Army of Darkness TC

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Army of Darkness TC
Title screen
Authors Various
Port Vanilla Doom
IWAD Doom II
Year 1996
Link Doomworld/idgames

Army of Darkness TC is a total conversion for Doom and Doom II based on the movie Army of Darkness. Players take on the role of Ash Williams, the protagonist from the Evil Dead franchise created by Sam Raimi. It was released on August 1, 1996, 18 months after the film's US theatrical debut. Along with 10 levels it includes seven new weapons, nine new monsters, sound effects from the movie, and an original MIDI soundtrack.

Authors[edit]

Levels for the WAD were made by:

DeHackEd for the WAD was made by:

  • Stefan Maes

Graphics for the WAD were made by:

  • Steve Conway
  • Jeff Allen

Music for the WAD was written by:

  • Rick Sparks (Suture)

Installation instructions were written by:

  • Scott Powers

Content[edit]

Levels[edit]

In-game screenshot

In the Doom release, nine new levels replace episode 3. All levels by Stefan Maes unless otherwise noted.

One bonus level starts episode 2.

The Doom II release slots the episode into levels MAP01 through MAP09. The bonus level appears as MAP10.

Soundtrack[edit]

All songs are composed by Rick Sparks (Suture).

  • E3M1: ?
  • E3M2: ?
  • E3M3: ?
  • E3M4: ?
  • E3M5: ?
  • E3M6: ?
  • E3M7: ?
  • E3M8: ?
  • E3M9: ?
  • E2M1: ?

Weapons[edit]

Monsters[edit]

The new enemies are based on "deadites" from the Evil Dead franchise.

Built-in demos[edit]

This WAD features three built-in demos. All require Doom v1.9 to view them. The demo levels are:

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 E3M2: Arthur's Castle 4 2722 1:17.77
DEMO2 E3M9: Slept Too Long 4 3361 1:36.03
DEMO3 E3M6: In The Deal 4 4661 2:13.17

Development[edit]

The installation includes a comprehensive aod-faq.txt file compiled by Andrew Stine that covers the project's inception and includes team member commentary.

Origin[edit]

The team began formation in October 1995 when Steve Conway started making graphics and sounds for a Doom WAD based on his favorite movie at the time, Army of Darkness. Impressed by Stefan Maes's 1994 medieval castle level Excalibur, Steve asked over email if Stefan would make the levels. Stefan accepted and a project web site was published October 18, 1995 to recruit more members.

Levels[edit]

Two of Stefan Maes's levels are modifications of standalone releases already on the idgames archive: warhouse.wad by Mike Barker and xcalib11.wad by Stefan himself. Stefan also modified the new levels submitted by Steve Conway and Andrew Stine (Linguica). The secret map by Lawton Roberts was based on an idea of Linguica's to use the movie's original ending. Instead of Ash Williams returning to present-day as an S-Mart employee (E3M8's ending), he miscalculates a sleeping potion dose and time travels to a far-future apocalyptic wasteland.

Music[edit]

A composer with the alias BruceAODD originally joined the team in late 1995 to make music. However he lost all his work in a March 4, 1996 hard drive crash and soon left the team discouraged. Replacement composer Rick Sparks (Suture) was hired on April 17, 1996.

With a short timeline, Suture's soundtrack wasn't complete when the August 1996 release date was reached. The v1.1 patch in December 1996 included the now completed music.

"I produced nine original tracks for the game's levels and adapted one piece from the film's original score which was programmed to play during the stats screen displayed between the game's levels. The game used standard MIDI instruments which, depending on the quality of a gamer's individual computer system, could sound great or absolutely cheezy [sic]."
― Rick Sparks[1]

Installation[edit]

Army of Darkness TC had a set of install instructions more involved than most total conversions because it supported either Doom or Doom II as the base IWAD.

Multiple file downloads[edit]

To support both games, the project was unconventionally split into many files by lump type:

There is also a Mac version of the levels for players running Doom (Apple Macintosh). To support this arrangement, the idgames archive grouped the files under a new /idgames/themes/aod/ subdirectory.

Instructions in aodtc.txt and install.txt[edit]

Partial instructions appear in the uploaded /idgames/themes/aod/aodtc.txt: 

 You'll certainly need AODTCSPR.ZIP, AODTCSND.ZIP (sprites and sound). 
 Get AODTCTX1.ZIP and AODTCMS1.ZIP if you have DOOM 1 or Ultimate DOOM, otherwise go for
 AODTCTX2.ZIP and AODTCMS2.ZIP (textures, flats, gfx and music).
 Levels come in four flavours:
 AODTCLV1.ZIP : DOOM1/Ultimate DOOM, requires DeHackEd
 AODTCLV2.ZIP : DOOM2, requires DEHACKED
 AODTCLV1MAC.ZIP : DOOM1/Ultimate DOOM, MAC-version (i.e. no DeHackEd)
 AODTCLV2MAC.ZIP : DOOM2, MAC-version (i.e. no DeHackEd)
 !! WADenizer AOD for MAC-DOOM (see aodtcmac.txt for details) !!

After downloading all files, a batch file must be executed to setup custom sprites and install the DeHackEd patch. The remaining batch file instructions appear in file install.txt included with the levels.

2003 re-release for source ports[edit]

Given the end-user complexity to get the TC running, in November 2003 project team member Andrew Stine merged all the files and uploaded it to the idgames archive. As a single WAD, only the -file parameter is required in most source ports. Vanilla Doom installations still require additional manual steps for the new sprites and DeHackEd patch.

Version history[edit]

  • August 1, 1996
    • The total conversion was simultaneously released for both Doom and Doom II.
  • December 11, 1996
    • The v1.1 patch fixed the status bar, updated E3M5 (MAP05 in the Doom II release), and replaced the soundtrack with music by Rick Sparks.
    • Installations could then require up to seven files to be downloaded.
  • November 30, 2003
    • Andrew Stine repackaged all files into a single WAD that can be run by modern source ports.
    • This release did not modify any gameplay from v1.1.

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Rick Sparks (Suture) (29 July 2015). "Musical Bio... as of yet... Rick Sparks." Retrieved 6 July 2020.
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