You guys know how there are projects like Free Doom (for doom2) and Open Arena (for Quake3) that replace all the assets of those games so that people can play them without buying the game.

So for Quake 1, what would need to be done to do the same idea? Do I just need to make a new pak0 and pak1 and replace all the files in it with new 3rd party (open source, or by me, etc) files and then ezQuake will treat them the same as if they were the retail pak0 and pak1?

Or do I only need to do pak0?

Or even if you had a pak0 and pak1 replacement, would there be some kind of code check or something that needs to be changed in order for these free alternative to the retail game assets to be used? (IE: Would it fail out and say these aren't the real pak0, yadda yadda....)


Thanks for the info!
blud

if you make opensource replacements they will be used. pak1.pak is all the episode maps.

pak0.pak has start and e1m1-e1m8
pak1.pak has end, e2m1-e4m8 and dm maps

But servers wont let you join, because of map crc check?

As povohat points out, pak0 has start and the episode1 maps. However it also has all the models and sounds used to play quake.
pak1 has end, the episode2-4 maps and the dm maps, including sounds and models only used in those maps.

ezQuake will eat everything you put at it, as long as it has the default files, like a conback, a palette and some other files, 24bit replacements will however work.

The only problem is the maps, as servers won't allow you to use custom builded maps, and for some reason we havn't been able to agree on a standard set og GPL maps, even when we've had the source files for 3 years :/

We don't exactly need a OpenQuake, as you can already play QuakeWorld for free as all you need is included in the pak0.pak, and that is available on a shareware license. Only problem is that you won't be able to play any of the dm maps, dm2, dm3, dm4, dm6 being the most popular.

There is a project, and it has been around for years, it is similar to OpenArena... called OpenQuartz

In pak1 theres a file called pop.lmp (proof of purchase), which is just an image of the Q, but it tells the quake engine/server that you are using a registered(commercial) vesion. Thus allowing the use of custom mods, and DM maps etc. The portion of code in the engine can be omitted.
I'm suprised with all the custom maps available everyone is stuck on stock id maps. EVEN, a GPL version of DM3 could be made for free distribution.
A game like Nexuiz (http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/) takes this one step further by remaking all game content, but using a quake engine. if you take a Quake engine and pretty it up and still call it quake people say "nice". A total conversion, will only be compared to something like quake4 and get washed away by it's short comings.
In the end it's easier to buy Quake for 9$ on Steam than to trying to remake it...

Since buying Quake from Steam was mentioned I have to say: Careful, Quake from download sites does not include the soundtrack. If you want to play singleplayer in all its glory you definitely need that.