Shovelware Society #21 - APOCLPS2.WAD!

[Gibbon]

Come back to the motherland

[LadyMistDragon]

Vacation has shovelware written all over it, but urmeat does sound funnier

[LadyMistDragon]

Yer meat has won, by the biggest landslide ever!! Get those videos and demos up everyone!

 

[EnrichedUranium]

I don't have time right now to do a demo, but I attached the WAD to this post for the non-D!Zone Gold Havers

URMEAT2.zip

[brick]

The thread title still references WAX.WAD so I sneaked in a playthrough of wax2.wad.

And I wish I hadn't.

I won't sugar-coat it, the wad is awful. Misaligned textures, yellow key bars that are non-key-requiring lifts, punching revenants and arachnotrons, punching an archvile, a precision jump into a hidden passage that you can't see and that turns out not to even be needed, SS nazis for no reason, weapon changes that make the SSG technically less useful than the base shotgun, switches hidden as other textures, some required and others not... Of course most of the gameplay problems, especially with respect to the dearth of weapons and ammo, wouldn't have been problems at all if those yellow bars hadn't thrown progression off so completely. It's a shame too because some of the detailing is actually quite nice, and if this is truly a 1995 map would've even been quite good for the time. The sewer-like passages are well done but the subway station and train are striking, especially compared to some of misalignments earlier. I can't say I enjoyed playing it but it was worth a look for some of that detailing.

 

BTW the rocket secret teleporter doesn't require an AV jump, it's possible to do so normally, you just have to run off the middle platform at exactly the right speed to land inside the passage. It's hard to get right just because you can't see at what height you're supposed to land.

[Gibbon]

It’s officially changed now.  Darn these timezones.  It’s aliens I’m tellin’ ya

[Luleta]

i have become meat 2

here's my blind playthrough of meat2.wad with live commentary for the first time ever :OOOO

Spoiler

thoughts: i say most of it in the video but... yeah kinda funny not very fair. having to hump walls on a  dark nukage maze for a required secret sucks, there's a lot dumb secrets that you basically gotta hump walls to get through. it's not a very good map conventionally,  but its a very VERY GOOD MAP in an entertainment setting.

sure it's bullshit but it's funny so... i liked it kinda.

if you watch the live com id appreciate any feedback on the comments or whatever, this was fun so i may do it again. (also if there's one thing wax2 taught me is that fdas suck when maps are bs and random)

[Gibbon]

Well here it is, urmeat2.

Spoiler

 

I tried to find all the secrets, but alas I was not worthy.  Very generous though with those secrets I did find!

 

Tons of mandatory hidden areas, semi-mandatory secrets (if you want ammo) some backtracking and running around like a goon.  Wasn’t terribly bad but isn’t terribly good either.  I tried 3 times to do this on UV and gave up so this one is on skill 2.

[brick]

URMEAT2.WAD

Loleta's reason for picking Doom II wads because doubly funny when you realize the D!Zone version here is a conversion of what's originally a Doom I wad. On the bright side, we get the SSG and a couple of more fun encounters (I liked the archvile). On the other hand... more d_runnin.

I agree with Gibbon, I didn't find the map terribly good but I also had more fun with it than I expected. It's pretty shovelware with the abrupt texture changes, mandatory secrets (I had to look up the yellow key; the room it's in doesn't appear on the automap even after you find it) and the overall unpolished feel, but it also has that shovelcharm, and some genuinely good ideas. Spectres are used really well, there are lots of chaingunners but they aren't too obnoxious, the archvile behind the wall of demons is a good tense moment. The last hallway to the exit gives you the choice of running through (recommended by author) or killing everything, the latter is actually reasonably easy if you found the BFG secret. Good fun overall!

[LadyMistDragon]

Ur Meat

 

Well this was a map. Enemies stuffed together with no logic or reasoning. Powerups located in incoinvenient spots for no other reason than to irritate the player. Cyberdemons stuffed into a map for no other reason than to look cool. And generally illogical design all around. Hey, why don't we stick the yellow key behind the goggles? Nah, best to put in behind a random alcove just before it. Why require a random texture the blue key? Who cares? The answer lies somewhere blowin' in the wind, like the BFG. Just annoying at first, but was won over by the time, barrels started to show up in large numbers.

lmd_urmeat.zip

[EnrichedUranium]

Week 19 - URMEAT2

 

So good things about this map.  It reminded me of Terry Bisson's short story They're Made Out of Meat, and this short film of it.

 

 

Cons:

This map suckkkkkkkkkkked.  My first attempt ran into some engine bug that made ghost enemies.  The map didn't get better.  Required secrets, normal doors that were just normal ass alligned wall textures, the shapes museum exhibit on enemies shoved into hallways.  I grabbed an invuln and sprinted, pressed on the correct door found the exit and left.  No UV Max, no looking for secrets, I don't care. 

 

urmeat2-00002.lmp.zip

[sandwedge]

Welp.

 

 

YT description:

Played in GZDoom blind on Ultraviolence. This is another gem uncovered from a shovelware disc full of stolen, commercially sold levels. I've been playing some real pieces of work from this D!Zone Gold CD lately, and I don't mean that in a good way. But that means this one actually looks pretty good in comparison. Even with the mandatory secret progression, improper red key texture use, bland hallways and boss spam, it looks like an absolute masterpiece next to standouts like Wax2. For one, there's actually enough ammo to deal with stuff where you need to. I was never teleported into a softlock. Yeah, the bar for shovelware is low, but hey I actually completed this level and parts of it weren't half bad. In general I would give this a 2/10, for shovelware 10/10.

 

..so yeah, this wasn't too bad for shovelware.  the end seemed pretty messed up but it's not too bad to get through.  don't know why those invincibilities are there, but i missed some secrets... yet i doubt theres enough ammo to deal with the 20 or 30 cyberdemons.  it's still kind of a fun gauntlet to run at the end.  after wax2 I guess I have pretty low standards, lol.

[Gibbon]

Alright!  Another Wednesday, another voting session!

 

The wads this week (all for Doom 2):

 

THOR.WAD - soulsphere

OMEGA_II.WAD - megasphere

LOCO.WAD - Invuln

BARFIGH2.WAD - Invisibility

 

Prime wads right here.

[brick]

I have no idea what any of them look like but I can't not vote for THOR.

[Walter confetti]

Omega II is a cool map, but loco inspires me the most

[EnrichedUranium]

One of these days we're gonna play a sequel map, and its gonna be great.

 

BARFIGH2 it is

[FEDEX]

 

2 hours ago, Gibbon said:

Alright!  Another Wednesday, another voting session!

 

The wads this week (all for Doom 2):

 

THOR.WAD - soulsphere

OMEGA_II.WAD - megasphere

LOCO.WAD - Invuln

BARFIGH2.WAD - Invisibility

 

Prime wads right here.

 

Hi Gib ! Are they all from "D!Zone Gold" ?

[LadyMistDragon]

3 hours ago, EnrichedUranium said:

One of these days we're gonna play a sequel map, and its gonna be great.

 

BARFIGH2 it is

Like Fred 2?:D)

[Dusty_Rhodes]

bar fight 2 bar fight 2 bar fight 2 BAR FIGHT 2 BAR FIGHT 2 BAR FIGHT 2

[Luleta]

as a spanish speaker i voted for loco but.... barfigh2 sounds cool just cuz the name says BARF :^)

[Gibbon]

5 hours ago, FEDEX said:

 

 

Hi Gib ! Are they all from "D!Zone Gold" ?

Yes they are

[LadyMistDragon]

Ok, Bar Fight has won! Let's give it until, say Thursday to get your recordings in. Get psyched!

[Luleta]

aww yeah barf time

[pampoo79]

@xvertigox Do you have "violence in 3d" ? I think that's what the cd-rom was called that got me into Doom modding...

[Gibbon]

I have updated the OP with the new wad.

 

I will be sitting this one out and doing some coding instead.

[EnrichedUranium]

BARFIGH2.WAD

 

Spoiler

I can see the attempt at making a bar, even if I don't quite see all the resemblance.  Whole lotta brown and not too many encounters.  Very symmetrical and tight quarters.  Honestly, it probably took me longer to think what to write here than it did to finish.   Too short for me to really put too much effort into this review.  

 

If you trim out some of the doors and size up the map by about 2 times, it might not be a bad DM map. 

 

barfigh2.lmp.zip

[brick]

BARFIGH2.WAD

Pure shovelware deathmatch map. Texture misalignments (the one on the exit switch is hilariously glaring), texture repeat in height (doors sort of get away with it, the exit switch again looks awful), the map is very flat, very symmetrical, most doors are hidden for some reason. It's clearly not meant to be played SP but I'm not sure just how fun it would be in DM either, it's too flat and too corridor-y. The bar itself is the highlight, but even there the detailing is so basic and I don't think it would make for very exciting gunfights since there's nowhere to hide in the room. I can't find anything about the map, depending on how old it is I might look on it a bit more favourably.

[LadyMistDragon]

BARFIGH2

 

Dude, learn to spell! But this map is pretty cool! Short and sweet, yet with a structure no real mapper would ever engage in. Hilarious how you'll end up with a rocket launcher before shorgun most likely. The barrel falling down on me was a crowning moment. The invisible doors weren't really a big deal since they mainly just led to more ammo. All the crates and shit really made me think there was some attempt at a real location, if not a bar. Placing the exit behind a Deimos Anomaly stone-wall was a nice touch for Shovelware. No, it's not as good as Omelet or DDS1, but what is? Fred 2 had more, but um yeah.

lmd_pandora_barfigh2.zip

[sandwedge]

This incredible map speaks for itself.  I really felt like I was getting punched in the face in a bar in the mid 90's, 5 health potions/ 5

 

 

[EnrichedUranium]

I put by hands over my monitor, like a fortune tellers orb, and asked it to show me the four top tier wads that will defy all shovelware expectations and be excellent cacoaward winning maps.  And my monitor displayed to me these four wads:

 

chrisk11.wad - Doom 1 (E1M1) - Soulsphere
cldf1.wad - Doom 1 (E1M2) - Partial Invisibility
apoclps2.wad - Doom 2 (MAP01) - Invulnerability
jim02012.wad - Doom 2 (MAP01) - Megasphere

 

We've still got a bit of time for the folks who want to submit barfigh2 videos/demos, but here are your choices for Week 21.