News Archives

November 26/1999 - Apr 31/2000

April 26/00 - Marauder - Ohhhhh baby! Networking equipment all arrived this morning from Dlink & Startech. Extreme amounts of LAN party sweetness. Especially the 24 port switch from Dlink. I can hardly wait to hook this baby up and see how it works. (I'm as happy as a little schoolgirl!) Meeting was last night, will post results tonight.

April 25/00 - Marauder - Down to the crunch now guys. We're meeting every few days now, and all weekend to finalize everything. Server are being tested, and the network equipment the nice folks over at Dlink and Startech are loaning us should arrive in time for testing this weekend. Making the cables... Oh the cables... The endless cables... Never realised how long it too to assemble over 200 cables. :) We're getting there tho. Everything should be finalised at the big weekend long meeting. Lots more people have signed up, I'll try to get them all posted tomorrow.

April 16/00 - Marauder - Hmmmmmmmmmmm..... FRAGtopia getting closer. Finishing the server setups this week, networking equipment from Dlink & Startech should be arriving later this week or next week. Next staff meeting is this Wednesday. We've had a few people requesting an RTS Tourney. We're considering Starcraft and Armada..... If you'd be interested email and let me know, we'll be talking about it at the next meeting. Got a pile more signups to post, that'll get done Monday. Sorry for the slow updates on the site guys, I've been absolutely swamped with tech work, running the store, work at home etc etc. The work on the party itself is coming along well though. Damn, I'm so pumped for this party! The first big one we've done, so we're going to try and make it great. If you have any suggestions, make sure you email them in and they will be considered.

Apr 11/00 - Marauder - Local motels listings are now up (Finally!) Sorry about the delay. Check 'em out, and if you will need a hotel, please call and book it soon. We're in a motel deprived area. More people signing up, looking good... I'm so pumped for this party. :) Just hope I have time to get some gaming in!

Apr 3/00 - Marauder - Thanks to the people at Logic Computer House (1590 Dundas St E, Mississauga. (905) 276-9995) One of the few computer stores nice enough to let us leave flyers at their location. Most guys won't let us leave them, since they have the VAM Computers logo on them. (I guess they count as advertsing for our store?? Shesh. We're just on as a sponsor.......) Thanks guy, we appreciate it!

Mar 31/00 - Marauder - Du'oh. Been forgetting to change the "Last updated" entry on the index page.. I HAVE updated the page in the last month. :) More people signing up, getting lots of emails and tons of people popping up on my ICQ list now (Like Fish-Superman.... What kinda alias is that anyhow? "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a carp!" Heh. :) Remember guys, deadline is coming up for entry to the draw for the 3Dfx voodoo3/3000 video card... Register and pay by April 6th, get entered. If you're coming anyhows, entry is just the cost of a stamp and 10 minutes to walk down to the post office and mail it. DO IT! :)

Mar 28/00 - Marauder - Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Got 7 boxes in from our friends at Karna today! Boomslang mice, Quake III posters, sweatshirts, hats, tshirts, etc etc........ Woohoo! More great toys to give away! Had the latest meeting last week, Skotos has been assigned to assist Red Leader on the tourneys, Geezerman officially removed from the staffing list. Tourney finalized so far: Quake III DM, Unreal Tourney DM, Tribes Duel Arena...... THE PLOTTING CONTINUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mar 20/00 - Marauder - GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Something went horribly wrong for some reason and the online setup form screwed up. It's fixed and working now. (Guess this explains the lack of recent signups online, eh?) So, register away and my apologies for any inconvience.Got a really nice suprise today. The cool peeps at HEAT.NET sent everyone a T-shirt. There's gotta be damned near 200 T's in these two massive boxes that UPS dropped off today. We'll be passing them out at the party o' course! Dlink and Startech confirmed that they're going to be loaning us some serious equipment for the party network! Drop by their sites and say "Thanks!" Everything is really coming along well I think. Equipment is organized.... We have some really great sponsors helping with prizes.... Arena is booked.... Tables & Chairs are arranged for.... People are signing up.... We've got 4 decent server boxes built and ready to rumble for event already... The mayor of Orangeville is behind us. :) Things are going well. It's gonna be a great party, and I can hardly wait!

Mar 16/00 - Marauder - More logos posted. Thanks to me (yay me!) and Iceman for the new pics. Pretty buff. :) I'm also all proud, due to the fact that I FINALLY got my Athlon running at 2x AGP. Check out my new screen shot from 3Dmark 2000 here. You may all bow down and worship at the altar of my computer. With the Celeron 550 I'd be at about 3300... Now, 5000+. In the words of our friend John Romero, suck it down (tm) :) (Of course, everyone still spanks me at QuakeIII, but I feel better about it. :) Much gloating ensues. Check my personal site out here.

Mar 15/00 - Marauder - Well, trying to get ahold of all the sponsors and finalize everything with them, going well. Had a few more guys drop by the store yesterday and register. Remember guys, April 6th is coming up pretty quick! As long as we have your registration and $$ before then, you're entered into the draw for the Voodoo3-3000 from 3Dfx.... Pretty sweet card guys, and if you're coming anyho, all it takes to win it is a .45c stamp and 1 minute of your time...... Odds right now are pretty good that if you register and pay you may just get this bad boy..... Oh, and I finally have my personal website up and running. Take a look here.

Mar 13/00 - Marauder - Ooooooooooooo... Check this new Halo screen shot..... Yummyy.. Must have Halo for LAN party...... Q3 2000? Well *(&(*&(*!!! <sob>

Mar 12/00 - Marauder - Day off, chillin'. Went over to Dopper's and helped him with a network issue. Did no FRAGtopia work at all this weekend, just relaxed and played with photoshop. Check the new logo on the first intro page for an example. :) Got the little carrying strap thingy from PC Tote on friday. Quite an impressive little device. LAN party attendee who wins that one is going to have an easier time getting home than he did coming in. :)

Mar 10/00 - Marauder - OK, Dopper sent me this cartoon this AM.. Killer. Click on the cartoon to link to their site.

Mar 9/00 - Marauder - Had a meeting with Rob Adams, the local mayor yesterday AM. He offered a few suggestions, and his help with anything we need him to do. Nice guy, very helpfull... Anyone else like the sound of official LAN party week here in town? :) Gezerman removed from the staffing list. He's just been to busy with work and school to help out. :(

Mar 8/00 - Marauder - Looking good guys, a few more sponsors down with it. The nice peeps over at PC Tote are donating one of their funky little carrying systems for a prize. Take a look, handy for all you LAN party attendees! More people signing up with the online form. LAN party on the weekend went well, had around 10-13 people attending. Nice to have a little elbow room for once. :) Played Quake III for 9 hours straight, then drove Rune back to his place.... Ohhhh... Refresh rate on planet earth definately needs some adjusting... And no matter what the guys at Penny Arcade claim, the coloured lighting effects in the world's "compelling" feature set are just too much at that time of night.... Must say the sky textures were really nice that night tho. :)

Feb 29/00 - Marauder - Allrighty then! Registration lists are updated, getting more folks signed up. Online signup is not quite perfect, but we're working on it. :) Talking to the software companies right now about sponsorships. The posters and flyers for the event have started going out. We hit Guelph and Brampton last weekend, hopefully I can do Barrie this weekend. We've joined the LANparty Ring. Check the logo at the bottom of the index page. Some pretty cool sites on it.

Feb 28/00 - Marauder - The nice folks at HEAT.NET have joined up to help with the CFGG. Visit their site and say thanks! OK! Registered players listings & games pages will definitely get an overhaul today. I've just been so busy with web design deadlines, home life (Yes, I have a life... No matter what those aliens claim!...er.....Hmmmm.. Pretend you never read that.), work (Stupid &**(%&@ computers!) and other things I haven't had a chance to post all the updates since Thursday. It's a great problem to have, but occasionally annoying none the less. Anyhows! Updates later today. Praetorian got all jealous of my page logo, so made his own and made me post it. (I like his, have to steal it) Things looking good. Sponsors being great, and very generous! Cold clearing up, can think again. Aliens bad. Marauder babbling. Time to save and go.

Feb 26/00 - Marauder - Shesh, sorry folks! Quite a few people have registered online. Updates on the list will be up Monday morning. Totally swamped on service and web work today. Damned deadlines. :) Tables/chairs and large party banner have been ordered. Cyah all Monday AM.

Feb 25/00 - Marauder - Bit of a retraction guys. Error on the flyers for the party lists the Voodoo3-3000 video cards donated by 3Dfx as being AGP, they're actually PCI cards. Sorry for any confusion. Couple more sponsors have joined our Crusade For Gaming Goodness. (tm) (Henceforth known as CFGG for short) Say hello to the great people at Shaw & Dlink! Dlink is going to be helping us out with the networking, and Shaw is helping us out with the Internet connectivity.

Feb 24/00 - Marauder - Allrighty people! The online registration form is now up and running (And I see a few people have used it already. :) Go to the Signup area if you wish to avail yourself of this wonderful device. Thanks to Red Leader of Eclipse Web Design for doing up the CGI for us.

Feb 22/00 - Marauder - Opened the mail yesterday, and what did I find? Two very sexy jet black attack pads to give away from our friends over at Everglide! My, my. Very, very slick! Thanks guys!

Feb 21/00 - Marauder - Site revamp is underway. New buttons, a few new area (Ex. Hotels), new look & layout. Few other things. Online registration form should be up today or tomorrow. It's working, just needs a little fine tuning to be perfect. (Thanks Red!) Hotels button will work a little later today, if I have the time to finish that page up. PLEASE NOTE: Hotel space in this town is very limited. If you are coming and require a hotel room, do it soon!! I've called around, and the hotels are starting to get booking for that weekend. When you call, mention who you are with (FRAGtopia) and ask about their corporate rates. If you need a place to stay, talk to other guys from town here. Most of use have one or two people crashing with us on the weekend, so ask nicely and you may get some floor space at someone's place. :)

Feb 19/00 - Marauder - Starting on a bit of a site revamp. New buttons etc. No apparent reason for it, but I'm sick of the buttons we have right now. The new ones look really cool. Got the party t-shirts ordered today, looking sweet. Posters are up on the pics page, check them out. We've come up with a little plot to get people to register early. Register (and pay) before April 6th, you get entered in the draw for a Voodoo 3-3000 from 3Dfx! How's that for incentive? We have a display up at the store of some of the prizes. If you're in the area, drop by 75 first St, and check it out.

Feb 17/00 - Marauder - More sponsors joining the crusade, including the great people over at Karna, who make the amazing Boomslang mouse. Got one of these little guys a few weeks ago... Sweeeeetttttt... Talk about a touchy mouse.. Definately one for the hardcore..... Check out their site. They're shipping up some great toys for give aways. Thanks guys! Also, got a big box o' goodies this AM from our friends over at 3Dfx... Hmmm... Much hardcore gaming prize goodness inside.. See two messages ago for all the details. Had a good meeting last night. Talked some more about tourney organization, sponsorship, promotion etc etc. Praetorian has come up with some amazing posters for the event, I'll post them up on the pics page for you all to check out.. Vote on your fav! Event location has been booked, chairs and tables are in the midst of being booked, and T-shirts are in the proccess of being made up. From the suggestions we've had so far, Quake II, Quake III, Unreal Tournament, Counterstrike & Tribes are shaping up to be our tourney servers. Everyone gets to vote on what they'd like to have up for servers when they register, so get those registrations in. (We also looking at taking our biggest, most badass server, taking one of the tourney games and seeing how many players we can load onto the one server. Hmmm... 100 player deathmatch anyone? :) So far the event is shaping up really well. The response from people we've contacted to ask for sponsorships has been excellent, and we're getting alot of interest from players. I've gotten tons of emails and ICQ's from people saying they're definately coming, but thus far not all that many people have send in they registration & payments. We'd really like everyone who's coming to get that stuff in. It'll be alot quicker at the door for the people who've already paid & registered, virtually no line up. Everyone else has to stand in line and wait for ID badges to print, forms to be filled out ETC. Also, we are limiting the event to strictly 200 people max. So if you've not paid, and you are #201 to drive up to LAN.... Sorry, no room left. From the sounds of things, we're going to have at least 200 player coming. Make sure you're not the one left out in the cold, get that reg in!

Feb 10/00 - Marauder - Well, I'm very pleased! Things are falling into place rather nicely with the planning and the sponsorships. Lots of great companies donating great prizes and helping us out with things. Now we need the people to sign up! Get busy peeps!

Feb 10/00 - Kingpin - Great news eveyone! 3Dfx Is now onboard as a sponsor and in so doing has donated 3 Voodoo 3500 AGP cards and 3 3000 AGP cards as prizes to be given away at the event. They even included T-Shirts and hats that we can give away. As you can all see the prize pool is growing quickly. Registrations are starting to come in so don't delay in sending yours in. Please remember that we would like a picture of you so that we can make up your ID badge and have your players pack all ready for you when you arrive. (save you having to stand in line waiting to have it done that day!) Check out the sponsors page for a complete listing of all the prizes and offers that will be avaliable to FRAGtopia players!

Jan 28/00 - Marauder - Just heard from the cool guys over at LANfest, check thier page out. Very, Very sweet! Busy pestering companies for sponsorships... If you can think of anyone, email me.

Jan 27/00 - Marauder - Allrighty! Sorry for the lack of updates guys, we've all been swamped with work, family etc. Back in the grove, and ready to work harder than ever. Check out the pics page for pics of the last local LAN Party. (We've decided to call it FRAGtopia Lite from now on. :) Anyone who's planning on coming, please send in your signup sheets. We need people registered to get more people! Starting to get lots of ICQs, but few signups......

Jan 10/00 - Marauder - Back from the vacation! :) World is still here and all. Next staff meeting is Wednesday night, Kinpin's place. Be there or be... well, whatever. :)

Dec 31/99 - Marauder - Well, things are slow in FRAGtopia land over the holidays. Had a great season at the store, getting everything ready for the next local LAN Party on Sunday, Jan 2/99 (9am-->9pm) Hope everyone has a great new year, and hope the world still exists that morning. Cyah next year everyone!

Dec 27/99 - Marauder - Getting people registering, and the hits on the site keep rising. Starting to post the names & email addresses of those registering.. If you're in the same town and need a lift, posting an email to the other people in your town inquiring about car pooling might be a good idea. If you have an objection to having your email posted on the site, please indicate that on your registration form and it won't be included.

Dec 23/99 - Marauder - Just recieved news from AOPEN & Startech that they're going to help us out with sponsorships! Yay! :) Have a great holidays everyone, and we'll see you all after Christmas!

Dec 20/99 - Marauder - The registration for fragtopia.com has finally gone thru and is working 100%.. Start spamming your buddies on ICQ! :)

Dec 15/99 - Marauder - Well, contacting some of the local hotels and food establishments. Dairy Queen is going to offer a discount that weekend to anyone wearing a FRAGtopia badge. :) Some of the hotels are going to give us their corporate rate. Still yacking with some manufacturers, but it's looking good. Local paper's sending a guy to cover the event as well.

Dec 14/99 - Marauder - Second meeting held last night at Kingpin's place. Nailed down some more details on everyone's jobs, bounced some ideas around. Red Leader is busy working on the Tourney structure for the party, should be interesting to see what he comes up with. Belial (Network guy) was there, so we hammered out some details on the networking, and talked about some of the problems we might run into along the way. Things are really starting to shape up and look good! :) Talked to the local motels... I'm thinking right now that finding accomodations for everyone is going to be the biggest problem we'll have. Orangeville tends to be shy on that sort of thing, but we'll work something out. Starting to get a few sponsors, still talking to some of the big guys. Still waiting for the changes to the URL to take place so we can REALLY start advertising the the event. I had what I thought was kind of a neat idea.. I'd like to take the most powerfull server we have at the party, load the sucker down with RAM, and see how many people we can get playing at one time with say, Quake III..... :) Most amusing.........

Dec 13/99 - Marauder - Registration went thru today for fragtopia.net & fragtopia.com. Kingpin misentered the DNS servers on the registration tho, so it may be a few days before the changes I submitted actually get done... But the sites are ours! (Yay!)

Dec 12/99 - Marauder - The nice people over at AnalogX gave us permission today to use their cool little web server program for the LAN party. Check their link out on the sponsors page... They write tons of little utils that'll save your sanity.... And they're free.......

Dec 9/99 - Marauder - More staff pics posted, more fine tuning done on the site. Some speeling errurs curected. Staff email addresses & ICQ #s posted on the "STAFF" page. Maps posted on the "WHERE" page courtesy of Dopper. Official Sign-Up Sheet now online on the "SIGNUP" page.

Dec 8/99 - Marauder - Put the deposit down on the curling club today, took some pics when we were there. Check em out by following the "WHERE" link to the left. Looking pretty sweet. :) Ice will be out late April. All pleased with us. Starting to hear back from companies regarding sponsorships, as well as people are starting to sign up. Put up a logos section under the "PICS" link on the index bar. Check it out. :)

Dec 7/99 - Marauder - We got the Orangeville Curling Club! Booking confirmed. And it's just about perfect for our purposes. We have the arena floor, lounge & conference room. Basically they hand us the key Friday night and we have the entire building untill Monday morning. It's also perfectly located in town for a party, really easy to find for out of town people, and close to bars and restaurants. (And 2 Pizza joints... Hmmmm. Pizza.) Also, since there's a Walmart right behind it, parking won't be a problem. Theres a Mac's Milk just 1 block down the road, open 24 hours. They should also have no problems with power.. The place is loaded with outlets. I'm most pleased with this one! :)

Dec 7/99 - Marauder - More minor changes to the page, the registered users listing is now up under the Sign Up menu. Praetorian REALLY likes the logo that Ouch from Fragstock.com made up for us, so just to make him happy, you can now click on the top logo to cycle thru all the logos people have made.... Ah yes, we custom build this page just for YOUR viewing pleasure. :)) Registration for fragtopia.com & .net went thru yesterday, so hopefully the proper URL will be up very soon.

Dec 6/99 - Marauder - And as a side note, I like the new name and logo better. (Thanks Ouch, for ICQ'ing over a few new logos, but I really like the one I came up with. :) Appreciate the effort tho! Figured out how to do the rollover buttons this morning, lemme know what you think.

Dec 5/99 - Kingpin - After another few moments I came up with the new name of FRAGTOPIA... The Utopia of Fragers! The name was registered today and www.fragtopia.com and www.fragtopia.net will soon be ours! (Oh yes and soon the world will be ours too...(insert evel laugh here)). Well now that we have a different name and logo I spent an hour or so finding all the places that Fragstock showed up and removed them. Marauder spent some time making up the new logo and things seem to be back on track.

Dec 5/99 - Marauder - Just recieved a request from the nice guy (Ouch!.... That's his name, not a comment.....) over at fragstock.com to change the name of our event. To be fair they seem to have had it first, so we need a new name. Funny, after Kingpin thought up the "Fragstock" name, he commented that he couldn't believe no-one had thought of it yet. Heh. :) Anyhows, on with the name game.

Dec 2/99 - Marauder - Thinking of using the NetGames USA (ngStats) for tracking the Tourney stats at the LAN party. Check it out. Looks like it has definate possibilities. Talked to the Rob Adams, Mayor of Orangeville today regarding the party. Apparently no real regulations we have to meet for the party, other than the standard laws. Have to set up a meeting with him. Still checking into locations. Will try to finalise location tomorrow afternoon, when I hopefully have time to breathe.

Dec 1/99 - Marauder - More work on the web page, got more staff pics up today. Called a few locations in town to check for bookings. Arena can't handle our power needs, the conference centre MIGHT be able to, but they're WAY to expensive to book for the weekend. Check a few other places tomorrow, still emailing manufacturers to see about sponsors. Got the prices on the hubs, thank god they're cheaper than I thought! Even the switches won't bankrupt us. You can ignore the pricing on the signup sheet area, they're wrong. Price decided upon at the staff meeting was $30/day or $40 for the two days. $40 at the door/day or $50 for both days. New sign up sheets with correct info should be up soon.

Nov 30/99 - Marauder - Ummm.. Never mind, got the message forums up and running all by my little lonesome. Public and private forums online and ready to go. Let's get some feedback going on.

Nov 30/99 - Marauder - Working with Red Leader on the web site. He'll be doing some work to get the forms working right. He'll also be adding a message forum within the next few days.

Nov 30/99 - Marauder - First organizational meeting held last night at Kingpin's place. Officers elected (Staff web page update to reflect changes made last night) We've decided to try and get our local curling club for the party. Setting up meetings with the mayor and a few other people to organize the government side of things, try and get the town to help us out, find out about local regulations etc. Decided on the basic hardware/software we need to look into. Started thinking about how to do the registration/admission procedure. Came up with a list of vendors/publishers to talk to about sponsorships. Still alot of work to do, but everyone has an idea now of what's going on and who has to do what to get this thing rolling. Next meeting in 2 weeks. (December 13th)

Nov 27/99 - Kingpin - Well did some more modifications to pages like signup pages and a few member bios. please note that the registration form is not finalized! Please do not submit them yet! we will let you know when it has been finalized!

Nov 26/99 - Marauder - Just got the web site up and running. Organizational meeting changed to Monday night at Kingpin's place. 7pm. Let me know if you're going to make it. Lets do this thing!!

Nov 26/99 - Marauder - Working on the site....Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....... Organizational meeting Monday night at Kingpin's place. 7 pm.