by Matthew C.
2008.12.12
2008 is almost over
and guess what?
Quake II still rocks!
Upon release,
Quake II was extremely well-received by reviewers and gamers alike. It was called "The Best Game Ever" by PC Gamer,
and went on to sell over one million copies.
Quake II was the most popular online game for all of 1998. That's just astounding. Now that we're TEN years hence, here's an attempt at a table of "preferred" map names and screenshots.
Back in 1999, this website hosted a bunch of
Quake II character models and skins that I'm sure you found fun and exciting. This time we're focusing on "deathmatch" maps, trying to list and filter out the "good ones" that we remember. Maps are ordered (within their groupings) from "most preferred" to "least preferred".
The "filename" referenced below can simply be renamed (without adverse consequence), so I'm just going to list the most common one
I've seen. The zip files contain the map (BSP) and the information file (TXT). Let us know by email if you're missing any textures.
Small to medium size maps
| Filename | Map name | Screenshots |
|---|
| q2dm1 | The Edge  |   |
| ra2map14 | Intestinal Fortitude |    |
| q2dm8 | Warehouse |   |
| q2dm2 | Tokay's Towers |   |
| krypton | Kryptonite |   |
| mdm3 | The Drome |   |
| q2dm3 | The Frag Pipe |    |
| sventourney3 | The Death Ray |   |
ra2map6
(arena 8) | Auxilary Death |   |
| q2dm5 | The Pits |   |
|
Re-creations for use in Quake II
| Filename | Map name | Screenshots |
|---|
| 007caverns | Caverns
from Nintendo 64's GoldenEye |   |
| q2e1m1 | The Slipgate Compound
from Quake |   |
| 007facility | Chemical Weapons Facility
from Nintendo 64's GoldenEye |   |
| q2dm20 | The Edge (mirrored)
[after playing "The Edge" so much,
this messes with my head] |   |
| 007aztec | Aztec Temple
from Nintendo 64's GoldenEye |   |
|
Large maps (id's three 64 player deathmatch maps)
| Filename | Map name | Screenshots |
|---|
| Base64 | The Strogg Base |   |
| Sewer64 | The Sewers of Stroggos |   |
| City64 | Courts at War |   |
|
Here is a great page for
Quake II resources...
http://www.bluesnews.com/quake2. If you're looking for
Quake II files, let us know. We may be able to point you in the right direction.
2008.12.16
Warning, last night I played on
Quake II servers still active (after all these years) and the people playing are...good. These players have had roughly ten years to work on their moves and it's frantic, but fun. Yes I "died" five times for every one time that I "killed" another player, but
Quake II deathmatch is still a heck of a lot of fun.
2008.12.19
Well, after working on this page for about a week...tracking down maps, getting them to work with my "2008 copy" of
Quake II and getting the files setup the way I want them, I'm happy. I've been pouring over broken maps and fan-made maps that aren't very good, so I'm glad to be able to get down to playing. I have a mod (BBQbot) that gives me "bots" to play against offline so that's where I do most of my fragging.
2008.12.22
Today I'm separating these "not-so-great" maps, but it's really just a preference. I'm sure these are someone's favorites, just not mine. They're not bad, just not my favorites. It all depends on your style of play. I've played on some maps that other people LOVE, but I think are absolute rubbish (and I hope to never play again). :D
...
OK, I just got done playing online and it's not that the players are THAT much better, it's just that they know where the spawn points are and spawn-camp a lot of the time. BUT, if you find some good players, the matches can be a lot of fun.
| Filename | Map name | Screenshots |
|---|
| alkdm15 | World Between The Margins
(low-res, gritty, but OK) |   |
| thegoth | The Goth
(low-res, gritty, but OK) |   |
| q2dm7 | A Slimy Place
(too easy to fall in the poisonous slime) |   |
| q2dm6 | Lava Tomb
(too easy to fall in the lava) |   |
| ra2ro2 | Rocket O'rena 2 | map pack (click to view) |
| Railgun Stadium
(very small and limiting) |  |
| ra2ro1 | Rocket O'rena 1 | map pack |
|
