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Q2Start is my second frontend for Quake. This time it is designed for Quake 2. Like Q-Start, it gives now Quake 2 a nice place on the Windows-Desktop and an easy way to start the various game-paks. Allthough it is possible to edit nearly all the options for a fast and goodlooking gameplay. You can start single-player or multiplayer-games with one mouse-click.

Highlights:
- simple start of Single-Player, Multi-Player-Client and Multi-Player-Servers
- up to 16 mods can be included very fast ( only 6 in the shareware-version ) .
- simlpe parameter-menu ( for OpenGl and windows-options ) with examples and defaultsettings and helpfull descritions.
- quick selection of a startmap out of all available Maps ( showing the original Mapnames ).
- Servermenu with a superfast Maplist-Editor ( selection with a doubleclick )
- serverstart with two clicks ( listen and dedicated ).
- 8 IP-adresses can be saved, playername and skin-support.
- Import of the Quake 2-IP-Adress-Book
- Support for up to 4 personal configurations-files
- Link between gamebutton and the "config" used with the game ( Config-Link ).
- Sound-support ( Q2start.wav - if present - will be played when you click on "Quake now!" )

Here you can see how easy gameplay can be...

You only choose the game you want to play and start it with "Quake now!" ( Ok, before you can start, you have to do some adjustment ).

If you want to play a special map, you can now choose the map directly from the mainmenu. In the new pulldown-window are listed all maps which are included in the files "pak0.pak" und "pak1.pak" ( in the directory "baseq2" ) and all maps in the directory "baseq2\maps". If you select a Mod (e.g. Zaero ) Q2Start will add the maps of this mod to the list ( therefor Q2Start searches through the file "pak0.pak" in the actual gamedirectory and in the directory "gamedir\maps").
When you start Quake2 with a "+exec ..."-command it is important to choose a startmap, because Quake2 will not start correctly without a startmap.

In this menu I've integrated a "Map-List-Creator" ( this works only, when you start a dedicated server !!! ) :
All available maps are shown in the right window. You can add a map to the Maplist ( left ) by double-clicking it or with a click on the "<"-Button. With ">" or a double-click on a map in the left window the map will be removed from the Maplist. When you start a Server with activated "use maplist" the Server will play all the selected maps. The changing of the maps can be driven by time ( Timelimit ) or Frags ( Fraglimit ). When you start a Server with this feature you don't need to select a Startmap - Q2Start takes the first map of the list.
You can start a server in cooperative-mode by activating the switch "Cooperativ".  With the switch "server.cfg" the file "server.cfg" in your current game-directory will be executed when you start a server. Here You can also set the Deathmatch-Flags. For more Information about the Flags take a look in the Q2Start-Documentation or the Quake2-Documentation.

I placed only the important switches on the main-desktop of "Q2Start". With a click on the "Settings"-button you get to the other options where you can add your own settings and configs. Here you can add up to 4 personal config-files for your scripts and aliasses. Afterwards you can choose them from the mainmenu. The files must be placed in your Quake2-directory. Otherwise you must add the relative path to the files before the name  ( e.g. "configs\mycfg.cfg" ).

The default-settings of "Q2Start" are good for a fast and goodlooking gameplay ( specically for Gl-Quake ), but there are certainly some settings for a faster game ( please tell my your best settings ). With the default-settings I get 27 fps on a P200MMX with Monster 3D (640 * 480) and 65 fps on a P2-300 with Monster 3D II (800 * 600) .

After the first start of "Q2Start" there is only one game-button ( "Original Quake 2" for the game in the directory "BASEQ2" ). You can add your other Missions simply by typing the directoryname ( where the mission is placed, e.g. "ROGUE" for the Add-On "Ground Zero" ) followed by a name for the button ( max. 20 characters ) in the editor of the "Games"-menu.

With the button "OpenGl" you get to the special settings for OpenGl ( this settings will only be used when you activate Voodoo or Voodoo 2 ), with the button "Others" you can modify the settings which are used every time you start Quake2.

You get to this page by pressing  the "Multi-Player"-Button.

Here you can modify some settings for a multiplayer-game. If you add a name in the field "Player-Name" , it will be saved by Q2Start in the file "q2start.scr". The next time you start Quake2 by pressing "Quake now !" Q2Start will add the order "+exec q2start.scr" to the command-string. Also it is possible to add a skin. Before the skin you must insert the name of the model-directory. At least I added 8 input-fields for your favorite server-addresses.You can also import them from your Quake2-config-file by pressing "Import". The adresses can be choosen later directly from the main-menu.  The port can be added directly behind the adress separated by a ":" !
Here you can tell Quake2 to create a Logfile from the console and you can allow Quake2 to download Maps and Skins ... from the Server.

Copyright ã 1999-2006 by Kay-Peter Wulff