Doom and Quake are being cleaned up for newcomers in time for QuakeCon

Id Software has been quietly working on making its Steam library of old games less of a confusing sprawl. Starting yesterday, the company has begun consolidating the various versions, expansions, and mission packs of the older Doom and Quake games into single packages “so that newcomers have an easier time”.

Put simply, that means that where before you had separate entries in your Steam library for things like Doom 2, Doom 2's Master Levels, and Final Doom, you'll now just have a single entry for Doom 2 which installs at that stuff at once.

These new combined packages will let choose which game version you want when you boot them up, rather than finding the precise thing you want in your voluminous Steam library. It'll make the installations a little bigger, but most of these games are from the '90s, so we're only talking about a size difference of a few megabytes.

Alongside the changes to Doom and Quake's Steam packages, Id says it'll be delisting the demos for Quake 2 and 3, too. To be honest, I can't imagine they're burning up the Steam popularity charts at the moment anyway. Id is also adding Doom 3 and 64 to its classic Doom bundle, so if you happen to be one of the vanishingly few people that still don't own these games, you can grab them there.

Here's a full list of how each of the classic games is changing:

• The first Doom is changing names from Ultimate DOOM to DOOM (1993) and, well, that’s it.
• Doom 2 is being integrated with the packages for Doom 2 (Enhanced), the Master Levels for Doom 2, and Final Doom.
• Doom 3 is merging into a package that contains both original Doom 3 and Doom 3: BFG Edition. If you own one but not the other already, you’ll get the new package for free. The new package will also contain the Resurrection of Evil expansion.
• Quake 2 is getting bundled up with its mission packs, The Reckoning and Ground Zero.
• Finally, Quake 3 Arena and Quake 3 Team Arena will be merged into a single package.

The news comes ahead of QuakeCon, which starts next week on August 18. Although I'll always welcome a slightly neater Steam library, I can't help but hope this reconfiguration is partly to clear the way for something due an announcement next week. Can't you hear the people (me) cry out for a Quake 4 remaster, id?