The following is a tutorial on how to get this awesome FPS (which has aged beautifully and looks fantastic on a big Full HD Screen) onto your android TV stick (ATS), in my case a Tronsmart CX919, but this tutorial will also work for any android device.

Prerequisites:

Firstly in order to use a PS3/4 controller wirelessly your device will need to be rooted. If you do not have your device rooted please see this tutorial written for a CX919 device. (It will likely work for other devices too) Although you can use a keyboard and mouse if you’re old school or the touch controls on the screen if your device is mobile.

Secondly you will need the sixaxis controller app installed and setup on your device. If you do not have it installed please see this tutorial.

Steps to install Quake 3:

Running Quake 3 on an android device is achieved with the use of the Qiii4A app available on google play.

Step 1. Install this app.

QIII4A is a port of ioquake3 (which is a free software first person shooter engine based on Quake 3) to Android. So installing the app provides you with the engine for Quake 3 but not the game.

Therefore THIS APP DOES NOT CONTAIN OR DOWNLOAD ANY OF QUAKE 3 DATA FILES.

(IF YOU JUST WANT SOME FPS MULTIPLAYER ACTION: You have the option to install the game data for OpenArena also. OpenArena is a community-produced deathmatch FPS based on GPL idTech3 technology. There are many game types supported including Free For All, Capture The Flag, Domination, Overload, Harvester, and more.

Just press the button in the launcher app to download and install it.

Happy with just OpenArena?

Job done, you can stop reading now.

Enjoy!

You want more, keep reading.

Step 2. Get a copy of the Quake 3 baseq3 folder.

In order to install the Quake 3 game data you need the “baseq3” folder from the Quake 3 game which you can buy on steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/2200. In order to complete these steps it’s probably best to swap over to using a PC. You can download the game and pull the baseq3 folder from it.

(If you only have an android device at your disposal, you just need the baseq3 folder, oh I wonder where you could find that, wink wink nudge nudge.)

Step 3. Once you have the baseq3 folder.

Create a folder named qiii4a and paste baseq3 into it.

Step 4. Copy and paste the qiii4a folder to the folder specified in QIII4A launcher app

(example of correct path to “baseq3” folder: “/sdcard/qiii4a” directory in launcher). Note: you can also transfer the qiii4a folder to the external SD card of your android device and point the launch app to that location, example “/external_sd/qiii4a” However I would recommend that you have an external sd that is a class 10 micro sd card for the best performance.

Step 5. Launch the qiii4a app.

On  the controls screen check the following:

• Smooth joystick
• Hide onscreen buttons and enable mouse
• Autodetect mouse
• Mouse cursor position: Top left

On the graphics screen check the following:

• 32 bit color
• Screen resolution: Custom, then set the custom to whatever you have your ATS display set to. In my case it’s 1280 X 720
• MSAA 16x

Step 6. Start the game and change the following settings

Use the right analogue stick to move the cross hair and R1 to select. (Or navigate with the keyboard)

Go to setup:

System > Graphics:

Basically you can just max out all the settings. Take a moment to appreciate how far technology has come that a little matchstick box sized computer that cost around 30 bucks can take all this classic has to throw at it.

Just be sure to set the video mode close to the custom display setting in the  Qiii4A app so aiming syncs up.

System > Controls:

You’ll have to play around with mouse speed until you find something you’re comfortable with. Chances are straight off the bat the controls won’t feel right.

Set smooth mouse on, free look on and map the right analogue stick button press as zoom view.

That’s pretty much it, you’re ready to go.

My advice is that you step through the single player game until you get your eye in and the controls set up comfortably. Once you’re settled you can move onto the multiplayer and play online. Stay away from excessive though, you’ll be eaten alive.

And now for my final thoughts.

In my opinion quake 3 is the best FPS experience on android. Even the latest Call of Duty games are based on the Quake engine in some shape or form so the value of the gameplay cannot be called into question.

In terms of visuals, no it’s not as pretty as Star Wars Battlefront but five minutes into a match and you’ll be too engrossed in taking revenge on the guy that just fragged you to really critique the less than epic visuals.

It’s a game all about blisteringly fast gameplay and android, with it’s still limited hardware, provides the perfect platform on which to appreciate an old classic again.

Android really needs a great FPS to make it a proper gaming platform, and what better FPS than the greatest FPS ever?