Quake 2 Remaster developer has rebuilt the unique PlayStation port of the game from scratch and released it for free as an add-on

Paril, a Nightdive developer who has been a Quake2 modder for many years, has recreated the unique PlayStation port of Quake 2, in the 2023 remaster. Paril, a Nightdive developer and longtime Quake 2 modder, recreated each map in the Kex Engine rather than simply porting them in. ModDB now offers Quake 2 PSX for download.

In the old days, when consoles had wildly different chipsets, capabilities, and designs from each other and from PCs, it was common for games to be "ported" using a studio that would remake the game from the ground up, replicating the design (or the spirit) of originals on new hardware. This resulted in unique remixes for classic games, such as Doom on N64/PSX and PowerSlave on Sega Saturn.

Digital Foundry did the same thing with Quake 2, and in 2017 they did a detailed analysis of its ports. Nightdive's Quake Remaster included the modified Nintendo 64 level at launch. HammerHead Studios PlayStation version was missing.

Paril claims that HammerHead’s custom engine created technical difficulties, which made it more feasible to recreate levels in the Kex Engine than to try to use the original map data. Paril has also added bug fixes, improved enemy AI and tweaked the level design to make this more than a slavish reproduction of PSX Quake.

The biggest improvement is the removal of the original control scheme. It supported DualShock Dual Analogue Sticks, but not the intuitive style later codified in Halo. Quake 2, on the PlayStation, had a topsy-turvy control scheme, where you could move and aim in different planes with each stick. The base remaster of Quake PSX is only $10 on Steam. You can also download Paril's remake from ModDB.