History of Cataclysm

The Beginning

It all started with Pong. Ok, maybe I shouldn't start THAT early. ;)

I got into Real Time Strategy (RTS) by Warcraft 2. Then I had never heard of Command & Conquer or Warcraft. Haha, I was a newbie! :)

The Warcraft 2 Era

Like tons of other people, I got introduced to Warcraft 2 by the demo on a PCGAMER cd. When I installed it I was thinking, 'Heh, this game looks stupid' by looking at the mag pics. Then when I played it I was blown away! I was like, 'COOL!' Although the peasants were gay, footsoldiers sounded drunk, and I didn't know what happened to the elves' voice, the game was lots of fun. I played that demo over and over because I loved it so much.

I finally got Warcraft 2. I thought it was overall awesome. Although then I didn't have net access so I didn't know about the joys of playing multiplayer. Nevertheless, I had a fun time with it. From March to November of 1996 I played that game to death.

But eventually it started to get boring, really dull. So I started editing it. I made it so you could have bridges on maps (puds I mean :) so both boats and land units could cross it. I had it so you could build demons and other cool stuff. Overall I was bored, but eventually I found out about this weird online system called kali. I ended up loving kali as I played Warcraft 2 multiplayer for a couple of months.

Introduction to Red Alert

People who exculsively play Warcraft 2 have this type of hatred for Command and Conquer. Its hard to describe. Warcraft 2 was more of a 'cute' game with the "zug zug" and such. Command and Conquer was not a cute game so its hard for War2ers to understand those cursed C&C people. :) At Thanksgiving of 1996 at my parent's house, I noticed my older brother (who was the one who introduced kali to me and whom I played Warcraft 2 alot with) had brought a new game with him. He said it just came out and he bought the last copy of it in his local Best Buy in Austin, Texas. That game Was Command and Conquer: Red Alert.

I heard about Red Alert a lot from my issue of PCGAMER and on the Internet. But being a War2er, the game didn't appeal to me. Remember that War2  hatred for C&C? :) So I was shocked to see that my brother actually bought it. Well  the game came with two cds so we hooked our computers up with ethernet and played. We didn't know what the heck we were doing. My first game was hilarious. I built everything except an ore refinery. I had thought the ore refinery was useless on that first game. :) That's what I get for not reading the manual. But I learned over time. With only one phone line available for use, we had to use Kproxy in order to play together on kali. Although we died all the time, we didn't care because it was all fun. People didn't seem to realize why Cataclysm and Ragnar wanted to be team mates, but being in the same room has advantages. :)

I do remember getting killed by this one person on kali called Kiddd. No matter what I did he killed me. :)

Ragnar versus Cataclysm: The First Clash

Ahh, the first battle of Red Alert games between Ragnar and Cataclysm... Both of us didn't know what the heck we were doing. We were just learning about the game. Raggy was Allied, and  I was Soviet. I won all the time because I just made tanks. Ragnar kept on asking how he could defend against those tanks unknowing that a million people would be asking that question for endless months.

Ragnar versus Cataclysm: The Second Clash

Then the Thanksgiving week was over and my bro took his game and both cds back with him to Austin. So I was left  with only Warcraft 2 to play with and I played that until December.

At Christmas time when I was able to meet up with my brother again with his Red Alert cds, we played some more. (I was poor then and didn't have the money to buy RA myself :) I had kept on beating him on Thanksgiving but for a  month he's been playing RA multiplayer while I haven't. So at Christmas now that he had tons of practice and I had none he was whooping my butt. 'Those dahm tanyas' I'd curse to myself. I just couldn't win against him and it got annoying fast. He knew a lot of strategies I didn't and it was impossible for me to win.

Buying Red Alert

At the start of the new year of 1997 I decided to buy Red Alert since I had cash. DOH! All the stores were out for weeks because Red Alert was a hot seller at Christmas '96. After hearing the store clerk's BS for weeks, I finally managed to get a copy. I stuffed Warcraft 2 and put it on the shelf as I popped a RA cd in. After playing single player a while I went to kali to get my  butt kicked in multiplayer. I wasn't bad at Red Alert then, but I wasn't that good. I heard rumors about this group of awesome Red Alert players. Just for learning purposes, I had wanted to play in that group.

Eventually I got my wish. I had awesome ping because I was using my company's internet connection (their ISP servers were right next to the company. All they did was network.) My ping was so great it was somewhat near T1 rate. Not that much, but much closer then other connections. :) Anyway, on the Camden Central server of kali I got into a game with five other people. Saber and Dr.Frank were the only names I remember, the other three were nameless dorks. :)

Dr.Frank was passing a map around he wanted to try out. No one except Dr.Frank wanted to try out that map. Everyone thought it would suck. But Dr.Frank is a pain in the @ss and bothered everyone enough so they agreed to play on that map. :)

That map was hjk.

Origin of hjk

Anyone remember the map called Crystal Gardens? Actually, the got a bit screwed up and was actually Crystal Gradens :) Whomever made that map created Crystal Garden #2. Both are very similiar to hjk. They were the winter template but was filled with crystals and had several ridges going across the map.

The creator of the Crystal Garden maps was starting to get tired of Red Alert for some reason or another. Anyway, he wanted  someone to finish Crystal Garden #3. Although its working name was hjk. So to end the countless debates of what hjk means, it means absolutly nothing. It was meant to be a temperary name, nothing more, nothing less. So the creator of those Crystal Garden maps gave the beginnings of Crystal Garden #3 out to a random person in kchat...

...and that person happened to be Dr.Frank.

Dr.Frank finished the map up, and it was sorta funny when we first played on it. When Franky seleted the map hjk, the other people were saying, 'Hjk? Hell no, Crystal Garden #2'. Haha, they were surprised it was just Crystal Gardens in summertime :)

Camden Central Crowd

Due to my awesome ping, those five players wanted me to host a six player game. Well back then a six player Red Alert game was unheard of. If not the first, it was one of the first six player games of Red Alert on kali. The first game ever to be  played on hjk was a six player game. :) Anyway, it was  3 vs 3 and my side was victorius because of Saber but I didn't do so well myself.

Something happened between Dr.Frank and Saber,  I forgot what. Somehow Dr.Frank got pissed off at Saber for something. Dr.Frank always gets pissed off ;) Dr.Frank wanted to take Saber in a one on one and Saber accepted the challenge. However the four of us wanted to watch so I hosted another six player game. The four of us surrendered and we watched the battle. I sat back, turned up the Red Alert music and watched. Dr.Frank was good, but  Saber beat him silly. From watching Saber  play I realized what I had to do  to play well. So after that game I went off to the Red Alert server and started playing random people, whooping up on all of them. I was unbeatable. :)

A few weeks later when I got on kali I noticed everyone was playing hjk. Curious, I went back to the Camden Central server. I asked Dr.Frank what had happened and he said Saber was the one who distibuted the map. The map had gotton so popular Dr.Frank couldn't change the name back to Crystal Garden  #3.

I started playing Red Alert only on Camden Central. Everyone on the Red Alert server sucked! :) I could beat everyone there but on Camden Central I sucked compared to those players. The Camden group were by far the best Red Alert players. Only if there was no one at Camden would they ever play on the Red Alert server. The map we always played on was hjk 2. Although you might remember some of their names since several of them had the reputation for being the 'best':

Saber- I'd say Saber was the best RA player I've ever played with. In RA games he could do everything. While I'd be concentrating on getting an airforce he'd not only have made a bigger one then I have, but he'd have seven warfactories up already. Through migs,  teslas, and   hordes of tanks Saber always won. Saber rarely lost and because of that he became a bit cocky. Sometimes I'd hate being his teamate because he'd order me around. :)

Dr.Frank- If you hate hjk, blame Franky because he made the map. Dr.Frank was a great player too. He could build forests of teslas and so on but usually just stuck to hordes and hordes of tanks. Dr.Frank loved to pick on ladder people and on teams. He beat two {NKC} teamates by him in a one versus two game. Every now and then he'd beat the top ladder people. Why wasn't he in the ladder in the first place? Well, because he just like the rest of us thought it was silly. He would ask himself, 'Why join the ladder if you already know you're the best?' :)

Commando- Creator of RA Showdown and hjk2. I have only seen him lose once, but he's lost a couple more times from that. Commando was right up at the top with Saber. It was from him I got my flamer strategy. :)

Bosss- Awesome player, but sometimes my flamer strategy would get him. :) A well rounded player who liked to beat up newbies.

Kiddd- This was the one who beat me all the time when I first played Red Alert. Kiddd was good, but not quite as good as Saber and Commando. In a one versus one game against Saber he lost, but he got close to winning. Getting close to winning against Saber is an accomplishment by itself. :)

Kelleton- Kelleton went around with me and smurphed other people. He was a great player as well (ok Kell, you can now quit whining how I never mention you on my webpage :)

Topflight- The creator of hjk4. Topflight was one of those players who just made telsa forests into enemy bases and barracks which would conviently pop out tanyas.

Gen_MVe- Remember the tank rush whiners? Well this was the only RA player I know of who never built any tanks. Sure he'd build some tanks at the beginning just to counter a tank rush. After that he only built tesla coils and V2 rockets. Laugh if you will, but its a very effective strategy.

Metroid- Can't forget about Met. :) Another great player.

Embolia- Argh, if anyone annoyed me the most it was Embolia. You've probably heard of Embolia before on the Red Alert Server. I hated when Embolia talked. Sometimes he would talk LIKE THIS or other times he

would

talk

like

this

spacing

every

line.

Sometimes he would simply go:

:)

:)

:)

:)

:)

:)

:)

:)

:)

:)

:)

Trust  me, those smiling faces get on your nerves fast. :) His speaking would completly fill up the lobby. Thing is was that he wasn't a lamer, he just acted like one occasionally :)

The list above is off the top of my head. Apologies go out to the ones I miss. Some great players joined our group a lot later such as Chaz, Zstat, and Omegared but I'm only listing the 'orignals' ;)

'But Cat, you  don't  join groups.' I don't. We weren't exactly a group, more of a gang :) We were a bunch of kali friends  that enjoyed playing Red Alert.

Origin of hjk2

Actually there were two hjk2s made simultainiously. The problem with the original hjk was that the starting locations were a bit screwed. Dr.Frank fixed that with his hjk2. However Commando had made his own version of hjk2 which moved some of the ridges around as well as fixing the starting locations. We liked Commando's version better so Franky's hjk2 disapeared (however I beleive I did upload the map on this webpage. You still might be able to get it. I don't know for sure.) hjk2 spread out just as fast as hjk did.

Origin of hjk4

Topflight made this map. He had made an hjk3 but it was a bit screwed up with several of the ridges and he made the mistake of distributing it. So instead he redid the entire thing and called it hjk4. The difference with hjk4 is that it was only meant for 4 players, no more no less. It recieved lots of popularity too.

Other hjk maps

I've seen thirty to forty different variations on hjk. From hjk Master's Edition (made by unknown) to hjk Special Edition Made by Dr.Frank. The special thing with it was that you could make new structures and units with that map. Then that type of map editing was unheard of. However, I thought it was pretty cool.  For some reason everyone on Camden thought  it was a virus and everyone deleted it. Dr.Frank lost his version of it when he reformatted his computer. Somehow I had lost my version so there is no hjk Special Edition map in existence. That map gave me the idea for hjk Gold Edition and then to New Red Alert...

Creation of my Website

I must of started my website in like March or something. At first it was really cruddy but it got alot better. More info is on History of Cataclysm's Red Alert Site.

Ragnar versus Cataclysm: The Third Clash

Next time I played with my brother Ragnar on Red Alert, he was quite surprised. He thought he would beat the tar out of me but it was his tar that got beaten. :) Playing with those Camden people really helped me out. People say, 'hjk is a $hit map'. All I have to say about that is, 'DUH!' There's a myth that just because you're good on hjk doesn't mean you're good on other maps. Well, no that's not true at all. When those Camden people played on other maps they still whooped up on everyone. Especially Saber. He could play Allies, Soviet, water map, land map, Westwood map, $hit map, it didn't matter he was good at anything with Red Alert. Some people would drop by and play with the Camden people for a couple of hours and when they first arrived they were newbies, when they left they were experts. That's how good people got. But usually Camden Central was used for a 2 vs 2 match up since the RA server was too slow so don't confuse anyone who plays on Camden part of the Camden group. :)

Ragnar was surprised as I built into his base. He was also surprised I was tank rushing him again. He was no match. :)

Counterstrike

I started warning people not to rush out and buy Counterstrike. I told them to wait and buy it if it was any good. People didn't  feel like waiting so tons of people went out and bought Countershit. The 'new units' looked like modify old ones and they couldn't be used in multiplayer. I was one of the fortunate ones who didn't buy Counterstrike. The only good things with Counterstrike was some multiplayer maps and the   1.07E patch (a patch you  could later get off the net free as with the   multiplayer maps). Westwood just didn't get it. They couldn't understand why the Counterstrike sales were so low but Red Alert sold so well.

Buying Counterstrike is the equivalent of tossing your money out to sea.

Ultimate Red Alert?

When the summer approached, RAers were really really bored. The only other RTS game out was Warcraft 2 and that was even  older then RA. Sure a couple of RTS games came out like Z and KKND but they died since they never had a solid group of dedicated players. Several people on kali started playing with something called ultRA. They said it made new units and structures and such so I decided to try it out.

What is ultRA? ultRA was a couple of mix files with a rules.ini. The launcher was a simple batch. ultRA's purpose was to 'end tankrushing'. Some units didn't have icons (ugly) and so on. I liked the idea of ultRA of giving some new stuff with RA but I did like the way how it was done. To me the ultRA die hard fans were never   good at Red Alert to begin with so they played ultRA just so they  won't admit they sucked at normal RA :) Fiddling around, I figured how ultRA worked and eventually made...

New Red Alert 1.0: Initial Release

A map I made called  hjk Gold Edition which allowed 'new units and structures' went through ten versions before being final. NewRA 1.0 was just simply hjk gold edition with new images. The 'new images' were ones from C&C. C&C images looked great in RA and was better then any other 'new image' made at the time.

When creating New Red Alert I set myself on the task of finding out all that people wanted. I asked hundreds of people what new units and structures they wanted. 75% of all suggestions were impossible simply because of the game engine. Some suggestions were just stupid or plain silly (Remember the nuclear horse? :) Most suggestions were ones such as tesla tank and so forth.

Everyone told me,  don't release New Red Alert until ultRA 2.0 comes out. Good thing I didn't listen to them. ultRA 2.0 never came out :)

New Red Alert 1.0 used unnessesary huge mix files with a wimpy batch for a launcher. It had 'hovercrafts' which was just the boats going over land and water (I was trying to copy the Dark Reign hovercraft ability then :).  In New RA half of the units would nuke. I liked 1.0 and so did several other people.

However, New Red Alert got bombed by so many people. Many things people liked about it, but alot of things people didn't. Those things were eventually fixed up with...

New Red Alert 1.1: The Huge Bug Fix

The people who criticized 1.0 the hardest ended up loving 1.1. 1.1 fixed practically most complaints. Boats were now back in the water, alot of the nukes were taken away, and the rocket launcher vehicle was added. 1.1 also featured an exe for the launcher.

After a couple of weeks of 1.1 being out, alot of other RA add-ons started to appear all of the sudden. From MaximRA to RAID and to other ones that died out as quickly. A month had passed before 1.2 was made. Fans of 1.1 kept on wondering about many of the things I promised them including the new name for New Red Alert.

Red Alert Gold 1.2: The New Standard

Many people who enjoyed 1.1 were dahmed impressed with 1.2. 1.2 featured huge fixes and lots of new stuff from replacing the ant units to a new title screen to lasers to the B2 Bomber. The B2bomber's huge size was made by mistake. The_Head's first custom image was made too big and poor Red Alert couldn't handly the B2 bomber as a plane because the plane image dragged. However it only dragged when highlighted. By having it replace the spyplane it fixed the image bug. People loved 1.2 because (I think) to its circular game play. Simply making tanks weren't a good option now. You had so many units and there was so many possibilities. Each unit had a weakness and it was fun putting mixed groups of units into attack groups.

Red Alert  Gold 1.2 became immesly popular. I was surprised when people in other countries started emailing me. From Canada, United States of America, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, Austraila, Russia, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom, France and to Sweden Red Alert Gold flourished. I was very shocked at how popular it had become.

Red Alert Gold 1.2 became the new standard of RA add-ons. When 1.2 came out the other add-ons went away. After a while they came back but several of them had so many similar things with RAG. For example, MaximRA 2.0 had the same exact B2 bomber. Wicked took my RAG's word document for his own. So on and so on. I eventually got very pissed about all this stealing and such. Sure I could call them 'theives' for stealing many of my (and the people who helped with RAG)'s work. But I would be accused of   being jealous and such. So I decided to fight back my own way.....

Red Alert Gold 1.3: The Lost Version

This was my way of fighting back the other add-ons that stole the works of RAG and put them into my own. I always had pressure to release version 1.3 but I never did. The beta testers loved it (as far as they told me ;) and I wanted to get 1.3 out to the people who enjoyed playing RAG, not to the people who took elements of RAG and put it into their own add-on. People have told me, "Why worry about them? People take things from RAG because they know what they're looting from IS good." Well sure I could release 1.3 and watch the add-on makers gobble it up to make their own crud. Sure there are many people who make add-ons on their own and I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about those add-ons who steal RA Gold's images, ideas, text files, and such for their own add-on. I'd release a couple of screenshots for RAGold and then a week later an add-on comes out with units IDENTICAL with mine. That's how bad they were, always watching waiting for  somethintg new to loot from. What those people are are leeches.

And I wasn't going to take anymore of it.

So I witheld Red Alert Gold 1.3 and I watched the leeches shrivel up. They had nothing to steal from except 1.2 which they had already stolen all they can get from it. It wouldn't of made much of a difference if 1.3 was out then or not, the new RTS games were out as was Aftermath. Did it really matter if RA Gold 1.3 came out? To some yes it did but it hurt the looters  more then anyone else.

What did 1.3 have that was so good? Well, the harrier jet was included and looked great. The helicopters lost their chopper blades. A campaign of single player missions is included with RAG 1.3 as was a new title screen. A couple more units with the enabling of never-before-heard sound effects and four songs which you normally can't hear. The old exe got brilliantly redone by the_Head with the enabling and disabling features, no more of this 'Press  any key to continue' crap anymore ;) Ragnar created an awesome Win95 launcher which allowed enabling and disabling 1.3 along with a hints box. Red Alert Gold 1.3 was  filled with great things but I wanted to keep it  out of the hands of the lamers who  demanded and whined at me along with those add-on makers wanting RAG 1.3 so they could rip stuff from it into their own.

So if you're wondering why Red Alert Gold 1.3 was delayed more and more, THAT is the reason. And yes,  Red Alert Gold 1.3 will  be released soon now that the parasites have starved and are gone.

The End of the Cataclysm

I  thought I could continue this webpage/add-on stuff with Dark Reign (Read 'Is Dark Reign Cataclysm's Future' for more info.) I knew it was time to end my webpage so I'm ending it with the biggest update I've ever done. This update has   taken literally days to make and now the time is over. Red Alert has died. The new RTS games have been born. Cataclysm and what is left of him will be disapearing from the Net.

For good.