Lenswot

http://bimshwel.com/awnaw/bimsh.zip ----- one more edit, for the first time in quite some time, this runs in the latest versions of this and that, but the zip up there does not currently reflect that. I have a bunch of high resolution textures to draw and some blue hand controlling to sort out, and THEN I will start asking for help in a less longwinded and futile fashion, and potentially remove this from my life within the year! ----- getting to the point: i have an ancient incomplete doom-based concoction that I have been trying to unload for nine yes nine years after I realized it couldn't be finished, as things were then. I got held up for a long time since zdoom updates kept breaking certain things, and I spent more time on those than moving forward. More recently I made a dedicated effort to get stuff working in newer ports so I could finally cut my losses, even if only from my mind, but that will be easier with features only added after 220, and I don't want to try and incorporate them in if there is no way to actually run this reasonably IN later versions, you see. I found the problem: //Thing_Projectile(random(const:55, 60), 147, random(0, 224), 10, -(128)); //delay(random(const:1, 6)); //restart; This script, which appears in the two levels which just by chance also have the most egregious line_horizon use, so I blamed that initially. In the absence of any feedback whatsoever from the game (or, you know, here), I had to try removing every other possible thing first. The script is supposed to drop a little rain droplet in about 500 different places in the level. The object is defined in my very old dehacked patch which zandronum doesn't like half as much as old zdooms does. However, that is not necessarily the problem since zandronum is more than capable of dropping 500 bloody pools at once without ye-olde medusa effect style lag, and in fact nothing appears at ALL with the old script, so i still don't know what went wrong. however, // SpawnProjectile(random(const:1, 6), "dwip", random(0, 255), 10, -(128), 0, 0); // delay(random(const:1, 6)); // restart; This script does the same thing, and would not have worked in old zdoom, so there I just went from being stuck in the past to being barred from it, and I am not certain this feels a whole lot better, but it is necessary. There is a LOT of other stuff that is screwed up. I am not asking about that, right now. for example, all the sound effects on the doors broke and I cannot access weapon 1 without the gun code no matter what I put in a script. I am not asking for help on that for the moment. Which does not mean you have seen the end of me, mind you, but that was the biggest barrier I could not get around, after my general lack of aptitude for acs script writing.

Box art for Japanese games tends, or at least tended to be less accurate since western marketers would try to "west" the games up so to, they thought, appeal to potential buyers better, without any input from the original developers (this is most often brought up with regard to the Megaman series). Id Software was in direct contact with Punchatz and so the game's character is accurately reflected. I always thought there was something fishy about that shotgun, based on its size appearing to change in the uncropped versions of the sprites, but oddly enough I did not get to looking up its model. I do not see the red cap on the title screen, though it looks as if the exact same picture of the shotgun was used for episode 4's end screen, just mirrored (again!) which has some orange light on it.

That could have been the case but the graphics in the wad only come out forward on the floor. I first noticed when I played one of those alpha versions that had a flat which said "TOM IS KING" that looked messed up on the ceiling. Not that it looked "normal" on the floor but the letters were forward. *edit* apparently I took so long to answer that I did not see Gez doing it more succinctly, though I wonder if I would have noticed the UAC logo being wrong in-game; it has vertical symmetry! But there are definitely flats based on patches that look the same. Hey what is going on with that distorted skull, upper-right-middle, in flat5_6?

You mean from the box art? I believe that was outsourced to a non-id artist, although there is no harm in adding some variety, even if for the sake of finishing in a timely manner the actual game lacks it (I say). What I wonder is why Doom2's box art is mirrored on the title screen. That and the sky graphics: why all the unexplained graphic reversing? The last thing that I thought was a mistake was not. Perhaps the game is treating it like a ceiling flat (which will always be backwards, matching up with the floor), even though it can be used on the ground, and is drawn like a wall texture.

I assumed it was an accident because I could load a save and go through the same area and not take any damage. Tricky! I did not expect "random" likely because all other floor damage was consistent. I never got to a point where I stood in the sector while using ironfeet to see if the damage could be depended on to occur. How often is this code saying it should happen?

Yes, by "implementation," I just meant its appearance in the game. I never looked at the code! Not recently, anyhow. (although I have seen bits of code before and "ironfeet" always amuses me) In fact I assumed that function was an accident.

I hate it too! Although I hate damage floors in general. Its implementation is certainly more bug-like than feature-like.

Keep in mind that most casual spider-demon usage in user made levels, and all three* of the Doom 2 implementations, has them surrounded by other things that will gang up on them almost immediately. And if you are a player who only uses the most efficient method for taking down any foe, this only amounts to two extra full force bfg blasts. I like fighting spiders with weaker weapons just because point-blank bfg feels too easy, most likely an oversight on the developers' part. I recently played something called faviae10.wad that had really good spiderdemon usage (but totally lame secrets prior to that encounter (but that is beside the point)). *edit* I forgot about map06 in which you just crush the poor thing and it cannot even leave the area! And is reduced to a truly pathetic bloody lump 1/32 its size. I think it only happens with the strongest level damage floor. I remember there was a discussion during zdoom development over whether that was a "bug" to be fixed or the game's way of telling you that a radiation shield is not designed to be a lava shield.

You could look at it like with the invulnerability sphere, in that the visual downgrade is a side-effect of the benefit. Although why need temporary power-ups necessarily have side effects? I will agree that the implementation is cheapish in appearance.

i think that is supposed to be a "bonus" level for afterward. The game start options could probably be more clear; selecting either "-----------" sends you to the final "boss" level. The correct start has a shot of a laptop computer. Although if you have a wrong version of the engine things will go wrong anyway. It looks like pez put a version of gzdoom in the ZIP, so I assume that works, though I have been using zandronum, myself. Which still generates console errors at startup but nothing IN the levels.

The trailer can give you a look at the surroundings without a full commitment, although it does not necessarily put across the tone of the levels once you are in them, but that is often the nature of "trailer"s. However, clearly people have played some levels, at least.

I suppose you should do what you must to keep yourself sane, but I hope if you got to a point where you wanted to have a wall scroll right instead of left you would consider touching an extended feature, since you already knew what you were looking for.

Good day citizens. I have played through this wad, and given some thought --perhaps too much-- to the matter and would like to say some things about it. Archie is a strange thing. It runs in Doom, and it uses Doom monsters, but it does not want to be Doom. It is almost more of an interactive avante-garde film than a doom project, though there are some periods of traditional violence to be had. It is not a "joke wad." It may have some jokes in it, but it is very serious. I think anybody who is interested in acs scripting or making a 20 year old game look new should try it out. I have run a few "ground breaking" wads here and there and they usually still look like doom, even if they replaced all the graphics (although it would help if they didn't just grab stuff out of Hexen or Duke3d which are directly related to Doom but that is another story). If you have to do it invincible, or with a key bound to the resurrect command, I say do not let that stop you. The wad seems to be daring you to make things as hard for yourself as possible, but in fact it is designed to keep you from winning if you do that. What Archie, the wad, wants the player to think of it is not revealed all at once. Even if you think this wad is too weird, or your computing system (like mine) absolutely chokes at some points for seemingly no reason, I think you should try and push through anyway, because the virtuosity with the scripting and engine mechanics is beyond or certainly different than anything I have previously encountered. I think what the wad needs at this point is specific feedback about what things do not work, and which ones really do, since up to now reports have been vague or based on usage of incorrect doom versions (the "dev builds" that have been chastised). Archie IS rather heavy on the vagueness of purpose up front, but If you feel like giving up, I would suggest warping via the console "map" command to map05 or map08end or map7end2 to see some of the later levels that do not require you to have any idea what is going on.

It seems to me like whatever artist designed the demons either did not know how ungulate legs worked, mistaking their ankles for reversed knees, or simply decided not to give them thighs. Doom 64 demons look to have both joints, when applicable. I still think the quality of id's art is higher, however.

I would venture that the midi output is not necessarily what Bob Prince had in mind when he made the music, especially since that can sound about 273 different ways depending on what midi setup somebody has. I was fortunate to like the corny dos adlib sounds. Notably that "dink" noise that comes out as a bland drum beat every other way I have heard it.