The Lost Episodes of Doom (ZDoom Patch 2.0)

[NOTE}: This mod is now for Doom 2 due to Episode 4, the first three episodes are still playable without issue).

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.
From Version 1:
1.Original Level and episode names have been restored.
2.New intermissions detailing the plot of Lost Episodes to a much greater degree.
3.New Sky backgrounds (Including the new E4), and an interactive sky in E3.

From Version 2:
1.New Episode 4 based in Doom 2 (Remnants of Earth).
2.New classic HUD with a darker look (inspired by PSX Final Doom).
3.New Final Boss for E4 (No Spoilers here)!
4.New music for all levels with a collection of classic Doom tunes and more.

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Here's the Patch. If you wish to have a full mod, use SLADE 3 and copy the
levels from the original Lost Episodes wad (JPTR_V40.wad) and place them inside
the patch.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/y6mt9hk1v0a5987/LostEpisodes2-1_Patch.zip

For those who don't know how to use SLADE 3 and wish a combined form mod, PM me
and I'll give the download link per request.

I hope you enjoy this classic level set!
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Here's the fourth episode as a standalone pack.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/i167x3w1iml9w35/JM-E4.zip

Just run it in Doom 2 like normal.
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Screenshots:
E1M5: Weapons Research Center

E2M7: The Draining Pit

E3M2: Pillar of Peril

E4M4: Hive of Evil

This looks interesting, I also like the sky used in the second shot.

Is there anything different in E1 to 3? I found them interesting, but mostly poor and in dire need of a remake/reimagining. I LOVED the E3 sky, thats for sure. Too bad Carter's levels were the worst, and E3 was nothing BUT Carter levels.

Can I play E4 alone? I assume E4 is made out of Klie/Carter levels, "The Hive" is the name of one of his Master Levels rejects and looks similar

Ragnor said:

Is there anything different in E1 to 3?

Probably not, they aren't in the patch.

I'm not entirely sure E1M6 is legitimately beatable in ZDoom due to compatibility issues. Near the start of the level are two sludge-filled canals with radiation suits nearby. If you hop into the west canal, you'll eventually come upon a zigzagging staircase. Originally, the stairs are supposed to collapse incrementally until there's enough room to walk through. In ZDoom, even with Doom Strict compatibility, they never descend quite far enough, and your head will bump on the ceiling when you try to pass through. I'm not sure if my compatibility settings need to be tweaked, or if the level simply can't be emulated properly in ZDoom.

Furthermore, E2M3 uses a buggy MIDI of Demons on the Prey where the percussion starts/ends too soon in the song, making the drumbeats begin before they should and leaving the end of the song too quiet. This is a common problem with a MUS2MIDI dump of the song. If you copy the D_E1M7 MUS file directly from the original DOOM IWAD into the Lost Episodes ZDoom patch and replace D_E2M3 with it, that fixes the problem.

I haven't finished playing the patch yet. I'll report additional errors if I come upon any.

Additional notes:

-The stormy E3 sky should have the sky texture itself flash with lightning, not just sectors with sky ceiling flats. Many of the sectors in E3 that have sky ceiling flats are 255 fullbright, meaning you can't even see the lightning effects in those sectors. Having the sky itself flash would be a more convincing visual effect.

-There are several typographical errors in the ending text of E3. "Met it's fiery demise" should read "met its fiery demise," without the apostrophe. "Jupiter" is also missing the T, "disappears" erroneously has two S's and one P, and there shouldn't be an E in "wondrous."

-Regarding the credits in the text file, the music in E4M6 is Plasma (also known as XPLASMA) from E2L8: Dark Side, in Duke Nukem 3D. The song is composed by Lee Jackson.

All in all, the patch didn't add a lot of really significant features to Lost Episodes, but that's not necessarily a negative thing. It did its job of making it feel more independent of the original DOOM maps while still retaining how the maps looked and played. If you've played Lost Episodes before, I'm not sure this patch would be enough to merit another playthrough, but it does make the experience feel more "complete" overall. I enjoyed it.

I greatly apologize for the lack of responses in this thread. I have been busy with college and only have been able to respond now.

I'm glad people enjoy the patch. The patch wasn't really meant to reinvent the wheel with Lost Episodes, but just give them a bit of identity of its own.

Anyway, let me get to answering so of your responses.

Ragnor:
E1 through E3 haven't been changed for two reasons.
1.I wanted to try and keep the original levels intact so that they worked properly with the patch.
2.Not sure how Doomworld would take it if I edited each level and put it in a single file, the community does have issues with abandonware, again which is why this is a patch and not a level pack.

E4 is 1 Carter level (the unused Lost Episode map), 6 Klie maps (his rejected Master Levels in their original forms, including "The Hive"), and 1 map from me to act as a finale (though it's based off Icon of Sin).


Megamur:

You certainly gone all out on this one. I greatly appreciate all of the feedback. Let me try and go over each one.

-I was able to beat E1M6 in ZDoom in that section you described. You need to carefully move into the area while continuing to press the use key at each step. Can be a bit tricky, but it's possible.

-I'll fix that track sir!

-Unless there's a proper way to have both the swirling front clouds and the lighting back sky work together in code, I'm not sure how to fix this issue. When I first made this, it was either one or the other. I took my pick as you can see. Unless there's a way to have both there's no point (as it would have been what I've wanted in the first place).

-I'll fix those typos.

-Thanks for the info on the music track, I'll add that in.

-I appreciate the feedback and the honesty, it's good to know you enjoyed it.


I'll try an get an updated version out here soon (for those of you who PMed me, I've not forgotten. I want to try and get a fixed version up first).

Only one map from LE isn't freely available seperately, E3M7 iirc. You could probably post the full set publically if that was replaced.

I'd like to see a "level 2" upgrade in the future, that fixes all the most glaring mistakes, while preserving the original feel. ie, texture fixes, light level adjusting to make full use of that awesome E3 sky, secret levels, and level redundancy removed (imho E1M7 and E1M8 should be merged, and E3M8 should be massively redone or replaced. I'd also put that computer ML reject in E1)

I used the term level 2 to differentiate it from this, which is, like you said, to give it more identity.

I'll take a look at E4 sometime later when my computer is in use again, curious about this new level of yours and the missing Carter level.

BlueFireZ88 said:

-I was able to beat E1M6 in ZDoom in that section you described. You need to carefully move into the area while continuing to press the use key at each step. Can be a bit tricky, but it's possible.

I know that, and managed to do that just fine in vanilla, but in ZDoom, it never worked. It must be my compatibility settings. When you play the level, what are your COMPATFLAGS set to? What's the number string? You can see it at the top of the Compatibility Options menu.

-Unless there's a proper way to have both the swirling front clouds and the lighting back sky work together in code, I'm not sure how to fix this issue. When I first made this, it was either one or the other. I took my pick as you can see. Unless there's a way to have both there's no point (as it would have been what I've wanted in the first place).

I didn't know they were mutually exclusive operations. Oh well.

I've finally found some time to fix this mod since I've been so busy with school.

The fixed patch and a standalone Episode 4 pack is in the first post.

Anyway, to address some comments.

Megamur: I always use the default compatibility options in both ZDoom and GZDoom. Numbers (0, 0)

Ragnor:
Reworking the levels themselves is something I'm not going to have time for right now. But, this has still spurred the idea for a "JM3" which fixes those various issues. But in order for that to be successful, I need to know what aspects of the original (or even E4) levels to change for the better.

You've made some suggestions for general purposes, but I would need specific feedback for each level.

I can do that for you when I get time to run through this again. Giving feedback on Devilution levels has given me some experience in that kind of thing.

Fun fact: I was taking some notes on things like this the first time, where I found glaring HOMs, things that were broken, design flaws etc, in case a tune-up ever happened, but I wasnt sure if anyone would be interested so I binned it >_>

I wold appreciate the help Ragnor if you can spare the time.

I'm going to go over these levels for basic errors first and see where to go from there.