Threshold of Pain is a ZDoom episode which attempts to recreate the look and feel of Midway's famous PSX conversion of Doom whilst maintaining the core elements of the PC versions and a level of difficulty PC players would expect.
PSX Doom fans will know that ToP gets its name from the final level of PSX Ultimate Doom. Like many others, my first proper Doom experience was on the Playstation, so when fenderc01 released the PSX TC last year I was excited to get to play these levels again, only this time with PC controls! Whilst he did an amazing job, I found it to be way too easy, even on UV setting. This was not fender's fault, merely a testament to the compromises Midway had to make in bringing such a game to a console.
ToP attempts to redress the balance whilst maintaining the brooding atmosphere that Midway brought to the game. It is NOT a PSX TC - many features which were missing from the Playstation remain, so expect to encounter the Archvile!
This is my first real attempt at a releasable WAD, so I wasn't too concerned with highly detailed levels, more on decent gameplay, set pieces, and a few puzzles. That said, I have tried to make them look halfway-decent, despite the coloured lights :P
New features include:
Tons of coloured lighting, but nothing too garish.
The infamous PSX burning sky, given a ZDoom makeover.
PSX/N64 audio.
New Weapons - the Minigun and the Unmaker.
The PSX Final Doom SSG.
A new powerup - the Doomsphere.
New monsters - the nightmare class monsters from PSX Doom and Doom64, a handful from the Realm667 Bestiary and ZDCMP, plus a new final boss...
A few other PSX/N64-style gameplay tweaks.
Credits:
Id Software for the Doom 1 textures
Midway for the PSX Doom textures
Universal Studios for the title screen and menu
Aubrey Hodges for the PSX/N64 music and SFX
Kaiser for sussing out how to get at the PSX resources in the first place
fenderc01 for the original fire sky and making the PSX TC a reality
Raz for the PSX Final Doom-style SSG
SkullTag for the Minigun and the Doomsphere
Eriance for the Doomsphere sprites
AgentSpork, Carnevil and Ghastly Dragon for the Hectebus
Vader and Bouncy for the Lord of Heresy
Ixnatifual for his modified DECORATE code for the Lord of Heresy
Nanami, Keksdose, Espi (RIP) and Ebola for the Afrit
Vader, Ghastly_dragon and Keksdose for the Bruiser Demon
Chris Neilson and DoomKn1ght for the Nightmare Spectre
Tormentor667, Daniel and Nanami for the purple fireball sprites (Phase Imp)
Tormentor667, CaptainToenail, Ghastly_dragon, Bouncy and Dreadopp for the Plasma Zombie
Tormentor667 for the UTnT cloud textures
Bouncy and Graf Zahl for the Chainsaw Zombie and Nightmare Cacodemon
Eriance and Ghastly_dragon for the Guardian Cube
Xim, TheDarkArchon and Scuba Steve for the Unmaker
Xim for the Unmaker Zombie
NiGHTMARE for the other (non-PSX) textures
JoeyTD and HellCatX for the Doomguy death sprites
Kaiser and Agent Spork for the Doom64-style monster-fade code
Dutch Devil for the sprite set used by the Protodemon (DECORATE code and projectile sprites by myself)
JG/CyberJG based on the Unmaker Marine by Xim, the Source Guardian by Tormentor667 and Moloch by ProjectAngel (DECORATE code and sprite edits by myself)
CaptainToenail, Gez, Super Jamie, Vermil and ALMN for their bug spotting.