2000-2002: The PadMaps Mania

PADMAN and Quake 3 Arena

It was the end of 1999 when ENTE first held a multiplayer game in its hands. Actually it was two games, Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament, which were released almost simultaneously. Although ENTE had played a lot of computer games before, he had to admit that the multiplayer had never really interested him. ENTE always only played the single player and was not even aware of what he was missing in the multiplayer. But with Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament that changed, because both games did not have a single player in the classic sense. The spark was quickly ignited and ENTE loved to play one match after the other with friends. To his great astonishment he noticed during his first online attempts that there were people who created their own maps and models and he wondered how they did it. Above all, ENTE wanted to know how to create such a player model because he wanted to have one of his cartoon characters in the game. That should be PADMAN, of course, who had his appearances in the German console magazine PlayStation Games at that time.

So ENTE started to search for tutorials and tools to create such models. It really cannot be that hard, he thought at that time. Very quickly he realized that it is not so easy, that there are hardly any tutorials and that the programs to create these player models are quite expensive. As insolent as ENTE can sometimes be, he asked a few well-known 3D artists if they could quickly create PADMAN for him, but nobody seemed to be interested. Wrath, who had created the well-known Harlequin model for Quake 3 Arena, which ENTE first had the idea of creating his own player model from, said in his answer that nobody would create his model if nobody knew the cartoon character. Wrath was right, of course, and that was the trigger. At this point ENTE said to himself: “OK, then you have to make PADMAN known!”

While searching for tutorials on player models, he came across a few mapping tutorials for Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament instead. He started the first attempts for Unreal Tournament, but it seemed quite complicated to him and he gave up after a short time. Quake 3 Arena was different. Within a very short time he had created his first room and was obsessed from then on. A big help was Michael Kupfer, also known as D@ngerzone, who had written his first small German mapping tutorial at that time. ENTE had to accept some setbacks in the beginning, because nothing really wanted to work. Again and again he annoyed the poor D@ngerzone with questions, although he was still exploring the matter himself. At some point the time had come and ENTEs first Map PadCastle was completed. In order to make PADMAN better known, ENTE came up with the idea to simply integrate a few pictures from PADMAN.

It all started with PadCastle and PadHome

In February 2000 ENTE sent his work to all known Quake 3 Arena sites and to his delight many took up the cause and wrote something nice about it. Even the international sites reported and so for example CaliGirl from quake3world.com and Pappy-R from planetquake.com were among the first fans of the PadMaps. On the German pages it was Wolle from quake.de and Forlani as well as 3nzo from planetquake.de who always supported the PadMaps from then on. Without these great people the PadMaps would probably never have been so successful.

ENTE’s first map, was really well received and although the map was not just about the limit, the people liked this mix of comic pictures and the many small details that ENTE built into it. So it was clear that a second map had to be created. Originally he wanted to create PadCastle as a big knight’s castle, but at the beginning he did not really get along with the Q3 editor and had to redesign and resize the map again and again. This left enough unused parts of PadCastle, which he then used to create his second map, PadHome, and added them accordingly. Although he was a little unhappy with the result, PadHome was named Map of the Week on quake3world.com. CaliGirl loved the green lawn in this map. So she probably unconsciously contributed to ENTE’s colorful map design as we know it from World of PADMAN today.

A new style with PadGallery

After PadCastle and PadHome, ENTE realized that these dark gothic maps were just not for him. He did not want to create any more maps in this style and wanted to present the pictures of PADMAN even better. So he had the idea to create a kind of museum or gallery as a map, the PadGallery. For the first time he renounced the existing textures in Quake 3 Arena and built a map almost exclusively with self-made textures. PadGallery was the first map that went smoothly without having to fight frustrations with the Q3 editor. So ENTE created the map quite fast within only one week.

When ENTE sent the PadGallery to the known sites to distribute it everywhere, planetquake.com told him that they could not publish the map like this, because youngsters would play Quake 3 Arena as well. The reason was the erotic gallery in the map, which contained some, from our European point of view, quite harmless motives. That is how it came that an additional defused version was created for the American market. ENTE’s new mapping style of the PadGallery was of course immediately noticeable. But even if the PadGallery attracted a lot of attention at that time, it was only the third map from his hand that should make the PadMaps really well known.

The attention won by the PadGallery gave ENTE once again the chance to try again with the PADMAN as a player model. He then basically asked only one person, tone from Australia. The only reason was that he wrote somewhere how much he liked comics. The answer did not take long, because it turned out that tone also liked the PadMaps. He agreed and went straight to work. However, many weeks would pass before PADMAN finally learned virtual walking. ENTE had almost reached his goal, finally he should get his PADMAN. But should he stop creating more maps now? No, because now it really started!

Small but big in the PadGarden

Sometime in the year 2000 Xzed appeared with his Map Runtfest for Quake 3 Arena in the so-called Lilliput style. The player is not much bigger than a grasshopper. ENTE can still remember how D@ngerzone and he often talked about this map and that they thought it was really funny. But that was it, ENTE had not dealt with this topic any further. He planned something completely different. As the next map he wanted to create a kind of shopping mall, the PadCenter. Only when someone presented a beta version of a bathroom map in the Lilliput style and asked ENTE to take a look at it, the spark ignited. Unfortunately, the community behaved quite badly towards the creator of this bathroom map, insulted him and bombarded him with evil emails. They simply called him an idea stealer, a Runfest copycat. It got so bad that the poor guy did not finish his map and even changed his email address.

Nevertheless, ENTE decided to try his own map in Lilliput style map and created the PadGarden. When ENTE then went public with this map, there were strangely neither unfriendly emails, nor other bad comments. On the contrary, PadGarden hit like a bomb. With PadGarden everything should change, because that was the beginning of the PadMaps mania, the PadMania! Although his PadGarden neither offered good gameplay nor ran smoothly on many computers at that time, it remained one of his most popular PadMaps in the community for a long time. Funnily enough ENTE as a mapper has been associated only with the Lilliput style since then. Since then the name PadMap has simply been equated with Lilliput map and expected nothing else from him. No matter how many maps with normal proportions ENTE had created before or was supposed to create.

The craziness began!

Suddenly the PadMaps were on everyone’s lips and ENTE was flooded by a flood of emails. Whether from Switzerland, Australia, America, Korea, Taiwan, England etc., from everywhere emails fluttered into his mailbox. They conducted interviews with him and brought reports on his work. All kinds of magazines presented something about the PadMaps, delivered the PadMaps on cover disks or even asked for their own PadMap. Later ENTE was even asked by the American magazine PC Gamer to create an exclusive PadMap, the PadShop. An English magazine recorded an interview with him about Digicam, even though ENTE neither understood English well nor could speak it.

When ENTE created the Map PadPool for the Q3A EntenClan, he got to know the good Magnacus, who since then made sure that the PadHouse server was available exclusively with the PadMaps. Of course, he was also responsible for the PadForums at that time. And when ENTE was in the middle of his work on PadSpace, which actually started as a commissioned map, an “old” Swedish called Ronny sent him a disk home. On this disk there was the music of his band Dieselkopf, which from then on accompanied the PadMaps with music, e.g. in the PadKitchen.

PADMAN lives and Elite Force comes

In September of the year 2000 the time had finally come. PADMAN for Quake 3 Arena saw the light of day and finally learned to walk. Angstroem’s Padtrekkies were there right from the start and gave the model four alternative skins. It did not take long and PADMAN and the Padtrekkies were adapted and released for the start of the shooter Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force.

It got even better, because Activision Germany asked ENTE to create exclusive versions of his maps for Elite Force for them to put them on a promotion disk and to distribute them at the 9th FedCon in Bonn. That was the birth of ENTE’s PPadGallery, PadKitchen and PadGarden for Elite Force. Kenn Hoeckstra from Raven wrote ENTE, how cool he thought it was that he also creates maps for Elite Force now. The release of the PadGarden for Elite Force even led to ENTE tackling the old PadGarden for Quake 3 Arena and releasing a new version of it.

In spring 2001 ENTE was even invited to an interview in the program GameOn! on NBC. The topic was level design for Elite Force, in which ENTE could also present his PadMaps. At the same time he also reissued his PadCenter for Elite Force.

When ENTE organized the legendary PADMAN skin competition, even Paul Jaquays, who was still working for id at that time, agreed to be part of the jury. During this time a lot of new Q3 skins were created for the PADMAN player model and Redlemons’ Corporal Padishment made it to the winners’ podium. To honor the contestants and the winner, ENTE created a completely redesigned version of his PadGallery, the PadGallery deLuxe for Quake 3 Arena, in which all works were immortalized. It was really a crazy time that ENTE likes to remember.

Then what…?

In September 2001 ENTE’s last map for Quake 3 Arena, the PadCrash, was released. This very colorful platform map was created for the [PAD]community, almost on a whim. It is available in different variants and is also his first map that supports the Capture The Flag game type. From then on it became a bit quieter. ENTE created the PadMod for Quake 3 Arena at the turn of the year 2001/2002. Since the project occupied more and more of his time, he had to retire from the Quake3 scene. Since he did not deliver PadMaps anymore and there was nothing new to report about, the fire of the PadMaps mania went out after more than two years and the old PadWorld website was shut down.

In May 2002 ENTE itched its fingers one last time, because with the two months earlier released Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast another game based on the Quake 3 engine, with a really successful multiplayer part, came on the market. Visibly enthusiastic about the design and especially about the textures he could not resist and so he created PadStation, as well as the duel maps, PadHangar, PadHall, PadTemple and PadReactor for Jedi Knight 2 shortly after. But then it was really over and the focus was on the PadMod. But that is another story. ENTE really enjoyed all this time, but he always knew that it would be over. But hopefully those who were there at that time will remember it with pleasure.