HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Yes it’s true. The mod that got a bunch of teenage Aussies in the industry, the mod that stomped all competition, the mod that changed how we look at team based multiplayer, is now 30 freaking years old.

Inspired by a DOOM level by Ben Fletcher and ThreeWave CTF, Team Fortress brought with it a class based roster to choose from and gave level designers a way to implement any gamemode they wanted. This meant that no longer did a mod have to be CTF or DM, but rather the level itself! Plus who could forget that legendary intro by Damian Scott, brings nostalgic tears down our faces. Mr. Scott is still making machinimas to this day, check out his YouTube!

The mod quickly grew becoming one of the most played Quake mods even to this very day. Soon after, the team was hired by Valve, some went there separate ways while others are still employed there today.

Almost immediately Valve begun production on Team Fortress 2, killing the team’s original TF2 based on Quake II. TF2 was supposed to come out sometime in 1999/2000, but when things began to look uncertain, Valve threw the community a bone and released “Team Fortress Classic” onto the world. Despite it being an “example of the power of the HLSDK”, the code was never released for it… Regardless, TFC went on to be just as, if not more popular than the Quake mod, addressing a number of cheats and exploits, while also creating some new ones. Not to mention, it just looked visually great compared to the janky old mod. While only meant to hold us players off for a little bit, that time grew and grew into nearly a decade. At least that little gift gave us countless servers, clans, memories, and of course some of the most inventive levels you’ve ever seen. Of course other game communities tried replicating the success of Team Fortress, with ports being made for literally every multiplayer game under the sun. Few made a dent, because competition with mods like Counter-Strike was fierce.

Years went by, and the jokes started pilling on. Team Fortress joined the leagues of franchises like Duke Nukem, becoming officially vaporware. Valve of course was working on different iterations, and had released some big hits, but everyone still wondered if Team Fortress would come to this fancy new engine of Valve’s.

Well, just like with Black Mesa, the community figured “hey, we can do this!” and so work began on Fortress Forever, the best adaption of Team Fortress Classic hands down.

But finally, one fateful day in 2006, Valve released a trailer that would quite literally change many lives forever (including mine). That ticking clock sound still lives rent free in my head. Yes, it was finally happening, it was Team Fortress 2 at long last.

While there was much hubbub about grenades and the artstyle, it didn’t matter in the end, we all know the rest of the story from here. Team Fortress is now a household name in the game world, perhaps an elder one, but one respected and loved to this very day.

And when I say it changed many lives, I mean it! I’ve known people who met their current (or former) spouses on TF, it was the start of people’s careers in the entertainment industry, it (TF2) was game I showed to my first love and got her into PC gaming, and it was even one of the first mods any of us even played especially online!

Similar to DOOM, Quake + TF really changed everything.

So, happy birthday Team Fortress. It’s been an incredible journey.

Why not play some TF with bots on the arcade? Or perhaps load up Fortress One and see the modern take by the community. Fortress Forever is on Steam and even runs on Linux now (thanks mv!), or perhaps you’d like to join Team Fortress 2 Classified’s celebration? There’s plenty of Fortress to go around.

Here’s to another 30 years, and remember:

There’s no I in TEAM FORTRESS!