No Princess In This Castle

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Put a little bit of time into chipping away at Castlevania. I’m really glad they allow you to save whenever you want via the emulator, because if I played this back when it originally released I probably wouldn’t of had the patience to complete it. I had to watch a video to get some tips on how to “git gud” and it seems Holy Water is the perfect weapon. There are only 18 stages in the game, and so far I’ve made it to stage 13 before saving and calling it a night. I might consider grinding it more tomorrow, or if I’m too irritated with it switch to another Castlevania/Metroidvania. I’m so glad the newer ones have save rooms…

Evening Open Thread

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Not really feeling it tonight. I came home from work feeling on the slight opposite of good, and I have a bad feeling it will pour over into tomorrow. Gaming just didn’t sound good tonight, even titles that wouldn’t cause motion sickness had to be left on the table. Instead I focused on videos for next month and a New Year’s video for December. Just going through the footage, any other ideas will have to wait for a day when I’m in less pain. Time to sip some tea, read for awhile, and maybe work on something computer related before bed.

Open Thread!

The Scent of Pumpkin Spice and Chaos

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An abandoned house sits under a sky of pumpkin spice latte.

Returned to modded Quake and successfully finished a couple of maps in the 2019 Quake Jam. This one had all kinds of Halloween vibe, tough and fair overall. I think it’s time for me to take a break from this universe though, it has consumed my weekend and it’s time to move onto something else.

We Conquered Quake!

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Thanks to our collaborative efforts we successfully beat Quake together! It’s the first time for the both of us. I’ll still have to complete the game alone to get achievements, but it was great to finally experience co-op for Quake! Next time we play we’ll have the expansions to tackle, and maybe even some addons. I’ll have to see how possible it is to play custom maps together. We’ll probably need vkQuake to pull it off properly.

I’ve had Quake so much on the brain today that I added the maps to SFM. Unfortunately they didn’t have proper HDR lighting, which SFM needs for it to load properly. So I ended up learning how to decompile Valve maps, and then learning how to recompile them with HDR. It’s actually easier than it sounds. Next time I find a map that I want to use I won’t have the lack of HDR to stop me!

Still Jammin’ To Quake

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Introduced a friend to the world of Quake this evening! We made it three episodes in before calling it a night, had a fun time blowing things up and finding secrets. We played the Remastered Version just so they could get a feel for the controls. One of these days I’ll have to see how well we can co-op with mods! Speaking of…

I finished up the 2018 Halloween Jam, so it only made sense to see what the 2019 Halloween Jam had to offer. It starts off very similarly to the 2018 version, but it has even more maps. I’ve only played a few of them so far. The level design is incredible, if not even better than the previous year.

My current favorite is The Outhouse. It features a shitter that takes you to another dimension. Traverse the void and interrupt a Satanic ritual, and eventually fight the outhouse after it transforms into a demon. Amazing what people can come up with for a game that was released decades ago.

I’m a Neglectful Heretic

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One series I need to finish is Heretic/Hexen. I always set out on an adventure, have an excellent time like I do in DOOM… and then I get distracted by other games. Every. Fucking. Time. I decided to try and find a Halloween mod, but only found an unfinished one. So here I go through vanilla again via GZDoom. I made it back to where I previously left off, and even made sure to find all the secrets I missed, so at least there was some replay value to be had.

Continued Jamming In Quake Tonight

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I’m glad I stumbled upon the Quake Halloween Jam! I finished The Black Procession tonight, a map that takes place at the Church of Quake (I’ve decided). Even with these old visuals there is still something beautiful about this digital hellscape, or maybe I just like the night sky,

I only have one map left to go through, then I might have to look into the other Halloween Jams! It’s a great way to keep an old game alive! As usual, if you want to see a couple more snaps I’ve posted them over on Mastodon.

Descending Into Darkness

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Played a bit more Amnesia: The Dark Descent tonight. Powered the lift that took me to the next area of uncharted territory. So far I’ve managed to stay out of sight from all the spooks., been lucky with my choice of hiding places. I had to resist the temptation to continue, the night grew late for me pretty quickly.

Playing A Game From The 90’s With Mods From 2018

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A field of pumpkins, and a Quad Damage powerup in front of a scarecrow.

After venturing around for DOOM Halloween mods the other night I wanted to see what the Quake Community had to offer. I found the Quake Halloween Jam from 2018, which sports a total of nine spooky maps to play. So far I’m two levels through it, each level presenting a challenge even on Normal difficulty.

An image of a pumpkin patch on a wall that reads "Pumpkin Grind By Pinchy".
It’s like a world you can actually jump into.

When you load the Halloween Jam you start off underground in a coffin, but eventually make your way to a haunted house containing large portraits on the walls that you can leap into. I played Pumpkin Grind, which lives up to its name of having lots of pumpkins and being a grind (a FUN grind!).

Stone walls are lit by candles,
Mood lighting at its finest.

Then I ventured through The Four Incantations, where you have to fight off four wizards to open a seal to leave. That one also did a good job of throwing monsters at me. It gave me an excuse to download the latest vkQuake to check out. It was pretty easy to get up and running. I never really did much in the way of modding the old Quake. It was always DOOM and Quake III Arena that got my most modding attention as a kid. Better late than never I guess.