John Carmack recounts Quake

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 23 June, 2011

Seminal shooter 15 today.

id Software wizard John Carmack has recounted the experience of creating Quake, the seminal first-person shooter that turns 15 today.

"My defining memory of the game was fairly early in development, when I no-clipped up into a ceiling corner and looked down as a Shambler walked through the world with its feet firmly planted on the ground," Carmack, who is knee deep in Rage development, said on the Bethblog.

"This looked like nothing I had ever seen before; it really did seem like I had a window into another world. Of course, as soon as he had to turn, the feet started to slide around because we didn’t have pivot points and individual joint modifications back then, but it was still pretty magical.

"It seems silly now, but at the time we were very concerned that people wouldn't be able to deal with free look mouse control, and we had lots of options to restrict pitch changes and auto-centre when you started moving."

Carmack goes on to describe the game's online play as "almost an accident". He has kind words for its 3D graphics and modding, however.

"The most important thing about Quake for me was that I met my wife when she organized the first all-female Quake tournament. She still thinks Quake was the seminal achievement of id, and she glowers at me whenever I bemoan how random the design was."

At E3 Carmack outlined his vision of the next Quake game - what would perhaps be Quake V - in an interview with Eurogamer.

"Nothing is scheduled here, people are not building this," Carmack said. "We went from the Quake 2 and the Quake 4 Strogg universe. We are at least tossing around the possibilities of going back to the bizarre, mixed up Cthulhu-ish Quake 1 world and rebooting that direction.

"We think that would be a more interesting direction than doing more Strogg stuff after Quake 4.

"We certainly have strong factions internally that want to go do this.

"But we could do something pretty grand like that, that still tweaks the memory right in all of those ways, but is actually cohesive and plays with all of the strengths of the level we're at right now."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 10 months ago

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  • BonzoBanana #1 11 months ago

    Great game but I prefered Duke Nukem 3D at the time despite being technically much weaker.

  • LHH #2 11 months ago

    I enjoyed both but Quake was the first game I preordered and bought, in those big ol' cardboard boxes PC games used to come in.
    I actually played Quake before Duke 3D although I think that was more to do with my parents buying the familys' first PC back in '95

  • Darren #3 11 months ago

    What a game Quake was. Played it first on the PS before trading that in for an N64 and playing on that platform (with texture smoothing, natch!). It wasn't until I got my first PC in 1998 with a 3Dfx card that I was truly able to appreciate this game (plus the three expansions) and its wonderful gothic atmosphere and level design. What a wonderful game. In comparison the switch to a more sci-fi theme in Quake 2 came as quite a shock and although I enjoyed that (and Quake 4 for that matter) it didn't seem as clever or as good. My heart will always belong to Quake!

  • Malek86 #4 11 months ago

    One of my favorites, tho I liked Quake 2 better. It would be cool if an eventuale Quake 5 was more like the first one.

  • mattniche #5 11 months ago

    Player was eviscerated by a fiend.

  • the_dudefather #6 11 months ago

    I can see the demo movie that plays on startup of the player going through E1M3 everytime I close my eyes

  • HisDudness #7 11 months ago

    So many good memories, especially with Quake World. I remember constantly scanning prices for the latest modem, and comparing speeds of ISPs to make sure I could bring down my ping. 400? Yeah that's definitely playable. Switching over to GL Quake with the water transparency feature blew me away. It also gave you an advantage on DM3.

    And then all the awesome mods that the community came up with, Quake CTF, Team Fortress. Not to mention the thriving level design community.

    Yeah I'd say Quake is responsible for my best gaming memories.

  • Eraysor #8 11 months ago

    I really, really hope they go back to the Quake 1 style. It's still pretty original and way better than the sci-fi setting of 2 and 4. Quake was one of the games that really got me into gaming and I'd love to see them go back to it and leave the sci-fi to Doom.

    Can't help but feel Rage is a bit too unoriginal at the moment.

  • defragg #9 11 months ago

    I would murder for a new Quake Arena

  • Subdominator #10 11 months ago

    Quake was the game that started the damned brownish look of current gen shooters. I was glad when Quake 2 had colored lights everywhere just because they could with the whole 3dfx Voodoo stuff that was started by Tomb Raider, Quake, Moto Racer. I think the remarkable thing about the Quake engine is that it powered Half-Life and Counter-Strike.

  • midnight_walker #11 11 months ago

    Quake V including Quake remake = Preorder. It would blow the remade Halo out of the water.

    EDIT: ReQuake. You can have that, id. Just make it happen.
    Edited by midnight_walker at 23/06/11 @ 13:57

  • anthonypappa #12 11 months ago

    i mind playing quake, on the saturn mind. very atmospheric, a sort of subtely twisted. the music was great too.

    it was coded by lobotomy and was awesome. it was heralded as an achievement on consoles, and saturn version out performed the ps version... a first for a 3D game, on the most complicated 3D game on those consoles.

    hope quake 4 goes gothic too.

  • rojjer #13 11 months ago

    so in 5 years we went from Sonic to Quake? Now I feel super old

  • Ranger101 #14 11 months ago

    ReQuake!!! WHAT MIDNIGHT WALKER SAID!!!!

    edit:

    But make it so that the game starts off with you getting cunnilingus while you're playing yourself fighting the last boss of the game, then you spend the next 40 minutes traversing around and increasing your 'id' (see what I did there!) by interacting with the world in a trivial manner. Then when you do get to pick up guns you can only pick up one at a time, because fuck PC owners and their numbered keyboards, and console owners are too retarded to be able to cycle through weapons or have hot buttons selecting weapons mapped to the d-pad.

    Then get Randy Pitchford to sell it by claiming it's the best title since Half Life 2: Episode 2.
    Edited by Ranger101 at 23/06/11 @ 14:17

  • Ryze #15 11 months ago

    WONDERFUL GAME.

    I was mesmerised when I first played it. It, along with Duke and Doom sold PC gaming to me in the mid-late 90s.

  • chiz #16 11 months ago

    Quake is probably the best game I've ever played to this day. I never really played the single player version of the game, but I was on everyday for hours playing multiplayer quakeworld. Thanks John for the most memorable moments in my gaming life. Oh, and thanks for the £300 a month phone bill too!

    Probably the most remembered moment for me was shooting someone's feet with the Rocket Launcher, propelling them through the air then switching to shotgun and splatting them. Oh, or rocket jumps, pinning someone against a wall with the Lightning Gun, Frying people in water with Lightning Gun. I'll stop now.

    I think I'll fire it up again tonight and get some DM4 1 on 1 action.
    Edited by chiz at 23/06/11 @ 14:13

  • systems #17 11 months ago

    Quake the game was very poor, but it allowed the mods and expansions to take over. Those two official Quake mission packs were fantastic, as was the "Malice" total conversion if you remember that.

  • Ranger101 #18 11 months ago

    @chiz - e1m7 for the win. My fave multiplayer map of all time in any game.

  • mashk #19 11 months ago

    15 year anniversary of Quake 1 and you have Quake III as the accompanying video? Huh?

  • makariel #20 11 months ago

    Great game :)

    I had a big sticker with the Quake-logo on my PC and always thought it to be much better than Duke 3D.

  • banjo21 #21 11 months ago

    Most hours ever put in to a game for me. Lost a love over too much quaking but that's ok I found another love but never another quake.

  • chiz #22 11 months ago

    Ranger101: oh yeah, that was a great dueling map! My fav maps were user-made ones. Ultrav and ZTNDM3. I remember when barrysworld was going tits up, and they make a 64 player server. It was unbelievable. Grenade spamming everywhere. You were lucky if you lasted 10 seconds.

  • rayscoota #23 11 months ago

    Happy Birthday Quake, Still a classic game the best of the quake series by far.

  • yoomazir #24 11 months ago

    I'm always in for a new Quake game, I don't my mind if they got with the "Cthulhu" stuff, still I' gonna miss the Stroggs, really loved that universe.

  • Seoh #25 11 months ago

    Does anyone remember the firework gun in quake 2? i loved how pathetic that gun was "pew .........pew"

  • Jonny5Alive7 #26 11 months ago

    I love that he met his wife at an all women quake competition.

  • mashk #27 11 months ago

    I remember reading about Quake in the PC magazines a couple of years before it was released. ID's original plan for Quake was completely different to what we actually got. You were supposed to play a Thor type character who wielded a huge hammer, and the gameworld was supposed to be fantasy populated with fantasy creatures like Dragons.

  • DefendoCroc #28 11 months ago

    I was in the first UK clan to register with ID for quake :) Upset Chaps! ... 28k modems ftw (and it was smoother than Brink lol)

  • Gurgeh #29 11 months ago

    For a good Q1 (mission pack 1) vid:

    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSG3JStYMuY
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSG3JStYMuY
    [/link]

  • homerbert #30 11 months ago

    Funny, I loved them both but at at the time time I preferred Duke to Quake, because Duke had more gameplay variety, tons of interactivity, real world settings, weirder weapons etc etc. Over the years as other games all learned to do those things better, I kept finding myself replaying Quake. While Duke3D seems primitive now, Quake's engine is rock solid and the basic shooting mechanics are still a lot of fun.

    I can see why a programmer like Carmack cringes, but I think Quake 1 has aged really well, particularly the 3DFX version.

  • DrStrangelove #31 11 months ago

    when I no-clipped up into a ceiling corner

    Cheater!

    But seriously, John, your wife is right. Q1 is still the best FPS game of all time. I would pay 100 bucks for a remake.

  • Snaggletooth #32 11 months ago

    I bought a Pentium 200MHz with a Matrox Mystique and a Orchid 3DFX Voodoo card! Firing up Quake in glorious 3DFX OpenGL for the first time was a landmark gaming moment.

  • Ahskay #33 11 months ago

    Has it been 15 years already? Pff, i still remember going to the big supermarket with my mom and saying take your time, i'll be over there with the pc's. I remember playing it with 3 other kids having fun with that nailgun. Also looking at those big boxes (wing commander ftw) all lined up to drool over. 13 years old then. Gaming has changed indeed, it used to be different.

    I remember being very happy when i finally got my pc to play duke nukem 3D, quake, wing commander, C&C, privateer, theme hospital and park, Dungeon Keeper!!!,...

  • waffle #34 11 months ago

    QuakeWorld for the all-time win of all-time.

    fact.

  • GooseUK #35 11 months ago

    I can still remeber the 'thonk' 'thonk' of the grenades in the demo vid lol

  • rogermellie #36 11 months ago

    I'm old since I remember downloading the quake test and battling with friends over a LAN. Pizza, beer and all night quake sessions = good times! Before that Doom, Duke3D and even before that Knights of the Sky one-on-one via null modem cable.

    Edit: Mind you, nothing compares to first playing Doom co-op multi-player. For me co-op is still the best kind of social gaming experience.
    Edited by rogermellie at 23/06/11 @ 20:53

  • Lord_Gremlin #37 11 months ago

    Ah, Quake 1 has a special place in my heart. It was almost magical. Unmatched... All this Lovecraftian style made it feel so.. Exciting. And multiplayer was pure adrenaline rush.
    I didn't like how they decided to develop the cyborg storyline, the hellspawn & Shub-Niggurat were so much better.
    Also, Quake invented telefrag. Telefrag FTW!
    And here's a secret - aarrrghhhh...
    "the player joined zombies"

  • jamesslater #38 11 months ago

    Slightly OT: It's an interesting coincidence (well to me anyway) that the two arguably most seminal polygonal-3D video games were released on the same day, albeit in different countries.

  • RazorObsession #39 11 months ago

    Quake 1 was my first love, lost my multi player virginity to it at 'shoot n' surf' internet gaming cafe in central London, (owned all challengers during my first ever death match, to my surprise and utter delight, I might add) and in the deepest most hidden reaches of my mind, there is a carefully constructed room inside of the alien terrain of my psyche where I keep my personal demons and secrets, that is an exact replica of DM6, the dark zone.

    The slipgate, dimension jumping theme could allow for a whole plethora of alien landscapes, or takes on our world familiar yet different to our own, with the enemies and their respective tactics or strategies following suit, and maybe, just maybe, if we all close our eyes and wish really, really hard, a colour palette that includes more that 32 thousand shades of brown.



  • US_Digi #40 10 months ago

    First and foremost, happy B-Day Quake!

    It's good to hear that they are tossing around the idea of Quake 5, I would love to see it after the crash and burn of 4! I beg of you though, please follow the flow and arena style of Quake 3! There are no more good FPS out there anymore, it was only Quake and UT in their prime. Now we're stuck with wannabe shooters like Monday Night Combat, Team Fortress 2, and then the garbage 'realistic' shooters like COD-BO, Brink.

    It seems like the companies nowadays are more so about the money rather then the communities, and it shows by the games that are being put out and by the maturity of the players out there. Everything is Console ported and nothing but bugs, crap movement/combat flow, and lack the ability to mod/map.

    Please bring back the solid FPS, PC Game standards, the MOD/Tournament communities ... And by far, bring back the true gamers respect to a well built and fluent arena style FPS.

    ... Oh ... and bring back Strafe-Jumping :)

  • Azazel #41 10 months ago

    Quakeworld is a mans game for men with large balls.