Ruining It For Everyone Else Since 2004
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Starting to work on videos for November; This is part of a small piece for a video ending. The scene itself is gonna be pretty small, but I figure I’d share it anyway.
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.
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!).
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.
There was once a cat that lived in our neighborhood. She belonged to a redneck who believed his pets were feedable yard decorations. Besides the cat, he owned a dog. We thought was named “Shut up” because of how many times he yelled Shut up at the poor thing, who we found out later on was named Diesel. Eventually he ended up moving away and returning some property value to the rest of our neighborhood when he drove his fat ass freight truck away never to return.Before leaving he let us know that his cat went missing, but never bothered to stay and look for her. Eventually she found a home with two kids that loved her… or so we thought.
Fast forward four years later and she mysteriously reappears outside in our neighborhood, mainly coming around at night. She looked malnourished, like many of the other cats that are either left outside or abandoned in our neighborhood (we have shitty neighbors). We offered her the garage in the evenings for shelter, and started calling her Kiki, and later Kikyo. By morning she would leave. Eventually Kikyo would start hanging around during the day, and we began to notice she was getting more and more plump. At first we thought it was from feeding her, then eventually it became more obvious that the poor thing was pregnant. Last week her water broke, but there was no kitten activity. After waiting 32 hours like the Vet recommended we took her in for a checkup, and next thing we knew…
TWO PREMATURE KITTENS!!! Kikyo had two pregnancies going on, a pregnancy of four and a pregnancy of two. The four didn’t make it, and the two were difficult to wake up… but they made it.
We’ve been doing what we can to feed and care for them since their arrival. Each day we weigh them, and they get a little more and more heavier. Their Mom has been doing an excellent job taking care of them!
As crazy as it is, we’re probably going to keep them. If Kikyo had given birth to a regular litter of kittens we would have given them away without any issue. But helping save this bonded pair has made this situation completely different. Of course, this means we have six cats now. But we’ll make it work. We won’t be adopting anymore cats, for awhile anyway. We’re happy to welcome Scooter (left) and Squeaky (right) into the world, and into our family. 🙂
I thought about tearing back into DOOM last night, this time GZDoom! I wanted to download some Halloween themed DOOM wads. Tonight I tried Trick and Tear – a Halloween themed megawad for DOOM 2. So far I’m three levels in playing on “Hurt Me Plenty”, or as they call it in the wad “I Play With The Lights Off”. Trick and Tear features a total of nine levels by numerous authors, so far I’ve only survived through three of them.
I’m about half way through Map 3 (Rigor). Surprisingly the Revenants in the image don’t attack you! (not yet anyway). Made it to just outside where I keep getting pounded by rockets from fully functioning Revenants. I won’t lie… I’m kinda wishing I went at least one difficulty back. Some of the areas feel almost impossible to trudge through when you’re locked in an area with a sudden demon moshpit, and no wiggle room to effectively take them out. But I didn’t give up! Just took breaks whenever I got irritated enough. Think I’ve had my fill for the evening. It gave me an excuse to check out wads… it has been a good number of years since I last looked. You know a game is really good when you have people who are playing AND making mods for it decades later.
More images can be found on my Mastodon.