T O T A L M E L T D O W N tm Tools and Software Arsenal for Duke Nukem TM 3D Duke Nukem TM and 3D Realms TM are trademarks of Apogee, Ltd., which is not affiliated with Sierra On-Line, Inc and does not support, endorse, or sponsor this product. You will need a registered version of Duke Nukem 3D available from 3D Realms in order to use the material included in this package. PROBLEMS? Page down below the following list of contents for some ideas. CONGRATULATIONS! You are now the proud owner of a unique collection of yadda, yadda, yadda. Sorry, I could only stomach a single line of PR BS. So, what have you got here and where do you find it? Here goes: 1. This package contains a ton of texture art, animation art, sound files, midi music files, and documentation, all of which can be used to build or enhance game levels for Duke Nukem 3D. The music files are in both general midi format (GEN_MIDI directory) and in Soundblaster format (SBLASTER directory). The sound files are in Duke's preferred VOC format as well as in WAV form so that you can listen to them on other sound players. 2. There are also over 500 levels that have been produced by Duke's most avid fans. Some are experiments in how to get the Build utility to work, some are deathmatch levels and some are great single player levels. Overall, there are hundreds of hours worth of extra game play for Duke enthusiasts. 3. We have also included a nifty little browser (called MELTDOWN.EXE) that lets you quickly scan through the levels, look at screen shots and maps of each, read the text files that describe each, and launch any that you decide to try. The browser also lets you run any of the Sierra demos included on this CD. Finally, it's easily customized to other uses. If you like the way the browser helps organize a bunch of Duke levels, just edit the BROWSER.TDB file and use this tool to scan art collections, other collections of levels, all your other games, or any other huge mess of files that can be browsed by looking at PCX or TXT files. 4. All the levels have been rated and categorized to help you find what you are most interested in. They are divided as SINGLE (single player levels with lots of foes to fight), DEATH (deathmatch levels) and HYBRID (these can work either way). They have been rated as A (the best of the best), B (next best) and C (average). You should know that all the levels take a lot of time, work, and creativity to build and they all offer something for both the game player and for the level builder. The efforts of all the level makers should be respected and appreciated. 5. As much as possible, we have included credits to the level builders. There are txt files that contain author name, level name, info about the level from the author, disclaimers, bug notices, restrictions on further usage, and any story-line that the author had in mind when he built the level. With the thousands of Duke sites on the internet, some maps may have been inadvertently separated from their author credit notices. I have tried hard to match up every map with what credits I could find, but if I have missed any, I apologize sincerely. If your credit was omitted, I ask that you send email to me personally (see end of file) and I will arrange for proper notice to be given in Sierra's web site or in their Interaction magazine. I really did try to find all these, but some maps either did not have them or they had become separated as they roamed the web. 6. The new textures and animation art are mainly from a new Sierra product coming out this fall called Birthright. Based on TSR's great product of the same name, Birthright is a role-playing game with a strong strategy component. And, the adventures are in some of the coolest looking castles, dungeons, mines, towns, and ruins that you've ever seen. Lots of cool art and sounds that you can add to your own Duke levels make for a look that is very different. So, take your levels in new directions and make something that looks like nothing else out there! 7. We have also collected many of the information files from the net that tell you how to get the most out of Duke and the Duke Build utility -- how to load new textures and animations into Build, how to get some of those cool effects that you've seen in Duke or that you will see in the levels on this CD. Read 'em and take it all a step further. 8. The CON files are one of the best ways to really customize your Duke levels. Read up on these and take a look at the levels that use them. You can change all Duke's health, armor, and weapons. Change how much damage weapons do, how fast they shoot, what type of ammo and how much it can carry. You can change the text messages that appear on screen during the game, change sounds, change music, and change how the animations appear and sequence. You can change every foe in the game, altering their speed, strength, and what they do when they see Duke. It's a blast playing with this stuff. See Ben Cantrick's intro on this in D3DCN025.TXT in the DOCO directory. Good stuff! Thanks, Ben. 9. Lots of utilities and info on how to use them are in the UTIL directory. 10.Lots of other good notes, ideas, and answers to questions are in the doco directory. It is certainly not complete, but there is a lot there to work with. Read it, run with it, and have fun! P R O B L E M S ? ? ? INSTALL TIME 1. If your CD cannot be read when you insert it into your CD-ROM drive, you probably have a defective or damaged CD diskette. Check with the retail store where you purchased this product and see if they can exchange it for you. If you can't get the help you need there, then contact Sierra Customer Support by phone, fax, modem, or mail at: Sierra On-Line Technical Support P.O. Box 85006 Bellevue, WA 98015-8506 Phone: (206) 644-4343 M-F, 8:15 am - 4:45 PM Fax: (206) 644-7697 Modem: Sierra BBS: (206) 644-0112 CompuServe: GO SIERRA (Sierra Forum) AOL: Keyword: SIERRA Internet: HTTP://WWW.SIERRA.COM 2. If you are running under Windows '95, the MELTDOWN browser utility should be placed in a different directory from DUKE3D. Let the Install program create a folder for you other than DUKE3D. The MELTDOWN browser will look for DUKE3D on your c: drive in a directory called DUKE3D. If you have DUKE located elsewhere, please edit BROWSER.TDB. You will see the C:\DUKE3D line at the top of that file. Change it to any pathname that you may be using for DUKE. Sorry for the inconvenience. RUN TIME 1. Total Meltdown requires a registered copy of Duke Nukem 3D. It cannot work with the shareware version of this product. If you do not have the full Duke Nukem 3D product installed on your computer, then you cannot launch these custom levels. Sorry. This is the policy of 3D Realms, and we fully support their preference that you buy their game if you want to get the most fun from playing with it. 2. You must have your Total Meltdown CD in the drive when you run the Meltdown browser. There are just too many files on the CD to load them all onto your hard drive. If you get tired of messing with the CD, then feel free to load any amount of your favorite levels onto your hard drive and edit BROWSER.TDB accordingly. I won't go into the details. Take a look at BROWSER.TDB and change the path and/or file names. A little experimentation should make it all clear. 3. From the Meltdown browser, if you try to run a level (by pressing the ENTER key while a map level name is highlighted), Meltdown will try to launch Duke Nukem 3D and run that level. If it cannot find Duke Nukem 3D, you will see an error message such as: "Running file 'duke3d -map . . . ' Bad command or file name. or Invalid directory or drive. This means that the Meltdown browser could not find your copy of DUKE3D. The browser looks for Duke3D on your c: drive in a directory called DUKE3D. If you have placed Duke somewhere else, you should edit the file BROWSER.TDB. At the top of that file, you will see the pathname: C:\DUKE3D. Change this line to whatever pathname is appropriate for your copy of Duke3D. You can edit this file with any text editor. This is the file that you play with to use the Meltdown browser for other browse functions as well. This package is copyrighted c 1996 by Sierra On-Line, Inc. All rights reserved. Please note: All of the Duke Nukem levels contained in this compilation are available without charge over the Internet as well as other online services. Sierra On-Line has no affiliation with the authors of Duke Nukem, their licensees, or the authors of these freely available levels. You may obtain more information about many of the authors of the levels in the text (*.txt) files accompanying each level. The low price for this package represents only our costs of downloading these levels on your behalf, evaluating and preparing the compilation of the levels, providing a critique of them, simplifying their installation on your computer, our costs for media, costs of distribution, and a small profit. Sierra is not charging you for the individual levels, and accepts no responsibility for their accuracy. Reproduction of this compilation is prohibited under international law. Sierra On-Line specifically disclaims any liability should a program malfunction or cause damage, incidental or otherwise. Total Meltdown is in no way related to 3D Realms Entertainment, publisher of Duke Nukem 3D; 3D Realms Entertainment will not provide support for the material on this disk. These add-ons may only be used with the registered version of Duke Nukem 3D. Duke Nukem and 3D Realms are registered trademarks of Apogee. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. MISCELLANEOUS CREDITS FOR TOTAL MELTDOWN Materials collected by Evan Dean Browser tool by Donald Tsang Textures and animation art prepared by Jason Jones Additional art by Jeremy Jones Sounds collected and prepared by Craig Utterback Music by Chris Barker Level pics prepared by Derek Clardy Alex Bennion Levels rated by Derek Clardy Wes Cumberland Michael Ormsby Mike McMillen Custom levels developed for this package Chris Williams Mike McMillen Derek Clardy Product / Brand Manager Brad Bethune Corporate QA Manager Gary Brown Creative Service Manager Heather Lavin Copy Writer David Edgerton Box design Greg Simonson / ShadowLight Design Direction Robert Clardy Coordination and organization Ann Dickens Clardy Levels provided courtesy of many hard-working volunteers. See the text file credits for each level as you browse it. If credit was inadvertently left out, please email the appropriate info (level name and author at least, but whatever else you want to share with the world about your level) to Robert Clardy at bobc@synergistic-sw.com. I'll do my best to insure your credit gets posted or displayed in an appropriate fashion.