Quake (1996)

[jmtd]

So it turns out the pre-release multiplayer-only test release, QTest, has higher quality sound effects than the final game, also alternatives and unused sound effects in the PAK file. I'm exploring now.

[Ryan]

So it turns out the pre-release multiplayer-only test release, QTest, has higher quality sound effects than the final game, also alternatives and unused sound effects in the PAK file. I'm exploring now.

Hand them over cunt!

[jmtd]

Hand them over cunt!

Flattery gets you everywhere.

The sounds extracted from the PAK, zipped up: http://jmtd.net/tmp/sounds.zip

also included is a CSV which conveniently lists the sample and bitrates for each sound. (by me, I should add.)

If you want QTest itself, this link works Qtest Download

I had some trouble extracting the PAK file using conventional tools as it seems the PAK file format might have evolved between this and the final release of Quake.

Next up, I'm going to inspect the quake leaked pre-release beta and the half life alpha which apparently has unused quake assets in it too.

[WorzelG]

Is Quake being re-released or something? Is there any way you can buy quake which includes the soundtrack without having to put the CD in?

[sheepdean]

Is Quake being re-released or something? Is there any way you can buy quake which includes the soundtrack without having to put the CD in?

No (it's freeware so would be a huge waste of cash) and no. You can pirate it as it's freeware, but there is, to date, no standalone release of the OST

[Vertigo]

Flattery gets you everywhere.

The sounds extracted from the PAK, zipped up: http://jmtd.net/tmp/sounds.zip

Link doesn't work, 404. :/

[Sallos]

Flattery gets you everywhere.

The sounds extracted from the PAK, zipped up: http://jmtd.net/tmp/sounds.zip

also included is a CSV which conveniently lists the sample and bitrates for each sound. (by me, I should add.)


If you want QTest itself, this link works Qtest Download

I had some trouble extracting the PAK file using conventional tools as it seems the PAK file format might have evolved between this and the final release of Quake.

Next up, I'm going to inspect the quake leaked pre-release beta and the half life alpha which apparently has unused quake assets in it too.

to open the quake pak you need pak explorer.

1st tool
http://www.quaketerminus.com/tools.shtml

[jmtd]

to open the quake pak you need pak explorer.

1st tool
http://www.quaketerminus.com/tools.shtml

I was on a Mac, so I only tried the command-line tools, which I could build OK but none of them handled ID1.PAK. Someone I know on IRC authored a tool and uploaded it for me to https://github.com/E-werd/PakTool which worked. But I had to fire up a Windows VM to run it, CBA to get mono set up on the Mac beyond installing it.

Sorry for broken link, it's actually

http://jmtd.net/tmp/sound.zip

edit

No (it's freeware so would be a huge waste of cash) and no. You can pirate it as it's freeware, but there is, to date, no standalone release of the OST

A) Quake isn't freeware at all. There's a 1-episode shareware version, which is software rendering only and afaik a DOS executable, and that's it. The commercial game is still being sold actively. The engine source code has been released, and you can get many community-built, free engines, but you still need game data to play it.

But sadly, B), none of the places selling Quake nowadays (e.g. Steam) include the soundtrack. So you have to either buy a 2nd hand copy of the original CD release, or pirate (at least) the soundtrack.

[BenAkenobi]

...but none of them handled ID1.PAK...

That was part of the agreement between ID and modding community, that the various mods all required full version of game to play, hence this "incompatibility".

[jmtd]

That was part of the agreement between ID and modding community, that the various mods all required full version of game to play, hence this "incompatibility".

Mods shouldn't work with the SW version of quake (just pak0.pak), yes, I remember that agreement at the time. But pak tools could open pak0.pak just fine. I've just fired up a windows vm again and pakexplr managed them both and id1.pak too. So the issue seems to be with the from-source builds of the amateur tools on a modern machine.

I think the most likely explanation for why the tools I tried failed is that they make implicit assumptions that don't hold true in my OS X environment and basically throw a wobbly, probably sizeof(int) etc. being larger than expected (not being a 32 bit system)

[Jon]

So it turns out the pre-release multiplayer-only test release, QTest, has higher quality sound effects than the final game, also alternatives and unused sound effects in the PAK file. I'm exploring now.

Do you still happen to have the .zip for this? The two links you posted no longer work (sound.zip / sounds.zip).

[jmtd]

Do you still happen to have the .zip for this? The two links you posted no longer work (sound.zip / sounds.zip).

Probably! I'll have a good look Tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder, actually; I forgot to look into this further.

[jmtd]

Do you still happen to have the .zip for this? The two links you posted no longer work (sound.zip / sounds.zip).

It's here now https://jmtd.net/t/sound.zip

It also contains a CSV with fields filename, frequency, sample size and corresponding bitrate.

What I haven't done yet is match any of those up to final game sound effects and/or build a mod that upgrades the sound where possible.

Edit: there is/was a Quake mod called "MindGrid" which sourced some of the sound effects from commercial sound effect libraries (which supplied them in higher quality than was mixed down for the final quake sound effects). I haven't had a chance to try it, because the copy I found had been remuxed into a PK3 for some engine or other that supports those, but QuakeSpasm (the one I use) does not.

[Jon]

Edit: there is/was a Quake mod called "MindGrid" which sourced some of the sound effects from commercial sound effect libraries (which supplied them in higher quality than was mixed down for the final quake sound effects). I haven't had a chance to try it, because the copy I found had been remuxed into a PK3 for some engine or other that supports those, but QuakeSpasm (the one I use) does not.

If it's the same .zip I have, the .pk3 file was made specifically for ezQuake.

MediaInfo reports all of the sounds are 1-channel PCM @ 16-bit/44.1kHz (avg. bitrate of 705kbps for all files).