  General Information *

==============================================================================


Title                   : DETHKASM.WAD (Death Chasm)

Description             : Original Deathmatch PWAD for Heretic (Registered)


Author                  : Kenneth S. Forte

Email Address           : fusioncon@globalone.net

Additional Credits to   : Rich Condon (psionic@globalone.net) for testing,

                          several game ideas, and being a human stack.

                          Justin Powell (shell-less freak) for dragging out

                          DEU to make DOOM2 levels, thus inspiring me.

                          Sue, for the title, and the restraint.


Points of Interest      : This level started out as a rip-off of DOOM ]['s

                          "Dead Simple" level, with a few twists. As usual,

                          however, I wound up taking a smallish level and

                          blowing it way out of proportion. I also blew it

                          beyond all hope of ever running smoothly on my

                          old but dependable 486DX/33Mhz without even a

                          hint of a VLbus (laugh it up).


                          Some of the notable areas are as follows:


                           Wind Chamber: Find the sweet spot that will make

                           all of your crossbow shots converge on the

                           doorway. See if you can find the doorway first.


                           Nearly Perpetual Motion Device: When you see a 

                           large amount of teleporters, try powering up the 

                           Mace and shooting some of those monsters INTO 

                           the teleporters. Too bad they actually wind up 

                           GAINING energy, or the wall of flying metal 

                           might last well into forever.


                           Pod-boy Suite: For those of you who liked to let

                           barrels do your dirty work for you in DOOM, try

                           your hand at some Pods (that is, if anyone

                           actually wants to steal your precious torch).


                           Exit?: Hehehehe. Step Inside. Not your ordinary

                           trap. (If anyone else has done something similar

                           to this previously, let me just say that a) I

                           never saw it, and b) that means that we both

                           have equally empty lives).




* Play Information *

==============================================================================


Episode and Level #     : E1M1 (Back to Ep/Lev system again, sigh)

Single Player           : No

Cooperative 2-4 Player  : No

Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : Yes

Difficulty Settings     : Not implemented

New Sounds              : No

New Graphics            : No




* Construction *

============================================================================


Base                    : New level from scratch

Build Time              : Couple of days, give or take an all-niter

Editor(s) used          : HEU 5.21 and BSP 1.2x

Known Bugs              : Yes, several. Let's go into them all:


                           If anyone knows why Heretic decides to randomly

                           replace the Mace Thing with a Disciple Thing on

                           some systems, please let me know. It is most...

                           amusing.


                           Then there is the standard "Id-engine-has-too-

                           many-things-to-put-on-the-screen-but-no-one-will-

                           miss-a-few-of-them" bug. This wasn't really a

                           problem with DOOM, but with all of Heretic's

                           nice little special touches (smoke trails, acid

                           rain, sparkles, lava plumes, etc.) the thing

                           count can grow rapidly and before you kno  it,

                           where did it all go? This is compounded by

                           knowing that you need much taller sectors

                           somewhere in the level to make flying more

                           feasible, but realizing that if anyone uses more

                           than a couple of powered-up hellstaff shots in

                           such an area things will start disappearing (yes

                           the acid rain or whatever you want to call it

                           goes from floor to ceiling).


                           There is an apparant Moire effect connected to

                           the fake floor. Yes I said fake floor. Wipe that

                           confused look off your face. If you read this

                           far into these things then you should know by

                           now that the further you go the darker it gets.

                           Anyways, if you're interested in such neat

                           tricks or have a solution for what seems to be a

                           small side effect of bending the accepted rules

                           of "good" level-making, please e-mail me.


* Copyright / Permissions *

============================================================================


Authors may use this level as a base to build additional levels.

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.


You can find this PWAD on: Official DOOM Site-of-the-Month: ftp.cdrom.com

