Quake turns 20 today

[yourbeliefs]

20 Years ago today, the id Software's big follow up Doom, Quake was released. While one could argue that Doom had a bigger overall impact on PC and FPS games, Quake's long term impact on the PC gaming world simply cannot be denied. Actually, the REAL impact stems from the Quake engines. They have been used in numerous games, most notably the Call of Duty Series, all the way up to Black Ops. Here's the Quake family tree:

I still remember playing the original on my old Packard Bell Pentium 133, thinking how cool and different the soundtrack was. It was composed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and the nail ammo boxes all had the NiN logo on them. And I'll still occasionally fire up Quake 3 Arena with bots when I'm in the mood for some quick killing fun. I hope that the new Quake they announced at E3 this year keeps the same high standards set by earlier games. id did VERY well with Doom 4, and hopefully they can do the same with Quake Champions.

PC Gamer did a decent write up of Quake's history. It's a short but informative read.

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-legacy-of-quake-20-years-later/

 

[KE4EST]

I loved Quake! I liked it better than DOOM.

 

[FTA4PA]

I was just playing Q3A tonight and often play over the LAN against my daughter. An excellent game that has stood the test of time.

 

[. Raine]

I loved Quake! I liked it better than DOOM.

Me too, liked it much more than Doom. Really liked Heretic and Hexen, too. I remember playing co-op Quake with a bunch of friends way back, over the phone lines, was a lot of fun!

 

[KE4EST]

I wish I could play heretic and hexon again just for old time sake.

 

[KE4EST]

Found this, don't know how good it works.
http://www.myabandonware.com/game/hexen-beyond-heretic-2bd/play-2bd

 

[. Raine]

That's interesting, play in your browser. It probably does work, I remember the computer I had back then was a P-166 MMX, something like 64 mb Ram, I believe. Quake, Hexen and Heretic all ran great on it. With newer computers with so much more oomph to them, running games like that emulated in a browser is probably easy.

I still have all the original disks somewhere and I think Id software made all those old games freeware, I could send them to you if you want, if that is the case. Think I remember reading about ID doing that.

If you happen to have a Quake shareware CD, all of the ID games are on there but had to be unlocked with a key after you paid for them. I don't remember the exact details now, it was so long ago, but it was real easy to unlock them all. I did it when I think it was my Hexen disc got scratched. Even their pre-Doom games were on there. Doom 1, 2 and Final Doom?, Hexen, Heretic, DK for Hexen, all of Id's stuff up to Hexen, IIRC. I don't remember if it was all of the Quake shareware CD's, but at least some of them, the ones you could order games off of.

 

[yourbeliefs]

id did NOT make Quake freeware. They did release the source code, which is how the crazy modding started, but no, Quake is not free. Quake Live was a F2P online shooter based on Quake 3 Arena's, MP, but not too long ago it was taken off F2P and made a stand-alone title that cost money.

If you still have an itching to play these games, the vast majority (if not all) are on Steam, and Steam's big summer sale started today. You could get them pretty cheap, and they're modified to run on modern machine with DosBox (Where applicable.)

 

[. Raine]

id did NOT make Quake freeware. They did release the source code, which is how the crazy modding started, but no, Quake is not free. Quake Live was a F2P online shooter based on Quake 3 Arena's, MP, but not too long ago it was taken off F2P and made a stand-alone title that cost money.

If you still have an itching to play these games, the vast majority (if not all) are on Steam, and Steam's big summer sale started today. You could get them pretty cheap, and they're modified to run on modern machine with DosBox (Where applicable.)

Yup, went and checked yesterday and you're right, just the source code was made available. I myself have all of them on original disks and CD's.

 

[king3pj]

Here is an interesting read about how a Quake player started the change to WASD as the default keyboard movement keys for games. I always kind of wondered why that was the standard.

http://www.pcgamer.com/how-wasd-bec...m_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer_pcgamer

 

[yourbeliefs]

I remember the old days of using the arrow keys. What dark, barbaric times those were.

 

[FTA4PA]

I remember the old days of using the arrow keys. What dark, barbaric times those were.

Heck, guess I'm weird, I use the arrow keys to move in Quake 3 Arena!

 

[yourbeliefs]

Heck, guess I'm weird, I use the arrow keys to move in Quake 3 Arena!

Are you left handed?

 

[yourbeliefs]

Also, if you really want a deal on these games mentioned here, if the Steam Summer Sale isn't enough there's a VERY good chance they'll have an id software sale during QuakeCon, which is August 4th. Years ago I was able to get all those old id software games in 1 bundle for like $35.

 

[FTA4PA]

Are you left handed?

Nope, just never could get used to using WASD for movement. I always redefine movement to arrow keys if possible.

 

[king3pj]

Nope, just never could get used to using WASD for movement. I always redefine movement to arrow keys if possible.

How do you jump and crouch and all the other key functions if you have your hand all the way to the side, away from the rest of the keys? The benefit to WASD is that you can reach the other keys. It's easy for your thumb to hit space to jump and your pinky to hit shift to sprint.

I'm sure you probably map those functions to other keys too but the arrow keys are separated pretty far away from everything else on most keyboards. Using the arrow keys it seems like you would have to pick up your hand off the movement keys to do anything else.

 

[FTA4PA]

How do you jump and crouch and all the other key functions if you have your hand all the way to the side, away from the rest of the keys? The benefit to WASD is that you can reach the other keys. It's easy for your thumb to hit space to jump and your pinky to hit shift to sprint.

I'm sure you probably map those functions to other keys too but the arrow keys are separated pretty far away from everything else on most keyboards. Using the arrow keys it seems like you would have to pick up your hand off the movement keys to do anything else.

I have always run set to on under movement so I don't need shift for running. I use shift key for jumping or sometimes reach with my pinky (big hands ) to hit space for jumping. I know it's weird but that's me!