Chapter 5. The User Interface

Table of Contents

5.1. The Game Launcher
5.2. The Console
5.3. Quake Menu

AudioQuake gives you the ability to interact with Quake the same way that sighted gamers do. This chapter describes the main user interface for the game (the console) as well as the game launcher, which we provided to make setting some options more convenient.

5.1. The Game Launcher

As mentioned above, this program acts as a front-end to AudioQuake. It exists to allow you to adjust many accessibility-related options and review your keybindings before starting the game. The launcher has a spoken menu-based interface. To enter a menu choice simply type the letter that corresponds to your choice and press ENTER.

You can adjust many settings of the game by using the launcher – visit Part VI, “Customising AudioQuake” for more information.

5.2. The Console

When you start Quake itself, you'll be presented with a pre-recorded demo. To get to the console, press the key below ESC on your keyboard. Here you can type in commands to start new games, play the tutorial maps or join in a multiplayer match. Instructions on how to do this can be found throughout the rest of the manual. All of the in-game events are self-voicing, including text editing within the console. After you exit the game by typing the “quit” command into the console, the launcher's main menu will re-appear. To fully exit AudioQuake, choose the exit (X) option from the main menu.

Tip

Type the aghelp command to get a list of some very useful commands you can use to interact with the game.

Tip

If you get the syntax of a command wrong when you type it into the console, you'll be presented with a message that explains the correct syntax for that command.

5.3. Quake Menu

In the original Quake, there was a traditional hierarchical menu. This is not present in AudioQuake as the console allows you to do more, is faster to use and is also the way most players choose to interact with the game nowadays, anyway.