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A brief history of DA/Duality
Posted By: Finn SmithDate: 10/21/01 1:16 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Memories of Duality (Hamish Sinclair)

: Which version of their web page? It went through at least ten different
: versions starting from Randy Reddig's work in the early days. Randy has
: put some of his Double Aught/Duality web work on the net. Off hand I
: can't remember the address. Can someone help me out here? Thanks.
...

: I believe all the Duality fan pages have now gone.
...

: Colin Kawakami's site:
:
: http://www.databass.com/ck/

Wow, this sure brings back some memories. Mostly of long hours spent on irc in my freshman year dorm room hangin' with the DA crowd and a small but loyal fanbase.

I'll try and offer what I know and answer a few of the questions that people have asked.

DA (Double Aught) was a founded in Brooklyn by Greg Kirkpatrick, who had worked at Bungie on Marathon. As Hamish mentioned, Bungie contracted out the scenario for Marathon Infinity to them. Randy Reddig (aka ydnar) was responsible for the new Infinity texture sets which would seamlessly load over old M2 levels and still look good. His current site his http://www.shaderlab.com/

Randy was also responsible for the early DA websites. These sites were a lot of fun -- very "designy" with lots of hidden messages, hints and clues many of which only made sense when going back to look at them later. Randy left DA before it had completed its run. more ydnar trivia: ck (Colin Kawakami) once told me that he thought Randy was the best Marathon netplayer he'd encountered. Randy only used the keyboard (the default settings) disproving the theory that mastery of the mouse was essential for netplay. Check out the Battle of Brooklyn films to see Double Aught employees in action in Marathon netplay.

After Randy left, I believe ck became responsible for the website and continued the tradition of hiding messages, irc logs and the like in various interesting places. Courtney Evans (aka lustygoat), one of the people responsible for the fabulous Tempus Irae scenario also did work for DA on Duality -- music, level design, and looking for funding in Cali. The engine and tools were written by, I believe, two people in Australia one of whom was Chris Bergmann.

ck's site mentioned above was his resume/portfolio when he was looking for work as DA was folding. It doesn't appear to have changed in the last 3 years.

I recently was in Seattle and visited lustygoat while I was out there. He and 2 other former DA employees are currently working for Monolith. He's a level designer on the soon to be released Alien vs. Predator 2. lusty said ck is currently married and has a kid and believes he is still working for Humongous Entertainment. I believe Greg K. is a high school physics teacher, but lusty mentioned he was thinking of trying something else soon.

I know I'm leaving out some other key figures in DA's history including people responsible for the story (if you can get to the terminal text in Hats Off to 819 then you're reading something set in an early version of the Duality universe), level design, texture design and website design. More names: Chad Poland (DA Public Relations?), Chris Geisel (Duality story, etc.)

If you want to know more, here are some pages I maintained during DA's run:
http://www.netspace.org/~finn/games/duality.html
http://www.netspace.org/~finn/games/duality_message.html
http://www.netspace.org/~finn/games/duality_story.html

Loren Petrich's Duality page is still up:
http://www.petrich.com/games/duality/duality.html

Also, read the old news on the Story Page. There's lots about DA in there.

I'd put up a bunch of old screenshots, etc. but my computer with my local copies of collected DA/Duality material (including several incarnations of the web page) is currently in Maine and I am currently in Wyoming. Same goes for my copy of the press kit (which Miguel was nice enough to scan in). Hamish was always notoriously cagey about what information and mirrors of DA's webpage he kept locally, but it's no secret how comprehensive he tends to be regarding this stuff.

I could go on in this vein for a long time, but this message is already way too long.

-Finn

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Memories of Dualityeva05 10/20/01 6:10 p.m.
     Re: Memories of DualityHippieman [B.Org] 10/20/01 9:45 p.m.
           Re: Memories of Dualityeva05 10/20/01 10:57 p.m.
                 Re: Memories of DualityJohannes Gunnar 10/21/01 2:45 a.m.
                       Re: Memories of DualityHamish Sinclair 10/21/01 3:52 a.m.
                             Re: Memories of DualityJohannes Gunnar 10/21/01 7:03 a.m.
                                   Re: Memories of DualityREB 10/21/01 7:47 a.m.
                                         Re: Memories of DualityHamish Sinclair 10/21/01 8:00 a.m.
                                               Re: Memories of DualityREB 10/21/01 8:43 a.m.
                                                     Re: Memories of DualityHamish Sinclair 10/21/01 11:18 a.m.
                                                     Re: Memories of DualitySteve Campbell 10/22/01 4:38 a.m.
                                                           Re: Memories of Duality•Mimer 10/22/01 9:59 a.m.
                                   Re: Memories of DualityHamish Sinclair 10/21/01 7:55 a.m.
                                         I remember reading that years ago! *NM*Still Thinking 10/21/01 12:18 p.m.
                                               Well it IS over three years old... :) *NM*Hamish Sinclair 10/21/01 1:12 p.m.
                                         A brief history of DA/DualityFinn Smith 10/21/01 1:16 p.m.
                                               Duality and Halo?!REB 10/21/01 6:20 p.m.
                                                     Re: Duality and Halo?!Soapstone 10/21/01 7:15 p.m.
                                                           Re: Duality and Halo?!Finn Smith 10/21/01 8:03 p.m.
                                         Good ol' AOL :)Miguel Chavez 10/21/01 10:16 p.m.
                                               Well wishes.Dispatcher 10/22/01 5:51 a.m.
                                                     thanksMiguel Chavez 10/22/01 6:34 a.m.
           Re: Memories of DualityAndrew Nagy 10/21/01 11:01 a.m.
                 Re: Memories of DualityRincewind MoG 10/21/01 2:32 p.m.
           The box MUST be found!Hamish Sinclair 10/21/01 11:14 a.m.
                 Re: The box MUST be found!Andrew Nagy 10/21/01 5:04 p.m.
                 Re: The box MUST be found!Speaker-To-Animals 10/21/01 7:30 p.m.
                 Tracking the Box...Hippieman [B.Org] 10/21/01 9:17 p.m.
     Re: Memories of DualityTasnu Arakun 10/21/01 3:09 p.m.
           Re: Memories of DualityFinn Smith 10/21/01 3:55 p.m.
                 Re: Memories of DualityHippieman [B.Org] 10/21/01 9:20 p.m.
                       Re: Memories of Duality•Mimer 10/21/01 9:29 p.m.
                       jodi.org, miscMiguel Chavez 10/21/01 10:13 p.m.
     Memories of Double Aught.shiner 10/22/01 6:50 p.m.
           Re: Memories of Double Aught.•Mimer 10/22/01 9:17 p.m.
                 Re: Memories of Double Aught.Steve Campbell 10/23/01 6:08 a.m.
           Re: Memories of Double Aught.Lophan 10/23/01 9:36 a.m.
           Re: Memories of Double Aught.jzero 10/23/01 9:54 a.m.
           Duality ScreensFinn Smith 10/23/01 11:05 a.m.
                 Re: Duality ScreensSteve Campbell 10/23/01 1:41 p.m.
     Re: Memories of DualityLoren Petrich 10/25/01 4:49 p.m.
           Re: Memories of Dualitywhocares 10/26/01 7:49 a.m.
     Re: Memories of DualityColin Kawakami 12/15/01 12:34 a.m.
           819 tips his hat (nt) *NM*Hamish Sinclair 12/15/01 12:44 a.m.
                 You don't know how your own forum handles "NM"? *NM*get azure 12/15/01 5:50 a.m.
                       I like WebBBS forum for that. *NM*Djof 12/15/01 11:00 a.m.
           Re: Memories of DualitySteve Campbell 12/17/01 4:41 a.m.
                 Re: Memories of Dualitygr 12/20/01 9:57 p.m.



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