Quest for the Necronomicon v1.9 update

Anybody remember the Quest for the Necronomicon add-on?

Yeah, that old POS crude "total conversion" with way too many problems to list them all, which also has the "bad luck" of belonging to those early add-ons which are tied to a specific version of the game and to a customized installation procedure. Just to mention a few:

• Only works correctly with Doom v1.666
  
• Dependant on custom installer with mixed WAD/external resources.
  
• Uses v2.0 binary Dehacked file...ouch.
  
• Malformed TEXTURE1 lump which confuses the hell out of most source ports.
  
• Missing TEXTURE2 lump, which makes it useless with the v1.9 IWAD.
  

Pretty bad, huh?

Now, for your convenience, I had a whim to repackage it into a form that is more easily "digested" by modern source ports, kinda like what has been done with OTTAWAU.WAD. This includes:

• Ultimate Doom compatibility
  
• Dehacked 3.0 compatible DEH file
  
• Single WAD file with standard DEUTEX patch/sprite/flat markers.
  
• Cleaned up TEXTURE1 lump and patch names, added missing TEXTURE2 lump.
  
• Works with Chocolate Doom (mostly OK), prBoom+,
  

So now you can enjoy it in all of its glory. Before I submit this ehm...masterpiece to idgames, I'd appreciate some comments/playtesting, as there are still some lingering bugs/imperfections to iron out (e.g. Chocolate Doom displays flats wrong, prBoom+ isn't totally happy with the DEH file etc.).

Well, here it is. Give it a shot.

Current version

Screenshots:

Heh, I remember getting this on a shovelware CD as a kid and trying so hard to get it to work. Never did.

You should be ashamed of your blatant disrespect for copyright laws and the original author's vision; which your attempt at fixing bugs and simplifying installation twists and perverts beyond recognition.

You monster.

^ lol myk, is that you?

BTW, the original is SO broken that the levels aren't even in the proper place: the music is "remixed" crudely with dehacked to re-arrange the E1 songs, but the new levels are all in E2, even though they are mentioned to be E1 in the (equally terrible) readme. And check out the "SKY1" patch....

I think that's one case where one has to go through some effort to actually RESTORE the original creative vision, unless their intention was to make a buggy TC with tutti frutti textures and malformed lumps :-p

This is actually a worthwhile TC, under the skin: it's for Doom 1 v1.666, yet it uses Doom II features like homing projectiles, the equivalent of chaingun dudes etc.

It's surprising how this was not playtested at all, and the authors self-neutered their own hard (?) work.

Maes said:
BTW, the original is SO broken that the levels aren't even in the proper place: the music is "remixed" crudely with dehacked to re-arrange the E1 songs, but the new levels are all in E2, even though they are mentioned to be E1 in the (equally terrible) readme. And check out the "SKY1" patch....
[/B]

Ah ha! I thought something was up. Now I'll go try it.

I uploaded a slightly bugfixed version in the OP.

I manually edited the DEHACKED file to correct some discrepancies, and set the music changes to be played at episode 2, rather than episode 1 (all levels are in episode 2).

I tested it with ZDoom (works OK, as OK as the mod itself allows), prBoom+, and Chocolate Doom (by using the -merge NEC_19.WAD -deh NEC_19.DEH command-line syntax).

A lot of stuff like the attack/pain frames of the "disciples" may look wrong (e.g. you see cacodemon frames) but that's exactly what happened in the original. What I DID fix however was the blank textures, wrong patch names, etc. that resulted in a tutti-frutti fest, EVEN when used with the correct v1.666 version of vanilla Doom.

Current version.

After I receive some feedback (and try it myself), I will eventually upload it to idgames as an accuratized/modernized/bugfixed version for SOURCE PORTS ONLY. On demand, I can try to make a fully vanilla v1.9-friendly version of the installation package.

I gave it a go in GzDoom. A lot of the items, monsters, and projectiles are completely invisible, as I found out when the air in front of me hissed and began scratching me. I don't know if this was intentional, but when you fire the blunderbuss, there's about a half-second delay before it actually fires.

Also, this WAD is terrible.

Thanks for pointing that out, I fixed the "invisible" sprites problems in the current upload (same URL), I had left in the bogus 8-byte DEUSF entries in the merged PWAD -_- Keep in mind that you will see a mishmash of normal Doom pickups and sprites and modified ones. Also, ZDoom complains that "sprite name 148 is out of range". This is caused by setting Sprite 35 in DEH to point to the CPOS sprite name, which should be legal...*shrug*

Yeah, the blunderbuss is supposed to have a large delay (but it does more damage than a normal shotgun, it seems, as it actually uses the SSG codepointers).

As for the WAD being generally terrible even after polishing it...well, I guess it's true what they say: you can't polish a turd ;-)

Yeah, the sprites seemed fine in the current version.

Another thing with the blunderbuss, it seems to be missing a fire sound. Also, a couple of the weapon slots are messed up. I pressed 4 thinking I would pull out the chaingun replacement, but it was the blunderbuss. So I pressed 3 thinking that the slots were swapped, but slot 3 was also the blunderbuss. I was like "WTF", so I pressed 3 again and then it switched to the chaingun.

Another oddity was the way the trees break, the offset for the animation is wrong or something. Shoot a tree with the crossbow/rocket launcher, you'll see what I mean.

Megalyth said:

Another thing with the blunderbuss, it seems to be missing a fire sound.

It actually is supposed to sound like the SSG's firing sound, which works ok in vanilla, chocolate and prBoom+. ZDoom and GZDoom however mute this sound, perhaps on the basis that the Ultimate Doom IWAD is used. Just another side-effect of a "doom" mod using doom2 features which, I gotta admit, is very unusual and I don't remember it being done in other mods.

Megalyth said:

Also, a couple of the weapon slots are messed up. I pressed 4 thinking I would pull out the chaingun replacement, but it was the blunderbuss. So I pressed 3 thinking that the slots were swapped, but slot 3 was also the blunderbuss. I was like "WTF", so I pressed 3 again and then it switched to the chaingun.

That's how it's supposed to work, more or less. Picking the "repeating pistol" is assigned to slot 3 (it's essentially a chaingun, but it's de-hacked to trump the normal shotgun), while the "musket" gets assigned to slot 4, trumping the chaingun.

If you cheat with IDKFA, you actually do get 2 weapons in the same slot (3), because the musket is actually the SSG, and you once again have a conflict between Doom and Doom II features, which is handled very differently accross ports. You can't do that in doom.exe or chocolate or prBoom+.

Megalyth said:

Another oddity was the way the trees break, the offset for the animation is wrong or something. Shoot a tree with the crossbow/rocket launcher, you'll see what I mean.

*shrug* will have to verify that visually, since I didn't touch anything regarding offsets in the PWADs. Chances are they simply did a poor job aligning them. I was surprised to see that the maps themselves were free of mapping errors, though.

Yeah, I kinda figured the tree animation was just shoddy work on the original author's part. I wasn't sure what length you're going to go to trying to fix the WAD, so I wanted to mention every weird thing I happened upon.

Maes said:

If you cheat with IDKFA, you actually do get 2 weapons in the same slot (3), because the musket is actually the SSG, and you once again have a conflict between Doom and Doom II features...

That makes sense, and I had a feeling it was something along those lines. The only reason I pressed 3 twice to begin with was that I forgot I was playing Doom and not Doom2. *derp*

There are a few other minor issues, e.g. prBoom+ just doesn't work with the dehacked method of re-arranging music tracks (but it does work fine in vanilla/choco/ZDoom), and ZDoom doesn't play back the spear's clickity-clackety sound. Plus, some sprites like those D'sparil-disciples lookalikes lack animations for certain angles and they transform into cacodemons...plus on occasion they get stuck in an always-firing pattern.

The variety of foot-soldiers however keeps gameplay interest somewhat high, although it's ridiculous to see a spear guy kicking the ass of a repeating pistol dude ;-)

There are also some nice touches along the TC, such as these:



Too bad the authors didn't take this too seriously back then, and the sequel they had announced never came to be.

As for fixing stuff....well, depends. I already fixed stuff that broke the engine itself (like malformed texture/patch names) and adapted the DEH patch, but for the rest I feel it should remain as close as possible to how its authors left it (rather than how they intended it to be). That being said, fixing the trees should be easy...but I'm not gonna draw missing sprites. At most reuse some frames ;-)

is that a poo pistol? What am I looking at there? It literally looks like doggy doo-doo with a metal tube sticking out of it... a poo bong. I'm not just trying to be crude here. Seriously. What is it?

Interesting.

Is there any chance that you would fix that old partial conversion called Obituary? I would love to play it on ZDoom or GZDoom, but it doesn't work with the new weapons and monsters because of the way it was modded in the 1990es.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAa oh my god. I don't fucking believe it. I have been looking for this for years on end. I thought it looked familiar. I played this like 14 years ago and could never find it since!

Oh god thank you! :D

NiuHaka said:

is that a poo pistol? What am I looking at there? It literally looks like doggy doo-doo with a metal tube sticking out of it... a poo bong. I'm not just trying to be crude here. Seriously. What is it?

It's supposed to be a flintlock pistol of sorts (you can even see the hammer in full screen shots). I find more hilarious the hand giving you the finger in the status bar if you cheat ;)

@Tetzlaff: I had this in mind myself. The procedure involved must be more or less the same.

Maes said:

It's supposed to be a flintlock pistol of sorts (you can even see the hammer in full screen shots). I find more hilarious the hand giving you the finger in the status bar if you cheat ;)

Heheheh I sound like a teenager saying this but it still looks like a poo-bong to me.