TheQuakefranchise has been seeing a resurgence in recent months. After QuakeCon celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with a remote event, Bethesda gaveQuakefans another special treat byreleasingQuake 2for freeto fans of the classic franchise for the next three days. While fans can also look forward toQuake 3’s free period next week, they now also have a new free game to choose from.
Unbeknownst to some fans,series developer id Software collaborated with a company called Lazer-Tron in 1998 to produceQuake Arcade Tournament Edition,an arcade portof the classic shooter. However, due to difficulties in development, id and Lazer-Tron cancelled the project and only made twenty arcade cabinets. While a copy of the game’s software has been available for ages, theQuakearcade game’s encryption has left it unplayable without access to a dongle that plugs into the machine.
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However, Github user Mills5 has officially circumvented the dongle’s safeguards and uploaded a playable copy ofQuakeArcade Tournament Editionfor PC players. In their documentation, Mills5 explained why the dongle requirement made the arcade title unplayable in the widely used MAME emulator.
A new YouTube video containing gameplay footage of the unlocked arcade port shows that it is very similar to the original game. Although the clip did not show how it would work,QuakeArcade Tournament Editionported the multiplayer deathmatches,and allowed PvP combat through connected cabinets. While Mills5 discussed how the game made modifications to theQuakeengine, the biggest difference being the announcer who notifies players when they earn an “Instaprize” for collecting coins and presents.
Hopefully, nostalgic players are able to enjoy this lost game in theQuakefranchise. The years of effort put into decrypting the game reflect both the enthusiasm of the classic game’s community and theimpact thatQuakehas had on the FPS genre.Although Bethesda has not taken legal action against the pirated game yet, only time will tell if it will take down the game’s files from Github.
