RetroAhoy: Quake - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

Subtitles section Play video

Success can be its own burden.
Id had struck a home run and became the champions of PC gaming.
With nothing to play for - and everything to lose: it was time for their next game to
step up to the plate.
And, in spite of all the pressure - they still came out swinging.
Quake eclipsed the competition - and was the final nail in the coffin for the so-called
'Doom clones'.
No longer were such games mere imitators - but instead an entirely new genre.
The first person shooter was born.
So: how did rapidly changing technology - and the stresses of high expectations - affect
Quake's development?
What made its well-honed combat and intuitive level design perfect for competitive play?
And which of its achievements for PC gaming define its legacy?
Doom was a runaway success - and the start of a golden era of PC gaming.
Id had outdone themselves.
However, such a massive accomplishment casts a shadow - and now they had a new mountain
to climb.
PC hardware was evolving rapidly: every year machines had faster processors, bigger hard
drives and more RAM.
CD-ROM drives became the standard, and games were no longer constrained by the paltry storage
floppy disks afforded.
Another game-changing development was the advent of 3D acceleration: with dedicated
GPU assistance, polygonal graphics could finally shed their clunky reputation.
In order to take full advantage of these developments - and to remain ahead of the competition - Id
needed a new engine.
This time, everything would be 3D: polygons in place of sprites; fewer restrictions on
level architecture;
Fast enough to work on the most basic Pentium; sufficiently future-proof to excel with a
new wave of GPUs.
It wasn't going to be easy - but if anyone could do it, John Carmack could.
While the new tech was underway, the remainder of the Id team were left hamstrung.
Without a solid foundation to build on, all that remained were nebulous ideas.
Quake's concept pre-dates Doom, even Wolfenstein - it was originally teased in Commander Keen
as 'Quake: The Fight for Justice'.
Keen to keep the gameplay innovative, they hoped to shed Doom's straightforward shooting
action for a different blend of magic and melee.
'Quake' was supposed to be the name of the main character, a hammer-wielding hero taken
directly from Id's Dungeons and Dragons sessions.
Inspired by Thor, and drawn from Nordic legend: hammers, runes and tales of mighty mythological
heroes.
However - like Doom, Quake would be composed of a melange of themes.
With an increased focus on character and storytelling, Quake and his ground-shaking hammer were intended
to embark on a trans-dimensional RPG set across a variety of fantasy worlds.
Some elements would be retained from Doom: science fiction, fantasy, and satanic imagery
- but new, darker and grittier elements would be added into the mix.
Disparate themes married together with slipgates - teleporters that traverse space and time.
A convenient handwave that links levels without the need for explanation or interstitial narrative.
The injection of new blood at Id brought fresh ideas, and some relief from the stressful
pace of work.
Two key hires joined late during Doom development: American McGee, a young level designer filling
the role of a largely absent John Romero; and industry veteran Sandy Petersen.
Petersen's influence on Quake would be quite profound: as a massive fan of H.P. Lovecraft,
he was the driving force behind the most resonant theme of the game.
Lovecraft's work is romantic: penned in flowery, ornate prose - but the subjects of his affection
stand in stark juxtaposition.
Knowledge not supposed to be known:
Sights better left unseen.
The Cthulu mythos inspires a daunting sense of cosmic horror: an instinctual fear of something
lurking in grand darkness; an incomprehensible being from another existential plane.
Altogether, the perfect basis for horror.
These themes of foreboding are the glue which held Quake's story together: a journey across
dimensions in search of magical runes to banish an ancient evil.
Unlike Lovecraft, there are no spiralling words to tell this story: in typical Id fashion,
the gameplay and environment whisper the lore quietly.
The vaulted ceilings and twisted corridors of Quake are like dreams of a bygone time:
fantasy castles merged with dark factories, saturated with dread.
The level geometry is unfettered compared to Doom's two-and-a-half dimensional rooms
- with suspended elements and ornate filigree - but strict polygon limits give Quake's world
an abstract feel: a strange primitive dimension of wrought iron, wood and stone.
If Doom was Thrash Metal, Quake was somewhere between Grunge and Post-Industrial: gritty,
dark and dripping with atmosphere.
Nine Inch Nails' front-man Trent Reznor was a big fan of Doom, and he, along with his
band, were brought on to assist with the creation of sound assets.
Originally, there was no music planned: instead a reliance on environmental sound to set the
ambiance.
However, Trent insisted - resulting in Quake's distinctive soundtrack: brooding ambient sounds
overlaid with digitally distorted guitars, screams and amelodic noise.
A collaboration celebrated with the inclusion of a Nine Inch Nails logo on ammo pickups.
The aesthetic imparted by sound is mirrored by vision: Quake's levels are dismal places.
The textures are worn, corroded, dirty: unfriendly places that set the player ill at ease.
While they might draw from a wide range of themes: metallic sci-fi plates, gothic grotesques
and ancient stone, they mesh together with a common grit: helped by the unfiltered low-resolution
textures and relatively narrow range of colours.
Quake's palette is designed with its tone in mind: a range of dark shades in naturalistic
hues: muddy greens, blues, coppers - and brown.
While these shades were selected to make the most of a limited 256 colour palette, muted
'realistic' tones were a major trend in later FPS - even once colour depth restrictions
were no longer a factor.
Often a deliberate design decision, the careful use of colour can make for a more closely
composited scene: and can impart a unique feeling to a game's atmosphere.
Although often cited as the muddy origin of gaming's brown monotony, Quake's levels are
more diverse than they're given credit for.
A blend of old and new: like its music, the visual themes of Quake are equal parts harmony
and discord.
The same could be said for Id software themselves: while there's no doubt that Romero and Carmack
were capable of great things together, the cracks were beginning to show.
Design work wasted as technical goalposts shifted: an entire set of Aztec textures thrown
out - ironically enough for being too brown - and compromises began to creep in.
With time running out, the innovative take on magic and melee was starting to veer towards
the safe harbour of Doom's shooting action - much to Romero's chagrin.
With every year that passed, Doom's imitators were starting to innovate.
A technology demo for Quake emerged in February, 1996 - QTest, the first glimpse of the new
game - and a sample of its frantic multiplayer action.
Mere months left until release - a frantic rush to piece together a finished game: the
final push of a painful gestation.
The wolves were at the door: the prize? Id's crown.
Quake had better be good.
The opening chamber offers as warm a welcome as you should expect from Quake: its oppressive
walls split into three pathways, offering the player a simple choice:
How hard do you want it?
Sadly, the creatively-named difficulties of Doom are gone in favour of Easy; Normal and
Hard - although there is a secret entrance to the rather fiendish Nightmare difficulty.
In a similar fashion to Doom and Wolfenstein, Quake is split into four separate episodes:
sets of several levels thematically linked and culminating in the collection of a rune.
The magic of all four are required to face the final evil: but you are free to tackle
each in whatever order you choose.
The Dimension of the Doomed is intended as an introductory experience, containing a mixed
bag of levels and is the portion allotted for the shareware release of the game.
Things get more medieval in The Realm of Black Magic, as its sci-fi opener gives way to ancient
castles and waterlogged wizardly realms.
Darker still is The Netherworld, an abutment to Hell abundant with lava: its metal walls
warm to the touch, but the reception much cooler.
The Elder World is where Lovecraft's influence shines brightest: twisted palaces of pain,
punishing with their wicked traps and sprawling maze-like layout.
A deck of four suits stacked with misery - the way you deal with them is up to you.
The gameplay itself should be instantly familiar to anybody who's played Doom before: you spawn
gun in-hand, with a level chock full of bad guys before you:
Kill 'em all and get out alive. A simple plan, really.
They had perfected a formula - one that is repeated often today.
While Quake's failure to meet all its design goals is disappointing, the chance to build
on what made Doom great helped to refine the genre: providing a firm foundation for future
FPS.
Id were caught in the wake of their own creation - they didn't want to repeat the same beats
as Doom, but given its success - and the hype for a follow-up - defying expectations would
have been a dangerous move.
A fan favourite that saw a return from Doom was the shotgun, alongside the double-barreled
variant.
While an odd fit for medieval combat, Doom's former totems of power would be sorely missed
if absent - and so it transpires: a twin-barreled transplant across space and time.
The shotgun replaces the erstwhile pistol as the player's default weapon, and the double-barreled
variant provides more firepower once discovered.
Like with Doom, they are the workhorses of the game's combat - effective at close range,
with abundant ammunition - and relatively forgiving when it comes to aim.
One key difference is their power: Doom's shotgun - and particularly the super shotgun
- could tear through groups with ease, but the pace of combat in Quake is a little slower.
Enemies are tougher, with even common types able to weather a few shots: and as a result,
the shotguns aren't nearly as satisfying to use as their former incarnation.
Part of the reason for this is the shift from sprite-based enemies to fully polygonal ones:
while the jump to 3D was important from a technical perspective, it did impose some
harsher entity limits.
Doom often had you facing off against hordes of ten or more opponents - in Quake, it's
rare to see more than five.
With enemies taking more damage, the combat dynamic shifts: instead of focussing on dodging
projectiles while quickly eliminating close enemies, instead you must prioritise targets
and draw them into a favourable position: kiting the fastest, most dangerous enemies
away from others in order to safely eliminate them.
Controlling your distance from your opponent is the key to success - and failure to do
so properly leads to rapid punishment.
Most enemies are capable of powerful melee attacks, meaning that getting too close is
dangerous: getting trapped in a corner can mean being torn to shreds.
Whether it's a sword, chainsaw or sharpened claws: there is always a very strong incentive
to keep out of arm's reach.
The player's melee option is rather weak by comparison: the legendary earth-shaking hammer
from the design documents transformed into a gun-butt melee attack in early versions,
before finally changing again into a blood-stained axe.
Sadly, there's little reason to use it - with shotgun ammunition so plentiful and weak damage,
it's nothing more than a last resort.
Ranged weapons define Quake's combat, then - but some fit the theme more than others.
The next tier of weapons on offer are a mite more medieval, and a departure from a typical
machine gun - if similar in function.
The Nailgun and Super Nailgun mirror the shotguns, with the latter dealing more damage at the
cost of higher ammunition consumption.
Both shoot nails at a high rate, peppering opponents with perforating projectiles: an
effective means to despatch most threats, as long as your ammunition holds out.
One interesting aspect of both the nailguns is their use of physical projectiles while
shooting - of finite speed and with visible travel.
This is at odds with most bullet-firing weapons in FPS, which use instantaneous hitscans to
simulate shots: providing instant feedback but eliminating some skill factors.
Projectiles can be dodged, and make tracking a moving target more challenging: leading
your shots a necessity in such cases.
Quake's greater use of projectile weapons set the stage for its later multiplayer success:
design choices which formed the basis for future arena shooters, and their standard
for high-skill competitive FPS.
The explosive weapons on offer are another important facet of combat, with a blast radius
offering a margin of error to shots.
The grenade launcher arcs slow-moving projectiles with a timed fuse - exploding after a delay,
or after coming into contact with an enemy.
It's the first explosive weapon you encounter - and far more forgiving to use than Doom's
rocket launcher.
Should you accidentally launch a grenade at a wall or at your feet, the fuse delay grants
a second or two to contemplate escaping its blast.
Just as well - as the game does emphasise the use of explosives with enemies of an otherwise
unkillable nature.
Zombies cannot be destroyed by conventional means: while they'll keel over after a shotgun
blast or two, it won't be long before they rise again.
As the manual states: "Thou canst not kill that which doth not live. But you can blast
it into chunky kibbles."
Gibbing returns from Doom, and this time it's chunkier than ever.
Should you deal more damage than necessary to kill an enemy, they'll disintegrate in
a shower of fleshy pieces and blood particles - a satisfyingly gory resolution.
This is something that comes into play often with Quake's addition of a new powerup: Quad
Damage.
As its name suggests, you'll deal 4 times the normal damage for its relatively short
duration - a blue-glowing effect which turns even the meekest of weapon into one which
will rip enemies apart.
Similarly explosive, Quake's rocket launcher shares its explosive ammo with the grenade
launcher - and offers better long-range ability, with straight-flying rockets that detonate
on impact.
It's a little more dangerous to use in close quarters, with instant explosive damage within
the rocket's radius - but, oddly enough, the suicidal pursuit of shooting rockets at your
own feet would become a popular pastime.
Quake's physics handling was more advanced that Doom's - with the player's position and
momentum tracked in 3 dimensions.
Jumping was a logical addition to the game, allowing the traversal of gaps and climbing
of obstacles - often leading to hidden secrets.
When combined with the repulsive effect of explosions, your jumps could be massively
magnified - and if you timed it just right, you could fling yourself far further than
expected: able to reach areas previously off-limits.
This phenomenon gave birth to the term 'rocket jumping' - and ushered in an era of advanced
FPS movement.
The weapon selection is rounded out with the Thunderbolt: an electric option that shoots
a continuous beam of lightning.
It is capable of dealing a large amount of damage very quickly - but it does demand good
aim, as in order to make the most of the weapon you must track your target.
No need to lead, and lower penalty for missed shots - but you are left exposed: a trade
off compared to the blind fire capability of the rocket launcher.
The most important thing to remember is that electricity and water don't mix - use the
thunderbolt while submerged at your peril.
The shotguns, nailguns and explosive options all come in pairs - with a respective 'super'
variant discovered later for an increase in available firepower.
The thunderbolt does not - but there was one planned: the chain lightning gun - a more
powerful electric option that would jump to multiple targets.
With the Thunderbolt added late in development, its counterpart was dropped due to time constraints
- one of the many compromises made during development.
Luckily, the level designs saw no such concession - and within Quake's atmospheric halls lie
some clever new tricks.
As Doom improved on Wolfenstein's key hunting labyrinths with more varied architecture,
Id's experience ensured that Quake's 3D realms were easy to navigate.
Despite the potential for this new verticality to disorient the player, most of Quake's levels
are intuitively laid out: getting lost is a rare occurrence - even with the absence
of Doom's automap feature.
This is the product of refined level design: more compact spaces that overlap, reducing
backtracking and with clear indicators of progress.
Much of this is done invisibly: teleports to face the player in the right direction;
composing chambers to make exits clearly visible; highlighting paths with lights; and leading
the player with strategic placement of enemies.
Done right, the player experiences a continuous chain of combat - never once needing to pause
and ask for directions, and almost unaware of Id's well-honed design.
Some hints are more explicit, of course: text cues make an occasional appearance for anything
remotely puzzling; and if all else fails - big arrows point the way.
Secrets are a returning favourite, and there are plenty strewn about levels: with most
activated by shooting secret recessed doors or hidden panels - a refreshing change from
blindly pressing walls.
Knowing their location (or discovering them accidentally) can grant access to all kinds
of perks - weapons, power-ups and other unexpected rewards.
However, not all surprises are good.
Between wall-mounted nailguns, portcullises, guillotines, stakes, crushing ceilings and
spikewalls - plenty of opportunities for punishment await the less observant.
Traps drive home the unfriendly atmosphere of the game: torturous chambers that only
the strong might survive.
While Doom had no shortage of toxic waste pools or lakes of lava, they behaved as damaging
floor: whereas in Quake, you could plunge into the watery depths, complete with a sinusoidal
screen distortion.
A major feature of some levels, the murky depths conceal many secrets, but also impose
a time limit on your exploration: linger longer than your breath can hold and you'll start
to choke.
Slime and lava pools also feature, but swimming in those is particularly ill-advised.
Another major enhancement was to the level interactivity: the 'use' key absent, with
the space bar now serving as jump.
Instead, buttons and doors are actuated by simply walking into them: intuitive, if lacking
the positivity of a keypress.
Interactive elements were made more dynamic, too: buttons physically depress, instead of
Doom's simple texture change - and doors now split elegantly in the middle, parting horizontally
as you pass through.
The ability to move objects horizontally opened up the potential for travelling platforms
as well as straightforward elevators - capable of carrying the player on a set path through
a level, much like a primitive version of Half-Life's tram system.
Some of Quake's levels took unique advantage of the engine's physics: to quite novel result.
Ziggurat Vertigo toned down the gravity, for a lunar experience of long grenade arcs and
where jumping leads to protracted hang-time.
The level is accessible via a hidden entrance: entirely missable for many, and one of four
such secret levels, one for each episode.
The most irregular level found in regular rotation are The Wind Tunnels: a series of
interconnected tubes that transport the player to different areas via pneumatic means.
While not all of Quake's levels are so novel: its designs yield no shortage of surprises.
Amongst the most interesting aspects are its enemies: with a focus on combat, most of your
attention will be directed towards them - and as befits the mood, even the most mundane
have a sinister edge.
The grunts are corrupted humans fodder for cannons, easy to kill - but like most of your
opponents, relentlessly hostile.
Found in groups, often alongside their dogs of war: neither they nor their masters pose
too much of a threat; serving as target practice, an introduction for nastier foes.
The Enforcers are tougher: shooting powerful lasers, and their humanity masked by hermetically
sealed armour - and although muffled, their cries are the only such uttered in English:
'Freeze! You There! Stop!'
Quake's monsters come into their own once you plunge the depths of medieval castles
- away from the commonly-spied sci-fi bad guys and into a new macabre realm.
Ogres are an anachronism in action: a mythical monster wielding both chainsaw and grenades,
Get too close, and the chainsaw will rip and tear: stray too far, and his grenades will
keep you busy.
The trick is to bait his close-range attack, then retreat out of range, leaving the Ogre
temporarily defenseless.
The knights are straight out of the middle ages: donning plate armour, armed with a sword
(and a bad temper) they make a beeline straight for you once spotted.
Although relatively easy to kill, they appear in groups and can be very dangerous should
they trap you in close quarters - particularly the beefier death knights, who can also harass
you at range with their magical attack.
The most unique of Quake's enemies are its most powerful: eyeless abominations that exploit
a Lovecraftian influence.
A departure from the terrestrial: the scrag is an otherworldly wizard, capable of silent
flight and utters only a whisper as it floats to attack.
The loudest sound you'll hear are your own screams as its magical barbs strike.
The fiend is more direct: a sinewy beast capable of grand leaps, with two limbs that serve
no other purpose but evisceration.
They're fast, and deadly if they reach you - and thus a top priority to kill, even in
the presence of tougher creatures.
Retreating becomes an important strategy: with limited ability to deal damage, and the
possibility of becoming rapidly overwhelmed, Quake's combat demands that you sometimes
seek the better side of valour.
The three-legged Vores, also known as the Shalrath, don't just ask for caution - they
demand it.
Their purple explosive orbs will track you relentlessly, and upon contact will deal significant
damage - and so tackling the source becomes a delicate game of hit and run: first, deal
as much damage as you can, and then lure the inevitable homing missile into a wall, where
it will detonate safely.
With patience, you might emerge unscathed - if humbled.
Lesser-seen but often feared, the Spawn are dangerous opponents exclusively found in levels
from the Elder World.
A mysterious blob that erratically bounces towards you - tough to hit, and dangerous
in death: exploding violently as it succumbs to fire.
Added late in development, the Spawn is the least well realised foe - but its presence
is nonetheless unsettling.
Perhaps the most powerful beast amongst Quake's ranks is the Shambler: a shaggy-coated eyeless
terror that lurks in dark spaces; with unquenchable anger and an ability to shrug off even massive
damage.
Fighting the yeti-like beast exercises all aspects of the game's combat: you must keep
your distance, stay on the move - and use cover effectively.
Get too close and you'll be torn to shreds by its claws: spend too long in the open,
and its electric attack will quickly whittle your health.
The Shambler's impressive capacity for damage and resistance to explosives means you're
in for a long fight: make too many mistakes and its endurance will outpace your own.
Id's episodic structure follows a repeating pattern: an introduction, followed by slow
escalation to climax: a ratcheting design that makes the game accessible for newcomers
but provides increasing resistance for those seeking to test their limits.
In Wolfenstein and Doom, episodes end with a boss fight - a final face off versus a big
bad - but only one of Quake's four episodes have such a conclusion.
A sacrifice made in the face of design compromise, perhaps - while Quake is polished in places,
its endings shows the stresses of its development.
The first episode pits you against Chthon, a lava-dwelling demon who jealously guards
the Rune of Earth Magic.
His explosive lava attacks are relentless: molten missiles flung from his stationary
position, capable of dealing massive damage.
To defeat him, you must navigate his lair to deploy two electrodes that lie above: once
in place, you can activate the power to shock Chthon - this being the only means to deal
damage.
Repeat this three times and the beast will sink back into the magma whence they came:
the rune now yours, and your path to the next chapter open.
The later episodes lack any such grand encounters: the second finale introduces Vores for the
first time as a psuedo boss-fight, and similar encounters mark the end of the third and fourth
episode.
With all episodes completed, and their respective runes collected - the player must descend
into a pit and face the ultimate evil:
The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young:
Shub-Niggurath.
Surprisingly, the end boss of Quake is quite benign: a betentacled mass that sits in place
ominously - no attacks, no threat - seemingly immune to damage.
Of course, her lair bristles with minions - so you're not left without a fight.
Inch by inch you push them back, wave after wave of shamblers and vores deeper into the
grotto - until finally, you reach a teleporter.
Entering the slipgate teleports you to the location of a spiked sphere that floats lazily
throughout the level - a spiked sphere that sometimes passes through Shub-Niggurath herself.
When two entities collide, the one with the greater dimensional momentum wins: a superposition
of mass that can split open a god.
Time the teleport right and you'll telefrag the tentacled terror - and thus win the game.
As you emerge victorious, axe in hand and dripping in Lovecraftian guts:
the only thing remaining to conquer was multiplayer.
The popularity of Doom's deathmatch left no room for debate: multiplayer was a must.
There was magic in its frantic fragging, and Quake would distil this essence: with all
of Id's design excellence combining to make something very special.
Quake shipped with 6 dedicated multiplayer maps, although many more would follow courtesy
of community creators.
The 3D worlds allowed for more creative levels: rather than sprawling flat maps, the action
could be concentrated into tightly woven, multi-tiered arenas.
The enhanced verticality added a new dimension to awareness and aiming - and expanded the
range of tactics required to best an opponent.
Movement, positioning and map control are essential: take the higher ground, deprive
the enemy of valuable pick-ups and exploit your advantage - better yet, force your enemy
to squander theirs.
The quest for advantage over other players led to the cultivation of advanced movement
techniques, some exploiting quirks in Quake's engine: such as jumping continuously to move
at an accelerated pace, known as bunny hopping.
Strafe jumping is similar, but with a zig-zagging path to take advantage of diagonal speed -
and of course, rocket jumping opens up shortcuts, access to lofty areas and can help make a
hasty escape from a dangerous situation.
As with Quake's monsters, retreat was also a valid strategy in multiplayer: shying from
unfavourable odds in order to acquire more health, armour or weapons - potentially turning
the tables on an overconfident foe.
Eliminating random factors helps to limit the impact luck has on combat: with weapons
dealing predictable damage, and with consistent accuracy but non-zero travel time - the player's
ability to deal damage is rooted in skill alone.
Anticipation, aim and awareness are the keys to success - without these, neither the most
powerful weapon nor the most resistant armour will save you.
Quake's basic recipe was very easy to pick up - shoot the other players until they die
- but advanced strategy, the metagame and overall nuance meant that getting good could
take a lifetime.
Fast, fun and competitive - the perfect recipe for an arena FPS, and a bold hammer blow in
the forging of the genre.
Quake might have been half-baked on some singleplayer fronts, but the purity of its deathmatch shone.
A flash of brilliance - but could the critics accept its flaws?
What sense of dread must have lingered upon waiting for those first reviews.
With Doom to live up to, and new technical boundaries to push - the potential for failure
was high.
Thankfully, critical response was generally very positive: review scores were universally
high, praising the full 3D environments and well-honed gameplay.
Many seemed relieved that there was substance to the hype: the bar raised a little higher,
and a new thrill for fans of the emerging category.
The press were generally kinder than the fans: with the most ardent not afraid of expressing
their complaints online.
Most negative responses focussed on the lack of innovation: the reluctance to tread too
far from Doom's formula - and the environments, while atmospheric, were more monotonous and
far less interactive than those seen in Duke Nukem 3D.
In hindsight, the most frustrating aspect of Quake is its failure to fully exploit its
setting - and the potential of its original design.
Games which draw from gothic fiction are few and far between: and decisively plumbing Lovecraft's
depths could have made for a compelling fusion of shooter and horror.
Paired with its intended RPG elements, Quake might have been very different - perhaps too
ambitious, but it was their initial ambition that set Id apart.
Overall, the well-rehearsed shooting action - and long-lasting appeal of multiplayer and
mods - won most people over.
It wasn't perfect - but it was still as good as PC gaming gets.
Quake saw a number of different clients after its initial release: PC hardware was changing,
and additional needs added new demands of the engine.
In late 1996, the first 3D-accelerated version of Quake arrived: VQuake, designed specifically
for the 'Rendition Verité' series of boards.
While the chipset did offer a considerable upgrade to performance over software rendering,
the proprietary API threw up a new set of challenges - and the emergence of a large
variety of alternative cards led Carmack to express a preference for open standards, such
as OpenGL.
GLQuake arrived in early 1997, with support for the ascending standard API and hence a
broader range of accelerator cards: OpenGL, along with DirectX, remain the standard APIs
for 3D graphics today.
Multiplayer was another aspect of the game with evolutionary pressure: while Quake worked
flawlessly over a LAN connection, it lacked some essential features for internet play.
The release of QuakeWorld rectified this, with revamped netcode: including client-side
prediction, which meant that the game no longer had to wait for server confirmation before
processing player input: a boon for high-latency connections, such as those made via dial-up
modem.
In the wake of Window 95, Microsoft were keen to push the gaming potential of their new
operating system - most games prior would quit Windows to free up RAM and run in MS-DOS
instead.
WinQuake used Microsoft's new DirectX APIs to deliver 3D graphics directly on the desktop
- something we take for granted today.
Few games have seen as much development post-release as Quake: this stands testament to how dynamic
the PC gaming scene was at the time.
Vanilla Quake was a great package: countless hours of fun within both its single player
and multiplayer portions.
However, the PC crowd are an industrious lot, and their hunger for more content was matched
by a willingness to get underneath Quake's hood.
Mods added massive longevity to Doom, and so of course Id wisely duplicated the support
on offer for their new game.
What followed was a thriving community of creators: soon players would be spoilt for
choice in maps, tweaks, bots - and total conversions.
Quake released with only two multiplayer modes: co-operative and deathmatch - and so some
mods sought to implement new rules to expand the game types on offer.
One of the most popular early mods was Threewave's Capture The Flag: an introduction of teamplay
and an objective to competitive multiplayer.
The addition of a grappling hook also expanded available movement options:
speeding transit across gaps, and deft deployment able to swing you out of trouble - an addition
later mirrored with Unreal Tournament's translocator.
Assault the enemy base, take their flag - and get back home safely: games are full of tense
moments, and demand a large amount of team co-ordination.
Today, Capture the Flag is a staple gamemode - an essential facet of any competitive FPS.
Some mods were more ambitious: no mere tweak, but the creation of an entirely new game,
built on the base of another.
Some mods verged on silly, using Quake's novel physics to their advantage: simulating snowboarding,
as with Slide Quake: AirQuake's flight simulation; or powersliding cars such as in Quake Rally.
One of Quake's most famous total conversions is Team Fortress: taking its shooter core,
and adding a host of new gameplay features to make for a compelling team multiplayer
experience.
Nine individual classes give the player multiple options, with something suitable for every
playstyle: from fast-moving scouts, fire-breathing pyros or versatile soldiers on the attack
(with medics and spies providing front-line support) - and snipers, engineers, heavy weapon
guys and demomen on defence.
Its well-balanced gameplay and accessible team action ensured its popularity, with countless
hours wasted on legendary maps such as 2fort.
The newly formed Valve Software were taking notes: their new game - Half-Life - would
be designed with such mods in mind.
Popular Quake mods and maps found a new home with Valve's new game: Action Quake became
Action Half-Life, and (courtesy of an acquisition by Valve) Team Fortress became Team Fortress
Classic - eventually leading to Team Fortress 2 some years later.
The ability of mods to experiment and evolve allows games to hone themselves to perfection:
and, like TF2, many popular PC games are the product of such a process.
Counter-Strike started life as a mod for Half-Life, and has been a dominant shooter for a very
long time indeed.
A mod for Warcraft 3, Defense of the Ancients, led to the creation of the MOBA genre - giving
us the immensely popular League of Legends and DOTA2 today.
Day-Z spawned as a less-serious alternative to the military simulation of ARMA 2, spurring
a flurry of similar multiplayer survival sims.
PC gaming is far richer for the contributions made by modders - and Quake is a technical
lynchpin: a pivotal point in their emergence.
Of course, the IBM-compatibles didn't have all the fun: like Doom, Quake was ported to
a wide range of other platforms.
Linux and SPARC Solaris were the first alternatives - a simple leap from the UNIX-based workstations
used to develop Quake.
A commercial port for MacOS followed in 1997 - and even the (largely deceased) Commodore
Amiga saw an official version in 1998.
The console wars for the 32-bit generation had fallen off - versions for the Atari Jaguar
and 3DO notably absent, as the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 had decisively taken the market
lead.
In 1997, the Sega Saturn was still clinging on - and Lobotomy Software were charged with
porting Quake to the system.
They made use of their own engine, developed for an earlier Egyptian-themed FPS called
PowerSlave: tailored for the Saturn's hardware.
The result wasn't quite as good as the PC version, but it came without too severe a
compromise.
A Playstation version was also planned - and even prototyped - but no publisher was found,
and was thus cancelled.
FPS games were the mark of the then next-generation consoles: impressive feats of 3D proving the
might of new hardware - but often, the absence of analogue controls made them difficult to
play - and the drop-off in interest probably reflects this.
The N64's analogue stick made for a far better experience in navigating 3D worlds: and, like
Doom 64, its version of Quake was more confidently executed.
Some levels were cut due to space and memory constraints, but otherwise the features stack
up: the use of coloured lighting and bilinear filtering of textures gave the game a smoother
look, akin to GLQuake on PC.
In December 1999, John Carmack released the source code for Quake and QuakeWorld: a Christmas
present to the world, and a chance for any platform powerful enough to compile their
own version.
The first of two official mission packs arrived in 1997: Scourge of Armagon.
With 3 new episodes, new enemies, weapons, power-ups and music - it was another slice
of Quake action, with a twist of new creativity.
Developed by Hipnotic Interactive - who would later go on to create games such as SiN and
Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 as Ritual Entertainment.
Another mission pack followed shortly after the first, this time developed by Rogue Entertainment.
With two episodes and a similar wealth of new content as the first expansion - including
the introduction of ammo variants - those seeking a new challenge were well catered
for.
Meanwhile, Id were gearing up for their next game - with a far quicker turnaround this
time. Quake's sequel would arrive towards the end of 1997.
Of course, it was never supposed to be called Quake II.
It wasn't a direct sequel, instead the start of something new - but the Quake name was
eventually adopted when no alternative could be agreed upon.
A departure from the gothic/medieval/magic themes, Quake II was pure science fiction
- a romp through an alien world and the introduction of a cybernetic enemy called the Strogg.
As the FPS genre evolved, simply throwing the player into combat wasn't good enough
- as games gained the ability to construct new universes, the need for a narrative followed.
Quake II shows signs of this development, with the addition of mission objectives and
a stitching together of levels to make a seamless world - a shift towards experiential story
telling, such as that executed in Half-Life and Medal of Honor.
However, Quake was never really about storytelling: and in a return to gameplay-focussed form,
the end of the millennium saw the release of what might be the greatest arena FPS ever:
Quake III Arena.
A sole multiplayer focus meant there was no singleplayer baggage to slow it down, aside
from the addition of bots.
A variety of arenas, ranging from gothic castles to industrial facilities: peppered with power
ups and populated with players: what follows is frantic fragging action, and the culmination
of Id's expertise.
The spark of deathmatch ignited by Doom and refined by Quake, now distilled: with nothing
superfluous to gameplay, and a purity not often matched.
The most recent mainline instalment is Quake 4: released in 2005, it was one of the Xbox
360's launch titles (alongside its PC release).
The game runs on the same engine as Doom 3 - and its dark interior spaces certainly ring
familiar.
Unlike Doom 3, there's a reduction in the number of jumpscares and an increase to the
pace of combat: you move faster, and the more linear level design makes progression more
constant.
This smooths out some of Doom 3's frustrations, but also makes for a corridor-driven affair
that embodies the generic sci-fi shooter.
However, the game does have some interesting weapons and locations: one of the most memorable
sequences is the mid-game stroggification.
The player captured, strapped to a conveyor belt and forced to endure a gruesome mutilation
as part of an assimilation process.
It's a particularly memorable part of an otherwise largely forgettable game.
Quake 4 sits oddly amidst the series: it's not a thoroughbred multiplayer title like
Quake 3 Arena, and released nearly a decade after the first two games - isn't exactly
a classic FPS.
In 2007, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars span off the Quake universe into a class-based
team multiplayer game.
Developed by Splash Damage - the same team responsible for the earlier freeware Wolfenstein:
Enemy Territory, Quake Wars brought similar gameplay to its sci-fi universe: the human
GDF versus the alien Strogg.
With large-scale maps, vehicles and a tight focus on taking objectives, players are faced
with relentless action in order to tilt the tide of battle towards their faction's favour.
A new take on Quake multiplayer - but it wouldn't be long before a return to its roots.
The enduring popularity of Quake 3 Arena led to the 2010 release of Quake Live: an update
to the pinnacle of arena shooters, and a move to a free-to-play model that ran via a web
browser plugin.
Originally, the plan was to fund server costs with in-game advertisements - but this proved
non-viable, prompting the addition of premium subscriptions instead.
Otherwise, it was classic deathmatch through and through.
However, Quake's relevance proved difficult to revive - Quake 3 was already a decade old
- and past its prime.
With Quake Live having no LAN or mod support, nor even custom maps: the community was reliant
on Id for support - but it wasn't enough.
With the surge of interest in PC gaming and esports, the battle for competitive audiences
ramped in ferocity: Games like Counter-Strike, League of Legends and DOTA2 have long since
usurped Quake's crown.
While a dedicated few remain loyal, the franchise lies fallow today - but with the recent revival
of Wolfenstein and Doom... Quake might yet follow.
For now, all that remains are echoes of its legacy:
but my, what a legacy.
Not only does Quake delineate the PC's shift towards full hardware 3D - its effect on FPS
control schemes has stood the test of time, too.
For most, Doom was played with the keyboard: the arrow keys, Ctrl and Space the most instrumental
of the controls.
Vertical aiming was done automatically: it was impossible to have two rooms on top of
one another, anyway - so horizontal rotation was sufficient.
Aiming along only a single rotation axis feels rigid, however - as though you're controlling
a tank's turret.
Far more natural are two degrees of rotation: and Quake's vertical levels were a natural
fit for full mouselook.
Originally, Quake shipped with familiar controls for those coming from Doom: but its fully
remappable controls allowed players to change up the scheme to something more comfortable.
Keyboards are designed to let the hands rest on the home row: ASDF on the left, JKL; on
the right - with small notches marking these positions to assist in touch typing.
With the right hand on the mouse, the most natural position for the left sits around
these keys: and the arrow keys found themselves slowly replaced by such a cluster: WASD.
Many were reluctant to shift at first: the notion of using an assortment of keys instead
of the ones dedicated to directional input seemed alien - but eventually the better hand
position caught on, becoming the standard.
WASD with mouselook: keyboard and mouse in perfect harmony - the way FPS games were always
meant to be.
Quake made it happen.
The technology behind Id's games has always been impressive: and Quake's engine - along
with its sequels - have been behind some very significant titles.
Quake's original engine was used for only a handful of titles: Hexen II, Malice, X-Men:
The Ravages of Apocalypse and Laser Arena - it was the later derivatives that had greater
impact.
The QuakeWorld engine was adopted and modified by Valve as the GoldSrc engine - powering
Half-Life and its mods such as Counter-Strike - and providing a technical base for the later
Source engine.
Quake 2's engine would power Heretic II; Sin; Kingpin; Soldier of Fortune - and Ion Storm's
early games.
Quake 3's tech took its place, providing the backbone for Return to Castle Wolfenstein;
Star Wars Jedi Knight; Heavy Metal: FAKK 2; American McGee's Alice; Medal of Honor: Allied
Assault -
and the majority of the Call of Duty series.
Few can claim to rival Quake's engine impact: and while the newer Id Tech versions don't
see the same scale of use, the lineage of many popular engines today can be traced to
the same origin.
Its relevance extends to more than just games, too: the moddability and flexibility of Id's
engine encouraged the growth of an entirely new artform:
Machinima.
Capturing video footage of gameplay was a difficult task in the 90s: a time before FRAPs,
affordable hardware capture or GPU integrated recording.
Even if you were able to record, the file sizes and processing power available made
editing and distribution infeasible.
A three megabyte MP3 was a sizeable download, worthy of a coffee break - never mind the
hundreds of megabytes a video might be.
Quake had a solution: originally implemented in Doom, an ability to record and play back
gameplay in-engine, in a compact form known as demos.
Players could use this functionality to show off their skills - both in multiplayer and
singleplayer: from documenting frantic fragfests to providing indisputable proof of an incredible
feat.
One such spectacle was speedrunning - a simple notion: complete the game in as short a time
as possible.
A culmination of all the movement tricks learned in other facets of the game: rocket jumps,
bunny hopping and other such exploits to shave seconds off each level run.
A community effort led to the compilation of Quake Done Quick in 1997: a flight through
all of Quake's episodes in just under 20 minutes.
The subsequent 'Quake Done Quicker', 'Quake Done Quick with a Vengeance' and 'Quake Done
Quickest' saw even more severe shortcuts, with the shortest run at 11 minutes and 29
seconds.
Other variants exist, including 100% completion runs which demand every secret found and every
enemy slain - but the basic rule remained: gotta go fast.
Some had more cinematic aspirations for Quake's tools: and made use of the game to tell stories,
using players as actors and Quake's world as a backdrop.
Diary of a Camper was an early 'Quake movie' that made use of a variety of features in
concert: a spectator acting as cameraman; a number of on-screen actors; and the use
of text chat for dialogue.
It was primitive - simple, amateur in places - but the technology behind the scenes bristled
with potential.
The use of real-time game worlds to create short films opens up the process to anyone
with a PC: and (copyright issues aside) creators can make use of pre-existing assets to make
something new.
Perhaps the most famous example of Machinima is Red vs Blue: a long-running web series
that uses Halo multiplayer as its backdrop.
Instantly resonant with fans of the FPS franchise, it highlighted a new means of expression for
amateur filmmakers and helped to thrust machinima into the mainstream.
More recently, Team Fortress 2 made humorous use of its game assets as a promotional tool:
with a series of videos designed to introduce the classes.
This development eventually led to the release of Source Filmmaker, an immensely powerful
tool for amateur film-makers and a fountainhead of entertainment online.
Today, there exists an entire industry forged around the reuse of video game footage: from
full blown animated productions to the improvised storytelling of let's plays - a new work emerges
from the old, greater than the sum of its parts.
As explosively as the first person shooter burst onto the PC gaming scene, the plight
of the arena shooter is not a happy one.
Quake and its ilk had perfected their genre - so what innovation remained?
Slowly but surely, sales dropped off as interest waned.
Abstract arenas were shed in favour of linear storytelling - with World War 2 proving popular
for a while.
As the millennium ticked over, there was also a swing towards console gaming: now more confident
in their 3D ability, games like Halo took the lead.
Shooters slowed down to better compensate for console controllers, and cover mechanics
were introduced in lieu of dodging projectiles.
It was a necessary change, but some lament the loss of the old-school: leading to somewhat
of a revival in recent years with a string of modern Quake imitators.
A rejection of modern FPS: no more quicktime events, waist-high cover, linear corridors,
endless cutscenes and 'you are hurt! take cover!'.
Instead a return to the breakneck pace of the classic arena shooter: no loadout advantages,
just pure and competitive shooting action.
It's not quite the same as it was - a pang of nostalgia for late nights spent illuminated
by a CRT monitor, endless deathmatches in familiar walls punctuated by the dial-up tones
of a 56k modem - but to evoke those feelings is almost as good as reliving them.
The definitive FPS: deathmatch; modding; machinima; speedrunning; esports - a game that gave us
many gifts.
But Quake took its toll on Id.
Keeping pace with a rapidly evolving industry while living up to their earlier success placed
undue stress on the small team.
While they still exist today, what remains is a far cry from the innovation powerhouse
that produced Doom and Quake.
Sandy Petersen, champion of the Lovecraft influence, left Id after Quake to join Ensemble
Studios - where he worked on games such as Age of Empires.
American McGee was let go after the completion of Quake II, and later joined EA and Rogue
Entertainment to create American McGee's Alice: a gothic twist on a fairytale classic.
John Romero left after Quake: Eager for more creative challenge, he co-founded a new studio
called Ion Storm with Tom Hall.
The studio's first project was the ill-fated Daikatana: an ambitious game that languished
too long in development; had unfortunately arrogant advertising; and ultimately performed
poorly.
Tom Hall's project was Anachronox: a cyberpunk RPG with a strong emphasis on story, similarly
stricken by delay: tarnished by association with Daikatana; and sadly overlooked.
Ion Storm went on to greater things, however: bringing in Warren Spector, of Wing Commander
and Ultima fame, leading to the creation of one of the greatest PC games of all time:
Deus Ex.
More recently, Romero has teamed up once again with Adrian Carmack with the intent of making
a new FPS: Blackroom.
Made made in the classic shooter mould, and with two of the minds behind Doom and Quake
at the helm: a potential revival awaits the optimistic.
John Carmack stuck with Id as a technical director: cultivating the Id tech engine with
iterative improvement - from the per-pixel lighting of Doom 3 to the megatextures used
in Rage.
Id's output drastically slowed down, however - with modern games taking exponentially longer
to develop, there have been only 4 games from Id in the last decade.
In 2013, Carmack left Id for Oculus: a chance to take the reigns on a new frontier - virtual
reality.
The future of computer graphics, and an opportunity to innovate once more.
Id's heyday might be behind us - they are far less dynamic now than during that tumultuous
time in the nineties - but their impact on PC gaming continues to resonate today.
Wolfenstein: Doom; Quake.
An indelible legacy;
An industry forged.
An unholy trinity that spawned a genre - and changed games forever.
Perhaps Quake didn't quite live up to Doom's expectations:
but it gave us more than we ever wanted.
Thank you very much for watching - and until next time, farewell.