignoble representative of the Fourth Estate

DrDebug MA

Just call him, ‘The Fixer’

Tuf-T MA

Deadly. And quite good at crossing the road.



Ninja.MA

Holder of a 2nd dan black belt in the noble art of bed-wetting…



Pepe.MA

Our Continental representative

Begbie_MA

Well hard. Drinks pints. Swears. ‘Nuff said.

Jonathan.MA

Nuke ’em ’till they glow, then shoot ’em in the dark!



KiLleR.MA

WILD_1

Boldlyson

Mr.Blobby

Myrmidon

The cutting edge !

Superfuzz

https://web.archive.org/web/20020412210036/http://www.minos.co.uk:80/clan/players.htm

Clan Meet Photos

https://web.archive.org/web/20020208035906/http://www.minos.co.uk:80/clan/photos.htm

FlameTop’s (Minos) Quake Art Gallery

A few old ones which I’d, frankly, forgotten about… Guess who this is by? Surely this selection of Flame’s animations has to shame some of you into submission (cool pun ‘eh ?). Download the zip indicated next to the still. Believe me – it’s worth it !

At last !!! a new gallery submission, á la 3DS Max guru ol’ Flametop (no age pun intended….). If this doesn’t stir you lot into a crative frenzy and cause my isp to sue me for replacing their mail router due to the massive influx of bitmaps, then I don’t know what will. Apart from Simon’s sadistic streak that is……

Anyway, to get you going, here’s a piece by our very own Pepe. An excellent example, with commercial undertones I feel. Hmmm, (strokes goatee beard while fiddling with arty national health specs) look at the motion of the figures – I feel there is an underlying tone of menace, while portraying the unity of the team by bunching them so close. Of course the perspective is interesting too – one would presume that the viewer, holding the rocket launcher, is Pepe himself, perhaps emoting an underlying insecurity in the artist regarding the subject of his fellow team mates. Or, perhaps he just gathered a few mates together, took a screen shot and made a damn fine picture out of it. You decide…

Life rolls by, even when you’re not playing Quake as Ceegee demonstrates in this speculative piece about the nature of his life. The juxtaposition of the individuality of many of our Quake playing experiences, with the external lives we are perhaps missing out on, has always been a major theme running throughout his work, and perhaps to a lesser extent, in that of the remarkably talented Flametop who I believe created the scenery.

The loneliness of the character in the foreground is almost tear inducing, surrounded as he is by his fellow team mates, who would still rather just contemplate the contents of their drinks than gather for some friendly banter. Now the true art comes out. I knew this Gallery thing wouldn’t last without someone taking us beyond the realms of the mere Quake and into a blending of classical art and our esteemed game. The buck, it would seem, fell on Pepe, who has taken the Gallery theme to heart, and created a Minos logo that takes everything that the original artist probably intended from his great work, and adds that indefinable Minos touch. I can’t quite decide why the characters in the scene have decided to draw their own blood on the horns of Minos, but it seems almost more relevent than an eternal reaching out to me. Perhaps I’ve just been playing too long.

Or perhaps they were a team who just lost to the Upset Chaps…

Cantona has also cast his seal of approval on the page, providing us with an enormous vision of Capture the Flag which I sadly had to crop and resize to fit into the limited space we find ourselves with here. This is an ominous picture indeed. In my view, this is kind of like an Olympic opening ceremony, where the future combatants meet for the last time before thumping the hell out of each other. This has obviously occured just before the two players frog march off to their respective ends on the level to begin the next CTF war. This is scary stuff, full of apprehension and the knowledge of death, I’m not sure if this is mostly due to the hooded warriors or the almost fascist symbols I see hidden in the design of those flags. I tell you, if I was one of the models for this shot, I’m sure there would have been a few more gibs involved…

https://web.archive.org/web/20010430151515/http://www.minos.co.uk:80/clan/gallery.htm

Battletongue

It is widely recognised that with the real distance separating players in clan battles, communication can be one of the most difficult things to achieve in battle, while simultaneously having the honour of being perhaps the most important factor to team work. Without communication, battle turns to rout, and with the best will in the world, it’s nigh on impossible to establish what anyone else is thinking.

For the Minos Academy, this is no longer a problem. Thanks to FlameTop we now have a viable method of communication. Examine this and commit it to your memory. You may be communicated with during your next battle.

Overview

This page is dedicated to a scheme for Clan communications to enhance the team performance of Minos Academy, termed “BattleTongue” (or BT for short). It is designed to be used in the heat of battle to enable other MA members to determine what your situation and requirements are. Take the time to learn the simple codes and we could soon have clan Minos Academy running around like a bunch of Bob Hoskins’.

Quake provides two main ways to communicate; the “say” command and by visual clues. Typing orders is fine for general team orders or when you’re dead, but can be fatal in the thick of the action. Also, QuakeWorld has removed the team message facility so everything spoken aloud during a game is broadcast to all teams. To combat this, BT has been designed to be a visual code that can be executed with the normal game controls. Also BT is designed to be kept simple and easy to remember.

Usage

Quite frequently in the middle of a match you will find yourself coming across another MA player. These meetings usually take place at the designated holding areas of the level (as dictated by the MA playbook). BT lets you quickly communicate your state and proposed actions to the other team member.

The Codes

Face other player and perform one jump – “I am healthy and have plenty of ammo”

Face other player and perform two jumps – “I am weak and/or need ammo”

Face other player and switch to axe and back – “I need a decent weapon”

Turn away from other player and perform one jump – As one jump above + “Follow me” *

Turn away from other player and perform two jumps – “I’ll guard this spot” *

Grab throat and gasp dryly – “Sod this, I’m off to pub” **

* In general, the two turn away BT codes should only be used as a reply to some other BT code. Otherwise two players could meet and both turn away from each other!

** Only to be used after the match

Well, that’s it so far. Please take time to review the codes. If you can think of any improvements or additions to BattleTongue please mail FlameTop.

Oh and one last thing (sorry I just could not resist it), remember:

“BT: It’s good to talk”

https://web.archive.org/web/20020627005604/http://www.minos.co.uk:80/clan/secure/batttong.htm