This is where it all started for extended name makers. I quickly went to CDROM.COM to pick it up, and alas, my name maker was born. I bugged and bugged him until he told me he made it using a ‘utility’ called NAMEFUN and that it was on CDROM.COM. Unaware extended names were possible in Quake, I was literally dumbfounded when a guy showed up in a game I was in with one. If you would like your name maker here or your favorite name maker is not listed, e-mail me! Knowing a little about some of the name makers of past and present could give you a pretty good idea of where some terminology and ideology has come from. That is a VERY important thing to remember about Quake names.Ī Short History of Name Makers and Animators but ANY character in the CONCHARS file was fair game for an extended name. Some of the Quake characters were used to make things in the console more readable and others were used in the game status bar to show remaining ammo, etc. If you read the CONCHARS file from top to bottom, left to right, you’ll go through the ASCII set in order, from 0 to 255. This LMP file can then be converted to a PCX file to be viewed in a graphic editor such as Paint Shop Pro.
These pictures are arranged in a 128×128 graphic (16×16 chars) of all of the available Quake characters, named CONCHARS.LMP. All 256 Quake characters are in one file called CONCHARS (which stands for CONsole CHARacterS).Īctually, each character in the 256 ASCII set has an equivalent 8×8 (pixel) graphic of a Quake character. This makes use of only about 100 of the 256 available Quake characters, which is why name makers were made. Normally, only letters, numbers and punctuation avaliable on the keyboard (which are all grey Quake characters) can be used to make a player name directly from the console or in the menu. The 256 characters in the ASCII set each have a “Quake character” that is displayed when they are used in Quake. Everything in the following couple of paragraphs describes Quake names, NOT Quake II names. I think it’s important to go over how ASCII characters are used in Quake to get a feel as to how things have changed with extended Quake characters and why people want them back in Quake II. All I hope to accomplish with this document is a little closure on this issue, if possible. If you see me taking sides and being unfairly biased, please point out the comment =) to me and I will quickly and gladly change them. That is their decision, and we, as a Community, should except their decisions as they know a truckload more about game design than the average Quaker. I’m not going to express any points as to why id should implement Quake II extended names or why they shouldn’t. If I screw up, or you think a point could be expanded on, I will gladly add to it. I have an understanding of extended name structure which will assist me in explaining some points in detail if necessary. I was a bit confused also at first, and I hope to clarify a lot of the problems and points surrounding the name issue. Some people are wondering why id has decided to change the way ASCII is used in Quake II. it explains these basic concepts (like ASCII, the console, etc) in moderate detail. Psst – you can read my Quake name help page at: To make this page more readable, I’m making everything in brackets appear in grey (this way you can easily pick out or skip over clarifications – like this one) This will be an optional elaboration of points which may seem a bit fuzzy because they had to be explained in simpler terms. If you don’t, you may get a bit lost in the tech jargon.Īll tech jargony stuff will appear in blue. If I mean Quake II, I’ll say Quake II.Īlso, this document assumes you know basic concepts, like ASCII, the Quake console and other stuff. Along the same lines, when I say Quake, I didn’t screw up and I actually meant Quake II. I’m not going to call Quake ‘Quake1’ or ‘The Original Quake’.
I will refer to Quake and Quake II separately. From now on, the use of characters in a name other that those available on the keyboard in a Quake II name will be referred to as an “extended name”. “Fun names” implies the use of animation and I want to stay away from that. Author of the Online Quake Name Note: I will no longer use the term “fun names”.
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