Menu
Users
Search
Now Playing!
Buy Online
Subscribe
Use one of these links to subscribe to our news feed:
You can also click the feed icon for a direct link:
Or, even better, have the updates emailed to you as they happen!
Your email address is:
You can also click the feed icon for a direct link:
Or, even better, have the updates emailed to you as they happen!
Your email address is:
Powered By
Quake 2 Server
The following is information about the altFIRE Dedicated Quake 2 Server.
Introduction
Quake 2 (aka Quake II) released on December 9, 1997, is a first person shooter computer game developed by id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake as such; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in acquiring a trademark for alternative titles. The soundtrack for Quake 2 was mainly provided by Sonic Mayhem, with some additional tracks by Bill Brown. Quake 2 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. The multiplayer component of the game was the most played game online for several years and is partly responsible for the popularity of online gaming that you see today!
Servers for this game are rare these days, even though the title was packaged with the recent Quake 4 title. Linux servers are even more uncommon. However, this one will be active 24/7 for all the old school gamers out there! This is our favourite game of all time, no kidding.....
Server Hardware
The altFIRE Quake 2 Server resides (on a virtualized operating system) on a Dual 64 bit AMD Quad-Core server with 8 GB of RAM. Now that's serious hardware! Obviously, a Quake 2 server doesn't actually need anywhere near this kind of power to run, so we actually have ours running on a virtual server with 512 MB of RAM and a single core 64 bit processor - which is loads.
Server Software
Our operating system of choice for the server (or any server, for that matter) is 64 bit Debian Linux. The Quake 2 server software itself is a specially compiled version with many bug fixes and speed enhancements, plus we have also acquired a recompiled version of the popular server-side mod Lithium II to run on top of that. This mod adds popular features such as laser grapple hook and magic runes to the game. The binaries are backwards compatible with whatever version of Quake 2 you use, as long as you have installed the latest patch.
Server Configuration
The altFIRE Quake 2 server (at 193.1.40.166:27969) runs a mixed map cycle in sequential rotation. The max players is set to 8. Maps run with a timelimit of 15 minutes and a fraglimit of 20. When either is reached, the next map will load. Voting for map changes is allowed via the Lithium menu. Type "menu" at the command console to see options.
Getting and installing Quake 2
For Linux users, you can grab the installer for here. What graphics engine you use is up to yourself, there are many out there (someone even rewrote the whole thing in Java!). We find sldquake2 (included with installer) to work quite well on most desktops, and quake2max if you have a high-end system. If you want to save download times (and possible crashes) during games, you can grab the servers map files from here (HIGHLY recommended).
Sound issues with Quake 2 on Linux are very common - you may need to hit the net for solutions on your particular system. We will say this however, be sure to delete the config file in ~/.quake2 every time you try something new. Hopefully however, you will have no issues and the game will just run for you, first time!
Even though you may now be running Linux and the source of Quake 2 is available under the GPL license, you will still need a copy of the Quake 2 installation disk to connect to the server and play. This is because the maps, textures, sounds etc are not yet free material.
However, if you used to play on Windows and still have your Windows partition within reach, copy the pak files to to your new Quake 2 /baseq2 directory on Linux. You can skip the CD copy bit of the Linux installation if you plan on doing this.
Windows users can simply purchase and install Quake 2, plus install the 3.20 and 3.21 patches. Then proceed to connecting to the server.
Connecting to the server
As long as your version of Quake 2 is up to date, connecting to the server is simple. To connect to the server, do the following:
1) Start Quake 2
2) Drop the command console using the ' key (usually beside number key 1)
3) Type the following to initiate the connection:
connect 193.1.40.166:27969
Your client should now connect to the server. If you are missing any files, they will be downloaded at this time (eg. you'll immediately be offered sabotage.wav, our custom map intermission sound).
To use the laser grapple hook, you will need to bind it to a key. Drop the command console and type something like bind mouse2 +hook to assign a key (you could put this permanently in an autoexec.cfg file - you can create one at .quake2/lithium/autoexec.cfg under your home directory).
Practicing Offline
If you'd like to practice offline with a bot, we've prepared a special collection of files and scripts that replicate our server (complete with Lithium mod) on your home Linux PC. You can download this from here. Please read the README file before installation. But remember, playing real humans online is best.
Enjoy!
|
- Introduction - Server Hardware - Server Software - Server Configuration - Getting and installing Quake 2 - Connecting to the server - Practicing Offline |
 |
Quake 2 (aka Quake II) released on December 9, 1997, is a first person shooter computer game developed by id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake as such; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in acquiring a trademark for alternative titles. The soundtrack for Quake 2 was mainly provided by Sonic Mayhem, with some additional tracks by Bill Brown. Quake 2 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. The multiplayer component of the game was the most played game online for several years and is partly responsible for the popularity of online gaming that you see today!
Servers for this game are rare these days, even though the title was packaged with the recent Quake 4 title. Linux servers are even more uncommon. However, this one will be active 24/7 for all the old school gamers out there! This is our favourite game of all time, no kidding.....
Server Hardware
The altFIRE Quake 2 Server resides (on a virtualized operating system) on a Dual 64 bit AMD Quad-Core server with 8 GB of RAM. Now that's serious hardware! Obviously, a Quake 2 server doesn't actually need anywhere near this kind of power to run, so we actually have ours running on a virtual server with 512 MB of RAM and a single core 64 bit processor - which is loads.
Server Software
Our operating system of choice for the server (or any server, for that matter) is 64 bit Debian Linux. The Quake 2 server software itself is a specially compiled version with many bug fixes and speed enhancements, plus we have also acquired a recompiled version of the popular server-side mod Lithium II to run on top of that. This mod adds popular features such as laser grapple hook and magic runes to the game. The binaries are backwards compatible with whatever version of Quake 2 you use, as long as you have installed the latest patch.
Server Configuration
The altFIRE Quake 2 server (at 193.1.40.166:27969) runs a mixed map cycle in sequential rotation. The max players is set to 8. Maps run with a timelimit of 15 minutes and a fraglimit of 20. When either is reached, the next map will load. Voting for map changes is allowed via the Lithium menu. Type "menu" at the command console to see options.
Getting and installing Quake 2
For Linux users, you can grab the installer for here. What graphics engine you use is up to yourself, there are many out there (someone even rewrote the whole thing in Java!). We find sldquake2 (included with installer) to work quite well on most desktops, and quake2max if you have a high-end system. If you want to save download times (and possible crashes) during games, you can grab the servers map files from here (HIGHLY recommended).
Sound issues with Quake 2 on Linux are very common - you may need to hit the net for solutions on your particular system. We will say this however, be sure to delete the config file in ~/.quake2 every time you try something new. Hopefully however, you will have no issues and the game will just run for you, first time!
Even though you may now be running Linux and the source of Quake 2 is available under the GPL license, you will still need a copy of the Quake 2 installation disk to connect to the server and play. This is because the maps, textures, sounds etc are not yet free material.
However, if you used to play on Windows and still have your Windows partition within reach, copy the pak files to to your new Quake 2 /baseq2 directory on Linux. You can skip the CD copy bit of the Linux installation if you plan on doing this.
Windows users can simply purchase and install Quake 2, plus install the 3.20 and 3.21 patches. Then proceed to connecting to the server.
Connecting to the server
As long as your version of Quake 2 is up to date, connecting to the server is simple. To connect to the server, do the following:
1) Start Quake 2
2) Drop the command console using the ' key (usually beside number key 1)
3) Type the following to initiate the connection:
connect 193.1.40.166:27969
Your client should now connect to the server. If you are missing any files, they will be downloaded at this time (eg. you'll immediately be offered sabotage.wav, our custom map intermission sound).
To use the laser grapple hook, you will need to bind it to a key. Drop the command console and type something like bind mouse2 +hook to assign a key (you could put this permanently in an autoexec.cfg file - you can create one at .quake2/lithium/autoexec.cfg under your home directory).
Practicing Offline
If you'd like to practice offline with a bot, we've prepared a special collection of files and scripts that replicate our server (complete with Lithium mod) on your home Linux PC. You can download this from here. Please read the README file before installation. But remember, playing real humans online is best.
Enjoy!