Quake II Servers

Quake II Setup Guide

Update: You can now install all of the required components in one easy install by using our Quake II Full Download install program. The instructions below are only for those who wish to install each component manually. However, the Quake II Full Download includes additional content not covered by this setup guide, as well as including an uninstaller, and is the prefered install method.

Getting Started

This section assumes that you do not already have Quake2. If you do, ignore this section.

So, you are new to Quake2 ... Amazingly, more than 10 years after it's release, Quake 2 still manages to attract new players and tempt back players from years gone by. Best of all, it's possible to multiplay Quake 2 without having to purchase anything and play absolutely free of charge! Of course, if you play the game a lot you should support the guys at ID Software by buying the full retail version.

First, download the Quake 2 Demo

Open or extract the q2-314-demo-x86.zip you just downloaded (if you downloaded the demo via an alternative source yours may not be zipped) and execute the q2-314-demo-x86.exe file contained inside, upon which you will be prompted with the following:

The 'Unzip To Folder' location is only required as a temporary storage location for the setup files, it is not the location the game will be installed to and the created location can safely be deleted after installation, so make this location different to where you will actually be installing the game.

Once you are happy with the location, click 'Unzip'
Upon completion the Quake2 Demo installation will begin.

When the Quake2 Demo installation starts you will be presented with the following screen, select 'INSTALL'

The next screen simply provides some information and requires you to click 'NEXT'

Next up is the Licence Agreement, click 'Yes'

The following screen provides information about the install location. You are going to be adding a fair amount of additional data to the Quake 2 Demo installation so I recommend changing the name of the installation directory from Q2Demo to Quake2, as additional installs and help files will refer to your 'Quake2' directory. To do this, click 'CHANGE DIRECTORY'

When presented with the next screen, choose an install location and change the default Q2Demo directory to be Quake2 then click 'OK'

If you are prompted with a dialogue asking if you want the folder to be created, click 'Yes'

The next screen will put you back at the install location screen, which will now show your chosen location, click 'INSTALL'.
Sometimes on newer machines with DVD drives the installation may prompt you to say that a compatible CD drive could not be detected. If this happens simply ignore the prompt and click 'INSTALL' for a 2nd time.

The next screen informs you that installation is complete, click 'FINISH'

Patching your Quake 2 installation

This section assumes your version of Quake2 is not version 3.20. If your version is already 3.20, ignore this section.

Download the patch Quake2 3.20 Patch

When the download is complete run the patch (q2-3.20-x86-full-ctf.exe).

You are prompted to supply the location which the patch will be extracted to. This location needs to exactly match the location where your Quake2 is installed.

When you are sure the 'Unzip To Folder' dialogue contains the location where your Quake2 resides, click 'Unzip"

Once the files have successfully been extracted, close the Winzip dialogue.

You are now patched to version 3.20

Installing R1Q2 and Anticheat

Fuster's Deathmatch and InstaGib Servers require that players have the r1ch.net Anticheat module and compatible client installed. R1Q2 is recommended and that is what we will be using for the purpose of this guide. It is worth noting that R1Q2 is highly recommended as a quake2 client even if you are playing on servers which do not require an anticheat compatible client as it provides security fixes, new features and vast improvements over the original quake2 client. For more information about R1Q2 and its features, click here.

Download the R1Q2 websetup. The websetup installer will download and install everything you need, R1Q2, R1GL and the r1ch.net anticheat module.

When the download is complete, run r1q2-websetup.exe

Next you will be prompted to choose which components to install. Leave all the options ticked and click 'Next'

The next screen will ask you to choose the folder in which to install R1Q2. Note that the default location will most likely be wrong and the destination folder must exactly match the location where your Quake2 is installed. Once you have entered the correct destination folder, click 'Install'

During the install you will see a display showing the download and install progress of the various components.
Upon completion you will be prompted to choose if you would like to create shortcuts to R1Q2. It is recommended to do this as from now on you will be launching R1Q2 to play Quake2, so the shortcuts will be handy.