Skip to main content

Quake2 for Modern Linux

There is a Quake2 HOWTO written by Bob Zimbinsky that should be your first stop. It should be your first stop because even though dated, it provides useful details on how to launch mods and fix problems. There is also an interesting Wikipedia page for Quake2.

It is quite amazing to me that this game was released way back in 1997 as the second installment to ID's Quake series. I've played it ever since the release; it has quite a following.

Since id Software released the source code for the Quake2 game engine, there have been several projects that have attempted to make not only a better playing game, but a better looking game. The game itself can be purchased from Amazon, GOG, eBay, or STEAM. There is no special code or password to unlock, run or install the game.

In addition to the win32 game engine supplied with the original release as well as the GOG and STEAM releases, there are several different game engines and hi-res packs to choose from. What I'm presenting here is how I configure Quake on my Linux box.

The game engine I use is the Yamagi Quake2 Engine, the game engine supplied in my Mageia6 distro. It features numerous improvements in the game engine itself while retaining the same gameplay experience. The homepage notes that "Yamagi Quake II is supported on FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, OpenBSD and Windows (XP or higher). Porting to other (POSIX compliant) systems should be easy." The current version was released in June, 2017.

Install Yamagi-quake2
Teh HOWTO for Yamagi-quake2 can be found here. To install yamagi-quake2 on Mageia6,
$ sudo urpmi yamagi-quake2

To install support for the mission packs, Capture-the-Flag and the game server,
$ sudo urpmi yamagi-quake2-ctf yamagi-quake2-rogue yamagi-quake2-xiatrix yamagi-quake2-server

The installer creates the game directory tree in /usr/lib64/games/quake2 (for my 64-bit system and /usr/lib/games/quake2 for a 32-bit system).

The first time you launch the game ( and you can do it without the game data being present), it will create ~/.yq2/baseq2 and populate that with a few files.

Remember, none of these packages includes the game data files, you need to get those from an original installation disk, GOG.com or STEAM.

If you do not own the games, you can obtain the demo version and use that in the same following manner.

Obtain the Game Data Files
I have the GOG.com version of Quake2. It comes in a win32 Innosetup archive that can be unpacked with the innoextract utility. Mageia provides that utility, otherwise you could get a Linux binary (or the source code to compile your own) from here.

Create an empty directory (we'll use /app for example) and move the GOG installer there. Then,
$ innoextract setup_quake2_quad_damage_2.0.0.3.exe

The unpacked game file tree will be found in the resulting /app subdirectory. You can place the game data files in your ~/.yq2/baseq2 directory or in /usr/lib64/games/quake2/baseq2 for all users of your system to enjoy. I prefer to place the original game data in the /usr/lib file structure and place any modifications (like hi-res textures) in my home directory. That makes it easy to experiment with different modifications without  having to re-install the game.

From the unpacked archive, copy everything to its corresponding location in /usr/lib. You may delete any .DLL and .EXE files.

To use the demo version game data (it's free of charge), get the demo version from the Yamagi website and follow the same steps.

It is important that the games binaries are only owned by root with permissions of 700 or the game won't run. Start the games with
$ quake2

On first start, a .yq2 directory will be created in your home directory. You can easily place mods and maps there.

Hi-Res Textures
Quake2 has gotten on updated look with 32-bit textures from the original 16-bit textures. Hi-res textures can be downloaded from ModDB here and placed in ~/home/.yq2/base2. It looks spectacular.

MODS
There are mods, maps, and so much more fan-created goodness that can be found by browsing the links below.

Playing Mods
To play any mod,launch the game as follows:
$ quake2 _set game

So, for the two mission packs, use
$ quake2 _set game rogue
$ quake2 _set game xatrix
$ quake2 _set game ctf

Widescreen
The yamagi-quake2 game engine supports more screen resolutions than the original, but if those do not suit your needs, create the file ~/.yq2/baseq2/autoexec.bat if it does not already exist and enter the following lines, substituting the custom resolution you desire.

gl_customwidth "5120"
gl_customheight "1080"
gl_mode "-1"
fov 100

Cheats
No Quake game is complete without cheats and walkthroughs to get you past those tough situations.


RESOURCES

Index of Games for Modern Linux

Quake2 HOWTO

Quake2 Wikipedia Page

Quake Wiki

FUNC_MSGBOARD

Quake2 Yamagi Demo Version

Yamagi Game Engine

Yamagi HOWTO

Yamagi Quake2 Linux Engine Download

Yamagi Quake2 Windows Engine Download

Yamagi Quake2 Mac Engine Download

Mission Pack "The Reckoning"

Mission Pack "Ground Zero"

Three Wave Capture the Flag

Quake2 Demo

Does this run in WINE?

Innoextract

Hi-res Textures for Quake2

Widescreen Gaming for Quake2

PC Game Wiki for Quake 2

STEAM Forum FAQ

STEAM Community Discussions for Quake2

Quake Series Discussion Forum on GOG




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DOS4GW.EXE Version 2.01a and Alternative DOS Extenders

DOS4GW.EXE The Tenberry DOS extender DOS4GW.EXE was used by many early DOS games. I still enjoy playing many of these games and DOS4GW.EXE is usable with DOSBox , so they can be played on Linux. However, the version of DOS4GW.EXE that was included with the game was whatever was current at the time. The most recent version that includes many bugfixes that possibly affected the games when used with DOSBox have been fixed in the latest version, 2.01a. It's not free at US$49, but you can downloaded it here . Simply substitute it for whatever version of DOS4GW.EXE your game provided and enjoy the bug-fixed goodness. Tenberry also makes a "high-performance" "pro" version of DOS4GW.EXE, but it costs $300. I think that they could sell quite a few of these to hobby users (since, you know, DOS is dead) for US$5. Open Souce to the Rescue There are better performing, free and Open Source alternatives available and worth a look. DPMI Explained Let's unders...

Return to Castle Wolfenstein for Modern Linux

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a first-person shooter originally released on November 19, 2001. The game, like many other classic games, is available at GOG.com and costs only US$5.99. iortcw for Linux Don't bother with old and crusty Linux binaries offered by idsoft; they are problematic and it's painful to use them on a modern Linux. Fortunately for us, there are more modern GPL-licensed Linux binaries available for 32- and 64-bit systems as well as high resolution textures packages. The project at GitHub provides source code that can also be compiled for MS Windows using MinGW. iortcw for Windows and Mac You can download pre-compiled binaries for 32- and 64-bit Linux, MS Windows and Mac from here . Let's put our files in /usr/local/games/rtcw . As root, extract the downloaded .ZIP file for your architecture to  /usr/local/games/rtcw . All we are missing are the game data files. I purchased them from GOG.com. The game installer downloaded from GOG.com can be ...

Unreal Tournament GOTY/UT99 for Modern Linux

Released on November 16, 1999, Unreal Tournament (also known as UT99) is an arena first-person shooter for Multiplayer on-line competition or you can play against bots off-line. It features several game types, with more details provided at Wikipedia . The game was re-released on February 25, 2000 as Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition (GOTY) which included the three bonus packs released previously and additional mods, or game modifiers that had become popular. It is the GOTY version that is available from STEAM or  GOG.com . The GOG version for Windows installs in Linux and plays well using WINE , PlayOnLinux or Codeweaver's Crossover . There is a Linux binary available in two versions, one for the original game and one for the GOTY edition . Also provided at that site is the Official Bonus Pack with a Linux installer. All these Linux installers are created with makeself . There are some issues using such a crusty old Linux binary. Let's see why getting...