How Quake Shook the World: Quake Turns 25
After revolutionizing PC gaming with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, id Software pulled off a hat trick with Quake, released on June 22, 1996. Quake mixed polygonal 3D graphics, networking, and grunge into a groundbreaking hit with wide influence. Here’s what made it special.
In Quake, you play as an unnamed protagonist (later called “Ranger“) who must travel through dimensional gates to defeat an alien named Quake that has invaded Earth. Like Doom before it, Quake is a first-person shooter game where you explore levels, solve minor puzzles, and obliterate every monster that you see—ideally in a shower of bloody “gibs.”
Compared to the technicolor violence of Doom’s universe, Quake felt relatively bland and dark, graphically speaking, and its single-player campaign was no showstopper. But it incorporated dark medieval imagery and H.P. Lovecraft influences that felt appropriate for 1996’s era of grunge music, grunge fonts, and grunge fashion. And its pioneering 3D graphics and networking support placed it head and shoulders above the competition.
id Software forged Quake in a contentious team effort due to a long period of technical development on the engine, with disagreements over game design eventually leading to id Software co-founder John Romero leaving the company.
