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Quake (video game)

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For other uses, see Quake (video game) (disambiguation).
Quake
The box art featuring the Quake logo
The box art featuring the Quake logo
Developer(s)id Software
Publisher(s)Activision
Series
EngineQuake engine
Platform(s)PC (Windows / Linux), Apple Macintosh, Saturn, N64, Acorn Archimedes
ReleaseMay 31, 1996 (NA)
Genre(s)FPS
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer
File:Quake 1 screenshot 320x200 e1m3.png
Zombies attacking the player.

Quake is a first-person shooter computer game that was released by id Software on May 31 1996. It was the first game in the popular Quake series of computer and video games.

The majority of programming work on the Quake engine was done by John Carmack. Michael Abrash, a program performance optimization specialist, was brought in to help make the software rendering engine fast enough to be feasible. The background music for the game was composed by Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails. Within the game, the ammo box for the nailgun has the Nine Inch Nails logo on it in reference to this. Quake was released just as the Internet was commercially coming of age, and gamers were graduating from local bulletin boards to the global online community. id Software recognized, before anyone else, that the future of competitive gaming lay with the Internet, and so Quake was the first game whose multiplayer could be played against many people on the Internet rather than with only three other people on a local network.

Quake and its three follow up games (which many do not regard as true sequels), Quake II, Quake III Arena and Quake 4, have sold over 4 million copies combined. In 2005, a version of Quake was produced for mobile phones.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Quake is considered unique because of the different ways the player can maneuver through the game. For example: bunny hopping, strafe jumping, rocket jumping. For more on this read: Quake (Gameplay). The nature of the gameplay is fast and frenzied.

The Story

The player takes the role of a marine sent into a portal to stop an enemy code-named "Quake". The government has been experimenting with teleportation technology and created a working prototype called a 'Slipgate' but accidentally opened a portal to an unknown dimension. Death squads then began to emerge from the Slipgate, killing and robbing as much as they could before returning through the gate. Once sent through the portal, the player must fight through hundreds of monsters of varying types to stop the enemy. The game consists of around 28 separate 'levels' or 'maps', split into 4 episodes, representing individual dimensions that the player can access through portals made of magic (as opposed to the technological Slipgate), populated by the various monsters. The various realms consists of a number of Gothic and medieval settings as well as 'fire and brimstone' style caves and dungeons with a recurring theme of Hell and Satanic icons reminescant of Id Software's Doom, and is inspired by several influences, notably that of H. P. Lovecraft (the end game boss being Shub-Niggurath herself). It is debatable whether the four dimensions under Shub-Niggurath's rule are Hell and like in Doom, mankind has accidentally created a bridge of a demonic invasion, or if it's simply another dimension and the Hell theme is merely used for horrific effect.

The unnamed hero of Quake reappears as one of the selectable characters in Quake III Arena, where he is known as "Ranger". However, Quake is one of the only modern id games to not have a true-sequel. Many have claimed that Painkiller is its spiritual sequel.

The Engine

Quake popularized several major advances in the 3D game genre: it uses 3-dimensional models for players and monsters instead of 2-dimensional sprites; and the world in which play takes place is created as a true 3-dimensional space, rather than a 2-dimensional map with height information which is then rendered to 3D. It also incorporated the use of lightmaps and dynamic light sources, as opposed to the sector-based static lighting used in games of the past. Quake pioneered the fluid control scheme of using the mouse to look/aim/orient ("mouselook") and the keyboard to move forward, backward and sideways. Many believe that it kick-started the independent 3D graphics card revolution, "GLQuake" being the first application to truly demonstrate the capabilities of the 3DFX "Voodoo" chipset at the time.

Network Play

Quake includes cooperative and deathmatch multi-player modes over LAN or the Internet. Additional multi-player modes were later added using "mods". The network model most commonly used is its client/server model, where the actual game runs in a dedicated server mode and all players "log in" to participate. In addition, Quake supports the peer-to-peer model; a mode that allows one or more players to play while one of those players act as both a client and the server. Depending on the client's specific route to the server, different clients will get different ping times. The lower a player's latency (ping time) is, the smoother his or her in-game motions are, which makes it easier to aim, move, and score. Someone playing at the PC or within the same LAN as the server gets a substantial advantage due to essentially no lag.

While gamers had been deathmatching each other via IPX LAN connections, serial cable connections, and modems in the Doom, Heretic, and Hexen series of games, it was not until Quake that the internet deathmatch community really began. The word frag became synonymous with the killing of one's opponent in Quake. With the popularity of Quake and the many resulting games it spawned, "frag" has since become the word used to describe a kill in many games, particularly shooters.

Modification

The game itself can be heavily modified and due to its popularity, has been the focus of many fan "mods". The first mods were small gameplay fixes and patches initiated by the community, usually enhancements to weapons or gameplay with some new foes. Later mods were more ambitious and resulted in Quake fans creating versions of the game that were drastically different from id Software's original release.

The first major Quake mod was Threewave Capture the Flag (CTF), primarily authored by Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch. Threewave CTF is a partial conversion consisting of new maps, a new weapon (a grappling hook), some new textures and new rules of game play. Typically, two teams (red and blue) would compete in a game of capture the flag, though a few maps with up to four teams (red, blue, green, and yellow) were created. Capture the Flag has become a standard game mode included in most popular multiplayer games released after Quake, in addition to Deathmatch first introduced in Doom. The mod was vastly popular and as of 2005 there is still has a community of players who play the Quake CTF mod. The popularity of the specif Quake Threewave CTF mod stems from the speed of the game and the grappling hook. In most cases a player has the ability to travel from one base to another base in a matter of seconds. The grappling hook acts as a slingshot, where advanced players can maneuver themselves in the air by using the strafe keys. Players would master flying around and shooting rockets with precise aim. The Threewave CTF Quake mod was converted into a Clan Ring modification coded by J.P. Grossman and Paul Baker, geared towards match play. Quake CTF Clans used this mod to play 20 minute private matches. This same Clan Ring modification would later be upgraded by pulsewidth and rook. As of late 2005 two CTF servers still get active gameplay, nearly 10 years after the game's initial release: crctf.clanhdz.com and quake.intertex.net. In 2005, woods released a new ctf textures for the Threewave CTF maps for use with the new Qrack engine.

The popular TeamFortress mod for QuakeWorld consists of Capture the Flag gameplay, but with a class system for the players. Players choose a class, which creates various restrictions on weapons and armor types available to that player, and also grants special abilities. For example, the bread-and-butter Soldier class has medium armor, medium speed, and a well-rounded selection of weapons and grenades, while the Scout class is lightly armored, very fast, has a scanner that detects nearby enemies, but has very weak offensive weapons.

Custom Maps

It is also worth noting the huge number of custom maps that have been made by users and fans of the game. Custom Maps are completely new and original maps that are playable by simply loading them into the original game. Custom Maps of all gameplay types have been made, but the most custom maps for Quake have been in the single player and deathmatch genres.

There have been at least 1000 single player and 1000 deathmatch custom maps made for Quake. They vary in quality enormously, but the best custom maps are generally accepted to be better than the ID software maps in the original game. Some of the best and most ambitious single player custom maps are episodes like Nehahra, Insomnia and Zerstorer, and single maps like Marcher Fortress, Cassandra calamity and bestial devastation.

The quantity, quality, artistry and diversity of custom maps for Quake is notable. In addition, new maps continue to made into 2005 for the game, almost 10 years after it was originally released. Many of the best custom mappers have gone on to obtain full-time paid jobs at various software development houses, based on the custom maps they made.

Bosses and Monsters

Chthon

Chthon is a fierce beast of living lava and the first boss. Chthon was inherently immune to all common weapons the player held, and only the two electrical conductors around his arena could damage and eventually kill him. It is believed Chthon also has children that exist in one of the two mission packs for the first Quake. However, they are affected by smaller weapons, and go down much easier than their parent does.


Shub-Niggurath

Shub-Niggurath is the aforementioned demon suppossedly drawn from Lovecraft lore and is the second and last boss. She is surrounded by several lesser demons, including many Vores. Sitting in a pool of lava, just as Chthon was, she is immune to your weapons. The main character must make use of the small, spiked sphere that circles around the room in combination with the portal device that overlooks the boss.

History

The Fight for Justice

A preview included with id's very first release, 1990's Commander Keen, advertised a game entitled The Fight for Justice as a follow-up to the Keen trilogy. It would feature a character named Quake, "the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent", armed with thunderbolts and a "Ring of Regeneration." Conceived as a VGA full-color side-scrolling RPG, "The Fight for Justice" was never released.

Pre-release

Quake was given as a title to the game that id Software was working on shortly after the release of Doom 2. The earliest information released described Quake as focusing on a Thor-like character who wields a giant hammer, and is able to knock away enemies by throwing the hammer (complete with real time inverse kinematics). Early screenshots showed medieval environments and dragons. The plan was for the game to have more RPG-style elements. However, work was very slow on the engine, since Carmack not only was developing a fully 3D engine, but also a TCP/IP networking model (Carmack later said that he should have done two separate projects which developed those things). Thus, the final game was very stripped down from its original intentions, and instead featured gameplay similar to Doom and its sequel, although levels and enemies were closer to mediæval RPG style rather than science-fiction. Praised throughout the gaming community, it quickly dethroned previous FPS titles and revolutionized the way multiplayer games were developed.

QTest

Before the release of the game or the demo of the game, id software released "QTest". It was described as a technology demo and was limited to three multiplayer maps. There was no single player support and some of the gameplay and graphics were unfinished, but the game's multiplayer support caused Quake servers to spring up everywhere overnight. QTest also gave gamers their first peek into the filesystem and modability of the Quake engine, and many entity mods (that placed monsters in the otherwise empty multiplayer maps) and custom player skins began appearing online before the full game was released.

The Release

In mid-1996 id Software released the full retail version of Quake. The shareware episode consisted of the first fourth of the game, and upon registration, the player could unlock three additional episodes and a series of deathmatch-only maps. id supported the release of Quake with multiple patches, the mod source code (QuakeC), the tools source code, and frequent .plan updates. id also eventually released WinQuake, a native version of the game for Microsoft Windows (the original was for MS-DOS, and could not run on Windows NT). It was at this point that the Quake-community exploded with the popularity of the game.

QuakeWorld

To improve the quality of online play, id Software released QuakeWorld in 1996, a build of Quake that featured significantly revamped network code including the addition of client-side prediction. The original Quake's network code would not show the player the results of his actions until the server sent back a reply acknowledging them. For example, if the player attempted to move forward, his client would forward the request to move forward to the server, and the server would determine whether the client was actually able to move forward or if he ran into an obstacle, such as a wall or another player. The server would then respond to the client, and only then would the client display movement to the player. This was fine for play on a LAN—a high bandwidth, very low latency connection. But the latency over a dialup internet connection is much larger than on a LAN, and this caused a noticeable delay between when a player tried to act and when that action was visible on the screen. This made gameplay much more difficult, especially since the unpredictable nature of the Internet made the amount of delay vary from moment to moment. John Carmack has admitted that this was a serious problem which should have been fixed before release, but it was not caught because he and other developers had high-speed Internet access at home.

With the help of client-side prediction, QuakeWorld's network code was much more friendly to players on dial-up with high ping times. The netcode parameters could be adjusted by the user, so that QuakeWorld performed well for users with low latency (also referred to as Low Ping Bastards or LPB's) as well as high latency (sometimes called High Ping Bait (HPB's) or High Ping Weenies/Whiners (HPW's)).

Ports

In 1996 there was a port of Quake to Linux that involved code theft and patches being submitted back to id Software before it became an official port. 1997 saw further porting efforts, with an IRIX port, called SGI Quake (link) done by Ed Hutchins on the SGI O2. SGI Quake has both OpenGL and software rendering systems. In addition, in 1997, a port to Mac OS was done by MacSoft and a port of Quake to Sparc Solaris was released.

Quake was also ported to console systems. In 1997, it was ported to Sega Saturn by Lobotomy. It is widely considered to be some of the most advanced 3D work ever cranked out of the console; it's also the only version of Quake that is rated 'T' for Teen instead of 'M' for Mature. In 1998, Quake was brought to Nintendo 64 by Midway Games.

Both console ports required some compromises because of the limited CPU power and ROM storage space for maps. The Saturn version lacked multiplayer but had most of the maps from the original game, with only the secret levels (Ziggurat Vertigo (E1M8), The Underearth (E2M7), The Haunted Halls (E3M7) and The Nameless City (E4M8)) not making the cut. Instead, it had four new maps: Purgatorium, Hell's Aerie, The Coliseum and Watery Grave. The N64 version had multiplayer, but was missing The Grisly Grotto (E1M4), The Installation (E2M1), The Ebon Fortress (E2M4), The Wind Tunnels (E3M5), The Sewage System (E4M1) and Hell's Atrium (E4M5). It also lacks the "START" map where you choose difficulty and episode; difficulty is chosen when starting the game, and all the levels play in sequential order from The Slipgate Complex (E1M1) to Shub Niggurath's Pit (END).

Many more ports were done after the source code release, such as numerous homebrew ports for the Dreamcast and Xbox consoles.

File:Familytree11.png
Family Tree of Quake engines

Source Code

The source code of the Quake and QuakeWorld engines was licensed under the GPL in 1999. The id Software maps, objects, textures, sounds and other creative works remain under their original license. The shareware distribution of Quake is still freely redistributable and usable with the GPLed engine code. One must purchase a copy of Quake in order to get the registered version of the game which includes more single player episodes and the deathmatch maps.

Legacy

Based on the success of the first Quake game, id later published Quake II and Quake III Arena; Quake 4 was released in October 2005. It was developed by Raven Software utilising the Doom 3 engine.

It is also interesting to note that Quake was the game primarily responsible for the emergence of Machinima phenomenon of films made in game engines, thanks to edited Quake demos such as Ranger Gone Bad and Blahbalicious and the ingame rendered four hour epic film The Seal of Nehahra.

Speed runs

As an example of the dedication that Quake has inspired in its fan community, a group of expert players recorded speedrun demos of Quake levels completed in record time on the "Nightmare" skill level. The footage was edited into one continuous 19 min 49 s demo called Quake done Quick (QdQ) and released on 10th June, 1997.

A second attempt, Quake done Quicker (QdQr), reduced the complete time to 16:35. QdQr was released 13th September, 1997.

The culmination of this process was the unbelievable Quake done Quick with a Vengeance (QdQwav). Released three years to the day after QdQr, this pared down the time taken to complete all four episodes, on Nightmare difficulty, to 12 minutes, 23 seconds. This run was recorded as an in-game demo but interest was such that an .avi video clip was created to allow those without the game to see the run.

Quake done Quick with a Vengeance was a collaborative effort by seven speed runners; Sergi, Markus, Ilkka, Atilla, Peter, Alex and Ingmar. Although each particular level is credited to one runner, the ideas and techniques used are iterative and collaborative in nature, with each runner picking up tips and ideas from the others.

Further time improvements of the continuous whole game run were achieved into the 21st century. In addition, many thousands of individual level runs are kept at Speed Demos Archive's Quake section including many on custom maps.

Commercial games using the Quake engine

There have only been two official expansion packs for Quake:

The following expansion packs are unofficial:

The following games are not related to Quake, but use the Quake engine:

Games using a modified Quake engine

Replacement Quake/QuakeWorld Engines

Replacing the game engine became possible after the 1999 release of the Quake and QuakeWorld source code under the GPL.

QuakeWorld mods

Quakecon

Popular North American LAN Party Quakecon finds it roots in the game as well. The gaming convention was started up so Quake fans could get together every year and compete on a LAN, on even footing without Internet connection latency and packet loss handicapping play.

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