gotta go back in time...
The "magic" behind the Quake Shareware CD
PART 2
Okay, since you clicked, I'm figuring you want to figure out how to do this yourself. So let us ignore the fact you can buy these games on Steam for cheap and pretend it is the mid 90s. Kinda.
First, you will need software that can run old Windows versions. For this tutorial I'll be going with VMWare, though there are many options out there, some of them requiring a PC more powerful than a potato.
I wonder if I could get it running on this...
Now you must find a way to obtain Windows 3.1 - Windows 98 SE. I hope you have a CD drive, so that you can rip your legit Windows and Quake shareware CDs that you have lying around...or just download them online. This also applies to the virtual machine files, if you are lazy enough :P
Almost forgot to mention this, but here's a link to a JavaScript implementation of QCRACK, just to make life a little easier: https://faehnri.ch/qcracker/
You can also get the original qcrack program complete with important files here. (required if you want Doom II, I'll get to that)
NOW IT'S TIME TO OBTAIN FREE GAMES >:D
I've chosen to download a premade Windows 98 SE virtual machine off https://winworldpc.com that you can download yourself and should work with no issues on VMWare Workstation Player/Pro 15.5.7. (Unless if you have a fast CPU, which in that case you'll need to run a specific program but I'm not gonna go that in depth.)
Have your Quake shareware CD-ROM ready, either in physical or digital form. VMWare will take both options.
Now click on My Computer, and then click on the CD drive icon and then Setup. Go through the setup, and now you should see a QUAKE Start shortcut, which you should click on. An error pops up here, which you can safely ignore and go straight to what is represented in the above image.
Now if you want to unlock quake, you click the Unlock Quake button at the bottom left, and you are taken to a different screen. Click on the giant OK, and that will generate a code. (during this process you'll get a few popups, you can just ignore them)
Now pulling up the qcrack website, type in the code you just got, and you should receive the unlock code, which then you put in the application and click the big OK again. And finally, you now have the full version of Quake in a 16 bit DOS .exe file extracted to your virtual C drive. Woo.
This applies to all the other games, except one, which requires you to have an actual copy of qcrack, complete with the required files (Link is a few paragraphs above)
Speaking of other games & required files, let us talk about them. While this disk may have the full versions of Quake and all of these games above, it also has the shareware versions of Wolf3D, Doom and Heretic.
There was a game that was giving me difficulties earlier with getting the decrypted .exe file and that was Doom II, and since I like to wholeass things, I am gonna tell you about the required files for qcrack.
* QCRACK.exe (self-explanitory)
* SKU.17, FLOWLIB.DIR, FLOWLIB.LIB (taken from IDSTUFF folder on CD, help with generating keys)
*CWSDPMI.EXE, CWSDPR0.EXE, CWSDSTUB.EXE, & CWSPARAM.EXE (all taken from this specific file csdpmi5b.zip, can be found at https://delorie.com/pub/djgpp/current/v2misc/, required for qcrack.exe to function)
After finding all of these files and putting them in one folder (or just downloading the .zip linked above), drag it over to your VMWare virtual machine, and open up an MS-DOS Prompt from the Start menu.
Then type in "cd *whatever the path for your files is*" and type in "qcrack" to make sure everything is working.
If you see this screen, everything is working. :)
It should be smooth sailing from here. Regardless of what path you chose, you should end up with a "C:\IDSTUFF" folder full of free games that in 1996 would've cost you over $310. (or a max of $70 in 2008) And unlike the digital version on Steam, you actually get the soundtrack, because the Quake Shareware CD is a mixed mode CD (part data, part CD audio), just like it's registered counterpart. ^_^
This has been NICKeL, writing an article for his website, because he needs a place to share his "wisdom" with the world. See ya! :)