• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

[DF] Retro: QUAKE

Doczu

Member
When my buddy showed me Quake for the first time i was sitting there in silence.
In Poland around 96 people were gaming on NES clones, Amiga computers and some lucky bastards had Playstations. PCs were really expensive, especially if you wanted to game on them.
So I, coming from some Amiga games and Mario on my famiclone, just sat on a chair and for a minute i couldn't get a word out.
And then he showed me you could play online. Blew my mind for a second time in one day.
 

Fake

Member
Shame they're keep RETRO stuff to patreon for so much time...


At the least the content is superb.
 
One of the better memories of gaming for me is being in 'school' in '97/'98 (whatever you would call that which comes after highschool).

We'd have these computer rooms where you could do work, and we'd get a key to the room and play quake deathmatch with at least 16 guys. We had to copy it to all machines using some crazy IPX copy tool, have one machine be the server, and we'd be fragging and shouting and having a great time for hours. It was glorious.

Fuck sake, the mice still had a ball back then.

37444845-trackball-computer-mouse-isolated-on-white-background.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have been waiting for the next classic DF Retro to come out! And I don't think there could have been a better choice than Quake. Can't wait to watch this, these are bar none my favorite digital foundry videos.
 

tommib

Member
Imagine the face of Carmack if this would have become a retail game before Quake.



This tech demo predates Quake by 1 year.

That looks like shit compared to Quake and there ‘s no gameplay on the video. No idea why Carmack would be surprised in this fan fiction alternate universe of yours.
 

Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
Please explain. I’m offended. Quake is P E R F E C T and timeless. Probably unparalleled in it’s gameplay.
He just likes to post one liners. Answering is not his thing. Don't bother with him.

I'm there with you. Quake is perfect and timeless.
 

tommib

Member
He just likes to post one liners. Answering is not his thing. Don't bother with him.

I'm there with you. Quake is perfect and timeless.
I’ll just assume he never played it back in 1996 with a PowerVR 2. I played GL Quake for 4 years straight and still believe it’s the most enjoyable shooter ever made with the best and thickest atmosphere on a FPS.
 
Last edited:

Fake

Member
Quake 64 is by far one of my favorite 64 games.

Playing countless of deathmatch with my two brothers. Nothing come close to that.
 

Danknugz

Member
One of the better memories of gaming for me is being in 'school' in '97/'98 (whatever you would call that which comes after highschool).

We'd have these computer rooms where you could do work, and we'd get a key to the room and play quake deathmatch with at least 16 guys. We had to copy it to all machines using some crazy IPX copy tool, have one machine be the server, and we'd be fragging and shouting and having a great time for hours. It was glorious.

Fuck sake, the mice still had a ball back then.

37444845-trackball-computer-mouse-isolated-on-white-background.jpg
Back in the quake/q2 day it was around the time that ball mice started getting phased out, and I distinctly remember playing way better with the analog based ball mice, especially for twitch style movements with the railgun and rocket launcher, my accuracy was just way better cause I think the analog ball was more consistent and also gave the mouse more weight to be able to throw it around and feel the tactile feedback. The only problem was having to clean the rollers every now and then.
 

stranno

Member
That looks like shit compared to Quake and there ‘s no gameplay on the video. No idea why Carmack would be surprised in this fan fiction alternate universe of yours.
Calm down big boy. Of course it is a technical demo by a demoscene group, don't spect 30 chapters campaign for a showcase..

It is FAR more advanced than Quake. You should turn the screen on.
 

sunnysideup

Banned
As one of the forums resident n64 haters i have to say quake looked pretty good without that ugly smear filter.

Man the n64 was ruined by that ugly ass filter.
 

tommib

Member
Calm down big boy. Of course it is a technical demo by a demoscene group, don't spect 30 chapters campaign for a showcase..

It is FAR more advanced than Quake. You should turn the screen on.
It is so much more advanced that it was never released. Right. Way to undermine the impact of a game that, well, changed everything.
 

tommib

Member
I haven't underestimate the impact of Quake, you are making that up..
Look you’re the one coming on with a demo of skeletons in a cell moving at the pace of snails with a horrible fantasy soundtrack. Is it the shadows? There is a reason the game was cancelled. Maybe Quake came out and they were like, forget it, we’re done. Nothing in there looks better than the Quake menu demos or even the hub at 320x240.

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MrS

Orta

Banned
I was a dyed in the wool console gamer back then but Quake was the first game that made me truly envy the PC as a gaming machine. Two years later just after my 18th birthday I got a bank loan for £1100 and bought one, Doom & Quake along with it. Glorious memories.
 

Holammer

Member
That looks like shit compared to Quake and there ‘s no gameplay on the video. No idea why Carmack would be surprised in this fan fiction alternate universe of yours.
If you understood what you're looking at, the technology on display should leave you breathless. It had a skeletal system a decade before ID Tech 3 got it.
 

tommib

Member
I remember the demo scene back in the day well. Saw amazing stuff. They were demos not games for a reason.
 
Last edited:

Fuz

Banned
Back in the quake/q2 day it was around the time that ball mice started getting phased out, and I distinctly remember playing way better with the analog based ball mice, especially for twitch style movements with the railgun and rocket launcher, my accuracy was just way better cause I think the analog ball was more consistent and also gave the mouse more weight to be able to throw it around and feel the tactile feedback. The only problem was having to clean the rollers every now and then.
As a "semi-semi" Q2 pro... first optical mouses were much less performant than ball ones, for games.
 

tommib

Member
Damn, the 3DFX GL Quake looks like shit. Completely washed out and blurry.
The PowerVR PCX2 was super clean and ran at 800x600.

I would hardly call the 3DFX Glide shit though. It kickstarted the whole dedicated graphics card business and ran at 60 FPS. It was a you had to be there thing. A real revolution.

What is it with people coming here to shit on the God almighty Quake? Oh man, never change Gaf.
 

twilo99

Member
They really nailed the physics with that engine at the time and they only got better all the way to Quake 3 and Quakelive. I still think that QL has one of the most satisfying movement mechanics out there, its truly stellar.

twilo99 twilo99

Oh I read that years ago. Amazingly told story.

It is! That dev team was magic and it shows in their work.
 
Last edited:

nkarafo

Member
The PowerVR PCX2 was super clean and ran at 800x600.

I would hardly call the 3DFX Glide shit though. It kickstarted the whole dedicated graphics card business and ran at 60 FPS. It was a you had to be there thing. A real revolution.

What is it with people coming here to shit on the God almighty Quake? Oh man, never change Gaf.
Oh please, i was there. And it looked like shit then too, i just didn't know how much better software looked because i only played it on my 3DFX card. But later on i saw how much worse it looks. And that applies to Quake 2 as well.

Quake 1 is one of my favorite PC games ever made btw. I'm not shitting on the game. Just the 3DFX GL mode that looks washed out and way too blurry.
 

stranno

Member
Look you’re the one coming on with a demo of skeletons in a cell moving at the pace of snails with a horrible fantasy soundtrack. Is it the shadows? There is a reason the game was cancelled. Maybe Quake came out and they were like, forget it, we’re done. Nothing in there looks better than the Quake menu demos or even the hub at 320x240.
The game speed is perfectly fine for a fantasy role playing game, if that was the scope of the game. Why would you need a fast pace game when you are using swords? Just compare Hexen 2 (close combat weapons) with Hexen 1 (magic range weapons).
The animations/models are better.

But the environments look like your average PS1 game. Not a match for Quake's complex maps and geometry.
I think they demo is just about the absolutely unbelievable characters and animations for a 1995 game, not exactly the sceneario. Quake levels are maybe my biggest complain with the game. DN3D featured far more complex levels and imaginative levels, Quake level design is a bit orthogonal for my taste. But it is not a big complain, in my opinion John Romero is still the best FPS level designer of all time (even Daikatana level design was okay-ish).
 
Last edited:
Back in the quake/q2 day it was around the time that ball mice started getting phased out
That didn't happen until way later. When Q3 came out everyone was still using ball mice, and even the Razer Boomslang, the first mouse made and advertised specifically for gaming in general and Quake 3 in particular, still used a ball when it released in 2000.

For me it felt like the turning point came around 2001/2002 when Microsoft updated the IntelliMouse Explorer/Optical to be more accurate and Logitech released the first all-optical MX series lineup.
 

Futaleufu

Member
I was another guy who tried to play the Quake demo in a 486 DX2/66 Mhz.. It really started to show its age when I tried to play Witchaven 2 and the game ran at something like 5-10 fps.

I had to wait until 1998 to be able to afford a Celeron and a 3D card.
 

Stuart360

Member
Really wish someone at Bethesda would add in controller support for these games on PC.
We already haveit in the console ports, and the 360 version of Quake 2 would be a perfect to use as its mapped for twin stick controllers aleady.
 
Top Bottom