Feature: Mods that never were - Part 2

This is Part 2 to my review of some of the best Announced Wolfenstein 3d Mods that unfortunately never were. You can read part 1 here.

HELVETEHelvete was for me the most promising total conversion (TC) that sadly, never ended up getting released. ChiefRebelAngel (CRA) promoted this quite heavily at the Die Hard Wolfers Forum and show cased some of the most amazing hand drawn walls and sprites ever seen for a Wolfenstein mod. TexZK was also onboard helping out with the coding as the TC was developed through 2004.

The mod's story involved BJ Blazkowiz navigating through a series of post-World War 2 Nazi "left behind" fortresses while searching for ancient artifact of Thor's Hammer. An impressive list of features were discussed to be added that included animated doors, weather effects, textured floors and ceilings, 100% replaced artwork plus heaps more. CRA was very vocal regarding questions raised about the progress of the mod and even challenged another member to a competition regarding the quality of this compared to a mod they were working on! (Neither have been released!)

Progress seemed to die off through 2005 as CRA became busy as his artwork abilities took him into employment in that area in his life. He still returns to the DHW forum every six months or so and has mentioned a couple of times that the mod isn't canceled and that he would still love to finish the mod off one day he but just doesn't has the time. He last returned in January 2010 and raised the possibility of maybe releasing the art work for the community to use, none of the artwork, or the mod, has been released as of this posting.

MONSTER BASH 3D

Throughout 2004, Ryan Steinbruner (XgThug) started development on a Wolfenstein version of the side scroller platform game Monster Bash. The mod had an impressive list of features that included textured floors and ceilings, Gun bobbing, shootable lights, minigames & animated pickups. The mod had a very simplistic, graphical animated look that represented the original game well. The mod was to be 30 levels long and had coding by Adam Biser.

A couple of announced release dates came and went (December 2004 then October 2005) with announcements that the mod would then be released in 3 episodes, 1 at a time and that all sprites were to be converted to 128x128 pixels. Ryan reported late in 2005 that all levels had been completed and just some minor tweaks were required, Ryan even called for Beta testers in late 2005 meaning the mod was becoming very close to completion.

Things became very quiet soon after that and to this day the only further mention of the status of the mod was by Adam in March 2006 stating that Ryan was on an indefinite hiatus. Ryan hasn't been a part of the community for a number of years now so Monster Bash unfortunately joins the ranks of promising mods that never got to be enjoyed. The only thing that remains is the ModDB site for Monster Bash 3d that can be seen HERE.

SPEAR DOOMSDAY

Throughout 2004 ZiljinRaynor announced a mod he was working on that was to be based off AReyeP's Spear Resurrection mod (with permission) but with additional coding and some new artwork and levels. The mod had an impressive sounding list of coding features that were to be added that included Textured floors and ceiling, 4 keys, a modified statusbar & Exploding barrels.

Things looked promising from the screenshots that were released but as 2004 came to an end so did all mention of the mod. ZiljinRaynor still visits the DHW forum form time to time but it appears that the project has unfortunately long been abandoned.

VECTORSTEIN

Vectorstein was an ambitious project announced by Commodore in early 2008. His plan for the mod was to redraw all Wolfenstein graphics into vintage vector style. This was to include all walls sprites, guards and even the status bar.

From the released screenshots, Commodore was a fair way into the redrawing of the original graphics that really gave this mod a very unique look of it's own. There were no further updates about the mods progress a few weeks after this was announced and it's creator Commodore hasn't been around the Wolf 3d Community since mid 2008 meaning this is unfortunately another promising looking mod that may never get released.

DHWTC (Diehard Wolfers Total Conversion)

The DHWTC was a Community made mod that had a large number of people all working together from the DieHard Wolfes forum to release a TC for everyone to play that still kept the original Wolfenstein feel and spirit alive. The idea for the mod developed in late 2003 when a group forum was started (Which still exists today) with many members involved over the time that included Ringman, ChiefRebelAngel, Mr Wolf, Schabbs, Arielus, Loki, BrotherTank, Dugtrio, JackaL, majik Mokee, Merthsoft & Adam Biser. Each member of the team was working on different parts of the TC and some extremely impressive screenshots emerged showcasing the quality of work that had gone into the project.

Things progressed along nicely through 2004 and 2005 but seemed to stagnate into 2006 as the project's leader, Ringman, became swamped with school. Things appeared to be almost completed with reports that all levels had been done, all textures completed and only a few minor things remained liked sounds and minor touchups.

There was still some posts of good intentions about restarting the project through 2007 & 2008 but things all but stopped from here on out and since then some of the parts have been used in other mods, such as the dog sprites and statusbar. Many offers have been made by other members of the community (including myself) to either help out or take the project over but as Ringman rarely visits the forum himself much anymore this still looks likes it's stuck in limbo.

Actually, this mod may not be done with just yet!

Thanks for reading through this 2 part feature, I'm sure there's been a few other mods that people were looking forward to that were announced, looked promising but never got released and I'm sure there'll be some more in the future. These are just a list of the few that I'd really hoped had made it to completion.