Happy 30th Quake! Remembering the best of times...
Post date: 2026.06.22.
Note: this post is a short memory dump about one of my all time favorite game, Quake - for the 30th anniversary of the game, today. I cannot really thank id Software enough for making this game, helping through my teenage years, and learning to appreciate both the simplicity and the complexity of one of the best and most significant game ever made.
When I am thinking about gaming history, and how certain games shaped my life, Quake is in the top 10 of my favorites. Probably in my top 5. The game came out in 1996, and I actively played it for many years. Mind you these were the years when we were still on dial-up internet, so for me multiplayer was relegated to LAN, however lots of extra time in school went into downloading maps, mods to play at home later.
Quake had a hectic development time, mostly developing a new engine and making the levels which of course was relied on the evolution of the new engine. It ultimately lead to the first truly 3D first person shooter (sorry Descent fans, your game is great, but not a classic FPS), and the exit of John Romero from id Software. He went on creating great things, including making the company that gave us Deus Ex, and Thief Deadly Shadows (both are high on my favorite games list). Funny how life works... I highly recommend John Romero's biography, Doom Guy: Life in First Person.
With Quake, id Software went full 3D, from the levels that could have room over room, and amazing 3D enemies in water, land and air. They choose a dark fantasy theme, added Ctulhu elements, and an amazing Nine Inch Nails production for an eerie ambient soundtrack (link to album). From the first moment, Quake shows it's strength with character movement. Very fast paced, that was key in multiplayer matches. You sneeze you lose. Even today there are rarely games as fast as Quake, and most of the boomer shooters (including Doom Eternal), has the fast movement DNA from Quake. It was hard to master, especially with the "rocket jump", which made possible to reach places that are higher than you could normally jump. I remember mods adding grappling hook, which also changed map design as well.
My memories about Quake revolves around blasting my classmates into pieces, while they also tried doing the same. We had a good time, even if I had obvious advantage knowing the maps much better than them. Almost every item had a sound when you picked up, so when on a map you heard the sound of teleport, or somebody picked up an armor, you know where they were. Never mind the Quad damage, which gave you 4x times damage and could decimate enemies in less than a second. To this day, if I saw a muted clips about Quake, I can still hear the sounds of the weapons, the monsters, the items. The sound design is excellent for Quake. Sharp, metalic noises with very haunting atmosphere.
DM4, is my favorite deathmatch map from the originals
Favorite deathmatch map was dm4, a tight, smaller map, which showed off verticality. It was perfect for 1v1 duels, but it was alright up to 4 players as well, I think. This is where you test your hearing. The Quad damage was normally reachable, but if you missed, you probably ended up in the lava pool, below. Then people laughed at you, before they suffered the same fate. Thanks for American Mcgee for making this map!
Another good thing was about multiplayer that every player was equal from the start, but with learning the map, sound effects, rocket jump, the movement etc. you could indeed become better player than others. There were no items to buy, or leveling up or having skill trees. If you win, that was all you, if you lost, that was you too.
After Doom having great success in the modding community, it was no wonder that Quake followed similar concept. I think it was probably the first game, where AI opponents appeared, with the likes of OmicronBot and many others. These opponents went over what a normal monster could do - which was just seeing the player, and shooting until either of them are dead. With these bots, it was possible to practice the map, and give us challenge that sometimes a normal player couldn't do. And of course you didn't spend money on internet bill, which was very important at the time.
With AI opponents for Quake, later Quake II and Unreal developers put more emphasis on single player opponents as well, that made those games even more fun.
One of my favorite thing in Quake was to make my own configs. I had a floppy just for that. This was the game which ultimately moved many gamers from the arrow keys to WASD (probably not left handed players though). People had wild configs, rebinding the weapons to even more closer buttons, which of course was highly dependent on personal preference.
There were mods outside of the first person realm, like Quake Rally which I loved.
Quake single player, sadly I was never really into. I mean I played it, but most of my time went into multiplayer. The game has excellent enemy design, challenging maps. I personally prefer the dark fantasy maps to the futuristic stations. Is this the last classic fps, which didn't have a "use" button? You just walked up to switches and pushed them.
Sometimes we played deathmatch on the difficulty choosing level, pretty funny. I liked playing CTF as well, which was a hectic mode of grabbing a flag, and bring back home to your base, while the other team tries to do the same.
Quake's legacy still lives on, thanks to open sourcing the engine, which spawned countless source ports with different aims. Mods and levels are actively developed, and when I play it from time to time, I still have the same feeling about Quake, when I started playing. It has a timeless quality to it, that is rarely present in today's games.
Onto the next 30 years!
