Heretic+Hexen collection on sale only $3, Strife VE $2

[Gokuma]

Steam has the collection of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen, Hexen Deathkings of the Dark Citadel addon, and Hexen II for $2.99 until December 3rd.

 

This is your chance to legally acquire those all for very cheap.   But they are very bare releases.   Hexen and Hexen II are missing their CD audio tracks, though they include mus/midi format soundtracks that contain more songs.   And you can find Heretic and Hexen remix/remasters on the zdoom.org forums.

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=47983

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45789

I also recommend NeoWorm's widescreen fix for Hexen weapons:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/103770-hexen-neural-texture-pack/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-1953289

Hexen does NOT have the rare Hexen95 exe that was only found in one physical combo pack.   They mistakenly supply v1.0 of the addon hexdd.wad so it needs to be patched or you gotta find a copy of v1.1.   There are NO digital versions of the original manuals supplied for the Doom engines ones, except Hexen II has a good manual and other resources in html form in a subfolder.   I recommend checking guides for each steam release.  You can play Hexen II splitscreen with a sourceport.

 

This leaves out two releases:  Hexen II Portal of Praevus addon and Heretic II (based on Quake 2 engine while Hexen II is based on Quake 1)

 

Also of interest is Kevin Schilder's Last FM page https://www.last.fm/music/Kevin+Schilder

He was his whole game soundtracks as albums including Heretic that was previously only mus though there's an audio track remaster by Xeotroid.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Gokuma

[Super Mighty G]

Hm, I haven't actually played Hexen before. Maybe I'll check it out. 

[Vermil]

Don't they usually drop to this price in Steam sales?

[hybridial]

I wish the games were on sale from gog, but yeah they're good games, well worth owning. 

 

I find Heretic to be more fun to play using The Wayfarer's Tome but as standard practice dictates its best to play it vanilla and decide if you'd prefer the changes the mod makes. Its really more of a rebalance patch that also addresses some sound and hud issues with the game, and imo it makes it better but either way, fun game. 

[Gokuma]

Strife Veteran's Edition is only $1.99.

 

Now this release a lot was really put into it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/317040/The_Original_Strife_Veteran_Edition/

 

Also here's some digital manuals...

http://cuefactor.com/uploads/pdf/Heretic_Manual_DOS_EN.pdf (PDF version but B&W and maybe distorted)

Better Heretic manual scans but individual images:

https://archive.org/details/Hexen_Beyond_Heretic-Manual

https://archive.org/details/Heretic_II_Manual_PC

Edited November 29, 2019 by Gokuma

[Master O]

8 hours ago, Gokuma said:

Steam has the collection of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen, Hexen Deathkings of the Dark Citadel addon, and Hexen II for $2.99 until December 3rd.

 

This is your chance to legally acquire those all for very cheap.   But they are very bare releases.   Hexen and Hexen II are missing their CD audio tracks, though they include mus/midi format soundtracks that contain more songs.   And you can find Heretic and Hexen remix/remasters on the zdoom.org forums.

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=47983

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45789

I also recommend NeoWorm's widescreen fix for Hexen weapons:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/103770-hexen-neural-texture-pack/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-1953289

Hexen does NOT have the rare Hexen95 exe that was only found in one physical combo pack.   They mistakenly supply v1.0 of the addon hexdd.wad so it needs to be patched or you gotta find a copy of v1.1.   There are NO digital versions of the original manuals supplied for the Doom engines ones, except Hexen II has a good manual and other resources in html form in a subfolder.   I recommend checking guides for each steam release.  You can play Hexen II splitscreen with a sourceport.

 

This leaves out two releases:  Hexen II Portal of Praevus addon and Heretic II (based on Quake 2 engine while Hexen II is based on Quake 1)

 

Also of interest is Kevin Schilder's Last FM page https://www.last.fm/music/Kevin+Schilder

He was his whole game soundtracks as albums including Heretic that was previously only mus though there's an audio track remaster by Xeotroid.

 

https://www.gog.com/game/strife_veteran_edition is also discounted on GOG at 90% off. Its price is currently 99 cents (USD). Heretic and Hexen are strangely not available on GOG.

 

GZdoom has supported the single player mode for Strife: Veteran Edition since version 3.1.0 (May 2017), but GZdoom does not support Capture the Chalice (multiplayer mode).

 

To run Strife: Veteran Edition, you must place strife1.wad, voices.wad, and sve.wad all in the same folder as the GZdoom executable or wherever you've told GZdoom the location of your IWADs.  At the IWAD selection screen, select SVE.WAD for Veteran Edition.

[Gokuma]

Definitely get Strife from the DRM free platform GOG.

 

I also recommend Revenant100's Heretic Sprite Fix:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/64778-heretic-minor-sprite-fixing-and-widescreen-friendly-project-v10-release/?tab=comments#comment-1181820

[HavoX]

And done.

I now legally own a copy of Hexen AND Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. And it hardly cost me 3 bucks!

[Gez]

14 hours ago, Master O said:

To run Strife: Veteran Edition, you must place strife1.wad, voices.wad, and sve.wad all in the same folder as the GZdoom executable or wherever you've told GZdoom the location of your IWADs.  At the IWAD selection screen, select SVE.WAD for Veteran Edition.

GZDoom has been able to automatically detect your Steam and GOG games for years, there's no need to move anything. Just run GZDoom and it'll detect SVE if you have it installed.

[Foodles]

How would one get the Hexen 2 expansion portal of pravaeus?

[Gez]

The extension is currently not sold on Steam or any other digital distributor. So you have to either buy it second-hand in its physical media form, or get some abandonware version.

[beanz]

Why is it so difficult for companies to release complete and up to date versions of their old games? It cant all be due to licensing.

[Master O]

@beanz It's also especially strange how Hexen and Heretic are not on GOG, yet are on Steam.  

[TheNoob_Gamer]

23 hours ago, Master O said:

@beanz It's also especially strange how Hexen and Heretic are not on GOG, yet are on Steam.  

They belong to Activision's rights IIRC. And you know, AAA companies don't give a damn about GOG.

Except special cases like the Diablo and Warcraft rerelease on GOG of course.

[idbeholdME]

On 12/1/2019 at 12:24 AM, Master O said:

@beanz It's also especially strange how Hexen and Heretic are not on GOG, yet are on Steam.  

Tons of old games are like this unfortunately. On Steam but missing from GOG. Usually because the rights owners have the mindset of PC = Steam and can't be bothered to release anywhere else.

Edited December 4, 2019 by idbeholdME : Typo

[Gokuma]

Actually I think it's because they're the WRONG owners!

[Master O]

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/black_fridayholiday_2019_massive_giveaway_freeforallfirst_come_first_served/page1

 

If anyone here is on GOG, the above thread has a free Strife GOG key if you claim it quickly.

 

Edit: 12/3/2019 1:40 PM EST, the Strife key mentioned above has been claimed.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Master O

[ReaperAA]

59 minutes ago, Master O said:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/black_fridayholiday_2019_massive_giveaway_freeforallfirst_come_first_served/page1

 

If anyone here is on GOG, the above thread has a free Strife GOG key if you claim it quickly.

 

Thanks. I didn't claim strife(as I already have it) but I did claim for System Shock 2.