There's already a thread like this for Doom, Heretic and Hexen, but I might as well start one for Quake, and *gasp* perhaps even Quake 2 though I know almost nothing about custom stuff on the latter.
The good news is the Quake singleplayer scene is very much alive, but the bad news is it's really slow compared to Doom, with around two dozens releases every year. Most of the time these releases are of excellent quality, sometimes made by professional level designers with years of experience, and there seems to be some fresh newcomers with awesome ideas lately.
The easiest way to play custom maps is through Quake Injector, a program that scans the map database at Quaddicted.com and installs maps and mods properly, so you don't have to do it yourself. It's very easy to configure and you can change engines on the fly. See this: https://www.quaddicted.com/tools/quake_injector
Now most of the maps released nowadays use the Quoth modification that adds some really cool monsters that for once do not look jarring and perfectly blend with the original bestiary, and a shit-ton of other useful stuff for level designers, new weapons and powerups, etc. It is available through Quake Injector, and the mod also has one or two remade maps from Quake's EP1 with the new entities and monsters as a showcase.
Now comes the engines part. There are a lot of different engines for Quake, with the most famous being FitzQuake and Darkplaces. I personally use FitzQuake 0.85; it's relatively faithful to GLQuake and has extended limits (you may have to enter some command lines into the engine configuration in Quake Injector to run the maps, but it's usually written in the map description). Darkplaces can be made to look like GLQuake, and also supports a new type of .bsp that breaks all kinds of old limits. I personally prefer to use RMQ (Remake Quake's engine) to play .bsp2 maps since it's a lot easier to configure it to look like GLQuake, or at least something close. You can find a list of engines here, just pick your poison: http://www.quakewiki.net/quake-1-engines/
Quakespasm and DirectQ are also pretty neat, with the former being based on FitzQuake if I remember right: https://www.quaddicted.com/quake/recommended_engines
My FitzQuake command line to play maps that require extended limits is this: -heapsize 192000 +max_edicts 8192 -zone 2048
Note that some of them (ezQuake for instance) only work in QuakeWorld, which is the multiplayer version of Quake. They do not contain any monster entities.
Some good releases this year:
- The Horde of Zendar: a huge fortress/city by night with lots of verticality and secrets.
- Nyarlathotep: if you're a fan of completely bizarre architecture, custom weapons and enemies, and brutal horde combat then this is for you. The maps are rather hit or miss, as usual with Tronyn's stuff. I personally loved it.
- Mainframe Mayhem: a large base map with some cliffs and pits. Uses Quoth.
- The Ivory Tower: a non-linear map reminiscent of the designs of the original game. Pretty neat but can be confusing.
- A Past and Future Secret: this came out of nowhere, it's so oldschool it's awesome, with some novel ideas. Made by Matthias Worch who made the classic Beyond Belief. Note that Chthon in this map is vulnerable to conventional weaponry.
- Backsteingotik: a large non-linear wind-tunnel map with some cool sections. Highly recommended.
- Terracity: a huge terracotta map with lots of monsters.
- Midnight Stalker: a very good romp with some classic aesthetics.
- Pain in the Arch: a large library carved into a huge cavern. Uses Quoth.
- For My Babies - Bin Dunne Gorne 2: a two-map episode with Daikatana textures and rather unusual progression. Very good. Uses Quoth.
Other recommended stuff all years erry year is (almost) everything by RPG, CZG, Kell, Vondur, Than, Hrimfaxi and Necros.
The good news is the Quake singleplayer scene is very much alive, but the bad news is it's really slow compared to Doom, with around two dozens releases every year. Most of the time these releases are of excellent quality, sometimes made by professional level designers with years of experience, and there seems to be some fresh newcomers with awesome ideas lately.
The easiest way to play custom maps is through Quake Injector, a program that scans the map database at Quaddicted.com and installs maps and mods properly, so you don't have to do it yourself. It's very easy to configure and you can change engines on the fly. See this: https://www.quaddicted.com/tools/quake_injector
Now most of the maps released nowadays use the Quoth modification that adds some really cool monsters that for once do not look jarring and perfectly blend with the original bestiary, and a shit-ton of other useful stuff for level designers, new weapons and powerups, etc. It is available through Quake Injector, and the mod also has one or two remade maps from Quake's EP1 with the new entities and monsters as a showcase.
Now comes the engines part. There are a lot of different engines for Quake, with the most famous being FitzQuake and Darkplaces. I personally use FitzQuake 0.85; it's relatively faithful to GLQuake and has extended limits (you may have to enter some command lines into the engine configuration in Quake Injector to run the maps, but it's usually written in the map description). Darkplaces can be made to look like GLQuake, and also supports a new type of .bsp that breaks all kinds of old limits. I personally prefer to use RMQ (Remake Quake's engine) to play .bsp2 maps since it's a lot easier to configure it to look like GLQuake, or at least something close. You can find a list of engines here, just pick your poison: http://www.quakewiki.net/quake-1-engines/
Quakespasm and DirectQ are also pretty neat, with the former being based on FitzQuake if I remember right: https://www.quaddicted.com/quake/recommended_engines
My FitzQuake command line to play maps that require extended limits is this: -heapsize 192000 +max_edicts 8192 -zone 2048
Note that some of them (ezQuake for instance) only work in QuakeWorld, which is the multiplayer version of Quake. They do not contain any monster entities.
Some good releases this year:
- The Horde of Zendar: a huge fortress/city by night with lots of verticality and secrets.
- Nyarlathotep: if you're a fan of completely bizarre architecture, custom weapons and enemies, and brutal horde combat then this is for you. The maps are rather hit or miss, as usual with Tronyn's stuff. I personally loved it.
- Mainframe Mayhem: a large base map with some cliffs and pits. Uses Quoth.
- The Ivory Tower: a non-linear map reminiscent of the designs of the original game. Pretty neat but can be confusing.
- A Past and Future Secret: this came out of nowhere, it's so oldschool it's awesome, with some novel ideas. Made by Matthias Worch who made the classic Beyond Belief. Note that Chthon in this map is vulnerable to conventional weaponry.
- Backsteingotik: a large non-linear wind-tunnel map with some cool sections. Highly recommended.
- Terracity: a huge terracotta map with lots of monsters.
- Midnight Stalker: a very good romp with some classic aesthetics.
- Pain in the Arch: a large library carved into a huge cavern. Uses Quoth.
- For My Babies - Bin Dunne Gorne 2: a two-map episode with Daikatana textures and rather unusual progression. Very good. Uses Quoth.
Other recommended stuff all years erry year is (almost) everything by RPG, CZG, Kell, Vondur, Than, Hrimfaxi and Necros.
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