Point Release update

Always cagey about giving out firm release dates, all id's Barrett Alexander would say is that the Quake II Point Release is "due out fairly soon."

He would elaborate on what that Point Release would contain, however.

"This release encompasses all of the bug fixes we have found to this point, bugs that we were unaware of prior to release," he said. "It also contains enhancements - a new engine that runs a cooperative play feature and Internet deathmatch maps."

The Point Release will be available over the Internet, Alexander said, but once the PR is finished, Quake II will be remastered to include everything on the Point Release. "Subsequent reorders of Quake II will have (the Point Release features and fixes) included on them," he said.

Alexander also insists that the Point Release should not be taken as a sign that id needed to rush the release of Quake II to meet a holiday season release, as has been rumored.

"None of this would have gone on the initial release," he says.

"Prior to release, we had a very thorough test for bugs, both internally and at the Activision labs. But, with every product, there are bugs you don't find until after release. This release fixes those bugs.

"Other games have not included cooperative play - Jedi Forces was released without a cooperative play feature, for instance - and feedback from the public that we were getting prior to release about any cooperative play mode was negligible. We didn't see one comment on it. So we surmised that that was a feature that wasn't really desired. After the release of Quake II, though, we got a lot of feedback about that, so we decided to add that feature.

"We wanted to focus on the single-player for Quake II's release, and all along we have thought that our single-player maps worked just as well for deathmatch play. There were deathmatch levels we created that we left out of the initial release because they didn't fit the theme of the game. But we had some time after this project winded down before we were fully into our next project, and so some people in the office created some deathmatch maps for fun. So, we decided to include these maps for fun, as our way of giving something to the Internet community."

That next project that Alexander mentioned is a Quake II mission pack.

Also due out from id at around the same time as the Point Release is an id-authorized capture-the-flag mod from David "Zoid" Kirch, Alexander said.