Sep 14, 2007

Reliving the FPS glory of Quake in 32-bit color

Quake (official demo download), id's 1996 sequel to Doom, was more than just another FPS best seller on the PC. It was the game that cemented the dominance of 3D graphics, pioneered the keyboard & mouse interface, single-handedly exploded the 3D graphic-cards market, introduced mankind to online fragging and made sure zombies would be our collective FPS enemies for many years to come. What's more, its historically important engine has gone open source since 1999, which eventually led to the creation of the Dark Places Quake mod software thingy.

Why should you care? Simple really, as a) you are all caring by nature and b) Dark Places can give the aging Quake quite a facelift. The mod, you see, provides Quake with a vastly improved engine sporting (among other impressive features) advanced lightning, shader effects, 32bit color alpha blended explosions, improved physics and some really nice particle tricks. To grab said mod click here. Oh, and don't worry, it's freeware exactly as the gods intended.

Now, to further enhance your retro-ish FPS experience, you could also give the Quake Retexturing Project and Quake Remodelling Project a try. They too are free and quite impressive.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: Bioshock widescreen hack & stuff, Duke Nukem 3D high-res, fixing the RE4 PC mess, Warcraft III widescreen

14 comments:

  1. What Quake 4 did for multiplayer gaming is amazing.

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  2. open source and alpha blending..... next they'll be given away sprog babies for adoption.. it's a conspiracy you know...

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  3. Indeed it is... :)


    (pssst, Elderly, everything is a conspirace. I've seen them... They are definitely conspiring)

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  4. ...sprogs.. hate em... and they always seem to know when your out of ammo... btards.....

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  5. At least they aren't conspiring...

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  6. ..?.. no they are.. they're conspiring too.. evidence with the sprog baby give away... you see it's all adding up.. our time on earth is numbered.....

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  7. Ah, but strog babies are so cute... And they got those big deep cuddly insect eyes... Couldn't be a conspiracy, no sir.

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  8. I still haven't got to grips with that 'keyboard/mouse interface' as a gaming control mechanism... Never got to grips with Quake either, though I have Quake 3 Arena for Dreamcast...

    Perhaps this could be the one...

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  9. I wouldn't try it on the Dreamcast father... its controller isn't exactly suited for your average FPS... Oh, and believe me, keyboard and mouse beats anything...

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  10. But don't forget the Dreamcast has keyboard and mouse peripherals Gnome...

    Oh, and I meant the one you had just bestowed on us could be the one...

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  11. Valid point that Father & oh, I see :)

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  12. ..sprog babies cute?... ?... well for a start they're doubly incontinent.....

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  13. Yes? Never knew that...

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