A long time ago on a
server far far away...id Software
released it's beta test for the highly anticipated Quake ]I[ Arena. If you are
among those who downloaded the Q3 TEST DEMO you may recall the thrill of playing a
little map named 'Q3TEST2' for the first time. Heart-stopping game play was executed
on a series of platforms suspended in a dark void that could only be traversed through the
use of strategically placed jump pads.
Today, Q3A combatants
know the map as 'Q3DM17' or 'The Longest Yard', and her precarious ledges and rocketing
jumps keep the adrenal glands working overtime across the globe. The map quickly
became my favorite - so when I decided to learn the art of mapping for Quake II, remaking
The Longest Yard for Q2 seemed like an excellent choice for my first mapping endeavor.
I had thought that the conversion would be easy. I was wrong.
By the time I had
taught myself to map, learned some of the ins and outs of editing for the Quake II engine,
built then rebuilt the map again, and eliminated all but a single warning and four
lighting glitches, nearly four months had passed. Finally, on August 3rd, 2000, I
deemed my conversions to be ready for human recreation and released all three versions of
'The Longest Three Feet' at once.
After posting the map
on Fileplanet and building a website to showcase my
work, I was surprised and delighted to find The Longest Three Feet featured on Planetquake's Level of the Week.
Due to over three months of free publicity there, the popularity of id's original map, and a high marker
on Fileplanet's most popular Q2 Deathmatch maps, tltf1_2.zip had been pulled off the net
well over 7500 times as of January 23rd, 2001.
The
layout and feel of the conversion is quite similar to the original. I bounced
back and forth between map editor and the Q3DEMO more times than I care to
remember just to get the dimensions right. My initial conversion effort
was very close to duplicating the original id design, however the resulting high
poly-counts forced me to rebuild and optimize the map so it would be playable.
Although
this map was originally built with the ChaosDM
mod in mind, I decided to make two versions specifically for straight Q2
Deathmatch. I have taken liberties with my conversion and added Grenade
Launchers to the mix, since they are such great weapons in Q2. The
Chaingun is also included in TLTF and TLTF2, since it is the default weapon in
Q3, and because Q2 has no equivalent of the Gauntlet.
All versions of the map contain the Super Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Railgun, Medkits, Mega Health, Armor Shards, Combat Armor, Body Armor, and the Quad. TLTF and TLTF2 have numerous characteristics that help distinguish one version from another. Here are the differences.
THE LONGEST THREE FEET
FILE
NAME: tltf.bsp
WEAPONS: Super
Shotgun, Chaingun, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Rail Gun
UNIQUE TRAITS: Q2
logo on TV Screen, 'Y' Bullet formations
THE LONGEST THREE FEET:
SPECIAL EDITION 
FILE
NAME: tltf2.bsp
WEAPONS: Super
Shotgun, Chaingun, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Rail Gun, BFG
UNIQUE TRAITS: 'Spiked'
Q2 logo on TV Screen, 'triangle' Bullet formations, and three additional
buttons that activate the BFG sub platform
Those who want to spoil the fun of discovering how the buttons work can click on the pictures below. The pics reveal the location of each button and a description of its function.
WARNING: TLTF2 contains a bug which can
cause a repeating explosion on the hidden platform that usually continues until
the map restarts. The glitch occurs when the BFG elevator passes over the
weapon and ammo spawn points at the moment they spawn. This causes the
item(s) to be instantly destroyed and then re-spawn, only to be instantly
destroyed again - effectively trapping the elevator in a continuous
explosion. So all you mappers out there, be forewarned: Keep your weapon
and ammo spawn points out of your function_train, lift, and door paths.
Fortunately, occurrence of the bug seems to be quite rare. Although this
is my first map, I'm still embarrassed that I didn't foresee this problem. The
screenshots to the right show the first documented occurrence of the bug.
Also of note, the jump pads cause a strange hesitation when played on servers
with a higher ping on the Internet. I assume that this is the result of
using the trigger_push entity in a way that was never really intended in the Q2
engine, and because the map is so big and open.
I spotted my map featured in a promo shot for the
Resurgence mod. In
fact there are several pics taken on my map at their 'screenshots' page in the 'Ingame
Fighting' section. The mod is a variation on capture the flag that will
feature turrets, four player classes, and four possible teams. However,
those four teams will be chasing a single flag. They're currently looking
for help so check out their page to see how the project is going.
Finally I would like to thank the great level designer at id Software who originally created this map. You have provided hours of fun and enjoyment to hundreds of thousands of Quake ]I[ players, and now thousands of Q2 players can enjoy your level as well. Keep cranking out the great work.
Q U A K E 2
DOWNLOAD THE LONGEST THREE FEET
1 & 2 from Games.Velocity.Net
VIEW README
UPDATED 2001.4.5