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Fragfest: TFC community movie and more

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TloFly from European TFC community and pick-up game (PuG) server compiled twenty minutes of Team Fortress Classic action from numerous top players, and named it The Wizards of TFC. It is a free masterclass in conc-jumping and flag running, topped off with an elite frag show. European players from ETFC PuGs make up the majority of the footage, with North and South American and Australian players featured as well. Last year, Manu’s Joga Bonito and rk’s 22nd in the editless montage series, summer air, made their impact. This year, TloFly’s The Wizards is arguably the best release so far.

Another great movie of the year has come out of Team Fortress 2. deli’s montage showcases frags performed at poLANd.tf 2026, a top-level invite LAN in Łódź, Poland, organized annually since 2018. Just as Fireside Denver 2025 in Colorado hosted the best teams from Europe and Australia, and brought the three-continental LAN competition back to TF2 after eight years, poLANd 2026 brought an intercontinental competition back to Europe after four years, with an American mix team flying overseas to challenge the winners of Denver. The frags, as well as deli’s editing, match the quality of the competition.

Although they are not stacked montages, Enemy Territory Fortress recently produced some valuable media as well: recordings from the EU vs. US matches held on 27 July and 5 August. Thanks to the initiative of the European players who still queue up for the pick-up games every day on the Discord server, ETF is played again after several months. grome has recorded his POV from etf_schtop and etf_japanc maps played on 27 July, while Tulkas has full stream replays from both 27 July and 5 August. If you missed some ETF action, have fun watching them.

A brief history of Gang Garrison 2, and its promising future

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The Gang Garrison 2 community and community modders are preparing behind closed doors for something big. Something Super big. As we stand on this doorstep, let’s take a look back at the road that brought us here with a special focus on its development struggles and the community efforts in the final stretch, and then let’s catch a glimpse of what is being cooked behind the door.

If you haven’t played Gang Garrison 2 but have heard of it, what you heard was most likely faint praise, like, a “neat” little game, lumped together with the novelty freeware that had its time from late 2000s to early 2010s–perhaps a school computer game. It’s unlikely that you’ve heard about it by someone like me, for whom it has become his favorite game, and only around 2020. So what I am going to tell you not only has deeper and more recent insight, but also is not colored by nostalgia.

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Help wanted: Reviving and refining ETF

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Image: Unyielding on Youtube

If you’ve been around the Team Fortress timeline long enough, you know the DNA of this game runs incredibly deep. Before there was TF2, there was Enemy Territory Fortress (ETF), which evolved straight from the legendary Quake 3 Fortress (Q3F). For decades, its community has kept the spirit of fast-paced, high-skill, bunny-hopping Fortress gameplay alive. Today, ETF and its dedicated engine project, ETe (Enemy Territory Engine), are still pushing forward–but to get this classic codebase exactly where it needs to be for the modern era, we need your help.

Lately, our primary development pipeline has been heavily Windows-focused. We are looking to expand our team to truly make ETF cross-platform, easily accessible, and stable for the modern era. But this alone is not the whole scope of reviving and refining ETF. We are aware that we are in dire need for people with soft skills to gather the playerbase. We are also looking for level designers to expand mapping and gameplay styles; and artists to polish where necessary. Following is the full list.

Community manager

We need someone to get social with the playerbase, possibly with other playerbases as well, to attract and motivate people to play ETF, and to organize events and collaborations.

Engine developer (ETe)

Preferably with idTech3, OpenGL and/or Vulkan familiarity, we need programmers to keep the engine fast and visually stable on modern hardware. We are trying to smash the engine-level bugs by pulling in changes from Quake3e where possible, which needs manual merging. A huge goal for ETe is also continued support of vanilla mods and etjump.

DevOps specialist

We want an auto-updating architecture for both clients and servers. We need help figuring out the best way to bundle and distribute our code and assets across all supported platforms. This also includes a solid pipeline to host legacy assets, as well as integrating custom player assets currently featured in Craig’s builds.

Server infrastructure specialist

Deploying and managing a network of dedicated public and 4v4 pick-up game (PuG) servers. On top of this, we want dedicated development servers that can hook into our deployment pipeline to auto-update whenever a new build drops.

Gameplay and mod developer (ETF)

Refining the core 4v4 PuG experience with robust round systems and stats tracking, while ensuring stable public matches. A most-desired feature is Omni-Bot AI integration, pulling from the modern ET/RTCW code trees, to support offline and 24/7 available ETF gameplay. In case of interest, we are also looking to expand Lua support to make future modding much more accessible.

Level designer

We still need polishing and fine-tuning work on the maps ported from QWTF Live to ETF. We want to bring asymmetric Attack vs. Defend maps. We are also planning on experimenting with the Command Point/Territory Control mode.

Artists / UI Designers

Textures, models, menus, HUD elements… help us clean them up and polish.

Linux & macOS specialist

We need someone to hop onto Linux development again, ensure clean GCC/Clang compilation and fix platform-specific engine bugs. MacOS is something we never supported, but we want to change that.

ETF isn’t just another mod; it’s a direct link to the golden era of arena shooters. Q3F and ETF paved the way for the mechanical depth, speed, and tight team dynamics that defined the class-based shooter genre. By contributing to ETF and ETe, you aren’t just working on a side project–you are helping preserve video game history, keeping a legendary engine alive on modern systems, and giving a dedicated community the platform they deserve. If you want to jump in, write some code, build some maps, test some builds, or push some pixels, drop a comment below or reach out directly via our GitHub repository or Discord! | GitHub: ETF, ETe – Discord: ETF

FotM #2: Q4F developers Jeremy Raymond and Jared Cone

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Fortressmen of the Month #2 goes big, bringing together the key developers behind Quake 4 Fortress—an ambitious project that built hype, attracted community support, hosted playtests, and fostered a growing player base between 2004 and 2006. Development came to an abrupt end, with the work that had been completed wrapped up in a “v1.5” release. For those who played it during its lifetime, Q4F remains a project remembered with nostalgia and a lingering sense of what might have been.

Now, after nearly twenty years in the games industry, Q4F lead developer Jeremy “photeknix” Raymond and lead programmer Jared “3j” Cone look back on their journey. They begin by discussing the history of Team Fortress as they experienced it as teenagers before turning to the Fortress mod they created as young adults. They reflect on Q4F’s ambitions, its distinctive design, its road to QuakeCon 2006 and meeting Splash Damage, and, despite all of its promise, its eventual downfall. Finally, they offer a glimpse into the game industry careers they have built since those early modding days.

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TF2 Classified’s Art Pass Contest

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The developer team behind Team Fortress 2 Classified, EMINOMA, has partnered with the independent TF2C Mapping Community (TF2CMC) -supported and led by the very same host of AltTAB servers- to organize the first official TF2 Classified mapping contest. Following the footsteps of the 2010 art pass competition of TF2, the participants are tasked with taking a de-artpassed version of a map originally created by Waugh101, now renamed arena_competition_template, and using it as a blank canvas to create their own art passed version, under an original name. The winner will have their version hosted on AltTAB Standard and VaultF4 Custom Maps servers for the forseeable future, in addition to receiving supporter perks on both servers.

The contest was announced on TF2CMC Discord server three days ago on July 6, with submission due six weeks later, on August 24. There are already around a dozen submissions on the #artpass-contest-submissions channel of the Discord server, where mapmakers are sharing their work in progress. Themes range from Yukon-like Canadian environment to industrial harbor. The map is relatively compact, so there is still plenty of time for mappers to join the contest and present their own vision of what the level could become. Even if you are not a mapper, the TF2CMC Discord is a great place to admire these new creations and join the weekly playtests with a community of creative individuals.

arena_competition_template

Note that, just two days before the contest was announced, TF2 Classified released its Modding Tools–a small but thoughtful gift to mappers and modders alike.

Thanks to the release of these tools on Steam, it’s now easier than ever to get started using Hammer for TF2C. Eminoma’s provided guides and example VMFs are perfect for learning TF2C’s style, and this contest is a great opportunity to have a go yourself. – Jaws, TF2CMC Lead and AltTAB Owner