REKKR - V1.16

I noticed some bugs with the ending screens of REKKR: Sunken Land:

• The credits image at the end of episode 1 is not the widescreen version. This is because the ending used here is "EndGame1", which (perhaps counterintuitively) does not use the credits image from the "infopage" list but rather the first image specified in the "finalepage" list in the GameInfo block in MAPINFO. Specifying the image in the way that episodes 2 and 4 do (with "EndPic") should work.
• I don't know whether this is intentional, but I'm reporting it here in case it is. The end text screens use black for the background instead of a graphic. This happens because MAPINFO redefines the clusters without specifying a flat. If the default backgrounds (FLOOR4_8, SFLR6_1, MFLR8_4, and MFLR8_3) are desired, then simply removing the cluster definitions and Dehacked change the text should do the trick. Otherwise, if you don't want the backgrounds to be black, you need to specify a flat in the cluster definitions.

In case you're wondering, I'm using GZDoom 4.7.1 to run the game. The same issues also occur with the version of GZDoom included with REKKR: Sunken Land.

Thanks for the heads up. Sunken Land intentionally has black as the background for the text screens. At first it was placeholder, but I never really cared for the tiled flats, and got more used to the black background. So I kept it.

I may or may not do anything about the credits thing, but I'll write it down. If I build up enough stuff that is worth fixing I'll do it all at once.

I've been toying with the idea of making a custom DOS exe for REKKR based on MBF maintenance release and the HacX 1.2 exe I built a while ago based on it. Took a bit of effort to remember how these things are done, but I managed to put this together:

• rekkr-mbf-220626.zip - MBF-based EXE + IWAD, ready to play in DOSBox*
• rekkr-mbf-src-220626.zip - source code

* DOSBox not included; drag-and-drop REKKRMBF.BAT over your DOSBox icon to play.

I have taken the liberty to use the extra menu text lumps that MBF needs from REKBONUS, and recently I PM'd @brightentayle asking for permission to use them, but haven't received a reply yet. I hope this is not a problem that I'm showing the MBF build as soon as I got it working, and @brightentayle is properly credited in REKKRMBF.TXT. The extra lumps are inside REKKRMBF.WAD.

UPD: Please see the posts below for newer versions.

Seems to work well. 

The slight sound lag is due to my PCem setup.

Made a few small updates:

• selecting INFO now shows the story screen followed by REKKR credits screen
• MBF Dynamic Help screen uses appropriate weapon names (shortened in some cases as needed)
• @brightentayle's extra menu lumps are now embedded in REKKR.EXE

I've also run REKKRMBF.WAD through WAD optimizer that was included with a release of FastDoom -- it compressed the file a bit but not sure if this impacts performance in any positive way. Hopefully it did not break anything.

Downloads:

• rekkr-mbf-220703.zip
• rekkr-mbf-src-220703.zip

UPD: This version is known to have bugs with key bindings. The minus key stops working after a while.

I've been noticing bugs with MBF built with GCC 4.7, specifically, the minus key stops working after a while, so I switched to GCC 2.7 and dropped the stand-alone IWAD. You can use the Freed∞m IWAD (version 0.7 is recommended because it does not have built-in text strings to override REKKR text) or The Ultimate Doom one if you have it, and the REKKR PWAD version 1.16a w/ texture fixes. REKKR.EXE is configured to automatically load REKKR.WAD alongside the IWAD.

UPD: The port has been updated, please see this post for the latest version.

Just take miniwad and repatch it to work with Doom 1, like I did

Nice, I wasn't aware of the miniwad.

On 3/15/2022 at 5:54 PM, brightentayle said:

P.S. Oh, also Crispy Doom won't play correct songs on most of Sunken Land's maps (aside from M1, M7 and M8 - and technically M9 even if it uses an old song). REKBONUS.WAD fixes that and adds the Crispness menu item, among other few things.

Which Crispness menu item does it add? I haven't been tracking Crispy Doom development for a couple of years...

On 7/19/2022 at 10:37 PM, SoDOOManiac said:

Which Crispness menu item does it add? I haven't been tracking Crispy Doom development for a couple of years... 

It adds a graphical lump for the Crispness item, not the whole-ass menu, it's already been in Crispy for honestly god knows how long.

So instead of this placeholder atrocity

you get this

Honestly, if you were curious, it takes nearly no time to download this and Crispy (and maybe SLADE, if you didn't buy Sunken Land yet want to use REKBONUS's extra resources)

Looks like, the official site (http://manbitesshark.com/) is long gone. You won't restore it, right?

On 5/1/2022 at 6:53 PM, Revae said:

Yeah, whoops. I didn't renew the domain.

I should do something about that.

On 7/21/2022 at 11:14 AM, brightentayle said:

It adds a graphical lump for the Crispness item, not the whole-ass menu, it's already been in Crispy for honestly god knows how long.

Really great, thanks a lot!

Could you please make the same style graphical lump SODOOMY?

That is the name for Crispness menu in So Doom, my fork of Crispy Doom.

I would like to resume some work on So Doom that I abandoned about 2 years ago, so I'll be really grateful for the SoDOOMy graphical lump!

12 hours ago, SoDOOManiac said:

Really great, thanks a lot!

Could you please make the same style graphical lump SODOOMY?

That is the name for Crispness menu in So Doom, my fork of Crispy Doom.

I would like to resume some work on So Doom that I abandoned about 2 years ago, so I'll be really grateful for the SoDOOMy graphical lump!

Honestly, it shouldn't take much effort if you have SLADE and any pixel editor of choice on standby - port menu graphics were a quick addition, just for completeness. In fact, REKKR has a BIGFONT lump, so that should simplify things a lot.

On 7/24/2022 at 11:50 PM, brightentayle said:

Honestly, it shouldn't take much effort if you have SLADE and any pixel editor of choice on standby - port menu graphics were a quick addition, just for completeness. In fact, REKKR has a BIGFONT lump, so that should simplify things a lot.

Thank you for the hint about the BIGFONT lump, that was easy :)

UPD: added the colorization to detail and messages settings' patches according to the colorization I have for text versions in So Doom.

REK_SODOOMY.zip

On 7/23/2022 at 8:14 AM, Dimon12321 said:

Looks like, the official site (http://manbitesshark.com/) is long gone. You won't restore it, right?

I keep meaning to make a subpage on my new website, but I just get busy with something else.

Lol. I lost the website files and had to recreate it from archive.org.
Luckily there is a cool tool you can get through chocolaty called wget that helped out with that.
Anyway: http://mockingbirdsoftworks.com/modversion.html
That's where it is for now. Eventually I'll remake the Mockingbird Softworks website in html anyway, because I like it better than the overly fancy block-chunk-modular thing I have atm, and link the mod version's page somewhere. But who knows how long that will take me.

On 3/9/2022 at 12:34 AM, brightentayle said:

You've heard of REKBONUS version 1...

 

...now get ready for REKBONUS version 2!

 

 

Duh.

 

Notable changes:

• All of E5 has deathmatch exits now
• E5M1's starting area has been modified due to 1) nodebuilder fuckery that ruined the girder by the ruin, 2) multiple push linedefs by the lamp which could rise the platform juuuuuuuuuuust a little too high, getting you softlocked, basically
• E5M2 has multiplayer-only shotgun and health potion in the starting room, just to make them a bit more viable in DMs
• One area in E5M4, with pillars, now has its' ceiling lowered. You know, just so there's no space between both of those things. That's architectural crimes, right there
• The only voodoo doll in E5M6 has been unlifed due to him not opening the door with -nomonsters on (I mean, how could he, when he doesn't exist?)
• Didn't modify or add a new DM arena to E5M7, sorry for not making it FFA-friendly
• E5M8 has a separate DM arena, which, for all the pixies it's got flying around, now also has an actual mana weapon, and a proper exit
• E5M9 has a separate DM arena with more axes, weapons and an immediate exit
• E5M9's museum section now also has Djinn, Runeportal and Gardien from Sunken Land for you to crush
• For you marathon runners, I've put back the original versions of Flurrious and home.wad as E1M10 and E5M10 respectively, with working exits (no DM ones, though)

How to use: drop the fucker into the REKKR: Sunken Land folder. Presto.

 

It should technically support Unity Doom now, but you'd need to merge REKKRSL.iwad and REKBONUS.wad for it to work (Unity Doom can only do one PWAD at a time (good port lol)).

Being a proverbial tinkerer (as Doom 2016 achievement says) I fixed the font size of M_GDLOW, M_GDHIGH, M_MSGOFF and M_MSGON patches :)

REK_CRISPY_BONUS_FIX.zip

@Revae, please check the matching of doors & keys in all maps of REKKR: Sunken Land -

looks like to this day there is a blue skull key in E2M1: On Fire (really great mapping and pixel art style you have!), but there is no door opened by it, I checked with IDDT.

6 minutes ago, SoDOOManiac said:

@Revae, please check the matching of doors & keys in all maps of REKKR: Sunken Land -

looks like to this day there is a blue skull key in E2M1: On Fire (really great mapping and pixel art style you have!), but there is no door opened by it, I checked with IDDT.

Assuming it's the same as in v1.16, the blue key is used on the switch that raises the bars in front of the exit.

5 minutes ago, Shepardus said:

Assuming it's the same as in v1.16, the blue key is used on the switch that raises the bars in front of the exit.

Thank you, I guess it remained unchanged. Gonna double-check.

REKKR? More like Rekking my shit

This wad is really cool! I just tried it tonight as a chaser after an extended Half-Life sesh. The aesthetic alone makes this one of the most unique WADs I've played in a while. Nice job gang!

14 hours ago, SoDOOManiac said:

@Revae, please check the matching of doors & keys in all maps of REKKR: Sunken Land -

looks like to this day there is a blue skull key in E2M1: On Fire (really great mapping and pixel art style you have!), but there is no door opened by it, I checked with IDDT.

Yeh, as said before, it's the switch by the exit. I probably should've marked it as a blue key switch, but I didn't. If you got the blue key beforehand you'd never have noticed.

Thanks for the kind words @Sr_Ludicolo!

11 hours ago, Revae said:

Yeh, as said before, it's the switch by the exit. I probably should've marked it as a blue key switch, but I didn't. If you got the blue key beforehand you'd never have noticed.

Thank you, that switch linedef really blinks blue in Crispy Doom with IDDT.

BTW, the borders of secret sectors and sectors leading up to them (e.g. E1M1) aren't displayed on the automap without IDDT. Is that intentional? Did you use some Vanilla mapping parameter?

14 minutes ago, SoDOOManiac said:

BTW, the borders of secret sectors and sectors leading up to them (e.g. E1M1) aren't displayed on the automap without IDDT. Is that intentional? Did you use some Vanilla mapping parameter?

There are three vanilla line flags that affect how a line appears on the automap. "Shown" makes it seen from the start, without the player having to see it first. "Hidden" is the opposite, hiding the line even if the player saw it. "Secret" makes the line appear as a one-sided wall even if it's really a two-sided line. So with "hidden" and "secret" you can make a secret area disappear and the opening to the secret area look like a regular solid wall.

Yeah, that was intentional. I was setting up the automap with some standards that are a little off for the doom norm. Usually it's just the secret door that's not shown on the automap, but I hid all secrets. That makes the map powerup pretty much just for traversing the map and seeing normal areas you haven't been. I also hid lines that were just overhangs, so the only thing that shows up yellow on the map is doors... I hid things that weren't structural like broken floor tiles and such, unless they were descriptive for the room (like pools of water or what-have-you).
The secrets thing confused some people in some cases, so I probably should've just stuck with doom community standards. Too late.

On E2M6, two secrets are unreachable because they're to small to trigger. I adore this TC, but surely someone would have picked up on that when playtesting?

I know. It was fixed in Sunken Land, but I haven't rolled those fixes over to the original yet because whoops.

2 hours ago, Revae said:

I know. It was fixed in Sunken Land, but I haven't rolled those fixes over to the original yet because whoops.

Ah i see, the difference in versions. Good to know that people picked up on these things, so far that's the only broken secrets ive found.

Any plans for a new episode I'm really enjoying the 2nd episode (As far as I've gotten).

On 8/21/2022 at 3:01 AM, Bob9001 said:

Any plans for a new episode I'm really enjoying the 2nd episode (As far as I've gotten). 

Sunken Land is the new episode, though

10 hours ago, brightentayle said:

Sunken Land is the new episode, though

Yes i know that, having made it to episode 4 now, i don't know where this sunken land is.