Ar_e_en

The guy in the meme is called "MovieBob" - an online movie reviewer. Bit of a twat, and not in an endearing way. It's all you really need to know.

So, which specific games would be playable on this version of DosBox that weren't playable on the other versions? From what I know of my limited knowledge - most Dos games that had early hardware accelerated graphics also had a software mode. I mean Quake II shipped with both and that was one of the last ones to support both.

From what I've seen of that mod - while most of those weapons could be converted to MBF21, there are however 2 caveats: You would need to make each character its own wad (kinda like D4V, but instead of alternative weapons, it's alternative characters). Some of the weirder weapons couldn't be converted and would probably have to be replaced.

Here's a small update: ChooseYourOwnTheme_Version_nr2.zip Minor changes, mostly texture changes.

There are no special difficulty based player starts, the only thing that affects the map layout is the switch that you press at the start (difficulty only affects monsters and items). As for the bars in the Egypt section, maybe I could quickly change the texture of the bars to indicate that you need a blue key for it.

I think MBF21 is specifically designed for Doom and Doom 2, so it would probably crash Heretic, Hexen or Strife if you gave them a Doom derived Dehacked patch. The sad thing is that from what I've heard - Heretic actually does have a version of Dehacked that was designed to work for it, but it only works for Vanilla Heretic and it didn't always work due to the disparity between what version of Vanilla Heretic you had and what version of the Heretic Dehacked program you had. The only thing that you could do consistently with Dehacked across any version of Heretic (original or source port) was changing the text strings. I think that the only way that you could add new weapons or monsters into Heretic is to use ZDoom or GZDoom features. Even Hexen and Strife might be limited in this regard, sure they both have scripting capabilities, but from what I've seen - they're really limited in regards to weapon and monster changes (I think I played one custom Hexen map that made some of the monsters transparent, but that's about it). Strange Aeons could definitely be converted. As for Hell-Forged, while I haven't played it, from what I've seen of it - I think it could work for the most part. While the "Wheel of Pain" weapon probably couldn't be converted due to its complex health and ammo mechanics, the "Vorpal Blade" could be made in MBF21, if you are willing to make a few concessions (maybe "Demon Blood" could be a simple ammo drop from most enemies instead of something you gain from a direct kill with the weapon). The thing about "Knee Deep in Knee Deep in ZDoom" (as well as the new version of "Harmony" to a lesser extent) is that it made some concessions to get the wad to work on other ports. A lot of very simple UDMF map features (like slopes or sliding doors) could be pulled off with lower map formats by utilizing a bunch of Vanilla, Boom or MBF mapping tricks, but if the original map creator used a lot of really advanced UDMF features - then the possibility of a conversion becomes more unlikely. I messed around with the MBF21 weapon features and I have plans and ideas for some weapon alt-fire modes for a project that I might work on. I always thought that CHEX QUEST 3 could be converted to work on Vanilla. It's nice to see that that idea had a lot of merrit to it. I'm looking forward to seeing this conversion come out! I especially like the fact that not only are you converting Episode 3 to Vanilla, but you are also converting the ZDoom version of Episode 2 as well (the original Episode 2 sometimes felt like a beta version of a finished product). No, I wasn't thinking of that one, although, funny enough - that wad actually did start out as a GZDoom only project, but later it got converted to MBF21! The wad that I was thinking about from what I can remember was made for GZDoom, it had a lot of custom monsters and the screenshots depicted a bunch of techbases floating in the air.

Which bars? The bars to the exit, the bars to the pyramid or the flesh bars in the cave? Also, one thing I have to bring up - I didn't set a sky texture for this map, because the default sky texture in the texture pack (the one that you can see in the 2nd picture) was good enough for the map. So, if you need to set up a UMAPINFO lump for this map - know that the sky texture for this map is the default "SKY1" texture from the given texture pack.

Title: Choose Your Own Theme! Theme: Egypt, Techbase or Flesh (You Decide!) Author: Ar_e_en Music: "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Theme" MIDI by CtrlAltDestroy from VGMusic Link to level: ChooseYourOwnTheme.zip Difficulty settings: Implemented all 3, most of the testing was on UV Comment: A little project that originally started out as a speedmap (things got out of hand and it actually took me a month to make this) that I eventually turned into an experiment to see if I could cram 3 short maps into one. Screenshots:

MBF21 is largely an extension to regular MBF's Dehacked capabilities and while it does have a few new mapping features (special death exits, kill floors, player blocking lines, etc.), I wouldn't be surprised if UDMF already had some of those map specific features already (granted, I'm not an expert on UDMF at all). I have seen a few GZDoom megawads that don't really use some of the more advanced features of UDMF and mostly rely on new monsters through DECORATE. In fact, I think that there was one released around the time that MBF21 and UMAPINFO started gaining traction, but I can't remember the name of it. Oh, that is a good question! I would say that the Hexen map format is a bit closer to UDMF than any lower Doom map format due to its polyobject capabilities and its reliance on a very stripped down version of ACS for scripting the various map mechanics.

Yeah, it's not really a big issue, but I did encounter it and decided to report it anyway. Speaking of "reporting issues": I checked out the credits map. It's quite nice, however, it also has quite a few problems that might need fixing. Markers: --- Issues that I found ??? Things that I'm not sure about I also have a suggestion about the credits map: I understand that part of the reason why the credits map exists is because there was an issue where some people compleated Map 23 and didn't get sent to the "Roll call" screen, but not everyone will expierience this issue (I did a quick run of Map 23 and the exit sent me to the "Roll call" screen), this means that some people might not see this map. So it might be a good idea to set up UMAPINFO so that it treats Map 01 as the starting Episode 1 named simply "Super Doom TV" and Map 24 as an Episode 2 named "Staff Credits" or something like that.

With the release of a Limit-Removing version of "Harmony" as well as the release of "Knee Deep in Knee Deep in ZDoom" (aka - the Vanilla demake of the "Knee Deep in the Dead" remake "Knee Deep in ZDoom"), I started to wonder: is there any other higher port (mostly ZDoom and GZDoom) Doom wads and total conversions that could be remade in the confines of a more basic mapping format (non-UDMF) and a non-ZDoom derived version of Dehacked (Vanilla, Boom, MBF, MBF21, DSDAHACK) for its scripting? The first ones that came to my mind were the Woolball games (Shadow Of The Woolball and Rise Of The Woolball). They're modeled after Wolfenstein 3D and Rise Of The Triad, so the map format and Dehacked version could be as low as Vanilla, but I think that Boom would probably be the best choice. I can see the Boom format working fine enough for most of the scripted parts (Voodoo dolls and conveyors), although - cutscenes would be pretty hard to implement. You would probably have to change the cutscenes from a scripted series of events over to a more Half-Life style of presentation (all from the player point of view of course). Using Vanilla mapping specifications and Dehacked could work and it could probably get you to fully remaking Shadows with a lot of trickery, but I suspect that Rise would bring a lot of problems (that game has a lot of scripting when compared to the first one). Worst case scenario would be having to rely on regular MBF due to its Dehacked features (MBF gave frame states the ability to activate tagged map sectors without the Commander Keen or Map 07 limitations), however, if you allow for the use of UMAPINFO and its "Actordeath" variables - you wouldn't really need MBF and could probably do it with a lower Dehacked version. As for MBF21 and DSDAHACK - I think that it would be overkill.

Alright! Here are the final map reports! The final maps were longer than the maps before, so there is always a possibility that I missed a few things, but overall - I didn't find anything major. Markers: --- Issues that I found ??? Things that I'm not quite sure about Map 20 "Witness Total Carnage" Map 23 "Death At 632.8 nm"

Yay! : )

I don't wanna slap you in the face : (

More map reports! I might be able to get through the last remaining maps (20 - 23) tomorrow, if not - then in the next 2 days. Markers: --- Issues that I found ??? Things that I'm not quite sure about Map 17 "Fortress Of The Horned Beast" Map 18 "Rock It, Man!" Map 19 "Bloodsport"