Quake2DS logo
Quake II is a registered trademark of id Software
Nintendo DS is a registered trademark of Nintendo

Introduction

This is the home of the homebrew port of Quake II to the Nintendo DS handheld system.

Quake2DS has been in the works for a long time. What took so long?
  • the original game needed far more memory than is available in the Nintendo DS handheld system
  • the original was designed to work on a system that also supports virtual memory, something that can't be easily done on the DS
  • Q2 stresses the CPU far more than Q1 does, and a lot of time had to be spent getting the game itself (not including rendering) running at a decent rate
  • the models and levels in Q2 are far more detailed than the ones in Q1, and this was originally too much for the DS' GPU to handle (oh, and there's a lot more texture detail, too!)
  • ...and, well, I gotta have a social life, right?!
However I'm finally releasing it!

Current Status, as of 9/2/08

The Game

  • every single level within the game can be loaded and played in single-player mode
  • there is currently no wifi multiplayer
  • the game can be run with either the demo or full retail pak files
  • there is full control configuration
  • there is an on-screen keyboard for use in-game and with the console
  • there are eight "touch-buttons" which allow you quick access to in-game functions
  • both manual and automatic game saving works
  • mods and total conversions do not work, and are unlikely ever to - however new levels can be used

Graphics

  • nearly-all of the graphical effects have been have been moved to the DS' 3D hardware
  • most world textures are rendered correctly
  • particles are supported, however sprites are not
  • animated model skins are properly supported
  • although the game does not use lightmapping, dynamic lighting is fully-functional

Sound

  • there's a full-blown custom ARM7 sound effects system, and it totally r0x0rs
  • the sound system uses proper spatial positioning (it is stereo though...) - plug it into your speakers and subwoofer to hear all the effort I put into this!

The Catch!

Unlike Quake 1, there is simply no way of fitting Quake II into the memory configuration of a stock DS. To play the game you must have a supported slot-2 flash card that contains a minimum of 16 megabytes of RAM.

Supported cards:
  • 'Proper' SuperCards, eg the Lite, SD, MiniSD, and CF. The SuperCard Rumble and SuperCard One are not compatible.
  • 'Perfect' M3s, eg the Lite Perfect, the Mini SD Perfect, and the SD Perfect. The Mini SD Pro, SD Pro, and Lite Pro are not compatible.
  • EZ-Flash cards which have a slot-2 component and can play GBA games over 32MBit, eg EZ 3-in-1, EZ 4, EZ 5
  • G6 Flash
Note: the game will not run without a slot-2 RAM. There will never be a version of Quake2DS that does not require extra RAM.

Overclocking Slot-2 RAM

Slot-2 RAM is very slow and the performance of the game greatly depends on the speed of your RAM. Luckily some cards can be overclocked to improve the game's performance.

However, not all cards are made equal and cannot handle tighter timings. To more robustly find out if you RAM is capable of an overclock, please try memtestARM from http://www.pineight.com/ds/
If you can overclock your card, make sure you choose one of the faster memory options when the game first starts up.


Downloads

How to play

Legal

I take no credit for the development of Quake II, that all goes to the guys at id Software. I also claim no copyright, trademark etc. Again, all work, copyrights, trademarks are owned by them.
I have had no involvement with Nintendo (or their first-party or third-party companies), and I have not used any of their tools, software, documentation or SDK to make this port.
All I've developed is a small patch to make this game run on the Nintendo DS, and I have done so as a (non-profit) hobby.

This is absolutely no warranty for Quake2DS, and neither I, the copyright holder, nor Drunken Coders will be liable to you for damages out of the use or inability to use the program.

Thanks

Big greets go out to all the people who have assisted me in porting this game, the people who have donated money or hardware and especially to the people who helped test the game! Couldn't have done it without you :-D
If you would like to donate to help further development of the game, please hit up this link, thank you very much!