Quake: Control keys, speeding up the game, etc.

UK Keyboards

• To get to the console, press the ` (grave accent) key top left of keyboard, instead of the ~ (tilde) key. (That's where the tilde is on a US keyboard).
• Likewise, "mouse look" is on the # key, above the right shift key.
• The backslash (\) key won't work (it counts as the 102nd key).
  Using "BIND \" in a ".cfg" file will actually bind the # key.

• To display the backslash, press the # key.
• To display the # character, press SHIFT/3.
  (note there is no "UK currency symbol" key on a US keyboard)
• To display the @ character, press SHIFT/2.
• To display the " character, press SHIFT/'
  (in other words, " and @ have swapped places)

"Zoom lens" control key

Where's the "automap" key?

Quake is a 3-D environment: any attempt to produce a map would be extremely difficult to decipher on-screen.

You can get a bird's eye view by using the "no clipping" cheat code and moving upwards, but it's not the same thing.

Crosshair aiming

A minor bug in v1.01 of Quake means that the crosshairs appear in the wrong place when you're underwater. This is fixed in version 1.05 of Quake.

Speeding up the game

The best way of speeding up Quake is to upgrade your hardware.

If you can't afford to upgrade, here are some things which might help:

• Don't select the "more detailed" video modes. On most systems, Quake runs fastest in mode 0 (320x200).
• Try reducing the screen size (using the + and - keys). Each reduction in screen size will result in roughly 10% speed increase.
• If you aren't using a joystick, start Quake with the "-nojoy" parameter. This will speed things up by 1 or 2 percent.
• If running from Windows 95, read the "Win95" section of techinfo.txt - it contains several hints for speeding up Quake under Windows 95.
• Enter the console command "D_MIPSCALE 4". This will make the wall textures very blocky but will give about 5% speed increase.
• Try starting Quake with the "-nosound" parameter. However, playing without any sound at all may not be to everyone's taste.
• If you're utterly, utterly desperate (and I really do mean DESPERATE) try issuing the console command "R_DRAWFLAT 1". This switches off the texture-mapping of walls etc., but the resulting display can be VERY confusing. On the plus side, it does result in a 25% speed increase.

Scrolling up and down in the console

Note this is different from pressing the cursor up or cursor down keys in the console (that merely displays previous commands, not messages).

What's the best key layout?

From Nemesis:

• Mouse button 1: fire
• Mouse button 2: walk forward (set to have run always ON)
• Keys: (I find it useful to be close to the weapon keys)
  a: strafe left
  d: strafe right
  w: jump
  s: backpedal
  Ctrl: mlook (I'm left handed with the mouse so this may be a tricky choice)

• bind INS "impulse 7"
• bind SHIFT "impulse 22" ; this is grapple hook
• bind CTRL "impulse 8"
• bind UPARROW +jump
• bind DOWNARROW +back
• bind LEFTARROW +moveleft
• bind RIGHTARROW +moveright
• The mouse is for forward attack and snipe (when I use the 3btn logi)

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