QuakeWorld

File:QuakeWorld.png

QuakeWorld logo.

QuakeWorld (abbreviated QW) is an update to id Software's seminal multiplayer deathmatch game, Quake, that enhances the game's multiplayer features (namely UDP support) to allow people with dial-up modems to achieve greatly improved responsiveness when playing on Internet game servers. Modern broadband connections such as cable and DSL can use the QW model of network handling and game physics. Official id Software development stopped with the test release of QuakeWorld 2.33 on December 21, 1998. The last official stable release was 2.30. QuakeWorld has been described by IGN as predecessor to online first person shooters.

History

1996 - QuakeWorld is Born

Quake's network code, the part of the software that handles multiplayer gaming over a network, was designed for low-latency play over a LAN. The original Quake did not address the fact that Internet connections have generally much higher latency and packet loss compared to a LAN connection, and over some connections, performance of this model did not provide an optimal experience.

QuakeWorld, written by John Carmack with help from John Cash and Christian Antkow, was released in December 1996. Further development was later taken over by David Kirsch (a.k.a. "Zoid" from Threewave, of Capture the Flag fame) and Jack 'morbid' Mathews. It included a useful program called QuakeSpy, written by Mathews, which later evolved into GameSpy.

1999 - TGi

The True Gamers Invitational, or TGi for short, was a LAN event held in April 1999 in Gothenburg, Sweden admined by Izn0. It gathered the best duel players in the world, with Intel sponsoring the flight of the Australian player 'Reload'. Other countries represented were Sweden (victorious by LakermaN), Germany, United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. No cash was awarded, but this was the most significant international competition at the time, and most participants went on to earn sponsorship to travel to other tournaments. This event marks the beginning of QuakeWorld's submergence underground, as most players went on to newer games such as Counter-Strike, and Quake III Arena, and there has never been such an international LAN format competition in QuakeWorld since (although QHLan has come close).

2001 - CPL 4-Year

The CPL 4-Year Anniversary Event - World Championships - 6/28/01 > 7/1/01

• Location: Dallas, Texas
• Notes: 800 people attended and over $15,000 USD in prizemoney was awarded.

1. Harley ‘HarlsoM‘ Grey: $5,000
2. Core: $3,000
3. Paul ‘czm‘ Nelson: $2,000
4. Jeff ‘FienD‘ Abbott: $1,500
5. XoquE: $1,200
6. Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty‘ Wendel: $1,000
7. John ‘ZeRo4‘ Hill: $800
8. Dan ‘RiX‘ Hammans: $500
9. Frank 'Claw' Mar
10. 'Brute'
11. Alex 'Dizz' Venovski
12. 'Goonter'
13. Nick 'Stitch' Venovski
14. 'Rapture'

• 9th-16th: $500, 17th-24th: $300

2007 - QuakeWorld Back in Big Tournament Play

• QuakeCon 2007, 'Quad Damage' tournament (QW was played along with Q2, Q3, & Q4). Prize money: $100,000 USD

• DreamHack 2007, 32 player duel Tournament. Prize money: 25,000 SEK

1. ParadokS
2. Locktar
3. Locust
4. Reppie

• DreamHack 2008, 32 player 2on2 Tournament. Prize money: 37,000 SEK

1. Druidz Team 2 (Xantom & mawe)
2. Disorder (Nabbe & Persuader)
3. Druidz Team 1 (bps & LocKtar)
4. Lege Artis (Inferno & Riker)

• DreamHack 2009, 16 player duel Tournament. Prize money: 15,000 SEK

1. Locktar
2. Nabbe
3. bps
4. Åke Vader

Features

QuakeWorld's most important feature is its rewritten networking code (for client-side player prediction and delta compression). Player prediction allowed QuakeWorld clients to compensate for high latency, thus allowing dialup users to move around in the virtual world without being affected by the disorienting effects of latency. This helped Quake network play reach an additional market, as opposed to those who had LAN or broadband connections at the time.

It did not address what some considered exploits, namely bunny hopping, wall-hugging, and zig-zagging. These bugs have shaped the recent part of QuakeWorld's life, allowing for additional dimensions to playing style, and are now seen as features by much of the community.

Legacy

QuakeWorld was seminal in popularising deathmatch, and, alongside Ultima Online, Internet multiplayer. It is considered even today by many die-hard players to be the best multiplayer game, such that several games featuring QuakeWorld-like gameplay elements have been developed, including the Quake III mod: Challenge ProMode Arena, Painkiller, the freeware game Warsow, a mod for Quake 4 called Quake4World, and a free game called Quake2World based on the Quake 2 engine.

Valve Software L.L.C. licensed QuakeWorld in 1996. Valve heavily modified the QuakeWorld engine to produce the GoldSrc engine, which powers Half-Life, Team Fortress Classic (a follow-up to the QuakeWorld mod Team Fortress), and Counter-Strike, among others.

In December 1999, John Carmack of id Software released the server and client source code of Quake and QuakeWorld under the GNU General Public License as a Christmas present to the world, and this spawned a plethora of 21st century updates to the game. In October 2006, John Romero released the map sources under the GNU General Public License. Among the popular clients today are FuhQuake, ezQuake, More QuakeWorld, with ezQuake being most popular.

QuakeNet, the largest Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network, originated in 1997 as a network for QuakeWorld players.

External links

• QuakeWorld.nu - News and community site
• nQuake - An Open Source QW package
• CHTV - Extensive QW demo repository
• Refragged - QuakeWorld news from the competitive scene