Quake o'clock

If you walked into a renovated warehouse in Redfern in 2004, past a delightful receptionist named Kate, past the fishbowl offices occupied by boring senior management types, through the flood-prone production farm, ducked out the back door and squeezed along a tiny, freshly watered alley that lead to a second less-renovated warehouse that HYPER once shared with half a dozen other games magazines, a handful of kids magazines, and a non-regulation-sized indoor cricket pitch, you would hear, as the time ticked over to 5pm, someone call out.

“It’s Quake o’clock!”

Who are we trying to kid here? It was often well before 5pm.

Back then Next Media (which, to clarify for the Nextmedia lawyers reading this, was a totally different company to the Nextmedia that publishes HYPER today) actually employed lots of people to write about video games. They even staffed multiple magazines with these people. There was HYPER, of course, and its three full-time staff; PC PowerPlay and its five full-time staff; there was PlayStation World and Total Gamer and PC Gamezone, too, all of whom employed professional games journalists. The world was very different back then.

When you put a dozen or so games journalists in a room together with unrestricted access to the office network they inevitably feel the urge to shoot each other in the face. And even though it was five years old at the time, Quake 3 Arena remained Next Media staff’s preferred method of shooting each other in the face. Impressive, especially when you consider the other options available in Redfern at the time.

Despite the ludicrous, almost bombastic nature of its overwrought heavy metal aesthetic--I mean, come on, it’s like the art team at id Software actually said “You know what’s better than doing sci-fi or fantasy? Sci-fi AND fantasy!” before onanistically sketching gothic cathedrals floating in space--there’s a purity and simplicity to Quake 3 that was rare at the time and unheard of today.

There are no roles or class abilities. Every character is the same. There are no loadouts or unlockable weapons. Every weapon spawns on the map in the exact same spot every time. There are no character specific ultimates. Powerups can be picked up by any player and also spawn on the map in the exact spot every time. It’s as level a playing field as any deathmatch shooter can be, one that rewards players who take the time to learn the map, plan routes between weapon spawns, and know when exactly the powerups are gonna respawn.

Of course, not everyone back in 2004 was a noble entrant into the Quake 3 Arena. There was one HYPER deputy editor who would mod his character skin to appear smaller than the model’s hitbox would register. And there was the PC PowerPlay editor who would launch the server but then disconnect if he was losing and quit the game for everyone. We didn’t care though. Come 5pm the next day, the call would go out.

“Quake o’clock!”

This article was first published in HYPER.