Prerelease:Quake II (PC, Xbox 360)

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Quake II (PC, Xbox 360).

This article is a work in progress.
...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

While Quake II doesn't have as a documented (or long) development timeline as the first game, there's still some interesting things.

To do:

The remaster includes an id Vault, containing a bunch of prerelease and development info. These should be put in here:
- Rip out concept art.
- Get the design documents and describe what is said.
- Random info about the game's development.
- Everything said that is pertaining to prerelease info, such as the description for the game's name and logo seen in the vault.
  - Speaking of this, find proof of the early Quake II names.
- All stuff from the "Development" tab (among other things) should probably go on a Development page.
  - There are two direct video screen recordings of early mission map layouts, one from E3 and one from the European Computer Trade Show, there's even recreated versions! (Oh how generous of Nightdive!) Put this info there and compare changes.
Outside of the id Vault also work on these:
- A timeline of development (but that shouldn't be the main focus right now).
- John Carmack's .plan files with info about Quake II's development.
- Cite sources for info.
- Add prerelease/beta screenshots from this website archive

Early Development

Quake II went by many names during development including "Strogg", "Gon", "Wor", "Load", and "Lock and Load". id ultimately decided to make the game a sequel to Quake due to similarities in gameplay (and likely also to help sales through brand recognition).

Scrapped Items

To do:

Add images of the items from the manuals.
Add where this info is located in 2023 remaster's id Vault.

Some of Quake II's manuals make mentions of items that have no trace left in the final game or the Q2Test prototype. The mentioning of the items in the manuals could imply that these were cut fairly late into development.

Cloak

The manual has an unused image for a "cloak" item, resembling the Power Screen/Power Armor.

Scope

The digital manual included with the initial CD release includes an unused picture of an item called a "Scope".

According to the 2023 remaster's Id Vault, this would have allowed you to zoom in at the cost of 1 cell ammo per zoom.

Sights

The digital manual included with the initial CD release includes an unused picture of an item called "Sights".

According to the 2023 remaster's Id Vault, this would have enabled auto-targeting for a certain number of shots, ala the final game's Silencer powerup.

Concept Art

To do:
Adrian Carmack has Twitter now, apparently. Here's one post with more concept art, and here's his LinkedIn page. Also clarify if the following images here are ripped from the remaster or Adrian's Twitter; if it's a case of the former, give them an alreadyJPEG tag.

The Quake II remaster shows early concept art created by Adrian Carmack, as well as himself posting a few pieces of concept art.