Oh boy. All we've ever had are clones on the Amiga - Testament, Nemac IV and a handful of the others have been good games in their own rights but it's obvious they're Doom clones. Good Doom clones though, because although they look pretty shoddy in parts (some of the monsters in Testament are very 1988), they were great fun to actually play. But for one, and possibly the biggest genre, the day of making do with clones are over. Make way for Quake.

The heavy metallic clang, clang, clang of a grenade bouncing before exploding in a shower of light and destructive energy is a marvellous thing and something that's hard to grow weary of. You'll experience this many times in Quake as you fight your way through the many levels of the game's three episodes.

The biggest advancement Quake has over its predecessors is its 3D-ness. There's none of this pseudo 3D nonsense - this game world is in full, glorious technicolor three dimensions. Balconies above you, walkways around you and dungeons below you all contain solid, gruesome, polygonal baddies - not as many as you'd first imagine, but we'll get to that in a bit - waiting to tear you limb from limb.

Armed with a simple shotgun to start with, the game takes you through progressively harder and larger levels as you try to survive long enough to make it to the level's exit. Along the way you're going to be picking up armour, better weapons and health bonuses. THe running back for the other health bonuses you couldn't pick up because you were at your maximum.

You're going to be moving cautiously through dark tunnels. You're going to be running full-pelt backwards, firing a nail gun at the chainsaw-wielding ogre that's after you. You're going to be searching underwater pools for secret areas that contain those very useful red armour bonuses. You're going to scared witless at the sound of a dead Samurai suddenly jumping out behind you. In essence, you're going to be having a whale of a time.

Somewhat disappointingly, Quake doesn't deviate from the Doom plot as much as you'd be imagine. This really is all about blood and guts and fighting your way to the exit.

Sure, there are puzzles, of sorts, but these are not exactly difficult because most simply involve pressing a button or a switch here and then trying to find which door/drawbridge/trap has been either opened, lowered or rendered harmless. Clues are even included to help you along - 'The switch for this door is located nearby' is simple enough for even me to comprehend. And you can't exactly miss the coloured keys when you find 'em or know which doors they relate to.

Getting lost in Quake is something you'll do often, but you won't ever be lost for long. Simply backtrack a bit, stop and have a good look round, using the mouse lookabout control, which you'll have configured at the start of the game along with all the other keys you'd rather use. Then hold down the right mouse button (say) to enter lookabout mode and scan the floors and ceiling for clues you may have missed earlier. Clues you probably missed because that zombie you kept shooting kept bloody well getting up again before a well-aimed grenade reduced it to so many chinks of red squelching meat.

Exploration is still a big part of the game. Fortunately, there are some great-looking places to explore., with glorious textures everywhere and splashes of colour aplenty, so you're not going to mind just running about looking around.

Look hard enough and you're going to find those consuming little sidelines - the secrets. Finish a level and it'll happily inform you that you discovered 0/6 secrets. The desire now is to go back and do the level all over again, but this time not just making a panic-dash for the exit but spending some time looking around and seeking out that odd-looking piece of wall or that switch on the floor behind the boxes that will lead you to somewhere a little bit special.

Such is the pull of Quake. Initial fear and panic give way to curiosity and then even a competitive desire to curiosity and then even a competitive desire to not be beaten by the level designers, but to laterally think (sometimes anyway) your way round a level until everything that can be pushed has been pushed and everything that can be pulled has been pulled. And then you'll go and scare yourself all over again as you start the next level and meet some new monsters.

Let's talk about the amount of monsters then. Unlike Doom, there are far less of them in Quake. Sure, they're much better looking, but they rarely attack in more than threes and fours. Is this a big problem? For me, no.

OK, there was a lot of fun to be had in Doom when you could go barrelling into a room full of monsters and just spray the area until nothing continued to move, but hey, that was on the PC. Now the monsters are just meaner and harder. Meaner because they do have a habit of coming out of the most unlikely places at just the wrong time, causing much fear and involuntary yelps, and chaving you around with a horrid glint in their eyes. Harder because even with some of the game's bigger weapons, you're going to be pumping shot after shot into the beasts before they fall over.

Thankfully, you can save the game at any point. This is a double-edged sword though, because it does mean you get into the habit of killing off a few baddies, saving the game just before you go and explore a new part of the level and then simply running about to see what's around, not really caring if you get killed. Then you just go back and reload the game before clearing the area out properly. Obviously, the more seasoned gamers are not going to be saving often because it's more risky that way. I saved the game religiously after every scrap. Ahem.

One place no-one's going to criticise you for saving is when you come across one of the end of level bosses. These huge monstrosities are not only mean and tough but they're persistent too and will hound you down, so you'll have to be pretty creative to kill 'em off sometimes.

Be warned. Nothing sounds better than Quake. If you're deaf, then sorry and all that but you're going to miss out. Aural clues are a very important part of the game, not merely because the guttural moan of a Shambler behind you is guaranteed to give you the willies, but because when you hear a creaking and clanking door open you know that something's happening. Somewhere.

What it is and just how life-threatening it's going to be remains to be seen but believe you me, you'll want the sound up so you can hear every gunshot, squelch, football and bone drop.

Quake is going to take you days to play through, even on Easy. However, the Normal and Hard settings are where the action really is and where you're going to get more bangs for your bucks.

Sadly, the single most enjoyable part of Quake is going to be out of the reach of most gamers - the network option. There are a bunch of special Deathmatch levels that up to 16 networked players can fight each other on, plus all the levels from the main game itself.

If you've got network access then the process is simple: someone becomes the server, decides how many players can join the game and then waits for them to come to him.

Once embarked upon, a network game of Quake can be all-consuming. Hours can pass unnoticed as you all run around the levels, blasting and being blasted. Sadly though, most of you are not going to get the chance to enjoy this feature.

Don't let that put you off. Quake has enough quality in single player mode to more than warrant a purchase (check out the machine spec box first though).

Fast, frenetic, engaging and engrossing, Quake is all of these things and more. It may only be a game, but the whole game world is so realistic that you can't stop your palms from getting sweaty and the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. Quake is gripping chilling stuff. Hurrah!

Aftershock is YAQA. That is, "Yet Another Quake Add-on". I don't expect it to be the last we review in these pages either, but it's a slighter CD than any of the Total Conversions we've already reviewed.

It has a few new levels but it mainly consists of stuff from the Internet (hey, we can do that!), along with a PC level editor so you can make even more levels.

The level editor obviously doesn't work on the Amiga, but you can now get Quest, a port of a PC level editor, if you fancy creating some of the first Amiga-based Quake levels. Installation is pretty much the same as usual - drag the drawer over to your Quake dir (the drawer in question being one called AS) and make a new starter script with "- game AS" in it.

The levels themselves are beautifully lit and they'll really tax your machine. They all feel very claustrophobic, even from the very first level when you go into a vaulted "cellar" to retrieve a grenade launcher and avoid the zombies.

The scary thing about this add-on is the difficulty level. Aftershock is really for people who laughed at Quake on Nightmare level. I shudder to think what Aftershock is on Nightmare; I haven't even tried. As usual, you start with a shotgun and not many shells. The biggest problem is that you can all too easily end up having to fend off several ogres or knights with just your axe as it's not exactly difficult to run out of shotgun ammunition.

Are you hard enough?
At least it isn't boring though, unlike the X-Men game. Keeping the levels dark has meant that the old Quake syndrome (zooming left and right on your office chair) is back, as you try to dodge grenades or swipes from swords. The best thing about this add-on is the fact that if you're an acknowledged fragger, this might just give you pause for thought.

There is the argument that by making the game too difficult just ruins it. It has to be said that it never gets any easier, but that shouldn't deter anyone fed up with going through Quake on a harder level just because they're bored.

The other levels you get on the CD are an added bonus. Trawled from the Internet, they're of variable quality, and, to be honest, you'd be better off getting Weird Science's Time of Reckoning if you want to make decent use of them.

However, for anyone wanting the ultimate Quake challenge with straightforward carnage, Aftershock is definitely the one for you.

So there I was, in Köln, last weekend, and I spotted these three guys that I've only met via email, or on the wrong end of a nailgun. They were Abjure Actinic, Reaper Robert and Boomstick Banshee, better known to Internet Quake players as Team GoiGoi.

I thought they'd have been easier to recognize since the idea had been for them to dye their hair or get it chopped into the Quake Q logo, but it seems that although they may be Quake demons, in real life they're a bit more timid.

They did manage to find one person at the show brave enough to undergo this tonsorial surgery and they give him a prize of a copy each of the CDs I'm reviewing. Which reminds me...

The two CDs are collections of single player and Deathmatch levels, accompanied by extra maps, bots and other miscellaneous add-on programs to make your Quaking experience more fun. They've been neatly collected together from Internet sources and bunged onto two CDs for your delectation.

The first CD, Singled Out!, is a collection of single player levels and conversions with a bunch of add-ons, like the famous Cujo bot, the chase camera (two of these actually) and others. The second CD just has a bunch of Deathmatch levels and additional maps for you to use in multiplayer games.

The CDs aren't produced for profit - they're mainly gathered together for the ease of the GoiGoi three and to give a rich source of new levels for their matches. As such, although they look nicely presented and even have pretty good English documentation, the files are all on the CDs as zip archives and there's no easy way to recover and install them, unlike the Time of Reckoning CD from Weird Science.

Also noticeable by its absence is Team GoiGoi's Quake Manager program, which really should have had pride of place on the CD as it's designed to make third party add-ons for Quake easier.

Unfortunately, the guys hadn't quite finished the current version before the show and they still needed to make the ISOs, etc. before heading for KÖln.

In any case, you still get about 1,000 Quake levels on each CD, which should be enough to keep you going until ClickBOOM decide to release a PPC version. Although they haven't been unzipped like the levels on our CDs, you certainly get a lot more of them in one place this way.

You may also find these CDs a little hard to get hold of if you aren't on the net, but I'm sure that if you are, and you play Quake, you already know of the Team GoiGoi website.

The first official id Software Quake Mission pack also works a treat for Amiga Quake, hoorah! This add-on pack provides a whole new set of missions to play in conjunction with extra deathmatch levels, monsters and of course weapons. The single-player game of Quake itslf isn't the fantastic experience it could be, but the Scourge of Armagon remedies that nicely.

Three extra episodes sport some of the best Quake level design seen yet. In fact this mission pack is still generally regarded as superior to the second mission pack. Usage of circular/spinning objects and some other architectural firsts adds to the complexity and believability of the landscapes.

The three extra weapons are well thought, the first being the proximity mine layer. This is a second mode of the grenade launcher that places a dormant mine on the floor. Anyone or anything foolish enough to come too close will be rewarded with blast damage similar to a regular grenade.

Proximity mines unsurprisingly come into their own in multiplayer deathmatches.

Impressive careening
The second new weapon, and my favourite, is the laser cannon. This handy device unleashes rapid fire bolts of crimson laser fire, which is bad enough, but they also bounce off walls.

In tight corridors and other tight spots the shots careen impressively from all angles ensuring a good few land home but care must be taken not to hit yourself with the rebounds. The weapon also doubles as a very effective long range weapon which can do extremely great damage to a target at any range.

The last weapon is the Mjolnir, the mythical name of Thor's war hammer. This is one very nasty beasty and uses a wad of electric cells in a single discharge but rewards with a spray of electrical death in every direction. It's possible to kill many enemies in one hit or leap down on your buddy in multiplayer, slap the ground with the Mjolnir and score a sure fire kill. In fact it might be a little too powerful there...

There's also some new bad guys in the Scourge of Armagon, the most interesting of which are the Gremlins. These little beasties are decidedly unpleasant and can often be seen ripping into corpses of the fallen - be it other monsters of their own fallen brethren.

As if that's not bad enough, they will actually swarm all around you making mischievous tittering sounds, steal your weapons and turn them back upon you. A Gremlin equipped with a laser cannon? Surely not! Oh yes, oh my word, yes.

Friendly Shambler
The mission pack blends the old and new monsters effectively. Another new foe to encounter comes in the form of the Centroid which is an armour plated cyborg scorpion creature that fires dual nail-guns. Ouch! When the going gets tough like that, we may need to call in reinforcements and those can be found in the form of the Horn of Calling.

This will summon a Quake monster to act as your buddy who will then faithfully attack everyone and thing that isn't you. In one memorable part of the later missions, using the Horn results in a friendly Shambler, one of the most fearsome standard monsters, rendering your enemies with his lightning discharges. Whoop!

The Scourge of Armagon is second only to Malice for a third party add-on to Quake. If you find Quake a bit limiting in the single player game, there's the potential for a new lease of life with this add-on pack. Some of the deathmatch levels are also among the best I've seen such as the legendary "sky suspended" hipdm1. In the final analysis, if you want more Quake, you want the Scourge of Armagon - recommended.

Picture the scene: you've played Quake to death in its default incarnation and you've gone through all the extra levels and total and partial conversions on our AFCDs. What's next? Well, you can get a CD with loads of levels on it for a very reasonable price from a number of Amiga dealers, and you could get Total Quake from Alive mediasoft.

However, before you make this your first choice, you should be aware of several things. Firstly, because of low volume this is a "gold" disc and thus more fragile than normal pressed CD-ROMS. It has no label and is in fact an untitled CD.

Secondly, the file system used for the disc is Jolliet, which is the Windows "standard" for CD-ROMS to handle their stupid method of naming files. If you're using IDEfix97, you'll be able to read this disc with no trouble. On the other hand, if you're using AmiCDFs or AsimCDFS (unless you've got your hands on the beta or full version of 3.10) you'll be able to read the disc but you'll only get the default ISO 9660 level 1 names, which are truncated and thus probably won't work.

Finally, the CD isn't very full. It only has about 120 Mb of files on it, some of which you'll have already seen on our AFCDs in the past.

To add insult to injury, the authors of the disc haven't even extracted them from their .ZIP archives to help fill up the CD - you'll have to do that yourself. There are also a lot of editors on the CD which you won't be able to use since they are Windows' execrables... I mean executables.

There are some good conversions on here, particularly the Aliens one, which I don't think has been on an AFCD yet, but these are all Shareware add-ons for Quake. There's nothing to stop you from downloading them yourself, so it's not as though you're paying a tenner to get anything out of the ordinary.

If you want to buy something for Quake, your money would be better spent getting Time of Reckoning, which not only has a bunch of Quake add-ons, but also ones for Doom and the as-yet-unconverted-to-the-Amiga Duke Nukem, along with a nice GUI to help you install the files and run them on your machine.

Total Quake isn't the best CD I've ever seen and should really only be of use to the Quake add-on completist, who'll probably already have all of these levels anyway.