Mappers mod Level 4

Ok Level 4 is officially completed. I have play tested, made changes and play tested again. It's a pretty good level, hard and also a level that no one could just run through, this level will have a 'par time' of 8 to 10 minutes I would say, and the best thing is that it's not all that mazey, there's no way you could get lost. Quite a few tough battles, but this level is the one before the boss so it's meant to be challenging. I really think people are going to enjoy playing it. Anyway, here's the screenshot I promised.

Episode 3 Level 4

I just counted how many mods I've collected, very surprised to see the number at 591! I'm sure there's mods out there that have been released that I don't have either.

If there is any doubt that Chris Chokan is the master when it comes to the Wolfenstein code, then in my eyes after having a look at 'Weird 33' today there is no doubt. Chris released this in 2003 and made the mod in 1 day!. It has some of the most bizarre things you've ever seen in a Wolf mod. Here's a run down of some of the features;

Episode 1 - All the walls are skinny!

Episode 2 - Everything moves, plus you start with 312,508 treasure.

Episode 3 - BJ moves by himself, you can speed up and turn

Episode 4 - BJ moves by himself and then all of a sudden your points jusat start to add by themselves

Episode 5 - All the sprites are moving

Episode 6 - All the walls are fat plus you use different items as weapons.

I'm sure there's plenty of other things that are in the game that I didn't discover. My favorite is your 'receipt' when you use the 'MLI' cheat! I highly recommend that you check this out just for the entertainment factor. It's a bit hard to find but if you look hard, you'll come across it.

Mappers mod

The 3rd level of the Mappers mod i'm working on is completed. I did half yesterday but last night I wasn't very happy with it and was going to scrap it all together. I had another look today, made a few small changes and the whole level just fell together nicely. Really happy with the design and layout. I'll post a screenshot tomorrow for all to take a look at.

TELSTRA SUX!!!

Haven't been able to update for a couple of days as my service provider (Telstra) switched off my ADSL for NO reason. I get home from work on Sunday and it was switched off, so I called the tech support line. The guy on the phone says yes 'It was switched off yesterday but there is no reason listed at all why. Usually if it's for non-payment of your account it lists it here, but there's nothing written'. My respone 'Then turn the god damn thing back on!'. He tells me he can't and that only the connections team can and they only work from 8am-5pm Monday-Friday! So I had to wait until the next day for them so I could get my damn ADSL switched back on.

Damn did I crack it with the guy when I got through to connections the next day, he still couldn't give me a reason why they had switched it off. I had signed a 2 year contract with them and am only in the 3rd month, I asked him If 'Telstra wanted to break the contract that I signed?', he quickly answered 'No, No, not at all!' so, I asked what he was going to do about it because this is not acceptable, so he gave me $50 credit on my bill! Score.

Anyway, started level 4 today, yeah, i know I haven't done level 3 yet, but got a good idea for 4 so started that instead. I'm really liking the layout, mainly red walls. Its a map that fills the whole area so may takle a couple of days to get it all right. I will post a screenshot here only when it's done.

Mappers mod Level 2

Level 2 has been completed, see below for a screenshot! Starting on level 3 today!

I have just started playing through Arielus's 'Golden Episodes' mod. Seems interesting so far, kinda like a mix between BJ Rowan's excellent mod 'Totengraeber' and the 'Lost episodes'. Word has it that Arielus makes some of the best maps in the community and I'm interested to see what they're like. I 'll give an update when I get a little further through them.

Episode 3 Level 2

Thomas Weiling's new mod

Thomas has sent me his new mod that I did the coding for and I played through the levels last week. In my opinion they are the best levels that he's ever done and it shows just how good his map making skills have gotten. I've played all of his mods and really enjoyed them but this is his best yet, keep an eye out for it when it's released, not sure of the release date at this time. I think he's changed the title to 'Fatface returns' from what I knew it to be, no offence Thomas, but I thought that the old title was much better!

I have also been playing through JLB3's 'Sewertown'. Now I know that this mod was at least 3 years in the making and it shows, although some of the graphics are a little glitchy, like the red sky flashing thing, the whole rest of the game is of really top quality and I recommend everyone check it out. But be warned, it isn't an easy game!

I have now completed the second level for the joint 'mappers mod' that I'm involved in and in all honesty, I gotta say it's one of the best levels I've ever made. I'm sure the other guys involved are making great levels as well and if we are all making to the same quality then this should be a really great challenging mod for all to play with some really creative levels.

History

Today I thought i'd post some history on how I got interested in Wolfenstein in the first place.

I started playing wolf not long after it was released back in 1992. A friend of mine whom I worked with had this, as he described 'really cool game where you get to shoot Nazi's!'. I went to his place after work one night and we ended up playing straight through until dawn the next day. I was hooked from that day. I got the full verison myself and then Spear of Destiny a year later. I've played them through 100 times by now over I reckon.

Fast forward to 2005, I had the internet but had never realised that there was any sort of community or ways that you could make your own mods by editing the code and such. I had bought a new PC and had misplaced my copies of Wolf and SOD over the years and went looking on the net to see if i could find free copies to download thinking that it may have been released as a free game by now. I came across Luke Strauman's site that had a mod by the name of Himmler's SS on there. I was thinking, wow this guy is cool, he's made his own Wolfenstein mods! I downloaded it and couldn't believe how different things looked to the original game but still had the same wolf feel. The next day upon further searching I came across Brian Lowe's site and realised that there was inded some sort of community of 'Wolfers' who had been making their own mods and releasing them. I started downloading mods like crazy (I now have over 550!). I then found a Wolf editor and thought that I'd have a go at making my own levels. It took me weeks to get everything to work. I started fooling around with making levels, at first by just modifying the original Wolf levels and then moved onto making my own from scratch.

This led me into starting Escape from Castle Holle in September 2005. I then tried to compile the code and make some changes, for the life of me I couldn't work the damn thing out. It didn't help that I hadn't worked in Dos for 10 years and couldn't even remember the most basic of commands! A friend at work gave me a quick reminder on Dos usage and not long after that I was able to get the code compiled. From the first time I made some changes to a Wolf level and then went into the game and saw them I just couldn't get enough. I was addicted, and still am.

It's now August 2006 and Escape from Castle Holle has grown into this massive project with huge changes to just about everything. I'm just working on some more coding changes and got about 10 levels to complete then it should be done. I released a mod titled Hitlerworld back in February 2006 that was only 3 levels and was made in 6 days. The levels are really crappy and so are a lot of the walls. I plan to rectify this be making a version 2 at some stage with everything done properly, but that is quite a while off.

My interst in Wolfing stays pretty steady these days, some days a level just flows out of me and some days I just can't make them to save myself. But on the good days the levels come out pretty cool, and when I put those levels together I think it makes a pretty awesome mod, lets hope so anyway! I guess when EFCH is released will be the true test. Thanks for reading.

EFCH on hold.

Escape from castle Holle is officially on hold for a few weeks while i make a few levels for the DHW mappers set I am a part of. I've got 7 levels to make but have only completed 1 fully so far. The levels are looking good and i'm really enjoying mapping with the original textures again. Here's the first screenshot from the mod, I don't believe anyone else has released one yet!

Episode 3 Level 1

Mod updates

I am currently working on a combined mod on the Die Hard Wolfers forum site. There are 5 of us involved and we are trying to create a mod for the community to play using as close to the original games graphics etc. as possible. We are all making an episode made up of either 6 straight levels or 5 straight levels and 1 secret level. I will probably make a secret level as they're a lot of fun to do. I'm one level down already, I'll try to post a couple of screen shots in the next few days to give visitors a bit of a sneak peak. The mod is due out on Christmas Day 2006.

Welcome

Hi, This blog will be mainly Wolfenstein related and will focus on the mods I am working on. I may publish random thoughts or interesting stories from time to time also as well also using this for the odd rant also!

I am currently working on a Wolfenstein mod titled 'Escape from Castle Holle'. See below for some screenshots from the game. The mod was started in November 2005 and is expected to be completed by Christmas 2006. I am also currently working on some mods with other people within the Wolf 3D community, but more information on these will be made available at a later date.

Lots of green everywhere!

Hmm, what could question mark mean?

I can't believe it's not butter!