Quake 1 / Quakeworld was the best multiplayer game ever made

[~kev~]

And why was quakeworld the best online multiplayer game ever? Because it was the first.

Quakeworld is just a port for Quake 1. It streamlines the networking code so the game runs better over dial up, which is what most people had in the late 1990s.

Around the time when Quake 1 came out, the only other popular games on the market were Doom, warcraft 1, wolfenstein, duke nukem, command and conquer (DOS version), decent and a few others. But none (or very few) of those games came with built in TCP/IP support. What most people today do not know, the games from the mid 1990s came with IPX/SPX support, not TCP/IP. what did this mean? You could not play those games over the internet, as most ISPs did not route IPX packets.

To play those games over the internet you had to buy a program that encapsulated the IPX packets into a TCP/IP packet, and when the packet reached the other person, it was unencapsulated. I do not remember what the program was called, but it was built just for certain games.

Quake 1 came with built in TCP/IP support and was considered a revolution in the gaming field. No longer did you have to have a third party program to make those IPX/SPX games work. It was now just a matter of time before TCP/IP came standard with all multi-player games.

Quake 1 was one of the first games that allowed free look. Unlike doom, you could use the mouse to actually look up and down. Just being able to look down helped create another level of game play - the rocket jump.

With real built in internet support came the fan sites and modifications. In those days people set up simple HTML fan pages. Forums were almost unheard of, as was content management systems. Instead of taking minutes to set up a website, it took hours of coding. But the fan sites were popping up right and left.

Then came the modifications, such as CTF, painkeep, QWTF, rocket arena and a few others I can not remember.

What amazes me, when QW came out, modifications were coming out within months. These days, it takes years to put out a mod??

The action that quakeworld offered could not be compared to anything. There was not a single game on the market that could compare to fast, intense, blood pumping action of QW.

There were thousands of servers, with tens of thousands of players. One of the problems was getting the whole list of servers on dial-up. A whole refresh could take 20 minutes. So you had to set up filters to block out servers in other counties, add near by servers to your favorites and refresh only a few thousand servers, instead of tens of thousands. :)

And what happened to quakeworld?

When Quake 2 came out, within days the quakeworld servers were almost empty. A few thousand die hard fans remained, but the community was just a fraction of what it used to be. After a few months the "new" wore off of Quake2 and people started to return to quakeworld. Things started returning to normal.

And then it hit, the next blow to the quakeworld community came in November of 1998 - half-life 1 was released. Parents were giving their kids half-life cds for christmas, and the quakeworld community faded away.

In the following years the big retail stores such as Best Buy and Wal-mart stopped selling Quake 1 CDs. The game was slowly forgotten. One of the few places the CD could be found was on Ebay, or from the ID website. But for the most part, Q1 had been discarded as an "old, outdated game".

The quakeworld community was not taken down by a single game, it took a series of games - Quake 2, half-life 1, Quake 3, Counter-strike........

The quakeworld community was too strong, it was too popular for just "one game" to destroy it. The community had to be divided, and chipped away at until only a fraction of its former glory remains.

I for one will never forget the glory days of quakeworld, I will never forget playing until the sun came up, I will never forget the modifications, the fun, the action, the quad damage, the quakecons I went to in 1997 and 1998.

To my fellow quakeworld soldiers, I have not forgotten you. Do not moron the passing of a legendary game, let it live in you forever. As long as just one of use remembers and passes down its legend, QW will never be forgotten.

Long Live Quakeworld!!

[sweetreid]

People must still be playing this game. I had no problem finding a rocket arena quake 2 game last month, there's always die hards. In this way, the games live on. Quakeservers.net shows at least a handful of people in the afternoon.

Also, you could mouselook in doom. It looked horrible, and it was pointless because of autoaim.

How could you forget the mod of mods, team fortress. It was even more popular than vanilla qw.

[THE Nakedgun]

HL had the right idea but lacked the bunny hop due to an update to CS 1.6 i think.
I never got to play Quakeworld due to having only consoles and tryign it now seems so much like hard work compared to games these days. From what little I have played of quake 1+2 online I do prefer quake. I dont play Q3 online much because the maps are only downloaded at 15KB/s and takes 10 mins or more.

[Helljumper1989]

What you talking about? Quakeworld is still the best! Haha

[destructospin]

if you want Quakeworld now, it's free
www.quakeworld.nu

[djZM]

Amen man... Albeit, I never used QuakeWorld. Always stuck it out with the original game and GameSpy (Good old *original* GameSpy).

I was one of the only people that wasn't impressed with Quake 2 when it came out (aside from the music) and didn't care for the direction id took with it..

I stuck it out with the original game--Something I had *no* problem in doing--all the way up until I was able to get a PC that could handle Quake 3, something that went back to more of its "roots", and that wasn't until 2000, and I still frequently went back to the original.

PS, regarding the DOOM mouse-look post above, mouse-look wasn't available in the DOOM engine until Heretic and Hexen, the only two DOOM engine games that used mouse looking (as far as I know). You couldn't mouse-look in DOOM unless you used an external MOD that enabled it.

[alien3456]

I was late to Quakeworld. I found it in 98, played a few games online, and then did like you said, immediately was taken by Half-Life and Quake 3 after that (never really liked Q2). Not a bad thing, because HL definitely deserved the attention, and I have fond memories of it and all of its wonderful mods. But Quake and QW paved the way for all netgames, yet still remains the single most challenging and intense online game.

[Circlestrafe]

I think the program you're talking about (the OP) for IPX over the internet was Kali, it was like 20 bucks and lifetime registration. I used that for many different games, Descent being one of those. Ah the good ol' days.

And yes, Quake, namely GLquake is still THE best multiplayer game ever!

[SystemF.]

gamespy used to be called QuakeSpy

[Jinoru]

I need to get the Quake assets cuz Quake world wins.
A very fine server:
166.70.135.178:27500

[jammeri]

What amazes me, when QW came out, modifications were coming out within months. These days, it takes years to put out a mod??

You can't really compare simple mods to total conversations as the amount of work required is way different. The thing is that people probably won't be interested in playing a simple mod to a game and most games already offer stuff like CTF without any modifications. The maps, 3D models, textures and effects in Quake are much simpler than in the games today. The complex nature requires much more time to develop.

Pushing out a polished product instead of slowly releasing alpha/beta versions will generate much better response from the community. The buzz generated is what makes these mods so successful. People might try the mod once and if they're not sold they might never come back again.

I agree that Quake was awesome game and personally I think that Team Fortress was an awesome modification to it. But I don't really miss the old days too much as TF2 is really good too. For your DM fix you can still go and play Quake Live or UT.

[Particle]

Quake felt different than games today. Games lack the kind of shadowing that was in Quake, and I think that was a large component of the atmosphere, complimenting late night play. It wasn't like you were playing some happy cheery thing. It was dark outside and it was dark in the game. Good balance. I loved it.

[djZM]

Quake felt different than games today. Games lack the kind of shadowing that was in Quake, and I think that was a large component of the atmosphere, complimenting late night play. It wasn't like you were playing some happy cheery thing. It was dark outside and it was dark in the game. Good balance. I loved it.

Amen man, amen. I thought I was the only one out there that thought this.

[RamboCS]

This game is truly fantastic.If it were more popular then I would be playing it competetively.It really is the best multiplayer game ever made.Its just sad that great games like this are forgotten within time

[Dobie]

I played Quake 1 religiously from release till CS/Q3 and went back to it for a bit after CS1.5ish. In mind it still is the best DM game to date.

My family actually spent so much time on Quake, we decided to get multiple computers. I think I was the only kid in elementary school to have like 3 or 4 computers in his house.

[bomimo]

man i love these history lessons, i'm from 91. but i never played other games that Battlechess (89) Civ1(91) and cannon forrer 1,2 untill i was like 6-7. i never played online untill i was 12. and at age 15 i started digging into gaming history and found myself incredibly fascinated.
thanks for this gem OP i appreciate the lesson.

[boogerhead]

wat really makes me sad is the fact that no other game can compare to these games (Q1, Q3), ive played the newer DM games (the later UT games) but i was not impressed. The high grapics just didn't play into the hole fast-paced gun blazing theme. i still play Q3 a lot and i enjoy it because for some reason the poor graphic's just help out. The poor graphic's help you focus on the gameplay and guess wat NO LAG!!!

I still get a thrill sensation when i run around a corner with the rail gun, and i find some one else and i annhilate him on the spot. also i loved Q3 cause of the awsome bot support.

on a side note: has anyone ever won a free-fore all match with bots on Nightmare! mode in Q3?

[meatcalendar]

This thread is worth bringing back. The quake series is responsible for professional gaming. I know people think that these games are dead and one couldn't find a match if their life depended on it, but take a look. Chances are you can find a decent server and some good players.

A good amount of people are showing their love of q1 and q3 (I love them too), but did anyone get introduced to the entire multi-player experience from q2 like me? The railgun from that game has NEVER been matched. Nothing feels, sounds, or produces as much power per shot as that gun did. The first real sniper weapon in a fps. I know the q3 one was similar, but it lacked the balls of the q2 one.

[THE Nakedgun]

Shame we cant embed :(
http://i524.photobucket.com/albums/cc324/k33fy/Quake/mlook2.jpg

[AnubisArc999]

I hadn't seen this post before, so thanks for those that brought it back.

I often bring up, in other game forums or youtube, how much Quake 1 influenced how we doing gaming today. Quake 1 was the first in many respects, also being the first completely 3D game without any character sprites.

But I think the biggest contribution was openning up internet gaming. ALL gamers owe so much thanks to Quake 1 and what it did in making gaming a better experience.

To this day, QWCTF is the most fun online gaming (or offline) I have ever experienced.

A lot of the posts here talk also about the fast paced action. It is very sad to see that games after Quake 1 slowed down the pace of DM type games in which today (compared to Quake 1) even if you hold down the sprint key, it feels like you have always run turned off in Quake 1.

But that is another story of how gaming has been going downhill to appeal to more casual gamers....

[PoIson895]

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said...

[Friendliest]

nice reminiscences...

yep, quake was always dark, and cool, and a singular point on the gaming spectrum...

until id software:

a) 2004 -- released Doom 3 with such a weak multiplayer component that the faithful defected in droves. personally, I thought the game was kick-*** in all regards, but unfortunately it takes more than me and about 99 other ppl to keep a game/company in the mainstream.

b) 2005 -- gave "quake" proper away to another company to make, and they ruined it. (aka Raven Software's Quake IV) Raven made some of my favorite games, usually on quake engines... but Quake IV ain't one of them!

c) 2007 -- put their brand on ET: quake wars but failed to enforce a standard of quality out of the 3rd party developers, and failed to enforce a standard of support once the game actually came out. (Wow.. quake wars came out after quake IV? Why does performance feel so constipated and primitive in comparison? framerate-capped animations, etc.)

d) 2008/9 -- made/licensed/wtf-ever-i-don't-care "quake live", eviscerating some of the coolest aspects of their product (demonic themes, blood/gibs, weapon power, etc.), just to make it an advertising machine to push other garbage products to the masses. (Now it's subscription-based, for a game that's inferior to the one which it's based on -- Quake 3 -- which, incidentally, it pretty much killed, and also incidentally, you can own outright for about the cost of one month's subscription to "quake jive".)

e) 2009 got bought by zenimax, conglomerate owner of such crappy developers as bethesda; a company which demonstrates their lack of discriminating taste in supporting such console-esque, all-show-no-go crap as the new fallout games.

f) 2009 -- have forthcoming game that is going to be published by Electronic Arts, of all the nauseating developments!

g) ???? -- something d*cky i'm sure they'll do in the not too distant future. I hesitate to post any nightmare scenario of "what will they do next", cuz with the world of commercial entertainment the way it is today, the nightmare just might come true. (For some reason I keep thinking "dancing with the stars", though... :P)

Anymore, they're just another loser company, abandoned the old, true ways of making cool games -- which, ironically, they practically invented -- and are not to be trusted.

[playaR]

Quake Live is made 100% by id. It has more problems than 3 but you get to choose your game. There's more money in QL for the top players so guess what they're playing. As for id games, they've always been demos. We're reminiscing about the community as much as id. This also brings up id shutting off the community from Live.

The real problem, though, isn't id. Quake Live probably will make more money than 3 has in their lifetimes. Look at Valve. They have L4D2 and TF2 and non-user content. They're not making Episode 3 or Half-life 3. Making the games we love just doesn't make the money that making games they can lock down and build more business models around.

Look on the bright side. User content is coming back to TF2. Tomorrow L4D. Then, the world.

[doomguy]

my multiplayer life started with quake2 around 1998 on a 56k modem. i was utterly addicted and my phone bill was enormous.

i dabbled in a bit of quakeworld at the time but q2 was the game of the moment so, beyond single player, didn't really do much quakeworld.

then, it was q3 which i absolutely loved for a long time and still play now.

in the midst of that, half life, unreal etc. were released. great single player, but multiplayer nowhere near quake - they just didn't feel right.

i did play some quake4 online for a little while but it never felt right and the less said about doom3 multiplayer the better - absolutely awful and a massive dissapointment.

i now play quakelive however I have recently been playing a lot of quake using the EZQuake client for MP and darkplaces for SP.

There is just something about Quake that its very special. The graphics, atmosphere, sound, music, physics, maps - everything. MP is amazingly fast and chaotic and i'm actually getting not bad at it now.

I was playing Quake MP last night and then i switched to quakelive. I couldn't believe how slow it was and how weak the weapons were!

Long live quake - and if anyone wants to play Quake MP please get ezquake and use the server browser in it!

[PoIson895]

nice reminiscences...

yep, quake was always dark, and cool, and a singular point on the gaming spectrum...

until id software:

a) 2004 -- released Doom 3 with such a weak multiplayer component that the faithful defected in droves. personally, I thought the game was kick-*** in all regards, but unfortunately it takes more than me and about 99 other ppl to keep a game/company in the mainstream.

b) 2005 -- gave "quake" proper away to another company to make, and they ruined it. (aka Raven Software's Quake IV) Raven made some of my favorite games, usually on quake engines... but Quake IV ain't one of them!

c) 2007 -- put their brand on ET: quake wars but failed to enforce a standard of quality out of the 3rd party developers, and failed to enforce a standard of support once the game actually came out. (Wow.. quake wars came out after quake IV? Why does performance feel so constipated and primitive in comparison? framerate-capped animations, etc.)

d) 2008/9 -- made/licensed/wtf-ever-i-don't-care "quake live", eviscerating some of the coolest aspects of their product (demonic themes, blood/gibs, weapon power, etc.), just to make it an advertising machine to push other garbage products to the masses. (Now it's subscription-based, for a game that's inferior to the one which it's based on -- Quake 3 -- which, incidentally, it pretty much killed, and also incidentally, you can own outright for about the cost of one month's subscription to "quake jive".)

e) 2009 got bought by zenimax, conglomerate owner of such crappy developers as bethesda; a company which demonstrates their lack of discriminating taste in supporting such console-esque, all-show-no-go crap as the new fallout games.

f) 2009 -- have forthcoming game that is going to be published by Electronic Arts, of all the nauseating developments!

g) ???? -- something d*cky i'm sure they'll do in the not too distant future. I hesitate to post any nightmare scenario of "what will they do next", cuz with the world of commercial entertainment the way it is today, the nightmare just might come true. (For some reason I keep thinking "dancing with the stars", though... :P)

Anymore, they're just another loser company, abandoned the old, true ways of making cool games -- which, ironically, they practically invented -- and are not to be trusted.

Quake live does NOT require a subscription. It is free. however, you can buy pro for about 3.99 I believe it is. This gives you the ability to set up private, high quality servers. It also disables the ads, lets you join pro games (Less of a "pub" feel.) Unlocks a few maps, and some other things too.

4 bucks for unlimited server support is cheap....

[playaR]

It's a year of server support and there are important things they're locking out of free now. I don't even remember because I gave up on QL.

[Rogersdead]

Quakeworld was amazing. It is the daddy of online FPS games without a doubt. Never has there been a finer community in gaming than back in the late 90's in this game.
I could be found pretty much every night in either Barrysworld or wireplays servers. I had the pleasure to see the mighty Quake Police Dept in action (top top clan in the UK) and attented the first Insomnia event.

It was back in the day when having ISDN meant you would be called a LPB often (low ping bastard). Ahh happy days...

[theartificial]

Good times for sure. I really enjoyed Weapons Factory but also played a number of mods. I still remember logging into quake.chtree.org ~ 1997. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be... =)

[alaskanassassin]

I miss Quake 1 and all the good times I had on Mplagger.

[Sinosec]

Def & Dag made three of these I guess. I only say the first one til now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kT_WGrL3Fs