Quake is a 3D first person point of view shoot 'em up game from id Software. This game is the next step in Ego Shooters after the success of Doom. While there is plenty of gameplay for Single Players, Quake offers also a Multi Player Option to play over the Network. The Story that accompanies the game is flat, as it is usual in this game genre. But this isn't the reason why one buys such a game.

Quake introduced several major advances in the 3D game genre: it uses 3-dimensional models for players and monsters instead of 2-dimensional sprites; and the world in which play takes place is created as a true 3-dimensional space, rather than a 2-dimensional map with height information which is then rendered to 3D. It also incorporated the use of lightmaps and dynamic light sources, as opposed to the sector-based static lighting used in games of the past. Many believe that it kick-started the independent 3D graphics card revolution, "GLQuake" being the first application to truly demonstrate the capabilities of the 3DFX "Voodoo" chipset at the time. The impact of the Quake engine is still being felt to this day.

The majority of programming work on the Quake engine was done by John Carmack. Michael Abrash, a program performance optimization specialist, was brought in to help make the software rendering engine feasible with regards to speed. The background music for the game was composed by Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails. Within the game, the ammo box for nails has the Nine Inch Nails logo on it.

Quake and its two "sequels", Quake II and Quake III: Arena, have sold over 4 million copies combined.

You are a marine for the government sent into a portal to stop an enemy known as "Quake". This enemy has been sending terrible demons and death squads through the government's new slipgate technology. This slipgate technology allows instant transportation of cargo or any other material. Once sent through the portal you must fight through hundreds of demons to stop the enemy. The other realm is inspired by several influences, notably that of H. P. Lovecraft (the end game boss being Shub-Niggurath herself).

Minimum Requirements:
• IBM-PC compatible computer with a Pentium P-60 microprocessor or higher
• IMPORTANT: Quake requires a floating point processor. Systems without an FPU installed will not run Quake at all
• 8 MB RAM (16Mb required under Windows 95)
• Hard drive required with at least 30Mb free (shareware) 80Mb free (registered)
• Double speed CD-ROM drive with a sustained transfer rate of at least 300Kb per second or faster
• MS-DOS 5.0 or higher (does not run under Windows NT)
• Local bus video card with 1Mb of RAM which is compatible with VESA 1.2 or later, VGA
• 100% Sound Blaster compatible sound card
• Microsoft compatible mouse

Recommended Specifications:
• Pentium 133
• 16 MB RAM
• SVGA 2MB

Fifteen Years of Influencing Video Game Design

Keyboard Layout
History
Jumping
Mods

Creatures:
• Chthon
• Shub-Niggurath

Review 1

Soundtrack
Other Audio

Matt Chat 54: Quake with John Romero
Matt Chat 55: Daikatana with John Romero

Demo (8.67 Mb)

Internal Links:
• Quake: Scourge of Armagon
• Quake: Dissolution of Eternity
• Team Fortress
• Action Quake
• Malice
• X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse
• DOSBox

External Links:
• FTP: Quake source code (zip)
• PlanetQuake
• The Quake Wiki
• Quake done Quick - Home for speed runs Quake done Quicker and Quake done Quick With a Vengeance, among others.
• Speed Demos Archive - Quake - Individual Quake levels completed as fast as possible, in four categories.
• quakeworld.nu
• eQuake
• id Museum, a page dedicated to id Software
• The Last True Quakers, a forum for those that still play Quake.