QuakeYou'll have to like this sort of game to appreciate it. It's a so called "First Person Shooter". This is the type of game were you see the playing field from the point of view of the character that you control in the game - the "first person perspective". You see everything that is in the game as if you are there, controling the direction of your view and walking/flying with keyboard and mouse. The gameplay itself usualy involves a lot of shooting, hence the name "First Person Shooter".
    The point of view (you don't see the character you controle, instead you are that character) and the controls can be uncomfortable with some, but it is basically an example of what is meant by "virtual reality". You enter a virtual world, and things look move and behave -as if you are there-.
    This why this genre of games tries to replicate the 3-dimensionality and the physics (i.e. gravity) of the world. Especialy the calculations nescesary for diplaying a world based on 3-dimensional information fast enough are very demanding of the Central Processing Unit of a computer. To "render" a moderalely detailed interior scene at least at 25 frames per second (required to prevent individual frames being visible as such) requires highly specialized software and hardware the faster the better.
    There is one software company essential to the whole genre: id-software. Although a few primitive examples of the genre were available, id-software hit right on the mark mainly with the game Doom and it's successor (upgrade realy) Doom 2. Hardware required to realize such games was just about becoming main stream and it was an enirely new type of game that appealed to many. Equaly important is that it included the possebility for playing not just against the monsters in the missions of the game, but also against your friends: up to four players could join a multi player game on a network. Multi player games existed, but not of this kind, were the action is allmost continues and the confrontation with both the virtual world and the other players is very direct and hands-on. The addition of the human element introduced an entirely new genre in itself. It uses the same basic technology as the single player game, yet through the addition of networking capability delivers an entirely new gaming experience. You basically walk around the level finding your friends, blowing them away with a rocket launcher or double barrel shotgun before he does it to you. If you die your friend scores a point and you start again on one of the spawn points with not much armourment to speak off, so you have to find some quick before you run into on of your friends, who are of course still fully equiped and might be waiting for you near weapons or armour jackets. Sounds you make while picking up items can reveal your location. Sometimes you can feel the presence of other persons, small movements can reveal hesitation or agresiveness. Doom was wildly popular among a fairly large number of loyal fans.

    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.


    Quake and me

    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...


    What sucks about Quake

    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.


    Some Quake sites:


    at id-software, creators of Quake


    major Quake news site


    at Ritual Entertainment, formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive


    (find anything Quake related)

    Utumno
    Dutch Quake site, with news, serverlist, files

    NL Quake, the Dutch Quake site
    includes Dutch Quake server list