26/05/2004 @22:16:09 ^23:32:02
he gets your heart a-pumpin, he gets the party jumpin', he's the macho man
hear everybody say it, he's really quite amazing, he's the macho man
Monsters through the Mail
The parcel came of Dave from Link of the Day, for those of you who care. He apparently has a penchant for sending random things through the post. It contained a CD of ancient maps and the first two Doom novels.
The CD was compiled to cash in on the game's early popularity by some company who downloaded a bunch of freely available maps and sold them in a package that totally copied the game's artwork while never mentioning its name. Produced in 1995, it contains maps which are all ancient. The problem with ancient maps is that back then the map format was not so well understood, the game engine's pitfalls were not so well known, and the software that made maps still contained bugs. This means that most ancient maps are utter shite.
However there are some well-known classics on there. Even a cursory glance alerted me to:
- subway.wad: Deimos Subway was a very famous map recreating three stations, part of a underground rail system. It's still one of the finest maps ever made. Read the text files, they set the scene.
- uac_dead.wad: You're being transported to a base overrun by monsters but they've taken out your truck. This map features a finely constructed burning vehicle, lots of space to run around in, and one of the first deliberate uses of invisible floors. Please note it exploits a feature of early Doom engines that doesn't work any more, so you need to use no-clipping to get the red key at the appropriate time.
PS Apologies for lateness of this update. I'll go on about how hilariously bad the books are when I've finished reading them.
