Quake II (PC, Xbox 360)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Quake II (PC, Xbox 360).

While Quake II doesn't have as a documented (or long) development timeline as the first game, there's still some interesting things.

To do:

The remaster includes an id Vault, containing a bunch of prerelease and development info. These should be put in here:
- Random info about the game's development.
- Everything said that is pertaining to prerelease info seen in the vault.
  - Speaking of this, find proof of the early Quake II names.
- All stuff from the "Development" tab (among other things) should probably go on a Development page.
  - There are extras of early mission map layouts, one from E3 and one from the European Computer Trade Show, there's even a direct video screen recording of the build shown at ECTS! (Oh how generous of Nightdive!) Put this info there and compare changes. Add the video itself here.
Outside of the id Vault also work on these:
- A timeline of development (but that shouldn't be the main focus right now).
- John Carmack's .plan files with info about Quake II's development.
- Cite sources for info.
- Add prerelease screenshots from this website archive
- Quake II page on id Software's old website.

Early Development#

Quake II went by many names during development including Strogg, Gon, Wor, Load, and Lock and Load. id ultimately decided to make the game a sequel to Quake due to being unable to agree on a title, potential trademark issues and similarities in gameplay (and likely also to help sales through brand recognition).

Sonic Mayhem's Involvement#

To do:
Sonic Mayhem actually has said this on multiple occasions, might want to bring up the earliest example as well.

Rumors would float around that Trent Raznor had passed on the opportunity to compose for Quake II because he thought the game had "no atmosphere", however composer Sascha "Sonic Mayhem" Dikiciyan would deny this, recounting on how he had become involved in the soundtrack for Quake II in a YouTube comment of a video by Civvie 11.

Appreciate you mentioning my work. However Trent didn't decline because he didn't liked it. He was too busy. When I started talking to id they had no idea what or who they wanted at first. Only after submitting our demo, they wanted to go the metal route. - Sonic Mayhem

(Source: Quake II - Welcome to the Machine -Civvie 11)

Scrapped Items#

To do:
Add images of the items from the manuals.

Some of Quake II's manuals make mentions of items that have no trace left in the final game or the Q2Test prototype. The mentioning of the items in the manuals could imply that these were cut fairly late into development.

Cloak#

The manual has an unused image for a "cloak" item, resembling the Power Screen/Power Armor.

Scope#

The digital manual included with the initial CD release includes an unused picture of an item called a "Scope".

According to the 2023 remaster's Id Vault, this would have allowed you to zoom in at the cost of 1 cell ammo per zoom.

Sights#

The digital manual included with the initial CD release includes an unused picture of an item called "Sights".

According to the 2023 remaster's Id Vault, this would have enabled auto-targeting for a certain number of shots, ala the final game's Silencer powerup.

Concept Art#

To do:

Adrian Carmack has Twitter now, apparently. Here's one post with more concept art, and here's his LinkedIn page. Also clarify if the following images here are ripped from the remaster or Adrian's Twitter; if it's a case of the former, give them an alreadyJPEG tag.
Try transcribing some of the text these pieces of art feature.
Notes about the pieces from the id Vault.

The Quake II remaster shows early concept art created by Adrian Carmack, as well as himself posting a few pieces of concept art.