Often when a game gets long in the tooth the publisher looks for creative ways to market it to drum up sales. PC game publisher Activision has caught this bug with a new compendium combining Quake III Arena with the more recently released Quake III Team Arena mission pack. They've also taken the encouraging step of bundling the two together as a hybrid package that will work with either Mac or Windows-based systems. The new collection is called Quake III Gold, and it's available in stores for about US$30.
Quake III Arena is, of course, the popular first-person 3D action game shooter developed. Id's co-founder and lead programmer John Carmack has been seen on stage at various Macworld Expos as he has touted his latest game engine architecture on Apple's latest and greatest Mac hardware and operating system software. Activision's support of the Mac seemed to have waned in recent months - although the company released the Mac version of Quake III Arena in the weeks following the PC version's introduction, gamers noted earlier this year that supplies of the game had dwindled from store shelves. As a result, Mac gamers may be relieved to discover that Quake III Gold is, indeed, a hybrid CD-ROM that contains installers for both Macs and Windows systems - a point even Apple noted recently on their own. This is the first time that Mac users have been able to buy a package containing Quake III Team Arena that includes a Mac installer in the box. Previously, users had to buy the PC version, extract the data files, then use an updated Quake III Team Arena application made available for Internet download from Id Software themselves. Quake III Team Arena is a 'Mission Pack' which leverages Quake III Arena's online gaming play with team play elements, instead.
Several new game types have been incorporated, along with new weapons, new interface elements, and a host of changes to the core Quake III Arena technology to help improve and enhance the experience. MacCentral reader Brian K. James confirmed that the Quake III Gold pack works on Macs and PCs alike, but noted some contradictory information. While the package itself indicates it's a hybrid CD, the Quake III Team Arena CD-ROM inside the box is labeled as a Windows-only CD. James said that regardless of the disparity, the Quake III Team Arena CD-ROM is indeed mountable as a Mac CD and contains a Mac installer application. In related news, Id Software Mac maven Graeme Devine recently with news about the latest build of Quake III for Mac OS X - the installer for the latest version, 1.30, is now ready for download. (Separate updates exist for Mac OS 9 and X versions - visit Apple's Web site at the link above for further details.) Devine noted that Quake III Arena is best played by Mac OS X users with the new version 10.1 operating system.
'Those with a Powerbook and desktop machines with PCI Rage 128 cards will need at least 10.0.4 to play due to a bug in OpenGL on earlier versions,' said Devine. 'Under 10.1 this version will always go faster than the Classic build on the same machine.' This story, 'Quake 3 Gold released as hybrid PC/Mac offering' was originally published.
. WW: December 15, 2010 Mode(s), Quake III Arena is a -focused released in December 1999. The game was by and featured music composed by and founder,. Quake III Arena is the third game in the and differs from previous games by excluding a traditional single-player element, instead focusing on multiplayer action. The single-player mode is played against computer-controlled. Notable features of Quake III Arena include the minimalist design, lacking rarely used items and features, the extensive customizability of player settings such as, texture detail and enemy model, and advanced movement features such as.
Quake III Arena is available on a number of platforms and contains mature content. The game was highly praised by reviewers who, for the most part, described the gameplay as fun and engaging. Many liked the crisp graphics and focus on multiplayer. Quake III Arena has also been used extensively in professional tournaments such as, and the. Contents.
Gameplay Unlike its predecessors, Quake III Arena does not have a plot-based single-player campaign. Instead, it simulates the multiplayer experience with known as bots.
The game's story is brief: 'the greatest warriors of all time fight for the amusement of a race called the Vadrigar in the Arena Eternal.' The introduction video shows the abduction of such a warrior, Sarge, while making a last stand. Continuity with prior games in the and even is maintained by the inclusion of player models and biographical information. A familiar mixture of gothic and technological map architecture as well as specific equipment is included, such as the Quad Damage power-up, the infamous rocket launcher, and the super-weapon. In Quake III Arena, the player progresses through tiers of maps, combating different characters that increase in difficulty, from Crash (at Tier 0) to Xaero (at Tier 7). As the game progresses, the fights take place in more complex arenas and against tougher opponents. While deathmatch maps are designed for up to 16 players, tournament maps are designed for duels between 2 players and in the single-player game could be considered '.
The weapons are balanced by role, with each weapon having advantages in certain situations, such as the railgun at long-range and the lightning gun at close quarters. The super-weapon is an exception to this; compared to other similarly named weapons in the Doom/ Quake series, Quake III Arena's incarnation of this weapon is basically a fast-firing rocket launcher and it is found in hard-to-reach locations.
Weapons appear as level items, spawning at regular intervals in set locations on the map. If a player dies, all of their weapons are lost and they receive the weapons for the current map, usually the gauntlet and machine gun. Players also drop the weapon they were using when killed, which other players can then pick up. Quake III Arena comes with several gameplay modes; (FFA), a classic deathmatch, where each player competes against the rest for the highest score, (TDM), where usually two teams of four compete for the highest team total, (1v1), a deathmatch between two players, usually ending after a set time, and, which is played on symmetrical maps where teams have to recover the enemy flag from the opponents' base while retaining their own. Quake III Arena was specifically designed for. The game allows players whose computers are connected by a or to the, to play against each other in, and incorporates a handicap system.
It employs a, requiring all players' clients to connect to a server. Quake III Arena's focus on multiplayer gameplay spawned a lively community, similar to, that is active to this day.
Characters The playable characters in bold have already appeared in previous entries in the Quake series, or in id Software's sister franchise,. Anarki. Angel. Biker. Bones.
Cadaver. Crash. Daemia. Gorre. Hossman. Hunter. Keel.
Klesk. Lucy. Major. Mynx. Orbb.
Patriot. Phobos. Razor.
Sarge. Slash. Sorlag. Stripe. Tank Jr. Uriel. Visor.
Wrack. Xaero Development During early March 1999, leaked the internal hardware vendor (IHV) copy of the game. This was a functional version of the engine with a textured level and working guns. The IHV contained most of the weapons (excepting the Gauntlet) that would make it into the final game although most were not fully modeled; a chainsaw and grappling hook were also in the IHV but did not make it into the final release.
Many of the sounds that would make it into the final release were also included. After the IHV leak, id Software released a beta of the game called Quake III Arena Test on April 24, 1999.
The Q3Test started with version 1.05 and included three levels that would be included in the final release: dm7, dm17, and q3tourney2. Id Software continued to update Q3Test up until version 1.09. Id co-founder and former technical director John Carmack has stated that Quake III Arena is his favourite game he has worked on. Game engine. A mirror reflects Sarge and the Quake III logo in the opening scene of the first level, Q3DM0. The id Tech 3 engine is the name given to the engine that was developed for Quake III Arena.
Unlike most other games released at the time, Quake III Arena requires an -compliant to run. The game does not include a. The graphic technology of the game is based tightly around a ' system where the appearance of many surfaces can be defined in text files referred to as 'shader scripts.' Quake 3 also introduced spline-based curved surfaces in addition to planar volumes, which are responsible for many of the surfaces present within the game. Quake 3 also provided support for models animated using with attachment tags (known as the format), allowing models to maintain separate torso and leg animations and hold weapons. Quake 3 is one of the first games where the third-person model is able to look up and down and around as the head, torso and legs are separate. Other visual features include, mirrors, portals, decals, and wave-form vertex distortion.
For networking, id Tech 3 uses a 'snapshot' system to relay information about game 'frames' to the client over. The server attempts to omit as much information as possible about each frame, relaying only differences from the last frame the client confirmed as received. Id Tech 3 uses a to control object behavior on the server, effects and prediction on the client and the user interface. This presents many advantages as mod authors do not need to worry about crashing the entire game with bad code, clients could show more advanced effects and game menus than was possible in and the user interface for mods was entirely customizable. Unless operations which require a specific are used, a QVM file will run the same on any platform supported by Quake III Arena. The engine also contains bytecode compilers for the and architectures, executing QVM instructions via an.
Quake III Arena features an advanced with five difficulty levels which can accommodate both a beginner and an advanced player, though they usually do not pose a challenge to high-tier or competitive players. Each bot has its own, often humorous, 'personality', expressed as scripted lines that are triggered to simulate real player chat.
If the player types certain phrases, the bots may respond: for example, typing 'You bore me' might cause a bot to reply 'You should have been here 3 hours ago!' Each bot has a number of alternative lines to reduce the repetition of bot chatter. The Gladiator bots from Quake II were ported to Quake III Arena and incorporated into the game by their creator - Jan Paul van Waveren, aka Mr. Bot chat lines were written by, Seven Swords and Steve Winter. Xaero, the hardest opponent in the game, was based on the Gladiator bot Zero. The bot Hunter appears on magazine covers in the later id game.
On August 19, 2005, id Software released the complete source code for Quake III Arena under the, as they have for most of their prior engines. As before, the engine, but not the content such as textures and models, was released, so that anyone who wishes to build the game from source will still need an original copy of the game to play it as intended. Mods Like its predecessors, and, Quake III Arena can be heavily, allowing the engine to be used for many different games. Mods range from small gameplay adjustments like and Orange Smoothie Productions to total conversions such as, and Loki's Revenge.
The source code's release has allowed total conversion mods such as, and to evolve into free standalone games. Other mods like have moved to more modern commercial engines. Became the primary competitive mod for Quake III Arena since the announced CPMA as its basis for competition. CPMA includes alternative gameplays, including air-control, rebalanced weapons, instant weapon switching, and additional jumping techniques. Expansion An titled Quake III: Team Arena was released on December 18, 2000 in North America, January 15, 2001 in Japan and January 26, 2001 in Europe. It was developed by id Software and published by Activision. The expansion focused on team-based gameplay through new game modes, as well as the addition of three new weapons (the Chaingun, Nailgun, and Prox Launcher), and new items and player models.
Quake III: Team Arena was criticized, as its additions were long overdue and had already been implemented by fan modifications. Quake III: Gold was later released on September 26, 2001 in North America, March 29, 2002 in Japan and August 9, 2002 in Europe, including the original Quake III Arena and the Quake III: Team Arena expansion pack bundled together. Made the soundtrack for the expansion, the counterpart to Sonic Mayhem's Quake III Arena: Noize. Ports Official Quake III Arena was released for the (ported by Raster Productions and released by ) in 2000 and featured 4 player play versus Dreamcast and PC gamers.
It is often considered one of the best PC to console ports of its time due to its smooth frame rate and online play. There are still communities that play this version online on the remaining dedicated servers running patch version 1.16n and the required map pack. Ported Quake III Revolution was released for the in 2001, (released by in North America and in Japan) featuring several elements adopted from Team Arena, along with a more mission-based single-player mode. It features split-screen multiplayer for up to 4 players, but lacks mouse support. It also lacks online play, as the PS2's network adapter was not released outside of Japan until 2004. Gamerankings.com rated the release at 83%.
The PlayStation 2 version was widely criticized for having long loading times (which typically averaged over a minute). Quake III: Team Arena was revealed in an listing for the. The title was developed. Quake III Arena for the 360 was officially announced by id at QuakeCon 2007.
The title, jointly developed by id and Pi Studios, was released on on December 15, 2010. The retail price of the game was set at 1200 Microsoft Points, or $15. Quake Arena DS for the was announced at on August 4, 2007. Announced the game and said that touch screen controls would not be implemented as much as in, for example. He stated that he would like all shooting in the game to be controlled with the D-pad instead of the Touch Screen.
This version was silently cancelled. Quake Zero was announced at on August 3, 2007 and will be an updated version of Quake 3 Arena, distributed by free download, run in a browser window and supported by built-in advertising content. On February 20, 2008 id announced that Quake Zero would be launched as. Quake Live was released in 2010. Source ports Quake III Arena has been unofficially ported to several consoles, including the handheld and console. These versions require a modified console or handheld and the assets to the game to go along with the source port.
Carmack has said that Quake Trilogy (including Arena) will be ported on the iPhone/iPod Touch/. An unofficial version for was released through for devices in April 2008; it is a demo version similar to the original except that it integrates the and 's accelerometer and touch controls to make gameplay possible. A high-definition version for iPad was released in November 2010, featuring re-created controls, sharper graphics, better gameplay, and better framerate; this improved version was also integrated into the iPhone and iPod touch version of the port.
A prototype version was demonstrated on a reference design that demonstrated performance of up to 90 frames per second. An unofficial port of Quake III for Symbian mobile devices was made. It requires PAK files from original game to run.
An unofficial port of the game to was created based on the released source code. This means the game can be run on several Android powered devices, most notably the, and the, as well as other high specification Handsets. In August 2011, the ARM-based credit card-sized computer was shown running a specially compiled ARM version of Quake III on. Reception Sales Quake III 's sales surpassed 50,000 copies during its first three days of release, by which time 1 million copies had been printed. It debuted at #5 on 's weekly computer game sales chart for the December 5–11 period.
The game rose to fourth place in the weekly top 10 the following week. In North America, Quake III sold 168,309 copies and earned $7.65 million from January through October 2000, according to.
Its overall sales in the region, including its launch in 1999, totaled 319,970 units by November 2000. Its sales for 2000 alone ultimately reached 190,950 units and $8.4 million by the end of the year. The game later received a 'Silver' sales award from the (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.
Critical reception. This section needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2017) Reception Review scores Publication Score 8.83/10 6.5/10 9/10 25/40 9.25/10 7.75/10 95% 90% 9.4/10 9.2/10 7.7/10 7.7/10 10/10 7.5/10 9.2/10 9.3/10 8.8/10 95% 80% Game Chronicles 9.6/10 A- Cheat Code Central Aggregate scores 92.15% 83.77% 83.62% 93/100 84/100 Reviews for the game were very positive, with many describing the game as fast and addictive. Curved surfaces were a welcome addition to the series. Most reviewers felt the game was best when played with others online.
A review by described the game as outstanding. He noted the fun level designs, great-looking textures, impressive special effects and weapons sounds. The GameSpot review criticised the narrator's voice and thought that some levels could become too crowded when playing multiplayer. An review felt the game lacked originality but enjoyed the detailed wall textures and outer space jump levels. The high number of character skins and the artificial intelligence of opponent bots were praised but the weapons were said to be 'bland and predictable'.
A review described the game as 'polished' and 'stunning' and thought that it 'was extremely well balanced and plays very well'. The reviewer was especially pleased with the customisable 3D engine and looked forward to new maps and mods.
Quake III Arena won 's 1999 'Special Achievement in Graphics' award, and wrote that it 'set a new high-water mark in 3D graphics this year.' The game was a finalist for the ' 1999 'Action Game of the Year' award, which ultimately went to. Competitive play Quake III Arena's multiplayer-focused development led to it developing a large community of competitive players and like its predecessors it was used extensively in professional tournaments. In competitive Quake III Arena there are two distinct gameplays, often referred to as 'rulesets', the out-of-the-box Quake III Arena game, also known as Quake 3 (VQ3), and the CPM ruleset of the mod. On July 26, 2006, Challenge Pro Mode Arena with VQ3 gameplay was chosen by as the mod of choice for their tournament, making it the standard competitive mod for Quake III Arena.
Previously, Orange Smoothie Productions was the most widely used tournament mod. The following competitions have held Quake III events:. These competitions have now moved on to more recent games or have transitioned to its variant successor,. ^ Jeff Gerstmann (December 16, 1999).
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