Shack News published a fantastic article about Quake and old school first-person shooters, available
here.
Actually, calling it an article is a gross understatement. This sucker is massive. The first few sections are available for free, but you have to subscribe ($5/month, cancel any time) to view the rest of it. I guess you could call it shareware, which seems appropriate given the subject matter! It's well worth the entry fee, though I kinda wish they would make it available as a $20 eBook or something. There's a
ton of content there.
Basically, it has a detailed history built from first-hand accounts of people involved in those games, as well as a ton of quotes from people who were absolutely huge in the industry (so far it's mostly been the id team and the founder of Apogee, Scott Miller, but given that the topics include games like Dark Forces I'm sure some ex-LucasArts employees will have their time in the spotlight).
Fantastic read. I highly recommend it!