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BlueFireZ88

The Lost Episodes of Doom (ZDoom Special Edition)

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In January of 1995, a level set for Doom 1 was actually given a commercial release through a book sold through retail stores.

Dubbed, "The Lost Episodes of Doom", the book (written by Jonathan Mendoza and published by Sybex) contained a set of techbase style levels designed by Christen Klie and Bob Carter, acting as a parallel story to Doom 1 by taking place on Jupiter and its moons. The book itself acted as, not only a strategy guide, but also insight into how the levels were made by Klie and Carter.

The purpose of this project is to reintroduce this classic level set by using features introduced in ZDoom to make the game feel more independent of its base game, and really delve into the science and story behind it. Actual research was done on Jupiter and its moons to up the presentation of this level set, by making the setting as close to Jupiter as possible, as opposed to Mars.

The text file included explains more on the story, levels, and features of the wad.

A Patch Version is available for those who already have the original levels and can use the patch in conjunction on ZDoom to have the working effect.

Get it Here:
http://files.drdteam.org/index.php/files/get/7YTNYANRkh/jptr-zdpatch.zip

I hope you enjoy this classic set the way I have.

Screenshots:
E1M5: Weapons Research Center
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y297/Sarah_Fraggle/BlueFireZ88-Doom/LE1.png
E2M7: The Draining Pit
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y297/Sarah_Fraggle/BlueFireZ88-Doom/LE2.png
E3M2: Pillar of Peril
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y297/Sarah_Fraggle/BlueFireZ88-Doom/LE3.png

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Cool, I've been waiting for you to announce this, ever since that vague post on the Doom Expanded thread. Fished up my Lost Episodes wad too. Was even going to play it last night, but chose Master Levels instead.

I guess I know what my next wad is for certain!

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Yeah, I kept putting this off because of school (and recently Minecraft :P), but I knuckled down and released it.

BTW, you have a Lost Episodes wad like mine or am I reading that wrong?

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Yeah, the full version probably shouldn't be posted here, unless there's a precedent for it or someone higher up on the DW staff okays it. It's a gray area because the collection was a commercial product, but most of the maps within it were originally released individually for free.

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Yeah, I have the actual Lost Episodes

It'd be nice if it were freely available these days, or failing that, available on Steam/GOG

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In some ways, never anything truly definitive though. Im using the awesome ZDoom frontend for them, but it doesnt fix the horrible bugs on a few of them. One of Chris Klie's levels isnt even completable without using IDCLIP :/

As for Lost Episodes, the only thing I ever disliked about them (ignoring the devious way they were sold) was the complete lack of secret levels. Every time those are missing, I feel like im playing an incomplete product.

EDIT: My brother had my original Hell To Pay + Perditions Gate files on his computer. Crisis averted!

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I was able to complete the Lost Episodes without issue when I played them in the past.

Regarding this patch, to be honest, I was expecting some more interesting than a sky and level title pack.

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Well, now I'm curious,what would have felt could have more been done with it?

I mean, remaking the levels could be an idea, but I don't really have time for that these days. I was lucky to get this and Expanded out there. I dunno, maybe someone else could take up that challenge. Personally, I would have added a couple more episodes to cover the other two Jovian moons, Europa and Ganymede.

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Well, I mentioned it over in the zDoom thread but I'd like some different music. Something more 'Jovian' than the same old Doom 1 tracks.

Personally, in my (failed) attempt at my vanilla compatible update I was planning to change the following:

The above mentioned music change (I suggested something akin to DTWID before).

A couple of replacement textures (to make the place feel a little different). Nothing too fancy or distracting just a couple to add their own flavour (ie/ the doors and computer screens).

A slightly different HUD. As this isn't Doomguy I planned on using something along the lines of the Alien Vendetta HUD or some other 'classic' HUD. I was also going to change Doomguy's face to the one that has the helmet on - again just to differentiate from Doomguy without going too far from tradition.

Anyway, that was my plans. Just thought I'd share since you asked Vermil. :)

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BlueFireZ88 said:

Personally, I would have added a couple more episodes to cover the other two Jovian moons, Europa and Ganymede.

Mmmh... Europa and Ganymede?

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To be honest, I don't think ZDoom is a port that has had any historical interest in 'improving' old or existing mods.

Though not to say some of its newer modding features don't allow such to a degree; i.e the visual effects of Brutal Doom.

Historically that was the realm of Doomsday, which has since its inception had, for instance, systems that automatically place dynamic lights on mobjs.

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BlueFireZ88 said:

What level had the NOCLIP problem?


The Garrison. When acquiring the red key, you'll be stuck inside a platform.

Dr Sleep's Nessus and Vesperas also have items/secrets you cant get, because he placed them in closets you cant enter, and the items are too far back.

I like the idea for the extra Lost Episode stuff, but I'd add only a fourth, to keep with the original. Also add secret levels (Maybe from Klie's rejected Master Levels?/levels that emulate his style?)

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Here's a list of ideas for a potential Lost Episodes 2.0 patch:

-New Music tracks
-Bug Fix "The Garrison"
-Secret Levels for Existing Episodes
-A 4rth Episode (either Ganymede, or Earth)
-Texture Replacements?
-HUD Update?

I'm pretty sure that's what everyone's mentioned so far. I'll try and look into this stuff when I get the chance.

I'm glad everyone's enjoying the patch, I'll see about sprucing it up a bit.

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I just checked the level E2M6: Military Garrison, and the red key isn't required to complete it, so I didn't have any problems with it. But was this the level you were having problems with?

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He's referring to GARRISON.WAD from Master Levels. For the record, said bug only happens in ZDoom (though the effect is caused by a faulty nodebuild in the wad itself), so it's probably worth posting as a compatibility exception (since ZDoom has an internal nodebuilder which fixes the issue if used). I'll post that, because why not?

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From the Master Levels sub-discussion above. This whole thread got a whole lot of sneaky edits to it, so im not surprised everyones getting confused here.

"And I think Master Levels has been covered a few times"

"In some ways, never anything truly definitive though. Im using the awesome ZDoom frontend for them, but it doesnt fix the horrible bugs on a few of them. One of Chris Klie's levels isnt even completable without using IDCLIP :/"

EDIT: For your Hell to Pay patch, has this issue been addressed? "They also have a host of new sounds to go along with the mechanical enemies resulting in some gaffes; the mechanized sounds replace some of the generic demon noises which are shared by the upper-class demons."

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After going through the Hell to Pay patch, I noticed things that should have been fixed but weren't, including your sound problem. So as I'm done with Lost Episodes, I'm going tackle the Hell To Pay patch again.

Otherwise, Perdition's Gate should be fine.

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That was from Kmxexii's Hell to Pay review, not me btw :p

Joke post: Your totally putting in H2P and PG brightmaps for Expanded right? lololol

Serious: Maybe force the ghost monster compatibility option for the maps that use it? If its not already done/on your list already

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Double Post: I looked up some more Lost Episode stuff, and it seems that the one reason you cant post the full version is E3M7; EVERY other map is available freely on the archive

http://onemandoom.blogspot.co.nz/2011/06/lost-episodes-of-doom-jptrv40wad.html
Theres a good secret level candidate at the bottom of the page. Given that LE is actually 99.9% random levels put together for a book, maybe E4 could indeed be the rejected Master Levels given new purpose and touched up? I apologise if these suggestions are too extreme or break rules or so forth, I just want to see things like LE, H2P and PG not go forgotten and unloved. I fully appreciate the existing work for the three :)

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