Today is a big anniverary for Quake 1. It has been 5 years already since the shareware version of the game was released by id Software. Over at Methos Quake they have a pretty good overview of what all happened in 1996 and they also have interviews with John Romero and Tim Willits.

Methos: Since games tend to evolve as they are being designed. What was the Quake team's original thoughts on what Quake should or would be like when it was finished? How close was it to the final product?

Romero: Quake's design was VERY different from the game that was released. It was much more of a D&D-based game with a main character named Quake who had an awesome hammer that would grow in power as the game progressed. At one point in November 1995, we decided to change the design to something we were more comfortable creating -- FPS weapons with a few twists. After the major redesign, the game underwent a few more smaller redesigns (to cut down development time) and we released the Quake that everyone knows today.

Willits: The original game started out more fantasy based, less science fiction. There was going to be no gun type weapons. The player would have had a mighty hammer that they could enchant with powers as they progressed in the game. The game's intention was to be a real slugfest with the player bashing their foes to death. Luckily we changed that and went with more Doom style weaponry. ...