How id packed its whole game catalog onto Quake's $9.95 shareware CD
Fabien Sanglard forensically dissects Quake's 1996 shareware CD, built to do far more than hold the 22 MiB game: id encrypted its entire back catalog on the disc so gamers could call an 800 number and unlock any title. The scheme collapsed fast — crackers broke the encryption just 39 days after launch, leaving id stuck with 150,000 unsold CDs. A sharp postmortem on DRM that punished the exact customers it was courting.