QBall

QuakeC patch by Harvey Lee
HTML page design and graphics by Harvey Lee

A look at QBall

What is QBall?
QBall is a QuakeC patch, written for registered Quake. It is a modification(!) of the way Quake is played. Before, people ran around trying to frag other players with rocket launchers and thunderbolts. Now, with QBall, experience havoc and chaos as you tear around a soccer field, attempting to axe players (because nothing else works), avoid being axed, and try to score goals simultaneously. Of course, to have a good game of QBall, you're going to need some friends to team up with :)

What if I don't have friends???
Check the QBall Homepage at http://www.home.aone.net.au/yevs/ for frequent updates of places on the Internet where you can enjoy a team game of QBall. Meanwhile, I guess you could practice hacking the ref and scoring goals :)

Why QBall? Why not super high-powered rocket launchers?
I roamed my local BBS, looking for some action, when I found something called QuakeC. Since then, I have been trying to gather all the BEST QuakeC patches I could find. And I was really disappointed with a lot of them, being very repetitive. Gib people with one shot. Make your missiles home in. Make yourself invincible whenever you want. Ack.

I've always enjoyed playing soccer (or football for you people living in countries that don't have another form of football) and I was disappointed by the fact that you couldn't shove people and blast bodies in regular Quake. So my main contention was to learn QuakeC and fire up some head-kicking...

How do I play QBall?
It's easy! Read the qballv17.txt file and follow the instructions. Remember, the main objective is to score goals, and as such, you get more points for popping one in than chopping another player up. And QBall is a team game. Have your teammates help you, or help them by keeping the other team off their backs.

How QBall came to be
The original idea for QBall popped into my head the very first day I found out about QuakeC patches. It took only about a week for me to become really familiar with QuakeC, even though I am hopeless at regular C. As soon as I built up a few techniques and got hold of the source code, I delved straight into writing my first QuakeC patch.

The first thing I did was to work out how to write the code and compile it with QCC so I could kick the heads in Quake, to make sure it was possible. That done, I started designing QBall, writing down ideas and organising them in order of priority.

After the design was done, I went ahead and fiddled a level out with a range of level editors (big problems for me, because I was hopeless at 3D thinking). The textures I put together using Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, and some Photoshop plug-ins. I also made some skins for the players (so they look like they're wearing jerseys instead of those ugly tops).

The code, level, and graphics were all complete after about a week or so, which shows that it really does not take all that long to grind out a playable patch. Every week I spend a couple of hours just seeing if I can implement something new, the result being fewer bugs.

I love the patch! Where can I find updates?
You can find frequent updates on QBall software and QBall news at the Home of QBall, http://www.home.aone.net.au/yevs/.

Suggestions? Questions?

Even if it's the smallest detail, tell me about it.

Email Yevs - assassin@c031.aone.net.au