- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - T h e ___ " O f f i c i a l " - -_, ( ~/|| _ ( / || -_-_ /'\\ / \\ _-_ _-_ \/==|| || \\ || || || || || \\ || \\ F A Q /_ _|| || || || || || || ||/ ||/ ( - \\, ||-' \\,/ \\_-| \\,/ \\,/ |/ / \ Version 7.2 ' '----` Also Featuring _ _ _ _ _)| \ |_) _ _.|._ _ _ |_)o._ |_ _.|| | | |o_ _.._ _| _ _)|_/ | \(/_(_||| | |_> and | || ||_)(_||| \/ \/ |/_(_|| (_|_> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Current as of September 30, 2005 (changes and additions since v7.1 are denoted by leading '}' marks) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Contents: [1] Introduction [1.1] A Word From Me [1.2] About This FAQ [1.2.1] Obtaining the latest version of the FAQ } [1.2.2] Revision history [1.3] Obtaining Other Apogee-Related FAQs } [1.4] What Is Apogee? [1.5] What Does "Apogee" Mean? } [1.6] How Apogee Markets Its Games [1.7] Getting the Latest Information [1.7.1] Apogee's Internet mailing list [1.7.2] World Wide Web [1.8] Apogee's Staff [2] Historical Information [2.1] The Apogee Theme Song [2.2] The Dopefish [2.3] Early Games By Apogee's Executives } [2.4] Working Titles of Apogee Games [2.4.1] Alternate titles for Wolfenstein 3D } [2.5] Cancelled Projects [2.6] The Great Price Drop [2.7] Apogee's Relationship With Other Companies } [2.7.1] What's Apogee's relationship with id? [2.7.2] What's Apogee's relationship with Softdisk? [2.7.3] What's Apogee's relationship with Parallax? [2.8] History of Specific Apogee Games [2.8.1] The Kroz Series [2.8.2] Pharaoh's Tomb and Arctic Adventure } [2.8.3] Commander Keen [2.8.4] Crystal Caves and Secret Agent [2.8.5] Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II [2.8.6] Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny [2.8.6.1] "Call Apogee and say Aardwolf" [2.8.6.2] What's B. J. Blazkowicz's relationship with Commander Keen? [2.8.7] Halloween Harry and Alien Carnage [2.8.8] Mystic Towers [2.8.9] Wacky Wheels } [2.8.10] Boppin } [2.8.11] Rise of the Triad [2.8.11.1] ROTT characters } [2.8.11.2] ROTT levels [2.8.11.3] Fish Polka [2.8.12] Terminal Velocity [2.8.13] Paganitzu and Realms of Chaos } [2.8.14] Duke Nukem 3D [2.8.14.1] Duke Nukem 3D theme music [2.8.15] Shadow Warrior [2.8.15.1] Lo Wang's rap } [2.8.15.2] Wanton Destruction } [2.8.16] Balls of Steel } [2.8.17] Max Payne and Max Payne 2 [3] About the Games [3.1] PC Games } [3.1.1] What games are currently available from Apogee? } [3.1.2] What Apogee games are no longer sold? [3.1.3] The games are too big to download! Are there "split" versions? } [3.1.4] What upgrade patches are currently available? } [3.1.5] Hardware requirements and support } [3.1.6] Companies involved with each game [3.2] Console Games } [3.2.1] What console games are currently available? [3.2.2] What console games are no longer sold? } [3.2.3] Companies involved with each console game [3.3] Previews [3.3.1] What slide shows are currently available? } [3.3.2] What games are forthcoming? [4] The Almanac [4.1] Release Dates } [4.1.1] PC Games } [4.1.2] Console Games [4.1.3] Slide shows } [4.1.4] Miscellaneous [4.2] Cast of Characters } [4.2.1] Heroes } [4.2.2] Villains [4.2.3] Cameos [4.3] Behind the Scenes } [4.3.1] Programmers } [4.3.2] Artists } [4.3.3] Musicians } [4.3.4] Sound engine programmers } [4.3.5] Level designers } [4.3.6] Vocal artists } [4.3.7] Creative directors [4.3.8] Advertising layouts [5] Obtaining the Games [5.1] The Shareware Episodes [5.1.1] The Internet [5.2] The Registered Episodes [5.2.1] Ordering information [5.2.2] What combination deals does Apogee offer? [5.3] Other Products [6] Playing the Games [6.1] Cheating } [6.1.1] Complete cheat list [6.1.2] Hex editing [6.1.2.1] Raptor: Call of the Shadows [6.1.2.2] Wacky Wheels [6.2] Hints [6.2.1] Paganitzu [6.2.2] Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy and Aliens Ate My Babysitter [6.2.3] Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition [6.2.4] Stargunner [6.3] Secrets and Other Fun Things [6.3.1] Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy! [6.3.2] Raptor: Call of the Shadows [6.3.3] Wacky Wheels [6.3.4] Rise of the Triad [6.3.5] Terminal Velocity [6.3.6] XenoPhage: Alien Bloodsport [6.3.7] Stargunner [6.3.8] Balls of Steel [6.3.9] Max Payne [6.4] Troubleshooting [6.4.1] Things to try first [6.4.2] Setting the BLASTER environment variable [6.4.3] Slowing down your computer to play old games [7] Contacting Apogee [7.1] By Phone [7.2] By Fax [7.3] By Snail Mail } [7.4] Through Networks }[8] Credits [9] Dopefish and Friends - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Legal Quagmire: This FAQ is Copyright (c) 1994-2005 by Samuel Stoddard. No part of this FAQ may be distributed unless it remains intact, with all credits, attributions, and other miscellaneous praises to myself preserved. You may keep as many copies of this FAQ as you like, on whatever and however many different mediums that you like, and you can even read more than one copy at one time. There's a whole lot of trademarks in here that are acknowledged implicitly because there's too darn many to acknowledge every last one explicitly. All company names are trademarks of said company. All software titles are trademarks of the companies that own them. Comm-Bat network play is a trademark of Apogee. If there's anything else, I hereby explicitly acknowledge it implicitly. The header for the ASCII version of this FAQ was done with the aid of the "Figlet" software package (also a trademark). I take no responsibility whatsoever for anything that happens as a result of this FAQ's existence. Except for the good things. Finally, I am not liable for lost or stolen valuables, and no dogs are permitted on the premises. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1] Introduction - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1.1] A Word From Me Who am I? I'm Samuel Stoddard, just another Apogee fan, with no other affiliation for the company other than this FAQ and an appreciation for its games. I don't guarantee that all of the information in this FAQ is true, but I try to make this as informative and truthful a document as I humanly can without abandoning more important responsibilities. If you have some information for the FAQ, let me know, and I'll credit you if I use the information. You can reach me through the Internet at apogeefaq@rinkworks.com. [1.2] About This FAQ This FAQ is the official FAQ of Apogee and its spin-off brands such as 3D Realms and Pinball Wizards. It is copyrighted (see above) by Samuel Stoddard. While it is authorized and "officialized" by Apogee, it is not the property nor the work of Apogee. It was not written by Apogee, or any employee of Apogee. However, Apogee has contributed greatly and generously to its creation and growth; for that, I offer my sincere thanks. There is now an HTML version of the FAQ, produced by me through my web site production organization, RinkWorks, whose home page is available at http://www.rinkworks.com/. It contains exactly the same information as the text based version but looks prettier and is easier to navigate. It is available at http://www.rinkworks.com/apogee/. [1.2.1] Obtaining the latest version of the FAQ - Through the Web - Both the text and web based versions of the FAQ can be found in the following places: - http://www.rinkworks.com/apogee/ - http://www.3drealms.com/faq/ [1.2.2] Revision history The revision history of this FAQ is as follows: } Version 7.2w - 09/30/05 - HTML equivalent of version 7.2. } Version 7.2 - 09/30/05 - Information about Max Payne 2, Duke Nukem: } Manhattan Project, and other updates. Version 7.1w - 03/27/02 - HTML equivalent of version 7.1. Version 7.1 - 03/27/02 - Information about Max Payne; minor updates. Version 7.01w - 12/15/00 - HTML equivalent of version 7.01. Version 7.01 - 12/15/00 - Two minor Keen errors fixed. Version 7.0w - 11/20/00 - HTML equivalent of version 7.0. Version 7.0 - 11/20/00 - Moved Past Projects into History section. Added the Duke 3D history and music sections, BOS and WW history, price drop info, ROTT level info, and other updates. Version 6.4w - 10/20/99 - HTML equivalent of version 6.4. Version 6.4 - 10/20/99 - Minor updates. Version 6.3w - 05/15/98 - HTML equivalent of version 6.3. Version 6.3 - 05/15/98 - Minor updates. Version 6.2w - 12/08/97 - Resurrection of the HTML version of the FAQ. Version 6.2 - 12/08/97 - Lots of minor updates. Version 6.1 - 04/16/97 - Added the "companies" section and some historical information. Other minor updates. Version 6.0 - 02/22/97 - Revival of the FAQ. Huge changes everywhere. The 3D Realms FAQ has been incorporated in to this FAQ, and information about Pinball Wizards was also added. Version 5.2 - 11/21/95 - Reorganization of some sections. Lots of minor updates. Version 5.1 - 10/08/95 - Major additions: working titles, cancelled projects, expanded credits. Other revisions. Version 5.0 - 09/01/95 - Major additions, updates, and corrections. Addition of hints section. Version 4.2 - 06/25/95 - Minor updates and corrections. Version 4.1 - 06/17/95 - Softdisk history added. Other minor updates. Version 4.0w - 04/17/95 - HTML equivalent of version 4.0. Version 4.0 - 04/17/95 - Addition of secrets, theme song, Dopefish, and ROTT history sections. Institution of voting system. Reorganization of some sections. Other updates, major and minor. Version 3.0 - 03/24/95 - Major changes, additions, revisions, and reorganization. Addition of the hardware requirements and some of the history sections. Version 2.4w - 02/95 - First HTML version, roughly equivalent to v2.4. Version 2.4 - 01/29/95 - Hex editing section added. Almanac release date updates and additions. Cheats additions. Other minor updates. Version 2.3 - 12/21/94 - Revision of the "blaster environment variable" section. Updated "behind the scenes." Other updates. Version 2.2 - 11/16/94 - Behind the scenes sections added. Other minor updates. Version 2.1 - 11/05/94 - Minor updates. Version 2.0 - 10/26/94 - The almanac added. Game release dates added. Tech support addresses added. Other major changes, additions, and revisions. Version 1.1 - 09/27/94 - Minor updates and additions to several sections. Version 1.0 - 09/16/94 - Cheats section completed. Many major additions. Version 0.4 - 09/94 - Formatting and typo fixes. Minor additions. Not publicly released. Version 0.3 - 09/94 - First public release. The first batch of Joe Siegler's additional information incorporated. Version 0.2 - 08/94 - Minor changes made before Joe Siegler's response. Version 0.1 - 08/94 - Sent to Joe Siegler for suggestions and corrections. [1.3] Obtaining Other Apogee-Related FAQs Several other FAQs relating to Apogee are available. You can obtain these via Apogee's home page on the World Wide Web by connecting to http://www.3drealms.com/faq/. This page contains a list of all the official Apogee-related FAQs available, links to download them, and email addresses for contacting the author of each FAQ. [1.4] What Is Apogee? }Apogee is a creator, distributor, and producer of PC games of many sorts. It is a diverse gaming company, contributing to several different genres of games. While much of what Apogee publishes are games written primarily by other companies, such as Cygnus or Argo Games, Apogee writes their own games as well. Apogee's staff includes an array of talented programmers, artists, and musicians. For many years now, Apogee has been among the leading shareware games companies for the PC and compatible market. In June of 1994, Apogee announced a new spin-off company called 3D Realms, which would only produce 3D action games. At that time, the 3D games Apogee had in development -- "Duke Nukem 3D," "Shadow Warrior," "Blood," and "Ruins: Return of the Gods" -- became 3D Realms games instead of Apogee games. (Since then, the rights to "Blood" were sold to Monolith Productions, and "Ruins: Return of the Gods" was sold to Playmates Interactive Entertainment, which changed the title to "PowerSlave.") Later, on February 4, 1997, a third company was announced: Pinball Wizards. As its predecessor, 3D Realms, specializes in state of the art 3D action games, Pinball Wizards will specialize in state of the art pinball games. The pinball game Apogee previously had under production, "Balls of Steel," moved to the Pinball Wizards division. It is Apogee's intention for most if not all of its future games to be funneled through specialized divisions such as 3D Realms and Pinball Wizards. The reason for having these divisions is to create "label branding" -- so that when you download a game by a specific company name, you know exactly what kind of game you're getting. The goal of each brand is to produce the best games in their respective genres. This FAQ covers not only Apogee and its games but also all of Apogee's specialized divisions and their games. [1.5] What Does "Apogee" Mean? According to an early Apogee slogan, "Apogee means action." But according to the American Heritage dictionary, "apogee" means: "the point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite most distant from the earth." Or, more generally, "the farthest or highest point; apex." Related words are the Greek "apogaion," the neuter form of "apogaios" which means "away from the earth." There is also the New Latin word "apogaeum," which is derived from the Greek word. There is a French word "Apogee" (with an accent over the first 'e'). In English, there is the related word "apogean" and the antonym "perigee." Interestingly, the meaning of the word "apogee" was one of the questions in the shareware version of an early Apogee quiz game (discontinued since) entitled "Word Whiz." Scott Miller, President of Apogee, explains the origin of the company name by saying, "I've always been a science nut, and the word 'apogee' is just one of those sort of obscure science terms pertaining to astronomy that I really liked." Originally, he says, he wanted to use the word as the name of a rock band in the early 1980s, but nobody else liked it. [1.6] How Apogee Markets Its Games In 1987, Apogee came up with a unique method of marketing their games. Since then, other shareware companies have adopted their strategy. Their scheme is this: each game they produce is divided into three to four, sometimes even six episodes. The first episode is free. It can be downloaded from the Internet or other online services or bought in a store that distributes shareware games for disk copying charges. You can distribute the shareware episode to your friends yourself, if you like, provided you leave all the original files intact. Starting in June 1994, Apogee began the creation of specialized brands for its games. The company 3D Realms was created for Apogee's 3D action games. In February 1997, the Pinball Wizards division was born for its pinball games. In the future, no more games will be released under the Apogee name; instead, they'll be released under one of its specialized brands -- or, if necessary, a new brand will be created. If you like the shareware episode of an Apogee game, Apogee requires that you register it. This is the normal rule regarding shareware. Upon registration, you will receive the complete game. Apogee uses this marketing scheme so that people can have a good idea about the game they are buying before they put their cash on the line. Starting with Death Rally, the registered versions of most Apogee games were published simultaneously in retail by GT Interactive (or, in the case of Stargunner, one of its divisions, such as WizardWorks). So, if you'd rather not order Apogee games by mail, you can pick them up at your local software }store. Starting with Max Payne, Take 2 Interactive (many under its Rockstar }label) started handling the publication of some of Apogee's games. [1.7] Getting the Latest Information There are a few ways to get the latest information about Apogee, even if you want it more quickly than keeping up with the latest revisions of this FAQ would do. These methods are mentioned briefly in the following sections. [1.7.1] Apogee's Internet mailing list Apogee has an Internet mailing list for press releases, announcements for newly released games, slide shows, or important patches, and other miscellaneous information. The traffic is sporadic and very minimal. The mailing list includes information about any of Apogee's specialized divisions, such as 3D Realms, and is free of charge. To sign up for the mailing list, visit http://www.3drealms.com/signup.html and fill out the form. You will then be sent a confirmation letter, with further instructions. [1.7.2] World Wide Web You can reach Apogee and all its divisions via the World Wide Web. The sites contain links to all of Apogee's shareware games; screen shots, synopses, and ordering information for each; press releases; progress reports on games in development; live chat areas; and more. The following URLs all point to the same combined company page: http://www.apogee1.com/ http://www.3drealms.com/ http://www.pinballwizards.com/ In addition, some of Apogee's games have their own official web pages. Game URL ---- --- Duke Nukem http://www.dukenukem.com/ Max Payne http://www.maxpayne.com/ (Note: The Duke Nukem page currently links to the Apogee company web page, but there are plans to make this a separate web page in the future.) [1.8] Apogee's Staff This section lists the administrative and tech support personnel at Apogee. Developers are listed in the Almanac section of the FAQ. Scott Miller - President, Co-owner George Broussard - Executive VP, Co-owner Steven Blackburn - VP Operations Joe Siegler - Webmaster, On-Line Support Manager Kevin Green - Customer Support Supervisor & Technical Support Bryan Turner - Technical Support You can obtain more detailed, often more up to date staff lists and mini-biographies at http://www.3drealms.com/info.html. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [2] Historical Information - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [2.1] The Apogee Theme Song The earliest hint of a theme song for Apogee Software might have been in such early games as Crystal Caves and Secret Agent, wherein the then Apogee logo was accompanied by a series of trills uttered by the PC speaker. It was less of a theme song and more of a "semi-standard opening" for Apogee games at the time. The first real appearance of the familiar Apogee theme song, was in the game Major Stryker. Today, any Apogee fan will instantly recognize the Apogee theme song and will probably be able to hum it on command. The Apogee theme song is a short, simple, but sweet few bars, and one could easily imagine it as a theme in a symphony or fugue. Lee Jackson's paraphrased history of the Apogee theme song follows: Robert "Bobby" Prince, the composer of the scores of numerous Apogee games, did the original theme song, which appeared essentially unaltered in Major Stryker, Monster Bash, Bio Menace, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, and Blake Stone: Planet Strike. He composed a "rock"-like version for Duke Nukem II, which was later used in Raptor v1.2. (Previous versions of Raptor had a version of the theme much like the original.) For Halloween Harry (Alien Carnage) and Mystic Towers, something different was needed. These used MOD music instead of the MIDI-style used in our other games, so a new file was needed. The folks at SubZero composed a dramatic version for Harry; an appropriately silly version was made for Mystic Towers. I took over the MIDI version of the fanfare starting with Hocus Pocus. It wasn't something I was asked to do -- I just played around with an idea, gave it to Tom Hall and Joe Siegler, who then played it for Scott Miller and George Broussard, who dubbed it the "John Williams fanfare." (It was actually an attempt to emulate the MOD file that SubZero did for Harry -- I always liked it.) This fanfare has appeared in Hocus Pocus, Wacky Wheels, Boppin, Rise of the Triad, Realms of Chaos, and XenoPhage: Alien Bloodsport. For Stargunner, again something new was needed since Stargunner used MOD music instead of MIDI. The "John Williams fanfare" MIDI didn't really work with the musical style introduced in Stargunner. I tried several different MOD versions of the fanfare and never got anything that satisfied me. So I talked the Stargunner team into supporting large WAV files so I could use a digitized recording of a MIDI playback of the fanfare. Scott and George wanted a new fanfare that featured rock instead of orchestral music. I came up with the new fanfare, played it out through one computer into the Roland SC-88 in the studio, and recorded it digitally into a second computer. That was the fanfare that wound up in Stargunner. One final note that should be mentioned in this section is Raptor's unique hidden rendition of the theme. When Raptor is started when the system date is set to the birthday of one of the Raptor team members, you don't hear the usual theme. Instead, it's a sound file of the Raptor team trying (in vain) to sing the theme song themselves. More information on this can be found in the "secrets and other fun things" section. No theme song was ever created for 3D Realms or Pinball Wizards. [2.2] The Dopefish In October 1995, longtime Dopefish fan Joe Siegler of Apogee made a Dopefish web page which was based on a modified version of text that originally appeared here in the FAQ. The Dopefish web site blossomed with information, pictures, sounds, music, and so forth; it is no longer practical to duplicate it all here any longer. The URL for the web site is http://www.dopefish.com/. An abridged version of the Dopefish history follows: Dopefish is the product of the fertile mind of Tom Hall. It was one of 24 drawings he did of ideas for characters for Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy! while part of id Software. Dopefish was one of the characters from these drawings that made the cut. According to Tom, "I just drew this stupid little fish," and the rest is history. Dopefish is described in the cast of characters for "Commander Keen: Secret of the Oracle" (Keen 4, the shareware episode of "Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy!") as the second dumbest creature in the universe (the number one ranking is anyone's guess). His thought patterns go, "swim swim hungry, swim swim hungry." Dopefish "will eat anything alive and moving near them, though they prefer heroes." Dopefish appears in the level of Keen 4 entitled "The Well of Wishes." Dopefish was "adopted" by the Tech Support staff at Apogee soon after Joe Siegler was hired. When Steve Quarrella and Lee Jackson joined the company, it ballooned from there. Ever since, Dopefish has had a huge cult following, and its weird popularity shows no signs of slowing. Countless artwork of the Dopefish has been made: ASCII art to animated graphics, icons, logos, backgrounds, etc. Frequent in-house Christmas presents at Apogee have been mugs, dolls, ornaments, etc, featuring Dopefish. (These items were never made for retail sale, however, so please don't ask Apogee how to buy them.) Another unlikely method of celebrating the Dopefish has been in music. Bobby Prince's piece "Eat Your Veggies" was originally intended for the Softdisk game "Keen Dreams" (see the section on the history of Commander Keen for further information) but Softdisk insisted that the game fit on a 360K disk, which meant the music had to go. Instead, the music was used in "Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy!" and happened to be the tune that plays in the level where Dopefish appears. Ever since, the music has been inextricably tied to Dopefish. Other music has been composed with Dopefish in mind, including Lee Jackson's "Fish Polka" from Rise of the Triad. Even though the Dopefish belongs to id Software, he is a welcome adopted member of the Apogee family. If there are ever any new Keen games, you can wager a goodly amount that the Dopefish will be in it. Again, visit the Dopefish page, http://www.dopefish.com/, for more information. Also note the "Cameos" section of this FAQ. [2.3] Early Games By Apogee's Executives Before joining Scott and Apogee in 1990, George Broussard had several projects of his own. The most notable were marketed under the name Micro F/X; some of these later became the property of Apogee (such as "Pharaoh's Tomb" and "Arctic Adventure"). Broussard also made a game for the Amiga, "The Rings of ZON," which was like a more intellectual Boulderdash. Other games written by George Broussard and others were written for Softdisk; details for these projects are given in the section on Apogee's relationship with Softdisk. [2.4] Working Titles of Apogee Games Sometimes, over the course of a game's development, the game's title can change, once, twice, or more. Here is a list of some of Apogee's games with their former titles. Where more than one former title is present, they are listed in chronological order. From Apogee: Official Title Working Title -------------- ------------- Death Rally Hi-Speed XenoPhage: Alien Bloodsport Arena Realms of Chaos Paganitzu II / Alabama Smith and the Bloodfire Pendant Rise of the Triad Wolfenstein 3D: Part II Raptor: Call of the Shadows Mercenary 2029 Bio Menace Bio Hazard Monster Bash Graveyard Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure The Adventures of Zonk }Major Stryker Strike Force From 3D Realms: Official Title Working Title -------------- ------------- Max Payne Dark Justice & Max Heat Shadow Warrior Ninja Master Terminal Velocity Velocity Brawl Sometimes games start out as Apogee games (or at least intended to be Apogee games) but end up being distributed by another company. Frequently, these, too, undergo title changes before, during, or after the move from Apogee. These games, with their working titles, are given below. Official Title Working Title Company -------------- ------------- ------- Blood Horror 3D Monolith Studios Alien Rampage Ravager Inner Circle Creations Cyril Cyberpunk Cyberpunk Kid Reality Studios PowerSlave Ruins: Return of the Gods Playmates Interactive * Clif Danger Crazy Baby New Generation Descent Inferno Interplay Sango Fighter Violent Vengeance Panda Entertainment * Doom It's Green & Pissed id Software * - PowerSlave was titled "Exhumed" in the United Kingdom. - Sango Fighter had already been released; Apogee was merely going to be its U.S. distributor, marketing the game under the title "Violent Vengeance." This did not pan out. The game was later released in the U.S. by Panda Entertainment under the original "Sango Fighter" title. [2.4.1] Alternate titles for Wolfenstein 3D The following were all alternate titles for Wolfenstein 3D that Tom Hall came up with. Many, however, are joke titles and were never seriously considered -- hence why these names are separate from those in the section above. The information comes from the Official Hint Manual for Wolfenstein 3D. Castle Ochtenstein, Luger's Run, The Fourth Reich, Adolph's Bane, Hard Cell, Luger Me Now, Tank You Very Much, Castle Hasselhoff, How Do You Duseldorf?, Castle Verlassen (to abandon the castle), Sturmwind (stormwind), Hollehammer (hellhammer; this name made it in to the game as the name of the castle in episode two), Shattensendener (shadowsender), Geruchschlect (bad smell), Dolchteufel (devildagger), Grabgrabbener (gravedigger), Eisenschwert (ironsword), Dammerung (twilight/dawn). Since the above information first appeared in this FAQ, Bernd Wolffgramm, from Germany, sent me further information about Wolfenstein 3D's names, including spelling corrections. (Some of the spelling mistakes resulted from missing umlauts; an alternate spelling for German words containing vowels with umlauts is to follow the vowel with an 'e' instead of using the accent.) - "Duseldorf" should be "Duesseldorf," a town on the Rhine river famous for its beer (Altbier). - "Hollehammer" should be "Hoellenhammer." - "Shattensendener" should be "Schattenspender." - "Geruchschlect" should be "Geruchschlecht." - "Grabgrabbener," is redundant; the word "grab," meaning "grave," is used twice. A more appropriate word would be "Totengraeber." - "Dammerung" should be "Daemmerung." Bernd Wolffgramm also provides further information. Since the game is banned in Germany because it involves Nazis and killing Germans, those who want to play the game have come up with special codewords for it. The most common is "Hundefelsen 4C." If you translate "Wolfenstein" into the German words that comprise it, you get "Wolfstone." "Wolf" is the same word in German, and "stein" means "stone" or "rock." "Hundefelsen" is a combination of the German words for "dog" and "wolf," and "felsen" is a synonym for "stein." Hence the alias, "Hundefelsen." [2.5] Cancelled Projects Frequently, projects that get started never get finished. This can happen for a number of reasons. Legal problems is one common cause; slow progress and little promise is another. What follows is a list of projects that, for one reason or another, never saw the light of day. Dates are approximations of the time each game spent under development at Apogee. Please do not contact Apogee for information about these games. Little or no information remains about what was done, and in some cases, Apogee doesn't even have copies of them anymore in their archives. From Apogee: Game Genre Date Comments/Reason For Cancellation ---- ----- ---- -------------------------------- }Duke Nukem: Endangered Hunting 2002 Apogee didn't think the game was } Species Hunter progressing well. Later came } out as "Vivisector," which bore } little resemblance to Endangered } Species Hunter. Duke Nukem Forever Platform 1996-7 Title reused for a 3D game. Note that Duke: Manhattan Project is NOT this old game resurrected. Cyril Cyberpunk Platform 1996 Later released by Reality Studios. Working title at Apogee: "Cyberpunk Kid." Ravager Platform 1995-6 Sold to Inner Circle Creations, who named it "Alien Rampage." Pitfall (PC version) Platform 1995-6 Activision, who did the original game, came to Apogee about it, but Apogee couldn't get the creative control they wanted. Crystal Carnage Combat 1994-5 Fumes Racing 1994-5 Crazy Baby Platform 1994-5 Later released by New Generation Software as "Clif Danger." Monster Bash VGA Platform 1994-5 Not enough time to finish it. } Was going to feature all-new } levels. Descent 3D Action 1994 Financial issues. Interplay later became the distributor. Violent Vengeance Fighting 1994 AKA "Sango Fighter;" released later by Panda Entertainment under this title. Tom, Dick, and Harry Platform 1993-4 Megaloman Platform 1993-4 Jim Dose, lead programmer got tied up doing other projects. Wards of Wandaal The Second Sword RPG 1992-3 Cygnus Studios, which later did Raptor. Angels Five Platform 1992-3 VGA, multiple characters. }Nuclear Nightmare Platform 1992-3 Would have been Apogee's first } (and only) Windows 3.1 game. BoulderDash 5000 Puzzle 1992-3 Tubes Puzzle 1992-3 Later released by Software Creations. Cybertank 3D 3D Action 1992-3 Frank Maddin's tank game using a Wolf3D clone engine; art by Amanda Dee. Fantasy 3D 3D Action 1992-3 Peter Jungck's Wolf3D clone. Commander Keen: The Platform 1992 Never started. Universe Is Toast Gateworld 1991-2 Poor quality; later released by HomeBrew Software. Dino Days 1990-1 Never started. The Underground Puzzle 1990-1 Empire of Kroz From 3D Realms: Game Genre Date Comments/Reason For Cancellation ---- ----- ---- -------------------------------- Descent: Freespace 3D Action 1998 Non-exclusive rights sold to Interplay. Blood 3D Action 1994-7 Sold to Monolith Productions. Ruins: Return of the 3D Action 1994-5 Sold to Playmates Interactive and } Gods retitled "Exhumed," then } retitled "PowerSlave." } From Other Companies: }Game Genre Date Comments/Reason For Cancellation }---- ----- ---- -------------------------------- }Duke Nukem: D-Day 3D Action 99-03 PS2 game. Cancelled due to lack } of sufficient progress. [2.6] The Great Price Drop On March 2, 2000, Apogee cut prices across the board on their games. The following table shows what the prices were before and after the drop: From Apogee: Name Before After ---- ------ ----- Stargunner $29.95 $10.00 Death Rally $29.95 $10.00 * XenoPhage: Alien Bloodsport $34.95 $10.00 * Realms of Chaos $24.95 $10.00 Rise of the Triad $34.95 $15.00 Boppin $29.95 $10.00 Wacky Wheels $34.95 $10.00 Mystic Towers $24.95 $10.00 Hocus Pocus $24.95 $10.00 Raptor: Call of the Shadows $34.95 $15.00 Blake Stone: Planet Strike $24.95 $10.00 Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold $29.95 $10.00 Duke Nukem II $34.95 $10.00 Wolfenstein 3D $49.95 $15.00 Monster Bash $34.95 $10.00 Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure $34.95 $10.00 Duke Nukem $29.95 $10.00 Crystal Caves $29.95 $10.00 Secret Agent $29.95 $10.00 Paganitzu $29.95 $10.00 From 3D Realms: Name Before After ---- ------ ----- Shadow Warrior $34.95 $19.95 Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic $49.95 $19.95 Terminal Velocity $39.95 $15.00 From Pinball Wizards: Name Before After ---- ------ ----- Balls of Steel $29.95 $24.95 In addition, two combination deals also went down in price. Combo Before After ----- ------ ----- Keen: Vorticons/Galaxy $49.95 $20.00 Word Rescue/Math Rescue $39.95 $29.95 * - For quite some time prior to the price drop, Death Rally and XenoPhage sold at a special discount price of $5, and a combo pack containing both was sold for $8. Those special prices are no longer offered. [2.7] Apogee's Relationship With Other Companies [2.7.1] What is Apogee's relationship with id? Joe Siegler's explanation of the relationship between Apogee and id follows: Apogee and id Software are two completely different companies. They always have been, always will be. Apogee doesn't own id; id doesn't own Apogee; nor is one a division of the other. Apogee Software writes and distributes software. Of the many games that Apogee has published, only a handful have not been written by Apogee as well. id Software wrote three of these games, namely, Keen: Vorticons, Keen: Galaxy, and Wolfenstein 3D. id Software writes software, and up until Doom, had never published anything themselves. id has published through a few companies, Apogee being one of them. As mentioned before, Keen Vorticons, Keen Galaxy, and Wolfenstein 3D were distributed by Apogee. (At later dates, id went on and also published Keen Galaxy and Wolf3D in the stores through GT Software, now called GT Interactive, but that's another story.) Some earlier id efforts such as Catacomb 3D are distributed through Softdisk. (Technically, these early games, such as Catacomb 3D, Dangerous Dave, and Rescue Rover, are Softdisk games, not id Software games, though they were made by the same people who would ultimately found id Software. The first game released as an "id Software" game was Keen: Vorticons.) Starting with Doom, id has been publishing on their own. Apogee has absolutely nothing to do with Doom, nor future titles by id Software. Furthermore, starting with the release of Heretic, id Software started publishing games on their own label. They licensed their Doom engine to two companies, Raven Software and Cygnus Studios (whose credits include Raptor). (The game produced by Cygnus Studios was cancelled and picked up by a company called Rogue.) The two games produced under this agreement (Heretic and Strife respectively), were published under the "id" label exactly the same way that id Software themselves published Wolfenstein 3D under the "Apogee" label. Twice, Apogee has licensed id's game engines for its own use. In 1993, Apogee licensed the engine used for Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy! for Bio Menace. In 1998, the Quake II engine was licensed for use in Duke Nukem Forever, although this was later abandoned in favor of Epic's Unreal engine. }Still later, the production of Prey, which had been in development at }Apogee/3D Realms for years, was transferred to Human Head Studios, which is }using the Doom 3 engine. There was no "big divorce," or "feud" or anything along those lines between id and Apogee. The id crew and the Apogee crew are all good friends. [2.7.2] What's Apogee's relationship with Softdisk? Daniel Tobias' (senior programmer/editor for Softdisk) explanation of the relationship between Apogee, id, and Softdisk follows: Apogee and Softdisk are two companies whose paths have crossed time and again since Scott Miller submitted Kingdom of Kroz to them on November 26, 1987. It won second place in Softdisk's CodeQuest '87 and published on issue #20 of Softdisk's subscription software product "Big Blue Disk" (which later became "On Disk Monthly" and, finally, "Softdisk PC"). Scott Miller continued to submit his games, listed below: Title Submitted Issue/Date ----- --------- ---------- Kingdom of Kroz 11/26/87 BBD #20, 06/88 Computer Quiz 01/20/88 BBD #21, 07/88 Astronomy Quiz 01/20/88 BBD #26, 11/88 Maze Runner 01/20/88 BBD #26, 12/88 BASIC Quiz 01/20/88 BBD #28, 02/89 Dungeons of Kroz 01/20/88 BBD #29, 03/89 Meteors 03/12/88 BBD #30, 04/89 Block Five 01/20/88 BBD #32, 06/89 Caverns of Kroz 04/22/89 BBD #35, 09/89 Castle of Kroz 08/31/89 BBD #47, 09/90 These are available as back issues of the Big Blue Disk; only the Kroz games are currently available from Apogee. Apogee's Vice President George Broussard wrote a game for Softdisk under contract called "Scubadventure," which was published as part of a defunct monthly game disk subscription from Softdisk and also sold as a stand alone item. Scubadventure came about when Scott Miller, intrigued by id Software's Catacomb 3D, wanted to contract id to make a 3D shareware game for him. id was reluctant, instead intending to make another Commander Keen game, but Scott Miller gave them several proposals all of which guaranteed a large sum of money. However, id was obligated to make another game for Softdisk, so Apogee made an arrangement whereby Apogee would make a game for Softdisk, thus freeing id to write a 3D game for Apogee. id's game for Apogee was, of course, Wolfenstein 3D, and Apogee's game for Softdisk was Scubadventure. Apogee's Keith Schuler also made a submission to Softdisk, namely, "Chagunitzu," the forerunner of Apogee's "Paganitzu." This was published by Softdisk on Big Blue Disk #44 (dated 6/90). The id team also has its ties with Softdisk. Originally, the people who ultimately founded id Software worked for Softdisk and wrote numerous games for them. Games done as full-time employees of Softdisk: Catacomb [2D game published first as an Apple II version on Softdisk #114, then ported to the PC for BBD #50] Dangerous Dave [published on a game "sampler disk"] Catacomb II [later changed to "The Catacomb"] Slordax Games done on a contract basis after the id group left: Rescue Rover Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion Hovertank 3D Keen Dreams Rescue Rover 2 Catacomb 3D Tiles of the Dragon Solo works of John Romero: Twilight Treasures [on BBD #35] Zappa Roids [on BBD #36] (also an Apple //e version) Pyramids of Egypt [on BBD #46] Sub Stalker (Apple //e version) Double Dangerous Dave (Apple //e version) Solo works of John Carmack: Dark Designs I [on BBD #52] Dark Designs II [on BBD #54] Tennis Keen Dreams was released in a shareware version by Softdisk (latest shareware release is v1.20), as well as various registered, catalog, and retail editions. (Apogee does not distribute Keen Dreams -- those who would like it should contact Softdisk.) The 3D game, "Catacomb Abyss," was not written by the id crew, but rather a team of Softdisk programmers, headed by Greg Malone, after they had left. The engine for "Catacomb Abyss," however, was the Catacomb 3D engine previously written by id. "Catacomb Abyss" is part of a trilogy along with "Catacomb Apocalypse" and "Catacomb Armageddon." Greg Malone later became the creative director for Duke Nukem 3D and, for the first half of its production, Shadow Warrior, two of 3D Realms' games. Of the various people mentioned elsewhere in this FAQ, the following are former full-time Softdisk employees: Jason Blochowiak, Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, Tom Hall, Jerry K. Jones, Greg Malone, Michael Maynard, John Romero, and James T. Row. [2.7.3] What's Apogee's relationship with Parallax? Originally, the game Descent, written by Parallax and distributed by Interplay, was to be an Apogee game. And indeed, Parallax and Apogee worked on it together for seven or eight months. But due to financial issues, Apogee cancelled it in January of 1995. Interplay picked it up, impressed by the working demo Parallax then had after its association with Apogee, and the rest is history. Part of the deal Apogee made with Interplay when the Descent rights were sold was that Apogee would get a cut of Parallax's next new game. Descent II didn't qualify for that, but Descent: Freespace did. Initially, the plan was for 3D Realms to release the shareware version of Descent: Freespace and sell the registered version exclusively for three months, at which point Interplay would start selling it too. However, in late April 1998, Interplay bought the full rights to the game. Apogee no longer has anything to do with Descent: Freespace or any of the other Descent games. In the credits for Descent, there is a thank you note to "Scott Miller and Apogee Software." Apogee's Joe Siegler asked Descent's project leader, Mike Kulas, about this credit. Mike's response is given below: Hi Joe, We put Scott and Apogee in there because we truly appreciate all that Apogee did for us. Scott showed a lot of faith in us when we didn't really have anything to show anybody. If not for Scott, I don't think we would be anywhere near where we are today. You can tell people exactly this, if you like. Mike Mike is also quoted in PC Gamer, Vol. 2, No. 4, as saying, "They're really a great bunch of guys, and they were a big help on Descent." Matt Toschlog, also a key member of the Descent team, is also quoted: "Without them [Apogee], I don't know how we would have gotten started." [2.8] History of Specific Games [2.8.1] The Kroz Series Scott Miller had been programming games since 1975, when he was in high school. "Caverns of Kroz" was the very first Kroz game, written in Turbo Pascal and originally endowed with the simple title "Kroz." It was sold to the disk magazine I.B.Magazette, as was the second Kroz adventure, "Dungeons of Kroz" (originally titled "Kroz II"). In 1987, Scott wrote "Kingdom of Kroz" and, with the full knowledge that, at the time, 99% of shareware was not profitable for its authors, released it into the shareware market. Thus, it was a mystifying surprise when Kroz turned out to be a smash hit. The letters poured in, expressing love for the game and demanding sequels. One of the reasons it was so successful, besides the merit of the game itself, was its then new marketing scheme; Kroz was the first game to be split into smaller episodes, with one episode released as shareware. In 1988, Kingdom of Kroz I received top honors in the game category of Softdisk's CodeQuest '87, a national programming contest, and came in second overall (it lost to a spreadsheet program). Scott Miller himself said, in the notes to a later version of the game, "Thanks to Kroz, I now know what a mutual fund is, but on the downside my taxes require a book two inches thick to figure out." In short, Kroz marked Apogee's birth, emergence into the national mainstream, and coronation as one of the earliest kings of shareware. What inspired Kroz? At the time, Scott Miller's favorite games were M.U.L.E., Archon, and Spelunker, among others. He liked games where puzzle solving was first, and the action secondary. Kroz's main inspiration was probably Rogue, which Scott used to play, but disliked for its randomness and reliance on chance. So Kroz was born. Another of Scott's favorite games is evident from the title; Kroz spelled backwards is "Zork," one of Infocom's most famous and successful text adventure games. The various episodes and versions of Kroz are many. To confuse the issue, Kroz, as well as many of the other early Apogee games, were not sold strictly in a single bundle of three or four episodes. The shareware episode, Kingdom of Kroz, could be registered at a cost of $7.50, and this registration made the customer eligible to buy other episodes at $7.50 each, or several episodes at some savings. The episodes of Kroz are as follows: 1. Caverns of Kroz 2. Dungeons of Kroz 3. Kingdom of Kroz 4. Return to Kroz 5. Temple of Kroz 6. The Final Crusade of Kroz 7. The Lost Adventures of Kroz "Return To Kroz" was published in two separate disk magazines, under different titles. One title was "Shrine of Kroz"; the other, "Castle of Kroz." Scott finally decided upon the "Return to Kroz" title because he liked the title to the third Star Wars movie. Similarly, "Valley of Kroz" was an alternate title given to "Temple of Kroz." Episodes 1-3 comprised "The Kroz Trilogy," and originally published on Softdisk's Big Blue Disk series. These episodes were later redone in 1990, their names changing to "Caverns of Kroz II," "Dungeons of Kroz II," and "Kingdom of Kroz II." Since Kingdom of Kroz II had significant map changes to 17 different levels, the original "Kingdom of Kroz I" remained available for purchase to registered owners of "Kingdom of Kroz II." Episodes 4-6 comprised "The Super Kroz Trilogy." These contained more levels, more items, and more effects. This trilogy was intended to complete the Kroz series, but the letters kept pouring in, including one from Patricia Baker, RI, who said, "I have lived in Kroz for almost a month and was sorry tonight to finally find the Amulet." So one final episode of Kroz was to be made, namely Episode 7, "The Lost Adventures of Kroz." This contained 75 new levels, and, as such, was sold at the slightly steeper rate of $20. As said earlier, however, the rates were lowered if more episodes were purchased at once. In early 1991, one could buy the first six episodes for $35 total, or $45 for all seven. "The Lost Adventures of Kroz" was the final episode to be completed. At one time, another episode had been planned for release in March 1991 entitled "The Underground Empire of Kroz," but this never saw the light of day. Apogee, along with the rest of the gaming community, started moving on toward more ambitious projects. In mid 1993, Apogee stopped registering individual episodes of their games, including Kroz. But the registered Kroz games were still commercially available from Apogee until as recently as early 1999. The revised Kroz Trilogy, the Super Kroz Trilogy, and the Lost Adventures were all bundled together and could be purchased for a $24.95 registration fee. The game was finally discontinued in early 1999 and is now no longer available from Apogee. [2.8.2] Pharaoh's Tomb and Arctic Adventure Pharaoh's Tomb and its sequel, Arctic Adventure, chronicle the adventures of Nevada Smith, and Indiana Jones-like character. The games were written by George Broussard and published under the name of his company, Micro F/X, in 1990. When he joined forces with Scott Miller to found Apogee, these two games were brought along and sold by Apogee. A later Apogee game, Paganitzu, starred Alabama Smith. One might presume that Alabama Smith is related to Nevada Smith, but Paganitzu author Keith Schuler says they are not. Pharaoh's Tomb and Arctic Adventure use what Broussard called the F.A.S.T. engine. A later game, Monster Bash, is also billed as using the F.A.S.T. engine, but it's not the same engine. The engine is completely different, but the name was recycled. Broussard bears the dubious honor of being the only game developer at Apogee ever to have misspelled his own name on one of his own games. In the title screen for Pharaoh's Tomb, he spelled his name "George Broussad." [2.8.3] Commander Keen Joe Siegler's explanation of the history of the Keen series: The seven Commander Keen games were all written by id Software. They are: 1) Marooned on Mars ---\ 2) The Earth Explodes | ---> Invasion of the Vorticons 3) Keen Must Die ---/ 3.5) Keen Dreams 4) Secret of the Oracle --\__ Goodbye Galaxy 5) The Armageddon Machine --/ 6) Aliens Ate My Babysitter Episodes 1-3 are collectively called "Invasion of the Vorticons," and are published by Apogee Software. This series of Commander Keen was released on December 14th, 1990, according to Tom Hall, then Creative Director for id Software. Episodes 4-5 are collectively called "Goodbye Galaxy!" and are also published by Apogee Software. This series of Commander Keen was released somewhere around June of 1991. There was also a special CGA edition of Keens 4-5. The CGA version is functionally identical to the standard EGA version of the game, but with CGA graphics. Apogee discontinued the CGA version in November 1997. In April 1998, episodes 1-5 were bundled together on a single CD and sold }as a unit for $49.95 (later repriced at $20.00). This is now the only way any of these Keen episodes may be purchased. Episode 6 is a stand-alone game which uses the Keen 4-5 engine and is entitled "Aliens Ate My Babysitter." From its creation in 1991 until 1996, it was distributed by FormGen, and Apogee merely resold it, like any other retailer would. In 1996, FormGen was bought by GT Interactive and did not continue to distribute the game. Therefore, Apogee was left with what stock they had at the time. In August 1997, that stock ran out. Later, id distributed a package called "The id Anthology," but that CD, for some reason, only had the CGA version of the game. The id Anthology has since been discontinued. There was a playable demo of Keen 6 that FormGen distributed at one point. It was released to various online services as #6k-demo.zip and k6demo.zip; it may or may not still exist in some remote part of the Internet. Keen Dreams has an interesting story. This is referred to as the "Lost Episode" of Commander Keen. I like to think of it as "Keen Episode 3.5." The reason is that Keen Dreams falls in between Vorticons and Galaxy both in terms of technology and story line. Before the id guys actually formed id, the majority of them worked at Softdisk, a computer software publisher in Shreveport, LA. The founding members of id Software left Softdisk to do the Vorticons series of Keen for Apogee Software. However, they were contractually obligated to deliver another game to Softdisk, and since development had started on the Galaxy series, they threw together a Keen game for Softdisk, and Keen Dreams was born. This game is not sold by Apogee Software, nor does Apogee have anything at all to do with it. You'd need to contact Softdisk for any further information regarding Keen Dreams. Episodes 1, 3.5, 4, and the three level demo for episode 6 are the only ones that you are legally allowed to upload and download anywhere. Episodes 2, 3, 5, and the full version of episode 6 are commercial software, and should not appear on the Internet or any other online service, or should otherwise be sold except for authorized sellers of the games. In December 1996, id Software published a package called "The id Anthology". This product contains every single game that id Software ever made, as well as some others that were made by id people for other companies like Softdisk. Included in this package are all seven Commander Keen games. As a side note, for some reason, the person at id Software who put the package together put in only the CGA version of Keen 6. For more information on the id Anthology, contact id Software (Apogee has nothing to do with the id Anthology). On May 30, 2001, Activision published a new Gameboy Color Keen game by IMS Productions, which was called, simply, "Commander Keen." Apogee has nothing to do with this game, and id was only involved to the extent that they approved of the project and out licensed the Keen character and universe. Here are the online filenames as currently available from Apogee for the various Keen games from Apogee. Some forums may have a '#' prepended onto the filename. Keen 1 -> 1KEEN.ZIP Keen 4 -> 4KEEN.ZIP Keen 4 -> 4KEENC.ZIP (CGA Version) I've seen the 3 level Aliens Demo available with the filename #6K-DEMO.ZIP and K6DEMO.ZIP. I've seen Keen Dreams available with the filename KDREAMS.ZIP. However, neither of these are Apogee products, and I cannot vouch for the files' names. If you played Keen 5, you may have noticed a screen that said something to the effect of, "Join us in December 1992 for the greatest Keen adventure yet." There was a picture of Keen smiling, with a Santa Claus hat on. At the time, id Software was intending to do a third series of Commander Keen, tentatively entitled "Commander Keen: The Universe is Toast." However, other projects came up (Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, and later, Doom). There are no plans now to do more Keen. On a different note, Commander Keen, and artifacts from the Keen games have found their way into other games. Commander Keen is listed in the default scoreboards of a handful of Apogee games, mentioned in the instructions of one, and has made a few more prominent appearances, which are listed under the "Cameos" section of this FAQ. Also, see the section on "What's B. J. Blazkowicz's relationship with Commander Keen?" for information on that. Finally, you can visit the Keen: Vorticons page of the Apogee WWW pages to see the original, rejected title screen for Keen I. The direct URL for this is http://www.3drealms.com/keen1/images/keen1title.jpg. [2.8.4] Crystal Caves and Secret Agent Originally, Crystal Caves and Secret Agent were developed at George Broussard's Company, Micro F/X. The author, Frank Maddin, poked fun at the Apogee/id game Commander Keen by including Keen's helmet in a level of Crystal Caves, partially obscured by some junk and debris. Half way through the games' development (and after the helmet was put in), George Broussard became Scott Miller's partner at Apogee and dissolved Micro F/X. The as yet unfinished games Crystal Caves and Secret Agent came with him to become Apogee games. Keen's helmet was left in as an inside joke. [2.8.5] Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II There is frequently a great deal of confusion over the correct spelling of one of Apogee's most prized characters, Duke Nukem. The original spelling for the name was "Duke Nukem"; however, during the code fix stage between v1.0 and v2.0 of the original game, Apogee found a character overseas named "Duke Nukem" that was thought to be copyrighted. So, for v2.0 of the original Duke game, the name was changed to "Duke Nukum." Then, during the programming of Duke II, it was discovered that the character they found overseas was not copyrighted after all -- and so the original name was reinstated. "Duke Nukem" is also the spelling used in all successive games that featured the character. The spellings "Duke Nuke 'em," "Duke Nuke'um," "Duke Nuke'm," "Duke Nuk'em" and other variations are not, and were never, correct. [2.8.6] Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny It started when a 3D game id made for Softdisk grabbed Scott Miller's attention. He decided that he'd like id to make a 3D shareware game for Apogee and convinced a somewhat reluctant id to agree. However, at the time, id was obligated to make a game for Softdisk, so Apogee made a deal in which Apogee would make a game for Softdisk, thereby freeing id to write the 3D game for Apogee. Apogee's game for Softdisk was "Scubadventure," written by George Broussard; id's game for Apogee was the now legendary Wolfenstein 3D. Joe Siegler's explanation of the history of the Wolfenstein series from this point follows: On May 5, 1992, Apogee Software released the shareware episode of Wolfenstein 3D, and has been distributing it in the shareware market since. Apogee is the official distributor of Wolfenstein 3D's original six episodes in the shareware market. Somewhere around September of 1992, FormGen Corp released Spear of Destiny. This is a retail sequel to Wolfenstein 3D. This game consisted of one episode with 20 levels. It had some new wall art, a couple of new objects, and new boss creatures. This game is essentially the same as Wolf3D but is completely new in the level design aspect. It was available in stores like CompUSA. Apogee also resold this product but was not responsible for its distribution. Apogee had to buy it from FormGen like any other store would. There is a two level playable demo floating around for Spear of Destiny. It's the same first two levels that appear in the full version of the game. It is not shareware; commercial demos are for the most part non-interactive, however, this one *is* interactive, and since it bears a close resemblance to Wolfenstein 3D, which is shareware, the Spear of Destiny demo is frequently mistaken for being shareware, which it is not. There have been numerous editors and extra levels created by users for both Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny. With regard to Wolf3D, Apogee respectfully requests that you not make or distribute any editors, extra levels, or other add-ons that will work on the shareware episode. If you choose to make add-ons, please make these items for the registered version only, and be aware that Apogee cannot support user-created items. Sometime in mid/late 1993, id Software decided that they were going to publish these same six original episodes in the retail market. These are the same six episodes that Apogee had been selling since May of 1992. Since Apogee was at that time not set up for retail distribution, id Software went with another company called is GT Software (now called GT Interactive). This package is available in CompUSA and contains the same six episodes that Apogee distributes. Apogee has absolutely nothing at all to do with this product. The GT Software version of Wolfenstein 3D is totally a GT product. Apogee has no control over the packaging, quality control, or price. In May of 1994, FormGen Corporation released two new episodes for Spear of Destiny to stores. The collective name of the product is "Spear of Destiny Mission Add-On Packs." The new episodes each have their own individual titles, these being "Mission 2: Return to Danger," and "Mission 3: Ultimate Challenge." These add-ons have some new level graphics and some differently colored actors, but is essentially more levels for Spear of Destiny. These extra versions require that you have the first Spear of Destiny game (the original six Apogee Wolf3D episodes are not required). In late 1994, FormGen marketed a "Spear of Destiny Super CD Package," which consists of id's original Spear of Destiny, the two additional add-on missions, and hint books for these new episodes. Neither Apogee Software nor id software sells the add-ons or the CD, supports it, or has anything else to do with it. These are strictly FormGen products. In April 1998, id Software repackaged Wolfenstein 3D for retail again, with Activision as their retail publisher. This new box has the full version of Wolfenstein 3D in it as well as the full version of Spear of Destiny plus the two Spear of Destiny mission packs that FormGen had made. Although the box bills itself as "finally available for Windows 95," the games themselves are physically unchanged -- there is simply a new Windows 95 installer. Apogee has nothing to do with this new product or new packaging and does not sell it. Shortly afterward, Apogee stopped reselling the original Spear of Destiny. id Software has also either written or released versions of Wolfenstein 3D for other platforms over time. Apogee Software has nothing to do with any of them. id Software holds the copyright to Wolfenstein 3D and can license it to others for other platforms or do whatever they want with it. These versions are listed for completeness' sake only. The Super Nintendo version was released around Jan/Feb of 1994. This was published through a company called "Imagineer." Due to Nintendo restrictions, some elements of the game had to be removed. These were all Nazi references, the dogs (replaced with rats), and blood (replaced with sweat). This is still a good game, especially considering what it's programmed for. There was a version released for the Atari Jaguar around August of 1994, and this version is probably the best graphically of any version published. When you go up right against walls and the like, they do not become as blocky or chunky, as compared to previous versions of Wolfenstein 3D. This version was published by Atari. id also licensed Wolf3D so that it could be published on the Macintosh computer. This version was released in October 1994 and is being distributed by MacPlay, a division of Interplay. WolfMac is a shareware title, and there is a shareware version of it available. When you register, you get something like 30 levels. Again, Apogee has nothing to do with these versions of Wolfenstein 3D; you would need to contact the various companies, or id Software directly for more information on them. In the fall of 1994, it was revealed that Vitesse was working on a version of Wolfenstein 3D for the Apple IIGS. This version was being done by Bill Heinemann. This brings the Wolfenstein saga full circle as the original Castle Wolfenstein was written for the Apple //e. The Apple IIGS version of Wolfenstein 3D was finally released as freeware on February 14, 1998. Sometime in August/September 1995, id Software released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D to the Internet and CompuServe. It does not contain the code for the levels and graphics, however, so you'll need the data files from the shareware or commercial versions of the game for it to work properly. The premiere issue of Game Developer's Magazine stated that Apogee Software was working on a game called "Wolfenstein 3D: Part II," which was to be a totally new game, with completely new actors, and new everything; the only thing the same being the title Wolfenstein 3D. This information is partially incorrect; there is no such title under production at either Apogee or id Software. However, this was under production at Apogee for a while back in early 1994, but this was dropped, and the project changed to "Rise of the Triad." This game is now available from Apogee Software. In 2001, Gray Matter Interactive released a game called "Return to Castle Wolfenstein," which uses the Quake III engine. Apogee does not have anything to do with this game. [2.8.6.1] "Call Apogee and say Aardwolf" Joe Siegler's explanation of "Aardwolf": "Call Apogee and say Aardwolf." It's a sign that to this day is something that I get asked about a lot. This is a sign that appears on a wall in a particularly nasty maze in Episode 2 Level 8 of Wolfenstein 3D. The sign was to be the goal in a contest Apogee was going to have, but almost immediately after the game's release, a large amount of cheat and mapping programs were released. With these programs running around, we felt that it would have been unfair to have the contest and award a prize. The sign was still left in the game, but in hindsight, probably should have been taken out. To this day, Apogee gets letters and phone calls and asking what Aardwolf is, frequently with the question, "Has anyone seen this yet?" Also, in a somewhat related issue, letters were shown after the highest score in the score table in some revisions of the game. These letters were to be part of another contest that got scrapped before it got started, where we were going to have people call in with their scores and tell us the code; we'd then be able to verify their score. However, with the cheat programs out there, this got scrapped too. Basically, "Aardwolf" and the letters mean nothing now. Also note that if you found the Aardwolf sign in the game (without cheating), there's a VERY strong chance that you're stuck in there. The only way out may be to restart, or load a saved game from before you went into that maze. [2.8.6.2] What's B. J. Blazkowicz's relationship with Commander Keen? Besides the fact that id Software created both the Commander Keen and Wolfenstein games, there is a further relationship between the two main characters. The following is an excerpt from the Official Hint Manual for Wolfenstein 3D which explains the relation: William Joseph Blazkowicz was born August 15, 1911, to Polish immigrants. Blazkowicz was a top spy for the Allied Forces, receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor and other accolades for heroism. "B.J.," (as he was called by his friends) married after World War II, at age 40, to Julia Marie Peterson. Their son, Arthur Kenneth Blazkowicz, became a television talk show personality in Milwaukee. For show biz purposes, Arthur changed his last name to Blaze. Arthur later married Susan Elizabeth McMichaels. They had one son (which they named after Arthur's father), William Joseph Blazkowicz II, or as he signs his grade school homework, B. Blaze.... [2.8.7] Halloween Harry and Alien Carnage Halloween Harry was written by SubZero Software, located in Australia. Apogee is the game's distributor. In October of 1993, Apogee released v1.1 of Halloween Harry in the United States. As with Wacky Wheels and Mystic Towers, version 1.0 of Halloween Harry was actually an incomplete version of the game released to a magazine in the UK. The first complete, public release of Halloween Harry was version 1.1. A month later, v1.2 of the game was released. A year after that, Apogee suggested a title change to "Alien Carnage." SubZero agreed. Thus, in early November of 1994, "Halloween Harry" was dropped from Apogee's distribution, and "Alien Carnage" added. Alien Carnage v1.0 is essentially Halloween Harry v1.2 with a name change, price change, and episode reorganization. The shareware version of Alien Carnage (its first episode) is Halloween Harry's episode three. With the exception of this reorganization, Alien Carnage consists of the same episodes as Halloween Harry. The shareware version of Halloween Harry is still legal to distribute; however, Apogee prefers you distribute the shareware version of Alien Carnage only, as this version has the new pricing information screens. In late 1996, Gee Whiz! Entertainment published a sequel called "Zombie Wars." A demo version of this was released to the Internet. Apogee has nothing to do with this sequel, however, and you cannot purchase the full version from them. By 1999, Gee Whiz! Entertainment was pulling out all the stops with the franchise. "Halloween Harry 3D" was in production, and efforts were made to develop "Zombie Wars" into an animated television series. Again, Apogee has nothing to do with Zombie Wars, Halloween Harry 3D, or the projected television series. On April 21, 2000, Alien Carnage was discontinued by Apogee due to technical problems with the increasing speed of computer hardware. [2.8.8] Mystic Towers Baron Baldric, the star of Mystic Towers, originally starred in a game called, simply, "Baron Baldric: A Grave Adventure." The game was designed for the Amiga by professional animator Lindsay Whipp of Animation F/X. It was then ported to the PC. The game was a 2D scrolling platform game and released as shareware by Manaccom in 1993. Afterward, Lindsay Whipp began work on a second game starring Baron Baldric, which would later become "Mystic Towers." The character of Baldric survived the transition between the games almost unchanged, humorous mannerisms intact, but the game of Mystic Towers is radically different -- it's more of a puzzle game than an action game and has the Baron moving in three dimensions. Apogee agreed to publish Mystic Towers for Animation F/X, and it was released on August 15, 1994. As with Halloween Harry and Wacky Wheels, version 1.0 of Mystic Towers was actually an incomplete version of the game released to a magazine in the UK. The first complete, public release of Mystic Towers was version 1.1. [2.8.9] Wacky Wheels At the time of its release, in October of 1994, the registered version of Wacky Wheels was available in two forms: a regular version, containing three sets of tracks, for $24.95; and an "upgrade edition," containing an additional three sets of tracks, for $34.95. The upgrade could be also purchased separately for $20. Presently, Apogee only registers the larger, six track set version of Wacky Wheels, and only on CD. On March 2, 2000, the registration cost was reduced to $10. As with Halloween Harry and Mystic Towers, version 1.0 of Wacky Wheels was actually an incomplete version of the game released to a magazine in the UK. The first complete, public release of Wacky Wheels was version 1.1. Andy Edwardson's paraphrased history of Wacky Wheels follows: Back in 1993, we were doing some low budget stuff for a Belgium outfit called Copysoft. I got fed up with the meager work, so I decided to work on a game engine in my spare time. I figured that the PC could do the mode7 stuff that the Super Nintendo was doing. I could not find any references for it, so I just studied Mario Kart and tried to figure out how it worked. I had a prototype engine up in about a week that did the floor painting and the rotation stuff. After that, I worked on it for a few more months, and Shaun Gadalla did artwork for it, and it started to get pretty solid. I showed it to the Copysoft crew, and they were quite excited and put a few screenshots of it on Compuserve. The problem was, we hadn't come to any commercial agreement with the company, and it was not a sure thing that they would get the game. Scott Miller, Apogee's president, happened to come across the screenshots and contacted Copysoft, and then we got into a fight with Copysoft over royalties, should Apogee end up distributing the game. I had made an unfortunate mistake -- I had included the C++ source code on the demo disk we left with them. Shaun contacted Scott, and we came to an agreement. Shaun and I agreed to pay back what CopySoft had given us for equipment and so forth. Development went on. When we went into beta we thought we would be out of there in a few weeks. However, when we got in there it was apparent that we needed more features. Beta was really important for me. If I had not listened to those testers, the game would not have been what it is. Most of the ideas came from us, but they kept the pressure up. It would have been too easy to sit on our hands and think what we were doing was best. The testers kept me on my toes, and, best of all, they told the truth. Another thing was Joe Siegler. I hate to admit this, but I didn't understand why he was so blunt all the time. I was so wrapped up in myself and becoming a bit of a pre-madonna. It was only later that I realized Joe was just being honest with us and trying to help us make the best game possible. I think Joe symbolizes what Apogee is; he works so hard all the time, and he practically lives there. At any rate, at one point I wanted to make amends with him. I knew he was into Dopefish, so I asked if we could put the fish in as a cameo. We discussed how it might work, and he sent me some stills and a collection of belches that he had recorded when he sat down one night with a microphone and a two liter bottle of Diet Coke. I picked one of them, but I think that Joe would have preferred it if I had picked one of the louder ones he sent me! Because Doom had introduced the concept of modem play, the beta testers wanted it. Despite popular belief, Rise of the Triad did not introduce Remote Ridicule -- Wacky Wheels had it first. Rise of the Triad did take it one step further by allowing you to type messages to each other. At any rate, modem play really made my head spin. I never realised how unreliable packets were until I did the multiplayer engine. My hat goes off to John Carmack for his net play engine. To make matters worse, I was working at Shaun's place, and his phone lines were awful. But it did make the protocol really robust! The music in Wacky Wheels was really lacking, and George Broussard said we needed more tunes. Jim Dose had just been hired at Apogee, and he had a terrific sound engine. We ripped out the old one and put his in. Jim also put us in touch with Mark Klem, and I would spend hours on the phone with him listening to his music. I really love the stuff he did, and I really should contact him for old time's sake. As testing went on, I got more and more worried that, in the wake of Doom, all gameplayers wanted now was blood and guts, and Wacky Wheels wasn't about that. But we kept going, and I was determined to make it work. Anything the beta testers wanted, they got, except for the rear view mirror suggestion they kept plugging for. I didn't think it lent anything to the game, and it would have meant rendering another 3D view in another little window. One memorable moment for us was when Shaun and I flew over to Texas, and we went to see George and Scott at the Apogee offices. I will never forget going into and seeing the pictures on the wall. They had the cover art for each of their games in a frame. Wacky Wheels was next to Wolfenstein 3D. That was an incredible moment in my life -- to be anywhere near associated with one of the greatest games of all time was neat to say the least. We went out to dinner with George and Scott, then visited their houses. (George had this bloody great big shark in a tank!) We got to talking about games, and George showed us Pitfall and asked if we could do anything like that. After Wacky Wheels, we did a test engine for them, but they were moving into the 3D market by then, and we didn't have anything to offer in that area at the time. Anyway, we finally cracked the modem play, and it had one final round in beta testing. Joe Siegler gave it a good test, and he was happy with it. So it was finally ready to ship. Then the bombshell hit us. Scott faxed us that Skunny Kart, a game from Copysoft that used my engine, had hit Compuserve. My heart sank. The only saving grace was that it was not all that similar to Wacky Wheels, and there was quite a legal wrangle over it all. I was so angry, and it took all of Shaun's resolve to stop me from acting rashly. There was no way Copysoft had the ability to write an engine like that from scratch. In a perverse way, it taught me a valuable lesson. I was very hurt by it all, and it still bothers me to this day. In hindsight we were very stupid and should have known better. If I could turn the clock back and make Wacky Wheels violent, full of blood and gore would I? Nah. It was fun, and kids big and small can enjoy it. [2.8.10] Boppin At the time of its release, in November of 1994, the registered version of Boppin was available in two forms: Basic Boppin, which contained only the first two episodes of the game including the shareware version, for $19.95; and Super Boppin, which contained all four episodes and a level editor, for $29.95. Owners of Basic Boppin could upgrade to Super Boppin at additional cost. Apogee discontinued Basic Boppin later and only sold Super Boppin. Then, on July 31, 2001, Boppin was discontinued entirely by Apogee at }the request of the author. Still later, on August 19, 2005, the author }released the game as freeware. The initial version of Boppin contained a disturbing, gory logo, as well as bloody suicide sequences when you failed to solve one of the puzzles correctly. These were put in the game by the company that made it, Accursed Toys. However, Apogee, Boppin's distributor, found the gore to be gratuitous and out of place and attached a message to the game disclaiming the violent aspects of the game. The suicide sequences could be turned off once inside the game, but the logo could not. Accursed Toys received enough email protesting the gore so that, in v1.1 of Boppin, the default was to not show any of it. A command line parameter, "blood," now has to be given to turn it back on. [2.8.11] Rise of the Triad Back in early 1994, a game called "Wolfenstein 3D: Part II" was under production. This was dropped, and the project became "Rise of the Triad," or, as it is casually known, "ROTT." Version 1.0 was released on December 21, 1994; in February 1995, versions 1.1 and 1.2 were released. Version 1.2 was supposed to have fixed the problem that 1.1 introduced where 4 meg machines could not play at all. As it turned out, 1.2 did not fix that, and a 1.2a patch was released a week later. At this point, the CD version of ROTT was burned (but not the Site License version). After that started shipping, a bug was found where people playing directly from the CD could not save games. So 1.2b was released to fix this. Since this was a CD only bug, a version 1.2b was not released for the shareware version or disk based registered version. The Site License version was produced after v1.2b, so that does not exist as a version prior to 1.2b. Version 1.3 was released for all shareware and registered versions in August 1995. The disk based registered version was available starting in late February, cost $29.95, and contained 32 regular levels and 30 comm-bat zones. The regular CD based registered version was identical to the disk based version and started shipping in March. A power pack add-on contained 10 extra comm-bat zones, a random level generator, and BMP and WAV files from the game. Super Triad cost $34.95, contained everything in the regular registered version and the power pack and had more BMP and WAV files. Eventually the regular registered version would be discontinued and supplanted by Super Triad. The Site License CD, which started shipping in April, cost $89.95 and contained 14 extra comm-bat zones, a signed site license agreement, and eleven command cards. For people to play a networked game using the registered version, each player was to have either their own registered versions, or a Site License version owned among them. In July 1995, Apogee released a package of rejected ROTT levels, available for free in the file ROTT_REJ.ZIP. Late that year, Apogee released an add-on pack to "Rise of the Triad" called "Extreme Rise of the Triad," which contained some new hazards and 42 new levels (designed by Joe Siegler and Tom Hall), and sold on CD for $19.95. In early 1996, Tom Hall and Joe Siegler put together what was the final release of ROTT materials from Apogee Software. A college in Ohio was running a gaming contest and was using Rise of the Triad for it. Apogee created a special level pack with four levels for use in this contest. Two of the levels were done by Joe Siegler, and two by Tom Hall. In February 1996, after the contest was held, the file was released to the public for free as OHIORTC.ZIP. Starting January 1997, the registered version of Rise of the Triad was available on CD only. Extreme Rise of the Triad was discontinued in November 1997. The Site License version was discontinued on March 2, 2000. On September 1, 2000, the Extreme Rise of the Triad level pack was released as freeware. Tom Hall, the creative director for Rise of the Triad, dubbed the Rise of the Triad team the "Developers of Incredible Power" (DIP). ROTT was the first release of the Developers of Incredible Power, under that name. For most of the members of "DIP," Rise of the Triad was their first real project. Tom Hall and Stephen A Hornback were the only ones who had worked extensively on previous Apogee games. The principle composer for ROTT was Lee Jackson. In 1984, Lee Jackson marched in a Drum and Bugle Corps, called the Nighthawks, out of Houston -- he did pit percussion and wrote the pit parts for some of the pieces. In his words, "this style has a tremendous influence on my writing. . . . One chart from ROTT (Havana Smooth) is almost a pure Corps chart. . . . Joe [Siegler] hates Drum Corps. [He] absolutely *can* *not* *stand* Drum Corps when he knows what he's listening to. I kind of slipped this song past him." To this day, Joe vehemently denies that this song is a Drum Corps piece. The name of the shareware version is "Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins." The name of the registered version is "Rise of the Triad: Dark War," which contains four new episodes. The four registered episodes have the titles, in order, "Approach," "Monastery," "Caves Below," and "The Slow and the Dead." }On December 20, 2003, the source code to Rise of the Triad was released. }Also, on February 15, 2005, a "ROTT Goodies Pack" was released as freeware }online. This pack consists of a lot of utilities and items that were on }the now discontinued Extreme ROTT CD, plus some user levels and things of }this nature. [2.8.11.1] ROTT characters One of the curiosities of ROTT is that the actors in the game were digitized and voiced by members of Apogee. The following chart shows who was scanned and who was sampled to create each ROTT character. Character/Description Real Life Actor Voice --------------------- --------------- ----- Low Guard Steve Quarrella Steve Quarrella (Grey Shirts - There are lots of em) (Former Tech Spt) High Guard Steve Blackburn Steve Blackburn (Green Uniforms - Drop MP40's) (VP of Operations) Lightning Guard Kevin Green Kevin Green & (Begs for Mercy, Steals your weapon) (Cust Support Mgr) Willam Scarboro Triad Enforcer George Broussard George Broussard (Throws Hand Grenades) (Exec VP of Apogee) Strike Patrol Scott Miller Scott Miller (White Shirts - Ducks and Rolls) (President of Apogee) Overpatrol Nolan Martin Nolan Martin & (Brown uniforms - throws nets) (Former Programmer) Chuck Jones Death Monk Lee Jackson Tom Hall (Waddles, drains your life) (Musician) DeathFire Monk Allen H. Blum III Tom Hall (Shoots Fireballs) (Programmer) Robot Guard Was a model by Sound CD #4005 (Small Metal Robots) Gregor Punchatz General Darian Steve Maines Mark Dochtermann (Large Boss with Rocket Launcher) (Former Art Director) Sebastian "Doyle" Krist Joe Siegler Joe Siegler (Boss in Chair) (Online Support Mgr) NME (Nasty Metallic Enforcer Boss) Was a model by Sound CD #4005 (Nickname "Spray") Gregor Punchatz El Oscuro Tom Hall Tom Hall (Main Boss - both forms) (Creative Director) Taradino Cassatt Not Applicable Joe Selinske Thi Barrett Not Applicable Susan Singer Doug Wendt Not Applicable Lee Jackson Lorelei Ni Not Applicable Pau Suet Ying * Ian Paul Freeley Not Applicable Jim Dose' * Pau Suet Ying was a waitress at a Chinese Resturant, called May China Cafe, about half a mile from Apogee's Headquarters. Not everyone that was digitized was used in the game. The following chart shows other people who were scanned and sampled, but not used in the final release of the game. Character/Description Real Life Actor Voice --------------------- --------------- ----- Alternate Low Guard Marianna Vayntrub Colleen Compton (Fiancee of Mark D.) Alternate High Guard Steve Hornback Steve Hornback (Main ROTT artist) Alternate Overpatrol Pat Miller Pat Miller (Scott Miller's Mom) Alternate Strike Team Ann Grauherholz Ann Grauherholz (Tom Hall's Friend) Alternate Lightning Guard William Scarboro William Scarboro (ROTT Programmer) Alternate DeathFire Monk Mark Dochtermann Tom Hall (ROTT Programmer) [2.8.11.2] ROTT levels There are a wealth of levels available for "Rise of the Triad," even if you just count the "official" levels made by Apogee. Some are packaged in various versions of the game, some were released separately; some are free, some cost money; some are regular (one player) levels, some are Comm-Bat (multiplayer) levels. Below is a description of each of the level sets available from Apogee. - "Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins" is the name of the standard shareware episode of ROTT. The shareware episode cannot make use of any other levels besides its own. - "Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins Deluxe Edition" is a special version of the shareware episode distributed only by LaserSoft, until October 1999 when Apogee released the levels as a free download from their web site. This version has six levels unavailable anywhere else: three regular levels and three Comm-Bat levels. - "Rise of the Triad: Dark War" is the name of the registered version of ROTT. There are several versions: a floppy disk version, an upgraded floppy disk version, a CD version, and a Site License CD version. (Both floppy disk versions and the Site License version were since discontinued.) The upgraded floppy disk was the same as the regular CD version but with fewer "extras." The Site License CD version had an extra 14 Comm-Bat levels. - The ROTT "rejected level set" was released to the Internet for free. It contains levels designed for "Rise of the Triad: Dark War" but eventually cut from the game. A text file that accompanies this level set explains some of the history behind the levels. - "Extreme Rise of the Triad," or EROTT, is an add-on pack designed by Joe Siegler and Tom Hall. It contains an additional 42 regular levels usable by the registered version of ROTT and utilize new tricks and traps. EROTT was discontinued by Apogee in November 1997 but, on September 1, 2000, } the level pack portion of EROTT was released as freeware. (The rest of it, } plus other extras, was released as the freeware "ROTT Goodies Pack" on } February 15, 2005.) - The "Ohio Comm-Bat Pack" is a set of four Comm-Bat levels designed especially for a contest at a college in Ohio. After the contest, the levels were released to the net for free. - Joe Siegler released two stand-alone levels, "Wolfenstein 3D," which recreates the level geography of episode 1, level 1 of Wolfenstein 3D, right down to the location of the objects. He made "You & Spray" as a joke level in late 1998 as an exercise to see if he remembered how to use the Rise of the Triad level editor. All of the ROTT levels that have been released as free downloads are available at http://www.3drealms.com/rott/. Here is a listing of all the levels for Rise of the Triad and who designed each. The vast bulk of levels were done by Tom Hall, so if no name is given for a particular level, he made it. ============================================== Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins (Shareware) ============================================== 1-1 The HUNT Begins 1-2 Foggy Mountain Shareware Warp Only Levels 1-3 The Fourth Door -------------------------- 1-4 Dark Tunnels 2-1 Too Tall 1-5 Metal Threat 2-2 Play Room 1-6 Ride 'em Cowboy (Joe Siegler) 1-7 Boom Boom Boom 1-8 Wall to Wall (Joe Siegler) ============================================================= Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins DELUXE Edition (Shareware) ============================================================= Regular Levels Comm-Bat Levels -------------- --------------- Prelude to a Kill The Siege Jumpin Jehoshaphat The Box GADZOOKS! Rise and Tide ======================================== Rise of the Triad: Dark War (Registered) ======================================== Episode 1: Approach Episode 2: Monastery -------------------- --------------------- 1-1 The Thick of It 2-1 Into the Castle 1-2 Winding Way 2-2 Great Halls of Fire (Marianna) 1-3 Burned and Amazed 2-3 The Room 1-4 Too Much Room 2-4 Spiralling In (Marianna) 1-5 Two Key Return 2-5 Rocky Plateau 1-6 Spring Surprise 2-6 Four Way Chamber 1-7 General Darian 2-7 Sebastian Krist 1-8 Turn of the Screw (Marianna Vayntrub) 2-8 Elevator Trouble Episode 3: Caves Below Episode 4: The Slow and the Dead ----------------------- --------------------------------- 3-1 Robotricks 4-1 "Monky" Business 3-2 Down & Over (Marianna Vayntrub) 4-2 Fire and Brimstone 3-3 Dead in Five Seconds 4-3 Crushing Defeat 3-4 Clear and Present Dangers 4-4 Diamonds & Rust 3-5 The Angry Quilt 4-5 Backfire 3-6 Movin' Walls 4-6 Circles of Fire 3-7 Know Thine NME 4-7 Lair of El Oscuro 3-8 Eight Ways to Hell (Joe Siegler) 4-8 Switched Around (Joe Selinske) 4-9 Canyon Chase 4-10 In the Dark Nest Registered Warp Only Levels --------------------------- 5-1 Dead in Two Seconds 5-2 The Vomitorium (Joe Siegler) 5-3 This Causes an Error! (a joke level) ================================= Rise of the Triad COMM-BAT Levels ================================= Shareware Comm-Bat Registered Comm-Bat (Continued) ------------------ ------------------------------- The Corpseyard (William Scarboro) Batter Up! Falling for It Attonement Fun House Memorize This The Labyrinth Swimmin' Pool Dark Warrens The Sanctum of Rocking (William Scarboro) Hill and Hill Again Think Up! Iron Tower Ziggurattack The Great Divide Free Flight Cross Purposes (Joe Siegler) Registered Comm-Bat Joustin' Time (Mark Dochtermann) ------------------- Captured One Stop Gun Shop Yellow Brick Road The Well Crystal Fields Way Too Tiny Sign Language Site License Comm-Bat Land Bridge --------------------- Checkers King of the Hill (Joe Selinske) Tree House The Castle Mazewar '94 It's the Pits (Joe Selinske & Tom Hall) Impossible Land Popcore (Joe Selinske with Tom Mods) Picture This Round 'n' Round Mark's Madness (Mark Dochtermann) Hey! More Barrels! (Joe Selinske & Tom) Bazooka Joke Too Tight Above All This Race Track (Mark Dochtermann) Four Square Cave In (Joe Selinske with Tom Mods) Giza Glen Park Ramp Urge to Kill (Jim Dose) Into the Fray Death Tree Lotta Lava Oh Yeah! (Joe Selinske) The Machine Staff Meeting =============================== Extreme ROTT Add-On Pack Levels =============================== A Tomb With a View Lights Out (Joe Siegler) Up NME Mine (Joe Siegler) Triadagio (Joe Siegler) They Say HOO-Mahn-Ay (Joe Siegler) The Barracks Halls of Walls Moatin' Lava Getting the Drop Nothin' But Net A Boulder Vision (Joe Siegler) Truth or Darian Pykus Peak (Joe Siegler) Through & Through The Hoppe Hop (Joe Siegler) High Road, Low Road Technical Ecstasy (Joe Siegler) Open Fire Oscuro's Legions Dark 'N' Deadly 95 Windows (Joe Siegler) Lightning Strikes On Its Tail A Mode I Rode (Joe Siegler) The Unholy Chamber You're Fired (Joe Siegler) Danger Mouth Krist Cross (Joe Siegler) Fencing Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Welcome to the Machine Overview Gods of Annihilation (Joe Siegler) Sky Tunnels The Grand Vomitorium (Joe Siegler) Bridge Over Trouble Fire Flight Experiment IV Run Like Heaven The Ride Stupid Dog Tricks ================= ========================= Reject Level Pack Ohio 1996 Comm-Bat Levels ================= ========================= Use the Fish (Joe Selinske) But This Goes to 11 Wan Fife (Joe Selinske) Walloper The Pound Dwayne Goes 48 (Joe Siegler) Valhalla The X Factor (Joe Siegler) Aztec Paramecium (Joe Selinske) Death Box Battle Squid (Joe Selinske) ============ Great Wally (Joe Selinske & Tom Hall) Extra Levels Lumpy's Delight (Joe Selinske) ============ Pillar Killers (Joe Selinske) Wolfenstein 3D (Joe Siegler) Red Rum! Red Rum! (Joe Selinske) You & Spray (Joe Siegler) Barrelling Down (Tom Hall & Joe Selinske) Spears of Density (Joe Selinske) Balconexus (Joe Selinske) Spinblade Runner (Tom Hall & Joe Selinske) Five Windows (Joe Selinske) Storm's Eye (Joe Selinske & Tom Hall) Skylands (Joe Selinske) Speed (Joe Selinske) Twin Falls (Joe Selinske) This Causes Error Too (Joe Siegler; another joke level) Some of the levels have interesting features or stories behind them: - Rise and Tide came from a magazine review of Rise of the Triad which mistakenly referred to the game by that name. - Cross Purposes and Technical Ecstasy were named after Black Sabbath albums. - Hey! More Barrels was named after a phrase that was heard a lot around the Apogee offices at the time. - Urge To Kill was named after a line that Homer Simpson said in a Simpsons Halloween episode modeled after "The Shining." - They Say HOO-Mahn-Ay was named after the sound the monks made, since this level has just about 100% monks for enemies. - Triadagio was named after the song used in the level. - A Mode I Rode, Pykus Peak, and The Hoppe Hop were named after ex-girlfriends of Joe Siegler, the creator of these levels. He ended up marrying the one Pykus Peak was named after. - 95 Windows was, predictably, named after Windows 95. There are exactly 95 window panes in the level. Also, if you use the map cheat and then look at the entire map, you'll see a mockup of the taskbar in Windows 9x. - Stupid Dog Tricks was named after the David Letterman bit of the same name. - Use the Fish was named after a phrase that Jay Wilbur (then CEO of id) faxed to Apogee when granting them permission to use Dopefish as a cameo character in their games (as they own the rights to Dopefish). Also, if you use the map cheat and look at the map, you'll see you're playing inside the Dopefish. - But This Goes To 11 is a quote from "This Is Spinal Tap!" - Wan Fife was named after episode 1, level 5 of Doom. The level geometry was taken from that same level, as best as the ROTT engine could reproduce it. - Dwayne Goes 48 was named after a Doom user level that appeared in the level pack Dwango 4. (It was level 8. Get it?) - The X Factor was named after the Iron Maiden album of the same name. - One Stop Gun Shop was originally a test level that was made with every weapon and every object in the game, as that made it convenient for testing. - Spears of Density is what one Apogee customer kept calling the game "Spear of Destiny." [2.8.11.3] Fish Polka Fish Polka is a hidden musical composition in Rise of the Triad. You can hear it by starting the game with the "dopefish" command line parameter or by bringing up the jukebox in the game (see the cheats section). Lee Jackson's paraphrased history of the Fish Polka follows: When I originally wrote it, it was a measure shorter than the final version. The four count intro didn't exist: the song started right in on the melody. Mark Dochtermann, one of the game's programmers, suggested that I take a note from the Schmenge Brothers (from Second City Television (SCTV)). They were a polka act, with John Candy and Eugene Levy playing Josh and Stan Schmenge. Mark said that all of the polkas they played started off with the same goofy four count intro, which he then sort of sang to me. He said that I should include something like this at the beginning of Fish Polka. The next day, my homage to that intro was in place, and when I played it for Mark, I got the only high five I've ever got from any of the programmers here. Now I can't imagine the Fish Polka without the intro. [2.8.12] Terminal Velocity Written by Mark Randel of Terminal Reality, Inc, the lead programmer of Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.0, Terminal Velocity was the first game ever to be released under the 3D Realms label. The slide show was released on April 4, 1995, and the game itself followed on May 1. And thus, 3D Realms emerged into the "realm" of the computer gaming world. There's a second distinguishing fact about Terminal Velocity; namely, that it made the cover of the April 1995 issue of the gaming magazine, "Computer Player." This is the first time in the history of computer gaming that a shareware game made the cover of a popular gaming magazine before its release. In the article, many praising comments are made: "The 3D environments are simply breathtaking. Utilizing cutting-edge real-time techniques, the graphics engine creates worlds that are like nothing seen before in computer games." And, "A great deal of attention was spent to balance the fast action with the spectacular environment. Terminal Velocity has achieved what many have unsuccessfully tried in the past: an incredible combination of scenery and game play." There are two noteworthy remarks contained in 3D Realms' initial press release for the game. One is, "Climb into Terminal Velocity now, and you'll never go back to flight simulators that offer combat as an 'option.'" Wrapping up 3D Realms' plot synopsis is the comment, "You're outgunned, outmanned, and strapped into a flying coffin. But just think how good 'Saved the Known Galaxy' will look on your resume." The registered version of Terminal Velocity was sold both on disks and on CD. The disk based version was discontinued in March 1997. A patch for the game was released in January 1997 which optimizes the game for computers with S3 Virge cards. This patch was made and released by Terminal Reality, however, not by Apogee. Terminal Reality later made two sequels to Terminal Velocity, both for Windows, both distributed by Microsoft: Fury3 in 1995, and Hellbender in 1996. In late 1995, there was also a Fury3 add-on pack called F-Zone. Fury3, Hellbender, and F-Zone have all been since discontinued by Microsoft. Later versions of Terminal Velocity featured, among its other multiplayer game options, support for the now-defunct Dwango gaming network. Dwango support was built in to the registered version of Terminal Velocity v1.1 and both the shareware and registered versions of v1.2. On June 19, 1995, a Terminal Velocity Dwango client was released to the Internet under the filename TVDWANGO.ZIP, which could be used by users of other versions of the game. Since Dwango is no longer operational, this information is interesting only as historical data. [2.8.13] Paganitzu and Realms of Chaos About a year before Keith Schuler wrote Paganitzu for Apogee, he wrote another game called Chagunitzu for Softdisk. These two games were almost identical, containing the same characters and story and so forth. Unlike Paganitzu, however, Chagunitzu does not adapt to the speed of your computer, making it virtually unplayable on fast computers without a program to slow the computer down. (See the section on slowing down your computer in this FAQ.) Following his success with Apogee's Paganitzu, Schuler began a sequel in early 1992 entitled, "Paganitzu II: The Bloodfire Pendant." Later, it went through a name change to "Alabama Smith and the Bloodfire Pendant." Still later, its name became "Realms of Chaos," losing all its Paganitzu references in the process. Realms of Chaos was originally supposed to be a 16 color EGA game, slated for a 1994 release, but, with the increasing popularity of VGA games, it was decided that time should be spent converting Realms of Chaos to a 256 color VGA game. Finally, after three years in production, Realms of Chaos was released by Apogee in November 1995. Contrary to what one might think, the cancelled 3D Realms project "Ruins: Return of the Gods" was not ever associated with Paganitzu, even in its early days. [2.8.14] Duke Nukem 3D }Duke Nukem 3D was the first released 3D Realms game to use the Build engine, }which 3D Realms developed in-house, used for Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, }and licensed to other companies to develop games with. Version 1.0 of Duke }Nukem was the first shareware version of the game; it was released on }January 29, 1996. On February 20, 1996, version 1.1 was released, and on }April 24, 1996, the final shareware version of the game, 1.3d, was }released. (There were no versions released between v1.1 and v1.3d.) The }regular registered version of the game was originally $39.95 and also }contained the complete registered versions of Duke Nukem I and II. v1.3d }was the final version of the shareware edition of the game. It was also }the first version produced in registered form, there was no registered }v1.0, 1.1, or 1.2. An upgrade called the Plutonium PAK, which contained additional levels, was released later that year and cost $19.95. Installing the Plutonium PAK upgraded the version number to 1.4. On November 27, 1996, Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition was released and sold for $49.95. The Atomic Edition was equivalent to v1.3d with the Plutonium PAK, but the Atomic Edition did not ship with the registered versions of Duke Nukem I and II. On December 12, 1996, version 1.5 of the Atomic Edition was released. Later v1.3d was discontinued, and the Atomic Edition was the only way to buy the game, unless you happen upon a discount bin at a computer store that still has some copies. The Plutonium PAK was discontinued in late December 2001 or early January 2002. Much later, GT Interactive started distributing the "Kill-A-Ton Collection," which has everything Duke in it: the full versions of Duke Nukem I, II, 3D, 3D: Atomic, plus miscellaneous add-ons. 3D Realms never had anything to do with the Kill-A-Ton Collection. GT Interactive has since discontinued it. In 1996, as new versions of Duke Nukem 3D were being released, Keith Schuler, fresh from his Realms of Chaos project (released in November 1995) was working on a new Duke Nukem side scroller that would be called Duke Nukem Forever. This project was cancelled in mid-1996 when Schuler stopped working on it to work instead on the Plutonium Pak for Duke Nukem 3D. In 1997, work on another 3D Duke game began, although production didn't begin in earnest until after the E3 trade show in 1998. Although it had nothing to do with the aborted side scroller project from 1996, the decision was made to recycle the name and call the new 3D game "Duke Nukem Forever." Meanwhile, 3D Realms licensed the Duke Nukem character out to companies that developed console games. In 1997, Duke Nukem 3D was ported to the Sega Saturn, Tiger Electronics, Nintendo 64 (as Duke Nukem 64), and the Sony Playstation (as Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown). Later original Duke Nukem games were developed for console systems, starting with Duke Nukem: Time To Kill, for the Sony Playstation, which was released on October 12, 1998. Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, for the Nintendo 64, was released on September 1, 1999; nine days later, on the 10th, Duke Nukem: Color Gameboy was released for the Nintendo Gameboy. On September 27, 2000, Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes was released for the Sony Playstation. }On April 1, 2003, the Duke Nukem 3D source code was released. [2.8.14.1] Duke Nukem theme music Lee Jackson composed most of the music for Duke Nukem 3D. His history of the title theme for Duke Nukem 3D follows: I got a lot of inspiration for the music for Duke Nukem 3D by listening to CDs that team members and other 3D Realms people had loaned to me. Most of these came from Todd Replogle, Allen Blum, and Joe Siegler. I had to listen to them at home, since I was still working in the tech support department then and couldn't listen to them with the phones ringing all day. I also did all of my work on the music at home, for the same reason. The CDs covered quite a few styles, but mainly they were heavy metal. The majority were from Black Sabbath and Pantera, with some Megadeth, Metallica, Ozzy Osborne, and others thrown in. I used these to do hardcore research into the genre. By research, I'm talking about the kind I used to do when I was taking music theory courses: analyzing chord progressions and modes and breaking down styles and song structures. One night, after a long session listening to these CDs, I sat down at my home computer, fired up Cakewalk and my Roland RAP-10, and tried working on a piece that incorporated some of the things I'd learned from these songs. I had no idea where I was going with it -- I merely wanted to see if I could write something in the heavy metal style. As the song progressed, I started to feel like I was reaching into a bag, pulling things out, and just seeing how they fit together. I'd grab the ideas for the drums in from one place, the harmonic progression from another, and the melody from several different places. Bits of Pantera-inspired riffs showed up in the guitar lines, and a good measure of Ozzy Osborne and Black Sabbath inspired the mode switching I did in the melodic line. For a bit of fun, I tossed in a Rick Wakeman-style keyboard riff, just to see whether or not it would work. When it came time to wrap up the session and save the song, I still had no idea where I was going with it. I hadn't even begun to think of a title, and, to be honest, I didn't really think that there was much of a song there yet. Nevertheless, I needed a filename in order to save the song to my hard drive. Since it seemed like I'd been reaching into a grabbag and pulling out song ideas while writing the song, that's what I chose for its filename: "Grabbag." After I managed to get a loopable section done, I brought the MIDI file up to the office and turned it loose on the team. I honestly don't remember the reactions. There were some good ones but none that really got me fired up to do a lot more work on the song. I put in a few more tweaks and then moved on to other stuff. I didn't even bother to change the name; "Grabbag" had stuck, and that's what it would be called from then on. On the night that "Star Trek: Generations" opened in Dallas, my wife, my son, and I were standing in line with the rest of the team to get into the theater. Greg Malone, a producer for 3D Realms at the time, was standing near us. Almost out of nowhere, he told me that he and George Broussard had chosen Grabbag to be the theme song for Duke Nukem 3D. I had two thoughts when I heard this news. My first thought was, of course, "WOW!" I'd snagged the theme song, which was something I hadn't even done on Rise of the Triad, my only previous big project. My second thought was, "Why?" I thought Grabbag sounded more like level music, albeit not necessarily great level music. Worse, I didn't think that the song was anywhere near being finished. All I had was a loop that consisted of a four bar intro, six bars of melody, and then a variation of these lines. It certainly wasn't a complete song, at least not in my opinion, and I was rather fearful of having an incomplete work used in a major game. I asked Greg why he and George chose Grabbag. He told me that they sat down and listened to everything that Bobby Prince and I had submitted so far and that Grabbag was the closest thing to a theme song that they had. I told him that I didn't think it was a complete song, which I think surprised him a bit. Apparently it didn't matter, though, since they stuck with the decision. Since we were close to the release of the shareware episode of the game, and since I was in the middle of working on several other songs, I didn't have time to tweak Grabbag as much as I wanted. I did a little bit of panic-inspired fine tuning to the sound and adapted the MIDI file to use the features of the Apogee Sound System, but I left the basic structure alone. The end result is what went out with the shareware version and, later, the original retail release. Before we released the game, though, George wanted a short looped sound file that could be played while the players' scores were being shown. He also wanted it in VOC file format, since he wanted to avoid the problems inherent in MIDI cards of the day and make sure it sounded the same on every player's system. I wound up using the main melody of Grabbag, attached a two bar build-up to the front of it, and recorded it into an 11KHz 8 bit VOC file. The result sounded surprisingly good, and it would later inspire the last and most extensive bit of work I did on the song. As I said before, even after Duke Nukem 3D was released, I still felt like Grabbag was incomplete and wished that I could do more with it. Fortunately, we soon began working on an extension to the original game (the Plutonium Pak level, later incorporated into the Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition, which replaced the original release on the store shelves). After I finished the sounds and songs for the new level (which included a "Muzak" version of the Grabbag melody for use in the supermarket level, again in the form of a short looped VOC file), I had a bit of spare time. I took advantage of the opportunity and began working on my own, in order to finally come up with what I considered a "complete" version of Grabbag. By this time, I'd been out of the tech room for several months, having been promoted to Music and Sound Director. I'd also been given a Roland SC-88 Sound Canvas, which I wanted to use to its full potential on Grabbag. I played around with the GS features of the SC-88, got a good mix of sounds that I liked, and got to work on fleshing out the rest of the song. It took several days, maybe a week or so, but I eventually wound up with the full version of the song that everyone now knows. There was now a solo section, with a guitar and a full Wakeman-esque keyboard rip. The build-up that I used in the first VOC file loop (mentioned earlier) was extended and served as a transition from the solos. It led back into a recap of the melody, followed by a big ending that came complete with a church bell-sounding chime hit that hung on just past the end. I was finally happy with Grabbag, but there was no guarantee that anyone outside the office would ever hear the finished version. I knew that George wouldn't let me change the MIDI file of Grabbag within the game, especially since it used Roland's GS extensions, which the game's MIDI engine couldn't support. So, I asked instead if I could record the song to Red Book CD-Audio format and put it on the Plutonium Pak CD as a hidden "bonus track." There was plenty of space left on the CD, and he didn't have a problem with the new version, so he gave the go ahead to include the track. I wasted no time in recording it, and Joe Siegler and I worked together to make sure it went out on the master CD. The finished track was eventually included on both the Plutonium Pak CD and Atomic Edition CD, as track 2 of a mixed mode CD. If you haven't heard it yet, it's posted as an MP3 in the files section on my website, http://gameaudio.3dportal.com. It's also one of the tracks (along with those on the Stargunner CD) that qualified me as a full voting member in NARAS, the Grammy organization. Since the release of the full version of Grabbag, there have been several covers. James Grote of Gigadeth Productions did an "interpretation" of the song, with some subtle changes to the chord structure and melody. This version was used in 3D Realms' 1998 E3 video promotion for Duke Nukem Forever. (He incorrectly states that 3D Realms used a song he "created" -- see his website at http://home.fuse.net/JamesGrote/news_sfd.htm for the full quote -- but it is in fact merely an arrangement of my original song, which he performed and recorded.) Later, Megadeth did a cover version for the Duke Nukem: Music to Score By CD, which drew mainly from the Grote arrangement. The rest of the official cover versions and arrangements tend to stay closer to my original version. These have shown up in the various versions of Duke Nukem games for other platforms, including the Color Gameboy version and Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes game. In retrospect, it looks like I've unintentionally created quite a monster. Grabbag has gone far, far beyond the simple composition exercise that it was originally intended to be. I'm not about to complain, though. Not as long as people continue to listen to and be entertained or inspired by it. I'll never complain about that -- as long I continue to get author credit for it on future publications, that is. ;-) [2.8.15] Shadow Warrior [2.8.15.1] Lo Wang's rap Lee Jackson's paraphrased history of Lo Wang's Rap follows: "Lo Wang's Rap" is the last track on the Shadow Warrior CD. It was originally created for use in a Shadow Warrior E3 demo, but it instead wound up going into the game. The story of how it got there is rather interesting and humorous. I wrote the backing music track first and waited for lyrics from GT Interactive (our publisher at the time). The idea was to have John William Galt (the voice of Lo Wang) record a rap over the backing track using GT's lyrics. This didn't work at all -- John's a great actor, but a rapper he's not. What I wound up doing was taking previously recorded voice files I had from John's sessions, picking out phrases, and using SAW Pro to sync everything to the backing track. The end result was a two-part song, where Lo Wang beats the crap out of a novice in the first part and then tries very unsuccessfully to pick up one of the "anime chicks" from the game (actually mapper Keith Schuler's wife, Rose) in the second part. Rose's "Kiss this, you scuzzball!" line is priceless. GT went with something entirely different for the demo. My completed song was good, but it wasn't game-selling material. This left us in an odd position. We had a good (and funny) song, and we wanted to use it somewhere, so we decided to put it on the Shadow Warrior CD as a special "bonus track." Players who made it all the way through the game got to hear Lo Wang celebrate by busting out with an Asian-flavored rap. The song was eventually played on the Dr. Demento radio program (March 1, 1998, show #98-09). It was also submitted to the Grammy organization (N.A.R.A.S., http://www.grammy.com/) for consideration in the 1998 Grammy awards, making it one of the first ever game soundtracks to be listed as a qualified entry (before there was an official category for game music). It probably only received one vote in each category (my vote, to be precise) and didn't even come close to being nominated, but its listing did help open the door to the addition of game music to the Grammy categories. }[2.8.15.2] Wanton Destruction } }In 1997, some time after Shadow Warrior was released, a company called }Sunstorm produced an add-on for it called "Wanton Destruction." It was }completed, but the distributor, for one reason or another, decided to shelve }the project. Later, Sunstorm went out of business, and Wanton Destruction }got lost in the shuffle. The folks at 3D Realms, who never had a copy of }it, tried to locate it a few times over the years, but they met no success }and gave up. The project was thought lost for good. } }But on September 5, 2005, 3D Realms received an email out of the blue from }Anthony Campiti, the former president of Sunstorm. He had run across a CD }called "Add-on Archive 1," which, much to his surprised, contained a complete }copy of the finished Wanton Destruction add-on. Three days later, 3D Realms }had the add-on in its hands and released it to the Internet the next day as a }free download. To mark the occasion, 3D Realms reduced the price of Shadow }Warrior from $19.95 to $10.00. [2.8.16] Balls of Steel Balls of Steel was written by Wildfire Studios and was the first (and only) release under the Pinball Wizards brand name, which was created to be a specialized name that would only be used in the distribution of pinball games. It was also Apogee's first Windows 95 release, under any brand. Version 1.0 was released on December 12, 1997. Version 1.1 was released on February 10, 1998. Version 1.2 was released April 14, 1999. Version 1.3 was released on April 9, 2001. The game includes five tables: Firestorm, Darkside, Barbarian, Mutation, and Duke Nukem. Originally the fifth table was going to be "Devil's Island," but this table was dropped when it was decided to do a Duke Nukem table. Later Wildfire Studios resurrected the Devil's Island table idea, saw it through to completion, and started selling it as a separate table on January 24, 2000. It is an independent product; it does not need Balls of Steel to run. Apogee/Pinball Wizards does not have anything to do with the creation and distribution of the Devil's Island table. You can learn more about Devil's Island from Wildfire Studios' web page: http://www.wildfire.com.au/. }On January 14, 2004, Wildfire released two of the tables -- Mutation and }Darkside -- as the downloadable shareware release "Balls of Steel: Creature }Attack!" Apogee has nothing to do with this release. [2.8.17] Max Payne and Max Payne 2 Scott Miller's paraphrased account of the making of Max Payne follows: "After Remedy completed Death Rally, both companies felt very positive about a continuing relationship, so we started talking about new game ideas. Remedy came to use with three ideas, a racing game, a Freespace-like space game, and a 3D game much like Loaded, by Interplay. They called this game Dark Justice, and it was a third-person game but had a top-down angle with the camera a little behind the player. "We talked to Remedy about focusing on one game, which they eventually did. We selected the Dark Justice concept as the one we were most interested in funding, but we wanted it changed to a true third-person game like Tomb Raider (but not with Tomb Raider's horrid camera system), and we wanted to develop another strong character that would be the foundation for a new gaming franchise, much like we'd done with Duke Nukem. "So we needed the name of the game to be the name of the character, and we needed a great, memorable character name that conveyed the essence of the character. "I came up with Max, but I couldn't think of a good last name. At one point, the best name we could think of was Max Heat, and we spent over $20,000 trademarking this name worldwide. Then someone from Remedy proposed Payne as the last name, and immediately we ditched Heat and spent another load of money trademarking Max Payne. Truly a perfect name. "Remedy worked out all the details of the story, and both Remedy and 3D Realms have worked together on the higher concepts of the game -- but Remedy deserves all the credit for putting it all together. Remedy is truly a developer on the rise and will soon be recognized as among the world's best." }Upon its release, Max Payne quickly became a bestselling game. Remedy went }straight to work on a sequel, called "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne," }which was released two years later, in October 2003. PS2 and XBox versions }of both games were also released. } }As part of the sale of the franchise rights to Take 2, 3D Realms no longer had }the rights to sell the game directly and ceased doing so on November 8, 2002. }Any sales of the game from that point onward was through a third party, }or through Take 2. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [3] About the Games - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [3.1] PC Games Please note that this information is constantly changing, especially when new games are added to the list of Apogee products. Some of the information given here could become out of date rather quickly. [3.1.1] What games are currently available from Apogee? A list of Apogee games follows. The filename given is the name of the shareware episode as it appears on most online services. Some online forums may have a '#' prepended onto the filename. The price given is the cost of the complete game with all episodes. See the "What combination deals does Apogee offer?" section for more information. The "Ep" field contains the number of episodes in the complete version. The "Ver" field contains the latest version number of the game. "OS" is the operating system the game was written for ("D"=DOS, "95"=Windows 95 or better, }"98"=Windows 98 or better). "Med" are the media that the registered version is available on ("d"=Disk, "c"=CD, "o"=online download). "Gph" is the best graphics mode that the game utilizes ("T"=TEXT, "C"=CGA, "E"=EGA, "V"=VGA, "S"=SVGA). The "Size" field is approximate. From Apogee: Name Size Genre Filename Price Ep Ver OS Med Gph ---- ---- ----- -------- ----- -- --- -- --- --- Death Rally 6958k Race 1ral11.zip $10.00 N/A 1.1 D c S ` Realms of Chaos 2544k Plat 1roc.zip $10.00 3 1.0 D c/o V ~ Rise of the Triad 3661k 3DAct 1rott13.zip $15.00 5 1.3 D o V ^~= Wacky Wheels 1664k Race