How to Play Quake and Quake 2 on Symbian^1 (Nokia N97)

In TechCredo’s article series about emulation and retro gaming on Symbian^1, time has come for a tutorial on playing Quake I & II on the Nokia N97. This is certainly not the first guide to running Quake and Quake 2 on Nokia’s current Symbian flagship device, but hopefully it will compensate for its late arrival by being one of the most thorough and comprehensive.

Most of the tutorials I’ve read have been erroneous at one point or the other, and I hope that this article will iron out all potential pitfalls. For those unfamiliar with Quake, it is id Software’s FPS classic from 1996 that was preceded by Doom.

The Symbian ports are made by Hinkka, and since they are intended for 3rd Edition devices, the key remapping software Virtual Key is needed in order to run them on Symbian^1 phones with hardware QWERTY keyboards. Virtual Key must be signed before you can install it. You will also need the original game files in order to play Quake on your phone. If you don’t have access to the files that come with the full games, the .pak-files from the Shareware versions will work as well.

It’s a bit of a shame that the Nokia N97 doesn’t have hardware accelerated graphics, because it would have made Quake run silky smooth and look awesome, but the games are still playable and have a decent frame rate. I noticed that I still knew all the Quake maps by heart, since playing the game on my PC back in 1996. If anyone rocking the N97 Mini decides to try this, let me know how it goes!

•   1. Install P.I.P.S
•   2. Install the Quake Ports
•   3. Copy the Game Files to Your N97′s Mass Memory
•   4. Sign, Install and Configure Virtual Key
•   5. The Game Controls
•   6. Troubleshooting
•   7. Leave a Comment

The Short, Five Minute Guide

1. Install P.I.P.S

In order to run any of the Quake ports, you need to have the Symbian P.I.P.S. C-Runtime library installed on your device. It can be downloaded here. You will not be able to select where to install P.I.P.S., since it will automatically install itself to the phone memory.

2. Install the Quake Ports

Next up is installing the actual ports. For running Quake on a device like the Nokia N97, quake_v105_armv6_fpu.sisx should be used, and for Quake 2 install quake2_v102_armv6_fpu.sisx. Please note that both files must be installed to the mass memory and not to the memory card, unlike what most guides claim.

This detail initially kept Quake from starting on my N97, until I figured out what was wrong. This is probably due to the fact that the memory card is E: on most devices, but on the N97 the mass memory is E:, and consequently the memory card is F:. It may however differ from one N97 to another, so if installing the files to the mass memory doesn’t work for you, try the memory card instead.

3. Copy the Game Files to Your N97′s Mass Memory

To be able to play Quake, you need the original game files. If you don’t have the full games, you can always download the shareware versions from id Software’s website, and use those files instead (the number of maps will then be limited, of course).

FOR QUAKE:

• Create a folder called Quake1 in the root of your phone’s mass memory.
• If you have the full version of Quake, copy the entire ID1 folder from the game’s installation directory to the Quake1 folder on your mass memory. If you just have .pak-files from the shareware release, create a folder named ID1 in the Quake1 folder on your phone, and copy the .pak-files there.



• If you want to hear music while playing, create a folder titled cdaudio in the Quake1 folder, and copy ten MP3 songs to that location. They should be named 1.mp3, 2.mp3 and so forth up to 10. All the tracks must be named correctly, or the music won’t play.

FOR QUAKE II:

• Create a folder called Quake2 in the root of your phone’s mass memory.
• Create another folder called baseq2 inside the Quake2 folder.
• Copy the .pak-file(s), the video and players folders from the original Quake 2 installation disc to the Quake2/baseq2 folder. If you have the shareware version, copy the .pak-files to the same location. Apparently, the screen will likely stay black for about 30 seconds when you launch Quake 2 if you use the shareware files.



• In case you want to hear music while playing, create a folder titled cdaudio in the Quake2 folder, and copy ten MP3 songs to that location. They should be named 1.mp3, 2.mp3 and so forth up to 10, or the music won’t play.

4. Sign, Install and Configure Virtual Key

Now it’s time to install Virtual Key, that will allow you to control the game with your QWERTY keyboard.

• Download Virtual Key, sign the application, then install it to the mass memory.
• If you don’t know how to sign unsigned Symbian applications, check out this guide to learn how.
• Next step is copying a custom keymap for Virtual Key. Download VirtualKey_Quake_Keymap.rar, and place custom1.keymap in the folder Private/e7d61da9 on your mass memory. If the folder doesn’t exist, create it.
• Launch Virtual Key and tap Options > Load Mode > Custom mode 1. This will load the custom keymap, and it should look something like this:



• Now press the right button on the D-pad (or tap on the arrow at the top of the display) to go to the Include screen. If the title says “Exclude” instead of “Include”, go to Options > Change mode > Include, to change it to Include mode. Quake and Quake 2 (if you installed both of them) should already be listed here. If not, tap Options > Add from Installed and select Quake/Quake 2 from the list.



• Tap Back to make Virtual Key run in the background.
• Launch Quake or Quake 2 and enjoy the action!

5. The Game Controls

Pressing the Backspace/Erase button will bring up Quake’s main menu, and Enter is used to select a menu item. Games can be both saved and loaded from the ordinary menus. If you copy my custom Quake & Quake 2 configuration files, you can use the keys below to control the gameplay. Always Run is on. The configuration file for Quake should be placed in the Quake1/ID1 folder, and the one for Quake II should be copied to Quake2/baseq2. You can select your own keys as well from the Controls menu. Look at the image below to see which buttons you can choose from.

Additional Keys for Quake 2

6. Troubleshooting

If you have installed the Quake ports and copied the game files to the mass memory, and the games won’t start, try installing them to the memory card instead.