Geez, has it been five months again? The Sparc port is done, but I don't think I've sent it off to the Sparc DOOM fans to actually try yet; I should do that. Meanwhile, Miz (I think that was the name) sent in this screen capture of the 30,000th hit on the SLIGE homepage! (Actually he sent in a cleaner, but much bigger, pic, and I squashed it down.) 40K, here we come!

Added another Slige-related goodie (Doom][ Control) to the related projects page.

The (not yet released version of the) SLIGE source now compiles for Acorn RISC OS, but I haven't done the Sparc part. I'm so lazy!

Hey it's only been five months!   *8)   Not much new function has been added to SLIGE, but I've been working with the folks who are interested in Acorn (RISC OS) and Sparc versions of the code, and I hope to have a converged source that compiles correctly for DOS, Win32, Linux, Acorn, and Sparc before long. After that, maybe I'll start adding function again!

In the meantime, all this porting activity finally inspired me to put up a page about other SLIGE-related projects. I'm sure I've left some off, so if you own (or even just know of) another one, drop me a line! (I've also changed my email address here and there on the pages, to point to one that I check slightly more often than that lame old AOL address, heh heh.)

I've posted build 485 of SLIGE; this is the first official release to include deathmatch support (it's documented and everything!). Thanks to everyone who tested the alpha and beta releases of -dm. I've also coded a few switches that were requested by users; so now you can force the "biggest monsters" mode, turn on "big" monsters and weapons, and prevent monsters from being put inside secrets.

Change log for this build:

 - Rudimentary deathmatch support via the -dm switch, including
   a few bug fixes, and an increased likelihood of "extra hugeness",
   over the alpha version,
 - Some minor bug fixes,
 - The -nosemo switch, so S.Napper can get 100% kills
   without having to hunt for all the secrets,
 - The -biwe, -bimo, and -bimo! switches, to get various
   sorts of "big" weapons and monsters without having to
   wait for the dice to roll that way.

The next thing I plan to do is send 485 to the folks who do the Sparc and RISCOS ports of SLIGE, and work with them to get a single converged source that would cover DOS, Win32, Linux, Sparc, and RISCOS. The next main thing after that is getting more non-orthogonal walls and rooms, but that's going to be hard! I may just fiddle with the arenas and stuff for a few months before I get to it. *8)

Link note: AOL has apparently killed the old "users.aol.com" alias that I always (used to) use, breaking millions of links all over the Web. How clever! If you've tried a SLIGE-related link lately and it's failed, try it again, as I may have fixed it since then. If it still fails, drop me a line and let me know the name of the page that it's on; it probably just needs to have "users" changed to "members" in the hostname.

The Deathmatch version of SLIGE is now in beta-test; the known bugs mentioned in the 22 Oct news have been fixed. So if you're one of those people who have always implored me to add deathmatch support to SLIGE, pick up http://members.aol.com/dmchess/sligedma.zip, try it with the "-dm" switch, and let me know what you think! Source for the beta is available at http://members.aol.com/dmchess/sligedms.zip.

SLIGE DM: buggy alpha-test version available

Build 475 of SLIGE (the Win32 binary SLIGE.EXE only) is available for alpha-testing to anyone who is interested and doesn't mind some bugs. It differs from build 474 only in support for a "-dm" switch. If invoked with this switch, SLIGE 475 will put down some deathmatch starts, and will make sure that each room with a dm start has some sort of halfway-decent weapon. The binary is available at http://members.aol.com/dmchess/sligedma.zip (the same address, only starting ftp:, may also work). If there's enough demand, I'll put the source out somewhere also.

There are known bugs:

• Sometimes a WAD generated with -dm will have less than four DM starts; the standard DOOM engine will not, I think, let you play these in deathmatch mode. When using the -dm switch, look at the place in the output where it reports the number of dm starts, and run it again if it's less than four.
• Sometimes a door will only be openable from one side. This is obviously annoying if you're on the other side of it! Once someone opens it from the other side, though, it should stay open and stop getting in the way.
• Sometimes a DM start will be too close to a wall, and anyone spawning there will get stuck. Yuck. Have someone come and kill you to get unstuck. *8)

But I've been talking about SLIGE DM for so long, that I thought since I actually have something now I should put it out for folks to play with. *8) I don't play DM much / at all myself, so I have to pretty much rely on you guys to tell me whether or not this is at all the right track for SLIGE DM. Feedback welcome!

Probably no need to send buggy WADs at this point, since I'm sure there'll be alot of them. But a quick report just describing whatever bugs you find, and a general impression of whether or not this idea is worth pursuing at all, would be welcome.

Build 474 is out! It fixes the Linux-incompatibility in 464 (and hopefully doesn't add any new ones), as well as a bug that was causing traps in the DOS version; it also has some lighting and general goodness enhancements. From the log:

  - Fixed buffer-overrun that would cause the DOS version to trap,
  - Removed filelength() call, which isn't standard C,
  - Restored the "LIGHT" attribute on various flats, which was
    accidentally removed in 464; so SLIGE knows about ceiling
    lights again,
  - Finally fixed the oddity where a window grating could look
    completely different when viewed from the other side,
  - Added a "night" mode, a "dim" mode, and a few other lighting
    tweaks,
  - Added a few more within-level correlations, like "no doors"
    and "wide links".

Oh, and while I'm here let me plug my new personal domain; not much about Doom there, but some possibly-interesting words and toys and things...

A few known glitches in Build 464: the source will not build under Linux (you have to do the obvious thing to get rid of the filelength() call); the supplied config files (and the builtin default) have forgotten that certain flats have the LIGHT attribute; and it's still possible to have the occasional door blocked by a tree or a raised teleport square (these are very rare, but annoying, and I ought to fix them). The usual sort of thing one might expect in a version with semi-major changes. Maybe I'll do a "mostly bug fixes" release sometime soon.

I've also had one report from a user who gets the old (Build 449) version of the ZIP file when he clicks on the "program to run" link on the main page. This is very strange! I will assume it's something funky with his ISP or something, unless someone else reports it; so if you're not getting Build 464 when you click on that link, let me know!

Build 464 is now up! The big New Thing is of course config-file support; I'd love to see people start to play around with this, send in new config themes based on DOOM and DOOM II standard IWADs, texture sets from various popular PWADs and TCs, and so on. Maybe we should have a contest for best ChexQuest-based config file for SLIGE! *8) Or not...

From the change log:

 The main new things in build 464 since 449 are:
 - Config-file support!  Finally!!  Just textures and flats
   (and lamps) and themes so far.  But it's a start.
 - Included a sample BLUE.CFG config-file that includes a
   new demonstration "blue" theme.  Kinda pretty, really.
 - Fixed the bug where barred doors were stuck open.
 - Fixed a bug found by Len Pitre, where you could get stuck in
   a closet if you tried real hard.
 - Fixed a bug where SLIGE would rarely crash when making an arena
   (and there were no available ceiling-light flats in the theme).
 - Got rid of those occasional annoying do-nothing switches.
 - Added one new surprise; I imagine you'll know it if you see it.
   Heh heh heh.

OK, a build with all known bugs fixed, and support for textures and flats and themes read from a config file, is all done and being tested! Should be up in a week or less. Here's a screenshot from the new "BLU" theme that's in one of the sample config files, just to whet your appetite:

I'm finally making some progress toward a config file for SLIGE! I found the last few hardcoded flat and texture names and moved them into the config structure, designed a syntax and semantics for themes, flats, and textures in configs, and produced a config file that has the same meaning as the current hardwired config. Now all I have to do is make the internal code smarter about themes, and write the input-file parsing routines (this may take awhile, as I hate parsing grubby old user input). But once it's done and I release it, you should be able to design your own themes, teach SLIGE about the flats and textures in your favorite TC, and so on. At last, SLIGE for Chex Quest!

Well, not quite; monsters and other objects won't be tailorable in this first planned version of the config file, only flats and textures. Monsters and weapons and stuff will require more work on the code, and some clever design. Later!

Oh, and I've found and fixed both of the build-449 bugs listed below, so they'll go away in the next release also.

A couple of known bugs in build 449: barred doors are created already open (which usually means they just look like doorless archways, but if the door was supposed to be key-locked, it'll have out-of-place colored decorations and its key will be useless; or if it was supposed to be switch-locked, its switch will be useless); another bug also produces some useless switches (I knew this could happen sometimes, but it happens rather more than I expected): if a switch seems to do nothing (no clunk noise or anything), assume you can ignore it.

Fixed version out someday!

Blake Wilfong was the 10,000th visitor (modulo hitcounter inaccuracies) to the good old SLIGE page! He sent this image the other day as evidence.

As his reward, Blake will get his name mentioned on the SLIGE NEWS page! Twice, even! *8)

Build 449 is now out! New stuff, from the change log:

  - SLIGE will now create and use some custom flats and patches in
    both DOOM and DOOM 2 PWADS, in addition to the custom textures
    that it uses in DOOM 2 only.  It's possible that this will
    confuse some DOOM ports; use -nocustom to tell SLIGE not to
    use custom graphics, and see the documentation for other hints,
  - Made the level-end arenas a *bit* more varied, by adding a few
    more architectural elements, and sometimes pain elementals or
    baby spiders,
  - Fixed a bug (found by Aaron Parsons) that would sometimes put a
    lamp where it blocked a door,
  - Fixed a couple of bugs that could sometimes put monsters too
    close together, resulting in sticky monster-gobs,
  - Fixed a bug that would rarely cause SLIGE to loop when putting
    in a barred door on an extra-hugeness level,
  - Made it (even) less likely that a secret level will be unreachable,
  - Improved SLIGE's models of the plasma gun, super-shotgun, chainsaw,
    and berserk-pack,
  - Removed the case-sensitity from the -ExMx switch (so -exmx works),
  - Added computer area maps as bonuses,
  - Allowed monsters to use some teleporters, for extra fun,
  - Made theme-changes more rational (less random) in most levels,
  - Various random new elements, including the PLAT1 lift-texture,
    the occasional crushing surprise, a new kind of secret, and a
    bit more awareness of lighting, especially light-texture ceilings.

Thanks to an impossible-to-finish level sent in by Aaron Parsons, I think I've found (that and) a couple of the remaining stuck-monster bugs; with luck, the new release will be out sometime this spring. Also, some new screenies from users are up on the user screenies page.

The hitcounter is almost at 10K! Help promote the fame of Slige: tell all your friends that the page has naked pictures of Pamela whatsername! Or not... *8)

Since it looks like the .plan is broken for awhile, I've put up this here News page, so y'all will know I'm alive.

The current working version of the source has some new stuff like custom patches and flats (just a few, for decoration). I'm hoping to get the level-end arenas more interesting before I do another release. We'll see if the real world gives me any time!

Various fans have sent me some cool screenshots; I'll try to find the time to post the best ones soon (he said confidently).

I'll be on vacation for awhile, visiting family in Florida. Everyone be good!

Hah! No problems at all from that "Y1K" thing the scribes were all upset about. What geeks...