A collective cheer went through the 'Net this past Saturday night, as gamers around the world spread the long-awaited word: Quake is coming tonight!

And, after two years of hype, it did. Sort of. There has probably never been a computer game in the history of the industry as eagerly awaited as Quake, the forthcoming offering from id Software.

A year and a half ago, major PC magazines were fighting to be the first to press with "exclusive" looks at this new game--even though not a single line of the game's code had been programmed!

The Internet was filled with Web pages, newsgroups and mailing lists devoted to the new game, which no one had ever seen.

To some observers, the hype over Quake has seemed to be overkill. But "overkill"--literally--has been the specialty of id throughout the small company's existence.

id emerged to the world in 1991 with its smash hit, the violent and blood-filled Wolfenstein 3-D, one of the first games to provide some form of virtual reality, as players felt immersed in a Nazi dungeon.

The "sequel" was the now-infamous DOOM. Along with a much more realistic design and threatening atmosphere, DOOM gave players the opportunity to kill their friends, over and over again, in "Deathmatch" mode. DOOM added new monsters and gruesome weapons, from rocket launchers to a chainsaw.

DOOM and its spin-offs were a big hit, partly because they arrived just as the 'Net was taking off. Users whose computers were attached to local area networks, like the HSDN at Harvard, quickly became engrossed in a world of three-dimensional shootouts and confrontations.

DOOM made millionaires out of the employees of id--and gave them the added pressure of needing a third straight software home run. After months of pressure from the gaming community, id finally released its prototype of Quake.

It's hard to describe what this version of Quake is. id has said repeatedly that it's simply a test of the game's core engine, and not an alpha version, beta test or demo.

Longtime DOOMers may initially be shocked by how rough this Quake test is. There are no monsters or menu screens, and only three small levels. Running this test version is not for the faint of heart; it confronts the player with an interface modeled on Unix programming languages.

But for all it lacks, this little Quake is meant to show off the heart of the new game: its network capabilities.

id realized that players get tired of killing Imps, Demons and Barons of Doom; they'd rather kill their roommates or coworkers. So Quake has been designed to create the best Deathmatch experience.

Unlike DOOM, which was limited to four player games, Quake will eventually accomodate up to 32 players at a time, connected to machines acting as dedicated game servers.

Quake also features a true three-dimensional engine, unlike the simulated world of DOOM. Quake players kill and are killed in lovely new ways--by having a grenade dropped on you from above, for instance.