And now in a change of direction, we interview Ray Morrin, or Spoonman from Quake 2 clan DoozeR. Welcome to the hot seat, it should be nice and warm because Zero just got out of it I’ll start on an easy one, how long have you been playing Quake 2?

I first started playing Quake2 online in January ‘98 on a p120 (& no sound) with a ping of 999 this was more due to the state of the non Dublin ISP nodes that a crapy setup. Well the setup wasn’t too hot either but things started to happen tho around March as I found out the Dublin ISP numbers and started playing with decent pings at the weekends.

Now I know the answer to this one because I asked you before where your name came from (_not_ the Underworld song!), but tell the rest of the readers where your name came from and what were the other alternatives you considered (was it really Forkgirl as rumoured by WhiteWashMan)?

Well I got it much the same way Zero got his name, I was playing a Soundgarden tape in the background while thinking for an online name and it stuck ever since. I’ve only heard the underworld song a few months ago it isn’t a patch on the Soundgarden one

Well as most people who plays regular on q2war1.quake.ie would know I’m always using alias names… MerVine Brag, Splodge, [CoF]Skank etc… I used to find that if I was first to the server and used [DzR]Spoonman nobody would join in so I resorted to using fake names to reel them in

Yes I tried to get into HIV under the disguise ‘Forkgirl’ to steal their em, ‘tactics’ but somehow they found out, maybe WWM told them.

How many Quake 2 players does it take to make a body bridge across Tokay’s Towers?

Quite a few I’d imagine, but I don’t think we’d be able to get enough players on the server to try it out…

If you were God, what would you do and who would you pick for the Irish National Quake 2 Team (Team2.ie)?

Its a tough one and likely to upset a lot of people no matter who I choose (their seems to be a lot of different opinions around atm) TBH I cant see us playing outside of Ireland without doing what team.ie are doing .ie fly over to a LAN. As everyone knows all the Irish ISPs are in tatters at the mo. This also solves the issues of lpb/hpb teams. I’d have no problem however playing internationals on our own quake.ie servers.

The actual team I’d pick would have to have these players in it: [EM]Dr.Teeth, [DzR]Junkie, [DzR]Spoonman, [DzR]Shank and [DzR]PeterPan. Which I consider to be the best irish Quake2 players at this time. I’m sure this will change as people improve. I was very disappointed in the reactions on having Peterpan on the team because hes not an Irish citizen. He started playing quake2 from TCD and has a right to play as much as any of us. I don’t think the Irish soccer team would win any games if they were all Irish citizens not that they do win many games either come to think of it.

I’ve asked this one before, do you think Quake 3 will bring the Quake 1 munchkins and the Quake 2 muppets together? Any tips for those QuakeWorlders considering trying out Quake 2?

Well from watching the Quake3 AVI and reading reviews, it looks like the gameplay will be somewhere inbetween Quake2 and QuakeWorld. Hopefully the best from both games mixed into one (QW networking with the Quake2 weapons thrown in). I don’t know if any of the Quake1 diehards will fancy the idea of being railed to death by the likes of Dr.Teeth but it sure would be fun watching them getting to grips with the Railgun. I’d love to see Q3a bring the Q1 and Q2 players together as it is we have little enough quake players in Ireland for them to be divided.

Because of the slowness of Q2 rockets, the first thing anyone starting Quake2 should practice on is the railgun. IMO its the most fun weapon ever to use in any game but it takes a lot of practice to be able to use it effectively. The Q2 RL is more useful in close combat hence all the jumping in Q2 as opposed to the Q1 RL which you can hit lads miles away with :). As for the BFG I don’t like it either but on levels with powershields (q2dm8) its vital.

What are your favourite Quake 2 levels and why?

Q2DM6 (the lava tomb) has to be my favourite. I guess the lava distracts most people (its everywhere) making them hesitate from moving too quickly and its that small hesitation that gives you the edge on such a level. With the quad its very easy notch up the frags on a small level like this one.

Also match1 the duel level based on quakes dm4 is nice for the exact same reasons QUAD + LAVA = DEATH

Is the Quake 2 standard in the UK a lot higher than here and how do we compare to other European countries, like for example, let me see, Luxembourg?

I guess were behind most european countries in general. Most of us only play DM which is a shame I’d like to see more CTF games played but the interest seems to be fading.

We’ve (DzR) only recently quit the UKCCL because of the terrible lag to the UK servers at the moment (It was bad all along but not its ridiculous). Any games we lost in the UK was due to poor connections… I guess some of the Irish clans would do well in the UK leagues if it wasn’t for the lag.

The same applies for Quake2 as Quake regarding our european neighbours, countries like Sweden/German seem to have lots of talent compared to UK/Eire.

Any team playing tips for those new clans starting up there, Scram, VHI, etc.? Do you drop items for teammates when playing clan games (something I only found out about after I stopped playing Q2)?

Practice teamplay, without it you’ll be murdered. I see a lot of these weekly (here today gone tomorrow) Quake2 clans popping up and as soon as they play one of the regular clans they quit because they get murdered. Of course the’ll get murdered, they hardly expect to walk straight in and beat clans that were around for ages. Practice makes perfect.

Yeah dropping items is commonplace now you can drop all your weapons and ammo and give them to your teammates at any time. Handy for getting that RL straight after a respawn if the opposition have it well guarded. I find it actually makes it easier to control levels.

What do you think of the Edge versus Q2N slagging match (/me pokes the fire with this question!)? Should they spend more time reporting than retorting?

Well it makes interesting reading, I don’t think they all take it too seriously well at least I hope not. I’m sure it will get very tiring if it continues. I like to stay well out of it.

Do you think that as Quake has progressed from 1 to 3 that skins are becoming _so_ realistic that they are getting harder to identify from each other, and we should all return to the simple colours of Doom?

Well I have no problems distinguishing team players in Quake2 if their using different models, ie. Male vs. Female so long as they have different base colours. But anything like male vs. male in Quake2 regardless of colour is a nightmare. I can see Quake3 clans using male vs. female models that has become so popular in Quake2. I think going back to doom colours is a bit dramatic

Thanks Spoonman, I will look forward to flame throwing you in Quake 3.

And I look foward to railing you all