================================================================ Title : "The Artifact" ARTIFACT.WAD Version 2.0 Author : Paul Schmitz Email Address : 71776,337 Description : You've been to hell and back, now it's MILLER time! Unfortunately the officer you pounded earlier is now your new CO. Guess who gets the next S**T detail? While boarding the drop ship, you find out some strange goings-on are happening at a UAC facility in the Andes mountains. It appears that what recently happened on Mars is happening here. People rising from the dead, demons and monsters gnawing the living. Not good! You are to meet some undercover operatives at the facility who will lead you to a secret base nearby (Something about having to climb a waterfall and navigate some sewers). You here a rumor about the discovery of an alien artifact that supposedly started this whole mess. You also hear a story about a UAC backed raid by a company of storm troopers that failed miserably. The one lone survivor kept babbling about "blowing up a mountain", though not the way they intended. The drop ship doors open, and you hit the ground running. Great! An entire company of veteran spacers gets wiped out, and they send you in alone with a pistol, just because you did it before. Fortunately, a reception party is waiting for you. Unfortunately, THIS reception party is not the undercover operatives you were to meet! AMBUSH! Additional Credits to : id Software for making THE BEST GAME IN THE COSMOS: DOOM. Raphael Quinet and Brendon Wyber, the developers of the BEST Doom editor, DEU 5.21 GCC. Collin Reed for the indispensable program BSP 1.2X, and L.W. Witek for Reject 1.0 I would also like to credit Leo Martin Lim for the excellent discovery for invisible platforms which he used in PWAD called "Dooms day of UAC" (UAC_DEAD.WAD). Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank my lovely wife Lynn, who allowed me to pursue my DOOMing pleasure. And, of course, Jonathan and Matthew (my two boys and future DOOM hall of famers), who I stupidly ignored for two weeks while learning to build Doom WADs. I hope (but doubt) that it was worth it. ================================================================ * Play Information * Episode and Level # : E1M1, E1M2, E1M3 Doom Version : Requires DOOM 1.666 or greater Single Player : Yes Cooperative 2-4 Player : Yes (haven't played in Coop mode) Deathmatch 2-4 Player : No (Way too Big!!!) Difficulty Settings : Yes (All) New Sounds : No New Graphics : No Demos Replaced : None * Construction * Base : New three level episode from scratch Build Time : Six months (amongst earning a living, loving my wife and playing with my boys, I squeezed in as much time as I could working on this PWAD. I figure a good 1000 hours worth of work). Editor(s) used : DEU 5.21 GCC version, BSP 1.2X, REJECT 1.0.0 Known Bugs : On level 3 there is a big that rarely occurs. Due to the use of the invisible platforms, when they are viewed great distances (well beyond firing range) any "things" (including alive and dead monsters) will disappear from view. This bug does NOT occur during combat , so it is an aesthetic, minor bug. There is a spatial anomaly that does not effect game play, but it couldn't exist in the "real" world. Fixed texture alignment problems found in earlier version. Also moved PWAD to Episode One so the sky looks Earth-like. * Copyright / Permissions * Authors MAY use this level as a base to build additional levels, just give me credit in your TXT file! You MAY distribute this WAD, provided you include this file , with no modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file intact. * Where to get this WAD * BBS numbers: Software Creations, 508-368-7036 CompuServe, GO GAMERS, Action Games Aids Library (Lib 8), called DMARTI.ZIP, search using ARTIFACT as search parameter TO PLAY: ============================================ To play this WAD, put the WAD file in your DOOM directory. At the command prompt type: doom -file artifact.wad. Pick episode 1. ============================================ * Author's Notes * This PWAD requires DOOM version 1.666 or greater. I originally intended this PWAD to be one huge level, until I discovered that I could no longer save games because of the limit placed on the size of the save game file. Even though the original level is now broken into three parts, I tried to keep the look and feel of one big level. Let me know if I succeeded. This PWAD was developed on a 486/DX2/66MHz with 16MB RAM and a VIPER accelerator card with 2MB of VRAM (and I pushed its performance to the max when I designed this PWAD). Those of you that may be computer- impaired (i.e., 386 or slow 486) will probably not enjoy this PWAD. My only suggestion to you (besides buying a better computer) is to shrink the screen size until performance is adequate, or view the PWAD with the -nomonsters switch. Many complaints about tough beginning (in UV mode). But HEY! Walking into an ambush is not supposed to be easy! My advice? Don't just stand there, DO something! I'M ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT THE ENDING, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RUIN THE "SURPRISE", READ NO FURTHER. The "surprise" ending is that there isn't one. You simply die! I did this on purpose since my intent was to have an ending similar to the one found in the shareware version of the original DOOM. Let's face it, I don't care how bad you are, there is no way you can defeat 12 Cyberdemons without cheating (of course, all these guys will be replaced by lesser foes if I ever get around to designing my version of Hell. This PWAD ends at the very gates of Hell itself. I am hoping you will tell me that you can't WAIT for the next episode. So yes, send any comments or suggestions about "Artifact" and I shall endeavor to complete episode 2. Right now I only have a mailbox account with Compuserve, but I hope to have an Internet account soon. I really hope to here from y'all on what you think about this PWAD. And for you DOOM "Twoers" out there, I will convert this PWAD to the new format (including the new "nasties". Hmmm - Let's see. Replace all sergeants and troopers with those chain-gun dudes. Yeah!! That'll do it!). I'm just waiting for DEU 5.3.