Official or unofficial patches would be released that updated the game to a version that no longer required a CD for authentication. These patches often included other bug fixes and improvements to the game.
The easiest way to remove the CD requirement is to install the official .
Since the Quake 3 engine is open-source, the community has created modern versions that run perfectly on current Windows, Mac, and Linux systems without any DRM or CD checks.
If you update your Quake III Arena installation to , the official quake3.exe no longer asks for the CD, provided the game assets (the .pk3 files) are present in the directory.
This was not a "crack" in the sense of unlocking the full game. You still had to legally own the game and install it via the original discs. The patch merely removed the physical media requirement.