I turned thirteen the day Quake Shareware was originally released [22nd of June]. :D I was going to release a Shareware Quake celebration map -- but then I didn't. 

i was like 12 when i first got quake... it barely ran on my 486 too. :P

at the time, i though sv_gravity was the best cheat code of all time. 

I never had the computer to run it when it first came out, and I actually got into Quake 2 first around 2000/2001. When I got sick of playing it I decided that I wanted to try and make some maps for it. This wasn't an easy thing for my feeble 14 year old mind, so I sent out a lot of pathetic e-mails asking for help and pretty much the only person who replied to me was a guy by the name of "Rush" who told me to check out both #terrafusion and Qmap.org

I was dismayed at first because most of #tf and Qmap were more into (and still mapping for) Quake, which I had never played before and knew nothing about. So in the interest of actually trying to get help with my maps instead of feedback like "Quake 2 sucks, map for Quake," I made the jump and started checking out the original Quake.

I'm very glad I did because there has been such a wealth of quality custom content compared to Quake 2 and even most non-Quake games. Also, I feel like I learned a lot about gameplay, balance, and what truly makes a game fun from Quake and all of the Quake enthusiasts who continued to play it and map for it.

Today I am making FPS levels for a living and I am happier than I've been in a long god damn time. I doubt I would be here if I hadn't met all of the great people I came to know through the Quake community, and I think that says more than anything else :) 

Played shareware Quake on 486 with the screen shrunk way down. Got to e1m7, and used impulse 9 followed by emptying all cells, nails, and half my rockets into Cthon and he still wasn't dead. He was one tough mofo. At that point I quit to try again later. I dunno when I figured out how to actually beat him. 

the first time I encountered the shambler in e1m5. I ran to the moat and dove in like a wee girl, and killed him by pecking shots at him from below. 

Yay!
First time I played the quake demo, I remember thinking: "this game is ugly, Duke Nukem 3D is so much better!"... Fortunatly, I stopped being a blind idiot somewhere around my second shambler... ;)

Hurrah for quake! \o/ 

I recall being confused that it didnt prompt me for a skill selection in the menu, and that I started with a shotgun.

I also recall being amazed at the explosions, that grenades bounced so well, and that the friggin ogres had chainsaws and grenade launchers!

I have more vivid of memories relating to registered Quake which I got on December 25th 1996, but I dont think that technically qualifies for this thread. 

I still remember my first Quake session sometime in 97(?) on a friend�s pc, he just turned on god mode and let me play while he was shopping or something, I nearly wet my pants lol

weirdest: just recently played sm82 aka rubicondom, there�s a short part with a platform above lava near the end, and there are NO fireballs coming out of it, yet "something" pushed me off to my doom, and I was not able to reproduce it...