One of the best-looking games ever to be released, Quake meant to be a true 3D gaming. It actually created waves with the ascendancy of graphics chip maker 3Dfx. Quake not only made games become not only three-dimensional, but it also gave their textures an improved feel to a gamer's. Gone were the days of hideous pixelated graphics and simple aim-and-shoot gameplay.
In Quake, perspectives looked correct, nails from nail guns whizzed by your head, and the gameplay gave birth to the vaunted keyboard-and-mouse gaming combination that was needed to aim up, down, left, and right. And all this while moving your character forward and backward as well as strafing left or right.
And let's not forget that with a soundtrack created specifically for the game by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, one of the most influential industrial bands. Quake introduced the world to the idea of mainstream artists making music for video games as most of them are gaming freaks.