Quake

The best video game ever made (considering pc-games AND consoles), Quake generated a cult-community with its own idiom and special rules of engagement. Five years after first release, Q1 still lives ferociously and heretic and the thrill of it all is that you can play it on any obsolete pentium system (75 Mhz, 4MB video-card and 60 MB hd-space ran fine for me). And besides that, the Linux-servers where the best of all! There are about 40 levels in the game (incl. multiplayer and secret levels): Quake consists of 4 episodes (like Star Wars and Alien so far), but there are still herds of people who haven't seen the game once (let alone 3dfx accelerated OpenGL Quake).

'Cheapo' and other downloadable 'cheating' local proxies make it harder for newbies to understand why they were being fragged and to like the flagellating game at all. On top of that, hardcore players construct their own configuration files with pre-written actionscripts (rocketjumping etc.) to climb faster in the ranking, although anybody can check out the console tutorials for miscellaneous commands and scripts. There is no taunting (as in Duke Nukem 3D and Unreal) in Quake, except for the few lines of text on top of the screen where you can spout your indecent proposals and pre-fab messages. Newbies who don't understand the game or have a slow connection (HPW: high ping whiners) are allowed (by consensus) to 'camp' (wait in a corner and shoot unsuspecting passers) to at least prevent a negative end-score (after unintentional suicide etc.). But the lucky few with pings of below 20 ms become the real 3D acrobats (LPB: low ping ba**ards). I'm really not interested in professional gamers, but I would have liked to get some dough for all the time I have spent in those dungeons, arenas, grottos, vaults and oubliettes.

Q1 is less humourous than Duke3D, in fact: no humour at all. Also less empty and post-apocalyptic, but more macarbe and dismal. I do not only love quake for the looks of it, but especially for the mechanics. That was never topped by Q2 and Q3Arena. Q3A looks infinitely better, but as Q2 it lacks the aggressive and direct gameplay of Q1. Duke Nukem was already addictive, but has flat pictures moving around without changing perspective, in contrast with Q1's 3D entities in a convincing medieval setting or more uplifting futuristic surroundings. This engine proved to be revolutionary although most game-developers were interested to use the Q2 engine (Half-Life, etc.). id software proved itself as the most innovative developer of eye candy and gameplay itself. Funstuff like incorporating your own sounds into the game has become a lot harder with Q3A unfortunately. And there aren't as many hiding places, secret passages and exploitable level bugs anymore. Let's hope those will be back with Quake4 (resurrection?).

Quake Done Quick is a downloadable (5 MB) speed demo of 90 minutes recorded by several people running through Q1 as fast as humanly possible, for which you also need the full game installed first. You can sit back and relax and watch the protagonist killing everything and opening every secret in first-person view or movie mode. There are people who did a lot of effort choosing the right camera-dynamics and even incorporate some jokes in the 'plot'. Besides that, there is the Q3A movie 'Quad God' that unfortunately never really saw the daylight because of copyright issues (?). These entities will be locked up in there forever.

Other enthusiasts built their own maps with their own favourite interiors and entities (mods and total conversions like Capture The Flag, Weapons Factory, Malice, Rocket Arena, Team Fortress, Airquake, Future vs. Fantasy, Awesome, Carnage etc for which you'll still need the original game to function). Finally, Unreal and UT are also some of my favourites as they are better than Q2 and Q3A, but the deathmatch multiplay mode of Quake1 is still unsurpassed. HF!

The game that evolved Doom into a true 3-D experience and paved the way for a hundred imitations can be considered nothing less than a classic of modern gaming history. Out went the 2-D scaled bitmap graphics and in came a true interactive 3-D engine with dynamic lighting effects, animation and equally creepy 3-D enemies to inhabit this world, something today we all take for granted, but was very much a new milestone back in 1996.

I.D's game had it's critics in one-player mode, (the Polygon monsters came in lesser numbers than the flat enemies of Doom) but in Multiplayer it was and still could be considered one of the most exciting, immersive combat experiences that you could ever play on a PC. Anyone who's played a 16-man deathmatch amongst friends or acquaintances alike cannot deny the sheer power of this game. The sound was sickly detailed (with the help of one Trent Reznor) and the graphics were dark, earthy and atmospherically unmistakable.

Quake for many has been the closest thing to experiencing armed warfare (or a close approximation) without having to actually leave your seat, except of course when you need one of those sweaty adrenaline induced toilet breaks after you've just slaughtered your best buddies in over the top (but graphically intense) detail, with the fattest smile on your face, and for that I.D. we salute you!

The original Quake is one of my favorite computer games of all time. When it first came out in 1996, it was very revolutionary. It was the first 3d shooter to use texture-mapped polygons and the enemies looked very good. The weapons were very cool too. I really liked the nailguns and the grenade launcher. The animations of the monsters are, in my opinion, still top-notch even by today's standards. Unlike most enemies in today's 3d shooters, the monsters are scary and horrifying. The fiend and the shambler are the most terrifying monsters that you will face and they require very quick reflexes to defeat. Upon hearing that one of my favorite musical groups, Nine Inch Nails, would be doing the soundtrack for this game only heightened my anticipation of playing Quake for the first time back in 1996. The soundtrack does not disappoint. Trent Reznor has created an atmospheric and immersive ambient music that truly brings you into the twisted and weird environment of the game. The game designers are obviously big NIN fans because the textures, environments and monsters seem too look as if they could be from an NIN video. They also named one of the guns the "nailgun" and the ammo for it has an NIN logo embroided on it. All in all, Quake is a wonderful game even by today's standards. It is also a very revolutionary game and is now a part of computer gaming history. The game has great action, great weapons, freaky monsters, fun single player, addictive multiplayer and an NIN soundtrack. What else more can you ask for?

Most people have played or at least seen Quake. The game by today's standards has poor graphics and netplay. The graphics, at the time, were a breakthrough. Working with a very small 256-color pallet (as composed to the 65k of later and games and the new standard, 4billion colors) idSoftware relied heavilly on dark colors to create Quake's definitive dark look and feel, which many people find beautiful. All graphics (accept explosions) were 3D and dynamically lit. Quake was also one of the first games to support OpenGL 3D acceleration, which has since become a standard.

Quake's gameplay was very simple; just shoot the bad guys. Yet the levels were designed exceedingly well, and challenged the mind as well as the trigger finger. An admittedly thin plot diminished the game for some people. The gameplay, however, can be quite difficult in the hardest setting, even to experienced gamers. Another breakthrough in Quake was the netplay. Doom, despite numerous patches, still lagged awfully even in a modem-to-modem game. Quake added support for 4 players on modems, and up to 16 over the internet (it was the first 3D shooter to do this). QuakeWorld (a free followup from id) sped up netplay dramatically. The sound was one part of quake that has not been duplicated, even by quake sequels. A soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails is the highlight, fitting the mood of the game perfectly. The ambient background noises, such as the wind and your own breathing, can make this game downright scary at times.

This game, while surpassed in graphical quality and gameplay by today's titles, is still a must-own for serious gamers, and has already established itself as a modern classic.

I bought this game back in the summer of 1998, and there are no regrets here. When I started playing multi-player, I was hooked. Best memories are from the Finnish server iNET Small(was taken over by eDome, then EUNet if memory serves me correctly). The graphics improved with the releases of FuhQuake and most recently eQuake. Instant gibbing on maps from DM4, DEATH32C to AEROWALK and who can forget NAKED3. New 24 bit textures adds a lot more atmosphere to the maps as well.

Special thanks goes to the gang at the now closed SH9 Server in Härnosand, Sweden! The server had an amazing group of people playing there, immortalized through the screen shots!