QuakeWorld is an update to id Software's

Id Software

Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...

 seminal multiplayer deathmatch game, Quake, that enhances the game's multiplayer features (namely UDP

User Datagram Protocol

The User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...

 support) to allow people with dial-up modems to achieve greatly improved responsiveness when playing on Internet game servers. Modern broadband

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

 connections such as cable

Cable

A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...

 and DSL

Digital Subscriber Line

Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ,...

 can use the QW model of network handling and game physics. Official id Software development stopped with the test release of QuakeWorld 2.33 on December 21, 1998. The last official stable release was 2.30.

1996 - QuakeWorld is Born

Quake's network code, the part of the software that handles multiplayer gaming over a network, was designed for low-latency play over a LAN

Local area network

A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...

. The original Quake did not address the fact that Internet connections have generally much higher latency

Latency (engineering)

Latency is a measure of time delay experienced in a system, the precise definition of which depends on the system and the time being measured. Latencies may have different meaning in different contexts.-Packet-switched networks:...

 and packet loss

Packet loss

Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data travelling across a computer network fail to reach their destination. Packet loss is distinguished as one of the three main error types encountered in digital communications; the other two being bit error and spurious packets caused due to noise.-...

 compared to a LAN connection, and over some connections, performance of this model did not provide an optimal experience.

QuakeWorld, written by John Carmack with help from John Cash and Christian Antkow, was released in December 1996. Further development was later taken over by David Kirsch

David Kirsch

David "Zoid" Kirsch is a computer game designer and programmer. His first notable project was Threewave CTF modification for Quake, in 1996. He was hired by id Software in 1997 to develop the CTF modes, which he over time implemented for Quake II and Quake III Arena. He was also one of the...

 (a.k.a. "Zoid" from Threewave

Threewave Software

Threewave Software is a videogame developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They are best-known for the development of Threewave CTF, an early Capture the Flag mod for Quake developed by Michael Goodhead and his mod group. Defined as an independent studio, the company has taken on...

, of Capture the Flag

Capture the flag

Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...

 fame) and Jack 'morbid' Mathews. It included a useful program called QuakeSpy, written by Mathews, which later evolved into GameSpy

GameSpy

GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...

.

1997 - Global Ranking, Maturing Client, Team Fortress

For the first four months of its existence from December 1996 until April 1997, QuakeWorld (Version 1.25) sported its own global player ranking system where users were required to log into id Software's master server with their own unique identifications each time so that game statistics were logged in a central location. This spurred competition between players striving to attain the highest rank, but also controversy over the fairness of the formula used in its calculation. This, and more significantly, the incredible network and manpower load placed on id software's servers overwhelmed the company's rankings system that led them to abandon rankings entirely with the release of QuakeWorld Version 1.5 early in April 1997. The master servers thereafter only provided a list of active QuakeWorld servers.

The most popular QuakeWorld modification to date, Team Fortress

Team Fortress

Team Fortress is a team- and class-based online multiplayer video game mod based on id Software's Quake. Team Fortress was designed and written by Robin Walker, John Cook and Ian Caughley in 1996. The mod's gameplay has caught on with a large following of fans, which has spurred many developers to...

, was released in Dec 1996 for QuakeWorld. During 1997 Team Fortress received praise from players and industry media alike and quickly gathered a base of thousands of players and hundreds of clans.

1999 - TGi

The True Gamers Invitational, or TGi for short, was a LAN event held in April 1999 in Gothenburg, Sweden admined by Izn0. It gathered the best duel players in the world, with Intel sponsoring the flight of the Australian player 'Reload'. Other countries represented were Sweden (victorious by LakermaN), Germany, United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. No cash was awarded, but this was the most significant international competition at the time, and most participants went on to earn sponsorship to travel to other tournaments. This event marks the beginning of QuakeWorld's submergence underground, as most players went on to newer games such as Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...

, and Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...

, and there has never been such an international LAN competition in QuakeWorld since (although QHLan has come close).

2001 - CPL 4-Year

The CPL

Cyberathlete Professional League

The Cyberathlete Professional League , founded on June 27, 1997 by gaming entrepreneur Angel Munoz, is a professional sports tournament organization specializing in computer and console video game competitions....

 4-Year Anniversary Event - 6/28/01 > 7/1/01

• Location: Dallas, Texas
• Notes: 800 people attended and $20,000 USD in prizemoney was awarded.

1.   Harley ‘HarlsoM‘ Grey: $5,000
2.   Core: $3,000
3.   Paul ‘czm‘ Nelson: $2,000
4.   Jeff ‘FienD‘ Abbott: $1,500
5.   XoquE: $1,200
6.   Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty‘ Wendel: $1,000
7.   John ‘ZeRo4‘ Hill: $800
8.   Dan ‘RiX‘ Hammons: $500
   • 9th-16th: $300, 17th-24th: $200

2007 - QuakeWorld Back in Big Tournament Play

• QuakeCon
  QuakeCon
  QuakeCon is a bring-your-own-computer computer gaming event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty...
  
   2007, 'Quad Damage' tournament (QW was played along with Q2, Q3, & Q4). Prize money: $100,000 USD

• DreamHack
  DreamHack
  DreamHack is a digital festival, a local area network gathering with demo competitions, gaming competitions and more. It's arranged twice annually at the Elmia exhibition centre in Jönköping, Sweden and also twice a year at Expolaris Congresscenter, Skellefteå, Sweden and holds the world record ...
  
   2007, 32 player duel
  Duel
  A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
  
   Tournament. Prize money: 25,000 SEK
  Swedish krona
  The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
  
  

1.   ParadokS
2.   Locktar
3.   Locust
4.   Reppie

• DreamHack
  DreamHack
  DreamHack is a digital festival, a local area network gathering with demo competitions, gaming competitions and more. It's arranged twice annually at the Elmia exhibition centre in Jönköping, Sweden and also twice a year at Expolaris Congresscenter, Skellefteå, Sweden and holds the world record ...
  
   2008, 32 player 2on2 Tournament. Prize money: 37,000 SEK

1.   Druidz Team 2 (Xantom & mawe)
2.   Disorder (Nabbe & Persuader)
3.   Druidz Team 1 (bps & LocKtar)
4.   Lege Artis (Inferno & Riker)

• DreamHack
  DreamHack
  DreamHack is a digital festival, a local area network gathering with demo competitions, gaming competitions and more. It's arranged twice annually at the Elmia exhibition centre in Jönköping, Sweden and also twice a year at Expolaris Congresscenter, Skellefteå, Sweden and holds the world record ...
  
   2009, 16 player duel Tournament. Prize money: 15,000 SEK

1.   Locktar
2.   Nabbe
3.   bps
4.   Åke Vader

Features

QuakeWorld's most important feature is its rewritten networking code (for client-side player prediction

Client-side prediction

Client-side prediction is a network programming technique used in video games intended to conceal negative effects of high latency connections...

 and delta compression). Player prediction allowed QuakeWorld clients to compensate for high latency, thus allowing dialup users to move around in the virtual world without being affected by the disorienting effects of latency. This helped Quake network play reach an additional market, as opposed to those who had LAN or broadband connections at the time.

It did not address what some considered exploits

Exploit (online gaming)

An exploit, in video games, is the use of a bug or design flaw by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers. It is often colloquially abbreviated sploit. Exploits have been classified as a form of cheating; however, the precise determination of what is or is not...

, namely bunny hopping

Bunny hopping

Bunny hopping, or bunny jumping, is a term used in video games to describe the basic movement technique in which a player jumps repeatedly, instead of running, in order to move faster.-Concept:...

, wall-hugging, and zig-zagging. These bugs have shaped the recent part of QuakeWorld's life, allowing for additional dimensions to playing style, and are now seen as features by much of the community.

Legacy

QuakeWorld was seminal in popularising deathmatch, and, alongside Ultima Online

Ultima Online

Ultima Online is a graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game , released on September 24, 1997, by Origin Systems. It was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today...

, internet multiplayer. It is considered even today by many die-hard players to be the best multiplayer game, such that several games featuring QuakeWorld-like gameplay elements have been developed, including the Quake III mod: Challenge ProMode Arena

Challenge ProMode Arena

Challenge ProMode Arena is a freeware modification for id Software's first-person shooter computer game Quake III Arena . CPMA includes modified gameplays that feature air-control, rebalanced weapons, instant weapon switching and additional jumping techniques...

, Painkiller, the freeware

Freeware

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

 game Warsow, a mod for Quake 4

Quake 4

Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake first-person shooter computer games. The game was developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. Raven Software has collaborated with id Software, the creators and historical developers of preceding Quake games...

called Quake4World, and a free game called Quake2World based on the Quake 2 engine.

A license to QuakeWorld was given to Valve Software L.L.C.

Valve Corporation

Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...

 in 1996, which was heavily modified into the GoldSrc

GoldSrc

GoldSrc, or Goldsource, is the retronym used internally by Valve Software to refer to the heavily modified Quake engine that powers their science fiction first-person shooter Half-Life ....

 engine, which powers Half-Life, Team Fortress Classic

Team Fortress Classic

Team Fortress Classic, also known as Team Fortress 1.5 or simply TFC, is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is a remake of the Team Fortress modification for Quake. Team Fortress Classic was originally released for Windows on April 7, 1999 as...

(a follow-up to the QuakeWorld mod Team Fortress), and Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...

, among others.

In December 1999, John Carmack of id Software released the server and client source code of Quake and QuakeWorld under the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

 as a Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 present to the world, and this spawned a plethora of 21st century updates to this famous game first released in 1996. A few years later John Romero released the map sources under the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

 in October 2006. Among the popular clients today are FuhQuake, ezQuake, More QuakeWorld, with ezQuake being most popular.

QuakeNet

QuakeNet

QuakeNet is currently the largest Internet Relay Chat network, with a peak average of about 135,000 users and 100,000 channels. The network was founded in 1997 by Garfield and Oli as a new home for their respective countries' Quake channels...

, the largest Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...

(IRC) network, originated in 1997 as a network for QuakeWorld players.

External links

• QuakeWorld.nu - News and community site
• nQuake - An Open Source QW package
• CHTV - Extensive QW demo repository
• Refragged - QuakeWorld news from the competitive scene