Funny thing is, whoever made that particular map didn't set up the CD audio correctly. I think they were trying to use CD Track 2, the title theme, but they instead set it up to use CD Track 1, which is the data track and can't be played as audio. Now, I ripped the CD's audio tracks to my source port's directory ages ago, because I'm not that interested in keeping the Quake CD in the drive any time I feel like playing Quake. Instead, I had a music CD in the drive, which the source port defaulted to when it couldn't find the ripped track. As such, I got to run around an overly-large Arabian cave with tons of ambushing Shamblers to Amigos Para Siempre. Surreal, to put it mildly. 

wow that is awesome!
shamblers and vores fall in love, producing tarbabies? 

These maps look good. I will watch Daz play them and live vicariously through him. Go Daz Go! 

Had to come out of hiding to say I still prefer the looks of these maps to modern games. The geometry is so.. consistent. Absolute eyecandy. Respect. 

I haven't played with quake for many years, accidentally stumbled upon custom gamer's youtube channel, and i had to try these maps myself. Wow, i'd have never thought the quake 1 community is still going so strong.

Outside Cocerello's map, all of them are very good and fun, but the absolute standout is Tronyn's map. As i said, i'm not very knowledgeable about the newer maps (so maybe there are several similar ones), but it was almost unbelievable to me that such a complex and gigantic and great looking level is possible in such an old game. 

Hey Pagan

The community for Quake and Doom are still very much alive. There's plenty of sites to visit, from www.quakeone.com and www.quaddicted.com to my own small corner of the web quakeguy.tumblr.com that I update every once in a while. 

yeah there's heaps of good stuff that is at the same level as Tronyn's map. 

Thanks, i'll look around. I almost forgot how much fun Quake is. I certainly like the feel and gameplay of it over most contemporary fps games. 

I played through all of these maps including their respective remakes (mfx's AD remake and sock's 1000cuts) and I can't even begin to comprehend what you guys managed especially in such a limited time frame. I had a long list of points in praise of each map but I'll just keep it relatively brief since I doubt any of the participants will even see this post.

mfx - I already did a long write up of how much I loved ad_azad. I'm still just as amazed playing through the basis for that map. You already had so much figured out. I spent tons of time admiring the architecture in ad_azad and I still couldn't stop marveling at every little detail in this version. I've read through most of this thread and it seems like your map was one of the most highly praised, and it's easy to see why.

Tronyn - I spent most of this map wondering how you managed to fit it within +-4096. It was incredible just soaking up the views. Even in 2019, very few games can achieve this sense of scale and the type of atmosphere it creates. I'm really drawn to huge scale maps and your maps have been a goldmine for me.

sock - I did a write up for 1000cuts already so I'll just reiterate that this was a beautiful map from the architecture to the textures and the flow. The combat was excellent and I loved the secrets. You're probably well aware by now of how huge a fan I am of your style.

skacky - The lighting, the atmosphere, the texture usage - I couldn't figure out how you came up with any of this. I spent most of the map ignoring the monsters and just studying your texture usage. There was something so soothing about the atmosphere. It felt like a real place, a legitimate palace with a very regal feeling. Probably one of my favorite Quake maps and definitely one that I'm going to study and reference a lot.

scampie - some of the best pure id1 combat that I've played. Beautiful architecture, also really excellent texture usage. Super secret was a ton of fun. This map and sock's feel like they go hand in hand in terms of style, and I absolutely loved both.

fifth/eric - awesome layout, fun throughout, especially the boss fight. I got a Serious Sam feel from some parts of this map (in a good way). The angles and room shapes kept things really interesting.

cocerello - played on skill 2, wasn't a huge fan of the combat but I didn't have the same complaints that everyone else had. The openness of the map was cool in the way that the player had options and was encouraged to explore. Felt like a very old school map.

Lunaran - a unique take on the theme. I loved the subterranean palace theme and I actually really liked the final fight. I didn't have a problem with the monsters appearing as shadowy silhouettes and I never once felt like any part of the map was improperly lit.

Not exactly as short as I wanted to keep this post but man, these maps are so incredible that I couldn't resist saying a few words. Even though there are probably thousands of maps at this point that I haven't played yet, I think that I can already say that this is one of the greatest map packs of all time. I really can't even begin to fathom how you guys accomplished this. I'd like to have even a fraction of a grasp on texture usage and architecture as you guys demonstrated in these maps. 

This is one of my favorite releases from the community and the reason why the IKWhite/Blue texture sets are my most beloved. Poorchop, I'd love to read your write-up on AD_Azad, where is it? Quaddicted? 

Nothing really worth reading, just praising the use of AD mechanics to make the world come alive as well as the architecture. I've spent a lot of time enabling notarget and noclip and then flying around ad_azad as well as the other maps in this pack just to admire the architecture. The texture set was already beautiful but they still managed to take it to another level. I've been playing around with the textures and I still can't come up with the kind of stuff that these guys created. 

We admire the scenery too, as much as anyone who has played it.