quake/articles/1996/art-31
Path: mantis!not-for-mail
From: tomw@tsys.demon.co.uk (Tom Wheeley)
Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.doom.announce,rec.games.computer.doom.misc,rec.games.computer.quake.announce,rec.games.computer.quake.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,alt.games.upcoming-3d
Subject: QUAKE Mini-FAQ. . . . . . . . . . (96/03/06)
Followup-To: rec.games.computer.doom.misc,rec.games.computer.quake.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Date: 7 Mar 1996 17:37:38 -0000
Organization: City Zen FM
Lines: 453
Sender: tony@mantis.co.uk
Approved: quake@mantis.co.uk
Message-ID: <11068@tsys.demon.co.uk>
Summary: Info on id Software's as-yet-unreleased 3D action game "QUAKE".
*-----------------------------------------*
| Q U A K E M I N I F A Q - 6 Mar 96 |
*-----------------------------------------*
by Tom Wheeley (tomw@tsys.demon.co.uk)
Table of Contents. (Changed sections prefixed with '|')
Intro
1 - What is QUAKE?
1.1 Overview of QUAKE.
| 1.2 Playability issues
| 1.3 What platforms will QUAKE run on?
1.4 Hardware requirements.
1.5 Is QUAKE 'DOOM 3'?
1.6 How well do network games run
2 - Previews of QUAKE.
2.1 Screenshots.
| 2.2 Playable QUAKE test version.
3 - When is QUAKE due out?
4 - Further Information on QUAKE.
4.1 Documents with QUAKE information.
| 4.2 Newsgroups and IRC.
4.3 A full QUAKE FAQ.
4.4 Running a QUAKE server.
5 - Rumours.
6 - Popular World Wide Web sites.
* Intro *
The purpose of this document is to inform people about the game QUAKE
and to reduce the amount of frequently asked questions to the relevant
Usenet newsgroups.
Behold that this FAQ will probably raise more questions than it
answers. id Software, the makers of QUAKE, have been a bit quiet about
updates on QUAKE's status. Nevertheless, the interest in QUAKE is
enormous, as QUAKE is expected to be a quantum leap in computer gaming.
This FAQ may be distributed freely, provided it remains unaltered,
and the original author is mentioned. It is forbidden to redistribute
this FAQ commercially in the form of magazines, books, CDs or other pay
services without prior permission of the author, Tom Wheeley
I would appreciate not being flooded with QUAKE questions at this
point. Should further information on QUAKE be available, they will be
added to future versions of this mini FAQ, quaketalk or possibly full
featured QUAKE FAQ (see section 4.1).
This mini FAQ will be reposted weekly to relevant gaming Usenet news
groups and it's latest version can be retrieved from
ftp://ftp.mantis.co.uk/pub/doom/periodic/quakefaq
This QUAKE mini-FAQ has also been converted to HTML by D.J. Quad and
is accessible (along with the Doom FAQ) at:
http://doomgate.cs.buffalo.edu/docs/FAQ/djmfaq/dj-quakefaq
Thank you to joost schuur (jschuur@globalnews.com), who originally
wrote the mini FAQ.
* 1 * What is QUAKE? *
1.1 Overview of QUAKE
QUAKE is a 3D 'point of view' action orientated game with
certain role playing elements from id Software. It is the successor
to DOOM and features an engine with many enhancements, such as:
. full six degrees of freedom. no more 4.5 degrees as in DOOM
. polygon based, texture mapped items
. environmental sound effects
. jumping and looking keys but no use key
. 6 different death scenes
. highly advanced networking capabilities:
+ QUAKE servers that can be linked among each other
+ dozens of players in one game (over network)
+ leave/join games in progress
+ source code availability for the server. make your
own modifications and recompile on other platforms.
. QUAKE will come with its own C like programming language,
allowing you to create add-ons to the game never before possible
A plot for the game has not been conceived yet. It will
possibly centre around a fantasy/medieval theme, but people will
be able to create their own scenarios.
The specification for QUAKE has changed many times and this has drawn
criticism to id for 'lying'. Remember it is often very difficult to
implement all the great ideas that you may have for a game. To quote:
"We're often wrong about what we think is going to happen". ddt on IRC
1.2 Playability issues
Most of this information has been gathered from the reports from the
recent beta testers of QUAKE. QUAKE is said to be substantially
different in gameplay to DOOM. Note that I have played Quake for a sum
total of 5 minutes so far, so go easy on me :)
o Control
. JUMP control. Jump over knee high obstacles at last (unlike DOOM)
. LOOK control. Hold down the look control, and you can effectively
turn your head with the direction keys / mouse
| . No USE control. Switches are 'switched' by walking into them.
|
o Movement
| . No Strafe-Running bug (It may feel slow when you run diagonally)
| . In general, the speed is slower
o Weapons
QUAKE will be using military style weapons instead of Medieval ones:
. Shotgun Super Shotgun
. Nailgun Super Nailgun (Ammo has NiN logo on it)
. Rocket Launcher
. Grenade Launcher
Also planned for the final release are:
. Lightning Gun Super Lightning Gun
o Deathmatch
. There are three levels of Deathmatch play: Beginner, Intermediate
and Advanced. In beginner mode there is a heavy amount of auto-
aiming, whereas this will be reduced in the other two modes.
. Standard deathmatch is 'altdeath'
. When objects are picked up, a yellow bead is visible in the same
position until the object respawns
o Miscellaneous
. Lava is much more dangerous than before
. Armour is much more useful.
. There is now water and realistic swimming.
1.3 What platforms will QUAKE run on?
There has been great debate on which platform QUAKE will arrive
first. There is no concrete information on this, but consider that
the development of QUAKE has been on NeXTStep and Linux systems.
The QUAKE test version runs in DOS and Linux/X only.
The primary platform for QUAKE is likely to be DOS. There should
also be a native Windows '95 version as well as MacQuake and OS/2
versions. id will also port QUAKE to several Unix platforms, most
probably starting with Linux.
id will release the source code for the low level parts of the game,
so that 3rd parties may write their own device drivers. (This enables
hardware manufacturers to enable QUAKE support for their devices).
1.4 Hardware Requirements
This is probably the question that's going through everyone's minds
the most. 'How will QUAKE perform on my system?' and 'Will I need a
pentium system?'.
Based on the information from the beta testers and from Dave Taylor,
the minimum system for QUAKE will be a 60MHz Pentium. QUAKE will not be
a Pentium only game, but comparisons have been made to Doom on a 386.
A P-75 will yield approximately 15 fps, and a P-100 was stated as a good
system to play QUAKE on.
Remember that these statements are based on the performance of alpha
versions of QUAKE, and there could be further speed optimisations in the
full release.
If you have just won the lottery, a Pentium Pro system will run QUAKE
fast enough that the 72Hz refresh rate of the monitor becomes a limiting
factor. (i.e. it will run *very* smoothly =)
As far as RAM is concerned, indications are that 8 megs will
probably be the minimum specification for QUAKE. 12 or more megs will
certainly help make playing QUAKE *much* more enjoyable.
QUAKE support the new 3D accelerator cards, but no concrete
information is available at the moment regarding which ones. id
have said that it will be easy for manufacturers of any product to
write drivers for QUAKE.
Hints have been made that a 3D accelerator card will greatly affect the
performance of QUAKE. An accelerator card would be needed for 486 owners
to get optimum performance.
1.5 Is QUAKE 'DOOM 3'?
No. There will not be a product called 'DOOM 3'. QUAKE is id
Software's next own project after DOOM 2. A special port of DOOM
to Nintendo's new U64 console system is being done, which will
feature some enhancements to the PC version, but this is also not
'DOOM 3'.
For more info on this, check:
http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/sgistuff/ultra64/ultra64.html
1.6 How well do network games run
For some weeks now, people have been envisioning huge interconnected
worlds with 'Bands of roving QUAKE Gods' in them. Unfortunately, real
life has to intervene somewhere.
QUAKE will be able to support unlimited numbers of players in theory,
but bandwidth considerations are paramount here. id have said that
games with 50 players in are not very feasible.
Over modems, id say that they are aiming for 3 players over a 14,400bps
connection, and 5 players over a 28,800bps connection.
QUAKE is no longer expected to have the live voice system into the
world, even over ethernet.
* 2 * Previews of QUAKE *
2.1 Screenshots
As of August 4th, 1995, id released a first series of screenshots,
revealing some of the level building capabilities of QUAKE and one of
the monsters, a red dragon. These pictures are in the file
`quakepix.zip'. Since then, id have made more detailed pictures of the
monsters in the game available in `qpix.zip'.
They can be obtained from their ftp site at
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake/quakepix.zip
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake/qpix.zip
or at a mirror such as
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/idstuff/quake/quakepix.zip
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/idstuff/quake/qpix.zip
A picture of id's QUAKE editor called `qe_dev.gif' can be found there
too.
A list of mirrors can be found in the 'DOOM: FTP and WWW Sites'
article periodically posted to rec.games.computer.doom.announce.
The screenshots can also be viewed via World Wide Web at id's web
site described in section 6.
2.2 Playable QUAKE test version.
id have released a deathmatch only TEST release of QUAKE. This
| consists of a tiny subset of the full games levels, textures and
| features, however it is still QUAKE :) The version as distributed by
| id does not support modems, but there are external programs which do.
The playable test consists of 3 levels, and allows 8 players in
| DeathMatch. There are no monsters, although there are several utilities
| to add them, as well as separate maps with them in.
id say that one of the main reasons for distributing the test is to
| test compatibility issues. The version is for DOS systems or for Linux
| with X Windows (especially if you have DGA). The DOS version will run
| under Windows 95, just not as well as under plain DOS, and you need 16Mb.
| Please note that the Quake test will not run without a maths
| co-processor. This includes many NexGen chips and 486sx chips.
The TEST versions filename is `qtest1.zip' and is available from the
following sites. Please choose the one closest to you. It is 4.3Mb.
ftp://quake.best.com/pub/idsoftware/quake
ftp://ftp.netural.com/pub/idsoftware/quake
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/idstuff/quake
ftp://uss-hood.starfleet.com/pub/idstuff/quake
ftp://ftp.islandnet.com/mirrors/idsoftware/quake
ftp://ftp.stomped.com/idstuff/quake
ftp://ftp.netvision.be/pub/idstuff/quake
ftp://ftp.nijenrode.nl/pub/idstuff/quake
ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/ftp.idsoftware.com/quake
ftp://hyperactive.com.au/pub/games/idstuff/quake
ftp://garfield.sch.bme.hu/pub/idstuff/quake
ftp://rajah.trin.cam.ac.uk/pub/idstuff/quake
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/idgames/idstuff/quake
ftp://ftp.passagen.se/pub/idstuff/quake
ftp://ftp.connectnet.com/pub/idstuff/quake
ftp://linux.mit.edu/pub/games/quake
ftp://ftp.LAME.org/pub/quake
ftp://isengard.stanford.edu/pub/quake
ftp://turing.vironix.co.za/pub/quake
Make sure your read the documentation before playing.
"You are invited to send general bug-related information regarding
the gameplay to the Usenet newsgroup REC.GAMES.COMPUTER.QUAKE.MISC only,
please don't send us gameplay suggestions directly." - id
* 3 * When is QUAKE due out? *
id has been very persistent in insisting QUAKE will come out
"when it's ready". For quite a while it looked like they were aiming
for Christmas '95. Well, this did not happen and it is considered
likely that it will take another few months. An exact release date
cannot be made yet, since the game is still in a developmental phase.
It is always hard to predict when a piece of software will be ready for
a release.
The TEST release of QUAKE was released on 24th February 1996. (See
section 2.2)
* 4 * Further Information on QUAKE *
4.1 Documents with QUAKE information
For the past year now, joost schuur has published quaketalk, a
newsletter on QUAKE. He has attempted to gather any QUAKE related bits of
information from the net and elsewhere. The current version is 400 and is
available at
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/docs/faqs/qtalk400.txt
In the future, the filename may change to reflect the new version
number. An HTML version of quaketalk can be viewed from Josh Michael's
web site at
http://www.prairienet.org/joshm/qtalk/
4.2 Newsgroups and IRC
A new rec.games.computer.quake newsgroup hierarchy consisting of
three groups (rgcq.announce, rcgq.editing, rgcq.misc) successfully
passed the Usenet Call for Votes procedure on 16th November 1995.
These newsgroups were finally created on January 8th 1996, despite
uncertainty regarding the final name of QUAKE.
Should your newsserver not carry these groups, ask your newsadmin to
add them. Until then, QUAKE can also be discussed on the groups
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action and rec.games.computer.doom.misc.
Please note that alt.games.quake (a.g.q) is now obsolete, and all
QUAKE discussion should be within the rec.games.computer.quake
hierarchy. For some of the more general discussion typical of a.g.q,
a new newsgroup, alt.games.upcoming-3d has been created.
The main groups for QUAKE discussion are now the 'rec groups':
news:rec.games.computer.quake.announce (moderated)
news:rec.games.computer.quake.misc
news:rec.games.computer.quake.editing
| There is also an RFD for three new groups (rgcq.playing, rgcq.servers
| and rgcq.programmer). There will be a proper voting process soon.
On IRC (the Internet Relay Chat), QUAKE enthusiasts already meet on
the #quake channel.
4.3 A full QUAKE FAQ
Hank Leukart and joost schuur and possibly myself plan on bringing
out a real, full length FAQ to QUAKE as soon as they've gathered enough
information and have ensured id's co-operation on this. For now this
mini FAQ should cover the most common questions on QUAKE. As soon a
full FAQ is available, it will be announced in the appropriate Usenet
newsgroups mentioned in section 4.2.
4.4 Running a QUAKE server
There is not much information regarding QUAKE Servers at the moment,
but id will be releasing the source code for the QUAKE Server. This
should mean that you will be able to compile it for many platforms, as
well as adjust it to suit your means.
Please note that the quake-servers mailing list has been discontinued,
and discussion regarding QUAKE servers should take place in the group
rec.games.computer.quake.misc. There are plans to possibly create a
| dedicated r.g.c.q.servers group soon.
* 5 * Rumours *
...Trent Reznor is doing the music/sound
id stated early on that there will be no music in QUAKE, but Trent
Reznor (of the group 'Nine Inch Nails') is doing the sound effects.
id and Trent Reznor have been mutual fans for quite some time.
The ammo boxes for the nail gun bear the NiN logo.
* 6 * Popular World Wide Web sites. *
There are already a couple of World Wide Web sites dedicated to
QUAKE. Most of them carry identical contents, but who knows, this might
change.
- id Software's own QUAKE screenshots page:
http://www.idsoftware.com/qss.html
- The QUAKE MiniFAQ on the Web (As well as the Doom FAQ and others)
http://doomgate.cs.buffalo.edu/docs/FAQ/djmfaq/dj-quakefaq
| - joost schuur's QUAKE server database
| http://www.nuqneH.org/aftershock/servers
- Hank Leukart's Rumor Mill page is dedicated to up and coming
new games. He also has a page on QUAKE
http://happypuppy.com/hleukart/rumorsquake.html
- Jason van Fickell runs the 'Unofficial QUAKE homepage'
http://www.hal-pc.org/~jasonv/quake/
- joost schuur runs the QUAKE section of Doomgate
http://doomgate.cs.buffalo.edu/games/quake/
- Colin Caird has yet another QUAKE page
http://www.islandnet.com/~ccaird/doom/quake.html
- Gary Hillard's QUAKE screenshots page
http://www.trader.com/quake.htm
- TTM & Associates, 3rd party QUAKE programming
http://info.pitt.edu/~brianm/quake
- A Doom/QUAKE set of pages
http://www.eerie.fr/~tassin/doom.html
- "No frills QUAKE". Includes Java applets etc.
http://www.pegasus.oz.au/~forager/quake/nfquake.htm
****************************************************************************
Please send suggestions for the FAQ to the maintainer: tomw@tsys.demon.co.uk
--
* TQ 1.0 * The 'Just So Quotes'.
"I have an inferiority complex, but it isn't a very good one."