Play Quake II with Berserker@Quake2
The game “Quake 2” is quite an old game. Before you install it, make sure your computer meets the requirements. “Quake 2” supports Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. But according to Steam, the game is very much compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Quake 2 was created for Windows 95/98 systems. Installation onto a 64 bits version of Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7 seems to be possible and the game also starts properly. However, getting the game going in full screen is a challenge. Resolutions higher than 1600x1200 are not available. And you can only look around with your mouse by pressing a key. All in all pretty 90s!
So you can head over to GOG.com and download the complete Quake II: Quad Damage game. It includes Quake II, The Reckoning and Ground Zero mission packs, AND the Extremities Netpack. Awesome.
But, as with almost all games on this website, there's also a source port available for Quake 2. And it's a good one. Only downside is that it's hosted on a Russian website. So you have to look carefully between all the Russian characters. Visit the project website at http://berserker.quakegate.ru if you like. Thankfully, you can also download full packages from moddb.com.
So, what do you need to get this thing going?
Stuff you need
- A decent graphics card
- The original Quake 2 game
- The Berserker@Quake2 program files (see below)
Install Quake 2
- Install Quake 2, in this example the game is installed in c:gamesquake2
- Choose full installation!
Download and install Berserker@Quake2 files
- Download the 1.46 package at ModDB
- Copy the contents to the Quake 2 game folder, in this case c:gamesquake2
- If you want to use the high resolution pack (highly recommended!) you have to download an additional file of 500+ MB. Download the _BersPak1.pk2 file from the berserker website (scroll down) and copy it to the baseq2 folder of the Quake 2 installation folder, in this case c:gamesquake2baseq2
Start and configure the game
- Start Quake 2 by double clicking the Berserker.exe file in the Quake 2 installation folder, in this case c:gamesquake2Berserker.exe
- Initial startup may take some time, because cache files need to be created. Be patient!
- Enter the menu by pressing the esc key
- Choose the video option
- Choose the appropriate video mode, wide screen variants start after the last 4:3 mode (2048x1536), press enter to do a video restart
- Set fullscreen to yes if you want to play the game in fullscreen mode
- Set anisotrophy to level 16
- Choose more options... and check if the settings are ok
- Press esc twice to return to the main menu
- Choose the options option
- Set crosshair to something more convenient
- Customize controls by checking settings at custom controls 1 and 2
- Press esc once or twice to return the main menu
- Choose the game option
- Choose the options option
- Choose the game flags option
- Set infinite ammo to no for a more intense game experience :-)
- Press esc twice and choose one of the difficulty levels to start the game!
Screen brightness
The Berserker@Quake2 application tends to increase the brightness of the screen. When the application is closed, these settings stay enabled. After a system restart with Windows 7, default brightness will be restored. In Windows 8, the brightness remains increased even after a restart until you set them to default with your video driver software. In Windows 10, brightness goes back to normal after the application closes.
Quake mods are game data archives that add new map levels, bots, and other features to Quake and can be run as a separate game. The Darkplaces engine supports Quake 1, 2 and 3 mods. To install and run a Quake mod, use the following procedure:
Create a new folder with the name of the game in the same folder where Darkplaces was installed:
cd ~/darkplaces
mkdir newmod
Unpack the mod files into the new folder:
cd newmod
gzip newmod.zip
Run the mod:
cd ~/darkplaces
darkplaces-sdl -game newmod
List all map levels in mod
Open console: type ` (tick character on upper left of kb) or select options menu, console
In the console window type
maps
or type maps dm
to list all maps beginning with 'dm'Load and run a map level
map dm1
where 'dm1' is a map listed in console
Close the console and begin playing
Type ` again or esc
General notes about running mods on the PI
Many mods have been designed for desktop systems with high-end display cards and gigabytes of memory. The Raspberry PI on the other hand only has 512mb of memory of which only a portion is available to the gpu. Avoid mods with descriptions such as 'extreme hd' or anything that indicates it would require large amounts of memory to run. A large-sized game data archive is another sign that the mod that won't run well if at all on the Raspberry PI.
Another caveat with the current version of the Darkplaces engine is lack of support for native compression formats used by textures in some mods. This feature will be added later on when the open source gpu blob has been compiled and new extensions added to support compression formats used by Quake mods.