Norway
BackgroundThe history of Norwegian Quake. Written by Erlend. Quake quickly attracted a Norwegian following. As Doom II had been very popular, the release of Quake was eagerly awaited. The Nordic countries dominated the European Quake scene from day one, probably due to home computers and Internet access being fairly common there by those days' standards. Clan matches were decided on aggregate score after two freely chosen maps. The TB3-maps DM3 and DM2 quickly became the most popular, but E1M3 was actually more common than E1M2 the first few years. Other regular choices was E3M3 and E3M7, while the occasional match was played on E1M1, E1M5, E2M1, E3M2 and E3M6. E4M3 is also worth mentioning, a map Norwegian clan The Vicious Vikings made their own. Though hard to picture today, clan matches were also played on DM6 and DM4. Connection issues, hardware problems and huge ping differences were not uncommon, according to early match logs. As most people had modems, servers were often changed at «half-time» to even out the disadvantages: A Norwegian clan would play their chosen map on a Norwegian server, and their Swedish opponents likewise. Thus, winning 100-30 at home could easily be followed by losing the away map by a similar score. 1996The first Norwegian clan, The Vicious Vikings, was formed in August 1996, roughly two months after Quake's release. Spawn Clan and Carnage Clan (known as Cyber Quakers in 1996) quickly followed. The trio established themselves as the top three clans in Norway. Carnage Clan was considered the best, but then again also had the advantage of sitting on T1 lines at a university, and playing mostly against modem players. The Quake scene was small and servers were few. It was mostly FFA, but clan matches were also played. Both The Vicious Vikings and Spawn Clan played against legendary Swedish clans like Teddy Bears, Swedish Chefs and Crusaders during the fall of 1996. The very first Norwegian clan match was between The Vicious Vikings and The Lost Vikings (later known as Grendel Warriors) on October 5th. The vicious ones won. Not many Norwegian clans were active this early, some were also very short-lived, but a couple of others worth mentioning from 1996 are Metalheadz (later known as Insomnia and The Bush Wackers (later known as Clan Ragnarok). 1997The biggest change of 1997 was QuakeWorld. It was released in December 1996, and it took a while for Norwegians to make the transition, but by the fall of 1997, everyone was playing QW. 1997 also saw the dissolution of the top two Norwegian clans, Spawn Clan and Carnage Clan. A lot of new Norwegian clans were formed this year. Their best players were constantly invited to better ones, and a lot of clans only lasted a month or two. New clans from 1997 that did stand the test of time were Dead Presidents, Zombie Wipeout, Chickenshit Commandos, Clan gRUS, Da Gambinoz and Rapid Fire. Clans purely for fake nickers, like Ernie Killers, also emerged. An explanation could be that the «real» clans were too big to give everyone enough game time. Ernie Killers - where everyone used a name from the comic Ernie (aka Piranha Club) - was an excuse for players from different clans to get some 4on4 action. In November 1997, players from Carnage Clan, Clan Insomnia and Spawn Clan merged to form Game Over. Shortly after, players still left at Spawn Clan went on to form new clans like The New Breed and 7th Sphere, though several of them ended up in Game Over eventually. And so, the era of Spawn Clan and Carnage Clan was over. Game Over went on to become the most successful Norwegian clan of the 1990s. 1998More to follow... DemosAchievements
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