
A bit like DOOM, id Software's first-person shooter Quake has been ported officially (and unofficially) to just about every platform under the sun that's capable of running 3D natively. Did you know though there was also a version in development for Nintendo's 32-bit handheld the Game Boy Advance?
In 2002, Randy Linden - a veteran programmer known for the "impossible" SNES port of DOOM and the creator of the BLEEM emulator - was working on a Quake prototype for GBA. The video game archivists at Forest of Illusion have now been supplied with a working ROM of Linden's prototype:
"This unreleased prototype we present to you today was recently discovered on a 256M Flash Card in Linden’s storage, and is certainly a far cry from anything else developed for the handheld."
It's worth noting this version doesn't use any assets from Quake, but there is a version (that's not been found yet) using id Software's assets. As the GBA's life was winding down, Linden repurposed this same engine to create his own game called Cyboid - another "high-speed" first-person shooter that's playable on multiple devices including mobile phones.
This isn't necessarily the first time we've seen the GBA punching above its weight. Earlier this year, a Tomb Raider fan managed to get the original entry in this series up and running on this classic handheld via the OpenLara project:
What do you think of the above Quake prototype? Leave a comment down below.
[source forestillusion.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 25
Give it a physical "limited" release and some of the folks here would preorder I bet.
It does seem “impossible” given that Quake was a lot more complex than DOOM, particularly as it was all 3D while the original DOOM games used 2D sprites for items and enemies. If they couldn’t even handle including the boss enemies and the Icon of Sin in the GBA ports, then Quake barely stood a chance.
It’s almost surprising that they never thought to revisit DOOM and by extension Quake for the DS, as Quake reminds me of the 3D graphics typical of DS games. iD Software also produced one of my absolute favourite games for the DS, a dungeon crawler titled Orcs and Elves which looked very much like a fantasy DOOM game, almost like they were using the same engine. I’d kill for a port/remake of it and its pre-smartphone exclusive mobile sequel.
@SteamEngenius : Do I detect some thinly veiled fighting words?
Because I’d totally grab such a release.
This guy is among the best "impossible porters" the industry has ever known and yet few speak of his name. I will: Randy Lindum is awesome.
That's extremely impressive. But it would need a NIN soundtrack to be the real thing.
Is it related to this one?
I remember this from the GBA central and AGB.net days.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_y7maIf_4B0
This is the kind of BS that the ‘self called’ game preservation really annoys me. What exactly are they preserving here, this is nothing more than cut and pastes from a clipboard and nothing that was released so there is no need for preservation.
What’s the real future of this stuff, a museum?
@dew12333 if unreleased things have no need for preservation, then what of the day the clown cried, unfinished, nearly unscreened, and unreleased, which is in the library of congress right now?
@SteamEngenius I would but I don't have GBA, lol. I do have the physical LRG version for Switch though.
@somebread Isn't that the Jerry Lewis movie that never got released? Maybe one day it will, lol
@JustMonika only a couple years left until it can be screened! though, like the recently dumped Marble Madness II, i think the mystique will kind of overpower how good the actual product is...
@somebread Kind of like Duke Nukem Forever, lol
Fake news. Where's the Ray Tracing!!?
Pretty nifty stuff.
This looks absolutely torturous to play.
.... I love it!
This would have been HUGE back in the gba days
The GBA was winding down in 2002? News to me. Or I misread something.
@KingMike I think you skimmed a bit too quickly.
Right above the YouTube video, it says,
"As the GBA's life was winding down, Linden repurposed this same engine to create his own game called Cyboid - another "high-speed" first-person shooter that's playable on multiple devices including mobile phones."
What I wouldn't give to experience this guy's brain for an hour or so.
@farrgazer Yeah, I had to edit that because I noticed it later.
@somebread never heard of that place so looked it up, quite interesting but never been too enthralled by history in general. But if they where the ones who wanted to preserve this then I would respect that more. Although I’d still argue the necessity for this and probably for many others things they preserved there too.
The more I hear about Randy Linden, the more I am impressed.
@dew12333
They preserved Software insanely programmed to run on a System that never should have been able to run it.
I think it's time for a folk song about Randy Linden
I...I would be all OVER this!
@Azuris what, like how they put a man on the moon.
This isn’t about belittling what they have achieved, it’s about preservation. Which companies who make the stuff seem to find impossible, let alone the wider world. I guess that’s why people are so obsessed with the subject because I don’t see any time soon that anything will actually happen. But rest assured I’ve got boxes of stuff stashed away, as I imagine lots of others do too. And that is as good as preservation as anything around, for now and probably a long time Into the future. Let’s face it you can hardly trust charities and governments to do the right thing, so for me any company trying is seeing a different outcome to the one everyone wants.
@dew12333
There is no need that something terrible must happen, it is just enought that Time passes and Stuff will be forgotten.
As an Example, we have Depictions on how Castle were build, but we have no Description on how the Tools, Machines and Mechanics were build or used.
They are building a Castle in France only to reconstruct how they did it.
That is the same with a Game or other Software.
You can even reassume how the Hardware worked by seing the Code.
By having many Stuff preserved, you can make many Assumptions on how Stuff worked and on how our Culture was, as all kind of Media is Part of the Puzzle to depict it.
What would we think about Rome and Greek, if the Stories of Hercules, Aeneas and other wouldn't be accesible to us.
Look on much of the Agyptian Stuff, we have no Idea how they build the Pyramids or how the played their Board Games, as they are preserved, but not the "How to" .
Would be Kids nowadays be able to connect a Video Recorder and to record something?
Or do they need the Manual, because it is obsolete Technic?
And don't take Stuff for unnecessary, Scientists are getting thousands of Informations of the Waste antique Nations made.
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