Quake 3 Arena 1999 vs 2026 RTX

In this video I play the levels Q3DM1, Q3DM7 on hardcore mode then compare side by side what the game used to look like vs the new RTX version. It's funny, I remember experimental videos in the old days where some university lab used super computers to add realistic lighting with ray tracing to the Quake 3 engine and now all home gaming PCs can do it. As you will notice, using the example of all the original Quake source-ports and upgrades, the visual style of the game is changed but the results are usually very interesting. That being said the RTX port is a work in progress so it's going to be a little slow. I'm sure over time it will get better. I hope ID Software, Bethesda, Microsoft or whoever owns Quake now, releases official RTX versions of Quake 1 & 3.

Anyway, lets talk about my personal history with Quake 3 Arena. Back in the day when Q3A came out in 1999, my computer was way too slow to run it but I still saved up some cash and headed to the electronics section of a local department store to check out the box art. I was a big original Quake fan and was really hyped up about Q3A's release especially after seeing some clips of it on TV gaming shows and gaming websites (some of which I uploaded here youtube.com/watch?v=hlhUWqNze80 turn up the sound). I debated buying it because it was too expensive. While looking at the game box I noticed there was a little hole on the side of it. Someone had stolen the only copy left on the shelf. A little bummed out, I walked to another smaller gaming store in the mall called Game Shack as I usually would but I noticed something out of the ordinary behind the display glass. There was a copy of Quake 3 Arena in a CD case for only $10! I figured maybe whoever had stolen it from the department store earlier had sold it to Game Shack. I didn't care the CD-key might have been leaked because I could (in the future) play it locally at least with bots. It was an amazing deal so I had to get it. Finding great deals while treasure hunting doesn't happen as often anymore like in those days, even at thrift shops.

I displayed the CD case prominently on my old wooden computer desk for a while. I was saving up for a new computer at the time and got a little impatient. So one day after high-school I went over to my friend Greg's house, he had a blazing fast Intel Pentium 150MHz where we could play it. I was truly amazed at how advanced and next gen the graphics looked. The bot AI was really well done and fun, not to mention the sound track and overall style. Controls were responsive and the gameplay was so fluid. John Carmack was a master at making first person shooters. Eventually, after making a little money at my first job, I bought myself a computer and had so much fun playing many games but Q3A especially. Sometimes I would setup a LAN to play against friends or go online and logon to the many death-match servers. I went from playing Quake 1 on the Internet over dial-up with 56K modem in 1996 to a big technological jump in a very short time (1999) playing Quake 3 Arena over a broadband cable modem. Did anybody use Mplayer, GameSpy or any specific servers back in the day?

Over the years new games came out but Quake 3 Arena was the benchmark for a really long time and every once and while I check in on it. No gimmicks or micro-transactions and you could make levels for it if you really wanted too. Even after all these years, I can jump right in and have fun. It still has better gameplay then most death-match games made today.

#Quake3Arena #RTX

1.) To play the new Quake 3 Arena RTX 2026 download the mod from
moddb.com/mods/quake-3-arena-rtx-remix-mod/downloads

2.) Unzip it then Copy all your original Quake III Arena (Steam version or GOG) pak files (pak0.pk3 to pak8.pk3) into the folder:
Quake III Arena RTX v0.7 GDC\baseq3

3.) Start by clicking on the quake3e.exe executable (Game might start minimized on the task bar) so click on it

Done!

To record Demos hit the ~ key then in Console type on the command-line
/g_synchronousClients 1

Start recording by typing this on the command-line
/record DemoName

Stop recording a demo by typing this on the command-line
/stoprecord

To play previously recorded demos hit the ~ key then in Console type this on the command-line
/demo DemoName

All recorded demos in the original Q3A should be in
Quake 3 Arena\baseq3\demos
(Might be in Steam games folder)

(Optional for the Original Quake 3 Arena that's not RTX)
If you want to play the old Quake 3 Arena in 16:9 1080p on a newer system then add this to your old Quake 3 config file in (Quake\baseq3\q3config.cfg) with a text editor then save it and restart the game. The original Quake 3 Arena came out in 1999, back when there was only CRT monitors with mostly 4:3 aspect ratio.

seta r_mode -1
seta r_customwidth "1920"
seta r_customheight "1080"
seta cg_fov "115"

Дата на публикация: 29 май, 2026
Категория: Игри
Ключови думи: vs 1999 arena quake 2026 RTX