[HN Gopher] Unreal Tournament 2004 is back
___________________________________________________________________
Unreal Tournament 2004 is back
Author : keithoffer
Score : 407 points
Date : 2025-12-04 10:06 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (old.reddit.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (old.reddit.com)
| ghaering wrote:
| That is great news! I hope we will have a few public servers left
| to play this online.
| wesammikhail wrote:
| Instagib Face Classic Quad Jumps in 2026?
|
| Sign me the f up!
| IshKebab wrote:
| Do they have access to the source code then?
| dvdkon wrote:
| The code was floating around the Internet some years back, and
| was probably privately shared much sooner.
|
| I just wish these groups making fan-made builds would share at
| least patches, so they don't become gatekeepers and others
| could build on their work.
| snarfy wrote:
| some of us do e.g.
|
| https://github.com/aldehir/ut2004-patches/releases
| magicalhippo wrote:
| One thing I missed from Unreal Tournament, which too few other
| games adopted IMHO, was the concept of mutators. Effectively
| server-level mods which, as the name implied, mutated the
| gameplay in some way.
|
| There were silly ones like the one making your characters head
| larger for each kill, and those which made it just different like
| low gravity, and so on.
|
| It was also relatively easy to make your own, thanks to
| UnrealScript.
|
| Really wish more multiplayer games embraced this concept, it
| really increased replayability by changing things up.
| themafia wrote:
| My favorite game of all time was Quake, similarly extended with
| QuakeC, into the QuakeWorld CTF game. I still dream about those
| maps.
| jack_tripper wrote:
| Same. My favorite mutator was the exploding ammo cases. So much
| fun to see an enemy run to pick up an ammo box and just shoot
| it with a pistol blowing it up in his face. That was apretty
| revolutionary game mechanic 20 years ago. Do any modern games
| have such a thing?
| amlib wrote:
| That volatile ammo mutator was made even more awesome because
| it actually spawned "shots" of that type, so a plasma pile
| wouldn't just explode but rather spread various plasma shots
| around it. The granade one would have the granades bouncing
| around a bit before exploding. It was so easy for things to
| go wrong and backfire on you :)
| armchairhacker wrote:
| Those are in TF2 and Minecraft, perhaps one reason they're
| still popular
| piltdownman wrote:
| Mutators are about the only thing keeping Starcraft 2 Co-Op
| players going in 2025 (and by extension, the community).
|
| Earliest memory I have in the multiplayer FPS context was
| probably the 'cheat' menu unlocks for Goldeneye on the N64 in
| 1997.
| ThatPlayer wrote:
| Me and my friend are somehow still playing co-op without
| mutators. My friend is max level, I'm like 100 away
| mhitza wrote:
| This reminds me of Quake with the DeFrag mode "sub-game", but
| also gameplay available in Quake Live in which you could have a
| Railgun only match, but they could also behave like Rocket
| Launchers for rocket jumps.
|
| Also allowing players to change the configuration of their game
| through the dev console was cool. My favorite visual change was
| to configure the railgun trails to persist for multiple
| seconds.
| bombcar wrote:
| We modified Action Quake II (somehow, I forget how) to change
| gravity (I think it was in the map itself) and we would
| bounce around Cheyenne in a completely different playstyle -
| and _everything_ would send you flying.
| Fuzzwah wrote:
| sv_gravity console command.
| emsixteen wrote:
| Railgun trail to match the reload time, always!
| mikkupikku wrote:
| > _also gameplay available in Quake Live in which you could
| have a Railgun only match, but they could also behave like
| Rocket Launchers for rocket jumps_
|
| That used to be my jam in Q3A, Instaunlagged. Nothing is
| quite like railgun jumping with no splash damage. Dusk's
| crossbow jumping comes close, but isn't hitscan..
| klaussilveira wrote:
| Red Eclipse has mutators: https://github.com/redeclipse/base
| fainpul wrote:
| Luckily it seems modern games (e.g. TF2, Overwatch) make this
| even more accessible with so called "workshops".
| b3ing wrote:
| My favorite was the one that spawned monsters, so you could
| have enemies that would attack either side during vehicle CTF
| or Onslaught game modes
| jorvi wrote:
| UnrealScript was the bomb, it was what got me started coding.
| Specifically replicating the gravity gun from Half Life 2.
| Neil44 wrote:
| I remember the one where you got physically bigger every time
| you killed someone, until you couldn't fit through doorways
| etc. And smaller and smaller every time you died. It was pretty
| hilarious.
| sorenjan wrote:
| Instagib with ASMD shock rifles.
| bigyabai wrote:
| Man after my own heart <3
| keraf wrote:
| There was a number of games that allowed similar things in
| these days. My favourite was San Andreas Multiplayer. All you
| needed was a copy of GTA: San Andreas and download the client,
| the server was community scripted. This gave birth to a number
| of unique servers: racing, deathmatch, role play, etc.
|
| Multi Theft Auto (another GTA multiplayer mod, still alive
| today) allowed for similar things. And so did the source games
| (Counter Strike, HL2: DM, Day of Defeat, etc.).
| samsolomon wrote:
| While most seemed to prefer Counter-strike, my childhood gaming
| was dominated by an Unreal Tournament mod called Tac Ops. While
| the games looked similar, the mechanics felt very different
| than Counter-strike. It was a much faster-paced game.
|
| There were a ton of servers with wacky mods. I spent a ton of
| time on the low-grav servers. There were also some that made
| the top-scoring player huge. Those odd game modes were a blast.
|
| EDIT: Also looks like people are still playing!
|
| https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/tactical-ops-assault-on-t...
|
| https://tactical-ops.eu/
| pelagicAustral wrote:
| This is brilliant, I had complete forgotten about this one!!
| Thank you very much.
| FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
| I love Tac Ops! Was one of the most realistic mods out there
| (it was sooo easy to die).
|
| I seem to remember there was some behind-the-scenes political
| / financial shenanigans with Counter Strike and the Game of
| the Year edition bundle that kind of killed it.
| fragmede wrote:
| Haha realistic... reminds me that one of my favorite mods
| back in the day was Action Quake which was more action
| movie styled and less realistic. Last second sideways jumps
| in and out of the way were its claim to fame, imo.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > which was more action movie styled and less realistic
|
| Another HL mod I remember fondly in similar veins is "The
| Specialists". If I remember correctly, it came out around
| the same time as The Matrix, and had all the fun moves
| like running on walls in slowmo, jumping forward/sideways
| and shooting in slowmo, and lots of other stuff. I think
| I recall it being possible to play both in 1st and 3rd
| person too, something that was kind of new at that point,
| unless I misremember.
|
| I think at that I point I probably spent as much time
| with The Specialists as with Counter-Strike itself (and a
| cracked copy of 3DS Max 8 for making my own models of
| course).
| archagon wrote:
| That mod was awesome. They somehow managed to make slow
| motion powerups work in a multiplayer action game without
| forcing it on every player in the map!
|
| Also had a strange RPG community entirely separate from
| the main game... funny how these random subcultures
| evolve in unexpected places.
| jessewmc wrote:
| Wow thats a name I haven't heard in a long time! I really
| miss the way tacops 2.2 felt, never did get along with 3.x
| versions. Was definitely a formative gaming experience for me
| as well
| ratelimitsteve wrote:
| These were my favorite part of Starsiege: Tribes. There was a
| modpack called Ultra Renegades that totally changed the
| gameplay and made it so twitchy and fun.
| thoughtpalette wrote:
| Loved Tribes! I mostly played Paintball mod from 2000-2004!
| hightrix wrote:
| It was such a fun game! My friend group got really into the
| Shifter mod, you could build defenses for your base like
| walls and turrets. It was a blast!
| ToucanLoucan wrote:
| Can't happen anymore because every multiplayer game is chasing
| esports.
|
| I have always hated esports conceptually, from jump.
| superxpro12 wrote:
| those ant-sized man in house maps were the best. i dont think
| ive ever seen anything like it since.
| smazga wrote:
| The game Grounded almost has that feel, but it's open world.
|
| There's another game called Hypercharge:Unboxed that is
| definitely giving me the feeling of those old UT maps, but I
| haven't actually played it.
| FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
| Sniping people in the bathtub from the sink was so fun...
| forgetfreeman wrote:
| Having a match grind to a halt because literally everyone on
| the server was standing in the livingroom staring at the
| tv...
| matsemann wrote:
| de_rats and similar in CS1.6
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| Mutators were amazing at the peak of unreal tournament, but
| towards the end of life they made it die that much quicker. I
| remember feeling a little nostalgic and wanting to play unreal
| tournament, but the only service I could find had a huge amount
| of mutators and mods installed where it was very much unlike
| the normal gameplay experience that I was looking for
| pickledoyster wrote:
| Warcraft 3 had some of the greatest mods that kept the player
| base alive for decades
| doublerabbit wrote:
| I've never been a fan of Warcraft, but I did play the custom
| Warcraft 3 TD maps at lan parties. Some were just so epic.
| pietmichal wrote:
| Counter-Strike 1.6 (and other Goldsrc based games) greatly
| benefited from AMX Mod X's scripting capabilities. I miss the
| days where people were playing modded servers.
|
| Obscuring server browser and/or not allowing self-hosting
| dedicated servers killed modding in modern games. A real shame.
|
| https://www.amxmodx.org/
| satertek wrote:
| Not only killed modding, but also killed the way those unique
| communities developed. I suppose it's possible you can find
| people on community Discord servers nowadays for pick up
| games, but not in the same way as just seeing and talking to
| the same people all the time on your favorite modded server.
| Fuzzwah wrote:
| For four great years in my career I ran game servers for an
| Australian ISP. I really enjoyed tossing up servers for new
| HL2 / UT / Quakeworld mods and seeing what picked up a
| community, chipping in on a cyberpunk HL2 mod in the same
| period.
|
| I have such rose coloured glasses of that time.
|
| Looking back, most of the dedicated server software felt
| like it was just tossed over the wall. Some of the stuff we
| used to have to do to get things running happily on
| headless linux servers was very hacky. Others simply HAD to
| run on windows hosts.
|
| I feel like the entire industry died as games became "live"
| services.
|
| Nearly 2 decades later when my kids got into Minecraft, I
| stumbled into the hosted MC server world and was just
| amazed by the size of the industry around it.
|
| It was a real "arrrh this is where that same spirit ended
| up" moment.
|
| And now of course there's huge servers funded by getting
| kids into gambling and pay to win.... Gross.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| My favorite server which I think is dead by now, Dead Man
| Standing was a low gravity CS 1.6 server, no footstep noises,
| but there was a hook you could use to maneuver the low
| gravity, and the hook made noise, it was really something
| with those CS mouse maps. That was peak CS for me, I never
| saw anyone come close to the quality of that server. DMS I
| will always miss you.
| spixy wrote:
| I liked zombie mods
| f13f1f1f1 wrote:
| And it was literally just so they could skinnerbox people and
| sell skins. I still remember when if you wanted a skin you
| just downloaded it and could put it on your server and anyone
| who joined would download and use it. People running their
| own stuff makes DLC/lootcrate/cosmetics unviable and I do
| think a huge part of the "server" finding stuff is to
| algorithmically put you in situations you are likely to
| win/lose at certain rates to keep you playing. Anything other
| than community servers as the primary avenue is a dark
| pattern. You also lose out the path to getting into
| modding/3d modeling/programming/running servers that those
| modded servers were for lots of people including me.
|
| If you have fun instagib servers that might detract from how
| many lootcrates people buy since they might just get curb
| stomped in it + it's just harder to track and measure the
| impact of changes when you are minmaxxing for monetary
| extraction when you have high variety of mods/servers. If you
| want to track and evaluate player behavior to manipulate it
| you need to control for as many variables as possible. These
| game companies are straight up evil.
| archagon wrote:
| On the other hand, during the anarchy years of bring-your-
| own-skins (and sprays), there was a lot of horrible shit
| out there -- goatse was only the tip of the iceberg.
| sph wrote:
| Few games today can put me in the heightened frenzy of an
| Unreal Tournament instagib match. Pure, unadulterated
| adrenaline.
|
| For a few years Sauerbraten scratched that itch.
| webdevver wrote:
| i am such a slow old boomer now but i absolutely loved the
| sauerbraten TOSOK (Team One Shot One Kill) venice servers.
| also assault cube TOSOK/OSOK (dm variant). also UrbanTerror
| jump maps. ut_swim will always be in my heart.
| sph wrote:
| I don't know/remember TOSOK, is that a new mode? We used to
| play daily circa 2007-2010, my group of friends was in a
| well-known European clan. Haven't played it since, sadly.
| webdevver wrote:
| i think im mixing things up - that term might be unique
| to assault cube. in sauerbraten i remember a map called
| venice, everyone had snipers and its one shot to kill
| anyone, very satisfying if youre good and very
| frustrating if someones better than you.
| sph wrote:
| I went to look for some videos of the game and damn... I
| guess it's time to reinstall.
|
| (Never played Assault Cube, always meant to but
| Sauerbraten was just so good)
| int_19h wrote:
| The entire extensibility story in Unreal series has been
| amazing from the get go. Where QuakeC was really more of a
| scripting language "on the side", with UT it felt more like the
| entire game is written in UnrealScript, with some native bits
| here and there for performance. The language was interesting
| too, incorporating things such as first-class support for
| various states (you could define different implementations for
| a function depending on which state the object is, and derived
| classes could extend that).
|
| No wonder the mutator scene in UT was crazy. My favorite mod
| for the original UT99 was Dr Strangelove, which modded the
| Redeemer gun (the one that shoots huge nuclear missiles) to
| allow you to ride them.
| philsnow wrote:
| Sounds a lot like emacs, there's a core written in C etc but
| the overwhelming majority of the bits that make it an editor
| are in a scripting layer that you can change at runtime (and
| indeed there's hardly any reason to use emacs if you're not
| doing so)
| piva00 wrote:
| Are there are any FPS shooters on the genre of UT (or even
| Quake3) but modern, not remasters?
|
| I've been missing a lot the frenetic gameplay of those, used to
| play a lot of UT at a decent level but nowadays I only see
| tactical FPSs or the likes of Counter-Strike/Battlefield with a
| high player count.
| belst wrote:
| there are but they are pretty niche, so mostly you play against
| bots or against friends.
|
| This one is the last one I heard of but I also haven't followed
| the scene much lately:
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/324810/TOXIKK/
| OccamsMirror wrote:
| TOXIKK was awesome. But very hard to find matches with
| players.
| pjc50 wrote:
| Isn't that what Overwatch/Valorant/Apex/Fortnite etc are?
| piva00 wrote:
| Overwatch is a objective-based game, and like Valorant is a
| "hero shooter". Apex and Fortnite are battle royales.
|
| I think the closest I got was The Finals but still class-
| based, so reminds me more of Team Fortress.
|
| I loved playing 1v1 on Quake 2/3 and UT, also team
| deathmatch, from the list you commented it feels like each
| game got one of those aspects but none that makes the genre
| of UT what it is: knowing where weapons/ammo/armor spawn, map
| knowledge to navigate around, emergent movement mechanics
| (rocket jumps, strafe-jumping, etc.).
|
| Interesting to see this genre mostly died out, and remnants
| of it have been scattered across other genres.
| loa_in_ wrote:
| No, these are class based team FPS, core of UT and Quake is
| (team) deathmatch
| patrickk wrote:
| The Unreal Tournament series are arena shooters[1] which
| has sadly died a death, partially due to Epic Games
| negligence.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arena_shooter
| jjbinx007 wrote:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/boomershooters/
| corint wrote:
| Not that I can really think of - there's the adjacent
| Sauerbraten, but that's a similar vintage!
| crimsoneer wrote:
| maybe Splitgate if that's still alive?
| waysa wrote:
| Splitgate 2 is scheduled to launch later this month.
| mikkupikku wrote:
| Dusk is more Quakeish than UTish, but well worth a look. The
| graphics are deliberately low fidelity 90s retro, but the
| gameplay is tight.
| K0nserv wrote:
| https://www.warsow.net/ is good and runs on pretty much
| everything. Plays like a mix between UT and Quake3.
| retsibsi wrote:
| I love Warsow but am I right that it's very hard to find an
| opponent these days? I just checked https://arena.sh/wa/ and
| there are 4 non-empty servers, but most (maybe all) of the
| players seem to be bots.
| K0nserv wrote:
| I haven't played a while so I cannot comment. When I last
| played I spun up a server for my friend group to play on.
| This is the beauty of old school games like these, no need
| to rely on a company to keep servers running. In a way
| Warsow is the perfect LAN game: everyone can run it and
| it's easy to host a server.
| hofrogs wrote:
| Open-source one: Xonotic
|
| https://xonotic.org/
| some-guy wrote:
| This is the one that I still fire up with my friends once in
| awhile. The only problem is it sort of lacks the charm and
| nostalgia, and it's a bit rough around the edges in parts
| (the gun selection is fairly abysmal and don't feel right
| IMO).
| petercooper wrote:
| Outing myself as a parent of young kids here, but I have been
| genuinely surprised how good _Hypershot_ on Roblox is. It
| reminds me of Unreal Tournament a lot and is really easy to
| play, I 've been hooked for a few weeks. It cuts everything
| down to the basics like UT without all the bells and whistles
| modern AAA games have. Oh and it's totally free (but with all
| the monetization attempts Roblox games tend to have, though
| they aren't necessary to play even at a high level).
| lgl wrote:
| Diabotical was heavily inspired by Quakeworld/Quake3/UT arena
| shooter FPS.
|
| https://www.diabotical.com
| xeonmc wrote:
| Quake Champions?
| phrotoma wrote:
| Please point me to the nearest meat grinder. I'm jonesing for
| breakneck speed mayhem!
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| Arena shooters have been relegated to side modes in other,
| bigger games. Probably the last big shooter with that as its
| focus was Halo: Infinite, but that struggled to stay relevant
| and its next big update will be its last.
| jval43 wrote:
| Splitgate captures the feel nicely. Simple, fast, and last I
| checked free. Very recommended.
| a-french-anon wrote:
| Shootmania was supposed to be it.
| alexchantavy wrote:
| Not really unfortunately. This video goes a bit into why
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-t37idOfvk), but the short
| version is the skill floor (or ceiling?) was too high, making
| it unwelcoming for people to just pick up, unlike a COD-like
| shooter.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Halo 3 multiplayer had this solved by maintaining a dynamic
| rating of the players so that it could match skill levels
| when random matches were made.
| coupdejarnac wrote:
| Tribes 3: Rivals is a load of fun. Flying around on jetpacks
| helps raise the skill ceiling.
| bigyabai wrote:
| If you like 1v1/2v2 gamemodes, Straftat is pretty amazing:
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/2386720/STRAFTAT/
| CommanderData wrote:
| Amazing, more companies need to do this.
|
| Separately it's a shame most modern games have removed LAN
| gaming.
| grubbs wrote:
| This is great. I remember playing this for the first time at a
| Wizards of the Coast in the mall. They had 8 or so PCs on a LAN
| in the back of the store. My first true LAN party I guess.
| GaryBluto wrote:
| Epic Games have been surprisingly generous with their older
| library. Refreshing to see.
| jeron wrote:
| that's probably thanks to how well Fortnite has done/is doing.
| Would likely be cagier on their old stuff if the company wasnt
| doing well
| basisword wrote:
| Wow this is really exciting, especially the Mac support. UT was
| kinda my gateway to programming. They made it really easy to
| build and play your own maps.
| davikr wrote:
| Still holding out for UT1 code to be officially released.
| aktau wrote:
| It's not the original source, but
| https://github.com/dpjudas/SurrealEngine is an active
| reimplementation of UE1.
| fergie wrote:
| Such a good game- very ahead of its time, great look and feel.
| Weird that it was allowed to wither and die.
| yetihehe wrote:
| > Weird that it was allowed to wither and die.
|
| It was allowed to wither and then murdered in 2022. You can't
| even buy it now, not even on GOG (you could buy it on GOG
| previously, but it was removed).
| zelphirkalt wrote:
| What happened if you bought it when it was available?
| Hopefully no Amazon Swindle 1984...
| yetihehe wrote:
| AFAIK those who have it, can still play it (but no official
| multiplayer servers anymore).
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| They released UT 3 in 2007 but I think around that time the
| company shifted more towards their engine, which by then was
| already the most used game engine for high profile games (don't
| quote me on that one, it's a gut feeling).
|
| They started working on a new title, but it was meandering for
| a long time; it seemed that they would do some of the ground
| work but relied on the community a lot to design and build maps
| and weapons. Then the Fortnite team released a Battle Royale
| mode and made it free to play and it completely dominated the
| market. The UT team was transitioned to Fortnite in 2017, and
| Fortnite became their money printer earning them hundreds of
| millions per month.
|
| While I love Unreal Tournament and would love for them or some
| other party to fill the gap of a no-nonsense arena shooter, the
| reality is that it wouldn't be as popular or lucrative as
| Fortnite. It'd be competing with FPS games like CoD and
| Battlefield, which have more going for them - including an
| uneven playing field, depending on players' progression and
| paid-for unlocks.
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| UT3 was a dismal failure both critically and commercially,
| while Gears of War was a huge success. Epic rode that for a
| while as they worked on Fortnite, and then they put out the
| battle royale mode in 2017 and the thing took off.
| unsungNovelty wrote:
| Plaay >>
|
| _In the mystique female voice!_
|
| I bought it in steam before they removed it. So I can still
| install and play this game from time to time. Capture the flag is
| something else in this game!
| xyzal wrote:
| I hope they fix the terrible SP campaign. The bot skill became
| too difficult too fast (if I remember correctly they after
| several stages also began to dodge your CROSSHAIR), you could not
| change base difficulty mid-run and the money system was punishing
| when you lost a match
| heystefan wrote:
| UT99>
| deltoidmaximus wrote:
| Yeah, I couldn't really get into UT2004. Not sure what it was
| that bugged me since it was so long ago. But I played a lot of
| UT99 and I was doing it on a 28.8 modem.
| alexchantavy wrote:
| I think the tone of of UT2004 was slightly sillier than UT99
| and the guns felt .. fatter? I'm definitely looking at this
| with some nostalgia but UT99 will always be my favorite
| shooter
| systems_glitch wrote:
| I don't always play UT2K4, but when I do, it's usually with
| Ballistic Weapons mod + Sergeant Kelly's weapon packs. I
| agree that the UT2K4 weapons just don't quite do it like
| UT99.
| RankingMember wrote:
| That skyscraper map is etched in my mind I played it so much
| craftkiller wrote:
| I have a special place in my heart for UT2004 because it was one
| of the very few games that had an official native Linux version
| at the time. I think I enjoyed the fact that it was running on
| Linux more than I enjoyed the game itself.
| phrotoma wrote:
| I'll never forget installing ut2k4 on my linux box and having
| it Just Work. Magical.
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| Not just working, but it actually ran better in Linux for me
| -- my university-mandated laptop could only run it at
| 1280x800 in Windows if you wanted to hit 60fps, but the Linux
| client was able to run at the panel's native 1920x1200.
| Zardoz84 wrote:
| I had it working without issues from Steam (I bought UT 99
| and 2004 before Epic de-listed from Steam)
| ghc wrote:
| Yes! I remember at the time I had just gotten linux to reliably
| work on my dual Opteron workstation so that I could migrate
| away from Win2K64. UT2K3 and UT2K4 were just about the only
| games I could run because Wine didn't work very well back then.
|
| In retrospect, I have a much greater appreciation for Windows
| 2000. User experience was really front and center in a way that
| we seem to have gotten away from since Web 2.0. It basically
| never blue screened. Games ran well. Personal computing seems
| to have taken some steps backwards since then.
| zelphirkalt wrote:
| There are big companies, that are actively doing harmful
| things to undermine personal computing, in order to farm
| engagement, attention and show us ads. Phones become more and
| more locked down, except for very niche products. Many people
| don't even have a PC any longer, and only have phones, with
| none of the freedom of personal computing that we enjoy(ed).
| Only people in the know are able to and willing to put in the
| effort to run an OS that includes freedom. Trying to help a
| friend or family member with a computer or phone problem, one
| will quickly notice the efforts that big tech makes to
| undermine freedom respecting solutions.
| fud101 wrote:
| i remember playing it on linux on my dell inspiron 8k which was
| a beautiful machine.
| urmane wrote:
| Yes! I had both a Linux (main) and a Windows box in my office
| back in the day, and a friend came over frequently and we would
| "kill things!" for hours :-)
|
| IIRC, I bought the metal case for UT3, but the linux binaries
| never appeared ...
| kobbs wrote:
| I'm still sad that Epic Games axed UT4 (2014).
| zelphirkalt wrote:
| I liked UT3 too, but I guess UT2004 was the peak, with all its
| different game modes. UT3 felt a little bit like a console
| thing, with fewer modes. Overall I had much more fun with
| UT2004, playing it with friends in LAN. UT3 simply didn't pack
| as much fun gameplay.
| jval43 wrote:
| UT3 felt sluggish at the time. Both in gameplay and graphics
| performance. Still much faster than most games today of
| course.
| archi42 wrote:
| Ah, for me that would have been UT aka UT99. But chances are,
| I'm simply 3 - 6 years older than you ;-) Though I definitely
| I was not the intended age group upon release.
|
| UT4 would have been pretty nice. I remember building the
| alpha from source when they put it GitHub.... .... Which is
| now closer to the release of UT 2004 than today. _sigh_
| pantalaimon wrote:
| Fortnite is it's spiritual successor.
| sph wrote:
| Don't you blaspheme in here.
| InexSquirrel wrote:
| It hurt reading that.
| klaussilveira wrote:
| I honestly can't understand why Epic Games refuses to open-source
| Unreal 1 and UT99. They insist on licensing individual
| developers, instead of opening up the source so community forks
| can thrive. Look at the id tech community, with all the Doom and
| Quake forks, and all the amazing projects that spawned off of
| them.
|
| The topic of "middleware" often comes up, as an excuse for them
| not being able to open the source. Well, just remove any third-
| party libraries and middleware, even EA did it with their C&C
| open-source releases. The C&C release did not even compile, but
| that did not stop the community from porting to Linux and other
| platforms, as well as modernizing the source and creating
| replacement libraries.
| 0xC0ncord wrote:
| One explanation that was brought up before about this was
| licensing. A lot of the source code has been touched by other
| entities like Digital Extremes who may feel differently about
| releasing the source. That's even more true for UT2k4 which was
| worked on by many more companies behind the scenes, some of
| which are now defunct.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > may feel differently about releasing the source
|
| Still sounds like something someone would change their mind
| about if enough money was involved, if only Epic had enough
| profits.
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| I found somebody on Youtube a few years back that remade Nyleve
| Falls in 3DS Max and all I could think was how cool it would be
| to reboot Unreal 1 with modern graphics.
|
| Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP4ufZKSkio
| davexunit wrote:
| UT2k4 was a LAN party favorite of mine. One of the last good
| multiplayer FPS games before Epic lost its way.
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| UT2004 (and its Xbox counterpart Unreal Championship 2) were
| great experiences. UT3 tried to set itself apart by tuning its
| pace significantly higher, and it lost its audience, and UT2016
| was never going to be a significant title given its development
| history.
| QuiCasseRien wrote:
| I'm still playing ut99 GOTY with my son (yeah, I'm that old)...
| and nothing else matterrrrrrrrrrrr
| manuelmoreale wrote:
| Still an amazing FPS, your son is lucky. So many great memories
| playing CTF at lan parties.
| joefarish wrote:
| Facing Worlds was absolutely peak.
| manuelmoreale wrote:
| Hell yeah! So many runs on that map. It's so funny how it
| was basically a strategy-less map since there wasn't much
| you could do other than trying your best avoid incoming
| fire while running like a madman up the slope in the middle
| of the map.
| jerf wrote:
| It's a terrible map by almost every metric...
|
| ... except fun.
|
| But guess what metric matters most?
| some-guy wrote:
| I was going to say this. It's not a well-balanced map
| gameplay-wise, but the grand scale of it back in the day
| was very awe-inspiring.
| manuelmoreale wrote:
| I think most UT99 maps were balanced for chaos. Different
| types of chaos depending on the mode and the map. But
| they were genuinely all great. I don't remember hating
| any map in particular.
| archagon wrote:
| That's kind of what I miss about classic shooters. No
| rankings, no matchmaking -- just random jank in service
| of pure pubbie fun. Don't like the map? No worries, we'll
| cycle to a new one in a few minutes. (Or hop on over to a
| different server.) Versus CS just being endless rounds of
| perfectly balanced de_dust2 these days. "Competitive,"
| sure, but freakin' boring!
| manuelmoreale wrote:
| It really was all geared towards having fun. And the fact
| that all the weapons were available on the maps rather
| than being pre selected made the game so easy to play.
|
| There was no wasting time figuring out what style of play
| you wanted to go for. You just picked a game mode and
| went for it.
|
| And as you said, maps were changing very quickly
| depending on how the game mode was set up.
|
| Plus, so many exploding bodies
| sph wrote:
| Fun... and with a killer soundtrack:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eEcPakW42JU
|
| Enjoy the memories.
| bitwize wrote:
| Camp out in the upper chamber, wait for Redeemer to
| spawn, grab it and nuke 'em all. Great for taking out
| snipers posted on the opposing tower who are preventing
| your guys from crossing.
|
| Fuck, CTF-Face was a vibe.
| smazga wrote:
| UT99 was the first real FPS experience I had. My friend
| invited me to a LAN party (also first time), and the
| whole thing was mind blowing.
|
| People all over the house shouting and laughing.
|
| I have a distinct memory of someone attempting what you
| just described, but my friend just happened to be ready
| and he sniped the redeemer right as it was shot. Big
| explosion and nothing left of the player but a scorch
| mark on the building. I laughed myself to tears. Good
| times.
| manuelmoreale wrote:
| I'd be so down to set up a lan again to play UT99. I
| still have a copy ready to go I bought on GOG ages ago.
| int_19h wrote:
| Once you do get past it, though, there are some options.
| Including climbing the tower from the outside with the
| translocator.
| manuelmoreale wrote:
| Oh yes totally. But getting to the enemy side was the fun
| part. Also, how cool was that the translocator could be
| used as a weapon.
| a_e_k wrote:
| I liked getting to the other side of that map by
| telepunting - drop the translocator disk at your feet,
| smack it with the impact hammer just right, and you could
| send it flying ridiculous distances. You could easily
| send it the opposite tower in Facing Worlds if your aim
| was good.
| manuelmoreale wrote:
| I didn't even know that's a thing you could do! Might
| have to reinstall the game and give this a try.
| close04 wrote:
| I found the CD earlier this year while I was packing for a
| move. Couldn't help myself and played a few DM-Morpheus bot
| matches. The graphics look dated but the fun was all still
| there. Few games ever since managed to hook me like this one
| did.
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| Is that the low-gravity one? Such a fun map.
|
| I remember modding the homing missile gun (forgot its name)
| to be more agile around corners and building obstacles
| courses in Unreal Editor for DM-Morpheus to shoot the
| missiles through. Modding Unreal games was always a great
| time considering the technology back then.
| uslic001 wrote:
| Still my favorite FPS of all time. Low gravity sniper rifle CTF
| was my favorite. Was in the NTHZ clan.
| blazinglyfast wrote:
| With the best gaming OST of all time.
| systems_glitch wrote:
| Still the FPS I play the most! We organize LAN parties at some
| of the vintage computer events.
| archagon wrote:
| Tell me more! Are you in the Bay Area?
| forgetfreeman wrote:
| After a particularly shitty day on the helpdesk there was
| nothing quite like loading up Facing Worlds, jimmying team
| balancing so it was 8v1 and then holding off the ensuing rush
| of bots for a half hour with a sniper rifle.
| rkomorn wrote:
| Facing Worlds was really something. Getting absurd streaks
| mowing down bots wasn't particularly challenging but it sure
| felt good.
|
| And wine made it playable on FreeBSD which was quite
| something to behold.
|
| Especially when my friend launched it on the 256 color,
| literal X term I had at home. Solid 0.2 FPS over the network.
| pipes wrote:
| Surely epic will shut this down. The installer downloads a copy
| of the original game, well that is my reading of it.
| onli wrote:
| They clearly state so. But also say they have epic's blessing.
| Then this will stay up.
| 0xC0ncord wrote:
| This is being done by OldUnreal with written permission from
| Epic. They've been doing the same thing for Unreal 1 and Unreal
| Tournament '99 under NDA and all.
| culopatin wrote:
| Did you read the part where they say "With Epic's blessing"?
| anomaly_ wrote:
| Bold to assume a poster on the internet can actually read.
| saubeidl wrote:
| Speaking of shooters of roughly that era, the Timesplitters
| Rewind fan project also just put out their first release:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzWSrgQ3eMI
|
| It's basically a modernized anthology of the three Timesplitters
| games that were quite popular on consoles of the PS2 era.
| aiexplorations wrote:
| Wow, this is great! I wonder if there is support for ray tracing
| and other modern tech, but even as it is I would not mind playing
| this again. Been a long time. Plus, moved to Mac recently and
| expecting the new fangled Mac support this brings will work well.
| dankobgd wrote:
| Still can't forgive what epic did to UT4...
| bokohut wrote:
| A standing applause for those undertaking this effort as I look
| forward to losing even more of my future time given how much I
| lost to it in the past.
|
| Many moons ago I worked with an individual whose wife was
| employed in marketing by a large well known video game company
| involved around UT. One day he came into the office and brought a
| load of leftover UT swag and it was a feeding frenzy. I still
| have and wear my long sleeve black UT embroidered tee and as a
| point of fact I just wore it again last week. Looking forward to
| the progress on this effort as an old head UT fan still.
| bob1029 wrote:
| The most interesting part of UT2k4 to me is the software
| renderer. It actually worked on period hardware and many would
| argue it looks better. You should definitely give it a try if
| you've got the game on a modern machine.
| Narishma wrote:
| You may be thinking of UT99 or even the first Unreal. UT2k4
| required a GPU and didn't have a software renderer.
| Teslazar wrote:
| UT2k4 had software rending support via the Pixomatic software
| renderer from RAD Game Tools:
|
| https://www.radgametools.com/pixo/PixoWithUnreal2004.txt
|
| Further discussion about it here:
|
| https://forums.beyondunreal.com/threads/software-
| rendering-i...
| Contax wrote:
| UT2003 was the first online multiplayer game I ever played, and I
| played it a lot, mostly at the office with coworkers; we then
| moved to UT2004. So, so many fond memories of both. Glad is back.
| treeshateorcs wrote:
| do you remember the map called Phobos II? for some reason they
| didn't include it with 2004, it was my favorite map
| meroes wrote:
| They taught a summer class at Stanford where the capstone was
| putting your 3D model into Ut4 as a new character. Classroom of
| networked commuters with all kinds of popular games on them...it
| was hard to get work done some times.
| nemo136 wrote:
| I discovered "secret level" on prime recently where there is an
| episode on UT2004 (with the original sound effects like "killing
| spree !!!" ). With this additional news, I now want to run it
| again...
| DustinBrett wrote:
| Hopefully they can compile it to web as well.
| dirkderkdurk wrote:
| A while back I kinda got Unreal Tournament running inside Unreal
| Engine, okay, more like a VM running UT inside Unreal Engine, but
| still...
|
| For those looking for silliness:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVO2VDPnI0Y
| deafpolygon wrote:
| I loved Instagib.
| orthecreedence wrote:
| It's the only way I ever played.
| georgeburdell wrote:
| Amazing, can't wait to play
|
| ... oh wait I have a 60 hour a week job
|
| ... oh wait I have a wife with PPD and 2 young kids and I have to
| hire a babysitter just to put up Christmas lights
|
| ... oh wait I have RSIs in my dominant hand
|
| I think I'll just make do with my memories of this game. I
| imagine much of my opinion was colored by being a teenager when
| it was released.
| bunnytrack wrote:
| For those who loved UT99, there is still a fairly large community
| of players online, particularly in the gametype known as
| BunnyTrack.
|
| It's focused on movement-based challenges and is extremely fun
| and unique.
|
| I host a few BT servers myself. Please feel free to join and
| check it out. See: https://www.bunnytrack.net/about
| Rooster61 wrote:
| Hoo boy. I lost waaaaay too many hours to the Monster Hunt mod
| back in the day. The RPG style PvE one. All those leeches link
| gunning the one brave player at the front shooting the boss...
| Crazy fun
|
| I'm not sure if this release is a good thing or bad thing for me
| haha
| InexSquirrel wrote:
| Oh man, I'd forgotten about Monster Hunt. That's the one with
| the gates right, which spawned a boss when you destroyed them
| all?
|
| I had a heavily modded version of the game that I ran with
| bunch of other most, including ChaosUT (Loved the explosive
| cross bow), some Infiltration weapons and other random bits.
| Genuinely some of the funnest gaming I remember having as a
| kid.
| phendrenad2 wrote:
| This is cool, but reminds me of what we don't have. 99% of the
| content for Unreal Tournament was made by the community. Why
| can't the community make an open-source game? There are probably
| even attempts to make an open-source UT04. But I wish open-source
| could just make more standalone games. We have so few...
| Tuxracer, Chromium BSU, Battle for Wesnoth, Warsaw, etc.
| newsclues wrote:
| So happy to play facing worlds instagib CTF. Godlike!
| jimbob45 wrote:
| Played this a few months back. In terms of value, it felt right
| up there with the Orange Box.
|
| The one glaring problem the game has is double-tapping movement
| keys to dodge. Kills your fingers and you can't ignore it because
| dodging seems to be the primary mode of skill expression beside
| weapon choice and aim.
| trashface wrote:
| This is already on Steam and has been there for years. Or at
| least, its in my library and it doesn't say its "retired". So
| what's new?
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