OK, here it is. The Enjay replacement for the shores of hell. My wife can't remember who I am and I am sure I have a six month old daughter somewhere but I don't remember what she looks like. This has taken me ages. The world could have ended and I would have missed it. All 9 levels are contained in the file NJ_SOH1.WAD. I have tried to make the difficulty and feel of the levels somewhere between Knee deep and Shores. I actually think most of the levels are quite easy but then I know where all the bad guys and secrets are. My play testers told me there was maybe too much medical help available so I have reduced it. To play the levels make sure the files from the ZIP are in your doom directory and type NJ_SOH1 [return]. Then start a shores of hell game as normal. All Difficulty levels are supported and there are both types of multi-player starts. I haven't managed to get a multi-player game going with external PWADS without re-compiling a DOOM.WAD but the starts are there anyway. There is enough ammo on each level to kill everything but it gets a bit tight on the harder levels when there are lots of weaponless bad guys to toast. Editors/Programs used Doomedit by Goeff Allan v2.60. A totally superb and dead easy way to add, join and move sectors. No hassle all the work is done for you. This is an MS Windows program. I used v2.60 as I had a problem with the more recent version crashing and taking the WAD file with it. DoomCAD by Matt Tagliaferri. Another Windows prog. Didn't find this quite so useful but it is good for setting up switches, teleports, moving things and other effects. DEU 5.1 by Raphael Quintet and Brendon J Wyber. This seems to be the Doom editor most people use but I found Doomedit so easy I don't use DEU for adding sectors. Where I found it useful was for adding objects and changing textures, light levels, sector types etc. I tried a newer version but had a few problems. BSP 1.1x by Colin Reed. A useful DOS utility if ever there was one. Without using this WADs created with Doomedit get corrupted when using DEU and WADs created with DEU have the "hall of mirrors" problem. BSP 1.1 for Windows by Colin Reed and portions by Alex Korobka. A useful Windows utility if ever there was one ....... DM Launch by Allen E. Look. A nice easy way to launch Doom complete with additional WADs from windows. Works better than the PIF I set up anyway. The levels Level 1 The tall room. (570 vertices) A smallish level with a typical tall room with platforms to walk along. I wasn't going to do a level like this 'cos everybody does but here we are. The tall room itself is not that big and to me the other parts of the level are more fun. Known problems For some reason I kept getting invisible walls appearing along one corridor. These seemed to be when the game thought a sector (usually a window between sectors) was bigger than it actually was. Changing the shape of the corridor fixed this. Level 2 The Lake. (574 vertices) OK so it's more of a pond than a lake. So what ? I started off making this a very big level but kept getting a "hall of mirrors" problem in the lake area. To get round this I edited the original Inferno level 1 and just kept the outside area that you start in and built round it. Watch yourself when you go into the lake area there are lots of baddies after your blood but none of them will leave their islands. (I didn't like to see them walking on water) Known problems Hmm interesting this one. I seem to be able to make this map as tall as I want. I can add on to the top and bottom with no problems. If I start to add sectors at the sides Doomedit falls over complaining about line defs and BSP tells me about negative square roots ! DEU also reports linedef 129 and 139 as "suspicious" but both look fine from within the game and behave exactly as they should. Level 3 Down B. (670 vertices) Originally released on its own as Down this was the second WAD I created. You start off at a floor altitude of 411 and go DOWN (original huh?) just about as low as you can. I had some comments saying there wasn't enough ammo on the level so I put in an extra box of shells (wow). Serves you right for not finding the secrets. The level has now had minor cosmetic changes made so that it is consistent with the other levels in this WAD. The tall light columns have been altered so that neither you nor the enemies can shoot through them. That was an earlier mistake. Known problems None. Level 4 Egypt. (829 vertices) It's not called Egypt 'cos it's hot and sunny (it isn't) but because of the structures vaguely resembling Egypt's most famous land marks. I was going to have the four pyramid rooms look identical so that as you went round the level you would not be sure if you had been there before. I didn't do that 'cos I thought it would be boring. Any way I would have had to call the level Deja-vu and I hated French at school. I think this level is quite easy but then Down is a little bit tough so you can get your breath back in Egypt. Known problems None. Level 5 Trubble. (972 vertices) This level is called trubble (yes I do know how to spell) for two reasons. The first is that this could be the first level hard enough to get you in trouble, or maybe not. The second is I had a lot of trouble with the invisible walls problem but now it seems to be OK. This is the level that gives you access to the secret level. Look hard and you will find it but make sure you make the right choice at the end or it might all have been for nothing. (You'll know what I mean when you get there) I think level 5 has to be the one to give access to the secret level in shores 'cos finishing the secret level always takes you back to level 6. Known problems Same kind of invisible walls as level 1 but this time there was loads of them. As well as being static some kept appearing when lifts moved and doors opened even in a totally different part of the level. I am pretty sure I have fixed them all. Level 6 The Furnace. (1392 vertices) This level is meant to look more horrific and nasty than the other levels. The level is now almost twice the size it was going to be originally and is quite complex. You will have to remember where you have been because there is a fair amount of running round looking for switches and key cards to open doors. Don't worry it works, it can be solved, don't give up. Watch out in the furnace room - it is so hot just being there hurts (and the yellow card is in there). There are also a number of rooms you don't have to go into to solve the level If you do go in to them you will (usually) find something useful but you may have to fight for it. Known Problems None. Level 7 My 1st B. (1418 vertices) Originally released as MY_1ST.WAD 'cos that's what it was. This is the biggest level in this WAD file (but only just after The Furnace got so big). I still like this level. I think it looks quite good and has a logical feel to the way you work through it but that's just me. A few minor cosmetic changes have been made (as with Down) and a slight bug fixed. Known problems One of those invisible walls again. This one came half way across a narrow ledge making walking along it a bit awkward. A quick shift of a couple of vertices and hey presto no invisible wall. Level 8 The Demon's bottom. (380 Vertices) Wasn't sure what to do here. I could just have had a switch to end the level but then the message that Doom gives about hideous cyberdemons would have been silly. I didn't want to have a wide open arena like the end levels always seem to be but I didn't want to stick a cyberdemon in a small room or maze either. I decided to go for the arena type level (what a conventional git) and I'm quite pleased I did 'cos it's a bit different to the other levels I have done and I think it works quite well. Watch out for the teleporters, they may be useful for running away from the big baddy but there is nothing to stop him following you. There is a BFG9000 available on easy and medium levels (but you have to find it first) and an invulnerabilty sphere on the easy levels. Known problems None. Level 9 The Theatre. (360 Vertices) All right you found the secret level (or did you cheat ?). Just a small level with quite a tough (but not too tough) end. I quite like this level. I hope you do. Known problems Doomedit fell over a couple of times whilst making this level and I kept getting invisible walls stopping me walking down a corridor but It all seems fine now. Well that's all folks. I'm off now to introduce myself to my family. Have fun. Enjay. Original release notes for My_1st.WAD and Down.WAD WAD Name: My_1st.wad Well, the name says it all doesn't it ? I couldn't be bothered giving the level a clever name like "The demons bottom" so I just called it "My 1st WAD" 'cos that's what it is. It's quite a big level which supports easy, medium and hard play skills. It has start points for co-operative and deathmatch play. I got fed up with almost every third party level I tried comprising entirely of huge high ceilings and narrow ledges. They are good but enough is enough. I also didn't like the fact that so often the textures used by doomers didn't fit the walls properly. So with these points in mind I created "My 1st WAD" trying to avoid doing excessive things just because I could and trying to make the whole thing "hang together" properly. The level isn't too hard but on "Ultra-violence" and "Nightmare" it isn't too easy either. Don't worry, there is enough ammo to kill everything but finding the secrets will help. WAD Name: Down.wad What can I say ? After all I said above this level was done purely to try out some things to see if they could be done. I started just trying to make a room that looked quite cool. (You should spot it, it's the one with all the lights.) Then I thought I would make a level to go round it. The entry point is almost the highest floor level you can have and the lowest point in the level is about as low as you can go. I did this using stairs and not huge drops and massive ceilings etc.