Pilot a mech in this unreleased Quake 4 expansion discovered on an old hard drive

Q: Where can I download the Quake 4: Awakening alpha that was found on the hard drive?

You can download the found Quake 4: Awakening alpha from the GitHub repository Justin Marshall linked: https://github.com/jmarshall23/Quake_4_Alpha. The article states Marshall posted the copy on that GitHub page where the unreleased expansion can be downloaded.

Q: Who discovered the Quake 4: Awakening copy and what is his background in game development?

A veteran game developer named Justin Marshall discovered the Quake 4: Awakening copy on the hard drive of a second-hand PC he bought. His credits include The Evil Within, XCOM 2, and Dead Island 2, and he says he found the copy while affected by recent industry-wide layoffs.

Q: How complete is the discovered Quake 4: Awakening build according to the article?

The build is unfinished, but the article reports it was around 90 to 95 percent complete before its cancellation.

Q: What new gameplay elements are shown in the Awakening footage (weapons, vehicles, mechanics)?

The footage shows at least one new weapon, the Cryo Cannon, and the player piloting a mech. These reveal both a new weapon type and a mech-piloting gameplay mechanic in Quake 4: Awakening.

Quake 4: Awakening was cancelled back in 2006, but thanks to one lucky person, an Alpha copy has been found on an old second-hand PC bought online.

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Kosta Andreadis

Senior Editor

Published Aug 10, 2026 4:06 AM CDT

1 minute & 45 seconds read time

TL;DR: An alpha of the canceled Quake 4 expansion Awakening was found on a second‑hand PC by developer Justin Marshall. The near‑complete Ritual Entertainment project runs on id Tech 4, shows Doom 3-like visuals, new weapons and a piloted mech, and could potentially be finished by modders.

Voice: Kosta AndreadisSpeed

0:00 / 2:42

Developed by Raven Software, working alongside id Software, Quake 4 was released back in 2005. Running on the id Tech 4 engine, it's widely viewed as something of a departure for the franchise, as it focused on being a cinematic first-person sci-fi shooter rather than being predominantly known for its multiplayer mode.

Pilot a mech in this unreleased Quake 4 expansion discovered on an old hard drive 1

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And with the game launching on the then brand-new Xbox 360 console, PC gamers also saw it as more of a console game than something born from the legacy of Quake, Quake 2, and Quake 3. The game received mixed reviews, with additional reporting noting that it failed to meet Activision's sales targets. An expansion, called Quake 4: Awakening, was in development at Ritual Entertainment and was canceled sometime in 2018.

Until now, Quake 4: Awakening was one of those games that was lost to time, and something fans have simply wondered about. In a pretty stunning turn of events, a veteran game developer named Justin Marshall found a copy of Quake 4: Awakening on the hard drive of a second-hand PC he randomly bought.

Marshall's credits include The Evil Within, XCOM 2, and Dead Island 2. As a victim of the recent industry-wide layoffs affecting game development, he views the finding of Quake 4: Awakening as a lifesaver. "I came across this at a very sad point in my life; it was on a hard drive on a vintage computer I bought off Amazon," Marshall writes on the GitHub page where you can download this found copy of the unreleased Quake 4: Awakening.

Yes, it's entirely possible to get the game working, as seen in the video above from Pagb666, which depicts the first three missions of the expansion. Like the base game, as id Tech 4 debuted with Doom 3, Quake 4: Awakening's character models, lighting, and environments are reminiscent of that game. The footage also shows new weapons like the Cryo Cannon as well as the player piloting a mech. Yes, you can hop into a mech like you're playing some sort of Quake and MechWarrior crossover.

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Question #1

Where can I download the Quake 4: Awakening alpha that was found on the hard drive?

Question #2

Who discovered the Quake 4: Awakening copy and what is his background in game development?

Question #3

How complete is the discovered Quake 4: Awakening build according to the article?

Question #4

What new gameplay elements are shown in the Awakening footage (weapons, vehicles, mechanics)?

Have a question about this content not listed here? Ask below and TweakBot will answer it.

Although unfinished, with reports that Quake 4: Awakening was around 90 or 95% complete before its cancellation, it's not out of the realm of possibility for modders to take this copy of the game and its source code, polish it up, and release it as a standalone 1.0 release of sorts.