Title. Want to play old games, found a sweet bargain for Quake Ultimate just sitting in a charity shop window, want to play!

Probably but you don't want to use the old base in 2026. Just install it, download vkQuake, throw its files in the main Quake folder, and then it through that exe.

This is the way. There's quite a few source ports to choose from like vkQuake, ezQuake or (my preference), quakespasm. I like quakspasm for the vanilla experience but with quality of life improvements like widescreen support.

All you need is the pak0.pak and pak1.pak files. These contain all the assets of the game (levels, monsters, weapons , models, etc.).

Extract all the files from the game, but you only need these pak files. Then download a modern source port like quake spasm or quake spasm spiked. I like qss-m because it has good multiplayer support for netquake.

Use ChatGPT or another ai, and it will walk you through everything you need to do to get it working.

only if you wish really, really hard

Another good one is nQuake.com

IronWail is also another really good exe. Comes with a built-in mod menu too

GL Quake just runs, but take a modern Source Port to have it even more friendlier :)

quakespasm

chatgpt won't help you walk through the whole process.

I mean, this looks like it would work to me:

To get Quake working with QSS (Quakespasm-Spiked), you need to extract the engine files into your Quake directory and ensure your game data files are properly placed in an id1 folder.

1. Locate Your Quake DirectoryFind your main Quake installation folder (for example, the default Steam directory is steamapps\common\Quake).Make sure you have the core PAK data files (usually pak0.pak and pak1.pak) inside an id1 subfolder within that main directory.

2. Install QSS (Quakespasm-Spiked)Download the latest release package for QSS compatible with your operating system.Extract/unzip all the QSS files and executable directly into your main Quake installation directory (overwriting or placing them alongside the existing files).

3. Run the EngineLaunch the game using the quakespasm-spiked.exe (or qss executable).If you are running it through a launcher or want it to hook into Steam/shortcuts seamlessly, you can rename the new QSS executable or create a direct shortcut pointing to it.

Male che vada dosbox...

NQUAKE