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Comment by exogen | Hacker News Reader

Assuming Half-Life the game was using this without tweaking the engine parameters much, I have to say this is the only engine that really "felt" 100% right to me. In Quake 1-3 I felt heavy/bulky, like my body didn't collide where I expected it to, Tribes 1 and 2 were very floaty, etc. HL1 was so natural.

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Yes, definitely! I think the feel of the HL1 engine is a large part of what made games like CS, DoD, TFC, Firearms, Action Half-Life, The Specialists, etc. so fun and popular. Even HL1 DM compared favorably to UT and Quake at times. Stock sound effects from HL1 still sometimes appear in Source games, and whenever I hear one, I'm instantly taken back to dodging rockets, gauss shots, and bullets while leaping towards the doomsday button in crossfire. I still miss that thriving multiplayer scene.

Aw, man. That was the best way for a group of friends to bond quickly. I had this funny moment with a guy where both of us ran out of ammunition at the same time while shooting at each other, then we were both killed by a rocket from another guy... memories for life

Haha oh man so true. This is why I've found it hard to really get into modern FPS's, especially the console ported ones... the perfection we tasted from HL1 is very tough to match.

> In Quake 1-3 I felt heavy/bulky...

Quake 2...maybe. Quake 3 is anything but heavy/bulky, that game is 100% twitch and your character flies around (sometimes literally with those jump pads) like they're constantly sliding on a slick floor. Great game.

I think it's the "slick floor" feeling that causes the heavy/bulky feel; it's as if your character has a ton of momentum (due to a ton of mass, presumably, though you do move faster in Quake).

I definitely agreed. Usually when someone asks me about my favourite game I always think of the HL1 engine instead. Bunnyhopping for example is a think I enjoyed, it felt like you could actually 'master' the movement/engine itself. New games are very animation-heavy which, while it looks alright, makes the game more restricted.

The source engine is also an engine that I like.

Quake 3 movement is slow unless you take advantage of strafe jumping and other tricks.

It's the only FPS I've played where knowing how to move through maps efficiently is so important.

eg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aikg9NC3i98

Quake, a slow game ?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HUsdNEaKMk

Notice that I never said slow. :)

I thought HL1 used quake 2 engine (or a modification of it), no?

Pretty sure they started from Quake 1 and did a lot of work from there

Correct, it's a heavily modified Quake 1 engine.

How did they get the Quake 2 engine? Isn't it commercial closed source? Did Valve paid? Were there other games based on this engine?

It's Quake 1, not 2. And yes, Valve among others licensed it, just like people do today with Unreal Engine or Cry Engine.

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