Quake 30th Anniversary: Free 'Machine Dawn' Expansion with 19 Maps; Quake 4 'Awakening' Alpha Found on GitHub

2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the classic first-person shooter Quake and its concurrent offline gathering QuakeCon. At the recently opened QuakeCon ceremony, id Software, in collaboration with Swedish studio MachineGames, officially launched the free expansion Machine Dawn, created for the original 1996 Quake. The expansion includes 19 new maps fused into a single continuous campaign, one new deathmatch map, an original soundtrack composed by level designers, and a showcase of unreleased assets from early development. It is available free on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Game Pass, and Switch.

In Machine Dawn, players assume the role of the original marine character Ranger, traversing a surreal dimension where time loops overlap. The campaign employs a roguelike loop mechanic: runes collected during each run unlock previously sealed paths, while health and ammunition upgrades persist between loops. The developers also gave classic monsters such as the Rocket Ogre, the Demon Dog, and the Blood Revenant new behavioral patterns, and introduced derivative weapons like the Super Axe and the Laser Cannon.

Recently, Justin Marshall, a developer with 16 years of industry experience, discovered the alpha build of that unfinished expansion on a used old PC hard drive purchased from Amazon. The complete content of this build has been uploaded to GitHub, showcasing two new weapons and two unreleased groups of Strogg enemies. Players will need a retail copy of Quake 4 to run and experience it.