Quake II

Quake II
Quake II Logo (Coverart)
Studio	id software
Publisher	Activision
Erstveröffent- lichung	Windows November 11, 1997 December 1997 Mac OS 1997 Nintendo 64 February 7, 1999 June 30, 1997 PlayStation October 1999 1999 Linux May 20, 1999 Amiga 2002
platform	Amiga , Windows , Linux , Mac OS , N64 , PlayStation
genre	Ego shooter
Subject	Science fiction , invasion
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer
control	Mouse & keyboard , gamepad
medium	CD-ROM , download , game module (N64)
language	English
Age rating	PEGI
information	indexed in Germany until August 2019

The computer game Quake II is the second part of the Quake series . The first person shooter was released for the PC at the end of 1997 . The game was developed by id Software and distributed by Activision . In 1999 a version for the Nintendo 64 (developed by Raster Productions LLC) and the PlayStation came on the market. The Playstation version was largely identical to the original version on the PC, but the Nintendo 64 version contained new game sections, missions and a new soundtrack. The online functions ( multiplayer mode ) of the PC version have been replaced by the split screen on both consoles .

Quake II is the successor to Quake , but has nothing to do with its predecessor in terms of the background story. A separate title was originally planned for the game, including the suggested name WOR .

The soundtrack of the PC version comes almost exclusively from the band Sonic Mayhem ; otherwise by Bill Brown , Rob Zombie and Jer Sypult .

The last version released is 3.20. This update included bug fixes and new multiplayer maps . Version 3.21 was only released as source code.

action

In the distant future, humanity will be threatened by an alien race of cyborgs , the Strogg. The game begins when the Terran military launches a major attack on the Strogg home planet. As a soldier you were separated from your crew in a crash and are now alone in enemy territory. Connected via radio to the command center, the player now receives various orders, including sabotage, obtaining data, targeting of air raids and ultimately the destruction of the Supreme Commander of the Strogg. During the course of the game, the player explores various Strogg facilities, including industrial areas, military bases, prisons, factories for processing people and the palace of the Strogg ruler.

Because of the high level of violence at the time (e.g. the injuries of the monsters are represented by damage textures), the game in Germany was indicated until August 2019 .

Extensions

There are three official add-ons for Quake II :

• Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning - Released May 30, 1998, developed by Xatrix . Includes a new single player campaign, new weapons and monsters, and several new multiplayer levels.
• Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero - Released August 31, 1998, developed by Rogue Entertainment. This Mission Pack also contains a new single player campaign, new weapons, monsters and new multiplayer levels.
• Netpack I: Extremities - released on November 26, 1998. This is a compilation of various multiplayer mods (including Action Quake 2 , CHAOS Deathmatch and Rocket Arena ) that were created by hobby developers from the community for the game. Despite the title, there was no successor.

There are also two other commercial add-ons for Quake II that are licensed from id Software but are not distributed as official Mission Packs by Activision:

• Zaero - released in 1998, developed by Team Evolve and distributed by Macmillan Digital Publishing USA.
• Juggernaut: The New Story For Quake II - published 1998, developed by Canopy Games and distributed by Head Games Publishing.

technology

In contrast to its predecessor Quake , which only supported hardware acceleration through 3D graphics cards via a later update , this was integrated in Quake II from the start. The interface for this is typically OpenGL . Colored light effects and smooth animation of the characters briefly made Quake II the technically most outstanding game of its time. Another innovation was the representation of the sky using a so-called skybox , a technique that uses cubic environment mapping to display a panorama. A resource-saving network code that made the game playable on the Internet from the start was also implemented. Thus a continuation of QuakeWorld (the separate multiplayer addition to Quake) was not necessary.

Quake II always runs as a client / server model, even in single player mode . First of all, this means that a (single-player) server is started first, even in single-player mode, to which the player (as the only one) connects. Second, it is therefore also possible to Quake II in the so-called dedicated mode ( dedicated mode to start), that is, it is only the server, but not the sound, graphic or started player interface. This means you can run a Quake II server for multiplayer mode even on older computers .

Source code and ports

The source code of the Quake II server was published early by id . This made it possible to change the game behavior, which led to many mods .

The source code of the complete engine of version 3.19 was published on December 21, 2001 under the GPL , later version 3.21 was also published. Various projects developed from this version, some of which extend the engine considerably to improve the visual effects. Projects of this kind include Quake II Max and Quake II Evolved .

A community also developed from the efforts that redesign the textures and models that appear in the game in high resolution so that the game is brought up to date.

Web links

• Quake II at MobyGames (English)
• Quake II .NET
• German community for the quake series ( Memento from October 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• www.bytonic.de Quake II based on Java. Start with Webstart directly from the browser (approx. 40 MB) for Linux and Windows.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quake II (PC) , ign.com
2. ↑ Quake II Review , ign.com
3. ↑ Quake II Review , ign.com
4. ↑ Polygon.com on the 15th anniversary of Quake II's release, according to Tim Willits.
5. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=15041
6. ↑ Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning at MobyGames
7. ↑ Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero at MobyGames
8. ↑ Zaero at MobyGames
9. ↑ Juggernaut at MobyGames