Quake II

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Quake II
Quake II PC box cover
Developer(s) id Software
Publisher(s) Activision, Hyperion Entertainment, Activision, Inc.
Engine Quake II
Latest version 3.20 (3.21 as Source Code)
Release date(s) December 6, 1997 (NA) 1999, 2001, 2002
Genre(s) FPS
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: Mature (M)
OFLC: MA 15+
Platform(s) Amiga, Macintosh, N64, PC (BeOS/Linux/Windows), PlayStation, Xbox 360 (free with Quake 4)
Media CD (1)
System requirements 90 MHz processor, 16 MB RAM
Input Keyboard, mouse, Joysticks

Quake II, released on December 6, 1997, is a first person shooter computer game developed by id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game for commercial purposes. The soundtrack was provided by Sonic Mayhem, with some additional tracks by Bill Brown. The main theme was by Rob Zombie.

The next game released by id with the title Quake, Quake III Arena, is also not considered to be related to Quake II as it is multiplayer focused, and has a dissimilar storyline. A direct sequel, titled Quake 4, was released in October 2005 for the PC, and later for the Xbox 360 and the Apple Macintosh.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Quake II takes place in a science fiction environment. In the single-player game, the player is a human soldier (known only by his alias, 'Bitterman') taking part in 'Operation Alien Overlord', a desperate attempt to protect Earth from alien invasion by launching a counter-attack on the home planet of the hostile cybernetic Strogg civilization. Most of the other soldiers are captured or killed almost as soon as they enter the planet's atmosphere, so it falls upon the player to penetrate the Strogg capital city alone and ultimately to assassinate the Strogg leader, the Makron.

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Enemies

Main article: List of Strogg in Quake II

[edit] Weapons

The Blaster weapon which the player is equipped with from inception.
The Blaster weapon which the player is equipped with from inception.
  1. Blaster: The only weapon that the player is equipped with at the start of the game, the Blaster is a basic energy handgun. Although lacking in firepower, the Blaster does not require ammunition.
  2. Shotgun: A mid-range hitscan weapon. Essentially the staple shotgun found in the majority of first-person shooters.
  3. Super Shotgun: A pump-action double-barelled shotgun with a slower reload time, but significantly more firepower, than the regular shotgun.
  4. Machine gun: A generic machine gun, although its small size means that recoil is significant. Muzzle climb is simulated.
  5. Chaingun: More reminiscent of a Gatling gun, with a spin-up and spin-down delay. It has a very high rate of fire, which is effective against enemies, but consumes ammunition quickly.
  6. Hand Grenade: The longer players hold a hand grenade after activating the fuse timer, the farther they will throw it.
  7. Grenade Launcher: Somewhat oddly this weapon uses hand grenades as ammunition, rendering it a more effective way of delivering them to their intended target.
  8. Rocket Launcher: Rockets fired from this weapon are effective against even the toughest enemies, although some Strogg are known to duck and avoid them. It is possible to partake in rocket jumping with this gun.
  9. Hyper Blaster: Essentially an energy chaingun, it is also a devastating but ammunition-consuming weapon.
  10. Railgun: The railgun is the quintessential weapon for Quake sharpshooters. Although it has a low rate of fire and absolutely no splash damage, each depleted uranium slug is fired at an extremely high velocity, is extremely damaging, and is even able to penetrate multiple Strogg.
  11. BFG10K: The BFG, or Big Fucking Gun (or "Big, uh, Freakin' Gun" in the words of the instruction manual), is the most powerful weapon in the game. The mass of energy fired by this weapon can send off a number of beams, each damaging any enemies in the vicinity (and usually killing them).

[edit] Technical

Unlike Quake, where hardware accelerated graphics controllers were supported only with later patches, Quake II came with OpenGL support out of the box.

The latest version is 3.21. This update includes numerous bug fixes and new maps designed for multiple players deathmatch. Version 3.21, available on id Software's FTP server, has no improved functionality over version 3.20, it simply is a slight modification to make compiling for Linux easier.

Quake II uses an improved client server network model introduced in Quake. The game code of Quake II, which defines all the functionality for weapons, entities and game mechanics, can be changed in any way because id Software published the source code of their own implementation that shipped with the game. Quake II uses the shared library functionality of the operating system to load the game library at run-time - this is how mod authors are able to alter the game and provide different gameplay mechanics, new weapons and much more.

The full source code to Quake II version 3.19 was released under the terms of the GPL on December 21, 2001. Version 3.21 followed later.

Since the release of the Quake II source code, several Third-party update projects to the game engine have been created; the most prominent of these are projects focused on graphical enhancements to the game such as Quake2maX, EGL and Quake II Evolved. The source release also revealed numerous critical security flaws which can result in remote compromise of both the Quake II client and server. As id Software no longer maintains Quake II, most 3rd party engines include fixes for these bugs. The most popular server-side engine modification, R1Q2, is generally recommended as a replacement for the 3.20 release for both clients and servers. The most widely used engine modifications as of 2006 appear to be R1Q2, AprQ2 and EGL, with a large majority of users still using the original 3.20 release.

In July, 2003, Vertigo Software released a port of Quake II for the Microsoft .NET platform, using Managed C++ [1]. It became a poster application for the language, showcasing the powerful interoperability between .NET and unmanaged C++ code. It remains one of the top downloads on the Visual C++ website.

In May 2004, Bytonic Software released a port of Quake II (called Jake 2) written in Java using JOGL, later versions of which run faster than the original engine in some configurations.

[edit] Quake II engine

The following games use modified versions of the Quake II engine:

[edit] Releases

Despite the title, Quake II is a sequel to the original Quake in name only. Aside from somewhat similar weapons and items (notably the Quad Damage pickup), the scenario, enemies and theme are entirely separate and do not fall into the same continuity as Quake. id had initially wanted to set it separately from Quake, but due to legal reasons (most of their suggested names were already taken), they decided to stick with the working title. Quake II was also adopted as a name to leverage the popularity of Quake.[1]

[edit] Ports

Ports of Quake II were released in 1999 on the Nintendo 64 (ported by Raster Productions L.L.C. ) and PlayStation (ported by HammerHead Ltd.) console platforms. In both cases, the core gameplay was largely identical; however, changes were made to the game sequence, and split-screen multiplayer replaced network or internet play. An SGI port was made in 1999 by Philip Nemec. In 2002, the game was ported to the Amiga PowerPC platform by Hyperion Entertainment. There was also an unofficial port for the Sega Dreamcast, another port to Xbox,named Quake2X, and an unfinished port to Playstation 2 via homebrew coders.

Quake II: Colossus (Quake II with both official addons) was also ported to Linux by id Software and published by Macmillan Computer Publishing in 1999. Be Inc. officially ported Quake II: Colossus to the BeOS to test their OpenGL acceleration in 1999, and provided the game files for free download at a later date - a Windows, Macintosh or Linux install CD was required to install the game, with the official addons being optional.

[edit] PlayStation

For the PlayStation version, several of the original levels, including several complete sections and units were removed. Some enemy types were removed, as well as some scenery objects (dead marines, explosive barrels etc.). A new enemy type (a gigantic human-spider cyborg with twin railgun arms) was added, and many short airlock-like corridors were added to maps to provide loading pauses inside what were contiguous areas in the PC version. Saving the game is only possible between units and at mid-level checkpoints, the majority of which lie in the aforementioned airlock-like corridors, while in the PC version the game could be saved and loaded anywhere. The game supports the Playstation Mouse, to provide a greater parity with the PC version's gameplay.

The music of this port is a combination of the Quake II original music score and some tracks from the PC version's mission packs.

The PlayStation version is limited to a far lower resolution than the PC original, giving it a grainier look. Coloured lightmaps for levels and enemies, and yellow highlights for gunfire and explosions, are carried across from the PC version, with the addition of (somewhat excessive) lens flare effects located around the light sources on the original lightmaps. There is no skybox; instead a flat gourad-textured purple sky is drawn around the top of the level. The PC Version originally used particles to render blood, debris and rail gun beams as trails of large, opaque coloured pixels. In the PlayStation version, the particles are circular and translucent.

There is also a split-screen multiplayer mode for 2-4 players. The only available player avatar is a modified version of the male player avatar from the PC version, the most noticeable difference being the addition of a helmet. Players can only customise the colour of their avatar's armour, and change their name. The multiplayer levels are unique to the PlayStation version, and none of the PC multiplayer maps are carried over.

[edit] Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 version, unlike the PlayStation version, had completely different levels and multiplayer maps which had never been seen before. This version also had new lighting effects, mostly seen on gun fire, and also used the expansion pack to offer extra graphical detail.

[edit] Xbox 360

A ported version of Quake II was included in the box of Quake 4 for the Xbox 360, on a bonus disc. This is a direct port of the original game, and does not feature any graphical improvements, other than it may render in 480p and 720p. However it does allow for System Link play for up to 16 players, split-screen for 4, and co-operative play in single player for up to 16 players or 4 with split-screen alone.

[edit] Expansions and Modifications

There are three official expansions:

Unofficial expansions include:

  • Juggernaut - released in 1998, developed by Canopy Games and published by HeadGames.
  • Zaero - developed by team-evolve
  • Oblivion - developed by Lethargy Software this mission-pack still needs patching, but the project seems to be abandoned. You can read more about Oblivion in this forum thread.

[edit] Modding

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Paul Jaquays quote in the PlanetQuake Quake II FAQ.

[edit] External links

The external links in this article may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.
Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. Please remove this tag when this is done. This article has been tagged since April 2007. (talk)

[edit] Official websites

[edit] Information

[edit] User Created Maps

[edit] Game Archive and Review sites

[edit] Game mods

[edit] Modified engines


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