IP Games	Play a game directly off of independent, dedicated Quake servers on the Internet. My personal favorite way to play multiplayer games (never any sign-ups or membership info required to play).
Kali.net	Play Quake on Kali.net, the world's largest Internet gaming network enabling Internet play of the most popular multiplayer games for over 250,000 players on more than 600 servers in 65 countries.
mplayer.com	Play Quake on mplayer.com, a place where people can meet, interact, and even play their favorite action games online. Currently boasts 1,500,000 members!

IP Games [ URL ] There's a very simple reason why I prefer this mode of jumping into multiplayer Quake games. Little or no downloading to do once you've got the game. No questions to answer or nicknames to be refused from because you're not signing up at any central location. You might call it the businessmans' way to play. Connecting to independent game server is really a very, very simple thing to do in Quake. Please note here that the version of Quake these instructions are written for is Quake v1.06 -- options for other version may differ slightly. We also assume that at this point you have already successfully installed Quake and are connected to the Internet via a TCP/IP connection. 1. Run Quake. This is done by entering the directory in which you have installed Quake and typing Q95.BAT. 2. Wait for Quake to load up, and then access Quake's main menu. This is accomplished by pressing the ESC key. You might need to press it a number of times, but once ought to do it. You'll know it when you see it, mainly because it says 'Main' at the top and 'Quake' with id Software's logo along the left side. 3. Select what should be the second option in the menu, Multiplayer. 4. Here, a new menu will appear with the following options: Join a Game, New Game and Setup. You may enter Setup if you wish to change your player's name, but what we're really looking for is the first option, Join a Game. 5. Again, a new menu, with the following items: Modem, Direct Connect, IPX and TCP/IP. Select TCP/IP. 6. We're close! Quake will prompt you with a blinking cursor and ask you to enter a server name ('Join Game At:'). Enter in a server name here, and in most cases, leave the port number alone. Don't know a server name? No problem - click to access Gameaholic's Page of Active Quake Servers and select one that is running from their list. If you'd like to play on a local server (one close to your actual location), access Gameaholic's Quake Server Search Database and search for the name of your general location - I live in Toronto, so I would naturally search for 'Toronto' or even 'Canada' (both without quotes). Enter the server name into the prompt - eg. 192.52.220.101. 7. If you've entered the name correctly, Quake will jump to its console, saying 'Trying...' a number of times and will soon connect to the server. All you have to do here is be patient and remember, don't touch anything! In about a minute you will be transported into the game, where you can prevent or wreak havoc as you see fit. If you can't connect, you probably just need to try another server. Just repeat step 6 until you get into a game somewhere. When connecting to multiplayer Quake games via an IP game, the largest problem lies in finding a Quake server that is currently running and gives you a low latency time (commonly referred to as 'lag'). The people at Critical Mass Communications quickly realized that there was a worldwide market for an utility that found and neatly displayed the smoothest-running servers available to you. Shortly thereafter, Critical came out with GameSpy 3D, which supports the ability to locate servers for most popular 3D games, including Quake. Proceed to their web site to download GameSpy or for more info. The main drawback you will hit upon while playing IP games is the loss of camaraderie among Quake players -- there's no central chat location to go to, and there sure isn't much time to chat while in the game itself. It's one of the greatest components of the Quake experience, and something you might miss out on playing this way. Kali.net [ URL ] I'm getting around to writing this - don't worry, it won't be much longer. A lot of research and time goes into writing these things! mplayer.com [ URL ] I'll readily admit that mplayer is not exactly my favorite way to jump into a multiplayer game, Quake or otherwise. It always seems that the people in the game chat lobbies know less than I do about how to set up and run a successful game. So consider yourselves warned - I can't help but depart from my usual fair-minded view of things. It seems, however, that mplayer does not exactly need my help while trying to push potential members away. They have recently decided to require members to buy into their Plus! membership in order to play all the levels in the registered version of Quake. What does this mean? At the moment, a non-paying member can only play the levels from Slipgate to the House of Chthon from the shareware version of Quake - otherwise, you have to get QuakeWorld for the rest of the maps. As well, one of mplayer's most endearing features, automated downloads of mods, maps, skins, and software upgrades are not available on these servers. But it's better than nothing. At this point, we assume you've already set up an account with mplayer.com. 1. Point your web browser back over to Mplayer.com's Web Site. 2. Click on the 'Play Now!/Login Here' button, which points you to http://www.mplayer.com/playnow-mpi.html. 3. This will have your web browser attempt to launch mplayer.com's client software, Gizmo. Depending on what options you have chosen, you may or may not be asked to input your user-id and password. If it does, do so. If not, don't worry about it. 4. Click the 'Games' button on the right-hand menu of the Gizmo client. This will take you to a list of games available to play on mplayer. Obviously, scroll down until you find Quake. If you don't see it, try clicking on 'All Action Games...' - it oughta be listed in there. 5. All right, from here on in we get down to brass tacks. The screen with be divided into two sections - 'QuakeWorld' and 'Quake'. Click on 'Quake - Internet' - you could click on 'QuakeWorld', but that's not covered here. So go and click 'Quake - Internet'. 6. Mplayer will give a short briefing of what you can find in their game lobby on this page. Take a quick peek through it and click 'Continue to the Quake - Internet Lobby' when you see it. 7. Your hard drive should be working a little harder here. Don't worry about it, it's just mplayer.com's chat software being loaded. At the point, Gizmo will probably pop up a screen called 'Inventory Control' that will ask you to 'upgrade' (read: add mplayer.com files to your hard drive) your version of Quake. It'll ask you to 'Upgrade Now' or 'Upgrade Later', but, yeah, you guessed it, you're going to have to update before you can play. So click 'Upgrade Now'. 8. Oh, you're done updating? Your screen should now be divided into three sections: the upper-right a graphical listing of games currently being played; the bottom-left a listing of the people in the chat room you're currently occupying, and finally, the bottom-right serving as a chat window, displaying the (public) conversations going on in the room. 9. Single-click on the icon of a chat room in the top-right corner of the screen - it's easy to find: big, green and has words under it. Looks like a green rocket crashing into a equally green planet. Now click the 'Enter Room' button separating the top and bottom-right sections of the screen. 10. Ready to go! Click 'Join Game' to the right of where the 'Enter Room' button used to be. Sit back for a minute or so - Mplayer.com's Win32 Launcher will now spring up and into action, transporting you directly into the game in progress. Happy fragging - and watch your six. Overlooking the setup problems and downloading of files you don't want (who knows what they're sending us?), this is one hell of a service. But, of course, those problems do exist, and that is what tarnishes the mplayer experience. But what service is perfect, anyway? P.S. To the person with the mplayer.com nickname 'Sully', if you're not using the service actively, would you mind handing it over? I'd give it a good home, and one hell of a reputation :^) . If anyone wants to look me up during the times I am on mplayer, I am currently going by the nickname 'Sully_X'. Wait right there! Have you seen everything we've written about Quake yet? Click to see: The MPG Chasm reviews id Software's Quake. The current Frequently Asked Questions file about Quake.