How Quake (1998) almost made it to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance

There are many games that stand out in the history of gaming, and Quake happens to be one such iconic game. 1998's legendary first-person shooter from the wizards at ID Software was a technical achievement for the video game industry at the time, and the game is still cherished to this very day.

Bethesda and Nightdive Studios' 2021 Quake remaster for modern consoles and PC was a step in the right direction, offering the timeless experience to a new audience. Unsurprisingly, there have been countless ports of the game across different platforms over the years. This also includes a canned version for the Game Boy Advance (GBA), Nintendo's 2002 handheld system.

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Quake's canceled GBA port is nothing short of a technical marvel

As detailed by YouTuber ModernVintageGamer (MVG), the GBA port was worked on by Randy Linden as a solo project. That's right; the whole process was undertaken by one individual as a hobby project. As such, it was not affiliated with Bethesda. However, Linden planned to get the build up and running so that he could showcase it to ID Software for greenlighting. Unfortunately, this never came to be due to the GBA's declining sales. Regardless, Linden released the GBA demo to the public earlier this month.

The details of how it all came to be are extremely interesting. Quake on the GBA was to be built on a custom engine - the original ID Tech would simply not be feasible on a platform that did not even support true 3D. Built entirely using assembly language, the engine utilized the device's hardware to the fullest to render clean and fast graphics on the fly. The result is nothing short of marvelous.

Linden's engine allowed him to convert the game's map data to a proprietary format for use on the GBA. The content created for the demo was correctly packed with all the details, particularly the famous E1M1. The performance is surprisingly good. It retains elements like shadows and also has the same weapons. Enemies, levels, and pickups were all accounted for as well. All of this was up and running within six months.

But what really became of Linden's Quake GBA concept in the end? Well, the second, more refined prototype with improved lighting and animation also never saw the light of day. Instead, the idea was repurposed into a brand new game with inspired levels and new enemies. The game was called Cyboid and was released on Android-based devices like Amazon Fire TV and Google tablets.

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What else has Randy Linden worked on?

Besides Quake, Linden is the brains behind some other equally impressive projects. DOOM for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is one of the highlights. The SNES port of the revolutionary FPS from ID Software was something considered an impossible feat back then. The same goes for the Amiga version of Dragon's Lair. He is also responsible for contributing to the creation of Bleem! One of the first commercially marketed emulators, it aimed to replicate the functionality of the original PlayStation console on PC and the SEGA Dreamcast.

What do you think of the canceled Quake GBA port? Would you like to have seen it receive an official release?