Unreleased Quake Prototype For Game Boy Advance Discovered

A bit like DOOM, id Software’s first-person shooter Quake has been ported officially (and unofficially) to just about every platform under the sun that’s capable of running 3D natively. Did you know though there was also a version in development for Nintendo’s 32-bit handheld the Game Boy Advance?

In 2002, Randy Linden – a veteran programmer known for the “impossible” SNES port of DOOM and the creator of the BLEEM emulator – was working on a Quake prototype for GBA. The video game archivists at Forest of Illusion have now been supplied with a working ROM of Linden’s prototype:

“This unreleased prototype we present to you today was recently discovered on a 256M Flash Card in Linden’s storage, and is certainly a far cry from anything else developed for the handheld.”

It’s worth noting this version doesn’t use any assets from Quake, but there is a version (that’s not been found yet) using id Software’s assets. As the GBA’s life was winding down, Linden repurposed this same engine to create his own game called Cyboid – another “high-speed” first-person shooter that’s playable on multiple devices including mobile phones.

This isn’t necessarily the first time we’ve seen the GBA punching above its weight. Earlier this year, a Tomb Raider fan managed to get the original entry in this series up and running on this classic handheld via the OpenLara project:

What do you think of the above Quake prototype? Leave a comment down below.