Jaga's Guide to Quake 3, Part 2: Running the Game

INTRODUCTION

    Quake 3 was released in 1999 but has managed to keep its popularity for nearly 20 years.  This also means the original code is quite old and might not play nice with modern systems.  Fortunately, id Software also released the source code to Q3A, and with it fans of the game have created new engines to play with.  I'll be covering two engines in this guide, ioquake3 and Spearmint.  I recommend these two for a minimum of hassle, but if you're intent on using the original engine, official patches are available.
    Without further ado, let's get started!
 
    BEFORE WE BEGIN:
    You'll need some (preferably legitimate) source for Quake 3.  A CD, for example, will work fine.  The game is also available on Steam.
    How you source your Q3A isn't as much important as it is that you have the 'baseq3' folder from the game.  Spearmint and ioquake3 require that 'baseq3' folder to work.

 
    USING THE ORIGINAL FILES:
    If you're bound and determined to use your original game files, be they from CD or Steam or what-have-you, you should take the time to bring them up to date.  The last official patch for Quake 3 was 1.32c, which can be downloaded from GameFront.
    Download the 1.32 patch for your system and run it.  The patch contains 'pak' files which might not be in the original installation.  After that, download the 1.32c binaries and replace the binary for your system (quake3.exe for Windows) with the 1.32c version from the download.
   

    SPEARMINT:
    Spearmint is my favorite engine out of the three, for one simple reason: Splitscreen.  Spearmint supports up to four players on the same PC, however, it has very little mod support and is no longer actively developed.  Still, if splitscreen Quake on PC sounds interesting to you, it's well worth checking out.
    Download your system's flavor of Spearmint from its website , appreciating or ignoring the resident vocaloid as you see fit.  Once the download finishes, extract the files and drop the contents of your baseq3 folder into Spearmint's baseq3 folder.  After that, Spearmint should be ready to go: on Windows, run spearmint_x86.exe or spearmint_x86_64.exe (for 32-bit and 64-bit systems, respectively).
 

    IOQUAKE3:
    ioquake3 doesn't have splitscreen like Spearmint, but it does have better mod support and active development.  Get it here.  I don't prefer this option as installing it seems far more complicated than it needs to be, but it is recognized as one of the best Q3A engines around, if not the best itself.
    The download you want on Windows is the 'Engine Download for Windows'.  Download it, run it, find the created 'ioquake3' folder, and drop your baseq3 folder inside.  Then download the 'Data Installer' and run that (don't check any of the boxes for Team Arena or copying from the game CDs).  It'll add the 'pak' files from the 1.32 patch if you don't have them already, and ioquake3 should be ready to run.

    Congratulations!  If all went well, you should now have a working copy of Quake 3 Arena.

NEXT PART: The Basics