Quake - Two-Player Deathmatch (Actual N64 Capture)

[Note: This video and description were originally posted on Youtube on September 10, 2021.]

This is a capture of me and a friend playing the multiplayer mode in Quake for the Nintendo 64. This is not an emulator. This footage was recorded directly from Keet’s Nintendo 64 using a real Quake cartridge. I'm player one and Keet is player two.

While I was visiting Keet in Florida, we also managed to record the competitive multiplayer modes from some Nintendo 64 games, including Quake. Keet actually has his own copy of this game, so I didn’t have to bring mine for this recording. Also, our warm-up matches before this recording were done to help us both memorize the stages a little better instead of bringing Keet up to speed on the game’s mechanics.

Keet’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiMGm9jOBO45C3gO9lbLPwQ
Watch our commentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrvyzHojpB0&t=0s

Even though Quake is known as a rather legendary PC game, especially for multiplayer, the same cannot be said for this version. The single-player mode is fairly well done for an N64 port, but the multiplayer is limited to just two players and yet it still suffers from a horrendously low frame rate while also limiting your view with an unnecessary status bar. Considering the fast-paced nature of Quake, this creates a serious issue.

The last time I played the multiplayer mode in this game with my friend Drew, it was done on my CRT TV and yet we still had problems aiming due to the low frame rate. This time Keet and I were playing on an HDTV, which has some input lag, and that certainly didn’t help us. We aren’t exactly great Quake players, but we tried our best to make it exciting.

For this video we played on all seven stages with a 5-minute/10-frag limit per stage. After you end a match, the game automatically cycles to the next arena, so it’s nice that I didn’t have to go back to the menu each time. Keet and I both agreed that the second map was easily the worst. The rest are pretty good overall, but a bit disorienting at times. We generally found that whoever got the rocket launcher won, although the grenade launcher was also quite handy. We also had a little axe battle for fun. The kill descriptions are just plain hilarious. Enjoy.

Arena 1 - 0:35
Arena 2 - 5:45
Arena 3 - 10:55
Arena 4 - 16:03
Arena 5 - 21:14
Arena 6 - 26:23
Arena 7 - 31:30

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR 2 and the official N64 S-video cable. We’re using standard N64 controllers.