On Top of the Rock
Introduction:
September 30th, the day Half-Life2 was supposed to be released. The day starts slow, I read on the www.halflife2.net/forums that the ATI “On Top of the Rock” event is to be held to the press and investors and the ferries leave the docks at 5:30 and 6:00 PM. Work ends at 2PM, I drive from Pleasant Hill to San Francisco munching down on some drive through Burger King to get an idea of what I am up against. Traffic sucks as usual, so I get there a little after 3PM.
Looking for Gabe:
Park my car, walk though the fisherman’s warf, and into Pier39 where most tourists go hoping I can see Gabe relaxing near the San Francisco bay but with no luck. I wonder into a local InternetCafe to post on the forums where I am and what I am trying to do but halflife2.net is down! I head back down to the docks where ATI was setting up the registration tables and getting ready for the swarms of industry leaders that were coming to see ATI’s newest hardware. This is where the tough part comes in.
Crashing the party:
When they start opening the registration at 5PM, I give them my name as they try to find it in the guestbook. After they didn’t find it, they ask me if I had RSVP’d or not and asked me to wait. Patiently, I sat in the cold, foggy, extremely windy dock for an hour to find out if they had enough room for me on Alcatraz. That’s when I got to talk to a guy from GameSpot. He had just flown back from Japan and was really cranky so I didn’t really get much info out of him. Then Derk Mann from Dreamworks was trying to pull the same stunt I was. He was a real friendly guy who I would stick with most of the trip since we were in the same position. Finnaly, they have a stack of passes of people that didn’t show up so they black their names out with a sharpie and write our names in.
Arriving at the rock:
Had to climb up a huge hill to get to the top. When we got inside the prison, we were directed to the shower room where the initial reception was held. Since I didn’t know anyone, I just walked around looking for something cool to shoot. They had an open bar serving all sorts of alcohol and about 5 bartenders. Food came constantly out of the kitchen with things like crab cocktails, little roast beef sandwiches, and cups of wine to go around.
***Removed at request***
A guy from HardOCP had a few things to say to me too about the XT series and how excited he is about this upcoming release:
[H]: The new XT series cards are dynamically and automatically overclocked while you are playing games. A thermal sensor onchip helps keep the card from overheating and becoming unstable. The 9800 XT should cost upwards of $499 and play.
Me: Do you think we will see the HL2 benchmark today?
[H]: No, I know the guy actually writing it and he told me it isn’t ready for public
They also had a green screen setup where people could take pictures and two guys with photoshop running would slave away trying to superimpose bars and a cell to make it look like you were trapped in a prison cell. Then they had a photo printer so you can take home some Alcatraz souvenirs.
After about an hour of drinks and snacks, a guy announced that we were all moving upstairs past the cells and into the dining room where the show was about to begin.
The show:
For the show, they paid about a dozen really hot dancer chicks dressed up in black leather and had whips. They also had another dozen guys dressed up with zombie masks and were getting beaten by the chicks. The whole place was lit like a strip club. The stage had half a dozen plasma screens that would run though a powerpoint presentation which I recorded.
There was one guy with a very loud deep voice with white and gray face paint on that started the show and introduced who I think is the CEO of ATI. He talks about the features of the new cards and about DirectX 9 for a good long time. Mostly information we already know but it will be in the video when I get around to releasing it. BTW, notice that the CEO slips up and actually says the F word in his speech. Ah well.
After he is done, he introduces a speaker from Dell to talk about the Dimension XPS which you can see many off scattered throughout the show floor. He mentions that the XPS has 9800 XT’s in stock and ready to buy bundled with XPS’s today, as in right now. He talks about how powerful the computer is and then he switches back to the CEO.
The CEO talks some more, you’ll see it all in the video, then goes an ASUS speaker.
The ASUS guy says that they have switched to producing Radeon boards with all the bells and whistles that they are known for having on their boards. They also have some hot chick as their mascot printed on the boxes. He mentions that HL2 WILL BE BUNDLED WITH THE 9800XT.
GABE NEWELL is next up but he doesn’t do too well. This is where you notice Gabe is really tired, nervous, and is having trouble stringing some words together. Possibly because he just got back from Japan? Watch the vid. He says a lot about the stress of being late on a product, and how good Dell is. He talks about how hard it is to write code for DX8, how easy it is for DX9, and how good the Radeon is on a Dell. Then he makes some cracks on the ‘competition’ and then how good the R36x chip is on a mobile products. HDR is also something that ATI really helped them out on and ATI doesn’t send them non-working drivers, hardware, etc, cough, nvidia, cough. Then he once again mentions how well ATI and Dell understand games and mods.
A few minutes later, I run out of tape, while I try to rewind my tape to record over the beginning, my battery runs out too. Oh well, nothing was really missed.
After the presentation:
After the show, I go grab some crab cakes and head over to the corner where Gabe was getting ready to head upstairs. I stop him, introduce myself, shake his hand, and get on with a couple questions since he didn’t have a whole lot of time and my mind started to draw a blank for actually meeting the guy:
Me: Hi, my name is Allan Claghorn. I have one question. How is TF2 coming along?
Gabe: It is coming well. Robin and Yahn and the TF2 team are working on it right now actually.
Me: Oh? They are working on TF2 and not HL2?
Gabe: That’s right. We plan to release more information about TF2 when we are getting ready to release HL2.
Me: Thank you.
***Removed at request***
The strider and buggy BINK videos were looping on a Dell XPS system in the corner, Another PC setup by ASUS was made completely out of clear parts and was brightly lit with blue neon lights. They also had sample XT cards on display on the show floor.
Upstairs in the hospital ward, Gigabyte, Saphire, and Hercules had booths setup showing their products. Every cell had several Dell XPS systems loaded with various games, most of which I had never seen before. Halo2, and GTA ViceCity were the two I recognized.
That’s pretty much it. You can find a lot of information in the video which should be up on the net and on various mirrors all over the place this afternoon. Sorry, no HL2 benchmark and not a ton of new info about the game but surely a good chunk of info in related topics. I got a paperweight from Gigabyte, a t-shit that says “ON TOP AT THE ROCK” on the back and had an XPS and HL2 logo on it. I also got an “Get in the game” sweater with an HL2 logo on the right sleve, and a blue and black Windows XP sweater.
Excuse the poor grammar and layout of this document. It was rushed out at 1:30 AM due the vicious HL2 community members.
Introduction:
September 30th, the day Half-Life2 was supposed to be released. The day starts slow, I read on the www.halflife2.net/forums that the ATI “On Top of the Rock” event is to be held to the press and investors and the ferries leave the docks at 5:30 and 6:00 PM. Work ends at 2PM, I drive from Pleasant Hill to San Francisco munching down on some drive through Burger King to get an idea of what I am up against. Traffic sucks as usual, so I get there a little after 3PM.
Looking for Gabe:
Park my car, walk though the fisherman’s warf, and into Pier39 where most tourists go hoping I can see Gabe relaxing near the San Francisco bay but with no luck. I wonder into a local InternetCafe to post on the forums where I am and what I am trying to do but halflife2.net is down! I head back down to the docks where ATI was setting up the registration tables and getting ready for the swarms of industry leaders that were coming to see ATI’s newest hardware. This is where the tough part comes in.
Crashing the party:
When they start opening the registration at 5PM, I give them my name as they try to find it in the guestbook. After they didn’t find it, they ask me if I had RSVP’d or not and asked me to wait. Patiently, I sat in the cold, foggy, extremely windy dock for an hour to find out if they had enough room for me on Alcatraz. That’s when I got to talk to a guy from GameSpot. He had just flown back from Japan and was really cranky so I didn’t really get much info out of him. Then Derk Mann from Dreamworks was trying to pull the same stunt I was. He was a real friendly guy who I would stick with most of the trip since we were in the same position. Finnaly, they have a stack of passes of people that didn’t show up so they black their names out with a sharpie and write our names in.
Arriving at the rock:
Had to climb up a huge hill to get to the top. When we got inside the prison, we were directed to the shower room where the initial reception was held. Since I didn’t know anyone, I just walked around looking for something cool to shoot. They had an open bar serving all sorts of alcohol and about 5 bartenders. Food came constantly out of the kitchen with things like crab cocktails, little roast beef sandwiches, and cups of wine to go around.
***Removed at request***
A guy from HardOCP had a few things to say to me too about the XT series and how excited he is about this upcoming release:
[H]: The new XT series cards are dynamically and automatically overclocked while you are playing games. A thermal sensor onchip helps keep the card from overheating and becoming unstable. The 9800 XT should cost upwards of $499 and play.
Me: Do you think we will see the HL2 benchmark today?
[H]: No, I know the guy actually writing it and he told me it isn’t ready for public
They also had a green screen setup where people could take pictures and two guys with photoshop running would slave away trying to superimpose bars and a cell to make it look like you were trapped in a prison cell. Then they had a photo printer so you can take home some Alcatraz souvenirs.
After about an hour of drinks and snacks, a guy announced that we were all moving upstairs past the cells and into the dining room where the show was about to begin.
The show:
For the show, they paid about a dozen really hot dancer chicks dressed up in black leather and had whips. They also had another dozen guys dressed up with zombie masks and were getting beaten by the chicks. The whole place was lit like a strip club. The stage had half a dozen plasma screens that would run though a powerpoint presentation which I recorded.
There was one guy with a very loud deep voice with white and gray face paint on that started the show and introduced who I think is the CEO of ATI. He talks about the features of the new cards and about DirectX 9 for a good long time. Mostly information we already know but it will be in the video when I get around to releasing it. BTW, notice that the CEO slips up and actually says the F word in his speech. Ah well.
After he is done, he introduces a speaker from Dell to talk about the Dimension XPS which you can see many off scattered throughout the show floor. He mentions that the XPS has 9800 XT’s in stock and ready to buy bundled with XPS’s today, as in right now. He talks about how powerful the computer is and then he switches back to the CEO.
The CEO talks some more, you’ll see it all in the video, then goes an ASUS speaker.
The ASUS guy says that they have switched to producing Radeon boards with all the bells and whistles that they are known for having on their boards. They also have some hot chick as their mascot printed on the boxes. He mentions that HL2 WILL BE BUNDLED WITH THE 9800XT.
GABE NEWELL is next up but he doesn’t do too well. This is where you notice Gabe is really tired, nervous, and is having trouble stringing some words together. Possibly because he just got back from Japan? Watch the vid. He says a lot about the stress of being late on a product, and how good Dell is. He talks about how hard it is to write code for DX8, how easy it is for DX9, and how good the Radeon is on a Dell. Then he makes some cracks on the ‘competition’ and then how good the R36x chip is on a mobile products. HDR is also something that ATI really helped them out on and ATI doesn’t send them non-working drivers, hardware, etc, cough, nvidia, cough. Then he once again mentions how well ATI and Dell understand games and mods.
A few minutes later, I run out of tape, while I try to rewind my tape to record over the beginning, my battery runs out too. Oh well, nothing was really missed.
After the presentation:
After the show, I go grab some crab cakes and head over to the corner where Gabe was getting ready to head upstairs. I stop him, introduce myself, shake his hand, and get on with a couple questions since he didn’t have a whole lot of time and my mind started to draw a blank for actually meeting the guy:
Me: Hi, my name is Allan Claghorn. I have one question. How is TF2 coming along?
Gabe: It is coming well. Robin and Yahn and the TF2 team are working on it right now actually.
Me: Oh? They are working on TF2 and not HL2?
Gabe: That’s right. We plan to release more information about TF2 when we are getting ready to release HL2.
Me: Thank you.
***Removed at request***
The strider and buggy BINK videos were looping on a Dell XPS system in the corner, Another PC setup by ASUS was made completely out of clear parts and was brightly lit with blue neon lights. They also had sample XT cards on display on the show floor.
Upstairs in the hospital ward, Gigabyte, Saphire, and Hercules had booths setup showing their products. Every cell had several Dell XPS systems loaded with various games, most of which I had never seen before. Halo2, and GTA ViceCity were the two I recognized.
That’s pretty much it. You can find a lot of information in the video which should be up on the net and on various mirrors all over the place this afternoon. Sorry, no HL2 benchmark and not a ton of new info about the game but surely a good chunk of info in related topics. I got a paperweight from Gigabyte, a t-shit that says “ON TOP AT THE ROCK” on the back and had an XPS and HL2 logo on it. I also got an “Get in the game” sweater with an HL2 logo on the right sleve, and a blue and black Windows XP sweater.
Excuse the poor grammar and layout of this document. It was rushed out at 1:30 AM due the vicious HL2 community members.
sounds like you had a good day, cant wait for the video.
