After Doom succeeded, John Carmack decreed that our next game also needed to have a one word title. Thus it got named Quake, despite the title have literally nothing to do with the game in any way. There's no one named Quake. There's no Quake Hammer that hits the... floor and makes a crack. Both of these were in the original plan, but both got dropped. You can see a tiny remnant of the Quake Hammer in the Lightning Bolt, which uses roughly the same animation, except in the air. And glowing. No I don't have any suggestions for a different name. Quake works for me.show more

Original plan was the hero would have an object (probably a cube) orbiting him. When attacks hit the cube, you’d be safe. Also when the cube “orbited” into an enemy, the enemy would be injured or killed. I vaguely remember plans for things that would upgrade the cube. Anyway it never saw the light of day.

Was the name taken from this planned game?

I upgraded my graphics card just so I could play that game. The guys at Electonics Boutique let me have the giant, oversized display box that was in the window. Played on a ctf server every day via a 19.2 baud modem and eventually joined a guild. We had our own webpage. I was good, but I thought I was the goat until I played against an Asian kid. We use to do what amounted to ddos attacks on our favorite server to get players to stop when the queue was full 😱 Anyway, good times.

the Quake manual calls the extra-dimensional enemy "Quake", though. The mission is explicitly to find and stop an enemy codenamed Quake? So...

Could have added some ducks and called it “Quack”

In the beginning.. Playing Doom multiplayer was done by dialing into a server named Dwango. P2P and LAN was there too, but if you wanted to play with a bunch of ppl you didn't know, then that was the way. By the time Q3 Arena was out, it was much easier.

I was there when this dropped. The name worked and Nine Inch Nails fit.

One of the best things about Quake is the soundtrack. Still holds up.

"Quake" because it shook our world.

It was a good game and I literally not once wondered why it was called that.

Quisp

Uhm, doesn't both the manual and the game state that the enemy you're fighting in Operation Counterstrike is codenamed "Quake"?

Iirc the manual says "Quake" is what the military designated the hostile forces invading thru the slipgates

If only there was a Quake pun after defeating the boss.

What about the main protagonist, John Quake? :3

Ironic most people played Quake 2.

Quack

nice. i did not know this and always thought the name was based on phrases like “quake with fear”

Isn't the realm named Quake?

Quake and Quake 2 are incredible shooters. Thank you.

well we got duke nukem and Rise of the Triad for people that must have bigger names

Wasn't the quake guy a character in their DND sessions?

Not to be too facetious, but did anyone consider "Bolt"? 😏

Terrestrial Instability doesn't have the same ring to it, Quake was the right choice.

It had to be a video with a guy being killed by a spawn, right Sandy?

Rage.

Some people quiver in fear when monsters appear, others Quake. -Yeah Double Entendre!

Nominative determinism: the game was a 'quake' for gamers and the history of gaming in general.

quake hat druck! that is why it is superior to unreal by name alone

The enemy faction in the game is called "Quake"

Quake is the most important game name ever.

I call it Quack.

Please tell whoever designed those jumping exploding blobs to go fuck himself.