Quake 3 ported to Android, shows off Droid's graphical prowess (video)
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 25th 2010 5:03AM
posted February 25th 2010 5:03AM
[Thanks, Anders]
posted February 25th 2010 5:03AM
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@onehipcat You're welcome. This is a subject many people have false assumptions about. To put it simple - you can write native C applications for Android, you do not have to use Android's Java. But please do some research. This is kinda interesting if you're interested in developing Android applications in the future.
Well at least its not some "on rails" rubbish that passes as shooter gaemen
Looks like it doesn't have light maps, which were a distinctive feature of Quake engines since version 1. My old pentium 100 MHz CPU did that even with no 3D graphics acceleration at all.
@Asimo that is a lie
@cashclientel
What part exactly?
Maybe it is that in that small video size the shadows/light maps can't be correctly appreciated or it's me. But I see surfaces quite flat. I only said "it looks like it doesn't do light maps" not that it really didn't, so I expected confirmation from someone who knew for sure. Quake I had static shadow maps plus dynamic light maps (from things like explosions), AFAIK.
As for the Pentium 100 thing, I was thinking on Quake I, sorry for not specifying. It was very playable (pure CPU on DOS). Quake II was kind of choppy, not very comfortable to play. And Quake III, don't remember, I guess I never tried it on that machine or any without a 3D card.
This demo is still a real achievement, don't get me wrong.
After watching this, am I the only one who still thinks the droid is the better Android phone (vs NexusOne)? I don't have either, but every time I see something demoed on the droid, it just looks nice...
@Vaio
Well, it was ported from ioquake for N900. So no surprise here. :)
this article doesn't even mention the fact that the palm pre has been able to do this since january.
@keekah well the pre has quake1 not quake 3. I don't remember if there was an article about it or not. We also got the original doom around the same time. Not to mention tons of 3d games in the official catalog. I wouldn't expect to many articles about this stuff, because ppl simply don't care too much about the pre.
I don't think anyone is questioning the power of the Droid.... its the controls that utterly suck. That keyboard is a joke, and ALL phones should have better physical buttons (not just picking on the Droid).
Has the Nokia N-Gage turned off all cellphone companies from even trying to make a phone with decent gaming buttons??? I think there is a huge untapped market out there for a company that combines the power of a Droid or Pre but gives it a decent keyboard and some extra buttons to be used for gaming. You would think that Sony would have jumped on this idea already with a PSP+cellphone hybrid.
@Hazdaz
I've though that for a while too. Sony's PlayStation brand recognition and library of PSP games alone would be epic on a phone. I still pass on Android phones (or really anything else) because I'm extremely satisfied with my iPhone 3GS, but a real PlayStation phone would get me to switch if it were done right.
@Hazdaz
how about a 1.5 ghz tegra 2 with 1 gb of RAM, 5 inch screen, android 2.1 , qwerty keyboard and gaming controls... ahh, daydreaming is great...
Id pay momey for a gta vice city port!
"the game that defined the term multiplayer before World of Warcraft"
I don't know if you're referring to the Quake series or Q3 specifically, but Unreal Tournament came out before Quake 3.
@starman Engaget's fanboyism has no solution....Unreal Tournament defined and redefined Multiplayer games and online gaming. That is a game changer game. Not Quake. And UT2004 is awesome!
@starman Um...you do know that multiplayer games have been around since 1973, right? That's a little bit before Unreal Tournament was released. Only slightly.
Still, I think we can both agree that Engadget has no idea what they're talking about.
Ppl, don't be childish... it isn't about what phone does what... it is just an achievement that, in the long run, can give a better user experience on each particular phone that can run an engine like the one quake 3 had... Imagine a world when you can play anytime from ANY phone the same game... multiplayer deathmatches would be fuller :-D
Have them port Starcraft to any phone and they'll get the whole of Korea buying it
kekekekeke ^^
@touchmygadget There's actually a quite playable version out there for winmo too but it borders on warez as you don't need to have the original game files to play it. A quick google search should find it. I didn't feel too bad about downloading it since I own the real game.
This is cool. The tilt forward to move forward and tilt left/right to turn left/right work really well. Especially if you use the strafe left/right on the dpad. The only thing that is hard to do is use your finger on the screen to aim, will take some practice.
+rep to Mr Julien
And since the Droid had to appear in the photo, they were forced to take a blurry photo with their JesusPhone. ;-)
Awesome!!! Every quake3 android port before this was running at like 1 frame per second or less lol
Seems like if he assigned movement to some of the keys (maybe E, A, G, C to be comfy) and looking/shooting to the d-pad it might would be easier to control.
I don't care if this port and its controls aren't perfect or this has been done on other phones with different OS's in the past, this is still way beyond cool, DROID DOES! AGAIN!
I thought the game that defined multiplayer before wow was Unreal Tournament!
@scioncas
I found Unreal Tournament and liked it a lot. Then 2 months later I discovered Quake 3 Arena and the rest was history. Never played UT the same again,..... it was so slow that it bored me.
I was addicted to Quake 3 for 5 years! God those were fun nights.
Old School? Pfft. Port Doom2 and I'll turn my head...
It must be mankind's ultimate goal of our existence to port Quake 3 to every damn thing on the planet.
I could really go a red nub right about now.
But does it run Mass Effect?
Droid does...
So if I rooted my droid, installed that kernel update and then overclocked to 1.3ghz, what kind of FPS would I get?
@touchmygadget I like how people keep trying to port this stuff to smart phones. When will Sony just give us the PSP2 with touch screen and dual nubs? The PSP is about 5 years old now. Announce something.
Rocket Jump!!