Entering The Inverted Castle

Entering The Inverted Castle

After a long and arduous journey, you finally found yourself face to face with the huge teleporter in the top floor of ISV-KRAN. You noticed that the destination was handily pointed to the small village just outside the space ship. "Oh man" you think to yourself. Mabey you should have never stepped out from

the VORTEX RIKERS prison cells.

Hello and welcome, before I let you loose on these three new original Unreal

Maps, I hope you will read the little information below.

<- PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING !?!

These levels consist of an episode with more levels to come in a few months

time, this means that these maps should be played in a specific order. Once

you have placed all the files into the correct directories, please start by

launching the ARRIVAL.UNR. After the brief animation (to get your adrenalin

into a rush) you will automatically start the first real map. Playing this map

to the end will teleport you to the third map and so on... exactly as if you

were playing a real game of Unreal where one level follows another!

There, now that you read that, below is a bit more information on these 4

levels, how to install them, and what more to expect. If you do not read the

following, at least take notice of the sentence above and please play these

levels as one continuous game.

--The Story So Far--

(The story for this episode pics up from halfway through the game...)

After a long and arduous journey, you finally found yourself face to face

with the huge teleporter in the top floor of ISV-KRAN. You noticed that the

destination was handily pointed to the small village just outside the space

ship.

"Oh man" you think to yourself. Mabey you should have never stepped out from

the VORTEX RIKERS prison cells. Mabey you should have just waited for some

kind of a rescue operation... but who would have come there to rescue a bunch

of no-good criminals like you anyway...

"Oh well" you sigh again, "No good turning back now !"

"I guess I'll just rest a few minutes" that walking back and forth in the

never ending corridors was starting to take it's toll on you.

"I wonder if there is any food in this place ?".

You toss a few 'Nali Plant Seeds' to the ground and watch in slight amusement

as they grow in front of your eyes.

"At least this stuff tastes good" you think as you eat the small berries.

Just then, you place your hand on a small switch on the control panel in

front of you, and you hear a latch open up, "What now ?"

A door opens with a hiss, and a green neon light shines in your face.

"Hey, what do we have here, a... it's an entrance to a small escape pod !"

"Great" you think, "I can just take this and fly where ever I need to go,

the damn thing looks just like an XS-450 vehicle back home on earth"...

Climbing in, you start the engines, and the pleasant whirr of the after

burners gently rocket you out of the space ship ISV-KRAN.

Luck was nevertheless not on your side. Withing minutes, an emergency signal

awakens you from your deep thoughts and you realise that an enemy vessel has

just fired its lasers in your direction. Embracing your self for impact, you

make a sharp u-turn, just mere seconds too late before you are hit by the evil

plasmic light rays.

"I'm hit", "Damn, losing all power" you say out loud, hoping sumbody could

hear you, and as you see the ground speeding towards you, the shaking of the

craft and the G-force pinning you into your seat make you pass out...

"Uh... where am I", you wake up with a startle. It seems the emergency

landing gears had just the time to kick in, but obviously the pod took in

a lot of damage. "This shit ain't flying no more...", but the worst was yet

to come...

"Oh fuck, my gun collection ? All my beautiful weapons are broken... there

goes my eightball gun and the stinger too..." Atleast the dispersion pistol

was still ok, and it seems that the translator is fine. Taking a

deep breath, you stand up and look around.

"I will not give up, that I swear" are the final words you mutter to yourelf

before you pick up your belongings and continue your journey...

--Files Included In This Archive--

size of file | name of file | file information

--------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------------

20,619 | SHINI_U1.TXT | This current readme file

4,490 | CHEAT.TXT | The solutions to finishing these levels

788 | FILE_ID.DIZ | Archive identification file for BBS's

| |

1,033,234 | ARRIVAL.UNR | A little demo map to get you into the game...

5,047,626 | CRASHED.UNR | The first playable map "The Crash Site"

7,449,992 | NALISHIP.UNR | The second playable map "Nali Pirate Ship"

5,269,657 | SKYSHIP.UNR | The third map "Entering the Inverted Castle"

273,896 | EXAMPLE.UNR | Example of how the ship was done (use UnrealEd)

| |

351,073 | SHIPTEX.UTX | Texture file for the maps

532,549 | XSTUNE.UMX | First music file for the maps

404,150 | RAINTUNE.UMX | Second music file for the maps

| |

1,253,038 | PICTURES.ZIP | An archive with a few bonus screen shots...

12,583 | CRASHED.JPG | A small photo of one of the levels

17,375 | NALISHIP.JPG | Another photo of another level

--A Little Bit of Information (just a bit...)--

These levels took me a horrendous amount of time to make. But now I'm happy

with the results :)

My goal when I started making these levels were to make a short episode (of

about 8 levels) where each of the levels bore a resemblance to the original

Unreal maps made by the game creators. As you play these levels, you will see

that I have not tried to create my own style, but have instead gone for the

gothic medieval style that I though was so great in the original levels. My

third goal was to make levels that were very near perfect, and higly playable.

Although I might not beat such classics as Bluff.unr and Nalic.unr, these

levels should be able to fill the gap after most of us have finished the

original Unreal levels for the hundreth time :). Finally, I wanted to make

levels that incorporated new ideas, such as an ancient Pirate ship like

galleon and a castle similar to Nali Castle, but suspended in the sky, and

inverted !!! (can anybody guess where I got this idea from ;) )

As I started using Unrealed, I cursed at the incredibly poor documentation

included in the help file, and I cursed even more when Unrealed crashed so

very often (these maps would have come out several weeks earlier if Unrealed

worked well) but I persevered, and found out almost single handedly how things

worked.

Since I don't have a proper access to internet, I could never have time to

download tutorials etc, and I even missed out on all those interesting level

making competitions (snif). Only towards the end when my levels were almost

finished anyway did I get any proper documentation, but by then I had wasted

a few months of my life learning the intricasies of the best level editor in

the world (and thats no lie, for I have tried many level editors until now),

and looking back I'm amazed I managed anything at all!?!

But hey, UnrealEd is nevertheless fun to use, and hopefully if time allows,

in a few months time, another bunch of levels will find their way to your

favourite internet/BBS site, and you will be able to play the next 4 levels in

this episode.

I only just got a new e-mail address from the place I work at (visit the web

site at WWW.INFOMANIAK.CH) and if anybody has anything to say, please send me

feedback, I would especially LOVE to get feedback from the boys at Epic, and

hey, I'm open for any offers on making levels for any professional game

companies (right now I'm learning 3DMAX 2.5 and Photoshop 5.0 which I hope

will help me later on in life) for that's what I would like to do... hint ;)

I also want to give a BIG thank you to my friend Maverick from Blacktron

Music Productions (BMP) for letting me use his XS tune in the Crashed.unr.

The music is ofcoz copyright Maverick/BMP, but since the original was a 24

channel XM, I had to re-edit it a bit so that Unreal liked it a bit more

(but I got permission, so hope you like his music, I do ;) )

Oh well, I guess I wrote too much again :) but hell, on with the show, read

the Level information below for the three levels, and finally I want to praise

the following people for some of the levels I have seen and liked :)

Jeffery "capp" miner

"Rajal Castle" was very beautiful (even if some textures were not perfectly

aligned. "But hey, I know it is damn hard to do !?!")

Staton Richardson

"MoreReal" is a real brain teaser this one, and a very interesting visual

style for the level (a bit Arabic no?)

Jarno Tuomainen

"Maddness" is a very funny level because this author tried to make things

different ("ha ha ha, tosi hyvin tehty ideoineen!")

Malcolm Lavery

"DMbunker" is visually very nice, and action wise a real blast (and I love the

music too, it kinda suits the level!)

Mooney

"Prison Riot" is a really well made and fun deathmatch level, and free from

bugs too!?! (something that is hard to do...)

Holger Huck

"The Vigil 98 deathmatch version" WOW, this is the MOST BEAUTIFUL DeathMatch

level I have seen made by someone outside of Epic. The colouring is incredible

and the detail astounding.

Steve Farrow "Roswell"

"LiberationEp1" was a level that really shocked me, it contained some effects

that were truly never-before-seen in Unreal ! I sure hope this guy will make

more levels, mabey with a bit more "outside areas", but his scripting was just

breathtaking. Easily the most complex level in term of ideas I have seen. One

of my levels (Crashed.unr) was meant to contain a similar idea found in this

level, i.e. the player crashes with his escape pod, but I had to take it away

because of the loading time causing the player to see a black screen during

the first few second into the level while textures data was still being loaded

(and a bigger problem would have been found in the cooperative player mode

where player one would always fall to his death because he would always start

from where the escape pod originally begins to crash land, i.e. from a place

very high up in the level)

Greygore

"The Rescue of Panunu" was relatively pretty, and I found it a bit easy too,

but hey, you wanted feedback, didn't you Graygore, sorry I can't send you

some with e-mail. (The level was also a bit slow for sum reason on my computer

but I loved the end part of the level with the underground river)

Quatto

"Beald'r" is probably the visually most beautiful third party single player

map I have had the pleasure to play. The lighting is just beautiful, and the

first time I stepped out to see the castle in front of my eyes, I had to close

them for a few seconds so that they would'nt fall out ;)

Mick "VerMoorD" Beard

"The Valley of Alshar" with it's three action packed and well made levels was

one hell of a blast because of the amount of levels this guy managed to make!

The idea is a bit like what I'm hoping to achieve, i.e. several levels that

you can play one after the other. Congratulations Mick !?!

Brad Noble

"DMJapan" is probably my favourite map that I have seen, but only because I'm

a bit biassed (I'm a NIG fan of Japan and everything to do with Japan, so this

level touches that sweet spot in my mind ;) )

Well, that's it for `my' level review. I haven't mentioned every level I have

seen, but that doesn't mean that I have seen every single level out there yet,

so I might add a few more levels to my little review sheet the next time I

have a chance to release a few maps (I did not `rate' these levels because

that would have been a bit unfair, but those levels above are still maps you

should take a look at if you haven't done so yet)

If you like my levels (or hate them), it would be nice to hear some feedback,

either through e-mail or if you could give some feedback on my level in the

text file of your next level, atleast that way I know somebody cares ;)

And finally, I have added a few pictures (photos if you want) of my levels,

and a VERY amusing "PROTECTION ERROR" screenshot that occurred to me one day

I was using Unrealed, yes, that is the picture in it's un-modified form,

exactly as I saw it when it happened !?! ;)

Well, thank you for listening, lets get on with sum action !?!

- SHINIGAMI / AXSS

INFORMATION FOR THE FIRST MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!

=============================================================================

Title : The Arrival

Filename : Arrival.unr

Author : Shinigami

Email Address : [email protected]

Description : A short fly-by demo of the crash landing into the

first level.

Other levels by Shini : Crashed.unr (single player map)

Naliship.unr (single player map)

Skyship.unr (single player map)

(I've also made a dozen Doom1/2 and Duke3d maps)

Additional Credits to : All the available Unreal tutorial sites such as

Unreal.com and PlanetUnreal.com.

Epic for one beautiful game.

My level testers from my work such as "Looping", and

several real life friends such as "Spectre"!

=============================================================================

--Level Play Information--

Single Player : yes

Cooperative : no (the other three levels work with Cooperative)

Deathmatch : no

Dark Match : no

Difficulty Settings : yes

New Sounds : no

New Graphics : no

Botmatch Enhanced : no

Known bugs : none I know of...

=============================================================================

--Level Construction Information--

Editor(s) used : UnrealEd Beta

Base : New level (a slight modification of Crashed.unr)

Construction Time : About 1 week

Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : less than 10 seconds

=============================================================================

--Installing This Level--

1) Unzip the Arrival.unr into your UNREAL\MAPS directory

3) Now you may play the level by double clicking on the Arrival.unr map in

Windows, or by starting a new game, going into the console (press the tilde

key ~, and typing in "open arrival").

This level is included in a zipped file with three other levels. All of these

Levels are single player (or cooperative) maps and they should be played in

an episodic way. i.e. first start by playing the Arrival.unr, once the fly-by

is over, you will automatically go to the second level (if it can be found),

from this map, you will go to the next one if you finish this map correctly

and so on...

More levels will come later, so once you finish this fourth level, save your

game so that you will be able to continue from there when I release another

four maps...

=============================================================================

INFORMATION FOR THE SECOND MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!

=============================================================================

Title : The Crash Site

Filename : Crashed.unr (requires Xsmusic.umx music file)

Author : Shinigami

Email Address : [email protected]

Description : Single player Unreal map featuring a crash landing

near the port of Armaana.

=============================================================================

--Level Play Information--

Single Player : yes

Cooperative : yes

Deathmatch : no

Dark Match : no

Difficulty Settings : yes

New Sounds : yes (Xsmusic.umx)

New Graphics : no

Botmatch Enhanced : no

Known bugs : The usual Unreal and Unrealed related bugs.

(i.e. very slow on most pc's)

=============================================================================

--Level Construction Information--

Editor(s) used : UnrealEd Beta

Base : New level (with sum ideas from Epic's levels...)

Construction Time : About 3 weeks

Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : less than 5 minutes

=============================================================================

INFORMATION FOR THE THIRD MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!

=============================================================================

Title : Nali Pirate Ship

Filename : Naliship.unr (requires Shiptex.utx texture file)

Author : Shinigami

Email Address : [email protected]

Description : Single player Unreal map featuring an ancient

pirate ship like galleon.

=============================================================================

--Level Play Information--

Single Player : yes

Cooperative : yes

Deathmatch : no

Dark Match : no

Difficulty Settings : yes

New Sounds : no

New Graphics : yes (Shiptex.utx)

Botmatch Enhanced : no

Known bugs : a few rare hall of mirror effects in complex areas)

=============================================================================

--Level Construction Information--

Editor(s) used : UnrealEd Beta

Base : New level from scratch !

Construction Time : About 4-5 weeks (several hours of work per day)

Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : About 20 minutes

(Note: on my old K6-233 with 64MB Ram this level took over 1 and a half hours

to rebuild... talk about slow, blaaaaaaah...)

=============================================================================

INFORMATION FOR THE FOURTH MAP IN THIS ZIPPED FILE !!!

=============================================================================

Title : Entering The Inverted Castle

Filename : Skyship.unr (requires Raintune.umx music file AND

Shiptex.utx texture file!)

Author : Shinigami

Email Address : [email protected]

Description : Single player Unreal map featuring the entrance

of a huge Inverted castle in the sky ?!?

=============================================================================

--Level Play Information--

Single Player : yes

Cooperative : yes

Deathmatch : no

Dark Match : no

Difficulty Settings : yes

New Sounds : yes (Raintune.umx)

New Graphics : yes (Shiptex.utx)

Botmatch Enhanced : no

Known bugs : A few polygons disappear if you use the "fly" cheat

=============================================================================

--Level Construction Information--

Editor(s) used : UnrealEd Beta

Base : New map but used the ship in Naliship.unr

Construction Time : About 2 weeks

Rebuild Time on my Pentium 450 with 256MB Ram : Less than 5 minutes

=============================================================================

--Copyright / Permissions--

ALL OF THESE LEVELS are copyright by Shinigami (c) 1998.

Authors may NOT use these levels as a base to build additional levels.

You are NOT allowed to commercially exploit these levels, i.e. put them on a

CD or any other electronic medium that is sold for money without my explicit

permission! Computer Magazines MAY include these levels on their cover CD's if

they keep the original files intact in this archive.

You MAY distribute these levels free of charge on any electronic network (such

as the internet, FIDO, various BBS's etc.), provided you include this file and

leave the zipped archive intact. All files in this zipped file should be

distributed with each other!!!

=============================================================================

--Legal Information--

UNREAL (c)1998 Epic Megagames, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by

GT Software, Inc. under license. UNREAL and the UNREAL logo are registered

trademarks of Epic Megagames, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are

properties of their respective owners.