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Unreal Tournament
North American PC boxart
Developer(s)	Epic Games, Digital Extremes
Publisher(s)	GT Interactive
Composer(s)	Straylight Productions, Michiel van den Bos
Engine	Unreal Engine 1
Version	436 (11-8-2000)
Platform(s)	Dreamcast, Linux, Mac OS, Mac OS X, PlayStation 2, Windows
Release date(s)	PC November 30, 1999[1] PS2 October 23, 2000[1] DC March 14, 2001[1]
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 15+ ESRB: M OFLC: MA15+
Media	CD-ROM (2)
System requirements	see System requirements
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

Unreal Tournament is a first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels. The game is based on the same technology that powered Unreal, but the design of UT shifted the series' focus to competitive multiplayer action, a trend at the time: id Software's Quake III Arena was released only ten days later.

Gameplay

Screenshot of Unreal Tournament.

UT was designed as an arena FPS, with head-to-head multiplayer deathmatches being the primary focus of the game. The game's single-player campaign is essentially a series of arena matches played with bots. For team matches, bots are again used to fill the roles of the player's teammates. Even on dedicated multiplayer servers, bots are sometimes used to pad out teams that are short on players.

UT is known and widely praised^[2] for its bot A.I., the product of programmer Steve Polge who had earlier risen to fame by designing the Reaper Bot for Quake^[3], one of the earliest examples of an effective deathmatch bot. The player can choose a bot skill level (anywhere from "Novice" to "Godlike") or set it to automatically adjust to the player's performance. Bots can be further customized by changing names, appearance, accuracy, weapon preferences, awareness, and so forth.

Game types

• Deathmatch: A classic every-man-for-himself player vs. player combat. The objective is to out-frag all opposing players.
• Team Deathmatch: Teams compete together to out-frag the opponent team. Like Capture the Flag and Domination in this version—and unlike subsequent releases—four teams were allowed: Red, Blue, Green and Gold.
• Capture the Flag: Classic Capture the Flag. Players compete to capture the other team's flag and return it to their base. Competitive teams must use a great deal of teamplay. Both teams must defend the base from incoming attackers and get into the other team's base, take their flag and return to base. This requires that the team protect their flag carrier very well from enemies in order to complete their objective.
• Domination: Teams compete to control various control points to earn points and win the map. Standard maps contain three control points. Control of these points is initially accomplished through occupation (physically occupying the space), but control of a point continues until a player from another team occupies the space. The more control points one team controls, the faster it gains points.
• Last Man Standing: Similar to Deathmatch, the objective here is to remain alive longer than your opponents, putting an emphasis on number of deaths rather than kills. Players start with all weapons available, fully loaded, and have a set number of lives. Power-ups, including health and ammunition packs, are unavailable. Once a player runs out of lives they lose and have to wait as spectators until the match ends.
• Assault: This game type is played with two opposing teams, one assaulting a "base" and the other defending it. The map is set up with a number of objectives which the attacking team must complete (usually in sequence) such as destroying something, entering an area, triggering a button, et cetera. The team who first attacks then defends, and attempts to defend for the entire time they attacked. If they can accomplish this, they win the map. If the team defending first assaults the base faster than the other team, they win the map. If both teams defend for the maximum amount of time the map is a tie.

Reception

Unreal Tournament received wide critical acclaim.^[4][5][8] Mainstream press reviews praised the graphics, gameplay, maps and multiplayer capabilities of the game. Computer Shopper concluded "Quake may have spawned the online deathmatch, but Unreal Tournament has taken it to the next level with its amazing graphics and fast-paced action. Online or off, this game rules!"^[18] In March 2000, Unreal Tournament was second on a list of best-selling games in Computer Dealer News trade magazine, behind Quake III Arena.^[19]

At GameRankings, the Windows version of Unreal Tournament holds an average review score of 94%.^[5] GameSpot praised Unreal Tournament's graphics, noting "As good as the original Unreal looked, Unreal Tournament looks even better. The character models and skins look excellent, and there are quite a few choices to make when designing your character."^[13] GameSpot also praised the multiplayer gameplay, weapons and level design: "The first-person shooter genre is fiercely competitive. But Unreal Tournament rises above the rest with its solid multiplayer performance, from its good weapon balance to its great level design."^[13] The game was similarly reviewed by GameSpy, who concluded: "Unreal Tournament raises the bar for first person teamplay games. This game is stuffed with content and polished until it gleams."^[14]

The Macintosh version of Unreal Tournament was equally praised. Macworld dubbed it the "Best network shooter for the Mac", and gave it the Game Hall of Fame award in 1999.^[17] In its review, Macworld editor Christopher Breen stated: "If the violence and hardware requirements don't unsettle you, you'll find Unreal Tournament nothing but unwholesome, bloody fun."^[17]

The PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast releases did not fare as well as the PC versions. The PS2 version has an average review score of 77% at Game Ratings.^[7] GameSpy criticized the graphics of the PS2 version, saying "Graphically, the PS2 version of Unreal Tournament seems uninspired."^[20] Its conclusion stated "Sluggish gameplay, somewhat washed out colors and textures".^[20] In addition to this, the PS2 version only allowed multiplayer games on 11 maps (7 deathmatch and 4 capture the flag). A novel (but relatively unused feature) is the ability to connect a keyboard and mouse through the PS2's USB ports. Players could then play in a similar manner to the PC version. This also allowed for up to 3 players without the use of a PlayStation 2 Multitap.

The Dreamcast version has an average review score of 88%.^[6] GameSpy's review said: "Well, believe it or not, there are lots of annoying features that drag the game down".^[21] GameSpy cited both slow framerate speeds and low sound quality as problems with the Dreamcast version.^[21]

Competition

Unreal Tournament was played at the World Cyber Games in the years of 2001^[22] and 2002^[23] where the title was contended for in a deathmatch 1 vs 1 environment. This is where UT was played on an international scale, where players from all around the world went head to head to see who would be crowned world champion.^[24]

Place	WCG 2001[25]	WCG 2002[26]
1st	GitzZz	GitzZz
2nd	XS|Pain	Shaggy
3rd	XaN	eVeNfLoW

Modification

As Unreal Tournament is a popular game, many fans have taken advantage of the chance to create mods for the game. These range from slight changes on some aspects of gameplay (such as map voting) or to total conversions. One modification ChaosUT became popular enough that it was included with the 'Game of the Year' edition of the game, while Tactical Ops was released as a stand alone retail product.

Another popular mod, released by co-creator Digital Extremes, is "Relics", which adds items to the game which have various effects on the player who obtains them. Relics include Vengeance (when the player holding it dies, a skull appears at the point of death and then explodes in a similar fashion to the Redeemer); Defense (which lessens the damage done by weapons); Speed (which gives the holding player a boost in speed); Redemption (which teleports the holding player to a different area when the player's health meter is at 0); Strength (which boosts the damage done by the player's weapons); and Regeneration (which regularly increases the player's health by 10 points).

As with the original Unreal, the ease with which players can create and release mods to the core game is a key factor contributing to UT's longevity. UT improved upon the mod-friendly nature of its predecessor with support for mutators such as Sniper Arena, Instagib, JumpMatch, Low Gravity and more. Further, UT clans, or gaming teams, and a score of UT dedicated clan and fan community sites continue to sustain Unreal Tournament's popularity years after its initial release.

Cancelled sequel

In 2000 Digital Extremes announced a game with the name Dark Sector which was planned as a spiritual successor to Unreal Tournament and "the next step in the first person action gaming experience by blending the intense action elements of Unreal Tournament with the scope and character evolution of a persistent online universe"^[27]. It was to feature an early clan/syndicate support^[28], team battles, ladder matches and Space flight gameplay. However, the game (in this form) never would see the light of day as the original plan was scrapped. The title would resurface in 2004 with an entirely new focus and being developed for the seventh generation of video game consoles.

Music

The soundtrack for the game was primarily written by Alexander "Siren" Brandon, Michiel "M.C.A." van den Bos, Andrew "Necros" Sega, and Dan "Basehead" Gardopée, the same music artists who wrote the Unreal soundtrack, although only Brandon and Van Den Bos remained credited for it. The game (in contrast to Quake, which used CD audio) employed tracker music, which resulted in a considerably good sound quality with very little size trade-off.

Two additional tracks were contributed: one ("firebr.umx") by Tero "Teque" Kostermaa and Kai-Eerik "Nitro" Komppa, and one ("razor-ub.umx") by Peter "Skaven" Hajba. These, however, remained uncredited for reasons unknown—Hajba's credits are in fact still intact in the instrument data in the file itself, and the original version of Kostermaa's song is available from his website,[1] although there are various differences. Users, such as map makers, may also add custom soundtracks to maps using UnrealED. Game composer Frank Klepacki was impressed by Alexander Brandon's contributions to the soundtrack.^[29]

System requirements

References

External links

• Unreal Tournament at the Open Directory Project

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Unreal Tournament
Developer(s)	Epic Games
Publisher(s)	GT Interactive
Release date(s)	November 30, 1999  October 25, 2000
Genre(s)	FPS
System(s)	Windows, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, Mac OS, Linux, Steam
Followed by	Unreal Tournament 2003 Unreal Championship
Series	Unreal Tournament

This is the first game in the Unreal Tournament series. For other games in the series see the Unreal Tournament category.

Table of Contents

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

Unreal Tournament
Developer(s)	Epic
Publisher(s)	Atari
Designer(s)	Cliff Bleszinski
Engine	Unreal Engine
Release date	1999 (NA)
Genre	First-person shooters
Mode(s)	Single player, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Assault,
Age rating(s)	ESRB: M
Platform(s)	PC (Windows), Linux, Mac
Media	CD-ROM
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

Unreal Tournament is a multiplayer-centric First-person shooter released in 1999 by Epic Games. The game is based around tournaments that prisoners are put through in the Unreal universe.

Unreal Tournament Game Of The Year Edition (aka UT99)

Unreal Tournament Game Of The Year Edition or UT GOTY was released in the year 2000 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest online multiplayer first person shooters of all time.  UT GOTY included a disc containing the game itself and a second disc containing some bonus maps, new models (such as the Nali Warcow), and mutators such as relics and professionally-polished versions of the Chaos UT and Rocket Arena game types.  Although all of the material on the second disc (about 50 MB) can be freely downloaded,  the price of the game is cheap enough for gamers with slow internet connections .

The general consensus amongst experienced Unreal Tournament players is that the original Unreal Tournament's game play (on a PC) is far superior to that of its successors, UT 2003 and UT 2004, which explains why so many people continue to enthusiastically play the Original to this day.  This might also help to explain why online player counts for the Original were dramatically higher two years after its release than online player counts (of real humans and not bots) for Unreal Tournament 2004 two years after its release and for UT3 two years after its release.  For example, in 2001 it was possible to find thousands of people playing the Original’s Capture-the-Flag mod online at any given time.

Opening Narration

"In 2291, in an attempt to control violence among deep space miners, the New Earth Government legalized no-holds-barred fighting. Liandri Mining Corporation, working with the NEG, established a series of leagues and bloody public exhibitions. The fight's popularity grew with their brutality. Soon, Liandri discovered that the public matches were their most profitable enterprise. The professional league was formed; a cabal of the most violent and skilled warriors in known space, selected to fight in a Grand Tournament. Now it is 2341. 50 years have passed since founding of DeathMatch. Profits from the Tournament number in the hundreds of billions. You have been selected to fight in the professional league by the Liandri Rules Board. Your strength and brutality are legendary. The time has come to prove you are the best. To crush your enemies; to win the Tournament."

Gameplay

Single Player

In single player mode you are first able to choose your character and the skill you desire. The type of character you choose will determine which team you are on in the Capture the Flag tournaments. After choosing your character you are able to play Deathmatch.

Deathmatch

The objective of Deathmatch is to be the first player to reach the frag limit. The player is up against everyone else and all other players are your opponents.

Team Deathmatch

Same as deathmatch, but there are teams.

Domination

Domination is usually done with team play. The goal of Domination is to take and secure control points around the map. Holding control points on the map earns your team points over time. The goal is to hit a certain score before the other team does.

Capture the Flag

The objective is to take the enemy's flag and return it to your own flag post a certain number of times.

Assault

This game type is among many peoples favourites. It requires strategy, instead of running out and gunning your oponents. There are 2 roles, the attacker or the defender. If you start as the attacking team, you must complete a number of objectives, while defending yourself. Once all objectives are complete the game restarts, and your team switches roles. Then the opposing team have to do it. The fastest time wins. But if you are the defender, your job is to stop the attackers from completing their objectives.

Last Man Standing

The objective of LMS is to be the last one standing - with the most lives left. Basically the players hunt each other down and must not run out of lives.

Online Multiplayer

Unreal Tournament is primarily an online multiplayer game and in its heyday it was possible to find thousands of people playing it online 24/7.  Hundreds of clans were formed and they competed in leagues and on organized ladders, often using voice-over-IP communication programs such as Teamspeak, Roger Wilco, and Ventrilo.  Players also communicated via Internet Relay Chat.  Because UT99 was very popular, thousands if not over ten thousand custom maps and game modifications were created which would auto-download to players upon joining servers.  The ease with which custom material could be created and distributed contributed to the game's success.  As of the week of October 4, 2009, at around 4 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time, over 800 players were counted in the server browser.

Pickup Games (PUG) Matches

Many members of the Capture-the-Flag' community enjoy playing pick-up game (aka PUG) matches.  The name "pickup game" really means "pickup clan-match-style game", which means that the game will feel like playing a formal clan match as opposed to playing on a public server where players join and leave the teams in the middle of maps.  PUG matches also make use of voice comm, with each team joining a separate chat channel on a Teamspeak or Ventrilo voice-over-IP server.  Most pugs are for 5v5 capture-the-flag games and are often played by people who used to be members of the clan community.  Normally, 10 people on an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server spontaneously "join the PUG", which is managed by a program called the pugbot.  Players can join by either changing their nickname to have a certain letter in front of it or by typing .join depending on what pugbot program is in operation.  (So if the letter is y, then a player named Bigfoot would change his name to y-Bigfoot to join).  When ten people have signed up, two people become team captains, either by typing in a designated command or by being randomly appointed by the pugbot, and then they proceed to draft-pick the other players in an A-BB-AA-BB-A draft order so that the first captain has both the first pick and the last unpicked player.  The players then join a Teamspeak voice comm server and join the PUG game server itself where they play a 5v5 best-of-three-maps match.  Like a clan match, players have assigned positions (ie, flag defense, offense, middle, front door defense, etc.) and teams try to cover their flag carriers.  It is a tremendous amount of fun and the game experience is more intense than playing on public servers.  To get started, you need to obtain an IRC browser program such as mIRC or the Firefox plugin Chatzilla.  You can find the UT99 CTF pug match communities on these IRC servers:

irc.GameRadius.net

irc.Quakenet.org

For North American PUG matches come to irc.GameRadius.net and then join channels #speedpug (125 speed regular weapons) and #mlut (100 speed regular weapons).  #Mlut (Major League Unreal Tournament) is the home channel for the pro community and you need to be registered with and logged into the Gameradius server in order to join it (instructions available at www.GameRadius.net).  Note that new channels do form occasionally and that activity might shift from one channel to another, so just ask around to find the currently active pug channel.  (Alternatively, use your IRC browsers channel list feature to find out which channels are heavily-populated and then investigate.)  Other channels exist for other game types such as Instagib and Sniper, and some channels are passworded. New North American players are advised to first try #speedpug where they are more likely to be welcomed by the other players. In Europe the IRC server is irc.Quakenet.org and you might try channels #ctfpug and #ut994funpug.

External Links

• Beyond Unreal
• ProUnreal -- home of the Major League Unreal Tournament competition
• Speedpug discussion forum
• Unreal Playground -- custom map downloads, discussion forum, former home of one of the world's most popular regular weapons CTF custom map servers
• Skin City Download UT skins here
• Unreal wiki
• Official website
• Planet Unreal
• UT Dedicated Server Rental

Unreal series
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament | Unreal Tournament 2003 | Unreal Tournament 2004 | Unreal Tournament III
Unreal
Unreal | Unreal II: The Awakening
Unreal Chanpionship:
Unreal Championship | Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
Equipment:
Weapons | Items | Character Classes
Misc
Unreal Engine | Unreal Script | Instagib Mod

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