Was Quake 1 Really The Best?

[AlphaZeroX96]

Is it really a very important PC game? I'm sure that there was a 3D game that came out before Quake and Super Mario 64, yet didn't get the recognition Quake had. Another thing is that to me, Quake seems to have been designed as a tech demo. You can tell too. Do people really like it for the gameplay or actually like it just for the gothic brownish theme?

[Electric Cupcake]

There were several 3D polygon-based games before Quake, like Star Fox, but none of them ran quite as smoothly or with such detail.

When the magazines started printing photos of what the id guys were working on, people thought it was a hoax. They didn't think it was possible. And, of course, IPX multiplayer was huge. Thus, the rocket jump was born.

[Skull of a Crowned Athlete]

The Nine Inch Nails soundtrack is bangers: https://youtu.be/wr_8SNzlhb4

Movement is bangers (at a high level because a lot of the techniques are really unintuitive like source games) https://youtu.be/en1Ke7ZO_xk?t=104

Multiplayer is bangers: https://youtu.be/OZWVY_GrHDU?t=91

Gunplay is simple but serviceable, and even though it was far from the first 3D game it was still mighty impressive at the time and forced people to buy graphics cards or suffer.

[D4NUK1]

Quake 1 being the best? It's mostly in preferenece as Quake 2-4 it's different enougth to have their own style/gameplay.

Where Quake 3 it's only MP. So we have a unique dark FPS Game, that was unique at the moment.

But Quake 1 being the more important? Absolutely, they made posible high performace FPS in early technology ,help to create most of the early FPS in the 95-Forward, like Call of Duty, Half Life, Hexen 2 and more.

So yeah, it's the most important, but not the best, at least, if you like more Quake 2,3 or 4 styles.

[ming84]

It was pretty legendary in it's day. IMO its not as fun as other 2.5 shooters from the 90's, but I still enjoy it from time to time.

[nuclearballs1]

In addition to the obvious good things about Quake 1, one thing that's rarely mentioned, is just how little "horsepower" you need to run it. This is both in the area of graphics, and in your online connection speed. You can have decent game play with a DSL connection. Since most gamers have better than this, they don't normally consider the speed factor. So for the connection challenged, it works great in online play. Try finding another online FPS that's close to Quake 1 in the enjoyment factor, that can claim this.

[SlenderKnirpZ]

In my opinion? Yes yes it is.

[Tamamo-no-Bae]

I definitely prefer the tone of this to other Quakes.
Quake 2 went with cyborg aliens and a more action oriented style. Quake 3 ditched multiplayer whatsoever, and Quake 4 was basically a sequel to Quake 2.

The Lovecraftian dark dimension style of Quake 1 was never truly done again.
In terms of what it contributed...It was VERY important.

Both in terms of technology and gameplay.
A lot of game ending descended from the Quake engine, most famously...Goldsource, the engine of Half-Life.

Source and Source 2 are both still distant relatives of Quake.

[AlphaZeroX96]

Originally posted by Tamamo-no-Bae CUTE:

I definitely prefer the tone of this to other Quakes.
Quake 2 went with cyborg aliens and a more action oriented style. Quake 3 ditched multiplayer whatsoever, and Quake 4 was basically a sequel to Quake 2.

The Lovecraftian dark dimension style of Quake 1 was never truly done again.
In terms of what it contributed...It was VERY important.

Both in terms of technology and gameplay.
A lot of game ending descended from the Quake engine, most famously...Goldsource, the engine of Half-Life.

Source and Source 2 are both still distant relatives of Quake.

Quake 3 ditched the single player, not multiplayer.

[ULTRA]

Descent also pre-dated Quake, and wasn't exactly underrated.

Magic Carpet...

Terminal Velocity...

None of which were significantly better gameplay-wise by really any large majority's standards.

People ♥♥♥♥ on the "gothic brownish theme" of Quake today without the memory that original DOS DOOM was some grainy, washed out crap, or that the rainbow vomit palette of the games at the time (Marathon, System Shock, Descent) were hardly original either. Even Duke 3D was basically just a recreation of downtown American city areas and cliche Giger/Star Trek stuff and we don't have pony avatars calling it banal 25 years after release.

Which, by the way, has happened multiple times on this forum if I remember right.

Quake also had unprecedented aftermarket support in addition to the "tech demo" that is literally the only reason you were able to make this thread on this website. There were official graphical and networking source ports that were even more advanced for the time, and the lead programmer went to great extents to provide a convenient API for modding.

As a result, the following are part of our reality now:

Team Fortress
Last man standing modes in video games (PUBG, Fortnite...) by way of Rocket Arena's derivatives
Half-Life
Counter-Strike by way of Navy SEALs Quake and Half-Life
A large swath of internet culture, by way of Something Awful, Rich Kyanka's spinoff site from writing at PlanetQuake

I still play Quake to this day, though usually not in its original unaltered format, because I've literally already played that for hundreds if not thousands of hours throughout my life. Yesterday I played a map and mod pack with someone cooperatively - yes, for amusement - on this map:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qglLgcrrZI

Mario 64 and Descent have similar scenes, but it's in spite of themselves and I doubt as a 24-year-old gamer that you've even heard of Magic Carpet or Terminal Velocity before.

[Gila]

Check this out, Quake 1's certain flickering lighting pattern still present and used in latest Half-Life!

https://kotaku.com/ancient-90s-code-from-quake-still-controls-lights-in-h-1847105972

[nuclearballs1]

Thanks for posting this. I never get tired of Quake tidbits.

[AlphaZeroX96]

Originally posted by Anarchist Jurisdictor:

Descent also pre-dated Quake, and wasn't exactly underrated.

Magic Carpet...

Terminal Velocity...

None of which were significantly better gameplay-wise by really any large majority's standards.

People ♥♥♥♥ on the "gothic brownish theme" of Quake today without the memory that original DOS DOOM was some grainy, washed out crap, or that the rainbow vomit palette of the games at the time (Marathon, System Shock, Descent) were hardly original either. Even Duke 3D was basically just a recreation of downtown American city areas and cliche Giger/Star Trek stuff and we don't have pony avatars calling it banal 25 years after release.

Which, by the way, has happened multiple times on this forum if I remember right.

Quake also had unprecedented aftermarket support in addition to the "tech demo" that is literally the only reason you were able to make this thread on this website. There were official graphical and networking source ports that were even more advanced for the time, and the lead programmer went to great extents to provide a convenient API for modding.

As a result, the following are part of our reality now:

Team Fortress
Last man standing modes in video games (PUBG, Fortnite...) by way of Rocket Arena's derivatives
Half-Life
Counter-Strike by way of Navy SEALs Quake and Half-Life
A large swath of internet culture, by way of Something Awful, Rich Kyanka's spinoff site from writing at PlanetQuake

I still play Quake to this day, though usually not in its original unaltered format, because I've literally already played that for hundreds if not thousands of hours throughout my life. Yesterday I played a map and mod pack with someone cooperatively - yes, for amusement - on this map:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qglLgcrrZI

Mario 64 and Descent have similar scenes, but it's in spite of themselves and I doubt as a 24-year-old gamer that you've even heard of Magic Carpet or Terminal Velocity before.

I wasn't insult Quake. I was asking if it was really the best.

[satisfiction]

Originally posted by Crosseyed Mie:

When the magazines started printing photos of what the id guys were working on, people thought it was a hoax.

Duuude I would love to read/see something where they were skeptical like that! That's funny!

[Captain n00by]

Originally posted by SaviorAssassin1996:

Is it really a very important PC game? I'm sure that there was a 3D game that came out before Quake and Super Mario 64, yet didn't get the recognition Quake had. Another thing is that to me, Quake seems to have been designed as a tech demo. You can tell too. Do people really like it for the gameplay or actually like it just for the gothic brownish theme?

Robocop 3, Magic Carpet, Descent, Terminal Velocity, The Terminator: Future Shock were 3D games that came before Quake, but Quake had "next-gen" full 3D technology.

Tech-demo - sure, all id Software games were just that, and I don't know if anyone really complained about that. (maybe those with too slow PCs to run them)

Gameplay - Quake did important steps forward in the FPS genre, with "free aim", full 3D graphics, "rocket jumping" and other things. The SP part of the game was cool, but the real thing was the MP part (later released as "Quake World") which popularized LAN and online multiplayer, as well as modding.

Gothic brownish theme with the moody soundtrack contributed by Nine Inch Nails fitted the game perfectly and is solemn seen in games nowadays. (Dark Souls series seems to be the closest nowadays)

[Captain n00by]

Originally posted by SaviorAssassin1996:

Originally posted by Tamamo-no-Bae CUTE:

I definitely prefer the tone of this to other Quakes.
Quake 2 went with cyborg aliens and a more action oriented style. Quake 3 ditched multiplayer whatsoever, and Quake 4 was basically a sequel to Quake 2.

The Lovecraftian dark dimension style of Quake 1 was never truly done again.
In terms of what it contributed...It was VERY important.

Both in terms of technology and gameplay.
A lot of game ending descended from the Quake engine, most famously...Goldsource, the engine of Half-Life.

Source and Source 2 are both still distant relatives of Quake.

Quake 3 ditched the single player, not multiplayer.

Quake 3 still had a SP part, but it was just bot matches, similar to fighting games.