Quake (video game)

Quake is a 1996 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive. The first game in the Quake series, it was originally released for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, followed by Mac OS, Linux and Sega Saturn in 1997 and Nintendo 64 in 1998.

The game's plot is centered around teleportation experiments, dubbed slipgates, which have resulted in an unforeseen invasion of Earth by a hostile force codenamed Quake, which commands a vast army of monsters. The player takes the role of a soldier (later dubbed Ranger), whose mission is to travel through the slipgates in order to find and destroy the source of the invasion. The game is split between futuristic military bases and medieval, gothic environments, featuring both science fiction and fantasy weaponry and enemies as the player battles possessed soldiers and demonic beasts such as ogres or armor-clad knights. Quake heavily takes inspiration from gothic fiction and in particular the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The game went through many revisions during development, and had originally been inspired by a Dungeons & Dragons campaign held among id Software staff.

The successor to id Software's Doom series, Quake built upon the technology and gameplay of its predecessor. Unlike the Doom engine before it, the Quake engine offered full real-time 3D rendering and had early support for 3D acceleration through OpenGL. After Doom helped popularize multiplayer deathmatches, Quake added various multiplayer options. Online multiplayer became increasingly common, with the QuakeWorld update and software such as QuakeSpy making the process of finding and playing against others on the Internet easier and more reliable. Quake featured music composed by Trent Reznor and his band Nine Inch Nails.

Quake is often cited as one of the best video games ever made. Despite its critical acclaim, Quake's development was controversial in the history of id Software. Due to creative differences and a lack of leadership, the majority of the team left the company after the game's release, including co-founder John Romero. An "enhanced" version of Quake was developed by Nightdive Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One consoles in August 2021, including the original game's first two expansions and two episodes developed by MachineGames. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions were released in October 2021.