''Capture the Flag'' Pioneer Closes Doors

By Kevin Parrish
published

Initial reports said that Threewave Software had closed its doors.

Over the weekend, there were reports that the pioneer of Capture the Flag--Threewave Software--had closed its doors. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Threewave began as a simple Quake mod group helmed by Michael Goodhead, and helped David "Zoid" Kirsch fine-tune and expand his Capture the Flag multiplayer gameplay mod (via the popular Threewave CTF) while he moved on to work for id Software. Now Capture the Flag is an industry standard multiplayer mod for most FPS-based games.

Over the next ten years, Threewave worked with various publishers including Activision, EA, Valve Software, and LucasArts.  Recent projects included the multiplayer portion of Ghostbusters and Army of Two. But now it looks as if the contract well has run dray, as according this Twitter post, the studio closed due to no new contracts. Gamesatura contacted Threewave to get the full scoop, and discovered there's some truth to the matter.

Apparently Threewave is entering a "reorganization phase," and has let some of the company's staff go. "We are trying [to] move forward in a manner that reflects today's reality," said Threewave CEO Dan Irish in an email to Gamesatua. The studio originally began attempts to beef up its staff to work on Xbox Live Arcade games and larger, in-house properties. However, according to Gamesatura, these projects never "came to fruition."

So what's to become of the CTF pioneer? That remains to be seen, and we're waiting on more news of the studio's health. Until then, fans of Threewave CTF should re-install id Software's Quake and throw in the CTF mod, and frag away as a tribute. You might need to find the CTF bots mod though.... we're not too sure if any Quake servers are still up and running somewhere.

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Kevin Parrish
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hellwig
    I never realized a company like iD or Valve would need to contract out to another company to write mods for a game as old as time itself. Seriously, you could create a game like Half-Life or Quake but not be bothered to code up your own CTF scenarios? I guess this Threewave Software company was seriously good to get business for this long.
    Reply
  • windywoo
    hellwig I think you misunderstand. No-one contracted them to make a Capture the Flag mod, they did it for free. There was no such game mode until they came up with the idea, and because the idea was so good, and one of the guys who made it was also a good programmer, he got employed by id. Seems some of them went on to make their own company too.
    Reply
  • figgie
    hellwig

    back in the quake days. There was NO team DM. No CTF or any of mods per say. It was either death match or Co-OP. CTF was added later and with that came the grappling hook. yes, I was playing Quake online via dial-up back then ;)
    Reply
  • woodlake
    "we're not too sure if any Quake servers are still up and running somewhere."

    http://www.acmectf.com

    Quake 2 CTF community that is still alive and kicking!!!
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    Surprisingly Quake lives on since the source code was released (most notably the DarkPlaces engine). I'll have to dig through my archives and tryout Threewave CTF and see how it compared to Team Fortress.
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    figgiehellwigback in the quake days. There was NO team DM. No CTF or any of mods per say. It was either death match or Co-OP. CTF was added later and with that came the grappling hook. yes, I was playing Quake online via dial-up back then
    Yeah, me too! I remember staying up all night playing Quake CTF using the grappling hook (I almost forgot about that). I loved it cause I was good at it! I really loved that game so much I wish it was still alive.
    Reply
  • rodney_ws
    figgiehellwigback in the quake days. There was NO team DM. No CTF or any of mods per say. It was either death match or Co-OP. CTF was added later and with that came the grappling hook. yes, I was playing Quake online via dial-up back then
    Ahh... the dreaded grappling hook in Quake 1! I REMEMBER THAT! That was a crazy online experience.
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    It's a sad day for gaming in my region...EA Burnaby's capacity is also being reduced this year, I believe. I'd still love to see some game studios open up around here.
    Reply
  • wow... sad to hear this.... "SPOOOON!!!"
    Reply
  • id resurrected Quake 3 recently at http://www.quakelive.com/

    on that note, Tribes 2 was also somewhat resurrected as well at http://www.tribesnext.com/
    Reply