diff --git a/Quake/wad.c b/Quake/wad.c
index c3998031..f90b4200 100644
--- a/Quake/wad.c
+++ b/Quake/wad.c
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ void W_LoadWadFile (void) //johnfitz -- filename is now hard-coded for honesty
 	//TODO: use cache_alloc
 	int		h, len;
 
-	free (wad_base);
+	if (wad_base)
+		free (wad_base);
 	len = COM_OpenFile (filename, &h);
 	if (h == -1)
 		Sys_Error ("W_LoadWadFile: couldn't load %s", filename);