Quake 3 is 17 Years Old

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
126
In my opinion Quake 3 offers the best deathmatch experience ever made, and to this day I enjoy playing against bots on nightmare difficulty.

It’s also the oldest stock renderer (point release 1.32) I have which not only works fine on modern systems, it also runs at 4K and 5K resolutions.

The graphics hold up impressively well for a 1999 game:

quake3.jpg
 

Zodiark1593

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2012
2,230
4
81
The art direction is far more impressive than the primitive tech behind it, granted the tech needed to be fairly simple for most systems of the time to target 120+ fps.

Isn't there a port of this game to ARM as well? Would be cool to have a little board attached to each display, and just bring display and kb/m to a LAN party.

Come to think of it, I remember reading an entire guide in a Playstation gaming magazine detailing all the weapons and powerups in Quake 3 back in 1999 and 2000.
 
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BSim500

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2013
1,480
216
106
In my opinion Quake 3 offers the best deathmatch experience ever made
Agree 100%. They didn't call it the "Golden Era" for nothing. A lot of people will say "rose tinted nostalgia" for the Doom/Quake stuff, but it isn't. They simply had "that distinctive feel" that just instantly "clicked" with millions of gamers.
 

motsm

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2010
1,822
2
76
The art direction is far more impressive than the primitive tech behind it...
In many ways, it looks more like a modern indie game with a retro visual style, rather than a truly 17 year old game. On the other hand, Unreal Tournament unfortunately looks every day it's age.
 

Raizinman

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2007
2,349
71
91
meettomy.site
Loved Castle Frankenstein and these similar games. Quake was one of my all time favorites. The sound and graphics were fantastic! I don't have the time and patience for most these games and utilize the GOD mode to get through the game. Still a lot of fun and would do it again today if I could find the game.
 

XiandreX

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2011
1,172
16
81
but not in gameplay.

Unreal tournament isn't even close to Quake 3 in terms of gameplay.
Even the way the movement system worked.
Strafe running and general movement around maps was insane fun if you spent time learning the mechanics.
I played with a group of guys that were at a National level in the US.
I have never enjoyed a CTF as much as that one.
 

jimrawr

Senior member
Mar 4, 2003
888
1
81
Q3 would have been amazing if they didnt nerf the rocket speed so much. Quake 1 team deathmatch on dm3 was better than Q3 TDM IMO
 

DeadFred

Platinum Member
Jun 4, 2011
2,740
29
91
Unreal tournament isn't even close to Quake 3 in terms of gameplay.
Even the way the movement system worked.
Strafe running and general movement around maps was insane fun if you spent time learning the mechanics.
I played with a group of guys that were at a National level in the US.
I have never enjoyed a CTF as much as that one.

Agreed :thumbsup:
 

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
Quake 1 was the superior multiplayer experience for me.

I also preferred Quake 2 to all 3 of them but the general consensus was against that I feel. Mods made Q2 pretty darn awesome.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,444
2,084
126
are you trying to say that UT was BETTER than quake ?

although i've had this (poor) conversation before, for your convenience, here it is again.

in UT you cannot do ANYTHING without a double tap; the double tap is the basis for everything, without that you just walk. there is no strafing, no circle jumping, no overbounce. Mouse movements do not affect your movement. Strafe keys do not affect your movement. You exclusively enter a set of predetermined movements only with a double tap strafe.

You cannot for example, get on a jumppad, find that you have enough UPS to air-strafe, and from there continue to do movement tricks without ever needing the original on-the-ground mouse+strafe acceleration.

this of course is aside from the fact that UT maps were never built to showcase movement techniques.

i have been here before, i have even had people tell me that movement is CS:GLOBAL OFFENSIVE is better than quake (lol, right?) so i am used to people talking out of their rear end, who have played five minutes of quake and they think they can do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP9IZju7L_U

that is vanilla quake, not CPMA or even PQL.


UT does admittedly have the shock rifle which is a nice weapon and the combos are interesting, but aside from that and a ridiculously bad sniper rifle, the weapons are all designed to be used within a few feet of distance.
i mean lol, weapon design in UT, just look at the redeemer.

but ofc, you have .. he he ... hhha hha .. you have rock .. ha hha HAHAH .. you have rocket jumping as well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Y-GaIRgHY


FYI QuakeLive is up, you can get it free on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/282440/

we play with "guys that were at a National level" every day, except when people like K1llsen, or Strenx or other Dreamhack players show up, in pubs. Have a go, except make sure not to join a team-based server because nabs need to play FFA first.



as for the Q1/Q2 nerfs, they were done because of a rebalancing of movement vs weapons. QW is still active today, but the tiered weapons + armor accentuated any difference in skill between teams and made shutouts far too common. If the rockets got nerfed, then the LG was practically removed; going from 30 damage/cell, to 7/cell, now even lower at 6/cell.

Incidentally, rockets have now been redesigned to move faster (900 vs 800 UPS), and have smaller splash damage. Rails have been brought down to 80dmg due to the ease with which you can hit people on modern broadband + netcode. Same for the LG.


UT is a game whose awkward movement is both an entry barrier and a limit to its possibilities. The weapons are horribad (you will love the new Doom game, it has the same kind of crap weapons) and the maps are poorly thought out. Physics are almost inexistent and the game itself is badly designed; that mouse interface is just so sad and pathetic.
Tell me you have individual sense for each axis, accelsensecap, accelsensespeed, raw input, all individualized per-weapon, including fov and crosshair. plus scripting, all built into the console.

let me just leave it at this without mentioning the various mods, map support, worldwide elo rankings ... grappling hook .. insta ... freezetag ...
 

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,169
2,830
126
I remember running through Quake 3 maps to test overclocks on my TNT2 Ultra video card. It was a waste of time now that I think about it. It's part of the reason why I don't go overboard on overclocks anymore.

Loved Castle Frankenstein and these similar games. Quake was one of my all time favorites. The sound and graphics were fantastic! I don't have the time and patience for most these games and utilize the GOD mode to get through the game. Still a lot of fun and would do it again today if I could find the game.

Castle Frankenstein was a great game.
 

XiandreX

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2011
1,172
16
81
are you trying to say that UT was BETTER than quake ?

although i've had this (poor) conversation before, for your convenience, here it is again.

in UT you cannot do ANYTHING without a double tap; the double tap is the basis for everything, without that you just walk. there is no strafing, no circle jumping, no overbounce. Mouse movements do not affect your movement. Strafe keys do not affect your movement. You exclusively enter a set of predetermined movements only with a double tap strafe.

You cannot for example, get on a jumppad, find that you have enough UPS to air-strafe, and from there continue to do movement tricks without ever needing the original on-the-ground mouse+strafe acceleration.

this of course is aside from the fact that UT maps were never built to showcase movement techniques.

i have been here before, i have even had people tell me that movement is CS:GLOBAL OFFENSIVE is better than quake (lol, right?) so i am used to people talking out of their rear end, who have played five minutes of quake and they think they can do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP9IZju7L_U

that is vanilla quake, not CPMA or even PQL.


UT does admittedly have the shock rifle which is a nice weapon and the combos are interesting, but aside from that and a ridiculously bad sniper rifle, the weapons are all designed to be used within a few feet of distance.
i mean lol, weapon design in UT, just look at the redeemer.

but ofc, you have .. he he ... hhha hha .. you have rock .. ha hha HAHAH .. you have rocket jumping as well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Y-GaIRgHY


FYI QuakeLive is up, you can get it free on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/282440/

we play with "guys that were at a National level" every day, except when people like K1llsen, or Strenx or other Dreamhack players show up, in pubs. Have a go, except make sure not to join a team-based server because nabs need to play FFA first.



as for the Q1/Q2 nerfs, they were done because of a rebalancing of movement vs weapons. QW is still active today, but the tiered weapons + armor accentuated any difference in skill between teams and made shutouts far too common. If the rockets got nerfed, then the LG was practically removed; going from 30 damage/cell, to 7/cell, now even lower at 6/cell.

Incidentally, rockets have now been redesigned to move faster (900 vs 800 UPS), and have smaller splash damage. Rails have been brought down to 80dmg due to the ease with which you can hit people on modern broadband + netcode. Same for the LG.


UT is a game whose awkward movement is both an entry barrier and a limit to its possibilities. The weapons are horribad (you will love the new Doom game, it has the same kind of crap weapons) and the maps are poorly thought out. Physics are almost inexistent and the game itself is badly designed; that mouse interface is just so sad and pathetic.
Tell me you have individual sense for each axis, accelsensecap, accelsensespeed, raw input, all individualized per-weapon, including fov and crosshair. plus scripting, all built into the console.

let me just leave it at this without mentioning the various mods, map support, worldwide elo rankings ... grappling hook .. insta ... freezetag ...

I am saying that is Q3 was far superior to UT in Multiplayer especially CTF.
This is my opinion and I would bet is the opinion of a lot of people.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Q1 was always my favorite. I never did really make a decent jump to Q2. Just didn't like the movement, didn't like the weapons or the maps. I was in the minority there though so I played it, but I never was any good at it.

Q3 I did like, but never played it as much as I jumped to things like AoT.
 

fortega

Senior member
Nov 22, 2000
561
1
81
I can't begin to count the hour's spent on Quake. Quake 2 being my favorite, Quake 3 a close second.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,189
184
106
My memories of Quake 3 Arena are limited to the Dreamcast and the PS2 versions. I just didn't have a PC back when Quake 3 ruled the PC FPS field. I have to say that I particularly liked the Dreamcast version a lot (in retrospect and considering the DC's hardware limitations, it was an excellent port) which I often played on Sega.net, against both DC and PC players (oh yeah, 2000 cross platform multiplayer baby; take that future!). The PS2 version had such horrible loading times, it's probably the one thing I remember the most out of it.

And in relation to the movement and physics of the game, I definitely remember seeing the clear night and day difference between me on my peasant DC controller and that other guy jumping all around like a bunny and seemingly doing a parkour while rocket jumping / boosting from point A to B and C... was my cue for "that's someone playing on a PC, or at least with the DC's mouse and keyboard" (and yeah the PS2 version didn't have that, why the hell did I buy that one I'll never know).

I've given a try to Quake Live though, a couple of months ago. It was decently fun. But I have to say that when it comes to arena-based shooters specifically on the PC, speaking for myself, my favorite will always be UT2004 (especially Invasion mode with mods and custom maps... oh God it was so much fun).
 

Aristotelian

Golden Member
Jan 30, 2010
1,246
11
76
I remember running through Quake 3 maps to test overclocks on my TNT2 Ultra video card. It was a waste of time now that I think about it. It's part of the reason why I don't go overboard on overclocks anymore.

I ran this on a Geforce DDR back then. Smooth.

@BFG - I also agree that it's the best deathmatch experience ever made. I said this back then too - because I thought the weapon balance was (and is) really spot on. I won a few local Q3 tournaments - would've been nice if, back in that day, gaming tournaments were as lucrative as they can be now ;)
 

XiandreX

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2011
1,172
16
81
I ran this on a Geforce DDR back then. Smooth.

@BFG - I also agree that it's the best deathmatch experience ever made. I said this back then too - because I thought the weapon balance was (and is) really spot on. I won a few local Q3 tournaments - would've been nice if, back in that day, gaming tournaments were as lucrative as they can be now ;)

I initially ran a Gefore2 GTS 256 MB if I recall correctly and later
moved to an ATI 9700 Pro.
 

TheSlamma

Diamond Member
Sep 6, 2005
7,625
5
81
Awesome game.. those were some good ol days. The amount of frames on my 21" trinitron was silky smooth.
 

DeadFred

Platinum Member
Jun 4, 2011
2,740
29
91
I am saying that is Q3 was far superior to UT in Multiplayer especially CTF.
This is my opinion and I would bet is the opinion of a lot of people.

Q3 was superior in every aspect to UT, IMO.

I think you misread our posts DigDog. :D