It’s difficult to think at times that id Software revolutionized the 3D shooter thrice in a decade. Yet from Wolfenstein 3D to Doom to ultimately Quake, that’s what they’ve done, with each iteration specializing in a specific area. Wolfenstein established the FPS genre as we know it, while Doom refined the genre into a frantic adrenaline-fuelled shooter with addictive multiplayer capabilities. And Quake? Not only did it once again add on, nay explode, the possibilities of what we now take as commonplace for multiplayer shooters, but brought gaming itself into the 21st century with fully 3D polygonal graphics that were blazing fast.

Before all of that came to pass, many don’t realize that Quake started out as something completely different for the team at id. Originally envisioned as an action game, Quake was to take place in a fully 3D world involving melee combat (a la Sega’s Virtua Fighter) and RPG elements, with your character wielding a hammer that you could throw like Thor. As development continued, this was dropped, and the game was reworked to be id’s bread and butter genre in the 3D shooter.

This development pivot also affected Quake‘s original theme, which was originally more of a dark fantasy setting, and included enemies like dragons. Again, due to the time constraints, this was also scrapped, though elements of that original theme are still evident when you look at Quake‘s gothic medieval architecture. And in place of dragons, Quake pivoted to the occult. But unlike Doom and its demons and hell, Quake embraced another horror in H.P. Lovecraft.

Lovecraftian influences aren’t apparent at first, though the first hints are apparent in the game’s episodic nature. The first episode (which also served as the game’s demo) is called “Dimension of the Doomed”. The other episodes are named “Realm of Black Magic”, “Netherworld”, and finally “The Elder World”. Again, evidence of the original setting can also be seen here.

Admittedly, you see more of the Lovecraft influences with the enemies in their design, as when you get to the later levels you’ll start to see things like a Scrag (a floating torso with a tail), Spawn (an elastic blue blob that’s associated with the worship of Tsathoggua), and Shambler (based on the Dimensional Shamblers of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos). The boss Chthon is Lovecraftian in its design (as it can’t be hurt by convention weaponry), and “Quake” itself, Shub-Niggurath, is explicitly stated to be an Old One.

Surprisingly, the singleplayer content of Quake is one of its weaker aspects. While far from being terrible, it’s dwarfed by Doom‘s content, which had its details and revolutionary map design spread across much of its levels. Quake, on the other hand, frontloaded what it had to offer in its first episode, and largely the game feels rather pedestrian today. It’s not the frantic tension-filled shooter that Doom was, and its brown, bland environments don’t do it any favours. Of course, it’d be criminal to not mention Trent Reznor‘s industrial score that added to Quake‘s dark atmosphere. But compared to its main rival at the time in Duke Nukem 3D, Quake was certainly lacking in the personality department.

But to write off Quake entirely because of that is ridiculous. After all, this was the very first time that gamers, both console and PC, had a full-on 3D shooter. You could look all around with no texture warping or distortion to be seen. You had momentum in your movement. Thanks to John Carmack’s genius, Quake kick-started the demand for 3D accelerators, and ultimately led to the leaps in graphical capabilities that we enjoy in our games and game consoles today. And of course, once fans discovered that you could rocket jump, it only added to Quake‘s real strength: multiplayer.

There’s a good reason why the concept of QuakeCon still exists. What Doom started with its LAN parties exploded with Quake. And, thanks in part to the internet (and John Carmack’s genius in coding), people were connecting and engaging in multiplayer battles like never before. Quake‘s 3D engine allowed for things that players just never got with Doom. Being able to launch yourself across maps or dodge rockets added a frenetic energy to battles that was a quantum leap (no pun intended) over what Doom and its 2.5D brethren offered.

Quake‘s 3D engine’s revolution didn’t stop at multiplayer. Amateur level designers got down to creating their own rocket arenas and sharing the maps with other players. Quake‘s engine offered so much more potential, including the idea of Total Conversions that allowed players to do things such as add vehicles, create new game modes such as Capture The Flag, new weapons like grappling hooks and so much more.

Some of these Total Conversions and Mission Packs made it to retail. “Scourge of Armagon” and “Dissolution of Eternity” were the only official Mission Packs released for Quake. Each offered more content including new enemies and weapons, as well as new game modes such as the aforementioned Capture The Flag. And even with the last version of the original Quake engine was released 21 years ago, it’s still getting use even today, inspiring the “retro 3D shooter” craze, and even creating new games such as Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. But, if you’re still a fan of old-school, much like the Doom engine, you can find modern versions like ezQuake that allow the game to run on modern hardware with a few enhancements to boot.

Sadly, id couldn’t quite match what they accomplished with Quake with the sequel. While Quake II was good, it was more focused on addressing the lacking singleplayer of Quake than it was revolutionizing multiplayer. Which again just highlights just how amazing the original Quake was and still is to this day. It might not be as horror-centric the shooter that Doom was, but it nonetheless paved the way for a lot of what we have today.