Copyright © 1997 Bill Miller. All rights reserved.
Quake is the latest in 3-D first-person, action-arcade-style games from Id Software. Id Software has been setting the gaming world on fire for years with its inventive and addictive brand of game software. They are probably most responsible for the loss of productivity in the corporate workplace and the high incidence of "computer gaming widows" (or "widowers").
Id Software made its mark on the Internet when it introduced DOOM in 1993. It was one of the first games that one could download as shareware from an ftp site. Thousands of gamers became beta testers for what was a technological breakthrough. The Doom Engine mapped graphics to video to give a "real time" feel to the game. With a 386 computer one could walk through dimly lit hallways and encounter fireball-throwing imps and shotgun-wielding sergeants. This was way beyond any game that could be found at the time.
One of the interesting aspects of the game was that you could play the game over a modem or over a network. The Doom Deathmatch, as it was known, had players going after each other with chain saws or rocket launchers. There were some issues with the Network play. According to the MIS manager at a major aerospace firm, "Back then during network play, the game chewed up so much bandwidth that the whole network would come to a standstill. We had a software build that crashed when some engineer pulled the trigger on the pistol in DOOM while playing in Deathmatch over our network."
In the years that followed there were many improvements in hardware and software. In 1995, the hot rumor was that Id was going to produce another miracle like DOOM. When Quake came out in 1996, there were no disappointments.
Quake has incredible 3-D graphics and is fully compatible with Windows 95; games are typically DOS-based and would crash Windows 3.x. The drawback is that it requires a Pentium machine because of the math co-processor. The best thing about Quake is that you can play via modem, network (IPX) or over the Internet (TC/PIP).
With the plethora of inexpensive Pentium machines and cheap Internet access, your computer could become a Quake server. Soon you could have people from around the world playing Quake on your machine. The only problem is, how to tell people that your server is up and running?
The site that helps you find a Deathmatch near you is STOMPED. On their site, they have lists of IP addresses of Quake servers that are currently running, the number of people logged on, and the player capacity of the server. Due to Internet latency, commonly known as "LAG," you can choose a game that is near you. If you play at a site on the other side of the country, you will be nothing but cannon fodder before you fire off a shot.
It's relatively easy to play Quake over the Internet with Windows95. First dial up your ISP and minimize the dial-up. Open a DOS box and change directories to your Quake directory. Then run the file Q95.bat. When Quake starts running, go to "Multiplayer" and then to "TC/PIP." Enter the IP address (e.g., 123.45.67.890) of the server you found on STOMPED. If you have 32 MB of RAM, you may want to edit the Q95.bat batch file and add -winmem 16 after quake.exe. This will allocate 16MB of RAM instead of the default of 8MB...and remember NOT to run your CD-ROM while playing.
Both Id Software and STOMPED have some excellent links to other Quake-related sites.
There are many exciting aspects to gaming over the Internet. No longer will you have to "die" alone while gaming at home. You can play over the Internet and find plenty of people who will assist you in that endeavor. And should you happen to log onto a Quake server and you get fragged by "Gramps," it'll be just my way of saying "hello."
Bill Miller is a credit manager and computer engineering student living in Laguna Hills, CA.