So I actually own a physical disc of Quake 3 Arena. I pop it into my PC and the start up boots no problem.

When I click install, basically nothing happens. It looks like it's going to do something for a second, and then nothing. Not sure what's going on or how to get around as I don't want to pay $20 to purchase it on steam.

Any help would be appreciated!

I'm also correct in understanding there is optimizations available to make the game run/look better for windows 10/high res?

Thanks!

Its probably because Windows 10 being incompatible with the older software used to install and activate games of eras before

What you could try is by copying the baseq3 (folder having all the data/pk3 files) folder inside the disc to your PC and and updating it all from this patch (as the version in the disc could be severely outdated) to the latest point release and using a source port like Quake3e

And Welcome to the Arena

Thank you, I think this is very helpful!

Just curious, how does this differ from say if I download the Bethesda Launcher and buy quake 3 there? It's only $10.99 CDN and I'm considering paying that, especially if it will take care of any compatibility issues.

I just basically go in and play some CTF once in a while. I can't honestly say I need like a hardcore 4K 120FPS Quake 3 experience. So if the Quake 3 from Bethesda does the trick I may just save the hassle and do that. But I don't know if there is any "Don't do that because..."

I don't know mane

I don't have the cash to buy it again and check it out myself

I recently reinstalled Q3A on Windows 10 too. I tried a couple of different setups, and the easiest one for me was using CPMA since using their executable meant no graphic card issues whatsoever. You will only need the baseq3/pak0.pk3 file from your original disk, as well as installing the latest point release.

Use a different engine, something like quake3e or ioquake3. Use their exe with the discs pak0.pk3 file iirc. Don't install from the disc, just copy over the pak0. But it has been a long time since I did this.