Quake III Arena (Windows, Mac OS Classic)

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Unused ShadersLots of text referencing things that aren't there.

Grappling Hook#

A fully coded Grappling Hook can be summoned via cheats. While it functions properly, its graphics are very incomplete; the model is covered with a temporary texture, the "chain" is a lightning bolt, and the actual "hook" looks like a rocket. It does not precache the lightning shader when it loads, so if the map lacks a Lightning Gun, the "chain" will appear as a white null texture.

There are a few glitches with the weapon. First, if the player grapples onto something, then picks up an item, they will switch to the new weapon, but will continue to grapple even after they reach their destination. The only way to break free from the grapple is to take out the Grappling Hook again.

It is unknown why it was cut. It would fit Q3's fast-paced style very well, but there could've been problems with people getting into unwanted and exploitable places via the Hook that would've made it easier to scrap the entire thing than redesign certain levels around it.

Hidden Developer Messages#

Some texture files feature messages that can't be seen during normal gameplay.

Unused Announcer Sounds#

There are some unused announcer sounds corresponding to character skins. Presumably there were plans for more bots in the Single Player campaign at some point.

"Flisk Wins"

"Krusade Wins"

"Slammer Wins"

"X-Ray Wins"

Unused Music#

Two Sonic Mayhem tracks (sonic3.wav, sonic4.wav) are not used by any map in the game. They equal a total of 39.5MB in size and make up the majority of the unused content in disk space usage. They would eventually end up getting used in Quake Live. In the released soundtracks, these songs have the names "Fraggot"/"Fuck U Up!" (the former from the actual Quake III soundtrack, the later from Sonic Mayhem's Quake III Arena Noise) and "Fuel My Game" (from Quake III Arena Noise).

Unused Bots#

Introduced in the 1.27g patch release, there are files in pak4.pk3 pertaining to several bots never implemented in the game (didcotmassif, malaki, tim, trillian, xian). In addition, there are bot files for Team Arena that go unused in the base game (fritzkrieg, pi, taa, tad, tao).

Tim, Trillian and Xian are id software employees, and didcotmassif is a member of the (now defunct) OldManMurray forums. Funnily enough, Tim and Xian would later become playable characters themselves.

Unused Graphics#

Unused Crosshair#

(Background colored for visual clarity)

An unused crosshair, gfx/2d/crosshaira.tga, found in pak0.pk3. The normal crosshair (shown when cg_drawCrosshair is set to 1) is gfx/2d/crosshairb.tga.

This duplicate crosshair image can be seen ingame by setting cg_drawCrosshair to -1.

Unused Flares#

A flare shader and texture are loaded by the game, but go unused. This is because the flare feature was dummied out in the engine's code before the 1.09 (DEMOTEST) release, as the implementation was broken in May 1999. Despite this fact, flares are still compiled into the game's maps; these remained unseen until they were finally revealed in modified source ports that restore and fix the missing flare code.

These flares are seen in early promotional screenshots and can be activated in certain prototype versions, in all their broken glory. The sun, however, was never seen.

Unused Weapon Impact Textures#

These textures load into memory as the game precaches boom01.md3 and ring02.md3... however, the code remaps their shaders to other effects (rocketExplosion, plasmaExplosion, etc), rendering these textures unused. Both are leftovers from the prototypes and are also unused there.

Unused Skin Textures#

The id models added in the 1.16n patch are some of the earliest produced content, dating back to Summer/Autumn 1998. They have a few unused textures.

Tim has unused red team textures. He has no working team skins and the included skin files use invalid paths, so these are never seen ingame.

Brandon has two early shirt designs, with the earliest dating 3 months before the Klesk-like shirt that is used.

Global Rankings#

A logo file found in pak4.pk3, introduced in the 1.25 point release. This is intended for use with the very short-lived GlobalRankings leaderboard service which went down with MPlayer. GlobalRankings support was removed in 1.27g (December 2000), so these go unused.

1.25 features a "LOG IN" option within the ingame menu while you are on a server, to log into your GlobalRankings account for tracking.

Unused Scoreboard Rating Column#

Possibly used for the aforementioned GlobalRankings support.

Unused Fonts#

In pak0.pk3:gfx/2d/bigchars.tga, the letters of the bottom half are completely unused. The bottom characters are leftovers from the prototypes and the top is a partial Quake II carryover, potentially predating the prototypes. It is also less opaque. Both sets of fonts lack lowercase letters.

There are also several squares in the top row that are unused, but were once used in early prototypes as placeholder menu graphics.

Texture Oddity#

What appears to be Kevin Cloud's face, one of the artists of the game, is hidden in models/mapobjects/teleporter/transparency2.jpg.

Unused Map - "test_bigbox"#

An unused test map (test_bigbox.bsp) can be found in the /maps folder inside pak0.pk3 (note that .pk3 files are actually just zip archives, change the extension to open them).

It is a tiny square map with no items inside; only walls delimiting it. If you noclip through the walls, you'll see there's also literally nothing outside (skyboxes, textures...). Bots cannot be spawned there since there is no .AAS file associated with the map. You can access the map by typing \map test_bigbox or \devmap test_bigbox in the console (in the latter case you'll be able to use cheats, such as \noclip).

A custom, CTF (Capture The Flag) version of the map was released by player "sst13" in 2009, with bot support. http://sst13.de/fun.php#stuff

Unused Map-Waypointfile#

Introduced in the 1.27g patch release, there is one map-waypointfile, q3ctf5.aas in pak4.pk3, which is never used in the game. It is a duplicate of q3ctf4.aas. Later point releases include, indeed, a fifth Capture the Flag map, but it's q3tourney6_ctf, a CTF variant of q3tourney6.

Unused Entities#

Entities that are fully functional, but not implemented by any map in the final game.

func_plat#

A moving platform that functions like Quake's platform by moving straight up until you get off. It tries to play two sounds (movers/plats/pt1_strt.wav, movers/plats/pt1_end.wav) that don't exist in the final game or any of the prototypes.

Strangely, the manual still makes mention of lifts and has a picture of one, despite none appearing in the final game's maps.

shooter_rocket#

Shoots a rocket at a target entity, set off with a trigger entity.

shooter_plasma#

Similar to the above, but shoots a plasma ball.

Unused Bot Chat Messages#

Credits#

There are definitions for bot text-chat that have them merrily tell you who made them.

//************************
//Thanks to those who helped this part of the game happen.
["special thanks"] = 8
{
    "The warriors of Quake 3 Arena want to thank some special people. [Type *more* several times to see them all.].";
}

["*more*"] = 8
{
    "To Jan Paul van Waveren and John Cash who gave us life, intelligence, and the freedom to act.";
    "To Paul Steed, Kenneth Scott, and Paul Jaquays for our bodies, our looks, our histories, and our personalities.";
    "To R.A. 'Bob' Salvatore and the ~Seven Swords, Steve Winter, and Paul Jaquays for our voices.";
    "The ~Seven Swords are: James Kelly, Michael Leger, Brian Newton, Thomas Parker, D. J. Salvatore, Gary Salvatore, and James Underdown.";
    "To Hector Guerrero, Steve Boisvert, and Eric Webb who made sure we said what we should, when we should.";
    "To Paul Steed, Kenneth Scott, and Steve Boisvert who pitched in some extra lines.";
    "To Mike, Roderic, and Kevin for lending us their good looks.";
}
//**************************

However, bots never say these, at least in the latest version. The reason is: when bots read chat messages, they normalize them: remove white-space 1, replace abbreviations and synonyms 2. In this case if you say special thanks it gets "normalized" into special thanx, and *more* gets normalized into more. So the normalized results never actually match the definitions. In the end the bots only respond to the "thanx" part of "special thanx".

Playtips#

These are supposed to be replies to messages like "Can you give me some tips", but due to an extraneous leading space in the definition (&" give me") bots never say these.

//General hints and tips for better playing
playtips = {
"In the language of the arena, a 'frag' means a 'kill'.";
"Running is faster, but walking is quieter.";
"Use sound cues to tell you where your enemies can be found.";
"When using weapons that do not hit instantly, aim your weapon where you estimate the opponent will be.";
"The Personal Teleporter can save you from a falling death.";
"Some weapons do a 'splash' radius damage. An effective tactic is to fire at walls or floors near your foe.";
"Use the ~railgun against foes bouncing in the air.";
"Learn to use all weapons equally well. ~Don't rely on favorites.";
"Use a combination of weapons to make frags happen faster.";
"At close range, the shotgun delivers an extremely powerful attack.";
"Never turn your back on the enemy. Run backwards and shoot.";
"When you are hurt, health and armor are often more important than getting the frag.";
"Mentally keep track of power-up re-spawn times.";
"Learn the arenas & make them your home! Knowledge is power.";
"Jumping frequently can help avoid enemy shots.";
"Change directions frequently when moving.";
"Develop paths that let you harvest or control items."; 
"~Don't be predictable.";
"~Don't be a monkey.";
"~Don't use splash weapons, like the rocket launcher, in close quarters.";
"Fire grenades into rooms containing multiple enemies.";
"Hunt down your enemies rather than letting them hunt you.";
"Keep Hunter away from the ~lightning gun.";
"The ~railgun and a high sniper position are a deadly combination.";
"Jumping while running is faster.";
"If you can spare the ammo, fire rockets or grenades through door openings for chance frags.";
"Practice 'air control', moving while jumping on bounce or acceleration pads to control where you will land.";
"Learn your enemy's behavior.";
"Estimate where an enemy will be and prepare for the shot.";
"'Camping' means positioning yourself so your field of fire covers an important arena location.";
"Firing shots at weapon or power up re-spawn points can catch a lucky frag.";
"Combine the Haste power up and the plasma gun for a deadly effect.";
"Mynx's favorite weapon is the shotgun.";
"NEVER, never, never let Klesk or Xaero get the ~railgun!";
"The Battle Suit is a great rocket jumping aid.";
"Never kick your bosses' butt in a death match.";
"Fear the click. Change weapons BEFORE you run out of ammo.";
"Always hit your enemy and never let them hit you.";
"The red 'Fog of Death' is bad for your health.";
"BFG ammo is a rare and wonderful gift. Use it wisely.";
"Learn your foes' strengths. Keep them from their best weapons.";
"Health and armor are important. Keep them well stocked up.";
"Try talking to your opponents. They may surprise you.";
"Practice combinations of maneuvers like jumping and shooting.";
"To rocket jump, point your rocket launcher floorward, fire and jump simultaneously.";
"Rocket jumping without wearing armor is likely to be fatal.";
"The BFG can be used for rocket jumping, but why waste it?";
"Master the skill of 'strafing': moving from side to side without turning.";
"Most weapons require more than ~one hit to frag an opponent.";
"The ~railgun is an excellent sniper weapon.";
"The ~railgun is a poor choice for close-in fighting.";
"The ~railgun takes a few seconds to recharge before it can fire again.";
"If you fall too far, you take damage.";
"Most falls to solid surfaces in the arenas will not kill an uninjured warrior.";
"The Arenas Eternal are not a safe place.";
"~Don't stay where you spawn in.";
"Generally speaking ... Frag everything that isn't you.";
"In 'free for all fights', the match begins when you enter the arena.";
"In team games, ~don't hog all the resources.";
"~Don't wait to start collecting weapons and armor. Your opponents won't.";
"Power ups like the ~quad spawn into the arena later on.";
"Red hot and deadly, that's what lava is.";
"Try hopping out of lava. You take less damage that way.";
"The Battle Suit will protect you completely from lava.";
"The Battle Suit offers little protection against direct hits.";
"Green and dangerous, that's what slime is.";
"Generally speaking, slime is not as deadly as lava.";
"The Battle Suit will protect you completely from slime.";
"The BFG is a powerful weapon and appears in the game only rarely.";
"Be careful of the BFG's damage splash in close quarters.";
"The modern BFG requires more skill to use than its predecessor.";
"You lose points when you are fragged by hazards in the arena itself.";
"Death by falling costs you a frag point.";
"Dying in a pit of red fog costs you a frag point.";
"Falling into the void of space costs you a frag point.";
"Weapon traps that kill you cost you a frag point.";
"Use the 'say_team' command to control computer gladitors on your side in a team game.";
"Use an opponent's injury sounds to assess how badly damaged he or she may be.";
"Pressing the attack against a badly injured opponent is often worth the risk.";
}

Uriel's Dramatic Measurements of Liquid#

liquidmeasures = {  // Uriel's dramatic measurements of liquid
"gallons";
"litres";
"swirling rivers";
"bottomless oceans";
"cascading fountains";
"churning seas";
"steaming lakes";
"endless streams";
"raging tides";}

Female One-Liners#

"She shoots! She scores! The crowd goes wild!";
"Call me 'Cleopatra,' because I am the queen of denial!";

Unseen Bot Synonym Context Names#

When a bot chats a line referring to another name of the game's bots, they go through a word replacing parser to spice up the variety, determined by weight. Several of these go completely unused with a weight of 0.

PAK1.PK3 Oddity#

The retail disc includes a pak1.pk3 file which is not installed. It only contains a few designer config files and a preset for the Mad Catz Panther XL controller.

This PK3, if installed, would be replaced in all patch releases, not including the files contained in pak1.pk3.

Digital re-releases do not contain this particular file.

Holy Cow!#

The 1.25 patch is the first version to add the "Holy shit!" announcer sound when you're fragged with the enemy's flag close to your own, closely averting the capture at the last half-second. The following 1.25y patch changed this to "Holy cow!". 1.27b (Team Arena Demo) and 1.27g introduce the final sound, a re-recording of the original line.

The final sound dates only 4 minutes after "Holy cow".

Missing About Box#

The Mac version contains a minimal menu bar which is only usable in dedicated server mode. The following command, however, does nothing whatsoever:

The same dummy command reappears in Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, without even a change of title.

References#