John Romero interview over at the Slayers Club.

[Eurisko]

I did post this in a topic but after re-reading the interview I think there's enough in there to warrant a discussion maybe?

 

Romero gave a nice interview over at the Slayers Club website discussing Mapping, SIGIL, mods ,his favourites and gave a shout out to @Linguica and Doomworld which I thought was cool.

 

Interview is right here.

 

https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/en/article/1vt4DnYWjIz6T8KbegBs8G/nods-to-mods-interview-john-romero

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Eurisko

[Rainne]

Quote

How about a whole new set of Hexen maps?

Yes. So very yes. Doom gets all the love around here but Heretic and Hexen need love too! Hexen in particular has a lot of untapped potential (and not just as a source of tech for new Doom stuff as though Doom is the only game that matters). I'd *love* to see what Romero could do with that.

[Gez]

Romero about Sigil:

Quote

Fighting through this new stygian abyss will be the greatest test of your endurance.

 

Romero about future projects:

Quote

How about a whole new set of Hexen maps?

With Hexen's hub system, I guess he'd create a labyrinth of worlds.

[cybdmn]

My guess is, he will do something with Quake.

[seed]

I would definitely be up for more Hexen. This game really needs more love, even Heretic started seeing more love recently...

[OleBumma]

lovely interview. we definitely want more of his content, 'cause he knows how to do it right!

[whatup876]

Years ago, i remember him not being fond of id Software being uder ZeniMax.

Wasn't there a time where he couldn't share stuff through dropbox because of Doom?

 

I hope this interview means ZeniMax became a lot (and i mean a LOT) less dickish in recent years. (although i don't see the relation with John Carmack change or any interest in releasing Doom 16's source code, even if it's not mod friendly)

 

But hey, at least things here sound positive until i brought this up so sorry on that one.

 

9 hours ago, seed said:

I would definitely be up for more Hexen. This game really needs more love, even Heretic started seeing more love recently...

 

Was there ever supposed to be a third Serpent Rider series, that just like Heretic/Hexen, would also share the same first two levels (HE) and still be connected to those?

I remember hearing it somewhere but i'm not properly informed on things, so...

[Doom_Dude]

Interesting interview. Glad you posted it, otherwise I'd probably not have seen it.

[Rainne]

26 minutes ago, whatup876 said:

Was there ever supposed to be a third Serpent Rider series, that just like Heretic/Hexen, would also share the same first two levels (HE) and still be connected to those?

I think there was only supposed to be one series; Hexen was supposed to be "Heretic II". They later on did make an actual "Heretic II" (with Corvus from Heretic as protagonist) and "Hexen II", so they diverged into two serieses, even though they weren't meant to. Hexen II deals with the third Serpent Rider, so it's kinda like Heretic - Hexen - Hexen II form a trilogy, with Heretic II as a gaiden game of sorts.

[cybdmn]

There was plans for a third game in the series called Hecatomb, but then Romero left id, and Raven made Hexen II, based on the Quake engine.

[Bauul]

That was a very nice interview! Good questions too.

 

When asked about favorite community wads, I found it interesting that he could so readily name even very modern releases like Ancient Aliens. Sigil is such an old-school feeling release one could hypothesize that Romero hadn't really been exposed to the more modern trends of Doom mapping. But it seems he very much has, and just really has his own specific way of making maps.

[seed]

10 hours ago, whatup876 said:

Was there ever supposed to be a third Serpent Rider series, that just like Heretic/Hexen, would also share the same first two levels (HE) and still be connected to those?

I remember hearing it somewhere but i'm not properly informed on things, so...

 

I don't think there ever was meant to be one, the trilogy ends with Hexen 2 and the last Serpent Rider, I don't think they ever planned on making yet another one.

 

10 hours ago, whatup876 said:

I hope this interview means ZeniMax became a lot (and i mean a LOT) less dickish in recent years. (although i don't see the relation with John Carmack change or any interest in releasing Doom 16's source code, even if it's not mod friendly)

 

That simply isn't possible. Doom 2016 uses proprietary libraries, making it impossible to open-source.

Edited January 15, 2020 by seed

[cybdmn]

You mean, it was impossible to release dooms source code, because it used the proprietary DMX library?

[seed]

On 1/15/2020 at 11:11 AM, cybdmn said:

You mean, it was impossible to release dooms source code, because it used the proprietary DMX library?

 

It's not the same thing, there isn't just one thing that needs replacement here for a potential open-sourcing, and I don't know if it is a simple dump-and-replace job either.

 

The comparison is also invalid as you simply cannot compare software that was written some 25 years ago with modern one. Furthermore, only the source of Linux Doom was ever released, the OG source of DOS Doom could never be unfortunately, and even then I think the source had no sound system in place at all, they literally stripped it of audio.

Edited January 16, 2020 by seed

[deepthaw]

I loved the part about Sandy Petersen just coming up with the title "Deathkings of the Dark Citadel" off the top of his head. Of course, the guy's one of the OG pillars of tabletop roleplaying so it's no surprise his neurons are just wired that way.

[Gez]

5 hours ago, cybdmn said:

You mean, it was impossible to release dooms source code, because it used the proprietary DMX library?

It was impossible to release the DOS Doom source code, because it used the proprietary DMX library.

 

It was possible to release the Linux Doom source code, because it didn't use this library. But even then, they asked Bernd Kreimeier (who had contacted id because he wanted to write a book about Doom's source code) to clean it of any remaining DMX hook first.

 

This is Doom source port history 101 stuff, people.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

13 hours ago, whatup876 said:

Was there ever supposed to be a third Serpent Rider series, that just like Heretic/Hexen, would also share the same first two levels (HE) and still be connected to those?

I remember hearing it somewhere but i'm not properly informed on things, so...

You're thinking of "Hecatomb":

There was more info somewhere that I'm not finding just now, but I remember something about the hub world being a castle with paintings (like a dark Mario 64 I guess?)  And there being a good/evil alignment system for the player characters.  The series ultimately went in a different direction though.

[cybdmn]

1 hour ago, Gez said:

It was impossible to release the DOS Doom source code, because it used the proprietary DMX library.

 

It was possible to release the Linux Doom source code, because it didn't use this library. But even then, they asked Bernd Kreimeier (who had contacted id because he wanted to write a book about Doom's source code) to clean it of any remaining DMX hook first.

 

This is Doom source port history 101 stuff, people.

Sure, that’s the known facts. What I wanted to say is that it may make things more complicated, but not impossible.

[seed]

21 hours ago, cybdmn said:

Sure, that’s the known facts. What I wanted to say is that it may make things more complicated, but not impossible.

 

No, it could just as well be nigh impossible depending on how much the engine is tied to the proprietary libraries, so a simple toss-and-replace job just can't work.

 

23 hours ago, Gez said:

It was possible to release the Linux Doom source code, because it didn't use this library. But even then, they asked Bernd Kreimeier (who had contacted id because he wanted to write a book about Doom's source code) to clean it of any remaining DMX hook first.

 

Speaking of which, wasn't the source also completely missing sound due to being literally stripped off of all audio stuff?

 

22 hours ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

There was more info somewhere that I'm not finding just now, but I remember something about the hub world being a castle with paintings (like a dark Mario 64 I guess?)  And there being a good/evil alignment system for the player characters.  The series ultimately went in a different direction though.

 

Aw man, this sounds so awesome already. What a waste.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

4 hours ago, seed said:

Aw man, this sounds so awesome already. What a waste.

Seems to have been a victim of both id and Raven kind of falling apart at around that time.  I don't think it got much beyond the idea phase.  Found it, anyway:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080721235541/http://www.johnromero.com/wiki/index.php/Hecatomb

Looks like I was misremembering the painting thing but the rest checks out.