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Quake III Arena & ioquake3 Games
Ports 27960 through 27969 are commonly used by Activision's Enemy Territory, id Software's Quake III Arena, Quake Live, and various ioquake3-derived games for multiplayer communications. These ports primarily facilitate real-time data exchange between game servers and clients over UDP, enabling fast-paced, low-latency gameplay critical for first-person shooter experiences..
The port range 27960–27969 is traditionally associated with id Software's Quake III Arena engine, encompassing official titles such as Enemy Territory, Quake III Arena, and Quake Live, as well as community-based or open-source derivatives like ioquake3. These ports serve as the primary communication channels between dedicated game servers and player clients.
Communication largely relies on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to prioritize low latency data transfer essential for responsive, real-time gameplay. UDP allows continuous, rapid packet delivery without waiting for acknowledgments, which aligns with the demands of twitch-based first-person shooters. Ports in this range are often configurable within the server setup, but by convention, 27960 remains the default, with others supporting multiple server instances.
Beyond game state synchronization, these ports manage functions such as server discovery, matchmaking queries, ping updates, and in-game chat transmission. Some implementations extend functionality via additional protocols layered over UDP, but generally, simplicity and speed drive technical design choices for these legacy gaming network ports.