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Vegeta

Why do we call the supercharge, soul sphere?

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I know in the early alphas there was an item kinda similar to the mystic urn from Heretic/Hexen that was called "soul sphere", then replaced by the supercharge. Still if I'm not wrong we called these soul sphere even before knowing about the alphas (and in any case that doesn't really explains it as we don't call sarge demon at the demons, or demon troops at the imps, you get the idea).

If my memory doesn't fail me, the manuals also say "supercharge" (I'm too lazy to give a look). I bet first level editors contributed to this. Any idea?

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No, the manuals say Soul Sphere

And you forgot we also no longer call the Barons of hell "Bruiser brothers"

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The Soul sphere isn't called Supercharge in Doom either really. It's just an exclamation of what just happened to you.

Sort of like,
SUPERCHARGE! BOOYAKA!

But yeah, I actually still call it Supercharge when I speak to my friends about it, but that's partly because I'm swedish. It's a lot easier to say Supercharge, than Soul sphere, or Själ-sfär.... :p

This reminds me on how we used to call the teleporter's, "Cybers" before where I come from.

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Oh, my bad, lazy me.

kristus said:

This reminds me on how we used to call the teleporter's, "Cybers" before where I come from.


o_O lol

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First time I read about the soul sphere, I thought when you pick it up it changes the map music to Blue-Eyed Soul.

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kristus said:
The Soul sphere isn't called Supercharge in Doom either really. It's just an exclamation of what just happened to you.

Not necessarily. Since it's a noun it can be used as a name, and when you get a Megasphere the game also uses an exclamation mark.

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myk said:

Not necessarily. Since it's a noun it can be used as a name, and when you get a Megasphere the game also uses an exclamation mark.


Just because it can, doesn't mean that it is.

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kristus said:
Just because it can, doesn't mean that it is.

That applies to both assumptions, given the context. It can also be both (the fact of being charged extraordinarily as well as a name for the item), and since it can be both, it is both.

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I always thought "Circle of Death" was a much better name. "'O' of Destruction" sounds kind of stupid to me.

I am in the habit of calling it a soulsphere, although I always kinda wondered why the game always exclaimed "Supercharge!" instead. The above explanations make sense, I think.

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What did you think the first time you played doom, and you ran across one of the soul spheres of invis. sphere? I had never read the hand book so I was not sure what it was and I tried to shoot it. :P I avoided it till I found out what it did. Haha, stupid me.

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The first time I saw a soulsphere was E1M3, though I had no clue how to get to it and I didn't know what it did. I assumed it did something cool, though I couldn't determine what. That was the first time I played Doom, when 6 years old, so I didn't have the skill or insight to hunt around for it. The game freaked me out so thoroughly that I stopped playing it completely for another 8 years or so, when I rediscovered it and found it less mortifying. I don't remember exactly what happened when I actually used my first soulsphere, but I remember being pleasantly surprised when I got a whole crapload of hit points.

As for my first encounter with invisibility spheres...I had no clue what it did, and probably wasted it as a result.

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Maybe it's a developmental thing? Like they were originally going to call it "Supercharge!" but they changed it to Soul Sphere shortly before they made the manual that comes with doom. and they forgot to go back into the code and change it.

But maybe it is, like do you think the black medikit is actually called a "Berserk!"? Most people call them Berserk Packs. Is Berserk Pack in the manual?

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Clearly Doomguy from the Doom Comic is narrating the real Doomguy's adventures. "SUPERCHARGE! YOU'RE COOKING WITH GAS!"

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JohnnyRancid said:
Like they were originally going to call it "Supercharge!" but they changed it to Soul Sphere shortly before they made the manual that comes with doom.

I doubt it. They probably just called it "supercharge!" when they wrote that part of the code, and whoever wrote the manual identified it as "soul sphere". The names are just descriptive, and so that people can identify them. I doubt they were too concerned about finding exact and official names for each thing.

But maybe it is, like do you think the black medikit is actually called a "Berserk!"?

Coupled with the swap to the fist, that message shows you that you've suddenly "gone berserk" by consuming that item.

Is Berserk Pack in the manual?

Yes.

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kristus said:

But yeah, I actually still call it Supercharge when I speak to my friends about it, but that's partly because I'm swedish. It's a lot easier to say Supercharge, than Soul sphere, or Själ-sfär.... :p

I've always called them själaklot, after the SNES Doom guide in Super Power.

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Quasar said:

I call the Barons in E1M8 the Bruiser Brothers :P

KDiZD is better though. :)

The Soulsphere name comes from the fact that the item was meant to be a Doom version of Wolf3d's 1-Up (extra life), which also is a sphere containing a mirror of Blazkowicz. The Doom version no longer mirrors Marine, probably because Tom Hall had left id.

It's fictionally known as a soul sphere because it contains a soul which upon gathering will release itself and join your life adding 100% health in effect.

It's shouted as Supercharge! ingame because the chiefs wanted to emphasize the feeling, not the thing. Anyway this is what these items do. It's a common action game term too.

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Supercharge sounds much more like a name that UAC scientists would apply to it (a supercharge of life energy) rather than "soul sphere", which sounds like a quasi spritual name.

printz said:
KDiZD is better though. :)

It would have been pretty cool, had those things been the actual bosses instead of that big ugly thing at the end, and had they been placed in a more interesting area.

It's a common action game term too.

You mean it was used in games previous to DOOM (i.e., before '93). Examples?

It's a standard word, really; to charge something more than is usual or expected, or such a great charge or dose.

Fredrik said:
I've always called them själaklot

That means...?

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myk said:

You mean it was used in games previous to DOOM (i.e., before '93). Examples?

Not because of that, but because it's a generic term.

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Yeah that shitpile boss at the end of KDIZD was gay. I was really satisfied when I found myself with just enough ammo to kill the bruiser demons, but when I had to fight that last boss that was like completely irrelevant to Doom all together, I just quit.

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The worst part was the autosave after I ran straight into the lava pit.

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JohnnyRancid said:

Yeah that shitpile boss at the end of KDIZD was gay. I was really satisfied when I found myself with just enough ammo to kill the bruiser demons, but when I had to fight that last boss that was like completely irrelevant to Doom all together, I just quit.


At least they let you trigger his appearance without getting stuck in his area by inching over the cliff ever so slightly. Exploitowned.

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Vile said:

At least they let you trigger his appearance without getting stuck in his area by inching over the cliff ever so slightly. Exploitowned.

Even that was hopeless for me. Not enough ammo. And it wasn't nice to target him while avoiding the red deaths, Lost Souls either. I succeeded when after a more successful Z1M8 run I finally decided to switch to mouse-keyboard combo, in order to actually circle strafe him. Good way to make me switch to modern shooterplay settings, without dumb pleas in text files.

Back on topic.

Has anyone ever seriously thought of transforming the soul sphere into a monster of sorts which can break and dissipate if shot, with glass and water sounds? Sounds like arcade game material. The soul sphere, if not picked up, would try to supercharge walls as much as possible till it breaks. Maybe that can be done with the PROJECTILE flag.

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printz said:

Has anyone ever seriously thought of transforming the soul sphere into a monster of sorts which can break and dissipate if shot, with glass and water sounds? ... The soul sphere, if not picked up, would try to supercharge walls as much as possible till it breaks. Maybe that can be done with the PROJECTILE flag.


What?

I don't really understand what you mean with the whole "supercharging the walls" deal. Soulsphere as a monster itself is rather pointless.

'Ahh crap it's another one of those soul-thingies. I can either try and run past it quickly in the hope that I don't get healed, or waste a few bullets on it to avoid getting healed'

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printz said:

Has anyone ever seriously thought of transforming the soul sphere into a monster of sorts which can break and dissipate if shot, with glass and water sounds? Sounds like arcade game material. The soul sphere, if not picked up, would try to supercharge walls as much as possible till it breaks. Maybe that can be done with the PROJECTILE flag.


http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=12682

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Vegeta said:

Still if I'm not wrong we called these soul sphere even before knowing about the alphas (and in any case that doesn't really explains it as we don't call sarge demon at the demons, or demon troops at the imps, you get the idea).

I used to call them Supercharges before I was introduced to the doom community. But I called the demons demons instead of sarges and the imps imps instead of troops because their names were revealed at the end of Doom 2. I had used those names to describe the monsters ever since. I think eveyone else did the same. Soul sphere just showed up on doom websites some how. I dunno how that came about but it kinda flourished through the doom community.

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