Unstable Aesthetics by Eddie Lohmeyer

Author:Eddie Lohmeyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Figure 3.3 JODI, Untitled Game, 1996–2001. Installation view, Street Digital, Museum of the Moving Image, 2012. Mods projected onto large scrims. Photograph by Daniel Love. © Museum of the Moving Image and Daniel Love.

In the following section, I unearth a media archaeology of the Quake engine and its unique computational techniques that produce the game’s real-time 3D spaces. Drawing from Matthew Kirschenbaum, I propose a forensic analysis of Quake through what he refers to as a grammatology: a reading of the working components of an inscription technology.7 Here, I trace the mechanisms of the Quake engine to JODI’s deconstruction of its code at the forensic level of inquiry, to the formal materiality of Untitled Game and the player’s mimetic engagement with its abstract spaces. By unveiling how a game engine works, its “engine-ness” we might say, and how JODI upend its standard operations through the rendering of anamorphosis, we can consider how modding practices make strange conventional gameplay of the first-person shooter.

A Grammatology of the Quake Engine

After the release of Doom II in 1994, Romero and Carmack began work on a 3D version of a previous 2D game concept called Quake: The Fight for Justice, that like Doom, was inspired by playing Dungeons and Dragons. The game was slated to be a medievalesque RPG with a warrior avatar named Quake equipped with a giant hammer. The comprehensive FAQ document QUAKETALK 95 created by game developer and Quake archivist Joost Schuur in October of 1995 provides a detailed library of interviews, articles, and programming logs on the Quake engine’s development starting in the summer of 1994. In an interview from November of the same year, Romero addresses the advanced rendering the 3D engine stating that:

the technology in quake [sic] will be much better than in doom [sic] . . . the graphics will use 3-D rendered models, unlike the 2-D images in doom [sic] . . . so if you walk around a pillar, you’ll see it in full 360 degrees, as opposed to only eight different rotations in doom [sic]. You’ll also be able to move in six different directions, and they’ll [have] much better animation. We’re also adding cool cinematic sequences that take place while you’re playing the game. Basically, doom will feel stiff compared to quake [sic].8

Carmack began programming a potential 3D engine throughout 1995 but because of technical limitations with rendering and frame rate, both Romero and Carmack changed the direction of Quake from a slower, world-exploring RPG to a frenetic, fast-paced shooter in the tradition of Doom. Developments on the reworked engine included Carmack as main programmer, Michael Abrash assisting with assembly optimization and algorithms, and additional programming by John Cash. Game design was handled by Romero along with American McGee, Sandy Petersen, and Tim Willits, and art direction by Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud, and Paul Steed. The game featured an aggressive industrial soundtrack produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to accompany the chaotic gameplay. Released on June 22, 1996, the final build of

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