Lord_Santa has 6 chronicles

1. Quake
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Apr 05 2008

   Quake.
   
   The name alone let's you know what you're dealing with.
   Quake.
   
   I myself have never experienced an Earth-Quake; but as far as gaming goes, Quake is the closest thing I'll get.
   
   'tis was harsh times.
   In one camp, we had all the followers of DooM II: Hell on Earth
   In the other camp, we had the followers of "The new technology"; Duke Nuke'm 3D
   
   The DooM "series" sported with "High-tech" weaponry, whilst Duke Nuke'm 3D showed us "true 3D", with it's "look up, look down" and "multiple platforms" (Duke Nuke'm 3D created an "illusion" of being 3D in a 2D engine) and it had "true" Hi-Res graphics.
   
   Then, out of nowhere came: Quake.
   Quake, you say? Well it's an "ordinary 3D FPS"
   No!
   
   I remember it being back in '96 (1996 that is...) and it introduced us to a "true" 3D-engine.
   Mind you; not everyone had experienced "true" 3D at the time (except for the few of us, who'd been playing Ultima: Underworld I+II and Catacombs 3D) and lo, it was... bad.
   It was at a LAN party and let's put it this way; everyone who wasn't playing Duke Nuke'm 3D was playing DooM II.
   
   There out of nowhere came; Quake v.0.94 (yes, we were... a bunch of criminals)
   Quake 0.94 had no multiplayer implemented in the menu and it was horrible to look at.
   I mean, come on... Anyone who's seen Quake 1, without Glide knows how gloomy and dark it was
   
   But I saw potential, where others saw merely darkness.
   
   It took me, well about 6 hours, before I got the network function working
   And suddenly, we had a fully working 3D DM going.
   
   The people at the LAN-party thought it was "too dark and too gloomy", compared to Duke Nukem's bright colored graphics.
   I insisted that Quake, was the way of the future.
   But "everyone else" stated that you could never get a 3D object to look as appealing as a Sprite.
   
   We were about 4-5 people enjoying the Quake experience at that time.
   And boy.. did we play... over and over again...
   Mind you, at this time the mouse was completely out of the picture... we used the "Numpad's" and the arrow-keys to move and "look up and down" (with Duke Nuke'm as guide-line")
   
   It would take several months, before Quake was finally released.
   And lo, it was good.
   
   At the "local internet cafe" (mind you that I lived in a small town (population around 20.000 people) in Denmark at the time and the only internet café was the one, where we'd hang out) they looked at the "original" .cfg file and found out that... hey... John Romero uses "WASD" and a Mouse(???)))
   And the WASD"; "Mouse" combination was born.
   
   After (what seemed forever); Orchid Righteous 3D was born. (3dfx, for those who could afford it). And not only did that change gaming forever... it created a whole new way of gaming.
   
   For those of you who experienced 3dfx for the first time in Quake, you know what I mean; (r_mirroralpha 0.1, r_novis 1, r_shadows 1, etc.)
   
   Quake was no longer as "clumsy" looking as originally intended... you could actually "see" your own reflection in the mirrors.. and the upcoming patch (which made it possible to "see through water"; r_wateralpha) created a whole new way of which we looked upon 3D-gaming.
   
   Suddenly the Duke Nuke'm camp, was not so tough anymore.. Sure, they'd seen the trailers of "Prey" (released almost 10 years later, in the DooM 3 engine ^^) and they've heard about Duke Nuke'm Forever (lives up to it's name), but they had nothing to show for....
   And in the "blink of an eye", 3D FPS was born....
   
   You'd think it would stop there.. but no....
   Quake spawned MOD's... And I'm not only talking CTF, TF, etc. here.. No.... It made MOD's available to the "common PC user" (FvF (Fantasy vs. Future) and Quake Rally comes to mind), mainly because unlike the DooM series with it's DEU (DooM Editing Utilities) and Build (Duke Nuke'm 3D editor) it had qc. (Quake C.) scripting utilities (which was similar to the programming language "C")
   Thus spawned numerous MOD's for Quake.. more MOD's than we (the Community) could handle... and "WorldCraft" (these days used primarily for the Source Engine, ie. Half-Life 2 and renamed "Valve Hammer Editor") by "some unknown guy" named Ben (sorry if I can't remember your last name... But you will always be in my Hall of Fame)
   
   Revolution was at our hands... and Valve (creators of Half-Life, Half-Life 2, etc) expanded the Quake Engine to create; Half-Life.
   
   Then came the day when Quake 2, would be released.. And I waited and waited at the local game-store... and finally I had my very own copy of Quake 2... It had the "original" Quake Symbole, with the only change that instead of a single "nail", it had 2 "nails" in the Q.
   And lo... it sucked.
   
   Quake 2 sucked(???) You say; Yes. It sucked.
   Me being the Quake addict that I was, looked upon Quake 2 and played it.. My lord did I play it... but.... it had DooM written all over it; the weaponry, the "monsters" and the surroundings (where are my fortresses??) and thus had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Quake 1
   
   After writing a letter to John Carmack (the "brain" behind the DooM and Quake series), where I basically told him that Quake 2, was NOT Quake 2, rather than DooM 3 (UAC, anyone?) and threating him (in the only way I could) to reproduce illegal copies of his game, unless he changed the name of the game to DooM 3... alas.. it was of no use...
   
   John Carmack is a "nice guy" and he actually replied to my mail; stating that "Quake 2, IS Quake 2; and NOT DooM 3"
   
   I have Quake 2 (and the expansions) I have Quake 3: Arena, I have Quake 4; And I love playing them... But they are NOT Quake
   
   Quake is about "Shamblers", Quake is about "Ogres with chainsaws", Quake is ACTION!
   Quake 2 is about sporting "the latest" (at the time) technology, Quake 2 is about as exciting (SP) as (excuse me all who take offence) watching an animated .gif image of Traci Lords.
   
   Quake 3, a mere rip-off of UT (Unreal Tournament); although I played it until my fingers could take no more; was no more Quake, than SiN was DooM
   
   Someone ( and I DO blame John Carmack for this) sold the whole concept (and the soul) of the Quake "franchise", only to make a couple of extra $
   
   Where are the Ogres with Chainsaws? Where are the Shamblers with lightning at the tip of their fingers? Where are my Death Knights, Enforcers and (especially); where are my Fiends!?
   
   There will never be another Quake; or at least, iD will never release another Quake.
   
   I have the Quake 1 CD (yes people; it fits on a CD), with it's NiN (Nine Inch Nails) soundtrack and it's ubercool logo standing beside my computer at all time.
   
   I may have sold many games and many computers, but I will never sell Quake 1 (nor my two Voodoo 2 (12MB) graphic cards))
   But the sucker that I am, I will continue buying the Quake franschise; hoping.. no praying that one day... iD will get their act together and realize that gaming is NOT about who drives the fastest Ferrari (the first thing the "core group" from iD bought after the DooM series made them.. millionairs), gaming is NOT about "fancy new technology" (DooM 3 and later Quake 4 "required" 512MB RAM on the graphics card in order to boast with the highest settings); Gaming is about gathering people together and have fun (Co-Op anyone? They stripped it out of Quake 2, but implemented it later, since the community demanded it). Gaming is about memories of "that one true classic". Gaming is for US; the community.
   
   And Quake to me, will always be those endless LAN-parties, where we'd gather in cramped locales and having a GREAT time with (mainly) Co-Op (FvF) and DM6 (the "most played" DM map in Quake). Quake will always be the first time I got really scared (a fiend jumped out of nowhere and startled me) of a computer game. Quake will always be Shamblers, Death Knights, Citadels and what have you not... Quake will NEVER be UAC. and I will NEVER forgive Carmack (or the rest of iD; John Romero excluded, since he left shortly after Quake 1's release) for selling not only their own souls, but also the soul of Quake...

   
   

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Lord_Santa has 3 comment s on this chronicle.

1. Kupo_Cakes
   Posted On Apr 05 2008

   i dont remember what quakes i played when i was little, but i remmber being like 8-10 playing quake games on pc and on 64 i believe. awesome times ...although i must admit i was also playing duke nukem 3d and doom haha

2. BEN
   Posted On Apr 05 2008

   Yeah, great depth here and thanks for the great review of such a classic and influential video game series!
   You'll also have to get an image attached to this, so you can properly represent this chapter in your Chronicles

3. Boobacca
   Posted On Apr 05 2008

   Thanks for the excellent read. Lots of historical stuff I didn't know (the WASD / mouse things for sure!).
   
   I have certain things I treasure too, so I can definitely relate with respect to your omnipresent Quake I CD. "Ultracool NIN soundtrack" certainly doesn't hurt!