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Categories: First-person shooters | Free software | Nintendo 64 games | Quake | Windows software | Computer benchmarks
Quake
For a overview of the Quake game franchise go to Quake series. See earthquake for alternate use of "quake" term.
Quake was also a brand of sugar-sweetened cereal which was popular in the U.S. in the late 1960s. See Quisp.
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 feasible with regards to speed. The background music for the game was done by Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails.
Quake and its two sequels Quake II and Quake III Arena have sold over 4 million copies combined.
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The Story
The story to the game follows the usual format for id Software's FPS games: Portals to a realm of evil beings have opened up, and you are the only person who can journey through them to close the rift. In the specific case of Quake, the other realm is inspired by several influences, notably that of H. P. Lovecraft (the end game boss being Shub-Niggurath herself).
Network Play
Quake includes a multi-player mode to play over LAN or the Internet with or against other humans. The network play uses a client/server model, where the actual game runs on the server only and all players "log in" there to participate. Depending on the client's specific route to the server, different clients will get different ping times. The lower your latency (ping time), the smoother your in-game motions, and the easier it is to accurately aim and score. Someone playing on the server PC gets a substantial advantage due to essentially zero lag.
Modification
The game itself can be heavily modified. Users created their own maps and models, and coded some changes to the game itself using QuakeC, a scripting language (which gets compiled into a bytecode) with a syntax similar to the C programming language. The QuakeC code runs on the game server alone. The ease of modifying the game led to the rise of "mods" such as the popular TeamFortress mod, and the Abyss of Pandemonium Mission Pack.
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 most importantly 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 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.
History
Pre-release
A little-known piece of PC gaming history: The first mention of Quake was in id Software's first game ever, Commander Keen 1 for the PC, which was released in December 1990. The following text is contained in the file previews.ck1, which is dated December 10, 1990:
- COMING SOON FROM ID SOFTWARE
- As our follow-up to the Commander Keen trilogy, Id Software is working on "The Fight for Justice": a completely new approach to fantasy gaming. You start not as a weakling with no food--you start as Quake, the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent. You start off with a Hammer of Thunderbolts, a Ring of Regeneration, and a trans-dimensional artifact. Here the fun begins. You fight for Justice, a secret organization devoted to vanquishing evil from the land! This is role-playing excitement.
- And you don't chunk around the screen. "The Fight for Justice" contains fully animated scrolling backgrounds. All the people you meet have their own lives, personalities, and objectives. A 256-color VGA version will be available (smooth scrolling 256-color screens--fancy that)!
- And the depth of play will be intense. No more "whack whack here's some gold." There will be interesting puzzles and decisions won't be "yes/no" but complex correlations of people and events.
- "The Fight for Justice" will be the finest PC game yet.
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 guys 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 2. Praised throughout the gaming community, it quickly dethroned previous FPS titles and revolutionized the way multiplayer games were developed.
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 was designed for play on a LAN - a high bandwidth, very low latency connection. Playing Quake on the internet over a dialup connection was painfully slow, with disconcerting pauses and delays as the client waited for the server, and vice-versa.
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 Weenies (HPW 's) or High Ping Bastards (HPB 's)). The popular TeamFortress mod was based entirely on the QuakeWorld platform.
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. Also in 1997, a port to MacOS was done by MacSoft and a port of Quake to Sparc Solaris was released. Many more ports were done after the source code release.
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 IV is planned to follow in the future. It is 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.
Jumping in Quake
In Quake there are several ways to make one's character move by jumping. Some of them are exploits of bugs in the physics engine, rather than designed features of the game. Note that some of these "features" have been included in later FPS games, especially those that use the Quake engine, such as Half-Life.
Rocket jump
To perform a rocket jump (abbreviated RJ), the player uses a rocket launcher, aims downward towards their feet, jumps and immediately fires a rocket. The rocket's explosion propels the player to unbelievable heights and distances. The true effect of a rocket jump is only noticed if the player is not standing on the ground (that is, that they jumped before firing the rocket). If the player was standing on the ground when the explosion goes off, the result is that the player doesn't go nearly as far, and takes considerable damage from the blast.
The rocket jump can be done in every Quake game. Players rocket jump in order to reach items faster, rescue themselves from lava, evade opponents, or find unusual camping spots. Some players even use the grenade launcher (and/or BFG in Quake II) to create additional explosive force to intensify the rocket jump. Using grenades to assist in flight is called grenade jumping.
Insanely high rocket jumps can be performed by players equipped with both Quad Damage and the Pentagram of Protection invulnerability artifact.
Strafe jump
Strafe jumping allows the player to move faster and jump further. It involves jumping while moving forward (or backward) and strafing left or right. Strafe jumping can be done in Quake and Quake II. It is a bug involving air acceleration.
To increase your speed with strafe jumping, you must first be moving forward or backward. You then simultaneously jump, strafe in one direction, and slightly turn the mouse toward that same direction (to rotate your avatar in-game). Alternating between left and right strafe on each jump results in nearly straight-line motion at very high speed, and has become an occasionally used technique in Quake matches.
One place strafe jumping can be useful is in the Quake map dm2, where you can strafe jump to the red armor across the lava. Normally, the player would hit a nearby switch to extend a bridge over the lava, as the lava is exactly one player-width too wide to jump over normally. However, with the speed boost granted by a strafe jump, the experienced player can leap what was supposed to be an impossible distance. But the strafe jump is of limited use in deathmatch play, as it is less safe than simple running and jumping and much less effective than rocket jumping.
Circle jump
Circle jumping makes use of the fact that players can control their movement while in the air. Essentially, a circle jump is just a "U-turn" while in the air. This jump is mostly used in QuakeWorld, but it can also be done in the normal Quake, though it is much more difficult.
A different version of the circle jump is employed in Quake II, where players jump in an arc via manipulation of the mouse in order to clear longer distances.
Double jump
A double jump is a bug that lets the player jump twice in a row in midair. To double jump, the player has to jump directly at an edge and then jump again. Double jumping can only be done in Quake II in the later versions, and in QuakeWorld mods that support "jawnmode". In the map Q2DM1, you can do it at the megahealth pickup. You can reach the upper spot at the backpack by double jumping and then jumping normally to the megahealth.
Double jumping was intentionally included in later games, including Unreal Tournament.
Bunnyhopping
Bunnyhopping is a method of continually jumping in order to increase your movement speed. It works by exploiting a physics bug in the Quake engine. Normally, players are limited to a certain maximum speed while walking on the ground. However, this imposed limit is not in effect while the player is in the air. In addition, turning while in motion imposes acceleration on the player entity. These two facts allow you to maintain and increase air speed in succeeding jumps while turning smoothly. When you resume walking on the ground again, you decelerate to the maximum running speed.
The bug is that the act of jumping is not considered "touching the ground". To be more precise, it is possible to initiate the next jump while still in the air, and thus the off-the-ground state of the player is never toggled off. If the player continuously jumps, the engine will not register that player as touching the ground, and the player's motion will be governed by air acceleration (with no limit on its top speed).
To start bunnyhopping, do a strafe jump and then continuously jump while moving forward. You will begin to accelerate beyond normal running speed. The secret to maintaining a bunny hop is to press your jump button (typically the space bar) while already in the air. The game will make you jump as soon as you land, thus maintaining your air speed and registering no frames under the off-the-ground state. Bunnyhopping is possible in QuakeWorld, Quake II, and Quake III Arena.
In QuakeWorld you can make use of air control in order to get around corners very quickly -- it's similar to the circle jump. Rather than running around a corner on the ground slowly, the player jumps and uses the movement keys to rotate themself in a quarter-circle around the corner in midair. In Quake II there is practically no air-control, so you only can move forward. It's also useful in QuakeWorld when doing the speed jump (see below) in order to keep up your movement speed.
Speed jump
The Speed jump is another jump that allows the player to move faster and like the rocket jump, takes advantage of explosion forces. To speed jump, the player gets a rocket launcher, moves close to a wall, fires the missile at the wall, quickly spins around so they face away from the wall and jumps forward with an assist from the rocket's blast. Many players then top this off with strafe jumping and bunnyhopping in order to maintain the speed gained from this stunt. Players use this extreme speed boost to surprise opponents, or complete single-player levels in record time. This jump was founded by the QuakeWorld community and can also be done in Quake II. However, since you can't control your movement in the air in Quake II, you cannot turn corners.
Plasma jump
This jump came from Quake III Arena. It is also possible in QuakeWorld under "jawnmode" using the Super Nailgun. Shoot the SNG under you while standing flush to a wall and jumping to "climb" the wall.
Quad Damage
In the game Quake the quad gives you four times the firepower. This allows you to gib your foes with the greatest of ease. In Quake 3 the quad was reduced to being 3 times the firepower, thus becoming a misnomer.
Speed runs
A group of expert Quake players recorded demos of Quake levels completed in record time and edited them into one continuous 19 min 49 s Quake speed run demo called Quake done Quick (QdQ). The record was later improved in Quake Done Quicker (QdQr) to 16:35 and ultimately in unbelievable Quake done Quick with a Vengeance (QdQwav) to 12:23 on Nightmare skill. Similar speed runs were done for Quake mission packs, Quake II, Ultimate Doom (16:05), DOOM II (21:16) and Half-Life (45:45)
Games using the Quake engine
- Quake
- QuakeWorld
- Scourge of Armagon (Quake Mission Pack 1)
- Dissolution of Eternity (Quake Mission Pack 2)
Games using a modified Quake engine
- Hexen II
- Half-Life (Primarily includes QuakeWorld source code, but contains portions of Quake 2 source as well)
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Replacement Quake I Engines
Replacing the game engine became possible after the 1999 release of the Quake and QuakeWorld source code under the GPL.
- DarkPlaces
- eQuake
- FuhQuake
- GQ
- MQWCL
- ProQuake
- QuakeForge
- Telejano
- Tenebrae
- TomazQuake
- ZQuake
QuakeWorld Mods
- CTF
- Rocket Arena
- KTeam
- TeamFortress
- Slide
- FrogBot
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.
External links
- id Software: Quake
- FTP: Quake source code (zip)
- PlanetQuake
- The Quake Wiki
- Quake done Quick
- The Speed Demos Archive
- quakeworld.nu
- eQuake
- fuhquake.net
Categories: First-person shooters | Free software | Nintendo 64 games | Quake | Windows software | Computer benchmarks