From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


... a little game called "Quake" got released. Maybe you heard of it?

I can't say I was all excited about the game at the time. Truth be
told, I'm still not all that excited about Quake. I definitely wasn't
playing it Day One of its released like I did "Doom"... although that
probably had as much to do with my lack of easy access to the Internet
as disinterest. I was jumping between a lot of providers at the time,
and not all of them allowed me access to FTP sites. But even if they
had, I'm not sure I would have spent my limited bandwidth on Quake. It
was an ugly game and it dropped a lot of the ideas I found most
intriguing about the 'Doom-clone' genre in favor of multiplayer arena
shooting.

That's not to say I didn't come to appreciate some of what Quake did.
It had some inventive settings, and the atmosphere of the game was
often very intense. Although a lot of the heavy lifting in the latter
category was from Trent Reznor's soundtrack, and you missed out on
that only playing the shareware version.

I wasn't as convinced by its 3D-ness as were some. Yeah, it was
sometimes neat and undeniably the way of the future... but did it make
the game that much better than its 2.5D competitors? Not to me, it
didn't. It was a neat effect, but tech didn't make games great; it
just enhanced already good games.

There were other things Quake did that were only later recognized as ground-breaking, setting the new norm for modern games. Its console,
for instance, was an amazing feature, but so too was the ability to
completely reconfigure the game (from changing video modes to
re-mapping all the controls) without restarting the program. We take
that sort of thing for granted now, but once-upon-a-time if you wanted
to change your resolution or use a different controller, you'd have to
go to the main menu (or worse, drop to the command-line and run a
separate program!) and then reload the game. There were so many little
things like that which Quake just Did Right and we only noticed how
awful the alternatives were until afterwards.

Still, I can't say much for the actual gameplay... and less for the
story. It was adequate at best, and sometimes an annoying slog (did
/anyone/ enjoy fighting those bouncing kamikaze blob things?).

The game sure sold a lot of '3D Accelerator' cards though.

Happy Birthday, Quake. You may not be my favorite Id game, but you
definitely were the most influential, and our hobby would have been a
lot poorer had you not come around.


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

I still remember when playing qtestx86 for Linux in college's computer
lab with my friends. It had no sound card too. It was still amazing!


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

... a little game called "Quake" got released. Maybe you heard of it?

I can't say I was all excited about the game at the time. Truth be
told, I'm still not all that excited about Quake. I definitely wasn't
playing it Day One of its released like I did "Doom"... although that probably had as much to do with my lack of easy access to the Internet
as disinterest. I was jumping between a lot of providers at the time,
and not all of them allowed me access to FTP sites. But even if they
had, I'm not sure I would have spent my limited bandwidth on Quake. It
was an ugly game and it dropped a lot of the ideas I found most
intriguing about the 'Doom-clone' genre in favor of multiplayer arena shooting.

That's not to say I didn't come to appreciate some of what Quake did.
It had some inventive settings, and the atmosphere of the game was
often very intense. Although a lot of the heavy lifting in the latter category was from Trent Reznor's soundtrack, and you missed out on
that only playing the shareware version.

I wasn't as convinced by its 3D-ness as were some. Yeah, it was
sometimes neat and undeniably the way of the future... but did it make
the game that much better than its 2.5D competitors? Not to me, it
didn't. It was a neat effect, but tech didn't make games great; it
just enhanced already good games.

There were other things Quake did that were only later recognized as ground-breaking, setting the new norm for modern games. Its console,
for instance, was an amazing feature, but so too was the ability to completely reconfigure the game (from changing video modes to
re-mapping all the controls) without restarting the program. We take
that sort of thing for granted now, but once-upon-a-time if you wanted
to change your resolution or use a different controller, you'd have to
go to the main menu (or worse, drop to the command-line and run a
separate program!) and then reload the game. There were so many little
things like that which Quake just Did Right and we only noticed how
awful the alternatives were until afterwards.

Still, I can't say much for the actual gameplay... and less for the
story. It was adequate at best, and sometimes an annoying slog (did
/anyone/ enjoy fighting those bouncing kamikaze blob things?).

The game sure sold a lot of '3D Accelerator' cards though.

Happy Birthday, Quake. You may not be my favorite Id game, but you
definitely were the most influential, and our hobby would have been a
lot poorer had you not come around.

--
"Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and will not be faint." --Isaiah 40:31. Crazy Tuesday with out(r)ages, pees, poops, etc.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 24 Jun 2026 05:39:05 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

... a little game called "Quake" got released. Maybe you heard of it?

I still remember when playing qtestx86 for Linux in college's computer
lab with my friends. It had no sound card too. It was still amazing!

I specifically remember /not/ going out of my way to get QTest.
Partly, I think, this was because I didn't know where to get it (and
search wasn't as reliable as it is now). Partly because -as earlier
mentioned- I didn't have easy access to FTP at the time. And partly
because I just wasn't that interested. I didn't want to fiddle with
buggy code in an unfinished game. If I were going to play Quake, I
wanted the full experience.

In fact, I don't think I ever got around playing QTest until the
Quake3 days, when I dug it up just to see what it was like. I remember
not being impressed. Not because its graphics were dated or because of
bugs or lacking features. Just that it didn't really give you an idea
what the game was going to be like. Had I played QTest in early '96, I
don't think it would have done anything to get me excited about the
final product. It probably would have done the opposite.




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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 6/22/2026 12:07 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

... a little game called "Quake" got released. Maybe you heard of it?

I can't say I was all excited about the game at the time. Truth be
told, I'm still not all that excited about Quake. I definitely wasn't
playing it Day One of its released like I did "Doom"... although that probably had as much to do with my lack of easy access to the Internet
as disinterest. I was jumping between a lot of providers at the time,
and not all of them allowed me access to FTP sites. But even if they
had, I'm not sure I would have spent my limited bandwidth on Quake. It
was an ugly game and it dropped a lot of the ideas I found most
intriguing about the 'Doom-clone' genre in favor of multiplayer arena shooting.

That's not to say I didn't come to appreciate some of what Quake did.
It had some inventive settings, and the atmosphere of the game was
often very intense. Although a lot of the heavy lifting in the latter category was from Trent Reznor's soundtrack, and you missed out on
that only playing the shareware version.

I wasn't as convinced by its 3D-ness as were some. Yeah, it was
sometimes neat and undeniably the way of the future... but did it make
the game that much better than its 2.5D competitors? Not to me, it
didn't. It was a neat effect, but tech didn't make games great; it
just enhanced already good games.

There were other things Quake did that were only later recognized as ground-breaking, setting the new norm for modern games. Its console,
for instance, was an amazing feature, but so too was the ability to completely reconfigure the game (from changing video modes to
re-mapping all the controls) without restarting the program. We take
that sort of thing for granted now, but once-upon-a-time if you wanted
to change your resolution or use a different controller, you'd have to
go to the main menu (or worse, drop to the command-line and run a
separate program!) and then reload the game. There were so many little
things like that which Quake just Did Right and we only noticed how
awful the alternatives were until afterwards.

Still, I can't say much for the actual gameplay... and less for the
story. It was adequate at best, and sometimes an annoying slog (did
/anyone/ enjoy fighting those bouncing kamikaze blob things?).

The game sure sold a lot of '3D Accelerator' cards though.

Happy Birthday, Quake. You may not be my favorite Id game, but you
definitely were the most influential, and our hobby would have been a
lot poorer had you not come around.

I never got into Quake either, of course I played it, but I coudn't tell
you much about it other than the NiN soundtrack, indeed it looking ugly,
and maybe quad damage pickups? FPSs weren't really my thing, still
aren't.

I remember liking Redneck Rampage, and whatever that one was that was
about D-Day storming of Omaha beach, and Counter Strike (though I got
into that more because of a good friend playing it) And Immortal
Redneck and of course DOOM but even I wasn't too into DOOM.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 24 Jun 2026 10:35:53 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
said this thing:

On 6/22/2026 12:07 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Happy Birthday, Quake. You may not be my favorite Id game, but you
definitely were the most influential, and our hobby would have been a
lot poorer had you not come around.

I never got into Quake either, of course I played it, but I coudn't tell
you much about it other than the NiN soundtrack, indeed it looking ugly,
and maybe quad damage pickups? FPSs weren't really my thing, still
aren't.

Quake wasn't completely without visual glamour. I've talked in the
past about how I was absolutely mesmerized by how it used polygons to
simulate the flame on its torches, and there were bits of texturing
that I found really impressive (the bone-covered arches around some of
the larger gates, for instance). And even though it was 'baked in'
lighting, the shadow effects were pretty impressive too.

But man, the sheer amount of brown and grey just drained the life out
of that game.

I remember liking Redneck Rampage, and whatever that one was that was
about D-Day storming of Omaha beach, and Counter Strike (though I got
into that more because of a good friend playing it) And Immortal
Redneck and of course DOOM but even I wasn't too into DOOM.

"Redneck Rampage" was such a mixed bag. On the one hand, it was so tongue-in-cheek stupid that you couldn't help but laugh (and it had a
fun soundtrack too). It also did a pretty good job of creating
'believable' worlds with its level design. But actually PLAYING
THROUGH those levels was such a chore, and the gameplay at best was
average.

The 'D-Day Storming Omaha Beach' bit could refer to a number of games
but its most famous representation was probably the 2002 game, "Medal
of Honor: Allied Assault". For its time, it was a massive and
impressive set-piece. Going back and playing it today, though, and it
appears so empty and barren compared to later attempts.

I hadn't heard of "Immortal Redneck" before (or, if I had, I've
completely forgotten it). Looking at its store-page on Steam, I can't
say that I feel that I have missed much. It just isn't my cup of tea.


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Justisaur wrote:

I never got into Quake either, of course I played it, but I coudn't tell
you much about it other than the NiN soundtrack, indeed it looking ugly,
and maybe quad damage pickups?  FPSs weren't really my thing, still aren't.

I'll probably quit playing it because of the NIN soundtrack, but I've
solved the first part many times. It's usually a worthy challenge to
jump in there and blow things away with the double shotgun, but I can't
play it if the soundtrack is by NIN.

I remember liking Redneck Rampage, and whatever that one was that was
about D-Day storming of Omaha beach, and Counter Strike (though I got
into that more because of a good friend playing it)  And Immortal
Redneck and of course DOOM but even I wasn't too into DOOM.

I didn't like Redneck Rampage. I never bought it. I avoided it. In the
similar fashion that I avoided PYST and Fortnite.
--
We eat the night, we drink the time
Make our dreams come true
And hungry eyes are passing by
On streets we call the zoo
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