Doom was ok but limited in its 3-d-ness and physics. Before Doom was
Wolvenstein (also by id-software), that was ok to but even more limited
3-d-wise.
Faster hardware became available and Doom's successor was announced:
Quake. And Quake was worthy: it was fully 3-d, with more detailed architecture
and more realistic physics (with grenades actualy bouncing around). To
top it of is could practically support up tgo 16 players
Some people say Quake is just another Doom, but then Doom would be just
another Wolvenstein. Others say Quake is the next step in gaming (3D-gaming
/ first person shooters anyway). Technology-wise Quake is a major step
forward. Disadvantage is that you'll need a fast PC 'to see the error of
your ways' (in case you're still playing Duke 3D or a technologically similar
game).
Quake fans can be very fanatic about this game. Do keep in mind that
what's so hot about Quake is not single player, but multi player. Quake
is really mainly about network gaming: from within Windows (95), while
online, you just start a Quake server utility, click on a server of your
choice, and play with and/or against people from all over the world. For
free.
Actually, I'd say it's more than just a game. It's more like a sport
that you discover, enjoy, and just take up and keep doing. Just to give
an indication of the sports-like character: recent versions of Quake ('quakeworld')
support up to 32 players and 32 spectators. More often than not,
there will be several spectators logged on, just watching the game, and
commenting.
Quake is also highly modifiable: anyone with some programming experience can add weapons or whatever tricks you want (how about an airplane, a banana peal to make your opponents slip into the lava, or 'capture the flag' team play?). Many free tools are available to make your own levels, monsters and weapons, you name it. You can even modify recorded demos to make a movie. Modifications are not only created by enthusiastic gamers, but also by commercial gaming companies: they license the Quake technology from id, and create an entirely new game. Hexen 2 is just one well known quake-bases game (as the original Hexen was doom-based), and for the Duke fans: Duke Nuke'm Forever will use the Quake engine (the original Duke 3D is indirectly based on doom).
By now, mid '97, Quake is big, real big. At least on the internet. Commercial online gaming services boast several thousand customers. It's my guess that at any given moment, there are many thousands of Quake players online (not paying a dime to any commercial gaming service). In total there must be many tens of thousands of regular internet Quake players. There are several thousand Quake servers all over the world. And there must be many hundreds if not thousands of so called 'clans' (organized groups of quake players that take on other clans). The first international team matches have taken place. Online multi player is the way for the future. Quake may be an Olympic sport in time for the games in 2000 :)
Update (august 8-97):
The 'Quake based' games mentioned before will actually largely be Quake2
based. id-software is working hard on Quake2 and is already licensing the
new technology. It looks very much like it will be a worthy successor to
Quake, with larger levels, more detailed and more intelligent monsters,
and in general be very cool.
But this time Quake will not be alone. In a period from around christmas
'97 to mid 98, many games will be released that are either Quake(2) based,
or will be using different technology to arrive at similar ends (Quake
will be released early in this period). From the looks of it, single player
will be much more interesting, and the environments will be more extensive,
more detailed and more interactive. Still the most interesting aspect of
these games is the networking capabilities: Quake 2 could realistically
support 80 people on one server (and in one -huge- level), supposing the
net connection and computer it runs on are fast enough (a T1 and a Pentium2
400 could probably pull it off).
To conclude: these are the next generation games. Network play is going
to take another large step forward, and so is single play. The future holds
many interesting possibilities.
We are not there yet however, John Carmac, main man at id-sofware,
is also working on the technology for the successor of Quake2. It's called
Trinity, and any remotely decent game based on its technology will leave
you with your jaw on the floor. Expected mid to end 1999.
Update (november 2-97)
Things seem relatively calm now in the quake scene. Maybe silence before
the storm; a test/demo version of Quake2 was released a few weeks ago.
It's as cool as we got to expect, colored lighting is real nice. No network
functionality yet though.
Believe it or not, there is now an organisation for professional gamers,
called Cyberathletes. Yes indeed,
there are already (a few) people making a living playing Quake. Coolness.
I first started playing Quake on the LAN at the office, when the network
test version was released.
Now I mostly play on the XS4ALL Quakeworld server (xs4all
quake page), using the player name 'Slasher'. Hey, so maybe it's a
lame name, but i do try to live up to it, and i succeed regularly.
Update (august 8-97):
I'm actually in a clan now. It's the iNSANE
Quakers. Weird dudes, and i am happy they are in the same clan i am,
so I won't have to fight them in any serious match :).
This also means my player name is now iQ.Slasher. Sort of cool actually
if i may say so myself.
Update (november 2-97)
The clan didn't win anything on qday2. Related to this or not, shortly
after about half the members left to join a newly formed clan (still friends
though). Now iQ doesn't have a seperate low-ping and high-ping division
anymore, we have only just enough members to be a clan at all.
No, "iQ" doesn't have anything to do with intelligence, actualy most
members are pretty stupid. I have proof of that to: I have a recording
of an unofficial match, where at one point three iQ-ers walk into a carpet
of grenades one right after the other. Number two and number three see
the person(s) in front of them being gibbed, and seem to think like "ah
cool, i'm gonna go there to". Is that stupid or not ;-)
Ah yes, you can now also find me using the player name 'splat'. I find
it much easier to live up to that name...
Even though we (the Quake community) love Quake, and practically worship id-software, we are not without critique (well, I am anyway).
Quake itself:
- Worst are so called "spawn-kills".
After you die you start again with nothing but a single barrel shotgun,
also the "spawn points" not exactly out of the way in most cases. Depending
on how many players there are and how big the level is, chances are you
re-apear in the middle of a combat, and you get fragged before you can
see what's going on. There is even a good chance you get fragged by the
same person that killed you in the first place. Worse still, this
can happen several times in a row.
This is bad for everybody; an easy kill is nice sometimes, but it's
no challenge, and on the receiving end it realy sucks very bad. Uncoolness.
Solution: make levels so that spawn points are out of the way (not
as easy as it sounds), and give players some armor and decent weapons when
spawning.
- Related to the above, and a problem in itself: Weapon unbalance.
There is basically one preferred weapon in (original) Quake: the rocket
launcher. A direct hit will kill anyone without armor and/or some extra
health. It takes some skill to hit a moving target at some distance, but
you can also make an indirect hit, using the splash-damage (like with real
explosions). Two or three of those are enough so suppress most opposition.
The other weapons do either less damage, are (more) difficult to aim or
have limited range. Of course it is relatively easy for anyone with a rocket
launcher to prevent anyone else from getting this weapon.
Facts of life:
- Not all net connections are created equal.
So, there will be people with only a short delay in response from the
game (up to about 0.15 seconds), and people with longer delays (anything
up to a full second), in the same game. Guess who has the better chances.
Combine this with the spawn kill problem and the weapon unbalance and imagine
how it feels just not to be able to get "in the game" for like 10 minutes
(you score no points, and get fragged before even get your hands on a simple
crate of shells). Not fun.
- Cheating.
There are several ways of cheating, some minor, some major. The major
cheat is the use of so called "client-side bots". These are special programs,
that "hook up" to quake, and do all the difficult stuff for you, like aiming,
and watching your back. You steer your player trough the level, and the
bot will fire at anything and everything, with deadly precise aiming.
Most bots are fairly easy to recognize. Where a normal player has to
turn around (however quickly) to see, aim and fire, a bot will see every
target in range, also those behind it or hidden behind a wall. A bot will
see you approach a corner well before you get there, and can even fire
before you get there, perfecly timed to hit you when you finaly round the
corner. A bot can fire in a direction different than where it is going,
normal players can not. Some bots will turn and aim instantly, "flipping"
into position for firing and back to the direction it is walking.
Some bots don't even flip-turn, they just fire from their back.
Don't confuse these bots with so called "quake-c bots", which are for
practicing offline.
at id-software,
creators of Quake
at Ritual Entertainment, formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive
Utumno
Dutch Quake site, with news, serverlist, files
NL Quake, the
Dutch Quake site
includes Dutch Quake server list