# Quake

118 Hacker News commenters recommended Quake and 29 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 28 years (8 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A landmark shooter praised for its groundbreaking engine, moddability, smooth competitive movement and LAN multiplayer; some find it less compelling as a game than as a technical feat.

## Why people recommend it

- Groundbreaking engine technology (8 comments): "It's a very elegant system that naturally flows out of the rather forward-looking decision to build the entire engine around a robust networking model." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47822869)) "Quake 1 was an unbelievable tech breakthrough: full 3d, quakec vm, overall engine design held up really well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48663865)) "Technically, it's vastly superior - and an incredible achievement - but just not as good a game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48667326))
- Great LAN and multiplayer networking (6 comments): "Thanks to the flexibility that Quake console provided, we were able to set up a three computer null-modem cable network" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565066)) "everything from Quake to Team Fortress to Minecraft shipped server binaries you can just run" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48332330)) "the normal Quake TCP/IP stack was basically unplayable with anything over 70-80ms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46004024))
- Moddable with released tools, source (4 comments): "Quake seemed okay enough to modify though it was rushed and getting close to what was possible with the hardware at the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47229056)) "People can and do build on top of Quake, so that could be a reasonable option if that's the feel you want for your game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47822831)) "Also allowing players to change the configuration of their game through the dev console was cool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46147072))
- Smooth, pure competitive movement (3 comments): "Quake 1 (QuakeWorld) was such a raw competitive arena shooter that is just pure action, no weird extra mechanics." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48614652)) "there's literally no game with such smooth movement as had Quakeworld or Q3A CPMA/Defrag" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234639)) "there's no comparison in terms of the way the game played competitively vs Quake" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48662676))

## What people warn about

- Weaker as a game, lacks heart (5 comments): "the game wanted a more soulslike design, but they stuck with the run and gun design but with spongier enemies" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48662871)) "Technically, it's vastly superior - and an incredible achievement - but just not as good a game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48667326)) "Contemporary boomer game franchises like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, etc just don't have "heart"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49468274))
- Overambitious for era's hardware (3 comments): "Quake seemed okay enough to modify though it was rushed and getting close to what was possible with the hardware at the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47229056)) "This was far too ambitious and bottlenecked everything on Carmack's graphics work." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48663357)) "Quake was unfeasible till ~1998 at the earliest to be able to sell playable game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47564827))
- Original netcode poor over internet (2 comments): "as soon as the connection is further than inside your house, it’s utterly horrible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47386491)) "the normal Quake TCP/IP stack was basically unplayable with anything over 70-80ms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46004024))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Doom by id Software](https://hackerapproved.com/p/doom.md): 102 recommend
- [Unreal Tournament 2004](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unreal-tournament-2004.md): 51 recommend
- [Quake III Arena](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake-iii-arena.md): 49 recommend
- [Half-Life](https://hackerapproved.com/p/half-life.md): 42 recommend
- [Unreal Tournament 99 GOTY](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unreal-tournament.md): 33 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Quake", https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).