Func_Msgboard: Headshot Has Passed Away

Posted by SleepwalkR on 2026/09/09 22:09:32

Headshot was a prolific mapper who released many Quake 1 and Quake 2 deathmatch maps in the early days. Together with a handful of other mappers, headshot defined many of the characteristics of successful deathmatch maps. His maps had coherent visual style, fantastic atmosphere, great navigability and fast and frantic gameplay. Here's the entry for his and Danimal's map pak, DaPak, at slipgate sightseer: https://www.slipseer.com/index.php?resources/da-pak.105/

But he wasn't only a good mapper. He was a creative mastermind, a great photographer, musician and maybe the smartest person I have ever met. He held a PhD in German philology and researched and taught students at the University of Gießen, his Alma Mater.

In 1998, he launched the Qboard, the original version of this very forum. One of the first online forums for Quake deathmatch mapping, it quickly became the center of this community and remained so, through various iterations, for over 20 years.

I met headshot in the late 90ies when he lived in Hamburg. We worked together for about 1.5 years and spent much time with each other. His friendship had a great and lasting influence on me. Lately, we didn't have regular contact anymore, but we had made plans to see each other next time he visited Berlin.

So long, headshot! I will miss you!

#1 posted by Joel B on 2026/09/11 09:12:47

Well, fuck. That's a sad shock.

Back in 2022 when there was a bit of discussion about adding some classic releases to Slipseer, DaPak was one of the first two things I thought of that should definitely be included. I fired it up and ran around in it for a while with bots to get those screenshots for the Slipseer upload... brought back memories about how fresh/exciting that mapping style was at the time, and just about those days in general.

Raising a glass for a true original.

Thanks Man

#2 posted by SleepwalkR on 2026/09/11 18:26:18

Yeah, I remember us playing his later maps (Hidden Agenda, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Bless to Kill) a lot in the office when we worked together.

When Quake 3 came out, we even planned to make DaPak3 for it, but it never happened because we quickly returned to playing Quake 1 instead. Somehow, Quake 3 didn't really give us the same kind of fun that Quake 1 did.

We had already started designing icons and such for DaPak3, and I reused the weapon pickups we came up with for my Quake 1 DM map, Return to Zero: https://quaketastic.com/files/misc/rtz_pickups.png

R.I.P.

#3 posted by generic on 2026/09/20 18:10:15

Oh Man, That's Sad.

#4 posted by Text_Fish on 2026/09/20 18:15:22

Sorry for the loss of your friend, and heartfelt commiserations to the rest of his friends, family and colleagues.

DaPak really was an inspirational release.

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