#textscreen

[dimalink]

Cabin Pilot – extended theme – storyline, encyclopedia!

Game is about a flight with a space fighter with style of 8 bit computers. Something like BBC Micro, Spectrum, Electronika, MSX, Korvet, Okean, Sintez, PC Vesta. With style of those computers, that were in 80s.

Game has a point of view from a cabin. That’s, I can say, that it is a simulation and arcade, at the same time. You are a pilot. And during your missions you will be at the different planets. In desert, jungles, above the ocean, in a forest. You have a select from a 5 cabins. So, you can select a different front view! You shoot with a laser. Pew-pew, as in a Star Wars. 5 types of enemies. For diversity. Level duration is about 1 minute and a little more.

And, I am about a final moment in development. I was very involved with this development. And little make a bigger project in size. I add a text side. With description of what is going on. It is a storyline. And a description of planets, you will be there. And even more – a thing, that I called - Encyclopedia. About description of enemies.

So, first time, in terms of such games, I program a simple game menu. Two episodes. At your choice. With different stories in each. And different planets. You can turn on or turn off a sound. And visit encyclopedia, which gives description of enemies space ships.

Science fiction component – it is, for example, description of planets. So, here it will be a planet-ocean. And planet-jungle, planet-desert, planet Cyan. About it named, after the background color. It will be there a forest and plains.

 

A whole screen with circle of different colors. Green circle - it is planet-jungle. Blue circle - it is planet-ocean. And a text about a planet.

Encyclopedia is made same way. It is not long. About a 5 pages. Because of 5 enemies in game. About every enemy – a little text and a picture. It is two types of rockets, 2 types of small space ships and one normal space ship. It is more dive into the atmosphere. I want a lot to write these.

A storyline has two episodes. First episode has four levels. In a medium, level length is about one minute long and a little more. Second episode has 3 levels. And they are two different stories. Story with a sci fi action movie style. About a pilot.

In first episode you are a rookie, new pilot. And first time, you are sent to different planets. First, you are arriving to a rather calm planet-ocean. Where your first mission - it is patrol. In a second mission rocket attack awaits you. So, you shoot enemies rockets there. And next – two more missions, and you are sent to different planets. Planet-desert, planet-jungle. Ancient planet-desert, for example.

Second episode shows, already, a more experienced pilot. And he is sent at once into more hard mission. At one planet. Planet Cyan. Planet of forests and plains. And, it will be there a rather big scale battles. It is more hard episode. So here, there are more enemies at the screen. So, only 3 missions are here, they are harder. And lots of enemies. So, here, it is something like, big scale battles, you take a part into them. At the itself, a frontline. And, enemies are performing attack. A full-scale attack all along the frontline. And, later, it is, already, goes a counter-attack. Story has action movie style. With a text screens.

You can play this game with imagination. And to create with your imaginations some part of the game. So, it can be even more interesting.

This game will be released in terms of new version Basic Pascal Pack games. This game and some more games will be in a new version Basic Pascal Pack. As soon as I will have several complete games. All of them will to be in a new version Basic Pascal Pack. And a new version Basic Pascal Pack will be published for download.

Basic Pascal pack - whole pack of games and programes, written with basic and pascal. It is retro. With each game and program there is a page at author`s website. There are aditional information, descriptions, pictures, arts.

Basic Pascal: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/packs/basicpascal/index_eng.html

Itchio: https://dimalink.itch.io/basic-pascal GameJolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/BasicPascal/773385 Website: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html

[gammadoppler]

when people just decided to do textscreens or voiceovers instead of just writing in notepad with unregistered hypercam 2 we lost a lot

[sufficientlyantique]

Today, I played a random shuffle from my music collection and had a moment of profound sadness and a reminder the human emotional experience carries through generations and ages. I had similar moments when reading The Iliad and The Fall of the Roman Empire.

I give you the lyrics of Kraftwerk's "Computer Love", released in 1981. It speaks to a yearning for connection, expressed through a person's use of computerized dating system, the '70s and 80's equivalent of 20's social apps.

Here you go. As you listen, Imagine you are a lonely tweener in a dingy room in a house shared with 4 other people. You are neurodivergent, experiencing culture shock in the big city, and very, very nerdy.

Computer Love

Computer love

I am alone, once again entirely alone

Stare at the TV screen,

Stare at the TV screen,

Still have nothing to do today

Still nothing to do today

I need a meeting

I need a meeting

Computer love

Computer love

Computer love

I choose the number, I choose the number,

Call the textscreen, call the textscreen,

Have nothing to do today

Nothing to do today

I need a meeting

I need a meeting

Computer love

Computer love

Computer love

Computer love

Lyrics quoted from https://lyricstranslate.com/en/computerliebe-computer-love.html, which are a translation from the original.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2007): Ultimate Torment And Torture

My brother in Christ!

Another partial conversion that uses a shit ton of enemies from the Monster Resource WAD that first appeared in 2007 due to KDiZD! All three of these partial conversions that won Cacoward in 2007 and all use this roster at least partially!

...

I don’t really have anything else to say; I just wanted to point that out.

G9: Ultimate Torment and Torture

Main author(s): Daniel Gimmer (Tormentor667)

Release date: September 11th, 2007

Version played: 1.07

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 10

If you suddenly feel like you are playing KDiZD’s distant cousin, then you aren’t wrong, for this WAD is another project made by Tormentor667; although, this time it’s more like a one-man project rather than a community one.

Now you might be wondering What in the actual fuck is “Ultimate Torment and Torture”? To put it simply, it’s a remaster of the series of WADs under the same title (without the ultimate of course), now sprayed all over with Tormentor’s ZDoom’s features obsession, including background noises, a shit ton of new enemies, and other ZDoom stuff that may or may not be completely worthless on the long term.

Now since I didn’t play this series in any capacity, I’m gonna judge this WAD by its own merits. And if you didn’t already notice, do not expect this review to be completely positive; I’m not really a fan of Tormentor’s overly-designed WAD slop.

And although there isn’t really any plot in the text file in the WAD itself, there are text screens that describe what’s happening at the moment you are playing this map. But it all boils down to this – there is a hellish pentagram or something that summons demons and you go after it to end it all... again.

The plot, despite being rather simple (it’s a Doom WAD after all), takes itself too seriously in my opinion. It feels like it wants to sniff its own farts thinking it’s deeper than it thinks. The pretentiousness is especially high as you reach the final episode, with an unskippable monologue from the main character (who, by the way, sounds like Diet Caleb from Blood) rambling some kind of generic shonen anime hero speech filled with never give up this and da people I love that shit. This thing is funnier than most of the Mockaward winners that I played for crying out loud; for the wrong reasons, yes, but still.

But at least you can skip most of the textscreen stuff with the use key... after a small delay.

Now with the basics known, let’s take a look at another Tormentor’s projects.

You might probably know by this point, but if there is one thing that Tormentor is really good at is the visual aspect of his WADs (solo or community-made). And UTNT doesn’t disappoint in this. The oppressive foundry facilities in the second episode; snowy areas surrounding the base in the third one; the bastion with the demonic portal that acts like a bridge between episodes three and four; the mountain that you climb in the final episode; these are some of the highlights in this WAD.

It might be a little bit overboard with the details that aren’t just tiny objects lying around that are not some random debris from the wall, but it’s still amazing for the WAD from 2007.

Oh, and by the way, you can turn off some of the weather effects in most of the maps. Just remember to bind the key to it.

The music is a mixed bag for me. While half of the music tracks fit surprisingly well, the other half has a chance to make you laugh with the WAD sniffing its farts of pretentiousness again. It’s like the same problem as the plot; it gets a pass in the first half, but it gets ridiculous in the second one.

The final boss track is the worst case of unintentional laughter. No matter what you think about Revolutions, when it comes to the final battle between Neo and Agent Smith, the music fits really well. It doesn’t fit at all when you are flying around like a madman trying to destroy a satanic pentagram that protects itself with a demonic energy cylinder while dodging/trying to kill Cycloid Emperors that protect these things! IT JUST DOESN’T!

...

sigh

It does get better gameplay-wise at least.

I don’t really think this WAD is complicated. After the first playthrough, it didn’t really feel that tiring (at least for me). It does have backtracking sometimes, but honestly, I have experienced worse cases than UTNT.

What’s really cool about this WAD is that you can start from any of four episodes. If you are a Pistol-starter, you will enjoy this option (at least partially since you can start like this only at the beginning of an episode instead of in its middle).

You can also play as three different classes. I don’t know what are the differences aside from the starting weapon and the maximal amount of health since I played as only one class to not waste my time, but still, I’ll describe what I know:

The Marine starts with the Shotgun and 100 HP;

The Scout has 75HP and the Pistol (that shoots slightly faster from what I’ve seen);

And the Commando starts with 150HP and the Minigun; NOT the Chaingun mind you, but a Minigun. I’ll get to that weapon later.

There are two variants of the final level. The regular one takes place at the bottom of the mountain, where you climb it up while fighting the entire demonic army. There is also a graveyard with tombstones of people behind this WAD (like many other WADs before this one). This one is more of an epic type.

The secret variant (AKA the Director’s Cut) is hidden in the second part of the final episode. In this case, there are three areas full of monsters, where in the first two you have to kill a specific amount of Mancubi and Arachnotrons respectively (kind of like in Dead Simple) and in the third area you must press two switches to unlock the elevator to the final boss.

I’m not really sure which one is better. The hidden variant feels easier and has a lesser amount of annoying monster variants for the cost of a smaller amount of terrain to maneuver, while the regular variant feels like one last stand of the demonic army that fits perfectly well in a Doom WAD while having more bullshit moments.

UTNT is somewhere in between when it comes to how hard it is. It’s rather challenging, but I don’t think you will end up completely destroyed if you were playing WADs for a while before playing this one.

Every episode ends with the boss fight, where you fight up to four tough enemies depending on the skill level. It’s kind of a neat idea with the health pool showing up at the top of the screen, although I would like it more if the second boss fight had a larger area because I don’t think it was tested enough to be fun (or at least not as fun as the other two).

The final boss is... kind of stupid, I guess? You have to kill one of its guardians to make it vulnerable and fire at it (preferably with BFG). If you don’t realize it in a minute, you will end up with no ammo to blow it up. And again, the music doesn’t help.

Oh yeah, there is also stealth filth once in a while. -_-

I know it’s at worst one enemy per map, but still. What is it with these people keep adding this garbage to their WADs?

There are dozens of new enemies in this WAD. I’m fine with some new enemies to spice things up, but UTNT goes way too far with them. Some of these appear only once in the entire WAD! It’s like Tormentor didn’t know what to do with some of them and just slapped them in random places on the random map.

I don’t have time to ramble about every single one of them. Besides, I already talked about many of these in my previous reviews (like ZDCMP1, KDiZD, and Cheogsh among some of these). So instead, I’ll do quick rounds for every class of these bastards.

Without any further to do – the monsters of Ultimate Torment and Torture ladies, gentlemen, and others:

In the Zombie section we have Rapid-firing Trooper (Wolfenstein SS as an actual Doom enemy), Mutant Marine (tougher Shotgunner variant), Chaingun Major (Hoovy from KDiZD as a tougher variant of the original Hoovy), Bazooka Boy (from Obituary, shoots rockets), Plasma Zombie (‘nuff said), Railgunner (‘nuff said too), and Suicide Bomber (basically Headless Kamikaze as a Doom enemy; my personal favorites).

In the Imp section we have Catharsi (Cyberdemon if Imp; volley of projectiles, leaves a bomb when the die (if he didn’t gib)), Dark Imp (homing projectiles), Skulltag Imp (faster projectiles), Void Imp (Undead Warrior reskin), Soul Harvester (much more annoying homing projectiles; some of them are semi-invisible), Shadow (weaker Arachnotron, for some reason uses stock Imp noises despite having original ones in the past), Devil (tougher variant that can shoot constantly; uses Doom 64 Imp noises), Imp Warlord (has a couple of different attacks), Nightmare (can be hit when attacks and is constantly invisible before doing that), and Stone Imp (Imp if melee).

In the Hell Noble section we have Satyr (melee), Hell Warrior (has a shield), Hell Guard (no idea if he counts here but, whatever; shoots a volley of three projectiles), Hell’s Fury (tougher Baron), Lord of Heresy (tougher Baron but with wings), Belphegor (tougher Baron but with the volley of three projectiles), Afrit (flying, tougher Baron), and Bruiser (basically if the Bruise Brothers were actual bosses).

There are two new Cacodemon variants – Enhanced Cacodemon which shoots three fireballs and has slightly less health, and Cacolantern which shoots faster projectiles.

Same with Pain Elemental – we have Plasma Elemental (‘nuff said) and Tortured Soul (toxic clouds among other projectile).

There are also other enemies, which are Arachnophyte (Spider Bitch but flies), Blood Demon (tougher Pinky), Death Incarnate (hitscanning Revenant that has a small chance to not resurrect), Rail Arachnotron (‘nuff said), and Terror (Lost Soul that has a gigantic blast radius after it dies).

There are also the Source’s Guardians that I mentioned earlier. Look like Cycloid Emperors, kind of annoying to fight, and when they die, they leave their heart or something that functions as stronger medikit

We can’t forget about the bosses too. Aside from Bruiser Demons and the evil pentagram that function as bosses of episodes 2 and 4 respectively, we have Hectebi in the first episode (which are tougher Mancubi) and Giant Spiders in the third episode (Maulotaur reskins that burst out smaller, annoying to kill, regular spiders).

You collapse on the floor.

...

Phew...

Now with the demonic army described (apologies for the information errors if you notice one), let’s talk about new weapons.

Surprisingly, compared to the hegemony that are new monsters, you only get three new weapons. The first one to talk about is the Minigun that I mentioned earlier. It’s basically a much faster Chaingun but with a long break before firing again, meaning that it’s better for close encounters rather than sniping.

You have a flamethrower called... Flamer (how original). It’s your typical WAD flame thrower; don’t get burned by it yourself.

The final weapon is actually hidden in the secret in the first episode. It’s called Pyrocannon Prototype, and it feels like a napalm launcher that shoots mini-nukes. Perfect for bosses, so don’t use it (nor flamethrower) in any other circumstances.

I encountered some bugs while playing UTNT. The most prominent one was when Hell Warriors were completely invulnerable to anything until they raised the shield (something that didn’t happen in the previous WAD when these hulking cats appeared). Another bug that I encountered was in the second episode, where after exiting the secret area, the music from there was still playing; I had to enter and exit it again to properly change back to the original track.

The worst time was with some stability problems. There was one tiny moment in the first part of the fourth episode when there were some framerate drops due to the large amount of enemies and allies fighting each other, but there was a much worse one in episode two, during my secret-hunting run, when after the area with the blue key, the framerate started dropping like crazy, down to around 1.5 FPS.

Gee, maybe it wouldn’t happen if not for the gargantuan amount of shells, bullets, blood chunks, and gore chunks that appear everytime you kill at least one enemy (at least that’s how I think). I wonder if Tormentor ever thought of that situation.

The Ultimate Torment and Torture... makes me sad. I genuinely feel this WAD had the potential to be one of the best WADs ever created but the Tormentor’s obsession with (G)ZDoom features, many enemies that were slapped on this WAD without any reason for nothing but a small cameo, and the pretentiousness that pores out to the surface of the WAD’s plot makes it impossible to reach that status. It’s yet another WAD of its time that by modern standards feels outdated.

There is also another map known as the lost episode. I don’t know how to reach it without warping to it (if it’s even possible to get there normally), so I’ll leave it for the bonus round.

As for me, my break from Doom WADs might end up longer than a week, since I’m planning to buy a new PC that has SSD Hard Drive. So I’m going to move all important files to it once it arrives.

But until then, I’ll see you next time.

Have an early, happy 30th Doom anniversary.

[danfoxxdraws]

OKAY! I finished this!!! it's her. 

 (Yes I went silly and did scanlines and funny hacker textscreen I HAD to)

[thewul]

It is important that what Pulse is capable of, layering physical places with intelligent bots, it is a new way to interact through geolocalization

And these bots can really push the envelope of what bots are capable of, same as layering services and users with intelligent bots is an enabler for these services and users

And it is all community centric and sustained by shared interests, while offering its users a high level of privacy if they want

Last thing for clarification just in case, by beaming we don't mean that a Pulse powered device is going to beam a signal from a location, which is also interesting, but rather that on the Pulse application that location is going to beam virtually to the users of that Pulse network

Beaming with Pulse is useful for finding places and other users inside a building or even in an area but that is not how you get your Pulse signal to start with

Pulse signals are mapped through geolocalization to your device including their range, and not depending of some signal strength other than your mobile device signal ie shouldn't be an issue with 5G

I think that is the most innovative aspect of it, also the notion of range can include local, wide or global depending what you want to do with your Pulse network

How does Pulse make its money, well there's the API use licence that is for pay if you are a for profit entity, there is the paying licence for your intelligent bot to operate, there's a usage fee for channels which are registered as proprietary for commercial use, same as proprietary hash tags

So right its free for users and for non profit organizations, while it secures the aspect of commercial names and brands for corporations and for profit organizations

Pulse is also a corporation that provides technical feasibility studies and implementation incl visual interfaces and app development, as well as campaign management and advanced analytics on Pulse networks for its clients

get pulse/ @MIT @MIT/ get pulse #IBM ...#IBM 302 users following @MIT/ whois #IBM %NEARBY ...#IBM 7 users nearby @MIT/ push textscreen "We can have coffee on time or be late because of coffee" at #IBM %NEARBY @MIT/ pull #IBM %MENTIONS %NEW list ...#IBM 97 new mentions @MIT/ expand #IBM %MENTIONS %NEW ...reading mode

[raevenlywrites]

Phone tag lol

@writer-zero tagged me in this charmingly invasive game where you take a screen capture of your lock screen, home screen, and the last song I listened to you. Lucky me, I can do it all with one screencap.

Art is of Persephone by the lovely @usedbandaid , you should totally go check out her comic Lore Olympus on webtoons.

My lock screen is the same, but for the sake of being slightly more interesting, my textscreen background is Hades.

So go check out some cool art, and then post your phone screencaps: @teninini @hazelbeewitched @babblingbees @tinyearthquakepatrol and @todaysthemeisthemes

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Scientist

One thing I have to say about Bethesda is that despite being a typical AAA gaming corpo, they (along with other id software’s IPs like the Quake series) treat the Doom franchise with respect, at least the Classic part of it. Not only did they allow Nerve Software to create an official source port based on Unity for this game (for PC at least), but they occasionally add MegaWADs to the roster of the official add-ons, even the ones that weren’t mentioned in Doomworld’s award ceremonies.

I can count at least three of those WADs at this point. And today, we will take a look at the one that was added while I was taking a look at the WADs that were a part of the 2006 roster of the Cacowards.

B13: Scientist

Main author(s): Roland van der Velden

Release date: October 3rd, 2002 (original release)/October 15th, 2005 (updated version)

Version played: Updated one from 2005

Required port compatibility: Vanilla

Levels: 20

Say hello to the Scientist. To be more precise, Scientist 2. Created by Roland van der Velden. Now if the last name of the author seems familiar to you, that’s because we are talking about the brother of Thomas who created Revolution (from 2001; also, do not confuse these two with Jan Van der Veken). So now he finally gets a chance for some recognition. Is it deserved though?

Before we will properly dive into this WAD, let’s take a look at its backstory. It was originally released in 2002, with eleven maps and two biomes split between a textscreen. Later in 2005, it added another episode with 9 maps, totaling 20 maps. There are also ten deathmatch maps slotted in MAP21-MAP30 but I don’t count them.

As for the plot of the Scientist, it focuses on the titular character trying to find a way to reach immortality. God Himself didn’t like that, so he sent cataclysms and demons to punish the Earth. The scientist doesn’t really give a crap about it; he’s too narrow-minded with his goal. So it all basically comes down to your goal: Kill the egghead before the Earth ends up completely destroyed.

Side note before properly starting: I will try to review the first two episodes based on the 2002 standards while the last episode by the 2005 standards just to be rather fair (at least when it comes to how the maps look).

Now with that information out of the way, let’s take a look at the newest (as of early September 2023) addition to the Unity port addons.

As I mentioned earlier, the WAD is split into three biomes – Central City (which looks like it takes place in Russia),

Siberia full of ice caverns, abandoned bases, and outposts,

and Sacred City, which looks like a mish-mash of almost all of the ancient civilizations from Earth.

And some of these maps look really impressive. I think there is at least one map per biome that has a landmark/landscape that looks fantastic by the time the map was created, especially when it comes to the first eleven maps, which were created in 2002 in some of the latest cases. The last nine maps of course look better in my opinion, but there are still moments where the old maps look better than the new maps (at least when it comes to aesthetics).

Sure, the WAD doesn’t look as impressive as the other WADs released back then like 2001’s Alien Vendetta and 2005’s Scythe 2, but on its own, it looks rather good for the WAD that was released in 2002 and 2005. It’s even more impressive when you realize that this is the author’s first WAD.

But being the author’s first WAD also means problems. Like for instance, how half of the new sound effects are annoying to listen to. Projectile impact now sounds more like a fart, and the bullet firing... My brother in Christ, why the fuck it is louder than any other sound effects in this WAD? It’s basically yet another case of not wanting to use this type of weapon because it sounds shitty. And we all know this thing in Doom feels like a sin.

At least the music was good most of the time. Almost all of them are the MIDI covers of the Dream Theater band with some stuff from Ocean’s Edge sprinkled here and there. The biggest problem with these comes with the volume balance. Some of the tracks are really quiet, while some of the others are ear-piercing, with Innocence Faded being the worst case of being too loud (and even then, it’s still not as loud as bullet firing). I’ve read in the other reviews how horrible it all sounds but honestly, it wasn’t that bad for me. Still, I recommend changing MAP17 music to something else because I think it will be too much for even the most masochistic WAD enjoyers on this shithole of a planet.

I don’t really think Scientist WAD is complicated. There are moments here and there that will make you stuck for a longer period, but overall, it’s a rather simple WAD, if not outdated.

Yes, I said this WAD is outdated, even by the standards of 2002. The first half especially is filled with so many things that were considered cringe even back then. Slow-moving lifts, cheap traps, completely dark locations, etc. The second half is, thankfully, almost devoid of any of these things, but still, if you decide to quit playing this WAD before reaching the third episode, I wouldn’t be surprised.

That doesn’t mean, however, that there is no interesting stuff in this WAD. There are two times where you will find cacodemon-making machines. You will notice how Siberia and Sacred City are now occupied by the titular antagonist and his men (there is even a secret base in Crown of Thorns). Each map tries to differentiate from each other. I can see that the author tried to make maps interesting, and, to some degree, succeeded.

Unfortunately, we have come to probably the biggest con of the Scientist WAD – the difficulty, and how cheap it is.

Now, first of all, you need to know that this WAD isn’t really that hard. It might be challenging but doesn’t go utterly apeshit with its difficulty.

But I feel like at least half of its challenge is cheap. So many times there will be a moment where you will be forced to fight hitscanners in an area that has next to no cover or it has one that is barely effective. I swear I’ve counted at least ten of these moments. And I played this WAD without Pistol-starting. Now imagine doing that knowing what will happen.

Most of the weapons are now reskins that don’t make a lot of sense to me aside from the Crossbow that shoots explosive arrows. There is for instance an AK47 that for some reason you hold from your left side, unlike the other weapons you use. There is also the fact that you now dual-wield two regular shotguns instead of the Super Shotgun, and yet they still are three times as powerful as a regular Shotgun.

The only weapons that are not reskins are the plasma-based ones, now requiring fuel. The plasma gun is now a flamethrower, although this one feels like a middle step between the regular plasma gun and the other flamethrowers that appeared in WADs before this one.

There are also Flame Grenades that replace BFG... They suck major ass. They just hit slightly harder than a regular rocket and how far you throw them is pathetic. The only place I can think of where these shit balls are kind of useful is above the red key area in Second Horseman. The author could turn BFG into some kind of napalm launcher reskin and it would end up as a much better weapon than what we got.

Of course, you will be fighting the titular Scientist. He comes with two variants that replace other enemies. The first one is an SS kraut replacement. He won’t scratch you even if he corners you. The second variant replaces Cyberdemon. Now this might give you some problems.

And speaking of problems, the final fight with the Scientist is also full of bullshit. Fighting the siege cow in a small area is tough but also manageable if you have a solid weapon in your pocket. Doing that when he constantly teleports around? That’s going too far. On the bright side, at least it’s not another Icon of Sin.

And thankfully this WAD isn’t filled with bugs. I encountered only two of these – the star uncontrollably changing its shape in Siberia map, and the hole into the void in Mount of Congregation. No game-breaking ones whatsoever.

Scientist is not a very good WAD. It has moments when it looks really good, but it feels archaic with its level design and the harder parts of the challenge are just cheap and unfair. I don’t know if the 2023 version of this WAD that was upgraded for the Unity port is better than this version but for now, you can skip the 2005 version. You won’t miss much.

And as for me, I’ll take a day of break before finally tackling the Cacowards 2007 roster of WADs.

See you next time.

Bye.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2005): Simplicity Part 2

PART 1

PART 2 (You are here)

You have escaped the base after turning down the primary power core (that started melting down). Or rather, you tried doing that but like with Knee-Deep in the Dead, you end up as a training bag for demons before waking up in an unknown area with only your pistol.

Looks like your mission isn’t over.

EPISODE 2: Pathway to Hell

When it comes to how maps look compared to the previous episode, it’s a step in a good direction. The levels still look really good but now there is more than just one map theme. You can see ancient areas that look like were built by demons (or were corrupted), caves, abandoned facilities, and, of course, Hellish shithole from Fortress of Blood onwards.

Also, it’s nice that the sky changes its colors much more frequently compared to Fortified Base.

The music tracks are even better. Now there are 4-5 tracks from ROTT, another track from Duke Nukem 3D, and one from Icarus: Alien Vanguard. Without counting the original music from TNT: Evilution, there are only two tracks from Doom I (still a better choice than from Doom II). So yeah, overall, every music track was good and helped hype me up (kind of).

Pathway to Hell is more complicated than Fortified Base in my opinion, but not as much. It’s still hard to get lost in these maps.

As for more interesting stuff, Deprivation has a door leading to the exit that requires both the yellow and red keys to open (both of which you can tackle in any order).

Long Library meanwhile, is probably the most interesting map of the episode (alongside probably being the prettiest one not counting Eternal Void). It’s kind of heavy on puzzles, which includes pressing the right pair of switches in the yellow key room (that for some reason requires the ones with the blue flags around them), Simon Says minigame with the blue key (the combination is always the same) and the puzzle at the end with stepping on right platforms.

There is also the secret level after the final map. I’m not gonna tell you what it is because I feel like you need to experience it yourself. Although, I have no idea how to access it. The textscreen for the secret map (while entering it) mentions going another way than the normal exit after killing the boss, and I know where the teleporter to that level is but it is sealed shut and I don’t know how to open it. There is no info about it on Doomwiki.

Let’s change the subject for the better.

Pathway to Hell seems to be harder than the previous episode, but I didn’t really notice it; probably because I feel like this episode has a lesser amount of obnoxious traps, or at least these are more from one side of an area and/or can be escaped out of easier.

Much like Fortified Base, Pathway to Hell adds a regular enemy and a boss to the roster.

The regular enemy is called Hectebus, which is a bigger, black variant of Mancubus that doesn’t wind up his shots and is 2.5 times tougher to kill. Thankfully, these fatasses are not as dangerous as Nightmare Demons. They feel more like walking practice targets.

Which I cannot say about Chaos Elemental. This green abomination from Doom 64 is a beast to fight against. It shoots two green fireballs at you (even more if you hurt it), it’s fast, and it can even teleport around to throw a barrage of fireballs at you. Supposedly it can even summon flamethrowers but thankfully it didn’t happen to me. It might not have as much health as Goat Lord, but considering how deadly it is, I think smaller health is a blessing.

Also, supposedly, Arch-viles have their health downgraded from 700 points to 500, but I don’t know if it actually happened since I didn’t notice any difference while fighting any of them.

While not a bug, I would like to mention some bizarre things related to one of the secrets in Courtyard of Ruin. For some reason, the secret with armor requires jumping (from what I’ve read in Doomwiki), in a WAD that blocks jumping by default unless you force it to be enabled in options. It doesn’t make any sense when you think about it.

That’s basically what I have to say about Pathway to Hell. Overall, a better episode than Fortified Base in every way.

And as for the Simplicity as a whole, it’s great. Pretty, challenging, simple (of course), and uses ZDoom features to enhance the gameplay while not going completely into the total conversion territory.

Go ahead and try it. You won’t be disappointed.

Although, I don’t know if I’m ready for what is about to come next.

See you next time.

Bye!

[thewul]

How many users is hard to tell, things pick up speed because they are useful, we've seen the layering of places and services, even users with intelligent bots, and the possibility that they are several

There's that monster Hello World down the line maybe

get pulse/ @PULSE @PULSE/ push textscreen "Hello World!" when idle to ~USERS %ALL @PULSE/ list ~USERS ...+3.5BN, Global area