the fabric of reality tears asunder, a great slipgate now standing solemnly in your path. you feel overwhelmed by the urge to push forward and fight the merciless cosmic hordes, but feel lost about how to do so...
legends tell of a helpful angel that has left information on how to battle the eldritch menace inscribed in magic runes on a large tablet. upon reading the tablet, the runes burn bright as the sun and in a blinding flash the ancient knowledge held in those carvings is burnt into your very soul, so that you too might play quake.
firstly, secure quake's PAK0.PAK and PAK1.PAK files - which are required to play quake - by either buying the game or through archive.org or otherwise. next, in order to play well on a modern system and experience the best modern maps and mods, consider downloading a sourceport.
wrens personal recommended sourceport: vkQuake
place the .pak files in the id1 folder in your quake directory. you are now ready to play, but below are a couple of settings which wren recommends to make quake look a bit nicer.
recommended settings:
create a file named autoexec.cfg in the id1 folder and add the following lines:
after you experience the main campaign, you may want to explore quake further. the true appeal of quake is that there is a vibrant, active community of dedicated creators who are producing new and exciting maps all the time which make the official campaign feels boring in comparison. below are a selection of some of wren's absolute favourite quake map packs for your enjoyment:
this small sampler barely scratches the surface of what quake can offer, but should give you a small taste of what you may find. if you wish to explore further however, then perhaps wren can point you in the right direction...
by now quake should be causing a deep longing in you that you will never be able to fully sate. to keep feeding your quake addiction, you should turn to quaddicted.com - the largest repository for singleplayer quake maps and mods on the internet, with over 20 years of excellent quality quake content.
individual maps can be played by dropping them into your \Quake\id1\maps directory, unless they rely on an external mod such as quoth or copper or arcane dimensions, but they should specify as such in their readme.txt. wren recommends installing these mods in your quake directory so that you have them for whenever those situations arise.
some of you may even feel the need to one day you wish to join in the joy of contributing to quake yourself. if you wish to try your hand at mapping, do not be afraid as there are new people joining jams every day and producing high quality maps with the help of community members with literal decades of experience.
func_msgboard is the home of all things quake mapping. there is much, much too much to cover about the depths and complexities of mapping for this page, but aspiring mappers will also want to play with trenchbroom - quakes intuitive and modern map editor that is simple enough for even complete novices.
some other resources you may find helpful include:
with this new knowledge, you step forward confidently through the slipgate to battle the unending eldritch hordes and fight bravely in quake!