Outside QuakeCon 1996, talking wtih friends
Unbelievably so, it’s been 10 years since QTEST (Quake Test) was unleashed upon the world a mere 4 months before the full release of Quake on June 22nd, 1996.
QTEST was a test version of Quake that we uploaded to the net to gather information on how people’s experience went. At the same time we invited seven people (The QTEST 7) to come to our office and play the game in front of us and give us their honest feedback – these were all hardcore DOOM players and very sensitive to gameplay issues. It was a great time having them there and getting the feedback….I still have DoomDeity’s feedback that he sent to me.
You’ll see in the pics a guy named Mark Fletcher – I hired him to be my MIS guy at Ion Storm and he was at Ion for the full 8.5 years of the company and working with Warren Spector at his new company now. Also pictured is John Cash, the network coder for Quake, who went on to become the Lead Programmer for World of Warcraft! You go, John – major props!
Here’s a great site about QTEST.
Download this page in PDF format
Ah, Quake. THE most eagerly awaited game ever.
Never had so much fun with shadows
***QTEST IS DOS ONLY***
For people that can`t be bothered to search google for Qtest:
http://www.quaketerminus.com/tools/qtest1.zip (4216 kb)
http://www.quaketerminus.com/tools/1evilway.zip (900 kb)
1evilway is add-on map for Qtest which shows some hidden early beta monsters. Pretty cool.
Please note the version of 1evilway.zip is different from the ones you get on idgames2/levels/deathmatch/0-9/. I repacked the file (years ago) to make installing and playing of the map 100% easier. If you really want to d*ck around with the original (35 kb) version, be my guest:
http://www.gamers.org/pub/idgames2/levels/deathmatch/0-9/1evilway.zip
If you want to have a nose around the ID1.pak in QTest, it will open fine in Pak Explorer : http://www.quaketerminus.com/tools/pakexplr.zip
You will see some of the developers names in the Pak, along with some of the sounds they made/borrowed for the game. The pack also has a version of the “lost dragon” model that was viewable in the prerealese screenshots from August 3rd, 1995, but never made it to the final game
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/4557/q66wj.gif
luck guys! first class deatchmatch with the developers
I downloaded QTest out of nostalgia somewhere around the five year anniversery and poked around with it a bit. It is clear how much it influenced things – I don’t think there were consoles in FPSes before QTest, and now they’re in every game. Granted, many are derived from some iteration of the Quake engine, but that’s another story…
A question still lurks in my mind about a descion made between QTest and the actual release of Quake though… QTest used a black background with a gold “Q” logo like the box art, yet the released game used a brown backdrop with a black logo… What prompted that change? IMO, the original looked better…
Yeah, pretty sad that of all the things I might post here about, I would ask about something as silly as that.
Was there ever a Q2 test? I know there was a Q3test.
Yep! There most certainly was a Q2Test. I am not sure if it contained more than the first level though.
The main thing I remember about q2test was when someone from id (American/tokay perhaps?) mentioned in passing on IRC that the release of q2test was imminent, only to have the channels flooded with users.
They quickly responded saying the test was not going to be released that night, and then released it a couple of hours later
That was like 8 or 9 years ago? Man, I feel old… though I was only 15 when q1 was relesaed.
Great work on Doom, Doom2 , Qtest, Quake 1 and Quake 2 . Great gaming moments and great classic games .
A lot of older Quake players that dislike Quake 4 and never really got into Q3 are playing Nexuiz now …..
Team Fortress Mod that was orignaly on Quake 1 , is being remade for Nexuiz ..
Nexuiz – http://www.nexuiz.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexuiz
Charliebrownau
http://charliebrownau.livejournal.com/
I remember how we played QTest and had lots of fun with it. For the first time, one could walk over bridges and look up and down
Man, lots of memories.
By the way, what IS Mr. Spector up to these days? I like to keep track of all my favorite game designers and what they’re up to and I’m having trouble keeping up with Warren lately.
Thank you for the post. . Keep up the good job!