Quake Duel: To the Death

Beyond all the bells and whistles, the talking animatronic Marios, and the flesh-and-blood Mortal Kombat characters of E3, the real action of the convention finally appeared at Intergraph's Quake contest.

More than 4,000 people entered the single-elimination tournament. Grand prize for the most kills in its E3 Quake contest? id programmer John Carmack's cherry-red Ferrari.

Several large-screen TVs were set up to "broadcast" the match, and crowds of fans grouped around, watching the two finalists, Thresh and Entropy, hack it out to the death.

As if attending a spectator sport, the fans ooh'd and aah'd at each climactic moment. Thresh won, the final score being 13 to -1.

After the excitement simmered down, Intergraph held a press conference during which Carmack personally handed Thresh his coveted car keys. Afterwards, Thresh was quoted as saying "That was the most intense deathmatch I've ever played."