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Wednesday, 24 February 1999
ZDooM 1.17
A new version of über port ZDooM is out! One of the hot new features is polyobjects (yes, that means we can have moving walls at last!). It also now has chasecam mode and particales (particle fountains for example!). And one more thing! A DOS version was released at the same time too! So head to the ZDooM homepage.

Updates on my other site
Sir Robin's Hemp Basement has also been updated. Thanks to the mighty hemp I was really stoned yesterday :)

Paradise Lost & BaseDM #6
My first Heretic SP level, Paradise Lost, is still only available from Heretech, but on next update it will also be available from right here... Also BaseDM #6 will be released soon. It will propably work with every port (maybe even DOOM2.EXE) and it has all weapons included, so you can have a lot of fun with MBF's old BFG or ZDooM's railgun patch if you wan't :) (or actually with any DooM weapon patch that you like).

Reviews:

Wednesday, 17 February 1999
About the reviews
I finally got some time and reviewed Surge DM... It's a new special kind of review called "screenshot mania". It means that there is a normal review and then a link to massive set of screenshots. Although there is a lot of screenshots, the size of them (in kilobytes) is not even half of the SURGE.ZIP's size. You can also enlarge those screenshots that look specially interesting. In this case the screenshot set has 4 screenshot pages with 8 shots in each of them, making total of 32 shots (one from each level).

Exclusive!!!
I just got a new ZDooM 1.16 only DM wad from Asyl! Name of the level is "ZDM1 - Quake" and it's very quakish... Read the reviews!

Reviews:

Saturday, 13 February 1999
Reviews are in the beginning of update, because the update is long...
The winner is found!
[20000] I got a mail from DrCrypt that had a picture attached to it... The picture shows my counter with number 20000 on it! Unfortunately I lost my connection before I had the whole picture downloaded, but the most important part (the counter) is there!
I know now what I will give him for a price... I have just finished making the 14th level of KTA for BooM, and I decided that I might make a special MBF only 1-level WAD and use this level on it... Then I realized that it would be a perfect price too! The normal version will still be used in KTA though... Anyway I will only send this level for DrCrypt and he can distribute it to others if he want's. Maybe a long time after that I might release it to cdrom.com, if DrCrypt hasn't already done that :) He will have total freedom to decide who he gives it and where he uploads it.
The level is 100% optimized for both, single player and deathmatch play, and it also plays great in co-op!
A screenshot of the level is shown in Screenshot Of Update.

I WON THE WAR!
The problem with #doom2 channel is already solved, but anyway, here's the supporting mail that I got after putting a note about it on my page! Thanks for support :)

From: GeorgeF551@aol.com
To: robin@doomnation.com
Subject: REoL TOUGH had identical problems.....
DooM, the way most people spell it, even myself. More people use the capitol D and M.
Years ago, I had a simailar issue on a bulletin board called Software Creations BBS. Home of 3D Realms, id Software, and Apogee.
Anyhoo, the spelling of DooM wasn't the problem here, it was two things:
  • (1) REoL TOUGH got too popular, steamrolled over everyone's work over there.
  • (2) The use of colored text.
I aggreed with the sysop (Peter James, a great person, BTW) to just use color for taglines and signatures. Then things got worse. They started lying about my intent on causing trouble, not knowing I was capturing these messages and sending them out to the thousands of REoL TOUGH fans in the world.
When it got too ugly, they kicked me off the BBS for good, and 70+ REoL TOUGH fan pulled their subscriptions from the BBS, forcing them to go bankrupt, and close down for good.
It just goes to show, if you have the backing, anything's possible.

King REoL

And that was Kind REoL, a known man from REoL TOUGH levels... Here's what the other guy has to say:

From: richy cool (richycoolband@yahoo.com)
To: robin@doomnation.com
Subject: DooM
I don't understand the problem spelling doom as "DooM" its like going against freedom of speach.
And here's one more:

From: Billy Daniel
To: robin@doomnation.com
Subject: DooM kicking

Hey,

I totally support you on the issues of #doom2 and how to spell DooM.
The operators of that channel have a problem if they are spending their time making a bot that will kick someone from the channel for spelling Doom as "DooM". They really need to get a fuckin' life!

Later,
Billy Daniel

--
ICQ: 26579111 Nickname: BillyD
http://www.doomnation.com/doompage
TeamTNT member

No more mails needed... There's no problem anymore :)

About bots...
Here's some comments about two major bots... What's good and what's bad?

DoomBot:

Youghurt's bot:

Ending result: Youghurt's bot rocks, but needs to learn using a rocket launcher too.

Sunday, 7 February 1999
DooM Castle gets a domain name!!!!
Okay folks! This page can now also be found with this address:
http://doomcastle.tsx.org/
It's only a fake address and it will just go straight to this page at DoomNation, but it may be easyer to remember for you!

My hemp pages can be now found at http://hempbase.tsx.org/ and I may soon also register address http://robin.tsx.org/ for a list of my pages.

If you wan't to get a fake domain name like mine, head to www.tsx.org. All you need is ready homepage somewhere in internet and under 5 minutes time!

Visitor 20000?
When I'm writing this, I'm not sure if there has already been 20000 visitors or not, but I know that it must be pretty damn close anyway... If YOU are the one who gets it, take a screenshot and mail it for me. You will get awarded in some way that is not yet known.

Bitching about Efnet #doom2
Efnet #doom2 has been my favorite channel for a long time... But just on last saturday happened something that I just can't understand... Suddenly someone started to ask me why the fuck do I spell DooM like I spell it (with capital D & M). Well, I've done that for years already and I will not change it! I do it because of my respect for the game and I took it from the logo (notice how the first and last letters are bigger than others). Well, suddenly it felt like 90% of the people in the channel was bitching about a thing that had never bothered them before and soon they decided to make some stupid bot to kick everyone who writes "DooM" in the area... Now I will NOT tolerate this! I will not stop spelling DooM the way I have spelled it for years already! Some may think that I'm going a bit too far with this, but I say that the channel operators are the ones that are going too far by kicking out peoples because the way they spell something!!! I'm not forcing anyone to spell DooM like I do, and I would certainly hope that peoples don't try to force me to spell it any other way either! I will join Efnet #doom2 as I always have, but when I get kicked out I head to another channel and will not be back at #doom2 that time...

If you want to support me with this, feel free to mail to operators of #doom2 or send any messages about this subject for me to robin@doomshack.com. Your letters about this will be released on this page, unless you say that you dont want that.

Reviews of the update:

Saturday, 6 February 1999
My first Heretic single player/Co-op level is released!
It's name is Paradise Lost and it's a small, challenging and very detailed Heretic level (almost ran to HOM effects because of the detail). While the level is small, that doesn't mean that you can play it fast through... In fact you have a lot to deal with! This level can't yet be downloaded from here, because I gave it as Hexclusive to my favorite Heretic review site, Heretech, so get you ass there, read the review and download the WAD. I guarantee that you won't be dissapointed!

Even more about Heretic
First release of fantastic new Heretic/HeXeN (currently Heretic only though) source port Hexetic is OUT! Unlike with the first released DooM source port, the first Heretic port seems to be mostly fully working and it alread supports high resolution video modes! Now download it so you can play all upcoming Heretic levels (I'm sure there will be more soon) in wonderful high resolution mode!

Unfortunately there's still some fixes to do before it works perfectly like the original... There's no normal status bar and you can't change the play screen size... Also the sounds from left seems to come from right and sounds from right come from left... Not nice, but fixable :)

A couple of programming reguests
I met this guy who shall remain anonymous in IRC and he was interested to play DooM with MBF... However he had a problem... He can't get the sound to work in any DOS source port (coder of ZDooM, Randy Height has the same problem I think) and so he would love to get a Windows version of MBF. Would there be a kind programmer soul who could code a working Windows version of MBF?

Another reguest is from me... The biggest flaw of Doom Editor for Total Headcase (DETH) was fixed by TeamTNT (and lot's of other old flaws too). The flaw was that DETH didn't work with Windows 95... Well the problem is gone now, but what they didn't fix was HETH, a HeXeN editor that used to come with DETH... Now if there is someone who can fix it (I'm sure that it's not hard) so it works with Win95, then please mail me at robin@doomnation.com!

Other sites by me
I have just opened a new site, called Sir Robin's Hemp Basement, and you guessed right: It's about enjoying cannabis... It's doesn't have even nearly all the stuff that it's going to have, but in future it will have music reviews (what is good music when high?), cooking recipes (cook yourself high) and a LOT more... So if you are a friend of cannabis, then head there and see what's going on!

Last note... There has been some problems with Kolumbus, my service provider, and yesterday I couldn't access my pages at kolumbus, so you might not be able to view my hemp pages right now...

Reviews of the update:

Wednesday, 3 February 1999
Something about heretic
Oh, my! I just realized that Heretic doesn't have only 3 episodes, but 5! Not with v.1.2 or lower, but when you upgrade to v.3.0 (Shadow of the Serpent Riders), you get 2 FREE episodes more! Check out from Doomworld's patch section for an upgrade patch from v.1.2 to v.3.0. I haven't played these two extra episodes through yet, but they seem to be well done and VERY challenging.

Last minute updated! I just found that there is even more than just 5 episoded in Heretic! There's also three nameless levels in episode 6!!! You can't start a new game from this secret episode, but you can start a game in any other episode in the skill level of you choice and then type "ENGAGE61" to get to the first level of episode 6!!

A bit of nostalgy
Here's update text from 22. January 1997!

Added the DosDooM 0.45 source codes. It now has full music support, better sound support and a bit better engine (not so easy to get "flickering sprites" or HOM effects.
Kinda funny, isn't it :) Back then I was glad of getting the first source port with full music support and some minor limit removings :)

Future of DooM Castle
I have sometimes thought of starting reviewing some other than DooM levels too... Like ocassionally reviewing some Heretic, HeXeN, Quake or some other game add-on levels... Note that I would still review mainly DooM stuff, and just ocassionally when I find some good other stuff, I may review it here too... What do you think? State your opinion, because you have the choice!
Mail me at robin@doomnation.com and tell me what you think!

Reviews of the update: