How Speedrunners Uncovered Quake's Strangest Bug

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Watch Matt's companion video on the code behind the bug: kzbin.info/www/bejne/apixioeno5ikiMU

[@goqsane]

Do you know one cool thing about the "end" map? The original source code of Quake has a bug for the animation of the entity that teleports you (the one you're supposed to take when it's inside Shub Niggurath) - it's actually meant to spin along several of its axes, not just be stationery like in your video. I actually fixed this bug in a mod I had developed with a guy called 'hexum' called exCoop - a QuakeWorld Coop mod. :)

[@TimDoherty]

Very happy my accident 21 years ago was able to inspire Stubby, and be a small spark towards things. Also glad I still had that demo to show you. Epic video as always! I shared it on my channel.

[@Fantax92]

Amazing thing about Quake and Doom is the demos. We get to witness old speedruns and strat improvements decades later.

[@Rayan-West]

@@Fantax92 and in top notch quality! Think about it!

[@Sphendrana]

it's always our -mistakes- *[Happy Accidents]* that the future generations learn from 😅

[@MrCandySkull]

You're a gaming legend!

[@keiyakins]

​@@Fantax92 Seriously. Going through the history of games without demos is a nightmare, half the time all you have to go on is forum posts. sometimes you're lucky enough to have a compressed to hell postage stamp, or even a vhs tape, but not often.

[@AlphaCarinae]

The calm narration is one of the biggest reasons I watch this channel. I'm so tired of everyone screaming and throwing sound effects around and it's nice to just be able to relax and enjoy a video for once. Please don't ever change that.

[@Venthe]

And here I am, watching in 1.5x ...:)

[@darkshadow851]

God damn, seriously? I had to watch this at 2x speed, and it was still painfully dull. He repeats some stuff 3 or 4 times, even. I don't think anyone watching a Quake speedrunning channel needs to be explained how Shub works, among the many other verry slowly explained basic concepts.

[@sparky117SAS]

@@darkshadow851 I would guess that the majority of people watching this channel (myself included) don't usually watch quake speedruns, and all the info within the video was very helpful in explaining things. Maybe you should look elsewhere for content more catered to your desires. Gl

[@darkshadow851]

@@sparky117SAS Yup, don't worry about that. Saw this video, gave the channel a shot, hated it, told KZbin don't recommend it again, problem solved.

[@gamerboy218]

@@Venthe The modern attention span has been completely obliterated

[@DrJohnners]

Wow, I downloaded Quake on its first day of release when doing my PhD. I can't believe I'm still learning its secrets almost 27 years later. Thanks for the great content.

[@davep8221]

How much did it lower your grade? ;-)

[@DrJohnners]

@@davep8221 PhDs don't have a grade, it's pass or fail. I dont' know anyone who failed as it takes ~4 years. 4 of us were doing the same kind of topic (Laser Flash Photolysis) and the experiments used to take 8-10 hours to run, there was a lot of spare time :) This was well before 3D shading and dedicated gfx cards, pixels galore!

[@Eddyhartz]

It's kinda cool that both Doom and Quake's ultimate weapons had huge bugs that were due to the original idea for the weapons that had massive effects on gameplay.

[@MBCollector672]

Classic Doom? What bug does the BFG have? I don't think the tracers are a bug, if that's what you're talking about. Those were very intentional.

[@fragglet]

@@MBCollector672 The tracers were intentional but certainly not in the way they're used in practice. Specifically they're very useful in deathmatch play as the BFG can be used for attacks that can't be anticipated and avoided (especially when combined with the "silent BFG" trick). You can literally get fragged by another player who shot a BFG ball at a far-off wall that you neither saw or heard.

[@fortifyve]

never played quake but i'm really enjoying your content recently and i appreciate the calm narration - a lot of people are hard to watch because they're just a bit too upbeat. script is nice and straight to the point as well. highly underrated channel keep it up mate.

[@needlebgone]

Your previous video on the 6 second E2M1 record was my introduction to your channel and I’ve been absolutely hooked since. I’ve binged everything and your videos have me hooked. You’re doing great work with the in-demo cinematography and storytelling pacing too. I’d recommend maybe giving the audience an indicator on the screen in slowmo so we know how slowed down a clip is from the real run. Eg. “20% speed”. As a player of source engine games these are so great because quake is the foundation of everything

[@snospoken]

crazy to think the demo feature has been around for that long haha

[@petervlcko4858]

For me these old games looks better then new ones. Idk I do not need so much photorealistic graphics but enjoyable to eyes and good gameplay.

[@Vile-Flesh]

Believe it or not, Quake STILL feels new to me all these years later. I remember hearing about it and reading about it LONG before it came out. We got it for Christmas 1996 but couldn't play it till one month later when we got our Pentium 133. It is such a well made game and the deathmatch was amazing.

[@lifesnotfair]

The music, the detailed explanations.... two huge thumbs up my friend. Keep these up. I absolutely LOVE them.

[@BrianM_3rd]

Calling it now, those opening guitar strums are gonna be up there with the Summoning Salt synths in terms of speedrun lore by the end of the year. With the artful slow motion intros, it sets the scene so perfectly and gives everything an incredible sense of gravitas, whether it's a hard-fought push for perfection or just a weird obscure bug. You've landed on the perfect formula and I look forward to those moments where a new video drop is gonna be the best part of my day.

[@OrianIglesias]

Couldn't agree more

[@erictheepic5019]

It's also very reminiscent of the Rimworld soundtrack, which is a nice vibe.

[@eppiox]

Really? Did the opposite to me, hated the tune- it's like pensive, stuck at a bus stop - but agree that the vid is top notch!

[@khristov_quake]

It turned out great, you try very hard for the video, as always you open something new for me, thank you! ❤

[@SleepyAdam]

As someone who has spent a long time aim training for deathmatches with the lightning gun this honestly made my jaw drop. I've been playing this game for 10 years and I somehow didn't know this. I wonder if it was patched out in QuakeWorld?

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Modern QW (KTX) rewrote most of the code and doesn't have the bug anymore. Original DM, original QW and the remaster all still have it.

[@RationalFunction]

​@@quakespeedrunsexplainedI'm worried my brother will call me a hacker if I ever play Quake DM on the remaster lol.

[@zungrysoft]

I remember stumbling upon this mysterious bug myself when doing some modding. The vector math is so strange and nonsensical, like someone started implementing a feature and then went to lunch and forgot to finish it.

[@ThinBear4]

Not surprising, considering that the lightning gun was added late in development, and Id Software was running out of time to a point they had to start scrapping planned features (among other things the "super variant" of the lightning gun). The code was likely rushed.

[@Muty]

Excellent video yet again, you and Matt are the torches of the Quake speedrunning community!

[@MattsRamblings]

🥰

[@flechett3]

I used to play as DooMfienD and did some routing/running on the original QdQ and QdQlite stuff. It’s so cool seeing how much the runs and tricks have improved over the years. Thanks so much for the video!

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Nice to see you here!

[@phil984]

Today during work at the office between two coffees i thought „should be time for a new video about quake speedruns“. Thank you for sweeting my evening! Greatings from switzerland! Keep the torch alight!!!

[@neobrutalist5233]

I was born a year before Quake came out. I've played through it a while ago and learned its cultural significance stretches far and wide. In that time , I realized that although the in-game lore of Quake 1996 is shallow, the real-life lore of Quake is forever interesting to me. Videos like yours are excellent in telling its story.

[@D0Samp]

“Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not important.” -John Carmack

[@RedSntDK]

@@D0Samp With a quote referencing porn, maybe it's not a surprise that Carmack went on to work so hard on VR at Meta for a while..

[@strongbadman2]

Eyy I was also born in 97. Had quake as a hand-me-down from my older brother and it shaped who I am today. Always been fascinated by the dark, abstract dimensions and I still love stuff like that

[@Vile-Flesh]

@@strongbadman2 "it shaped who I am today" Amen to that. DOOM/DOOM2 had much DEEPER impact on me and and did in fact shape who I am but Quake also heavily influenced me and not a day goes by where I don't think of Quake. I remember waiting for Quake to come out while I was in high school and then we got the deathmatch working. HOLY CHRIST Quake deathmatch in the '90s was LEGENDARY. Imagine laughing so fucking hard and so much you literally cannot catch your breath and then screaming bloody murder at the CRT when one of your rockets connected with another player in mid air. There is nothing else like Quake.

[@strongbadman2]

@@Vile-Flesh when I was a kid I actually lived in garland TX where the id software building was and my dad used to tell me "that's where they made quake" and because I was so little I figured he meant they actually made it for us lol. probably part of why it was one of my favorites

[@imjustinb]

I love your videos. The way you present info is really well organized and articulated well. I also appreciate that your voice is super chill

[@tony-]

I don’t even play quake but ever since seeing one of your videos I have been visiting your channel on daily basis to see if you had uploaded a new one, great video.

[@LagDotCom]

Great video! Always nice being covered positively for once :P

[@LLyric_]

Me and my dad have often found favorite KZbinrs to watch together throughout the years. You are now one of them QSE.

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Love this! Thanks!

[@AhmedHan]

I always wanted to see an explanation like this. Thank you so much!

[@piotrpazera5150]

man, your videous are so awesome! Eplained in all details, we can see how all things progressed, everything backed up with demos, nice chill music and your chill voice make these videos so great to look at!! Fantastic job!! :)

[@rickyspanish4792]

Can you imagine being a lowly videogame grunt, waiting for your moment to shine, only to prematurely get zapped by a lightning bolt coming from absolutely nowhere

[@edonslow1456]

I find it really strange how long this bug went unnoticed.

[@Thomas1984.]

Again. What an awesome channel. Such an amazing job you do. Every video is better than the other. Simply amazing

[@DanielsYoutubeAccount]

This is really cool seeing how quake speedruns have evolved since I last watched the demos. Great video!

[@kurukq]

I was always so curious about this when I saw it in runs. Thanks for the explanation!

[@mdvhimself]

great to see that you are making more of these in depth videos, and simultaneously pushing more production value. keep up the good work brother!

[@tomasz79tom54]

Just wanted to add, this is fantastic channel, you are doing awesome job with all the videos - looking forward to more! :)

[@mcbain257]

Always a treat. And i was always curious how this worked. Having it actually visualized is even better!

[@JamesBong3333]

Your videos are top notch man, keep it up ❤

[@kanan348]

Im so happy that I have discovered your channel . This video came out just in time for my late dinner . Quality content to go with delicious food.

[@whitewolfsounds2273]

I recently stumbled across your channel and instantly liked it. As someone who played Q3 and QL for an excessive amount of time in the past 3 years, I'd personally love to see you covering a topic like DeFrag. like the history, most played maps (like dfwc2017_6), why those maps remaining relevant and popular to this day, etc.

[@JohnNy2cz]

Wow, top tier content. Great explanation of both the mechanics, the history, and the impact. I'm loving this channel.

[@maciejgrabowski9863]

Nice, informative video, and the background music totally rocks

[@Hybe123]

Damn, I'm not a speedrunner or anything, but having beaten the game and playing years of Quake 1 and 2 in LAN more than 20-25 years ago makes me feel immensly proud for some reason!

[@Strade351]

Thank you for your videos. It's so calm and relaxing to watch them. Also, it's unique content.

[@Stratocaster42]

Yess! I love your videos :D brings me right back to my childhood, at least for as long as the video lasts :)

[@SaltyOctopus]

The Karl Jobst of Quake Speed Running. I love your content. Thank you for the well researched and well explained video.

[@alexanderj.6701]

Thank you for taking the time to make these videos, who would’ve thought there’re still things to be discovered after so many years. I wonder if it could have any implications in team games.

[@reptongeek]

The greatest use of the Lighting Bug I've seen is used on the final map of the Rogue pack where you end the map without having to kill the dragon which is used for Easy and Nightmare Runs

[@juvanjan]

What songs plays in the intro? I cannot find it, even in the Lords of Lounge's spotify song list.

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGjVaYxpiZukq6M

[@lemagreengreen]

This is one I've never seen explained in detail so thank you, been watching speedruns for a while that use it and always wanted to know.

[@snaileri]

Top quality content. I have notifications enabled for your channel.

[@clouder1337]

Now I know more! Thank you for the awesome video, Connor!

[@BSzili]

The moral of the story: always visualize your vectors. Then again, I can't really blame them considering Quake's troubled development.

[@mobinauwu]

15:08 tough pitch but would be cool if you did a speedruners react like they do with devs over at IGN channel . Like finding and talking to og runners . Maybe even ask quake devs to watch and talk about the strats

[@dinckelman]

I've never been into Quake but this is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels

[@chrisstrebor]

Same here. Been an fps gamer since the first doom, mainly played consols then got into pro halo 1,2,3 and competitive cods but these videos have me hooked

[@joaopedroalbuquerque8787]

I am not into speedrunning, but your videos are so well made that I watch them with interest. Nice work!

[@orvilleredenpiller338]

"How did he do it? Watch and see." Oh my god, genius. The mid-roll ad bug. How clutch.

[@DJBeatzMelb]

Damn i love your work, looking forward to all future videos!

[@sanderbos4243]

This content is delicious, I'm so happy to be informed of this history

[@impact0r]

Fascinating. Does this 'bug' also work in QuakeWorld against other players? I have never heard of it and I played QW for 10+ years on the European scene.

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Modern QW (KTX) rewrote most of the progs and doesn't have the bug anymore. Original DM, original QW and the remaster all still have it.

[@impact0r]

@@quakespeedrunsexplained I am guessing it was already fixed by the late 90s in the original Kombat Teams (KT) as it was never a thing in the QW world.

[@Hovezipwn]

Great explanation. Keep this going, man.

[@MrDoomquake777]

This is the first time I've heard of this. Mind blowing 😮

[@dhedarkhcustard]

The lightning gun does look like it could have worked like 3 lightning bolts because it has 3 points out the front of it.

[@klenha]

your videos are very interesting and very well made. you dont see that often on youtube, thats why i am subscribed!

[@jkrigelman]

Feel like I would have seen this more back in the days we played in multi-player matches. Does this happen in quake world too?

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Modern QW (KTX) rewrote most of the code and doesn't have the bug anymore. Original DM, original QW and the remaster all still have it.

[@bledlbledlbledl]

that reminds me of a bug in the old video game Descent 1, where if you stuck the nose of your ship right up against a locked door, you could shoot the bots on the other side of the door (might've only worked with one of the weapons)

[@okolenmi7511]

This video is really helpful thing if you want to sleep. The voice, background music, content transitions...

[@eadweard.]

One thing still confuses me: given how common, populated and exacting online death matches were back in the day, how in hell didn't we notice that the LG worked way off to the side?

[@thchris]

thats what im wondering too.. that was actually the first thing that came to mind when I heard about the bug. like how would nobody ever notice some random bursts of damage from a invisible source. i imagine it doe not come into play very often since players are usually moving their mouse quite a bit but still..

[@flechett3]

Honestly I think it was because it wasn’t a popular weapon, no one really knew that it worked that way, and while it was strong you had to have line of site on your target AND have good aim.

[@subtlewookiee]

100% my first thought, too. I logged 1000s of hours of CTF and DM in the 90s and never experienced this or heard anyone mention it.

[@Vile-Flesh]

Same. Never seen or heard or experienced anything like this and I played a lot of Quake Deathmatch '97-'99 in pure DOS and later in Win95, software and GL. Then again, because of limited energy cells for it I didn't really use the Lightning Gun that much other than intentionally discharging into the water if I saw 2 or more Quakers going at it in the water. That NEVER got old.

[@Thomas1984.]

A nice. Just what I needed after a day’s of hard work.

[@pleaserespond3984]

14:00 oh they gave speedrunners the mystic eyes of beam perception!

[@honorablejay]

So knowing this, here's my question: Does this mean that by attacking enemies at angles where all 3 beams converge, can you deal triple damage to enemies? Or does the code check to see if an enemy has already been damaged by one of the beams?

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

only one beam can hit a single enemy. But you can hit multiple enemies at the same time.

[@deereboy8400]

0:11 DId you read "Lightning Bug Gun" too?

[@i_am_ergo]

Speedrun tech history or god-tier ASMR? I honestly can't tell!

[@davidk6720]

Love this. Sounds like a younger Les Hiddins describing how to get bush tucker.

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

😂😂

[@0mn1P4wn4g3]

Wow crazy. I always thought the lightning gun was underwhelming, this explains it.

[@starshipwaters]

wow, i would have never guessed this is what was happening with lgbug. amazing video!

[@QayLikeKay]

Another thing that speedrunners have probably already considered, but I didn't see mentioned, was that this means if you're using the LG to melt a beefy monster like a vore or shambler, rotating around the monster so that your aim puts all 3 lines on them can make it faster.

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

I'll have to check this. Something in my memory tells me multiple beams can't actually hit the same enemy.

[@kurzackd]

13:15 -- but how do the parallel beams even start to spread sidewards, when the player isn't even turning even in the slightest to any direction? You said earlier that the beams start to spread as soon as the player model starts to TURN ... ? :O .

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

They are turning, but just a very small amount, so you can't really see it there.

[@kurzackd]

@@quakespeedrunsexplained hm... wel... OK, I guess... :P Thanks.

[@guillermorey6494]

song of 0:15?? didnt find it on spoty any1 knows? sounds like pink floyd or something like that but dont find it

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Here you go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGjVaYxpiZukq6M

[@Fotel]

ahh what a pleasure to see how thjs 25 years old game is popular again. Regarding this bug: I was sure that this was some kind of wall-penetration bug or something simple like that. Never heard of existence of additional two rays. Wow. I wonder if you can die when water is struck by these additional bolts :P

[@LagDotCom]

Sadly no, you can't cause a discharge with the other beams - the discharge only ever emanates from the player's position.

[@ericdanielski4802]

Nice speedrun documentary.

[@tommyr7105]

I always felt the hit boxing was way off with the LG back when I played this as a lad in 97. This confirms it.

[@JeremyAdcock]

Really enjoying these videos - please keep it up! As someone who loves Quake games for their competitive multiplayer I was curious if there is any overlap between the speedrunning and quakeworld deathmatch scenes-do you guys talk to each other? Are there any speedrunners who compete in deathmatch also?

[@JeremyAdcock]

also, is there something akin to defrag in quake 1 / quakeworld?

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

There's not a lot of overlap actually. A few top speedrunners did a fun challenge against some of the DM guys a while ago and got CRUSHED, haha.

[@HeathenDance]

Very interesting. In the last 10 years I've been playing Quake on the N64. It's funny, I actually think that the N64 slightly foggy graphics make the game look more sinister and spooky.

[@Fallkener]

fantastic video, subbed.

[@calimobilesus7187]

Yknow its a good day when QSE uploads.

[@mwhudsondoyle]

7:56 iirc only one of the beams will ever damage anything, i don't think it was intended to make the lg more powerful, but maybe just to make the aiming required a bit less precise? 8:24 "how far the beams travel is solely dependent on the players rotation" -- iirc this isn't quite right, it's also dependent on how far the central beam travels before it hits something awesome video as always :-)

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

I just tested this - you're right, the beams do also move around a little bit according to how far the central one travels! I'll add a note to that. As for the first point, I managed to hit different enemies simultaneously with each side beam. You can almost see it in the video at 9:15 on e4m8. Is that what you mean?

[@mwhudsondoyle]

@@quakespeedrunsexplained i think i got the first point wrong, the check is that no entity gets damaged by more than one beam

[@Aldar21]

Next video: How 6 + World Records Were Broken This Month

[@AlexNovakim]

Great video! I like your intros too

[@romukassa]

Wow this is the first time hearing about this bug. I played QuakeWorld a lot as a kid. This was not known in the community

[@mashermack]

I swear I played a lot of single player and never noticed the LG was hitting sideways either. Is this a matter of a bunch of pixels before the additional rays are off screen?

[@MaxMustermann-yj1wz]

Never even played quake1 but i love speedruns and psychodelic music. Thumbs up. 👍

[@thatspacepirate]

Is there a way to download the mod that lets you view the hidden lightning bolts?

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

You can download the custom progs.dat file (and add it to your game folder) here: quake.speeddemosarchive.com/quake/misc/lbug/

[@pannomic]

I love new tricks on classic games

[@Qnnrad]

I ADORE the music!

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGjVaYxpiZukq6M :)

[@hrrawr]

Man, what a great outro.

[@Zephyrbal]

Wait, was that a nuts.wad tribute map in Quake?

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

Yeah, kind of: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5Svlaybg7uegJY

[@kuklama0706]

Just render two additional viewports left and right whose cameras move just a little above the additional beams and clearly show what they are hitting.

[@rodyoki]

great video, this really got me into going back to Quake. Pardon my ignorance but what engine is it running on? I didn't know you could cast shadows below the models

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

It's Joequake, which is the standard engine for speedrunning (original physics but a lot of QOL improvements for runners)

[@rodyoki]

@@quakespeedrunsexplained thanks, I'll check it out

[@pain799]

My friend, I love your work, and I want you to take this in the best way possible I think your voice would be great for an evil villain like Gman or Dr. Betruger from Doom 3. I wonder what other voice work you've done in the past?

[@quakespeedrunsexplained]

haha thank you! 😅But I've never done voice work. This channel is the first time I've recorded myself speaking...

[@pain799]

@@quakespeedrunsexplained Well it's a good start, if you ever wanted to do it, I say you've got an edge. Keep up the great content man!

[@DJBeatzMelb]

love your videos!

[@oscarbjb7938]

is this bug fixed in the remasterd version?

[@Dewgma]

amazing video like always

[@mitchtheronin1469]

Music name at the start?

[@quint3ssent1a]

because of that weird pattern LG is probably one of the most original guns in vidya. I mean, HL1 tau cannon with it's cool ricochets is cool and all, but not "has 2 additional invisible firing lines with weird aiming tech" level of cool.

[@hztn]

Guess some teleportation bug will be discovered - it will change Quake speedrunning. Every decade is a something new discovered, and facinating how based Quake game series is.