Anatoly Shashkin💾Jun 22, 2024
Happy birthday to the Internet SHAREWARE version of Quake! 🎂🎉🍾🥂
Remember, it was only 8 maps long. To get the full game you had to order it for $45 + $5 S&H (about $100 today) and wait for it to get finished and shipped to you.
Show threadKrisJun 23, 2024

@dosnostalgic Or you went to a dark, shady place on IRC somewhere & traded a copy for whatever you had that others might have wanted.

I did eventually pay for Quake later on, I should point out. At the time, however, that was difficult to do on a military E2 paycheck.

Show threadAnatoly Shashkin💾Jun 23, 2024
@ashortbusvet I mean, another way was to wait for the shareware CD to appear in stores (I think in August?,) buy it for $10, and then just download a copy of QCrack (available 10/08/96,) and you were all set.
Show threadKris
@dosnostalgic At the time my wife & I were stationed in Brunswick, Maine. Wasn't much there at the time that carried any sort of tech, much less shareware CD's.
Jun 23, 2024 at 4:35pmWeb
Show threadAnatoly Shashkin💾Jun 23, 2024
@ashortbusvet What I was mainly pointing out that on June 22nd of 1996, the officially celebrated date of Quake's release, there was no way to actually play the full version of the game because it didn't exist yet.
Show threadKrisJun 23, 2024
@dosnostalgic Ah, sorry.