 | News Archive August 1997 - March 1998 |  |
Here is the rest of the news updates, dating back to the day I started updating regulary about Mordeth and Doom in general on August 21st, 1997. This section then contained also general Doom news. Do mind that some links provided here can be outdated.
March 12, 1998
Randy D. Heit informed me of his Windows 95/ NT 4.0 port with the
following features:
- Support for any resolution compatible with your DirectDraw drivers.
- Look up/down ala Heretic.
- Translucency for selected objects.
- Has a console with most of the functionality of Quake's.
- Notarget cheat.
- Command to kill all monsters in a level or yourself.
- Can play MUS, MIDI, and MOD music.
- Selected sounds are played in surround sound.
- Doors that need keys to open are highlighted on the automap.
- Automap now shows various statistics in addition to the level name.
- True keybindings. Bind any key to any command or sequence of commands
- Intermission screen can now display your stats using absolute values rather than percentages.
- A new more general demo format.
You can download this port from ftp.cdrom.com, as well as the source.
Chi Hoang has released version 0.60 of DosDoom. It's got more features then I could possible fit in one page, so see his site for details. Highlights include a new options menu, jumping, user-definable gravity, a bunch more languages, multiple translucency levels, 180-degree turn key and more gameplay options.
And we're not done yet :) Version 0.7 of CTF Doom has been released. Go here and find out everything about it.
Tomorrow is the day. Andrew Stine, Dukrous (both of FuncE fame), Eric James Roberts (of Ricrobnet), Sir Alien (of the now defunct Doom Central site), Superfly (Adobe of the Superfly), Scott Cover (Covaro's), Rick Clark (Wildman's) and me are working together on one comprehensive Doom Site, called DoomWorld. It will cover daily news, everything on the source ports, the new home of FancyPants and more to come in the future. It also offers a new home for other Doom sites, including disk space. More info tomorrow..!
As a result of DoomWorld's opening, the Mordeth site won't carry general Doom news anymore. It will however keep you informed about the Mordeth TC Project, and more so then in past times :)
Dr. Funfrock has updated with info regarding his TCP/IP DoomLink project. This TCP/IP prgggie for Doom only works with WinDoom. Word is that a permanent server has been setup at PlanetQuake. All the files needed can be downloaded from his site. Well, what are you waiting for? GO!
March 10, 1998
The guys at Leprechaun Doom have released a
version 1.12 of their Doom Legacy port with the following features:
- Ability to shoot up and down
- 3 crosshairs
- Auto aim on/off
- 3D collision (walk over/under things)
- Ability to jump
- Weapon keys mappable, plus others!
- Joystick Support added
- Tranparent Water preview in level 30
- ...and more!
Alpha-testing of Bruce Lewis' GLDoom has begun. Plus he has updated with information on his future port plans and things that got done the last days.
At Wildman's you can find a new version of 'The New Breed' compatible with the Doom Legacy port. On Wildman's I also learned that Prower's back in town with a new site.
Doom Central has taken a one-way trip into the Great Unknown... Don't worry, all caterpillars vanish for a while, only to emerge as a butterfly later :) And that goes for some other Big sites as well.
More reviews and 'secret notes' are up at the Doomoscope - the Doom Community's only real review site. Keep it coming, BD :)
Insertion has been released... you can get it at the newstuff directory at Walnut's (961K). Insertion is an 11-level megawad by David Shaw, Stephen Watson, Thomas Evans, and Adam Williamson. Quality assured :)
March 4, 1998
Dr. Funfrock has a test version of Doomlink ready, which you can download at this page. This allows TCP/IP internet play through WinFrag, which is also available here.
At Nightmare's Haunt I learned that the release of Gothic DM2 has been postponed until mid April. Damn :(
A new version of CTF Doom has been released, which is basically an alternate CTFDOOM 0.6d minus the DOS Extender... this if you have been having problems with the normal version. Plus you can grab a CTF Quake level converted to CTFD here.
Plus, David just dropped by on IRC to say he has released a new version of his setup proggie for DosDoom.
In other news, I'm still working on some sprites. Progress on the Mage is pretty good... walking frames are ready, and I've started on the other ones as well. Catalogueing textures and making new ones still continues. The Zombies walking frames are still not looking right; better think this over again. Plus I feel the urge to do some level editing again :)
March 2, 1998
TeamTNT is about to start a private beta testing with the Phase I Boom engine. After another two weeks a public beta test will be conducted. Watch their site between March 8th and 13th if you're interested in participating! Furthermore, the official release is still set at April 1st.
CTFDoom v0.6d has been released. New features are:
- Merged into DOSDoom 0.51
- "-altctf" alternative capture the flag mode.
- Players drop weapons when killed. (as long as they don't have a flag)
- Uses team colours Green / Indigo, players change to the flag
- Colour that they are holding for easy target practice when they have the flag
- Cleaned up some more code.
Up at the Extreme Doom site you can find an interview with Bruce Lewis, of WinDoom/GLDoom fame. His port is about 50% finished and currently undergoing some testing.
John Bye (aka Gestalt666) will not be updating his World o' Hurtz site anymore, but is looking for someone who can take over this site. If you're interested in maintaining and updating the World o' Hurtz frequently then mail him.
Jonas has send me most of the custom textures requested by my episode 2 level designers. Plus I'm keeping myself busy creating the Zombie and custom textures for the third episode. Lots of ideas here, but a lot of work, too. I know I ought to send my contributors an updated WAD real soon now, but I just cannot put this work down for now...
February 26, 1998
Carnival rules =) I just spend last week in my hometown, having the time of my life. Unfortunately I forgot to update before I left... o well. Here are some of the highlights from last week:
Lee Killough finally released BSP23x for the general public... I
was using it for months already =P The latest version of the best nodesbuilder around fixes a small bug:
It fixes a problem in which BSP sub-division stops prematurely, which sometimes makes "back" walls look like they are in front of "front" walls.
Other changes are: Linux support and support for extended blockmaps in new source code mods. BSP23x can be downloaded from Lee's own site here or from Walnut's "newstuff" directory (170K).
Chi Hoang has released v0.51 of DosDoom. Some of the highlights are:
- 8 player support: player 5-8 starts are things 4001-4004, you'll need a new ipxsetup.exe for 8 players
- Improved DeHackEd support
- In autorun mode, you can press shift to temporarily walk again
- Crash with -devparm should be fixed
- Use -itemrespawn for, well, item respawning
- Press home to center view (thanks to Dave Pearson)
- Stubediting cc1.exe should no longer be necessary
- Sprites-in-pwad temporarily removed
I haven't tried it myself yet, but I sure will... Improved Dehacked support..? Hmmmmmm... =)
Plus, the cat is out of the bag... Yes, something Big is coming along, and it has a lot to do with some of the more prominent Doom sites out there. No space marine can stop this new threat to traditional values anymore =P For now, this thingie is giving me a lot of extra work... plus I'll need to revise my FX Editing pages badly, plus I've got a lot of updating to do on FancyPants. Sigh. Not to mention the Mordeth project =)
Last but not least: Scott Cover (Covaro) is back in town! Visit his new site here, containing (among other things) information about his GothicDM2 add-on "Crucified Dreams".
February 19, 1998
Leprechaun has released a new version of their source mod Doom Legacy, fixing the non-tilting sky bug. Chi Hoang released version 0.50 of DosDoom, introducing customisable translucency, limited dehacked support, freelook (with a non-tilting sky bug...) and other miscellaneous features. And there's of course TeamTNT, who have updated their Boom engine specs, plus a word on their own approach to translucency:
While everyone drools over translucency, generally implemented as a rip from Heretic's approach, we're busily doing it in the renderer as an algorithmic technique. Just so you didn't think we're either not noticing or jealous of the attention. Glitz is not the same thing as robust bug-fixed code, y'know. Yeah, we'll have lots of stuff you haven't even seen on the list yet.
Plus they'll have full dehacked patch support... I guess you can tell on which team my money's on ;-)
Functional Entropy has updated with actual ID4Doom project stuff: a preview of their cannon and a new monster. The monster is a converted Demon from Quake, and damn! does it look good! Much better then the original one, in my opinion.
Look at this comment on Mordeth in the RGCD newsgroups:
My four-and-half-year old daughter loves it too, especially the flying green monsters (Wyvern?) and the sunglasses on the guy's face... (Michael Mason)
There you go... try to make a nasty monster, and you'll end up with it being liked and carressed by small children... "Mommy! Mommy! Daddy shot that cute beasty!" =P
You might have noticed that updates are not that regulary anymore... it's just that I'm really busy with Mordeth right now... levels, textures, sprites... it's a lot of work. Bear with me ;-)
February 13, 1998
A new Doom mod has seen the light... Thrust. According to Sean White of Eternity Software it will be based on an enhanced Doom engine with the following features:
- Red, blue, green, and white shades of lighting
- Monsters have now 16 angles, plus more walking frames
- Much more smarter AI on the mosters
- The ability to travel between past, present and future
- A lot more detailed levels
- MOD music (hopefully)
- Your basic new graphics, new weapons and things like that
The game is situated on a distant planet, that suddenly finds itself under attack. Of course things would look pretty bad if it wasn't for that one person... well, you know the drill.
Boris Pereira of Leprechaun Doom has informed me of their latest project: Doom Legacy. They just released v1.11 of this Doom mod with the following features:
- Full SVGA VESA2 support, in-game resolution settings
- Full setup controls from the game menu
- Look up and down (with mouselook)
- Translucency for sprites and walls
- Multiplayer menu, with up to 8 player network, including easy to use "Doomatic" launcher
- Deathmatch rankings while playing, and up to 11 different dm colours
- In-game setup keys & mouse, autorun, mouselook
- Limited Dehacked patches and v1.9 demos support
- 'Preferred weapons order' TM.
From their site you can download the binaries, the source code and the Doomatic launcher. I've tried it myself and it looks absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, it has limited patch support... it barfs on my own Mordeth patch. Plus, looking up and down does not always look that good with non-vertically tillable skies. But still, great work guys!
The review sites Doomoscope and Opulent Doom have started working together. They will remain independant, but will share notes and reviews. Not that Opulent Doom has actual reviews... Go to the Doomoscope site for that.
The TCP/IP Doom emulator iFrag has found a new home at www.evildead.com. Its maintainer Dr. Funfrock is currently working on a win32 port for iFrag... plus there's the chance of a new iFrag tracker hosted at its new site.
February 12, 1998
I have been given the "WildAward" by Rick Clark for my "contributions to the gaming community in both the Mordeth project and the editing pages". Thanks!
On Wildman's site you can also find two new interviews conducted by Anthony Soto (NightViper), including one with yours truly. Unfortunately, Rick Clark has been bitten by the same bug as Justin a while back... Netscape will stall or crash on this site, probably taking Windows with it. Fortunately no damage was done to my system this time, but it makes you wonder WTF those MSIE users are thinking... what if this site decides to scrap compatability with MSIE, hmm? Don't come crying to me if I do.
Superfly intercepted new information about the Doom Movie. Apparantly the release of the $120 million budget Doom Movie is set at July 2, 1999. Unfortunately, Sam - Evil Dead - Raimi won't be directing it, due to differences in opinions about a start date.
TeamTNT has updated with news about Boom's advanced trigger lines... seems like whole new combinations have been made! Hot stuff! =)
February 11, 1998
This is actually not the "February 11" update... the webserver was downed for three days, making uploads impossible. Guess webserver maintenance is not one of the top priorities of our webserver maintainers.
Gary Gosson, of TeamTNT fame, has joined my army of Mordethians. That makes four level designers for the second episode. Plus, seven level designers from "Big Fish" have shown interest in doing the third episode. Worship us human, and we shall yet be mercifull... =)
At the moment, I'm also looking for music artists... If you're among the creative crowd and interested in joining up with the Mordeth TC Project, mail me. As always, include pointers to your previous work.
Wildman has a new interview up at his site, this time with John Herndon, CEO of Banjo Software. John Herndon talks about HACX, the sequal HACX 3D (which, apparently, will not use the Quake(2) engine...) and the gaming industry. Wildman also is in the process of creating DMapEdit tutorials to create special effects. Plus, he'll continue putting up interviews with famous people, right Rick? =)
Finally, somebody beat Stephen Hendry at his own game... during the 19th frame he had to toss against Williams. Hendry then missed a pot he shouldn't have missed, leaving the Snooker world's championship to Williams. Congratulations Williams!
February 5, 1998
Please welcome Adam Williamson and Nick Baker to the team! They've been hooked as level designers for the 2nd episode of Mordeth. I've also been talking to several members of a group that I will call "Big Fish" for now.... Nothing is certain at this moment, but somehow we got the idea of letting Big Fish handle the third episode of Mordeth. It would be awesome if this is going to work out..!
There is still room for more level designers, though! If you're interested in contributing to the Mordeth TC project and an =experienced= level designer, please go ahead and mail me. Do include a pointer to your previous work.
Andrew Stine convinced me to do something about the subway station of Mordeth Map07... Damn him... just when I thought it was finished =) I now have a great idea on how to make the station bigger and more entertaining... plus it shows off the "subway effect" more convincingly.
Wildman has two interviews up on his site... one with Banjo Software's Marc Pullen and another one with Matt Dixon, of Gothic DM fame. Very interesting to read! Plus, Lee Killough mailed me that he has acquired the February 1993 Doom alpha from Romero himself. You can get this alpha on Lee's site.
My tech support guy Joel Murdoch has revamped his site. Here you can find small reviews and tips for designers for Doom, Heretic and Hexen, as well as more links then you can shake a stick at. Last but not least, BahdKo has created a new site dedicated to the regular users of EFnet's IRC channel #doom2.
Update at TeamTNT about flag-based triggers and a new silent teleporter... this should make up for some real convincing 3D effects. But as Functional Entropy has pointed out, it will only become of interest to this project if they are going to implement Dehacked patch support....
January 30, 1998
I'm back. Most of the damage done by the system crash last weekend has been repaired, although there are still things that are not working properly. Let's hope that this does not happen again anytime soon... Due to my troubles I missed out on several nice happenings, including Wildman's interview with Nostromo and the release of a CTF Doom mod.
Some people seem to think I'm banning Justin Madigan's Doom News site from now on... True, he unintentionally killed my entire Win3.32s and every proggy with it, but I don't ban him. It seems he has improved his HTML in such a way that it doesn't crash Netscape anymore, but it'll take some time before I really trust that site again. I'm not the kind of guy that bans people for just one screw-up, right?
I want to say thanks to "Sidearm Joe" (c.donovan@student.canberra.edu.au) for his kind email. The email address supplied bounces, so I hope you visit this page :-) As token of gratitude, here's a plug for his Hostage Rescue 3: "Back in Black" conversion.
Now that I have my mailserver back in order, here's the big news... The Mordeth TC Project is now taking on experienced level designers for both the second and third episode. As you might know, the second episode takes place in a huge technological base; the third one probably centers around a jungle / modern city theme. Contributors should be aware that it won't do to just send in a level and hope that it fits in somewhere... instead, each level has a certain theming and one ought to stick to it. Expect that pesky Gaston to peek over your shoulder :-) Interested? Then mail me your resume (including pointers to your previous work) and I'll mail you back with detailed info.
January 25, 1998
I figured it was time for an update again. Not that I'm not doing anything... I'm working really hard on Mordeth right now. Map07 is finished... at last. Of course, there are still some things that need to be sorted out, like some texturing problems, but the 'level editing' part is done. I love this map, but I'm sick of editing it =)
I was about to announce to the world that the Mordeth project is now taking on experienced level designers, but Justin Madigan's 'Doom News' site uses such BAD HTML that it crashed Netscape -again. Plus it crashed Windows. Which trashed several important system files. Which left me without a functional Windows version. Which couldn't be restored from backups. Now, I've killed my entire Windows. Now, this announcement just has to wait until I get my mail back in order, so that people can actually mail me back.
I'm pissed. Really, really pissed. Naturally, I killed one entry in my bookmarks file, until that person learns how to do proper HTML.
The 3D Gamer's Group is dead. Not only has it been ages since I last received their newsletter, but now the site is down, too. Nostromo decided to drop his old pages and focus mainly on HACX. At Nostromo's Place you can find info on the first HACX, its add-ons and information on its Quake2 sequal.
Updates at the Project Doom and the TeamTNT site. Project Doom confirms their partnership with TeamTNT. TeamTNT has announced the release dates for their BOOM engine: March 1st for the beta, April 1st for the Phase I release!
A word on the Adobe of the Superfly. Superfly has apologised for a previous posting of his, so there's no reason for being upset with him anymore. I think. Granted, he screwed up in a major way and that cost him dearly, including those exclusives screenshots which I had send to Functional Entropy as well after discovering that little stunt. But to show that's all in the past, I've send him again two exclusive teaser screenshots, picturing the subway station.
January 20, 1998
The Mordeth Home Page and FancyPants have both been awarded with the Wad Author Page Exceptional Site award. This site got a 10/10 rating, w00h00 ! Thank you, Steve Noonan.
Map07 is coming along nicely. I've been adding details and some more new textures by Ola Bj"rling (Citrus) and me lately, making most of the previous screenshots already obsolete. Just to make Andrew Stine really, really jealous, I've replaced some of the old teasers with new ones... Yes, things can get even better ;-) Plus, Jonas Feragen (Chrozoron) has made more textures for me, including better subway ones and the new crates logo. Take a look at his site for four more Mordeth teasers tomorrow...
Beyond Doom just got itself a new monster. I've finished the graphics, but still have to insert them into the WAD.
Justin Madigan has baptised his site Prophet of Doom, plus updated it with screenshots of his ID4Doom level. And if that wasn't enough, Wildman's Corner carries screenshots of TimeShift DM 2, a HACX add-on.
Plus the Doomoscope is back in business after a short hiatus. This is celebrated with a review of Nostromo.
And another update at TeamTNT's. Their new Doom engine is heavily optimised compared to the original one. Soon a reasonable timeframe for Phase I release will be determined, so keep yourself posted!
January 19, 1998
I've added the Paradox and The Darkening projects to my 'links' section, plus a link to Ricrobnet. Jan van der Veken just released the first episode of The Darkening (1,5 MB) to ftp.cdrom.com, but it has NOT arrived in the 'newstuff' dir when I made this update. Check above link tomorrow, it probably works by then.
Plus, I've send seven exclusive screenshots of Mordeth Map07 to somebody who recently really, really went over the top by posting a gruesome picture... you know who I 'm referring to. To show I don't appreciate this either, I have send the exclusive screenshots to Functional Entropy as well.
January 17, 1998
I've put up some teaser screenshots of Mordeth Map07 here, just to show you all there is some actual progress ;-) Enjoy! Plus, this is my agenda for the next two weeks:
TeamTNT has a new look and goal in life. Instead of springing engine surprises at us they decided to keep us informed of their progress in that area, by putting up a news section. Justin Madigan, member of Functional Entropy, has also put up his own news site... Check it out.
Blain Newport informed me that he and Chris Bilski have released "Godless 3: Kevorkian Litianies". You can find this eight-level deathmatch wad at their site or at ftp.cdrom.com.
And another Mordeth surprise... Zokum and Reep, two members of the Brotherhood of Vengeance, have recorded a cooperative run through two and a half Mordeth maps. You can find the zipped LMP here (129K). To view it, download (...) and unzip it in your Doom2 directory. Then, enter "mord -file mordeth\mordeth.wad mordeth\morgraph.wad -playdemo mordzr" at the DOS Doom2 prompt. Mind, this is their first run through these maps... they have promised a better LMP, plus a deathmatch one later. I'll be waiting, guys! ;-)
January 11, 1998
Iikka Ker,nen has given permission to upload his Requiem special effects example wads to ftp.cdrom.com.
I was surprised nobody else had done such a trivial trick
before :)
Eh :-) You can download the file from docs/editing (30K). This archive contains four small wads: one with a partial 'room above room' effect; a true 'room above room' effect (two corridors crossing, each with its own floor/ceiling and own solid floor/ceiling textures); a level showing a 'deep water' effect and the last one an impressive visual 'room above room' effect. The second trick is explained on the FX Editing pages, the last one will follow soon. After the 'Requiem Map31' trick...
It seems likely that TeamTNT and Project Doom might cooperate, combining their strengths to create the port. Good. It still amazes me how fast these things are going... it's only been a little over two weeks since Carmack released the source, and already we have seen several enhancements, plus it has been ported to several other platforms.
Superfly has updated with two new exclusive screenshots of Gothic DM2. You can visit his page after Superfly has realised his upload got screwed and fixed it ;-)
Chi Hoang send word he has released v0.41 of his DosDoom port, because people were having trouble with the v0.40 one.
Sigh. I didn't want to do this, but a lot of people were having problems with dosdoom v0.40, so here's v0.41. The only changes are that double-buffering is no longer the default (use -dblbuffer to enable again) and i applied a user-suggested bug fix for vesa1 cards. Oh, and the webpages have also been totally redesigned.
You can get the new version at ftp.cdrom.com ( binary (362K) / src (435K) ) or at his web site.
And I'm getting really really frustrated with level editing right now. It does not help that my editor crashes three out of four times... it seems it does not particulary like me screwing with linedefs and such, it being a sector-based editor.
January 9, 1998
Thank me for making regular backups... I've found Iikka Ker,nen's original Requiem example wads among them ;-) The FX Editing site is now updated with a fully-functional "Room above Room" effect. Go there and eat your heart out... it's the closest thing to 3D the Doom engine can possibly get!
I've added some new sites to my 'links' section, all dealing with Doom source code projects. I know there are more of them out there, but this little list should suffice for now. I've also learned that Dr. Funfrock (of iFrag fame) has joined up with Project Doom. In case he is reading this: no, Coleman never ever replied to a single email I've send him. And frankly, I don't give a damn anymore ;-) Moreover, the ifrag site has been down for quite some time now.
Sir Alien of Doom Central fame has returned from his fishing trip. He even managed to catch... the Dopefish! Aaahhh! It's alive! ;-)
January 8, 1998
After posting about my bridge troubles I got two emails with suggestions. Thanks Eric James Roberts and TeamTNT's Jim Flynn! The solution came from Jim, who pointed out that monsters too tall for the room's ceiling often cause motion triggers to fail, even well away from the actual trouble spot. The map had indeed two monsters stuck under a door (intentionally, I might add)... after redesigning that part the bridge worked allright! Thank you, Jim!
Jim also noted my suggestions for additional port features. What's more, it's going to implemented!
Most come in the LATER category, so were not in a rush to commit, but I agree with most of them, and in fact most are already on the list, though in a disguised form. We've added per-level resources officially, and hope to make it somewhat general (no promises yet). We hope that you can include any general lump like colormap or playpal in an extended level section to create a special purpose resource for that level only. We will definitely fix the limit on the number of total sprite frames. We ARE going to investigate the BSP extensions of moving walls, rotating doors, and ramps, but as you say, we don't expect it will be easy :).
Kai-Uwe Humpert has released a demo pack for Eternal III on his site, featuring some fast times.Go there if interested...
Meanwhile, work on Map07 continues. Frankly, I want to complete this as quickly as possible... I've spend way too much time on this particular level already. The lay-out of Map08 is beginning to form itself in my head... and I'll like what I see ;-)
January 7, 1998
During all this time designing levels I have stumbled upon many many errors and glitches. Some of them were minor, some of them bombed me back to DOS altogether but all of them were logically... Once discovered, it was just a matter of routing out the problem, perhaps even redesigning some sections, and voil_: problem solved. Up until now. Now I'm stuck with the weirdest and unexplainable bug I have ever encountered. It completely baffles me (as far as that counts for anything). While testing out Map07 without monsters, all my 3D bridges (constructed _ la Iikka/Adel) work just fine. No problem. Testing the same level with monsters causes one of the bridges to stop working correctly... the actual moving platform ceases to respond to any of the 83/91 triggers..?! I've tried everything... checking and double-checking the construction, re-compiling, deleting every monster anywhere near the bridge, etc etc but the damn bridge (and only that one bridge) keeps refusing to work... anyone out there who knows what's going on here? Hello..? Anyone..? Argh! :-(
And my texture wad is still not complete, due to lack of time on my part. So many things to do... On a happier note: once completed I will upload several teaser screenshots of Map07 for your viewing pleasures. The damn map should have been completed by now if it wasn't for Edmap crapping out on several occasions. Perhaps end of this week..?
I haven't found an adequate solution for the bug in the "room above room" effect yet. I know it can be done, because I once saw an Iikka map with this effect, but I lost it unfortunately. For now, ignore this FX Editing section - or put up with the bug ;-)
All contributors of the Beyond Doom TC should have received an email from me by now. If you're one of them and didn't get it, please notify me! Status of this project: a few levels need to be finished, around three to four levels are still lacking. Some monsters need to be designed and as a consequence the monster placement in all the levels is to be adjusted / implemented. But it won't be long until its release, though! Interested in joining? Just mail me..!
And people continue to work on their Doom ports. Several new ports have been released, among those an OS/2 and an Amiga one. Plus ftp.cdrom.com now carries more historic alpha and beta versions of Doom, which could be found previously at Lee Killough's site. Of course you knew that already, because this news was all over the place... Functional Entropy is taken its role as news site far too seriously these days ;-) Bruce Lewis has released v0.81of his WinDoom port, which you can download (209K) from Bluesnews. Strangely enough I cannot find this particular version on the Project Doom site, which is the team Bruce belongs to. Incidently, Functional Entropy didn't carry this either when posting this, hehe ;P
Frans P. De Vries has updated the RGCD F.A.Q., "catching up with recent and past events". You can find the F.A.Q. both in text or HTML format.
January 5, 1998
Abort abort! I discovered a bug in the "room above room" effect as described on the FX Editing Pages :-( When looking from below towards the upper corridor the "solid ceiling" effect gets ruined. I'm working on it and got a static version working so far, so bear with me for a while.
TeamTNT has made public what they intend to do with the Doom source code. Looking at the description of their project makes me drool... not only do they intend to implement almost every feature I would want to see in an improved Doom engine, but they will also allow others (that's us) to use it.
Some additional features I would like to have in an improved Doom engine but which I haven't seen listed on any team's wish list:
January 4, 1998
A note on all those ports that are being created lately. While all this work is greatly appreciated, there is the risk that the Doom Community ends up with lots of different ports and features. It would be better if there was (for each OS) one "basic" port with "general" features, like TCP/IP support, higher resolutions, increased VP buffer, OpenGL, etc, which moderators then could modify to suit the needs of their particular project (like, adding flight). Normal DEH patches should also work with this new "basic port:". Even better would be a new Dehacked version that works with the "basic port", making changes real easy. To be short, if you're doing a port, or if you would like to contribute, please become part of the already existing teams, like the Project Doom team.
Speaking of Stephen.. I accidently told you yesterday that Jim Dos, had made a port (without the GL support) to be found on Project Doom's site... this was not Jim's but Bruce Lewis'! Sorry about that! Plus I just got word from Stephen that he's going to update with screenshots from Bruce's GL Doom port, so check out the Project Doom site - again.
Justin Madigan mailed me that the "Doom 2099 Complete" project has been uploaded to ftp.cdrom.com. It should be in the "newstuff" directory by now.
FancyPants has been updated with four new projects. Among those are "Ninja Doom" and Nathaniel Roche's "The Lost World"... yes, Dino Doom is back!
Joel Murdoch has send me an improved texture/pnames resource. It won't be long before I'll implement this one... 16-frames animations, here I come :) Chrozoron send me some new animated computer screens.
And I've updated the FX Editing Pages with Ikka's "Room above Room" effect. Soon the "Requiem Map31" trick will follow (when I feel like making the schematic...) This "Room above Room" effect allows for eg crossing corridors at different heights with both corridors having solid floors/ceilings at the correct heights. Plus, I finally decided on the new weapon in Mordeth, replacing the BFG. No, I won't tell you yet... but you'll like it! Things to do this week: finishing Map07, making some new sprites needed for Map08 and working on new monsters, both for Beyond Doom as Mordeth.
January 3, 1998
Happy NewYear everybody! Yes I'm back, although a bit later then expected. Silly me bought himself a Linux "how-to" book and was about to install Linux... I figured it would be a while before somebody managed to port the Doom source code to DOS. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that feat was already accomplished this week! Moreover, changes like increasing the visplane and savegame buffer have already been done, plus new stuff like quad damage and flight. Cool !
Here's in short some pointers to teams tinkering with the Doom source code. First, there is the Project Doom team, who are working on a DOS and Win95 port. Here you can find info on Andy Bay's and Petteri Kangaslampi's Win32 ports (different projects, already available). Then there is Chi Hoang's DosDoom port. He too ported the linux code to Dos, plus added featured like hi-res and hi-colour (so far...). Extreme Doom is another team that is planning on doing something great with the code. Phill has also ported the code to DOS, plus added features like a quad damage, flight and allowing to jump over / walk under monsters... o my :) Jim Dos,'s GL Doom information page has moved to ritualistic.com. His un-finished Win32 port can be found at the Project Doom site. Last but not least, Lee Killough mailed me that he has succesfully increased the visplane buffer... no more freaking VPOF ! :)
Lots more has happened while I was away, but rather then mentioning it again you can better go to some other news sites like Functional Entropy and Doom Central. Here you can find pointers to interviews with TeamTNT members and Adelusion, plus more interesting news items.
More of me later, when I'm done sorting out a week's worth of stuff :)
December 24, 1997
Carmack just released the DOOM SOURCE CODE !! Woohoo!! Read all about it in his .plan file. You can get the Code itself at ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/doomsrc.zip. It comes with a .txt file, explaining things and such. Some highlights: it only compiles and runs on Linux, this because of the sound coding copyright problem with the DOS version. The Man Himself gives us some advice about how to improve the actual coding on rendering... stuff that makes Lee Killough drool :) Plus he gives us some project ideas, which are basically the same we have thought off before... jumping, crouching, transparancy, mlook, internet support and so on. He also states that he would like to see the hacking of the exe become a community effort.
I'm downloading the code now... Too bad I'm going to visit my parents in... er nine hours for a whole week, but now I certainly have something to look forward too, hehe! Thanks again, Carmack!
As for other news ( yeah right, as if you're not off reading Carmack's .plan file right now). I have not updated my "FX Editing Pages" yet, because I haven't had time to redo those schematics. Other editing problems are giving me a headache, but they DO need to be solved real soon.
Plus, I'm off for a whole week, spending the holidays with my family. I see you again January 1st, 1998 ! A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to my internet friends, contributors and other assorted folk!
Older news... (21/08/97 to 22/12/97)
December 22, 1997
FancyPants - the Doom Pool - has moved back to its original site... you can find this forum for Doom, Heretic and Hexen designers and project moderators at this location. I've also noticed that Bahdko's 'Quake Sucks Clan' site has been down for quite some time now ('error 403')... so what's up Bahdko?
Yet another plug for a site... this one's for TeamOnslaught, who are working on Decamatch, Eternal Khaos and OnsLaunch. Looks promising, guys!
After some weeks of waiting, they are finally ready.. the Eternal III demos can be found at TeamTNT's site.
And I've been busy making animated and static computer screens. This, and the fact that the schematics for the new effects I promised you yesterday accidently got trashed, accounts for the fact that I haven't updated the "FX Editing Pages" yet. Hopefully it will be ready before the holidays.
December 21, 1997
Chrozoron has send me a 1.17 meg texture wad, mostly containing new subway textures. Soon I'll combine this new wad with my main one. Plus I finally get to texturing my subways, woohoo! :)
Ola Bj"rling (Citrus) has send me new textures.... he's good! Thanks dude! And yes yes I'll try to remember sending you those promised textures!
Lee Killough has moved his site. On his new location you can find the usual Doom memorabilia, plus lots of information on pre-release versions of Doom. He's also working on a new version of BSP, that among other things removes a new bug that sometime causes weird texture drawing on 2s textures referencing to both sides to the same sector. Of course, he can explain it better then me... other items addressed in this future version are better memory usage when dealing with multi-level wads and fine-tuning of the -vp option.
Ain't It Cool, a site dedicated to movie news and rumours, has a story on the alleged Doom movie. Not only that Tri-Star has picked up the rights, but that Arnold Schwarzenegger has come into the picture... Personally, I think Bruce Campbell makes a better space marine fighting demons.... yes demons, despite what every Hollywood script has to say about that... demons, not freaking aliens! and lots of them, too!
And a shameless plug for the Ninja Doom project. This 16-level conversion is about 65% done according to member Kayin and no, it is not inspired by 3D Realms's ShadowWarrior... "ShadowWarrior was still an itch in its daddy's crotch" when this project was conceived. Go visit them, see if you can help them out.
The "FX Editing Pages" are about to get updated with the "Room above Room" and the "Requiem Map31" effects late this night, or else tomorrow.
FancyPants has had 666 visitors since November 15th! Congrats to.. euh me. And Functional Entropy just got its 10.000th visitor, so congrats to this team too!
I check Quakefinger quite often, browsing through .plan files of interesting people and such. Lately I've noticed that the id guys are plagued by certain people that wanted Quake2 to be just like the demo called Quake. Some comments on that... Frankly, I think id Software has refound sound concepts like "gameplay" and "weapon balance" with their latest game. But now, an entire new generations of 'gamers' (ahem) has grown up with the idea that Quake is the norm. No wonder they are complaining now... players now need skill to win a deathmatch, instead of the RL and a good ping. Now they need to navigate huge intricate levels, instead of just blasting their way through monster holdings. Myself, I'm playing through Quake2 right now, and enjoying it, even on my puny P60. Thanks id... I could almost forgive you guys for releasing Quake :)
December 19, 1997
Andrew Stine pointed out to me that I misquoted Lisa Simpson the other day. Here's the exact phrase uttered by this marvellous Simpson family member:
It chose to destroy itself rather than live with us. One can't help but feel a little rejected.
Hehe, we all love the Simpsons, don't we? :) Now for some real news. Frans De Vries was able to get John Carmack's permission to have two old pre-release versions of Doom on ftp.cdrom.com. In the misc/historic directory you can find the files "doom1_0.zip" (which is actually the 0.99 shareware version, dated December 10, 1993) and a May 22, 1993 alpha version ("doom0_5.zip") which some of us already know from Lee Killough's site. Also in this directory some assorted text files.
We're still waiting for the event of the year... the release of the Doom source code. Anytime soon now... I really hope it happens before I go home for the holidays :)
I've replaced the old start area of Mordeth Map07. Looks much better compared to what it had before, plus it has now a logical connection to the subway station. According to Anthony I should let the player ride this subway to another station before he can exit. I might do exactly that, provided the size of the map isn't going to make trouble. The alternative is riding the subway and finding the exit inside the subway itself.
Anthony just completed sending me his Beyond Doom data. I'm going to take a long hard look at it when I have time. It appeared that there were not two monsters missing, but six... ouch. I don't think I"m able to find contributors who are able to fabricate six new monsters anytime soon, so I probably drop a few of these. One of these new monsters is coming from my stable (I had one sprite lying around here :), another from my texture artist Urhash.
Speaking of Urhash... he asked me if I could plug Opiate's Texture Warehouse. Well, I can :) It's an all-quake site, but he was sure fellow texture designers could find some use for it.
December 17, 1997
John Romero is playing for Santa lately... now it is the Adobe of the Superfly that got plugged in his .plan file. Congrats Super! As for me... anyone remember what Lisa Simpson said after their new haunted home decided to evaporate, rather then have the Simpsons live inside? No..?
You can't help but feel a bit rejected.
Anyway, it's nice to see that at least Doom Central appreciates me *snif!*
The "FX Editing Pages" got updated yesterday with more information on "Shadowcasting" and "Floating Stuff". Now you can see how to hang mangled bodies from 3D gallows or from a faked ceiling within shadowcasted sectors, hehe! Justin has send me a description on how to duplicate the Requiem Map31 double-floors trick (thanks dude!), but I haven't had time to study his explanation ... yet. Expect this trick to be included real soon in my editing section!
And my latest map crashed again, after which I decided to take up sprites editing for a while. Currently working on a new boss monster for the third episode of Mordeth. However, this is still in the "does this work?" planning stages, with only a few graphics drawn. Plus I have been changing the look of all the explosion sprites into something much cooler.
Anthony is sending me a wad version of his Beyond Doom data at this very moment. As for the status of the Beyond Doom project: this is roughly what Anthony told me. About three to four levels need to be finished, with a total of 21 levels. The conversion also needs two (?) more monsters and the Nuclear Disruptor weapon needs some more work (why is it that a mushroom is so hard to draw..?) Perhaps Bahdko will be contributing another new weapon. And there's of course the huge task of making the WAD ready for release... All contributors will be notified of recent changes soon, so please don't feel left out for not hearing from me yet! The entry in FancyPants will be updated, too. Provided I get these missing levels real soon now, we're talking about a February 1998 release...
December 15, 1997
Apparantly TeamTNT is planning to do something interesting with the Doom source code as well... here is what Ty Halderman had to say about this in the RGCD newsgroups:
TeamTNT's working toward making a standard base engine that people can use without having to include an engine with all their creations, of course also trying to keep it backward compatible and expandable.
I just checked their site, but there is no information on this there. Yes, the imminent release of The Code sure brings some excitement in these dark winter days!
I've added the Wildman's Corner site to my "links" section, maintained by Rick Clark. He is involved in lots of projects, like The New Breed, Paradox, Mechdoom, ID4Doom and Twice Risen. His site got mentioned here before because he is the one making the first HacX add-ons, like NightFall and TimeShift DM. Keep up the good work, Rick!
I've spoken with Anthony Galica and the rumour got confirmed... he indeed quits being the moderator of the Beyond Doom TC. Other projects & hobbies now have his priority, like Descent2 and the upcoming Descent3. However, we agreed not to abandon this project altogether. Too much effort has been spend already. So, I've taken the burden as Beyond Doom's new moderator on me. Gasp! :) But the following should be clear: it remains Anthony's project. He is like the cook that has slaved in the kitchen for hours, I'm just the guy that pops the champagne bottle and invites people over for dinner :) Anthony is now trying to send me 4.5 megs of Beyond Doom data, after which I can determine what needs to be done. More information later, so keep yourself posted!
Meanwhile, Mordeth Map07 keeps growing... it has crashed a few more times since the last update, so progress is slow. But almost finished! I'm now mentally gearing up for the next map... after I kick some more Strogg ass, hehe!
December 14, 1997
My deepest condolences to Sir Alien, who has experienced a tragic loss. I've mailed you, Sir Alien, but mere words never seem to express the right feeling. I'm so sorry.
Functional Entropy has some updates regarding Romero's .plan file, plus some words from Sverne Kvernmo. My thanks to them for the compliments paid to my site!
Doom Central is back up, with among other things an update about the alleged Doom movie. The overall design is also radically improved. And here also my thanks for the compliment paid to me!
Team Eternity has released a demo of their Eternity project. Check it out!
To my surprise I learned that the Beyond Doom TC project is looking for a new moderator. Seems that Anthony Galica wants to focus on other games for the time being :(
December 12, 1997, Supplemental
I just caught this tidbit on information as I was about to leave for the weekend. Check out John Romero's .plan file:
Yesterday was pretty busy and i forgot to update my .plan on a VERY important date, the fourth birthday of something near and dear to me, DOOM.Happy Birthdy, DOOM!
It's been an amazing four years since DOOM was released, especially in terms of the impact it had on the entire game industry. So much time spent inside that world, so much energy expended on the creation of data for DOOM and the destruction of opponents in deathmatch.
Even this long after DOOM's release, there is an active community that continues to support the game. Daily news updates, new levels being created, new graphics, music and sprites are still being made to extend DOOM beyond anything we ever imagined.
There's a lot of interesting information on DOOM out there that a lot of you may have never seen, such as the very first screenshots of DOOM that i ever released, the earliest pirated alphas of the game, the infamous leaked beta, etc. Lots of stuff has accumulated and now is a good time to check it out.
I've picked a few sites to represent them all because they seem to have the most interesting information out there on DOOM.
Functional Entropy:
http://entropy.telefragged.com/index2.html
(great site, even though they aren't excited
about any of Ion Storm's games...yet)Arcane DOOM Stuff:
http://www.trailerpark.com/tequila/killough/doom.html
(Awesome historical information!)With the imminent release of the DOOM source code, a flurry of activity in the DOOM scene is taking place. After GLDOOM is completed, people will once again inhabit the world of DOOM on the latest 3D video hardware and perhaps inspire some to relive the experience all over again...
Long live DOOM!
Romero, my man! And of course congratulations to Andrew and Lee... a complimentary email is on its way =)
December 12, 1997
David Shawn has put three mp3 samples of his Intersonic Productions gaming music CD "Impulse One" on his site, for your hearing pleasures. This CD is due the first quarter of 1998, so keep yourself posted if you're interested in gaming music. On his site you can also find one music track for the upcoming Gothic Deathmatch 2 project.
Project Doom is coming along nicely. It acquired some new members and the site just got a new look. Yes, we're ready for the release of the Doom source code... let's have it Carmack! You've got 18 days left... and counting =)
According to my sources Sir Alien, the maintainer of Doom Central, has been kidnapped by gross-looking extra-terrestial lifeforms. Suspended in some yucky liquid, he got transported to their native solar system, where they - at this very moment - conduct some weird and rather painfull reproduction-related experiments on him. The FBI denies every knowledge of these facts, so it must be true. And by this time, this is the only sort of excuse we will accept for him not updating his "daily news" site for almost three weeks now...
And TeamTNT has released a secrets & hint page for their "Icarus: Alien Vanguard" conversion.
Plus I did a quicky update on the "Editing Pages" on how to deal with a bug while constructing 3D bridges, that causes the player to be 'hampered' by one of the bridge's sides. Also some new information on how to make the 3D Bridge work silently, and a warning note on constructing transparant doors with editors that like to renumber linedefs and sectors on the run...
December 10, 1997
Happy birthday DOOM !!! Yes, today is the fourth anniversary of DOOM's release. Other games have come and, more importantly, gone in the meantime, but this game is still alive and kicking! Yeah! We RuLe!! :)
I forgot to mention in the previous update that I did a small overhaul on the 'Editing Pages'. The examples page is gone and the individual sections now contain example screenshots of that particular effect. The introduction is also slightly changed, plus I discovered I made a small, but crucial mistake when discussing making transparant doors with Warm. Yes, that one is corrected :)
The Mordeth Map07 tragedy continues... the main map became uncompilable after deleting even the smallest sector. I hauled it through DCK to delete these sectors, but strangely enough it deleted some other, non-related sectors, too? Plus this editor renumbers linedefs when saving, so it screwed up all the transparant doors. Anyway, afterwards Edmap behaved normally again, so I'm back on track.
December 9, 1997
Id Software has released Quake2... true gamers are fervently hoping that the only thing it has in common with its predecessor is the first part of its name. Hoping that the first Quake was really intended as a demo of a new engine, and hoping that we now get to enjoy an actual game, with real balanced weapons and real good levels. Hoping...
Of course some people are still playing that Quake engine demo. Why? I have some ideas about this... see below for my "Top 10 why certain ppl are still engaged in a Quake game somewhere, or not playing Quake2".
10. | Their computer doesn't meet the requirements... go buy a real computer! |
9. | They're old boring people, forever stuck playing an old boring game! |
8. | They have decided to give Single-Player Quake another chance... |
7. | They're visiting the opthalmic surgeon, after being blinded by Quake2's brightness and use of colours! |
6. | They're just now beginning to wonder why there's no-one left on their favorite server... perhaps chosen a too remote camping spot? |
5. | They suddenly got slaughtered in Quake2 deathmatch... now they're crying silently in some corner. |
4. | They're lying dead on some Quake map, waiting for that damn camper to move away from the respawn sites! |
3. | They don't like monsters that consist of more then four polygon blocks. |
2. | Actual gameplay and weapon balance scare them! |
1. | They have not yet been able to warez this, too! |
Hehehe. That was a good laugh. Now back to the serious stuff. I'm currently designing a 'sub-map' for Map07, but progress isn't that good. Not only have I decided on some design changes, but this 'sub-map' also just crashed without any chance of restoring it. Now I'm back to where I was a few days ago... But don't worry: I know the next try will undoubtably result in a better-looking level =) Also some new inspiration came to me today... more about that later.
December 7, 1997
Lee Killough - of BSP fame - notified me that the SPISPOPD page mentioned in my last update wasn't his, but of some guy named Jamul. I didn't notice leaving his site when following that link :) Lee's own cheat information page can be found here. Sorry for the confusion, folks!
Speaking of Lee... he's currrently adding screenshots from an old alpha version of Doom to his site. I got to play... er.. make that "see" this alpha version... Amazing. It was worse then Wolfenstein :) No monsters, weapons, triggers or anything remotely Doom-like, but I did get to see the contours of two, maybe three Doom levels, plus some details that didn't make it into the final version like showers, locker-rooms and conveyor belts. Plus I learned that Carmack already owned a Ferrari back then, and that Shawn just bought a shiny new 486/33 :)
Mordeth Map07 has just reached its maximum size under Edmap. There's no more conventional memory left for adding new linedefs... unfortunately, I'm not done yet. Damn Edmap's author for making it use conventional memory in the first place... now I lack about 15 K memory, while there's another 24 megs of RAM picking its nose. So, I have begun looking for editors that let me copy and paste (parts of) levels into one map. This way, I hope to create "sub-maps" in Edmap which I can then combine with this additional editor. There isn't much to be done yet... just implementing one subway station.
December 4, 1997
To my complete and utter embarrassment I noticed that my 'link' section hasn't been updated in a while... well, not anymore. I updated some links and added two more. Other then that, there is no real news for now. Oh, and Map07 is almost finished!
A word from Jim Dos,, who is working on OpenGL Doom in his spare time. A status report can be found at the OpenGL Doom progress page. In his latest letter, Jim Dos, talk about the cons and pros of spans versus polygons, the status of the renderer and answers some frequently asked questions. There might be 8 player LAN support, but he leaves implementing 8 player TCP/IP internet support to other interested parties. Mlook will probably be a command-line option, and it will run under any normal "GL Quake" 3D cards, plus under software GL.
Anyone know about the story behind the cheat code "idspispopd" ? For laughs go to Lee Killough's SPISPOPD page. You can even download the game Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles of Putrid Debris (993 K), made after the cheat code... not the other way around as I always believed. It's actually quite fun to play! :)
December 3, 1997
On Mordeth Map07, several nodesbuilders have raged a desperate bloody battle... idbsp, warm, waded and dmapedit, all tried to become my exclusive nodesbuilder. Until BSP ( California / Berlin mirror, 232 K) came around and fragged them all =) Yes, my problems with implementing special effects are over! I've found that BSP can build any special effect flawlessly. As with other nodesbuilders, some special effects require an adapted construction, but I've found that most effects can actually be build with less effort.
This is how I came to decide that BSP is the best nodesbuilder a level editor could ever want... Dmapedit's internal nodesbuilder is powerfull, but refuses to do some special effects like 'dynamic lighted 3D bridges' - and Map08 will feature a lot of those. It also introduces weird texture HOM's and other glitches when the map grows too big, especially around special effects. Warm16 does not have that problem and is quite fast, but making transparant doors was a real pain. Plus, it had problems drawing objects hanging from 'gallow'-like constructions at the correct height, requiring extra constructions in order to work. Waded choked altogether on Mordeth Map07, making it totally useless for me. But BSP builds every effect flawlessly. I had troubles designing a transparant door with it, but following the instructions provided in the BSP archive itself (yes, including an example wad!) I was able to do this without much trouble. So, BSP it is!
Considering this, I have updated the "Mordeth Editing Help" section with more accurate information on how to do special effects. Especially the transparant door needed more explanation, since different nodesbuilers require different approaches to this effect.
And a word from John Carmack on the release of the Doom source code. In his .plan file he says:
DOOM source. Still planned to be released Real Soon Now, but there is some work that needs to be done on it first to remove the sound engine, which was written by someone else.
In other words, not much is changed. We still not know for sure if the code is going to be released "as is" in public domain or combined with book (by one Bernd Kreimar..?) Plus, people trying to add new features to Doom have a new problem... now the source doesn't have a sound engine.
December 1, 1997
More happy news from my texture contributors. Chrozoron has send me another subway hull texture, which looks even cooler then his previous ones. Terje continues to develop a new sprite... still needs some work, but it is heading in the right direction. Urhash has send me a computer screen graphic and Citrus a new non-tilting sky. But the big news has come from Joel Murdoch, my tech support guy. He just mailed me a new pnames/textures resource for Mordeth, adding +30 new textures and completely revised animated textures, which now have up to 16 animated 256x128 frames! Yes, he rules! :)
And bad news from the editing front. I continue to have problems making new tricks work with one particular nodesbuilder. Edmap rulz for editing, but its internal nodesbuilder (idbsp) cannot cope with transparant doors and such. Dmapedit screws up my wad - probably because of its size - and introduces weird texture HOMs and other glitches. Waded barfs on my wad altogether. Warm refuses to draw object hanging from invisible lowered ceilings at the correct (lowered) ceiling height plus it now has problems with transparant doors. BSP also has problems with transparant doors. Mind, this is just because of how I constructed these tricks in the first place... designed for dmapedit, which I now cannot use anymore. So, I'm stuck re-doing this tricks for use with eg. BSP... very time-consuming.
An important note on my new "FX Editing Help" section.... Lee Killough asked me why I left out BSP in my explanations. This has a perfectly good reason... this section is still under construction! I haven't had the time yet to test every effect with every nodesbuilder. As explained above, I'm still wrestling to get all effects working properly in one wad using one nodesbuilder. As a matter of fact, it is very likely that BSP will emerge as the big winner here... as soon as I get these transparant doors fixed! I *will* update this section with more accurate information on how to apply some special effects using particular nodesbuilders, given some more time.
November 27, 1997
Happy Thanksgiving to those Americans out there! I failed to wish them a happy... well, succesfull Halloween, but this holiday I felt like mentioning. Over here in Europe it's just another day of course, if it weren't for the fact that my mailbox recieves a lot of mail lately from certain boundaries-ignorant folks that are justifiably concerned about my diet, financial status or unfulfilled sexual needs...=)
I just learned from BBC News 24 that Clinton's public-relations advisor himself got Clinton to rescue one turkey from its predestined fate. Before sending the turkey off to some nice rolling green countryside to enjoy its "golden years" it got to stay in a Washington hotel. Apparently an US tradition since Lincoln... I think it is a great way to show predestination was doomed from the start (...), plus it has the advantage of not feeling too guilty about killing and eating the other multitudes of turkeys.
And a profound thanks to Andrew Stine of Functional Entropy, who updated his site with a very large and very flattering tribute to... me... *BLUSH!* Can't stress enough that there are lots of ppl out there who make the Doom Community such a nice place to stay in. Thanks to ALL of you for still contributing to good ol' Doom!
November 25, 1997
New textures keep on coming from my contributors, eager as they are to please their master :) And Joe Palkowitsch (Terje) has joined their ranks, contributing some new sprites. I myself have practised new editing tricks by experimenting a lot... can't wait to apply them!
And a major update this time. This site now features a subsite devoted to advanced level editing and special effects. The idea was born when the maintainer of The Doom Editing Pages mailed me that his site won't get updated with the tricks seen in more recent wads. So I decided to setup my own "editing pages", containing info on how to make exactly those new tricks. Note that I haven't implemented all special effects yet... it's just in its starting phase. Take a look at the menu on your left for the new link! This subsite also contains three early screenshots of Mordeth episode 2...
BD felt real artistic and redesigned his Doomoscope site with a new blue look. It really makes a difference in my opinion. And, of course, he's still updating with new reviews all the time.
Also, Superfly did it again... More new screenshots of GothicDM 2 are up on his site. Check it out!
November 21, 1997
Whoah, I figured it was time for an update... it's been six days. Shame on me =) So, what has happened between updates? The 'Clan Quake Sux' site has been down for two weeks now, and its maintainer BahdKo has given up on xeo.net and has her site mirrored instead at this location. When even John Romero's Ion Storm team frequents this place often, it just has to have some valid points there, doesn't it..? Hey BahdKo, don't forget to mail the IonStormers the new URL ! =P
And a happy birthday to the RGCD newsgroups, who have been up and running for three years now! Congrats, and my thanks to all the posters who make these newsgroups so wonderfull.
My texture artists Chrozoron, Urhash and Zokum are still busy working on new textures and/or fonts. Or they should be. Chrozoron is excused, because he not only has to finish a level for the Beyond Doom TC, but also has to write a german essay... our hearts and sympathy go out to him. Hehehehe..!
Speaking of textures, Ola Bj"rling (Citrus) DCC'ed me some truely awesome sky textures. He recently joined up with FancyPants and I do want to give him a plug... excellent texture artist! Go and make him a member of your own project! BTW, there are still problems with Geocities... they don't seem to be able to retrieve a page at all times, giving you their standard 'error 404' message. Reloading seems to help, though, so remember this if you run into trouble visiting FancyPants.
The new Mordeth map is coming along nicely. I just added the sector tricks to it (finally figured out a way to let Edmap and Dmapedit share the same wad file.... sigh) and it looks cool so far. It's about 7/10 finished, but progress isn't that great... I keep thinking of the next level which will truely *blow you away*. That said, I want to say thanks to Anthony Galica, moderator of the Beyond Doom TC. His help with 'dynamic lighting' has been invaluable. Thanks!
I don't know if it's for real or not, but apparantly Tri-Star has now the rights for the Doom movie... Will our wet dreams finally come true? Can we really see a Cybie in action on the BiG picture? Let's hope so! Read more about it at 'Ain't it Cool'.
And yes! Even more great news... Functional Entropy has updated with screenshots! Go and take a look at them!
November 15, 1997
Just a quick update today. Zokum has send in more new fonts for the status bar. We're still looking for a cool new font for the menu options alphabet. I guess it won't take long before that is finished, too. The status bar itself will probably also be changed into something... neat.
FancyPants has finally moved to its new location at Geocities. You can visit the Doom Pool at the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Battlefield/6946/
For some reason Geocities has sometimes troubles retrieving a document... I don't know what causes this, or even if it is my own fault. O well, I'll look into that later. There is also a new button available for linking FancyPants up on your site, in case you should feel the urge to do so.
November 14, 1997
TeamTNT has released Eternal Doom III ! Grab the full version at ftp.cdrom.com (9,5 MB) or download this patch (2,8 MB) to upgrade Eternal Doom II to the latest version. Thanks TeamTNT!
I have the honour of announcing the first rectification on this site, hehe. Urhash's real name is not Wai Tam, but Danny Tam. Turns out he's been using his dad's account. The reason for this is quite straightforward:
I would've had my own, but my modem blew up in a storm.
He also send me a computer screen graphic sample. Looks promising so far! Plus, Zokum has send me the first new fonts for in-game messages, and is working on the other fonts. I'm also thinking of a new status bar, but nothing has been decided yet.
The Doom Central site is now hosted by Telefragged. Plus there will be some other changes to this all-Doom news site soon.
November 12, 1997
Eternal Doom III is delayed. It should have been released today, but TeamTNT has set a new release date, due to some last-minute wrapping-up stuff. It should be available November 14th... that's two days from now.
Welcome Wai Tam (Urhash) to the team! He will be doing some new textures for me, since he impressed me with a real good tech-looking one. And Kim Roar Foldoy Hauge (Zokum), currently active as an administrator of the Brotherhood of Vengeance DM project, will be joining him by contributing new fonts.
I made a new texture, inspired by Urhash, but otherwise no real progress. Also the movement of FancyPants to Geocities is delayed, since I'm not satisfied with the new look. But I'm working on it, don't you worry! :)
And some real funny news... somebody is working on a network version for... Commander Keen..! No joke! There is already a test version. Imagine deathmatch Keen, hehehe!! It will probably blast DM Quake away... but then again, most games do. =P
November 10, 1997
Some news from my contributors. Jonas is still working on new textures and Joel has updated his site. I myself have been a bit busy lately, so only minimal progress here. And I have decided to move the FancyPants site to my new place at Geocities in the near future, when I find some time to revise those pages. Info will be available shortly at FancyPants or at this place.
TeamTNT has set the release date for Eternal Doom III at November, 12th. Yes, in the year 1997 :) Only two days away before the sage continues!
And good news for Banjo Software... the first two HACX add-ons are currently being made. Rick Clark has announced on his site that he's working on two add-ons for this new game. The first is Nightfall (formerly known as the Edge of Time), the second a deathmatch-only wad called Time Shift DM.
And a shameless plug for The Darkening (formerly known as the Nameless Project) which should be released somewhere this month. And why not visit Functional Entropy again? Andy has actually updated with relevant Doom news this time =P
November 5, 1997
Doom Central has christened its 'interview' section to... me! Thanks Sir Alien!
I have acquired a free 2meg site at Geocities. You can find it here but don't point your browser that way... it's just an empty page linking back to this site. My reason for requesting this site is to have a mirror download link for the next Mordeth release. It might also contain the future site for an european iFrag tracker... provided Coleman breaks the silence and actually replies. Which probably won't happen in my lifetime =(
November 3, 1997
Anthony Galica has updated the Beyond Doom project site with new information about Beyond Doom's progress, the availability of the new monsters and weapons, and all features. About time you updated, Anthony! =P I also promised Anthony to complete the graphics for the Nuclear Disruptor this week... There, I said it... now I'll have to, hehe :)
This Halloween a new version of DeeP97 (currently v9.62) and DeeP (v8.83) has been released. You can read more about the new features of this level- annex texture editor at the DeeP Home Page.
Also, Superfly has some more exclusive screenshots of the upcoming Gothic Deathmatch 2 at his site, besides the regular ones. Check it out and make yourself and the Superfly happy!
Oh, and happy birthday to Dukrous, who managed to upload this fact to Functional Entropy while being officially offline. Dukrous, I used your birthday as an excuse to drink some more booze... thanks man! =P
November 1, 1997
TeamTNT have released their 32-level deathmatch wad Pursuit ! You can download Pursuit (1,3 MB) at ftp.cdrom.com. Other TeamTNT projects such as Ragnarok and Eternal Doom III are delayed, though. You can find more info on these projects (plus screenshots) at the TeamTNT site.
Jonas DCC'ed me more subway textures tonight. Can't wait to show them off in the next release of Mordeth! :) I haven't worked on Mordeth myself lately, though.
And I got a reply from Dr.Funfrock... seems my previous mails got lost in an electronical equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. But still no reply from Scott Coleman, who has to give me the binaries if he wants me to setup a new european ifrag tracker. Frankly, I've had enough of this... sorry Funfrock, but I'm not going to mail Coleman again.
October 29, 1997
I've been working on and off on the old first episode of Mordeth for a week now, not only correcting some small bugs/misalignments but also design/cosmetic changes. These changes are meant to make the levels more aesthetically pleasing (gasp!) and to eliminate some linearity in gameplay observed by some players in some maps. For example level 5 ("Babel's Inner Quarters")... you now don't have to get one key to obtain the other one, although both keys are still required to exit the level. The switches for this are also more easily located. Some sections are now visually connected (like the NW part with the NM part) and there now is a short-cut between the nukage NE part and the NM section of this map. I'm also going to tackle some other maps, like level 6 ("The Draconic Guardians", which will require one less key) and level 3 ("The House of Shadows", cosmetic change of the throne room and a different way to get to the red key-only section). So, if you have played Mordeth and want something to change, mail me at g.lahaut@stud.warande.ruu.nl and who knows... you might get what you want. Then again, maybe I just wack you around for not liking it as it is... just kidding, hehe. People who have send comments to me already shouldn't have to do this again... I've read it, and (if appropriate) implemented it already.
Project Doom is getting a bit more real now. They have now implemented a section describing all the changes they want to make to the engine once the code is released. Check it out, and comment on them!
And Halloween is around the corner..! You know what TeamTNT is going to do then, don't you..?
October 26, 1997
We've just gone to winter time... now I can say that I'm updating at 4:13 am instead of 5:13 am, hehe. I just mailed Dr. Funfrock -again- about setting up a new european iFrag tracker. Hope he'll actually takes the trouble of replying this time.
I met my texture guy Jonas Feragen (Chrozoron) on EFnet's #doom2 today and he showed me a preview of the subway textures he's making for me. This preview was really impressive, I'm glad to have him on the team! For those who want to know who is working/contributing to Mordeth right now, here's a small overview: me (obvious of course, moderator, levels, textures, sprites, misc), Jonas Feragen (textures), Joel Murdoch (tech support) and Mark Klem (music).
Andrew Stine of Functional Entropy is feeling a bit down. Well, you would, too, if you have trouble finding good sprites editors or other contributors for your TC. I know how that can suck..! So, if you feel like contributing to the upcoming megahits of the near future... And if you think you're not good enough, start bloody practising, right now. We weren't born with a natural talent in level editing, either. I suppose.
October 24, 1997
Please welcome Joel Murdoch to the team! Yes,
he's the one who informed me about adding new sprites with Dehacked, mentioned on this site yesterday.
Joel is going to help me out on the technical stuff. He also wants me to stress that his info comes by looking at
ADA's
STRAIN project:
Thanks for crediting me in the update of your page but you haven't credited ADA!! I don't want to take credit for other people's work. All I did was stumble across it. Granted, they should all be smacked around for keeping quiet about it, but you should give the credit to where it's really due.
Anthony Galica, moderator of Beyond Doom, informed me that there actually is some documentation for the sprites editing thing. You can find it at good old ftp.cdrom.com here.
Also, keep an eye on TeamTNT, who are to release the deathmatch TC Pursuit before Halloween! Other TeamTNT productions such as Eternal3 and Ragnarok seem to be delayed, tho.
Nostromo quits editing the newsletter for the 3D Gamer's Group, but don't worry: Michael Brown is taking over that task. He will also be putting up a new site for the newsletter at this location, but this link isn't working yet. Thanks Nostromo for all the effort you have put in the newsletter!
October 23, 1997
My profound thanks to Joel Murdoch... without his help this news would not have been. He wrote me that it is not only possible to add new flats to a wad without the need to extract all the old ones as well, but that this can also be done for sprites! Moreover, you can also use old Doom1 animation textures in Doom2. So sit upright, class... I'm going to give a lecture. I'm assuming here that you are fluent in NWT (or Deutex) and Dehacked... if you're not you can visit the 'links and files' section and download these proggies from there. They come with excellent manuals plus examples, so that shouldn't be too big a problem.
First, how to insert new flats without the need to extract all old flats to your new wad as well. The way to do this is to insert these new flats between two entries called FF_START and F_END. If you don't know how to make these entries, you can download a tiny zipped wad called entries.zip from this site (0,17K). This wad contains all the entries mentioned in this news section. An example: let's say you have a wad with your new flats called MYWAD.WAD and the ENTRIES.WAD. With NWT you can first extract the FF_START entry to a new WAD called eg. NEWFLATS.WAD (that is, load by pressing ALT-L in NWT, select ENTRIES.WAD, highlight FF_START, press F4, output file called NEWFLATS.WAD, press ENTER), then the new flats, and conclude by extracting F_END and voila! you can play NEWFLATS.WAD without the need to extract all the old flats as well.
Now, how to use unused Doom1 entries for a Doom2 WAD. I haven't been able to duplicate this yet, but this is how it must be
done according to Joel Murdoch:
I came across this about a week ago. There are about four animations coded into DOOM2.EXE which are not used in the original game. The first is WFALL1 - 4. So instead of replacing an old animation or messing around with texture offsets, just define WFALL1, WFALL2, WFALL3, and WFALL4 to be you waterfall frames and Doom'll animate them. There is also SLADRIP1 - 3 and BLODGR1 - 4, used in Doom but not Doom II, so you can use these as well. There is also an unused animated flat called SWATER1 - 4.
Last but not least: how to insert new sprites without the need to extract all the old sprites as well. This one's a bit trickier... it has cost me two days to re-arrange the Mordeth WAD this way =P. To do this, you need both NWT (or Deutex) and Dehacked. Say, you are going to use the entry of the Baron of Hell (BOS2) for your new monster. Make new graphics for it and insert them in the old way, but between the entries SS_START and S_END. An example: say a new sprite graphics is called MONSA1.PCX (first walking frame, facing player). Fire up NWT, first insert the SS_START entry in a new WAD called eg MYMONS.WAD, select the BOS2A1C1 entry and press F8: input file MONSA1.PCX, output file MYMONS.WAD, fill in correct X and Y values and the offsetts. If you don't know the correct offsetts, just enter the ones given by NWT. One suggesion: the NWT pro beta version (also on ftp.cdrom.com) is much better at guessing the correct offsetts, plus you can change the offsetts at will. After you have inserted your new sprite graphics to MYMONS.WAD, extract the S_END entry as well. Now, load up this new wad and change the names of your new entries from BOS2A1C1 to eg MONSA1. Replace the BOS2 part for MONS for all your entries. To complete this process, fire up Dehacked and switch to the text editing section. On the bottom of this list are all the monster entries. Look for the BOS2 one and change it to MONS. Save your changes and patch a copy of your Doom2 exe. That's it! Now you can play your new sprites WAD with this patched EXE !
But there's more to it. You are not limited in the number of different frames. That means you can define new frames like MONSY1 or MONSZ1 ! You also do not have to limit yourself to the arrangment of the original frames. In my example the BOS2 walking frames are A1C1, A2C8, etc, B1D1, B2D8 etc, meaning that eg C8 is a mirrored version of A2. But you can also define new frames like A1, A1A8, A2A7 etc or just A1 to A8. One remark tho... I found that not all sprite entries worked. When I tried to replace the SSWV, POSS, SKEL, BSPI and SPID entries the same way, Doom2 hung up on me after the 'init refresh daemon' part. For the life of it I don't know why, but that is what happened. I had no trouble replacing the FATT, CYBR, MANF, FATB and BOS2 entries.
Time for a final word on overal WAD arrangment. If you have new flats, textures, sprites, music etc etc in one wad (like I now
now have) you need to arrange your WAD in a certain way. Let's say that "S" stands for sprites, "T" for wall textures, "F" for flats
and "LR" for levels, intermission screens, music, sound, status bar graphics, palette info etc etc, then your WAD should look like
this (entries stated from top to bottom):
LR+SS_START+S+S_END+PP_START+T+PP_END+FF_START+F+F_END
Thank again for Joel Murdoch for telling me all this. I hope that other people will find this info usefull as well!
October 21, 1997
Bernard has added two pictogram games to the Doomoscope site. The purpose is to guess which wad belongs to which screenshot. For every correct guess you recieve 2 points and the candidate who has the highest score at December 10th will receive the highest award imaginable: the Doomoscope Wad Expert banner! :)
Still no news from Dr. Funfrock nor Scott Coleman. Somebody please get over there with a club and make them answer me :) There won't be a new European iFrag tracker without the binaries and some tech stuff, it's as simple as that.
The RGCD newsgroups carry a thread about Project Doom, an initiative of Stephen Friederichs. He would like to gather programmers and other nuts who want to help him to give Doom a good make-over once The Code has been released later this year. I guess I'm really ought to learn myself some C before that happens :)
Some actual Mordeth news (sit upright now! hehe). I made some more metallic wall textures with red as the dominant colour. Those look promising so far, but I still have to find the right shades of red that don't act weird under certain light levels. It's funny, but the idea came to me when milling around in a Mordeth 2 map checking some things I had changed... glaring at some corner of the map I suddenly saw it blooming into new textures and colours... wow. I guess I got inspired by some of Quake2's textures which, incidentally, runs s-l-o-w as hell on my P60. But on the other hand, it looks like they have listened to us Doomers and added actual gameplay and weapon balance to Quake2. Now someone please bury Quake... it's starting to smell :)
October 14, 1997
He's back! Bernard Devaux has updated the
Doomoscope site. I mailed him some time ago, and got a reply
from him just now.
Yes I'll continue to increase the Doomoscope. I have already made a major update of the links list, I will add soon new search abilities in the Wadoscope and I made a page to explain the break and what will happen. I also release three new reviews (now 101 reviews).
Reading the reasons for his absence you can see we almost lost him to those 'other' 3D wannabee games :) But fortunately for
us...
...discovering the perverse or imaginative minds of authors through Doom wads can still be a lot fun. High-res Doom has still a good appearance, sufficient to be fun even after playing Quake GL.
Some more important news: I'm still ill... If you want my advice: never neglect a cold or it'll come back with a vengeance! I rather prefer to be host to some demons, because those I can scare away :) BTW: wierd stuff is going on with my connection. I'm writing this between network failures, which is going on now for the last two, three days. Sigh. Other then that, I'm devoting my free time between Mordeth and Playfull Minds. Did a nice trick yesterday... it has probably been done already, but I'm still pleased with myself. I have made this sector in the form of a crate, which can be raised into the air by a trolley to reveal some goodies beneath it. This way, the crate actually appears to 'hover' in the air, suspended by this trolley. Nice, eh?
October 11, 1997
Hmm. Apparently my subway idea (here we go again!) makes people very exited. Or bewildered, like Andrew Stine from
Functional Entropy:
This is just getting to be too much. Of course Doom can handle things like monsters that blind you, airlocks that suck you out, personal teleporters, and fireballs that fill an entire level, but this! I have to draw the line somewhere, and it is here, Mord. If you can do all this (especially seeing both of the walls of the subway), then... ergh, you're still lying. Poop head :P
Awww :P So, I send my friend an example wad that shows off this subway idea. And guess what..?
However, you are right; this train is much better-looking than HACX's.
Did I mention before that I like getting compliments? Thanks, Andrew, for remembering! :) Now that that's sorted out
<g>, here is what I plan to do with
this technique. Level 7 (the one I'm currently working on) will have the first taste of this subway. I'm not quite sure if I already
let the player move around in it, but I'm planning to let the level end after boarding. In level 8 you will start out in this subway, still
sitting in the same station. When the player goes off exploring the cars the subway will depart. Yes, even when the player returns to the
door where he first entered the subway the station itself will be gone. Looking out both windows you will only see the walls
of the tube moving by... Finding the brake in the engine compartment will stop the subway, but this time at another station!
Neat, huh? :)
I just stumbled on a newsgroup post from BahdKo. She was present when an iD software guy named "Disruptor" told some things on Quake2 on EFnet's #trinity in the morning of October 11th. Check out her site for some news!
October 9, 1997
I'm sick. Like in "poor health", that is. And I don't even have to look at my status bar to know that's the case :( But fortunately
for me Doom Central has just posted some great news. It appears that Jim
Dos, is not the only one working on an OpenGL port for Doom... one Bruce Lewis is working on his own version, too! And not
only for Ultimate Doom, but also for Doom2, Heretic and Hexen! For the full rundown plus some screenshots visit
Doom Central. On this site excerpts from his
status page:
The special effects I have planned are the ability to look up and down, dynamic lighting and using the light sources in the levels to generate the lighting. (sort of like Quake) I am also going to implement colored lighting so that the floor and walls next to blue lights are tinged with blue.I am going to put the sprites from the game into the viewer. I haven't decided on whether to try to make them truly 3D yet. I don't think I will because most of them are not symmetrical.
I am also going to try to color the areas that use colored lights in ceiling textures with light of the same color. I also intend to put the light fluctuations that occur in the game in the viewer.
I want to make the areas that have water/acid/blood/lava as the floor have a double "floor" and to make the surface texture semi-transparent. I also want to make the floors that have acid and lava emit light the same color as the floor.
When id Software releases the Doom source code, I intend to graft this viewer onto the rest of the game and put it on the web. I intend to make the viewer freely available, once it's stable, on the web also.
I fully intend to do a Direct3D port when I get the program stable and not dependent on any feature of OpenGL for its geometry production.
I intend to implement TCP/IP deathmatch support in GLDoom (probably through DirectPlay) so that Doom'ers can finally play on the net for free. If id Software releases the source code to Doom95 then this will have already been implemented.
Doom just keeps getting better and better, hehe :) Two remarks tho: 1) one can already play Doom on the Net for free, and 2) hands off the old DM mode. I usually do altdeath deathmatches, but lots of hardcore DMers swear by the old DM rules.
Oh, and some people (without mentioning names, hehe) are expressing doubts about my claim that my subway is waahaay cooler then the HACX's one. I'm still standing tall and proud (well... if I wasn't that ill) by that statement! Views to both sides of the subway tunnel from a moving subway! The ability to start and stop the same subway! Visit one station and then the next stop with the subway! Then, travel back by subway to your previous station! And you don't have to buy a ticket, plus you get to shoot those pesky commuters!
October 8, 1997
Despite my own promise to devote my spare time to another, more important project, I also did continue working on Mordeth
<insert semi-guilty look here>. Actually, the map I'm currently designing almost has this
"complete" feel about it... just some details and it'll be perfect! What's more: I can't wait to implement my subway idea... Seen the
subway in HACX? My subway is waaay better! :)
Some other news: Superfly has some screenshots from Gothic Deathmatch 2 up on his site. If you liked the first Gothic DM (and I for one sure did!) you'll certainly want to know about its sequel! Last thing I heard it is supposed to be released by the end of this year.
Lee Killough has released a new version of the
nodesbuilder BSP. According to Lee this version has the following new features:
1. Removes many visplane overflows without loss of detail (-vp option).
2. Finds many visplane overflows (-vpwarn, -vpmark, -thold options).
3. Documents explaining visplane overflow theory.
4. Better interoperability with some editors (EdMap, DCK).
5. Option to avoid clobbering reject maps (-noreject option).
You can pick up your copy of BSP22x at the 'newstuff' directory of ftp.cdrom.com.
October 5, 1997
Remember I told you about Jim Dos,, that Ritual Entertainment programmer who is doing an OpenGL port for Doom in his spare time? There now is a progress page online.. check it out! Thanks to BahdKo for this info. While you're at it, check out her site... more members have been added to her "Quake Sucks Clan". Can't wait for GLDoom... now I can grab my BFG and frag those Quake suckers with an alpha-blended flash =)
October 4, 1997
Shareware HACX, by Banjo Software, has been released! This is really a "must have"... 21 levels, all-new graphics, all-new monsters, all-new music and sounds. Moreover, some of the better Doom2 authors have been working on it: Adam Williamson, Rich Johnston, Iikka Keranen, Adelusion, so expect to see some real good level designs. Another nice feature of HACX is the use of many breakable objects, including breaking glass that hurts you. You can get the shareware version (5.1 MB) from Walnut Creek (CA site) or from ftp.bmtmicro.com. More information can be found at Nostromo's HACX info page.
October 2, 1997
Didn't I tell you just two days ago that there would be no more Mordeth news for one or two weeks? Yes..? Then what are you doing here?! =P Ok, so I lied. Only a minor change since last time: I snipped this news section into a 'current' and an 'old' section.
September 30, 1997
This week I worked some more on Mordeth map07 plus created some more textures. I didn't have time to work some more on the sprites, but didn't feel like it anyway :) In the next week or two I will be mainly working on the Playful Minds project, since they need results soon. No time for anything else, I'm afraid.
The Doom Wad Yellow Pages are back online! (Info from Eric J. Roberts's site, thanks!) Unfortunately, maintainer Joe Pecoraro won't be updating or correcting the entries on this site anymore. And I just discovered that half of Intrepid's site just disappeared... sigh.
No good news then? Well, I did pick up some nice PCR-amplified bovine Y-chromosome DNA fragments using some of our new primers. Three of them can be used as probes (just isolated those probes from a TAE gel), two are probably suited to construct DNA fingerprints from different bovine races (testing that right now). But that's Real Life, so that doesn't count :)
September 24, 1997
Busy, busy, busy... Not only doing my last internship at the University of Utrecht, but also feeling my way into a new editor, hopefully to create some stunning levels for a new game by Playful Minds (no, don't ask for details:).
And I'm still working on Mordeth, of course, don't you worry =P Actually, I've found myself a texture designer on EFnet's #doom2. Please welcome Chrozoron on the team! Moreover, it seems that MDOnyx20 will be joining up again in a few weeks, too. Hmmmm!!!
Also a word on monster designing. I decided to change the graphics for the Mechanotron a little. Instead of the normal chaingunner I will have the Lieutenant as its commander instead. Yup, that's that green dude with the chainsaw! It's much more fun to see *that* monster climb out a burning Mechanotron instead of that whimpy chaingunner... "Grrr! You kill my Mech, now I gonna *really* hurt you..!" :)
Dr Funfrock finally replied. Or rather: I got his reply this time... seems my mailserver ate his previous one during a crash some time ago. He told me to contact Scott Coleman if I wanted to setup a new ifrag tracker, since he alone can give out the binaries. I'll keep you posted! And to speak with Dr Funfrock himself:
May the Force be with y...
Er... that's the wrong one. Hmm. Where did I put it..?
Shop smart! Shop S-Mart!
Blast! Wrong again! Cool movie, by the way :) Now, what does *this* button do..?
Keep ifrag alive!
Yup, that's the one! Ain't I great? =P
And last but not least... Happy Birthday, Dad..!
September 18, 1997
Yes! Apparantly HacX has gone gold today! This means that the release date won't be that far away now. In case you're wondering: HacX is the first commercial Doom2 TC developed by Banjo Software. For more information visit their site.
Oh, and some old news, only now brought to my attention (thanks SuperFly!). Apparantly the illustrous appearing and disappearing Doom movie is probably cancelled for good. John Carmack, lead programmer/co-founder of id Software was quoted in the August 27, 1997 edition of Blue's News saying:
The movie option lapsed, so it will probably never happen.
It's a shame really... I would love to see something like that on the big picture, although I would probably have some instinctive difficulty understanding why the hero on screen is not moving according to the things I do on my smuggled-in keyboard :)
September 16, 1997
Awww... someone feels sadly neglected reading about me thanking Dukrous (11/9/97)... Says Andrew Stine:
Thank ME! I started the updating trend on Functional Entropy... Duk just followed my lead. Yeesh, I don't get no respect :)Hehe, I thought giving him an entire newsblock would ease the pain a little. This one's for you, Andrew! :)
Also some sad news... the North American iFrag tracker (the only one currently alive) will cease to exist somewhere in the near future. Quote from Dr. Funfrock's site:
Yes the tracker will soon be gone we need to find a new home for it. Please if you know of anyone with a dedicated line somewhere let me know I will donate the machine with the tracker software on it to that person (486-33 16megs 300mb disk Linux). iFrag is a Daemon that runs on Linux or UNIX so any machine not doing a lot would also do. Remember there can be more than one tracker.So, if you can help him out, please mail Dr. Funfrock at dr_funfrock@ifrag.com. I have mailed him about it already, and if my domain maintainers are cooperative, Europe might get a working iFrag tracker in the near future.
September 14, 1997
The scourge of all level designers... no, not me: that bloody visplane limit! Argh! I have this new map section that continues to be plagued by it, and I'm getting real tired of it :( One thing is for sure, if we can believe John Carmack's intention for releasing the Doom2 source code in public domain, that limit just has to go! Moreover, we can expect all sorts of nice things... Right now, the Doom community is discussing what they would do with the source code once they get their hands on it. At the moment, the only concrete project is the OpenGL port for Doom2 by Jim Dose (from Ritual Entertainment) as you can read in his finger. Way to go!
Some more good news... a second beta version of WFrag95, the native Win95 version of iFrag, has been released. Well, good news for Win95 users of course... DOS users have been playing on iFrag all along :) I really hope this will draw some players back to Doom deathmatching, the real thing! More info on Dr. Funfrock's site.
September 11, 1997
I decided to revamp these pages. Now this main page will feature a regulary updated 'news' section. Like I didn't have enough work already... thanks Dukrous :) But seriously, he does have a good point... For those of you who aren't in the know, check out his ranting at Functional Entropy.
Speaking of which: I still need some good textures and/or sprite designers! Damn you, I know you're out there! Haul your ass over here to become a contributor! Sadly enough, I had to put some really good level designers on hold, because those new textures are still lacking. So, please! help me out!
Recently Final Doom has found a nice cosy place on my HD. Unlike what I always believed, it doesn't come with the original Doom2 v1.9, so I included a short description on how to install and play Mordeth for Final Doom in the Download Area section.
August 21, 1997
Added a Mordeth Bestiary! Now you can take a close look at the monsters you encountered in the first episode of Mordeth without getting punctured, scratched, maimed or otherwise injured. You even get a small preview of one the new monsters of the upcoming second episode!