Quakeone FREE petition

[Phenom]

I think it's about time ID released this game as freeware instead of juicing money out of it.

I'm pretty sure it's up to Bethesda, not ID Software... right?

While i didn't ever advocate for a ban due to his "wrecked truck posts" or any other post he has made, I appreciate the nature of this taking place simply because of the fact that not only myself but also bluntz(crow) is in the trucking industry and i'm sure the last thing we want to see is wrecked truck's. We see them enough on the road and then having to come here and see them too. This is my relaxation while im on my down time and i don't need any work reminder's of the danger's of my job.

Thank's for helping him find the door even if it is temporary.

I didn't do this for just you or Bluntz though I'm glad you find peace in my actions.

The reason behind his permanent ban is his lack of respect for not only others who use this forum, but blatant disrespect of an admin, spam, suggestive racial slanders and recreating an account after a ban was already in place.

Anyway.

Back on topic.

[Syluxguy28O3]

Back on topic.

yah.

in essence, quake will need to be free for it to grow, not really survive. its earned its place. i still see it come up when the history of games and its genres are discussed. paying for it will keep it in the past. making it free will give or more relevance and more players imo.

someone make that petition, and ill sign it. let's stop watching our passion rust away! let's give it life!

[MadGypsy]

Question:

Considering all the community driven content here, isn't it possible to make a more or less free Quake of our own?

I mean, at this point could you really call fte/darkplaces/etc - derivative works? There are plenty of other things (community made things) that could be included in that last sentence. How many eons need to pass before this game is considered abandonware?

There is also the other line of thinking. The game is already free. Maybe not legally but, anybody with access to a browser can get this game for nothing and then come here and get better content/engines. Do you really think Bethesda can do a damn thing about it? Their only real point of control is those that want to play Quake on Steam. Their are definitely other options.

It's not really about whether Quake is free. It's about enlightening the steam players that there is a better Quake and a ton of online options aside from steam. In other words, don't bother making Quake free, make Steam irrelevant for Quake.

If you are real successful, Steam would drop Quake due to it's inability to draw interest (ad bucks/related purchases). Bethesda would go belly up on Quake and fighting the pirated versions would just cost a fortune. From there Quake becomes free cause all the players said so. It may never be official, it would just be reality.

All you have to do to make Quake free is make Quake a huge loss for it's owners. An unfightable loss.

[Dutch]

@Gypsys post

Exactly. The 1.01 source is GPL. So is the engine code. We already have engines available to use. The quakeC source can be updated and compiled for free. What remains are the models, textures, and sounds, and several of these have quality replacement content (at least models and textures do).

So really, someone ought to make a package using new assets, and the problem is solved.

The real issue is making the rest of the replacement assets that don't exist, or substituting in comparable assets that are royalty free and can be legally distributed.

This is a project I might like to try and tackle, come to think of it. Or at least contribute to. This game needs to stay alive, no one will ever make another like it.

[Syluxguy28O3]

@Gypsys post

Exactly. The 1.01 source is GPL. So is the engine code. We already have engines available to use. The quakeC source can be updated and compiled for free. What remains are the models, textures, and sounds, and several of these have quality replacement content (at least models and textures do).

So really, someone ought to make a package using new assets, and the problem is solved.

The real issue is making the rest of the replacement assets that don't exist, or substituting in comparable assets that are royalty free and can be legally distributed.

This is a project I might like to try and tackle, come to think of it. Or at least contribute to. This game needs to stay alive, no one will ever make another like it.

could you finally be the one? hehe!

[MadGypsy]

I would contribute to a free quake alternative. I've already written a fair chunk of replacement code for the QC source. Are QC classes a stable and viable reality yet? Classing out the original code with a more modern and portable version can't be all that complicated. Factory pattern for the monsters, state machine for items..(etc). I mean really just follow the design patterns and it would practically build itself.

[R00k]

it would be cool if they did release the assets and textures for the 20th anniversary then they could re-release the whole game using the q3 engine too

[Zop]

I'm fairly sure there have been a couple free quake projects in the past, with replacement sounds, textures, and whatnot. I recall Yellow #5 working on one back when the map sources were GPL'd, but who knows where that guy is now.

[JDSTONE]

free quake would be cool! they still could make money off of merchandizing it. i want a quake lunch box for my kid and stuff like that. way to take some steps to make it happen much respect!

[golden_boy]

You can use the engine, the progs and the map sources.

You can not use any textures or models or sounds, and you cannot just create new versions of those because copies fall under the COPYright. You cannot just recreate the likeness of a copyrighted work, it needs to be sufficiently original. Just like you can't simply make knockoffs of Fender guitars or Porsche cars and give them away for free.

A free Quake would have to look and sound completely different to remain legal, and at that point you might as well make a fully original game that just feels like Quake. Why don't you just fork Nexuiz and throw in some mockup of Quake's weapon lineup. Instead of all this talk, you people should go and learn Blender if you're really serious about this. You can't just make a lot of noise and then expect Bethesda or Captnbubs or whoever to give you free stuff. You either get your hands dirty, or you shut up.

I wonder why there are endless copies of Quake 3 being made (and being played...) but none of Quake 1. Perhaps Quake 1 just wasn't as good to begin with.

Anyway, if you think Zenimax will give up the easy profit from selling old id games, you're mad. You wanted capitalism, so now you've got to roll with it. It will still be sold 20 years from now.

Stop smoking weed and start to learn Blender.

[wicked_lord]

Stop smoking weed and start to learn Blender.

Not sure if you really needed to go that route. Actually you didn't need to go that route. Smoking weed has nothing to do with anything about someone wanting to petition quake. If this was a slap toward's Mindz you are completely wrong on why this came up for conversation. For starter's Mindz and I were talking via messenger and i brought up the subject about quake being FREE and asked what he thought of a petition and if it would be worth it. Mindz took this upon himself to make this post. I have smoked weed 2 time's in my entire life when i was 16 year's old and at the age of 19 i became a deputy sheriff. I worked 3 year's before pursuing another career to make more money and get away from politics. Before you come off with ignorant comment's get your fact's. I would much rather have someone smoke pot then drink alcohol any day of the week.

[Dutch]

@ golden_boy:

At first I was gonna lash out against your lash out. But I realized you are right. Your presentation is awful, but totally right.

No one has a right to own something they didn't create. If you want something, you need to buy it. That's how capitalism works, and it works great. What is the incentive to make something if you have to give it away for free? Good will? Yeah right.

I'm going to put myself in Zenimax's shoes (previously Bethesda and previously id). If I made Quake, I would want compensation for it, no matter how old it is. If I purchased the company that made Quake, I would want compensation for it, no matter how old it is. I might eventually release it for free if it wasn't generating substantial revenue as a courtesy to the community (and that is entirely up to the owner's discretion), but you also need to plan for the future. Maybe one day when gaming evolves into something else, Quake will be an invaluable classic. I mean, look at PacMan. That game is still making lots of revenue via Xbox Arcade and what not.

I'm thinking the petition should focus more on Zenimax/Bethesda/id revisiting the version currently available for download and make it 100% compatible. But that all comes down to cost analysis: if there isn't enough money to be made (i.e. the man hours required would eat more cash than is generated), it probably won't happen.

Still not entirely sure how this has much to do with Blender and weed though.

[OMacKnight]

Well, there is a project happening, multiple I think.

I'm personally working on one, although I do remember hearing about another.

(I'm actually going a route golden_boy pretty much described)

[Mr.Burns]

A free version of Quake would be a great shot in the arm for the game and I fully support Mindz's efforts in trying to organise this but, like others have mentioned previously, I wonder how much support ID and co are likely to offer. I'm a great believer in the premiss of "if you don't ask you don't get" so it's certainly worth a try. Perhaps if the petition could be refocussed a little so that ID can see the potential advantages of offering an old game for free, like other companies have done recently, then they may be persuaded to see it as a "loss-leader". In other words, as something to get people back in to the franchise, even if it is in a small way.

It's just a thought, and I have an alterior motive for asking, but has anyone actually identified what is required in order to fix the version being supplied via their site or steam? If we can clarify the problems it might make the petition more concise and give them some idea of the scale and also impact of the problem. Would I be right in thinking that the complete list of issues is as outlined here?

/End of very humble opinion
KR's
Monty

[Johnny Law]

There's nothing specifically interesting about the release of Quake on Steam. It's good ol' Quake. It includes the WinQuake, GLQuake, QuakeWorld, and GLQuakeWorld engines. Probably the only puzzling part is why they chose to provide v0.95 of GLQuake.

Since it's just Quake, you can do any or all of:
- Run it. It still works on modern OSs, even if it's as cantankerous to configure as always.
- Copy the pak files somewhere else and use them with a modern Quake engine like DarkPlaces.
- Dump a modern Quake engine into the Steam Quake directory (next to the id1 folder) and run that engine from there.
- Rename your favorite Quake engine to Winquake.exe (or whatever) so that Steam will launch it when you run Quake through Steam.

The main issue with new folks running Quake these days is that that out-of-the box it doesn't have mouselook enabled, it relies on CD audio for soundtrack playback, and it either doesn't support widescreen video modes (WinQuake) or requires some unintuitive command-line and console-var manipulations to set video resolution and aspect ratio correctly (GLQuake).