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- 12\24\95
-
- Extra levels for Spear of Destiny Mission One Configuration
- From the imaginuity of Robert S. Bradbury @COMPSERVE 75561,1550
-
- FOREWARD
- It is now 1995, and late into it for that matter, so you may not see the
- value of having any new Spear of Destiny levels! Why should anyone spend
- time making any new ones when we now have DOOM, DOOM II, HERETIC, Rise of
- The Triad and Dark Forces!? I have all of those too! I decided to have some
- fun with the forgotten classic because I am tired of spending money for
- every new game that comes along and as an experiment I decided to see
- if Spear could be as much fun as it originally was- it is! I have used all
- the undocumented features that I could to make this set of levels different
- from any of the originals and all others in existence! You will see ghost
- dogs in one of the secret levels. Force fields exist that you can see
- through but not walk through. My NAZIS are not static therefore they are
- unpredicatable! Have you noticed how the "better" games still have enemies
- that you know exactly where they will appear? You won't get the repeat play
- with my new Spear levels as you experience in the more "advanced" games! I
- do have guards that still stay and mind their posts but many patrols are
- loose too! Those doors you hear slamming aren't hollow sound effects but
- actual guards seeking the invading schweinehund! I made the levels compact
- and not overly wandering BUT still challenging! You will notice that some
- locked doors exist that you can't open with either key- these are guards
- that wish to be left alone and they will make their appearance in all due
- time! If you set the skill level for one then even your kid sister should
- even be able to play. Skill level one has no dogs to kill nor assaulting
- mutants but edge up to skill level three and you will have an ordeal that
- the neo-phyte will not be able to handle. Go to skill level four and you
- will see that I pulled out all the stops- you had better become a miser of
- chicken dinners and ammunition if you expect to make it through! These
- levels are my ninth configuration in working out bugs such as hard to see
- guards or things blocking your view (such as ammo). By the way did I mention
- that one must watch their back while playing at higher skill levels- this
- would probably be a good idea also on skill level one in some areas!
-
-
- This is FREEWARE. If you don't like the levels, you are free to change them
- to your tastes and I will not be insulted- you'll still be using my
- creativity as a foundation! I have downloaded other levels that are totally
- un-realistic and most important- un-playable! I do not have 50 mutants
- assaulting you or have less ammo available than there are enemies- I am
- even speaking of the ammo you get from the recipients of your marksmanship!
- You will still need to watch yourself on the higher skill levels and be
- very resourceful to get through- this is the realistic challenge!
-
- As I have said, I have tried to make the levels play different every time.
- The game actually responds to how you play and how you time your assaults!
- You may notice sometimes you think you'll be overwhelmed and the next
- time you play (using the same skill level) the enemy will probably assault
- you in a different way! On some levels you may even notice that your kill
- level percentage even exceeds 100%. You may shoot ghosts to get some easy
- points and they come back again just to get shot again and again- this adds
- to your kill ratio BUT burns up your ammo too!
-
- These levels are in no way connected to Id or Apogee Software nor the
- FormGen Corporation. If I made a mistake don't call them! (Don't call me
- either- "Just deal with it trooper!")
-
- Here is a suggestion that you can use to make changing your gamemaps and
- mapheads a lot less painful. Before you install my files in your Spear of
- Destiny, copy your GAMEMAPS.SOD and MAPHEAD.SOD to a floppy. Now is
- the neat trick. If you collect a lot of maps, as I do, copy them to their
- own sub-directories and add these two custom files to each subdirectory:
-
- COPY *.SOD %1 <Y.TXT (Name and save this one liner as SWAP.BAT)
- Y (Name and save this one character as Y.TXT)
-
- If you placed these two files in every subdirectory that have maps, then
- all you have to do to change missions is to exit your game, put in the disk
- with your files in the appropriate floppy drive and log to the subdirectory
- with your desired mission files. Follow me so far!? Now let us assume that
- your Spear of Destiny is on your C:\ drive in \SPEAR or C:\SPEAR, you need
- to only type on the DOS command line SWAP C:\SPEAR and your files are
- copied to your Spear of Destiny game without any error or "do you want to
- overwrite" prompts because the Y.TXT file answers for you!
-
- If you really want to be slick and save space you can pkzip your two files,
- run the zip2exe program on the archive to make it self extracting and embed
- it in the SWAP.BAT instead. Let us say you named your self extracting file
- FORTRESS.EXE all you have to do to make a proper SWAP.BAT is:
-
- FORTRESS.EXE -O -D %1 (Save as SWAP.BAT of course) The -O is the letter O
- not the numeral 0.
-
- When you run this, instead of the copy command, pkzip will do the right
- stuff without any further input. You still use the SWAP C:\SPEAR entry
- though!
-
- Here is one much coveted "Cheat Code" that is not widely known. If you
- purchased the CD-ROM version of Spear of Destiny put out by FormGen you are
- undoubtedly ticked at being a victim of a documentation check as a form of
- copy protection. You know the routine! Apogee has released Spear of Destiny
- without the copy protection- for those that are possessors of the earlier
- FormGen version- just type SNOOPS at the documentation check and stop
- fumbling for your manual. If you have seen the movie War Games then you
- might type JOSHUA at the documentation check just for the fun of it!
- You can also make a simple batch file and call it BACKDOOR and have it load
- Spear for you and bypass all the opening screens!
-
- ECHO OFF
- CLS
- SPEAR -DEBUGMODE -NORMAL -TEDLEVEL
-
- Save as BACKDOOR.BAT and your Spear will bypass the documentation check
- altogether, put you in debugmode, have you in the bring 'em on skill level,
- and on floor one! (You still have to activate using the LEFT SHIFT, LEFT ALT
- and Backspace keys.)
-
- Look for the file WMAP12.zip in this archive it has David Lummis' Wolfmap
- V1.2- I have included some batch patches that will let you make maps of your
- Spear of Destiny levels! I know of no other routine that is capable of
- making maps for the Spear series of Wolfenstein 3D. The stock Wolfmap V1.2
- only maps Wolfenstein 3D.
-
- Enjoy and happy hunting! Did I mention you should watch your back!?
- GUT HEIL!
- Herr Bradbury saying Auf Wiedersen
-
- P.S. I deliberately made the Bosses into half awake zombies that just
- stand there in a trance. Fire one shot in their direction and see how
- hacked off they get for you disturbing their slumber- you had better be
- quick on your feet as in "feets don't fail me now!"
- Some of the exit elevators can be reached by secret passageways and in
- "config9" they aren't marked with blood spots on the floor as always the
- case in my previous releases. You can also find the Spear on the first
- floor, but it is very well hidden! If you find it you'll go to the final
- showdown with the Death Angel and bypassing all other levels. You will be
- credited points for your actions on floor 1 but any victories on the final
- showdown will show all zeroes! I guess the game engine can't handle the
- quantum leap so the challenge is to find the Spear and then play all the
- other levels by starting anew. If you don't want to get shot to pieces at
- higher skill levels don't run like a chicken with its head cut off- you will
- only alert more guards to join in the assault! Save often in suspicious
- areas and don't follow my advice always against running- trust your
- instincts and run like hell if you have to! I put more hours into these
- levels than some have put in their DOOM wads! If these levels are accepted
- favorably then I will upload more- if NOT I have some other irons in the
- fire! I also intend to make levels for the other Apogee (id) masterpieces
- also and the Spear of Destiny adventure lets me get my feet wet without the
- tediousness of dealing with linedefs! If it took me hours to get the Spear
- of Destiny done, then what would be the case of DOOM or Rise Of The Triad?
- I still like my SOD and my original 60 level Wolfenstein 3D too!
- Any thing seen behind "windows" can be had but you must find the secret
- passageway to the treasures! By the way- did I mention that you should watch
- your back while playing my levels? Turn about is fair play and you should
- consider becoming a skillful back stabber yourself- save some ammo, use your
- knife and don't alert other guards! rsb
-