The Unofficial Rise of the Triad FAQ v1.99
THHLI
Rise of the Triad: TTHIITLII Pre-Release version 1.99
(c) 1994 Apogee Software, Ltd. THHII TTLHI
THLI I TOLII Written: October 12, 1994
THOII IH) TTLLI by: Rylan Hilman
THH) IHT TLLII at: rhilman@oasis.rain.com
"Rise of the Triad: THII IHTH) TTLTI
Weapons so powerful, THHI TLLILI ITLII "Rise of the Triad is
they blow you out of TLTI IHLLLL) TTTTI gonna be great!!!"
the game!" TLHII ILTLLL)L) TLLI
THTI IIIII)I IILII - Rylan Hilman,
- Joe Siegler, ILLI TI II TLLI Author of
Apogee TLLI ILLLLI ITLLLTI ITHII this FAQ. :)
ITLI IILTLLL)LI ITLTTTLILI ITTI
ILLI TLLLLTLLLT)) I))TTLTTTTTTI IITII
IILII ITTLL))II )ILTTT IITII
ITLI II IITI
ILILLLLLLLLLLLLLLTLHLTTTLTLTTLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTII
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+==========+
|Disclaimer|
+==========+
This is the (F)requently (A)sked (Q)uestions file for Rise of the Triad, the
upcoming 3D action game by Apogee Software. So if you read any of this, and
something bad happens to you that's related to this FAQ, I didn't do it(except
if I really DID do it, then I'll tell you personally). If anybody is offended,
go talk with Apogee. Remember, as of now, Apogee Software is only partly
involved in making this FAQ. So, to finish up, if it's a question about the
FAQ, ask me. If it's a question about R.o.t.T. that is not answered in this
FAQ, send e-mail(Internet) to joe.siegler@swcbbs.com (Joe Siegler, Apogee
Software).
Some trademarks in the following piece of work are: Rise of the Triad,
Apogee, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, id, Gravis UltraSound, Advanced Gravis,
SoundBlaster, Creative Labs, Pro Audio Spectrum, WaveBlaster, AdLib, Soundman,
Maui, Roland, Disney Sound Source, Disney, IBM, MS-DOS, Microsoft, Commander
Keen, Hank Leukart, The "Official" DOOM FAQ, Dark Forces, and Blake Stone.
These trademarks I will NOT take any credit for, and they belong to the
people who have made these products/companies possible. If I missed any, they
are also hypothetically acknowledged (to borrow a term from Hank :).
This article is Copyright 1994 by Rylan Hilman. All rights reserved.
You are granted the following rights:
I. To make copies of this work in original form, so long as
(a) the copies are exact and complete;
(b) the copies include the copyright notice and these paragraphs
in their entirety;
(c) the copies give obvious credit to the author, Rylan Hilman;
(d) the copies are in electronic form, except for one(1) allowed paper-
based copy for personal reference.
II. To distribute this work, or copies made under the provisions
above, so long as
(a) this is the original work and not a derivative form;
(b) you do not charge a fee for copying or for distribution;
(c) you ensure that the distributed form includes the copyright
notice, this paragraph, the disclaimer of warranty in
their entirety and credit to the author;
(d) the distributed form is not in an electronic magazine or
within computer software (prior explicit permission may be
obtained from Rylan Hilman);
(e) the distributed form is the NEWEST version of the article to
the best of the knowledge of the distributor;
(f) the distributed form is electronic.
(g) you are an inhabitant of Earth or a natural satellite of Earth.
You may not distribute this work by any non-electronic media,
including but not limited to books, newsletters, magazines, manuals,
catalogs, and speech. You may not distribute this work in electronic
magazines or within computer software without prior explicit permission.
These rights are temporary and revocable upon written, oral, or other
notice by Rylan Hilman. This copyright notice shall be governed by the
laws of the state of Oregon.
If you would like additional rights beyond those granted above,
write to the author at "rhilman@oasis.rain.com" on the Internet.
+=================+
|Table of Contents|
+=================+
KEY:
{Ch??} is a chapter number, usually at the beginning of a chapter
{??-??} is {Chapter number-section number}
{??-??-??} is {Chapter number-section number-minisection number}
A ~ preceding a chapter-section number means that it has changed from v1.9 of
the FAQ
You should be able to figure the rest out(you intelligent person you :)
~{0-9} - Version info.
{Ch1} - Introduction to this FAQ.
~{1-1} - A message from the author
~{1-2} - What IS Rise of the Triad?
~{1-3} - What makes it different from DOOM?
~{1-4} - Who makes RotT?
~{1-5} - When is it coming out?
~{1-6} - How much is it?
{1-7} - How can you order it?
{1-8} - Where will it be?
~{1-9} - What is the current progress report?
{Ch2} - Features of RotT
{2-1} - Game Story
~{2-2} - Features
~{2-3} - Slide Shows
~ {2-3-1} - The first Slide Show
~ {2-3-2} - The second Slide Show
{2-4} - General Questions
{2-4-1} - What weapons will you have?
{2-4-2} - Will there be multiple stories?
{2-4-3} - What enemies will there be?
{2-4-4} - What do the hazards do?
{2-4-5} - What is in the shareware version?
~ {2-4-6} - What are Comm-Bat Zones?
~ {2-4-7} - How do God and Dog modes work?
~ {2-4-8) - What will the different versions be?
{2-4-9} - Will your player bob up and down as in Doom?
{2-4-10} - Will you see different weapons on the remote modem player?
{2-4-11} - Will there be any stairs in the levels?
{2-4-12} - How will they fill us a CD for the enhanced version?
{2-4-13} - Can you shoot holes in walls?
{2-4-14} - Will there be bonuses?
~{2-5} - A review by Hank Leukart
~{2-6} - A review from Interactive Entertainment
1.5 - Big revision, finished 13 August 1994. Had Joe Siegler revise it, add
lots more info, I had to go through and work it out.
1.6 - Third(not second) public release, finished 15 August 1994. Got my first
contributor, additional info from Apogee.
1.65 - Small revision, finished 18 August 1994. Not much to say....
1.7 - First of four series. Will be releasing updates every two weeks.
Finished 25 August 1994.
1.8 - Second of four series. Released 9 September 1994.
1.9 - Third of four series. Released 23 September 1994.
1.99 - A filler for version 2.0 until the second Triad screen shots are
finished. Released 11 October 1994.
2.0 - Fourth of four series. Released 12 October 1994. Describes second set
of Triad screen shots.
--
- Chapter 1
+========================+
|Introduction to this FAQ|
+========================+
--
*{1-1}* - A message from the author
WOW! October 12th, 1994 has been quite a day. First, One Must Fall 2094 has
been released, and it is quite fun. :) Second, the next RotT screen show
has been released, showing some.......interesting pictures. :) And third, the
final Pre-Release version of the Rise of the Triad FAQ is sent out!
The Comm-Bat in Triad will be intense. To quote Chriss Lombardi of
Computer Gaming World (concerning Triad's Comm-bat): "DeathMatch will never
be the same again." Many new things have been added/proposed for soon, like:
- 11 players, but, if things go well, possibilities(and this is an EXTREME
possibility)for up to TWENTY!
- Team play, so up to five teams(if not ten) can play against each other
- A special game variation: Capture the Flag!
- Hundreds of different ways to play!
- (if on Excessive violence) You will be able to see your hands, ribs, and
feet fly out in front of you as you explode into a bunch of chunks!
- MORE, MORE, MORE!
Oh, BTW, if you didn't know, this will be my last RotT FAQ until after
the public can get it. It's only about a month away..... ON WITH THE FAQ!
--
*{1-2}* - What IS Rise of the Triad?
Rise of the Triad is the next 3D action game being made by Apogee. If you
are unfamiliar with the 3D action genre, it is totally different from any
other game type out there:
Instead of some other popular computer games, where you see your
character on the screen and see a portion of the screen centered around
him/her, in RotT, you see through the eyes of your character! Your weapon is
at the bottom of the screen, and what your character sees, you see. You can
turn around and look behind you, or look up and down (up to 25 degrees either
way) Pushing forward makes your character go forward, pushing back makes
him/her go backwards. With mastery, your character can drive around to exactly
where you want him/her to go. You can choose from the 5(possibly 6) preset
characters to play out the levels in single-player mode, or go up to 11
(possibly twenty) player netRotT where you are all out to destroy each other,
the other team(s), or the Triad guys themselves!
Rise of the Triad was originally going to be a Wolf3D sequel, and was going
to use the same engine with minimal improvements. But then iD and Apogee went
their separate ways, and Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold turned into the sequel.
Then RotT engine was completely rewritten, and this game is the result.
--
*{1-3}* - What makes it different from DOOM?
Like in Wolf3D or Blake Stone, RotT has 90-degree walls(Doom can go any
direction). But, as I always say(or will say from now on), you can't judge a
game by it's angles. :) Anyway, there WILL be multiple stories on your
levels(yay!) so it will be quite fun hunting your opponent(s) on a multi-story
battle level. Your levels can go up to 16 stories, and you NEED the room in
an 11-player game! Other things are hazards. In DOOM, hazards consisted of
crushing ceilings or ooze pits that drained health. In RotT, there are 15
types of hazards, including: SpinBlades, FireChutes, FireJets, PitTraps, and
LavaWalls. Also, in RotT, instead of using iD's method of digitizing clay
models, Apogee decided to film live characters for all of their positions
(Even better, they are all Apogee employees!(except that one was at Apogee
during digitizing but has since left)) The result makes it look far better
than Blake Stone's or Wolf's characters, which are drawn.
Your enemies will also have better intelligence! For example: The Strike
Team officers, once they get hit, will roll two doors-lengths to one side,
so you will have to re-aim. The big end-of-level bosses will not just walk
at you and fire, either. There are certain ways to defeat them.
--
*{1-4}* - Who makes RotT?
Rise of the Triad is being made by Apogee Software, who distributed some of
iD's games, including the Commander Keen series, and Wolfensteim 3D. Although
Apogee has distributed iD games in the past, many of it's programs are made by
it's own employees. Doom is the first iD game distributed by iD.
Recently, a group of Apogee employees have created their own mini-company:
3D Realms. Their first games will be the next generation of 3D Doom-like games
coming out next year at Quake-level engines. 3D Realms will NOT be making
Triad, Triad is an Apogee release.
--
*{1-5}* - When is it coming out?
Apogee is going to release RotT in Early-Mid November.
Doom II should be out by the time you read this, and Dark Forces is aiming for
November.
Note: This will be a simulteanous shareware and retail release. This will
be the first game that will come out in shareware and that will be
on the shelves at the same time. The retail versions are undecided as
of now, but there will probably be a version that is similar to the
registered version(in fact, it might be the same thing..), and a
CD version with the super-enhanced version on it. (This info is from
Tom Hall, Apogee's Creative Director
Note: Long note, huh? :)
--
*{1-6}* - How much is it?
The price for the registered version will be $29.95 plus $5 shipping and
handling (if they don't change their shipping policies between now and then).
There will be add-ons, like a Random Comm-bat Zone (tm) generator, a way to
get your own player graphics for use in the modem game, and so on. And, no,
Apogee will not accept pre-orders. They used to in the past, but they have
discontinued since then. The earliest you can order is when it hits the open
markets (i.e. at Software Creations BBS, their home BBS, or at your local
software store, whichever comes first)
The enhanced versions were going to be $49.95, but (apparently to be cool :)
the disk-based enhanced version(with extra goodies) will be $39.95), and the
CD version will probably be the same thing, but maybe not....
I do not know the prices for the retail versions, but they should be
similar to the prices for the mail-order versions.
--
{1-7} - How can you order it?
As I said above, you can order it when it's out, and not before. But, for
those of you who want to be ready to grab it as soon as it comes out, here is
the order info:
Ordering and support:
* 1-800-APOGEE1 to order 24 hours a day.
- Note: The old number, 1-800-GAME-123, still works, but this is the new
number...
* 214-278-5655 for technical support on any game. (8AM-6PM CST M-F)
* 214-278-4670 to FAX your order(ORDER.FRM) or inquiry.
* Fill out ORDER.FRM and mail it to Apogee at:
Apogee Software
P.O. Box 496389
Garland, TX 75049
Or you can buy the retail version at your local software store.
--
{1-8} - Where will it be?
This is from TRIAD.DOC, in the slide show preview file. And this is where
you can find any Apogee game, not just RotT:
WHERE TO FIND APOGEE'S GAMES ONLINE
===================================
1. APOGEE'S HOME BBS: THE SOFTWARE CREATIONS BBS
Software Creations BBS was recently voted North America's most popular BBS
by the readers of Boardwatch Magazine. It was also featured on the TV show
Prime-Time Live in December 1993. Apogee's releases are available here before
they're available anywhere else in the world!
To download any Apogee game, call one of the three numbers listed below. Then,
look in the free Apogee file section, #1. Type "F 1" to see a listing of the
files. These are free downloads, and you do not need a membership.
(508) 365-2359 -- 2400 baud Over 100 lines
(508) 368-7036 -- 9600-14.4K v.32bis available, and
(508) 365-4035 -- 28.8k v.fast class (v.fc) growing fast!
2. America Online - Use the keyword "apogee" to go to our forum.
3. CompuServe - Type "go apogee" (at any ! prompt) to find Apogee's games.
4. Internet - Apogee's titles can be access via anonymous FTP at our official
ftp site. The site is "ftp.uml.edu", and the directory they can
be found in is (case important) "msdos/Games/Apogee".
5. Fidonet Filebone - If you are a Fidonet SysOp, you can now get Apogee's
games on the Fido filebone. Talk to your local filebone
hub about the four Apogee areas (see FILEBONE.NA for more
information).
--
*{1-9}* - What is the current progress report?
Network play is going pretty well. Still waiting on modem code. All the
options they've tested are fun and really change the way the level feels.
They have added Team Play, so up to five(right now, it could be 10 if they
increase the number of net players from 11 to 20, or a more modest increase
to 12 players) teams can play against each other in any of the games. One of
the nine games will be a version of Capture the Flag.
They were testing with 9-player network play the other day(this is how
they waste their time! :) It was remarkably crazy! With excessive violence
on, sometimes you see your own hands, ribcage, and feet flying out in front
of you as you explode into a bunch of meat chunks. And the view from the
other side is obviously spectacular, too.
--
- Chapter 2
+================+
|Features of RotT|
+================+
{2-1} - Game story
You are a member of the HUNT, the top secret High-risk United Nations
Taskforce, sent on extremely covert operations to possible trouble spots
outside the three-mile boundary waters of member countries. You are on a
routine reconnaissance mission on San Nicolas Island, located in the Pacific
twenty miles west of Los Angeles. Your team is investigating possible cult
activity in an old monastery, when suddenly troops pour out of nowhere!
In the distance your boat explodes. Just before your radio goes all static,
you hear desperate newsmen describing the systematic destruction of Los
Angeles. An escaped prisoner informs you that a pyrotechnics expert and a
rich studio head have joined forces with the Oscurido cult. Their plan:
kill millions of innocent people for the glory of their master, El Oscuro.
Having no other escape route, the HUNT heads into the monastery, taking the
only course of action left: stop the Oscuridos or die trying.
P.S. The person who wrote this story ("You are a member of the HUNT...") is
Tom Hall, the same guy who wrote the stories for WOLF 3D and I think DOOM.
--
*{2-2}* - Features
Now we get to the fun stuff. :) I will add my own commentary, and this is
also from the slide show preview file TRIAD.DOC (I know, I know, if you don't
have it, I'll point you to it soon). Anything with an: o (text here) is from
the TRIAD.DOC which I got this info from. Anything with an: - (text here) is
my commentary.
As of this version, I have included the features from ROTT.DOC because they
have added many cool features that we didn't know about before! ROTT.DOC comes
with the 1ROTPX2.ZIP slide show.
FEATURES
========
o Ability to fly with the Mercury Mode powerup. Fly above your enemies and
blast them!
- This should be fun...
o Four cool bosses with intelligence, reactions, devious abilities,
and up to four stages!
- All the bosses will be bulletproof, so pistol, dual pistol, and machine
gun will have no effect on them(which is fair, these weapons have unlimited
ammo), and the flamewall will not hurt them, but the explosions(firebombs,
missiles) will damage them.
o Over thirty levels of death, mayhem, chaos, terror, and so on
-- Extra, specially designed levels for modem/network play.
- There are 32 levels, and what will be in the shareware episode is only 8
normal levels(which are not in the registered version), and possibly 3
Comm-Bat Zones.
o Ten unique, real digitized actors
- Including many interesting enemies, like the low guard(not much of a
threat) up to the final boss(A THREAT! A THREAT!)
o Thirteen wicked weapons, including:
- Dual pistols: One isn't good enough for our hero.
- Bazooka: Your basic missle weapon.
- Heat seeking missles: Kill guys around corners OR in mid-air, and watch
the pieces fly!
- Flamewall: Sends out a deadly wall of fire to toast everything in it's
path
- Firebomb: When it hits something, massive explosions blaze in 4
directions
- Drunk Missles: Shoot FIVE drunk missles at once. Better duck!
- Lots more to discover!
- I wonder if the Firebomb can out-blast the BFG9000......
o Three words: really cool explosions (15+ digitized)
- And, believe me, there are MANY explosions in this game!
o A rockin' soundtrack on all the major cards--featuring DigitalDrums(tm)
(where available)
Supports the following soundcards:
Gravis UltraSound, All SoundBlasters, Pro Audio Spectrum, WaveBlaster,
AdLib, SoundMan, Maui, Roland, Disney SoundSource, and many more.
- Nearly every sound card will be supported, and the AWE 32 will have
native support, as well as everything above on the list. Additional sound
devices supported are the Tandy Sound Source, General MIDI, Sound Canvas,
and of course, the lovely PC speaker!
o Tons of secret areas, difficult puzzles, and mysterious bonuses
- Like the normal 3D action genre....
o Color translucency for glass objects.
- Won't this be fun? :)
o Far-out features:
- Parallaxing sky. (Vertical as well as horizontal)
- Look up and down.
- Fog lighting effects.
- Thunder, lightning, and rain!
- Lights that illuminate walls. Blow em' up and it gets darker.
- EVERYTHING in the environment can be destroyed! Break vases, glass,
blow lights off the ceiling, and release your tension.
- Mark the walls with bullet holes (Yes! Too fun).
- Huge leves of up to 1 MILLION SQUARE FEET EACH to discover!
- All the boring stuff lie: light diminishing, light sourcing,
and save games
- This good enough for ya'? :)
o Violence level adjustment, from low to excessive, with parental password
You might want to use this for the kids because the enemies explode in
pieces of bloody meat, heads, eyes, hands, feet, ribcages and other organs
in the excessive mode. You'll definately need body bags for this game.
- The violence adjustment is as follows:
Low: no blood
Some: blood splashes off shot people
A lot: blood splashes off shot people (including you), gory deaths
Excessive: blood, limbs, and organs fly out of "gibbed" (splattered) people
and other special disgusting effects, like crazy body parts flying everywhere!
o Helpless enemies. There are some cases where you simply wound an enemy.
The will drop to their knees and try to surrender or lay there twitching,
trying to get away. It's up to you to decide their fate. :)
o Great "super" save games that:
- Record your level number for you so you don't have to bother typing it.
- Keeps a snapshot of where you were in the game, so you can see it.
- Oh, and save all that other game stuff too. :)
- This takes save games where no save game has gone before!
o Multi-player abilities.
- 11 player IPX network.
- 2 players via modem.
- 2 players vie serial cable.
- NINE Comm-Bat(tm) games, with thirty options to customize it any way.
Games like Capture the Flag, Hunter, Tag, and Eluder.
- Team or individual network play.
- You CANNOT imagine how intense multi-player mode is with more than 4
players. Try 8 or more. It's insane.
o Choose from five characters--of different genders and races! Players even
have different attributes like accuracy, height, damage inflicted.
- The five characters are:
1) Thi Barrett -> White female with red hair
2) Lorelei Ni -> Oriental female with black hair
3) Taradino Cassatt -> White male with blonde hair
4) Doug Wendt -> Black male with dark brown hair
5) Ian Paul Freeley -> Greco-Spaniard male with very messy hair. :)
And you can customize a character to use against your modem opponents, plus
a possible 6th player. The uniforms on these players can change colors to
match your netplayer.
o Find gas masks and armor like bulletproof and fireproof vests.
- Protect yourself against your crazed, trigger-happy Comm-Bat opponents! :)
o Brain-numbing Powerups like God Mode and the rare "Dog Mode"
- God mode is where you get big, and in dog mode, you turn into a dog, you're
invulnerable, and you bite guards. :) It's quite hysterical! Another feature
of Dog mode is the BarkBlast. There will be a Mercury Mode, in which you can
go really fast, and fly a bit(well, one might describe it as very powerful
flatulence :)
o Fifteen incredible environment hazards like:
Spinblades, firechutes, gun bunkerrs, moving walls, firejets,
rolling boulders, pits and more...
- PLUS, you can fall OFF a level and into the valley floor. Ouch!
o Hilarious jump pads add a new dimension to gameplay. Fly through the air
to reach new areas, collect bonuses or run away! You can jump up to higher
parts of the level and blast your enemies from above, especially in multi-
player mode.
- Pads look like a round, gray-brown platform on the floor. When they "fire",
the hydraulics that launch you into the air are exposed.
Normal ones throw you into the air when you walk over them.
Automatic ones fire every few seconds, which can cause tension in Comm-bat
mode.
One-time ones fire once, then break. These might access bonus
areas--never anything vital.
They actually trampoline you up, more pneumatics than hydraulics, but
hydraulics provide the lift power.
Your computer-controlled foes can use these too....
o Auto-tracking for shooting down at enemy from platforms and up at them
as they fly off jump pads
- In Doom, the targeting is automatic, and your weapon will track in on the
target. With RotT, the whole screen perception will move so that you know
you're targeting someone at a different angle.
o Twenty buddy-blasting Battle levels (in addition to the 32 normal levels)
- WOW! They're releasing their own Deathmatch levels! There will be a few
battle levels in the shareware(possibly three), many in the registered(around
10), and LOTS in the super-enhanced version(around 30-40, with the ability to
randomly make your own :). The numbers as still shaky as to what will be in
which. The person who did most of the Comm-Bat levels has played many an hour
of modem and network Doom, so he's quite versed in the genre. BTW, they won't
be called DeathMatch levels. Comm-Bat is a term that Apogee has trademarked,
and they'll be using it in any of our games that support modem play. Levels
are called Comm-Bat Zones.
o Editor to be available so you can make your own battle levels
- The editor might be a bit later than the RotT release. This is still up in
the air. The price should be around $10-15 in US dollars, but might be
lowered..
o Random level generator so there are always new battle levels to play
- This isn't like RanDoom for Doom, in which it just randomly shifts around
items, the RotT randomizer will create (randomly) ENTIRE LEVELS FROM SCRATCH!
(Wow!) You enter in a few things, such as a random number seed, size of level,
etc., and it chooses and auto-decorates pre-made rooms, randomly chosing
places to spawn, placement of random items and so on. It also chooses Comm-bat
Zone darkness, the height (up to 16 stories tall!). It creates some really
fun environments. If they have time, they will make it less blocky and more
freeform. This makes hundreds of interesting zones, though, up to 99 in a set.
there are hundreds of rooms to choose from, and it is easy to add more. You
can choose the amount of mazeyness and the rough size of the level. It can
make pretty big levels, which would be more appropriate for network play.
It looks like they will support eleven players, and possibly(POSSIBLY) allow
any number, although lag time would get slow.
o Over TEN Megs of eye-poppin' graphics!
- That's a lot of graphics....
o Over FOUR Megs of ear-poppin' sounds!
- There may be a more reasonable 1.5-2 Megs in the normal version, and LOTS in
the super enhanced version. But there's a LOT of stuff in this game, and if
it moves, it makes noise.
o The entire game is OVER 20 MEGS unzipped. The largest shareware game ever!
- This game in it's full incarnation will be quite large. We have no idea what
the size of the shareware episode will be at this time, but a 3 Meg .ZIP file
download is not out of the question. :)
COOL STUFF TO DO
================
o FALL OFF the edge of a level!
- AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! :) You can fall off walkways to the valley
floor. Ouch.
o TOWER OVER little guards in God Mode!
- What guards? *splat* Oh, those ones....
o SNEAK INTO secret rooms in Dog Mode!
- Guard1: Hey, where's that mutt going?
Guard2: Let him go, he's not going to do anything...
You: GRRRRRROOOOOWWWWWLLLL!!!! *snap* *snap* *chomp* *chomp* (BARKBLAST!!)
Guards 1 & 2: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
Dog mode is VERY fun. Not only that, when you're in Dog mode, you're also
invincible. You can bite and use the BarkBlast weapon(a sonic-wave type
blast that blows out windows and stuff)
o BLOW UP almost EVERYTHING in the environment--including shattering windows!
- Blast a door through! BOOM! OH NO! There's your modem opponent! RUN AWAY!
RUN AWAY! AAAH! He's got a FLAMEWALL!!! *WHHHHOOOOOSSSSHHHH* ow...Oh YEAH?!
Take this! (missile launch) "aiiiiieeeee!!!!" I thought so!
(sorry, getting carried away there. :)
o PICK UP a 7-10 split of guards with the sadistic Split Missile!
- The split missile now turns into two heat-seekers, making it a very deadly
weapon.
o ROCKET into the air off a jump pad, spin and shoot a heat-seeking missile at
your buddy, who promptly juices in mid-air! Fun!
- Yup! Fun!
o WASTE countless hours of your precious time while you could be doing
something constructive!
- There will be a significant drop in production this Fall: RotT, Doom 2,
Dark Forces....
--
*{2-3}* - Slide shows
Well, I've referenced it throughout the FAQ. The slide show is available
wherever you can find Apogee games (see above). It is called 1ROTPIX.ZIP. When
you run it, you will get a "slide show" of 17 screen shots from the game. The
second screen show is at the same place you can find the first, and it is
called 1ROTPX2.ZIP. The descriptions for that are at the bottom.
-
*{2-3-1}* - The first Slide Show
Here are the descriptions for the first slide show:
(BTW: You can use the left and right arrow keys to go backwards and forwards
in the pictures, and all other keys except escape will go to the picture
you are currently at)
Picture #1: This looks like an example of the "fog" condition. You have what
appears to be a rocket launcher, but in RotT, they use missles (all sorts of
them(and 6 different launchers)). The guard is digitized off a real actor
(Steve Quarrela, one of Apogee's Tech Support people). Yes, all the walls ARE
90 degrees to each other, but, you can't judge a game by it's angles (although
it IS nice with non-regular angles). It looks like a maze out there! And,
you notice that we can rack-up scores just like in Wolf 3D!
Picture #2: OUCH! That's gotta hurt! Sorry, Mr Quarrella! :) You notice
something? You have two guns! Sounds kinda nice. "Two-Gun Hilman" Seeya on
the Internet. :) May I draw your attention to the spinning blade on the
ceiling in the upper left corner of the picture? (everybody says: "Yes, you
may.") Thank you. :) The infinity symbol at the bottom of the screen means
infinite ammo for the pistol, dual pistol, and machine gun.
Picture #3: Looks like the Wolf3D rifle. See those SpinBlades? I wonder what
that would look like with violence level low? Sorry, Mr Quarrella! :) (he's
one of the low guards in the game, so he appears a lot). See the lights on the
ceiling? They're shootable objects! It seems that when you zoom-up the
screen full-size, the bottom status bar disappears such that you can still
see the info but not block the picture too much!
Picture #4: The spears come up out of holes in the floor, and they are
constantly rotating while they're moving up and down.
Anyway, you see the 3-story buildings in background. You CAN go up there.
Picture #5: Super Save Games! There's more to these save games than just
taking a snapshot. The snapshot save game idea has been used before, but not
like RotT's SSG idea. Joe won't tell me what this means yet, but it also
remembers what level you're on for you (so you don't have to type that in the
description.) If you look carefully, you will notice that there is a strange
background sky for E4A6(BTW, and "A", if you didn't know, means areas, like
M or L in DOOM means Mission or Level(i.e. E2M9, or E1L1). There are MANY
skies in this game. The "Mark #"(# = insert number here) probably refers to
Mark Dochtermann, lead programmer.
Picture #6: Monks. If they get too close to you, they start to "suck the life
out of you". Other monks shoot fireballs..... Looks like the health bar at
the bottom left changes color as it gets lower.
Picture #7: Dead Monks. The blockage around you is a gas mask, needed at
times(important times! :). You can survive some rooms only with a gas mask.
Picture #8: No, this isn't God mode, this is looks at guys from a ledge.
You're on a platform, looking down and shooting. This is an example of what I
said before of the picture changing perspective when you are shooting down.
In Doom, the guy would just die. RotT shows it happening by tilting the
perspective towards what's happening instead of just letting it happen w/o
you actually seeing it.
Picture #9: There are two different actors here. There are the two examples
of the low guard here. The leftmost and the rightmost ones are Steve
Quarrella again, and the middle two are Marianna Vayntrub, the financee of
Mark Dochtermann, the lead programmer of Rott. And 4-story buildings back
there!
Picture #10: You must want that key baaaad. You blow out three windows and
kill a guard to get a little key sitting on a little pedestal.
That's what happens when you play with firebombs. :)
Picture #11: You just shot a missile. Those things on the ceiling will
crush you if you get stuck under them.
Picture #12: Night.....the FINAL battle. These are the battles of......me!
My five-minute mission, to blow away my opponent, and....stuff. :) Nope, this
is not the final level, but imagine hunting down your opponent in a nighttime
level. :)
Picture #13: FIREBOMB!!!! It looks like it could cause some damage. :) The
person in the shot is George Broussard, the Exec VP of Apogee. He's quite a
bugger to kill. He not only has a machine gun that he shoots, but he also
throws hand grenades at you!! (AAAAAHHH!!!)
Picture #14: Alone in a corridor. Suddenly you hear footsteps. A guard comes
patrolling down the hall. You whip out your pistol and...... The neat thing
about the light sourcing here is that as the actor progresses through the
lights, they get lighter and darker depending on whether they're under a light
or not. The lighting is not sector based like Doom.
Picture #15: Wow. What a view. Looks like a bowl of mush on the floor. It's
one of the food items you can find around the game. It's health.
Picture #16: A knife!!! Looks better than the one in Wolf. The guard in front
of you is Marianna again (she was the two middle ones in #9). The knife is not
a weapon like it was in Wolf3D. There is another actor (not seen in any
slides) that will throw nets at you. If you get hit, you're trapped. You
either need to use the knife to get out, or if you don't have the knife, you
have to wiggle out of the ropes. If there are other actors around, then it can
be really bad news. :) (The knife will come up autmatically if you get hit
by a new, so you don't have to fumble to find the "1" key. :)
Picture #17: Rylan "Two-Gun" Hilman vs. Hank "The DOOMER" Leukart over IHHD!!
You notice that the picture in the upper-left hand corner is the same as the
face on the remote player. Right now all five modem characters are wearing
the same black uniform, so if you're playing on network, you might have to
get close to make sure you're not shooting a friend! Apogee is deciding
whether to personalize each one. The user will be able to do it themselves,
as Apogee is making it as easy as possible to change graphics, but if they
get a large outcry as to each character being anonymous, they might change it
for a future version.
Picture #1: You ever get that creepy Deja Vu feeling?
Picture #2: Ditto
By now, the person hits Esc to end this, and gets the ending screen:
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Coming October 1994 by Apogee Software |
| |
| |
| RISE OF THE TRIAD - (c) 1994 Apogee Software |
| |
| FOR ONLY $34.95 YOU WILL GET THE FOLLOWING: |
| |
| o 32 huge levels, each four times o Violence level adjustment |
| the size of Wolfenstein levels! o Over 20 MEGS uncompressed! |
| o Parallaxing sky, look up/dn, o Modem play + 20 different |
| fog, light diminishing/sourcing "Battle levels" + level editor |
| o 8 channel sound effects o Random level generator, also! |
| o Supports the GUS, PAS 16, Adlib o Digitized characters |
| Sound Blaster, Roland, and more o Nine wicked weapons |
| o Jump pads to fly in the air! o The largest shareware to date! |
| |
| Requires: 80386+, soundcard highly recommended, VGA graphics card. |
| |
| Available: October, 1994. Call (800) GAME-123, 24 hours a day! |
| |
| Read the file "TRIAD.DOC" for more details about this game! |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
(BTW, some of this info has changed)
Of course.....this FAQ has the info plus more. :) 32 levels 4x wolfenstein
size....The Wolf3D (and Blake) map grids were 64x64. That will probably look
familiar if you ever tried to edit Wolf3D maps, and did it wrong. One of the
Wolf3D crash errors was "Map not 64*64".
Anyway, the Rott map grid is 128x128. That means the base map can be 4 times
as large as the largest Wolf3D map was. Some maps in RotT are quite gigantic
and can take forever to get through! :)
-
*{2-3-1}* - The second Slide Show
We will now commence with the second slide show. If you forgot, it is
1ROTPX2.ZIP at everywhere you get Apogee games.
Picture #1: The Triad symbol with the words "Prepare yourself for the most
violent game you've ever seen". Remember, the violence can be adjusted from
they just fall down to they just explode all over the nice level...be glad
you can't smell it! :)
Picture #2: A dramatic logo! Just what we need to make this game known to
the world! :)
Picture #3: A cool launcher, with missles galore! Look at that big level out
there! Those are drunk missles, but I just can't envision 5 missles flying
out of that thing. In sequence, yeah, but at once? :)
Picture #4: It seems they've upgraded the gas mask from the last time we saw
it. At least now we can tell for SURE what we're wearing. The guard looks
nice and realistic. And he also looks like a sea captain for some reason....
Is that me or is it just the green tint?
Picture #5: INTENSE ACTION!!! It appears that we're going to have fun here!
I can't wait for the Virtual Gaming tournaments! I just hope they open one
near Portland, Oregon so I can make it....
Picture #6: Chunky goo, glowing fat dudes, and some kind of staff weapon...
....I like it! Look at the backgroup texture-mapped graphics!
Picture #7: Hmmmm, how should I describe this picture.....I know! BOOOM! :)
There really are some creative textures in this game, like the leopard-skin
look-alike pillars...
Picture #8: This is fun! We can "shoot" mustaches onto these faces! Your
bullet holes make marks where they hit a wall, so if you get lost in a maze,
just blast the wall a few times in a strange pattern to serve as a landmark.
You should also be able to see the effects of a machine-gun fight.....
Picture #9: There are pieces of a chopped-up guard on that spinblade, and it
seems that these guards are frying one of their own!
Picture #10: Chop-a-lot! Just remember, this is on excessive mode. There is
no setting above excessive....
Picture #11: Very creative door! Too bad we aren't seeing this thing in
action, because it would be fun to see how this thing opens....
Picture #12: I'm just wondering why this gas mask doesn't have a greenish
tint....maybe the green tint IS the gas, and right now you're wearing the
mask in a place without gas.....anyway, is that a flying eye? is it flaming?
or is it both?
Picture #13: Wow! Comm-Bat at night! Why is everybody ganging up on one
person? Anyway, I feel a 10 player team tournament would be extremely
interesting. :)
Picture #14: Rise of the Triad......the FINAL word in mayhem. And you thought
the guys at Id were sick! :) Anyway, I count a couple flying heads, an arm,
a complete person discorporating, and a (relatively) whole person. Hopefully,
you'll be able to navigate yourself through those things without getting hurt.
(you hope....) :)
Picture #15: Same as #1, except with the words, "Coming 4th Quarth 1994.
You're gonna get bloody."(only if you set a high violence level)
(BTW, the second screen show shows more accurately what the final game will
look like.)
--
{2-4} - General Questions
The following is answers to some general questions the public might have.
-
{2-4-1} - What weapons will you have?
There are lots of weapons: pistol, dual pistol, MP40 machine gun, bazooka,
heatseeker, firebomb, flamewall (hilariously powerful), drunk missile, split
missile, and two very powerful magic weapons.
Another weapon is the ExcaliBat which can be used to hit grenades back at
their originators and smack enemies against walls. :)
Heat seeking missiles can get confused and head for the guy/gal who fired
them, and they can veer off towards ANY heat source. They can get stuck going
in circles forever(until they blow up)!
The Split missile now splits into two HeatSeekers, making it a VERY
dangerous weapon.
The weapons can do all sorts of stuff. They can....
....perforate the enemy.
....burn them to a crisp.
....explode them all over.
....pulp them into goo.
....discorporate them.
....blow them across the room.
-
{2-4-2} - Will there be multiple stories?
Yes. You can go up on platforms that are either 8 feet off the ground or up
to 120 feet off the ground! There will be up to 16 story buildings. You will
be able to be physically above another player, so you can wait on a ledge
until the guy you are battling against runs out of the tunnel you're standing
over, aim down, and plaster him (or her). It will be the closest you can get
to that in a fast action game until our computers are fast enough to do true
6-D action.
BTW, if you master the level editor(if you get it) you will be able to
create most buildings with multiple stories(as log as you don't have any non-
90-degree walls). This also means you can create a room with a secret door
into a tunnel under the passageway you were just under. If you understood
what I meant, sounds like fun! :)
-
{2-4-3} - What enemies will there be?
They don't want to reveal EVERYTHING, but there will be six types of human
guards, two types of undead monks(fireball-throwing, and "suck the life out
of you" types), 5 types of machines(two moving, two stationary, and one's a
big boss), 4 big bosses. The boss guys will be bulletproof and will not
be affected by fireballs, so you have to gather explosive firepower to defeat
them; your unlimited ammo weapons will not work.
The humans have pistols, machine guns, chain guns, grenades, and
many react to what you do. Some, when shot, will roll out of the way, so you
have to re-aim.
Bosses aren't just walk-walk-shoot. You have to figure out how to defeat
them. The first one is quite tricky.
These are the five robot types:
Robot guard: fire hovering mines at you
Ballistikraft: unleashes a barrage of missles and hovermines
Two types of gun emplacements, one that fires in one direction, one that
fires four ways(only bullets, but Tom Hall might add little fireballs or
missles.....)
NME (the Nasty Metallic Enforcer boss): just lots of stuff. He's really
deadly. Sort of like R2D2 on steroids, just not as friendly. :)
The models were made by Gregor Punchatz, who did the DOOM models.
-
{2-4-4} - What do the hazards do?
The hazards are, well, hazardous. Some are constantly dangerous--you bump
into them, they hurt you, like spinblades, lava walls, and so on. Some are
periodic, so you have to run through when they are off or out of the way,
like crushing cylinders, firejets, or spinblade stabbers. Some are moving so
you have to watch out, like moving lavawalls, boulders, and so on. There's
just a lot of stuff to burn, slice, or crush you.
-
{2-4-5} - What is in the shareware version?
Eight original levels. All but two of the weapons. (So you'll need the
registered to play Random Comm-bat Zones, because they might have these two
weapons!) Cool music. Actors: Low Guards, High Guards, Over Patrols, Strike
Team officers, Patrol Robots, and--gulp--Triad Enforcers. About half the
walls. Three Comm-bat Zones. It is called "The HUNT Begins", and it covers
the HUNT's first run-in with the Triad organization. The commercial version
is called "DarkWar".
-
*{2-4-6}* - What are Comm-Bat Zones?
Comm-Bat Zones are levels optimized for multi-player play. Like the
Deathmatch levels in Doom. Apogee has trademarked the term Comm-Bat, because
they HAD to name their multi player levels SOMETHING.
There are nine different games you can play in Comm-bat. There are also over
30 different settings in nine categories that you can control to change the
way the game behaves. There are over 100 different total variations you can
play with different settings.
Comm-Bat is, according to everybody who has played it, FUN!!! The guys at
Apogee played a 9-player game a while ago. It was remarkably crazy!
The sound effects are quite hilarions. You really know when someone has
God mode on--their vioce booms from across the level!
To quote Chris Lombardi of CGW(about Triad's Comm-Bat):
"Deathmatch will never be the same again."
You'll be able to play Comm-bat alone as well, just to practice in the
level. You must hunt down entities called Eluders.
-
*{2-4-7}* - How do God and Dog modes work?
You get the powerup, and:
in God Mode, you tower above the actors, looking down at them. You hold
out your hand, godfire shoots out straight at them, and they...discorporate.
plus, in multi-player mode, your voice booms out over the level!
in Dog mode, you turn into a dog, can't be hurt, bite people, run under low
walls, and your bark is worse than your bite. Your BarkBlast shatters windows
and is helpful.
Plus there will be two nauseating "powerdowns", like Shrooms, which make you
dizzy and makes it hard to dodge grenades.....
-
*{2-4-8}* - What will the different versions be?
Everything is not solid on these, but right now:
shareware: eight levels, three(?) Comm-bat Zones, some sounds, some songs,
can get it for free.
registered: over thirty levels, ten Comm-bat Zones, lots of sounds (1.5-2
Meg), lots of songs, cost $29.95 + $5 S+H (US dollars)
super-enhanced: over thirty levels, ten Comm-bat Zones, a fifty Comm-bat
Zones pack, tons of sounds, a random Comm-bat Zone generator, will be $39.95
+ $5 S+H (US Dollars) for disk for sure. Will be distributed on CD as well,
but the price for it is uncertain.
There will probably be two retail versions: a regular registered disk-based
type thing, and the super-enhanced version.
To get the super-enhanced from Apogee, you simply order the super-enhanced
version. It's like buying the Wolf Pack instead of just three episodes.
I'm sure there will be some way to upgrade.
-
{2-4-9} - Will your player bob up and down as in Doom?
Yes, and this can be toggled on and off.
-
{2-4-10} - Will you see different weapons on the remote modem player?
Normally, they walk around with a weapon in one hand. This is how they look
if they have a pistol, two pistols, or a machine gun. If they have a missile
weapon, you can see they have a missile weapon in the other hand as they walk
around, and they fire it with that hand. They don't have graphics for each
_type_ of weapon, but at least you can tell if they are armed with more than
bullets!
-
{2-4-11} - Will there be any stairs in the levels?
The following quote is from Tom Hall, Creative Director:
"Our engine isn't the DOOM Engine. It's a bizarre hybrid. The jump pads
provide the vertical motion. There are metal walkways you can launch up to,
or go under. This won't be possible, if implemented solidly, in DOOM style or
6-D games until our computers are a lot faster. We allow it so Comm-bat can
have a new dimension. You can stand on a walkway directly over your
opponent, jump down, spin around and shoot them. You can enter the same
entrance--but one of you on the ground, and one in the air--and wind up in
different places. It should make Comm-bat games that much more crazy."
-
{2-4-12} - How will they fill up a CD for the enhanced version?
Well, they're not going to fill it up. Just because regular CDs can hold 80
minutes worth of music doesn't mean artists have to make 80 minutes worth of
music. But they'll include lots of graphic files that will help editing,
digitizations of some of our development stuff--just lots of stuff to look
around at for a little peek inside game development.
-
{2-4-13} - Can you shoot holes in walls?
Yes, and the holes made by your weapon appear _where_you_shot_it_ (not
just a graphic replacement)!
-
{2-4-14} - Will there be bonuses?
Yes, there are twelve bonuses you can discover, and if you get all of them,
you get the coveted, elusive "Bonus Bonus"! These are like Duke Nukem bonuses,
but more and cooler. Plus there are hidden items that no one but cheaters and
the lucky will find.... :)
--
*{2-5}* - A review by Hank Leukart
The following is a review by a beta tester of Rise of the Triad, Hank
Leukart(more famously known for his "Official" DOOM FAQ v5.8). Please keep
in mind that Hank is using a beta version over a month before release and
stuff may be added between then and now. BTW, he mentions that there is no
network play, there is. At least 11 players on an IPX network, probably 12,
and possibly 20. And he says there is no Cyberman support, there is, and
they will be supporting the upcoming SpaceBall, which really helps for aiming
up and down.
"I know what most people are thinking. `Is Rise of the Triad
(herein known as ROTT) better than DOOM?' That question is very
difficult to answer. ROTT is a different game than DOOM, and it is hard
to compare the two. ROTT is a great game, but how good is it from a
player's point of view?
No doubt about it, the game is a heck of a lot of fun. From the
difficulty level names ("I have pet names for my grenades.") to the
gameplay itself, you could easily play this game for hours and not get
bored. Here's the good stuff:
Unlike DOOM, you can only hold two weapons at a time: one
"bullet" weapon and one "missile" weapon. Each bullet weapon has an
unlimited amount of ammo, but "missile" weapons do not. After picking
up one bullet weapon, you can still pick up another however, but then
you will simply drop the weapon you had previously onto the ground. The
Pistol itself is pretty boring. Once you get the Dual Pistol however,
you are really rockin'. You can fire shots as quickly as the machine
gun in Wolfenstein 3-D, and holding TWO guns in front of you looks
really cool. The only other "bullet" gun in ROTT is the MP40 Machine
Gun, and it is great for mowing down a lot of enemies in a row. I
prefer DOOM's Chain Gun over the MP40 though.
The missile weapons include a Bazooka, Firebomb, Heatseeker,
Split Missiles, and a few others. Split Missiles are a great idea: you
fire the launcher and it shoots a missile to your left and your right
but not in front of you. It is great for those long hallways where the
enemies are hiding in the side walls. The Excalibat is another one of
my favorites. I've always wanted to pound people's heads in with a
baseball bat! :)
You have got to love the power ups in this game. Apogee did
something very creative with these: there are good and bad powerups.
For instance, god mode makes you ten feet tall and allows you to fire
incredibly powerful "energy" called Godfire. However, "Shrooms" make
you dizzy and move you around in random directions, making it very
difficult to dodge incoming grenades. Of course, you can't forget Dog
Mode, which turns you into a dog, makes you two feet tall, and allows
you to bite enemies. You can also use this to sneak into small spaces.
There are even three types of armor: bullet proof, asbestos, and
gas masks. Bullet proof armor protects you from bullet weapons
(obviously), asbestos protects you from flying fireballs, and the gas
mask will protect you if one of your "buddies" releases poison gas into
the room you are in.
ROTT's environment is very interactive. Using PGUP and PGDN,
you can look at the ceiling and floor and shoot enemies that are higher
up than you. You cannot, however, use the mouse to control this
movement, and ROTT does not support the Cyberman. You can fire your
shots into ANY object (including flowers and lights on the ceiling) and
they will explode. (YES!) Another one of my favorites is glass windows.
If you see a window, shoot it! It will shatter like you have never
seen! In ROTT there are often hidden places on the floor you can step
on to open secret doors. ROTT's doors open many diffent ways, including
splitting diagonally and sliding open. Some other exciting things
include spinblades (you have got to love it when an enemy walks into
this and he or she explodes into a hundred pieces), firejets, crushing
cylinders, lava walls, spear stabbers, trampolines, and crates of TNT.
The automap is much different than in any other games I have
seen. Instead of having lines to display where rooms begin and end,
tiled graphics display where you are. For example, if you are near a
door on a map, you will see a picture of a door. By popular demand, the
game allows you to play five different characters, two of which are
women. The graphics on the "hand" holding the gun change as well as
your voice. (not in real life, in the game, silly!)
For those of you who love graphic violence, I think ROTT will be
the game for you. Enemies are always releasing blood everywhere and
exploding. If you have the game's "Violence Mode" set to "EXCESSIVE,"
you are going to see some serious action. (MUHAHAHAHA!) For concerned
parents and graphic violence lobbyists, the "Violence Mode" can be
password protected. I hear rumors that the final release will include
some very graphic enemy chopping. Wait and see!
And now for the bad stuff:
First, ALL of ROTT's walls are at 90 degrees to each other. This
causes a little less variety and in how the game looks and map design.
The look up and down feature is not used as well as it could be, since
enemies are rarely above you and there is really no point in shooting
the lights! The idea that you are only able to hold two weapons at one
time takes time to get used to. I am not sure if this really adds to
the game or if it is just an unnessecary limit.
All the actors in ROTT are digitized, real life people. The
enemies are not quite human though. They all die pretty much the same
way when you shoot them with a bullet weapon. Additionally, the actors
do not seem quite 3-D when they are shot to the ground. They seem to
transform into a 2-D piece of cardboard when they fall. However, it is
great to seem them ripped apart by a spinblade or blown up by a fireball. :)
On my 386/40, the game simply plays too slowly. Although the
texture-mapping seems to be as fast as DOOM's, to play very well on a
386 you simply need more than 4mb of RAM. On my 486/33 with 16mb of
RAM, however, the game plays perfectly. I have not been able to test the
serial code (modem play) at this time, so I am not sure how well it will
play. ROTT does include thirty (yes, I said 30) Comm-Bat (tm) specific
levels to play over the modem. I have looked over them and can say they
look quite fun.
Overall, I find ROTT to be an enjoyable game, but I have trouble
saying that it is better than DOOM. No doubt, it is different.
Hank Leukart"
*{2-6}* - A review from Interactive Entertainment
This is a review I clipped from Interactive Entertainment about Rise of
the Triad. Interactive Entertainment is a CD-ROM game magazine, which is less
than $10 each. I would recommend getting it monthly if you have a CD-ROM
drive(the November or December issue should come with Rise of the Triad
shareware). It is available at local software stores hopefully near you. They
got a few details wrong(the date they got was October, it is now slated for
November; they don't mention network play; etc...), but they added a few
things I haven't seen before(playing dead, richocheting bullets, etc...):
"Apogee is the all-powerful emperor of shareware games; that's pretty
much common knowledge. Starting with Kingdom of Kroz--a game that offered 16
colors even on a CGA system and ASCII graphics that didn't look like ASCII
graphics--Scott Miller and his associates have single-handedly given shareware
a good name, constantly releasing high-quality products that make the majority
of other shareware offerings look like rancid sacks of platypus snot in
comparison. Now, it's time to do it all over again. Once more Apogee has
decimated their own standards, coming up with another first-rate game that
is soon to have all of us saying, "That is shareware? Holy jeez!" Scheduled
for release in October, Rise of the Triad is sure to have every Doom freak in
the world lining up just to drool all over it."
(Author's note: Now scheduled for release in Early November)
"Rise of the Triad is a first-person shooter much like Doom, System
Shock, and every other game that's being released this year. You play an
agent of HUNT--the High-risk United Nations Taskforce. You are assigned to
investigate cult activity in an old monastery on San Nicolas Island, 20 miles
off the coast of southern California. Suddenly vicious troops attack, your
boat is sunk, and your radio's final transmission chronicles the destruction
of Los Angeles. It seems the Oscurido cult has a couple powerful new friends,
a pyrotechnics expert and a millionaire to be specific. They will annihilate
millions in the name of El Oscuro if somebody doesn't stop them. And guess
who just happened to be in the right place at the right time again? Something
has to be done, but what? That's right: kill, kill, kill! Grease up that CTRL
key, it's time to go a-slaughterin' once again."
"The folks at Apogee have sure been busy since the release of their
last first-person shooter, Blake Stone. Blake ran off the Wolfenstein engine,
and while it was still a great game, technology-wise it felt a little dated
to me. No one taking even the merest of peeks at Rise of the Triad will
confuse it with the Wolfie engine. The programmers really didn't pull any
punches in the bells and whistles department. Ten real-life actors have been
digitized to provide you with realistic-looking people to waste; the hand
holding your gun is also digitized. ROTT also takes light sourcing to new
levels. You can actually shoot light fixtures and see the illumination of the
room drop accordingly! Even atmospheric effects like fog have been added."
"As great as ROTT's visuals are, they are matched by the sound effects.
Guards screaming "There he is!" and "Shoot him!" have never sounded clearer,
and their anguished death cries are ample reward for a quick trigger finger.
(Continued survival makes a nice perk, too.) Flame jets spurt from the ground
with a gaseous whoosh, and bullets whine as they ricochet off metal surfaces.
The real sonic stars are the weapons. Your pistol barks its deadly retort, and
the uzi is the most realistic sounding weapon I've ever heard in a computer
game. If you just bought a shiny new Sound Blaster and you want to show your
non sound card owning friend what a chump he is, this is the game to do it
with."
"One of the things people liked most about Doom was its modem play, so
naturally Rise of the Triad will feature it as well. Apart from the 32 regular
levels, ROTT will feature 20 levels specifically designed for head-to-head
games. It will also include a battle level editor. If you're too lazy to
create your own levels, you can make use of the random level generator to
create new levels for you and a buddy to stalk each other in. Oh no, I can
feel my phone bill increasing tenfold already!"
(Author's note: They forgot to mention network play for (certainly) 11 or
(POSSIBLY, MAYBE, A LONG SHOT) 20 players)
"I have played Rise of the Triad, and it is good. How good?
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY good! Honestly, I can't think of any reason why every
Doom nut in the country won't flock to this game when it's released this
fall. It's beautiful, fast (on the Pentiums we play with at the office it
seems to run slightly faster than Doom), and challenging. Have I mentioned
challenging yet? This is not an easy game. Guards are very good at hiding in
shadows, and frequently they nailed me two or three times before I could even
figure out where I was being shot from. Some of them are even sneaky, and
will play dead only to jump up and start shooting at point blank range!
However, I digress. Rise of the Triad is a truly awesome game in the making,
20 megabytes of totally unbelievable shareware. I predict another major
telecommunication traffic jam in October. First, everyone will tie up phone
lines trying to download this monster, then they'll discover the modem play
and never hang up! (Wise gamers will, of course, just pick up their copy of
IE, which will feature the distributable version of Rise of the Triad once it
is available.) When October comes around, buy a few months' worth of
groceries, tell your boss you're going on an extended vacation (quit if
necessary), and lock the door. You don't need any unnecessary distractions
when you're firebombing evil monks!"
--
- Chapter 3
+==========+
|Conclusion|
+==========+
--
*{3-1}* - Author's note
Well, that brings us to the end of the last Triad FAQ for a while. Don't
worry, be happy! "I will return!" And after I actually play the game, and
other people send in contributions, this FAQ will inflate to something the
size of Hank Leukart's current Doom FAQ! :)
--
*{3-2}* - Contributions
If you have any questions or anything to suggest, here is a small chart on
what to send where:
The message content | Address to send to
----------------------------------------------------+------------------------
Compliments about the FAQ | rhilman@oasis.rain.com
Questions about Rise of the Triad not in this FAQ | joe.siegler@swcbbs.com
Information you would like in the FAQ | rhilman@oasis.rain.com
Questions to Bill Clinton | president@whitehouse.gov
Ordering information | joe.siegler@swcbbs.com
Anything else | rhilman@oasis.rain.com
Any contributor to this FAQ will recieve it, free of charge, in their
e-mailboxes, usually before it's release to everybody else.
-
{3-2-1} - Contributors
(BTW, I'm not counting myself and Apogee employees)
Jason Maxwell Evans(jmevans@valhalla.cs.wright.edu) - My first non-Apogee,
non-me contributor. He sent up some general information, which I widely
scattered(in the appropriate places, at least. :).
Hank Leukart(ap641@cleveland.freenet.edu) - An Apogee beta tester, who was
able to give me some nice info. He is also the author of the "Official" DOOM
FAQ v5.8.
