GOG (Good Old Games) sells Quake 3 Arena fully patched and . This is a legal, commercial "no-CD patch." You buy it once, download the installer, and there is no disc check ever again.
Players hated this for three reasons:
He was about to give up when he saw a forum post from 2003. It was a long shot, but the link looked clean. He clicked it, and to his relief, the file began downloading. quake 3 arena no cd patch link