Quake2 is being played by a lot of players even today, i think 500 or so. Just look here : http://q2servers.net/ http://www.quakeservers.net/quake2/servers/so=8/
(in the console type "connect ip-of-server" and you will connect)

Also quake 2 multiplayer is FREE, you just need quake2 demo + patch 3.20 : http://q2scene.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=263
For online play you need r1q2, aprq2 or (for eye-candy) egl clients (they work in xp and i think vista to) http://q2scene.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=238

If you cant find the bonus disk in stores then i recommend you search for it on a good torrent site. And there are no bots in the bonus disk
just good old q2 + 3.20 patch and the 2 expansions.

If you want bots download them from here http://www.deaconstomb.org/pub/index.php?path=q2%2Fbots/
But i recommend you download 3ZB2, becoz its better and can do tricks.: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distf...2/3ZB2.zip

also Q2 has crappy firing delay making it unplayable for QW or Q3 players who are even remotely sane

LOL? What are you talking about? What delay? :o

or you qw and q3 players just like to use that as an excuse when you get trashed? :p

Are you talking about where the projectile comes from? I thought I read somewhere that Q2 has projectiles that come from the center of the player's position, but Q3 has it come from the outer edge of the players position.

I have no clue whether this is accurate or not, but that's what I understood it to be like.

the engine may be shite, but the gameplay is the best

why lie, liar?

Get Q-tracker.

Quake 2 is the most played of all 4 from all I've seen. I can ALWAYS find a game to hop in in Q2, even when the other 3 are nearly empty

p.s. Don't tell the Q3'ers, they don't know that bots don't count.

Please answer my question. Do any downloadable botmatches still exist for quake 2? And are there any that work with the updated windows XP-compatible version of Q2?

P.S. I have to agree, quake 2 has the funnest and most enjoyable online gameplay of ANY FPS EVER! IMO. I can't even think about how many hours I spent playing it after its release and for many years after that. I used to fake being sick so I could stay home from school just to play Q2 online! I mostly played it on a now-defunct multiplayer website called "Heat.net", where you could get points for winning and redeem them for t-shirts, games, and other cool stuff. I also played on gamespy.

The gameplay was just so fun!

Whats the most frags you have ever gotten playing in a Q2 deathmatch. I don't remember exactly, but I think mine is around 600+. I once saw a guy with 2,500 frags!

"Please answer my question. Do any downloadable botmatches still exist for quake 2?"
I have no idea. I didn't even know there ever were bots for Quake2. I was mostly suggesting this from the comment in your main post-
"I really liked quake 2 online play, but nobody plays quake 2 online anymore." - When you can hop on and find a populated server 24/7.

As for most frags, I really mostly just FFA so i typically get 1st or 2nd.

Late reply, but thats because I rarely browse the q2 forum :)

Theres actually no difference between the "XP" version and "95-2000" version, afaik, so yes, any mods for q2 will work fine (assuming for the 3.20 patch, or whatever the last one was).

I dont have a good download link for Gladiator or the original Eraser. However my EraserULTRA pages are still up:

http://www.btinternet.com/~AnthonyJ/EraserULTRA/

The downloads page has all the EraserULTRA versions, and a link to some routes. They may or may not still be there - if not, google for the filenames, you can usually find a mirror that still has them.

i;m still looking for active servers q2 (mean where players joins)

www.q2servers.com for q2 servers without installning anything.