Playing the Quake Alpha - LONG
AndyDayton
Date: 96-02-20 18:02:16 EST
From: Khalad5131
From: Mackey McCandlish <fs...@virginia.edu>
Subject: The Day I Played Quake
Cut me some slack for this one itty-bitty post. Its not every day
I
get
to make one like this.
Yesterday at 6pm the 8 of us were at some mexican place ordering
from some dorky waiter who kept reminding us that he had just signed in.
We
had spent the
night before playing tons of DOOM2 and some warcraft2/hexen/C&C on 10
networked
machines at one of the 8's apartments. Mass quantities of soda were
consumed,
mostly by I. It was hard to contain our excitement because we knew that in
less than two hours we'd be playing Quake. For the record.. the 8 of us
were
myself, Polish, Wendigo, Monolith, Natas, Hardball, Anoat, and DoomDeity
snuck in.
All of us in one car (ok, Natas and Anoat arrived separately and
didn't eat with us) we arrived at id at 7:30 or so. A couple of us had to
go
to the bathroom and were scourging the bottom floor for one. We gave up
and
were about to board the elevator when Dave Taylor howed up, took names,
shook
hands etc. Rode up. Arrived at id.
I took several pictures while I was there, one of which
demonstrates
quite well that they're remodelling the offices. When we first arrived in
the
room several people were sitting at their pcs doing this or that and we
all
sorta stopped and gazed for a moment (*click* goes the cameras). Finally
we
walked up to the first machine we see running Quake. Some id guy (took
awhile to attach the names to the faces) said "welcome to your new world".
No
kiddin. They
quickly got us on machines and had personal RC files written for us (your
own
default.cfg sorta
that can be loaded at the command line or in the game at any time).
I was playing on Tim Willits machine I believe and was all set up
quick enough. Pretty soon I was running around (not really running, you
move
at 7/9ths the speed as in DOOM) and pickin up boxes and weapons. Naturally
the box of Nail gun ammo said NiN on the box (all of which were true 3d
objects of course). Monolith and Wendigo soon joined the game and I
knocked
them around quite a bit. One thing you learn very quickly is that (at
least
in beginner dmatch mode, which was all they had at the moment) you
basically
don't miss if you have ok aim. The weapons auto aim incredibly well and in
close range its rare that you miss with any of the weapons. For all you
keyboarders out there, that may be great, but for those of us who want
our
rockets to go where we tell them and not at some weird angle, well, it was
uncool. However the actual controls, the same number as DOOM (because
you're
always running and you don't have a use button) were very intuitive and
about
what I expected. Looking around with the mouse was a cinch and asside from
the slightly slower running everything was just dandy.
Next we had like an 8 player dmatch going, but the game wasn't
crazy
about that and was prone to crashes (seemed stable enough at 6, so we
broke
into two teams). For the next 2 hours we just played level after level,
from
about 5 or so, and eventually Romero joined in (to the other game). We
quickly picked up a healthy respect for lava (believe me you will too,
especially if you play American's god forsaken lava level) and also for
armor, which is actually a lot more effective than health. Depending on
what
color armor you have, the armor absorbes
different quantities of damage. When armor is absorbing damage instead of
your flesh, the
screen goes white instead of red. A lot of the levels were very 3d. You'd
see
somebody run below you and you'd jump off the platform and blast them from
behind with your super shotgun, lifting them off the ground and often into
a
wonderful Extreme Death post (like when they go
diving into the pavement).
cont'd
Subj: Quake (2)
Date: 96-02-20 18:06:50 EST
From: Khalad5131
When an object hadn't respawned yet it'd leave a little yellow
bead
to remind you where it was, a great indicator that somebody was just
there.
Tons of other little details were also present, like how the projectiles
all
left little trails of smoke or whatever. The blood was also impressive.
You
might be swimming around minding your own business when all of a sudden
you
hear some extreme chaos above you and streams of blood (not to mention
chunks
of body parts) come swirling through the water. The water itself had a
very
convincing swirling effect and general discoloration. The grenades and
nails
had very convincing sound effects while the rockets blew up in an
impressive
pixel shatter. No silly bitmaps to be found (other than the torches, which
are to be replaced before the alpha's public release I believe). The
characters themselves were quite detailed, as were their expressions when
you
examined their discarded heads. The monsters were no less detailed and had
a
lot of personality, tho I didn't test the game out in single player. The
weapons were sorta like DOOM's and Heretic's. You still had DOOM style
weapons but each one had a separate powered up version. Like you'd have
your
normal kickass shotgun (that you'd start with on spawn!) but also a red
SSG
you could get.
You'd have a normal nail gun and a super one that'd fire 2 for each shot.
A
grenade launcher (like a kick ass version of duke's pipe bomb) and a
rocket
launcher super version. They're adding a lightning gun and lighning chain
gun..
Eventually Romero came over to our (Monolith, HardBall, DoomDeity
and
I, I think) game. For a long while, we were getting totally stomped. Seems
to
me like most of the time I'd see him and couple rockets later I'd be gone,
although it didn't help that he knew all the damn secrets (armor is soooo
helpful). Romero always used bright blue (you can customize your shirt or
pants clothes colors during the game or from your RC file) so at least we
knew who to go after.
After he kicked us around awhile they set up a little Quake tournament.
It was to be one on one games, first to 20 on certain maps. I
first
had to play Natas I believe, don't even remember the 2nd person I had to
play. Well anyway the game was slooow going because Quake as of now is
altdeath only so you'd hurt the guy a bit, he'd stock up on ammo/health
(too
big a level for 2 player) and then fight you again fully fit. Eventually
we
were the only people left fighting (all the other people were done) so
they
moved us to a Quake version of Map01 of DOOM2. That moved a bit quicker
but
they dropped the win to first person to 10. I won like 10 6, not sure, but
it
was a lot more interesting when you had an idea of where the other guy
was.
Next up I played monolith or Doomdeity on a LAVA level. You will learn
fear
of lava, yes you will. Anyway he started off with a lead because I kept
either killin myself or spawning near him. If you spawn near an armed
opponent with no armor, you are just toast. Later on the same thing
happened
to him and I gained a lead. There was some mass suicide goin on (craziest
screams accompany that) so they made the rule that first to 10 or you lose
at
-10. Eventually I won that one too.
The final round was between Wendigo and I, coincidentally the two
Virginias (go VA!) that had flown down to test. We were playing another
LAVA
LEVEL. Augh. Pretty soon it was -1 to -5, my lead. It was pretty slow
going
and at about 0 to -3 they decided first to 5 or lose at -5. Wendigo had a
knack for getting the damn health and armor and I was eating rockets.. and
a
good half hour lately he had won 5 to 2. He is now the proud owner of an
id
mouse pad and supposedly will be getting a t-shirt in the mail.
cont'd
Subj: Quake (3)
Date: 96-02-20 18:11:41 EST
From: Khalad5131
After all this Quaking the id guys got us together in a big circle
for some q/a like what we were expecting, what disappointed us, what
surprised us, etc. Some important points we raised were that running
slower
was pretty hard to get used to, altdeath was a drag, auto- aiming was way
too
effective, and the environments weren't very dynamic. Their reply, mostly
by
American, were: The running was slowed down so that you could actually
follow
people because it was too easy to get away in DOOM. Also since there was
no
45 degree angle bug in Quake, it was sorta weird not going faster when
strafe
running. They noted that changing the speed was
really easy and demonstrated it for us (something like just type maxspeed
500
to go at doom speed). American explained that although altdeath would be
the
default, adding other dm modes like old deathmatch would be as easy as
commenting out one line. Then we asked why they don't just go ahead and
add
that so-easy-to-add mode, they said it was because they didn't want to
spend
the next year doing tons of little tweens. Ah well. As for the auto
aiming,
Romero explained that Quake will have 3 levels of deathmatch. Beginner,
novice, and expert. We were basically playing in beginner and that expert
mode would let us play without the extreme auto
aiming, which was really killing a lot of the technique, bad. Don't get me
wrong tho, it'll be great for all the keyboarders that couldn't hit a
mouser
if he was standing right in front of him (cause he'd circle strafe behind
him
of course). As for dynamic levels, they described a bunch of things that
they're implementing now called entities (and they had some examples to
show), such as sideways lifts, drop out floors, really cool doors, and
they're thinking about making huge rotating levels where you end up
standing
on the ceiling. Cool stuff.
During the q/a Dave noticed there were a ton of people on #quake
on
efnet irc expecting Quake's release (somehow people attached the
sunday-at-8pm testing time to the release of Quake) so American got on and
asked people if they were ready to get the demo (of course he was just
jokin
and soon quit the channel). When we were done with the q/a Dave, American,
and Tim were ready to herd us out but Romero said he'd take us out when he
left (yeah!). So him and John Cash stuck around. At first Romero was just
showin us the baddies (I took a photo of the group of us lookin at the
screen
and American, who was just leaving, happened to be bending over pickin
somethin up. "I know you didn't just take a picture of my ass!!"). Then he
showed us how editable the game was an such, and before long one by one we
were joining into the game and having ourselves another deathmatchathon
(from
like 11pm to 2am). The monsters he showed us were really cool and evil
looking, complete with temporary sound effects (you know, giggles while
they
slash your throat, sorta queer laughs when ya shot them).
The game had a couple bugs, like players getting stuck on the
walls.
In a 6+ player game the game'd soon crash afterwards, so you'd have to
quickly type "kill" and lose 2 frags to save the game. The swimming is
still
bein worked on, like ya couldn't see people if they were just on the
waters
surface yet (which made the autoaiming all the more goofy.. they were
still
easy to hit!) and you couldn't swim like you'll soon be able to (you'll
swim
in the direction you're
pointing). Those bugs and other minor ones are all that's slowin the
alpha
down as far as I can tell. Romero said it'd be about a week but American
sorta laughed under his breath.
cont'd
Subj: Quake (4)
Date: 96-02-20 18:14:49 EST
From: Khalad5131
Around 2:30 we found ourselves in the parkin lot talkin to Romero
about his big ass Humvee and the trips he's had in it and his deflatable
tired or whatever. He was taking up two handicap parkin spaces with it :).
Overall it was a really incredible night and in retrospect I really wish I
was PLAYIN QUAKE RIGHT NOW. But I guess I'll have to wait awhile longer to
play again (not to mention I need a new pc.. this p60 16ram just won't
handle
the game.. like DOOM didn't handle well on a low end 486). I didn't get to
sleep until 5am so that sorta sucked (got lost on the way back to
Doomdeity's
apartment) but if ya have to ask, yes it was worth the
$205 ticket to get there (tho I doubt I'll do it again for the shareware
test
they'll probably have). Some last q/a I've been asked way too many times
so
I'll answer them here:
Why did you get picked to go to id? Because I was there when ddt
was
askin and I called him voice, got confirmation etc.
When will Quake alpha be out? Over a week.
Did it make any difference that the guys had no shadows?
Absolutely
unnoticeable.
Could you kick heads around? Nope, no inventory either.
Here's the log of some interview chat I had.. perhaps reveals a
few
more insights.
Session Start: Mon Feb 19 18:27:44 1996
*** Now talking in #interview
*** DisLogger sets mode: +o _Avatar_
<DisLogger> Thanx.
<DisLogger> So you arrive to id Software HQ, see Quake running on the
monitors, and what are your first impressions?
<_Avatar_> it was a cool room. Like 20 computers in a huge room
<_Avatar_> running quake and quake ed
<_Avatar_> I took lots of pictures of the room
<_Avatar_> about 18
<DisLogger> Was Quake what you expected it to be? Did it live up to all
the
hype thus far? Does it, as Romero has been quoted as saying, "Make DOOM
look
like pong?"
<_Avatar_> Quake is different
<_Avatar_> It will take the experts awhile to get used to
<_Avatar_> but in the end it will be better
<DisLogger> Hey! If you can, digitize the pics... :)
<_Avatar_> I will for my page
<DisLogger> I heard that it was played with 6-8 people, notwithstanding
that
it was still an alpha, how was the lag?
<_Avatar_> no lag on ipx
<_Avatar_> it was tcp/ip actually
<_Avatar_> you'd connect to another machine on the idnet
<DisLogger> So you didn't actually run tests over the internet for testing
purposes
(Everything was run on the internal idnet?)
<_Avatar_> I don't know if they've tested it over the net
<_Avatar_> but I think they have with rogue, which is on the same floor
but 2
hops away
<_Avatar_> JCash said they'd like at least 3 players at 14400 and 5 or so
at
28800
<DisLogger> It goes without saying that id softwares games are legendary.
How
were the people behind the code? Are they (to use the cliche term) "cool"
?
<_Avatar_> hahahaha
<_Avatar_> None of them were QUITE what I was expecting
<_Avatar_> like Dave was bigger with wild hair
<_Avatar_> American's hair is black now and he was pretty cool
<_Avatar_> hmm
<_Avatar_> lets see
<_Avatar_> carmack was pretty cool
<_Avatar_> but
<_Avatar_> naw lets talk about something besides the id personel
<_Avatar_> heheh
<DisLogger> I read earlier on in the day that there were a few bugs found
as
a result of the tests? If you can recall, what were they, and do you feel,
in
your opinion, it would delay the Alpha being released in the near future?
<_Avatar_> yeah bugs
<_Avatar_> they thought it'd take about a week to fix
<_Avatar_> when they're fixed it'll come out
<_Avatar_> no, Romero thought they would take a week to fix
<DisLogger> Romero was also heard saying that he wanted it out this week?
Was
that true?
<_Avatar_> he wants it out when the bugs are gone
<_Avatar_> One major bug is that you can get stuck permantly in a wall
<_Avatar_> and then the game, if it has around 6 players, is likely to
crash
cont'd
Subj: Quake (5)
Date: 96-02-20 18:17:45 EST
From: Khalad5131
<DisLogger> Ok, how about actuall game play, the sheer CARNAGE factor, did
it
get you pumped up? Really get your adrenaline flowing? Describe the frags
if
you can?
<_Avatar_> lots of carnage
<_Avatar_> frags are so much cooler
<_Avatar_> you kill a guy and he dives into death
<_Avatar_> or something totally different
<_Avatar_> and has different death sounds
<_Avatar_> like this funny "glub" one
<_Avatar_> sorta like doh
<DisLogger> So it sounds like, ala Duke3D (GASP!), there are humerous
aspects
to the game?
<_Avatar_> humerous but in different ways
<_Avatar_> doom put in little gags and stuff
<_Avatar_> in quake, you laugh cause the guy's head shot 20 feet into the
air
<DisLogger> Haha
<_Avatar_> One really cool part is that anything can be modified in the
game
that you'd normally do in setup
<_Avatar_> like you can change all your keys in the game
<_Avatar_> or your colors
<DisLogger> Describe the "immersion". Is the environment completely
immersive? If you've seen the unreal demos, how does it compare?
<_Avatar_> unreal demo? hahaha (Unreal ain't as far along).
<DisLogger> So I take it that Quake simply blows all first person games to
all hell? Nothing compares? It really is the best game on the planet right
now?
<_Avatar_> Quake's hurdle will be getting people used to running slower
<_Avatar_> also, it will have 3 levels of deathmatch
<_Avatar_> beginner, novice, and expert
<_Avatar_> in beginner mode, which was all that was in at the time, the
game
autoaims yer weapons like a biatch
<_Avatar_> you CAN'T miss with the shotgun unless you're totally blind
<_Avatar_> and the rockets lead by their force vector
<DisLogger> Is there a story behind Quake yet? The romero quote of "Space
Marine goes back in time... Maybe..." ?
<_Avatar_> Yes something like that
<_Avatar_> although he told me the story awhile back, he didn't say it to
us
as a group so I won't go into that
<DisLogger> How was the environment? The actual levels? Impressive? Levels
upon levels? Swimming, flying, climbing?
<_Avatar_> swimming is still being worked on
<_Avatar_> but it will be sorta like flying around in descent
<_Avatar_> wherever you look, you go that direction
<_Avatar_> In beginner death match (and since ya run a bit slower) it
really
was totally different from doom.. a lot more looking around involved if
ya
really wanted to get somebody on most of those levels
<DisLogger> How about the levels? The shadows? The lighting? The textures?
Overall "feel" of the game? Did they blow you away?
<_Avatar_> the lighting in some places kicked ass
<_Avatar_> and it was always really detailed
<_Avatar_> the textures were a bit bland
<_Avatar_> like rock an stuff
<_Avatar_> but there was a hill in one part
<DisLogger> A Hill?
<_Avatar_> yeah
<_Avatar_> like it can do hills
<_Avatar_> there was a hill in a castle sorta
<DisLogger> Compare the pace of gameplay with that of DOOM? Does it have
the
ability for complete PURE FAST carnage with alot of players or is it more
strategic?
<_Avatar_> there's a lot more stuff gettin thrown around
<_Avatar_> like the nail gun shooting out just a chunk of nails all over
the
place..
<_Avatar_> people getting knocked into the air by the shotgun
<_Avatar_> all of that kicked ass..
<DisLogger> Thank you very much for your time. I see alot of information
on
#quake right now. I'll have a fun time tonight editing the logs... Hope to
frag yer ass totally and completely in the near future :)
<_Avatar_> sure
Session Close: Mon Feb 19 19:05:48 1996
Note that all of this will be on my web page,
http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/~fsm3m,
as soon as I get the photos back and scanned for it. Oh the day ended on a
great note.. we finally finished a game (somebody got to 20 frags). That
was
me with 20, JCash with 11, and Romero with... 9! The other 3 in the game
were
below that. See ya!
-*Avatar*-
end