MAP28: Baron's Lair (PlayStation Final Doom)

MAP28: Baron's Lair is the twenty-eighth map of PlayStation Final Doom and is the fourth level of the Plutonia episode. It is based on MAP06: Baron's Lair of the PC version (originally designed by Dario Casali for Plutonia Experiment) as an adaptation with colored lighting applied and some simplifications done on level geometry, texture set and monster types count. Changes for the PlayStation port were authored by Tim Heydelaar. It uses the music track "Creeping Brutality" by Aubrey Hodges (during the demo playback, however, the music track is "Credits & Demo", also by Aubrey Hodges).

Essentials
Go to the western door, open it and kill the revenants across the pit (some of them will teleport across to you). Go down the stairs and press the switch in the sludge pit, which will cause the north and south walls to lower revealing arachnotrons; kill these quickly before you are caught in their crossfire. There is a door in the northern area with a switch opposite it; press the switch to open this door.

Back in the starting area, open the north door to find a room with a pit and many barrels. You will need to destroy some of the barrels which will cause imps, demons and nightmare spectres to teleport in depending on skill level. Once they are dealt with, destroy the barrels in the pit blocking the blue skull key and pick it up.

Return to the starting are and open the south door. Press the switch behind this door to lower the wall and reveal a room with demons and revenants - kill them all and go to the south wall of this area. There are two switches behind the pillars here - one switch opens the door you came in through, while the other switch opens the large east door in the starting area.

Go to the starting area and head through the east door, then go straight ahead and up the stairs. At the top of the staircase, turn left and press the switch in front of you to open a door in the lower area and release some revenants. Press the switch behind these revenants to open another door to the south, releasing several revenants and demons. Once they are dead, press the switch they were guarding to lower the marble platforms in the center of this area - each platform has a switch hidden behind it, and you must press both to open the doors to the exit teleporter.

Once both switches are pressed, go back up the staircase and through the door on your left. Follow the short passage to the exit teleporter and step on it to finish the level.

Secrets

 * 1) In the western area, after pressing the switch which opens the door to the red skull key, do not go through this door yet. Instead, go to the south side of the sludge pit where a second door has been unlocked. Go through it and follow the passage up to a soulsphere.
 * 2) After getting the red skull key, return to the starting platform (under the floating skull cube). One of the nearby pillars will have lowered, revealing a switch. Flip it to lower a secret room in the northwest corner of the starting room.
 * 3) Behind the red door is a room with many barrels. In the south-east corner of the room is a brown texture with small lights. Shoot it to reveal a secret area with rockets.
 * 4) Exactly the same as secret #3, but this time shoot the brown texture in the south-west corner of the room.
 * 5) Like secret #2, retrieving the blue skull key opens a pillar on the starting platform to reveal another switch. This second switch lowers another secret area in the southeast corner of the starting room.
 * 6) Behind the blue door is a fountain with a berserk pickup resting atop it. Lower the waterfall parts like a lift to reach the item.

Bugs

 * In each of the deathmatch start closets in the central area, every switch (linedefs 579, 585, 591, 619, 622, 624, 1214 and 1226) has the wrong Y-offset which results them being drawn inversely and stretched (this cannot be seen in-game as the closets are completely dark).
 * In the western area, the walls between the two doors blocking access to secret #1 have the wrong Y-offset, causing the textures to stretch (linedefs 775 and 777).
 * Inside the same room, the walls (linedefs 786 and 798) either side of the lift will visibly stretch when the lift is completely lowered.
 * The diamond-shaped lights of the exit teleporter have the wrong flat offset, so they appear to be darker than normal. This is probably an oversight from moving the teleporter to a different location.

Comparison of versions
A number of changes were made for PlayStation Final Doom compared with the original PC level.

Removed areas

 * An unseen sector in the western area of the level was removed. On PC, this sector contains the voodoo doll used to provide the player with weapons when they walk under the "skull cube" in the center of the level.

Room design

 * All switches use a red/green light on metal wall texture (SW1MET2).
 * The skull cube in front of the player at the start of the level is now a solid cube with a ceiling, rather than four middle textures.
 * A super shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher and plasma gun are placed under the skull cube for the player to collect. On PC, these weapons are given to the player when they walk under the cube using a voodoo doll, creating the illusion that the weapons appeared from nowhere.
 * Wall flags are removed from the level. These were used to indicate which color key was needed to open the doors in the starting area; the west door had black flags to indicate that it did not require a key. On PlayStation, red and blue skull pillars are placed next to the red and blue doors while the west door has no identifying markings at all.
 * Several changes were made to the western area of this level with the red skull key.
 * The small chamber north of the entrance door contains a box of rockets instead of four individual rockets.
 * Twitching impaled humans and bloody mess decorations were removed from the sludge pits in this area.
 * Two floating skull rocks were removed from the hallway south of the entrance door. An invisible barrier which allows the player to see the demons in the southern area without being spotted is also removed, as PlayStation Doom does not support self-referencing sectors; a side-effect of this is that the demons in the southern area can be alerted when the player makes a noise.
 * A tall floor lamp seen by the staircase leading up to the red skull key (the only such lamp in the level) is removed.
 * The tall red torches in the northern area are replaced with candlesticks. The staircase leading out of the pit in this area is longer, possibly to accommodate the player's increased radius.
 * Several changes were made to the southern area of the level with the water pool:
 * The archways in this area have fewer "steps" in their ceilings.
 * The two piles of skulls and candles either side of the water pool are removed, along with the dead player decoration in the pool.
 * The window textures in this room are changed to light textures (BRICKLIT). Looking closely at the archway pillars, one can see that the textures facing the water pool do not tile correctly; lights are just visible next to the floor.
 * The metal fence in front of the exit teleporter is changed to a low railing.
 * The hanging torso textures and light pillars in the exit room are removed. Flashing exit signs are added behind the teleporter.

Monster placement

 * Mancubi are replaced with arachnotrons.
 * The two shotgun guys guarding the stairs up to the red skull key are replaced with imps.
 * The cacodemons and pain elementals that teleport into the northern area (with the blue skull key) are replaced with demons and nightmare spectres.
 * The Hell knights encountered in the western area on easy skill levels are replaced with revenants
 * The Hell knights that teleport into the pit in the northern area on Hurt Me Plenty/Ultra Violence (HMP/UV) are replaced with a single revenant. On I am a Wimp/Not Too Rough (IAAW/NTR), only a single imp teleports in instead of nine.
 * The cyberdemon encountered in the eastern area is replaced with five revenants and four demons.
 * There are three revenants in the north chamber of the eastern area of UV instead of five, two instead of three on HMP, and one instead of two on IAAW/NTR.

Trivia
Like the original PC level, this level does not include any barons of Hell despite its name.

A demo of this level is played if the player does nothing at the title screen. The demo ends with the player being killed by an arachnotron in the western area.