A simple game server browser for Quake 3 and derived games, based on Qstat. Comes preconfigured for Quake 3 and popular mods, plus Urban Terror, OpenArena, Tremulous, Smokin' guns, and World of Padman.

Monster Browser Windows installer (Released December 16 2022)

Zip version, for a portable install


  • New: A column showing the numerical game type can now be enabled in Settings.

  • New: Added an on/off setting for the display of server and player name colors.

  • New: GeoIP database name is now read from settings.ini.

  • Change: Files with extra servers are now looked for in the settings and data folder instead of the installation folder. This folder is easily accessible through the Tools menu, and, unlike the installation folder, is not write protected. This does not affect portable installations.

  • Change: mods-default.ini is now created on first startup after installation or upgrade, instead of being included in the installer. This should work better when multiple user accounts are involved. It is still included in the ZIP package.

  • Change: The "IP" column was renamed to "IP address".

  • Fix: The name column is no longer highlighted in dark blue for selected servers or players.

  • Fix: Comes with a new qstat.exe that doesn't crash on Windows XP.

  • Fix: Update status bar tool tip when switching to a game with no master list yet.


Project page, with source code and additional downloads


Basic Usage

Select a game or mod from the drop-down list in the 'Game' section. To update the server list, press the 'Refresh all' button. This happens automatically at startup, or the first time each session you switch to a game. You can press 'Check for new' to synchronize the list of servers that Monster Browser queries with the master server. It's probably a good idea to do this once a day or so.

The filters and column sorting should be pretty straight forward to use. You can leave the filters on while doing a refresh, all the servers will be queried anyway.

To join a server, double click on it, or select it and press <Enter>. If the server requires a password, a password dialog will pop up. To change the password, or add an optional password for servers with private slots, select 'Set password...' in the right-click menu.

Customizing the Game List

By clicking on the Edit button you can edit the list displayed in the drop-down list. The first game listed will be used as the default. If you remove this file, or clear its contents, Monster Browser will create a new one containing the default configuration.

Available Options

  • mod: This is matched against the game and gamename cvars, to allow for filtering on game or mod. Set to empty value (mod=) to disable filtering. Defaults to being the same as the section name.

  • exePath: The full path to the game's executable. The default is the path set in Settings. This can be set a to shortcut (.lnk) or file (.bat) to get more flexibility. In batch files you have to pass MB's arguments to the executable on explicitly, like this: C:\TheGame\game.exe %*

  • regKey: A registry key containing the path to the game. Useful for the games that have installers that set this. This will be tried before exePath.

  • exeName: Combined with the value found through regKey to form the full path.

  • masterServer: Defaults to master.quake3arena.com:27950.

  • protocolVersion: Defaults to 68.

  • gameTypes: List of game type names, separated by spaces.

  • etColors: Set to true to enable Enemy Territory-style extended color codes (31 colors). See http://wolfwiki.anime.net/index.php/Color_Codes for more information.

  • qstatMasterServerType: Defaults to q3m.

  • qstatConfigFile: For setting Qstat's -cfg parameter.

Adding Extra Servers

If you want to query a server that isn't registered with the master server, you can click on 'Add...' to add it to the list. Normally, any servers not registered on the master will be removed from Monster Browser's list the next time you check for new servers. If you don't want this to happen, make sure 'Never remove this server automatically' is checked. The server will still be removed automatically if it times out too many times.

If you have more than a couple of servers to add, it's easier to add them directly to a file called '<mod>.extra' in the Monster Browser directory. If mod is set to nothing, use '<section name>.extra' instead. The format is just one IP address per line, with or without a port number. For instance, when refreshing a list or checking for new servers for the cpma mod, Monster Browser checks for existence of a file called 'cpma.extra', and adds any servers listed in it to the list of servers to query.

Remote Console

The remote console (rcon) lets you send commands to a game server. It's an advanced feature primarily useful for server administrators. To open a remote console window, select a server and press F9, or use the context menu. The up and down arrow keys access the command history, while page up and page down scroll the output window. Pressing Esc closes the window.

Portable Monster Browser

If you create a file called 'portable.txt' in the directory where Monster Browser is installed, Monster Browser will save all its files in that directory. Useful for USB stick installs, or if you want multiple independent installations.

Keyboard shortcuts

F4 - Check for new servers

F5 - Refresh list

F9 - Open remote console

Enter - Join server

Ctrl+R - Refresh selected server(s)

Ctrl+C - Copy the addresses of selected server(s) to the clipboard

Del - Remove selected server(s)

Esc - Abort action


Last edited on December 16 2022