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Well, do you know QTest1? No?

QTest1 was a public beta of the popular game Quake, made to test the multiplayer things from it. And through the game is focused on multiplayer, meaning if you have no friends on it (Like me), you have not much to do there outside of exploring.

But internally, the game is a gold source of stuff, both used, different from the final, or plain unused! But you're not here for that, which is documented elsewhere; rather, some things I noticed on the game's default control scheme (Named "quake.rc" in the ID1.PAK)...

What is it? Well:

• The "+moveleft" and "+moveright" commands is repeated, to the "<" and ">" keys respectively. I mention it, as they're mapped to "," and ".", like the leaked Beta 3 and final game.
• Another interesting thing is in the weapons mapping. There's a "impulse 9" command. Why? Well, the weapon Lightning Gun was going to have an alternative mode, named "Chainlightning Gun", which is unused in both this build, Beta 3 and final game! This command was made probably too for just modders, just saying. Also, "impulse 10" is absent in QTest1, which was just to change weapon.
• The "Quit" and "Message" keys are mapped to F12 and "t" respectively, just this last one survived to the final game, and "~" was added for the console, which was ESC in QTest1.
• This beta is FULL of development keys! They are:
  • F1: Starts the map (Needs more research)
  • F2: Restart the level
  • F3: Seems to draw BSP?
  • F4: Stops drawing in order BSP?
  • F5: Takes a screenshot in PCX format
  • F6: Stops counting data related to the connection and models
  • F7: Shows data related to conenction speed and models
  • F8: Enemies will not target too?
  • F9: Toggles no clipping
  • F10: Gives you "God" mode, meaning invulnerability
  As you can see, most of these aren't (Easily) accessible in the final game.
• Now, the default mouse buttons are these:
  • Button 1: Move forward
  • Button 2: Strafes
  • Button 3: Mouse look
  How these diffier from the final? Well...
  • Button 1: Shoots
  • Button 2: Moves forward
  • Button 3: Mouse look
  Not much a change, but this makes me think something...

The original build?

As some may know, the game was first shown in August 1995, not showing much, outside a dragon that flies on some outdoor areas and, according to Romero, attacked the player from above. Cool huh?

Well, late on September of that same year, at the London European Computer Trade Show, Quake was shown in private to the press by Jay Wilbur. Outside the game running at 15fps, and having just one small level with an area in the middle, surrounded by balconies and spiral staircases, anything from this survived? Well... Maybe yes!

According to the note, the game was controlled by just the mouse! A 3 button mouse! See something? Take a look at the above controlls, the note said "he zipped around the level, looked up, and strafed very naturally". Noticing that? Prretty much the same mouse scheme from QTest1!

Not saying is exactly the same build, but more info from said note said that the player could shoot a ball that exploded at impact. Something from that in QTest1? Well, yes! There's a sprite of a gold ball in the files, with it, an explosion sprite taken from Doom! Also, mentions that enemies were made of "Knight Zombies" (Final Knight). Through they are in QTest1, just not normally seen, in said note, mentions they died from heigh, something not seen in the game, or this beta. Not other enemies where mentioned, and in leaked screenshots from around August, besides the dragon, only the "Knight Zombie" was seen! Althrough unfinished.

What I say is, obviously this build was made on top of what was shown at the event. That is still the case in today's world, no new news (Heh), but at least, at a limited mode, we can have a taste of what was playable at the event.

Links to original talks:

• QTalk4000
• TCRF page of QTest1