THE DARKENING (Doom 2 mod)

= THE DARKENING =
= Episode 1 : The Nameless Project v1.01=
======================================================================
= The Darkening homepage: http://gallery.uunet.be/jan.van.der.veken/ =
======================================================================

Finally, it's here. After many months of hard work, The Darkening
team proudly presents Episode 1: The Nameless Project, featuring ...

+ 11 single player levels
+ 11 deathmatch levels
+ tweaked for optimal gameplay
+ stunning new graphics

New in version 1.01:

+ fixed a missing flat bug that caused [DM Map 08] to crash.
+ fixed animation sequence FIREBLUA from 2 frames to 3 frames.

=============================== STORY ================================

It has been 3 years since the destruction of the huge demon that
masterminded the invasion of Earth. Your journey back home was almost
as difficult and bloodthirsty as your journey into hell, but you made
it. You had expected to be made a hero; after all, you had saved Earth
and all it's worlds from a fate worse than death. But it was not to be
that way.

Upon your return, you discovered that things had begun to change. The
UAC, deprived of some of it's key personnel, had become more secretive
and shadowy. You could swear that the Mars station's light levels were
lower than you remember them. . . Instead of briefings by the top
brass, troops were given datapads for their missions. Sometimes people
would go missing. . . Some of the other marines decided that they
would leave. Their ship blew up shortly after departure.

Recently, things have gotten worse. All remaining marines have been
confined to quarters for weeks, and contact with Earth has been cut
off for months. Some of your closest friends have started to disappear
Perhaps hell won the fight after all. . .

Then, one night, it is your turn. Your dreams suddenly turn to
nightmares, a Spider Mastermind strafing your body, it's manic
laughter the only thing you can hear ... As the last bullet pierces
your skin, your eyes blink open. Something is wrong. . . it seems even
colder and darker than it did before. . . Suddenly, everything goes
black. Fearing the worst, you reach under your bed for the pistol you
always keep there. Your chaingun and shotgun are in the other room,
but it is too late and too far.

Your sight begins to return to you. But where are you? You are in a
tiny brick room, a silver door the only way out. Tightening your grip
on the pistol, you open it and step through and prepare to discover
the purpose of this ... this Nameless Project.

============================ INSTALLATION ============================

- Unzip the file darken.exe into your doom2 directory WITH THE
OPTION -d !!!
example: pkunzip -d darken.zip c:\doom2
- Go to your doom2 directory and type darken to start.

The Darkening comes with a dehacked patch as well. This patch changes
the map names that are displayed on the automap as well as the texts
at the end of map 06 and map 11. The patch is optional, so you don't
HAVE to load it to be able to play the levels. It is however *nice* to
have, and we feel The Darkening is more complete with it.

To install this patch you need to run the batch file "exepatch.bat"
which you can find in the "\darkening" subdirectory.

No original Doom2 files are modified during the install.

============================ LEVEL CREDITS ===========================

[ Map 01 ]

Level name : Scary
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : Short but sweet map. This level more or less defined
the typical metal 'n' bricks style for this episode.
It started off as a regular Doom2 level without new
textures. Later I picked it up again, I radically
changed the texturing and made some structural
changes too. The title? Oh yeah, it's a dark and
_scary_ level. =)

[ Map 02 ]

Level name : Bloody Hell
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : Another shorty. Made this one right after Scary.
It took me less than 3 days (or should I say
nights?) to finish.

[ Map 03 ]

Level name : Entropia
Author : John "Gestalt666" Bye
Description : A tightly packed little stone complex built around
a courtyard... Just a little 'un.

[ Map 04 ]

Level name : Relentless
Author : Travers Dunne
Description : Started out doing the start room, then came the
fenced area which i thought looked cool. soon all
the gauntlet was drawn up, as well as the exit
room and a few other bits. And i hadnt even started
texturing ANYTHING!

[ Map 05 ]

Level name : Hand of Doom
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : One of the larger levels in this episode. The layout
is pretty complex and non-linear with some nice
architecture. It's pretty tough on a pistol start
too. The title comes from a Black Sabbath song.

[ Map 06 ]

Level name : The Mines of Death
Author : Nick Baker
Description : This started out in a similar style to TNP Map 07,
but then I decided to do something a little
different. . . I've always been a fan of mine type
levels, so I let Mark Klem's MKMINES and Iikka
Keranen's two mine levels (Dystopia 3/Requiem) be
my main source of influence for most of the level.
There are several original ideas too though. Oh,
thanks to Travers for doing up this level a bit!

[ Map 07 ]

Level name : Dead Simple ][
Author : Nick Baker
Description : OK, so the only visual similarity to Dead Simple is
the first tiny little room. It's not what it looks
like that gives it's name, but what you have to do
- kill the Mancubi, then the Arachnotrons. This
time, though, there are plenty more monsters too,
including some nasty traps. Thanks once again to
Travers for touching this level up a bit, and to
Daniel, my brother, for suggesting the "Interactive
Box" (you'll know it when you see it).

[ Map 08 ]

Level name : Discordia
Author : John "Gestalt666" Bye
Description : A large metallic base making full use of the
excellent new Darkening textures. Probably the
schmmmoothest level I've ever made for Doom!

[ Map 09 ]

Level name : Military Complex
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : A Dodead/Knee Deep in the Dead style level: my
favorite style... It's very challenging on UV. At
one point there are 8 barons chasing you around ...
But it's still possible. Other things to notice:
the open roof architecture looks cool and there
are some nice lighting effects. IMO this is the
best of my Darkening single player maps. Special
thanks to Lee Killough. The visplane overflow
protection in BSP 2.2 saved my ass on this level.

[ Map 10 ]

Level name : Under Earth
Author : Travers Dunne
Description : Got inspired by, believe it or not, one of the very
cool levels in the Quake mission pack Scourge of
Armagon. Funnily enough the part that was closely
related to that inspiration was dropped coz it lead
the level into parts that were really spinning my
head as to what to do.

[ Map 11 ]

Level name : Stone Tyrant
Author : Adam Windsor
Description : This place of brick and rock is silent, shadowed.
Your footsteps echo softly as you walk slowly toward
a pair of angled doors. Readying yourself for
action, you reach for the switch .....

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[ DM Map 01 ]

Level name : The Spine of Evil
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : Actually this is my first deathmatch level ever.
I started it as a tech/base style level. Later
I decided to experiment a bit and I completely
changed the texturing while keeping the lay-out
pretty much intact. It is now a hellish/medieval
style level. A bit like the original id episode 4
levels. Thanks should go to Matt Dixon for giving
me useful tips for item placement. Oh, I made
a single player version of this level too that
might show up in a future release ...

[ DM Map 02 ]

Level name : Devil's Dungeon
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : A rather large deathmatch level. Best for 3-4
players. The architecture is very detailed.
Some structures were heavily inspired by Quake,
like the teleporters and the *glowing* lava.
Notice how the lava is full brightness, but the
walls surrounding it are dark.

[ DM Map 03 ]

Level name : Fragmentation/Quake DM
Author : Travers Dunne
Description : Large DM level (Almost epic-like), with plenty of
eye candy.

[ DM Map 04 ]

Level name : Relentless until death
Author : Travers Dunne
Description : A small section of Relentess... now go kill.

[ DM Map 05 ]

Level name : Sulphur
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : Atmospheric medieval style level. 1 on 1 is very
cool on this one, although I think it will also
support 3 or 4 players. I took the lava effect
a bit further this time and once again I borrowed
some Quake elements.

[ DM Map 06 ]

Level name : Return to the Realms
Author : Nick Baker
Description : What can I say? I took parts from all my Realms of
Pain levels (except, for stylistic reasons, Map 05),
fixed them up a bit, added some more stuff, and put
it all together. This is now IMHO one of my best DM
levels.

[DM Map 07]

Level name : Valley of the Lost
Author : Travers Dunne/Nick Baker
Description : I was stuck for inspiration for awhile, so Jan sent
me (Nick) Traver's "Lost WADs" with several levels
varying from half-finished to barely started. This
level is one of the former - apparently Travers
originally started it as a Duke Nukem 3D level!
Anyway, I fixed it up a bit, mainly just in the
visuals department, and handed it back to him, where
he did a bit more work on it.

[ DM Map 08 ]

Level name : Vertigo
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : Some kind of evil temple. I got my inspiration from
a program I saw on TV where archeologists dug up
an ancient Egyptian temple.

[ DM Map 09]

Level name : Interrogation Central
Author : Jan Van der Veken
Description : A dark metallic tech base. I wanted it to look like
a hi-tech torture base/prison. I got my inspiration
from DaPak and Quake2 this time. No plasma weapons
or chainguns here. Just shotguns 'n' explosives =).
One of my best DM levels I think, and I made it in
only one night! (I was in the mood, hehe) This is
more or less the style I'd like to use for episode 2
of The Darkening.

[ DM Map 10 ]

Level name : Death awaits 6-feet Under Earth
Author : Travers Dunne
Description : Ok, so it isnt a new level (kill me) but I put in
some nicely positioned teleporters to make the level
more open, fast and very accessable.

[ DM Map 11]

Level name : Stone Tyrant
Author : Adam Windsor
Description : This place of brick and rock is silent, shadowed.
Your footsteps echo softly as you walk slowly toward
a pair of angled doors. Readying yourself for
action, you reach for the switch .....

========================= AUTHOR INFORMATION =========================

Name : Nick Baker
Nickname : NiGHTMARE
E-mail : Nbaker1@compuserve.com
Homepage : None right now (coming soon?)
Work done on TNP : Maps 06 and 07, various textures & flats (all
those beginning with an "N"), the storyline
Other WADs : Realms of Pain DM (rlmspain.wad)
Gothic DM 2
Paradox TC
Twice Risen TC
How I got involved :

In July 1997, I was e-mailed by M. Scott Harlan, who congratulated
me on my newly released Realms of Pain DM episode, and said that he
knew a couple of guys who were looking for people to help out a
single player project. He offered to put me in touch with them, and
I accepted. I agreed to do two levels - Map 06 and Map 07, and a
few textures drawn with my (then) limited artistic talents. Inspired
by the awesome artwork available in many Doom2 WADs, I've now created
hundreds of high quality textures, some of which you'll find in the
Darkening episode 1, with more to come in future episodes.

Misc. author info : I'm English, and most people here have just
moved from Quake to Quake 2 ;)
Editors used : Deep '97 v9.30, Wintex 4.3
Doom Greetings : Sir Alien, Rick Clark, Anthony Czerwonka, Matt
Dixon, Paul F, M. Scott Harlan, Ingo Kirsch,
Mark Klem, Gaston Lahaut, Chris Martin, Michal
Mesko, Lisa Moore, Rich Nagel, Mike Nigel, Mike
Reid, Malcom Sailor, Anthony Soto, Dan Twomey
Non-Doom Greetings : Dan Baker, Matt Buzzard, Adam Durly, Chris
Getliffe, Oli Newton, Nick Phillips, John Shanks

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : Jan Van der Veken
Nickname : BhadTrip
E-mail : jan.van.der.veken@village.uunet.be
Homepage : http://gallery.uunet.be/jan.van.der.veken
Work done on TNP : Level design, moderating, site maintaining,
a few textures and flats.
Other WADs : Dawn of the Dead (Dodead.wad)
= a cool episode 1 replacement for Doom I

How I got involved :

Somewhere in the spring of 1997 I read an article in rgcd.editing
from a guy called Travers Dunne who eagerly wanted everyone to
check out his levels. I did and I liked them. He liked my dodead
too, which I had just released at that time. So he decided we should
work on a project together. Well here we are =)

Misc. author info : I live in Belgium. The land of serial killers,
great beer and lousy weather. I graduated as an
industrial engineer earlier in 1997 and I now
work as IT manager in a small company.
Editors used : WinDEU, Yade, DeuTex, Wintex 4.3
Doom Greetings : + Andre Majorel, my personal wad tester and
author of Yade.
+ Lee Killough, for fixing some bugs in BSP that
I ran into.
+ Matt Dixon and all the Gothic guys.
+ David Shaw for allowing us to use his music.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : Travers Dunne
Nickname : Hobbes
E-mail : tjdun2@mugc.cc.monash.edu.au
Homepage : http://www-mugc.cc.monash.edu.au/~tjdun2
Work done on TNP : Maps 03 and 10, a few textures, converted some of
Nick's and Ola's textures to flats
Other WADs : ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/levels
../doom2/deathmatch/a-c/afterlfe.zip <--- good
../doom2/deathmatch/s-u/techcntr.zip <--- good
../doom/s-u/t_dunn01.zip <--- good in parts
../doom2/s-u/t_dunn02.zip <--- tad dodgey
../heretic/s-u/t_dunn03.zip <--- great

How I got involved :

Me and Jan got together shortly after he released Dawn of the Dead
and decided on making a "hellish" set of levels. Well after we put
that on hold =) Jan drew up the first level for The Darkening which
then defined the theme/style for the rest... Slowly the boat got
laiden down in sailors and we were off!

Misc. author info : 19yr old Australian uni student having a
blast with the uni's network
Editors used : DCK v2.2-f, Wintex 4.3

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : Ola Bjorling
Nickname : citrus on IRC, otherwise none
E-mail : ola@techno.org
Homepage : I'm a web designer, but I dont have one actually
:)
Work done on TNP : No maps, but a bunch textures. Browse the wad with
some nice WAD tool, such as NWT or wintex to see
which ones are mine - all beginning with an O
are, and the statbar, intermission graphics,
titlescreen, credits, ENDOOM acsii art and The
Darkening homepage.
Will have loads more textures in episode 2.
Other WADs : None containing any graphics previously released,
but I have done these:
+ Tantrum - single player, 1 map
+ Talosian Incident - did map 8 with John Bye
+ Did some graphics for Gothic DM 2 (not out
when writing this)
+ Doing some graphics for Mordeth episode 2 (as
above)

How I got involved : Honestly, I have no idea :)

Misc. author info : 18 years old when writing this, studying computer
graphics, journalism and sound engineering.
From Sweden.
Editors used : Adobe Photoshop 3.0.5, Metatools KPT Bryce 2,
Wintex 4.3, NWTpro
Doom Greetings : The rest of the crew, Gothic DM 2 crew, id,
Gaston Lahaut, all at EFNet #DOOM2, all who I
forgot.
Non-Doom Greetings : Julia

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : John Bye
Nickname : Gestalt666
E-mail : gestalt666@easynet.co.uk
Homepage : Gestalt666 Resource -
http://www.geocities.com/~gestalt666
Work done on TNP : Level design
Other WADs : CyberDoom II
Cygnus IV
Gardens of Delight
story, music and levels for The Talosian Incident
others I'd rather forget!

How I got involved :

Which project is this again? The Darkening? Oh, right...

Misc. author info : Another British designer - 20 years old, Doom
fanatic, maintainer of the world's biggest
Deathmatch Database, and president of the
computer games company, The Coven...

Editors used : DCK 2.2 and DCK3.61
Doom Greetings : John "Doc Sleep" Anderson, Rich Brennan, Travers
Dunne, Ty Halderman, Lee Killough, Patrick
Martin, Malcolm Sailor, Jan "The Man" Van der
Veken and others too numerous to mention (well,
you did want to download this text file today
didn't you???)

Non-Doom Greetings : Lianna for keeping me insane, everyone else for
leaving me alone long enough to get on with
it ...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : Adam Windsor
E-mail : s339890@student.uq.edu.au
Homepage : Nope
Work done on TNP : Map 11
Other WADs : Memento Mori II (MAP15)
Requiem (MAPS 11, 20, 25, 26, 30, 32)
TBEAST.WAD
Editors used : DETH 3.87
Misc. author Info : 24 yo who still prefers Doom2 to any other 3d
shooter. Babylon 5 and Red Dwarf Fan. Part time
student, full time Mortgagee.

============================ LEGAL STUFF =============================

Authors may NOT use these levels as a base to build additional
levels or the textures/flats/other graphics for your own levels
without written permission.

You MAY distribute this WAD, provided you include this file, with
no modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic
format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file
intact.

It may NOT be included with any other software product.

NO fee or payment may be charged or accepted for this episode.

Basically: don't rip us off, or you'll go to hell.

========================== TRANSMISSION ENDS==========================