Best way to get the "vanilla" experience in Quake II?

[emperor bohe]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering, what's the best way to get the "vanilla" experience in Quake II? I'm talking about it looking like it did back in the 90's, with the pixelated software mode look (no texture filtering). I have Quake II on Steam, and the closest that I've gotten is Q2Pro. However, a HUGE deal breaker for me is that Q2Pro does not support the music (If anyone knows a way to get the music to work in Q2Pro, that would be awesome). I have also tried KMQuake II, and I'm not a huge fan of the lighting... I can't see anything! Does anyone know if it's possible to turn off the fancy lighting in KM Quake II?

Does anyone have any other suggestions for the "vanilla" experience when it comes to source mods? I haven't played Quake II in a long ass time and I've really been itching to get back into it.

[Whirlingdervish]

If you are planning on playing multiplayer you can try r1q2. It looks just like the old quake 2, but supports newer types of graphics and fixes some issues.

http://ir.tastyspleen.net/files/r1q2_7904.zip

Just pop that in your quake 2 folder and run the r1q2.exe instead.

If you want software mode, you can open the console using ~ and put in "set vid_ref soft" to change to the old renderer. Follow it with "vid_restart".

That should give you the old pixelated, non colored lighted q2 of yore.

[The Happy Friar]

I had a VooDoo 2 so I didn't have that crappy looking software mode.  So running in OGL looks (almost) like it did back in '97.

Of course why not just run "quake2.exe".  It should work.

[Slayer]

Here are some options as far as vanilla-looking source ports -
R1Q2
Aprq2 (particles are slightly different but can be tweaked)
Yamagi Q2 (very vanilla, does not have protocol 35/36 support)
Fruitz of Dojo port (may be mac only)
Quake 2 3.24 (unofficial patch of original q2 exe, widescreen support and other non-invasive goodies)
Nocheat client (old)

All of these are almost identical to the original look of gl quake, and can be put into software mode as well. The first two are arguably the best for multiplayer, i think Yamagi is the best for single player. The original Quake 2 exe should honestly be fine, it runs quite well on even newer versions of windows.

Type "\gl_texturemode GL_NEAREST" in the console, this is pretty crucial in making it look nice if you are not using software. To make the lighting simpler change r_dynamic to 0, make sure gl_modulate is at like 1-3 for single player. Changing gl_ext_pointparameters to 0 will make the particles look a bit more pixelated and original looking.

As far as music, i have no clue man. I know you will need to have the files play from the disk (or disk image) if you are using the original exe. At least one of those ports has .ogg music support so you dont have to have the disk in if you rip the files to your comp. I know nothing about the steam q2 release, hopefully it came with music somewhere.