diff --git a/Quake/gl_screen.c b/Quake/gl_screen.c
index c931f196..ca0559c9 100644
--- a/Quake/gl_screen.c
+++ b/Quake/gl_screen.c
@@ -116,8 +116,6 @@ qboolean	scr_disabled_for_loading;
 qboolean	scr_drawloading;
 float		scr_disabled_time;
 
-qboolean	block_drawing;
-
 int	scr_tileclear_updates = 0; //johnfitz
 
 void SCR_ScreenShot_f (void);
@@ -967,9 +965,6 @@ needs almost the entire 256k of stack space!
 */
 void SCR_UpdateScreen (void)
 {
-	if (block_drawing)
-		return;
-
 	vid.numpages = (gl_triplebuffer.value) ? 3 : 2;
 
 	if (scr_disabled_for_loading)
diff --git a/Quake/gl_vidsdl.c b/Quake/gl_vidsdl.c
index cec4fe25..5aa60079 100644
--- a/Quake/gl_vidsdl.c
+++ b/Quake/gl_vidsdl.c
@@ -798,7 +798,7 @@ GL_EndRendering
 */
 void GL_EndRendering (void)
 {
-	if (!scr_skipupdate || block_drawing)
+	if (!scr_skipupdate)
 		SDL_GL_SwapBuffers();
 
 	if (fullsbardraw)
diff --git a/Quake/screen.h b/Quake/screen.h
index 1050b381..4ca2f6e3 100644
--- a/Quake/screen.h
+++ b/Quake/screen.h
@@ -53,8 +53,6 @@ extern	cvar_t		scr_viewsize;
 
 extern	cvar_t		scr_sbaralpha; //johnfitz
 
-extern qboolean		block_drawing;
-
 void SCR_UpdateWholeScreen (void);
 
 //johnfitz -- stuff for 2d drawing control