Arcade Explosion CD (1996) - anyone know what this is?

[Foodles]

We've had this old CD lying around for a long time now but I can't recall ever booting it up and seeing what was on it. It boasts that it contains over 2000 new levels for Hexen, Rise of the triad, Dark forces and some other games I've not heard of as well as some sort of level editors. It's made by the well known US Dreams inc (based in Holland?). I don't have a CD drive on my PC anymore so I was wondering if anyone knew what was on this - I imagine it's probably just a bunch of fan-made levels shoved onto a CD similar to maximum doom or something right?

 

I seem to recall we bought it mistakenly when we were trying to get hold of a copy of Hexen.

 

[YMB]

Looks like it's already been ripped and archived here. I'm guessing it's just another disc that ripped everything off of BBS (or early WWW, given the '96 date on this one) sites indiscriminately.

[Foodles]

2 hours ago, YMB said:

Looks like it's already been ripped and archived here. I'm guessing it's just another disc that ripped everything off of BBS (or early WWW, given the '96 date on this one) sites indiscriminately.

I figured that's what it probably was. I can't imagine that it was legal to do that sort of thing - selling other people's work even if they didn't include the IWADS. I could be wrong but I seem to remember buying this off Amazon way back.

[Redneckerz]

I have a very similar one but in Dutch. The font used is very similar, so this is as shovelware as you can get.

[Tompig]

That is some prime, premium, artisan shovelware. 

[Captain POLAND]

I wonder what Descent levels it has...

 

 

[Doomlover77]

It has >1000 levels for Heretic. Some are Doom > Heretic conversions ! Well worth looking at. @Doomlover77  

[Murdoch]

The cover picture is gloriously absurd.

[Foodles]

I'm kind of surprised that there even were 2000 levels made for these games back in 1996. I always thought of Heretic and Hexen levels as being quite rare - no idea about the other games but I imagine it's the same story.

[Andromeda]

9 hours ago, Foodles said:

I'm kind of surprised that there even were 2000 levels made for these games back in 1996. I always thought of Heretic and Hexen levels as being quite rare - no idea about the other games but I imagine it's the same story.

Not to burst your bubble, but it wouldn't suprise me if many of the Heretic/Hexen levels were simply converted Doom/Doom II levels.

[Doomlover77]

@Andromeda The Heretic levels on Arcade Explosion were converted from Doom. @Doomlover77  I have played them. 

[Foodles]

2 hours ago, Andromeda said:

Not to burst your bubble, but it wouldn't suprise me if many of the Heretic/Hexen levels were simply converted Doom/Doom II levels.

What a rip off - I'm starting to think this CD isn't legitimate at all. The boys at US dreams inc have really let me down this time!

[Sonikkumania]

Why is the guy on the cover obviously an American Football player when there's not a single sports game featured on the cd? Lol. 

[taufan99]

On 2/27/2023 at 9:37 PM, YMB said:

Looks like it's already been ripped and archived here. I'm guessing it's just another disc that ripped everything off of BBS (or early WWW, given the '96 date on this one) sites indiscriminately.

Looks like it has an MS-DOS virus inside it. I wonder if it's safe for access on modern devices.

[Murdoch]

13 minutes ago, taufan99 said:

Looks like it has an MS-DOS virus inside it. I wonder if it's safe for access on modern devices.

 

MS-DOS games won't even run directly on a modern OS, let alone a virus which is after all a program. You would have to run it in DOSBox. But if it is infected it would only be any shell or installer programs. You could likely load the data independently of that if you felt so inclined but I doubt the quality would make it worth the effort.

6 hours ago, Doomlover77 said:

@Andromeda The Heretic levels on Arcade Explosion were converted from Doom. @Doomlover77  I have played them. 

 

I remember encountering a lot of instances of that in Heretic shovelware discs back in my pre-Internet days. H!Zone was lousy with them if memory serves.