[17-3] Joining a game of Quake

Learn how to connect to a Quake Champions server and jump into the action. Follow these simple steps to get blasting with friends or strangers.

Alright, ready to jump into a Quake match? It’s not too complicated, but there are a few specific steps to get you connected. Think of it like getting the right coordinates before a jump – gotta be precise!

First things first, you need to launch Quake with the right settings. Open up your command prompt or DOS box, navigate to your Quake installation directory (usually something like C:\quake_sw), and type this command: Q95.BAT -NOIPX -WINMEM 8 -WINPACK 12. Make sure you replace Q95.BAT if your game uses a different executable. It's also a really good idea to close down any other programs running in the background. Quake can be a bit of a resource hog, and leaving other apps open might make your game run choppily or even cause it to crash when you're done playing. Better safe than sorry!

Once Quake is up and running, you’ll need to bring up the console. Just hit the [~] key – it’s usually located just below the [Esc] key. This is where the magic happens. You'll need to type in a command to tell Quake where to connect. The command is CONNECT followed by the IP address of the server you want to join. For example, you might type CONNECT 134.533.127.124. Just a heads-up, that IP address is totally made up, so don't try to connect to it! Real IP addresses can vary in length, like 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.5. Just type the IP address exactly as you get it.

If you typed the command correctly, you should see a message in the console that says TRYING.... It might then show STILL TRYING... a couple more times. This is all normal and just means Quake is attempting to establish a connection to the server.

If all goes well, you should now be connected to the Quake server! Get ready for some intense fragging. Happy blasting!